So the past week and a half has been...interesting...
I got scheduled for work last Saturday and Sunday (a definite relief from a financial standpoint), and my legs were SO sore by Sunday night!!
But it was good to be back at work, even to telling people where the bathroom is, and smiling as politely as possible when snidely told, "Well your job is very easy!"
Monday it rained like a monsoon, which was unfortunate for me because I was grocery shopping without an umbrella or jacket, and I was wearing my chucks - which are NOT waterproof. There were standing pools of water everywhere, full three and four inches deep!! Suffice it to say, I was very glad to get home, put away my groceries, and take my sopping shoes and socks off.
Monday night I had my GIS class - the one I tried to take last semester and was barred from - and I'm both looking forward to it and dreading it. It's going to be a LOT of work, reading, and class time (we have class for a five hour block on Mondays), but at the same time it's going to be fascinating, and it'll up my skill sets too.
Yesterday I had my remote sensing class (it's basically a continuation of the one I took last semester) and Dr. Lee handed back our finals - I got a 97!!! I'm very proud of that, and hope I can do as well again this semester.
Last night I left my apartment at 6 and got to campus at 6:25 and went to Dr. Loewe's office to wait for him - he said he'd be at his office from 6:30-8:00 pm - so we could discuss my advancement to candidacy. He wasn't there when I knocked on his office's door, so I sat at a nearby table, took out my mini netbook, and listened to President Obama's State of the Union Address from the BBC website's live stream. I thought it was a good speech, but I'm pessimistic about the odds of oil companies actually paying a fair tax. (What I consider fair, anyway.)
Anyway, I sat there for ages and finally called Mom and Dad, and they said I should wait until 8 and then leave. I ended up leaving at 7:50, and walked to the grocery store and bought cookies and ice cream, which was a terrible idea because now I'm ten million calories over what I should've had in the past day and a half. Dr. Loewe still hasn't responded to my emails, which sucks. I need to sort this all out, like yesterday!!
Today I tried to get some work done, but I couldn't fill in all my greencard application by myself - I need to call Mom and Dad and go through it with them at some point. I also need to do my taxes, file for FAFSA, and write a few emails...blah. Life is VERY expensive! Can you believe renewing a greencard costs $500?! Hellllooooo, broke graduate student here!! I can't afford that madness! Luckily, Mom and Dad have agreed to help me out. I have the best parents, I really, really do.
I've also had a stupid wart on my chin for about two weeks now - it started out as a pimple, which I scratched, and suddenly turned into a wart. I left it alone except for bedaubing it liberally with tea-tree twice a day, but nothing really happened, so today I went to the campus doctor. She confirmed it was a wart and not cancer (whew!), and treated it with liquid nitrogen. She helped me make an appointment for two weeks from now to treat it again, and says since it's such a new wart, it should go away quickly. I hope so, I really REALLY hate it - I thought I was done when I stopped getting warts on my hands at 14!!!!
I suppose I should be grateful that it didn't decide to grow out of my nose...I just hope this one disappears ASAP and I never ever get one again.
Oh well, dinner will be ready soon. Then it's back to the grind!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Work-free weekend
It's very, VERY strange to be in California and not be working on the
weekend...like...crazy strange! Of course, I didn't get put on next
week's schedule which REALLY sucks, so I left Kathy a message telling
her my savings are nearly exhausted, I have rent and bills to pay and to
PLEASE call me if anyone calls out.
Friday I ran some errands and spent the evening watching tv (I missed the new CSI:NY, what on earth is wrong with me?!) before going to bed at midnight like a good girl.
Yesterday I spent watching football - the 49ers game was SO exciting!! In direct contrast, the Patriots-Broncos game was so boring I seriously considered picking up my dry-cleaning and getting tortilla chips for nachos. But I was good and resisted...until about 9 pm when I felt bummed and bored so I went and bought Edy's Double Fudge Brownie ice cream and ate it while watching The Rescuers which I'd gotten from Netflix that morning. It was only 11 pm when it ended so I put on The Producers and finally went to bed when it ended around 1 am.
Today I went to the farmers' market for the first time in MONTHS! It was lovely, although considerably smaller than I remember - which I suppose is to be expected, it IS winter so there's less produce to sell. I got some delicious-looking navel oranges for $0.60 a pound, a half-dozen eggs for $2 (Hey, they're free-range, cage-free, vegetarian AND fresh. What more can you ask of an egg?!), and I also got two annonnas for $5.50...I suppose it's a little exorbitant, but I do love annonnas, and I so rarely get them!
