Hrmmm...

I (Kristine) just finished my first assignment of the semester. I am really only slightly relieved because while it was short requirement in length (1 page), it was supposed to be the "brief, succinct, and substantive analysis" along with personal argument on issues discussed in this week's reading for class. We have five of these Policy Research Briefs due throughout the semester, so I'm a little anxious to see the professor's evaluation of my work.

The class is "Post-Secondary Access Issues" and is pretty heavy stuff. As a (relatively) middle-class Caucasian (who is also conservative when it comes to government) this course is intimidating. I can handle the readings just fine, it's just how the class is designed as far as discussion and group dynamics. There's a lot of free thought, but it tends to all go in one direction. For example, I know -for sure- a hot topic tomorrow night in class will be the DREAM Act and it's implications for higher education and (illegal) immigrant students. We'll see...

It seems there's enough in the news these days about higher ed to keep conversations interesting. The tazering at UF and the deanship situation at UC-Irvine. I like that I can start to see how these situations, crises, trends affect higher education on the whole when other people see them as so disconnected.

Anyways, school has been a topper on the priority list lately. I've had class every weekend for the last month except for labor day weekend and even that wasn't very restful and I was under the weather. So this weekend, we are taking it all in.

The plan?

• ice-skating, laser tag, and free food with Lampo employees and families
• sleeping in (PRAISE THE LORD!)
• homemade waffles and sausage gravy
• maybe a date night on Lampo (free movie tickets and a Bonefish giftcard Cliff got for working his butt off lately)

And we'll see what else, but we're stinkin' excited.

Okay, peace.