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Sep. 15th, 2020 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckI've been getting more migraines the last four months than I consider normal for me. I suspect that most of them are perimenopause related. During the years when I took oral contraceptives, I had vastly more migraines with one pretty much any time I got less than eight hours of sleep (I didn't realize that the contraceptives were a problem until after Cordelia was born when I went back on them and suddenly had migraines again). I've also had issues with menstrual migraines for about 35 years; those generally hit the first or second day of my period but will occasionally ambush me the day before.
The big series of migraines in August were all in the week before a period (which lasted 18 days). The period before that was in April. The one before that was in October. I'm definitely hoping for August's being the last one forever.
Cordelia auditioned for Skyline Blues, her school's competitive choir. We don't know that they'll have any face to face rehearsals or performances at all this school year, but it's pretty clear that they won't have any in 2020. The director would like to, I think, but she also understands that it would be irresponsible and dangerous.
Cordelia took the ACT on Saturday. She was supposed to take it in April, but they kept delaying it and delaying it. She says that their was good social distancing in the testing room that was helped by the fact that about a third of the people registered didn't show up. The no-shows might be people who decided that it wasn't worth the risk, but they also might be people who signed up for different testing centers, got changed to this one, and missed the notice. It was an email about four days in advance. I'm not sure if no one tested in Dexter that day or if only some people got shifted to Toledo.
One of Cordelia's friends is going to have to go to Saginaw for the SAT. Cordelia's supposed to take that in about two weeks in a town I hadn't previously heard of, about an hour away. I dithered a bit about the testing because the school district is still saying they're going to try to provide the SAT, but they can't promise to do it this fall. Most colleges are waiving test scores for admissions.
They are, sadly, not waiving test scores for merit based financial aid.
Cordelia has been accepted at Eastern Michigan University for fall of 2021. I don't think she's yet completed her applications elsewhere, but I have the impression that Eastern was, fairly solidly, her second choice after Michigan State. She's also applying to the University of Michigan and to Western Michigan University, but we're not expecting her to get into U of M, and Western's further away and doesn't offer anything that Eastern doesn't.
We're assuming that Skyline released Cordelia's transcript to Eastern because, otherwise, the admissions office let her in based entirely on her self-reported GPA which seems improbable. I think I recall us authorizing Skyline to release her transcript to college admissions offices. That transcript would have included PSAT scores.
Eastern is close enough that commuting daily would be an option. I'd like to see Cordelia live in a dorm because I think it would be helpful for her, but we'd have that as a fallback if things didn't work out. Also, her bringing her laundry home to wash would mean we'd see her regularly.
The main draw of MSU, as far as I can tell, is that Cordelia's best friend is considering going there and wants them to room together. Cordelia is interested in K12 education (but possibly not teaching), and I'm not convinced that any of the schools she's applying to will be bad places for that.
We're trying to figure out FAFSA related documentation. Our portion should be easy, but Cordelia's is more challenging because we can't check her bank balance online and because Scott's parents created a small education fund for her when she was born. The latter only amounts to about $3000, but the documentation isn't all readily available to us.
I had a bunch of blood tests done last Wednesday. Scott was going in for a fasting blood draw and a couple of vaccinations, so I went with him and did my own fasting blood draw. I wasn't in time to schedule a flu shot, though.
My A1c is down a little bit. It's gone from 6.3 to 6.1. I have no explanation for that change except that I slept better when Cordelia stopped needing to get up for school. My diet has gotten more restricted in terms of vegetable intake (there's almost nothing I can digest safely) but hasn't otherwise altered. I'm exercising less.
Yesterday was the first day of normal classes for Cordelia. By normal, I mean 'the new normal' since it's now all online. The district moved all of the high schools to semesters with a standardized schedule, so Cordelia's got a different number of classes than we expected. She's got three classes a day four days of the week with Wednesday set aside for asynchronous learning. Mondays and Thursdays, Cordelia has statistics, peer connections, and forensics. Tuesdays and Fridays, she has history in film, choir, and AP literature. All four days, she has 40 minutes of advisory (equivalent to homeroom) right after lunch. The first class starts at 8:30, and the last ends at 3:20.
