I got my grade report from Nova today. It shows that I have my first ever 4.0 GPA! I’m even on the Dean’s List! I was going to put in my whole transcript, but the formatting was a pain (lots of colspan and rowspan) so I gave up. The Dean’s List for the Fall 2003 semester isn’t up yet, but I’ll be on it once it’s there. Hooray!

I didn’t take a nap, but I still have lots of homework to do. I hate this - now that I have a new professional job, I don’t feel the need to continue the education. I feel like I’m beyond it, even though I’m probably not. I’m particularly frustrated by my Interpreting Foundations class, where I am further in my career than anybody else in the class - most are considering becoming interpreters, whereas I have been interpreting full-time for a year and have at least two semesters more ASL instruction than many of my classmates. My Translation Skills class is more advanced, but the homework feels repetitive. I’ve already signed up for the Transliterating class next semester, and I think I will make that my only class. It should be a reasonably advanced level course, and having only one class will make things a lot easier on me. I’m also way behind in my online class that’s supposed to be preparing me for the RID written test, which I am taking December 12th. I feel like I want to put my education on hold (except for preparing for the written exam) and just work for a while, not have all this homework to do. (It might help if I did it when I was supposed to rather than putting it off, but the feelings I have when I walk into class don’t change.)

Today I found out that they’re offering me $31,500 at the new job; tomorrow I’ll go and sign the papers. It’s not as much per hour as I was making - in fact, it’s several dollars less, and not as much as one of my classmates thinks I’m worth - but I’ll be getting some pretty decent benefits so I’ll manage even with the lower hourly rate!

My Translation Skills teacher finally returned a bunch of our assignments to us. I got a B+ on my first gloss, and 10/10 on a set of study questions, plus 50/50 on my research paper. The only trouble is that I wrote the research paper on a topic we weren’t supposed to use, because I didn’t remember that topic wasn’t allowed. Doh! I got 100% on it anyway, and my girlfriend says I should chalk it up to the fact that I have ADHD and those things will happen - at least the teacher didn’t ask me to rewrite the paper.

The administrator’s attempts to control the pandemonium of the lunchroom have just reminded me of the carnival game Whack-A-Mole. He roams the cafeteria with a wireless microphone, repeatedly insisting that students stay in their seats after passing through the lunch line. He knows the names of several students, but others are addressed as “young man” or “young lady.” The speaker projecting his voicecomes from one side of the room, making it difficult to know where he is standing at any given time. It doesn’t really matter though - he is standing and can therefore see just about everyone. Whenever a student stands up, they are immediately told to sit down, giving his efforts the appearance of Whack-A-Mole. Just as in the game, the same culprits pop up again and again, and the administrator immediately orders them down. It’s a rather comical situation, but in a tragic sort of way - it’s too bad the kids can’t follow the rules, and it’s also too bad they can’t have a little fun without going overboard.

Yesterday I went to the local community college and:

• Waited in a long line
• Got myself accepted to the college
• Got classified as “out-of-state” because I brought the federal tax forms instead of the state forms
• Registered for INT 105 (Interpreting Foundations)
• Registered for INT 107 (Translation Skills)
• Boggled at the $1,266.18 out-of-state tuition for two classes
• Got a catalog for free from the Admissions & Records office instead of paying $1.70 for it in the Bookstore

Today I went back to the campus and:

• Stood in the same line again
• Presented my Virginia tax forms and got reclassified as in-state
• Paid my bill for $381.48 to secure my seat in both classes
• Waited (sitting down) for an hour to meet with a counselor
• Declared my major to be 223E - American Sign Language: Interpreting
• Got the Appeal to Dependency Status form so my parents’ money won’t be a factor in financial aid considerations
• Turned in my Request for Evaluation of Transcript form to the appropriate office
• Printed transcript request forms for Western Maryland College and Gallaudet University

MSNBC has an article on the “creation” of the Harvey Milk High School. This kind of surprised me, because the school has in fact been around since 1984. Apparently it’s going public now, though, and fortunately it has the support of NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg. Also quoted in the article is the state conservative party chairman, Mike Long, who says “There’s no reason these children should be treated separately.” Obviously he’s never been a gay high school student. The Hetrick-Martin Institute, which runs the school, has statistics on queer youth from the 1980s that indicated the school’s creation was warranted then. There are more recent statistics from the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network that show there is still a need for a safe environment for gay students so they have the same access to learning that all other children do.

Once again, this high school didn’t need me for first period, so I’m just hanging out in the library. I decided to put in a Dykewrite entry, and I was surprised to find that the school’s blocking software let me into the main site and most of the member sites, too.

Drat…I meant to write more, but the period’s almost over. Ack!

Well, this is interesting…I’ve basically had nothing to do all day! This morning I went to the elementary school and interpreted music class, as usual. It wasn’t the fiasco I’m used to - the hearing kids actually behaved (more or less) and real singing was done. My kids even seemed to enjoy signing along with my interpretation - today they did songs related to Martin Luther King Jr. (whose name sign I hadn’t known previously). As usual on Thursdays, the older elementary school kids didn’t need me, so I went over to the mall and managed not to buy anything more than some bubble gum. When I arrived at the high school, the coordinator was very confused about my schedule - apparently they weren’t sure they needed me. It turned out they didn’t: the first class she sent me to, I was replacing another interpreter (who got a free period), but it was a computer skills class and I got to play around online because they didn’t need any interpreting. I had lunch next, and then I was to go to keyboarding, which would have been the same as computer skills - except five minutes later, another interpreter showed up, and now I’m getting a break! As per usual (a prize to anybody who can tell me how many times I’ve said this before), I’m confronted with time, a fast Internet connection, and no idea what to do online. Next period I will have some interpreting to do in a “vocational” (that is, below grade level) science class, but that won’t be much work at all. And then I get to sit in traffic on the way home, lucky me!

Augh! Almost every other school district in this area was closed today, but my county was on a two-hour delay. Never mind that I had to drive through two counties that had closed their schools just to get to this one, my school was still in session. The student I was to interpret for this period didn’t show up today, though, so I’ve got a few minutes of free time.

My first class this morning was pre-algebra. The teacher had written on a bulletin board: “Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions, their easier to handle than dumb mistakes.” That made me really sad…I know she’s a math teacher, but come on!

The second class was art, and the teacher hadn’t made it in so they had a substitute. I basically did nothing the whole time - the sub loaned me a copy of Metropolitan Home, but I flipped through it quickly. To my dismay, though, some of the kids were talking about gay people. They weren’t necessarily speaking in a negative way, but when one of them said “fags” I had to speak up, and I said “please don’t use that word” or something to that effect. They all feigned innocence (come on, I was sitting two feet away, and just because I’m signing doesn’t mean I’m deaf) and then continued talking, and I was seething inside. This wasn’t the first time I’ve encountered such sentiments at this school, and I feel really sorry for any students here that actually are questioning their sexuality.
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Wow, not only do we have computers in front of us for this Interpreting Geek Speak workshop, we’re not only allowed to use them - we’re supposed to! Apparently we’re going to be using the Internet for part of this session. I was able to log in as myself, so I didn’t have to be the generic “user” like most of the rest of the class. We’ve done our introductions - I was the only “computer professional” in the group - and we’re having a short coffee break, but food and drink aren’t allowed in the room. I think I’ll try to find a bottle of soda anyway - oh wait, I’ll have to find an ATM first. Drat.