Dear Sirs,
I would like to submit for your consideration the possibility that, if one is incapable of wiping up one's own spills in the kitchen, one cannot with any credibility call oneself a "grown-ass woman."

srsly i don't know what it was but it was congealed and it went all the way back to where she keeps her vitamins against the wall and it came up into little squishy strings and balls when i tried to wipe it up. disgusting.

In other news, still sick. Staying home from work and class, but I'll go to orchestra rehearsal because there's today and a short Mozart wind sectional tomorrow (OMG SOPHOMORE FLUTE FAILS AT COUNTING. FAILY FAIL FAIL. I DON'T KNOW WHY SHE'S ON THIS PIECE BECAUSE THE FLUTE SECTION FOR IT IS JUST HER AND SHE IS FAIL) and the day after that is the dress and the concert, so I have to be there. Even though just walking across the alley to the post office (to pay my electricity bill -- significantly more than the gas bill) made me want to take a nap. Here's hoping I can (a) survive the uphill trek from my parking lot to the music building and (b) fumble my way through rehearsal without incurring the conductor's wrath.

Also: Flatmate's chicken soup is uncharacteristically and disappointingly bland. Vastly improved with liberal amounts of salt. :c Still, v. kind of her to take pity on my pathetically ill self and share. More happily, Saturday's pumpkin mush is delicious :)

1. OH MY GOD BUSYWORK CLASS WTF.
- four hours of bad-quality video to watch (srsly one of them was so damaged that the screen blanked out every few seconds and the audio was wavering ALLLLLLL over the place. WTF BUSYWORK TEACHER YOU WANT US TO LEARN ABOUT CHORAL TEACHING BY NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE OR HEAR THE CLASS?)
- "video review" that contributes to a 30% chuck of the final grade, for which we have NO GUIDELINES WHATSOEVER THANKS FOR THAT
- five (+ about four more that were SEKRITLY STAPLED TOGETHER) articles (admittedly short) to read
- ONE-PARAGRAPH SUMMARIES of aforementioned articles (which I have not done and have very little intention to)
- take-home mini-quiz which BTW WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN IN THE LAST CLASS WAY TO GO WITH THE TIME MANAGEMENT BUSYWORK TEACHER
- random-ass songs to learn and analyse vowels of? I DON'T EVEN KNOW.
To sum up: WTF BUSYWORK CLASS GTFO

2. OMG BASSOON. WHERE DID ALL MY TCHAIK 4 MOJO GO? I swear it's all Charlie's fault, I felt happy about that excerpt until I started working on it with him. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF IT TOOK ME 3 YEARS OF NO CHARLIE TO GET MY SCHEHEREZADE MOJO BACK I DON'T HAVE 3 MORE YEARS FOR TCHAIK. Also: DEAR REEDS, STOP SUCKING PLS. KTHX.

3. DEAR WEATHER, WTF R U DOIN? It was cold and rainy, and then it was hot and muggy and today was foggy-but-superbright and then I was inside all day and then it was cold and I actually needed to use the heater in the car this evening. What??

4. Note to self: YOU CAN'T PEEL OUT WHEN IT'S RAINING. YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TRACTION FOR THAT. It's okay, though, it happened each time within the first 3 minutes I was driving and none of them were situations that required peeling out and there were no crashes or anything and then after it happened I remembered to accelerate more slowly.

5. ... I don't really know but I feel like there should be a 5. Look for a future post about Star Trek waffles? YES THEY EXIST THIS IS TRUFAX. I sort of wonder how Zoe Saldana feels about people eating her face on waffles. For that matter, also Chris Pine and Zach Quinto (<3 <3 <3)

6. omg i am watching so much star trek. I FOUND ALL THE CHANNELS THAT TOS AND TNG ARE ON AND I DVR THEM AND IT IS WONDERFUL. I LOVE STAR TREK LIKE BURNING.

