Good day everybody. So last night at work started out ok, had a rough middle, and then ended fine. Lets start with the beginning of the shift. Just before hand, as I wrote about yesterday I believe, I had managed to get a 1 hour power nap in the car just before we got home. Then I took a cold shower for like 5 minutes. Cold showers are not something I do really. Mainly because I've always loved nice, hot showers. Sometimes it depends I guess. Like when I go out during the hot day and go for a 2 mile lap, then when I take a shower I naturally will let the water be a little bit cooler. When your body temperature is up, I find it harder to be in really warm or hot water. So naturally the water will be cool. Not cold necesarily, but cool.
So after the cold shower, work started out just fine. I was surprised at how awake and alert I was. It was like that till about 9:30 or 10 oclock. Maybe a little before. I locked up south campus and then as I drove back to north, people were driving towards me, and their headlights in my vision were first very obviously the 2 individual lights, and then my vision clouded over and the headlights became one massive light. I knew the tiredness was starting to set in pretty hard then. I spent 10PM till probably about 3:30, constantly walking around, drinking water, trying to bring my alertness back. Everything I did was only temporary. I would drink cold water, and my vision would uncloud, and I would feel alert, then 15 minutes later suddenly everything would get heavy again. I even while getting a drink or re-filling my water bottle out of the ice cold water fountain, I stuck my face in the water streem. It was much colder than the shower I took, and when it drenched my face, first I gasped because of the cold, then I realized "wow, I'm fully alert!"
I thought "cool, extreme cold jolts you back awake. I had heard about it but never tried to go that extreme." But of course, like most things, it was temporary. I sat down for a few minutes and then suddenly it started to happen again. So the next thing I tried was to get my heart pumping hard. I remembered in basic training that although we never were allowed to sleep a lot, meaning we'd be lights out at 10PM and up by 2:30 getting ready for the day, we ran and did physical stuff a lot and although yes I was tired, at the same time I was alert and focused most of the time. So, here's what I did. I went into one of the stairwells and I ran up the stairs all the way to the 4th floor. That's 4 flights of stairs. When I got up there, I was breathing hard, and my heart was racing. I walked slowly back down, letting it calm down, and after that, wahlah! I was awake, with no more feeling heavy or whatever. Good stuff.
So in closing, when I went to bed at 6:30, I deliberately did not set my alarm. I wanted lots of sleep. And the amount I ended up with, I slept from 6:30 *falling asleep in minutes just like I thought I would,* till 5:15PM. Then I got ready for work and had to go to work at 6. But at least tonight I will be doing a hell of a lot better than last night. Sleep is an important and powerful thing.
Thanks for being here.
CB
Monday, June 7, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Day 62
Short post today. Today is rough. This morning, I got off work, we left by 6:30, drove 4.5 hours to meet up with Erin's mom to hand lex over to them. Lex is going to stay with them for the month of June, to get grandma/grandpa/lex time. We left to come back around 1:15. Of course, being the only guard still, I had to work at 6, so I was worried we wouldn't make it back in time. Of course, I also had still not slept. On the way back, thankfully I powernapped for an hour, but then we got home at 5:41. I took a 5 minute cold shower, which helped, and went to work. For a while it was ok, but later in the night the sleep dep and tired ness has started to hit me pretty heavily. I know that there is nothing planned for tomorrow except I know Erin is working, and Zoe will be at day care, so I will plan on going to sleep without a plan of when I will wake up. I have no doubt that I will pray, lay my head down on the pillow and be gone in a minute or two. I just have to suck it up and get through my shift! Easy peasy right! Wrong! HARD! lol. But it will be done. The way I realized the tiredness was hitting me again was I drove over to south campus, locked up that campus, then was driving back and a car's headlights were coming at me and instead of 2 lights, they blurred a bit in my vision. I realized it and was like "oh shit." So, I'm praying I can make it the rest of the way through my shift without too many issues. I will write more for you tomorrow.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Day 61
Good day everyone. Again, I say that it amazes me. I'm sure you're thinking "What amazes you?" Well the answer is this. It amazes me about the fact that coming in 2 hours earlier to work than what you used to 'shouldnt' make that much of a difference. In fact, the way I think about it, you should really not even notice that much. But when for over 6 months of working here, I have been coming in at 8PM and working till 6AM. So yesterday when I came into work, 1) it was still bright and sunny, where as I'm so used to it still being sunny but getting dark. Hell, during the winter, quite often it was dark already when I drove up.
So, that's one weird thing, starting work with it nice, bright, sunny, and HOT. I guess when you're so used to starting with it dim or even dark, the sun at times kind of hurt my eyes. I would patrol outside, walking around the entire campus and as I came back up the other side, I would be walking facing the setting sun, and be squinting pretty hard. 2) I was so tired last night. I hadn't gotten much sleep thursday night/friday morning, and then I tried to take a 3 hour nap friday after noon, laying down around 2 hoping to fall quickly asleep and get up at 5. Well, I layed there for an hour and a half at least. So after waking up at 5, I showered, got ready and came to work. For the first hour or so, my eyes were not cooperating with me. It was like I had a fog covering them that I was trying to look through. That usually happens to me a lot of times because of tiredness.
