I ♥ Being Healthy

so, despite avoiding the stomach bug (so far so good), on sunday I did develop a bit of a cold.

I thought I was over it on Tuesday, until I couldn't sleep because I couldn't breathe through my nose on Tuesday night.

None of this is important, except to say there was a blood drive this week, and I was going to give blood. My body did this to me last time I wanted to give blood.

Am I unconsciously afraid of blood drives? Do I develop colds as a way to avoid them? Why does my immune system seem to check out every time I find out the Red Cross will be in town?

I don't know, but I think it's lame, because I was all ready to save 3 lives this week.

Tomorrow's FRIDAY! Zippadeedodah!

forecasting...

I was going to post this last night, but I had to be in bed by 9:30 to attend a conference today with some THS students and I was worried some of you might worry.

And mom already wrote me an email about it,

but so far, no sign of the stomach bug.

Hopefully I have the accuracy of the weatherman, and nothing will happen.

more on the conference later. off to work until 4, then class until 6:30.

-mollie

Things I Did Today

-slept in
-got up, dressed, showered
-made and ate breakfast
-cleaned my room
-washed my sheets
-made my bed
-did laundry
-cleaned our kitchen floor mat
-read a chapter of my Social Psych book for class next Wednesday
-wrote a paper for the same class
-wrote two papers for my internship "class"
-got all my application materials printed and organized, with checklists for what still needs to be done (hallelujah)
-organized my kitchen cupboard and fridge space
-went grocery shopping
and
-bought Ginger Ale for an inevitable bout of stomach bug which apparently made the rounds at Erin's this last week and should be showing up in my system, oh, say about Tuesday.
-put gas in the car
-wrote a blog entry

and now I shall go to bed.

-mollie

Complaining and Ranting, my favorite!

So, I can already tell online Doctrine + Covenants is going to be one of the stupidest decisions I've made in my undergraduate career.

I have to read each section, then take a quiz, then read the teacher's notes on the section, then read the student manual notes on the section. Then do this for each section, and take tests on groups of 5 sections at a time.

Talk about tediously boring. I made myself sit down to start tonight, and I have only done the assignments for one section and I'm ready to fall asleep.

Oy.

But I had to do it because my internship is until 2 pm every day, I work until 5 pm, so religion had to be after 5 pm, and a religion class that meets after 5 pm on campus was hard to come by.

So yeah.

-mollie

p.s.- as an update on my internship, the site of which I will refer to as "THS":

Yesterday and today combined, I must have met with at least... 60-80 students to change schedules. THS started a new semester, so my "mentor counselor" and I were stationed in the hallway outside the counseling office (from 7 am - 2:15 pm) with computers, doing schedule changes. Yesterday I didn't even have a break to pee (You're welcome for the TMI). Today was a little less busy. But seriously. So. Many. Students. I felt so productive.

There were times when I didn't know what I was talking about, so it was nice to have the other counselor there, and another woman who works in the office (who we'll call Mrs. D) who was there herding the sheep (which was pretty entertaining to watch when I had an extra .2 seconds). But, I learned pretty quickly that there are some things I don't know that I can guess at just by how the student talks to me about it. "Uh, Coach P----- said I could be his TA for 4th period, so I need to drop Biology." (First of all, you're dropping a full year Bio class for a TA position?) "Well, did you get Coach P------ to fill out this form?" I ask, holding up the green sheet they need to have signed. The kid responds, "No, Coach said he didn't want to bother signing the paper and to just come tell you he said it was OK." .... Ok. No. Nice try kid.

Then there was a kid who came back with a teacher's note and another counselor put him in the class. The kid came back to me about two hours later confessing he lied and that he needed to find a new class because the teacher said he couldn't be in the one he supposedly had a note to add. I appreciate your honesty, but next time try not lying the first time. Save you, and us, the trouble please.

I also enjoyed the girl who came and said she "absolutely need[ed]" to get out of a class because she didn't "get along with the teacher." When asked what happened, she mentioned something about getting reprimanded for being generally disrespectful and talking back. Umm... we can't just switch you because you don't know how to behave.

A girl sat down to talk to me and asked me my name. I told her "Mollie." She said "Well, what do we call you?" I told her Mollie was fine, but my last name was Dickerson. We fixed her schedule and when she got up to leave she said "Thank you Miss Dickerson." I think my heart stopped for a second. Miss who?! Weird.

The worst one today was a freshman who had already talked to two other counselors before he got to me. Someone had changed his schedule to classes he couldn't be in (because of prerequisites etc.) and they needed to be changed. He was a transfer student, so today was his second day at THS, and he'd already had three different schedules. We sat down and had to find him an English 9 class. Well, let me tell you about English 9 at THS. The sections have a cap at 35 students. It is offered virtually every period of the day except 5th, with a total of 11 sections or something like that. Four of those are "Bridge Program" sections: a program for 9th graders who are underperforming. They take their core classes (English, Math, Science, and Academic Support) with a group of students. The classes are smaller, require no homework, and generally less demanding. (When I heard about it the first time, I heard Bart in my head saying "We're going to catch up by going slower? Cuckoo. Cuckoo." I see the intended advantages, but I guess I'm just a cynical person. More on the Bridge program some other time.) So take four sections out. That leaves 7 sections, capped at 35 students.