7. I keep forgetting that having an ear infection is in fact "being sick" -- I run around doing all the things I would normally do and since I'm not coughing or sneezing or feverish or achy or nauseous, I don't actually consider it "being sick" except for the part where my ear sometimes feels funny/painful and I have to take MASSIVE HORSE PILLS three times a day. Except I keep spontaneously sleeping. On the couch in front of the TV, dozing lightly in the library in front of the VCR setup (I HATE YOU BUSYWORK CLASS), taking 3-hour naps in my parents' living room... Well, maybe that's not so unusual -- I tend to fall asleep/take extravagant naps every time I go home, it seems. But still. It's also waaay too hard to get up in the mornings. THANKS BUT NO THANKS, EAR INFECTION.

8. At least I don't have 'flu like my brother. Yeah, apparently today he has a 100-degree fever and coughing. GET YOUR FLU SHOTS, KIDS. Swine flu and seasonal flu. (o btw I was definitely misinformed about the whole "swine flu is the only flu active in the u.s." thing -- there is ALSO regular old seasonal influenza and you should DEFINITELY get flu shots for both kinds k? some of my family from norcal has already had both kinds this fall.)

9. Oh! So, I glimpsed DIAF through the door in a rehearsal for one of the youth orchestras that uses our facilities. And I, like, wanted to get mad and hurt, or I tried to, or something... but then I realised that I don't care enough to get hurt and I don't have the energy for it and, you know what? That felt good. I still kind of wanted to key his car. I didn't, though -- I wanted to go home and eat dinner more. More good, yeah? Heh.

10. My grandma has a guava tree in her back yard and it has FRUIT and some of them are RIPE and so yesterday when we were at her house for lunch my mum and I went out and picked guavas!! And persimmons! (OMG SO MANY PERSIMMON. SO MANY.) I LOVE GUAVAS. I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT GUAVAS. THEY SMELL SO GOOD. AND OMG SO TASTY. I HAVE SO MANY GUAVAS. GUAVAS ARE LOVE. (corrolary: my family is love. SO MUCH LOVE.)

11. This business of being too busy for life sucks a lot, not least because it is making all of my LJ entries freakin' ENORMOUS. OH MY GOD INTERNET I MISS YOU SO MUCH

oh godddddddddddd

the kittens are BOTH!! under the comforter but on top of the topsheet, and attacking my toes through it. Which is adorable! Especially the warm, soft, kitten-sized comforter lumps. BUT OH GOD IT TICKLES

oh thank god they stopped

-----

Dear Flatmate,

I know I tend to take curves on the freeway, especially the ramps, quite fast. I know my car handles well enough for me to do so. You going "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" in the backseat is not entertaining, cute, or endearing, and it does not make me want to slow down, either. It just pisses me right the fuck off and makes me want to go fucking faster to teach you a lesson so shut the fuck up.

p.s. You telling the kittens loudly that their nails are sharp and need cutting does not endear you to me, either. I will cut the kittens' nails when I think they need it and when the are relaxed enough and I have the time. Being coy about it does not make the confluence of these events any more likely. shut the fuck up. maybe if you didn't insist on holding them when they don't to be held, you wouldn't encounter their claws. I haven't had problems yet.

p.p.s. I won't thank you for finally cleaning the stove and the countertop. I am quite relieved that you did because the mess you have left unattended for several days was on the verge of becoming a biohazard (seriously, that bowl that you used for defrosting the raw chicken sat out three days, and that fork with the raw egg was from yesterday morning), but I refuse to thank you and congratulate you for doing something that should be automatic and prompt -- not a special feat deserving a reward. And while I'm glad you finally picked up most of your shit that was scattered around the living room, I see no reason for your flip-flops to still be under the coffee table. You don't even wear them why the fuck should they ever be out of your room.

-----

so I FINALLY completed week 2 of my running program, after attempting it for three consecutive weeks. Wednesday was 1000x easier than Monday, and Friday's 4:1 was not the most torturous ever, and yesterday was almost pleasant -- I ran in the evening, from my parents' house to the fire station and back, while they were on their walk. I was sort of with them but not really, in the way that I ran ahead of them for four minutes, then for the walking i doubled back towards them and we had time to meet up and say hi before I had to run off again. It worked. Also, it was dark and cool, which may also have been good. I've noticed that Mondays are super hard, so I did "30 min easy walk" today instead of "rest" in the hopes that it makes it less daunting to start again tomorrow. We'll see. (yes, I do know that athletes should take a day off every 7-10 days, but I think it might make it easier to start again tomorrow if I didn't do nothing today.)

