Thinking....

Its 11:00PM Friday night, I just got home from hanging out with friends...
In an attempt to be proactive I got online and started looking up classes that I need to take this semester.
Yes I know I've only got two weeks 'til school starts, but I did sign up earlier this year, however the payment date was yesterday, and I turned my financial aid information in ... today..

In an attempt to rectify my procrastination mistake in that I decided to see what I could/couldn't take this semester.

An hour later, my heart is pounding with a little bit of panic.

The available classes and times are all over the place. And the majority offered only at the campus furtherest from my house. 24 miles to be exact.

$$$$$$$$

In order to take a full load this semester my schedule would look like this:

M: (Work 4 hours) (School 2:00 -5:00PM) (Choir 6:30-8:00PM)
T:  (School 9:10-10:30AM + 10:45-12:10AM) (Work 4 hours)
W: (Work  7 Hours) (Church)
Th:(School 9:10-10:30AM + 10:45-12:10AM) (Work 4 hours)
F:  (Work 4 hours) (School 12:25- 3:25)

It would be a tight schedule on a "normal" basis...but the thing is, I have this dog. That's supposed to leave my house, by my side, in his yellow vest at LEAST five times a week. I should also mention, while this dog is welcome at my school, he's not welcomed at my place of employment.

Which means, that I would have to either go and pick him up before school, or drop him before I go to work. IF I I have the time, adding another seventeen miles to my already long trip.

So I've got some decisions to make.

Hard. Tough. Decisions. 

Another thing, in the back of my mind is the idea that perhaps...after two years..its time for me to look at other job possibilities...ones more "friendly" to the idea of having a service dog in training with them, ones with benefits..one that is.. (dare I say it..) Full Time?

One that would allow me to continue to raise without strain..

Cause being a puppy raiser is my life. But at what cost? 

That. Is the question. 

*Phew

Hello Blog,
Are you feeling a little neglected? Good because that means I may actually have something of interest going on in my life. Mostly its just because I'm trying to limit my computer time, to about 4-8 hours a day. 


But lets play a little catch-up shall we? 
Friday - I love Bank-that-shall-not-be-named,  they send me these lovely "Available Balance" alerts every once in a while, to let me know how much is (or isn't) in my account at the moment. So when I get this email, I click it with dread, knowing that I am about to see a very low number. Imagine my surprise when I see a couple hundred EXTRA in my account. Apparently Financial Aid had some more money to send me and did so. Have I mentioned how much I love those guys?  No? Well...I don't really but it seemed like a good thing to say right here. 


Earlier this week, I'd  been in contact with another person interested in adopting Zipper, who just happened to fit the "No Dogs" bill we were looking for. While I know Zip is a great little dog, she is not great for my family, and I was immensilly relieved to be given the "go ahead" to get Zip to her. So we made plans for her to meet me on Tuesday to complete the deal. Woohoo!


But let me tell you this. I will NEVER EVER bring an stray dog into my house unless, I have a huge fenced in yard, and a separate area for the dog to reside. Since that fateful day in June, my household has revolved around Zipper, and keeping her away from my dogs. I think Zipper really is a cat, who just happened to land in a dogs body. That being said, I am a lot more open to the idea of fostering that I've been in the past, but alas, I have a four dog limit and already have enough to do with the Pompsters. *sigh*


Saturday - A day that will forever haunt me. Let me begin by saying I have an 18yo sister and a 15yo sister, who'd ASKED ME if I wanted to go White Water Rafting with them, and some of our NC and AL friends. I'd been waffling back and forth, because i wanted to go hang out but I didn't want too raft. Well they assured me it would be fine if I just went and hung out. 
Ok great. 
Then I realized that would mean I'd be riding with my 18yo sister, on a two hour trip. *gulp*  
No offense to any 18yo's but hey I was that age once, with my brand new licenses and I can say that I DID. NOT. REALLY. KNOW how to drive. But I realized she hadn't killed anyone just yet, so I could suck it up, and convince her to let me drive. and ride along. Little did I know how close i would come to death on this trip. I also didn't realize how hard it is for me to let my YOUNGER siblings be IN CHARGE.


