Yes, as a matter of fact, I have been slacking on the updates. You would too if your life was as uninteresting as mine....

I've read a few books lately. Travels With Charley by Steinbeck kicked ass. The Chaplains' Raid by Ric Hardman was pretty damn good, kinda reminded me of Catch-22 only not quite as good. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, well, maybe I should reserve judgement of this one since some of you probably really really like it and if I told you it reads like the mongoloid product of a drunken fling between Huxley and Vonnegut you may not take too kindly to it.

I did make one semi-life-shattering decision. Well, it isn't completely made yet, that won't be until Tuesday. I finally decided I would rather go to Grad school for Literature than Philosophy. I started looking into English programs for the places I have considered moving. Then I thought, what if I can't get into Grad school for English since I only have a minor in it and I have no letters of recommendation and all. So, I thought, hey, we'll go back and do more undergrad work and bump that little fucker up to a second major! Then I started to worry that I would get to where ever I end up and they wouldn't transfer all my credits and blahblahblah. Eventually I came to the conclusion that although I desperately want out of this place (and have wanted out for awhile) it may be in my best interest to stay for another year and finish up a second bachelor's at Western. I went over to talk to a counselor about it last week, but it being between semesters they were not doing any advising. Their office will reopen for open advising come Tuesday and I will be there.

My guess is it will take me about 15 credits to do it here. I will probably take out another year lease on an apartment (a different one from this one though) and just stretch out however many credits I need to take. The other benefit of doing this is that I will get hugely useful financial aid refund checks (that's assuming I can get financial aid (which is not as much of a given as I wish it were) if I do not, the whole plan is screwed (if we were going to refer to this again in this entry I would refer to this as the lynchpin of my plan)). Anyway, with these hugely useful financial aid refund checks I can get the new computer I desperately need and then convert the rest to pennies and bury them under my porch (or, ya know, just put the money in the bank). That surplus can then be used to move me anywhere I want to go next August.

It kills me to think of staying here another year. However, I think I can scrape together just barely enough money to move and re-establish myself elsewhere and pursue a degree that I don't completely want. Or I can stay here another year and even if I don't get the financial aid it gives me another year of outgo-controlled spending to save up for a move next year. Or I can stay here another year and have every part of my plan actually work for once and roll out in style next summer.

It all depends on how many credits the advisor tells me I have to take and whether I can get financial aid for next year. I will find out part of that on Tuesday and depending on that meeting I will fill out the old FAFSA later this week.