4th Thoughts

It's hard to blog when you don't really have anything to blog about. Right now, the highlight of my life is my daughter starting school next week.  She's entering the 4th grade. I'm aware that while all this is absolutely fascinating and exciting for me, it may not be "so much" for others.  I'll try to keep my kid talk minimal.  I absolutely adore/love her teachers.  Both have already impressed me so much and I just can't believe we get to spend the next 2 years with such special people.  My daughter has a peanut/tree nut allergy so I met with both of them today (as well as our School Nurse who I also adore/love) to go over the plan for the year. Meet the Teacher was last night - great experience but oh so fast. Today I had more time to talk to her teachers and I just left with this super happy feeling - so happy to start the school year.  It is so evident that both of her teachers teach because they feel a calling to do so and love what they do.

Not much movement on my own academic endeavor.

Here is what I've done so far:

1) Registered for GMAT Prep Course
2) Registered to take GMAT
3) Applied to take Undergrad Level courses at UTA in Spring 2013
4) Ordered my transcripts from SMU and TCC (was TCJC when I was there)

Here is what I still need to do:

1) Make an appt to speak with the Graduate Advisor about my plans and make sure I'm on the right track.

Honestly, until I speak to him, I feel like I'm at a bit of a standstill on things.  I have some questions for him.

#1 - The letters of recommendation.....how imperative is it that I get 3?  How does he feel about my plan to take 2 undergrad classes (Econ/Math) as a way to refresh my Math/Econ skills and possibly get 2 current letters of recommendation from Professors I've had?

#2 - There are 3 MA Econ tracks to choose from.  One is for those who know they want to apply elsewhere for PhD Economics (UTA doesn't have a PhD Econ program).  The other 2 seem similar other than one has a thesis requirement and the other doesn't.  How soon do I need to decide which track I want to take?  My initial thought is I feel like I'm good with the non-thesis, non PhD seeking track.  However, what if I start and I decide that I just can't imagine living another second without a PhD in Economics?  I guess I just want to leave my options open/flexible...just in case.  I likely won't go that far but what if I do?  I don't want to rule it out. So, I want to talk to him about that.

I've been on 2 job interviews in the past 2 weeks.  Imagine that?  Have I mentioned I have horrible short term memory so I can't remember if I've already talked about this in my previous blog posts or not and I'm too lazy to save this blog post and go back  and re-read my other blog posts so if you read this and it's deja-vu, just skip this next part.  However, I feel it's relevant to this whole school thing so I'm going to blog about it.

About 3 weeks ago, I wondered if I should look into getting a part-time job (part-time as in really part-time, 20 hours a week (25 max).  I didn't mind too much about what the job was and I wasn't too bothered by what it paid.  Mostly, I was looking for something that would work out so that my kids' schedules would have the least impact (i.e. I wanted to work while they're in school - every antsy stay-home mom's dream).  I started looking and it just seemed like this type of thing doesn't exist.  Then I realized that I actually do care what kind of job I have and what it pays...especially if it means I'm going to have to make arrangements to have my son dropped off at school (he starts at 9am) &/or pick both kids up from school.  How I spend the hours I have during the day while they're at school doesn't hold as much value to me as how I spend the hours I have during the day when they're not at school if that makes sense?  So, I applied for things and grew frustrated by the types of jobs I felt I would be considered for given the lapse between when I was last employed (9 1/2 yrs ago) and now. I went through this exact same thing 2 years ago...I even found a job as a part-time Financial Analyst and it paid relatively well/competitive.  The problem was that their idea of part-time was 35 hours a week and it was a solid 30 minute drive each way from my house AND I would have started the job during the summer which meant I would need to find childcare for my kids for the entire summer (expensive and I was bummed about not spending the majority of the summer with them).  So, after back and forth with the HR person and the Hiring Manager I decided it just wasn't a good fit for me at that time and I put the whole job thing on the back burner and ended up volunteering more at my daughter's school.  I thought about the idea of going back to school then to get my MA in Econ at UTA - I even called the Econ Graduate Advisor then and we talked about things for half an hour.  I chickened out though.  That's as far as I got with the whole thing.

4 or so years before that I did the same thing.  I was stuck between figuring out if we wanted to grow our family by 1 (at the time, our daughter was 3) or should I go back to school and we continue as a family of 3. I didn't get very far with the school thing then.  I contacted our adoption agency and filled out their paperwork instead of contacting a school and filling out their paperwork.  No regrets :0)

So, I interviewed for a position about a week ago.  By this time, I pretty much had my game plan for school but thought that if there was some way I could make both work, I would try.  This was a work from home position and had lots of interesting things to do (a relatively new company experiencing a lot of growth) but it was 35 hours a week and it just didn't pay enough to make it worth the sacrifices I'd need to make to make it work.  A few days ago, I received a call from another company I applied to.  It's about 3 minutes from my house so the commute would be great.  I went on an interview and wasn't blown away by the time of work I would be doing - very much an Administrative type position which again, if I was working 9:30 - 1:30 I could do it but the hiring manager was looking for someone to work 8am - 5pm 4 days a week. Definitely not something I'm open to - short commute or not.  The pay wasn't where it needed to be for me to consider this and to me, 8am - 5pm 4 days a week isn't part-time.  I'd rather work 5 days a week 6 hours a day and skip lunch.  Anyway, on the plus side - I now know that I do care about what the job is and I do care about what the pay is and I doubt I'll find something that meets both of those targets given my current situation (very out of the job world) so back to square one.  Go back to school and cross my fingers that once I finish that, I'll find something more similar to what I'm looking for.

Well, speaking of being a stay-home mom - I guess I need to do some stay-home mom'ish type things now.  Enough of this self-indulgent blog thing.  I think I'll clean my bathroom.  Yay!?!?  See why I'd rather spend the day at a job?  Even if it isn't something I want to do :0)