Rainy Days and Tuesdays Always Get Me Down

Yesterday was the longest day I've had in a while. Luckily, I opted to choose my day off of work as Tuesday, so I didn't have to be anywhere until 11. However, because on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have class from 11 to 5:30 and then again at 7:30, it wouldn't really have mattered if I had tacked on a couple of hours of work at the beginning of the day or not. Although I did use that time to finish up some homework.

What I had originally intended to do was get up early and have my car towed. I tried to start it last Monday (yes, LAST Monday, 9 days ago), and it didn't work. Then I spent the rest of the week looking for someone with jumper cables. Then we discovered that it was not the battery that was causing the problem. So now I am going to have to somehow get my car out of our driveway, which I'm sure is going to be loads of fun.

(In a completely unrelated story, Christina's new Xterra is experiencing some window problems, and by problems I mean her driver side window will not go up. That's always a pleasure, especially in situations like driving down the highway and 12 straight hours of hurricane rain. So yeah, if you know that my car is dead, it's sort of funny to look at our cars sitting next to each other, mine out of commission and hers with the trash bag taped over the window. We need a three-legged dog sitting in the overgrown grass near our tires to complete the mock-trashy look, don't we? Does anyone know where I can get some yard flamingos?)

Tuesdays have, historically, been bad days for me. I have the hardest time getting out of bed on Tuesday mornings. Mondays I'm coming off the weekend and it's alright, but Tuesdays, yuck. I am fairly certain that it's my worst day of the week. I'm sitting here thinking back and bad things tend to happen to me on Tuesdays.

So yesterday as I sat in the library crying over stupid Java programming ("I don't care what a damn String is!!!") I was not surprised. It was a miserable, typical Tuesday.

Plus I was soaking wet, and had no car. But the bright side is, next week is Monday/Tuesday switch day, so I don't have to do all the Tuesday things I normally have to. Which is good for my sanity.

Epiphanies from the first week back

• Backpacks/bookbags? Out. Must get expensive Vera Bradley bag. (Riiiight.)
  
• Why doesn't anyone smile on this campus?
• Business and Engineering majors are...interesting.
• Everyone looks really, really young.
• Campus food is much more enjoyable when you don't have to eat it every single day.
  
• I like having people around way more than I thought I would.
• My late-in-the-day scheduling technique is pleasant, although I get up and go to work at 9 anyway and also have no time for lunch.
• It bugs people when I tell them I didn't eat lunch.
• Hey! I hate taking notes!
  

Quote of the Day

(sorry, but you need the rest of the conversation for this one)

"Mom, my car won't start. Also, my hair dryer broke this morning."
"Well, they say these things come in threes..."
"Great. What else is going to break?"
"Well at least it can't be your heart!"

Yeah, whew. At least I'm not in a relationship right now. Uck. Relationships are just so bad.

But thanks for that optimism, Mom!

Wondering

How, after finally enrolling in a class that is not only absolutely related to something I have done before (tree identification. Who wouldn't be excited to go back to BioII? ....anyone? ...anyone? well that's understandable.) but which also assigns a novel to read, I find myself faced with the following factors:

1) The novel is an Oprah book. Written by Barbara Kingsolver. I don't have a long list of favorite authors, but I certainly have a long one of those I don't and guess what! She's near the top. (Right behind DAN BROWN, bitches! That's right, I can't stand him! But, I digress.)

2) The TA for the class is the same TA I had last semester for Botany 131. I did not enjoy his TA'ing skills. I will refrain from any further complaints about him, and will not say anything about his English skills as he is from China.

It's so refreshing to have so much to write about now that classes are back in session...

And everytime I tell people my schedule, they say, "Italian? AGAIN?"

Classes start today. I haven't really put a whole lot of thought into this yet, and my first one is in about an hour and a half.

It's Italian 201.

I think it's a really great thing to start my year off at 11 am, but I'm not sure how I feel about that class being Italian. I'm hoping against hope that 201 is a refresher class, but seeing as how the books I had to buy were little novels (They do at least have illustrations), I'm not sure that's the case.

