I regret to inform you 'kerfaffle' is not a word

I check the news channel every morning to see what new way the world is ending. If it's just the typical kerfaffle, I'm free to start my day. So far so good.

Yesterday involved a modicum of stress. I returned to school (which is like, totally why I used the word modicum in a sentence). I packed my messenger bag with a notebook, three pens, a blue SIGG bottle filled with water, my phone, wallet, and a GPS.

Here I must wax on about the GPS, or as I like to call it, one of our best purchases ever. Shortly after moving to Seattle, and needing to print out directions from Google Maps or MapQuest or RandMcNally whenever we left the house, Jer and I realized Seattle is a funny place. Rarely can you go somewhere and return via the same route. Freeway entrances are not the same as exits. Streets run one-way when you least expect it. Roundabouts are strategically inserted to mix you up. Whee!

So, having grown up in southern California, where most communities are planned and streets are gridlike and predictable, we invested in a GPS and haven't looked back. I love that little rectangle of road savvy.

The new Bellevue Community College North Campus wasn't hard to find. It involved (as expected) crossing the 520 floating bridge, which means I will need to buy a toll pass sooner than I thought, though tolling has been delayed until June so I might get away with not having one. Class ends June 1.

It's a writing class; short stories are the subject. I have never taken a class like this. I took a writing workshop once. The less said about that the better. I took quite a few playwriting classes and loved every one of those. But prose? Never. It's exciting and scary.

I enrolled in a second writing class, which starts in two weeks.

I don't expect to talk about the classes much. For once I will try to focus on the end result instead of the process. (Less talk, more writing!) I think this experience will be good for me. It's great to be present in a room where everyone wants the same thing.