So, in addition to applying and interviewing for jobs that I never get, I have been doing my bestiest studying for chemistry.  The outlook is mixed:  I did not get the job that I told them was my dream job as a student, but I aced Chemistry and got a 94 on the ACS.  I didn't need a 94; something less would have been fine, but I didn't want to blow a whole semester's 'A' by not aiming high enough on a test that was 15% of my grade. 

It was interesting to see the psychology of the ACS. 

We had been informed since the first day of class that this test was difficult and that we should study for it all semester.  Being the neurotic OCD student that I am, I started a study group the second week of the semester.  We met weekly for the entire semester!  I think we all did pretty well. The professor loved our group because almost everybody in the group got A's on all the tests.  Of our group, only Eric was particularly brainy in math and the sciences (read:  wants to be an engineer).  The rest of us had ulterior motives for wanting an A; most of which dissolved down to wanting a well-paying job in the medical field somewhere which required good grades to get accepted into our desired programs.

When we could not figure something out, generally Eric bailed us all out by explaining, teaching  and illustrating it on the white board.  I really think that he would be a great teacher, but teaching doesn't pay as well as most engineering jobs and also doesn't have much job security.  If you want to make a lot of money and have great job security, become a chemical engineer.  I think that I would sooner sell trinkets at the Great Wall, but that is probably just me.  The rest of you would enjoy carrying around pockets full of pens and spending the weekend in Big Sur.  The Monday through Friday part of that job would be the death of me.

I am off topic.  Woe is me. 

The day of the ACS, I was studying at home until around 1 or 2 and then I headed out to school.  I learned one valuable fact in Psychology last summer.  Studies show that you do better on a test if you study in the same place in which you will actually take the test.  No, I don't know why, but in my experience, it does seem to work if you are first reasonably well-prepared and are just rough around the edges.

At any rate, when I arrived to our study area, there were only two other women there.  We were all studying according to the last week's guidelines from the instructor, that is, until a very glum individual arrived who claimed that his friends in the Tuesday class had already taken the ACS and that our instructor had not told us the truth about what to study.  We were evidently about to walk into test-wise, the Hanoi Hilton of the community college world, uninformed and unprepared.  Mr. Glum pulled out a test that would approximate what we were about to face.  The answers to this test were not anywhere to be found in our text book.  All three of us looked up many things that were never mentioned in Chem 101.  He persisted and insisted.  The others started studying copies of his frighteningly over our heads test. 

Being a pragmatist along with all of my other various short-falls and character deficits, I told him and everyone within earshot that we could not possibly tested over those things and I was just going to continue to take and re-take the sample test we had been given the week before.  Besides, I informed him, I am not going to learn enough anyway, in two hours, to pass that other test.  I might as well just work on what was simple enough for me to comprehend and study.

Actually, I took the easier version of the practice test about four or five times until it became almost embarrassingly easy.  Then, I worked off of our instructor's additional last minute prep notes about a few difficult individual problems that we might anticipate.  I didn't give those too much attention or I might have gotten a 100.  I didn't need much of a grade on the ACS to seal myh potential A, but it was 15%.

Mr. Glum had pretty much the entire study area all in a tizzy about his supposed 'ridiculously harder' test.  They were humming and whining away and trying to figure out things while ignoring the easier more basic things, all of which were on the test.

When Mr. Glum came out of the test, he told us that he was indeed correct, that the test had been horrible.  It was only horrible because he was horribly unprepared and had encouraged everyone in the study area to follow him.  Out of fear and I suppose, a general distrust of college professors, he had become his own Pied Piper leading about 80% of the study area off to a miserable final test.

Oh yes.  Jobs that I never get.

I could not tell you how many jobs that I have applied for on-line or how much time that I have spent doing that.  I am done doing it for a bit. 

I called a week or two ago trying to get hired at a local nursing home as an aide.  (In another life, I never ever thought that I would do that.)  It turns out that legally they could not hire me except in housekeeping (They did not have any openings in housekeeping.), because I am not a Certified Nursing Assistant.  When I called about getting the training, I was going to have to wait a while to get in.  When the last job (got to 2nd interview) fell through, I decided to sign up for CNA classes as soon as possible because the job situation was so impossible without it.  At one point, I even called my former employer (Which I said I would never do) and asked for a job.  No dice.

The day after the ACS, there was suddenly an opening in a CNA class which started today, so I took it.  I ran out and bought the books and stayed up until 1 a.m. reading and doing the homework for today's class out in the part of Nampa, Idaho, nearest Mars, the planet, at 8:30 a.m.  It was an all day class and will last most of the summer, but I will have it out of the way before I start Microbiology in the fall.  Also, I can take English 102 in summer school. 

This is the first time ever that I took a final one day and started on homework for a new semester on the very next day.  I have told myself that Monday will be A DAY OFF for the brain.  I will make cookies for Abby.

Abby will probably not be coming home for the summer, so I plan to visit her.  I will keep busy and not be sad.  I told myself that yesterday and got just a great big head ache.  There wasn't time to cry. 

On the way home from class today, a giant neon Bible verse billboard proclaimed a verse from Isaiah about how God comforts us the way that a mother comforts her child.  Yes, He does. 

Ryan and Anna are taking me out anywhere that I want to go for Mother's Day tomorrow.  Anywhere.  Ryan said that I could change my mind 15 times if I wanted to this week.  How fun is that? 

Good night all.  Time for tea and a graham and maybe a wee bit of Return of the Native in book form. 

I take full responsibility for all grammar and spelling errors.  Too tired to hit the buttons.

I love Western Oregon, the coast, Portland and everything green, artistic and interesting.  Here are a few photos from the Multnomah Falls area.  More BSU Bronco players were drafted today.  More about that here.