[pcc_life] You Can't Keep a Good Man Down. Or Me, For That Matter.

Today, registration opened online at my.pcc.

It has been an ordeal (To be precise, I had to deal! Thank you, Thompson!).

Now, I had all my dux in ero, as it were. Checked in with my advisor to make sure whether or not I had to get myself some slips signed. Cece said no, I was in the groove (well, she didn't say that...that was the gist).

So, I make my notes and get ready. At 0700 today, I was in front of the Mac, with my unCalendar open to the page with my info...good to go!!!!

At 0700, Secure Online Services opens for bidness. I go to registration...Hey! Says I can't register until 0800. Great! I'm keyed up as it is and I can't get down to business. So I bide my time untill 0800. Surf some web. Pet some cat. Read some comic.

0800: Bingo! The Add Classes webform loads...get my CRNs from the unCalendar...type 'em in...submit and....

GD 223, Graphic Design 6 ... Department Approval Required.
GD 229, Portfolio Prep ... Department Approval Required.
PT 244, Preparing Files for Print ... Department Approval Required.

I am not registered. Holy Moly. Visions of seats filling before I can get to them and my whole three year study made pointless by one thirty-minute time period. Now, I wasn't tired...I had taken a day off at TCWMNBN, and for no obvious reason slept 14 hours, rising at 0200 approx. But because of this Twilight Zone (cue music) rhythm that I had done, I was feeling decidedly weird. Then, an hour previous, I was feeling weird and keyed-up. Now, I was feeling weird, keyed-up, and about to fly into a panic.

Soon enough, me and The Wife[tm] were on the way up to Sylvania campus (a trip that was supposed to have been rendered...well, academic...by the 'web). Now, I knew it was possible that the last thing I was going to see was my advisor in her office, but that's on me, and it's the chance you take by just dropping in when you can at any time. Instructors are busy people and get called away an awful lot. So, it didn't surprise me when she wasn't in the office. So, me and The Wife[tm] cooled our heels outside the office for a few minutes.

Deciding that maybe there was some fly in the ointment that had cleared up by then, we went to the Computer Resource Center in the CC Building to try from there. I could tell then that Registration was having at least as bad a day as I was. myPCC was in serious trouble. I'd noted this when I tried to reload the page at home before striking out; the load just hung and wouldn't go anywhere. A helpful CRC tutor knew just what I was trying to do, came over, told me to go to the BanWEB main page, click through to the Tillamook Bay CC login page, and go from their server. It worked. But it didn't solve my problem, I was still getting the message that "Department Approval Required".

Back to in front of my advisors office. She didn't come by yet, but her operational peer and organizational subordinate (it's a small department) Linnea Gruber showed up. I told her my problem and the both of us went in to see Deb Schwing in the GD Mac Lab. As it turned out, the college was doing this to all graphic design majors and they were preparing to hand out green override slips to all qualified comers. Linnea had Deb write me out one, seeing as I'd come all that way just for that.

If I ever get a billion dollars, these people are getting a ton of money. Each.

So, hie us hence to the CC Building, to see the registration person. Wait in the line. Slide the green slip across. Tap-tap-tap on the computer keys and....

There's a problem.

Oh, yes. Another problem. I was getting a "Co-requisite" message on the one class I needed most desperately, Graphic Design 6. Seems that there's a course, "Combined Graphic Applications". GD 242. A course that has you use a combination of programs to produce a product...Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign (PCC's gone off QuarkXPress)...It was substituted with a course in beginning InDesign.

FWIW, I'm glad I got to know basic InDesign. Anyway.

The system had flagged that I hadn't taking GD 242, while ignoring the datum that this other class was supposed to be a a valid substitution for it. The regsitrar would not register me for Graphic Design 6. And fall went my crest, again.

"This is turning into a nightmare," I say to The Wife[tm], who is my emotional support system right now, and no doubt knows it. Back to the front of my advisor's office to linger until she shows up. I'm starting to feel like a stalker. This is so not fair.

Eventually she shows up. This is the kind of quality Cece Custforth is: The Wife[tm] is examining a bruise on her leg, and Cece comes up, and I say "There's a problem", and she looks at The Wife[tm] examining her leg, thinking there's been an injury and she needs help. How could you not idolize a person like this?

But I do tell her my problem and she promises There Will Be A Solution. Something about the way she says it calms me down a great deal and I believe her. We go.

I get home and check my registration at PCC and...there it is. I'm registered for all the classes I need to graduate.

I nominate the faculty of PCC Graphic Design for sainthood. I don't care if they might not be Catholic. Also, I have the best advisor in the world. Don't try to compete with her..you cahnt.

Now, all I have to do to close out this term is get that paper on German-Oregonian history done, and design a poster to go with it. I'm breathing again.

And the funny thing is, about halfway through this next term, when I got two projects due and I'm getting by on about three hours of sleep a day because I'm still having to do four tens at TCWMNBN, I'm going to wonder if it was worth it, getting all stressed about it. And I may think it wasn't. But I will be wrong.

When that diploma is in my hands I"ll realize that...it was. Oh, yes. It was.