11 Months

I was puttering around this morning, on my day off, getting a bit bummed out. I won't be starting school for a whole year. Then I realized that it's now October and I won't be starting in a year, I'll be starting in 11 months!

On Monday I decided that I wanted to spend some time improving my IT skill set. I thought that having some marketable IT skills would come in handy, and give me something to fall back on, if I need to make some extra money while I'm in school. I thought that reacquiring my Cisco CCNA certification would be a great way to start... I gave up on that idea on Tuesday. The material I would have had to learn, and study, in preparation for the exam is obscenely boring. I'm amazed at how little interest I know have in that type of stuff. I think I used to find that kind of stuff quite interesting.

I'm a lot more interested in the Cardiopulmonary Anatomy and Physiology, that I'm currently studying on my own. That book I mentioned in an earlier post is getting beat up pretty good as I read and reread it's very interesting pages.

Autopsy Video

If you want to see an Autopsy video, you can find one on the rtcorner.net web site: http://www.rtcorner.net/autopsy.htm (Yes, it's graphic. What would you expect from an Autopsy video?)

I was actually shocked by how quickly an Autopsy can be done.

www.rtcorner.net has a bunch of other interesting videos, that I will eventually get around to watching: http://www.rtcorner.net/rt_videos.htm

My favorite book

I've been trying to learn some Anatomy and Physiology on my own and haven't been making much progress. I finally found an Anatomy and Physiology book that I absolutely love to read. If the book wasn't so informative and educational, I could actually consider it a 'fun read'. Some of the material is pretty involved and requires a bit of study to sink into my fuzzy little brain.

The book is the fifth edition of Cardiopulmonary Anatomy & Physiology: Essentials for Respiratory Care by Terry Des jardins and it's my new best friend. That book is targeted at Respiratory Therapy students and makes Anatomy and Physiology really interesting. If you're interested in Respiratory Therapy, that's definitely a book that needs to be on your bookshelf.

Am I semi-retired?

I just realized that over the last 20 months I haven't had a full time job, or wanted one. When I was a full time student, I could use that as an excuse for not having a full time job. Now, because I'll be out of school until September 2008, the only excuse for not having a full time job is the fact that I don't actually want or need one.

After I've become a Respiratory Therapist, will I all of a sudden need or want a full time job?

The fact that I'm only working part time (about 3 days a week) comes up in conversation occasionally. When that fact comes up, it's often greeted with a great deal of sympathy and or pity. The assumption is that I'm down on my luck and actually should be working full time.

This week the knowledge that I was only working part time was greeted with, "Well at least you have a job." I was a little bit perturbed by the way that phrase came across. He could just as easily have said, "Well at least you're not on welfare.", or "Well at least you're not a crack head.".

If I just tell people that I'm semi retired, maybe they won't feel so sorry for me. Maybe I won't find myself constantly feeling the need to justify that I'm 'only working part time'.

Am I semi-retired? Is there a minimum age requirement for semi-retirement? If I actually get a full time job, can I still claim to be semi-retired?

A walk in the park

I finally went for a walk in the park, behind my place. I didn't walk very long, or very far, and I stumbled across this. That's some pretty impressive nature, within walking distance:


Next time I go for a walk, I'm bringing my camera. The above picture was taken with my camera phone.

I finally received a letter from the college

I finally received a letter from the college about my deferral:

Re: Respiratory Therapy Program, September 2008

Dear [Respiratory Therapy Student]

As previously agreed, your admission to the Respiratory Therapy Program has been deferred to the September 2008 start date. I have enclosed a copy of the signed agreement outlining the conditions of this deferral.

Please note that you are required to contact the College by February 1, 2008 to confirm your intention to start in September 2008.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at...

I waited 3 months for that letter. 3 Months!

Settled in

I haven't had the urge to post for quite a while. I've been running around doing all of those things that you do when you move into a new place.

I've been working in the big city for 3 days out of the week and commuting from my new home on those 3 days. My original plans to stay in my big city apartment up until the end of this month didn't work out. After moving into my condo I grew to detest my old apartment and couldn't bring myself to actually live there any longer.

