Cara 4 Queen!

I did it! I submitted my application ten minutes ago to the Student Activities Office and am now officially a candidate for UNM Homecoming Queen.

I think I need a drink.

Putting the Queen in Homecoming Queen?

I am considering a run for UNM's Homecoming Queen 2010.

Ok, granted, I know I am not the hottest chick on campus, nor the youngest. I am 42, and built like you might expect a woman with five kids and a breakfast burrito addiction should be. I did not get my mother's lovely petite build, sadly, I inherited my father's resemblance to Fred Flintstone.

So why subject myself to the potential ridicule and scorn of my peers? After all, Homecoming is for the young, to highlight the beautiful young girls on our campus, and celebrate youth and school spirit...well, here are my reasons.

Increasingly college campuses are becoming havens for people like me, who have been out in the world for a number of years and are facing job losses and the need to become more competitive in a scary economy against yearly crops of younger, cheaper labor. We are competing against our own children!

By running for Homecoming Queen I hope to inspire others to return to school. I want to show other 40, 50, 60 somethings that we are on campus, there is a place for us, and that the University values us as more than a financial asset. I want to bring older students into the campus community in a more substantial way, to mentor one another and be an example to the other, younger students. We don't need to just be commuter students; we can be a much more visible and active presence on campus.

I also want to encourage older students to join the Association of Non-Traditional Students (ANTS). We are in the basement of the Student Union Building, room 1063, near student activities (second door from the elevator.) This fabulous organization can help you get connected with other students who may be returning after a long absence, have families, other obligations, and develop relationships that will support you through all the difficulties that come with life. We have a mini-computer pod, a printer, a copier, a quiet room, a loud table for lunch and conversations, and all sorts of great amenities and benefits for minuscule ($8/semester or $15/year) dues.

So, lend me your thoughts on the subject. Should I? Shouldn't I? Should I instead maybe seek therapy?

I am listening....

Hitch Dance lesson

Why Do I Love UNM So Much? Answer: Comedy

Yes, friends, this really is an actual banner hung outside the UNM Student Union Building by the First Family Church-sponsored group Wake, a community for campus Christians. WTF indeed.

Chaos Theory

I can't wait until my math teacher says he is going to talk about Chaos Theory. I have something to say about that.

I live Chaos Theory.

I have spent the last six hours in front of my computer trying to write content for this website for the Graduate Express Program. During this time I have had to also deal with a very nice neighbor filling me in on her not-so-nice neighbor's dislike for my cats, my kids fighting, my kids fighting ME, the Direct TV installer, Cuisinart Customer Service (to replace the lid to the basket of my beloved coffee maker), and trying to coordinate a fundraiser next weekend in my home for Martin Heinrich. I need to paint my living room and dining room because they are HIDEOUS. My feet are grody and need a pedicure. The kids need new shoes. Maddie has rehearsal today for Mice in Nutcracker on the Rocks. Tomorrow is costume call for Maddie and rehearsal for Amanda for the same show. We are out of food in the house, and I don't have time to shop. Every fiber of my body is saying, "Oh honey, just go take a nap!"

Not a bad idea.

Friday Night in the Life of a 40-something College Student

Tonight's activities:

• Working on the Graduation Express website content.
• Wine.
• Making chicken cacciatore.
• Wine.
• Studying.
• Wine.
• Facebook Warrior-work against lunatic right wing fringies.
• Wine.
• Blogging.
• Wine.

I Just Had to Share THIS!!!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a big fan of MATH. Ick. EW. No, thanks.

Well this being my senior year, and having successfully avoided taking any college math up to this point, and wanting to actually graduate, I had to enroll in a math class this term. It just seems reasonable to take the one class standing in the way of my degree and my future legal career. I shouldn't have to, but I have to. So I am taking Math 129, a survey of mathematics. It sounded interesting for math.

The first section we studied was Set Theory. I walked away understanding only one thing: Set theory relates to sets. See why I might have difficulty?

