Not good at all......

For BIL, things are going from bad to worse. They've found two dime sized spots on his lungs. PET scan confirms it's cancer, and he's having a biopsy today to find out if it's from the kidney or just what kind it is. He acts like this is all fine and dandy (one of those good old boys stiff upper lip types). His mom has no idea, my sister is crying all of the time, and I can't stop thinking and praying about it. His income is very important to this family, and he has no disability insurance. My sister was horrified at the suggestion he may have to take time off (he drives a truck). I reminded her he can't be treated and be in California at the same time. I felt badly for even saying anything, because they don't need MORE to stress about. Yes, he is a heavy smoker, but that doesn't mean he asked for it. When he started smoking, no one was telling the smokers that they would develop these horrible diseases, and quitting is a hard assed bitch. Been there and done that, and I have to tell you, I tried a million times before I finally did it. Despite knowing what smoking was doing to me and would eventually kill me, I kept buying them. I'd go a few days, and relent and buy some hating myself for being so stupid. I'm going to cut him a little slack.

On the school front, I hate the financial aid people. I really do. I went to check out my status and NOW they are telling me that I will have to appeal to get financial aid. I've taken too many hours to qualify. The program that I am in lets you get your ASN at a community college and then just slip those hours over to the local university to finish up the last 60 there. I've been to college before and have a lot of hours of gen eds done. I've also taken a few here and there in the meantime to shorten the amount of time until graduation and save the tuition of taking these classes at the university which has double the tuition costs. Now they are saying to qualify, I have to have less than 98 credit hours and this semester will put me at 106, so no financial aid. School starts MONDAY!!! I'll probably get it when the appeal is finally done, but don't spring this on me three days before school starts! I went ahead and paid what I had to, but this should have been done months ago when I went to the aid office and sat down with a councilor to make sure everything was in order. If I don't get it, it's going to be tight at Casa Hoosier. If I get the scholarships I applied for, no problem, but they don't tell you for a couple of months (well after the semester starts) if you got them. It seems like it's a battle every semester with problems about financial aid. HSN is in a foul mood.