Grandma Ruthie
Mood:  sad
My Grandma Ruthie passed away last night.

I found out about this morning after work. My mom left me two messages on my cell phone and before I even spoke to her I knew that it was about Grandma Ruthie. On the first message it sounded like Mom had been crying.

My mom, Justin and Tiffany are flying to New York to attend the funeral. If it wasn't so complicated for me to go (and had I spoken to my mom earlier than when I did), I would have.

I really wish that I insisted more to see over spring break when I was in New York. As it now stands permanently, I haven't hadn't seen her since August 1999, haven't hadn't spoken to her since winter break and just wrote her a letter in January.

Grandma hasn't been in very good health recently. She had been hospitalized and then got a live in care giver. We never took her complaints seriously because it seemed that she was always complaining about her health for the past few years. At the very least, she can finally be at peace and she lived long enough to be a great-grandmother to my cousin Scott's son, Justin.

I caved
Topic: Apartment
Alright, who bet that the internet-free-at-home lifestyle would only last a week? Well, you won.

Having to walk across the street in the rain just to check my e-mail is just a little much. Not being able to print useful information without first bringing paper over to the lab sucks. And lying on the floor because you really really don't want to do school work and have no other alternatives to procrastination, sucks.

And going back to dial-up would suck. With DSL not an option, I looked at Cal Poly's deals with internet providers and decided they were more or just as much money as Charter. So I was browsing around Charter's website and saw that they're having an online promotion thingy of just $20/month with free modem lease for 3 months (before tax of course). Considering that I would only need the service for about 6 months, and that SBC was charging me like $26/month, this sounded like a good deal so I went ahead and signed up. So it will probably be another week before it's up and running since I'm not really available during the day.

Anyway, since I'll be playing some role playing game with Nick tomorrow, time to go home and actually get some work done. Suck. (That seems to be the word of the day today doesn't it?).

Ah, the distraction dependent world I live in
Mood:  silly
Now Playing: iPod battery went out earlier so just the fan of the Math Lounge
So last night after I was done with my test and checking e-mail and such in the Math Lounge, I decided that I needed dinner (after stupidly leaving it in the fridge that morning) and was trying to decide what to do for it. See, it was raining so I really didn't want to walk around that much. I was thinking I could go to the Avenue but that they close at 7:30 so I would have to move to the library anyway. But there wasn't anything to eat near the library. Then I thought, "wait, I could just go home and have dinner. With no TV and no internet, there's nothing to distract me later from my homework!"

So as I was walking to the bus, a plan started to formulate. I would catch the bus home, call my Grandma (she had e-mailed me back about my new address saying she would try to call this week) since I was going to be home early, have dinner while watching the episode of Monk I taped Friday and then go upstairs and do work.

Naturally, this is not how things went. I ended up missing the bus. Not sure how because I didn't see it pass me but whatever. So I wait the 10-15 minutes for the Escort Van. So I don't get home until 5:40ish. I did call my Grandma and talk to her for about 20 minutes. Then I went downstairs to start making dinner. I talke with Kathryn for a bit and then I went to turn on the TV and VCR which I had set up that morning and amazingly enough, there was reception! When I hooked it up that morning there hadn't been but now there was! Kathryn and I got so excited (aren't we sad?). Kathryn immediately went to go try her's and her's worked too. Well, she still doesn't get anything above channel 14 but she's happy just with NBC. So I watched Monk while having dinner and then I programmed the VCR for my shows (oddly enough, I forgot to include Monk) during which I got sucked into the Law & Order ep on TNT. But I was a good girl and turned it off about 10 minutes later (and no, the episode didn't end at that time).

