Some feeble attempt at an update...
I kinda suck at updating. I suck at a lot of things though soooo I don't know.
Every time I try to do this I just can't. I feel all... I don't know. I'm tired. I'm just tired. And I don't know. Whatever. I can't even explain it so whatever. Anyway... the point of this. When was my last update anyway? Forever ago.
Uh... so yeah. I guess the latest bit of news is I finally got my hair trimmed after over a year. Ha. That's exciting right? Yeaaaah. Valentine's Day was rather uneventful but that's pretty much because Colin got sick. He felt awful. He'd gone to the store to get things to make me dinner and just wasn't feeling well. He apologized and felt terrible about it, but I told him it really wasn't his fault. I ate at home with my parents and then went over there and we watched movies. He watched P.S. I Love You and Made of Honor without complaint since I'd taken him to see Friday the 13th the night before and he knows I don't like horror movies. He ended up liking P.S., but said it was too sad to watch ever again. He liked Made of Honor a lot. I was exhausted and fell asleep. I don't last too long on weekends anymore. By the end of the week I'm done.
Anyway, so this past Friday I learned that Georgian Court took away my financial aid for the semester because I'm only taking one class. I was a wreck. They wanted tuition by Monday. Where the hell could I come up with that money? Jen said it didn't matter because I was graduating in May even if she had to front some of the money herself. I told her I'd figure it out and though the gesture was very sweet, it's no one's responsibility but my own. I drove down to Georgian Court after work since they didn't return my phone call as to what I could do (if anything.) Colin came for moral support. I got down there and the financial aid counselor wouldn't even clear a chair for me to sit on. She said I need 6 credits to keep my financial aid. I have only 3. This information would have been nice about oh, I don't know, 2 months ago. So i just got upset and frustrated and she said there was nothing they could do but I could take out a private loan. Yeah, okay.
We left GCU and Colin took me to Casa Camida which was actually amazing for the first time in a while. Last few times I've gone it's been eh. This time it was exactly what I needed and I was happy.
Over the weekend I wasn't able to just give up and let it go. I couldn't just accept that there was nothing to be done so I started researching things myself and found some 10 week and 7 1/2 week courses. Of those, there were two I could possibly take. If I add one of those, I have 6 credits soooo... they can give me my financial aid back, right? So I decided to take Monday off of work to drive down to GCU again and talk to the fin. aid counselor since calling wouldn't do me much good. After getting down there she told me that yes, that would work. I wanted to tell her "Thanks for nothing... I had to figure this out on my own after YOU said there was nothing else I could do." But I figured it's better not to bite the hand that feeds, right? Right. Maybe. I went over to the English department then to speak to Sister Maria about which of the two courses I should add. I missed her by about 20 minutes. So I figured I'd head to the Education department and see one of the advisors there. On my way out though, I saw my old advisor's door open. She's now the Dean of the English department or some such. I thought about going in and then thought I'd give it a shot. Knocked on her door and told her I was very sorry to bother her, I know she's not my advisor anymore, but would she mind seeing me for a moment. She said not at all. So I explained the WHOOOOOLE sticky mess to her, even explaining my mom's heart attack in October and that money was really very tight for us and that this tuition really puts a strain on the family but I'm so painfully close to graduating that I just had to figure out a way to make this work. I told her about my efforts in finding a way around it and what my options were. She said that was great and gave me her full permission to add a course. So we talked about it and decided Human Geography is the way to go. Though not the most exciting course, it fills the need. She said that if I ran into any trouble at all I was to let her know. I told her I would and she said she meant it. Awesome... someone in my corner. It's kind of nice. Because the financial aid woman? Not so much in my corner. I finally left and drove home then found that I couldn't register because there are now two holds on my account. One for some loan exit survey thing I have to take and the other for tuition. I wasn't about to do the exit survey when I'm supposed to be getting my aid back, so I called and left a message about that first to find out if I should take