Month: August 2010

I still hate Lipscomb, but less. I also still LOVE the English department, especially Dr. Hearn and Dr. Reed.

I applied for a private student loan through Sallie Mae and was approved, so pending Lipscomb’s approval of the loan, I am officially taking my LAST CLASS at Lipscomb!!! How exciting! I did attend the first class, which was last Monday, even though I didn’t expect to be able to continue attending at that point. Everything came together yesterday (Friday), though, and I registered my car, got my parking decal, got a new student ID (the picture looks pretty bad, but at least I’ll be able to get student discounts again…heh), and stopped by Swang to say hello to Hearn and Reed and Mrs Tomberlin.

So it’s looking like I WILL have a degree by December, which is awesome. Dr. Reed gave me a “B” in the English Novel, which is also awesome.

That said, I really need to be reading for the class instead of blogging, so this will be brief. We’re starting the class by reading Original Revolution by John Howard Yoder. Can’t remember if I mentioned it or not, but the class will be studying Yoder’s theology. He was a “liberal” Mennonite (“liberal” in quotations because the word tends to be taboo these days) theologian and wrote a lot about Christian pacifism. The book seems quite interesting so far, and I’m sure the class will be too.

BTW, it seems that Matt had malaria. He has two days left of the antibiotic he’s been taking (doxycyline, I think) and is pretty much all better now. Which is excellent.

But enough, I need to go read. Just wanted to update. I’ll write more later, I’m sure….

It’s looking less and less like I’ll actually be able to graduate this semester, which makes me less hopeful about EVER graduating.

Here’s the deal. I finally was able to register for the class, and some student loan options finally came through. Sounding hopeful, right? Well, I realized today that in order to use any of the Stafford loans, it’s a federal law that you have to take at least 6 hours of classes. This would mean that I would have to accept about $6000 in extra loans AND take an additional completely unnecessary class. This also would bring my total student loans up to around $20,000 which is significantly more than I owe now. NOT COOL.

Option two is to make monthly payments. The lowest payment plan would be about $550/month with a deposit of over $1000. Sorry, but even if I was able to put my EdFinancial payments aside while taking this class, I still can’t afford $550/month unless we eat nothing but Ramen noodles and don’t buy anything.  At all.  Maybe gas.

Option three is to take out a personal loan, which of course would have a high interest rate. I could probably do that with Bank of America since I have a pretty good credit history with them… but I don’t really like that idea since it would mean taking out one more loan that’s not connected to any of my other loans, working it all out myself within one week, and having no money for the whole semester plus however long it takes to pay off the rest of it.

So. I hate all of my options. I don’t know what to do.

In other news, Matt is sick. He’s had a fever off and on for two weeks, plus he’ll get dizzy spells every now and then, and he’s tired a lot. The being tired thing isn’t too much different, except that lately he doesn’t ever want to do anything (whereas before, he just usually didn’t want to do anything). The fever got up to 103.2 on Saturday night, but seems to be getting better. He doesn’t have health insurance, or he would have gone to the doctor before now. Obviously we’re not married so he can’t use mine, and he can’t use his parents’. I’ve had a couple of people ask me if it’s mono…but he says that he’s already had mono. I seem to remember in the back of my mind hearing that there are a couple different strains that you can get, but I might just be making that up.

So the first issue has me frustrated, and the second just sad. I could go on about the Lipscomb stuff, by the way. It just doesn’t make ANY sense to me that I would have to pay $3000 to take a BIBLE class to get out of Bible PROBATION even though I already HAVE all the required hours in Bible!!!! It’s fucking probation!!! Isn’t there another way that I can get it cleared?!?! Why is the ONLY thing anyone cares about MONEY?!?!?

Okay, that felt good. I hate Lipscomb.

Now I’m going to go put on Car Talk and clean up. That will make me feel better.

wow, it’s been a while. sorry. I’ve been trying to write on a regular basis, even if it’s only for the sake or writing. I haven’t had a whole lot to say lately, I guess….

so anyway, I’m writing now mostly because I just got home from work, showered, and am now waiting for Matt to wake up from his nap. we might go out later. depends on how he feels. he’s been sickly for the last week; he had a fever for several days but it seems to have gone away by now. he’s also been feeling dizzy and tired, though not enough to prevent his going to work every day. I’m hoping that he’ll get plenty of rest over the weekend and start feeling normal again soon….

I never did write anything about being on vacation. that’s probably because I didn’t really do anything and was very lazy all week. it was excellent! I think I went to Cafe Coco a couple of times… finished Catch 22… cleaned up like one day… and not a whole lot besides that. oh, I did watch a lot of Bones. we played Settlers of Catan with Mike and Mar, which was fun. also had brunch with Cathy and then came home and watched the Muppets Christmas Carol while I made strawberry cake. so, it was a very relaxing week and I could definitely get used to not going to work at 6am (or ever) morning after morning. not to complain. it IS my preferred shift.

not much else has happened. I can’t think of anything much to write. my basil plants are getting bigger, and I can actually use fresh basil now. they stopped growing for a while, so I repotted them and they’re doing fine now. I’ve gotten lazy when it comes to crocheting, but I need to pick it up again. it would be very nice to have a cardigan finished by the time it’s cool enough to wear them again.

here’s a Lipscomb update. my financial aid came through and I can now take out lots of money in loans which will take me years to pay back; wouldn’t it be gratifying to be able to pay back the student loans using money from a job I got thanks to my degree? anyway. I tried to register for the class but apparently it has a prerequisite that I haven’t met. or something. I looked at the catalog and it didn’t say anything about it, so I emailed the professor (Lee Camp) to see what the deal was. haven’t heard from him, but it is a weekend. stupid weekends.

I think my contacts are giving me a headache. maybe I’ll take a nap.