It can only get better from here....

It truly can only get better from here...when we got home last Sunday from our Atlanta Bread Company daily visit we found that the air conditioning in the house had stopped. At first we thought that the circuit was just tripped, or the line frozen. No. Such. Luck. The whole system had shut down and refused to start. The interior of the house was about 95 degrees (this was after a 110 degree day) and the dogs were hiding under the bed. Zinger was spread out of the floor like a giant blob of cat goo airing out his junk (as he likes to do). And the fish were floating lazily around their tank as the temperature began to rise slowly above 86 degrees (boiled fish anyone)??? I immediatly had a panic attack...because seriously...what else could go wrong at this point. My mind immediatly went to, where are we going to move, where am I going to work, how are we going to get everything moved. We don't have the means to replace an air conditioner in a house. one of the main reasons we are living in Lawton is to give me an opportunity to finish my doctorate and Susan a chance to get ahead financially.

After many tears and "holy shits" we finally came to the conclusion that we had no choice but to move. I had found a prospective employment opportunity at a mental health center in Wichita Falls, Texas (near where Susan was teaching) making a grand total of $30,000 a year (why did I get a master's????). We resigned ourselves to the fact that we needed to look at houses in the Wichita Falls area and begin the process of re-packing. I was freaked by this prospect and decided the best way to deal was to hide in the bedroom with the covers over my head.

To make a painfully long story short, we don't have to move. My mom is being gracious enough to replace the unit in the house and replace the defective duct work (please tell me why we are heat and cooling THE GARAGE????). In total it is a large sum of money and I eternally grateful that a team of people has come together to make my attempt at pharmacy school possible. I start classes in a few weeks and need to get my head in the game. I am taking physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and calculus. All of the things I avoided as an undergrad student (they have come back to haunt me). However, if I can make it through one year of classes a whole new world will open up and I can apply to pharm school this time next year.

So, while the first week in Oklahoma has been utter hell (literally..it is 110 degrees here!) it is slowly becoming more manageable. There have been several times that I have come close to putting my animals in the car and driving back to Virginia....but truly, I don't think my Saturn would make it that far! I am grateful that everything is beginning to come together but at the same time I feel extremely guilty at the amount of money this is costing my mother. But I try to keep my eyes faced forward and moving toward the ultimate goal (knowing full well that when I graduate from pharm school I can repay her many many times over).

Oye! Let's hope it is better from here....