Mum and I went shopping yesterday afternoon -- for once in my life, I went to DSW without buying anything, but fear not! I made a list of shoes to find pictures of and then maybe we can have a poll or something about whether I should buy new shoes and if so which ones. I didn't get a red dress either, or a new concert blouse (my old concert blouse I still love, but it is getting a bit faded. sadness!), but I did get new jeans (much needed) and a belt and a shawl, and two button-downs (one white, short-sleeved, and okay I guess, and one off-white, long-sleeved, slightly more casual, and GORGEOUS), and two waistcoats (i am filled with joy) (one is solid black with a full back and pointy lapels, the other is grey-brown stripey and it goes in a band around the back, then has adjustable elastic to connect that band to the "collar". It's less spiffy than the black one, but I still like it). And they were on sale and mum had a gift card and everything.

Tomorrow I have an orientation for the school of education, and supposedly all will be explained and we will no longer be confused and worried. It starts at 8.30a though, which SUCKS.

Tuesday will be full of the busy also. Plus, I'm going to bring the kittens to visit the library. O.o

Thursday night is orchestra auditions. Bassoon at 8, contra at 8.30 (appointments are 15 minutes each.) I'm feeling pretty good about contra -- the excerpts must be easier than last year's, because I've been able to practise them intermittently and it's still gone smoothly. Bassoon not so much. I kind of inadvertently took the last few days off because I am a bad music major, and so I'm a little apprehensive. Plus, my tempi are too slow for the fiddly excerpts still, my Mozart is Not Tidy Enough, I'm pretty sure unintended rubato is happening in the slow excerpts, my reeds are fighting me, and ... I'm worried. I feel like as much as I wanted to prove myself last year, because I was a senior dammit, the expectations are even higher this year because I'm a fifth-year and I gave a good recital and my main competition are the new master's student, who has the same number of years of experience as me but will have better parts anyway unless I really kick ass in auditions, and the same two-years-younger moderately flaky technique whiz who has been kicking my ass in auditions since he arrived. And I just don't really know how I was so motivated last summer, but not this summer, even though this summer feels like higher stakes.

P.S. I still haven't finished gathering info for grad schools. But if I want to audition anywhere I'd better find out what excerpts/pieces/etudes I need to learn, and soon. Bugger.

I spent all afternoon at home today. Mum and I got our eyebrows threaded (she was so unprepared for the pain. it was a little hilarious), I watched Wall-E, my clothes are clean without me having to spend tons of quarters, I didn't have to cook my own food, I have my new running shoes, and I spent all day with people who love me.

I still feel shitty.

Also, I just got home and first I had to pretend to give a damn about Flatmate's day, and now she is watching shitty trashy tv and I wish I could somehow just not hear it because it is such utter trash. Also:

Dear Style Channel,
"Tranny" is not a word that is okay for you or the people in your shows to use. If a transperson is using it to reclaim it, that is his or her prerogative, but it is considered perjorative in any other context, especially that of completely imbecilic straight women talking about being unfashionable and having "camel-toe."
Get the fuck out of my living room,
Sigma

-----

In other news, the kittens were very good boys at the vet's this morning. They were getting boosters of a vaccine. And, OMG. I was expecting to have to gentle them through big scary needles, BUT NO. INSTEAD THEY SQUIRTED THE MEDICINE INTO THEIR NOSES WITH TINY KITTY NOSE SYRINGES.

They were pretty okay with it, and I was impressed. I much prefer shots to squirting shit up my nose. Seriously, I hate nasal sprays. Hate.

Whoa wtf Baxter is literally trying to climb the walls. WTF KITTEN. WTF.

-----

It kind of disturbs me that I'm saying this before the school year has even begun, but I want to live alone so badly. OMG GTFO OF MY FLAT. God. GODDAMN I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE.

