Back from South Dakota

Made it there and back safe and sound with my Mom.

Had a good couple of days. I know my brother really needs to vent about how he really is the only one keeping things moving, and the other two adults don't really help out around the house. So, I did my best to listen when I could, and offer up constructive advice.

Nathaney had some fun times with me... I have some pictures, but can't upload them at home right now. Mimicathwe took a minute to remember me, especially without hair.

On the first day, Nathaney got me completely soaked in our "water fight."

Got work done

I found plenty more than required sources to back up my Persuasive speech that I had mapped out already anyway.

Found out about renting some places and the cost of that rental.

Got an email about how much the insurance would need to be, and the exact coming soon.

Had plenty of free food today too!

Tutors had some food leftovers, then I happen to be chopping it up with Rachel downstairs and they announced some more free food, and Rhonda brought me some delicious dinner.

A little bit is too much to ask?

I've been thinking, and really I haven't had a girl that was ever a little into me.

They've always been WAY into me.

Not like a "hey let's see how this goes," but always it seems to be a "you are what I want."

Is my lack of caring about dating really a big impact on such things?

Or is it something else?

This is why I don't date, it's just over-the-top to me. I have no "picker" I just get picked, and that would be another reason.

Right ain't Right anymore

Apparently, they can't really start a bankruptcy until I'm in default and they take a judgment against me. Which means I shouldn't pay my bills for at least 2 more months before filing a bankruptcy.

I guess the law forbids you to have any foresight.

Well then

So, even before the first post about the awkward situation developing with the toot (tutee), she was digging me hard. Apparently, she's WAYYYYYYYYY into me.

Didn't get my speech work done today though, and I'm not really in the mood. Find out how well that goes tomorrow.

Did get my mom money from my dad, and picked up mouthwash at the store!

My brother sent most of his car payment to me. Tomorrow will be super busy at work. I have an Earth Science Lab/Class to run from 5-9, and I have to figure out what's been going on the last few weeks tomorrow in addition to what they are supposed to be doing now.

I have to call two lawyers, one about bankruptcy outside of the legal aid for a price quote, and the other about how I don't have a bloody phone, and the letter the d-bags tried to slide across with their request for a release from the lien.

Oh and I got authentic maple syrup, but I have nothing really to put it on, but rice/cereal.

Apparently I am ineffective at communication

Which, I can agree to. However, I find it hard to misunderstand this:

I don't have a phone.
I can't return your phone call.
I only have a voice mail system.

Apparently, this is a series of sentences that cause many people much confusion though.

Another Good Night

No hijacking!

We did go see Omar, who unbeknownst to me, works at the Holiday Inn by the theater. Which was cool, I don't think I've seen him for almost 8 years.

He wants me to teach his kids karate, and him, and some others.... We'll see how that pans out. Plus, he wants Tito and me to hang out this Saturday. Which is also cool.

Tito and I bowled, went to Noodles and Company, went to Henry's, and then saw Omar, and lastly had a doughnut at Muncher's. All in all a great night.

Plus, my toot (tutored student) brought me a meal as I was getting off work at DeVry today. That's always a plus.

Called about the Bankruptcy

The form they sent me was the simple form, and I need to get a more complex one for the Credit Cards and what not.

The reason the fee is $1,075 is because it is a set fee, regardless of time spent on the case. They only charge 10 hours for the lawyer, but it could take more.....

I have found out I only am able to work next Tuesday, and then I'm at the yearly hours limit, because they don't start counting at July 1, but rather the entire pay period including it. Which, in my case means that I had a week and a half of extra hours.

Tonight, bowling with Tito! Hopefully, he doesn't try and hijack me as tomorrow I have to drive in for YCOA money drop.

My "reduced" fee Bankruptcy

I got the letter back from Legal Aid today, and it's a "reduced" fee of $1,075 and must be paid all up front before they will help.

So.... that's a bit more than expected, especially for a "reduced" fee.

I'll call them tomorrow and see why it's so high.

