Out of My Mind

I’ve just spent the last hour on the phone.  Why?  Because not only is my financial aid messed up (again!!!) but the payment for our truck that i mailed out oh, nearly 3 weeks ago, never cleared.  So, yeah, I’m a tad frustrated right now.

I got a disclosure statement the other day for my student loans for the upcoming year.  It listed my subsidized loans, but had nothing for the unsubsidized that I had accepted.  And the subsidized is not enough to pay my tuition and fees, so I was a little worried.  Thankfully, when I called the direct loan dept., they had record of it and said it should be dispursed with my subsidized.  To be fair, there is a little blurb on my disclosure statement that says actual dates and amounts for dispursement may be different, but there was no way I was leaving that up to chance.  I’m still not 100% confident that it will all go smoothly, just because of the way WSU screwed everything up last semester with my financial aid, but as long as everybody has the same amounts, I’m hoping it will all be good.

And can’t forget the stupid truck.  I mailed out the payment on July 14th and my check still hasn’t cleared.  It’s only going to Grand Rapids, so they definitely should have gotten and cleared it by now.  WHen I called, the rep said they showed a payment of five hundred and some dollars posted for the july payment.  Well, that’s about 200 bucks more than my payment.  There was no record of the payment I sent in.  SHe said it’s possible that the payment got mixed up with somebody who’s account number is similar to ours since it’s all done by computer and that she’ll have the accounting department look into it and call me back later today.  I hope they can get it figured out, because I made the flippin payment!   Grrr.

4.0 for the semester, baby!  For my Info Tech class, an A is 940-1000.  I got 947.25.  Just barely an A, but an A is an A and I’ll take it!  What a nice way to end my first semester.  Hopefully, I can keep it up!

I got my score back on my final.  81/100.  Not terrific, but not terrible.  Now I am just waiting for the grad assistant to update the last two grades.  One is for an Access assignment worth 50 points and the other is for participation worth 100 points.  Out of the 150 points left, I need to get 137 to get an A in the class.  It’s definitely doable.  But all I can do is sit and wait to find out.  I’m not good at sitting and waiting.  I wish she’d hurry the heck up!

Last night, I was talking to the hubby, trying to figure out exactly what I needed to get on the final in order to get an A in my Intro to Technology class.  I already have an A in my Intro to the Information Profession (Woohoo!!!!).  Yes, I would love to have a nice 4.0 for my semester.  Yes, I would love to graduate next year with a 4.0.  That would be fantabulous.  Does that really make me a nerd, or just ambitious?

I took my final this morning, and it wasn’t too bad.  I highly doubt I will get anything less than a 75/100 on it, and that’s being pessimistic.  I would be happy with a 90 like I got on my midterm.  There were a few question I was kind of iffy on, so I know I didn’t get a perfect score, but I think I did well.  It’s waiting to be graded, so of course I’m on pins and needles.  And I can’t remember how long it took for the midterm to be graded.  Which means I’ll be checking in every half hour or so to see if the stupid thing has been graded yet.  Okay, maybe that makes me a nerd.

I submitted my portfolio (after some trial and error) for my LIS 6010 class.  I am officially done with that one.  I have to take my final for my 6080 class by Thursday night, so I am currently going through 6 chapters of my computer concepts book, studying and making a cheat sheet (It’s allowed!  I swear!).  I should have started this last week, but there was just too much other junk going on.  Once I take the final, I have a little over a month off before the fall semester starts up.  Woohoo!  Can’t wait!  I’ll actually have time to crochet and read for pleasure again!

For one of my assignments in my Information Technology class, we had to create a webpage, hand coding the entire thing from Notepad.  No shortcuts!  I was dreading it at first, but actually ended up kind of enjoying the whole thing.  It was easy to get sucked in with all the experimentation with fonts and colors and effects and getting everything just so.  It’s pretty much just assignments and a resume for that class, but you can check it out Here

Then I could transport myself three weeks into the future and be done with this stupid semester.  I have to do a web page for one of my classes, complete with links to all our assignments.  I added everything to my assingments folder, transferred it over and now my stupid links don’t work!  They work from my index page, but not online.  ARRRRRRGGGGHHH!  Of  course this all comes after what should have been a relatively easy group assignment turned into frustration-fest 2008.  We did finally get it all figured out, but damn, it was a major pain in the ass!

In three little old weeks, I’ll be done with the semester and have a month off before I have to go back for the fall semester.  Yes, the fall semester that I was insane enough to sign up for three classes, just so that I can try and be done with all my classes by August 2009.  Who knows, by then, I might be comfortably residing in the looney bin.  It’s sounding good right about now.

