Oh Weather, Once Again, You Got the Best of Me!!!

What are the odds that Loverboy's flight gets cancelled? If you asked me yesterday I would have said there's no chance in hell. Ask me now....I'd say they're pretty good seeing that it happened. Fuck you god of thunder!!! I was very excited when I got a text message today while I was in the library that said "My flight was cancelled."

My response: "Don't mess with me."
His: "I'm serious."
Mine: "Seriously babe? If you're joking I'm going to be pissed!"
His: "I said I was serious. I'm standing in line to figure things out."
Mine: (thump, thump, thump)

My heart just started racing as fast as possible. I honestly thought I was going to start crying or screaming or something nonpublic-friendly. I waited for him to call me back, and when he did, he said in an easy-going tone, "I'm going to be a little late tonight, Honey. I'm flying from ____ airport instead so I won't be landing until 10:15."

I'm honestly not the least bit surprised that things turned out the way they did. What a kick in the pants though, huh? We have been waiting to see each other for over a month now, what's two more hours*?

Instead of leaving for the airport right now, like I had planned, I am sitting in my office computing the next prime number after 10^a where a=100, 200, 300, ...., 2000. It's an assignment that is supposed to get us acquainted to a mathematical software. It is really taking no skill on my part to type the command in. It is however, taking my time while it's computing the number. This is not fun.

*Answer: an eternity

Sugar and Molasses!!! Oh, Ruthie

Isn't it weird how our memories work? Why is it that I can never remember the things I am supposed to when the time calls for it? Why is it that I recall the most random memories at the most random moments?

This weekend, I realized I had a little extra money than I had thought so I decided to go to Wal-mart and buy a vacuum I found on sale. Obviously, there were other factors that went into that decision: we have two cats and no vacuum, our carpets are dirty, we apparently have cockroaches living with us, Loverboy is coming to visit this week (YIPPEE!) and I don't want him to think I'm not domesticated enough, oh and we have two cats and no vacuum. When I walked into the store, I got this flashback of the times my family would go to Wal-mart when I was a kid. I kept replaying the handful of times we went to the same store and went to the same cashier. Her name was Ruthie and she was blonde and wore really thick glasses and whenever she messed up she would say "Sugar and molasses!" For awhile after our first encounter with her, my sister and I would repeat after her when we were joking around. I had to have been around 7 or 8 at the time so it's funny that I remember her.

Anyway, I bought a vacuum!!! It is technically my first appliance (I bought a toaster oven and when I found out my roomies already had one, I gave it to Loverboy to break in before we move in together). It's a bagless Bissell. I put it together as soon as I got home and went to work on my bedroom. The canister was full after just vacuuming my room!! I was disgusted with myself for not realizing I had been living amongst all that filth for the past few weeks. After I finished my room, I went to work on the rest of the downstairs, which is a combination of a living room and dining room and a small entrance way. Once again, I had filled the canister. It was amazing how much the vacuuming had transformed the downstairs. I'm thinking about doing it once more before Loverboy gets here on Wednesday. We'll see.

I have my first homework date tonight! It's with a guy named Joe. Don't worry, he's not attracted to females and I'm not attracted to anybody other than Loverboy (nor am I attracted to males that are not attracted to females). We have 3 classes together so he is my bffn (best friend for now; I learned that on the Sweet Sixteen movie on MTV) in the mathematics department.

For the second weekend in a row, one of my roomies got so trashed that she had to be taken care of. Last weekend it was Skinny P and this weekend it Southern R, the college football loving, boy crazy roomie. She went to one of her friends houses to hang out and eat pizza, but in a bout of feeling sorry for herself (she's not married yet and therefore cannot f*ck...her exact words when she drunk dialed me) she drank at least 2 bottles of wine by herself. Luckily, she got all the vomit out before she was dropped off at home. She was by far the funniest drunk person I have been around in a long time. One instance of her funny behavior: she wore a dress that night and, as I am assuming most southern girls do, she wore a slip skirt under the dress. As soon as she walked in the door, we took her soaked dress (soaked from falling in the yard) off of her and sat her down so we could put a shirt on her. She refused to let us put a shirt on and in defiance, she stood up then quickly fell over the arm of the couch, revealing the fact that she was not wearing undies under her slip. Skinny P and I could do nothing but laugh so hard that we cried. That was the first time I got a kick out of taking care a drunk friend.

