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I woke up this morning at 5:30 and prepared myself for my first real dealings with Empire State College. I drove 1 hour and 15 minutes to Latham, New York, arrived a little early, had some coffee, and promptly set myself up for expectations and resentments. The morning was spent listening to very dull, but necessary and required, presentations from assorted admissions people. Mostly stuff about what goes on academically, who to talk to in case of any trouble or need, financial aid information, etc…Like I said, all necessary, but, oh, so boring. I give the ladies credit, though, they tried so hard to make it interesting. I fell asleep during the financial aid section. I was also ‘given’ my mentor, a man by the name of Charles Fox. If his resume is anything to go by, he’s the genius who will be directing my academic career from here on out. I was very impressed, and was looking forward to meeting him during the lunch break.

He never showed.

At that point all of my resentments and anger started swirling in my head, and if it weren’t for my few years in recovery, I would have listened to them. Instead I realized that I wasn’t in control, life on lifes terms was in action, and that there was surely an honest and reasonable excuse for his absence. I practiced restraint of tongue and pen, and filled out my evaluation questionaire honestly as well. I gave them all high marks except for the lack of mentor. Then I drove home, exhausted.

Dr. Fox called my home 5 minutes before I drove up the driveway. So I called him back. All is well, and I will be enrolling in Empire State College next Friday, when the two of us meet and discuss my learning contract and my future. I am planning on starting in September, regardless of my in-state status. I feel that I should not wait until January of 2006 to make this move. This needs to happen now, while I’m hot-to-trot and ready-to-go.

Now it’s 10:30PM. I’ve had a full day of driving (4 hours), sitting in lectures (5 1/2 hours), a meeting (1 1/2 hours), and a nap somewhere in between (1 1/4 hours). I know, I’m missing 5 hours somewhere…

Did I mention I’m watching a lot of X-Files? 😉

Johnnyboy

My mom is at the garage this morning having her AC recharged. This is fine, as it gives me some time here without her. I’ll probably be heading out for lunch with a good friend before mom returns so I won’t see her until this afternoon sometime. Meanwhile a friend of hers called and needed to know what today was, as in ‘Tuesday’. This would have been funny had it not been so sad. As we age, the body and mind begin to fail us. Why? In his book “Jitterbug Perfume”, Tom Robbins postulates that it is a combination of diet, exercise, mental outlook, hottubs, and sexual energy. A healthy diet, a good daily walk, a positive and relaxed mental attitude, daily tubbing, and lots of passionate nookie fool the body and mind into thinking it’s younger than it is, hence, longevity, etc…The body has habits, and aging is one of them. Habits can be broken.

Here’s some more haiku for the day. I must say I am thoroughly enjoying ‘Haiku Tuesday’, as well as the other days that I blog, but this one in particular.

#51.
Acre and acre
planted with peaches and plums,
not yet harvested.

#146.
The flower garden
in the early spring, is full
of winters remains.

#152.
‘Hope’ is a nomad,
a hitchhiker, wandering,
knocking on my door.

Have a lovely day, all who read this. And if you do read this, please make a comment, even just a nod to let me know that you stopped by.

Johnnyboy