I have to pick up a tool box and some paintings from my old apartment and then I will be completely moved out. I really am starting to hate that place. I can't believe that I lived there so long. I still have to clean the apartment before the end of the month. I might do the cleaning tomorrow, or I might leave it until Thursday or Friday of next week.

I can't believe how quiet my new place is. My old apartment was facing a major street in the big city and I was quite used to the traffic on that street, including all of thos Police, Fire and Ambulance sirens. In my new place, I'm facing a bunch of trees that has a very slightly used side road behind it. Behind the side road is a bunch of park land, that I haven't explored yet.

This is a picture of my desk and all of the trees that I can see from my living room window:

This is a picture of a few of the trees, taken from the grounds of the condo building, as the sun was setting:

First night sleeping in the condo

The Real Estate deal finally closed at about 4PM on Monday, and I was then officially a condo owner. I was expecting the deal to be closed at about 1PM, so I was getting kind of impatient.

I've been trying to figure out how to refer to the cities that I am moving from and moving to. The city that I'm moving from, and will continue to work in, is "the big city". The city that I just bought a condo in is "the little city."

This is my first night sleeping, or trying to, in my condo. My bed arrived at 10AM on Tuesday and it's comfortable like a really expensive bed should be. Unfortunately, I can't sleep. It's very quiet at night in the little city and I'm not used to it.

In the big city, my apartment faces one of the busiest streets in town. At night the background noise consists of traffic, sirens and the occasional train. In the little city, I might hear a car drive by every couple of hours. In the big city, I can sleep through police, ambulance and fire truck sirens. In the little city, the wind blowing through the trees can wake me up.

It's so quite hear, that I now know that my laptop's hard drive makes an annoying high pitched noise. That noise is really annoying and I didn't know about it until I used my laptop here, in the quiet little city.

Less than a week

I'm going into the lawyers office tomorrow. I'll be signing papers related to the condo purchase and handing over a bank draft for the amount of my down payment. I thought that I would be doing all of that on Monday, which is the day of the closing.

After I'm finished at the lawyers office, I just have to wait until Monday to pick up the keys.

I'll officially be a home owner in less than a week. It will be nice to be paying off a mortgage, instead of paying rent.

Anti Impalement Protector

After almost impaling myself on that nasty circuit breaker panel at work, a few weeks ago, I came up with a little invention. It's called the Anti Impalement Protector. It works great.

This is the Anti Impalement Protector installed on the bottom right hand corner of a circuit breaker panel:

Starting school next year

After sending an email to admissions yesterday, asking for an update, I was informed that my deferral request has been approved. I'll be starting school in September, next year.

If I don't get a full time job, I'm going to have a lot of spare time on my hands until September of next year. Maybe I should look for a full time job. Maybe I should be "gainfully underemployed". I think I'll avoid the whole issue, until I've moved into my condo.

Two more weeks until I own the condo

I will take possession of the condo on the 16th. My bed should be delivered on the 17th. I'm looking forward to sleeping on my comfy new bed, in my new condo, in a couple of weeks!

Still waiting for an update

The college was supposed to get back to me, this week, about the status of my admission deferral application. They haven't gotten back to me yet!

When am I going back to school? I don't know.
Do I want to go back to school this year, or next year? I don't know.

Am I getting stressed out about this? A little bit.

A bad financial move

Well it finally sunk in, with full force. This career change is a really bad financial move. When I'm finished school and working as a Respiratory Therapist, I will probably be making about 40% of what I was making when I was working as a full time IT Professional.

Unfortunately, I'm not at all interested in continuing on as a full time IT Professional. Financial reality has left me open, grudgingly, to the possibility of being a part time IT Professional for an indefinite period of time. I've already started telling people that, "I'm going to go back to school, so that I can get a more stressful and lower paying job". I usually think that line's pretty funny, sometimes I don't.

I spent most of today, and a couple of hours last week, shopping for furniture for my condo. I've already thrown out most of my crappy old furniture. While shopping I decided that I would get good furniture, that I like, and wouldn't get caught up on how expensive everything is. I'm 36 years old and I'm tired of living with crappy furniture, that lasts about as long as a decent pair of socks!

The end result is that I spent $10,811.17 on new furniture. I'm probably going to end up spending about $15, 000.00 when I'm finished getting all of the furniture that I want and need. Next year, I'm going to make about $38,000.00, if I'm lucky. When I'm finished buying my furniture, I'll have spent 40% of next years income on furniture!

