Yech. There was drama this weekend. I won't go into it all, but suffice it to say that there is no chance of mom and stepdad reconciling.

I've really, really tried to stay out of all of it. But today something happened which made me very annoyed. No, actually, REALLY annoyed.

Mom was over here picking up some of her belongings. She decided she wanted her case of CD's. Apparently before I moved in, this case was stored in one of the dresser drawers in my bedroom. Stepdad knocks on my door, and when I say come in, he walks right in and goes over to my closet (which was open) and starts looking at the top shelf. Some things there are his, some are mine. He then asks me if I've seen the CD case. I tell him that no, I don't recall having seen it since moving in here. He leaves.

My mom then comes in and asks me if I'd seen it. I told her that no, I hadn't. Then she opens one of the dresser drawers. I stood up to her and told her that I did not want her going through all the dresser drawers! The drawers had ALL been empty except for one which had sheets for the bed in it. She got all huffy and told me "Well, if you were missing something, you'd want to go through all the drawers!"

Then she left.

First of all, a big part of the reason I insist on paying rent is to have some expectation of privacy. Secondly, if I *was* missing something, and was told by someone that NO they had not seen it, NO I would not expect to be able to go through their dresser drawers or their closet!!!

And she seriously thinks I'd consider living with her on her own??? (She's under this delusion that she's going to be able to go out and buy a 3 bedroom house in the low 100's with part of the divorce settlement. She's offered to let me rent a room there "for just $300 a month - a real bargain since I'd charge a lot more to anyone else". Sweet, right? Let me move *again*. Let me move *further* away from my home church. Let me pay *more* in rent. And, top it off with being in a much smaller space than now with just my mom? Yep, I'll be taking her up on that real fast.

I'm sorry if I'm sounding really, really b-wordy here. I'm having LOTS of really ungracious thoughts. Wondering a lot of the time if it really was worth living like this to go back to school. Now I'm pretty much stuck. I've gone to far to not finish.

My brother is so smart. Living FAR away from Texas, and far enough away from all other relatives so he has a comfortable breathing space.

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One other piece of drama this morning. I dropped my prescription off to get refilled. I then got a phone call from my doctor's office manager telling me I had to come in for blood work and a doctor visit before they'd renew the scrip. When I explained that I have no income at the moment, and am in school, she snarkily asked, "So how do you plan on paying for the medicine?" At the time I didn't have this comeback on hand, although I wish I had -- $25 for medicine is a WHOLE LOT easier to come up with than $200+.

She wanted me to make an appointment right then. I told her I couldn't do that - I needed to see if I could figure something out. I called back later and asked if the figure of $190 they gave me *absolutely* included everything. i.e. I wasn't going to receive a surprise bill a month from now for lab work. They assured me it did. So, I went ahead and scheduled the appointment. I've been with this doctor since 2001, and really like her. (Her office manager, not so much.)

My stepdad when he heard about this, told me to not send him rent for May. That I can make it up once I have some income coming in again. That way I won't be dipping into savings for this.

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Enough of the meladrama already, right?

So, maybe good stuff.

I went ahead and registered for my fall classes so I could see exactly how much they'd cost. Then I also checked with my advisor about how many credits I'd be charged for for Spring semester.

I was told that there is *no charge* for Capstone (a one-week course where you write 3 1500-2500 word research papers on a pass/fail basis). So, I'd only have the one 3 credit course.

What that means is that right now I have about $1200 more than I need for Fall/Spring tuition. Of course, then there are the fees for the certification exam and graduation expenses ... but that right there makes me feel a whole lot better. (I was worried that it was going to cost a good bit more.)

Then I finally contacted the scholarship/financial aid office to find out when the decisions were being made. I was told that they'd already weeded out those who weren't eligible, and are working on giving out the rewards. Since I haven't received a letter saying I'm ineligible, and there's no notation of such on my record --- I may have a chance of some scholarship money! The final rewards will be given out by (sometime in) July. So, hopefully sometime in the next 4 -5 weeks I'll be getting on here gleefully exclaiming that I was awarded some scholarships.

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I checked into CareCredit. You have to financially qualify for it - just like a regular credit card. The only way I could qualify right now, would be to get a co-signer. I'd thought about (not too seriously) asking my mom to cosign, but her income is about as unsteady as mine is.

I also checked into the idea of getting work done at the local Dental school. I'm not too sure about it though. The screening visit is $54. Then *if* you are accepted as a patient, you have to come in once a week for appointments AND be willing to go for a "complete" treatment plan. That makes me very, very wary. The school is in Dallas - about an hour's drive from here. All I want is a crown and two fillings. What if they "suggest" a whole bunch of other work?

So .. I think I'm going to wait to make any decisions on the dental stuff until I find out if/how much I receive in scholarships.