Sometimes I can clear the fog entirely so that I am wide awake, alert, etc, but it depends. Last night after I met up with the other guard at 10:30 (we had double coverage because there was no maintenance working last night and then there will be none tonight during 3rd shift as well), after we patrolled till after midnight, and then went over to south campus to check doors, we came back and went back to the office to take a break *and for him to snack on whatever, and me to heat up and eat dinner I brought from home*. When I take a break of any kind, be it a 15-20 break, or a 45 minute break, I most of the time have a book with me. Currently it is the first book of the sword of truth series called Wizards First Rule.
Well last night when we took our break, the other guard munched on some corn chips or something, and did cross-word puzzles out of a little magazine. I heated up my dinner and at, and then pulled out my book and figured I would read for a little while. I always decide ahead of time on what time I will be heading back out for the next round. For instance, I might decide to take a break at 7:45, and tell myself that I will head back out at 8:15. Then it might be 9:20 or 9:45 when I break again, but maybe I only hang out for 15 minutes just to get a drink of Mt Dew or water, and then continue walking around.
While I was reading, I could feel the tiredness hitting me hard. And I do mean HARD. I kept trying to shake my head to wake myself up. I knew it was because of the amount of sleep I got that day, and the amount I had been getting all around lately. I had been drinking the mt dew 20 oz through out my shift, but with too little sleep, caffeine will only help so much. I've noticed if you are sleep deprived, caffeine will help to some extent but not enough. You have to get a good rest, and then while you're working caffeine will give you much more of a boost.
When it was about 1:30, I was desperate. I was trying to think of what I could do to wake up. "Damn, 12 hours. I still have almost 5 hours left and I'm sinking fast already!" Then it dawned on me. When I was chatting with one of the housekeeping guys last week, he said one day he was so desperate to wake up that he took one of those packs of instant coffee and pretty much ate it straight, chugging down mt dew after wards to wash it down hoping he wouldn't taste it as much.
I am not a fan of coffee at all. I do enjoy the starbucks bottled cold coffee beverages, I think those are good! However, regular coffee, hot or cold, so nasty! I don't know why. Back when I worked for Ashford as a security officer, I worked 2nd and 3rd shift, 2 nights of 3pm to 11pm, and 2 nights of 11pm to 7am. Because of the split shifts, it was difficult for me to stay awake over night. My body wasn't programmed to be able to stay awake all night, because of the nights when I would get off at 11 and sleep at night instead of during the day.
Well at least here at the hospital, I'm straight 3rd shift, so I'm a lot more used to it than when I first started. It's no problem for me at all if I have gotten a good sleep. And by good sleep I mean like 7 hours. 5 is ok, if I get 5 hours then I can 'function' just fine, but sometimes I still get tired easily. But if I can get 7 or more, then I'm doing pretty good. And I mean "straight" sleep, not sleep for 2 hours, get woken up by whatever, go back to sleep for 3 hours, woken up again by someone coming in the room,then back to sleep another 2 hours. If you sleep like that, it's like little naps, but not as recouperative.
In closing, I'm going to go ahead and sign off for the night. Tomorrow Lex is heading to grandmas in KC for the month of June, so that will be fun. I'm not sure what's happening, if Erin will drive her to des moine to meet her while I sleep, or if I will be going too. Who knows. Personally I like the idea of sleep better than drive and having to nap in the car. Come on now, that's not recouperative at all! :P So anyway, thanks for reading. Will write more tomorrow.
So, that's one weird thing, starting work with it nice, bright, sunny, and HOT. I guess when you're so used to starting with it dim or even dark, the sun at times kind of hurt my eyes. I would patrol outside, walking around the entire campus and as I came back up the other side, I would be walking facing the setting sun, and be squinting pretty hard. 2) I was so tired last night. I hadn't gotten much sleep thursday night/friday morning, and then I tried to take a 3 hour nap friday after noon, laying down around 2 hoping to fall quickly asleep and get up at 5. Well, I layed there for an hour and a half at least. So after waking up at 5, I showered, got ready and came to work. For the first hour or so, my eyes were not cooperating with me. It was like I had a fog covering them that I was trying to look through. That usually happens to me a lot of times because of tiredness.
Sometimes I can clear the fog entirely so that I am wide awake, alert, etc, but it depends. Last night after I met up with the other guard at 10:30 (we had double coverage because there was no maintenance working last night and then there will be none tonight during 3rd shift as well), after we patrolled till after midnight, and then went over to south campus to check doors, we came back and went back to the office to take a break *and for him to snack on whatever, and me to heat up and eat dinner I brought from home*. When I take a break of any kind, be it a 15-20 break, or a 45 minute break, I most of the time have a book with me. Currently it is the first book of the sword of truth series called Wizards First Rule.
Well last night when we took our break, the other guard munched on some corn chips or something, and did cross-word puzzles out of a little magazine. I heated up my dinner and at, and then pulled out my book and figured I would read for a little while. I always decide ahead of time on what time I will be heading back out for the next round. For instance, I might decide to take a break at 7:45, and tell myself that I will head back out at 8:15. Then it might be 9:20 or 9:45 when I break again, but maybe I only hang out for 15 minutes just to get a drink of Mt Dew or water, and then continue walking around.
While I was reading, I could feel the tiredness hitting me hard. And I do mean HARD. I kept trying to shake my head to wake myself up. I knew it was because of the amount of sleep I got that day, and the amount I had been getting all around lately. I had been drinking the mt dew 20 oz through out my shift, but with too little sleep, caffeine will only help so much. I've noticed if you are sleep deprived, caffeine will help to some extent but not enough. You have to get a good rest, and then while you're working caffeine will give you much more of a boost.
