Good Morning, 2010! The Princess' Diary Intarwebs Edition

[superaielman]

Fuck Hurricane season.

[Ultradude]

I have a job! It is at a hardware store. Setting up party tents, taking down party tents. Delivering multi-ton shipments of wood pellets and removing them from the truck then stacking them by hand. Hanging out with people who have semi-casual conversations about which friends or family are in jail.

At least I'm making money, and it should only be a few months - and work will die down once people stop having parties under outdoor tents and most people have their wood pellets. Which might mean losing hours. Ah well.

[Lady Door]

Mercury is in retrograde. OH YES, it most definitely is.

>_<

[Shale]

Fuck you, Mercury!

Finally got everything moved out of the old apartment yesterday. Cleaned it top to bottom, turned in the keys, and now I'm well and truly gone. Yay!

Now I just have to move in. So many boxes...

[Lady Door]

So my keys got stolen this morning.

I found the ones I thought I'd lost over the weekend (they were in a drawer I had no reason to think would possibly have my keys -- still not sure how they got there). This morning after I came back from the gym, I checked my mail. I got distracted, took the elevator up, and then realized I couldn't get into my apartment. After a quick curse, I went back to take the elevator down to the lobby -- and I JUST missed it as it went down to the floor below me. I wait for it, take it down -- and my keys are freaking gone.

GREAT.

No one is standing around trying to find the owner of the keys, no one goes up to the apartment the keys belong to (they were in my mailbox still, which is labeled with the apartment number), and I just finished calling 1) my leasing office; 2) the cafe across the street which is open at 6am; 3) the deli diagonally across the street which is also open early, and none of them have it.

So someone in my building stole my keys.

Goddamnit. >_<

[DjinnAndTonic]

Do you have -any- keys left? 

Man, with all the key-swapping that went on during the weeks us DL people were staying with you, and no lost keys then... and then like a week later, 3? sets of lost keys!

[Lady Door]

I have the key + fob that I got when my brother was here.

Other than that, Andrew lost his keys (and jacket) on July 30th, and I lost my keys this weekend, found them yesterday, and had them taken today.

So I only lost -2- sets of keys, thankyouverymuch.

Not that it matters. Because of today's set being deliberately taken (and not returned to any sensible location), I have to change my locks.

--

Between DLCon, hosting DLers, the dog fight, and now the locks, I've spent about $1000 more than I usually do in any given month. Let's just say that my budget is NOT that flexible, and I'm just glad I had the emergency savings to cover everything. Well, glad is not the right word for it. But at least trying to find the money for it is one less worry.

[Luther Lansfeld]

So I'm heading back home for a few days. My best friend's grandmother died and I quite care about her, so I am heading out to her funeral on Saturday.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

=(

[Taishyr]

mrf. Take care.

[Clear Tranquil]

I think happy pills have fried my brains. Either that or I've become too good at building fortifications. Nuuumb~

[Idun]

I'm sorry Ciato.




*
My favorite seasons are the Equinoxes, and I'm not sure how this came to be. Despite my incapability in eloquently explaining why, I'm starting to believe that the Equinoxes in the South are what keeps me somewhat linked with the North (less humidity, more color in sceneries, balanced lights for day and nights) whereas I've been cheated out of developing an exquisite taste for distinct seasons.

I've been waking up early and staying outside late just to feel the weather that I'm talking about. Plus it just smells a bit better. Then 10ish-11ish throughout the day I'm at work and can avoid the nasty humidity.

[superaielman]

Hard to argue with that. The weather has been perfect this week. Right around 8 and sunny, with a nice breeze and not humid.

[AndrewRogue]

Bought tickets to go see Kamelot at the end of the month! <3

If my coworker fails me, I will fucking kill him.

[DjinnAndTonic]

This is my jealous face.

Seriously, though, that's pretty cool. I wonder what kind of weird fantasy-themed show they would put on live?

[Lady Door]

The car got broken into. They broke the rear driver's side window (the little triangle window). YES, THAT'S RIGHT. THEY DIDN'T EVEN BREAK THE WINDOW ON THE ALREADY BROKEN DOOR.

