College Tuition: Paid

Eeek … I’m committed. Even if I’m a commitment phobe.

General Microbiology and General, Organic & Biochemistry. Just saying those words gives me chills. And yes, I have started grinning when talking about going back to school. It’s beginning to feel like another adventure: my 2010 collision course with life.

Which is much preferable to the near head-on collision earlier this week with a UPS truck. I was parked and he was going “90 billion miles per hour” per Regina, volunteer for the day.

Things are going well, real well. I have 63 cameras out in the field, 17 new sites and three resamples for the month of January; 28 private landowners and seven public land sites spread out in six counties.

I’m fully moved in and settled. For the first time in my life, I have a giant queen-sized bed all to myself. And a dresser … my clothes are actually unpacked … and a desk! Well the dresser and desk came with the room, so did the bed actually. And I borrowed the chair, the lamp, the cooler a.k.a. bedside table. I’m paying rent and tuition in addition to monthly car payments. I’m feeling both like a grownup and a college kid again.

I’m been voted the woman of the house by my roommates, who guessed I was older and thought I was 25. Yeah, that didn’t make me feel old at all. But the woman of the house has her young ones recycling and drinking dry red wines. I’m still working on washing dirty dishes within 48 hours of use, and why a diet of ramen and hot dogs is vile.

Hopefully they were only joking when they suggested an “Ask Shantini” box outside my room, where they can ask me questions and advice. They might find out my secret that I’m still very much trying to get this life thing straight and have much to figure out myself.