When it was about 1:30, I was desperate. I was trying to think of what I could do to wake up. "Damn, 12 hours. I still have almost 5 hours left and I'm sinking fast already!" Then it dawned on me. When I was chatting with one of the housekeeping guys last week, he said one day he was so desperate to wake up that he took one of those packs of instant coffee and pretty much ate it straight, chugging down mt dew after wards to wash it down hoping he wouldn't taste it as much.
I am not a fan of coffee at all. I do enjoy the starbucks bottled cold coffee beverages, I think those are good! However, regular coffee, hot or cold, so nasty! I don't know why. Back when I worked for Ashford as a security officer, I worked 2nd and 3rd shift, 2 nights of 3pm to 11pm, and 2 nights of 11pm to 7am. Because of the split shifts, it was difficult for me to stay awake over night. My body wasn't programmed to be able to stay awake all night, because of the nights when I would get off at 11 and sleep at night instead of during the day.
Well at least here at the hospital, I'm straight 3rd shift, so I'm a lot more used to it than when I first started. It's no problem for me at all if I have gotten a good sleep. And by good sleep I mean like 7 hours. 5 is ok, if I get 5 hours then I can 'function' just fine, but sometimes I still get tired easily. But if I can get 7 or more, then I'm doing pretty good. And I mean "straight" sleep, not sleep for 2 hours, get woken up by whatever, go back to sleep for 3 hours, woken up again by someone coming in the room,then back to sleep another 2 hours. If you sleep like that, it's like little naps, but not as recouperative.
In closing, I'm going to go ahead and sign off for the night. Tomorrow Lex is heading to grandmas in KC for the month of June, so that will be fun. I'm not sure what's happening, if Erin will drive her to des moine to meet her while I sleep, or if I will be going too. Who knows. Personally I like the idea of sleep better than drive and having to nap in the car. Come on now, that's not recouperative at all! :P So anyway, thanks for reading. Will write more tomorrow.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Day 60
Good day everyone. I was commenting to a friend earlier about the fact that coming into work 2 hours earlier than you used to shouldn't feel that much different. The reality of it is that it does. When the security hours were 8pm to 6am, it almost felt like you had most of the day, and I would come to work as the daytime was winding to a close. Well, the loss of 2 hours to my day before coming in to work was noticeable even when I was off. With having not gotten much sleep at all last night, and by not much I mean we didn't get to bed till 5 or 5:30. I layed there, tired, thinking "If I fall asleep, then in an hour or so when Lex is up I don't know if I will wake up to my alarm to see her out the door."
Well, thankfully Lex got up with her alarm, and when she was ready, she sitting on my side of the bed saying "Daddy, I'm all ready to go." I looked at the time and asked "Did you eat yet?" It was only 6:55, and she said she hadn't. So I said "Go grab some cereal hun." She was like "kay." A little while later I rolled over and saw that it was 7:20, and so I pulled myself out of bed, and as I stumbled from side to side, made my way downstairs rubbing the blurryness out of my eyes. It was raining, and so I didn't leave our little back patio area that is thankfully covered, gave hugs and kisses, told her to be careful when crossing the street, and saw her off.
Then I went back to bed. Just after 9, Erin woke me up, telling me that a cop from Animal Control came knocking on the door. Our dog Teagan is an outside dog. He loves it outside on his run line. We do bring him in the house, and if he is calm and lays down then that is fine. But we can tell if he wants to be outside because he will keep getting up and pacing, or trying to run in the house, and so in those circumstances, we put him back outside so he can run around and play. For his food and water, he has 2 shiny silver metal bowls. I usually feed and water him first thing when we get up, and take him outside, hooking him on his run line so he can go do his business.
Well, Erin was grabbing her work clothes out of the dryer and this animal control cop knocked on the door. First thing she said was that someone complained saying that Teagan was always left outside with no food, water, or shelter from the rain or whatever. Well, the first thing she did, according to what Erin told me this morning, was turn, look at Teagan's fairly nice but plain dog house, his 2 bowls, one right inside the dog house filled with food minus about 1/3 which Teagan had already eaten, and his water bowl mostly full minus what he had already drank. Then she turned back to Erin and said "I see that this claim is not 100% accurate, since I can see that obviously he has food, water, and good shelter from the rain."
Erin told her that Teagan loves it outside, and that is why he is out so much. Otherwise we would have him inside a lot more than we do. She did ask though if Teagan was licenced with the city. He was, but it expired and we haven't gotten him to the vet to get his new shots yet. So she asked if we could do it by monday, and Erin told her we would take care of it and provide them the documents.
We just love how some people like to poke their noses into other people's business, some of them trying to get the others in trouble. Thank God I have always had the habit of giving teagan food and water first thing, and that we have had that nice dog house for him that he can enter from the patio, so he doesn't have to get wet to get in there while it is raining. He comes over onto the porch and then just walks in his house and lays down and eats. He was laying in there and the rain was no where near him.
