06.11.2010 update

I have missed blogging so much over these past six months!

I've missed you all as well. To be honest, my life had gotten so bad that I couldn't even write about it. If I was finding it depressing, it would have been even worse for you. Thankfully, things are starting to look up.

I purchased a vehicle the other day, a Dodge mini-van from the nineties. It might be an old beater, but there are several good things about it; we're the third owners with the first & second owners being older empty nesters (which means no one has used the back seats, ever) and we'll never have to make a monthly payment on it. Yay! The best news was being able to insure it.

I can't tell you how much anxiety we had around not being able to insure Bill's truck! Every trip to the gas station, the bank or the grocery store meant being overly vigilant for RCMP and County Mounty cruisers. I can probably recount at least a dozen occasions where we ended up directly behind one of them, and the fines and demerits would have made things much, much worse.

At any rate, we're through that now. On Monday we went down to the insurance office and paid for the first three months. We're thrilled.

My education really took a hit this past spring, and as a result I had to drop out of my Math 75 course last Wednesday. With everything going on I couldn't keep up with my homework and everything snowballed to the point that I would have failed my last exam. Since I'd rather have "withdrawn" instead of "fail" on my transcript, I signed off on it the day before the unit exam. Already I miss the friends that I made there, but I have been trying to make other plans.

I may be able to challenge the entrance into my business program by meeting with the Director of the Business and Finance department (I have to look for my certificate from the LLQP course I took to become a Financial Advisor) and hopefully he'll work with me. If not, I'm looking into some law courses.

I'm signing off now to catch up with everyone. Happy Friday!

happy hump day

Just a few more weeks and it'll be spring in Alberta. Yay! I can't tell you how happy I'll be once the snow and ice are completely gone. Every morning I bundle up in my wool coat and hiking boots and I can't wait until I can wear my sneakers.

Update on Math 50: Holy crap math is hard! I seemed to do fine on the first module, but the second one (algebra) kicked my butt! I actually failed the unit exam (with something like 34%) and plan to retake it so I'm not overly worried. Okay - I did cry a little knowing that I could have been working and making money rather than failing tests, but I got over that soon enough. Eventually, the school will bring me a business degree and that's what is important.

I think that I've finally come to terms with giving up my truck. I know I said I was okay with it, but to be honest I really, really missed it for the first few months. Part of my issue went back to when I was a single mom in the early nineties. Oh, how I hated taking that bus! I would have walked for an extra fifteen minutes if it meant I didn't have to take a bus, and that attitude followed me into my thirties. In fact, I bet Dale would flip out if he knew I took one every day - back when he was alive I insisted on decent transportation. He had to drive the boogie van because I wouldn't be seen parking next to the other managers at the mall, lol.

Anyway, recently I started thinking about getting a motorbike or a scooter. Wouldn't it be fun in the summer? Also, I think that Bill would be really excited if he knew I'd go for a bike, and I'd be excited knowing that we'd save on insurance! Even before thinking about a bike, Bill and I were talking about getting a half-ton instead of a car, but I think we could afford both if we shopped around.

Off to read some blogs. Happy Wednesday!

reading week

For the last several months we've been trying to catch up that one mortgage payment that fell behind over the summer and it's been so frustrating! As soon as it looks like we'll be able to do it, we'll get a utility bill that needs to be paid immediately - like the gas bill we got on Monday, for $335. Of course, that's for December & January. The current one is a little lower, thank goodness.

Moving on.

This week is Reading Week at the college which means no classes. Although I have homework on 1.7 (negative exponents) I've been working every day and haven't finished it. You know, I used to think that someone in college could work three evenings a week, back when I was hiring and scheduling college students! Now I realize that for every class you take you get at least an hour of homework, and I wonder how many employees I stressed out? Hopefully not many.

I just can't wait until I qualify for some kind of living allowance. Eight to twenty hours of work isn't enough, but anything over that interferes with my marks. Next semester should be a lot better!

I ♥ this

bag by Guess

I finally had some time to take a picture of my new bag. It'd been over a year since I was able to get something like this but it was well worth the wait!

Today after class I went for tutoring, since the college offers it for free. Two hours later and I think I have the hang of multiplying fractions. Dayum! No wonder I was confused in high school - you really need to pay close attention to detail.

I'm cutting this short so that I can read a few blogs before supper. Have a great night!

-1)-1)-1) + 7 = X

For days I went back and forth with whether I should go to school or keep my job at Winners; as it turned out, once I took the math assessment test everything happened very quickly. The assessment was awful (I left more than half the test blank) the college recommended I start at Math 50, the next morning I showed up with an empty notebook and a pen.

I resigned from the big box store the next day. Yay! My last day is Thursday, then I have a shift at the clothing store on Saturday. After a few days off, I'll start applying for something else I can work between the hours of 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.

I really enjoy the math class and I find that shocking! But since I need to complete three high school math courses before I can start the Business Admin Program, I thought I should start asap.

Twenty-nine years after finishing (and barely passing) grade ten math, it's coming back to bite me on the butt. Surreal!