Again...friends suck

So once again...my nasty friend decided to rear her ugly head. Out of nowhere, she texted me the other day asking if I could export her to the UK. She's obsessed with London, so it didn't really seem too wild of a thing for her to say. I told her I would if I could, but I only work with imports...seeing as...you know...to do my job, I really only can work with imports, else I'd have to be in another country, and then technically I'd still be doing imports. Then she told me I should switch jobs so I should work with exports. Still, not terrible. Pissing me off a little because I don't even work for the company that does the exports, but, okay. I'm still being sociable.

Then she goes on to say I need to get a wedding website up 'cause she wants to know all the details of it. I've been trying to avoid talking about my wedding with her because...she believes she's the maid of honor and in actuality she's not even invited. It doesn't seem polite to discuss it with her because of that. I said it's been busy with work and hard to put stuff together because my fiance and I live in two different states. Thanks military! But it's still working out fine, we have more than enough time after he finishes his enlistment, as well as the few times he'll be on leave. I'm just a paranoid person. Anyway, then she goes on to give me a lecture that since I *knew* he was going to be away, I was stupid for getting engaged and setting a date for when I did. 

How am I supposed to deal with people like this? It doesn't make any sort of sense. I've never been rude to her, treated her like family. I've stopped talking to her in the past few years because of the way she's begun treating my fiance as well, and I just can't take it anymore. Somehow she doesn't realize that I'm ignoring her. What do I do?

Bats and Vampires

So as I was driving to work this morning, I had my ipod playing on the radio in the car like I do every day. However, today a song I hadn't heard in a while came on. It's called the Batty Rap...which makes me sound like a major nerd, but whatever...it's from a movie called Fern Gully. Definitely still one of my absolute favorite animated movies. Anyway, long story short, it's about a machine cutting down trees that's being controlled by an evil ooze like guy named Hexxus to destroy a place in the rainforest called Fern Gully where the fairies live. There's a character in the movie, voiced by Robin Williams, named Batty (hence...Batty Rap...). He's been a laboratory test animal, so he's quite a bit messed up in the head. I was listening to the song, and it's the full version that's not in the movie (it gets a little bit too dark for kids after where the movie cuts it off), and I heard this gem, "I don't care what you think, you're a graduate student, just do it!" Apparently the graduate world hasn't changed all that much since the movie came out...in 1992.

If you'd like to hear the song for yourself, here's a link to it: The Batty Rap  The part I'm specifically talking about is at about 1:28.

And as a random side note....Happy 165th birthday to Bram Stoker! I read Dracula when I was about eight years old and we definitely need a revival in real vampires...not this cheesy Twilight-crap that's still freaking going on.

Really Done with Graduate Institution

So I sort of lied when I said I was completely done with everything related to my graduate institution. Only sort of. I was done with all of my ties to the school.  I'd paid them back, withdrawn, etc etc. And today, I paid off the last of my rent from August and September. So now I am definitely officially rid of the whole ordeal. No credit card loans, nothing owed. Nada.

Brighter side of life: went this weekend to do a drive-by of a wedding venue for the first time. It looks really awesome from the outside...now just have to wait till fiance comes home so we can go see the inside.

On Graduate School Indoctrination

I know I've mentioned it a few times, as well as have read on other blogs the comparison between graduate school and cults. While playing around on the internet this morning, I stumbled across this link which is about LDS Mormon indoctrination, and lists with explanations steps of indoctrination into dangerous cults.  I was intrigued by how fitting most of those steps could be applied to becoming a graduate student.  So I felt like going through and detailing how it might fit with the graduate student experience. Again, I didn't come up with these stages/steps myself (the link to them and how they apply to Mormon indoctrination is above), but the explanations in relationship to grad school came from my brain.

1) The goal: Yes, while there can be a tangible goal coming from being a graduate student (like a masters or a PhD...), much of the time you end up just searching for answers.  And in most cases, it's really just theory on top of theory. With sciences like geology, physics, chemistry...you can test and test and test your hypotheses to your heart's content, and even if the data supports your hypothesis, it's still just a theory. While you can be 99% sure that your theory is definitely the absolutely correct one, you'll always have that minute bit of uncertainty, there's no way to actually prove that it's true. For example, geologist are completely confident in their theory of how the Earth is laid out (crust, mantle, core...physical states of them, etc), but even the professor of geology 101 at my graduate institution liked to remind everybody that even though they're sure that's right, there's no physical proof. It's not an awesome math theorem where you can lay everything out in a proof and say "Yes, this is absolutely 100% true" (sorry....undergraduate degree in pure mathematics...).

