Getting My Shit Together

So 2013 was a pretty odd mix of ups and downs for me. My folks got divorced, leaving my dad and I to take care of his (now) 102 year old mother, in a house that no one can afford to make the payments on yadda yadda yadda. On the other hand, I finally found a job a year ago February. And not only did I start working and making a little bit of money, the job has gone quite smoothly. Those of you that know me well, know that I have had trouble in the past keeping jobs, and have floated around from one "career" to the next, and was never really able to make anything come out of it. So far for the last year and a month I have not allowed myself to be plagued by my old habits; insomnia, always late to work, causing problems, consumed by depression, fucking off too much on weeknights, etc etc. Some of these things still happen, of course. But the key phrase is "not allowed". I feel that I have taken much greater command of myself and my life than I ever have before. Which brings us to 2014.

This year has started off great! I filed my taxes for the first time in more than ten years. And so far I haven't been approached by any IRS goons at my door with an ass-raping-grin asking me "Hey Jimbo! Great to hear from you! Say, by the way, where the fuck ya been the last ten years?" I also checked my credit for the first time in a really long time and all of my old bullshit that use to be hanging over my head is gone now. Some of you know the specifics about that, and what a huge relief it is for me to not have that burden on my shoulders anymore. I also applied for Medicaid through the Nevada Health Exchange website. Just waiting for approval, or conversely, for them to fuck everything up or whatever. 

Ooh! Oo! Ooh! I need to rant real quick!

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DISCLAIMER:

The following is a rant by Jimbo. Proceed with caution. You may skip this rant with no penalties incurred by scrolling down past the "END RANT" at the end of the rant, where you will experience a smooth transition between the last sentence of the previous paragraph before the rant, and the first sentence of the next paragraph after the rant. 

The main reason I signed up for Obama Care is because I am a gay loving commie pinko Muslim Satanist that hates America for it's freedom. And not too mention the free government handouts that make the food and money rain down on me like Justin Bieber at a strip club. You know? Because OBVIOUSLY it's MUCH MUCH MUCH more glamorous to get a bunch of seriously shitty service for free than to have a SHIT FUCKING TON of money that I could use to just buy anything I want, like decent healthcare, or food that isn't made out of salt and flash-frozen on an assembly line alongside tires and lawn mower lubricant. 

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!!!IT IS NOW SAFE TO PROCEED!!!

And finally, I applied for a grant to go to school! Wheeeeeeee I'm super excited about the possibilities with this! More on that in a moment, though.

The best part about all of this is that I am being very proactive. At least for me it is, anyway. I really am trying to get my shit together and am taking steps to move my life forward. Whatever issues from my past with taxes or credit or whatever that may come back to haunt me, I'm ready to face the music. In fact, I'm not even afraid of it anymore. It's all small change to me now. I should also mention that I've had help, or rather, lots of very positive and supportive encouragement with some of this (I'm talking to you, Kristin). thank you! 

SO! I'm going to start school in January 2015. Hopefully I get approved for enough grant money so that I can go to school full time (because I'm a 47percenter). Unfortunately that will probably mean I'll have to quit my job. On advice from a friend whose name I won't mention because I just mentioned her only a moment ago, it's probably best that I proceed in that fashion. According to her, it's pretty hardcore to go to school full time and have a full time job. Some people can do it. Many have in fact. My cousin is doing it right now. And KICKING ASS I Might add! I'm just not sure that I can do that myself. My job is fairly taxing on me physically. And I don't want to go to school exhausted, or have work cut into valuable homework/study time. If I can go to school full time and concentrate on JUST THAT, personally I think I'll be better off. However, even if I get very little grant money, or none at all, I'll still at least get the ball rolling and a take two classes or something, and then apply again for the grant money the following semester. 

I'm going to attend Western Nevada College. They offer an AA in management, which I think given my past work experience and everything I've learned about myself and accomplished the last couple years would be a good fit for me. And the last couple weeks I've been thinking to myself "why stop at community college"? I've been thinking that although an AA in Management would be great, because I could apply it to virtually any field of work, I'd most likely get stuck in some retail hell or something. I'm sure the money would be fine for me, but I'd really like to be a part of something bigger. I kinda like the idea of getting into some sort of civil engineering field, with emphasis on green technology if possible. (Either way, I wanna make more of the GREEN MONEY!). University of Nevada, Reno offers some pretty nice looking courses that might be right up my alley. Sooooooo... WNC also offers an AA in Construction Management. If I can get through that, then transfer to UNR and study a more field specific program, I should be a gagillionaire by the time I'm 50. And by that age, I should still be just undisgusting enough for any mid-level to high class hookers I'll have to pay for to tolerate my presence. 

The only hesitation about all of this that I might have, is that A) I'm not by any means or stretch of the imagination a braniac, and B) I do not belong in, on, near, or around tools or mildly complex machines or situations that involve hard hats, levels, thermometers, schematics, alpha male assholes, or critical thinking/planning/solving. For example, watch the first 15 minutes of the following video, and you'll see what I'm talking about... for some silly reason this video may start somewhere in the middle, you'll need to start it from the beginning. Thank you!


With all that said, however, there's no reason that I shouldn't set my sights high for myself. As I mentioned earlier, I've learned a lot about myself the last couple of years, and what I can accomplish if I really put my head and heart into something and just go for it. 

Now that I've typed way too many words to share with y'all my plans for the future, I'd like to ask any of you that have managed to slog through this post without setting your computer on fire so that you may never have to be infected with the internet ever again, to share with me any advice you have about going to school. Wether you did it when you were younger, or returned at a later age. Or even started at a later age. What were your experiences? What would you have done differently? Anything you wish you hadn't done, or should have done? And if any of you have had experience with getting an education in any sort of engineering/science/math based classes/degrees. Anything at all you can share, good bad or ugly, would be very helpful! There's a few of you folks out there that I'm going to email directly. The rest of you, you can leave a comment, or if you prefer you can send me an email here.

Thanks in advance to any of you that message me, and sorry for such a long and word-y post. Until next time!