Olivia Sutton's Fanfic Journal

Hi all,

Sorry to be so long since posting - life has been a complete mess, but more about that later, possibly in another post.

Last night (December 3rd) it really started to snow, pretty late, just before I went to bed.
I woke up this morning to eight inches of snow on the front deck and the proverbial "Winter Wonderland" - and it was still snowing! Kent County (mine) and the county directly south of us (Ottawa) were both under a Winter Storm Warning from the National Weather Service. The rest of West Michigan was under a Winter Storm Advisory. Most of the local school districts were closed (Including GR Public), and throughout the day whenever I checked more businesses, churches, schools, and services were closed due to weather. According to the local news, scores of minor accidents littered the local roads; and the expressway I-94 was closed at midday due to numerous pile-ups. And the original weather alerts are supposed to last 'til 4pm today, tho' looking outside it seems like it's stopped snowing. Glancing out the back deck, I'd say we got at least 10 inches of snow total. Some of the LakeShore communities were reporting a foot of snow during the noon local newscast (NBC, WOOD CH 8).

Here's the current lowdown from NOAA:

Temp: 28 Degrees F (-2 Degrees C)
Humidity: 75%
Wind Chill: 19 F (-7 C)
Wind Speed: SW 9 MPH
Percip: Light Snow
Winter Storm Warning in Effect Until 4 pm

But I must admit, after the extremely wet and rainy October and November -- having nice, bright snow today and last night has raised my spirits a little bit.

Now -- onto the personal things, eg why I haven't been on here that much lately.

I lost my job in September. I really liked my job, so this made me depressed.
But, I DID go to my training class in Chicago (SQL Server 2008 - Microsoft's Database Platform). Overall, it went pretty well, EXCEPT that I was supposed to have four classes in 10 days -- and when I got there it was two classes in eight days, and I didn't get any refund for the difference. However, I did get to the Museum of Science and Industry, the Shedd Aquarium, the Hancock Tower, and the Field Museum during my trip. (Note for any travelers going to Chicago -- Citypass? Definitely worth it!!!) I was in Chicago for almost two whole weeks, so during the weekend between the first and second week of training I took the Metra train downtown. I also found that using the Metra is real easy, and inexpensive (this was true the last time I was on a business trip to Chicago). The CTA, otoh, is really confusing. Not too expensive (get a daily pass from a CVS Pharmacy or a 3-day pass in Union Station when you get off the Metra) but trying to figure out the bus lines, and even worse -- the schedules, on a weekend, was a bit of a mess. (I got where I needed to go eventually but it took a while sometimes).

Since getting back from Chicago, I've been trying to pass my Microsoft Exams. Right now, I'm still working on #70-433 (MCTS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database Development). I failed the exam twice -- and I don't normally fail tests. The second time, though, there were equipment problems at the test office, so I got a free re-take (which is Monday), so I've been going through my books again, plus doing practice tests.
I just need to pass the &%$#@*%* thing, so I can go on to study for the Admin test (MCTS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Implementation and Maintenance), which I figured I'd take second because I thought it would be harder -- and now I'm beginning to think it would actually be easier. And then I can really, really job hunt. And I SO want to move out of Michigan, hopefully to a bigger city.

Oh -- and last weekend, my sister-in-law's mother fell down the stairs, broke her tibia, fibia, and patella, and she's STILL in a hospital in Traverse City. My sister-in-law was up there with her; leaving my brother alone with the twins. Fortuantely, she is getting better, and I haven't had to do too much extra running over to Grand Haven (just don't tell Microsoft that!)

OH -- and one other thing. This week, Weds, I found out my cat, Cal (short for Caligari) is diabetic. So now he's on special food (not a big deal) and needs insulin shots twice a day, which I need to give him. Fortunately, he's good about it - but it still freaks me out a little bit.

--Olivia

That'

I woke up to about an inch of snow, again -- but it was still snowing hard.  By the time I left for work at 12:09pm, there was a winter weather advisory -- we're supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow today.  It was snowing during my drive, tho' it had let up alot by the time I got to work (which is south of town, so that probably had something to do with it).
I had to get my grades in today by 6pm, so I was a wreck -- trying to get everything done.  All but one of my networking students passed (whoo -hoo) which is good, considering three were failing going into the final exam and project.  My networking students also did fairly well on the final.
The XP class, OTOH, was a mess.  Two students didn't even show up for the final.  (One of them went from a B to failing because she didn't show up, didn't call, didn't email and didn't contact me, my chair, or the school at all).  The other one was a pertutual screw-up so that was no surprise.  For that class, they have to do a individual project which they are given as a practical final exam -- it's basically a list of things to do (such as set a screensaver with password protect), which I then grade -- there's a point scale for each item.  Of course, I have to score EACH person, on EACH item as they do it.  And I was running around trying to score the exams of 26 students all *screaming* at me for attention -- and I'm doing the best I can but no one's being patient.  It was AWFUL!  Finally, the chair (my boss) who's really sweet comes in --- and by this point I've taken off  my blazer and I'm just in my shirtsleeves and skirt (it was hot as *eck in the lab) and I'm like "I NEED a TA!" (a TA is a teaching asst)  He's like -- "You need help?"  And I kinda' looked at him.  Anyway, he did help me out which was great and eventually I got all the projects graded.
I also had to listen to all the students complain, and complain loudly about the final -- with colorful vocabulary.  I can't completely blame them 'cause it is a difficult final. (The final is part of the Microsoft Curriculm, so it's a standardised test -- as opposed to my quizzes which I write myself based on the homework).  BUT -- on the other hand, I tell the students about the final being hard all the way thru' class, I offered to do more reviewing, and most nights I ended the class with some of the test bank questions (tho' most of the students had left by then -- but techincally they are to stay until class is dismissed).
It's the class from heck --- at least I have a term off from teaching it.
And my networking class was great -- the students were great, and I even got a lot of complements from one of them.  It was cool!

Oh, before I forget -- answers to the music meme will be posted next weekend.  I want to give folks a week to think about it.

Here's the weather from NOAA.  It's 35 F (2 C) Snowing, with fog and mist.  Wind chill is 27 F (- 3 C) and humidity is 96%.  Oh joy.

--Olivia