So, thank God for all that, because had any of that been different the officer might have had more to say, but that's way they say "CYA!" or "Cover your ass!" What that basically means for anyone who doesn't know, is you do the things you need to do, and make sure you have everything in order so that should any unexpected things happen, you are covered. For me at work, covering my own means basically if anything happens, even if it's really minor, if I have even a small inkling that it might be important to document, then I make up an incident report. The way I figure it is, the more documentation you have on everything, the less crap you might accidentally step in. At home, we were covered pretty good because of how Teagan is indeed properly cared for. Even the cop was like "He's a really nice dog!"
So, we have to pay a little extra to be sure to get Teagan in to the vet to get his shots, but then that will be taken care of. So as far as work goes, I was looking at my time sheet. If I work 6 days and possibly am given a break next thursday like Securitas did for me this week, that will be 6 12 hour days which will put me at 72 hours for the week, so basically this week I turned in the time sheet totalling 68 hours, so 28 hours over time (time and a half!), and then from today through next thursday, that would be 32 hours of time and a half. So, being the only guard, although it is tiring as hell on me right now, has it's up sides. I'm definitely feeling the burn out of it. And then you throw in that the time off during the day before coming back in has been reduced by 2 hours and so it feels like "On duty, off, sleep, 2 or 3 hours, back on duty." lol. So, on that very pleasant note, I will call that it for tonight. I will write more for you all tomorrow.
Thanks for being here!
CB
Well, thankfully Lex got up with her alarm, and when she was ready, she sitting on my side of the bed saying "Daddy, I'm all ready to go." I looked at the time and asked "Did you eat yet?" It was only 6:55, and she said she hadn't. So I said "Go grab some cereal hun." She was like "kay." A little while later I rolled over and saw that it was 7:20, and so I pulled myself out of bed, and as I stumbled from side to side, made my way downstairs rubbing the blurryness out of my eyes. It was raining, and so I didn't leave our little back patio area that is thankfully covered, gave hugs and kisses, told her to be careful when crossing the street, and saw her off.
Then I went back to bed. Just after 9, Erin woke me up, telling me that a cop from Animal Control came knocking on the door. Our dog Teagan is an outside dog. He loves it outside on his run line. We do bring him in the house, and if he is calm and lays down then that is fine. But we can tell if he wants to be outside because he will keep getting up and pacing, or trying to run in the house, and so in those circumstances, we put him back outside so he can run around and play. For his food and water, he has 2 shiny silver metal bowls. I usually feed and water him first thing when we get up, and take him outside, hooking him on his run line so he can go do his business.
Well, Erin was grabbing her work clothes out of the dryer and this animal control cop knocked on the door. First thing she said was that someone complained saying that Teagan was always left outside with no food, water, or shelter from the rain or whatever. Well, the first thing she did, according to what Erin told me this morning, was turn, look at Teagan's fairly nice but plain dog house, his 2 bowls, one right inside the dog house filled with food minus about 1/3 which Teagan had already eaten, and his water bowl mostly full minus what he had already drank. Then she turned back to Erin and said "I see that this claim is not 100% accurate, since I can see that obviously he has food, water, and good shelter from the rain."
Erin told her that Teagan loves it outside, and that is why he is out so much. Otherwise we would have him inside a lot more than we do. She did ask though if Teagan was licenced with the city. He was, but it expired and we haven't gotten him to the vet to get his new shots yet. So she asked if we could do it by monday, and Erin told her we would take care of it and provide them the documents.
We just love how some people like to poke their noses into other people's business, some of them trying to get the others in trouble. Thank God I have always had the habit of giving teagan food and water first thing, and that we have had that nice dog house for him that he can enter from the patio, so he doesn't have to get wet to get in there while it is raining. He comes over onto the porch and then just walks in his house and lays down and eats. He was laying in there and the rain was no where near him.
So, thank God for all that, because had any of that been different the officer might have had more to say, but that's way they say "CYA!" or "Cover your ass!" What that basically means for anyone who doesn't know, is you do the things you need to do, and make sure you have everything in order so that should any unexpected things happen, you are covered. For me at work, covering my own means basically if anything happens, even if it's really minor, if I have even a small inkling that it might be important to document, then I make up an incident report. The way I figure it is, the more documentation you have on everything, the less crap you might accidentally step in. At home, we were covered pretty good because of how Teagan is indeed properly cared for. Even the cop was like "He's a really nice dog!"
So, we have to pay a little extra to be sure to get Teagan in to the vet to get his shots, but then that will be taken care of. So as far as work goes, I was looking at my time sheet. If I work 6 days and possibly am given a break next thursday like Securitas did for me this week, that will be 6 12 hour days which will put me at 72 hours for the week, so basically this week I turned in the time sheet totalling 68 hours, so 28 hours over time (time and a half!), and then from today through next thursday, that would be 32 hours of time and a half. So, being the only guard, although it is tiring as hell on me right now, has it's up sides. I'm definitely feeling the burn out of it. And then you throw in that the time off during the day before coming back in has been reduced by 2 hours and so it feels like "On duty, off, sleep, 2 or 3 hours, back on duty." lol. So, on that very pleasant note, I will call that it for tonight. I will write more for you all tomorrow.
Thanks for being here!
CB
Thursday, June 3, 2010
day 59
Alright. I originally came online here on the blog to simply post an entry saying "No entry tonight, will post tomorrow." The reason for this was because, at midnight, I was dozing off on the couch, dead tired, etc. However, after waking up a little bit, I felt myself tense and stressing out over stuff, about a little bit of everything, and so here I am. I decided I needed to come on here and post officially after all. So, today was my 1 day off before I go another stretch of probably 6-8 days in a row. Did I enjoy my day off? Sure! I always enjoy my days off. Was it enough. Heck no! Usually when I work the 40 hour week like I originally would do when Randy was still with us, then I would get off on Saturday morning, and have 4 days off, coming back to work and working 30 hours the following week. So, I really enjoyed and looked forward to my 4 day weekend.