As If The Open Cans of Cat Food Wasn't Enough...

After a day of working on homework and attending classes, I came home to find my roomie P sitting on the couch, in her pajamas and reading a book. No big deal, right? Because of her choice of clothing, I am assuming she has not left the house yet. Again, no big deal, right? Then, WHY THE HELL HASN'T SHE PICKED UP ANY OF HER SHIT?!?!? I didn't mind taking the garbage can and recycling bins to the road last night. I didn't mind bringing them back up to the house when I got home today. I didn't really mind when there was still items that needed to be recycled sitting around the house this morning after I asked the two of them to bring them out. I was able to bring them out to the bins before the recycling was picked up.

I do mind, however, when P's to-go cup from last night's Sonic* visit is sitting next to the couch. Wanna know what is next to the cup? I'll tell you, an avocado! Why the hell is there an avocado in the living room? The kitchen is honestly 5 steps away. The table is even closer. Setting the avocado on the coffee table would be an improvement, but seriously, why is it on the floor?

I also mind when I go into the kitchen to make a piece of toast and get sidetracked by the GINORMOUS COCKROACH crawling on the counter. I'm really excited that she didn't seem phased by my screaming. Really excited. I don't mind picking up after something that we all contributed to, but I will be damned if I pick up after her.

Meat=Bad but Smoking=Good?

For the past few days, I have been considering the oddities that are my roommates. Once again, they are vegetarians. The following observations are pretty much just based on one of the roomies, P:

• If a person vows not to put the horribleness that is meat into her body, then how can she see it fit to smoke? I smoke (occasionally now, hooray!) as well so I can see some of the appeal, but I don't discuss meat as if it will give me some horrible disease.
• Going along with that, how can a person that thinks meat is disgusting feed her cats half a can of wet food then leave the can and the rest of its contents on the counter with one of her spoons in it and not think anything of it? She eats of that spoon and yet it does not bother her that it was resting a pile of wet, meaty cat food for the better part of a weekend. Sidenote: I couldn't stand walking into the kitchen with the can there after about a day so I chucked it into the garbage. I apologize for not recycling the can.
• How can a person that eats so little, make such a huge mess in the kitchen? Is it to prove that she does in fact eat at least once a day? Well, P, I got the message, you can start rinsing out your dishes and putting them into the dishwasher!

I do not know how to approach these issues with her (not the first, that just made me wonder, but the other two are issues). She has obviously had this behavior for quite sometime. I doubt she thought, hey there's a new girl moving in, what can I do to disgust her? I could throw up all of her bathroom after I get wasted off of two margaritas...oh wait, she did that too. In her defense, though, she had not eaten in about a year so her body couldn't handle all of the alcohol.

Oh yeah, I feel better now. Time for class.

Day One: Complete

I had my first class today! After my class, I had to TEACH two sections of calculus recitation. Today was the only day I will have to teach this semester. For the rest of the semester, the recitation will just be an extra meeting time for the calculus students to get help, ask me questions, go over homework problems...I'm like their tutor, but as a class instead of one on one. I was lucky enough to meet with the classes before they had regular session with their professors so I had to teach/review precalculus with them. It went well. My nerves were acting up during the first class, but they calmed down for the second.

The first class had somewhere around 40 students. There was an abundance of jocks (my perception, they could just be regular guys, but they looked "jockish"). For some reason I have always let the jocks intimidate me. All through junior high and high school I let them make me feel inferior. I have no idea why. Then during undergrad I went to a small school and although there were jocks, they were not popular because all of our teams sucked. Now I'm back at a big school and our football team is apparently the best in the state. I could care less if we had a good team. I could care less if a person is on it, yet I still let them intimidate me. Maybe I have some repressed memories of jocks tormenting me when I was younger. Who knows? I just have to remind myself that when they are in the classroom with me, they are in my stadium. I am their coach...plus they're at least 4 years younger than me. When they're struggling with their homework, I'll be struggling with mine while legally drinking a glass of wine or a beer.

