Another beautiful sunrise this morning which I know will mean another lovely day here!

Today, I submit my first poem in workshop. It is titled 'Southern Charms' and was inspired by the beautiful campus where I attend. I was walking around the grounds those first few days and was feeling so happy to be there and emotional from just how I got there, that the inspiration just came. I hope those young students can appreciate how someone could love a campus so much!!

The kids seem a bit wary of my proposal to do a writer's group. I think the best way to approach it is to have the first one and let the few that come talk about it be the ones to intrigue them.

Once they get to know me, they'll learn I'm almost harmless :)

German quiz today and a new novella in German lit, Oh Boy.

Life really is good.

Well, it's off to Biology today and the beginning of a set of lecture on Evolution. Of course, all universities adhere to the scientists' vision of Darwin's findings on the "Origin of the Species". I really don't see what all the big fuss is about. I personally believe God created all things and however we evolved to get to the way we are now is of no importance to me. I find it interesting to study these things but it doesn't offend me nor does it offend my faith. I keep the two separate.

The teacher said at the first of the semester she would be teaching evolution so if anyone had a problem with that they should take something else! Yesterday in poetry class, the teacher referred to the Old Testament as 'biblical mythology'. This was just after a student had showed me his favorite verse in Psalms in his Bible he brought from home! To each his own. Those impressionable young minds and egos will no doubt be influenced but hopefully, they can make their minds up on their own.

It is kind of a dreary day here on the coast.



The coast.



I love that I'm able to write that. That means I'm here. Actually living on the coast. Not dreaming to one day be here. Not trying to figure out how I could somehow come up with the funds to take a short vaca to the beach. I could hop in my car and literally be sitting on the beach in ten minutes!!! I have to pinch myself at least once a week.



Today I have woken up early and begun cleaning. Just general getting the cobwebs out. With a new place, there isn't much to do. I plan to get out and go to see my friend who owns the toy store and inquire about working for the pre-holiday season. Maybe just weekends. We shall see. I know she needs help and she has offered before.



I have also posted an email to the student roster for the poetry class to start a writer's salon. I offered to host at my house. So far I have gotten modest response but I did send on a Friday afternoon and I'm sure these young college kids won't check their emails til late Sunday night or possibly Monday morning. We shall see. I think it could be fun



Then I'm going to do a little baking and then catch 'Inglorious Basterds'. My German professor recommended it because there was quite a bit of German in it.



So I have a full two days ahead of me. Not to mention homework to cram in there!



Enjoy your weekend! Wherever you are!!

Well, I did just horribly on the Biology exam. I was in a large group because most everyone in the class had about the same score as I did -- 66!! I was just crushed. I had really studied diligently. At lab last night everyone was moaning about it and talking about how they studied 'so hard'. I said 'you too', until I found out their studying hard meant cramming all night the night before was the only studying they had done!! I bet if those kids had put in a little more effort, they would have made higher scores.

My grade hasn't yet posted the extra credit points, which will add 5+ to the grade. I feel sure I will get them. Of course I thought I was going to make an 80 on the exam too! I did score well on my lab quiz though and that is getting better and more fun. It is still a struggle to understand at times but I'm not getting as stressed as I was. Gotta keep that blood pressure down :)

Now on the other hand, I'm doing great in my Creative Writing courses. At least in my major, I am excelling, which is good to know. Next week I will get to 'workshop' one of my poems. That is when you let the entire class critique your work. I'm looking forward to it. The one I have chosen for submission is titled 'Southern Charms' and describes the campus and how it makes me feel. Some of the ones we have heard so far have been dark and very painful. If I was in my early 20s, I would probably be writing that kind of poem too. Mine seems light and almost fluff so I hope they will take it seriously!

I am glad it is Friday. The weeks fly by sometimes and I have to stop and think what day it is. Both 'roomies' are going back to Mooresville this weekend and I will be all by my lonesome. I will probably do a little housework, go down to the beach and a lot of reading.

