Boo.

Does anyone use LJ anymore?

Haven't made a legitimate post on here in quite some time. Kinda miss not being restricted to 140 character updates.

College and I are not getting along at all lately. Financial Aid was suspended for a year, which meant that I was having to pay for tuition and fees out of pocket. Problem with F.A. suspension is that I usually took some extra cash out to pay rent while I worked to pay cell phone, light, and tv bill. Having rent to pay on top of all these bills has lead to me being broke constantly and getting behind on some bills - rather than begging for money from parents (which is ungodly embarrassing for me), its time for me to find a bigger and better job and work on the last chunk of my degree part-time.

It's hard to stay focused on reading a damn book or writing papers for History 497 when I'm literally counting change to scrape up enough cash to get dinner off the dollar menu.  I haven't been able to afford groceries in quite some time, and some of the people I owe bills to have started to call me on a regular basis.  Since there are no available extra hours at work and my last pay raise was laughable at best - it's time to move on.

I've applied to a couple of places for work so far - both jobs are approx. 20-25k/year starting with health insurance options, guaranteed full time jobs, and enough money to be made to make space on debts and pay current bills.  One job is warehouse work, which if offered that job I'll take it and continue to hit the gym (more on that in a bit) for a possible military enlistment.  The other job is working in the city jail in which it is possible to advance the ranks to working up to patrolman.

Stomach problems have also been plaguing me lately - I was diagnosed with having a bacteria in my intestines that was causing painful ulcers.  Cliffs notes version - I picked it up from my years of drinking and smoking.  Since I started having the problems the docs put me on some medicine that is repairing up my stomach so that  I can eat without throwing up or having to run to the toilet 5 minutes after the first bite.  After having all of these problems and the symptoms easing up, I've decided to get back in the gym and back into shape - in the past two months I've lost over twenty pounds and feel a lot better.  I spend about an hour and a half in the gym four days per week, at least try to burn 1k calories on the eliptical machines before doing some light weightlifting.  Seems to be working so far.

What's the future to hold?  Fuck if I know.  I'm just tired of being stressed out, sick, and poor.  I've fallen drastically behind in my classes due to my lack of focus, and I'm thinking it might be best for me to just drop this semester rather than taking a hit on my gpa.  Maybe come back later to finish my degree after I get financially set again or try to get it done if I get back in the military.

Who knows.