What did I get for $10,811.17?

• A bed: $2,265.02
• A dresser and night stand for the bedroom: $2,125.42
• A sofa and chair for the living room: $3,338.38
• A dining room table and 4 chairs: $2,956.96
• A floor lamp for the living room: $125.39

All of the above, except the floor lamp, was on sale. I saved about $1,500.00, because everything was on sale. I suspect that expensive furniture is always "on sale" so that people feel less depressed about how much money they spend on it.

What do I still need to get?

• A headboard for my bend. I have this odd fear about getting my head stuck between my bed and the wall that the bed's up against. I'm hoping that a headboard will prevent me from getting my head stuck between a wall and my bed.
• 3 big book cases (I've decided to get cheap ones, for a total of about $500).
• A microwave.
• A table for the dining room.
• A couple of end tables for the dining room.
• A TV and TV stand.
• A vacuum cleaner.
• A lamp for the night stand.
• A desk for my computer.
• A bunch of plants, to put in the empty spaces that I can't afford to put furniture in.

Things that i won't be getting:

• A new laptop.
• A new computer.
• A phone. I'm just going to have a cell phone.
• Cable TV. I have access to the Internet and know how to use it.

Still waiting for an update

I sent an email to admissions, asking about the status of my admission deferral application. Someone from admissions responded by stating that the college is, "finalizing the communication to students who have deferred" and that they will get in touch with me next week.

Does that mean that my application has been approved?

I never did hear back from the Chair of the program.

Waiting to hear from the college about my admission deferral

I haven't heard back from the college yet. I still don't know if my admission deferral request has been approved. Will I be starting school in September of this year or September of next year?

I left a vmail for the Chair of the school today, that is responsible for the Respiratory Therapy Program, asking for a status update about my deferral request. I haven't heard back yet. I would really like to know when I'm going to be starting school! Not knowing for sure, is really starting to bug me. My patience is wearing thin.

Thanks Ken

I heard back from Ken, who is one of the people who runs the RT Corner web site. My blog has been added to the web site's links page (http://www.rtcorner.net/rtlinks.htm).

RT Corner is a great web site for people interested in Respiratory Therapy. If you're not already a regular visitor to the site, please check it out: http://www.rtcorner.net

Thanks Ken.

Ouch!

Some things I learned today:

1. When you're crawling around on a server room floor, underneath a circuit breaker panel, get up slowly. Circuit breaker panels have really sharp pointy corners, that will hurt you if you slam your back into one of them.


2. It's really hard to take a decent picture of a wound on your back, if you take the picture yourself.

Read my blog!

I've become obsessed by how many people are reading my blog. I visit the Cluster Map for my blog on a regular basis and am always pleased to see more and bigger dots. I think I might be developing a bit of a Cluster Map problem! I want more people to read my blog!

I recently had a thought about how to get more people to read my blog. If I got the kind hearted folks who run the rtcorner.net web site to post a link to my blog on their links page (http://www.rtcorner.net/rtlinks.htm) then maybe a lot more people would know about and read my blog.

I'm going to ask to be put on the rtcorner.net links page. Hopefully they'll do it and I'll get a bunch of RTs reading my blog.

Second thoughts

I must admit, that at times I do have second thoughts about my intention to change careers. I've recently wondered about why I felt the need to change careers. Was it the job or was it the work environment that need to be changed? Do I just need to have a more flexible work schedule, so that I don't feel "trapped" in a job that has a tendency to grind me down?

I recently poked around on a "find a job" web site to see what kind of Respiratory Therapy jobs were available. There doesn't seem to be a shortage of openings for new Respiratory Therapists, which is a comforting fact. I did notice that a lot of the positions were for short term positions that lasted either 6 or 12 months. The prospect of only committing to a short employment term is strangely intriguing...

I'm starting to think that I might be one of those people who needs the variety associated with moving from one job to another, on a regular basis, in order to stay fresh and enthused about his working life. Maybe what I need is to have periods of unemployment mixed in with my jobs, so that I can lead what I feel to be a satisfying life.

As always, only time will tell...