Fall 2013 semester is done and I have to admit that it was a bit of a grueling one. I hadn't expected the classes I took to be as draining as they were. One class I liked a lot, and I wish they had a second offering, but they don't. The teacher was a refreshing mix of old school style and no hold's barred honesty. I found it annoying she didn't use email or D2L for assignments, but she definitely knew her trade and was equally eager to make sure we understood as her students what to expect in the "real world". For example, my informational article was cut a grade because I was roughly 500 words over the limit. "In the 'real world'", she said, "your article would not have even been read." So I revised it (cut 550 words) and am currently waiting for my final grade. I loved her policy of letting us rewrite our papers once for a better grade. Unlike a certain English 250 teacher I had at UW-Sheboygan, there will be no surprises and bogus explanations because we get a chance to fix our papers.
My other UWM class was a frustrating experience. I liked the teacher personally, but I really have a problem with her teaching style. Keeping in mind this is a 400 level class and the kids in this class want to be here, I am appalled at the course load. The main question asked in most classes was "what do you want to do today?" She is really bad at getting grades back to us, and what syllabus there was, was forgotten at the beginning of October. She made us buy three textbooks, of which we didn't even crack open TWO of them, and the third we read maybe ONE chapter. She volunteered us for graphic design in making new flyers for UWM's English dept's various study tracks. I understand giving us the wording to work out, but the graphic design? Really? Doesn't UWM have an Art dept that would have EXCELLED at that? My gripe is that she required us to use Adobe's VERY EXPENSIVE In Design program. Her flippant answer to me was, "In the real world, you will have to do stuff on programs you are unfamiliar with all the time." My answer back to her was, "I am in the 'real world' and when my employer gives me new programs to work with, I GET TRAINING TO GO WITH THAT." And, this program is incredibly expensive so I'm not buying it to use at home. Which means I have to use it at school and I don't have time for that. Luckily, I think what I said to her sunk in a bit and we broke into groups with one person able to use the program (on Macs, no less) for design and the rest of the group broke the responsibilities up to get the flyer done. We had to do two of these flyers.
So whatever we were supposed to learn was left to go by the wayside because we used class time to finish the flyers from the end of October to the end of the semester. And, yes, I am waiting for grades on the flyers and my "employment projects". We had to make a resume and cover letter for a job we want to apply for. That was useful, but is it really a 400 level activity? I'm not sure...
I start my internship on January 6th. I think it will be ok, it is for one credit which means around 4 to 5 hours a week. Then, next summer I will have a two credit internship for complete my graduation requirement for Eng 449. I will be very happy when that is done. I don't think the experience will be bad and I'm not dreading it, but something makes me wary of the time I will need to devote to it. I don't think it should be any worse than doing homework, I think it will be the timing. My "real world" job has morphed into absorbing yet another job. I am now the tech for RWs and the tech who was there full-time has been pulled back to the main hospital. Granted, the RWs tech position is not a full-time job, but I spend about five hours a day on it. I am still doing my billing coordinator position in-between the RWs position and it will be interesting come end of the month. 2013 will go down as not one of my better work years. I absorbed the billing for pharmacy sales and the in-house tech position for RWs as one person was let go and the other pulled back to the main hospital. Since taking the original billing position in 1998, I have absorbed five people's different jobs. Now, I have also brought the position into the 21st century with computerized billing and that makes a world of difference, but the fact that five people used to do what I am now doing is not lost on me. Companies will combine positions and have been doing so for years, and I will consider it job security. I also have to confess that I am happy to be back in actual pharmacy work. I really don't like billing and have kept the job because I like the flexibility the schedule offers me and I like most of my coworkers. That goes a long way in today's world, and I'm not so stupid to give that up so easily because I don't actually like the work. I have a year and a half of school left. Three semesters and a summer internship. I see the light and it is getting bigger.
I will be happy to not have to carry a back pack around, too. I need to get a injection in my left elbow next month because of the tendinitis I occasionally get there, and it is not going away. It's getting worse, and now my pinkie and ring finger hurt. I'm not really sure what aggravated it, but it's been bothersome since October. Chain mailling Christmas gifts is not helping, either. I made seven Jen's Pind necklaces in the past three months, so I guess that might be part of the problem, too. Two of them were silver which is a softer metal, but the other five were anodized niobium and that is a harder metal than silver. I have my first commission for a dragonscale bracelet to be made over winter break, so I need to get cracking on that. My right knee is still not right, either. When I go see the doctor for my elbow, I'll have to discuss my options about my knee. I'm pretty sure that there isn't a whole lot that can be done if it is arthritis. If it is the torn cartilage, they can clean it out. But, as he told me back in May, any cartilage they clean out is less cartilage left in the knee. I also came to the conclusion that what I had carried in my mind as my mental age has now changed. I used to feel like an early 30 something, but between my knee, elbow, and the various aches and pains that have mysteriously popped up out of nowhere, I'm really beginning to think I am old. Well, older and mentally closer to my physical age. And the fact that I will never be out of pain again. There is something infinitely depressing in that thought and it also feels like a crossroads. I also keep playing a childhood memory that is seared in my mind over and over. When I was eight or nine, I asked my mother the following question in a snarky, eye-rolling tone that only a child can ask, "is there ever a day when you aren't in pain?" My mother had medical issues and was having a bad day. And in my arrogance as a pain-free child, I couldn't understand the concept of daily pain. But her answer, brought me up short and seared this experience forever in my mind. She simply, and sadly, said, "no." And the thought that you would be in pain EVERY DAY was horrifying to me. How could that possibly be? Why can't the doctors make the pain go away? I was climbing out of the back of her 1967 Chevy Impala (yes, this would have been about 1975 or 1976) on a bright, sunny, warm day and it changed my perception of life forever. Daily pain and getting old. A life lesson learned too early.
So, do I get a free knee replacement with graduation?
