Late Registration

Me and Kanye, we have one thing in common. Late registration.

Yup, I'm back in school. I'm working on my MBA, because apparently it is my quest to become overeducated in this lifetime of mine. I'm trying to wash the taste of law school out of my mouth and to do something that will work my mind in new ways. I know, dumb dumb dumb.

It blows my mind that in between drinking binges (I was a sorority girl, after all) I managed to apply to graduate school the first time around. Doing this *one* application here drove me up the wall. How did we do it back then? Was it just because everyone else was doing it? Was I (am I?) *so* desperate to avoid the real world? (Don't answer that)

Being back in school is, for lack of a more descriptive term, weird. Nothing like walking campus and checking people out to make you feel like a total perv when you realize they are going to be class of 09 or '10 or '11. Ew. I shudder to think.

How did we get through college? As a grown adult I find myself overwhelmed with the registration process. Get your parking pass here, get your books there, return your books, buy other books at another store, find your class, find people to socialize with so you don't feel like a loser, stay on top of your "homework", try to find a synonym for homework and fail, keep saying "homework" hoping it will sound less awful (it never does). Don't even get me started on my Statistics class. I had to switch out of my economics class because it was entirely calculus-based. The last time I did calculus, there was no Puff Daddy yet. The last time I did calculus, you could still peg your jeans. The last time I did calculus you could still buy tapes. At Sam Goody.

Oh, and apparently in the last eight years since I graduated college, everything went online. You have to go online to get your assignments, to get lecture notes (everything is in freaking powerpoint, etc.) I mean, back in my day they were still using CHALKBOARDS! I feel like freakin Lilly Van Winkle (And yes, writers of the world, I am still working. Full time. My latent overachiever gene is going to be the death of me.)

I'm trying to keep my cool by doing excessive amounts of yoga. Which would be fine except my teacher took issue with my wearing longer loose pants today. Because when I'm doing bow pulling pose I really need Joan Rivers up on the block telling me off. Um, buddy, TRUST ME on this, you do NOT want to see me in the spandex short shorts that your studio sells. I mean, maybe eventually, but let's just revisit the issue in, I dunno, 2018, when it might be more appropriate. I don't wear shorts on the regular, so WHY would I wear them in a class where I'm reflected on 3 sides by mirrors? If I want that sort of torture I'll just bring a space heater with me and hang out in a Loehmann's dressing room, thank you very much.

What else is going on in my life? Well, I'll give you the short list of what school has made me realize about myself so far:

1) I like to sit in the back of the room. Part of this is because I'm an observer. There's a certain irony to it, generally speaking, given that I'm short and should probably be front and center. But it allows for maximum doodleage. Due to my seating position, during law school I was able to read books like "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" by Salman Rushdie (it's huge. a doorstop!), Anna Karenina (well, half, but that's like 2 normal books!), The Portrait of Dorian Gray, etc. Basically I take multitasking with me into the classroom.

2) I can't sit still for 4 hours straight (and yes, we're asked to). Nor am I mature enough to sit on a swinging/turning chair and not, well, swing, the entire lecture long.

3) I have a drinking problem. Of the caffeine variety. I just like to have something in my hand and a beverage while I listen. I do not know the root of this. What I do know is that I will be actually spending 2x the stated tuition due to aformentioned Starbucks intake.

4) I get shy on campus! What's THAT about? I keep telling people I have a shy side and no one believes me, but you would if you saw me on campus. Head down, quiet, go about my business, go home.

5) I still have the tic of writing a loooong to-do list during lecture. Today's list was only about 12 items, but a law school friend remarked (unprovoked) that she once saw my list go into the 40s. We have time.

6) I am apparently the same hormonal girl I was at 18. I look around and try to figure out who is cute. And, just like in college, as the days pass, people you wouldn't normally think are attractive become so. It's the LOST effect. Otherwise, who would have hooked up with Saeed or Hurley? Exactly. Personality comes into play. Sometimes I think they should just put single guys and girls in a biodome (yes, that is totally written with direct props to Pauly Shore) and we'd probably all end up liking each other and you could just be rid of us.

What else do you need to know about me right now? I guess just that I can't believe how quickly January is going by. I haven't written out my New Year's Resolutions yet, like not the official "final cut". I keep putting it off, and I can't decide if *that* is the new facet of my personality (chilling out?)

I have noticed that I'm amassing more and more guy friends. While I used to be friends with men just because they're fun, simple friends to have, tonight I realized that this is increasingly due to my wedding duties. The girls are dwindling in numbers (singles-wise), so I need boys to accompany me through their rites of passage (their walk down the aisle, my walk to the open bar). I don't think I ever thought I'd be where I am at 30, but I love it. It's weird, uncharted territory. A while back I found an old report I had written for school where I guessed I'd be married by 24, have kids by 26 and be a judge. I know, keep reading when you're done laughing. All it needed to say was that I was a Republican and I'd have proof positive that my dad wrote it!

In other news, I am reading BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY. It is thrilling me for two reasons. One is that I've always wondered whether you put apostrophe-s after a name that ends with S. I have my answer now and can move on with my life. Secondly, this book was written for me (see "uncharted/unexpected lifestyle", above). I didn't realize my comeraderie with Bridget back when I read it x years ago, because I wasn't yet a fully-grown neurotic woman. I mean, I love me some heavy literary fiction as much as the next underpaid literary agent, but talk about a book that resonates. Hurrah!

Now that I have ripened into the reader demographic I needed to be, I can settle down with the book in oversized sweats, nod my towel-wrapped head, chocolate marks on my lips, and a big martini glass of optimism in hand. As she would say, "V good."