Other than that today, I found out that my 16 year old is dating a 22 year old male, who clearly has issues of his own if he's 22 and looking to date a 16 year old, and my sister said it was okay. WTF?

Then, my 19 year old niece broke up with her boyfriend of 4 years, and the whole family gave her flak about it. WTF? She's NINETEEN! It was long distance, and overly long-term for a 15 year old. Plus, when they started dating everyone was against it. I told her as much.

Also, my sister has been not only drinking frequently, and knows she's about to lose one job, but hasn't been saving any money. She's also been taking the family except the 19 year old out for dinner and expensive movie trips the last week. WTF?

Then, the whole house looks like S. The floors haven't been mopped since at least last week, and probably not swept. There were cups leaking fluid in the living room on the tables, empty candy boxes all around, glasses everywhere but the sink and dishwasher, food on and around the computers, trash all in the kitchen on the floor, and all the counters were dirty. I went ahead a picked up the area, wiped off the counters, threw away all the trash, and swept the whole downstairs, but it still desperately needed a mopping. WTF? 3 people live there and they all don't clean up after themselves now?

Productive Meeting

The tutors had a productive meeting with one of the Deans tonight, and we got food with it.

I had to direct a bit of the conversation, and good ole Nick was there.

I did query him about the meter bag project he had once begun, and he said it wouldn't take even 1K to get the first prototype into action.

Which is something way down the line I'm sure.

I couldn't take the toilet randomness though, and went ahead and replaced all the inner workings of it. Now it flushes perfectly.

Helped a few students today, but no tenseness thankfully.

Set up the time to go bowling with Tito on Thursday after work around 6. So, that'll be fun. Last night he wanted to meet up at the Pool Room, and we did. Played 2 games, and I lost by 2 each time. Good games though. I kept hitting the ball too hard throughout the first 1.5 games though.

Then, he wanted to go eat, and we did, but he drove. This was probably the prelude to where he wanted to go thereafter..... *shakes head* I tried to convince him not to go, but when we got to a strip club and he knew all the girls names and how long they'd worked there, I knew it was a frequent spot for him. *shakes head* Not a fan of that type of club personally, and doubt I ever will be, but then again, I've known my fair share of strippers, and heard too many stripper stories.

Whew, tense tutoring session

I did get free dinner out of it though.

But, WHEW!

I'm hoping I was imagining some of it. Though, I know I wasn't imagining all of it.

She is great looking, don't get me wrong, but wow was that nerve racking as much as she kept putting her hands on me, and rubbing my head *yes, and*.

Dinner was good too! Found out there's a Chinese restaurant around the mini mall by the school.

It was nice, and the Kung Pao Chicken was actually a tad spicy.

I also nailed the MyScribe presentation that went from my 10 minute speech, to 45 minutes, to 20 minutes after they went over in their morning activities.

Then I got a new downloader program, that is currently taking up ALL of my wireless bandwidth, I don't even know if this will save properly.

Step One

I found the phone number for the Douglas County Legal Aid Society.

Also, discussed yesterday was the null and void contract for non compete, because of the company name change. So, that won't be an issue.

Thanks for the heads up on the location, and about the car, which if I get to keep one it will be my brother's. I can always go back to a junk car.

I completed printing out phone info, but the mailing info will have to wait until tomorrow because I have to use Crystal Reports, another complaint many have about the company website. Then, I have to save it and bring it in and print it.

I have a presentation to give here at school in about 30 minutes, but I unexpectedly beat all the usual traffic, I even drove slow, and I made it to work almost an hour early.

That's why they're the "man"

Sitting at a table I had Sensei A's Wife, Sensei A, Sensei B's wife, Sensei B, A hall of fame basketball star, my two friends (married) from Carbondale, My old Taco Bell Manager, and a Bass Player in a Rock Band.

Then there was me.

They were all gracious enough to spend time with me.

