Pell Grant, Shmell Grant

So I've been bored and I can't seem to find anything outside of part time employment. I'm not interested in stacking up more loans, Jeremy and I have enough school debt between us, but were I to find money I'd probably go back to school and do something productive with my time. The Pell Grant is an elusive little creature that is gifted money, it has no obligations attached to it. They also seem to not give them to anyone. I looked in to it the other day and I got my results back after filing a FAFSA (which was a pain for just me, I can't imagine how much of a pain it was for my mother to fill it out every year!) and even though the 2008 tax year brought me a mere $11k gross, and I am not anyone's dependent (meaning I don't have any potential income from my parents), I don't qualify for the Pell Grant!

What the heck do you have to do to get one of these things?!

I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I already have a degree, and we don't like to encourage furthering education in this country-- anything beyond undergraduate, we're expected to take out loans for the rest of our lives! And I was applying for an MAT, which means that I'm not expecting to be rich for the rest of my life. I mean, really?

Anyway, this MAT program is about $24k for the whole deal, and that could be spread out over two years, but it's still $24k that I definitely do not have. Perhaps in February I'll run the FAFSA again with what is sure to be an even smaller amount, and see what happens then. Any bets on the odds they'll deny me a Pell Grant again?

Heee

The upside of the starter being dead is that I didn't have to take dad to the doctor this morning (he rescheduled for April anyway, for the eye embolism thingy) so I've been all over BSG all day long. The marathon goes straight through to the series finale tonight, so that's just about 12 hours straight! It's been fun because I have a few other friends doing the same thing so we've been talking all day and laughing at some of the funny little things they do.

Where my wisdom teeth were is hurting really badly, like it did before I had them all taken out, which was supposed to fix them. The oral surgeon was convinced it was my molars (all four of my back molars need to be crowned thanks to that horrible horrible dentist from back in the day) that were causing the pain, but it's more of an ache. It throbs and stays with me, I really dislike it. From what I hear, if it were something to do with the roots or nerves, it would hurt a lot worse than this, it would require major painkillers. This feels better when I chew gum or something, kind of like when you have an itch that feels better when you scratch it.

Also, there is a preview for Fast and the Furious (4) which will come out next month... I'm thinking Jeremy and I might have to break our no movies rule and go see it when I go down to see him at the beginning of the month! I did get my tax return today, so I'm going to let it sit and earn interest for a short while, then leave some there, pay off completely one of my credit cards, and buy my ticket to Austin to see Dill this summer!! Whatever's left will go back to savings to sit there for the wedding and moving.

Congrats for making it this far, I know my tooth pain and penchant for cheesy movies is totally what everyone wants to hear about. I have been considering going to grad school if we end up in Memphis next year. I don't know much about U of M's graduate programs, but if we're in Memphis it's because I couldn't find a job, so going to grad school would be something to do and it would help defer my loans further so we could pay down Jeremy's (which has the higher interest rate). I've been considering a lot of different graduate programs, but I think I'd really like to study linguistics. It's a subject that's always really grabbed my attention, something that I think is at the root of everything we analyze and are confused about in the world. I'm sure there are other things that would be fun, journalism say, but I think linguistics would really challenge my brain and I would really enjoy it.

Oh, well, off to make dinner. Ciao for now!