A lot going on

As was not-so-subliminally communicated in my last post, life at beginningtobird is in a state a flux right now. Thankfully, I have wonderful friends both here and online who are making the transition a lot easier for me.

My new nesting site will be in the tiny burg of Bellefonte (pronounced Bell-Font, not like Harry Bellafonte). I'm in the process of securing a two-bedroom apartment about three miles from work, which I'm hoping will enable me to bike to work when the weather allows.

I'm also getting some new wheels--a Toyota Corolla (used), which is my favorite kind of car. I drove three of them before Kat and I bought the Saturn; it was wonderful to sit in it and feel like I knew where everything was. It's a luxe edition, with CD player and a zippy manual transmission, power everything. I'll miss having a moon roof like the Saturn did, but that moon roof always did threaten to make me have an accident, as I was constantly trying to check out birds overhead.

I start school on Monday, which is already making me nervous. It's a busy time for me, and school makes it even busier. I had to take a "pre-quiz" this morning to determine my fitness for this course (which is just the basic Chem 101, or so I thought!), and I scored a miserable 6 out of 20! Oh dear. Obviously, my days of non-stop studying are far from over, but at least it's not another math class! Still, here are some of the skills I'm expected to have already:
--Solve “word problems,” i.e., translate words into algebraic expressions
--Relate functions and graphs (rectangular coordinates)
--Manipulate logarithmic expressions and solve equations involving logarithms
--Manipulate algebraic fractions
--Manipulate algebraic expressions involving exponents and radicals
--Understand and use exponential notation
--Do numerical calculations involving these concepts with a calculator
--Understand and manipulate standard units of physics and chemistry, including unit conversions and dimensional analysis

Uh... I think I have the dumb again....

So it's going to be a long semester. However, fall migrants are already starting to fly through Pennsylvania, and I'm hoping to get around a little easier to see as many as I can. Just last night, Gretchen and I saw a flock of fifteen Canadas heading to the north. A bit early, isn't it? But maybe they're ... wait for it ... EARLY BIRDS!

Wow. Tough crowd.