So, here's the scoop as of today. Randy no call no showed Saturday. I got off saturday, and instead of being off for 4 days, I worked his saturday, sunday, monday, and tuesday. Tuesday I received a call from my boss with securitas saying that what the plan was currently was I was going to train a flex guy Wednesday evening, and then he would work thursday night, and I would take the day off. Then I would come back friday and figure on working 6 or 7 days straight.
So last night I trained the guy. Considering that we only had one night to train before he would work by himself tonight, I did the best I could. I tried to be the best role model of a security officer that I could, and train him the best that I could. Basically, wanted to make sure he was as ready to fly solo. Considering the amount of time we had, when we were off duty at 6, I was pretty confident that he had all the knowledge he needed, and that he could do it.
So today I got off at 6, but didn't come home right away because I had a few errands to run. First I took Erin's car over and filled it up with gas. I grabbed the bi-weekly powerball $5.00 ticket. The guy behind the counter was like "somebody won it last night. It was over 200 million. Now it's only 20 million." I was like "Hey, I'd be perfectly happy with 20 million." He was like "I would too!" I was like "Hell! I would be perfectly happy to win 20,000!"
It's true, if I won 10,000 or 20,000 , I would be perfectly happy about that. Any extra money in our lives would be benefitial to us. We'd be able to turn around and pay off a lot of debt, if not all of it. I think the big reason why I would really love to win a really big amount like a million or so, would be to turn around, set up fully funded college funds for the girls, make an offer on buying the house. I don't know if we would buy different cars, right now I'd like to say that even if we had a million bucks, I think I would put the money needed into my truck and erin's escape to get them in perfect running condition, maybe even get the body work completed on the truck so it looks like it did in 93 without any rust. Then we would have 2 vehicles payed off and without any problems. Then why would we need new cars? Of course, yes I would like to eventually be driving a dodge ram quad cab, but I love my Ford F250, and so if I can fix it up completely and drive it for another 5 years, that would be great.
In closing, after I got home, my day had a few things that I did. First, while I had Sliders on the netflix streaming, I logged online on a website about a blood bank that was going on today at the hospital I work at. When Erin and I first met, we went to donate blood every few months, as often as we were allowed. In maryland we wanted to but never found one that was too close by. I've been on the lookout here for a while, and have seen that they have blood drives at the hospital pretty often, but I was sure you had to schedule. Plus, with me getting off at 6 am, I guess I never pulled the trigger. However, a thought crossed my mind recently. With my hours, I can't get to church, and we want to give more. Also, as far as giving goes, you don't have to give just money. Giving money is good, and can be very helpful. But time is just as valuable some times, or lending a listening ear to someone that needs to vent about something. Well today, when I walked with the guy I was training, showing him where the client boss's office was for us to turn in the original copy of our paperwork, I saw the blood drive flyer pinned up outside his office. It was scheduled for today from 7 am till 3:30.
I don't know what drove me, but without really thinking about it, I pulled the thumbtacks out of the board and folded the sheet up and stuck it in my pocket, telling myself that I was going to check into it when I got off. So while I was lounging in the recliner, I called the number on the sheet and left a message asking if it was possible to donate today, and what we had to do, if we had to schedule, etc. By 8:30 I got a voicemail from her saying that we were more than welcome to come in and that she scheduled us for 3:15 and 3:20.
So after I left that message, when it hit 8:00 AM, I started my application to the University of Phoenix online. Let me go into that a little bit.
I think I wrote about the issues with American Military University. I re-enrolled with them 2 months ago. I previously attended college with them online when I was in the air force. I completed 9 credits. It was a pretty good experience, so I figured it was safe to re-enroll and complete my degree with them. Wrong. I swear I had so many problems. I registered for classes, supposed to start June 7th. Well I faxed and scanned and emailed EVERY SINGLE document to them for the financial aid. In order for me to 1) start class, and 2) receive my books for my classes, my financial aid had to be fully processed and ready. 3 weeks ago approximately, suddenly I stopped being able to get ahold of anyone at the school as far as financial aid. I was trying to find out what else they needed, because I knew my start date was coming up and I wanted everything to be ready to go.
Well, I emailed and tried to call and left multiple messages daily for 2 weeks, never hearing back. I didn't know what to think, or what to do. I started to think that maybe I needed to look into different schools because I did not know what the hell was going on. So I did. I looked into Kaplan university, re-initiating email with the female rep that had called me not that long ago before I started here at Clinton. Then I got online and checked out University of Phoenix. I found that they had my degree I wanted, only it was either a bachelors in business with focus in hospitality management. I decided that I was going to talk to someone at both schools and try to make a decision on where I wanted to go. I exchanged emails with kaplan, explaining my frustration with amu, and then when I got off from work, after 8 am, I called university of phoenix and got hooked up with an admissions rep there. I think he's actually a supervisor, because the first guy I talked to transfered me to him saying he could better assist me.