My kind of weekend!

Today I tanked the German quiz but the Biology test I feel I did ok. Maybe a 'B' if I'm lucky. Considering the professor said that no one ever made higher than a 69, I think that is ok. But then again I could be wrong about my grade. I will find out tomorrow.

I am thinking about starting a writer's salon. Hosting a group outside of campus for creative types to be able to brainstorm ideas for stories, poems songs, you name it. I mentioned to several students in my poetry class and they seemed pretty interested. I cleared it with the department head so I will email everyone and see what happens. Plus I mentioned the fact I will bake goodies. That is probably what they will REALLY be coming for:)

I'm making more and more friends on campus. These young kids are accepting me as one of their own. I appreciate that more than they could know.

I am going down for a nap before I have to study for Bio lab and more German!!

Monday. Back to the grind. But I am not unhappy. I am excited that a new week has begun. I can't wait to get back to campus and see what will unfold this week. I also cannot wait to get this Biology exam over with! I spent over 3 hours yesterday in the library studying with a study partner. It was helpful but we both agreed it is just so much information to go over. We are allowed to make a cheat sheet to bring with us to the exam. I have started on that as well as the extra credit questions. Of the ones I could understand -- which were only 5 out of 20! -- I will do those today and hopefully, at least pass the exam.

I also drove up to Topsail Beach yesterday for lunch. A student in my poetry class works there and told me about the restaurant. The Smokehouse is a rustic BBQ place that lived up to its name. Plus, the scenic drive provided many reasons to visit the area again when there is more time!

For now, I must go and get back to my reading of 'Mademoiselle de Scudery'. Another of E.T.A. Hoffman's novellas. If it is anything like his other works, someone will die another will have heartbreak. Stay tuned.

Yesterday on the beach was wonderful. And interesting.

Four young surfers brought a young man who was obviously paralyzed and in a wheelchair out on the sand right beside us. They proceeded to don wetsuits and then carry the young guy in the wheelchair down to the water's edge. Once there, they gingerly plucked him out of the wheelchair and laid him on his stomach, on the unusually long surfboard. They then paddled him out in the surf. Now the paraplegic was not strapped on but he was wearing a life jacket or vest I guess it is called. Once out beyond the waves, the smallest of the four, crouched behind the man on the board and helped steer where they needed to be. The surf was fairly rough yesterday so they were able to get some pretty good waves. The disabled man was up on his forearms the entire time along for the ride! They were out for about 30 minutes before coming in. I gave him a 'great job!' when they wheeled past and he said he was worn out. He looked overjoyed and proud. People were coming over saying how brave he was.

I really wanted to find out more about his situation. Why he was in the wheelchair. Were these students and this a special organization. Arielle wouldn't allow me to go and be inquisitive. She said it would embarass him. I wouldn't have asked him but there was a gentleman who seemed to be in charge of things.

Oh, well. It was an exhilarating experience to watch. Anytime I see someone in a wheelchair, I immediately take pause. I know what it feels like. Instead of avoiding them, I want to engage them. I know he welcomed the congratulatory responses.

So to that young man who banished his fears yesterday in the ocean, well done my man! You made a lot of people proud yesterday. A lot of people that could stand on their own two feet.

WOO-HOO! I scored a 92 on my German test which is an A or 'sehr gut'! So that is still an A average in German to date. Hopefully my study session on Sunday for Biology exam will help get me a good grade for that one. I don't know what to aim for but what the hell, I always did have to high of an expectation. I'll aim for an A anyway!

The morning is looking expecially gorgeous. Especially beach-worthy. I cannot wait to see the ocean. I need to write a poem or two so I will take pen and paper along with a book. We shall see what happens.

My zinnias out front have finally called it quits. I will replant with some pansies before the day is done. Fall is coming says the calendar but you can't feel that here.

Wow I'm so happy to be here. Pinch me or not. If I'm dreaming, I sure don't want to awaken.

TGIF!!!