-----

ALSO the news made me angry. There was a segment about medical marijuana dispensaries and how the city of Los Angeles has FAILED ALL OVER ITSELF with a TOTAL LACK OF FEES AND REGULATIONS and it pissed me right the fuck off. Because apparently the borough of Eagle Rock has fucking ELEVEN dispensaries or something, most of them unregistered. I know firsthand that Westwood Village has two or three. There's a loophole in the law that the owners of these places are exploiting to apply to have them, but also the board that is supposed to review said applications or whatever is NOT REVIEWING THEM and they're opening illegally, without licenses or whatever, and no one is stopping them, and OH BY THE WAY the illegal shops? PAY NO TAXES OR FEES BECAUSE THE CITY ISN'T PAYING THEM ANY ATTENTION OR ANYTHING so EVERYTHING they make is profit. And it's a culture and one that is put on a pedestal, fucking idealized and aspired to and worshipped, and somehow the bulk of people pay no attention to how much it actually can (and in many cases does) fuck them up.

But I think what really makes me the most angry is the TOTAL lack of restrictions on who can get a weed card. I am not denying the value of marijuana as a real, medical treatment for some people -- I know a musician who has a serious and painful gastrointestinal (i think?) condition with an equally serious and painful treatment, and being high while she's recovering from it is pretty much all that gets her through it. Similarly, other people with legitimate need of marijuana -- cancer patients, pain patients -- should be able to get it. THIS DOES NOT APPLY to bullshit excuses like, oh, say, exaggerated tendinitis, and then the "patient" immediately goes out and treats it as a justification for buying virtually unlimited amounts of the drug, and a justification for being fucking blazed all the fucking time -- both to others (with limited success) and to himself (BECAUSE ADDICTS ARE LYING LIARS WHO LIE, ESPECIALLY TO THEMSELVES).

I guess what I'm saying is there needs to be a system of controls on (a) who can prescribe it (I'M LOOKING AT YOU, DOCTORS OF DUBIOUS INTEGRITY), (b) for what reasons it can be prescribed, and (c) how much a patient can acquire. YOU WANT TO CALL IT MEDICINE? TREAT IT LIKE OTHER PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. YOU KNOW, WITH REAL PRESCRIPTIONS AND PHARMACIES. NONE OF THIS "CANNABIS COLLECTIVE" HIPPIE BULLSHIT. I AM CALLING YOU OUT, LOS ANGELES, MEDICAL PROFESSION, UNITED STATES, WHO-THE-FUCK-EVER. GET IT THE FUCK TOGETHER. GET IT UNDER SOME FUCKING CONTROL.

Um. It, ah, touches a FUCKING nerve, okay? FUCK.

because i'll always wish i had protested more.

FUCK.



FUCK.

Dear Shoe Boy,
You're still gorgeous, but the after-hours drop at the library is meant to be used after hours. There is no bin there when we are open, which you could clearly see, because that wall is floor-to-ceiling windows. When we are open, you are meant to come the fuck inside and return your books in the inside drop bin.

Not as indulgent as you think I am,
Sigma

Composers, I swear.

Today when I looked out the window of my flat it was frighteningly hazy, and my chest was tight enough that I needed to use my inhaler without doing anything more than walking to the window, so I decided to delay today's run. Hopefully the air will be clearer this evening? If it isn't, I'll take today as a Day Of Rest and nudge the training schedule back a day. Or until I'm no longer afraid to open the windows. Granted, I'll likely have to regress to a smaller run-to-walk ratio, but that's okay. I'd rather not breathe smoke.

Yesterday I finally started my grad school research. I'm still running with this (admittedly baseless) idea that Chicago is A Place I Want To Be, so that would mean Northwestern (technically in Evanston but not prohibitively far from Symphony Center eh?), Roosevelt, or DePaul. From there I jumped to check out the New York schools (god the Manhattan SoM sounds fantastic but I'm a little afraid of NYC and I'd probably never ever get in anyway), and I'm working my way westwards. The idea is that I want to go to school far, far away. And apparently my parents want to have a Serious Conversation about that with me, which will be joyous, I'm sure. I know I was talking a lot a while ago about going to grad school in Europe, but... I dunno. It's proving difficult to find information on what schools are even "good," especially information in English (because I just don't have the patience to wade through real-life German right now), and I'm pretty sure I don't want to end up playing with any kind of European "sound," although the German sound is miles better than French or even English bassoon. And Europe might be prohibitively expensive right now. Plus I have latched onto Chicago-in-my-head, which is kind of undercutting my motivation to investigate European schools. Eh. Musicians (er, Amanda), where are the other schools I should be looking at? How have I studied music in college for four years without knowing this? How have my friends found out where they should apply? (Of course, now that I'm looking inside the U.S. I imagine my teacher will have a lot more info for me.)

