Happy Halloween!

Halloween and I still had a quiz-the first Arthurian quiz. Oh the names!!! Actually I think I did pretty well. We did have to write an essay on the symbolism of the Holy Grail or the Sankgreal as it's referred to in our book Le Morte D'Arthur. Those wild knights! Who knew that Sir Lancelot was Sir Galahad's father? At any rate it all very interesting, if difficult.
Tonight the kid is dressed as Slash from Guns 'n Roses. I asked him if anyone would recognize him and he assured me they would-they all play Guitar Hero! At last a reason to like Guitar Hero-the kids get exposed to classic rock! Enjoy the photo of my rocker.
Happy Halloween!

I thought I'd be happy if

I got at least a 79 on grammar. I have really lowered my expectations and was surprisingly happy with my 70! Of course I wanted to do better but I'm so glad I passed-the average was 66. The test was so hard-I made some silly mistakes but all in all I'm ok. It's funny that I was upset by the 79 and now I'm ok with the 70.
Catching up on my Arthur reading-slow going in middle english-I have to decipher it and then read it. Plan on spending lots of time this weekend working on my paper for myth.
Going to the mall tonight with 2 teenagers. They just want to hang out and me to disappear. At the mall I'm perfectly happy to let them go-who needs them when I can shop:)

OMG! I can't believe it!

I was so task-oriented today during the midterm. I was so focused. So what happened? The word bears. Easy enough to put in the past tense-just stick an -ed on it. Beared. Looks funny-wow! why did she pick such weird word? Did I think to write out the word-no! Why oh why couldn't I remember how to conjugate the verb bear? To bear , I bear you bear she bears, the past tense I bore, I had borne- of course!! I guess I focused a little bit too much. That makes me so mad-I should leave the mistakes to the ones I don't know. But maybe it's just a lesson for me not to correct those folks who insist on saying brang as the past tense of brought!
Onto better news: B+ on the ethnic lit midterm-thought it was a total bomb-now I hope I did as well on the paper. Maybe I'll find out by Wednesday.
Great weekend at the Poor House Bistro. All the bands playing-it was a rocking afternoon! I am so exhausted now but have my lovely Tuesday to look forward to: tennis!

I am as prepared

as I can be. Many index cards and dare I say it? I think I understand the tenses and the sentence types...well, maybe. I am ready for tomorrow. I'm taking Melissa's advice-the only letter grade I should shoot for is the one with B. A.
Now if I could only get some sleep-maybe I should think about these letters zzzzzzzzz's and it will come.

studying for 2nd midterm in

grammar, of course. The words are in my head all the time. I hear peoples speech-I listen in a different way. I'm learning so much and all I can hope for is to pass. In the 3 weeks since my last grammar midterm, in which I was so unhappy to get my 79, I have had a change of heart. My new goal is to not do worse than a 79! I felt prepared last time and not so much this time. I've had hardly and time or the will to study. Before I decided to update I studied. This time I am writing out flash cards for the structure class words, clauses, prepositions, sentence types, transitive/intransitive words-these 3 chapters make phonemes, morphemes and past participles look easy! what I would do to find the past participle {-en} form now...sigh!
Well I got a B + on my myth midterm. She is very kind considering how weak my writing was on the midterm, but I'll take it-I was so happy with that grade-I was a former A student, but man it it so hard now with the 49-year old brain. I love it though-I love all this learning-not so much the tests, though.
Did I mention that we are reading "Le Morte D'Arthur" by Malory in middle english? I had to freak out my son last night by reading out loud-it helped me to get it. It's not that hard to understand, it is just slooooow...
I need to get my paper and midterm back in ethnic american lit so I can stop wondering how badly I did.
The kid is at his first school dance tonight. Brings back memories of Marc Franco at my dance in 7th grade. I believe the only reason he asked me is that we were both short. Nic did not take anyone to the dance-went with some friends. I hope he has a great time. With Patrick away, this is my time to have uninterupted study time for grammar-uh, oh, back to the flash cards.

Once again, grammar is

just a bunch of words. We are learning sentences structure right now-identifying Types I, II, III, IV, and V. It is very tricky and I am not getting it. The midterm is a week from tomorrow...yikes! Hopefully I will understand it better. I will go in early on Monday-it is getting to be the norm for me to visit prof an hour before I start school.
As for midterms-let's just say it is great to be done with last week. After the paper-which was no good, came the midterm-it was awful and then the myth midterm-oh my! Why did I choose to say that the fertility gods were different than the other Olympians? At any rate I'm stuck with my feeble argument. Came home, worked and then passes out for 90 minutes in order to recharge for comedy Friday night. Unfortunately, while napping, I dreamed about Dionysus and all the great arguments I had for him being different-the I woke up and realized what I should have written, but sadly, did not. Oh well...
The improv group 3 For All was great! It was a nice way to come down from midterm week.
Worked on Saturday. Went to my first-ever Halloween bridal shower. Did not know anyone except the bride. Met a wonderful woman-we share the same birthday and were born in the same hospital. So bizarre to meet someone in SJ. I had a great time talking to Irene. She even told me that she got her BS at 53! Looks like we're on the same track-must be the Oct. 6th birthday!
Must go back to grammar...

the midterm was

awful. The first part was fairly easy but the full on essay part was truly awful. 40 minutes to write a cohesive essay on two texts-it just wasn't enough time. I barely had an intro and my conclusion was weak and in between-let's just say it wasn't my finest writing moment. The good news is that it's over.
Onto grammar. We had a good class today-clarified some points.
It's the mythology midterm I feel nervous about. But instead of worrying for tonight I will call it a night and try to get some good sleep-it's eluded me for days.
Good night!

