So I got a 91% on my calculus test! Not bad! Especially considering that I probably got a C at best on the same material when I took (and subsequently dropped) this class last semester. Yay me!
The shit I'm going through to get that A, though. I'm not even talking about the difficulty of the class, though - I'm talking about the supreme bullshit I've been putting up with that's emanating from my community college. First of all, this summer I was informed that I was getting dumped from the front of the line to the end of the line for registration (too many units). That meant my registration date was two days before you'd get kicked out of all your classes for not paying your fees. Now, I qualify for a fee waiver, so I applied right after I registered for the only measly night class I could get into. I checked back in the two days afterward, and when the day came for you to pay up or get kicked out, the waiver still hadn't been applied. Not cool. I went ahead and just paid the damn fees so I wouldn't get kicked out, and figured I'd get a refund later. I remember doing that once before the first time around at this school, so I didn't think it was a big deal.
Fast forwarding to now, I finally had time to dick around with the cashier's window, so I walk on up and try to make my explanation simple - I'd paid my fees but had also applied for the fee waiver, so I was due for a refund. Skinny bitch looks at my account, asks me when I applied for the waiver. "Two days before the fees were due," I tell her. She says it takes a month for the waiver to be applied, so I should just keep my fuckin' shirt on until then. I guess she thought I'd meant I applied for it two days ago, and not two days before the due date. I wasn't prepared to argue since I hadn't looked at my account in a while, so I just said thanks in a pretty shitty tone and left. Sorry, skinny bitch. I might not have been so pissy if you would've actually talked into the microphone mounted into the glass separating us so that I could hear you. I'm sorry the microphone doesn't have a better range and that you have to strain to lean forward and speak into it. The whole exchange was like, "I'm sorry...don't...have...-ee waiver...refund...account." "WHAT?" Fucking ridiculous. So yeah, I'm going to come back armed with printouts of my account. It's a little confusing, but it looks like what happened was that they saw that I'd already paid my fees, so they took back the fee waiver. There are my fees, my payment, the fee waiver, and then a line that says "overpayment" and a charge for the same amount as the fee waiver. This seems logical, right?
Anyway, so then I tried to go make a counseling appointment to see if I can maybe get my registration priority back (since I DO have a plan and honestly just want to get out of their hair ASAP), or if I'm going to need to move out of this godforsaken state and either enroll at another community college or try to get a second bachelor's degree at a university that grants them. Or, y'know, give up and make minimum wage for the rest of my life. Jesus, this is like the backwards Dust Bowl - "Don't go to California, whatever you do! They have no jobs and you can't afford to live there!" I am NOT going to give up, though - I've finally figured out what I want to do, and no stupid recession or the fact that I'm becoming an old fart rapidly is going to stop me! I'm sorry I dicked around with an English degree, and maybe I'm being unrealistic here, but I don't think that should bar me from achieving future success. Ok, huge tangent there, sorry. Anyway, I go into the newly-remodeled counseling center, and there's a big sign on the counter that says, "No appointments available - come back on 10/1." Gotta love the irony there; nice new counseling center, no fucking counselors. Same with the science building - it was just finished the year before last, but there isn't enough money to create enough class sections to serve all the students. "That money comes from a different funding source!" all the administrators and politicians love to say. Blow me, I say. I just want to take more than one class a semester, get a counseling appointment when I need one, and not get ripped off in the process. If California can't provide enough tax money for that, then what the fuck do we even have a state government for?