I’m sure I probably posted previously about having to take the PowerPoint 2007 certification test for one of my classes.  I was worried because my prof said that it would be very difficult and the first few people that took it didn’t pass.  Well, I took it on June 28 and passed with a darn good score.  But today, I am officially cool.  I got a certificate signed by the one and only Bill Gates saying that I am now PowerPoint 2007 certified.  Okay, it’s a computer generated signature on a silly little little award template, but hey, it still says I passed and has the man’s name on it.

I’m such a dork.

At least once a day, I think, damn, I should update my blog.  Then I get sucked into the homework vortex or the cat starts attacking Sebastian or the hummous in the fridge starts calling my name.  But I’m still here, somewhat sane and still kicking.  So let’s get to some updatery:

School:

I have less than a month left of this semester.  My group project is pretty much finished after much hassle, thank goodness.  I still have a buttload of stuff to do in the next few weeks, but it should be manageable.  I managed to get another class for the fall, an online one for that matter, so I will be taking 3 classes.  Should be interesting.  I’d like to see about getting some part time work in a local library once Seb is back in school in the fall, but I don’t know if I can manage it with the courseload I’ll have and the hubby’s schedule and Seb.  We’ll see.  But I need to get some experience, even if it’s just shelving books and checking out books.  I really want to get a foot in the door somewhere.

Sebastian:

He was promoted to the third grade.  Woohoo!  I wasn’t tooooo worried, because bookwise, he’s such a little smartypants, but with all the behavior issues, eh, I was a tad worried.  I’ve been talking to him a lot this summer about how he’s 8 years old now and going into the third grade.  His teacher is not going to tolerate the silliness and weirdness, so he needs to act like a big third grader.  I think having him in karate through the summer will help.  When his behavior starts to slip while we are there, I talk with him and try and get him back on track.  Big News!!!  Seb can now ride a two-wheeler!  He pretty much picked it up in one weekend.  We went two weekends ago and he was kinda getting it, but then he had a big wipeout and was done.  We went the following Saturday and he just got it!  So on Sunday, we went for a family bikeride of about 3 and half miles.  He still has some troubles starting off, especially if it’s uphill, but for the most part he’s got it.  I’m really proud of him.  Now he’s talking about getting a new bike.  Big surprise there!

Mother-in-law:

She’s currently doing rehab after having her leg amputated below the knee.  We went and saw her over father’s day weekend, and she looked okay then.  I talked with my SIL the other day and they said they had removed a few stitches, but had to put her on antibiotics because there was some infection.  Not too big of a surprise with her diabetes.  There has been some talk of her coming home soon, but since they are still using the lift to get her in and out of bed and she’s not really allowed to do too much on her own, I don’t see how that’s going to happen.  And there’s no way my FIL can take care of her properly.  I hate to say it, but I have a feeling it’s going to be like Grandma Ski.  Once she’s there, she’s there to stay.  But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Weightloss:

I’ve actually gained back two stupid pounds. I recognize that I’m eating like crap, but can’t seem to stop myself.  We are going to start picking up some extra days of karate now that we pretty much have the basics down.  Not sure when we’ll get to test for our yellow belt.  Hopefully by the end of summer.  I’m tired of being a white belt!  Plus, now that Seb can ride a bike without training wheels, we can go for bikerides together, too.  I have a wedding to go to in just over three weeks and I’d like to lose 10 pounds by then, since I need to buy a new dress.  Don’t know if it’ll be possible.  I’m going to have to be a lot stricter with my diet.  It probably doesn’t help that we are leaving tomorrow to go to Gary and Sharon’s for the fourth of July weekend and I know I’ll eat too much while there.  Control, Erin.  Got to have control.

I suppose that it for right now.  I really am going to try and be better about posting…

and nowhere near enought time to get it all done.  Last night, I thought I was going to have a minor panic attack!  Everyone else was in bed and I was sitting on the couch, watching tv and thought, "Why am I just sitting here?  I have so much shit to do and I am just sitting here!!"  Actually, I am pretty much all caught up for this week, but I have so much to do in the next few weeks before the semester ends and I am starting to freak out about it all.  Assignments, group projects, interviewing librarians, finding someone to watch Sebastian so I can actually go interview said librarians, karate, art class, family junk, grocery shopping, banking, laundry…

I’m just a tad overwhelmed right now.  Can you tell?  The stress is definitely getting to me.  I find myself eating more than I should, just to try and sooth myself.  And karate class two days a week isn’t going to be able to counteract the increased amount of junk I am putting into my body.  My two greatest weaknesses?  Hummous with garlic and herb pita chips and Weight Watchers giant fudge bars.  Not together, mind you, but still.  It seems like if I’m not munching on one, then I’m shoving the other down my throat.  I think I need help.  Or more booze.