Monday, June 30, 2008

School Stress

Today has been extremely productive in non-productive ways.

I have to start Summer School at Boise State in a few weeks so I have been looking into how I am going to pay the $900 bill for that. When I logged into my school account a while ago, I noticed they have billed me for the classes I need to take in the Fall as well, another $1200. Beh. I hate money stuff.

It isn't even an issue of whether I can pay the bills or not, I can, I just don't want to. I have been doing well as far as saving money goes and I have finally gotten a small nest egg set aside. Now, it looks like I will be cracking open that nest egg and throwing it in the frying pan to pay for school. What irritates me is how the payments and loans are structured. I called my bank today to see about possibly getting a student loan so that I don't have to drain what I saved up. Since I am not going full-time or even half-time, I don't qualify for any type of loan they could give me. I then found another company that is an offshoot of my bank that enables you to do a series of monthly tuition payments. This place would have been great, except BSU does not allow for that payment plan because they have their own in-house plan they offer.

BSU's in-house plan sucks. Basically, you have to pay off your bill in three payments. For me, that is three payments of $400 for three months in a row. This will also be right after me paying a lump sum of $880 for Summer School because BSU doesn't allow for any special payment plan other than charging it to your credit card or writing a big check. I refuse to use my credit card for this.

My parents said they would help me but I don't really want to take their money. I just don't really want to blow all of mine either. Other school stuff has been bugging me too.

For starters, in the Fall I have one class that lasts the whole semester and starts at 3:40PM. This will not be a big deal unless, I get lucky and land a teaching job for the Fall. If I land a teaching job, I have my doubts as to whether or not I could make a 3:40 class without being late. This means I will have to do some sort of bargaining with the professor to see if I can show up late or make up time or something. You would think that a Special Ed professor would be willing to make these concessions for someone who is teaching Special Ed but I know if I was a prof, I would be pissed if a student asked me if it would be ok to be late to almost every class. Oh yeah, this specific class, I have to get special permission from the professor to take because I don't meet the prerequisites for the class because the prerequisites did not exist when I graduated with my degree. Lastly, if the professor for some stupid reason says he won't give me permission to take the class, that will change my bill for tuition for the Fall so I am hesitant to make any payments on the Fall until I know I am in that class. Then if he says he won't budge on me being late if I get a teaching job, that will change things too.

The other thing that bugs me is that I have to take a math test to get the Special Ed certification. What would happen if I take all of these classes and spend this money, only to fail the math test and have it all be for nothing. Even if I pass all of the Special Ed classes with flying colors, if I fail this math test, I can't get certified to teach Special Ed...which has absolutely nothing to do with math.

For once in my life, I have the grades and the financial means to do what I want but I want to keep some of that money around. I like the fact that I can save a bit, though it isn't much. I know I should think to the future when once I have this certification, I will have a job pretty much where ever I want one and I will have job security due to the demand. It is just hard to see that now because of all of the stress that this amount of uncertainty is causing me.

Friday, June 27, 2008

-$75.00

Note to self: Stop at stop signs when there is a cop car parked next to them.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Long Time No See

Tonight was kind of funny. Somehow, someway, I was kind of drafted to help with my class's ten year reunion. I have been against this whole reunion business since day one but after tonight, I might be having a change of heart.

A small group of planners met at a pizza place here in town and discussed what we all wanted to do for the event. It was actually a good time. My old friend Kendall was there and so were a couple of other people that I remembered. As I was sitting there tonight, Kendall crept up on me and put me in a headlock. While not a fan of the headlock, I did like the camaraderie and sense of belonging to a group. Maybe that is what this whole reunion business is for.

So after it was all said and done, Kendall and I got put in charge of music and booze for the event and I was also recruited to help with the finding of people. All of the rest of the people that showed up were Mormons and that meant that Kendall and I were obvious choices to handle the booze. I think this stressed Kendall a bit but after I told him that even if we screw it all up, there will probably only be fifty people angry at us seeing the rest wouldn't be drinking anyway, he lightened up a tad.

After the meet, Kendall came over to visit for a while and have a couple of beers. We then went out to eat at Merrits. I really kind of felt like being in high school again. It was kind of cool.

In other news, today marks the last day of me officially doing stuff to get a teaching job. All of my applications have been submitted and all of my screening interviews taken and passed. All that is left now is to wait and hope an opening comes open. I also met with the second in charge of Meridian's special ed program and talked with her for a few minutes about me being available for a position in case they do not have enough Special Ed teachers to fill the vacancies. She seemed pretty positive and so maybe, just maybe, I will get into a teaching job this Fall. I hope so. I am hinging a lot of stuff on that, like getting a house.

Other than that, not a ton of stuff to report. I have been fairly busy lately and haven't been doing a lot of super fun stuff. This weekend looks more promising for that though.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

My Weekend Age Regression Trip

On Thursday I took a roadtrip. I love roadtrips, but Thursday's trip was one I haven't taken in ten years; a trip to my cousin's in Washington with my parents. One of my cousins was graduating from high school so we decided to show up and be part of the cheering section.

As a general rule, taking roadtrips with my parents isn't something that I do very often these days. But thanks to gas being as ungodly expensive as it is, I decided to have parent-son bonding time. All in all, it went pretty well. I sat in the backseat and listened to my iPod and read magazines along the way; just like I was ten years old again. It was pretty funny, not a ton has changed since I was ten...be that good or bad.

The one thing that drives me nuts about traveling with my mom and dad is how slow they choose to traverse the American highway system. From Boise to my cousin's place takes at the very maximum, eight hours, max. My parents decided it takes two days and a stop at some random Indian casino along the way. Have I ever mentioned I hate casinos? Now, just because I despise gambling establishments does not mean that I won't take money from them and that is just what I did. I sat down at the poker table and walked away with forty bucks. I like poker, regardless of the location of the tables I choose to take down.

The next day we embarked on the second leg of the trip and made it to Washington. Once at our destination we hooked up with my brother and his wife and my cousins. I haven't been to their house in years and had all of my family around me. It was nice. My cousin's graduation went nicely and we all played a lot of Wii. I also got to shoot a beefy, Rambo-esque compound bow. That was also fun.

Tomorrow, I travel with my brother and his wife back to Boise. This whole weekend has been so funny and now it ends with a trip with my brother. I feel very young right now and I think that is good.