*grumble* The Feds *grumble*

Direct Loan Servicing has entirely harshed my mellow by taking out a payment that they shouldn't have AND there's no way to get it back.

Argh.

I am currently in deferrment motherfuckers, and fixing it so that you don't take the money out next month doesn't help me pay the bills THIS month.

Bastards.

edjamukacion

So, I'm back in school again. Normally this wouldn't be a welcome situation, but I think as I grow older and wiser and infinitely more mature, things like a class or two seem less daunting and new skills seem a little more attractive. I'm back in the saddle with 7-10 units and whole lotta GIS on my plate.

For those of you not hip with the lingo, GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems and its basically the equivilant of Windows (in terms of a foundation program) for anyone dealing with physical space. It's a good skill set to have and it knocks out some pre-requisites for graduate school. Whoo hoo! (I prefer to do it at $26 a unit vs. $400). When I tried to take the class last semester, I found it dreadfully dull and overwhelming (lucky for me the class was cancelled). This is no longer the case and I think that has everything to do with not working 60+hours a week.

I'm contemplating taking a field experience course in Geography just for kicks. It's 3 units, two orientations, six days in Death Valley, and, unfortunately, no more than two showers in a week. :( It seems like it would be a good experience (for learning and pushing myself, not so much for personal hygeine and the like), but I've found that anything I've ever sought out for pure edification has ALWAYS bitten me on the ass (Economics, Statistics, Labor Studies, etc.). I am wary. More on that as it develops.

As posted eariler, Direct Loan Servicing gave me an unhappy surprise this morning and took a payment that should have been deferred. No, they aren't going to reverse it. Yes, a couple hundred dollars makes a world of difference when you work part-time and are paying tuition on a single paycheck. I'm not totally screwed, but it certainly feels like it. I had to request some money from my savings account. Oh yeah, there was also that total nervous breakdown this afternoon. And the shaking of fists at the gub'ment. And a lot of swearing. As I started to utterly freak-out, I actually channelled my mother and sat down and made a theraputic "stress list", listing a.)all the things that were stressing me out, b) prioritizing those things, c) writing down solutions, and d) applying a time line to those solutions. I discovered that I am much better at solving social.academic/work problems than creatively solving my financial problems. I also found that things aren't going to hell quite as quickly as I feared. In fact, despite my woes, I'm in better financial shape than I was last year (hell there is a savings account to be drawn from). I *can* do something about most of my stress items and I've learned the valuable lesson that action is the only true stress-reliever.

Whew.

So that's the update. Wish me luck on the rest of the week.

Cheers!