Oh, how I hope the weather is good enough to spend the day at the beach tomorrow! I think it will be. A has her first Saturday off since she has been here I believe and we plan to be there most of the day.

Sunday I will be at the library all day with my Biology study buddies preparing for Tuesday's big exam. We can bring a 'cheat sheet' which is one page, front only, handwritten, not typed. This can have notes pertaining to all we've been through to date that the test may have on it that we can refer to during the test. She will take up the cheat sheets along with the tests as well. She also posted extra credit questions to do and hand it along with the tests. Out of the 20 she will accept 5 if they are correct. They won't count against us if they are wrong. Oh, my goodness, it looks like greek to me! I don't know if I will be doing any extra credit. I asked my lab partner last night if he had done the extra credit and he glibly said he wasn't going to do them. He was just going to read all the lecture notes and just do the test!! Well good luck Mr. Smarty Pants!! By the look of the sample test she sent us, I think we all should do the extra credit.

Anyway, I feel good. It is Friday. We get our German test results. We start workshop in Poetry. We are getting into some Freudian Literature in German Lit and life is good!

Happy Friday to everyone!

Hallelujah the German test is over!!! I think I actually did very well. The classes are getting more demanding and tests are getting harder. But I am still having a ball.

I had to go back to the infirmary for a blood pressure re-check. How many students do they see for that I wonder? Anyway I saw the same doctor which I feel we had a great connection. I told her about the mixup and confusion I had had with the immunization waiver -- which they still were trying to clear up. Another one of my new friends, who is a young Marine wife, was unnecessarily harassed since she had already sent in her shot records, was very upset about being dropped. She wanted to file a grievance about the way things were handled. I told the doctor about this to her horror she apologized and said they had had problems with their staff they were trying to rectify. I said this young student's husband is deployed and her mother lived in Connecticut and I felt so bad for her so I became a mother figure for her consoling her. The doctor told me I had been placed here for a reason. Well, of course I had I thought. Immediately I thought, for me! But then I realized she meant for the kids. I think some of these youngsters do look to me as a mother figure. I forget they are miles away from theirs.

At my heart I will always be a Mom first. Then a student.

But I sure am loving being a student.

The sunrise has been beautiful this morning so I am taking a break from German studieren and blogging for a minute!

My cold/flu bug is much better though my fatigue level is still low. I worked all weekend on German flash cards for extra credit and catching up on my sleep! Yesterday was tough getting back in the swing of things. Especially with all the homework they piled on us. I have a German test on Wednesday and a mid-term exam in Biology next week. Those are my two most challenging classes because they don't come as naturally to me as the creative writing.

Also, on Wednesday morning before my test, I have to go through another mediation with the Department of Agriculture over my mortgage. They still want to foreclose and I want to get an extension. I cannot believe my little house has not sold yet. Hell, I'm practically giving it away at $75,000!!! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I'm up to my eyeballs in homework but I am loving every minute of it. Hours go by before I realize it. I don't even watch television anymore! I'm making more friends and feeling like this is really my home.

Home.

That's a great word.

The weekend has flown by.

I have done homework all weekend since I had such a week tending to doctors and Medicare all week.

I failed my German test miserable as did most of the class so she let us take the test home to make it right !! I was so elated that we had another chance. I was so sick that day that she must have noticed. She asked me Friday if I felt better. I told her in my broken German sehr Gut! Especially since I could do the test over! I am also making flash cards for extra credit in her class. I will need all the extra credit in that class I can get.

Friday was really a good day to a bad week. I resolved my prescription dilemma and vacinnation dilemma. Things are going back to normal.

Thursday evening's lecture that included Clyde Edgerton was very enjoyable. Clyde, in his mid-60s is going through fatherhood again. He has 3 young children, ages 2,4 and 6!! He and his wife agreed a vasectomy was in order. The book was an anthology on fatherhood and his essay was a how-to guide per-se with an epilogue for father's eyes only. He proceeded to read the hilarious section which was about how he had to shave his scrotum for his pre-op vasectomy procedure.

