First Day

Well, here it is, the first day of school. I feel excited and nervous at the same time. Am I going to be overwhelmed by the work, or will I take to it like a duck to water? Am I going to stick out like I don't belong, or will I fit right in? I'm already feeling pretty anxious about the work I did on the statistics for the grants, and feeling like I could have done so much better. Augh. It will be fine, right? lol. Hey, I've got nothing on Obama. He's probably way more excited and nervous than I am, right now!

Here's my beautiful red leather computer briefcase, which I bought almost a year ago for grad school. Have my two fancy purple pens, three sharpened pencils, pencil sharpener, notebooks, and post-its packed. Have my books packed and I read the first chapters last night. I know where my classes are, and have my calendar/planner for writing down important dates. Believe me, at 9 am this morning, when I couldn't find my planner, I started worrying. Then I said to myself, "If you don't find it, you get another one at the dollar store on your way in. You didn't have any dates written down yet. Chill." Thirty minutes later I came across it while I was looking for tape for a completely unrelated task! It's all good. My parking pass is on my back window, I know where to park, the fuel tank is full, and all my lights work. Important considerations since my last class gets out at 10 pm.

Now, what to wear for my first day of school? Want to look nice, but not like I tried too hard...Professional, but comfortable. Like I am a big fish from a little pond who is now a little fish in a big pond, but I'm comfortable with who I am... Good thing I still have three hours until I leave so I can try on everything in my closet! I'm kidding. An hour ought to be plenty. :)

My only concern at this point is leaving the girls inside from 3 pm until 10:30 pm. This is similar to night time, so they should be okay, but this is the longest I've left them alone for a while.

What am I worried about? They'll just sleep on the couch!

I'm also not sure if I should leave the horses out, and put them up when I get back, or put them up before I go. They are used to going into their stalls/pens to get grain and dinner around 6:30-7 pm. Now that they are free to roam the entire 3 acres, they tend to stay out later. It's pretty cute, when I go out to get them, and I stand at the gate to the far pasture. They look up immediately and start walking or trotting or cantering over to me. Once they arrive at the gate, we walk to the barn together, in a line: me, Berhwood, and Giovanna. They go stand at the gates to their own paddocks and wait to go in to eat grain. So proud of them.

Okay, I'm off to do manure and spend time with the horses and dogs before I get cleaned up to go. I'll try to get some pictures of the birds, since they are all out in force, and I will definitely post again tonight, to tell you all about my classes!