All in all, I didn't even start work on my senior project until about 7:30. About 45 minutes after what it should have been. Oops. Distractions are dangerous but they are also so wonderful. At least it's only one out of two previous distractions. I think I shall try an internet-free-at-home life style for a while and see how it goes. *Waits to see how many people will bet on how long this will last*

Move Update
Now Playing: Valencia Computer Lab noises
Topic: Apartment
The move into the new apartment is complete. I went back earlier today to pick up the last of things I own. I can now say that everything I own is in the new apartment, dirty dishes and all.

The maintanence people fixed our rat-sized hole in the outside vent, fixed the living room light and fixed the sink. They also moved Kathryn's shelves over. I spent some time today putting things around and moving things around and made the place much more presentable. No where near ready for people though. We still have a bunch of dishes to sanitize, including all of our forks and knives, which are currently sitting in a bleach bath.

Today I also put in some more change of address things. I did it with the post office, my credit card, my checking account and the newspaper. Since I still didn't have phone service when I got home, I called SBC about it.

Fifty-three minutes and 6 people later, I cancelled my DSL, increased what I pay for long distance and transferred my phone service for a fee of $33.01 with the service effective tomorrow. Fortunately, I'm not being charged the early cancellation fee for the DSL since the problem is on their end. Despite being no more than fifty feet away from my previous location, DSL is not available in my apartment. Anyone want an SBC DSL modem? So for now, I'm using work and Valencia's computer lab (where I am now) to do internet stuff. I'll figure out what I'm going to do about it later.

I also transferred my TV service. That was a lot easier. (Goodness, this keyboard is noisy!) It only took about 7 minutes and no transfer fee. The catch on that is that, due to my schedule, the guy can't come out til Saturday. No Law & Order for me this week =(.

Anthropology test tomorrow. I should probably start studying for that again.

Moving update
Now Playing: "I Need a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler on "The Very Best of"
Topic: Apartment
Done: desk drawers, closet (sans fax) bathroom, bookshelf, bedside table.

Still to go: desk, walls, misc items, downstairs.

Tomorrow should be fun. Not.

Now to go sleep in my new apartment on a sleeping bag because my bedding stuff is currently buried under boxes and stuff.

Rat Update
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: "What Makes You Different (Make" by Backstreet Boys on "Black And Blue (Japanese Retai"
Topic: Apartment
Unfortunately, they are not dead. I was really hoping that I would be able to say "Two corpses. Everything's fine." *le sigh*

Kathryn and her mom talked with Sarah in the leasing office and also the Health Department as well. So they'll be sending Clark (the pest control company) to our apartment and apparently, Clark has been here every day this week. Anybody else think Valencia has a serious problem in these 10 apartments?

She got it to the point of where we have been offered a new apartment, number 142. So it's still across the street from most of the complex, just streetside. In terms of quietness, nothing will change for me and Kathryn because our rooms will still be above the car port. Julie however, would now be looking out over the street. Kathryn said she would be taking it no matter what. Julie and I want to take it but it depends on if we have a dead line for the move our not. Because if we're given a deadline, we're not doing it, especially mid-quarter. We also wanted some more details, like if it's a remodeled apartment or not (we have issues with cupboard space as it is), if we're going to be required to do our "move out cleaning" on this apartment AND the new one or if they'll be scrubbing to clean up after the rats, if they'll be providing some muscle for the move (my bookcase is heavy, I remember lugging it upstairs), and if we'll be given some sort of discount for moving mid-year. But mainly it's if we can do a gradual move or not.


I definitely think Julie should do it as she'll be school for another 2 years. I, on the other, will be leaving in 6 months anyway. I suppose it would be a good precursor or whatever the word I'm looking for is, because it would get some of my stuff that I'm not really using all packed up and I could transport it to my parents and then have them move it to Vegas with everything else versus doing it like every other weekend in the summer.

*sigh* I'll be calling my parents tomorrow and talking it over with them before I go down south. If I'm going to be moving, I might as well send some crap down now.

Rat Romp
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: "Me & You" by Alexia on "Dance Hits '96"
Topic: Apartment
Last night I was up late helping Kathryn chase rats out of her room. Yes, rats. Plural. As in two.