2) A charismatic leader: Your advisor. Obviously. Else no one would cough up monstrous amounts of money to haul their lives across the country/world to work with them.

3) A sacred doctrine: This one's a little bit sketchy...but for most academic disciplines there's a book the professor/advisor/other grad student always suggests, says you absolutely have to buy, not rent, etc etc. At grad school it was my advisor's book on trace fossils. In undergrad, it was my number theory book.

Weirdness

Well it's been an odd week. For starters, I've only been at my job for three and a half weeks now, and on Monday, they fired the other person who does my job and trained me. Needless to say, I was more than a little freaked out. First I felt like I stole her job...like they'd hired me to fire her. Which I've never experienced before cause well...they don't bring in new students to replace you in academia.  And that felt super wrong. I'm still not quite sure of the reason why they fired her, they gave a bunch of excuses saying it was their failure, she wasn't doing the work correctly, etc etc. So I'm just trying to deal with it and get over it for now. 

Second...navy issues haha. I don't really know if I can talk about it, so we'll just stick with once again, the Navy is trying to give me a heart attack. 

Finally, while I know that New York/New Jersey got hit really bad, mine and the fiance's apartment in Virginia also got hit by Sandy. From what I've seen picture wise, it doesn't look too bad near our apartment. Granted we live across the street from Chesapeake Bay...so there's a fair amount of water sitting on the streets (at least in pictures...I'm not there to be seeing it first hand). And because of the heart-attack-enducing-Navy-issue...he's not there either. So hopefully he'll hear from our landlord and the apartment's all good. Sigh.

Entering the Working World...

Well, long time no write. Sorry about that. I’ve gotten wrapped up in the real working world and just haven’t found the time until now. Now being at 1 o’clock in the afternoon at my desk where I have absolutely no work to do.

I got a full-time office job within two weeks of escaping my graduate institution by the way.  I file paperwork to clear cargo through customs. It’s not too bad, my kind of job in the sense that I don’t have to talk to anybody. It’s quite nice. Also, eventually my one boss here in this city (have another one in another state as well…) keeps telling me once we get a new computer program, there’s less work involved, and he wants me to do cost analysis for him. Yay calculus!

Anywho…today has been so boring. Nothing’s happening. I had one file that I didn’t get to last night (which took 15 minutes), and one sitting on my desk in front of me that’s almost completely done, but I’m waiting on a question I asked my supervisor (she’s out of town for two days). Basically…I just need to know which number to use, because the paper is contradictory. So once she tells me that, it’ll take another 10 minutes and I’ll be done with this one is well.

Becoming a Productive Member of the Workforce

Well I have now finished my second day at my full-time job. It's been...interesting to say the least. Yesterday I didn't really get to do all that much. I mostly just sat around for my first six hours of the day. It was more because the remote connection to my actual desktop that is across the country wasn't set up yet, and I didn't have an email address.

Well, today they got my remote connection up and running and my email address set up. I worked with the other person who does the same job for most of the day, and I think I'm pretty much almost completely trained now. 

I got my first two assignments today just before I left work. I'm almost completely on my own with them, I just need to get them double checked before I submit them. It's kinda boring and tedious, but it's definitely better than a minimum wage customer service job (nothing against customer service jobs, I'm just not a people person lol).

Officially Employed

So as of 1 o'clock this afternoon, I am officially employed. Full-time. I'm super duper excited. Everybody told me I was being ridiculous with my impatience, and I was being unrealistic expecting jobs to call me back so quickly. Well guess what.

I applied for this job on Tuesday. That's right, just 48 hours ago. The president of the company called me that night and set up an interview for yesterday, just 18 hours after I applied. And this morning, 24 hours after interviewing, the manager at the company called and gave me the job offer. So there everybody who told me to shut up and wait.

I'm very excited, especially because I'll be using a lot of math; the manager specifically told me that I'd need calculus, which I'm definitely comfortable with since you know, I TAUGHT calculus at the university level. Plus, eventually down the road they want me to take an exam to get a license (I'm talking years), and they're willing to pay for all the prep materials and the exam itself. So happy.

I feel like I definitely deserved this after all I've been through with that graduate university. I think it's the universe paying me back for handling it as well as I could.