They decided they needed to leave at 7:00AM in order to make it to the Nantahala River by the 9:00AM meeting time, our friends had set. Which meant that I had to wake up at 6:00AM to get the dogs and I ready. Pompei was going with me, but everyone else had to stay behind. I should have known when at 7:15AM the arrive at my house, that this was going to be an interesting trip. Both sisters come busting in and head straight for my computer. 


Me: Do you have directions?
Sister 2: No let me look it up on your computer real quick
I go back to making sure I'm prepared, before coming to glance at the directions before we leave. Since I know Sister 1 will not before we get on the road. There were three options to get to the Rafting Facilities, two of which project 2 hours and 30 minute travel time, and the other was only two hours. My dear-dear-dear sister see's the shortest time, and begins looking for a way to print those directions. I on the other hand look at the roads and realize this is going to be a trip on a two lane road. 


Um...No. 


Me: This is just a two lane road, Sister 1, we won't make any time if we get behind someone slow. 
Sister 1: But we need to get there fast, we are already late, and I don't want them to be waiting for us. 
Me: But you can go faster on the highway, we can make more time there. 
Sister 1: NO we need to get there, lets go this way. 
Me: Fine. Whatever. Just email the directions, I can read them on my phone. 


Once in the car, I immediately pull up my GPS app on my phone, and begin trying to see if it will send us on an alternate route. No luck. 


Fine. Whatever. Suck it up Erin. So I sit back and try to enjoy the ride.  


The first stretch of travel is fine, we're in familiar areas...yada yada yada, though I do have some major issues with the distance (or lack thereof) she liked to follow people at, I try to make my criticism very positive and logical. 


"OMG SISTER 1, if you hit that person YOU WILL BE IN TROUBLE" or "SLOW DOWN we will get there when we get there!" or "...Um..those are brake lights, SISTER 1 SLOW DOWN" 


See? Very informative and positive. 


Then we get onto the two lane road, this has your typical Smokey Mountain curves, and sister 2 and I spent a lot of time, remind her how to try and slow down before the curve. Though why Sister 2 thinks she knows anything about it is beyond me. 

Yes honey you have been driving ...for the last couple of weeks.

Then we start realize that there are an awful lot of curves on this road, and whoa that is a steep drop off over there. I did notice there were a lot of Motorcycle activity but I was too busy trying to convince my sister to SLOW DOWN, and to QUIT ACCELERATING, since the curves were on top of each other, to pay attention to the warning signs. 


It wasn't until we got to the end of those extremely harrowing 11 miles that we all realized...we'd been on....THE TAIL OF THE DRAGON. 

*DUN, DUN, DUN*

{Image Credit}

To say I was freaked out, would not even come close to what i was feeling. Sister 1 and Sister 2, were very blase about the whole, thing because they are very inexperienced drivers, and had NO CLUE the different dangers we avoided due to God's mercy. Like This: 

{Killboy.com}

Tailofthedragon.com

Tailofthedragon.com

CLICK HERE to see a video of the road. If you are get car sick or motion sick easily, you may not want to watch. You don't have much room to any type of mistakes on this road. Its like a roller coaster minus all of the safety gear. I am willing to admit that perhaps roller coasters are safer than cars. But we made it, though I was literally shaking when I got out and kissed the ground. *No not really


They had a blast riding down the river, and Pompei and I had fun watching them float or ride past. :))
Group 1: Warren, Maegan, Kim, Jeffrey, Devin, Audrey and Patrick. 

Group 2 - Cassie, Mryna, Robyn, Westley, Walter, Grace, Kristen and Bro. W.C

This group was fun, as every-time they passed me, they were either floating sideways or backwards. 

Group 1 passes me first

Pompei playing in the water, as we wait for our other group to pass.

Hi Guys! Bye Guys!

Group 2 surfing the waves

Aaah PADDLE! PADDLE! 

It started pouring a few minutes after everyone had pulled their rafts out of the water, and climbed onto the bus. Pompei and I had parked quite some distance from the end point, and had to make a made dash back to the car. SECONDS before the rain came crashing down. On the way back to the facility, I made up my mind to either not giver my sister her keys or to make them take another route, even if it was longer. 


It took a while, but I finally convinced her to go the long route. And the ride home was much more relaxing. 


So that was my weekend, Sunday was spent at church and getting my house all set for this coming week.