From the market I went to Sam's Club and got my chow mein, some frozen broccoli and a 5 lb bag of clementines (no scurvy for me!), and then stopped by the dry cleaners for my work jacket. They're supposed to clean "most garments" for $1, but for some reason my jacket cost $3.69 to clean. Oh well, I shouldn't complain, I'm sure it's cheaper than most places - and it looks perfect now that I have it back.
Last stop was Ralph's where I got my regular groceries and hopefully checked out the meat department only to find the Cornish game hens are still $11 for 2, and the shrimp is still $17 for 2 lbs. I'll keep waiting...I can be patient...
Now that I'm home and have eaten lunch I've thrown almost all of the windows in the place open to air it out, and I have to take the trash out too. This is the season for those AWFUL little black flies (bigger than no-see-ums, smaller than mosquitoes) and I've been killing at least six a day - they LOVE flying around my face and getting dangerously near my eyes - so I have to keep the place extra-clean to minimize their numbers.
I guess I'll spend the rest of the day watching football and movies and making some sort of plans for tomorrow...don't dare to go to the beach on Martin Luther King Jr Day...but there must be SOMETHING I can do (alone) to get out of the house.
I'll think of something!
Friday I ran some errands and spent the evening watching tv (I missed the new CSI:NY, what on earth is wrong with me?!) before going to bed at midnight like a good girl.
Yesterday I spent watching football - the 49ers game was SO exciting!! In direct contrast, the Patriots-Broncos game was so boring I seriously considered picking up my dry-cleaning and getting tortilla chips for nachos. But I was good and resisted...until about 9 pm when I felt bummed and bored so I went and bought Edy's Double Fudge Brownie ice cream and ate it while watching The Rescuers which I'd gotten from Netflix that morning. It was only 11 pm when it ended so I put on The Producers and finally went to bed when it ended around 1 am.
Today I went to the farmers' market for the first time in MONTHS! It was lovely, although considerably smaller than I remember - which I suppose is to be expected, it IS winter so there's less produce to sell. I got some delicious-looking navel oranges for $0.60 a pound, a half-dozen eggs for $2 (Hey, they're free-range, cage-free, vegetarian AND fresh. What more can you ask of an egg?!), and I also got two annonnas for $5.50...I suppose it's a little exorbitant, but I do love annonnas, and I so rarely get them!
From the market I went to Sam's Club and got my chow mein, some frozen broccoli and a 5 lb bag of clementines (no scurvy for me!), and then stopped by the dry cleaners for my work jacket. They're supposed to clean "most garments" for $1, but for some reason my jacket cost $3.69 to clean. Oh well, I shouldn't complain, I'm sure it's cheaper than most places - and it looks perfect now that I have it back.
Last stop was Ralph's where I got my regular groceries and hopefully checked out the meat department only to find the Cornish game hens are still $11 for 2, and the shrimp is still $17 for 2 lbs. I'll keep waiting...I can be patient...
Now that I'm home and have eaten lunch I've thrown almost all of the windows in the place open to air it out, and I have to take the trash out too. This is the season for those AWFUL little black flies (bigger than no-see-ums, smaller than mosquitoes) and I've been killing at least six a day - they LOVE flying around my face and getting dangerously near my eyes - so I have to keep the place extra-clean to minimize their numbers.
I guess I'll spend the rest of the day watching football and movies and making some sort of plans for tomorrow...don't dare to go to the beach on Martin Luther King Jr Day...but there must be SOMETHING I can do (alone) to get out of the house.
I'll think of something!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Back to California
Well I am officially back in Long Beach!
I didn't sleep at all well Monday night, and ended up talking to my friend Brian online about how much living far away from your family/friends sucks for a few hours. I still got up at 8 am though, said goodbye to Mom (that sucked), having already said goodbye to Dad when he woke me up a little earlier before he left for work. I finished packing, weighed my suitcase (40.5 lbs, way under the 50 lb limit), and piled everything next to the dining room table. I ate one of the doughnuts Mom left for me but was too antsy to eat the second one (I regretted it later; I NEVER get doughnuts and I love them so much), and read the newspaper til Lidia turned up. We dumped my stuff in her car and I said goodbye to the kitties. I told them to be good and not bug Mom too much, but they looked scornful at the mere idea of such a thing.
Lidia got me to the airport in good time and I hope she got to class in time afterwards...I forgot to txt her and ask...I had to stand in the most annoying line EVER at the counter. The most efficient woman helped about twenty people and then ONE person before I was up she was switched to helping people in the fast line who already had boarding passes printed out. The other people were tied up with two large families in total disarray, and a woman who seemed to have passport problems, so I stood at the front of the line for nearly eleven minutes before I was FINALLY seen. But I love JetBlue, so I'm hoping it was just an aberration. Plus your first bag flies free if it's under 50 lbs.
