Friday, October 8, 2010

Half Full Friday and Blog of the Week

It's that time again - Half Full Friday!  Hook up with Mr. Linky at Eyegirl's to join in the fun.  No need to be shy, I'll be there too and I'll even introduce you if you'd like. 
~I'm happy because...
My financial aid appointment went really well!

I won April's giveaway!  This is the second giveaway of hers that I've won.

I picked a friend up at the airport and to thank me, she bought me a McD's Fruit Smoothie!  Can't get enough of those.

This same friend got me a really pretty bracelet as a souvenier from her trip!

We finally got some rain this week!  I don't know why but I've been wanting a real downpour and we finally got it.

The landscaper's mom and I talked and kind of cleared the air a little bit over my rosebushes yesterday!
*****
I had my appointment with financial aid on Wednesday.  Before, I was only going to be offered a $400 pell grant.  After filling out the proper paperwork, providing all the necessary documentation to back it up and a letter to state my case, the woman I spoke with said that she thought she could get me a $2700 pell grant.  She then informed me that if I was approved for the additional grant, my loan amount would go down.  I asked if this meant that I'd still be getting the same amount of money, just in different increments (pell grant, subsidized loan and unsubsidized loan) and she said yes, she thought so.  Twelve or more credits per semester is considered a full-time student there at a cost of $2650 per semester.  If I get that pell grant, my schooling would essentially be free and I'd only truly be financing books and various other fees.  Whatever was left over is what I would live on.  I know finances will be tight but they've already been tight for the past year.  So I left the campus feeling like I was floating on air.

I had also asked about getting work study but was told there isn't much money for that right now and hardly anyone is being awarded it.  The woman said she'd put my name on the list but that there was no guarantee  I'd get it.

And then...  Last night, the school provided an online chat for incoming freshmen to ask any questions.  It was kind of difficult to follow because there didn't seem to be any order to the questions being answered.  Two or three administrators would all answer one question while others weren't answered at all.  Some of the participants seemed to think it was more about chit chat and didn't ask questions that pertained much to the school.  I was lucky enough to have a private chat with two separate administrators.  One said that living off school loans solely was extremely difficult.  The other one didn't say much about living off loans but did explain more about how work study works.  He's also a business and economics major and he loves it.  He says that particular program is one of the university's strengths.  I'm still feeling pretty good but then he goes on to tell me there's math in economics.  WTF?  I just cannot catch a break where math is concerned.  I have to take two math classes, plus there's math in economics and I have to take 2 econ classes.  So essentially I'll be taking four math classes!!!  Not cool!  I may have to rethink this whole major thing!
*****
This week's Blog of the Week is actually two different blogs, both by the same originatorI found them both just yesterday when Jen was kind enough to leave a comment on my last Wordless Wednesday post.  She has three blogs total but these two are waaaaaaaay cool! (Not that the third one isn't.)


The objective of this blog is to locate other bloggers in your area.  It lists all 50 states and several different countries.  Essentially, you just leave comment under the state or country where you're located.  This can be used to create business partners, organize get togethers, make new local friends and just find out who else is blogging in your area.  I haven't added my own blog yet but I did check out the other blogs in my state.

This next one is my new favorite blog of the moment. I absolutely LOVE it! 


This kind of reminds me a little bit of the Postsecret website.  They're two totally different sites as Postsecret includes secrets on a postcard but this one is similar in that it has positive quotes with cool pictures.  She says she found most of the quotes on weheartit and books.  This blog's objective is:
"To show you we've all been there.  To encourage you to keep going.  To prove love exists.  To get you through the day.  To remind you to be strong.  To celebrate you.  To fight right along with you.  And to remind you to be happy & live life!"
Since she created some of the pictures herself, I didn't want to steal them.  Here are some of my favorite quotes though.

Don't ever place your happiness in someone else's hands because once they're gone, so is your happiness.

Just because today is terrible doesn't mean that tomorrow won't be the best day of your life.  You just gotta get there.

Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself.

Forget what hurt you in the past but never forget what it taught you.

You told me to move on.  But where am I supposed to go?

This is one blog I'll be visiting regularly!

16 showed me some love:

The Life of Riley said...

That sounds like a good Friday list.