I finally have plans for this weekend! The math department is having a picnic tomorrow night so a handful of the grad students are going out for some [cheap] drinks beforehand and they asked me to go with. It's going to be a rocking good time. A bunch of mathematicians drinking together. Oh the hijinks we could get into. Please note the sarcastic tone in which I type this. I'll make sure to post examples of how awesome we are.

Tonight I am going out to a Mexican restaurant with one of my roomies and her friend. Hooray for steak tacos and cheap margaritas...and late classes that allow me to sleep of a potential hangover!!

I Wonder Where I Can Buy a Kite

Why aren't playgrounds made for adults? I wish I could just run across the street and sit on a swing without it breaking. I would pump my legs just as my dad taught me when I was young and forget about everything while letting the wind hit my face and blow my hair back. Instead, we have theme parks made for us. Don't get me wrong, theme parks are great, but they have nothing on playgrounds. I don't want to pay $50+ to wait in a line for 2 hours for a 30 second thrill. All anticipation is lost while waiting in line. That should count for half the fun!

I can remember the way my heart pounded when I was a kid as I climbed up the stairs to go down the big slide. I remember the fear of knowing that nobody would be down there to catch me when I came down. I also remember knowing that I would be fine when I landed.


I have that same fear now. Nobody is standing at the end waiting to catch me. I do not know what will happened when I land. No adult does. Dammit! That is why we need playgrounds so we can release some of this fear.

I signed up for my first classes as a graduate student today. I have a full schedule as I suspected. I'm not nervous about the classes. I'm nervous about becoming an adult. I'm nervous about being alone. I'm nervous about losing the few strong relationships I have been lucky enough to make back home. I wonder if it would have been better for me to move away as an undergrad. I am glad I didn't move away while I was an undergrad. If I had, then I would not be anywhere near where I am today (emotionally...not physically).

As if choosing which classes would consume my life for the next few months wasn't hard enough, the University had to make it even more strenuous. I signed online to click the courses I want and immediately I was kicked off. I was FLAGGED! Instant reaction: WHAAA??!!? WTF?!?!? Then I noticed the tiny red letter at the bottom of the screen that said "Click me if you want to get pissed" (not quite, but it's my story). I clicked on the red letters to find out that the Health Center did not have any of Chicken Pox records. Instant reaction: WHAAA??!!? WTF?!?!? I paid (maybe?) to have my old university fax my records over in June, why wasn't that on there? I know I had the pox, I might be able to find some scars if I looked hard enough. Maybe I have a picture? After desperately waiting on hold for 10 minutes just to get hung up on, I called back to talk to the head honcho of medical records at the Health Center. She finally took of the flag on my account and let me register, but as usual there is a catch...I have to submit to a blood test tomorrow so they can test it for the pox.

There you have it...I had to shed blood, sweat and [many] tears to get here so this better damn well be worth it!

Peace on Earth. <-------I'm trying to fit in with the tree-huggers here.

Back by Popular Demand

Where do I begin...?

I took my preliminary exam today. A group of 5 graduate advisers will grade it over the weekend and on Monday they will be meeting with us 12 new graduate students to advise us on which classes we should enroll in. Earlier this week I feared that after they looked at my work they would tell me on Monday to go back to undergrad. My books/notes/completed homework from past math classes didn't arrive here until Tuesday and Sexy Lady didn't leave until Wednesday night so I didn't start studying* for the test until Thursday (yesterday) morning.

The test is over ha (insert a huge smile here), and I survived. Afterwards I went for a 15 minute jog to relieve some of the built up tension in my body. I could only go for 15 minutes for several reasons:

• I'm in the South and it's hotter than Hades
• My legs were still sore from the jog I took yesterday
• Yesterday was the first time I jogged in about 2 months
• My neighborhood is full of hills
• I haven't cut back on smoking yet

I am trying to get back into shape, not so much for aesthetic reasons, but because I feel like a blob. Plus, my roommates are gone this weekend so there really could be no better time to start. If I didn't go for that jog today, I probably would have plopped on the couch, turned on the TV and cracked open a nice cold Miller Lite. Then, I would have gotten pissed because the TV shows I am used to watching at this time would not be on because of the time difference. Like how I made that 15 minute jog seem more beneficial than it was? I need to do that so I can talk myself into going more.

