Today I have escaped from Dante's Fifth Circle of Hell...never to return.

That is all.

Math sucks. I bombed two quizzes. Yes sports fans, 54% on both. One gets dropped. That brings my average for quizzes down to 81%. I have one left and really need to get a high grade. Not bloody likely. Radical expressions fucking suck.

I've been really busy. Tomorrow I have a double ceremony at school. At 4PM I'm inducted into Psi Beta and then I have to sprint over to the Holiday Inn for the Who's Who banquet.

I got my hair cut. I needed it. I've been feeling very frumpy lately. When my hair gets long, due to how fine it is, it get's really stringy. I actually like this cut. One of the best ones I've had in a while. I didn't have the time or the money to get chunks bleached. Maybe later.

I'm finally reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. lilychild sent it this way. I am really enjoying it. I should be done within the next day or so and then I'm waiting until I get my hands on Gods Behaving Badly. I have one final paper to write for Mass Culture and then I don't have to read any school books for at least two weeks. Thank the gods.

HA HA! Obama lost in PA. I don't like him. I don't like Hillary either but I like her more than him. I'm just so tired of his message of change (change? what change? nothing you do will change anything), the patronizing attitude he gave Pennsylvanians, his willing association with a hypocritical racist (Mr. Reverend...you hate the rich white man who keeps the black man down...at least until you get a mansion right next to them with a $1 million limit credit card), the 45 pounds of junk mail from him and being disturbed at least once a day for the last two weeks by Obama lackeys.

That is all for my political rant. I'm still voting for McCain.

I have never left the math testing center feeling as though I was going to throw up. I wonder why they have you do all sorts of exercises, homework, online quizzes, say "the test will be these types of questions" and then make the test questions so freakin' hard and NOTHING like those you practiced on. "Oh, we just want to make sure you can do the skill." No, you just want to make the questions so hard we screw up somewhere and you can get out Mr. Red and go nuts.

What the hel was "use the 'zero' function"??? I went over the notes and the section and can't find any mention of "zero function."

Left at least four questions completely blank and ran out of time. I have never run out of time before.

God damn it.

All hail and praise be to the glory of the goddess Brandy of the Nazareth.

That is all.

Well, I got my course load. Holy shit this is going to be one damned long semester. There are tests in Algebra which is expected. The Mass Culture and Philosophy classes have no tests. This frightens me. A lot. Both have HEAVY paper requirements. I'm almost glad that Advanced Comp was cancelled. The only thing I can say is that in Mass Culture I have to write about movies, books, photography, radio, political spins, and music. Whoo Hoo.

Back to work. Back to work. I know.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! I have passed Algebra I with a 93%.

Not bad for someone diagnosed with dyscalculia.

Now...a short break and on to Intermediate Algebra. I can do this. I have confidence now.

Uh, I don't know how...but I got a 97% on the test. That means that he only took 3 points off the wrong factoring question (it was worth 8 and there were 100 questions) and I got everything else on the whole test correct.

Uh, I'm fucking stunned. This was the test I felt least prepared for because I put off studying for the Pats/Eagles game. No, I mean I REALLY put off studying. Was in for tutoring the morning before the test itself.

OK ::shrugs:: Let's start the day.

Oh, and just so you know, it's really damned hard finding secular holiday music. I got all the ones that don't talk about the nativity but a few of them use the word "christmas" generically. Well, everyone will have to deal.

Maddie was up ALL last night. I think she has another ear infection. After I got Tylenol into her (at 6:30 in the AM) she finally fell asleep. I'm not waking her up. Doctor appointment at 10:50.

I now suspect that I don't have pneumonia. I was a little concerned because of all the fluid in my lungs. I had deep lobe wheezing and crackling. It's getting better. If it hadn't, I was prepared to go to the hospital for xrays. That would have SUCKED if I got admitted, which is what they usually do for pneumonia patients.

Please tell me that this is a prime factorization. Please. I worked on this problem for about 10 minutes of my 1 and a half time limit.

x^2-8xy-9y^2

I know this sounds stupid that I'm asking but this is the one question on the exam that really terrified me. It was worth 8 points. The other factorizations were worth 4 points which leads me to believe that this problem was special. I hate writing "prime" because it usually means I've missed something.

Someone please validate me.

Please.

The Good

I got a 96% on my Polynomial/Graphing/Intercepts and Slopes exam!!!
I took three Child Development exams and got 100%, 95%, and 95%.

WOOOOO F**CKING WHOOOOOO

There is scuttlebut going around that The Eagles will try and entice Bill Cowher out of retirement and replace Andy Reid's butt. I can dig that! Whether it's Cowher or not, a replacement would make me HAPPY!

The Bad

It helps to go to a doctor's appointment on the correct day.