First Nibble

So as luck would have it, tomorrow I have my first job interview since leaving academia. I'm excited, and I feel really relieved that things are finally starting to get set in motion. Although I've only actually been looking for a job for about a week, so I guess most people would thing things are moving rather quickly, but I've always been a really impatient person. 

Anyway it's for a paraeducator job at a special needs school (I guess I didn't get ridiculously far from the academic world...lol). I volunteered there a few times when I was much younger, so hopefully that gives me a little more edge. We'll see what happens I guess. 

Other than that, the only thing that's been going on recently is a whole lot of attempted cleaning to get myself a room that I can sleep in, and my mom sister, my friend, and my sister's friend drove over to another high school last night for a marching band competition. Definitely a good time.

Job Hunting

Well I've been back in my hometown for about five days now. Job hunting, of course, has so far been one of my main priorities. Well, that and attempting to clean the basement so I can sleep in a bed again instead of sleeping on a couch.

The job market is looking a little better than when I first graduated last year. By better I mean that there are actually job postings I've found that say undergraduate degree in mathematics. I was convinced that they didn't exist last year. No real bites yet on the job line, but it's only been a few days. Fingers crossed that something shows up soon. I've got a wedding to save for.

Besides that, I got to hang out with my best friend yesterday. She didn't get into medical school this year and doesn't really want to get a job, so she worries me. She's babysitting 4 days a week now and calling it full-time, while supposedly applying to masters programs to supposedly help her get into med school later. I'm skeptic, but whatever.

Back at my Parent's House

Well I'm finally out of that god awful state where my graduate university was located. My dad got there at 6am on Friday morning, and we left that afternoon. We drove for half the night, but it was nice just to be far away from there.

Weird thing that happened though: some chick called, texted, and emailed me repeatedly. I only answered the call because I recognized the area code as where my fiance's stationed and maybe had a mini panic attack that something might be wrong and he was calling me from someone else's phone. But it wasn't, it was her. I guess her husband's stationed at the same naval base and she was all "Let's be friends! I know how hard it is being a graduate student and a military spouse! I understand your situation better than anybody!"...well...while the friend support thing would've been nice I suppose, but she seems to clearly be missing the boat (no pun intended...) that the whole debacle with the university had absolutely nothing to do with my fiance being stationed elsewhere. Do I miss him? Of course. Did I drop out of graduate school because he was in a different state? No. He just spent three years overseas, the next year at the most wasn't ideal or fun being apart, but we would've made it work.

Anyway moving on from crazy broads...

Done. Completely Done.

I can finally take a deep breath and relax.  Why you may ask?

Well, the university posted my bill (well...how much I owe. The bill will be posted tomorrow and there I'll get the address to send a check) and they have the correct amount of money due. Only the refunded money that I was given to live on.

Thank goodness.

I was really worried about that. I was supposed to be given email confirmation about both of the petitions I filed and I haven't heard about either one. But clearly since the amount is right, at least one of them was approved. I just wish I knew which one. Mostly because I'd like to know what/if I have a transcript at the university now (one of the petitions was to wipe it clean so I wouldn't have W's and therefore wouldn't need to send it out if I ever decided to do this goofy thing again), but I'm sure not going to order a transcript to find out. Cheapest transcript is an etranscript and it's $10, plus a $3 notary fee.

Why are transcripts a rip off everywhere except the undergraduate institution I graduated from? They were completely free there, whether is was an etranscript or a hard copy...

Small World...

It is indeed a small, small world. You make one post on facebook and find out the most interesting things.

Namely, one of my really good friends from my undergraduate institution only made it a week at my graduate institution back when she was a freshman in college. For similar reasons.

Go figure.

Signed Over

Well, the nightmare's almost over. The new tenant of my apartment came and signed a new lease today. My dad rented the Uhaul trailer and will be here on Friday morning. This whole graduate school thing is almost a distant memory.

Let's just home nothing goes funky when they finally charge me for my refund from my scholarship. I know exactly how much it should be for, and if it's more than that, this could get ugly again.

Going Back to Chicago!!!

So this morning I finally got the text I've been waiting for! The person who toured my apartment on Friday want to take it and is coming tomorrow evening to sign the paperwork.

My father will be coming on down here on Thursday with a uhaul trailer, we'll pack it on Friday, and Saturday morning I'll be out of this horrid state.

Well, as long as everything goes according to plan. But I'm hopeful!