it anyway or hold off since I'm supposed to get the aid again. After a few hours of not hearing anything, I decided to go ahead and call the bursar about the tuition. I explained that I lost my financial aid because I wasn't taking at least 6 credits. I told her that I was planning on adding a class to get the financial aid back but that I couldn't add the class because the block was up. The block was up because I haven't paid tuition. I haven't paid tuition because I can't and was counting on financial aid. I can't get financial aid because I need another class.... There's a hole in the bucket dear Liza. (If anyone even gets the reference...) So it's a vicious cycle. After explaining this WHOLE mess to her... she says "Well... We have a hold on your account because tuition is due." Did you NOT hear a word I just freaking said? I said "Right..." and explained everything. Again. She finally got it. Basically, after a lot of back and forth between the bursar, the registrar, and financial aid, I got both holds removed, but was told I had to come back down and manually register for the class. So I drove down there again and filled out the form and now I'm waiting for them to add the damn class. It's been two days. Nothing. So now if it's not up there by say 10 in the morning tomorrow, I'm calling and bitching. Because seriously? I can't take much more of this. It's ridiculous. Even once I am registered (if some unforeseen problem doesn't arise with that) I won't be able to breathe until I know that I'm covered financially... That I've gotten back enough aid to make the extra class worthwhile.
On the positive side... I got my observation back for work and during the conference I was told I'm continuing to do an amazing job and will be greatly missed when I land a teaching job. All I have to do... is actually land one. I can only hope for the best and bust my ass trying to find a job.
So. Aside from work, class, fighting with GCU, and babysitting... everything is mellow. Haha. I'm behind on my reading again because I haven't had the time or energy. By the time I sit down to read the book, I'm passing out before I finish a page. It's very furstrating. I work through the week and wait anxiously for the weekend to arrive and then the weekend brings a load of crap but isn't that usually the way? It's the same for everyone. You work through it and hope for the best. There's no promise it will get easier really. If I do land a teaching job, weekends will be filled with lesson planning and prep work for what I'm teaching. So I guess really this is my downtime. Exciting.
Every time I try to do this I just can't. I feel all... I don't know. I'm tired. I'm just tired. And I don't know. Whatever. I can't even explain it so whatever. Anyway... the point of this. When was my last update anyway? Forever ago.
Uh... so yeah. I guess the latest bit of news is I finally got my hair trimmed after over a year. Ha. That's exciting right? Yeaaaah. Valentine's Day was rather uneventful but that's pretty much because Colin got sick. He felt awful. He'd gone to the store to get things to make me dinner and just wasn't feeling well. He apologized and felt terrible about it, but I told him it really wasn't his fault. I ate at home with my parents and then went over there and we watched movies. He watched P.S. I Love You and Made of Honor without complaint since I'd taken him to see Friday the 13th the night before and he knows I don't like horror movies. He ended up liking P.S., but said it was too sad to watch ever again. He liked Made of Honor a lot. I was exhausted and fell asleep. I don't last too long on weekends anymore. By the end of the week I'm done.
Anyway, so this past Friday I learned that Georgian Court took away my financial aid for the semester because I'm only taking one class. I was a wreck. They wanted tuition by Monday. Where the hell could I come up with that money? Jen said it didn't matter because I was graduating in May even if she had to front some of the money herself. I told her I'd figure it out and though the gesture was very sweet, it's no one's responsibility but my own. I drove down to Georgian Court after work since they didn't return my phone call as to what I could do (if anything.) Colin came for moral support. I got down there and the financial aid counselor wouldn't even clear a chair for me to sit on. She said I need 6 credits to keep my financial aid. I have only 3. This information would have been nice about oh, I don't know, 2 months ago. So i just got upset and frustrated and she said there was nothing they could do but I could take out a private loan. Yeah, okay.
We left GCU and Colin took me to Casa Camida which was actually amazing for the first time in a while. Last few times I've gone it's been eh. This time it was exactly what I needed and I was happy.
