Stress I Do Not Need

My academic counselor left me a message on Monday about classes starting again. The message was that I was scheduled to start yesterday, August 2. With only one day notice, I found this to be an issue. The company I work for does reimburse tuition costs, but only a certain amount each year. With the cost of tuition increasing after every single class, I'm to a point where I can afford to take three classes a year. Two of those are done for 2005 (has to do with when the reimbursement happened) and I should be taking economics right now.

I left two messages for my counselor and an email. She finally responded today. My phone rang, waking me up earlier than I planned, and I just spoke to her with my head still half dreaming. My schedule has been changed and I am going back starting in September. With only 10 classes remaining to my degree, I feel like I should continue with my education and finish, it is just financials (and stress) that is holding me back from finishing.

Admitting how much stress and how hard these last few months have been is hard for me to do. I don't want to just complain and I feel like I should be able to get through all this without problems. There are more changes coming too soon for comfort.

Okay, here's the major changes and events in my life since April.

My grandma passed away and I found out on Monday that I scheduled the wrong day off work and now cannot attend the funeral service in Wisconsin next week.
My mom had to put Taco, our family dog, to sleep.
I was promoted, which is a great thing, to a more difficult job that requires a lot more of my time and energy.
On the work scene, the new team I am supervising has all new bankers and we are getting new bankers more often than other teams so I feel like I'm behind at work all the time. This is getting better, but it does add to my stress level. I also have a new team lead who is absolutely fantastic and I'm seriously grateful for the job he is doing.
Char is moving to Texas, very soon. She has given her two weeks notice at work and will be gone as soon as a couple of other matters here have been resolved.
My other good friend from work, my former supervisor Andy, may be leaving quite soon. Losing both Char and Andy in a short time bothers me more than I want to admit. They make work fun. It's nice to have people to talk and laugh with at work.
My financials are not where I want them to be. With the new job, I did receive a raise, however I did loose a shift differential for a bit of time and the hit on my checking account is hurting.

Adding another high stress situation to this mess is not something I want to do, yet I feel like I need to. I guess I just needed to vent a bit. Now it is time to go to work, have a meeting with Steve (the awesome team lead) and our three new bankers who start on our team this weekend, and then spend the night coaching the other bankers on the team. One good thing is the fact my team is doing well at work. There are still struggles and each time we get new bankers the struggles start again, but it is getting easier. Some night, maybe once Char is gone, I'll be able to write so much more and catch up on more blogs. I am sorry that I haven't had the time to read blogs like I have in the past. I do miss it quite a bit.