Long Blog is LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG! :D

Wow, lots of stuff going on lately.

Last week out of no where my mother stopped drinking.

I went to eat lunch with her when she said “I quit drinking.”

I did not know how to reply to that. I never expected to hear anything like that from my mother before in my entire life. I had completely given up on her.

 My response was a simple, “Oh yeah?”

I didn’t know what else to say. I haven’t asked her what exactly made her quit, anytime it gets brought up she just says “It was just stupid.”

She has been an alcoholic for about 13 years. Every single day she would drink herself to sleep. (AKA drinking until you pass out.) It started with a ‘few’ beers a night. At first it was no big deal, but a few beers became more and more. She would blame her drinking on everything from my siblings to having nothing better to do. She has been drunk for all but 2 years of Scout’s life and my little brother, Gage, has never known my mom sober.

I hate my mother when she is drunk. I have hated my mother for 13 years.

13 years ago my mom was an awesome mom. She had a job, she took care of herself, she took care of her family. We could all talk to her about anything. She had a very bright personality. Then it just changed.  All of that was gone. I know she will not go back to being the person she was, but maybe just a sliver of that person remains so that Scout and Gage will have a chance to get to know her. That is my hope.

Of course hope is the one thing I am trying not to have right now. I do not want to get my hopes up thinking she is finally over it. Then have them crashing down if she slips.  It has only been a week. The first week in 13 years. That is an awesome week. I am proud of my mother for her first week. Will I be proud of her second week? We’ll see…

——-

College orientation was last week Friday! WOO HOO! It was awesome! I got to meet my Instructors, fellow students, and got a tour of the school! For the first time in my life I felt ‘old.’ It was a very strange feeling.

When I got there, my pants covered in coffee, 40 mins early, and a nervous wreck, I had to go get my name tag.

Jenna- Computer Science and Networking Technology, I like the sound of that!

It was the orientation for students accepted in:

• General Machining
• Engineering Drafting/CAD
• Industrial Instrumentation & Control
• Industrial & Commercial Wiring
• Computerized Manufacturing Technology
• Carpentry/Construction Technology
• Computer Science and Networking Technology (CSNT)
• Powerline
• Powerline Technology
• Biotechnology Lab Tech

So yeah, so far I was the only girl. Oh great. I went to take my student ID picture, I of course kept BEEFY on in the pic. YAY! (That is going to be awesome, LOL!) Then I wandered around looking for other CSNT students. None. Damn.

I did notice that about 90% of the students there were Powerline students. I have no idea what that is. I mean I know what  a powerline is, but are that many people interested in them..?

We were all gathered into a room and got the run down of the school, everything from the rules to how to buy books with your financial aid was covered. Then we got a tour and I got to feel old.

I was the only girl in a group of 21. I was the only CSNT student in the group too, LOL! Everyone else was Powerline. I was also probably the oldest. I was the only one who did not have their parents with.  During the tour I asked about 56,783,948,765 questions. Every room we went into I had a question. I was starting to annoy myself, but I really needed to know the answers.  I heard a few of the guys say “That lady keeps asking questions, we should be done by now!” They called me ‘THAT LADY’  wow. I have never been called that before. I wanted to say that I would not be able to just ask my mommy and daddy later, I had to find out now…but no, I said nothing. I continued asking questions though!

After the tour we broke up into our areas of study. I finally got to see who my fellow CSNT students would be! A whopping total of 8 students! My brother-in-law Sean being one of them! LOL! Man, Iowa schools are awesome.

We met our Instructor. He is just awesome. I thought I would be extremely intimidated by him, but no.  He gave us some of his back story, completely lost his train of thought, told about how he used to work in corrections, the navy, was certified in Cisco, and a ton of other stuff. He went on and on til we were all comfortable. He said some of his students went on and worked at DDC after college! I have been working there for 3 1/2 years! That made me laugh. Whoopie DDC, lol, I am going to college so that I can move on from there.  Small classes, awesome Instructor! w00t! Why was I so afraid of college before? It is going to be great!

If I haven’t said it already (5,463,784,576 times, hahaha!)  will be studying Computer Science and Networking Technology!

My first classes are:

• Computer Science
• Networking Principles & Applications
• Computer Architecture
• Small Business Management
• Introduction to Computers

For a total of  16 credits!

‘Holy balls Jenna! How are you going to go to school FULL TIME and work FULL TIME!?’ Is pretty much what I thought to myself…

I got the class schedule…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! All of the classes are in the morning except Small Business Management and Intro to Computers! I work in the morning! I cannot go to school unless I am working full time. Crap. I had planned to only go to school part-time. Crap. Then I talked to my Instructor, and he said I needed to register for any class I was interested in so that I would have a spot saved. I could come back and adjust my classes as needed, but in order to be in the CSNT program I have to take Computer Science, Networking Principles & Applications, and Computer Architecture. All the morning ones.

I also found out I tested out of Intro to Computers. NICE! So I didn’t have to worry about that one.

After orientation I went to work and set up a meeting request with my boss.  *Gulp*

—-

Today was the big day! I had my meeting with my boss. It was at 11am,  it lasted until 12:30pm. That is a long ass meeting.

I went to my boss’ office. Luckily for me, my boss and I are buddies.  So I wasn’t too nervous but I was still wondering how she would respond to my school schedule. In the meeting request I had told her that if I could not adjust my hours and continue to work full time, with my school schedule, I would be forced to choose one or the other. I did NOT tell her I would have to chose work over school, because I still have bills and they still need to be paid.

I sat in her office and went over a mock schedule she had built for me. It was based off me coming into work right after school, unfortunately we could only get it to 35 hours. I need 40 hours to keep my benefits.

We messed around with the schedule a bunch and I was getting rather bummed out. Well there goes school…

Then she told me that Data Entry would be getting a new client. She went on and on about how we would have to start a night shift as we do not have enough computers or people to get all the work we would have done. I wasn’t following her, I mean sure I work in Data Entry sometimes but my main departments are Scanning and Clerical. I do not type fast enough to really be much help in Data Entry, but I do what I can. Then just out of no where she offered me a STAFF POSITION as SUPERVISOR of the night shift! Holy freaking balls awesome!!! I said. “Well, that sounds like it would work.” (I was crapping my pants at the time.)

I will be a supervisor when we get our new client in…that’s the problem though. We can build mock schedules, I can fill my office with action figures,  and we can talk about it all we want, but I will not 100% know my hours until we start getting in the work. That could be a month from now, it could be tomorrow, it all depends on the client. However, I do know she will keep me at 40 hours (YES!!) and it will not interfere with my school schedule. School comes first, my boss even said so. (I had her write it down and sign it so the first day she wants me to come in and I have school I can show her what she said…LOL!) Today has been pretty awesome!

We are going to start the hiring process asap. Before the week is out. I have never hired, interviewed, or anything, anyone ever before so I am pretty nervous, but I like that I get to be a part of the hiring process. It will help me get to know the employees that I will BE THE BOSS OF! Hehehehe! Freaking awesome!

I have a meeting at the school tomorrow to finalize everything and talk about just how many credits I am taking.  LOL! I should probably find out if I am full or part-time, hahaha!

Good day today. I should probably go and clean now…but why ruin it? I am going to get sit on my butt and play some FFXII! w00t!