Needless to say, it was a kneeslapper. I cannot wait to have him as a professor. I will never look at him in the same way again!!

I can tell the professors were being gentle on us the first month for now they are throwing the work at us. I am glad because I do much better under pressure. I do hope I get to the beach before the sun goes down tonight!

TGIF!!

Evcn though I'll be doing homework all weekend, it is still nice not to be on a schedule. And, I hope to get out to the beach as well. It has been rainy and I am starting to feel better so with the weather report saying sunny all weekend, beach I am there!

The lecture last night on Dads was great. We are so fortunate to have such talented writers on our staff here. I was able to get the book and snag the writers as they were exiting the room for autographs. They penned it to my Dad and I called him to tell him all about it.

He flew to DC on Wednesday to visit the WWII memorial with other veterans on a special flight arranged especially for the veterans. I could hear the glee in his voice as he told me of all the details. I am so thankful that he got to go on this journey. He told of some men being in wheelchairs and using walkers and canes. Not my Dad! He is still in great shape. He can still get in his old uniform I believe! They let him go in the cockpit on the flight up. He made note that the co-pilot was a female!

On this day, 9-11, you just have to stop and think of all our young men and women that are still fighting for this country today and say a prayer of thanks for them and that they are safe and make it home to their families.

Dad said on the way home, they were handed letters that were written to them from local 5th graders thanking them for their service. He got a real kick out of them.

Dear old Dad. He is my inspiration for reading and writing. And I thank God for him and my brother for going to war for our country.

So thank a vet today and every day when you have an opportunity to do so.

When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around...

That tune came over the airwaves today as I was driving home from class. It couldn't have come on a more appropriate day! I found a local doctor who will become a familiar face I'm sure. I agreed to sign the vaccine waiver after much consternation. I agreed to a tetanus booster and MMR serology testing, which their lab techs botched because my veins were in such bad shape.

At any rate, I turned in my papers to the University so hopefullly, I will not be dropped from my classes now or rather, I won't have to SUE the University for forcing me to do something harmful to my health!

The CVS pharmacist just rang me up and told me he finally got my prescription coverage to go through. Hooray!! Now, my $3000+ expense for meds will only be $43!!

Tonight Clyde Edgerton is giving a speech on campus with two other authors who co-wrote 'A Book of Dads'. This is part of the Creative Writing Department annual series of guest speakers of literary events. I plan on taking part in as many as I can. Mr. Edgerton is a professor here and I can't wait to hear him speak. He gave the 2009 commencement address and was hilarious. His latest book 'The Bible Salesman' was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as one of her summer reading series books.

I have lots of homework to get to so I will be signing off for now. I'm kinda glad this week is coming to an end!

And did ya know that Sting has a new album coming out this winter? Now that's something to look forward to!

It's been almost a week since I've written and with good reason, but not much excuse.

I have been disenrolled from my health plan because I moved out of the area, I have been in talks with Medicare for a week begging and pleading for temporary prescription coverage. When I finally think I'm getting some resolution -- they tell me all the pharmacist has to do is enroll me in something called WellPoint -- and I will be covered. Easier said than done. I've been to 3 pharmacies so far and have gotten no where and no medicines! Medicare says they cannot help me because they have nothing to do with WellPoint but the pharmacist can call them and maybe they can assist!?!?

Then yesterday while I was sitting in the campus infirmary -- I am also suffering from a mild flu-bug -- I was informed that I need to get vaccinated by this Friday or I will be dropped from all my classes. Of course, the vaccines and my MS will not work so now I'm looking for a local doctor willing to sign a waiver for me releasing me from this stipulation.

I went back up to Mooresville over Labor Day weekend to attend to some things with my house that has not sold yet.

It was difficult going back but I'm glad that I did. Mooresville represented to me a time in my life that was a major difficult period in time. It always felt negative there because I associated the place with when my life went through some very difficult events.

