March!

Hah, well, it's been a while since my last blog entry.

Typical.

School is in its fifth week, and I'm loving it for the most part.

The self defense class (Jeet Kune Do/JKD) is fun, I'm enjoying it now. The first week or so I was mostly just trying to keep up and pretend that my muscles didn't feel crippled, but now it's more fun. I still can't do all the stuff though, mostly the pushups... we do 80 pushups per class, ridiculous. I try, but... heh, maybe by the end of the class I'll be able to do them all. My knee only gave out once and hasn't since, so that's good. Even then I was able to pick myself up and just keep going. The kicking, though - oh mannn. I could hardly walk last week, my hip was dead. It's better now, but I hope I don't have to do that much kicking again. It's an intense class, but I do enjoy the challenge of it now. I'm pretty flexible after all, too.

The sculpture class is going well, too. We're making the mold out of plaster so we can make a cast of our model that we made out of clay. Mine is a horse (surpriseNOT) lying down. It will need seventeen pieces, and I've only made four in the last week. I have two weeks left I think to finish all the rest. It will be a close finish...

The political science class is entertaining but depressing. The teacher rambles and goes all over the place and can be very random, and it's interesting and fun, but when it comes to actually trying to remember anything... the teaching is too broken up for my brain to get it. We had our first test, which I studied for for several hours and felt confident about before I took the test, but now I feel like I bombed it. The first test is always telling though, to get a feel for how serious the professor is, what his grading style is, and how much leeway he gives you on answers (some teachers like it when you answer really elaborately on questions and give more information than was necessary, and some think you're being a show off or cocky if you do). Ha - I wasn't being a show off, I was trying to make up for the questions I had NO clue over. I love teachers who give you the general subjects to study, and then pick questions for the test from some of the most random sidenotes they gave during class. Argh. I will find out on Thursday...

The writing class is interesting. I love it, and I hate it. I love that we are learning to share our work and give/get constructive criticism. I hate reading my work out loud, but that's just how it goes. So far I've done ok, I think. I hate that all the 'contemporary fiction' we are studying seems to view profanity and infidelity as the best subjects for writing. Meh. I have kind of just stopped reading some of the assignments. I was going through our book of short stories, and there are some neat stories in there that were never picked for assignments, it seems we just got the dull or trashy ones. It depresses me, to me it's not fiction or literature; it's garbage. I might write more on that later, but for now I just am trying to get by without reading the stories. It makes me wish there were more professors out there with different views. That will be me in five or six years, God willing.

The poetry class is confusing. I can't really ever be sure of what the assignment is asking for, and by the looks of it, not many of the other students can either. It's a fun class, but I must admit I think free verse or most poetry forms that are not form (rhyming) bother me. If it's beautifully written, that's ok; but I guess I just have read too many amateurish poems that use free verse to fill up paper and not say much at all (including my own! which is why I hate free verse. Prose is fine, but free verse bothers me). Poetry is so subjective.

I also have a Philosophy class starting in about a month, on world religions. I already know THAT will be fun, heh heh. I've already taken two other philosophy classes, and I must admit I find them fun. Arguing can be fun, but I'm a slow and steady thinker - so since the class is online I can come up with better arguments. If it were in-class and I had to debate face to face... that would not be so good. I try to think on my feet, but unless I have already thought out what I want to say, it comes out sounding pretty retarded. Believe me, I have tried, and it's not pretty! Lol.

Other than school, life has been going well. I have a garden again, though I don't know for how long. We started to dig up the former sheep pen to plant a garden, we will just have to wait and see if the squirrels, gophers, and moles destroy it. So far I have seedlings of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and have planted nasturtiums, alyssum, and spaghetti squash. I planted five or six rows of peas, but they are duds or something, because nothing came up and when I tried to find them they looked the same as when I planted them. They were really old seeds, so I went and bought more. Doesn't really matter I suppose, it's not really cold enough for peas for much longer! J planted different kinds of lettuces and spinach, and R planted snapdragons seedlings, cucumber seedlings, and she planted seeds a week ago for zinnias (giant green ones, they'll be cool), forget-me-nots, bachelor's buttons, and today she's supposed to plant sunflowers. Our to-do list still includes

- Tomatoes (Beefsteak, cherry, and heirloom of some sort - tomatoes LOVE our area, and we love tomatoes)
- radishes (to make us feel better about our lack of gardening skills - they grow SO easily)
- Watermelon (we've tried for several years, maybe we'll actually get to it this time!)
- Pumpkins (the big ones)
- Cantelope (R really wants them)
- beans (lots and lots and lots!)
- Zuchinni (found some good recipes in the years past, as that is one of the few things that grows well for us)
- eggplant (J has a 'zebra' variety)
- Potatoes (J wants to try them, and we have an old 50-gallon wheelbarrow to plant them in)
- Garlic (just because)
- Corn (we will try...)
- Herbs of various sorts.

I know I'm forgetting some things. I'll post progress photos once there's more green in the garden. It's a pretty big spot, we've only planted an eigth of a third of it so far (we got tired and only dug up a third of it so far, lol).

Anyways, just a quick update. I have some photos to post, maybe I'll do it later (which means probably never!). I need to work on all the other things I have been procrastinating over...