first day

School related: had one class yesterday, Writing Studies, with a prof I had in undergrad. I decided to take a class with him because he was awesome at inspiring creativity, and I want to study that for when I teach again. He's really open about the syllabus, very flexible, and makes students feel good about having their own, off-the-beaten-path ideas.

When I had him, 6 or 7 years ago, it was the first class he'd ever taught, and I learned so much about how to be a first year teacher from him. (Of course, I forgot it all and didn't do anything like him during my first year.) He revised the syllabus with us when we were bored or stuck, he listened very carefully to all of our suggestions, and he really made us feel like we owned the class. We definitely enjoyed his class, and that ownership/happiness lead to a lot of creative projects.

It seems like this class will work pretty much just like the other class I had with him - yay!

Not school related: Paid tuition. Holy shiza. I feel like a grownup. Made a budget. I've had budgets before, but I never actually needed to stick to them, haha. I'm going to try to keep my monthly spending below $840 -- including rent, groceries, utilities, going out to eat, phone bill, everything. I might have to adjust that, but it's the goal.

I've been working out pretty much, almost every day -- running, swimming at the ARC outdoor pool, and playing racquetball (my arm is sooooo soooooooore). I can see how it would be VERY easy to be VERY sedentary as a grad student -- sleep late (my earliest class is 1pm), read, class, sleep.

Also, it's easy to spend all morning doing non-school stuff -- wedding planning, laying around, budgeting, whatever. I'm going to have to keep track of my time once the reading gets more intense.