What You Need Is An Adult Education

Me quoting bad Hall & Oates songs must mean one thing--I'm gearing up to return to school. I'm sitting in the computer lab at Harold Washington College waiting to speak to an advisor and figure out what three classes I want to take this fall. I'm only taking three because four was killing me back when I had temp jobs or no jobs at all, and now that I'm working full-time, I don't want to wear myself out. Also, I would be angry at receiving a free bus pass for the duration of the semester, which everyone taking twelve credit hours is eligible for, knowing that I can't take the bus home from work at night because the bus route a block from my house stops running by the time I get off work. A train system called Metra has a stop three blocks from my house, so I'm able to come home at a decent hour every night, but the Metra system does not acknowledge that free student pass. C'est la vie. (More bad 80s music references--blame that damn iPod of mine. And if you even remember the song "C'est La Vie," then you're as disturbed as I am.)

I was planning to return to school after I got used to my new work schedule and settled into my house, but I'm inspired also by my aunt's oldest son, my cousin Thomas, preparing to attend the University of Illinois this fall. His family threw him a congratulatory bash a few weeks ago. I kept glancing at him throughout the party, amazed that the same little boy who used to play "bat and ball" with me (what he called baseball) and kept bursting into my bedroom when my first girlfriend and I would be getting it on was now three inches taller than me, sprouting facial hair, and going to college. And man, is he smart as a whip. I tried to tell him at the end of the party in a private moment that if he needed advice on anything that he could always give me a call, and I added that my first piece of advice would be: "All women are evil." Without missing a fucking beat, he turns to me and softly says, "Except (my girlfriend), right?" "Of course," I responded. I'm very excited about what becomes of him after he spends a few years out from under his mother's thumb. He's got the potential to destroy the world in whatever area he wants. Unfortunately, despite his size (he's close to 300 lbs. and about 6'4"), it won't be football. He never played in high school. He's much more interested in using his brain. He could have made a tremendous left tackle, in my opinion, but whatever he winds up doing, I have a feeling he'll be great at it.

I will have more free time to blog now that I'm back in school because I can use a computer that actually works well, unlike the one I have at home. Plus, I do all of my fantasy sports stuff when I'm on the computer at home, and by the time I finish that, it's time to jump in the shower and go to work. So I'll return with another post soon, certainly sooner than the one a month I seem to have been doing this year. I visited my girlfriend in Memphis a couple of weekends ago, so I'll talk about that. She and I don't have a lot of issues, and boy am I happy about that, but we had something during my visit that could be a sign of a major problem down the road. You'll have to wait to find out what's going on, but if you're insane enough to still be checking in on my blog, then you're certainly used to waiting by now.