I’m taking a Business Calculus class. Hopefully this will be the last math class I ever take. Ever in my life. Math sucks.

So anway….on Tuesday I had an exam due. By Wednesday I found out that I missed 4 out of 10 on that exam. But my teacher is really nice and let’s us correct our mistakes for half the points. Each problem on an exam is worth 10 points so allowing us to correct mistakes is awesome.

So my corrections were due today (or rather yesterday since it is now after midnight). So I reworked the problems and found my [stupid] mistakes on two of the problems, but I was still struggling with two more. I finally gave up and decided the answers must be “(e) None of the above.”

After I sent my corrections I decided to surf the net and see if I could find exactly how you figure that maximum cost. I thought I was doing it right, but I wasn’t coming up with one of the choices [multiple choice exam].

So in my little google toolbar I typed in “find maximum cost calculus.” The very first link said “Google Answers: Calculus Problems.” Well that sounded promising. I happen to need answers to some calculus problems. So I clicked on the link. But this wasn’t just answers to some calculus problems. This was the answers to every problem on my exam. In fact this page had the questions [and answers] to every problem on the exam in the exact order that is on my exam. It’s an exact duplicate. Damn, if only I’d found that on Tuesday.

I talked to my dad (who used to work at a community college) and he said that many of these WebCT courses are exactly the same. The school just purchases the course and hires a teacher to basically babysit it. So it’s not necessarily somebody from my school who asked these questions and then received the answers. It could be from any school. What I found funny was this person wrote “I’m trying to teach myself some calculus for fun and could use some insights.” Now everybody should have known right away that’s a big fat lie. Who learns calculus for fun? Come on. We have televeisions today. Watch some tv.

So anway, here in lies my dilemma. Should I tell my teacher that the answers to the exam are on a website and easily accessible to anybody? Or should I just keep it to myself to ensure I’m not accused of cheating? I honestly worked every one of these problems on my own. I have no reason to lie. This is my blog. This is the perfect place to confess my indiscrentions. But I swear I did not cheat on this exam. But I will never be able to prove that to my teacher [although I did miss four of the problems the first run through...not sure about my corrections yet]. I did email Google and tell them these are the answers to an exam I just took last week and if they are concerned about including answers to real tests they may want to remove that link. Do you think I should tell my teacher? Would you?

Damn me for being such a honest person. And damn my parents for teaching me to be so honest. Why can’t I just be a lying cheat? That would make it so much more simple.

Remember back in May when I told you about the prompt of the week. Well this week’s prompt is Write about something you thought was terrible when it happened, but turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Actually before I even got this week’s prompt I was already thinking about this topic. I was even considering a post about it. So you can imagine my surprise when Jenna included this in her newletter. It’s like a sign from above that says “Hey Christine. Get your ass in gear and write in your damn blog.” Although I’m not sure God would use the word “ass” and “damn.” But you never know.

So anyway, back to the prompt. Have you heard the Garth Brooks song Unanswered Prayers? [Yes I do know one or two country songs.] That song is all about this topic.

For example, in high school I had this boyfriend, Adam. I was crazy in love with Adam [or so I thought]. But Adam dumped me [the nerve of him]. He dumped me right before prom. So I was scrambling trying to find a last minute date. I’m on the phone all “Hey Eric/Andy/whoever. I know prom is in like four days, but my boyfriend just dumped me. So I’m wondering if you wanna beg somebody for $50 for a tux and some more money for dinner and take me. Yes I know it sounds like you are my second choice, but I swear I would’ve asked you first. But I didn’t want to hurt my boyfriend’s feelings.” And oddly, nobody accepted a wonderful invitation like that. So instead I went to Veisha. And Veisha was great. It was so much fun. Just girls night out, rocking with the frat boys. It was awesome. So boyfriend dumps me. I go to Veisha instead. And all the way there and back we sing [rather scream at the top of my lungs] I Hate Everything About You by Ugly Kid Joe. Blessing in disguise.

When I look back at all the boys I cried tears for it makes me laugh. I wish I knew then what I know now. I wish there was some way to get through to the teenage girls today and let them know that it really does work out in the end. I know my parents told me that and I didn’t listen. But it really was true. For once, my parents new what they were talking about [just kidding, mom and dad...of course you were are always right].

I think fate purposely has me run in to old boyfriends sometimes. When you’re feeling down there’s nothing like running in to an old boyfriend who’s working at a fast food restaurant. At the age of 35. It just makes you realize how far you’ve come and how far you wouldn’t have come if you would’ve stayed with that loser.

