Vocational schools and stuff

School starts on the 21st, a little less than 2 weeks from now. Well, for me, it actually starts on the 22nd, since my classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I may not have all my books by then though. It depends. I have to pay back Mum $75.94 for the two books she ordered for me. Then I have some other book that used is $64.25, and which I sorta need to buy at the school bookstore cause even the used books had the CD's and stuff with them, so I figure I'll need them. That's a pretty hefty price to pay for that though. Sheesh.

So after that $140.19 expenditure (ouch!), I don't know how much money I will have left from my next paycheck, since I haven't been working very much. My next paycheck may not even cover all that. I may have to combine paychecks or something.

I know what I'll do. I'll use my next paycheck to pay off Mum and get my cheaper books (a "annual edition" book for Anthropology that is $20.50 used, my other History of the Americas book, which is $16.50 used, and a $6 used copy of Tao Te Ching for my Asian Philosophy and Religion class). There's also some "reader" I need for my philosophy class that I more than likely can only get at school, since it's written by my teacher. But when I last checked the store, it was on backorder. So I don't know if they have it in yet or not. I saved myself some money on the history front because I am taking the other half of History of the Americas (one half of which I took in the spring), and from the same teacher, so I saved the textbook from last semester, and thankfully, the teacher is using that same book again. What a relief. (I also kept the novel he had us read--In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez--because it was very fascinating).

Then, when I don't have my debt to Mum to worry about, I'll use my paycheck on the 29th to buy my other book. Granted, I'll need to buy a bus pass from that too, unless I put aside money from my next check (they don't start selling the passes until the 25th of the month for the next month).

I checked out a couple nearby vocational schools, as I said before -- Maric College and ITT Tech. I had an appointment on Monday with Charlie, an admissions rep at Maric. That went ok. We talked, he gave me a tour of the place, and then he gave me a brochure to read, and I left.

I didn't actually meet with LaMonte, the rep from ITT Tech who answered my info request but we talked on the phone and he sent me stuff.

I'm gonna stop now so I can leave to go to college group. More later.

Planning for the future

My parents and I had a heated talk tonight about my future. We were in the car after my mom picked me up from the bus stop I was at after I went to deposit my paycheck because since I was still waiting for the bus I knew I wasn't going to make the last FAST bus. It started when I mentioned about having gone to the dentist today. Then my mom said I needed to take care of my teeth so I wouldn't have to go to the dentist so much because soon their health insurance won't cover me. Then we started talking about careers and so on and so forth, and I told them I'd done research and all this crud.

My mom has been worried about money a lot lately because she and my dad had to spend a lot of money at the time of Grandpa's death on hotel expenses and so forth. She told me this morning we only have like $600 to cover us for the next 3 weeks.

My mom also said if I wanted to transfer, I was going to have to think about how to afford it. I do have a start because there is $1,000 from my Grandpa's CD (retirement account) which I can use toward college or a car, because of his trust or whatever. But that doesn't cover very much when the normal state university costs around $6,000-$7,000 a year for room and board. I don't think that includes tuition.

My parents dropped me off a little while ago and said they were going to Fry's so I am home alone right now. I figured I'd do some research while they were gone. And I did research on an educational option I'd disdained for some time, especially since commercials for them are on TV constantly: vocational schools. Specifically I looked at ones I knew were in this area (because of my transportation issues).

First, I looked at ITT Tech. It had sounded like a good school from the commercials, plus they train primarily in computers, which Mum keeps telling me I should go into. They have a campus down in San Diego, which isn't too far. I could live at home and commute, using the bus and the Coaster or bus and the San Diego Transit (based on what came up when I looked up the route on sdcommute.com...I'm surprised they didn't mention taking the Trolley...maybe you can't take the Trolley there). Or, if it's not too much out of the way, maybe I can ride up to town with Papa, since he works in La Jolla.

I also looked at Maric College, though their legal programs were the only ones that interested me.

I requested info from both places, so we'll see what happens.

That's all for now. Bye.