Memory What?

The pro is still in class. The teacher let her back in, which was nice. But she has no idea that people know how she makes a living. If she did know, I don't think she would do or say the things she does. For example, she's pretty quiet in class unless the teacher mentions motels or venereal diseases and infections and what not, and then she shares her opinion. Like once the teacher was like, "What are some of the symptoms of a urinary tract infection?" And of course, I know that anyone can get an infection, regardless of what kind of activity you got going on down there, but it's still funny... she raised her hand and was like "Ooh ooh! I know! There's like all this yeasty puss and blood and stuff. And you get bumps and it burns so bad when you pee." She named a few other things, and I think only like half the symptoms she named were indeed symptoms of urinary tract infections. The teacher kinda looked at her confused and shocked by the barrage of non-symptoms, and a lot of the other girls tried to stifle their laughter, to no avail.

And then another day at break she was showing everyone all the numerous bruises she had, and a girl asked her how she got them, and she said that she was just real clumsy. Everyone was like, "Yeah, right, that's what they all say." And everyone laughed and she denied that her boyfriend beat her up, but she didn't realize they weren't talking about her boyfriend... they were giving her a hard time because they assumed that her pimp was beating her up.

So, there's another woman in the class. Let's call her Mama Butch. She has this bossy alpha male energy about her. She loves ordering everyone around and telling people what to do, but half the time she's wrong. Her little chickens that she's taken under her wing are the only ones who flunk the teacher's tests because she tells them incorrect information. Anyway, one day I was feeling unmotivated and asked if anyone wanted to be my study partner. She was the only one who took me up on it (which I found odd since I'm the only one who ever turns her homework in on time). Everyone else had somewhere to go.

Anyway, me and Mama Butch studied for about two hours, and when we were done she looked at me and said, "You need to take me to the train station. Thank you." Her presumptuousness shocked me. And a million things went through my head, most of them very unkind, but I bit my tongue. I'll save the lecture and tongue-lashing for another day. I gave her a ride to the station.

I know it sounds like I'm a little punk bitch, but I've just kinda gotten used to that question as a statement thing here. On the first day of school, the girl behind me said, "Paper." And she stuck her palm out, expecting me to give it to her. And then after class, a dude who wasn't in my class and I'd never even seen before walked up to me and said, "Phone." And he stuck his palm out. I made him give me a complete sentence before I handed it over, though. "Excuse me? What about my phone?" "I need it." "Need what?" "Can I borrow your phone?" And then I almost said/prompted a please, but let it pass.

I don't know if this is the way a lot of these younguns communicate these days or if they just peg me for a sucker. I have always obliged, but it's mostly because I'm so tickled by their rudeness. I want to inspect them and glean more information about them, what makes them tick. What in the world could have shaped them to be the rude individuals they are today. They kinda fascinate me. I want to see if they're part retarded or something.

In other news, this program is going SOOO slow. The thought of devoting three more years to this makes me want to cry. But I have the discipline to push myself through it. What I don't have, I fear, is the memory! I don't know if I've drank one too many glasses of wine, but my memory has really gone down the shitter in the last few years. I spent all of last summer studying conversions (from cups to liters, etcetera), and I was looking at a conversion chart again today because I couldn't remember anything from my course, and it all seemed so new to me! And that seems to be a bad thing for a nurse to have- bad memory. I might stop schooling after the CNA program.