WHY?

Why am I going back to school?  Why am I doing this to myself?  Why am I doing homework at 9:45 p.m. on a Saturday? 

WHY?  WHY?  WHY?

Ok, if you haven't guessed, this is going to be a whiny post, and since I'm pretty much writing to an audience of one, a.k.a. myself, I get to be as whiny as I want.

I AM going back to school for a very good reason, even if that reason escapes me.  But honestly, that reason is so that I will be eligible to bid for my own government contracts, instead of having to subcontract through my father.  WHY is this a big deal?  If I can get my own contracts, I can set my own rates. If my father decides to truly retire, then I don't have to make sure that my Dad has a contract that I can work from.  And to be eligible to bid on my own contracts, I need to have experience (which I have) and accounting classes (which I don't have.) 

Hard to believe that after 11 1/2 years of corporate credit experience, that I have never - and I'm pretty sure that includes High School - I have never had a single accounting class.

So, obtaining my Accounting Assistant certificate, and possibly my Associate's Degree in Accounting, from the local Tech College does have a very realistic end purpose.

Why am I complaining then?

Well, you see, even thought I already have a Bachelor's Degree, the local TC has their own requirements.  This involved having to take bullsh.. reading and math placement tests - oh yeah, passed those with flying colors and higher than they had seen recently.  The benefit of passing these classes is that the Accounting Assistant certificate at 30 credits dropped to about 16 credits.  Unfortunately, 3 of my credits STILL had to be Microsoft Office 2010 Word 1, MS Office 2010 Excel 1, and MS Office 2010 Excel 2.  Technically, I could have tested out of these classes.  However, since no place I have ever worked was technologically advanced to be on the latest version of Microsoft Office and I had no experience with any of it, that wouldn't have been pretty.

So, that is why at 9:45 on a Saturday night, I am working on homework.  The kids have gone to sleep. The husband is in the kitchen watching a movie on his computer, that might have been a side benefit - not sure if he went in there to avoid me or annoy me.  Not going to question, because I could work on a 50-page lesson.

All three of this semester's classes are self-paced.  This means that I have to motivate myself to do these stupid assignments before the deadlines.  And to throw another wrench in the works, I won't be able to go in to the testing centers on any Saturdays, since I start teaching CCD next week.  So, the only day I can go to turn in my homework and take the stupid tests, are now Monday nights.

I need to finish 3 more lessons to be able to take the final in Word 1.  That still means I have to finish Excel 1 and Excel 2 by December 10th and take the finals in those classes by December 15th.

I didn't do squat on these lessons until the beginning of October, even though school started August 15th.  WHY did I procrastinate?

It wasn't even procrastinating, ok, some of it was, but I was still working for Dad during August and September.  Most of my work was in Excel 93-97.  I didn't want to install the new Office software on my computer and it change my formatting on my work documents - that would have been a nightmare.

It is now 10 o'clock and I think I'm done whining.