We're all reasonably content with the timing. Cordelia can sleep an hour and a half later and doesn't have to worry about the bus. Class ends at about the same time that she'd have gotten home anyway (possibly earlier as part of the normal bus route is blocked by construction. All the other routes add another half hour to the trip. Which likely means that she'd have had to get up even earlier than she had to last year).
Cordelia's currently doing her school stuff in the dining room. It's going to be awkward for me because I can't do anything noisy during choir, including (I suspect) preparing myself breakfast. I'm not sure how much noise I can safely make during other classes. Most of the time, Cordelia's wearing earbuds and has her sound pickup off, so my kettle and microwave and such won't go out to her whole class, but...
Last week was all half days so that everyone could make sure they understood Schoology and had stable connections. I slept through most of Cordelia's school time, so I didn't get a feel for how much noise is too much. I expect we'll figure it out.
Right now, Cordelia's most concerned about peer connections because that's (if I understand correctly) her matched up with someone in one of the special ed programs to provide tutoring. She's afraid of botching it. I think she's also a bit afraid of matching with someone who resents having to participate.
I told her to be reliable and to be kind. I also told her that this is good experience for finding out how much she likes/dislikes some things associated with working in education. She's currently signed up to do this both semesters which isn't common, but her counselor told her that the other options for her sixth class second semester aren't things she requested. Cordelia told me the options, and I agreed that none of them sounded like things she'd find useful or fun. (Also, how on earth does one have a ceramics class done entirely online? I can see the drawing class, but ceramics requires less readily available tools and materials and such.)
Scott is kind of buried in cider season overtime at present. He had to call in to take Cordelia to the ACT on Saturday as he (and everyone else) was scheduled to work both Saturday and Sunday. He might get a day this upcoming weekend, but he also might not. If he hadn't called in, by Friday, he'd have worked twelve days straight. They worked Labor Day and the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.
Scott found out from the guy who took over the scheduler job that they actually did set up some guidelines for prioritizing orders and for which customers merit upsetting previously locked in scheduling and which don't. Unfortunately, the parent company's requests are always allowed to do it, and those folks seem to think that bottles materialize instantly, upon request. Scott's company doesn't have any way to store product, so they can't stockpile anything. That means that a Friday order for Monday delivery requires weekend work.
I'm trying to get myself to focus enough to write. I have four big projects, two of them for exchanges and one for UCon. The UCon deadline is four days away, and I haven't figured out the technological side yet. I keep getting migraines at inconvenient times relative to my planned experiments.
I'm actually considering not running anything for UCon. I really enjoy running games, but I'm not sure that I can handle the planning/setup parts without migraines, so I don't know. Scott's not really going to be available to talk about it until well after I need to have all my ducks in a row.
My big other projects are: Fic in a Box which is a 10K word minimum exchange that can be filled in 1K+ pieces as long as they total 10K. Five Figure Fic Exchange which is a 10K word minimum exchange with an opt in by my recipient for two 5K word minimum fics if I prefer. Rheotaxis.
That last is not going well at all. I have one character who believes he has what he wants and one who doesn't currently dare want anything. It's boring. Everything I try for refocusing the characters or the story isn't working. I just need to chip away at it, I think, and to keep trying different angles. Maybe I should ignore Nagi and Yohji for a while and see what everybody else is doing.
I intend to sign up for Yuletide this year, and there are a couple of flash exchanges I may do. I hope to have time to treat for Consent Issues and, possibly, for other exchanges that aren't currently on my radar. I'd like to post enough stories to hit 200 on AO3 by the end of the year. I've got 187 now with two posted but unrevealed to bring the count to 189. Eleven more ought to be doable if I buckle down. Sadly, finishing Rheotaxis won't help, nor will FFFex since it won't reveal until January or February of next year.
The big series of migraines in August were all in the week before a period (which lasted 18 days). The period before that was in April. The one before that was in October. I'm definitely hoping for August's being the last one forever.
