Readin', 'Ritin', 'Rithmatic....

Man, studying sucks sometimes. I just don't have the kind of concentration that I need to get all this materiel in my thick head. There are sooo many distractions, and I'd really rather do just about anything than draw diagrams of cell receptors. Or pictures of cellular mitosis. Or other stuff that I learned, oh, the LAST time I was in college, like 15 years ago. But here I am, and this is now my full time job, so it's time to suck it up and learn it all.

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day too, as long as you didn't look down at the streets full of mud and half melted snow. Sunny, blue sky, 40 degrees. Not an icicle in sight. I did end up going for a little walk in the slush around dusk, just to get some air, and I went to the gym in the evening, when I thought the crush of children might have died down at the YMCA. The Y I go to has this amazing pool, or pools really: a big lap pool and a big activity pool with a water slide and some other child friendly features. I'm sure it is busy year-round, but especially in the winter it seems every suburban mom in the Inland Northwest packs up her brood and brings them to the pool at the Y on the weekend. Which is fine. But what kills me is the locker room: filled with screaming, unsupervised children. Boy children, too old to be changing in the women's locker room (they have a "Family Changing Room" for moms who have boy children who are officially too old for the women's locker room--over age 5). And kids running, taking pictures while you are changing, and the Baby Jesus music playing...aaahhh. I try to avoid the locker room as much as possible. I realize that parents are used to this kind of cacaphony, but it is not a part of my daily life, and it doesn't really help my nerves any. Unfortunately, this YMCA is the only gym I could stand to work out in when I moved to Spokane. People apparently don't really work out here, or they aren't very picky about where they do it. So I went from my beloved March Wellness in Portland, which had a quiet atmosphere much like a giant yoga studio, to McDonaldland.

Ahem. That was the long version of the story. Maybe I shouldn't have kids.

Ok, off to study, then bed!