It's funny, because I hate symbolism in novels (that damn river in Huck Finn comes to mind) but I tend to take them more to heart in real life. That being said, this first class of the year holds a lot of weight.

I'm going to go conjugate some verbs before I get ready to go. Ciao.

To catch you up on the past 7 days

It was such a busy week with band camp and all the socializing that goes with it that I haven't even had time to check my email. But it's finally over, and while I am glad to have it out of the way I'm still not too excited about starting classes back up. At any rate, I'm sure my life will become more interesting in the next couple of weeks.


















I am section leader this year, so that's been a different challlenge. I am not hard core. I hope all the freshmen appreciate that about me. I try to be responsible but I haven't unleashed the bitch we all know is inside me. I just hope I'm not supposed to be making sure all the baritones are hard core, because if that's what they want then they might want to get someone else to lead sectionals and be in charge. We have fun, and we memorize some music, but we don't do push-ups during rehearsals like they have in the past. I like traditions but some are just not worth keeping.

Of course, the traditions worth keeping are the ones that happen every night of the week, and on Monday we hosted a "festive gathering" and it was a good time. Our house is great and we enjoyed hearing it from everyone else. Christina and I had a lot of fun hosting, but I'd say going to other places is probably more fun.

















And here is a picture of my friend Eric and me from one of the themed parties we had a few nights ago (because I don't actually think it's a good idea to wear a Hooters shirt in public). You were basically supposed to dress all trashy. I did a pretty good job. Also, I'm posting this because Eric is AWESOME and we have had a blast in the baritone section this week.

It's going to be on a map and they're going to put it next to Loudonville.

I want everyone to know that I had to submit a photo of myself from something I did over the summer, and this is the one I chose.



Do they have life-size fake cows anywhere else? I don't think so.

Links for the Weekend

Because, you know, your foster parents and the reality tv show that built you a dream house DEFINITELY owe you money.

Try out the Wanted Poster Generator from glassgiant.com. Or, clog someone's inbox with one of those annoying ASCII images (the ones made out of characters/numbers/etc.). You can upload your own pictures for everything.

If you feel like reading some funny commentary on the way people are, here's a new David Sedaris piece from The New Yorker. [via Kottke]

Hey! Apple's finally figuring it out. (Not that I really have anything against Macs, but I mean, right-clicking is a must.)

Unfortunately, you'll never want to eat out again.

They're leaving religion out of The Da Vinci Code. Hopefully, they'll keep in all those stellar cliches Dan Brown likes to use so much. [I shake my head slowly, and look skeptically at the article in front of me]

Love R. Kelly's "opera" (hahahahahaha) but just can't quite keep things straight? Never fear, SomethingAwful.com took the time to make you some Cliff's Notes. Whew. [via BWE]

It's going to be a good year, because I like to eat smelly food.

While I was growing up, we always threw big New Year's parties--my family came, we invited friends, and had a really good meal and a game of Bunco before the (always videotaped) countdown to midnight. Then we'd do something like play board games or work on a puzzle until 4 or 5 in the morning. That was the fun part.

The part I didn't enjoy so much was the getting up around lunchtime to go eat at my grandparents' house. Why? Because we were eating saurkraut and pork chops for good luck in the new year. Inevitably, I would try to eat just a pork chop since even the smell of the saurkraut made me feel sick, but because they'd all been cooked together it was a lost cause. At some point, though, I must've tried it and liked it because now I am a saurkraut fan.

You thought this would be a pointless story, I'm sure. But I'm getting there.

Last night Christina and I lugged a LOT of stuff upstairs, and finally at 10:30 we decided to go get some groceries. Christina picked out saurkraut and sausage, which after not having eaten all day sounded really, really, REALLY good to me.

So after we finished eating, I remarked that it was a good sign for our first meal of the school year to be a traditionally lucky one, but neither Christina nor Brendan (who came to check out our AMAZING place) had ever heard of the lucky saurkraut thing before. And while I'm definitely going to run with this luck thing, hasn't anyone else heard of this tradition?