But ended relationships aren’t the only blessings in disquise. I’ve encountered these blessings with jobs too.

When Keaton was about two months old I started a new job at US Hellular [oops...I mean] Cellular. I was really excited because it wasn’t customer service and it was a permanent job with benefits. However, I was a file clerk. Yes, you heard me. File Clerk. As in a clerk who files. And that’s it. All day long. Sales sells a phone and then they bring me a signed contract. I got to go through about 25 aisles of colorful file folders to find the customer’s name. If they weren’t there I made them a new file and then filed them alphabetically. It doesn’t get any better than that people. Oh, but wait. It does. I was like the “head” file clerk [if there is such a thing] and there was another girl who was just a “peon” file clerk [peon file clerk?!? That cracks me up. It's like saying super big or little tiny. It's like one and the same]. So anyway, the peon file clerk slept. And I don’t mean at home in her bed between the hours of midnight and 6am. I mean right there at her desk. Or in the aisles of unlimited files. She’s plop herself down and pretend like she was filing. With her eyes close. I guess just taking in the contract with her sense of smell.

Well Keaton went to daycare. And he got sick a lot at daycare. I took him to the doctor at least once a week from Halloween to Valentine’s Day. And when he was sick he couldn’t go to daycare. My mom took days off of work to watch Keaton. My dad took days off to stay with him. Even my roommate and best friend, Necole, took days off to stay with him. And, of course, I took time off to be with him. Work was less than pleased with this. I was a brand new employee and I was missing a lot of work. But I will say I never used more sick or vacation time then what was allotted to me. But I was using what I had pretty quickly.

So one day daycare called me and Keaton had a temp of 103 or something really high. I went to my bosses office and I told her I had to leave because he was sick. She goes “Ok, but we need to talk about this when you come back tomorrow.” I left work in tears that day. I was a single mom trying to do my best to work and take care of a sick baby. I was also a new mom and a very young mom and I was scared to death that every time he bumped his head or got a scratch or sniffled [let alone a fever] that he was going to die. And here was my bitch boss telling me “we need to talk” about this. Talk to the back side of my ass, bitch. You know, right there where the hole is. The hole is so you can echo cunt. Wow, the hostility.

The next day, or a couple of days later or whenever I came back to work, my boss pulled me in to her office and fired me. She only got away with that because I was just a week shy of my six month probationary period being up. If my six months had been up she wouldn’t have had any cause since I didn’t take any days unpaid. So there I was; single mom, living on my own [well with a roommate] with no job and no insurance. I was devasted.

However, Necole was transferred to Des Moines with her job so we were able to get out of our lease. I moved in with mom and looked for work. I also decided to go back to school. No more fast food or file clerking for me. So I enrolled in the Community College full-time and got a job at a brokerage firm part-time. And I loved that job. And they loved me. And when I could no longer afford to work part-time they were more than willing to hire me on full-time. They rocked.

And I honestly believe that getting fired from US Cellular was the push I needed to get my ass back in school. And without that I never would have gotten my current job at MCI. And I know for a fact that I would not be making the kind of money I am making today. So fired from my job. Went back to school. Better, higher paying job. Blessing in disguise.

That’s not to say that when things aren’t going my way I don’t get sad [or even pissed], but often times the bad things lead to things that are even better. Things I never even dreamed of. But things that I am so glad happened.

Lee took Skyler, Spencer and Caleb to the dollar store. He let them pick out one toy each.

Spencer chose little green army men.

Caleb chose little cowboys and indians.

And Skyler chose…

» Continue reading “Obsess Much?”

I went upstairs to check on the kids before I jumped in to bed. They were all still up, of course. Why not? It’s only 20 after midnight. Still early!?

So anyway, Skyler asked me if she could keep Jasper in her room. I said “Yeah, if he stays.”

And then I looked over at him. She had made him a leash out of a strap that you would tether to a camera or something. She wrapped one end around his neck [it was loose though] and the other end around the foot of her dresser. In front of him was a bowl [from Keaton's mess kit] filled with cat food.

She chained Jasper up to keep him in her room.

At least she wasn’t inhumane about it. She kept the leash tight enough that he couldn’t get out of it, but loose enough that it didn’t restrict his breathing or anything. And she gave him food. What more could a cat ask for?

She’s too smart for her own good.