I was always counting down time to when I could 'get out of this place'. When I went back, it made me realize that not the entire time was bad. We had a lot of good memories in that place and it just took leaving for me to realize that.

All the moves in my life have been under difficult circumstances which make going back to those places hard.

I've moved on and I'm not looking back. Even if I still have to deal with worrisome details like Medicare or doctors. I have no regrets because I am in paradise!

I'm finding I am losing my identity. Maybe not so much my identity as a false sense of who I am. I am around all these young people without too many cares in the world and I forget that I have realities to deal with.

Like yesterday. A new rule went into effect after July1 if you rent or lease, which I do, you must put your water bill in your name instead of getting a duplicate bill from your landlord. Rentals are huge down here and I guess too many landlords were left holding the bills of some errant tenant.

So I called them up to put that change in place and found they needed a $300 deposit! I didn't even have to pay that much for the power to be put in my name. My landlord said 'it's just $300'! Well, that wasn't going to work for me. All I had to do was call the Town of Mooresville for a letter of reference and payment history and they would waive the deposit.

Anyway, not to bore you with the details, my point is I'm finding life here is so carefree and at school is its own little universe as well. When a mundane issue like the water deposit or my health insurance company not offering their plan in Wilmington (!), it is like a slap in the face that I still have the 'real world' to deal with.

Before I came here, it seems that's all I had to deal with were problems. It became my second nature and I grew to expect things to not work out so well.

I realized yesterday how wonderful things have become in my life that when those little aggravations arise, it just makes me realize how far I've come.

I also realize this isn't a fantasy. This is really my life now. That is something I will never lose sight of or not be thankful for every day.

I guess I'm not losing my identity I'm just growing as a person. Well, and maybe going through my second childhood!

The weather is so nice. Rain we had earlier has left us with a nice cool breeze. That will make my walk on campus even nicer today.

Yesterday in Biology, one of the girls I have made friends with was talking about tatoos. She has 7 in all! I told her I might would get one but with the MS I was concerned. She said when I was ready, to not go to anyone but her guy. He had won countless awards and had been doing tatoos for 16 years. He would take care of me.

Maybe if I graduate with honors I'll get inked.

Today in German, we were all assigned around 5 lines each of dialogue to memorize. We will have to get up in class and say our 'parts'. I've memorized about half of mine. I'll have it done by the time class rolls around at 2. It's basically conversations between people asking how they are, where they are from, etc. She says once we remember this, we will know it for the rest of our lives. Somehow I kinda doubt it.

The rain yesterday seems to be cooling things down a bit which is nice. I finally went out and bought a bathing suit over the weekend. Now I may go to the beach dressed appropriately (!) and not look like a bag lady in old shorts and tees. My daughters still don't think I'll wear it. I hadn't bought a bathing suit in years. Never had a reason for one but now I do. And it was marked down 60%!

Yesterday the German Lit class was cancelled. Imagine that. A teacher not able to show up. Actually, I was glad because it was raining pretty hard and that class has got the longest walk. So I had an extra hour to read up on my German. I will need it on Wednesday because the professor assigned us all dialogues that we have to memorize and say in class. I only have 5 lines to remember but it is not as easy as it sounds. That class has dwindled down quite a bit since it began.

In poetry class we watched a Youtube interview of Yehuda Amichai, an Orthodox Jew from Southern Germany. As a young boy he moved to Palestine and later fought with the British during WWII. He was one of Israel's greatest modern poets.

In the interview, he spoke of how he believed everyone is born a poet and how you should just write about things you are passionate about. He loved words and writing. Things he was passionate about were war, love and peace. Those three topics alone amassed his huge body of work.

Just listening to him speak was mesmerizing. He brought his words to life with his readings. We had done some of his work in class but hearing them from the author's own voice brought them a whole different meaning.

I think poetry is a forgotten part of our culture. Go to your library and check out a poetry book. Bring it home and read it to a loved one. I'm sure you both will be glad you did.