Movin' On Up

I'm back from my long weekend in Colorado, but I wouldn't say I've recovered yet. The drive wasn't too bad, save Christina's parking ticket and the comiseration over my winning a $200 bookstore gift certificate at the Colorado Miami Alumni Picnic, but then giving it back because alas, I am not from Colorado. All I have to say is, THERE BETTER BE SOME KARMIC JUSTICE COMING MY WAY FOR THAT.

Plus, there is the current living situation that has made me sort of anxious since we pulled into the driveway at our house and got high off the paint fumes coming from our part of the house. See, there are 2 "apartments" in my house: a 3 person one upstairs and a 5 person one downstairs. They remodeled the upstairs portion this summer, so I was living downstairs. But really, I am signed up to live upstairs.

But it isn't finished yet.

We are supposed to move in today when I get home from work, so I have my fingers crossed. We got to go look at it on Monday (they keep it locked, so I hadn't seen it yet this summer), and it's gorgeous and everything is new and shiny and CLEAN, which I love. In a valiant effort by Christina and myself to keep our junk levels at a minimum upstairs, we tore apart the downstairs, cleaning out closets, filling boxes, and generally throwing things in to big piles. While we went for a run last night, Brendan came over and was convinced that we were dead and our house had been ransacked, since the bedroom that had been storing all of my stuff and half of Christina's looks like it threw up all over the living room. But there's a method to our madness, and we've decided that we're going to move everything in slowly and neatly so everything gets put away and not just thrown in the back of a closet. I am my mother's daughter, no?

It's going to be great fun hauling everything upstairs. I'm cursing myself for deciding I needed to have every book I've ever bought at school.

Let's Fly, Let's Fly Away

I'm really excited to get on a plane and fly to the mountains tonight. There are lots of reasons, some of them being that I just got off the phone from an unreasonably long phone call and THERE WILL BE NO PHONE CALLS LIKE THAT THIS WEEKEND, there is very little humidity in Colorado Springs, and yes! I get to drive across Kansas! I should totally do this more often!

I pulled out my amazing suitcase-packing skills last night and I managed to fit five days' worth of clothing into a little duffle bag. They don't normally trust people who fly one way with no checked luggage, do they? I hope they don't think I look threatening. I'm leaving my knitting needles at home.

So, I'm signing off and the next time you hear from me will be from the comfort of the McGrath home. Or maybe next week when I've recovered from the driving.

Things that kept me sane this summer

Tonight will be my last night alone in my house--I leave tomorrow afternoon for Colorado, and then Christina will be here. Plus, we're also moving upstairs to my actual apartment when we get back, so it's my last night in my room, too.

I can't believe how fast this summer went, although I do remember feeling like I was so bored that I would never make it until Oxford had people in it again. So, here are all the things I did that kept me occupied.

Warning: I watched too much tv in the past three months.

Diet Cherry Coke. It's the best diet soda they make. I think the taste of it might always remind me of Oxford in the summer, because I'm pretty sure I went through three or four cases of it.

Trips to the movies. Just because I wasn't with the boys from the pool doesn't mean I didn't go see movies this summer--it's been pretty good for me. We even hit the drive-in once for Batman Begins.

My book list. I read a lot this summer. Although I didn't read too many from said list (only 5), I did read a total of 12. And I think that's pretty good--about one a week (minus the sick time in May).

Fairly Odd-Parents. This is my guilty-pleasure cartoon. I don't know if I was just lucky or what, but I'm not kidding when I say that whenever I felt like watching it, it was on. Seriously, all I had to do was turn to Nickelodeon and there was an episode I'd never seen before. And it was funny.

my iPod. Walking across campus at 8:45 am wasn't so bad once I had that. Plus, I can just leave my cd's in my car now. And look trendy. And do all the other things people do with their iPods. Although I think it mostly kept me sane because I spent so much time putting music on it.

