Day 90!

Ok Ok, I know that technically I titled the last blog entry as number 90, and then tonight I was reading over some of my last posts and I realized that I really had only written 89 blog entries. So, I retitled the blog entry to 89 and then here goes number 90! I hope you all are doing well. I am doing ok. Some days are obviously better than others, but for the most part I am managing just fine. When I say some days are better than others, I think a big part of the stress is lack of sleep. A few months back when I was trying to write every single day in this blog, I was getting off work at 6AM after having come in at first 8PM, and then that was changed and we came in at 6PM and were working 12 hour shifts. Those were the days! I am one of those types of guys that loves my days off. I mean really! Who doesn't? If you are reading this and you can honestly look me in the eye *through the computer screen that is* and tell me TRUTHFULLY that you would rather work and never have days off, I will . . . . . well, I'll pat you on the back and say way to go! Yup! That's what I'll do! You thought I would say I would do whatever you wanted for a day or something didn't you! I know how your mind works! lol

So anyway, I believe I am in session number 4 of my classes. That's classes number 7 and 8. With the 4 credits that have been transfered in from other schools, and the 18 credits I have completed so far, that leaves me with 22 credits completed with a GPA of 3.22. Not too shabby I say, not too shabby at all? What does shabby mean? I have no freaking idea! I'm sure it means something! It's just been a saying I have used for a while since I was young. With my luck, it probably means something completely innappropriate. lol.. oh well! So, I was looking at my progress, now mind you I am lazy and personally would prefer not to be going to school, but at the same time, I know that the only way I will get into a good paying job, one that I love and can work better hours than what I do now, is to get my degree, so I will not allow myself to give up.

So anyway, I was looking online on my student website at my progress, and I noticed that when I complete the next 7.5 weeks of my current classes, I will be roughly about 28 credits completed, and my total credit requirement for my degree is 60 credits, so after this session, I will be about half way to my associates! That completely blew me away, because here I am, going from one 9 week session to the next, completing two classes each time, and thinking that it will just go on forever, and already I am going to be half way to my first degree. I say "first" because I plan to continue going to school till I at least have a bachelors. I'm leaning towards a bachelors degree in business to go with my hospitality and tourism degree. I still plan to pursue the possibility of taking over and owning one of the more run down hotels here in Clinton, and re-vamping it back up and turning it around. I know it can be done! You just have to have someone running the business whom wants to bring more customers in, wants customers to come back, and wants to succeed. The hotel that we stayed at, the regency, has lots of potential. Honestly I loved it's layout. It just has bad management because they don't seem to care that the way they are running the hotel is driving away business. (Erin pointed out to me that I had only listed one of the three or four things that we didn't like about the hotel. I can't remember exactly what was said, but I will point out some things here).

First, it was hot in the hotel. 2nd, the tv didn't have that many channels, I think it was like 25 channels and nothing kid friendly like disney or anything. 3rd, found out after we checked in that the pool was out of commission. Here I thought it had only been down for a little while. When I checked out early, I complained to the manager about it, and she was like "yeah, the pool being down has cost us a lot of lost business." I asked her "How long has the pool been down?" and she said "It's been down about 7 months now." I couldnt believe it. The first thing I said to Erin when I got home was "if I ever succeed in acquiring us a hotel here in Clinton, 1st Im going to turn it around, add everything that we know people want, such as a working pool, channels for the kids, comfy beds, the ability to moderate the temp in your rooms so you arent burning alive, I mentioned maybe a small arcade room but Erin recommended that we buy used refurbished Nintendo 64 systems and have them in the rooms. That could work. Above all, I was like "and if we ever have a problem and the pool goes down or anything like that, we will pay the money to get it up right away!!! none of this leaving it down for months crap, that drives away business and that's stupid!" I don't remember her exact words, but she felt the same way.

So I have two guys I work with, both of them I'd consider friends, both of which arent going to school. Erin said one of them (Eric), has his associates degree or something, but keeps saying he wants to go back and finish, but has yet to do anything. Matt, the other guy I am talking about, has no degree and no plans either from the sounds of it, both of which lately have complained about the job here and money, and hours, and stuff. Out of everyone here, I've been here the longest. Eric just passed his 1 year mark not long ago I think, and I think Aaron has probably hit his too. I've been here about 14 months so far, with that whole time being here at the hospital. Aaron has been here at the hospital maybe like 7 months I believe but he was at ADM (a big factory here in clinton) for a few months before that. Matt has been with Securitas 4.5 or 5 years but here at the hospital the last 3 or 4 months. I guess the way I look at it is, you do what you can with what you have been delt. If you don't like what life is like for you, then get out there and change it. My plan is to remain here working security for the hospital until either I get a better job, or until I finish school and then get a better job.

I know that no matter what, my chances for getting into a really good position will go up tremendously after I finish school. I'm looking forward to me getting my degree and then calling up my sister in law and saying "so how's that degree coming for ya?" As far as I know, my brother and sister in law have both been working on their associates the past 5-10 years. One or two classes here and one or two classes there. I'm lazy!! Thats why I went with University of Phoenix online instead of the local community college because one semester at the community college went from January 1st to May 15th. That's too damn long unless I want to take 6 or 8 classes at once and that's an INSANE class load. I had a few people in my class at the community college that said they were taking 18 credit hours. At the time, I was only in 3 classes and I felt so overloaded, what with working fully time, working over night, and having to take care of things at home, spend time with the family, etc, I knew it wasn't going to work, so as I finished that semester out, I spent a few nights here and there getting information on online schools and in the end, phoenix was the best. Yes it's expensive going to school with them, but at the same time I have no complaints because i'm succeeding at it. I'm doing what I said I wanted to do, and in the end, I may have several thousand dollars in student loan debt, but I will have an associates and a bachelors degree.

It all comes down to what you want, and how much do you want it. Take my friend Melissa for example. She works her butt off! I don't believe she has gone to college yet, mainly because she cant afford to, and I believe (but am not certain) that the reason she doesn't go yet is because she doesn't want to get lots of student loan debt. If I remember correctly, I think she mentioned wanting to be a teacher, and honestly she would be a great one. But like I said, we each decide what we want and how much we want it, but not only that, we decide how we will go about it. I figure that eventually melissa will probably go down that road, and no matter what she does, I will always be there for her 100%. I hope that when our girls get to their graduation, that we will be definitely sending them off to college. We try to emphasize to Lex how important school is, that if she wants to do really well, and maybe have it easier than we did, that she needs the education to back her up.

I'm going to quit right there, because now I feel like I'm rambling and jumping from one topic to the next without much description. I guess that comes from being tired eh? Got my homework done for the night but by then it was 11PM already, and I was scheduled to come to work at 12. Zoe wouldn't sit down, so I figured I'd lay down on the couch for 10-20 minutes and try to get Zoe to lay down with me to cuddle and relax. She finally did but we only had like 5 minutes by that time. The rest of the week should be fun! Erin works and so chances are I wont get much or any sleep when I first get off and then will be able to crash when Erin gets home from work. That'll be good at least. It's not something that I am happy about but I grin and bear it, and just do the best that I can. I've gotten much more into video games recently and you wanna know something funny? When I'm staying up in the morning watching Zoe while she watches a show on TV, me lounging in the recliner, if I try to watch with her, I feel like dozing off. But if I pull out my psp or my DS, I can play a game and I will still be tired but I will be more alert.. Not sure what is up with that.. Anyway! Enough of my rambling! Talk to you guys (and gals) again next time!


C