High School – Jodi Lea's Place

Daily writing prompt

What colleges have you attended?

In California, the University of California system has reasonably priced “Junior Colleges”. These are 2-year colleges for those attempting to earn basic college credits prior to enrolling in a more prestigious 4-year college and those going for certificates and Associate degrees.

I was recently informed that the term: ‘Junior College’ is outdated. The term for them now is ‘Community College’. Whatever you call them, they are the same now as then, if you ask me. Anyway, the fall after high school graduation, I enrolled in Chabot Hayward’s Los Positas College, which was close to my house. My goal was to take basic classes to transfer over to Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO. This was the College my BFF was planning to attend. Since she was a year behind me in school, this gave me a chance to get a job and earn tuition money before moving to Missouri and getting away from home.

SEMO, as we affectionately call it, is a medium-sized school within the sweet little river town of Cape Girardeau. The streets along the river are still cobblestone. I fell in love. This place felt like how college should be. It could have been because my BFF and I were roommates, combined with watching too many movies about such places. Oh, dear. I have digressed into happy memories and gotten off-track. Gee – how unusual for me. HA!

Between my freshman and sophomore years at SEMO, I met my ex-husband on summer break and stayed in California until the wedding. Although not a traditional educational institution, I learned a lot in the next five years. I learned about being a military wife, having a baby, living with in-laws, living overseas, living in a trailer park, living in the desert, and all the on-the-job experience that entailed.

Fast-forward past SEMO, and I am thinking about a Computer Science degree. A lot changes in 20 years. Except college credits. I was thrilled to find out that class credits do not have a statute of limitations on them. All the basics I took in SEMO went toward my degree. Unfortunately, none of those credits involved math. My major was Childhood Development. I did not have to take any of the “ologies**,” for my degree, but I had to start anew with mathematics.

Because I was a mom, who worked full time it took many years to crawl through algebra, geometry, and pre-calculus. I only survived Calculus 1 because I had an awesome teacher, Mr. Adams. Support from scientists at work, and a wonderful 2nd husband and his boys, who knew their way around math.

The end of this story is I graduated with highest honors, from Los Positas College with an Associate of Computer Science Degree. The very same year that my baby graduated from High School. And, No. I am not going to divulge the exact year that was!

** Psychology, Sociology, Biology, et al.

#BlogJanuary

Have I mentioned that I’ve gained a few pounds? I blame hubby for this. He is losing weight and I keep finding it. I do not begrudge him for losing weight he needed to lose. In fact, he’s looking mighty fine 😉 these days. What I don’t understand is why he can’t lose weight at work. But that’s not what I’m here to rant about today.

I was getting dressed a couple of weeks ago, and I had to wear something nice to show up for jury duty. No problem – I had a nice pair of black pants to wear. These pants, that used to slide gracefully over my thighs and hips, stopped at my knees. It took some tugging (and cursing), but they finally made it up to (what used to be) my waistline.

The bigger problem was the zipper. It could not and would not close.

I tore through my closet in search of a top long enough to cover my crotch. No tunic length shirts or sweaters anymore. Must have given them to Good Will or somewhere. I had 2 options:

I could wear jeans anyway (they were tight, but the fly stayed closed)
I could wear my “old-lady” pants with the elastic waist and no pockets. The tunic top would have come in handy to disguise them as normal pants, but they still had no pockets. I HATE not having pockets in my pants. Where do you put your Id? Your lunch money?

Lunch money. My brain switches gears back to High School. I was robbed of my lunch money by an unseen thief. She, I assumed it was a she because it happened in the girls bathroom, suddenly reached under the door, into my stall, and snatched my lunch money right off the top of my books. Literally caught with my pants down. Just one of many humiliations I suffered in High School.

High School. Switching gears again. A memory of my mom telling me about when she was in High School. It was the early 50’s and it was poodle skirts, crinolines (ask your grandma), and tight jeans. “So tight in fact”, she confessed to me, “that I had to lie down on my bed to zip them up”.

Her wisdom lives on, and she thought us girls never listened to her. 😉 Thanks Mom!!

It worked. Black pants zipped up and button closed. Who knew that gravity could be my friend?

Being me, instead of feeling triumphant, I start worrying that the pressure put on the zipper by my flab would break it. I would have to pee at some point, which meant using the straining zipper. How would I get my fly closed again without my bed?

Did the zipper hold? Amazingly it did. Even with peeing, it still worked. But not once, during the entire day, did my pants ever become comfortable. Ever.

Sooo, I’m working to lose the weight my hubby gave me. I don’t know how many pounds I gained because my denial reflex has not allowed me to get on the scale. It’s funny how it takes me three times longer to lose what he lost and I found.

Actually, it’s not funny when I think about it.

Is there a moral to this story? Many of them, actually. Pick one 🙂

Tag: High School

The Education of Jodi Lea

Vanity Is The Enemy (or what a gal will go through to look cool)