Well today we began Counting Theory. The professor explained it like this...Suppose I have a pizza restaurant. There is one guy making the dough, and you have a choice of two kinds of crust. There is one guy putting on the cheese, and you have three options for cheese. There is one guy adding the toppings, and there are six choices there. If you can only choose one option from each stage, how many possible combinations can you come up with? Well you get the answer by multiplying the groups together, so 2x3x6=36. There was more discussion, some of which involved intriguing symbols and factors that I just glazed over when I saw, but I took notes anyway, and then he asked us to solve this:

Each phone number has 10 digits, an area code and then a seven digit number. How many possible combinations are there if the first digit cannot be a 0 or a 1 and the second must be a 0 or a 1, and the remaining 8 digits can be any number between 0 and 9?

I had a breakthrough. I got it!! I actually understood what he was asking me to do (this is huge folks!) and was able to compute it!!! The answer was 1.8 Billion. How? Well 8x2x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10=1,800,000,000. I did it! I am so proud. I have to get back to work, but I had to post it, because I know that you will be proud of me, especially my friend Oliver, whom I have neglected.

School Ain't for Sissies

It is only 8:45 pm and I am exhausted. I just gulped down a cup of coffee, and I feel like I need another one to get to bed, which is about 20 feet away. I arrived at UNM this morning about 8, grabbed a breakfast burrito (which I delighted in eating the innards of, avoiding most of the tortilla) and a nice cup of coffee. I didn't have class until 11, but I took my breakfast down to the Association of Non-Traditional Students office (down in the basement of the SUB, great place to hang out!) and visited with my friend Janice, met a nice new civil engineering student named Joe, and was thrilled by the arrival of Dr. John, our most senior member. John is a retired OBGYN who attends classes between world travels and health crises, and is one of my favorite people, if for no other reason than last semester he brought me an article from a men's magazine touting the greatest pleasures in life, having circled "hugging an ample woman" or something to that effect. He gave it to me with a great big hug, which made me feel pretty damn good to be an ample woman, I can tell you. John was just in from Buenos Aires, and said he had never had a better steak. We talked about booze, his wife, his travels. He is a marvelous man to know. When he left another good friend, JoeL, a great young man who leads the campus LULAC chapter came to visit me, asked for a little help with his Spanish homework, and then fell asleep on our table because he had been up all night studying. I woke him up to walk with me to class. Today I only had one class, Campaigns and Elections, with Prof. Tim Krebs. I love this class, because we talk about my favorite subject for an hour and fifteen minutes, and Tim is very funny, and the class is mostly made up of a lot of really brilliant young people (yes, I am again the oldest member of the class, just a couple of years younger than Tim) with whom I have had the pleasure of taking other courses. After class I went to my job at the Title V program, and worked to build content for the new Graduation Express website.

Since coming home I have been working on Spanish homework. I just want to get horizontal now, my back hurts, my eyes are tired, and I think that I will fall asleep before my beloved Frasier.

Enjoy...

So What Am I Doing Now???

...and what exactly has kept me from blogging in recent weeks, besides my incredible laziness?

Well, I got sick the first week of August, really sick, and spent the rest of the month recuperating and healing and decompressing from stress by watching "My Life in Ruins" and "The King of Queens" on a loop. Say what you will about my media choices, but it was far more effective that Xanax.

So now I am back at school, trying to catch up, and working on campus for the Title V office. This is an outreach program to retain and graduate low income and minority students, and I am busy working on the Graduation Express program. It is pretty cool. Right now I am building content for the soon to be launched website. There will be a blogging component to this project, so I will be tying in soon.

Beyond this, I have had four of five kids' birthdays in the past four weeks, painted kids rooms, baked a fabulous banana birthday cake, and have been on the go ever since I felt well enough to leave the house. Oh! And today I picked my very first yellow summer squash from my garden (I planted way late, but am thrilled!) Could pumpkins be far behind?

It's good to be me again.