Fall Semester, Tightly Packed For My Inconvenience

When I signed up for the Fall semester, I made sure my classes were in a morning block on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so as to maybe make myself more employable.  The "employable" part didn't actually happen, really, apart from this temp job at the textbook store, so now I'm stuck with two really intense mornings per week.

There are downsides to this, obviously.

• I have ten minutes between classes.  This works out fine between the first two, because they're down the hall from each other.  It's the time between the second and third classes that makes it tough - they're in different buildings.  And the professor for the third class will totally lock you out if you're consistently late.  So I haul ass between Algebra and Government like it's my job.
• There is no time between classes for me to write this blog, so I have to do it when I should be doing other things, like homework.  So, upside and downside.  I can't write about things as they happen, but I can totally write about things as a distraction from doing actual work.
• There was a third negative, but I can't remember it right now.

An interesting thing happened to me in my Government class yesterday, though.  The professor asked for volunteers to take notes for a hearing-impaired student we have in class named Jason.  Jason actually has a team of interpreters so that he can do regular college classes with everybody else.  The interpreters are almost hypnotic.  I watch them sometimes while the professor is talking.  I especially like their facial expressions while they're signing.  They work on a tag-team sort of deal.  It seems like they will do their interpreting for awhile, until their hands get tired, and then they tag out and are replaced with the backup, who signs until their hands are tired, and then rotate again.  It's a pretty cool system, especially as it leaves interpreters with only half-tired hands at the end of the class.

So, the professor asked for volunteers to take notes for Jason.  Nobody raised their hands.  Then she said "They'll pay you!"  It turns out that CCC will pay $100 to you at the end of the semester if you agree to take good notes for your hearing-impaired classmate.  I probably don't have to tell you, I jumped all over that shit.  I take strong notes with good handwriting, and I was already going to have to take the damn notes, so why not get paid to share?  (Here's the part where I expose my lack of money-making sense: I would have done it for free, because I was already taking the notes - it's not like I was doing anything extra.  But yes, CCC, I will take your hundred dollars.  Good day to you, sir!)

So, anyway, the packed schedule is indeed packed.  It's a high-intensity college morning twice a week.  It's almost like high school - that part where you're weaving through the throngs of people, trying to get to class before the bell rings.  Only we don't have bells.  We just have the walk of shame that comes if you're late.