Also! I just spent a good long while chatting with Former Dungeon Master Ben about schools and teaching and sci-fi (he's reading Asimov for the first time; I've been DVRing Star Trek TOS & TNG and overdosing on Torchwood and reading all sorts of interesting meta about Sci-Fi and Television and Issues) and just... life. And I loooooove Ben and I miss hanging out with him, but inside my head (probably not inside his) the spectre of J hangs between us and I definitely still want J to Die In A Fire. I definitely felt a lot less awkward today than a few months ago, though, which is comforting. Because we are, in fact, friends on our own merit and not just through J. I <3 Ben. (and god damn do I miss playing D&D. *pout*)

In other news, one of my fellow Library Assistants suggested putting honey in coffee, which I had never considered before (because honey is for tea!). I tried it today, and it was actually quite good. *shrug* Who knew?

To Do This Evening:
- run if the air is decent
- practise (despite kitties hiding)
- put a new bag into Mom's Badass Canister Vacuum (which is now MY badass canister vac because she got a fancy new one just like it but better and a different colour!! YAAAAY I LOVE MY MOMMY SHE GIVES ME HER CAST-OFF AUTOMOBILES AND HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES) and vacuum the shit (NOT LITERAL SHIT YOU GUYS) out of my bathroom and the kitties' scratching post and cat carrier, which have been outside de-fleaing and de-Raiding for the past week and are probably now covered in ash.
- make pesto??? -- my basil has gotten pretty large -- and pasta go to with :)
- hang out with Dory, who asked this morning if he could crash on my couch. Yay! I hope he's not allergic to cats... Not that they'll be on him or anything, they sleep with me with the door shut, but still. Dander and all.
- deal with more of my Desk Heap maybe? I got a little bit of it sorted the other night -- or at least, it's now an orderly tower of stuff on top of the printer instead of a jumble of crap all over everywhere. I'm finding myself with a shocking lack of space for papers and things, though, and I don't really know how that happened, because I can't imagine where all these papers used to be hiding. I don't know, Abergavenny? oh god torchwood in my brain
- Pow-wow with Flatmate re: rent, which is due, to find out how we're adjusting for her doing automatic deposits for the cable. (know what SUCKS though? the building manager called me this morning and informed me that the pet deposit will be $400 which is a lot more than I anticipated. Aaaaarg.)
- OMG CUT TIES WITH PAC PROMOS. Which means finding the original paperwork. Which reminds me.

PSA TIEM!!!
If you are approached by a representative of PAC Promos, Inc., DON'T LET THEM TALK YOU INTO ANYTHING. RUN THE OTHER WAY. This mostly applies to ladies who have cause to be on a college campus in SoCal, because that is where they approach people (that is where they approached me).
The discounted salon services sound really nice but they charge you $20 a month and they DON'T STOP. I ended up not even being able to make time for any of the salon trips before the offer expired. At the time, I figured, "Oh well, whatever, I am allowed to make poor choices with my own money" (and $20 a month is definitely my own money, and not my parents') and assumed that they'd stop charging me once the offer expired. NOT SO. Which I did not notice until yesterday. Fuck me. And all the reviews I've read say that cutting ties with them is a huge hassle, which I'm not looking forward to.

... Hooray! Or not.

1. I might have finally started to like Evanescence. I know I used to be snide about them and the "my clothes are black LIEK MY SSSSSSOOOOOOUUUUULLLLLLL" crowd that was into them when I was in... middle school? high school? but "Bring Me To Life" came on in the car on the way to work and... it clicked for me. Huh. I need to revisit this band.

2. Other Bands I Dig Right Now: Paramore, Franz Ferdinand, Linkin Park (CRAAAAAAAAAAAAWLING IIIIIN MY SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN hahahaaaaaa -- but also apparently Brad Delson was pretty awesome as the keynote speaker for Commencement 2009 WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY CLASS OOPS I BLAME YOU MUSIC ED). Plus I'm still totally into Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Cake. To say nothing of my all-consuming love affair with Muse. I'm definitely going to get The Resistance. Even though my disc drive is broken still/again. (I want to have sex with their songs. It's a little distressing.)

