August 30, 2006
I can't think of a title for this post. It's about my day (who cares) so it may as well be the date.
I went to a class at the community college for adobe in-design to see if I should take it. That was a major big deal. Me, being out in public, interacting with people and not having a major melt down. I get a gold star.
I was really really lousy at the class. I know people loooovvveee adobe but let me tell you, it is NOT intuitive. Much of the interface sucks. You have to know where things are. I've tried to teach myself illustrator and pagemaker before but I always bailed over usability. Abby (the teacher) says that once you learn basic navigational stuff and tools in one program, those convey to the other programs in the creative suite. So hopefully I only have to do the steep learning curve thing once.
As I said before, I was really lousy. I couldn't see the board. I was the worst student in the class. I felt compelled to tell the teacher "I swear I really am smart, honest" because she might not let me take the class. I wasn't officially registered (this morning, before class) and the class is closed. She was going to waiver me in -provided I wasn't going to be pain in the butt- only because I have a laptop and wanted to buy the software. Buying the software is a given; it's a deal! None of the other students bought it. Boy, it's a lot different going to school when you're older because you aren't usually so poor. $230 for adobe creative suite premium? I had no problem shelling out for that -SOLD! The regular price is $1,200. Heck, even throwing in tuition and books, it was still a deal to get the software at that price. Let me tell you...I've done some thinking...I was eyeing the other software in the bookstore like autocad and what not. The discounts on the software are so deep it's worth taking the class. What a racket. If you're in the market for primo software that is. Take the class, get the software super cheap.
Anyway, I was really lousy. I'm surprised she let me in. I did not tell her about being autistic. No reason to needlessly worry the 'normal' folks. I never know how people are going to take it. I usually don't tell people unless the relationship obligates a lot of eye contact. If I have to tell them, some of them look at me funny, as tho I were going to turn purple or sprout horns right in front of them. Some people start speaking very s...l...o...w...l...y, some talk louder as tho I were deaf. Still others treat me as tho I were retarded. My husband's ex-girlfriend always treated me like a kindergärtner. She was hateful anyway, also she wasn't his girlfriend, she just wanted to be. As it is, she was never interested in him until he became a vegetarian and he only became a vegetarian after he met me. She'd say, "are you sure you're a vegetarian?" because I smoked. Who knew? I'd always thought vegetarianism had to do with eating, not smoking. In return, I was tempted to ask her "you're fat, are you sure you're a vegetarian" but I didn't. I think I should get bonus points for knowingly not being rude to counterbalance all of the times I am unknowingly and unintentionally rude. But I digress. I didn't tell Abby. I was doing well enough to just get approved on a closed class. MUAHHH Abby.
Spousal unit and I went down to the High Desert (their website is awful but their beer is great) to celebrate. That's our regular place if we have one. We spent our first date there. We went to celebrate that I managed to get admitted, enrolled, buy the software -I already had one of the books, one of which I'd gotten directly from the author years ago- and not entirely lose it. He thinks it's funny that I can do a lot of "advanced" things like authoring a popular book, traveling all over the world, learn whatever and fall apart at having to deal with the average person in daily life. Whatever. We rode our bikes down. On the way, I wanted to take a picture of the cotton in the fields. It's so pretty right now; it's blooming. The buds are big thick and fat. The flowers -before they burst open- are practically purple but when they bloom, they're pink. Anyway, we went to High Desert via the cotton fields but as luck would have it, the battery of my digital camera said "outa juice". Not really of course but you know what I mean. Bummer. I plugged in the battery at HD tho and ended up taking a picture of the bartender named Daniel. Daniel has been working there for seven years. This is Daniel's last week. Next week, he goes full time at the lab he's been working at. His job is to assay the hotness of chile. No lie.