But WOW, this weekend will be one that lives on in my imagination forever. *shudders*

Summer Break: Week 2

Now that I’ve revived from my post-school-funk, I am really starting to enjoy having nothing to do. Week 1 was pretty emotional for me, depressing really; there were also a lot of other things going on in my life that didn’t help out my mental state, but God and I got a real good talk in Friday and I determined to let go and let God and he’s defiantly helped fight and win since then.

I can see this being the second most nerve racking summer of my life, as I seek direction as to what I’m supposed to do this year. Financial Aid was finally sent my way, though I haven’t received anything just yet, which was a huge relief off my back at first, but as time has progressed I am beginning to realize that I can’t stay at my current job.
It’s tough because I really, really, like my job, my co-workers, etc.. but I am barely making enough to cover the few bills that I have. Then I receive a phone call, technically I called her, but it sounds more dramatic this way. My mom had been talking to our insurance agent about an issue, they got that resolved yada, yada, yada, and then the agent starts asking questions.

Note to self, if insurance agents starts asking question find some way to remove yourself from the conversation.

To surmise the situation, the insurance company didn’t have me down as the primary driver on my dad’s car, which at the time I was placed on the policy I wasn’t, so they adjusted that status and guess what?! That action added $50 to my low $45 a month payment. To panic or not to panic is the current question, though they haven’t raised it just yet, it’s only a matter of time. At this time I believe “Nationwide is on your side” will be who I go with as for me their rate would only be $50 a month which I can totally handle.

But it also brings the startling reality that I.Am.Broke. I guess I should be happy that I’m finally getting into the full role of a college student, but I’m not seeing much to laugh about. Thus begins the question of what to do now. I can get another part time job in the summer, but how is that going to help me when school starts again? Or I can look for a full time position which will cut me out of going to class fulltime and receiving financial aid.

Or I can get a full time job that is similar to my current position where I can do homework around my other work… Which then limits the places I can apply to; or…um..nope I’m out of ideas here. Now you should know something about me, I am very picky as to where I apply to work. First because well …(and this may be a totally lame reason) I want to have a chance that I can continue working with service dogs, so that cuts me out of the Food and Retail Industries. Second would be the people, I’m going into interviews looking around at people, how they greet me, how they respond to each other if I can help it I do not want to get back into drama city.

Though with my track record I’m due for another drama filled job *sobs*.
• First Job = 2 women owners, 2 women managers, 4 women employee’s and a gay guy = D.R.A.M.A  When you are starting to dream about your job and are almost getting physically sick on the way to work in the morning...its time to move on.
• Second Job = Husband and Wife owned/managed, 3 girls = No Drama, Great Bosses very fair, awesome co-workers albiet a bit crazy at times. 
• Third Job = 1 woman owned/managed/dictated……yeah I’ll let you feel in the blanks= DRRAAMMMAA -Granted that was the one job where I actually LOVED my work and my co-workers. I do miss the WORK a lot, but not the heavy amounts of stress.
• Fourth Job = Corporation still some drama, but none involving me or those that I work with. So nice to come home and not think about your job until you get their the next morning
• Fifth Job = Who knows????

Thirdly would be flexibility, I’ve probably changed my schedule at least every three months during my time here, they have been awesome about working with my school and other job schedule (at the time) and I’ve been LOVING having my weekends free.

Oh. HA and I guess pay would rank up there between 1 and 2.

But the biggest thing I guess that’s “holding me back” is my parents reaction to me telling them that I was considering leaving, my current place of employment. Let’s just say it wasn’t “excitement” that greeted my pronouncement. And while I will ultimately make my own decision….I do value their opinions, (I can actually admit that now without cringing NEVER TELL THEM THAT would ruin my credibility) plus they get to listen to my job rants…However I think we’ve gotten to the point where I don’t really have a choice anymore.

So the Job hunts begins.

In other news, I have gotten Way tired of eating frozen food and decided to try a simple recipe from the The Pioneer Woman’s Cook Book.

Steak Bites{Full Recipe}

See! They even look like hers!!

I rarely follow cooking directions to the "T", so I added in some of Emeril's BAM BURGER seasoning, which spiced it up!

And since this is officially the longest post I’ve ever written…on this blog.. I will end it.
Tata!
Erin