I WAS FOOLISH TO THINK THE WORST PART WAS OVER. Testing was the easy part, the “sit back and do what you’re told for the next three hours” routine that I was well accustomed to, if not a little rusty.

Finding my way around campus was the true challenge. Here I am, in capris and flip flops turning a map this way and that, hoping against hope that if I tilt it a certain way I’ll recognize something, anything and know my way around.

I was lost. I had to get from this building:

To this building:

I found out later that you can walk from one to the other without going outside. Being me, I wound up here:

And here:

And somehow I found myself clear up here:

I even wound up next to another building! But it wasn’t the right one.

Thankfully the college took mercy on me and I found where I was going. Phase two is now complete, I am registered for college and start classes on August 26th.

Also known as the day the word “sleep” disappears from my vocabulary.

As a reward, Ashley and Niel took me out to dinner to celebrate. We all spent about twenty minutes marveling at the turn table in the middle of our plush little corner. What a marvelous invention! How ingenuitive! How creative!

Then we wondered over to see the crabs. Jake and Abby took a moment to ponder why the crabs don’t pinch each other. I had no answer for this. All Aspen was concerned with was how to look into the tank from a safe distance.

We feasted for a while before I demanded one last photo with the kids. Jake obliged somewhat willingly.

To end the night on a great note, Aspen kept asking for “my mato! My Mato!”. I don’t speak munchkin, so I asked Ashley to translate.

“she wants that tomato out of the car,” she mumbled as she passed the fist-sized, plump red vegetable into Aspens open hands. “Open it,” Aspen puzzled as she turned it over and around. “Just bite into it.”

Internet, this child had just finished eating a full serving of Chinese food, and she still devoured that WHOLE tomato. May I sink my teeth into education as willingly as that infant bit into that juicy fruit.

My question for you: Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Either way it is foreign to me, and grows in my garden. Don’t worry, I won’t throw them at you.

I’VE BEEN KEEPING A SECRET THIS WEEK. Or at least, I haven’t shared the story of something that has happened that is very near and dear to me.

The AubreyMo house now has a new family member. Meet Ollie.

Or Mutley Jaws Hoover as The Boyfriend calls him (Mutley just made a great nickname, Jaws is for his teeth, and Hoover was awarded to him after he found a who knows how old piece of cereal hidden under the couch).

He is a year old chihuahua/daschund mix. . .or Chiweenie for short.  I’ve been wanting a dog for as long as I can remember, and my mom and aunt Maureen finally made it happen. Maureen, thank you for calling Grams and convincing her that your dog would be good for me. I think she loves him just as much as I do.

Highlights of Doginess:

He puked in my hands on the way home (I call this the initiation to dog ownership. Ashley had to pull over so I could chuck the handfuls of chunk out the door. Sorry to whoever might’ve seen me littering baby wipes).

He howls for me when I get home

He is fixed, updated on shots, trained to walk on a leash and has excellent table manners

Might I add…He knows how to beg when you ask.

It only took him one day to perfect the art of Sit.

Words cannot describe the meeting between Ollie and Grams. For as shy as he was with the rest of us, he took right to her and loves her to pieces.  If she gets up, he gets up, if she sits he sits. . .he’s been a dream come true and I couldn’t ask for a better companion for the both of us. A million thanks to my aunt and uncle, I love him completely and I appreciate the sacrifice you made to give me a piece of your heart.