Yep. Completely buried here. We are one-third of the way through the semester and things are starting to really heat up in all my classes. Unfortunately, mother nature is not cooperating. All the snow days - ie. kids home from school unexpectedly, going in late, coming home early - are really throwing a wrench in my study schedule. We've also had a round of some sort of fever/stomach virus running through the household in the past week. It has been hard to carve out time to get my school work done.

One of my courses this semester focuses on how public policy is enacted by the Maryland General Assembly. It's a very interesting course, studying the social worker in the the role of public interest advocate. I see some clear cross-over with my legal background, without the adversarial context. In conjunction with the course requirements, I am working with a Montgomery County coalition that is advocating the $1 per pack tax increase on cigarettes; the additional tax revenue would fund a number of health care initiatives, including an expansion of Medicaid. This is a controversial measure and there are a number of related health care bills that the General Assembly is also considering. I chose this course because I also have a class this semester in substance abuse policy; I thought working on the tobacco tax bill would connect these two courses. I always like it when I can see a relationship like that between my classes. Anyway, the bill is scheduled for committee hearings this week and next, so I have been quite busy using my "legal brain" to analyze all the proposed legislation that will be heard with my coalition's bill for use in the drafting of testimony for the committees. I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the coming weeks, now that I have some sense of what options have been presented to the legislators.

That's about it from here. I can see the tidal wave headed for me and am having trouble getting out of the way.

Posted by Kathi at 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had a lovely adventure yesterday in the UMB parking garage....

Parking is an issue to master when enrolled in the School of Social Work. This is clearly an issue I am still working on. If I am only going to be at school for a short time (to drop off a paper, say), I park on the street. Usually, though, I park in the student garage over by the UMB Bookstore. This garage fills up and sometimes students are sent to the Saratoga Street garage (but this has only happened to me once) and, more often, students are sent to the Lexington Market garage. When displaying the UMB hanging sign on my rearview mirror, the parking fee is $4. Once or twice I have been really tight for time and have parked closer to the school, but this definitely costs more. The exercise walking to and from school usually feels good after sitting in either the car or class.

I've had yet another scheduling change this semester (another long story) so I now have class Mon PM, Mon EVE and one class on the WEB (Whew! After all the changes, this seems doable!). Yesterday I arrived a little early for my 2pm class, got a space in the UMB garage (yah!) and headed off to school. I noticed a light on my alarm remote that I could not remember seeing before when I put my keys in my backpack. This struck me as odd, but I concluded that I just had never noticed this before and did not give it further thought. I walked back to the garage with classmates in the frigid air (of course, it had to be the coldest day of the year thus far) walked over to the van, pressed the button for the alarm and --- no response. Not good. I tried again. No response. Oh dear. I started walking all around the car, pressing the alarm button repetitively and, still, no response. My friend came along in her car (she had been parked on a level above me) and saw me walking around the van. Luckily, she had time to stay with me while I called my husband back home in Montgomery County to see if he could locate the valet code for the switch inside the car that would hopefully turn off the alarm. (I should perhaps note here that my husband uses both the alarm and the steering wheel "Club" when he parks either our 10 year old Subaru wagon or our 7 year old van in a garage or other city location. He thinks we need car alarms. I could do without them but, I must admit that it is easier to just press a button than fiddle with the lock. For my husband it's an issue of safety and taking good care of your possessions. For me it's pure convenience.)

Unfortunately, for reasons we still do not understand, the valet switch did not disarm the alarm. I'm sure everyone in the garage was just loving me at this point because the van was screeching for quite a while before it (automatically) stopped. The alarm was still on; I could get in the car using my keys, but the engine was disabled. My friend took me back to school, where I called my husband back and we hatched the plan. He would feed the kids dinner and then head up to Baltimore with his set of van keys. In the meantime, I would go to my night class and await his call indicating he was out in front of the school.

My husband arrived about 7:45pm. My kids, who live a very sheltered life I'm afraid, were all ajabber with the excitement of this unexpected school-night adventure. Sadly, I do not think they had seen Baltimore at night before. They are tucked into bed, pretty religiously, by 8:15 pm. We headed over to the garage. As my husband lectured me about the importance of turning off all controls in the car before turning off the engine (I resist this message, even though I get how this drains the car battery...ah marriage), we approached the van with the other set of keys. My husband was visibly stressed; I felt like a chastised child standing beside him. Presto, the alarm shut off using his remote. The car turned over as usual. I could not resist saying, "looks like it's not the car battery after all..."

Clearly relieved, my husband hugged me and we loaded the kids in the van. He then headed back home; I went and parked in the garage across from school -- what I had been trying to do at 5pm! -- and went back for the last 45 minutes of so of class. (You can move your car from the UMB garage to the garage right across from the front door of the SSW after 4pm and pay nothing additional or, pay the $4 if you enter parking for the first time with your hanging sign on your rearview mirror after 4pm. This garage is pricey during the day.) By the time I got home at about 10:00 the kids were tucked in and things seemed relatively calm. That is, until 10:45 when the 8yo started wheezing, but I digress....

Today I have tried to solve the mystery of the car alarm. The battery in my alarm remote is not the cause of the problem; when I had a new battery installed, it was drained in under a minute. Apparently there is something wrong with the remote itself. It is staying locked in some mode or other, thereby draining battery power. I realize after this adventure, though, that I may have to rethink my resistance to turning off the controls in the car before turning off the car engine. I might have been staring down the barrel of a divorce right now if the car battery had been dead last night.

Posted by Kathi at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)