Guiliana & Bill UPDATE (Spoiler alert) and Day 1 of CFP Cram Class

Hello my lovlies...I'm breathing, so far anyway.  First we'll start with the latest Guiliana & Bill, then move on to my first day.

I watched Guiliana & Bill on Tuesday during my lunch, sans J because he wasn't home, nor was he in the same city.  He was actually in Phoenix for a class for his work (and now I am in Phoenix for my classes).  Anyway, I watched but didn't delete so he could see the end.  Anyway, mostly the show talks about the new house they bought that is a complete shell and needs a complete overhaul and how Guiliana can't participate with Bill and the contractor and the interior designer because she doesn't know the language, plus a new endeavor Guiliana is involved in.  Blah, blah, blah.  About minute 54 of the hour show, they finally get to the infertility party.  Guiliana says she doesn't feel well while at lunch with a friend, and then the next thing we know G&B are at the doc's office and the door is shut.  End result, they have lost the baby and G&B are devastated.

I've never been in that situation so I won't even pretend that I even kind of understand that kind of pain.  To have been pregnant and to not be anymore seems unbearable.  I'll be very interested to see how next week's show goes and how they recover and heal from this very sad situation.  I feel for them and am hoping that this all works out for them, just like I hope it will work out for us.

Okay, now on to how my first cram day went.  Don't know that I'll be able to write every night, but I have the time tonight.  I won't say I was nervous this morning because of the class, because I knew that today wasn't the test, but I was interested to see how the day would progress.  Got in right on time and the other students were already there...both of them.  Yes, this is a class of 3, possibly 4.  There are classes all across the country for this test, but this is the only one in Arizona.  I looked at all of them, their costs, our costs (for hotel/airline/etc), and how much personal attention I would get.  After a lot of emails to each of the companies, I fell on this one because it was close to home and was a small class giving me more personal attention, which is what I felt I needed most (and which I have already utilized a lot!).  So when I walked in today and there were 2 other students, both of them men, I didn't know how to feel.  This class would have a max of 10 people, but apparently no one told them that.

Class got underway and it was slow going to start...lots of questions from the other participants and not very much forward progress.  About lunch I began to get worried because we hadn't progressed to even the first chapter of work that was on the schedule.  We broke for lunch and I bolted to get something (as there was nothing right at the school) so found a Chick-fil-A not far away and got back to class just about 5 minutes before class began again.  Crammed my sandwich and salad (had asked my nutritionist if I could have fries, and I got shot down!) down my throat and headed back to class pretty much still chewing.  We jumped right in, even though one of the participants was still MIA, his fault, not ours.  Finally started to make some progress, but still a lot of questions.  Finally came out that the guy (probably my age - says he has 2 new babies, but no wedding ring on) who had been asking so many questions had been working on the CFP for 6 years (I've been on it for about 2.5 years) and had spent a grand total of 3 hours with the books that I have been plastered to for the last 2.5 months!  Now it makes sense why he has SOOOOOO many questions, he doesn't know the material.  At least there is one person in the world that I know more than!  The other guy, a little bit of an older guy works for the government and again, hasn't spent all that much time with the material.  Person number 2 that I maybe know a little more than.  Can't we just grade me on how good I do in this class as compared to the other 2 participants?!  I'd pass with flying colors!

Anyway, wrapped up class not too far off base, and walked out with the professor.  Bantered back and forth a bit about the students, my questions, my qualms, and he said I need to have more faith in me because he isn't worried about me passing all.  I'll be okay if I can not stress out DURING the test - a feat that I would love to do.  Prof said that he knows a guy who has taken this test 15 times!  15  times!  He would just over analyze things and not get through the test.  Also told us about a guy who took the test 5 times because he got so stressed out when it came to testing, and only passed it the last time because his doc prescribed a relaxation medication.  And the last story I'll recount to you was the guy who went through the whole test and never marked an answer on the scantron sheet (only put his answer in the margin) and when he was told time up, just put a big dark line through one whole column of letters and left for the day.  Next day at the test, you can bet he didn't do that again, and amazingly enough, he passed!  Must have rocked the last 2 sections and had God on his side on day 1.  And final statistic before I log off for the night, the last test that was taken in July had a 43% pass rate!  43%!  Holy cow!  That has to be the LOWEST ever.  Could be a good thing for me in that the Board makes the test a bit easier so their average goes up, or bad in that the Board is happy with that statistic and they keep it the same. 

And last follow-up...well, almost.  In response to my question of where my readers are, I had a couple responses and I'm being read in my city by people other than my friends (YAY!), Milwaukee, Canada, England and South Africa, among other places where my friends live.  That is awesome!  Thanks folks for reading.  You rock my world!

Hopefully talk to you folks tomorrow!  Have a great day!