I'm nearing the end of my commission queue, with only a few remaining jobs in the works. Since I'm taking 18 credits this fall semester I won't be able to work as much, and I'll probably have to close deviantART commissions, which I offer at a ridiculous discount for some unholy and inexplicable reason.

So if you want anything, ask for it NOW, because it's going to be all school work from here on in (unless I have an emergency). Depending on how things go this school year this might be the last time I offer discounted dA commissions.

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Also, surprise surprise, there's another money crisis - one I have entitled Financial Aid 2: This time it's personal.

So apparently, VPEP (virginia prepaid education plan - thanks, family!) told me I had plenty of money to cover my next semester (which will be my ninth semester at VCU; hooray for the 5-year plan!), which made sense, as one semester I only took one class and my plan could have billed it as less than part-time student (cheap). They did not, and actually went ahead and paid VCU for a full-time student, making that...an enormous waste of money. But I digress. They told me I had enough to cover this next semester.

Then 2 days ago my mom gets something in the mail indicating that I only had like...$500 left. Why they sent it to her, and didn't bother to tell me, I don't know. I've been legally independent for a good while now. Apparently FAFSA only updates its information database when the planets line up precisely once every thousand years.

The explanation was essentially "well, when you looked at your balance before, it hadn't billed you for spring semester yet." Fair enough. But the school wants the money for fall semester BEFORE fall semester begins, and yet they didn't bill VPEP for the spring semester until AFTER spring semester ended. What the crap?

In a blind panic I rushed to the Financial Aid offices to see what exactly was up, and they told me "oh, your financial aid hasn't been processed yet because we're still waiting on some tax forms from you and your PARENTS."

I'm not exactly sure when the last cosmic alignment occurred, but my parents have been divorced for like 4 years, and I'm not legally bound to either of them, so this made no sense. Also, they never bothered to TELL me about this? No call? No note? Nothing? So my mom has to fax them copies of her tax documents for no legal reason in order to claim my benefits, which have been potentially halved because FAFSA thinks I'm still firmly attached to the umbilical cord.

This whole system makes me feel powerless. I'm very stressed out right now because the only reason Nick and I are still afloat is because I've been working this summer, and I won't be able to in the fall. He has no promotions on the horizon and we're going to have stupidly high heating bills. Unless the financial aid office decides to supply some living expenses I don't know what we're gonna do.

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On a brighter note, the rats are doing pretty well. Stella is still a biter and refuses to come out and play with me, but Ziggy and I are becoming friends quickly. She knows her name now, and sits on my shoulder, albeit not for long before she tries to jump onto my head. I wish they would eat their special rat food as it was like fifteen dollars but they seem perfectly content with table scraps, so I make sure they're getting a balanced diet, with no sugar or dairy. (Did you know rats don't handle dairy well? I always thought they were cheese fanatics.)

I told myself I was going to return Stella if she didn't stop biting but I couldn't bring myself to split them up. Besides she'd probably have been put to sleep if I sent her back :/ I'm hoping with enough time she'll warm up to me.

I still don't have a USB adapter for my camera so no pictures for now. If anyone was wondering, they're hooded black and white fancy rats. Ziggy is the fat one.