The painful suspense....did she pass?

Its been ages since I've had a moment to sit and write a new blog longer than 3 sentences. School was ridiculously busy this semester. I don't think I've ever had to work so hard to keep up with everything. Balancing work and stuff at home didn't help. Then with Tony being gone and Gram passing away, felt like all of my school books gained an extra 200 pages each. I'm more at peace with Gram's death now as its had time to sink in. However, I still subconsciously peek into her room and feel the urge to sing "night Grammie" before climbing the steps to go to sleep. I guess this will go away eventually?

The suspense is unbearable as I wait for my grades. My classes were not all THAT difficult, but they took a great deal of time and effort. I had the bright idea of piling on a bunch of literature courses since they are not "scientific" like most of the classes offered at Pitt. I guess I never thought about the large amounts of reading I'd have to do! I took Fantasy and Literature, Childhood Books, Intro to Film, Computer Programming, and Soccer. Ok so Soccer didn't take much time. I actually really enjoyed it. It was a nice break from the daily grind and it definitely kept me in shape!

Fantasy and Literature was fun. We read seven books over the semester: Lilith, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Lord of the Rings Book 1, The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand, Neverwhere, The Tolkien Reader, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I really enjoyed Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Amulet of Samarkand, and Neverwhere. This class got me into Harry Potter and the Bartimaeus Trilogy -- I plan on reading the next two in the "Bart" trilogy (look for a movie in 2009!) and all the Harry books I can get my hands on! I don't think this professor liked me much though because I never got above a B on any of my essays or papers. So that is frustrating. She questions my writing abilities. I am no Steven King, but I've never had a professor ever offer to help my "writing style." Maybe she just dislikes young engaged college students! So guess I am stuck with a B in that class...

Childhood Books was interesting. We read six books over the semester: Treasured Tales from Beatrix Potter, The Secret Garden, The Golden Compass, Go Ask Alice, Tangerine, and one other title which slips my mind (it was something we printed off the internet). I loved The Golden Compass and plan on reading the next two in this trilogy. The professor was very nice and I got decent grades in that class, I might luck out and get an A of some sort.

Intro to Film was, well...very interesting. The professor can't stand the sight of violence. Not sure what she's doing in a Film course then! She walked out of the room during some girls' presentation because of a violent scene in Resovoir Dogs. Interesting indeed. Then two weeks ago I walk into class and she isn't there, some other woman is. She ditched us the last few weeks of classes! She had some family emergency. No emails, no message, just a sub who was going to discuss Gladiator with us, but she hadn't seen it in 7 years and couldn't remember a thing. Can you say "refund"? HAH But I almost never missed a class, participated, and got nice scores on graded things. So I hope for an A there as well.

Now, when it comes to Computer Programming, I get irritated just thinking about it. Its a hard class. But it is fulfilling a requirement for my major. I needed a Quantitative Formal Reasoning - CS0004 filled that requirement. The prof was not the best instructor I've ever come across (surprise surprise) but he seemed nice enough. I never missed a class. However, he canceled class FOUR times over the semester! And hardly adjusted the schedule for exams and projects. We were still expected to know what was going on. I struggled through most of the projects and did not do so well on the midterm. So I was hanging on by a thread. Then before Finals, he missed the whole week and we had basically 2 days to prepare for the final and turn in a final project (on the same day). I was almost in tears during the exam. I could not remember much at all and felt helpless sitting there. He knows how badly I need a C in that class...so keep your fingers crossed.

I keep checking online for my grades, hopefully I find out soon. I might go crazy waiting!