Dwindling Deadlines and The Plug

I've made it through another week... only four more to go (+ finals). I have so many things to be grateful for. Things are starting to dwindle down, although I think it'll get worse before it gets better. The second midterm in my Cultural Diversity class is over. It's the test on which we get to write four essays in 55 minutes. Oh, it is so hard. And I finally, finally--after five people turned me down--found my person to interview for the paper that's due in that class. I decided to ask my former Sociology teacher. I figured with as many people that had turned me down, the worst thing that could happen was to get another no. And--Praise God--he said YES! He is from Kenya. It was a very interesting interview. He "gave" me an hour and twenty minutes, time that I know was very valuable to him. And the sad thing is, I still didn't dig up all I wanted to. I've started the paper and want to get most of it done this weekend.

I also got Exam #3 out of the way in my Math class. I felt so harried going into it and was up till almost 2 am the night before trying to get homework done. Going into it, it felt like it was the most confusing test yet. But it turned out to be quite easy (says the girl who hasn't seen her grade yet). Mrs. P had actually already plotted one graph for us and had written out all the questions as opposed to us having to state the whole thing. So what a relief. About the only good thing about an exam is that you don't have any homework over the weekend. Not that my other classes don't make up for it, but at least no math. I spent about an hour or so on Thursday helping one of the Lady Toppers study for the Math Exam. That was different. She's really shy, so I was rather astonished when she asked me to help her. Very interesting: Mennonite meets Basketball Player in the graph of a hyperbola. I really enjoyed it though.

And when we were put into groups of two in my German class with a different partner than we normally team up with, I ended up with "Robbie." He said, "At least I'm with someone who knows what they're doing." I smiled a bit, then settled down to explain this particular exercise. I asked him then if it was making sense, and he said, "Oh, you've helped me a lot more just now than [the teacher] has this whole hour." I smiled again, and it was confirmed in my heart that my first love really is teaching/training. Some day, I'll probably go back to it...when I can support the habit.

Doc G called me up at work this week and said, "Will you do me a favor?" So I said, "Sure. What is it?" Well, he was at his attorney's office wanted me to be put into his "Advance Directives," aka Living Will. I said, "Are you sure you trust me with that??" [>I< wasn't sure I trusted me with that.] I ended up agreeing to do it (like the pushover I am) on the condition that I get a written copy of his wishes. So let's see now...I'm the executor of his will already, I'm listed in his passport paperwork, and now I get to authorize the "pulling of the plug." My point in going to school is to be able to detach myself from this man, and instead, I'm getting sucked in deeper and deeper.

And that makes two "plugs" I'm in charge of. Dee has me listed in hers also. Now this is a scary thing. She just had a baby by cesarean. Less than a week later, she is back in the hospital with blood clots in her leg from her groin down to her ankle. My understanding is that this is a very serious thing. She called me today and was even talking about getting a will around. Her doctors don't know what's causing the blood clots, and she is in agony. She said she'd rather go through a cesarean many times over than to go through what she's going through now. Her doctor told her she's on the verge of having a stroke. I wish you all would say a prayer for her.

We had a birthday party for Dad tonight. We grilled steaks and hamburgers. Oh, it was delicious. And we had Rhonda's pumpkin roll for dessert. Our appetizer was at Uncle Joe's expense (he had a colonoscopy today), I'm afraid. We decided colonoscopies are things to be avoided.

Martin's great burden of the evening was the dilemma presented by Quickbooks. They want him to upgrade, and to say he is resisting would be putting it mildly. He HATES when these software companies do that. Why, he's tempted to do his payroll (?) MANUALLY... just to show them a thing or two!!

Sharon and my great griefs of the evening are these old telemarketers who bother us day in and day out. We came up with a great strategy, however. There is this commercial out there right now advertising a Capital One credit card. It's basically saying that with other credit cards, all you get is "no's" when you need something. They have a "CE NO" [CEO] .... and their slogan is.. "the answer is always no." They go on to say that Capital One, on the other hand, is the much better alternative. Just call 1-800-Get a yes.

So...our strategy is this... when we get an obnoxious caller who won't take no for an answer, the conversation will abruptly degenerate into something like this: "This is the thing, Mister. You are talking to the CE No of the company. The answer HERE is ALWAYS NO. BUT if you want a yes, why, just let me get you the number to call. Ready?? 1-800-Get a yes." And then, hang up.

How about that?

Quote of the day:

"Too bad they don't have ebay for women." --Bachelor Martin

[of course, Martin's the one who bought a car BY ACCIDENT on ebay...]