Since I don't really know anybody around here yet and my roommates are out of town, I don't have much to do this weekend. My only plans are to study (which is pretty broad because I don't know what classes I will be taking yet) and check out the university's workout facilities. I'm also trying to come up with a way to train my roommates' cats to not jump onto the bathroom sink while I'm brushing my teeth. Sidenote: If you are planning on coming here and using my bathroom, make sure you close the door hard enough until you hear a click. Otherwise one, maybe two, cats with push the door open while you're on the toilet and everyone else is in the other room. P.S. the door is more than an arm's length away from the toilet.

I had a mild case of homesickness on Tuesday. I thought I was over it until I woke up Wednesday morning with a crusty bloodshot eye. It had been bothering me all summer, but not that bad. Instead of going to a water park like we planned, Sexy Lady and I spent 2 hours at the Medical Center. I felt horrible. I should have had my eye looked at while I was at home, but I denied that there was a problem. After a summer of on and off redness in my left eye and 2 hours in the Medical Center, I found out I had a horrible case of pinkeye with a heap of allergies piled on top. That was two days ago and the white of my eye is back to the color it should be...white. All is well again.

*The proper term here would actually be cramming.

I'm Happy Being Stationary

I made it! After spending the entire weekend driving, I'm finally here! The first day of driving was a piece of cake. Sexy Lady and I hopped in the car (wherever we could find room), popped in book on cd and didn't look back (not by choice on my part, my things were blocking my view out of the rear window). That night we stayed at a cousin's house in Kentucky. Sidenote: All of the highways there start with KY-... and they never failed to make me laugh. We woke up at 8 the next day, which would be 7 my "original" time, and were on the road by 9 am. That was yesterday. We drove through 3 states yesterday and they ALL SUCKED! The sucked for different reasons of course. Lessons I learned on the trip:

• Yellow caution signs with "suggested" mileage around corners are beneficial suggestions, not just decoration
• My car really does not have any pick-up, especially when holding my entire life (minus my books) in the back of it
• I can handle (while not gracefully) driving in 5-lane highways for long periods of time
• I get easily distracted while listening to a good book

My driving was perfectly executed during the trip...meaning, I didn't get into any accidents and didn't receive any tickets. Shortly after we arrived and unpacked my car, SL and I went to the local Big Lots, Dollar General and Target to pick up the odds and ends I needed to make my portion of the house livable. While pulling into the Target parking lot, I realized I had been using my spare key for the mini excursion and had in fact left my house key in my new bedroom. Rats! I called my new roomie and explained the situation. She was at a restaurant with her brother so she gave me directions so I could drive to her and get her key. After a little shopping spree at Target, we got in the dreaded car and headed toward the restaurant. It was pretty close. A nice, easy drive, yet somehow while rounding a corner, I managed to take out a curb! After driving for 2 days without any mishaps, I took out a freakin curb and scratched my rim! All I could do was laugh.

About 5 minutes after leaving the restaurant, I got a phone call from the same roomie. Through her giggles, she explained to me that she had accidentally given me all of her keys and therefore had no way of getting home. I went back to give them to her and on the way, slowed down while rounding all corners.

Thus far, this is all I know about my roomies:

• They enjoy alcohol, but not to get wasted
• They are BOTH VEGETARIANS!!!!
• They have two cats, that are clearly not vegetarians because their wet food with chunks of animal gives the house a distinct smell
• They are healthier than me
• They are extremely nice and have offered to share their Netflix account with me

Know any good movies I should order?

Webster's Ain't Got Nothing On Me

Today is my last day here at Joe Corporate. I've been uber-busy this week and I am sure it will sustain through the weekend....well if driving for 13 hours equals busy, then yes. I started my week with plans to say bye to different "groups" of friends (ie the Math people, the Model UN people, people I actually hang out with...) and now I've decided that it's not the best idea to continue with these scheduled good-byes because they are just not fun. How much fun could we possibly have hanging out if we know that it's just going to end in tears? Plus, I generally do not hang out with these people so I could spend my time doing other things like hanging out with my family or, I don't know, packing! I have been productive at work, though. If you check out Word Imperfect, you will see that I FINALLY FREAKIN WON YESTERDAY!!!! I decided to pretend to work on my final day so I'll have to catch up later.