Wait, which day is it?

Switching to third shift again has left me with a dilemma I completely forgot from previous experience, trying to figure out what day it is!

While I go to work on Monday night, that leaves me working the majority of that shift on Tuesday, and completely throws me off throughout the week for the same reasons. Saturday morning is the end of my work week, which leaves Sunday feeling like Saturday to me. This creates some problems as I go to run errands and forget places are closed (or open shorter hours) because it is Sunday. You'd think I would have this figured out by now, but it still gets me once in a while.

Today I was painting the roof supports on my deck (which aren't supporting a roof at all at this moment) and completely forgot that it's Monday and I need to work tonight, until I looked at my phone which kindly tells me what day it is. My watch does the same, alternating between the day and date. I've discovered these two items are vitally important to me in order to keep myself on track (to make it to appointments and, next week, the right classes). Now I'm off to do laundry so I will have a uniform to wear tonight!

 On the other side, I've also discovered that I can waste an ENTIRE day playing on said phone when I have several Words With Friends games going. I love that game, but yesterday I sat for hours with 4 games going just playing back and forth instead of doing all the things I'd planned to do. Love my friends, love the game, but I think it's going to have to be relegated to only a short period of time maybe twice a day, especially with school starting too. *Sigh*

After painting today

Settled!

Tuesday morning we (my Mom & Dad, Nate and I) took RJ to college and got him moved into his dorm room. I am so very excited for him as he begins this new part of his life, he's growing into an amazing young man. I'm also kind of sad that he's not my baby boy anymore, nor the little boy that wanted to marry me when he grew up :) I'm quite sure he doesn't remember that at all, and I won't be the one to remind him... (when I was little I told the Catholic Priest here that I was going to marry him when I grow up, so he doesn't fall far from the tree with that)

Mom and I offered to make his bed, I figured that was he could have a spot that was done and he could relax, if he didn't feel like unpacking the rest right away. He did, of course, take us up on the offer!

He's all settled in now, only forgot a couple of things, and has started orientation for working on campus. Classes start for him next week, on his birthday!

On the home front, Nate enjoyed his first night & day without RJ, and he isn't looking forward to classes starting except for the fact that he gets an iPad from the school to use. He lost his iPod Touch a few weeks ago, and has decided to save up his money and wait for the new one to come out. He's also considering saving for an iPad. I think using one this year for school will help him decide if he wants pocket-sized or bigger.

For me, I am ready for classes to start. This will be my last semester and it's loaded up pretty well. My financial aid has been straightened out, and just covers my tuition (No loans though, yay!). My books are almost all here, I got them on the cheap from Campus Book Renter and Amazon this year, although Amazon did screw up one of my books and apparently can't manage to ship the right one (argh!) Amazon sellers that have "shipped by Amazon" service are apparently not responsible for screw-up, and apparently neither is Amazon. They did send me a label to return it at no cost (gee, thanks), but they can't ship out the right book. Dumb, frustrating, and lesson learned.

I now am renting said book along with 3 others from Campus Book Renter (and it was $12 cheaper for that one). I'm all for renting, It costs less than what I lose buying the book and selling it back, and I don't have a huge initial payout. I could also shop online in the middle of the night instead of standing in line at the bookstore with 100 pounds of books :) And I don't have to stand in a long line at the end of the semester, *hoping* they will buy the books back.

I tried an eBook for a textbook once, but it was such a pain I will never do it again! What convenience you gain by not having a heavy book to lug and having it available at your fingertips is lost in the inconvenience of trying to answer end-of-chapter questions and flip back and forth through the chapter to find information. I love eBooks for books to read through, but for referencing previous pages or flipping back and forth through a chapter they are incredibly inconvenient.

College Financial Aid Drama

The joys of financial aid... nope, not for RJ, he's all set and everything is fine...

KVCC decided to send me a letter last February to let me know I have completed too many credit hours according to their new financial aid rules, and I would have to jump through some hoops to keep my financial aid for the CURRENT semester! Well, those hoops included not taking a class that isn't on my major. A class for which I was already registered, taking, and it was too late to withdraw from (or sign up for another class that was on my major). So, this summer they send me a letter saying that I have to meet with an academic counselor again and get a note stating that the class I took was "strongly recommended" for my career path. Um, okay, I think I can convince someone that Advertising and Promotion (the class I took) could be valuable for an administrative assistant. It's all about knowing your audience and the best way to communicate with them after all, and tailoring a message to gain the desired action by the consumer/customer.

Well, I went to the counseling appointment on Thursday, and it took about 2 seconds to get the recommendation! After reading what I was sent, he asked me what my major was, then what class was it that I took? When I told him, he immediately said "oh yeah, I can see that would be valuable!" and proceeded to write it up as "professional development."

Now I'm just waiting for the financial aid office to review that and approve it, so I can be sure I will have my financial aid for fall. If they don't approve it, I owe all of my financial aid for last semester, and all of my tuition for fall. Everybody keep your fingers crossed for me!