Ok, so I'm about 2 months into school now, have completed 5 classes and have thus far gotten an A in every one of them. The first few were fairly simple classes, but the last couple certainly weren't. I managed to pull out an A in Anatomy & Physiology 1A, and that wasn't easy. It would have been one thing had it just been about naming the bones themselves, but we had to memorize all of these places where muscles attach, bony prominences, tubercles, tuberosities, fossas, ramuses, etc...

But thanks to bonus points on the first test, I still should have come out of the class with 226/224 points.

Next week we start Basic Swedish 1B and the week after that we start A&P 1B.

And I believe the time is fast approaching where I'm going to have to have a talk with my manager and see about cutting my hours at work, specifically getting off of the on call rotation. I'm in school full time as well as working full time, school has to take priority. I suppose if they don't like that idea I'll be looking for a new job soon. Ah well. It's gonna take some major reworking of the budget (again), but I'll make it through. If nothing else, I'd like to start doing some work/study to help pay the loan I got through the school.

But yeah, school is going well. Life at home is going well, my girlfriend and her son are settling in nicely at the house (we just have a ton of stuff we need to sort, trash and pack away. The place is a wreck at the moment) and Avery, my dog, is starting to get used to someone other than me in the house. She's still skittish, still spends most of her time in the bedroom, but is getting better at coming out when my girlfriend and I are watching tv on the couch.

Work is really the only area of my life with which I'm not happy. But that's why I'm in school, so I can do something that I enjoy instead of working for people I can't stand and making them richer at the cost of my soul. I've come to the point that the money isn't worth the aggravation but not quite reached the point of wanting to risk not being able to make the mortgage payment. Every day that point gets closer, though. I'm trying to hang on until school is done, but really I know I won't last that long. All I'm really hoping for is that come August or September when business starts to slow way down that I'll be in the round of layoff that will inevitably come. That sounds sad, I know, hoping to lose my job. But realistically speaking, it would put me in a better position for school.

We'll see. All I really know right now is that things are going well and they're only going to get better. It's kinda refreshing, this whole "taking control of the direction your life is heading instead of just going with the flow" thing. I think I like it.

So, after 16+ years in the IT field, I’ve finally had enough and have gone back to school to prepare for a career change. Last Monday (which was also my 40th birthday) I started classes for massage therapy.

The program is a 750 hour / 38.5 credit hour 12 month program. That’s right, in addition to having a full time job I am now a full time college student. The first week was… busy. But it’s also been exciting, somewhat terrifying, and so completely worth it.

The real fun starts in 2 weeks, when we start both Basic Swedish and Anatomy & Physiology classes. Then around the 2nd week of August we start our clinic rotations. In between the two we get our own tables (included in the cost of tuition) and start practicing on friends, family and whoever else we can get on that table. Yeah, I’ve already got a list of people that want to be guinea pigs. :)

I know there are going to be days that I wonder what the hell I was thinking, going back to school while working full time, but in the end it really is going to be worth it. Even if I stay in IT as my main job, I’ll at least have another skill set I can fall back on if the economy keep circling the toilet. Best case scenario is that I’ll finally be able to get away from computers, have a job where I actually have free time that is mine alone and not be on call.

2009 was... a year.

Lost a job, found a new one, wish I hadn't taken it.
Took a 20% pay cut, still trying to get the budget straightened out.
Traded off a car I loved while trying to save a little money, ended up with something I don't care for at minimal savings.
Bought my second motorcycle, had a great ride down home for BBB.

Lost a friend to cancer, other friends had their first child.

Met a great girl, that's the only thing that actually went right.

It's easy to dwell on the negatives, but on the whole 2k9 wasn't much better or worse than any other year. There were good times and bad, laughter and tears, moments of sunshine and rain. I've still got my family and friends, that's all I really need.

There will be changes in 2010, whether it's a new job or going back to school I don't know yet. I just know that something has to change, I can't stay where I am. Would love to be able to move south this year, but that probably won't happen for another couple of years.

So, I expect 2010 to be much like 2009. Only with less suck, hopefully.

I lost my job yesterday. Not because of anything I did, but because one of the largest customers cut $20k/month of services and the company decided they didn't need 2 Oracle dbas anymore. Never mind that I'd been there 4 years, that I've done every job there except sales and development, that I really hadn't been doing Oracle stuff for months...

