Jerusalem Fiasco

The last week or so has been a nightmare of stress, despite the Thanksgiving break. I've been trying to figure out how to pay for the Jerusalem Center since the final payment was due yesterday. I thought everything was going to be fine, even though half of my loan wasn't coming until January. Because of that, I called to see if I could wait to pay that amount until I got the money in January. (The picture here is of my first cat, 'Lil Ben, and my aunt and uncle's dog, Ashley. This is how I felt, like my head was stuck in a bigger animal's mouth.) The girl that I talked to told me that she could change my loan to a Fall loan and get me all the money now, so I agreed (of course). She told me that it would take a few days for that money to be credited to my account. I waited, but that Saturday I received a letter in the mail saying that the second half of my loan had been canceled. I freaked out because there is no way that I can pay for it without that loan (unless I suddenly win a sweepstakes or something of that nature).
Since it was Saturday, I couldn't do anything about it and I had to wait until Monday before I could call. I called on Monday and was told that there is a limit on the amount of money a student can receive in Financial aid per semester. I set up an appointment to meet with a counselor for the next day. Now, this was last Tuesday, the day before the beginning of the Thanksgiving holiday. I met with the counselor and he told me that he couldn't do anything about it but that he was submitting a comment and I should be contacted. I was still freaking out because the holiday as coming and the money was due the following Monday. I thought, there is no way this is going to be resolved before that time.
I was about $1000 short of being able to pay for the program and so all I knew was that I needed to figure out where I could get that money from by Monday. I thought I could pay with a credit card online, but on Monday when I went to do so (since my other options hadn't panned out. I would just have payed the full amount with my credit card except the online company charges a fee that is larger depending on the amount) I realized that they accept every card type EXCEPT Visa (which is the only kind I have). So, to say the least, I was freaking out. I didn't know what to do. My dad had recently hit a deer and totaled the van and had had to buy another one, so I knew he couldn't afford to loan me so much money, but I had no other choice. So I called. Luckily, he was able to loan me the money on short notice, but I have to pay it back as soon as possible. So, I drained my checking account, added the money my dad loaned and payed for Jerusalem. I guess I'm going to be living off of my non-existent food supply for the rest of the semester! Its a good thing I bought that big bag of rice!