Also, Saturday is the fiance's birthday. Super super sad I can't actually be with him, but I'm gonna get cupcakes and a candle, and we'll do a birthday party via Skype on Saturday night :D

More Waiting

So the person who was coming to view the apartment yesterday did end up coming. It was a very stressful experience for me, especially because she came super super late. She was supposed to come sometime in the afternoon but ended up coming around 8pm. I kept freaking out big time that she would just not show up, but she did. She said she really liked the place and was super friendly, and said she'd get back to me soon. Obviously I had been hoping (probably naively) that she would come earlier, love it, and sign a new lease right then and there...but since she came so late that wasn't an option even if she had wanted to do it.

Sooo...now I'm back to waiting. I've still got my fingers crossed she takes it (I mean...she doesn't have to pay ANYTHING to move in...and living here is a pretty awesome deal), but I'm still looking around.

Also...random side note: if anybody out there loves Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, Subterranean Press is having a sale on ebooks for the month, including three of hers (Angelic, Counterfeit Magic, and Hidden).  Each is $2.99, which is a steal (I know, I bought a hardcopy of Counterfeit Magic for the fiance for Christmas two years ago for like $25, and you can't get a used copy of Angelic anywhere for under $190...). Link to the ebooks! Anyway, there's links to all three books there, and you can get them in either Kindle, Nook, or Kobo (never heard of that one) books. I'm of course partial to the Nook books (seeing as I have a Nook Simple Touch...) but hey. It works. If you don't have an ereader, Amazon has free apps for computers, tablets (yay iPad lol), and smartphones, so you could always go that route.

Hopeful

So it's been a crazy day around here. The internet still been kinda spotty (especially in the mornings and during the day), but it's been alright. I got free breakfast today...but it definitely wasn't good. The complex was making free hot breakfast for residents today, but they didn't have half the things that they had promised to be serving. I was very sad. But they did have good biscuits. Find the silver lining somewhere.

Besides that, I found out my sister dropped her biology class and lab, as well as switched her major at her undergraduate university. Which my mom isn't too happy about. She told my sister it was fine, but yelled at me for about an hour yesterday, implying that it was my fault that she dropped the classes and switched majors. Like, my withdrawal from the university told my sister it was okay to do these things. Sigh.

Anyway, besides that, my sister also found out today her student loans were never dispersed. She asked if I understood what the hold on her account said, and I told her it sounded like she never signed her master promissory note. She of course didn't know what I was talking about because she let our father take care of all of her financial aid things. Big mistake. She definitely needs to be able to get into her student loan account and she has no idea what her pin could be.

Edit: Dad thankfully knew her pin.

And moving on to my other sister...

Coping With Academic Guilt

I know I only spent three weeks immersed in the world of a graduate student. However, in those short three weeks, I know I was slowly being indoctrinated into the graduate-student-life cult.  I was working those ridiculous, unhealthy hours, and feeling terrible if I did anything for myself. I even felt guilty one day that I took twenty minutes off to bake a loaf of banana bread.

I'm still dueling with that guilt even now that I've left the university. I've been managing battling it fairly well by crocheting, knitting, talking to my fiance, and packing up my apartment. Crocheting and packing keep me moving and busy, while leaving me something tangible for my efforts.  And talking to my fiance is always the best part of my day, no matter what. He's the love of my life, and I have no idea what I'd do without him.

There are some occasions that have arisen recently that have derailed my coping mechanisms greatly though...

Updates on Post-Academic Life

First and foremost, I must say thank god for T-mobile's 4g network. My internet at the apartment complex has  been on and off during the day for the past week, and the staff says it's because they're "updating" it to be faster. Well clearly that updating is working wonders because today the wireless is non-existent. Today they claim equipment broke, and internet access won't be up for at least 24 hours. Awesome.

In other news, my father drafted a 30-days notice to send to the apartment complex (didn't think I needed one, but I guess it can't hurt). Going to send it on Monday. Sod it's looking llike unless I f÷ind a subleaser earlier, I will be moving out of this horrible place the weekend of October 13th. I am more than happy to have a set date, but I hope to find someone before then. 'Cause if I don't, I have to keep paying the rent until a subleaser is found, even if I don't live here. Leases definitely suck.

Random Thoughts

So...I thought I moved to a standard, midwestern state (I like to think I know what meets the criteria to call something midwestern since I'm from Chicago and all), but I think I was deeply confused.

