College Kid.

Well today was the first day of my “Introduction to Mathematics” class. This is the non-credit course I have to take because I didn’t achieve a high enough score on my two attempts at the college pre-placement exam. I commonly refer to it as “Math for Dummies.”

This course probably has the most eclectic assortment of people in it. They’re from all walks of life and of all ages. I’ve made it through four of my five courses so far and I have yet to be the oldest. I’m feeling like one of the cool kids, as I had to share my book with another and he complimented me on my handwriting. At least he didn’t say that I write like a girl (Earl always says that). I’m now even tempted to wear my jeans all saggy with my butt crack showing. On the other hand, that may be more frightening than I need to be as I probably have a little more hair there than my peers.

One thing that I’m adjusting to is the presence of cell-phones in the classroom. Up until today it hasn’t been too bad, but because this math course is basically a lab, people were starting to take or make phone calls (that sounded like a lot monosyllabic words and a mixture of grunts) before being scolded by the professor (who, by the way, is an adorable geek about my age).

The course is self-paced and I’ve decided to take it nice and slow. I need a good, solid foundation of mathematics for the rest of my courses and since I have to take this course, I might as well do the best I can, take my time and get the highest score possible. It’ll pay off in the long run.

Well I’m officially back in school and have survived my first class. On this morning’s agenda was “Introduction to Sociology”. It’s a required course for all college students in New York State and I must say that I think I’m going to enjoy this course. There’s only four exams and one paper plus a lot of reading. It’s a large class with 75 students and is held in a lecture hall. It’s funny, I hadn’t even considered the fact that I would be sitting in a large lecture hall for any of my courses, for some reason I pictured them all in smaller traditional classroom. Oh well, I don’t mind this approach at all.

And I’m not the oldest person in the class. Yay!

I was a little nervous walking into the hall and I remembered not to be an annoying adult type and sit front and center. That’s not my style. But I did raise my hand and answer a couple of questions today which now that I look back at it I think I found a little startling. I could just hear all the psychic thoughts in the room, “Who’s this guy with the bald head and bushy moustache and what is he doing here?” That could have been paranoia instead of psi powers though. I did blush a little bit but I got over it quickly.

Tuesday is my busiest school day as tonight I have five hours of Civil Engineering/Drafting. I’m trying to decide if I need to eat supper before I get to class at 5 p.m. or afterwards at 10 p.m.

Is it safe to eat at Taco Bell yet?

Tonight I did something that I haven’t done in almost 20 years. I sat in a real academic setting in a real school with real students and an honest to goodness professor. Tonight I took the very first step in becoming a Traffic Engineer.

It is very, very exciting. I couldn’t be happier.

I’m taking a course in CAD (more specifically Solidworks) so that I’m up to speed with prerequisites for the engineering courses I plan to take at the local college starting in January. It’s just assumed that you’re proficient in CAD, so I need to get up to speed. I interpreted and modified blueprints for an old Manpower job back in 1990 but other than that, I’ve had little experience in AutoCAD and the like. So I’m attending a couple of adult education courses at BOCES this fall to get up to speed.

I even brought home my first mechanical drawing for Earl to hang on the refrigerator. He’s very proud.