duck-shaped pain

I needed something in the lower drawer of said file cabinet, yet the drawer was stuck. I bent down to try and assist it, and, at the same moment, forgot that one of the upper drawers was also open. Its edge met my head and whonk. Nobody felt bad for me, seeing as it was my own fault and all. Now my head continues to hurt, and I have a nice red mark right on the edge of my hairline.

I went to my first advising session for college today. I needed to go to a general academic advisor before I attempted to meet with a faculty advisor, for the simple fact that I don't remember what I took lo so many years ago. It�s been three years since I was in college, and seven since I was at this particular college.

So the advisor and I went over my transcripts from there, and from DU (Metro has yet to get off their duff and send my transcript in), and we figured that I could get a degree in two semesters (plus summer) if I really tried. I could get one much faster if I was willing to be a journalism major again (only two classes needed there), but I had to point out that that was completely unacceptable. My beef against their J-department is long and involved, and I don't want to ever ever take any more journalism classes again.

So the news is good and I am relieved, for now. There is some tension over whether they'll accept my math credits from DU, since they have a truly odd name for their core math course -- "Analytical Inquiry" -- which is basically one of those "life skills" courses where you learn to do your taxes and buy stocks. All I remember about it is that a) I didn't learn anything and b) the professor liked to dress up like Sherlock Holmes on Fridays. Pipe and hat, lecturing us on how to buy auto insurance. Huh. And I really don't want to take another math class.

Actually, looking over my transcripts, I don't remember taking about half of the classes I took. I must have attended, since I got As in most of them, but I'm a total blank as to what I learned in them. College sure did me a lot of good -- guess that's why I can't get enough of it.

One month from today, I'm going to be on a plane, on a 15-hour flight over the Pacific Ocean. I'm starting to get all sorts of pre-trip jitters -- reading through my guidebook this morning, I thought, can I actually do this? Can I manage to find my way around okay? Am I going to commit colossal blunders? Am I going to get lost? Will I actually turn out to hate it over there? Just your usual petty pre-trip thoughts -- one part I'm going to have a great time, one part I'm going to use my left hand and piss people off. [1]

Still, it's a month. And the fact is that given the events of last week, the world could be very different in a month's time. The possibility makes me think at times, should I go? And I don't really have an answer for that. I'm proceeding with my plans -- driving to Denver this week to go get my visa, getting my typhoid shot on Monday, but the uncertainty is making it difficult to get excited at present about going.

[1] Thailand being one of those countries where use of the left hand for greeting, eating, or as far as I can tell, anything else is taboo. As a leftie, this makes me especially self-conscious that I'm going to offend someone unintentionally.

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