Where I am living now can only be described as hell.  And no, I'm not just talking about how badly the university here has treated me.  Or how the things I prefer to buy brand-wise are ridiculously expensive here as opposed to Chicago (where every freaking thing is ridiculously expensive).  I mean it's hot enough here to literally be hell.  

The past four days, the temperature here has been no less than 105 degrees. It is literally killing me.  Even the air conditioning (which I've given up and started running, even though I can't afford it) doesn't do much. I've never ever missed freezing my ass off while walking to school in Chicago more than I do right now. 

Besides that, the sublease hunt continues...

Bored Out of My Mind

I've done just about everything I can possibly do now (besides putting an ad in the local paper...for some insane reason they want $104 to run an ad about an apartment...insane) to start finding someone to sublease my apartment. Craigslist. Facebook. Other random sublease/university websites. The apartment complex management. 

So...now I'm stuck with, once again, sit back and wait. It's killing me.

So I've mostly spent my time reading, working on the blanket I'm making for my soon-to-be sister-in-law, trying to figure out how to knit in the round on double pointed needles. You know, fun stuff. Oh yeah, and managed to add a widget to the side of the blog that's a countdown to my wedding. Although you could probably read that...

Yep. Very productive.

Impatient

I know I shouldn't be so frustrated with trying to find someone to take my apartment off my hands, but I am. 

I'm being completely unreasonable. I only just started looking two days ago. It's a holiday weekend. I need to stop complaining.  The mangers of the apartment complex thing it should be relatively easy to find someone.

I blame the girl who went through all the leasing paperwork with me in June. She said she's known people to find a subleaser overnight on craigslist. Now I have ridiculous expectations.

I'm Not Alone, It's Good To Know

I've spent a lot of time thinking these past few days, and I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around how the people I attended school with for the past weeks can think the abuse from the University is acceptable.

For instance, having done gotten an BS in mathematics from my undergraduate institution and having a little bit of an obsession with numbers, I calculated the hours I spent on campus working, doing homework, etc, and how much I would have made hourly. On average, in order to do all the lab work, sieving, homework, and the paper that was required of me, I was working on something about 50 hours per week (often longer because I have no background in the subject and had to work twice as hard to catch up). I was originally given just over $5,000 to survive off of for the semester before I started raising a ruckus. So, basically, I was making just about $7 an hour. Which is lowering than federal minimum wage.  Unbelievable.

Officially Withdrawn

Well, today was the day.  I didn't have the intention to go officially withdraw from the university today, but that's what ended up happening.  I went to campus early, in the hopes of finding someone who could just tell me what would happen, how much I would owe, etc if I did drop out. I swear I intended to go to class. Academic guilt is stabbing me in the back, screaming at me about not going.

I of course, logically, went to the financial aid office, as I was trying to find out what would happen with my scholarship that I'm currently being funded with. Well, the nice lady at the desk says she can't tell me what would happen, just that we're in the point where it's a 50% refund for classes, and that I need to talk to the donor of the scholarship money.

I ask who the donor is, since I don't have a clue and am unable to find anything about the supposed scholarship online. Lady goes to check. Lo and behold, she nor anyone in the financial aid office, don't have a clue either. So...

Just Want to Go Back Home

Today's the first time ever in my history of schooling that I just gave up and walked out. No explanations, no excuses. Just packed up my things and left. I just couldn't take it anymore.

I'm so tired of people trying to scare me out of my decision that academia isn't right, while at the same time telling me horror stories about what will happen if I stay. After four hours of unsuccessfully looking at rocks, I just felt dead inside and completely defeated. So I just had to leave. 

Plus on top of that, my shoe broke during class (seriously...how does a flip flop break while I'm SITTING and NOT MOVING) so I had to walk home without a shoe. And because of that, I have massive burns on the bottom of my one foot now because the sidewalk/street was so hot.

Lost

I honestly don't know what to do with myself. One minute I'm okay, telling myself I have options, and the next I'm crying hysterically at how hopeless my situation is. I desperately need a full time job or to find someone to lease the apartment within the next two months. Those are pretty basically my options as of now. 

Plus, I feel like no matter where I turn for advice (other than the fiancé), I just get yelled at or they attempt to manipulate me out of my decision.

Case in point...

Don't Break My Heart and I Won't Break Your Heart-Shaped Glasses

Well, I think I must've somehow broke the University's heart, because they've definitely broken my heart-shaped glasses. I had such naive hopes and expectations of the University and graduate student life, and all that innocence has now been lost. I flirted with the idea of graduate education, and now it's coming around to haunt me.