The first paper is in

the professor's hands now. It's not a great paper-I simply didn't have it in me even though I loved the book. Oh, well...at this point it is about putting in the time to get my long-desired degree. It feels so far away...
At any rate good news about grammar. After spending hours slogging through the MVP's (Main Verb Phrases) I think I've got it. Oh, and after sitting with the brilliant professor for 45 minutes. She makes grammar so interesting. I can now break down the MVP into past, present, future, modal (or not) the {-en} form and the {-ing} form for the structure class words. A lot of words about words but I think I've got it-at least until Wednesday. The next midterm is looming close. At least the ethnic lit will be done and mythology will be over so I can concentrate on the grammar. As for the lit midterm-well it seemed fairly easy until she shattered our illusions with the reality of a very scary midterm! 8 poems (Aztec and Inuit) 1 non-fiction article and 3 novels-it seems unnecessarily hard, but oh well...at least the essay part is open book.
Mythology is so interesting but the midterm seems scary as well, but it too is open book and open notes. Hard to think that what I say about the Ancient Greeks will shed some new light on the Odyssey or the Trojan War.
Hopefully I will sleep tonight. Tomorrow I play tennis-I love Tuesdays! Maybe I can get my aggression out on the tennis court-slay my opponents...

The fall of

Troy-wow! what a story. Quiz tomorrow and so many names to remember: Agamemnon, Paris, Achilles, Hector, Clytemnestra, Helen, the Trojan Horse -what a cast of characters. I'd only vaguely heard some of these names-now I know the story (sort of) Hopefully I will remember who is who-or who is whom? must do a grammar check!
Ugh! The thought of grammar and all the prepositions, verb particles, adjectivals, adverbials, coordinating or subordinating conjunctions...was I just asleep in grammar through out my school years? At the moment I feel as if I can't find a subject or object in a sentence-it's just too much. Or maybe...I can buy and old School of Rock and listen to the conjunction junction and find out the function...

The midterm was ok and I did

just that-wow! a 79-what a shock. Made a few silly mistakes-I didn't think raced through it, but I need to slooow down...all around me the kids got 90's and above-in fact 88 was the average, so it wasn't mu finest hour. I've moped since yesterday, but tomorrow I go back in and face down those subordinating conjunctions and determiners-I will get it!!!!
As for the paper, let's just say I have no choice but to have it done by this weekend. Right now it's crap but I have a bit of time. In the meantime I have to study for the last quiz in mythology on the Trojan War and the fall of Troy- then next week midterm and onto Arthur.
My brain is fried!

worked hard all day and

still only about 1/2 way through the research paper. I wanted a fully done rough draft but it just wasn't possible. For some reason on this paper I keep thinking about switching topics but at 715 words now-no way am I changing. It must be that there is so much symbolism in Native-American culture that it's been hard to choose and then focus-every thought I have leads me to another. Oh well. That's why I'm done for the night and going to take a bath and watch "Desperate Housewives" the equivalent of a yummy beach book. After all I worked hard today -Melissa and I were at the library. Grammar homework almost done-not due till Wednesday, so I'm ahead in something.
Then tomorrow morning I will wake up and be 49! Had a great weekend for the most part. Here's to looking ahead!

One night in the city and now it's

back to the grind of school. I thought if I updated my blog it would be easier to get in the groove of my research paper. Anything to get the words flowing. Spent the night in SF-saw "Spring Awakening"-what a talented bunch of kids in this musical with intense themes-wow! And we had great seats but it was weird-there was this AWFUL smell emanating from someone. It was so bizarre-the woman in front of me said "it was like being in a barnyard". It really was unbelievable-good thing we all had our playbills to use as fans-there truly was a stench. At any rate just being away and see theater was fun. I slept all night (for once) and really let school slide away...but now I'm back...sigh!
Oh, well on to research...

The first midterm is

over. It was not bad at all. I'm sure I even found the tricky past participle. I was so excited that I felt like screaming "I got it!" But, I didn't because that would have been too weird. Anyway the test was ok. It's been a long time since I've taken a test that wasn't subjective-so at least when I get some wrong answers I can possibly get partial credit, just like math!
Looking ahead-I have a paper due in less than 2 weeks and 2 more midterms to follow and then another one in Grammar at the end of the month. It is exciting having my brain stretched by these classes. This is the 6th week of school and we are almost done with our 3rd novel in Ethnic American Lit and we are almost done with the Greeks in Mythology. Soon, we'll be on to the Arthurian Legends-which I know NOTHING about. I've heard of Lancelot, Guinevere and the Knights of the Round Table and that is all I know, so it should be interesting. I just hope I can take it all in.
The kid was honored tonight for good grades-I hope I can keep up with him!