We had already overfilled them, so every single one was at 39 or 40 students enrolled. Except the Bridge classes of course, which were hovering somewhere around 13 enrolled. What was I supposed to do for the kid? I sent him to two different teachers to be added, and neither would take him because they didn't have any more desks. After more schedule rearranging (to get a different period free, to try a different English section) Mrs. D took him to a teacher to explain all the sections were full and the teacher graciously signed his Add form. Seriously. It took about an hour, mapping class sections on a piece of paper, rearranging classes, and three different add attempts for the poor kid to get into a class. And it's his SECOND DAY. I felt really bad for him, but there was nothing I could do but try to make him less mad at me for the hassle by making conversation and offering him candy.

And then there was a senior girl who asked to have a free period (Ok, at THS you have to have a parent give permission to have a free 8th period [or at CHS "early release"] but not if you want a late start with no first period class. Weird, right? I thought so. Anyway.) I looked up her graduation progress and she needed so many credits that she was an unlikely candidate for graduation that year, and I had to be the one to tell her. She got shuffled into the office to talk with her "actual" counselor to see if they could work something out, but that was awkward.

And then there was a girl who was in Clothing 3 (after taking Clothing 1 and 2) and had to drop it because she couldn't pay for the materials that semester. That's lame. Can I just say that? Because it is. I won't get on my soapbox in this entry, except to say that if kids want to take Dance or Art or Clothing 3 or Photography or Band or AutoShop or a variety of other classes at THS, I don't think they should have to pay money for it. I tend to think education is unfair enough for the kids who have no money- they're usually the ones struggling anyway, and life is harder in general. They should at least be able to come to school and take classes in things they like.

And I don't even care- the rich kids should too. Otherwise your Art and Music classes end up being elitist, and you only widen your socio-economic gap which is a little too obvious in the first place; a well-rounded education is only for the kids with the money, sucks to be the rest of you. I also don't think a kid should be in an English class with 40 students. But that's UT for you- as this teacher's blog points out, UT's per student spending is the lowest in the country- almost 1/3 of New York's. One third! He also says money does not cure everything, and higher per student spending certainly does not guarantee a good education. True. But I don't think more spending per student can ever really hurt anything.

Oh don't get me started. All I'm saying (for now) is that I think people ought to be willing to take a tax increase to pay for the education of their own kid, and the kid who lives down the block whose mother works three jobs to pay the mortgage. It's not the kid's fault. My mentor counselor commented she'd rather have her tax dollars pay for their education now than their incarceration later. Valid point. Nevermind the fact that teachers get crappy pay too, and they're the ones practically raising your children for 8 hours a day, 180 days of the year, for 13 years- teaching them to become intelligent, respectable members of society- hopefully anyway. And if you've been around teachers, they'll tell you they don't do it for the money. I think it's a shame people who dedicate their lives to "raising the next generation" have to sacrifice to do it- or at least live on less than they could be making doing many other things. But I guess that's education in general; the work of a good teacher is worth way more than they get paid.

But again, UT teachers get paid the worst. And I know people are going to think I sound like a stuck-up "Yankee" here, but... I can't help but think the education I got in Connecticut is better (in some ways) than that of Utahns if only in part because teachers get paid more there. This [might] mean(s) the well-qualified ones are more likely to find jobs there if they can, meaning (I imagine) more competition for teaching positions, which makes for faculty of a generally higher caliber [excepting Mr. Kos who was a wackjob]. And it's more feasible for them to be teachers, instead of pursuing something more lucrative. So according to my very unprofessional reasoning, it seems more likely that you'd have teachers who have PhDs (like some of our HS teachers), because they can pursue teaching as a [more] serious career goal. Either way, teachers should get paid more.

And yes, taxes in CT are high(er). But I think some things are worth it. I'm sorry- there are things I do appreciate about Utah, but their education spending is LAME.

Ok, I'm done now.

I will have to elaborate more on the Bridge Program, my soapbox, and my internship in general at a later date. Sorry for the rant. But I had to get that out of my system.

5 days

That's it. Five days.

I was wondering how long it would take.

Today, at Timpview High, I came out of a meeting with the counseling department when I got stopped in the hall by [a woman I know I've been introduced to, but I can't remember her name] who told me I "better hurry. The bell just rang."

Ah yes. The joys of looking like I'm 14.

-mollie

p.s.- it's not like I looked like a scrub. I've been trying very hard to 1) dress professionally, 2) not carry a backpack, 3) stick to a counselor's side until people figure out I'm supposed to be there, and I'm not a student.

p.p.s.- I met the professor for my online religion class (we got bonus points for it) who started our conversation by saying "Well besides looking like Tina Fey, what else should I know about you?" Tina Fey does not look 14.