They stole the little GPS thingy, and the air pump from the trunk. That's it. They left the power cord for the GPS, the iPod adapter, the GPS window bracket, and everything else - they smashed the window on the good side of the car to steal a ~$100 GPS.

Goddamnit.

Cost to repair the window? $237.95.

Guess how much Andrew just made in overtime? GEE. Just about that much!

>_<

[DjinnAndTonic]

At least you can afford to fix it!

Man, is California always so crime-filled?

[Cotigo]

Long day.  Observed 5 hours of ESL classes (2 intermediate classes, one "integrated" class which was basically an intermediate class with 2 or 3 beginners and advanced students thrown in), and spoke with the teacher for about an hour and a half overall.  Practicum requirements meet.  The teacher I'm observing is a really energetic woman who loves teaching and loves talking about teaching.  This is good, but I'm pretty information overloaded at the end of the day.  I wish I could spread this out a little better, but I can't take any time off work until training's over, so I have only one day a week to get this taken care of.  Maybe doing observation past my practicum requirement will be good for me, so if nothing else I have more time for this to sink in.  And maybe I'll get some tutoring experience in addition to the observation out of it.

Zenny's 5 year plan is progressing.

[Lady Door]

At least you can afford to fix it!

Man, is California always so crime-filled?

Yes. At least I can afford to fix it. :| This is like one of those stupid money cycles poor people get into, where they end up getting just enough money to pull ahead -- and then something happens and it all falls down again.

Except I'm not poor which makes this whole analogy terrible and terribly offensive.

First-world problems, blah blah, yes, I have them.

Anyway, I do live in Oakland. Everything you've heard about the city was true until about 5 years ago, and obviously its ugly face crops up now and again. ... oh right, except the break-in happened in Berkeley. Well... it was a few blocks from the train tracks?

No, I think I just hate humanity a little more.

--

Hooray, Zenny!

[Cotigo]

At least you can afford to fix it!

Man, is California always so crime-filled?

Yes. At least I can afford to fix it. :| This is like one of those stupid money cycles poor people get into, where they end up getting just enough money to pull ahead -- and then something happens and it all falls down again.

Except I'm not poor which makes this whole analogy terrible and terribly offensive.

First-world problems, blah blah, yes, I have them.

Anyway, I do live in Oakland. Everything you've heard about the city was true until about 5 years ago, and obviously its ugly face crops up now and again. ... oh right, except the break-in happened in Berkeley. Well... it was a few blocks from the train tracks?

No, I think I just hate humanity a little more.

If it's a University, people will break into your car. 

Rather, if you're around other people and have a car, someone will break into your car.  C'est la vie.  Doesn't sound like this is your month, though. Sorry to hear it.  Hope everything works out.    "At least it can't get any worse", right? 

On the upside, you can forgo getting it fixed and then duct tape a garbage bag over it.  Then next time someone breaks in they'll just be tearing up a garbage bag.  Best of all it costs less than 10 bucks!

EDIT:  So I can't figure out a way to edit this not to sound douche-ier than I mean to come off, so I give up.  Deal with it?

[DjinnAndTonic]

No, I think I just hate humanity a little more.

--

Hooray, Zenny!

It took me a minute to realize that these two statements weren't related.

[Idun]

Found my reported/lost passport?

Where? In my GRE study book. I can only conclude that I should study more. I can't think of it as a waste of money either, as it allowed me to go to Egypt. Permanent residency document at least. Yeah, Charles and I will get our passports at the same time sometime next year then.

[Lady Door]

1. Hey, kids, credit card debt is bad!
2. Student loans are annoying.
3. Don't live in a high cost of living area, especially if 1 and 2 apply to you.

Starting to apply for evening/weekend part-time jobs to fill some of the gaps in income. It's a temporary crunch, and the second job isn't -really- necessary, but it will make me feel better to have a bit more money to throw at debts and into savings against catastrophes and mini-disasters (like the last couple months of "are you kidding me?" annoyances).

[Cotigo]

You kids have any plans of moving elsewhere? It may not be a bad idea... being broke all the time is a lot easier with a lower cost of living.  Which prolly includes everywhere, considering you live in California.

[Lady Door]

We have considered other places, like Portland, but without a friend base and without jobs, it's all sort of moot. We don't really have the money to move. Isn't that just so totally catch-22.