Proof that I'm irreplaceable at work

After hours tech support guy called my cell phone a few hours ago. I was feeling a bit snarky, so I didn't answer the phone. If he's bugging me after hours about work stuff, and it's important, he'll leave a message. If it's not important or he can actually figure it out on his own, he should hang up the phone and try to figure it out on his own! Better yet, if it's not important he shouldn't even freaking call me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The IT people at work really should be able to do things for themselves! He called back a few minutes later and left a voice mail. The Internet connection for a branch office was down and he didn't know how to contact the Internet Service Provider for that office. He knew who the Internet Service Provider was, but didn't know how to contact their tech support. I didn't know either, so I actually looked it up in our list of support contacts. Everyone in my IT department knows about that list of support contacts! After hours tech support guy has a copy of those contacts on his Blackberry. Sheesh.

My apologies for the gratuitous use of exclamation marks!

Student Line of Credit

After getting my student fees invoice yesterday, I decided to go to the bank and apply for a student line of credit. A student line of credit is different from a regular line of credit in that you only have to pay interest, while you are a full time student. With a student line of credit, you don't actually have to pay back any borrowed money until six months after finishing school. I already have a line of credit that I could use for school, but I would have to pay back principle in addition to interest if I used it.

The person at the bank had a hell of a time trying to put my application into the computer. At one point she actually said, "you don't fit into any of the boxes". Apparently most people who apply for a student line of credit still live with their parents, have their parents cosign, don't have a mortgage, haven't been working for 12 years and don't have any retirement savings...

I used to think that I would borrow some money from my retirement savings plan to pay for school. Now I'm thinking that borrowing money from the bank is a better way to go. I already borrowed money from my retirement savings plan for the down payment on my condo.

Student Fees Invoice

I received my student fees invoice yesterday. Almost a third of the amount due, isn't for tuition! In addition to tuition I also get to pay for the following:

• Technology Enhancement Fee
• Health Plan Fee
• Recreation/Athletics Fee
• Capital Development Fee
• Student Association Fee
• Student Priority Fee
• Administration Fee
• Graduation/Alumni Services Fee
• A fee for a six letter acronym. (I'm not putting the acronym on this list, because it can probably be used to identify my school - I'm still trying to remain anonymous)

The financial realities of going back to school have now fully sunk in. So much so, that I actually went to the bank today to beg for some money. I'll get into that in my next post.

I got tired of doing the math, to figure out how many days till school starts. I now have a nifty little count down counter at the top right hand corner of my blog.

Not happy enough

I got in trouble at work yesterday. Apparently, I'm not happy enough.

My boss keeps on asking me how I'm doing and it's getting annoying. When he asks me how I'm doing, sometimes he does it with an over the top kind of manic happiness that creeps me out. Yesterday I told him that, "I'm fine." and he actually told me that being fine wasn't good enough and that I can do better than that. WTF!? Am I supposed to pretend that I'm REALLY, REALLY HAPPY whenever he asks me how I'm doing? Maybe I should just be really, really happy for no reason at all. Anybody know where I can buy a do it yourself frontal lobotomy kit?

I don't need to know why

Yesterday, while I was on the train, I decided to do some writing. I found myself trying to explain, on paper, why I was changing careers. Why I was giving up a successful IT career, so that I could start over as a Respiratory Therapist. I've been trying to explain that one to people, and to myself, for quite a while. I think I may even have done a post, or two, on this blog about why I'm changing careers. I figured out something yesterday. I don't really know why I'm changing careers.

Every time I try to explain why I'm changing careers, I can't really explain it properly. Everything I say, or write, seems like a rationalization, justification or defence for what I am doing. The plain simple truth is that, I don't truly know why I'm doing this. For some reason I thought that I actually had to have a good reason. I don't have a good reason and I don't need one.

I'm doing this because I want to and because I can. I don't need to know why and neither does anyone else.

Paranoia

I've been paranoid about something going wrong. Something going wrong with my plan to go back to school.

Yesterday I logged into the college's student portal and discovered that there is now a Respiratory Therapy section on my grades page. In the past, the only thing on my grades page was the CPR/First Aid course that I took in January.

Paranoia better now.

Mostly just waiting

I've been thinking recently, that I should post something on my blog. To be perfectly honest, I don't have much to post about. I'm mostly just waiting.

Just waiting for my tuition invoice to show up. Just waiting for school to start. Just waiting for my summer job to finish up.

102 days until school starts.

Summer job looking better

The budget just got approved at work, so I should be pretty busy until school starts.  It looks like I'll be working more hours every week, which means a bit more money for the going back to school fund.  I've also got some reasonably interesting and challenging things to work on, which will hopefully make it easier to ignore the things about work that I don't like.

Usually if I'm crazy busy, and am doing something that's considered important, everyone just leaves me alone and just lets me do what needs to be done.

School starts in 112 days.

References

Over the years I have been asked if I can be used as a reference, when someone is looking for a job. I have never refused. People who ask, always seem to know that I think well of them.

Yesterday evening I heard my cell phone ringing and couldn't find the damn thing, before it went to voice mail. When I listened to the voice mail I discovered that it was someone asking me if I could be used as a reference during a job search.

I couldn't believe it. The arrogant, condescending, unhelpful guy, who was always taking fake sick days, was asking me to act as a reference! This is the guy who got fired a few weeks ago from my current work place. I was stunned and also more than a little bit pissed off. What planet is this guy living on? I can't be a reference for that guy. I don't really have anything nice to say about the guy and if the person doing a reference check starts fishing for "problems" there will be many for us to talk about. I know the guy too well and can't give him a good reference. I would have to lie like crazy to be a good reference. What the hell was he thinking when he called me?

I'm just not going to call him back. If I ever end up talking to him, despite my best efforts not to, I will just tell him that I'm not comfortable being a reference for him. If he asks me why, then I'll have to tear into him.