This has been … a week; let me tell you. Of course it’s all settling down now as the week concludes, but I still wonder if anymore surprises are in store for me.
Higher Learning
As seems to be the case more often than not, I am getting tired of the many calls I get from out of state area codes and 800 numbers, I know why they call but I can’t do anything about it, and they always seem to call when I’m at work; it bugs me. So Wednesday morning I was up especially early for something when I got another call, I didn’t answer it but instead called the number with a 602 area code and was a little surprised to find it was from the University of Phoenix.

In my recent search for better employment I had submitted my resume to a job seeker site that had options for information from several online universities and that happened to be one of them. Now I know that many people still feel like getting a degree online isn’t worth much compared to sitting in a classroom everyday, but it is quickly becoming the best option for getting a better education due to the rising costs of tuition around the country.

Most importantly for me though is that it’s a very flexible learning environment that I can fit into my schedule without burning additional money on gas and missing time from work to attend classes. That school is also one that has been around for quite some time and has a solid reputation from it’s campus extending to it’s online presence, so I stayed on the call and answered some questions before being transferred to an admissions counselor, and that guy turned out to be pretty cool.

I did my usual thing and let him do most of the talking at first, basically trying to see what his pitch was going to be, but if there was a pitch I missed it somewhere because two hours later when we got off the phone I was midway through the enrollment process with an appointment today to complete step two. Getting my degree has always been a priority for me but it just always seemed to get put on hold because of something, either work or bills or having a kid and getting married; regardless of any of that though there was a bigger reason I delayed for so long.

I’m scared to go back to school, it seriously makes me nervous to the point of shaking and having big knots in my stomach thinking about it, and while I have managed to avoid it this long, it’s time I get over it. I dropped out of school before starting the ninth grade so I could work full time and help my struggling single parent get by, it also allowed me to buy my own smokes without her catching on, but anyway, and I got my GED a few years later so at least I would be able to apply for other jobs as I got older.

The problem for me is math, I love math and I always have, it was my best subject in school and I never had problems with any of it; I actually got a couple of teachers to give me assignments that were well above my grade and since I could do it all they kept giving it to me. It’s just too bad I wasn’t high school or I could have earned some college credits from it.

So now, about ten years later, all my math skills have a little bit of dust covering the massive corrosion from rust and I’ve been terrified to start a college course because of the fact that I can’t do the math anymore. But it’s good that I’m getting it started because I don’t want to break my back everyday just to pay last months bills and still have this months bills to worry about.

And seeing that I have some experience with the computer stuff, I decided the obvious choice was the best one for me and I am majoring in IT/Networking since it should be the least difficult transition for me down the road. Another cool thing is that for pretty much the whole first year all the students are taking the same classes, regardless of major, so I have that long to change my major to business if I get the balls and motivation to do it; I think it might happen.

The cost isn’t nearly as bad as what other schools charge, and it is about half of what it would cost to go to UTA, TCU, or any of the other colleges in my area. I’m starting out with an associates degree but as I near the end of that degree I may very well continue on to get my bachelors degree for even more bragging rights; that’s about all the degree is for anyway, something to brag about to potential employers so they’ll hire me to use what I learned. Tomorrow I have to go through all the FAFSA stuff to see what grants I qualify for to go along with the student loan I already got the approval on. So wish me luck with all of that; it’ll be nice to work toward something my family will benefit so greatly from.
Twiztid Metal
I knew it was coming some day, and it happened to be this last Tuesday that came crashing down, literally. Got a call at work from my wife and actually meant it when I responded “What!” even though I heard her, I needed to hear it again to believe it. She got into a wreck and while she was okay and hadn’t picked up my daughter from the babysitter’s yet, it was still a tremendous hardship for me learning that such an important piece of our income had been damaged. Thankfully, in addition to no injuries, the car wasn’t destroyed so she could still drive it the mile or so to work each day, just avoiding going so fast that the barely latched hood would fly up.

A lady in a Toyota Tacoma quite literally ran over her 2003 Ford Taurus, she managed to get her truck on the car and over the bumper so the airbag didn’t go off, but it crunched the hood and fenders pretty bad after it demolished the headlight since she never hit the brakes, she just let the crumpling metal stop her truck. She got out and immediately took responsibility for the wreck, and even a day later after we had filed a claim with her insurance carrier, Progressive, we found out she hadn’t changed her tune any. It actually took only a day and a half from the time we filed the claim (about an hour after the wreck) until today when I dropped the car off at the service center for repairs.

I was so worried that the insurance company was going to fight it, but they took care of us and now we’re driving this little Saturn rental car for the next few weeks until the car is fixed. I’ll put a couple of the pictures I took of the car in the gallery over the next day or two; quite easily the worst pictures I’ve ever had to take. The worst part of it all though, I even left work because of this, I thought my daughter was in the car at first and I was worried to death that she was hurt; good thing everyone was okay.

Though my wife was already undergoing physical therapy for a workers compensation injury at work on her hand and what is likely a broken finger, and she did aggravate that injury when she braced herself against the steering wheel, but all is okay. And Progressive is a great insurance company in these situations, they have handled it better than I was hoping for, so that helps settle my nerves.
Unclassified
And to top it all off, the dealing with enrolling in school and the wreck and the insurance adjuster and service center, I was also fielding phone calls and emails for interviews, that’s why I was up so early on Wednesday, and I think it went well and despite the really unfriendly hours, I want the job, so hopefully I get a good call on that tomorrow.

That’s it though, for now, and hopefully nothing else bad will happen this week, I’m thinking we could use a break to actually start dealing with and resolving some of the more longstanding issues we have going on.