Apparently there's a hole for the pipes for the heater/gas thingy in her closet and that's where they were coming in from. Long story short, her room is in complete disarray, with her stuff spread out in the common area, on her bed and on her desk and the rats are now back in the wall. One went in through the kitchen somehow despite us attempting to guide it out by blocking off the kitchen and under the fridge and stove and blocking off the living room. The other went through the hole in the closet.

We got the one that went into the kitchen out of her room by playing hockey with it and the brooms. I managed to fling into our shelves in the kitchen. That part was fun.

The other one hid under her bed for a while, most likely where we found it later: in her bottom mattress. These guys are sneaky little fuckers.

Anyway, we temporarily plugged the hole with tin foil, left our little blockade up and have the bean bag blocking the stairs. I'm having breakfast on campus as to not disturb the blockade too much.

Insult to injury
Topic: Apartment
As I'm going downstairs there's a bunch of crap in the living room and on the stairs. Apparently a rat is in Kathryn's closet.

Overall, I'd say this day turned out neutral leaning towards bad
Now Playing: For once, I'm in my room and music is not playing
The good (in order of occurance):
-rat dead in a trap outside apartment. I hope it was the one living in our walls.
-Work still quiet. I did leave late today but mainly because I didn't look at the time prior to asking Terri my question so I decided to do what she recommended and then go.
-Discovered that threatening my body with Anthropology reading gets results.
-Due to working with partners during Sports Conditioning today, I didn't get nearly as winded.
-Drank 3 bottles of water and no soda. *nurses 4th bottle of water*
-Got free pizza
-New microwave!
-I'll be taking a pain killer with sleep aid tonight

The Bad (in order of occurance):
-Computer is still doing this funky thing where instead of waking up from sleep when I hit the space bar, it just turns off. *lets the pointing and laughing from Windows users die down* I cleared some junk off to make more memory available for Disk Doctor last night and ran it a few times from a CD and also optimized. Re-ran Disk Doctor while I was at school.
-Forgot my deck of cards (to work on H shuffles), so went home after work.
-Checked on Disk Doctor only to find that it is still encountering errors. I'm thinking this is due to the Disk Doctor on the CD is old. I ran Disk Doctor from my harddrive to fix the files that the CD version couldn't fix than ran the CD again but skipped the files. Managed to get through an otherwise full scan without errors but did have major problems. It said it fixed them though. Boot from harddrive and problem still exists. Upgraded system to 10.3.7 then booted from CD again and sat through an entire scan. Booted from harddrive, and left for school again.
-During partner hopping in Sports Conditioning, I fell down both times we went backwards when hopping on my right foot. The first time I fell I landed on my back strangely and it still hurts despite some advil. The second time I fell, I guess I managed to fall on my padded butt because that didn't hurt as much.
-Worked on Analysis homework for about 4.5 hours and the end result was 2/3 of one problem. I know the answer to that last third but at the moment I just can't prove it. Didn't manage to get any other work done except for like a page of Anthropology reading
-Bought some M&Ms and chips from Math Lounge. Also bought cinna twists from Backstage and got free pizza
-Computer still not acting right. Currently running a virus scan as well. I'll be asking Dad for his latest CD of Norton to borrow and see if that can fix at the least the problems I've been having with Norton version OS 9 and scanning the computer.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch Law & Order.

I passed! I passed!
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: "The Lover After Me" by Savage Garden on "Affirmation"
Topic: School
I got this e-mail from my English professor I had last quarter:

Amanda:

I graded the WPEs this weekend. Yours was one of the essays I read, and,
like the other reader (all tests are read twice), I gave your essay a
passing score. Knowing something of what your struggles have been and
what this passing grade means to you, I wanted to offer you my
congratulations, and wishes that the rest of your time at Poly be happier.

--Dr. Cushing

Oh, I am so happy I passed!