Update

Also,

Remember this post?

Well, I got my grades for Fall semester, and I did it.

-mollie

Inside Joke ...

... or "Things that only make sense to me" or "Soundbites of a Semester".

I've had so many posts rolling around in my head that I've decided I better get a couple out before my carefully planned eloquence dribbles out my ears while I sleep. This one came to me while studying for finals in December.

I took out my binder that houses all the readings we had for "LDS Perspectives in Psychology"- a class about how LDS thought and mainstream psychology collide and sometimes fight with each other. When I say that, the next question is usually "Like what?" Well, like... our last unit was about suffering, and how mainstream psychology generally promotes "the good life"- that is, most theoretical approaches frame suffering in the "pleasure is good, pain is bad, so therefore we must do everything to get rid of the pain" approach. So we read about that. And then we read other things. Usually articles from church people or at the least, BYU professors, which say things like "Our suffering can bring us closer to God" or "sometimes there are important lessons to be learned from our trials." Point being, we shouldn't just be looking for ways to eliminate struggling because it means something; we're meant to have hard times.

I think my professor would be ashamed of my simplification of the unit, but there it is. We had a unit on Psychology as a hard science (or not), the idea of human agency, identity and relationships, sexuality, and psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. So yeah. It was kind of a class of opposing viewpoints. Or, a classic "find similarities and differences between x and y" kind of thing.

In class, I tried to take notes to keep myself occupied (the class met for 2.5 hours on Thursday nights) and to help myself remember material. While I was studying, I came to quite a few pages, covered in notes scrawled in various colors (I use one color for when I read it at home before class, one color for class notes, and one color for when I review for a test. I am a little ... overzealous that way.) Anyway.

Most of my notes make sense. Things like "The values of psychotherapists impact clients." Some make sense if I or you try hard enough to understand. Like: "Truth should inform method- but we have developed our method and then sought truth. What kind of truth is that? A thermometer cannot measure height."

Then there are several notations that don't make sense to the outside world, or at least not the sense the class wanted you to get, when taken out of context.

Things like:
"You can both follow the gospel, but your relationship is screwed up."
"Streams- you and it are different, and a non-moving stream is a pond."
"There are no immaterial truths in Hebrew"
"Psych is picture thinking- learning is picture management."
"Hebrew time is the chord of Dr. Talbot"
"Events are parts of rhythms, people do not independently exist."
"Do we treat everything as a nail?"
"Empirical studies affirm the consequent."
"Self-confidence postpones the decision between faith and despair."
"Moral schizophrenia = immorality."
"Lettuce lady- didn't eat salad until she forgave mother."

And then there are the things that don't make sense even to me. Things that I wrote, but I don't remember why. Like:
"A dalmatian is a type of dog, dog is a type of dalmatian."
"To Christ, you are the neighbor, not the other guy."
"Heroes go to bed together- except for 3rd parties."
"What syllogism is it the conclusion of? (Turtles!)"

And my personal favorite: "Prostitution pays for cheeseburgers."

Prostitution pays for cheeseburgers? I spent like 20 minutes racking my brain trying to think of what our professor could possibly have been referring to when he said that. And I still have no idea. So there you have it: prostitution pays for cheeseburgers, and if you want the unabridged version, you'll have to take Psych 353. And then explain it to me so I can stop wondering. K, thanks.

-mollie

p.s.- just for the record, I really did learn a ton in this class. Or at least it made me think a lot.

2010.

Being the first of the Dickersons with a blog (excepting mom) to ring in the new year, I feel obligated to make a post about it.

So, happy new year!

If you're wondering how the Dickersons ring in a new year, we played Taboo and then about 15 minutes of "In a Pickle" before deciding it was lame and then Catchphrase, the rules of which I had to explain about 4 times.

Best part: When dad gave the clue "you use this on video games, or you use it to steer a plane."
Evan and I both knew it was joystick. Mom said "controller" and "rutter" and (my personal favorite) "steering wheel". How often do you see pilots depicted with a steering wheel in the cockpit? Anyway- she couldn't think of any other words so we won the point- and maybe you had to be there.

Then we watched Dick Clark struggle through another broadcast for fifteen minutes and then mom got confetti launchers out of the basement and after reading the instructions that warned "no flavor" and a variety of other non-coherent English directions, turned them and they indeed launched confetti all over the room.

The dog got anxious from the noise of the confetti launchers and our noise makers (that smelled like our lovely basement- who knows how long mom's had them stashed down there) and peed on the floor. Mom dubbed it "The first pee of the new year!"

Evan went out in the front yard and set off some little firework-ee things, and that was it.

Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night. And as for new year's resolutions? I haven't made any yet, except 1: File my tax return before April 14 and get my refund early.

-mollie