Books for Grad School! and other things

I bought the four books I'll need for my first semester of grad school! My friend Matt is going to the same school for a different program. The other day we were chatting about how surreal it feels to be going back to school. Like we know it's happening, but feel like it won't. It's weird. When I bought my books today, that felt real. Tyson complained that his books are so much more expensive than mine. All four books cost us less than $100 on Amazon. One of Tyson's books could be twice that amount. 

Yay for Humanities!

Here are the books I'll be reading this semester:

Book: A Futurist's Manifesto: A Collection of Essays from the Bleeding Edge of Publishing by Hugh McGuire (On Amazon)

The Book: The Life Story of a Technology by Nicole Howard (On Amazon) This one sounds like something I would have read as an undergrad if I had taken History of the Book. 

The Handbook of Journal Publishing by Sally Morris (On Amazon) This one is a reference book. A how-to of Journal Publishing. Should be interesting. It touches on lots of topics that I'll end up taking full courses on. That's the best thing about a grad program! It's no longer about broad understanding. Can I get a hip-hip for depth?

Publishing for Profit: Successful Bottom-Line Management for Book Publishers by Thomas Woll (On Amazon) This is also a reference book but this one covers the business end of publishing. Not what I'm interested in, at all. We'd talked about that in my fiction editing class at BYU and I was just bored. I love to copy-edit. That's my fav.

These books sound interesting. I got an email from the program director today. He gave us a heads up about what to expect for the program. It was much anticipated information and I'm so glad he sent it to me. He said we can expect about 3-5 hours per class per week so I'm looking at max 10 hours a week. This is great news since I'll be working 30 hours per week and mainly in charge of William and the house.

Tyson has got a crazy semester ahead of him. He's taking Physical Molecular Chemistry and some other hard chemical engineering classes I don't remember. But he is also taking the L3 exam which he has to get 100% to graduate. No pressure, right? It's 25 questions, no time limit. They get three chances. The first time they get all 25 questions. The next time they only get the ones they missed and same with the last time. These questions are rumored to be hellish and I totally believe it. 

In good news, Tyson will be done with classes after Spring term in June. He's so close! That also means that he'll be able to keep working at his campus job until August after he graduates unless he (HOPEFULLY) has a real-life job somewhere else. By the time he finishes I'll be almost done with my 3rd term of grad school. Half-way done! June sounds to far away but it's totally not.

A while ago I wrote a post about us waiting to try for another kid until after my grad program. Well, this past week we thought about it some more and since Tyson's going to be in school until June we thought "Hey! Why not start thinking about it? Maybe it wouldn't be so bad!" I love my OB/GYN and I loved the hospital I delivered at so why not have another baby here in Utah? I talked to my grad program director to see what the schedule was like since we do classes in three semesters a year: I'm doing school for two straight years. The longest break I get is three weeks at the beginning of August. Geez. Three weeks and then back to school and work with a three-year old and a newborn?! That sounds nuts. We're not sold on the idea and we're not even sure if that's what the Lord wants for us. But we are open to the idea so I guess that's a step in the right direction. Who knows what will happen. 

I'd love to reach my goal weight before getting pregnant again. It would be so different being pregnant at a healthy starting weight. I think it would be much better in the long run. Healthier all around. 

But, like I said, we're not sold on the idea of another kid. Although every time William gets around a baby, he's so sweet and gentle. It's adorable. He's adorable. Don't get me wrong, he has his genuine boy moments which mortify me but that's the way it goes, right?