Cordelia auditioned for Skyline Blues, her school's competitive choir. We don't know that they'll have any face to face rehearsals or performances at all this school year, but it's pretty clear that they won't have any in 2020. The director would like to, I think, but she also understands that it would be irresponsible and dangerous.
Cordelia took the ACT on Saturday. She was supposed to take it in April, but they kept delaying it and delaying it. She says that their was good social distancing in the testing room that was helped by the fact that about a third of the people registered didn't show up. The no-shows might be people who decided that it wasn't worth the risk, but they also might be people who signed up for different testing centers, got changed to this one, and missed the notice. It was an email about four days in advance. I'm not sure if no one tested in Dexter that day or if only some people got shifted to Toledo.
One of Cordelia's friends is going to have to go to Saginaw for the SAT. Cordelia's supposed to take that in about two weeks in a town I hadn't previously heard of, about an hour away. I dithered a bit about the testing because the school district is still saying they're going to try to provide the SAT, but they can't promise to do it this fall. Most colleges are waiving test scores for admissions.
They are, sadly, not waiving test scores for merit based financial aid.
Cordelia has been accepted at Eastern Michigan University for fall of 2021. I don't think she's yet completed her applications elsewhere, but I have the impression that Eastern was, fairly solidly, her second choice after Michigan State. She's also applying to the University of Michigan and to Western Michigan University, but we're not expecting her to get into U of M, and Western's further away and doesn't offer anything that Eastern doesn't.
We're assuming that Skyline released Cordelia's transcript to Eastern because, otherwise, the admissions office let her in based entirely on her self-reported GPA which seems improbable. I think I recall us authorizing Skyline to release her transcript to college admissions offices. That transcript would have included PSAT scores.
Eastern is close enough that commuting daily would be an option. I'd like to see Cordelia live in a dorm because I think it would be helpful for her, but we'd have that as a fallback if things didn't work out. Also, her bringing her laundry home to wash would mean we'd see her regularly.
The main draw of MSU, as far as I can tell, is that Cordelia's best friend is considering going there and wants them to room together. Cordelia is interested in K12 education (but possibly not teaching), and I'm not convinced that any of the schools she's applying to will be bad places for that.
We're trying to figure out FAFSA related documentation. Our portion should be easy, but Cordelia's is more challenging because we can't check her bank balance online and because Scott's parents created a small education fund for her when she was born. The latter only amounts to about $3000, but the documentation isn't all readily available to us.
I had a bunch of blood tests done last Wednesday. Scott was going in for a fasting blood draw and a couple of vaccinations, so I went with him and did my own fasting blood draw. I wasn't in time to schedule a flu shot, though.
My A1c is down a little bit. It's gone from 6.3 to 6.1. I have no explanation for that change except that I slept better when Cordelia stopped needing to get up for school. My diet has gotten more restricted in terms of vegetable intake (there's almost nothing I can digest safely) but hasn't otherwise altered. I'm exercising less.
Yesterday was the first day of normal classes for Cordelia. By normal, I mean 'the new normal' since it's now all online. The district moved all of the high schools to semesters with a standardized schedule, so Cordelia's got a different number of classes than we expected. She's got three classes a day four days of the week with Wednesday set aside for asynchronous learning. Mondays and Thursdays, Cordelia has statistics, peer connections, and forensics. Tuesdays and Fridays, she has history in film, choir, and AP literature. All four days, she has 40 minutes of advisory (equivalent to homeroom) right after lunch. The first class starts at 8:30, and the last ends at 3:20.
We're all reasonably content with the timing. Cordelia can sleep an hour and a half later and doesn't have to worry about the bus. Class ends at about the same time that she'd have gotten home anyway (possibly earlier as part of the normal bus route is blocked by construction. All the other routes add another half hour to the trip. Which likely means that she'd have had to get up even earlier than she had to last year).
Cordelia's currently doing her school stuff in the dining room. It's going to be awkward for me because I can't do anything noisy during choir, including (I suspect) preparing myself breakfast. I'm not sure how much noise I can safely make during other classes. Most of the time, Cordelia's wearing earbuds and has her sound pickup off, so my kettle and microwave and such won't go out to her whole class, but...
