Rocks fall; everyone dies.
This story does not yet have a happy ending.
Let's get the ending out of the way first. I am not enrolled in any law school classes. I don't know yet what that means about my financial status, but I have borrowed a lot of money from the government, and I not excited to start paying it back on Monday.
So, if you've been following closely, you know that I've been having problems tracking down my immunization records for my school's health center. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email that I had a block on my records, and that if I didn't clear it by 5:00 today I would be dropped from my classes. This was a surprise to me because I had given my doctor permission to send along all medical information back in August and had assumed that they had done so.
So I've been spending the better part of the past two weeks trying to track down these records, and figure out where they went. This problem was compounded by the fact that I did not have my immunization records. I called all of my old pcps and schools, but they didn't have those records.
(Fun fact: today I got phone calls from my pediatrician AND my undergrad school health center saying that they DO have my records, but they're in deep storage and will take a while to extricate.)
My current doctor had done titer tests, and I finally convinced her to send those along to my health center in lieu of my immunization records. This was on Tuesday. They put it in the mail, and faxed it. On Wednesday, I checked and my Student Health Center had NOT received any fax. By Thursday, I was officially panicked, and started having them fax the records to every possible fax machine I could find. Nothing worked.
Today, the nurse figured out the problem. Their fax machine didn't recognize the area code of my current location. So I had her fax my father the copy of the forms, and he faxed the school from his office. The medical records office received them. Yay?
Not so fast. Because the titer test reveled low antibodies on two diseases (polio and measles), I had to go into the health center today to get booster vaccines. I begged a friend for a ride, which he graciously gave me - via the use of another person's car. It was all legal, but it was weird. And the car was a Jaguar. I got my vaccines. I went down to Medical Records, shook hands with all the nice ladies there (holy god, they were nice enough to put up with me SOBBING on the phone this morning), promised them pie, and watched as they lifted the medical hold on my account. This was around 4:00 today.
Full of life and happiness, I walked briskly home, a half an hour journey. When I got home I opened my email and found several notices that I was unenrolled from my classes and no longer a law student.
Frantic, I called everyone I could think of. The Medical office assured me that they had lifted the hold. The Registrar's office could not tell me why I was dropped. The financial aid office was equally unhelpful. And by that point, it was 5:00 on a Saturday and everyone left.
I really had only one card left to play, and it's one I dislike playing. I have the uncanny ability to get people on my side. I don't know where it comes from, and I hate doing it because it makes me feel like a manipulative bitch. But sometimes, you've got to lay on the smarm. I've emailed the law school's financial aid officer, who has promised to help me on Monday. I've emailed all my professors, one of whom has already emailed me back saying that if they give me any trouble in getting back into his class, that I should go to him and he can fix it.
This weekend is going to suck. I can't relax and I have so much work to do. I had to cancel a meeting with my trial partner today because I was running back and forth between various buildings. My roomate is having a potluck and I was supposed to cook my nana's macaroni and cheese, but I couldn't. I'm too upset to go to the party.
I'm not going to drink. I've already stress eaten a box of cookies and a lot of bread. And soup. I'm not going to the hockey game I was supposed to go to tonight because I really don't want to leave my room. I'm doing laundry, cleaning my room, and watching Buffy. Maybe I'll do some law school work, applications for pro bono work, typing up my class notes, and reading for next week. If I can't relax, at least I can get work done.
The takeaways? Do everything as early as possible. Never trust fax machines. If an important form needs to be sent in, make sure you see it gets where it needs to go. And above all, university systems are complicated and difficult - make friends with the people who know the backdoors.
Let's get the ending out of the way first. I am not enrolled in any law school classes. I don't know yet what that means about my financial status, but I have borrowed a lot of money from the government, and I not excited to start paying it back on Monday.
So, if you've been following closely, you know that I've been having problems tracking down my immunization records for my school's health center. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email that I had a block on my records, and that if I didn't clear it by 5:00 today I would be dropped from my classes. This was a surprise to me because I had given my doctor permission to send along all medical information back in August and had assumed that they had done so.
So I've been spending the better part of the past two weeks trying to track down these records, and figure out where they went. This problem was compounded by the fact that I did not have my immunization records. I called all of my old pcps and schools, but they didn't have those records.
(Fun fact: today I got phone calls from my pediatrician AND my undergrad school health center saying that they DO have my records, but they're in deep storage and will take a while to extricate.)
My current doctor had done titer tests, and I finally convinced her to send those along to my health center in lieu of my immunization records. This was on Tuesday. They put it in the mail, and faxed it. On Wednesday, I checked and my Student Health Center had NOT received any fax. By Thursday, I was officially panicked, and started having them fax the records to every possible fax machine I could find. Nothing worked.
Today, the nurse figured out the problem. Their fax machine didn't recognize the area code of my current location. So I had her fax my father the copy of the forms, and he faxed the school from his office. The medical records office received them. Yay?
Not so fast. Because the titer test reveled low antibodies on two diseases (polio and measles), I had to go into the health center today to get booster vaccines. I begged a friend for a ride, which he graciously gave me - via the use of another person's car. It was all legal, but it was weird. And the car was a Jaguar. I got my vaccines. I went down to Medical Records, shook hands with all the nice ladies there (holy god, they were nice enough to put up with me SOBBING on the phone this morning), promised them pie, and watched as they lifted the medical hold on my account. This was around 4:00 today.
Full of life and happiness, I walked briskly home, a half an hour journey. When I got home I opened my email and found several notices that I was unenrolled from my classes and no longer a law student.
Frantic, I called everyone I could think of. The Medical office assured me that they had lifted the hold. The Registrar's office could not tell me why I was dropped. The financial aid office was equally unhelpful. And by that point, it was 5:00 on a Saturday and everyone left.
I really had only one card left to play, and it's one I dislike playing. I have the uncanny ability to get people on my side. I don't know where it comes from, and I hate doing it because it makes me feel like a manipulative bitch. But sometimes, you've got to lay on the smarm. I've emailed the law school's financial aid officer, who has promised to help me on Monday. I've emailed all my professors, one of whom has already emailed me back saying that if they give me any trouble in getting back into his class, that I should go to him and he can fix it.
This weekend is going to suck. I can't relax and I have so much work to do. I had to cancel a meeting with my trial partner today because I was running back and forth between various buildings. My roomate is having a potluck and I was supposed to cook my nana's macaroni and cheese, but I couldn't. I'm too upset to go to the party.
I'm not going to drink. I've already stress eaten a box of cookies and a lot of bread. And soup. I'm not going to the hockey game I was supposed to go to tonight because I really don't want to leave my room. I'm doing laundry, cleaning my room, and watching Buffy. Maybe I'll do some law school work, applications for pro bono work, typing up my class notes, and reading for next week. If I can't relax, at least I can get work done.
The takeaways? Do everything as early as possible. Never trust fax machines. If an important form needs to be sent in, make sure you see it gets where it needs to go. And above all, university systems are complicated and difficult - make friends with the people who know the backdoors.