Randomness

My morning starts with a glass of Oberweis chocolate milk. I was so excited to crack that baby open...glass bottled milk, can't beat it right? It's always been a splurge that I've just never indulged in. Well, even though it was on sale for cheap, it wasn't worth it. I'm a skim milk kind of girl and choking down that thick chocolate syrup was not what the doctor ordered. I'll just leave it in the fridge for Richie. I am now having my coffee, with peppermint mocha creamer. Who knew that they now have that all year? I stopped at two different stores last night in search of a pumpkin flavored creamer and come home with peppermint mocha. It's good, but I want pumpkin.

Would you believe that it took me almost TWO HOURS to get to campus yesterday? Good ole' traffic. All routes were pretty clear except for 355. Luckily Kinley slept most of the way. We were supposed to leave the house at 7:30 yesterday morning but of course when we have something to do, Sleeping Beauty wants to sleep in. So we left at 8:00 and arrived at about twenty minutes till ten. I was ten minutes late for our first appointment. It was with financial aid and it wasn't a big deal cause the guy stood me up. Grrr. I was hoping to discuss some options for grants with him....or not. It did give me time to give Kinley her breakfast before our next appointment though.

I sat in the common area near the cafeteria to feed her and it felt so weird being there. It was familiar yet strange. The whole baby thing just made it odd. The Joy that was there before is soooo not the Joy that is here today.

Not much has really changed there, aside from the new parking lot. It's kind of like cobblestone but not. Either way, not stroller friendly because I feared that Kinley would have shaken baby syndrome by the time we made it to the doors. And by the way, don't you think that it should be universal that there should be a designated "Mom with young baby" parking spots next to the handicapped? Maybe I'm asking too much. It just always seems that it's either too sunny or rainy or cold and I hate dragging her through a parking lot in the weather. I just have the luck of finding that last parking spot waaaaaaay in the back and have to walk 15 minutes to get to the building.

After Fin Aid blew me off, I went up to meet with the advisor. She's new this year and the one she replaced was at least half a deck short. And that's being generous. I was thrilled to hear that we had a new (and improved?) advisor. Ha. Boy oh boy...this is just the old advisor in a younger body. Seriously. I showed up at her door and she acted like she had no clue who I was and when I told her she was like "oh, ummmm, yeah. I have been searching for your file and I can't find it anywhere. Do you happen to have copies of all of your stuff?" I did have copies (because I'm anal like that and have learned not to trust the previous advisor) but it's her job to have my file! I've been conversing with her for weeks via email and she's been telling me to take Shakespeare to fill my English concentration so obviously she was looking at SOME of my file. Ten minutes after her running from place to place looking for my file, she found it on top of her desk. So I push my big ole stroller into her cube and it nearly swallows the whole area. Every question I asked her, she had to run out to find out the answer. So it was stroller in, stroller out, stroller in, stroller out, stroller in...you get the idea. Every time she had to move, we had to push Kinley out. It was that cramped. I met with her for a good forty minutes only to find out that I'm on target and set to go. And I later found out that much of everything else she said was wrong.

I took a Stats class down in southern IL to cover my final math selective (advice from the previous advisor) only to learn yesterday that it was "Elementary Stats" that I completed (with an A, go me.) and that the "elementary" part of it makes it not fulfill the selective. So I filed a "petition" to see if they'd make a program exception since I was advised by my advisor to take the stupid class. See my frustrations?

Following that appointment, Kinley and I crossed the bridge into the administration area and met with the coordinator. It took her a while to figure out who I was...even though we emailed a few times a week for the past two. She kept thinking I was a different Joy. How many are there in this world? I guess the other one is also at GSU ready to student teach. It took a bit to get her bearings straight but once she did we got on the ball. Long story short, I'm good to go for Lab 2. My grades are phenomenal (her words, not mine, haha), my portfolio for Lab 1 was a 99/100 (go me, again...I'm still going) and I have all of my Candidate Tracking Form current and accurate (umm, go me). She told me that registration for Lab 2 opens November 1 (hmmm, the "advisor" told me Oct.25) and that I could register as soon as I was "flagged" as approved to enter into Lab 2 (not at the opening date, as my "advisor" told me).

Kinley was the perfect angel through every meeting and I was asked "is she always this good?" to which I replied "I am blessed." Not a peep out of her the whole time. Now the ride home was a different story. She sang and talked and cried and then slept. Only an hour to get home, by the way.

All in all, I was satisfied with my first visit back. It was all that I hoped it would be, despite the issues with financial aid and my advisor. But you have to remember that I'm used to the advisor thing. In my opinion, GSU has the worst administration staff but the most supurb instructors. And for me, the instructors are what make me want to come back.

Today our agenda includes Kinley's 9 month well check, with the Polio vaccine. Scary! The flu shot is also included on our schedule but I'm still undecided on that. I think she may still be a bit young for the flu shot. I'll discuss it with her doctor first. I have told myself that I chose him because I feel I can trust him. Therefore, I will trust my instinct after discussing it with him today. Can you tell that I'm still trying to convince myself that trusting a doctor is the right thing to do?

I don't want this blog to become a controversial place about vaccinations...I'll just say that I am an educated parent that made choices for our daughter the way I see fit for our family. She is on an alternative schedule because I feel it is best for her and only we know what is best for our daughter. End of that. I'm super excited about finding out her height and weight. After seeing her monthly calendar picture, I see how much she's grown since her six month well check. So we'll see how big (or little) she is this time around.
After the pediatrician, depending on how much the shot freaks her out, we have to go to the park district office to drop off Lucy's rabies certificate and buy our pass for her to go to the doggie park. It's right down the street from our house and she will LOVE it. We're really excited to take her there.

I have so much work for that Shakespeare class to do but so little drive to do it. I realize how crucial it is for me to do well in it to keep my GPA up but it's so hard for me to read (wah, wah, wah) and I just don't enjoy the reading. Now, I enjoy the movies! My mom has them in the mail to me as we speak. So there, I admit that I'm going to be one of "those students" that watch the movie before reading to help me understand. Some say that's cheating, I say it's a learning tool. And in my defense, I did TRY the reading first. I got through Act 1 and part of Act 2 before wanting to throw the book out the door. Not too shabby. Ha.

Have you noticed (sure you have) how random my blogs are? I keep telling myself to pick a topic and stick to it each day. I can't do it. I'm that random. Too random. But that's just me.

Last thing...I am missing my mommy group back home. Really missing the girls and babies.... so I searched out another mommy/baby group and found a MOPS group. I've heard good and bad and decided to check them out. The first meeting is on Friday and I am so stinkin' nervous. I may just chicken out. After I mail in the dues (it's due by Friday), Richie will make me go and I'll probably love it but I always have that fear that I won't fit in. That's normal, right? My goal right now is for us to find/make new friends. Friends with kids. We have friends up here but very, very few have children. None have small children. We really need to find friends that understand why we don't go out all the time, or why sometimes we'd just rather stay in and play cards, etc. So my first step to achieving this goal is MOPS and our second move is to find a chuch. There are *so many* to choose from here and I guess we'll just start shopping until we find one where we feel at home. That's how it works, right?

Kinley is still sleeping, so I better get in the shower now otherwise I'll have company for it later. Her appointment is before noon today so I've got to get on the ball. I've learned that a baby in tow creates a new way of "getting ready" and that new way takes at least two hours.