So I talked to him for like an hour, and got a lot of info from him. I actually was really leaning towards phoenix. I told him that later after I got up, I would get online and we would talk about it and probably get things rolling. When I woke up though, I FINALLY had an email back from the financial department at AMU. They appologized and said they were out because of emergency oral surgery. So I thought "I'll try to see if things will work out." They seemed to be keeping regular contact with me again and so I thought maybe, just maybe, there was a chance. I sent them the remaining documents they asked for. By this point, I had faxed soem of the documents 3 or 4 times because they would say they got it, then say they still needed it, etc. UGH! SO FRUSTRATING!
The thing that tipped the scale was after about a week, here I was, still bookless, stil wondering what was going to happen with me starting classes, etc. I was told "as soon as your financial aid is cleared, you will be able to start, and you will receive your books." Then I got an email from the financial aid at AMU saying that my financial aid application is complete and processed and to log on to my financial aid office with AMU and of course, it still said "We need such and such documents from you." I was like "WHAT THE HELL!"
So the next day I emailed a few times asking what was going on, and then the next day, which was yesterday I decided to call them. The lady was like "Sir, we have your state taxes but not your federal. We still need your federal." I was like "Ma'am, that doesn't make sense. We filed through HR block and our 1040 has BOTH our federal taxes and our state taxes listed!" She was like "Well sir, if you could make copies and fax those over to us we can get them going." I said "But ma'am, what i'm trying to tell you is, 1) i have faxed these to you THREE TIME! 2!) like I said! I did not just fax you the state taxes! I faxed you BOTH! I will see what I can do." And hung up.
When I went to sleep just after that, I decided that was it. I was done. So this morning I called and got back ahold of the admissions rep with university of phoenix and within an hour, between he and i on the phone, I literally got everything done that I had tried getting finished and processed with AMU in two months. The only thing he needed was me to fax my veteran GI bill certification of elegibility letter, which was fine, but otherwise everything else was turned in. I told him "Damn man, I'm already feeling so much better about this decision, when can I start." He was like "on the right hand side of the screen you should see your start date." I looked and saw that I am scheduled to start classes on June 21st. I said "Sweet, that works!"
So this afternoon I woke up at 2:30, picked lex up from school early, and then Erin and I went and donated blood. Today since it was a day off, I looked at the red-box and there were several new releases, so tonight we watched The Tooth Faerie with the Rock, Legion, and Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp. All 3 were good. So I have in a written sence talked your ear off, so I will let that be it. Thanks for being here!
So, here's the scoop as of today. Randy no call no showed Saturday. I got off saturday, and instead of being off for 4 days, I worked his saturday, sunday, monday, and tuesday. Tuesday I received a call from my boss with securitas saying that what the plan was currently was I was going to train a flex guy Wednesday evening, and then he would work thursday night, and I would take the day off. Then I would come back friday and figure on working 6 or 7 days straight.
So last night I trained the guy. Considering that we only had one night to train before he would work by himself tonight, I did the best I could. I tried to be the best role model of a security officer that I could, and train him the best that I could. Basically, wanted to make sure he was as ready to fly solo. Considering the amount of time we had, when we were off duty at 6, I was pretty confident that he had all the knowledge he needed, and that he could do it.
So today I got off at 6, but didn't come home right away because I had a few errands to run. First I took Erin's car over and filled it up with gas. I grabbed the bi-weekly powerball $5.00 ticket. The guy behind the counter was like "somebody won it last night. It was over 200 million. Now it's only 20 million." I was like "Hey, I'd be perfectly happy with 20 million." He was like "I would too!" I was like "Hell! I would be perfectly happy to win 20,000!"
It's true, if I won 10,000 or 20,000 , I would be perfectly happy about that. Any extra money in our lives would be benefitial to us. We'd be able to turn around and pay off a lot of debt, if not all of it. I think the big reason why I would really love to win a really big amount like a million or so, would be to turn around, set up fully funded college funds for the girls, make an offer on buying the house. I don't know if we would buy different cars, right now I'd like to say that even if we had a million bucks, I think I would put the money needed into my truck and erin's escape to get them in perfect running condition, maybe even get the body work completed on the truck so it looks like it did in 93 without any rust. Then we would have 2 vehicles payed off and without any problems. Then why would we need new cars? Of course, yes I would like to eventually be driving a dodge ram quad cab, but I love my Ford F250, and so if I can fix it up completely and drive it for another 5 years, that would be great.
In closing, after I got home, my day had a few things that I did. First, while I had Sliders on the netflix streaming, I logged online on a website about a blood bank that was going on today at the hospital I work at. When Erin and I first met, we went to donate blood every few months, as often as we were allowed. In maryland we wanted to but never found one that was too close by. I've been on the lookout here for a while, and have seen that they have blood drives at the hospital pretty often, but I was sure you had to schedule. Plus, with me getting off at 6 am, I guess I never pulled the trigger. However, a thought crossed my mind recently. With my hours, I can't get to church, and we want to give more. Also, as far as giving goes, you don't have to give just money. Giving money is good, and can be very helpful. But time is just as valuable some times, or lending a listening ear to someone that needs to vent about something. Well today, when I walked with the guy I was training, showing him where the client boss's office was for us to turn in the original copy of our paperwork, I saw the blood drive flyer pinned up outside his office. It was scheduled for today from 7 am till 3:30.
