Once Upon A Time

There once was a time when I thought a job paying $8 an hour was sad and pathetic.  That was circa 1994 when I got my first real job that didn’t involve a retail store position and left the world of less than $10 an hour paying jobs behind.

Somehow since then my pay scale expectations have gone backwards.  By leaps and bounds.

Now, I just got all excited because I got a call back on a job in the Big City at Stickittoyou U paying a whopping $8.85 an hour.  After all, I’ve been struggling to get by on a part time job paying just $8 an hour for the last two years.  I suffered that miserable wage because the job was working for one of my previous professors who is one of my biggest fans.  She is extremely easy going with how I work my hours, and lets me do lots of work from home when it’s convenient.  She also lets me keep a desk in her office and gave me an office key so I can come and go there as I please and have a place to work between classes as well as a place to stash my belongings.  But, because I’m moving at the end of May and returning to Stickittoyou U for the rest of my educational career, I have to quit that job.  Which means I need a new one, and I need it to pay well.

Hence my excitement for a measly $8.85 an hour.

Hence my huge disappointment that they can’t hire me if I’m not taking summer classes at Stickittoyou U.  And, I can’t take classes there because Stickittoyou U isn’t offering the particular statistics course I need this summer.

But a small glimmer of hope lies on the horizon, the supervisor said she will probably have one or two positions in the fall, and if I am still interested I can be reconsidered then.

*Sigh*

Can I please get a stroke of good luck that doesn’t feel a consolation prize?

What I Learned Last Week #14

Well, things are actually slowing down at school.  I have just one regular week of classes left, then my finals schedule is spread out over 3 weeks on account of the fact my O-Chem class is run through a different college than Local College.  It is strange and complicated and not worth explaining.  Anyway, the long and short of it is there’s probably not much to blog about so this may well be my last Monday post about all the stuff I’m “learning.”

So what did I learn last week?  Not much of interest.  But, I was extremely happy to get one piece of information last week:  Calc teacher gave us our grades so far.  Thankfully, I’ve been dutifully doing her insane amount of homework, and by in large getting full credit.  This is a good thing, because 45% of our grade is based on the homework.  And, it would seem that as long as I continue to do all her insane amounts of homework for the last 7 days of class and at least show up and write my name on the final I should have enough points already in class to get at least a C over all.  If I can get at least a C on the final I ought to end up with a B in the class. And passing calculus, my friends, is a beautiful thing.

I don’t know if any of you all can quite understand what a huge relief it will be to put calculus behind me.  I would like to get that B, but at the same time just passing with a C will ensure I get credit for the work I did, and that is good enough for me these days.  I have always hated math.  But, it is a necessary evil if I want to go down the educational path I’ve chosen, and I really want to get my bachelors of science.  I wanted to do this so badly, I devoted the last two years to get to this point.  Once I pass calculus, I have just one more math class to pass: statistics.  With luck I can get that done over the summer and I will have triumphed over Math.  I have a couple other classes I’m not particularly looking forward to taking still looming over my path to my degree, namely two semesters of physics, but I tell you all one thing, it is incredibly empowering to be within two weeks of passing the dreaded Calculus beast.  If I can pass a semester of that, while being a basket case about moving, and being broke, and all the other life drama I’ve been juggling, I start to feel like there’s nothing I can’t do.

Still, I wish it didn’t cost a small fortune to discover this feeling.  And, it would be nice if I could have done so with out so many tears and emotional break downs along the way, but I suppose we always want what we can’t have.

Anyway, they say a photo is worth a 1,000 words.  So, here’s a photo of how I feel; somehow, inexplicably and against all odds, I am still surviving while clinging to the edge of life.

This is actually the lid to our fish tank.  Because cleaning it is not a high priority, flakes of fish food fall on the crevasse, and apparently created an adequate “soil-like” medium for a random plant seed/spore to grow.  We have no idea where it came from or what kind of plant it is, but for the last few weeks it has been growing and kicking butt.  Even just since I snapped this photo a couple of days ago I noticed that the new bud has grown over the top of the full leaf, and a third bud has appeared.  Amazing how tenacious life is.