On a related tangent, on Thursday Karisa and I went to see a banker by the name of Debby Wisdom at Dakota Community Bank. Not only did she not try to tell us that the monthly payments from our student loans should be eating up all of our disposable income, but she didn’t let that get in the way of sending our info out to the underwriters for preapproval; that lady from Vue Community Credit Union can kiss my grits.

    I’m expecting to hear back on the preapproval tomorrow. If all goes well, we should be meeting with the realtor by the end of the week. My opinion is, my school loans are my business and should not get in the way of my getting a house. A HOUSE. Noun. A place to live that’s not a hot, stuffy attic. I’ll always need a roof over my head, but I can do without school if necessary, and while I could put off the U.S. Department of Education because of “financial hardship,” the mortgage must always be paid and I know this, man. That lady from Vue Community Credit Union can go suck an egg. And a lemon. At the same time.

    So yeah, and I went to see my advisor for Dickinson State University on Friday, and I think I decided on majoring in Composite Social Science Education, with a middle school endorsement for my minor. At first I left thinking that I had chosen English Education for my major, but in retrospect I think I decided that I would be more marketable as a teacher who can teach any social science to grades 7-12, as opposed to just English. Of course, I might not be able to teach English, but I don’t think that would be an issue with me. I’m like that little boy in the movie who just wants to dance, but instead of dancing, I want to teach.

    At any rate we got things going, and I should be registered for classes within the next couple of days. One of the classes is two-in-one; for half the semester I attend an Intro to Education class, and for the second half of the semester, I’m a teacher’s shadow. Or test-grader, I guess. Cool stuff! Then there’s College Composition III and Adolescent Psychology, too. Over the past week I have gotten my FAFSA submitted, my transcripts sent, and my financial aid verification paperwork filled out – it gets put in the mail tomorrow – so I’m thinking I’ve slipped into DSU for the Fall semester. Not too shabby!

    With this weekend being Memorial Day weekend and all, we spread things out pretty well; we cleaned up some things and went through some other things. We don’t want to move a ton of junk that we don’t want to keep to a new home (eventually,) so we’re going through stuff and putting a lot of it into a tote for a rummage sale at the in-laws’ place this Summer. I’ve been posting my dragon statues on Ebay since I’ll probably never take them out of their styrofoam blocks ever again for any other reason, and hopefully the stuff I’ve posted on Bisman Online will sell. We’re probably going to get a zero-down first-time home buyer’s loan because we both qualify for that (apparently, “first time” means that you haven’t done it in three years. If that counted for sex, I’d have been a virgin a few times prior to being married.) Still, I know we’re going to need five hundred dollars’ “earnest money” for the realtor and another five for the bank toward closing costs (inspection and whatnot.)

    And then there’s the Wii. Oh yes, we’re getting a Wii. Target has the Wii, and it’s black!! Which is just awesome. Karisa’s been talking about it, and I finally broke down and admitted that it sounds cool. We can use it for Netflix, and maybe we won’t have to try starting something ten times to get the sound to work (like it does on the XBox 360.) Plus, I would be totally nuts for Wii Fit and MARIO KART!! Wahoo! So yeah, now all I have to do is figure out how to get it without busting into the down payment money and the only thing I can think of is my credit card, but that’s like two hundred on my credit card and with the current balance, that would leave me about $100 credit. Is that a safe margin? Well, I don’t use the credit card for much, but. . . I’m just really careful about my credit and all. So I’m hoping this guy comes through on the Ovation.

    The Ovation is one of the things that I’ve listed on Bisman Online. It’s Bismarck/Mandan’s version of Craig’s List. The Ovation is a semi-hollow electric guitar that is older than I am – by five years. And it’s in great condition, so I think I’ve really undervalued it at $300, but with that much I’ll break even on it, which is better than nothing. But I swear, if this guy falls through, I’m listing it on Ebay; that means I have to do math to figure out how much to mark it up to account for the listing fee and something to cushion the selling fee (which I think is 5%.) So basically, I have to add enough to that $300 so that the $300 is 14% less than the selling cost (which I think is about $348.84, but I could be wrong.) If the Ovy sells higher, then I still bank because Ebay only gets 5% of the extra, so. . . 

    I think maybe I should have listed the Ovation on Ebay in the first place. But hey, lesson learned. Let’s go, Nintendo!