That’s exactly what I feel about life right now. For the past few months Sean and I have been tirelessly working on getting our own apartment. Finally it dawned on me that there’s an easy way to do it, it would just take a bit of time to work things out.

Not only do we need our own place but I also desperately wish to go back to school. So I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and look into the obvious option of a Student Loan, numerous companies will give you the option of up to $40,000 a year and you don’t have to pay it back until after your studies have been completed. So I started to brainstorm that idea even more and look into Financial Aid to see just how much they’ll cover so I can figure out loan numbers from there.

Even though I have a job and don’t even live in the same state as my father anymore, the only way I can be covered as “independant” with financial aid is if I’m either knocked up or going for a bachelors. My original plan was to enroll in DeVry Online and earn my associates in Web Graphics Design. Now, for the most part I know what I’m doing but someone with a degree (even if I happen to know more than them) will get the job because there’s a piece of paper proving they can do it. Never mind the girl with the 10 years worth of experience, you know?

So now I’m considering the University of Phoenix Online. It’s a Bachelors program and I should hopefully be able to have Financial Aid cover the bulk of the enrollment expenses. The rest of the money can be paid by the student loan, and part of that money will be used towards housing. I think having a more ideal environment to work with (ie: my own SILENT office) would make more sense then to have myself locked in a bedroom listening to all of the random noises that a full-house can make.

Unfortunately I can’t get a student loan without two years worth of taxes and I didn’t have anything to file in 2005 due to a very bad year, so I’m honestly unsure of what I can do at this point. I’m not going to ask my father to co-sign because he’s already co-signed on a loan for me and the student loan would basically consolidate the existing loan and just give me more money to pay back to someone else.

All I want to do is get an apartment and go to school. How come everyone else can just have it handed to them and no matter how hard I work I can’t get shit?

This is extremely frustrating.

It’s been a while since I posted here, mainly because the rush of the Holiday Season had my full attention.  It’s now January 1st and it’s been almost one month since I’ve last said anything here about weight loss, dieting, and life in general.  This doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy!

My resolutions are the pretty common ones.  I’m continuing with my diet, stepping it up a notch by going onto an actual plan.  I’m unsure if I’m going to take the route of Weight Watchers or the Micheal Thurmond Six Week Body Makeover, but I do fully intend to take the bull by the horns and get myself onto a set program for even better results.  I’m now 50 pounds lighter than when I started my diet, which was no easy task in six months but I’ve accomplished every one of my goals through dicipline and a complete lifestyle change.

The only thing I haven’t changed is my smoking habit.  I’ve been a pack-a-day smoker for quite some time now and I honestly can not handle it anymore.  I run slower because I can’t catch my breath, no matter how many showers I happen to take during the day I still reek of smoke because it’s the first thing I do when I step outside, even if it’s just to dump the garbage.  I purchased ‘Quit smoking the easy way’ a book that has been around for 20 years and I’m confident that if I follow the methods I’ll not only be thin thanks to my diet, but a non-smoker.

Another resolution added to my list is school.  I’ve decided to go to DeVry.  Sean is helping me with the financial aid forms so that I can insure full financial aid.  I’m under the age of 25 and I’m no longer living with my father.  The only job on the books that I have at the moment is paid blogging and other odd-and-end jobs here and there that I work on the side, so figure I’m only making about $12,000 a year.  That’s no where near enough money to fund school and living - so hopefully I’ll get the financial help.  I’ve been paying taxes for years, the least the government can do is give me something back for it - you know?

The day after Christmas I headed down to the DMV, I’m officially a Delaware resident and almost as soon as I get my license down here Sean wants to move up to New Jersey because it’s the half-way point between our families.  I’m not sure of how much I like the idea but I’m sure we’ll talk about it a bit more over time anyway.

I’m currently up in New York for the holidays.  We came up here on the 29th and I think we’re going to extend our stay for a few extra days.  Originally I was only coming up until Friday but I’m hoping to at least finish out the weekend and leave on Monday.  Sean doesn’t seem to mind so I guess that’s all that matters.

I know I’ve posted quite a bit about this company in the past but that’s based on the fact that I support anyone who is going out of their way to help children in need. I’m not talking in regards to food/shelter, I’m talking in regards to education. Score Learning centers help children ages 4-14 make significant academic progress in an innovative tutoring environment. They help students from kindergarten to 8th grade on the topic of math, English and reading. Many students really should have an innovative tutor at their side and it’s unfortunate that not many can get it. I know for sure that I’ll offer one to my children when they’re old enough to start. Based on how Sean and I are, I’m sure they’ll be rather intelligent but this doesn’t mean that I’m not going to give them that little bit of extra help when they’re just starting out. Heck, maybe they’ll do well enough to the point of not only being an active child but come senior year colleges are throwing scholarships in their direction! That would be great.

I’m still spending countless hours searching for colleges that offer everything I’m looking for, including the option for home based schooling. There aren’t any schools in Delaware, campus wise, that currently offer what I’m looking to accomplish in earning my bachelors in multimedia and web design. It would be nice if there was one, because at least I could just travel up to it. Since that option isn’t available, however, I’ve even looked into schools in Maryland which is only about a half hour away from me - even that is causing me to come up empty handed.

I was really hoping that AIU was going to give me what I was looking for, but it won’t and I refuse to build up scholarships and loans only to have them cashed by a school that isn’t going to send me ANY of my course materials and deny they even received the payment. I was also considering Westwood Online because a friend of mine currently goes there but even they have 70-80 strikes against them and even then that’s only out of the people who are AWARE of ripoffreport.com.

This has kind of put a damper on my diet. I lack concentration on keeping track of what goes in my mouth. I know that sounds horrible, but it’s true. I’m not calorie counting, even with portion control, I’m just eating whenever I take a break from searching, calling, requesting information, and ripping my hair out in general.

It’s kind of annoying at this point…

For a few months now I’ve been spending a lot of time looking into different schools. I’m interested in getting my Bachelors (or even Masters if possible) for Web Design/Development. Up until yesterday I was seriously considering AIU Online. On my other domain, I noted that I was working to get myself into this school but a commenter noted that I should float around RipOffReport.com and search for AIU. I come to find out that there are 70 some-odd strikes against them, and these are only documented ones on this site. I now know there are lawsuits pending against this company for fraud and teachers that couldn’t give a damn about the students they’re supposed to be helping.

AIU, up until yesterday, was the #1 school on my possibilities list. Now, thanks to ripoffreport.com, I’ve come to find out that my top FIVE schools are literally nothing more THAN a Rip Off. So this is where my visitors come in.

I know, through your blogs, that many of you have a degree of some sort a few of you have gotten them from internet based schools, like I’m looking to do. I’ve done a search on Google for internet based schools that offer Web Design / Web Programming but unfortunately all of these schools are on RipOffReport.com with absolutely horrible reviews, most of which include money fraud. One of the schools I was interested in has even claimed that they never received a certified cashiers check that was CASHED by their administration office. So naturally I’m stuck.

If you, or anyone you know, is currently going to an accredited university online and can steer me in the right direction of a school that isn’t going to screw me over, it would be greatly appreciated!

I’d really love to get my degree, I honestly don’t know where to turn and the only colleges around me are community colleges that can only offer me an associates degree in a field that has to do with computers, but is no where near where I need to be.

Google doesn’t help me, Yahoo doesn’t either - what do I do?