Specific Heat Anyone?

My first chemistry class was yesterday evening. The class won't be a traditional lecture - we have a cd with the lectures on it, and packets of sample questions, and it is all self-paced, with due dates that quizzes and tests have to be done by. The lab portion is the only thing we have to go in for. Well, kind of. As it turns out, we have to take the tests and quizzes at the testing center. At the reeeeeeally far away campus. Bummer.

I like to be a nerd. I'm the one in the front row, with three extra pens and pencils in my bag, and my notebook open and ready. But I was off my game last night. I thought I was doing well - I had bought the book a week ago, and reviewed the first couple chapters. I am leaving on vacation today, but I'm bringing all my work with me and can do it there. Well, the teacher at the north campus where I bought the text is apparently not using the same one as my teacher at the east campus. Nice. And even more fun - those pesky quiz due dates, and that nifty policy about needing to take said quizzes at the testing center that is so reeeeeally far away. And wouldn't you know it - a quiz is due before I get back from my vacation. Awesome. So there I sit in class, having a mini panic attack. I need to get the correct book (which I had sooo not budgeted for!) and I need to get it NOW because I need to study for the chapter one quiz which I will need to take in the morning before I leave for vacation. Is the bookstore going to be open when I get out of here?? Why is he still talking??? I need to get that book!!!! Finally, he's done talking. I'm like greased lightning out that door, headed to the bookstore. But there's a guy standing outside, selling the book I needed. For twenty bucks. That sure beats the $130 the bookstore was going to charge me! So now I had the book, I just needed to learn the first chapter before bed. I got home and went right to studying. A lot was review - decimals, scientific notation, significant figures...Then, after five hours of studying, I got to specific heat. According to my book, specific heat is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 g of something by 1 degree Celsius. And at 11 pm, after five hours of studying chemistry, that may as well have been in Swahili. Luckily, I've discovered that specific heat makes much more sense after you've slept! I took that quiz, and specific heat was not even close to on it. It was just the bare-bones basics. Fricking sweet.

After a stop by my work office, I am officially on vacation! My flight leaves for California in just a few hours. I'm going to go cram my chemistry text book into my suitcase and I am all set.

Oh, and yesterday I bought a 70's hits cd from Target. It is awesome. It really put me in a fabulous mood, cruising down the highway blasting the Bellamy Brothers... Ahhhhh...

It's a fabulous picture, isn't it? Me, driving down the highway, stereo way up, singing along (out of tune)...

"Just let your love flow, like a mountain stream, and let your love grow, like the smallest of dreams, and let your love show, and you'll know what I mean; it's the season."

California, here I come!!!!!

Relaxed,
Jenny