Fear the Crab

I went and dropped my 212 class. I actually haven’t officially dropped it yet, as I haven’t submitted the form to the Office of Admissions and Records. The reason for that is because in order to drop the class, I needed the instructor’s signature. But the instructor was sick, so he allowed the departmental advisor to sign in his absence. But the departmental advisor wasn’t in her office, forcing me to leave the form in her in-box with a note attached. I hung around at the ICS club until 1615, and decided to check back at the office. She was finally in, and she had just signed the form and was about to call me. I took the form over to the Office of Records, only to discover they close at 1600! That bit.

So I will have to try and run in tomorrow, before I go to work. It shouldn’t be too much of a chore since I start work at 1545 and the campus parking lot frees up at around 1300. That gives me roughly two hours to get things done.

Of course, I’m not out of the woods yet. I still have 241 work to do, and out of the two sections due tomorrow, I’ve only done one. I think I’m screwed.

I went to that job interview for the ITS department. I’d like to think it went well, but it’s hard to discern if the interviewer’s were sincerely interested in me, or were just fake-nodding in all the right places. I answered their questions lucidly and straight from the heart, so hopefully it went well. I also took a 45 minute quiz on my knowledge of code and the UNIX system. One question I didn’t answer because I didn’t know anything about it. Another question was answered purely on guesswork. The coding aspect gave me a little bit more confidence, but I don’t know if the code is actually what they were looking for. They said they’ll contact me early next week. I don’t know if I can wait that long.

Now comes more decision making. If I do get this ITS job, it’ll mean I will quit duty free. Then I would have to decide if I will ask Henry for a position at his dental lab. However, while I do know I can schedule my hours for ITS, I don’t know if I’ll have that same freedom at the dental lab. And if the next semester changes my schedule, I don’t know if Henry is willing to accommodate it.

Then again, if I don’t get the ITS job, I have to decide if I will stick with duty free or just go for part-time with Henry. I’m sure Henry would be more than willing to offer me a position, especially if I can work much of the week, but my class schedule will come into play again. And, I will also be taking a drastic cut in pay, since I’ll have part-time hours. I don’t know what wages Henry will offer, and that’s just one more thing I have to consider for the whole shebang.

Just when I thought some of the stress was behind me, there’s more waiting around the corner..

I have to make some serious decisions. First is whether or not to drop my programming class. The work is do-able, but with my current job situation and the load from my math class, it’s getting kinda overwhelming. Perhaps if it were my sole class, I could tackle it with more enthusiasm, but the way it is now, I’m have difficulties. If I do drop 212, I’ll still have 241 to concentrate on, and since that class is online (and I know a few people I can study with), it shouldn’t be too bad.

The cons: It pushes back the completion of the ICS department considerably; It still means I have to take the class again; I won’t get my tuition money back; I’m a failure in the field I want to succeed in.

The pros: I’ll have more time to concentrate on 241; I can always take it next semester, and likely I’ll have more time to concentrate on it then; I might get better instruction (not to say the current instructor is bad); I won’t stress out so much.

The other problem is whether or not to quit DFS and try to get that student job in ITS that was offered to me. It’s a student job, meaning max 20 hours a week and no benefits, but it’s in the field I want to be in, so I figure that’ll be good for the experience. And as a backup, Maile asked Henry if he would be interested in offering me a part-time job at his dental lab. I’d be a courier for them, and possibly do some office/lab work, but the hours are more flexible than duty free, and I’ll be working part-time. I’ll also get medical and I think I can arrange a 401k with them.

Ideally the situation would be: Mon/Fri/Sat work at the lab from 0600 to 1200, Tue/Wed/Thu work on campus at that student job (don’t know what the hours will be yet, or even if I will get it). Those hours would give me lots of time to focus on my studies. Ideally.

I guess I can make a better decision after tomorrow. I have an interview with the student-job people.