I don't know what drove me, but without really thinking about it, I pulled the thumbtacks out of the board and folded the sheet up and stuck it in my pocket, telling myself that I was going to check into it when I got off. So while I was lounging in the recliner, I called the number on the sheet and left a message asking if it was possible to donate today, and what we had to do, if we had to schedule, etc. By 8:30 I got a voicemail from her saying that we were more than welcome to come in and that she scheduled us for 3:15 and 3:20.
So after I left that message, when it hit 8:00 AM, I started my application to the University of Phoenix online. Let me go into that a little bit.
I think I wrote about the issues with American Military University. I re-enrolled with them 2 months ago. I previously attended college with them online when I was in the air force. I completed 9 credits. It was a pretty good experience, so I figured it was safe to re-enroll and complete my degree with them. Wrong. I swear I had so many problems. I registered for classes, supposed to start June 7th. Well I faxed and scanned and emailed EVERY SINGLE document to them for the financial aid. In order for me to 1) start class, and 2) receive my books for my classes, my financial aid had to be fully processed and ready. 3 weeks ago approximately, suddenly I stopped being able to get ahold of anyone at the school as far as financial aid. I was trying to find out what else they needed, because I knew my start date was coming up and I wanted everything to be ready to go.
Well, I emailed and tried to call and left multiple messages daily for 2 weeks, never hearing back. I didn't know what to think, or what to do. I started to think that maybe I needed to look into different schools because I did not know what the hell was going on. So I did. I looked into Kaplan university, re-initiating email with the female rep that had called me not that long ago before I started here at Clinton. Then I got online and checked out University of Phoenix. I found that they had my degree I wanted, only it was either a bachelors in business with focus in hospitality management. I decided that I was going to talk to someone at both schools and try to make a decision on where I wanted to go. I exchanged emails with kaplan, explaining my frustration with amu, and then when I got off from work, after 8 am, I called university of phoenix and got hooked up with an admissions rep there. I think he's actually a supervisor, because the first guy I talked to transfered me to him saying he could better assist me.
So I talked to him for like an hour, and got a lot of info from him. I actually was really leaning towards phoenix. I told him that later after I got up, I would get online and we would talk about it and probably get things rolling. When I woke up though, I FINALLY had an email back from the financial department at AMU. They appologized and said they were out because of emergency oral surgery. So I thought "I'll try to see if things will work out." They seemed to be keeping regular contact with me again and so I thought maybe, just maybe, there was a chance. I sent them the remaining documents they asked for. By this point, I had faxed soem of the documents 3 or 4 times because they would say they got it, then say they still needed it, etc. UGH! SO FRUSTRATING!
The thing that tipped the scale was after about a week, here I was, still bookless, stil wondering what was going to happen with me starting classes, etc. I was told "as soon as your financial aid is cleared, you will be able to start, and you will receive your books." Then I got an email from the financial aid at AMU saying that my financial aid application is complete and processed and to log on to my financial aid office with AMU and of course, it still said "We need such and such documents from you." I was like "WHAT THE HELL!"
So the next day I emailed a few times asking what was going on, and then the next day, which was yesterday I decided to call them. The lady was like "Sir, we have your state taxes but not your federal. We still need your federal." I was like "Ma'am, that doesn't make sense. We filed through HR block and our 1040 has BOTH our federal taxes and our state taxes listed!" She was like "Well sir, if you could make copies and fax those over to us we can get them going." I said "But ma'am, what i'm trying to tell you is, 1) i have faxed these to you THREE TIME! 2!) like I said! I did not just fax you the state taxes! I faxed you BOTH! I will see what I can do." And hung up.
When I went to sleep just after that, I decided that was it. I was done. So this morning I called and got back ahold of the admissions rep with university of phoenix and within an hour, between he and i on the phone, I literally got everything done that I had tried getting finished and processed with AMU in two months. The only thing he needed was me to fax my veteran GI bill certification of elegibility letter, which was fine, but otherwise everything else was turned in. I told him "Damn man, I'm already feeling so much better about this decision, when can I start." He was like "on the right hand side of the screen you should see your start date." I looked and saw that I am scheduled to start classes on June 21st. I said "Sweet, that works!"
So this afternoon I woke up at 2:30, picked lex up from school early, and then Erin and I went and donated blood. Today since it was a day off, I looked at the red-box and there were several new releases, so tonight we watched The Tooth Faerie with the Rock, Legion, and Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp. All 3 were good. So I have in a written sence talked your ear off, so I will let that be it. Thanks for being here!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
day 58
Short post tonight. No time. Posting from my phone. Thankfully I'm training someone tonight. He is working tomorrow night so I can have a day off. Then I will be working probably another whole week straight. Pretty damn exhausted but really looking forward to bring off tomorrow. Gonna get the lawn mowed and do laundry and then sit around and do nothing but relax.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Day 57
Welcome to day 57. Today was a bit different. I was actually up, out and about in the afternoon because I managed to be able to sleep till about 1:30. I wanted to sleep longer, but we had plans. Today was food stamp day and we were planning on going to Aldi's to do a massive grocery shopping trip. So, I got out of bed, and came downstairs to hang out with Erin and Zoe. About 15 minutes till 3, my friend Gary called. I forgot today was the day of our 3pm meeting. We used to meet every tuesday, but now every other. But we are bringing it to a close. With meeting every other time, are intent was to back off slowly. Now he is going out of town for 2 weeks, so it'll be 3 weeks till we have our next meeting. He recommended that it be our official last meeting. I agreed.