I'm starting to think this blog and my fiance are the only two things currently keeping me from completely losing my mind. My fiance always knows just what to say to take my mind off of things (like today...we talked about pokemon ha. and him going to school. and our ghost). He's definitely the most wonderful man in the world, and I honestly don't know how I got so freaking lucky. Writing posts in my blog is a great way to vent as well; my mom doesn't want to hear my complaints (she thinks I'm overly dramatic or not giving it enough time), and I feel annoying if I complain too much to my fiance.

Moving on beyond that rant, I'm a completely exhausted. I spent five hours today doing nothing but looking at fossil specimens. That's it. And still after working for a week and the five hours today, I'm not even halfway done.  Getting close to halfway not, but still not halfway. I know I need to be done by Saturday night, so I can spend all day Sunday putting the actual document together and redrawing pictures, and then printing it on campus on Monday.

You Infected Me, Took Diamonds, I Took All Your Shit

Met with a person higher up on the food chain today to see what was to be done about the money issue. The department had magically concocted a plan to quickly sweep their error under the rug. How they decided to skirt the issue that they are screwing me on money:

I should drop a class. The most basic class in the department to be exact. That way, I'll get a tuition refund from the dropped class (hopefully 100% because it's past the deadline for that...but they sent an email so of course that should fix things *sarcasm*). The tuition refund in addition to the refund I received from my scholarship should be...well...less than I'm *supposed* to get but would be enough to get me through the semester. However, the other stipulation is that I'm supposed to audit the class.

Which is really just a fancy word for get up and go to class which starts at 9am (which requires a lot more effort than people thing especially when you work until midnight and have to get up two hours earlier than the class to organize things and take public transportation), do all of the work for the class, take all the tests, sit through the mind-numbing lectures because I learned all of this information in eighth grade...

Drink That Kool-Aid, Follow My Lead

Well, this weekend I went to a BBQ at the house of one of the guys from my department. It was pretty boring (I mean...we watched three hours of Star Wars...come on I'm a trekkie here...), but the food was good and free, which is always a bonus because I'm broke big time cause of the school's screw up in my offer letter. And he attempted to give us a "pep talk" that was really just more depressing than anything.

I was talking with my fiance today (yes,  I actually got to TALK to him! Best feeling in the world) and was going through expenses, the offer letter, and all around just finally having somebody to complain to. I ended up showing him this other blog that I found called From Grad School to Happiness because it's really been helping me cope with all the issues I've been having. Anyway, my fiance, after reading some of it, made the statement that grad school was akin to a cult. And I laughed, but it took me a few moments to realize just how right he was.

Deep Thoughts of the Week

Well, I'm at the end of my rope. Seriously. I'm completely exhausted, mentally, physically, and emotionally. I'm really believing  this was not the right choice (I know, people will complain that I haven't even actually given it a chance, but I just *know*), and I keep telling myself it's okay, that I should stick the year out to see what happens, maybe it'll get better, blah blah blah.

When I graduated from undergrad, it was a year early which I hadn't really been expecting. I had no job experience, a weird degree that most regular people scoff at (pure mathematics), was having a rough patch relationship-wise, and absolutely couldn't find a job. I'm fairly sure it was a mix of the economy, my lack of job experience, as well as my off-the-wall B.S., but it really freaked me out. So I made the rash, split second decision to apply to grad school because I was terrified of the real world and not being able to find a job.

So I went and jumped through all of the hoops, recommendation letters, statement of purpose, took the GRE, etc etc, and applied to three schools. All in the span of about...six weeks. 

So Far It's All Downhill

Well classes started today. I can't say that I'm impressed. Or happy. It was just an exercise in showing just how disorganized and problematic this university is so far. For instance, my first professor of the day stresses the importance of buying a lab manual if enrolled in the lab (no shit you need a lab manual...PS: all of the other universities I've attended SUPPLIED the lab manual in the lab. Guess I'm spoiled because I have an education from private universities). Welp, go to the bookstore. Guess what? 

THE DEPARTMENT NEVER EVEN ORDERED THE GODDAMN LAB MANUALS. 

So hey, I've only spent about $10,000 in tuition, $1000 on getting here, $800 a month on rent, $250 on books because I couldn't be enrolled in courses sooner than six days before the start of the semester, howabouts we give you the lab manual for free? (Not to mention it's paperback book put together with a plastic spiral that they're going to charge me $50 for when I could make it myself for probably $10).