Security was a snap, even if the idiot behind me started piling his stuff in the tub I was going to use (I'd filled a tub with my sweater, shoes, purse, and clear plastic bag of toiletries and put it on the conveyer belt when he started throwing stuff in the tub beneath it) so I had to reach over him, grab another tub from another pile and put my laptop in it. He had the grace to look embarrassed.
Then when I got to my gate I spent half an hour trying to log onto the free wifi and it just WOULD NOT work even though I restarted my computer three times.
The flight from Orlando to Austin was nearly three hours and I managed to sleep most of it even though there were at least three crying babies.
Then Austin was incredibly boring because I only got half an hour of free internet that was VERY slow. So I ate my Rolos and Mentos and read my Kindle and waited as patiently as I could during the three hour layover.
The flight from Austin to Long Beach was okay; I couldn't sleep again, but I watched the Gators beat Georgia at basketball, which took up two of the three hours, and channel surfed for the last half-hour or so.
Then my bag was one of the first to come out of the carousel (I LOVE it when that happens!) and I dragged it over to the taxi stand and was home before seven pm. I unpacked everything before 8 and walked across to Hawaiian L&L Barbecue for dinner.
Then I showered, watched tv until midnight, and passed out. Today I got up at 10 am (I LOVE vacation time), made a grocery list, stopped at the bank for quarters, got my groceries, came home, put them away, and did my laundry. For dinner I roasted a chicken and had some with rice and acorn squash.
Now I'm backing up all my files (it's taking forever, yuck) and killing the waiting time by blogging here. And I'm watching One Tree Hill, which is very strange. I know it's the last season, but either I missed something or they've really gone cuckoo...
Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. Hmm...maybe I should watch a movie?
I didn't sleep at all well Monday night, and ended up talking to my friend Brian online about how much living far away from your family/friends sucks for a few hours. I still got up at 8 am though, said goodbye to Mom (that sucked), having already said goodbye to Dad when he woke me up a little earlier before he left for work. I finished packing, weighed my suitcase (40.5 lbs, way under the 50 lb limit), and piled everything next to the dining room table. I ate one of the doughnuts Mom left for me but was too antsy to eat the second one (I regretted it later; I NEVER get doughnuts and I love them so much), and read the newspaper til Lidia turned up. We dumped my stuff in her car and I said goodbye to the kitties. I told them to be good and not bug Mom too much, but they looked scornful at the mere idea of such a thing.
Lidia got me to the airport in good time and I hope she got to class in time afterwards...I forgot to txt her and ask...I had to stand in the most annoying line EVER at the counter. The most efficient woman helped about twenty people and then ONE person before I was up she was switched to helping people in the fast line who already had boarding passes printed out. The other people were tied up with two large families in total disarray, and a woman who seemed to have passport problems, so I stood at the front of the line for nearly eleven minutes before I was FINALLY seen. But I love JetBlue, so I'm hoping it was just an aberration. Plus your first bag flies free if it's under 50 lbs.
Security was a snap, even if the idiot behind me started piling his stuff in the tub I was going to use (I'd filled a tub with my sweater, shoes, purse, and clear plastic bag of toiletries and put it on the conveyer belt when he started throwing stuff in the tub beneath it) so I had to reach over him, grab another tub from another pile and put my laptop in it. He had the grace to look embarrassed.
Then when I got to my gate I spent half an hour trying to log onto the free wifi and it just WOULD NOT work even though I restarted my computer three times.
The flight from Orlando to Austin was nearly three hours and I managed to sleep most of it even though there were at least three crying babies.
Then Austin was incredibly boring because I only got half an hour of free internet that was VERY slow. So I ate my Rolos and Mentos and read my Kindle and waited as patiently as I could during the three hour layover.
The flight from Austin to Long Beach was okay; I couldn't sleep again, but I watched the Gators beat Georgia at basketball, which took up two of the three hours, and channel surfed for the last half-hour or so.
Then my bag was one of the first to come out of the carousel (I LOVE it when that happens!) and I dragged it over to the taxi stand and was home before seven pm. I unpacked everything before 8 and walked across to Hawaiian L&L Barbecue for dinner.
Then I showered, watched tv until midnight, and passed out. Today I got up at 10 am (I LOVE vacation time), made a grocery list, stopped at the bank for quarters, got my groceries, came home, put them away, and did my laundry. For dinner I roasted a chicken and had some with rice and acorn squash.
Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. Hmm...maybe I should watch a movie?
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