Last week was all half days so that everyone could make sure they understood Schoology and had stable connections. I slept through most of Cordelia's school time, so I didn't get a feel for how much noise is too much. I expect we'll figure it out.
Right now, Cordelia's most concerned about peer connections because that's (if I understand correctly) her matched up with someone in one of the special ed programs to provide tutoring. She's afraid of botching it. I think she's also a bit afraid of matching with someone who resents having to participate.
I told her to be reliable and to be kind. I also told her that this is good experience for finding out how much she likes/dislikes some things associated with working in education. She's currently signed up to do this both semesters which isn't common, but her counselor told her that the other options for her sixth class second semester aren't things she requested. Cordelia told me the options, and I agreed that none of them sounded like things she'd find useful or fun. (Also, how on earth does one have a ceramics class done entirely online? I can see the drawing class, but ceramics requires less readily available tools and materials and such.)
Scott is kind of buried in cider season overtime at present. He had to call in to take Cordelia to the ACT on Saturday as he (and everyone else) was scheduled to work both Saturday and Sunday. He might get a day this upcoming weekend, but he also might not. If he hadn't called in, by Friday, he'd have worked twelve days straight. They worked Labor Day and the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.
Scott found out from the guy who took over the scheduler job that they actually did set up some guidelines for prioritizing orders and for which customers merit upsetting previously locked in scheduling and which don't. Unfortunately, the parent company's requests are always allowed to do it, and those folks seem to think that bottles materialize instantly, upon request. Scott's company doesn't have any way to store product, so they can't stockpile anything. That means that a Friday order for Monday delivery requires weekend work.
I'm trying to get myself to focus enough to write. I have four big projects, two of them for exchanges and one for UCon. The UCon deadline is four days away, and I haven't figured out the technological side yet. I keep getting migraines at inconvenient times relative to my planned experiments.
I'm actually considering not running anything for UCon. I really enjoy running games, but I'm not sure that I can handle the planning/setup parts without migraines, so I don't know. Scott's not really going to be available to talk about it until well after I need to have all my ducks in a row.
My big other projects are: Fic in a Box which is a 10K word minimum exchange that can be filled in 1K+ pieces as long as they total 10K. Five Figure Fic Exchange which is a 10K word minimum exchange with an opt in by my recipient for two 5K word minimum fics if I prefer. Rheotaxis.
That last is not going well at all. I have one character who believes he has what he wants and one who doesn't currently dare want anything. It's boring. Everything I try for refocusing the characters or the story isn't working. I just need to chip away at it, I think, and to keep trying different angles. Maybe I should ignore Nagi and Yohji for a while and see what everybody else is doing.
I intend to sign up for Yuletide this year, and there are a couple of flash exchanges I may do. I hope to have time to treat for Consent Issues and, possibly, for other exchanges that aren't currently on my radar. I'd like to post enough stories to hit 200 on AO3 by the end of the year. I've got 187 now with two posted but unrevealed to bring the count to 189. Eleven more ought to be doable if I buckle down. Sadly, finishing Rheotaxis won't help, nor will FFFex since it won't reveal until January or February of next year.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-16 02:20 pm (UTC)Thank you for reminding me about the FASFA.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-16 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-16 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-17 03:12 pm (UTC)We're assuming that Skyline released Cordelia's transcript to Eastern because, otherwise, the admissions office let her in based entirely on her self-reported GPA which seems improbable.
It may well be different with your schools, of course, and I'm guessing admission this early is not through normal channels anyway, but in our experience, actually, admission IS offered based on the self-reported GPA in the application, and then you just have to send the transcript as part of your registration paperwork to the school you enroll in. Of course, if it turns out you lied about having a 4.0, they can rescind admission. (It does make sense, because people apply to dozens of schools, and it's a lot easier for the high schools to send a transcript to the one place the student will end up going to vs the 20 they're applying to or whatever.)
Also, FAFSA, oy. I need to sit down and do that, too...