Sallie Mae - Karate - SRP

I was a little miffed the other day when my Dad informed me that a Sallie Mae payment was due this month. I know after talking with the Logan financial aid department at the beginning of last semester that they would be informing my lenders that I wasn't going to be a full time student that semester but, apparently that same kind of administrative efficiency didn't exist when it comes to telling them I am full time again.  

I'm not exactly sure what's going on but, need to notify Sallie Mae myself that I am in school full time so those bills stop while I'm back in school.  I was miffed because it was a bit embarrassing at my age for a parent to have to inform me of my financial obligations.

Kind of bizarre ...the Financial Aid department had me retake a class I got an F in when it was already being passed just a couple weeks before until we had the registrars office changed that grade to an F so I could keep getting financial aid.  Just something that crossed my mind the other day.  Then, I tend to tell myself that God's delays aren't God's denials.  And, who knows what the big plan is here.

I did manage this nifty countdown clock to the date in December when I figured I'd be graduating.  That will be an awesome day.  I've been hitting the gym pretty regularly for the past few weeks to help myself achieve everything as well.  I'm in two different weight loss competitions now.  The first, is the Lose to Win competition sponsored by some local hospitals over in St. Louis which kicked off a couple weeks ago and the second is through Gold's gym and that started last Thursday.
Yesterday, I got up at 4:40 a.m. and took my first BodyPump class at 5:15 a.m.  It was a great workout and unlike anything I normally do and I believe I should get great results from it.  Last night, I finally got back into Karate.  I don't remember exactly when I started Karate but, I do remember my first belt promotion was around May 5th of 1982 and, the last time I was involved with Shorin-Ryu karate would have been in 2007, just before I started going back to school so it's GREAT to be back involved again with something that has been such a significant and important part of my life.  We went through a bunch of kata's last night.  A kata is similar to ...say, a dance.  There are different dances like the Tango, Foxtrot or Waltz and with karate you have different katas which are pre-arranged fighting steps but these are called things like Fukyuata Ich and Pinan Sandan or Naihanchi Nidan.  There are three Fukyuata katas, five Pinan katas and three Naihanchi katas  We went through all ten of those basic katas then got a bonus and was able to work through Ananku kata which is a black belt kata.  We finished up with some sparring (kumite) and then some prearranged sparring (yakasuko kumite)
The karate workout was much harder than the bodypump class at Gold's  :)

I was up again this morning at 4:40 a.m but had already decided last night not to hit the gym this morning.  I'm pretty sore and have severely injured myself before from overdoing it so ...hopefully learning from my past mistakes and want to take my journey from couch potato to supreme athlete a little judiciously.

My Senior Research Paper (SRP) is top priority.  I was told point blank that if it isn't done by Friday, February 22 at 12:30 p.m. that I would get an F.  I can't afford to mess with financial aid.  I already know I have to foot the bill for the Summer which will mostly be covered by selling my motorcycle but, it would be hard to work part time in the Fall while working clinic 6 days a week and make up the $16,000.00 I'll lose by not being able to get financial aid.