College.

I'm back in college. The last time I tried this was in 2009 and it didn't work out very well. 

So anyway, I'm back in school and I really like it. Although I'm just taking my basics right now, I'm hoping to walk out of this junior college with my AA. And from there, I'm not really sure where I'm going to go. I want to get my degree in American History focusing on colonial America and the Revolution, ultimately I would like to get my PhD but we'll see how the funding goes. Right now I'm receiving the Pell Grant and that's paying for my tuition and books. I am available to receive the GI Bill but I'm saving that for whenever I go to a big school because I don't think the Pell Grant will cover all of the tuition. 

But all of this is leaving out the big issue of Brandon. He's still set on joining the Marines which, at this rate I don't see happening. His recruiter is being kind of a tool bag and hasn't gotten back to Brandon on anything yet. So, hopefully he is able to enlist soon and go off to basic training. Sometime after that he'll get orders to his permanent duty station and wherever that is is where I will go to school. Hopefully he does not end up in Virginia...California would be better. Or England. Just not Virginia or Japan. 

Back to the issue of my school...I'm taking English 1301, History 1301, Geology 1403 and Art History II and that last class is kicking my butt. I don't understand art at all. I signed up for the class because 1) I need an art class to graduate and 2) I thought it would be more history and less art. Boy, was I wrong. These people are talking about formal elements and principles of design and techniques used and I don't understand it. How is a line a formal element? Everything has lines in it so how are they significant? Anyway, I had to give a presentation this past Thursday on a sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini, the bronze portrait Bust of Cosimo de Medici. First question, who the hell are these people and second question, why is this even relevant? This whole thing was pretty hard for me because, as I said, I don't understand art and I had no idea where to even begin so I just built this presentation the same way I build my briefs for the Navy. Whenever I got all the info on the piece, like the background and iconography, etc. I just filled in everything else to make sure it met all of the required criteria. It ended up working out because my professor said I did a good job and one of my classmates said that she could tell I did a lot of research. I ended up being the first presenter, which is fine with me because I just wanted to get it over with. I'm glad I went first because all of the presentations that came after mine were not so great. But that's just my humble opinion. But it was seriously really good.