something i learned today…

I’m amazed at how much I’ve heard about things like glucose and carbohydrates already, and I’m not even in nutrition classes yet! I’m only two weeks into school and both my biology classes (one is a principles/cell genetics course and the other is human anatomy and physiology) are mentioning them all over the place!

Like, for instance, there are these things call “trisaccharides.” You’ve heard of monosaccharides and disaccharides before; they’re the simple sugars in things like fruit and milk. (Actually, it all starts with glucose, but I don’t feel like typing all my notes here…) Well, humans don’t have the enzyme required to digest trisaccharides, unlike mono- and disaccharides, which we DO have the “matching” enzymes for. What are trisaccharides, you ask? Things like BEANS, BROCCOLI, CABBAGE… THAT’S WHY YOU GET GAS!

HA! Never really understood why that happens…

Oh, another thing I learned: my next couple classes (Organic Chem, Statistics and Microbiology) are the hardest ones at ECC. Great. Just great.

hello, stranger

It’s been awhile.

Well, not really that long. What, a day or two?

Gosh, it feels like forever. I don’t like not having time to blog.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to get used to it. Or not do my schoolwork. Or work on better time-management skills. Or all of the above. (Except for the not doing my schoolwork part.)

So, working on better time-management skills it is! I still want to do all the things (and more!) that I used to, like working out, blogging, writing, cooking, reading, having some sort of social life…not to mention fixing-up whatever fixer-upper of a house we decide to buy…

…AND I still HAVE to do all the things I HAD to do before, like walking the dog and laundry. And grocery shopping, but I LOVE grocery shopping. It’s therapeutic. So is cleaning.

I digress.

Bottom line: This girl is gonna be BUSY! I just keep telling myself that if Pioneer Woman can homeschool four children, feed her family and myriad other people made-from-scratch food, manage her enormous “blogging empire,” write two books and two cookbooks AND have some semblance of sanity left, then I can SURELY handle a husband, a dog, and school.

SURELY.

Say a prayer for me, folks!

on my first week of school

I have two goals this Labor Day: do my nails and get comfortable with chemistry. I’m already well on my way to accomplishing both; my toenails are done and I’m halfway through my end-of-chapter practice problems. Hurray!

While everyone else is diving into fall with the emergence of pumpkin-EVERYTHING, I’m resisting the urge and hanging onto summer for at least one more month by sporting teal and coral nail polish before bringing out my arsenal of “fall” colors. You can read more on my “seasonal” categories of nail polish here and here. I just got Essie’s “Carry On,” a really deep yet vibrant purple, which I can’t wait to try for fall. I was going to use it today, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of leaving summer behind in the beginning of September…

Anyway, back to school…

I love school. I loved it the first time around (for the most part) and have really embraced the thought of being a student for the next few years. It’s a little weird being older than everyone else, but I’m still in the “relatively young” category. Us “older folks” in my classes have kind of gravitated toward each other, which is nice. This time around, however, I sit in the front row, have to resist the urge to “ssshh” my teeny-bopper classmates and take notes feverishly.

I’ve been mostly impressed so far with ECC’s classes and teachers. I have a mix of teachers, ranging from a young-ish guy who must have his masters’ to a very old Indian man with his Ph.D. All of them seem genuinely interested in their students’ success and there is a little more ‘hand-holding’ than I was used to at Penn State. The classes are even small enough to take attendance!

I am definitely anxious about some of the math aspects of my chemistry and anatomy classes. It’s seriously SIMPLE stuff, and I vaguely remember it from high school, but I’m really having a hard time! I’m hoping it’s only because I’ve been away from it all for so long (10 years!), and that it will start coming back with practice. I rocked high school chemistry–seriously, I did. This self-proclaimed math- and science-phobe scored the highest GPA in chemistry way back when, to include all the bona fide science nerds. I’m still not quite sure how I did it, except that I studied a lot, wanted to impress my teacher and I actually did “get” the chemistry to some degree. So, there is hope I’ll “get it” again, and soon! Definitely going to have to hit-up Andrew for some chemistry-equation tutoring…

Speaking of Andrew… He’s been off mountain biking all morning with some guys from work. Jealous! Well, a little. I’m all for mountain biking on a much tamer level than he is. I’m excited to get a bike; I haven’t had one in years! If we buy a house in the village, I can’t wait to get one on which I can toodle around town and to which I can attach a basket. I mean, can’t you just see me riding over to the bakery to pick up a loaf of bread? Ha! I can’t wait! And I need to have some sort of mountain bike… I can’t let Andrew have all the fun alone!

OK, lunch- and blog-break over! Back to chemistry!