The Ugly

Please don't disobey traffic laws and cut me off while on your cell phone nearly causing a bad accident. I become quite aggressive and quickly morph into a bad interpretation of Samuel L. Jackson screaming nasty words such as "Mutha F**kah!" and "You wanna get out of your car and settle this?" Technically, it is fun to see a corporate ass cower at the idea of a woman kicking his ass.

Got a hold of Meghan's birth certificate this morning so I was able to get her working paper application. It's in the hands of her boss now and he'll call when he's finished so I can pick it up and drive it over to the high school so they can fiddle with it and give their approval. What a pain in the ass. ::shrugs:: Whatever.

I had to drive through downtown Allentown to get to the school administration building. I really haven't been in that area in over 6 or 7 years (since we moved from the city proper). Interesting changes. They are fully and deeply committed to gentrification right now. It's becoming a very high class area. They've been trying to upgrade for years since the courthouse is there. All those high class lawyer types want a crime free area so they feel safe going out to lunch. Slowly but surely they are pushing all the gang and criminal activity out. Unfortunately, it's pushing it right into the 'burbs. They gotta go somewhere. Lucky us. Funny enough, the ADT guy was working at our neighbor's house when I got home this morning. Said hello to him and asked if his work load has increased. Apparently it has in this neighborhood. This was his third installation on our section of blocks in a week. The neighbor said one of the ladies robbed a few weeks ago said that this is a four or five person job. One drives the car slowly down the street and 2 on each side quickly look in windows and check for unlocked windows/door for an easy score. I can't remember what Shell said about how she knew this but I think another neighbor a few blocks away witnessed it and called the cops. Nice.

Flipped on the classical station this morning while I was in the car. They played a nice Joseph Haydn symphony (83 in G minor, I belive...it was "The Hen" Symphony) and a great opera portion from Alessandro Scarlatti (from Agar et Ismaele Esiliati). I haven't heard him in a while. They also played a piece from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier. Sometime the harpsichord aggrevates me (if I'm in a twitchy mood to begin with) but most of the time it doesn't. The harpsichord and the oboe remain my favorite instruments.

I've got an appointment with my Psych professor at 11AM this morning. I have to sign my Honor's contract. Monday morning I have another algebra tutoring session because I've hit a total and complete brick wall in regard to percentage applications and expanded word problems. Yadda yadda yadda. I'll come home and make labels for mead and re-coat Greg's Mjolnir. We both have our respective religious gatherings tomorrow (him for the Fall Frolic and me at the Equinox celebration). Lots to do.

I got the results....

The results are in!....

I got...(oh, I'm so excited!)

A 95%!!!!

I feel like dancing!

Took my first algebra chapter test in 19 years. Probably did fine but I'm nerve-wracked. Eh. Whateryagonnado? It was a proctored live test. I have to wait for the results. That's gonna be the worst part of it, I think.

Waiting sucks.

Went to my algebra tutoring session this morning after dropping the girls off at school. My professor is awesome. He really loves math. He noticed that all my wrong answers (and there weren't that many) were due to one issue. That's a good thing. When you are screwing up one step it's fixable. When you're screwing up 5 different steps in each problem it's going to take a lot of time to figure out what's going on. So he thinks I'm do OK. I'm going to finish my reviews and my practice tests and then go in for the big first test. Thank the gods I don't suffer from test anxiety. Math anxiety? Yes, but I won't get stressed out when I get to the testing center.

Spent the rest of the morning working on the Halloween costumes. We're going to have two seperate costumes: one for the pictures and one for the party. The Dune costumes are just too complicated for a party. I convinced Meghan to do Athena for the party. Gotta find a stuffed owl. Greg refused to do Leonidas but has agreed to be a Greek soldier (something about refusing to wear leather underwear with a leather codpiece ::shrugs:: I think he would have looked hot. hehe). He's going to make Meg and his shields some time in the next few weeks. We'll be taking our picture early because Greg wants to shave off his beard like there's no tomorrow. It's itchy.

So there seems to be a drop in hunters. I gotta push Greg to start hunting. He wants to but hasn't had the time to get equipment and learn how.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/09/03/fewer.hunters.ap/index.html

Hmmm. I think that's it. I'm going to write a few article responses for Child Development and then off to get Maddie.

Took my first algebra test in over 18 years. I got an 80%. I'm not happy yet at the same time I'm quite pleased. One question I missed because of poor fraction reduction. One question I misread. The two others were just fuck ups.

So now I know what to expect. If I can do better than this I can save my GPA. If not, a 3.99 won't kill me...will it?

In other college news I applied for the Honor's program for my Child Development class. I'll be assigned a topic for a mini thesis paper to be submitted before the end of the semester. If I get an "A" I get the word "Honors" after my name. :)