Plans were discussed, situations were explained, and their amazing minds all settled on a plan of attack:
1. Tomorrow, find out about, and file for Bankruptcy.
2. Print off all contact information for students currently enrolled.
3. Later in the week(s), move to Carbondale (south of Topeka) with my friends for at least awhile.
4. Next Session, continue with school stronger than ever.
5. In the next few weeks, find community centers or church contacts in Topeka about rentals.
6. Find an insurance company for sport insurance.
7. Work with at least one other Sensei on an agreeable curriculum.
8. Within 8 weeks, begin enrolling students, and instead of the office taking 5/6 of each dollar, I should be able to keep 3-4/6 after expenses.

Build and do better. Perhaps even have a second location either in Topeka, Lawrence, or another location.

I've said it before and I will again:
If you ask for advice, you'd better be ready to follow it.
Also:
Hang out with people who you or others call "The Man," as in so and so is the man! They are good people who can give you sound advice on how to live.

Forgot to turn off my alarm today

That's okay though, I pretty much needed to get up when it went off anyway.

I did a few things around the house, including getting yesterday's paperwork done, and sorting out all the papers from YCOA in the last 7 years. Now if it would just warm up enough to dry the clothes that would be swell.

I took in glass and plastic bag recyclables and went to lunch with my Dad.

Now, deciding what to do before the meeting at 6.

New Beginning

Today's class was rough. I had quite a few kids and parents crying at the end.

I was there for about an hour afterward still talking to students/parents.

Went to Ron Pine after that in Platte City, and he gave me a free hair cut to send in for locks of love. So, after 5 years I got the same hair cut as last time. Hopefully, tomorrow that will be a short part of the discussion.

Then I went to Bass Pro Shop with the $150 in gift cards MyPoints earned me. Bought the bivy I wanted, but the backpack and/or the sleeping bag would have put me over. The bivy was $80, and the backpack is $140 while the sleeping bag is $120. However, I did get some cookware, candles, and a good heavy duty string.

Nap into sleep

Was getting ready to do a lot today, but with little sleep, and an annoying meeting in the morning, I was tired about 1pm.

So, I decided to take a nap, but didn't wake up until 8:30pm.

Found that Danielle has chosen Rockfest over the last day at Karate in Topeka.

*shakes head*

Every time I talk with the lawyer I tend to get a longer time line. Now, the meeting on the 26th of May might not yield a court date until a year from then, and during that time is called "discovery" wherein we might be able to amend the lawsuit from just the condominium association to include Ty and Don personally for the inappropriateness.

*shakes head*

Dave informed me yesterday that the company (Rose) scheduled his opening day in Topeka on the day he has to be in Dallas to run inventory for an event, and he won't be there to start the semester. What kind of bull crap is that?

He did ask me to open it up, but I informed him I would more than likely not be around at that time.

Today, I did call and thank him for making sure all my belts were taken care of, and for doing his best to make up for the missteps of the rest of the office after they forgot to bring me my paycheck after they rescheduled everything.

1 Parent Tonight

Well, that last post was about last night's class.

Of course my goal is to put it forth in a way that no one cries.

So, tonight 1 parent was in tears about how much class had helped her son develop coordination after being born with many problems and having to battle just for life for most of his young years.

However, last night I literally had to restrain myself for killing what appeared to be my neighbor. According to him, it was his dad driving the parking lot and honking for over 10 minutes at 11:30 pm.

So, you're saying your Dad doesn't know where you live?

You're also saying, your dad is a complete dummy?

Then, the topper was after I confronted them about it, they drove off, but parked at the very end of the parking lot, and honked one more time.

Kansas... I won't miss you. Sorry, where I'm from stupid stuff like that can get you maimed or killed.

Hopefully, I can continue to restrain myself, and also the classes keep going without many tears both from students and from me.

Only 1, that I saw

Well, after my speech tonight only 1 kid was crying thankfully.

Many parents and students had tears in their eyes, but only the one kid was crying tonight.

I don't think I can take too much of that anyway.