Damn tonight I am beat. This afternoon I felt great. I had slept 4 or 5 hours, and was awake during the afternoon without being dead on my feet. Tonight I'm like blah. It's as though I'm trying to squint to see better through the fog that clouds my vision. When Gary and I finished our meeting, I received a call from my boss. Still no word yet from Randy. The only thing they know is that on the message Randy left friday night when he called our of work that night was that his daughter *whom I believe is over the age of 18*, had some kind of accident and was being taken to Iowa City, and that he was going there too. I said "ok? So that leaves me thinking that there was nothing wrong with 'him', which makes me think that there shouldn't have been any reason why he would not have been able to at least make a single phone call about the shifts he has missed.'"
My boss was like "yup, you're right." Then I was like "My wife asked me about this, and so I was wondering. Has securitas through their contract here at the hospital ever had a guard be an official "Trainer", or "Supervisor"? The reason why I ask is because I have always been around to cover whenever randy has not been there. I have always been the one to train the other guards that you had trained just in case you needed extra covers. And also, I've been the one who puts together the schedules. Just wondering if that had ever been done."
He was like "No, we have never done that before but maybe it is time we do. I will talk to pat cram about it and see what he thinks, and see if we can figure something out." So, we will see if the subtle request is answered or if they brush it off. It makes sense really, but we will see what happens.
So basically here's what my boss told me. "Basically here's the deal. Tomorrow night you will train ________" *I cant remember the guy's name he gave me*. "He will work thursday night, you take that day off and that way you can catch up on sleep, do laundry if you need to, mow the lawn, etc. Then you'll go ahead and work friday, and plan for being on duty for probably 6 or 7 days straight. The plan right now is hopefully within two weeks we can get Aaron from ADM, whom you have trained up at the hospital, transfered over."
So basically, yay, I get a day off, then back to it on friday. Sounds like I will have possibly 2 or more paychecks, with each week being 60-70 hours each. Gonna enjoy the 20-30 hours of time and a half. ;)
In closing, I'm definitely tired. It's like the last week and a half/two weeks has blended together because of working every night. The job itself is not bad at all, it's the limited time off to rest and just put my feet up. I'm thinking about, since I will be the senior officer, arranging it so that I will work 4 days every week *giving me 40 hours every week* in stead of what randy and I have been doing, 30 one week, and 40 the next, that way being able to afford to sign up for the health benefits whenever the next chance comes around. I didn't before because of the bills and the amount that the premium every 2 weeks was going to cut into that. But an extra 10 hours on those weeks when I normally worked 30 hours would help compensate for that. I think I am going to call that if for tonight. I will write more for you all tomorrow.
Thanks for being here.
CB
Damn tonight I am beat. This afternoon I felt great. I had slept 4 or 5 hours, and was awake during the afternoon without being dead on my feet. Tonight I'm like blah. It's as though I'm trying to squint to see better through the fog that clouds my vision. When Gary and I finished our meeting, I received a call from my boss. Still no word yet from Randy. The only thing they know is that on the message Randy left friday night when he called our of work that night was that his daughter *whom I believe is over the age of 18*, had some kind of accident and was being taken to Iowa City, and that he was going there too. I said "ok? So that leaves me thinking that there was nothing wrong with 'him', which makes me think that there shouldn't have been any reason why he would not have been able to at least make a single phone call about the shifts he has missed.'"
My boss was like "yup, you're right." Then I was like "My wife asked me about this, and so I was wondering. Has securitas through their contract here at the hospital ever had a guard be an official "Trainer", or "Supervisor"? The reason why I ask is because I have always been around to cover whenever randy has not been there. I have always been the one to train the other guards that you had trained just in case you needed extra covers. And also, I've been the one who puts together the schedules. Just wondering if that had ever been done."
He was like "No, we have never done that before but maybe it is time we do. I will talk to pat cram about it and see what he thinks, and see if we can figure something out." So, we will see if the subtle request is answered or if they brush it off. It makes sense really, but we will see what happens.
So basically here's what my boss told me. "Basically here's the deal. Tomorrow night you will train ________" *I cant remember the guy's name he gave me*. "He will work thursday night, you take that day off and that way you can catch up on sleep, do laundry if you need to, mow the lawn, etc. Then you'll go ahead and work friday, and plan for being on duty for probably 6 or 7 days straight. The plan right now is hopefully within two weeks we can get Aaron from ADM, whom you have trained up at the hospital, transfered over."
So basically, yay, I get a day off, then back to it on friday. Sounds like I will have possibly 2 or more paychecks, with each week being 60-70 hours each. Gonna enjoy the 20-30 hours of time and a half. ;)
In closing, I'm definitely tired. It's like the last week and a half/two weeks has blended together because of working every night. The job itself is not bad at all, it's the limited time off to rest and just put my feet up. I'm thinking about, since I will be the senior officer, arranging it so that I will work 4 days every week *giving me 40 hours every week* in stead of what randy and I have been doing, 30 one week, and 40 the next, that way being able to afford to sign up for the health benefits whenever the next chance comes around. I didn't before because of the bills and the amount that the premium every 2 weeks was going to cut into that. But an extra 10 hours on those weeks when I normally worked 30 hours would help compensate for that. I think I am going to call that if for tonight. I will write more for you all tomorrow.
Thanks for being here.
CB
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