CA, new to this, unemployed since Feb 2010

I am trying to figure out where I am on the tiers; having had no problem the first 26 weeks and rolled right into the 20; it looks like they missed a week or two. Is there a waiting period between tiers that is unpaid? I know I had a 1 week unpaid initially. Is it a given that (if you are still unemployed) you will receive the 26,20,14,13,6 weeks or do some people only receive partial periods? I called last week and the girl did not seem to know much; she said I had 4 tiers "open" and two extensions; and I did not have the reconciliation which I now have organized to debate the point. I think she also said it is confusing because some is from federal and some from state; so is it possible they opened the FED ED for me instead of the Tier 1? I plan to call and go over it but wanted to see if what I am tracking is right.