So now it's on to the next thing. Not exactly sure what that is yet, but I've already put some resumes out, I'll be talking to some recruiters today and Monday, and all that jazz. I'm not particularly worried, I know I can find a job, but it is a bit disconcerting now that I'm on my own and have two house loans and a car lease payment to worry about, not to mention alimony payments...

Still, I've always managed to find what I need when I need it, I don't see any reason why it would be different now. Yesterday afternoon was a little panicky and what, but sleep helped some.

So yeah...

I'll admit, I'm not the best at keeping up with people. If I don's see or talk to someone on at least a semi-regular basis, I tend to drift. I've known this about myself for a very long time now, but it doesn't make it any easier to either change or accept. Especially when it comes time to bid a friend farewell in this life.

For the second time in as many months, a friend of mine is losing the battle with cancer. In December, it was my friend Marilyn who passed away from a brain tumor. About the same time I heard about her being sick I also heard that my friend Jerry had been diagnosed with liver cancer. His sister set up a blog for the updates, and lousy friend that I am, I read it once and never managed to get back. Too busy thinking about my own stuff, minor problems, things that don't really amount to much in the grand scheme of things. My ex-wife also knew and adored Jerry, so when I first heard I made sure to send her the info as well. It was her that told me today that his disease had progressed and re-forwarded me the link to the blog...

Jerry is an incredible person. Funny, friendly, caring, an all around great guy. He did a lot f good in this world, was a big supporter and organizer for the city's annual AIDS walk. He's a good man, a great friend, someone you knew you could trust when the chips were down. This cold and dreary world is most assuredly a better place because of him.

He's being taken off the respirators on Friday. Doctors don't give him more than a couple of hours after that...

Goodbye, my friend. I'll see you again soon enough.

So I've been kicking this idea around for a while now, I've just put the first installment up on my main blog. Feel free to comment on it either here or on the blog, I've enabled OpenID, so your livejournal url (roan21.livejournal.com, in my case) will let you log in and post comments there if you feel so inclined.

http://roan21.net/2009/01/22/the-old-prospector

So, in an ongoing quest to actually get a decent nights sleep, I purchased a 3" memory foam mattress topper today. Not a bad price, came with two pillows, we'll see how it works. I wake up a lot, usually gasping for air like I've stopped breathing. (my ex has told me in the past that I stop breathing, but I did a sleep study and it came back that I didn't have apnea.) but the problems I have actually *falling* asleep are more due to an older mattress and feeling the springs digging into me.

I've actually tried one of those sleep number bed things. It was a nice enough mattress, pretty comfortable, but not $2000 comfy. I had a waterbed when I was younger, loved it as long as I was the only one sleeping in it. And being able to crank the thermostat up or down depending on the weather was kinda nice too... A friend of mine has what I think is a feather bed mattress, big and floofy. I laid down on it for a few minutes one day, I gotta say it was comfy, although it might be a shade too soft for my tastes. Dunno. Not like I can afford a new mattress at the moment anyway.

Thought we were going to get an offer on the house, had someone that seemed really interested, even did a second showing today, but they've apparently decided to "pursue a similar house with more upgrades". Bah.

Weather was great today, since I had to be out of the house for the showing I got a fair amount done and even had time to take a ride on my motorcycle. I'm hoping that I can get off of this stupid 4-11pm shift soon so I can at least have a *chance* of riding the bike to work on the rare days we get that are nice. I mean, my sis and brother-in-law even got me some insulated coveralls for cold weather riding for xmas, I've had no chance to really use it.

Work... Yeah. It's still there. 'Nuff said about that...

That's about it.

That's kinda how I've felt over the last few days. Not stellar, not horrible, just kinda here. Had several things annoy me (mostly my reaction to things), and been thinking a lot about the future.

I'll admit, I'm not really one for planning. I've always been a "live in the moment" kind of guy and that's been both good and bad. It's led to some hellaciously good times and even more spectacular crash-and-burns. So when I start thinking about the future, well, me and everyone around me tends to get a little nervous.
( Ranting about legal and home stuff )
I guess I'm just getting impatient now, and I know it's all my fault that things aren't moving as fast as I'd like them. There's that whole "Now, now now!" thing that I'm trying to work on. I'm getting better at that, slowly but surely. This time, I've got some pretty good motivation to learn patience.