Sticker Shock

I’ve been experiencing a lot of sticker shock lately. In more than one area of my life and I’m having a hard time dealing with it!

Sticker Shock #1 – School Costs

Both my co-blogger and I are back in school – as 30-something year olds. Now, when I went to college the first time around fresh out of high school the numbers attached didn’t mean much to me. My Dad helped handled the financial end of things. Don’t get me wrong he didn’t pay for college but he helped and dealt with the loan people. When I exited college I had loans to pay back but, again, the numbers didn’t mean much to me. (And I should note I did get out of college with less debt than many of my counterparts….THANKS DAD!) Flash forward 10+ years later and I’m still paying on the loans and boy oh boy do those numbers have meaning. Big debt-like meaning. When deciding to return to school the financial aspect held a lot of weight but hey, Edubucks, right??

Wrong! Well, sort of. I’ve been taking pre-requisites for nursing school some of which were taken at a community college and some at a university. The classes I take at community college I’ve been paying for out of pocket – you know, cold hard cash. I just signed up for a class to take over the summer and this ONE class is going to cost me just under $1,000. I saw this number when I registered and flipped out. My co-blogger was sitting next to me and commenced trying to chill me out but I wasn’t having it. $1,000 for ONE class! Those thieves! How dare they charge $342 in “lab fees?!” It’s all bullshit! My co-blogger calmly reminded me that I had to have this class and, remarkably, it would never be cheaper or at a better time. She was right. I’m taking the class but I’m still pissed that my tax refund is disappearing into school costs.

Sticker Shock #2 – My Weight

My last semester of school was rough. It was a bad schedule and I didn’t handle it well. I just had my annual 3-year-late physical. Of course, they weighed me. Holy shit. That happened. I knew last semester was rough but now I had a number that indicated just how bad.

My co-blogger/friend said it was my “Come to Jesus moment” and then shared a story about a friend of hers. This other person was on Ambien, that good ‘ole do-shit-while-sleeping drug, and managed to eat entire boxes of rice krispy treats at night. The best part was when she woke up she totally blamed her roommate. I least I got to enjoy all the wonderful bad for me food that contributed to my weight gain (although some I’m sure was stress and lack of sleep). My co-blogger teased that it was like getting pregnant without the fun parts. I joked back “Like the Virgin Mary?” I’m pretty sure that joke raised my standing a couple notches on my dead Catholic Grandma’s haunt list. Luckily there are other family members that I’m pretty sure are still above me.

Sticker Shock #3 – A Tree is Gone

My boyfriend and I bought a house together last year. Shortly after we moved in his buddy, in the midst of a nasty divorce, moved in with us. The buddy needed a cheap place to stay and we thought some rent money for a bit would be nice. He came to stay and has yet to leave…I’m not sure he’s ever leaving. Since we weren’t charging him much he agreed to do most of our outside work. For about a 6 months now he’s been saying that he was going to cut down a pine tree in the mini side yard. I took all those comments with a grain of salt I’m not gonna lie. Today we came home and the pine tree was in pieces on the lawn! Just like that.

Just like that our yard looks a lot bigger and we possibly have room for a fire pit. I’m finally going to have to get my act together on landscaping – at least a little.

For now if you need to find me looks like I’ll be out not spending money, running or cleaning up the yard. Summer is coming and there’s a vacation around the corner that requires a swimsuit.