The Wheel of School

It's comin' round again. That's right, I'm heading back to VA this week! Crazy how fast the summer can go.

My job at the Cafe went great, and I might be able to come back and work some more during Christmas break, depending on how long I have. The past two years we've only had two weeks off for Christmas. However, I have seen on the school's calender that we should be getting three weeks off for Christmas this year! I'm hoping so. It'll be a nicer rest time, and I think it'll cut down on the amount of sickness at school in the spring. :p (again, hoping)

Another good thing: I've been writing a lot this summer! Well, I have more been using Dragon for dictation, which is helping my arms, so I guess 'technically' I've been dictating a lot this summer. (that sounds funny... XD) BUT either way, I've gotten at least 5 chapters written this summer for my Nightmare Before Christmas fanfiction!! I am now working on chapter 30. The entirety of those previous 29 chapters is around 110,000 words, which I am super happy about. I want to try and finish up the story before I hit 35 chapters, and see if I can finish it up right quick, too. I was hoping to do it before getting back to school, but despite not doing that, I'm rather happy with what I have done.
(Note: if you are interested in reading it, I post it on fanfiction.net - http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3800184/1/Broken-Doorway . I will say the first chapters are rough, but it gets better as you go, really.)

Anyway, at school this coming semester, I'll be taking Intermediate Creative Writing again (it's a weird set-up; gotta take it twice to get into Advanced), Approaches to Literature, Intermediate Ballet, Abnormal Psychology (technically "Topics in Family and Child Development" ), and Epistemology (the study of knowledge). That last one's a philosophy course, if you couldn't guess~

I am excited for all the things I'll be learning! I've been keeping up with ballet on my own over the summer, doing the exercises I remember from class two days a week, generally for an hour or so. I've been doing yoga stretches the other three days of the normal week, so I think I'll be at least semi-prepared for ballet this semester. I bought a book for the psychology class last semester really cheap, and have been reading it most of the summer. I'm a little over half-way through, and while I've discovered we're using a newer edition in class, I'm hoping that I'll be able to use this one because the books are super-expensive... And honestly, I don't think a great deal is going to change between the editions besides some pictures and categories. The latter mostly because of the release of the DSM-V earlier this year. In case you didn't know, the DSMs are a series of manuals that help present symptoms of different disorders in categories. They aren't a guarantee for diagnosis, nor are they exactly correct all the time - most professionals simply use it for referencing. Most insurance and similar companies won't offer support unless something is 'officially' diagnosed from the manuals, though, and even then I'm pretty sure most plans don't cover mental health, which is stupid. Anyway. Informative rant over.

Other than classes, though, I'll be involved in extracurriculars again. Aaaaall over the place. Just seems to be something I can't keep away from. XD' I've been doing a bit of prepping for those in addition to packing lately, because I'm usually one helping to getting ads and public information together. I hope it all works out alright. :p

So! I probably ought to get back to packing now. Even though I've got a lot of that covered, actually. But I'm still organizing notes and stuff. Always organizing. (because I keep forgetting to keep up with it...)

Off to another school year!