Post drought

At home today while Jen is at work. Our older cat hollers, the younger cat expresses his hostility to the running dishwasher, and I've essentially finished one of the three papers I want/need to get written today; the next one up to bat is a group project where my portion is late, and I need to make sure I'm pulling my weight with the other three group members. No one likes a slacker in a group project, and no one wants to be perceived as a drag on the effort or as dead weight.

Another financial nightmare tailspin was averted when my payment plan at school was inexplicably cancelled, then an emergency loan was issued by another staff member who cared enough to ensure that I didn't have to beg for a place to, essentially, squat in Toronto, as without that loan, there was no money for March and April rent. There's still the stress of trying to find a well-paying summer internship that allows me to pay off that emergency loan by the end of May, but for now I'm maintaining the delicate balance. If I ever harbored any illusions as to why it was so difficult to go back to school, those illusions were demolished a long time ago!

News update: Jen is at work! Since I last posted, Jen was hired on to work full-time at what turns out to be a wildly popular day spa in downtown Toronto. It starts at minimum wage, but that is $10.25 an hour and will at least go up to $11.00 an hour by late April. I too was fortunate to be chosen for a student work-study position at school, where I'll be in contact with recent alumni and updating the school's demographic database. Rankings, rankings, rankings... the same system that had an effect on me (the Aspen Institute laurel, along with the Financial Times, the Economist, and BusinessWeek) is one that I'll now be contributing to. It should be fun, and I'll take all the money I can get, since what I've got money-wise isn't much! Training starts in about a week and a half.

No matter what, I've made great friends up here, every other student I know is just as shellshocked with the workload as I am, and those who went for finance/investment banking/consulting jobs have had to let their coursework slide for some significant portion of the term already, as I continue my quest to find something in Human Resources. At least I'm still making the solid effort across the board, and despite the financial pressure, am as glad as ever that I'm here.