TLC. I always liked Trading Spaces, but I would totally stuff my house with junk just so I could be on Clean Sweep. I loooooove that show. People are packrats! And the carpenter is so hot, especially when he does that thing at the beginning of the show where he puts the paint colors on the wall with his hand. Ahh...

Knitting/embrodering/cross-stitching/etc. I got some knitting needles and an instruction book for Christmas, but it wasn't working out so well. Then this summer I actually completed a scarf which I think I could wear in public. Not too shabby. I also finished embroidering one of a set of two matching pillow cases, and spent some time on one of my older cross-stitching projects. Yeah I did feel like a grandma, funny you should ask.

vh1 Celebreality. Kept. Strip Search. Celebrity Fit Club 2. The Surreal Life. Hogan Knows Best. I can't help it. They're like train wrecks, I just can't stop watching. VH1, what would I do without you? Probably something more intelligent, but less enjoyable. Or just knit.

And last but absolutely not least, Brendan. I had the crowd at Candlewood who were lots of fun too, but Brendan and I were together all the time and I would have gone crazy if he hadn't been around to make Father's Day cards with me or let me watch all his movies. Or watch vh1 with me. Or make dinner together. Or go to Barnes & Noble, or introduce me to the entire town of West Chester. Or loan me good cd's, or go shopping, or go on walks. Or, you know, watch some more vh1.

It was a good summer. But it will be good next week as people start coming back.

I finished this post and thought, this is just one big digression that results in talk of reality tv.

I have a confession to make before we go any further.

I think it would be nice to date someone who knows his way around a computer; specifically, I would like to date a guy who could design me a very nice webpage.

There are lots of other critera to meet, of course (which is probably why I am not dating anyone right now...hmm...), but this is relevant to the following story.

The office where I work is in the basement of the technology building on campus, and on the top floor is the Technology Services help desk. That means if you are having trouble with your computer, you can call these guys and they will help you. Because they know lots of stuff about computers. Because they are what we would call, "computer geeks."

Now, computer geeks, I am assuming, would be able to meet the criteria design me a pretty little website, NOW! as well as be supportive of the fact that I like to write in my blog. That's good for them, but there are some other critera that I'm afraid they would not meet, such as have social skills or have a sense of style. Yeah, blah blah blah, I know I am a heartless bitch, thank you. Now, before they find this on the internet and come downstairs to berate me and/or infect my computer with viruses (viruses I would not be able to get rid of without their help, I'm sure), let me tell you why.

I went upstairs on Friday to have them check some things for our office. While I was waiting (it took forever) I checked out the room. It's a big office that's blocked off into cubicles, so you can't see much except for the front desk, a dry erase board, one person's computer, and the things hanging from the ceiling. Those things are: A little Dilbert flag, six or seven pieces of (hopefully fake) toast, and a Pokemon (the little yellow famous one? Pekachu I think?) with a parachute. So it was really strange. To add to the strangeness, on the dry erase board was a pretty good Strongbad drawing and at the computer was a boy who was playing a game. And you just KNOW that the game was something like Halo or World of Warcraft or maybe a computer version of Dungeons and Dragons.

Now, to each his own and all that jazz, but I see potential in these guys. Oh, sure, I can hear you laughing at me right now, but really, if I could just change a few (absolutely) key things about them, it would be perfect. I'm sure they are nice, and given a little makeover they could pass for cute. Good-looking, even. It would just take some work. And getting to know them.

How would I do this? Well, I think I need to somehow find a way to go upstairs more often. The catch is, though, that I can't seem completely computer illiterate or it will turn into one of those situations like the SNL skit with the computer tech guy who has no patience. And I'm not sure how to do that. But once I figure it out, it's going to be like a TLC special up there: a mix of that older show where they teach you how to date and What Not To Wear wrapped into one. At that point, I will get to pick one and it will be like The Bachelorette. Why am I not calling Fox to get this made into a show??? I am a reality tv genius.