dashing new life plan:

easy, 14 step program:

1. get a part-time job immediately. enroll in 3-9 graduate credits.
2. work 50 hrs a week for the second half of the summer. be a good babysitter.
3. pay off the credit card, put some money away (preferrably in a bond--you know, something that can't be taken to the bar).
4. work part time all fall. save some loan money (in bonds, as menntioned). rock at school. get more A's.
5. work part time all spring. save more money. get more A's.
6. work part time and take 3-6 credits for 1st half of summer 2009.
7. be a super babysitter for one last 1/2 summer. think about how much the kids have grown. cry.
8. apply for teaching jobs. lots of them. and nanny backup jobs.
9. save more money, save more money, save more money!
10. GRADUATE!!!
11. move to NYC with michael, first month's rent, deposit, and a 1000 dollars CASH MONEY YO. teaching job and prosh apartment in brooklynn awaiting.
12. start teaching september 2009. hug my first paycheck, eyes brimming with tears.
13. rock the house, rock the house, rock the house. be the best teacher ever for two whole years. all the while (i know i know) saving money.
14. now here comes the most awesome and badass part: Apply to Columbia University's Educational Policy doctorate program!!!
    

and from there my fantasy becomes a little foggy...
i would love to think that in ten years i'll be some hot shot ed-policy person, maybe a dean or a super cool prof with hip reading glasses and ikea furniture but i'll probably just end up back in Buffalo with an average-joe teaching job maybe making a few thousand more than my co-workers cuz i'm a "doctor" drinking crappy drip coffee all-the-while and never amount to much of anything.

it'll be so worth it.