I'm baaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaack!

I am back from my evil trip to NY and points south. I have seen more of some airports than I ever wish to again. I have been delayed, and lost, and misdirected, and gatechanged. Heck, I had edema in my ankles to make a pregnant lady swoon.

Other than that to, I'm back.

It's still raining. The girl who had my room in my flat last year moved herself out, but forgot to take her stuff.

Anyone want a pile of stuff? included are such jems as

• a slightly used queen bed and matress
• a dresser- ugly
• a desk- ugly
• some kitchen stuff
• flats of canned beans. Like greenbeans, not baked.
• most of a case of catsup
• all the notes for at least 2 years of some course, but I don't know which
• some white gumboots
• a blue back pack

All going now! no, really- I want to move my stuff in (well, after I locate it) and can't while her crap is still there. Plus, it makes the room look really small, jam packed as it is with all her, for lack of a better word, crap.

But other than that- all is well with the world, I have to study for summer school, my exam results aren't up yet, and I need to figure out what I'm taking next year. Oh, and hassel that loan lady, incase the check is here, but she forgot to tell me. That would suck. A lot.

Have fun, people.

j.

Thank you Judith- you saved my pale scrawny ass

I've been running behind, and not confidant in my wrong side of the road/ car driving skills I didn't borrow the boy's van, like he said I could.

and then I couldn't find storage. Because, as I said, I don't have time to leave it with him. But judith is letting me store it at her place the whole two weeks I'm gone. She even let me drive her car! and I didn't kill anyone, or try to get in on the wrong side, or stall, or grind gears, or drive down the wrong side of the road or anything. I did turn the wipers on twice when trying to signal turns, but I think that can be excused. No, really... the same hand is working, it just does something else- so I try to do the normal thing that i've got programmed into me, and on go the wipers. Oops.

But yeah, before I pack this beast away- thank you judith, you saved me a huge nightmare. Now I just have to get the stuff in her car and clean this damned room. Easier said than done.

j.

A kinda productive day

So I set my alarm for 6.45- I was feeling optimistic at 2 this morning. Yeah, slept thru that one, reset it in my sleep for 8.45.

and 9.45.

at which point I realised that if I wanted to get *anything* done, I really really really needed to get going.

So I pulled out my trusty PDA, made a list of about a dozen things I needed to do, made them all priority one or two, and goofed off online untill about 1. Then I got to work on my list of errands.

Today so far I have:

• Transfered money into my NZ account- that I spend thru waaaay too fast. Gotta work on that- go back to cash, maybe.
• paid my bond and retainer for summer.
• checked on getting a small bottle of contact solution, which I couldn't get.
• Got a copy of my presription for my contacts- acuvue2 are 60 or 70$ a box here- even with the exchange rate, I'll save more than half the price
• checked out matresses at the fancy store I can't afford
• bought my bus ticket on the bus that leaves 40 minutes before my exam finishes- guess I'll just have to be speedy, huh?
• got a copy of my bank info
• checked on cheap stuff in NYC
• Dropped off my bond form, and got out without being drooled on by the freaky looking poodle thing or the spawnlings.
• sorted out what I think I want to bring to NY
• checked my reservations- plane and hostel
• listened/ watched the kenya clip. again.

Now I just have to pack what I'm taking with me, what I'm leaving behind and my food... Toss or recycle everything else, move my bike to covered storage, copy out info for the trip- cheap food and free days at the museums and whatnot-, shift the stuff to the boy, or arrange storage tomorrow, clean the room, study stats, shower, and turn in my bond return form.

Oh, yeah, and get ready/ go to dinner with the boy. And it's raining again. Damned rain.

Oh, and tomorrow? tomorrow I just have to check out, take my test, check for my damned pants, and... um... oh, yeah, not miss the bus or lose my passport. Probably something else, but I don't remember what it is....

j.

a little over 48 hours left

in a bit more than 48 hours- like 51- I get on a bus to go to wellington, to go home for 2 weeks.

My pants aren't here yet. My room isn't packed or cleaned. I am not packed or cleaned. I haven't studied my stats. Or sent my bond in, or paid my retainer for the summer. I are waaay behind.

But I don't care. I'm tired. I want a break. I know, I know, in two days I can have a break, I can goof off, and sleep the whole way home. But I want one now, drat it! And my pants.

There's something to that whole "if you put it off, it'll only get worse" thing, but at this point, I've put it off, it's already worse. And it shouldn't take me more than an hour or two to clean up my room, anyway. It's just the packing I worry about. I'm leaving the stuff with the boy, so it needs to be as compact as possible. I don't want him to feel like I'm imposing or something. but I probably do need it to all be packed up and ready to go with him later today or tomorrow at the latest. Argh. Guess I'll be packing today after all....

j.

I do not understand american express

Ok, so... Earlier this year- like when I was in, oh... egypt... Amex decided, for no reason I could ever figure out, to drop my credit limit *below* what I'd already charged. No, I don't know why. Something, they swear, about my credit report- which, with the exception of adding student loans, hasn't changed in more than a year. And it didn't have student loans on it at the time.

So today I went on, to check my limit, getting ready, figuring out what I have to work with while finessing my non-existant travel budget, and they, the wierdos at amex, have raised my limit once again.

No, I don't know why. No, I don't think I could ever, ever, ever spend that much. Except maybe if I could charge tuition, then get the cash back in my account to clear the charge before they started charging me interest on it. But I don't think the school takes Amex, so I don't have to worry about the lure of huge points. Yet.

But still- what about 22,500 in new student debt makes me seem like the kind of person they want to give a limit you could buy a decent car with? Other than the way that I keep paying extra. Which reminds me, I need to call them and see if they'll lower my interest rate. You should try it every once in a while. Worst they can do is say no- and best is lower it a couple points. Or a bunch. But I wouldn't hold out for that one.

j.

Exams Underway!

In and out of my psych exam in a little over an hour and a half. Would have been faster, but I wrote down example answers on the scratch paper, and that took a good 20 minutes. 75 multi choice in about 20 minutes, then the rest of the time for the "short" answer.

Don't know how I did. I think I answered most of the questions. No idea on the multi choice. Might have bombed that. The essays should be better, I think. A lot was either common knowledge, or easy enough to pick up from the power points. 'cause, yeah, I never made it back to the library to finish reading the book.

I know studying makes grades go up, and I know that if I want to be where I wanna, I need to study, but it's very much deminishing returns. I can get a B spending maybe 10 hours on a class all semester. Higher than that, the time goes up exponentially. I know, I know, I need the study skills, picking up the basics and filling in with background knowledge will only get me so far, If I don't actually *learn* the stuff, I'm just wasting my time and money.

And when the subject is at least moderately interesting to me, I do enjoy it better when I know what's going on, keep up, go more into the background and extra reading and stuff. But... When it's boring- like a bunch of the stuff this semester, and holds less than no appeal, I just can't drag myself to do it. And then that flows over into the other classes, and before I know it, I want nothing to do with school again. And then the grades do the nasty thing, I feel like an idiot, and it all starts again.

Ah well. I think this is enough time to waste from my mammal bio study. I do actually need to learn the stuff for it. Since it starts in about 8 hours, I should probably at least have read all the notes, and the sections from the book, as well. I'm halfway thru- it won't kill me. Or take too much longer. Somehow, what takes them an hour to lecture only takes me 15 or 20 minutes to read. But I do need to get back to it. 8 hours is cutting it a bit close.

j.