Over the weekend I wasn't able to just give up and let it go. I couldn't just accept that there was nothing to be done so I started researching things myself and found some 10 week and 7 1/2 week courses. Of those, there were two I could possibly take. If I add one of those, I have 6 credits soooo... they can give me my financial aid back, right? So I decided to take Monday off of work to drive down to GCU again and talk to the fin. aid counselor since calling wouldn't do me much good. After getting down there she told me that yes, that would work. I wanted to tell her "Thanks for nothing... I had to figure this out on my own after YOU said there was nothing else I could do." But I figured it's better not to bite the hand that feeds, right? Right. Maybe. I went over to the English department then to speak to Sister Maria about which of the two courses I should add. I missed her by about 20 minutes. So I figured I'd head to the Education department and see one of the advisors there. On my way out though, I saw my old advisor's door open. She's now the Dean of the English department or some such. I thought about going in and then thought I'd give it a shot. Knocked on her door and told her I was very sorry to bother her, I know she's not my advisor anymore, but would she mind seeing me for a moment. She said not at all. So I explained the WHOOOOOLE sticky mess to her, even explaining my mom's heart attack in October and that money was really very tight for us and that this tuition really puts a strain on the family but I'm so painfully close to graduating that I just had to figure out a way to make this work. I told her about my efforts in finding a way around it and what my options were. She said that was great and gave me her full permission to add a course. So we talked about it and decided Human Geography is the way to go. Though not the most exciting course, it fills the need. She said that if I ran into any trouble at all I was to let her know. I told her I would and she said she meant it. Awesome... someone in my corner. It's kind of nice. Because the financial aid woman? Not so much in my corner. I finally left and drove home then found that I couldn't register because there are now two holds on my account. One for some loan exit survey thing I have to take and the other for tuition. I wasn't about to do the exit survey when I'm supposed to be getting my aid back, so I called and left a message about that first to find out if I should take it anyway or hold off since I'm supposed to get the aid again. After a few hours of not hearing anything, I decided to go ahead and call the bursar about the tuition. I explained that I lost my financial aid because I wasn't taking at least 6 credits. I told her that I was planning on adding a class to get the financial aid back but that I couldn't add the class because the block was up. The block was up because I haven't paid tuition. I haven't paid tuition because I can't and was counting on financial aid. I can't get financial aid because I need another class.... There's a hole in the bucket dear Liza. (If anyone even gets the reference...) So it's a vicious cycle. After explaining this WHOLE mess to her... she says "Well... We have a hold on your account because tuition is due." Did you NOT hear a word I just freaking said? I said "Right..." and explained everything. Again. She finally got it. Basically, after a lot of back and forth between the bursar, the registrar, and financial aid, I got both holds removed, but was told I had to come back down and manually register for the class. So I drove down there again and filled out the form and now I'm waiting for them to add the damn class. It's been two days. Nothing. So now if it's not up there by say 10 in the morning tomorrow, I'm calling and bitching. Because seriously? I can't take much more of this. It's ridiculous. Even once I am registered (if some unforeseen problem doesn't arise with that) I won't be able to breathe until I know that I'm covered financially... That I've gotten back enough aid to make the extra class worthwhile.
On the positive side... I got my observation back for work and during the conference I was told I'm continuing to do an amazing job and will be greatly missed when I land a teaching job. All I have to do... is actually land one. I can only hope for the best and bust my ass trying to find a job.
So. Aside from work, class, fighting with GCU, and babysitting... everything is mellow. Haha. I'm behind on my reading again because I haven't had the time or energy. By the time I sit down to read the book, I'm passing out before I finish a page. It's very furstrating. I work through the week and wait anxiously for the weekend to arrive and then the weekend brings a load of crap but isn't that usually the way? It's the same for everyone. You work through it and hope for the best. There's no promise it will get easier really. If I do land a teaching job, weekends will be filled with lesson planning and prep work for what I'm teaching. So I guess really this is my downtime. Exciting.