As I said the other day, this emotional year has me on the verge of tears for the random things, let alone this. I don't know how well I will be able to handle it.

I'm fairly certain that I was even able to keep my voice from wavering the entire speech. Thankfully too, the majority of parents didn't catch on until the end of my spiel, and then I wrapped up on a positive for the kids which I believe helped soften the blow.

Awards Night Speech

Condensed my Awards night speech onto 7 note cards, and I won't have to use the half sheet handout that I normally have to.

I added in many talking points both before and after the demonstrations.

Plus, I have extra awards to handout in the end.

I have one entire card dedicated to respect, but with many concepts people don't often times associate with it.

2.5 hours

Two and a half hours to put in the awards order for Topeka, and I'm not even sure the database saved all of it.

After the first 2 hours, the popup windows decided not to close for about 15 minutes, and I closed them after 10 secs. On average they didn't close for 30 secs, and there are 4 of them per student.

So, I emailed Derek to inform him of the issue. Plus, knowing web programming, I know the system doesn't have to be that way, and it should be streamlined.

Also, I had to mail him in reference to my awards' night handouts. Two of the them were wrong, and luckily one I was able to hand change. The other, I hope we get the gym. We don't get first dibs, but I did politely ask, and got a friendly promise.

Now, on to the cleaning, before I head out to my Dad's.

I almost took a nap

Then, I decided to take a look at something, and what do ya know.... Instead I:

Took out the dishwasher
Posted pictures of it and the stove on craigs list
Moved the stove
Cut the clearly water damaged part out of the bathroom ceiling
Found a towel from when they repaired it still in my ceiling
cut off the excess rolled out laminate flooring
Hand scrubbed where the stove and dishwasher used to be
swept and mopped the kitchen
Did dishes, including the ones I didn't know were in the pull out stove drawer

I might even put in the belt order for Topeka next, but I don't think I really am ready to waste that much time of the slow AZ servers.

Speech Done

Well, the easy one that is.

I did my informative speech for class and made a photo montage with Kung Fu Fighting in the background for my visual aid.

Thursday, Rhonda was super fly and brought me some food right as I was leaving DeVry for class in St. Joe.

However, the YCOA server was so slow that I didn't get to sleep until 4 this morning, then drove to KC, nap, lunch, nap, show trailer (they haven't installed a trailer hitch on their vehicle yet, but were interested), then made slides and note cards.

Daily Cleaning and More

Well, now that I clean daily to help keep fumes/mold at bay, the condo is okay with the two rooms sealed off. At least that is the case so far.

I sweep and mop every day, take off my shoes at the door, and use either the hardcore scrubber with Ajax (with bleach) or the dish soap (with bleach alternative) and a rag or sponge.

Saturday, the secretary in Topeka gave me her laptop to take a look at. I installed 5 drivers and now the wireless and audio works. However, it says her modem and ethernet cannot start. I tried to connect to the wireless at home, but this pc doesn't have a strong antennae I guess, because it didn't pick up but 1 bar of wireless when my pc, further from the source, picked up 4 bars.

Brought it into work today, and it's been downloading all morning. Had to go through different of anti-virus software just to get it to wireless log in to the network though, because it doesn't recognize some of the older versions, and then it wanted updated virus information for outdated versions.... That took some time.

Now, it's downloading Service Pack 3 after the first round of 72 updates, after the 7 installer updates, and the 3 updates to the updater.

After this, if there's still time today, I'll see if the driver problem fixed itself after the updates or not.

Back to just me

Well, I'm back in thanks in large part to Adam and Cherie helping on Friday with the truck and moving the big things all in one trip!

Slept pretty good the past couple of days too!

Probably because I didn't get much sleep before that.

Upstairs neighbors still don't know how to walk down the stairs though, and there's a big for sale sign for one unit right outside the front window.

Now, decision about a washer is at hand....

Still haven't decided what to do though.

I will say with the carpeting up, I can see why a lot of issues occurred while people were walking, and why a lot of items wouldn't stand straight.