Little known fact number 1: the child care program at our State college is ridiculously good and about a third the cost of other programs for kiddos under 3.

Little known fact number 2: Student loans are defered when the student is in school at least half time. (Saving me $$$$ every month.)

Little known fact number 3: My State college now has an environmental science major, and therefore offers classes such as Environmental regulation and Water Law.

Guess who is going back to school??

That’s right! Your favorite motherly lawyer is plopping her ass back in the hard, tiny seats of her undergrad alma mater. Of course, as I am now dealing with a State Subsidized institution and not a private university, there were some roadblocks along the way.

To begin with; the school tried to tell me I was an out of state student because I had not been physically present in the State of Colorado for the preceding 12 months. Sadly for the poor woman in the “hotseat” she was not dealing with a 20 year old undergrad student, but instead was trying to explain this to an attorney who spent the better part of a month in Civ. Pro. learning about Domicile and Animo Menendi. (I had to latin you up a little, it means “intent to remain”.) I calmly explained to her that I met almost all the suggested statutory qualifications for in-state tuition, and that the legislature itself had mentioned that lack of physical presence for the whole preceding 12 months did not automatically disqualify a student for in-state tuition. Not too surprisingly, she sent me to the assistant registrar who said she would call later in the day.

Today she told me she was 99% sure I could qualify for in state tuition, and that she would have the issue resolved today or tomorrow. So it looks as though I am headed back into the classroom after all. I signed up to take a Water Law course that looks really entertaining and educational. I could take a water law course from DU, but sadly the cost of admission is higer than the whole semeter’s worth of loan payments so it defeats the purpose of defering my loan payments.

My second snag was a small one, the Water Law course had a few pre-requisites. I emailed the professor and asked if a J.D. could be subsitituted for the pre-req’s. He let me in the class and welcomed me in a very kind email.

My final snag was the aforementioned child care. It would seem that the center is currently full, and in order to get in I will have to call, every day, to see if a spot has opened up, as they have no waiting list. Hopefully I will get him in there soon. If I get a job offer next week daycare will be a huge issue for us. Of course, if I get a job next week I won’t be in the water law class, but I will keep my rock climbing class to keep my daycare benefits. (I know, rock climbing is a seriously cool class.)

I think this semester may be the beginning of my lifetime learning goal. My dad had a friend at the paper who used to take a class a semester just to get the daycare for his son. I am thinking the wisdom in that is apparent. I could quite happily take a class a semester for the rest of my life!!

So it’s likely back to college for me, though this time without the pesky required classes and degree seeking pressure.