Don't Know How Much Worse It Can Get

Well after my meeting yesterday was more than tripled in time, I ended up with blisters the size of nickels all over my feet. And eighteen hours later, they still have closed and are oozing clear liquid. So I can't exactly walk. 

And on top of that, I woke up with hives all over my legs and an infection under my arm.

It's like something's trying to tell me yes, I shouldn't be here.

Sigh.

Not What I Was Expecting...

So today was my orientation and advising. What they said would be a two hour meeting was actually a seven hour meeting. And that was the least of my problems.

I enrolled in Ichnology, Intro to Geology and the accompanying lab, Paleontology of Higher Vertebrate, and some course I don't know the title of where I'm supposed to learn how to critique and read academic writing. Clearly, the only thing applicable here to dinosaurs is ichnology, but too bad the class deals with burrows of invertebrates. And paleontology of higher vertebrates deals with birds and mammals. Sigh.

Scratch that...

Fiancé emailed me thirty seconds after I hit post. Typical haha.

All Alone in a New Place

Well, everything's finally in my new apartment. Almost everything is put away too; all that's left is to sort through and organize my clothes. The apartment looks a little bit bare, but I don't have too much furniture so that's expected. It's really hot here, but my apartment is in a really good spot so I get a great cross breeze...but I'm the only person in the entire complex with the windows open instead of using the air conditioner so I guess I look a little bit like a weirdo.

My parents and sister left last night. So I'm all on my own now. I really wish my fiancé was here with me...or at least coming sometime soon. But so far I haven't even heard from him in over a day (I know, I know I'm being pathetic), and I'm really sad about that. He kind of hinted that he might be busy or not have Internet access, but I still miss him. Being able to talk to him would make being here alone so much easier.

I have an advising meeting on Tuesday, so by that afternoon I should know what courses I'm taking and what my schedule should look like. For now, I'll be spending most of the rest of the next few days sorting through what's left to be put away and attempting to program my dvr. Perhaps I'll walk to the bookstore across the street too.

Red Robin & Yarn

So the bestie/my unbiological sister and I had a lunch date today. We went to our favorite restaurant (which happens to be one of the most awesome places around): Red Robin. YUM! Haha. Anyway, I had the freckled lemonade for the first time. Always meant to try it, but never got around to it. Best. Drink. Ever. Soon good.

We hung out for the rest of the day doing crafty things. First we scrapbooked. I made a super awesome college graduation page for us, and she made some of the pages that were missing from her scrapbook. I tried to put the expander posts in, but for some reason, one of them didn't have the grooves in it so I couldn't put the screw into it. How odd. And annoying.

After the scrapbook fest, we ended up knitting/crocheting. She knits. I crochet. She managed to teach me how to knit! Yay! I made a little scarf for this giraffe toy that I have. I tried to teach her how to crochet, but she had a really hard time with it. I also managed to crochet a granny square for the blanket I'm making for my soon-to-be sister-in-law as a Christmas gift. She's one year old. I hope she likes it...well...as much as a one yer old can appreciate gifts.

Friends Suck

I'm completely blown away by the audacity of some people.  A person I used to be really good friends with in junior high and high school has once again proven to me what a self centered, rude bitch she really is. I generally can't stand her, but put up with her because we've known each other so long. But recently she's been making racist comments about my fiancé (he's hispanic), as well as exceptionally rude comments towards me. I'm leaving in a few days, and today for the first time since June (although I haven't seen her since March) she asked me to go to lunch. I agreed, although I'm busy with last minute things for my move and she said we could go whenever I was free. 

Well, I called and gave her a time in an attempt to avoid the crowd that follows church letting out on Sundays, and her response was "I'm not hungry right now, sorry." And she hung up.

Well, fuck you too, bitch. 

IPad Love

Leaving for the new place in six days. Payed my rent for the first time today. Also, typing this on my new ipad! So excited! I'm definitely loving it.

Well...here goes nothing....

I've never done anything comparable to this before, so I'm not really all that sure where to begin. A family member (albeit one I'm not super happy with right now) suggested I start a blog to document this "big" transition in my life, so I'm giving it a whirl.

Anyway, to start with, I'm moving from a small Chicago suburb in nine days to a not-so-much-larger town in another random state. Why? To start graduate studies. Back in April, I accepted a PhD offer in the geology department of a university to study vertebrate paleontology.