school dazed and confused

I continue to be totally confused as to what to do with my class schedule. I was all set to drop NB's class on New Media & Democracy, but I thought the class today offered a lot of room for discussion and analysis of the issues I'm interested in. The folks taking the class were very intriguing as well, in terms of their background.

I'm quite quite glad that Chris encouraged me to sit in on the "A" section of the quant class today - it was a very "light" class - as Josh, the dude i talked to in the "A" section today said. I was confused as to which section to take - I had looked at the syllabus and realized we weren't even going to cover regression, which I wanted to learn, and I was afraid the B section wouldn't be challenging enough, but I was totally bored in the A class. The teacher was kind of a fun geek, but not nearly as good of a teacher as Deb - plus, I learned from Josh, and from the other quant instructor, whom I mistakenly thought was the "A" teacher, that we'd cover the same thing but just move faster. Why bother? I had been concerned that my grad school app would be stronger with the "honors" section, but I think it'd be better that I get a higher grade and boost my GPA - plus, it's a frickin' Harvard class. What do I expect?

It's been fun interacting with the youngin' PPPs. Jsh was very sweet and nice. I always wonder if I should blurt out that I'm going to be 40 in two weeks or randomly mention "my husband" or "my kids" when I think someone might be flirting with me - but I'm probably just reading into things too much.

Ack! I'm feeling very overwhelmed with all of the issues that I'm trying to sort out and figure out...oops, I just repeated myself - and that's just about how I'm feeling - not sure if i'm really getting anywhere.

I'm really bummed I'm not taking Keyssar's class, but I think it would seem somewhat repetitive of what I've done. Anyway, trying to figure out classes, answering e-mail, spending time with the kids....I don't have time to absorb any news - and that's why I'm here. Oh, and yoga feels totally thrown out the window. I haven't settled into a routine, so it just feels impossible to even begin t figure out a time to practice. Because I haven't nailed down my classes, I haven't bought any books, had time to configure my new computer, get a decent backpack - my back is killing me...and no yoga...oh, the circular complaints I have right now. Inhale. Exhale.

One drawback in my schedule is that if I take NB's class I won't be free for any of the lunchtime Shorenstein Center for Politics and Press seminars. And this Thursday is one featuring reporters from Iraq. I went to the Shorenstein open house. It was at lunchtime, and it was kind of a drag because all of these first year MPPs showed up and came just for the free pizza. Get out my way! I'm trying to schmooze! I had a brief conversation with a visiting prof about grad school. Yet another academic trying to talk me out of academia. Said hey to JC - then felt bad 'cuz I immediately cut to TP to try to talk him up, but he was clearly stressed out trying to spend this big grant that he had gotten and didn't have time to deal with students. sigh. All of the media class profs (except Bowie...hmmm....do they schedule the seminars intentionally so he can't show up???) pitched their classes.

What to do...what to do...what to do...

Good thing is that none of my classes went to bidding. There's this wild system here where if classes are over subscribed, you have a set number of points to use to bid on classes. I think it's a quirky badge of honor for certain profs' classes to go to bidding.

Glad I didn't have to gamble this semester - have enough to obsess about.