One hint for the math is get it out of the way first. See how much you can learn before you start college. If you have spare time use it to borrow course books from the libray, relook at your school books, find friends or neighbours to help you with maths, use the web and its varied resources to learn out how to do it). Use the time you have now to make a start, because if you keep putting it off you will waste so much time thinking about it, having it always in your mind, fearing it and setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy that you can't do it instead of breaking it down into the tinyest of tiny steps and one by one just doing it.

Maths is just a means to an end - to the qualification you really want and the life you are going to have with that qualification, so I figure do the hard stuff first - becasue then the rest is easy!

Frankie Furter and Ernie said...

Grrrreat news about the PELL Grant.
It depends on the TYPE of Econ. class you take. Some require NO math... I had to take 2 Econ classes and NEITHER required even adding 2+2. That was grrreat for me because at the time I was taking 29 Qtr. hours and 8 of those were Math hours...ALREADY.
I am sure you could manage it even if there was math because my friend took a minor in Econ. and she hardly had any math in any of them. That was really really grreat for her... because we both started Grad School the same quarter (4 years later) and... the first class was.... Grad. STATS.
It was INTENDED to weed out the BIMBOS and it surely did. 52 of us walked in the door the first night of class and only 25 were left to take the FINAL EXAM... my friend was not one of us.
YOU CAN DO THIS !!!!

The Rantings of a Drama Queen's Mum said...

Sounds like you've had a great week. Other than having more math in your classes. I hate math.

Doris Sturm said...

I'm glad you cleared the air with your landscapers mother because that situation was very strange.

Wonderful to read you're getting involved and ahead with your plans and grants for school. I once wanted tO study phsychiatry, but all that math was really putting me off - I guess I didn't want it badly enough because there's math in EVERYTHING!

I hope you have a great weekend - watch for my upcoming October Giveaway post.

Love, Doris and Gizzy

The Daily Pip said...

Sounds like you had a great week! That's very exciting about the Pell Grant. I am with Riley get the math over with first!!

Your pal, Pip

jen said...

Wow! That is a good list!!
Congrats on the grants!

All I can say about Math is it sucks! I am and will always be horrible at it!

the booker man said...

miss sprinkles,
hooray for the bigger pell grant! that is super duper awesome that your schooling would be almost free!
about those icky maths...i'm keepin' my paws crossed for you that it'll just be pretty basic stuff cuz really, how much math would somebuddy use when it comes to economics?!
that location central bloggie sounds totally cool! me and asa and mama are gonna go check it out.
happy weekend!!

*woof*
the booker man

Jen said...

Sweetie - You just made my day!!! I am so glad you like my blogs! I know you can't see me now but I have a gigantic smile on my face and a little bit of a blush. Really sweetie, you seriously made my day. :-)

Love you!!

Zuzana said...

Dear sprinkles, I do not think you should worry too much about math.;) You might be better at it than you remember. I too hated math in school and I still dream that I have to go back and retake the test.;)
Congratulations on your give away win as well.:))
And I love the blogs that you shared here, I am very intrigued by the lovely quotes, that ring so true...
Have a lovely weekend dear friend,
xoxoxoxo

Sketching with Dogs said...

I hope you are better at maths than I am, one look at a number and my brain vacates the premises!
Have a nice restful weekend.

Velvet Over Steel said...

So many great qoutes!! Thank you for sharing them along with those blogs. So cool indeed!!!

I'm very glad that your week and school is working itself out so well for you! You can do it!! There is so much on-line math help now that you are 'never alone' in those assignment/classes. My son loves math, but english is super, super hard for him and we use on-line resources a LOT!

Hope you have a Wonderful weekend, Sprinkles!!!!
Big Hug,
Coreen

Granite State Pet Sitting said...

Congrats on the Pell Grant. Get everything that you don't really like over with first. Have a Wonderful Weekend.

P said...

I want to see a picture of the bracelet!

Tiffany and the Munchkins said...

I'm so happy to hear that your financial aid appointment went well. That is such great news. Oh and congrats on winning April's giveaway!

I am super excited to check out both of these blogs. I always love finding bloggers in my area. :)

Unknown said...

Congrats on winning another giveaway - that is always the best!

We will check out these blogs - thanks for the heads up

Anonymous said...

I LOVE that Bits of Truth website!

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