3. I did some detective work about my Pulcinella question and uncovered a bunch of other things about it that didn't match up, so I've turned to the authorities: the conductor and his TA. I anxiously await answers.

4. I talked to Boss about it and she says that the kittens probably do still have fleas (I haven't seen any fleas, on the kittens or elsewhere, but I keep finding flea dirt where they've been sitting). So tonight, the plan is to drive to LB and get some spray for the furniture from my mum (and a more badass vacuum -- I Dirt Devil'd the room last night but it's honestly just too much room (She cannae take any more, Captain!) for a poor little Dirt Devil to handle. Which almost makes me question the capacity of a Roomba to handle it... but then, Roombas are designed for entire rooms. Dirt Devils are designed for small, localized messes, like a knocked-over plant pot, and mine does better on carpet than flooring anyway. In conclusion, Roomba: STILL WANT), and to use the spray and bathe the kittens (a regular bath, with warm water and baby shampoo) either tonight or tomorrow morning, whichever works better logistically. And to launder my bedsheets AGAIN.
Fuck I hate fleas. Nasty little fuckers.

5. The kittens had tapeworms from the fleas. I lived in the same room as the kittens and the fleas all weekend. Presumably, I was bitten by the fleas as well. Should I get checked for tapeworm too??? (Boss says probably not.)

6. Things to get from a petstore, maybe also tonight:
- flea collars (to cut up and put in vacuum bags?)
- safety collars for the kittens to wear (they'll have to be v. small)
- flea medicine (Advantage/Frontline/whatever, the kind where you put the drops on the animal's skin (usu. back of the neck))

7. I made a tentative schedule of my classes for Fall, and what I want to know is, WHY IS EVERYTHING ON MONDAY. WHY. Seriously, Monday will likely begin at 8-fuckin-ayemme with a 4-hour education class, and then in the afternoon, there are four things, two that I have to do and two that I want to do, which overlap with each other variously. And won't end until 10 at night. One of those things is Wind Ensemble (and honestly I'll probably be able to get away with only coming on Wednesdays); another is a chamber music class that I might not want to take anyway, since I only enjoy it about 30% of the time (the other 60% I'm either bored or biting my tongue so I don't dress down my classmates), and the pianist I usually work with is super-swamped and I don't know if she'll take the class either. So I guess that resolves my issue -- I take the required ed. classes and don't worry about the performance classes -- but it's still ridiculous that things are so on top of each other. I'm going to have a conflict with orchestra, too, but it's not as egregious -- I'd only be missing the last hour of rehearsal, one day a week. 5 hours out of 6 is not so terrible, right? (It's certainly better than 2 hours out of 4, but what can you do?)

8. The library is FREEZING. We put a thermometer out in the main room and it is 67 degrees Fahrenheit where I sit. Short Chris said that when he came in this morning it was only 64 degrees, so this is an improvement, but not enough of one -- my fingers are still stiff and a little numb. NB: Google says it's 87 degrees outside. DEAR UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 20 DEGREES IS A BIG FUCKING DEAL. YOU WANT TO SAVE MONEY? CUT YOUR ENERGY COSTS BY FIXING YOUR GODDAMN THERMOSTAT. I WOULD LIKE TO NOT WORK IN A MEAT LOCKER, KTHX.

9. According to Google, today is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope! Yay! Accordingly, their logo is all steampunked out. Hee. :)

Could not sleep last night. Ugh.

Not until practically 8 in the morning, when I should have been up eating breakfast, did I actually feel sleepy... so at that point I took the 2 hours of sleep that I could, and skipped the errands I had planned. Well, mostly -- I didn't make it to the drugstore to see if they would develop my cameras, but after I figured out that I'd be late to work anyway (forgot my student ID to get cheap cheap bus fare in my apartment, but after I'd gone back for it, it turned out that the cheap cheap student bus fare only applies during the year. fail), I dropped by the post office to mail a letter and buy one-cent stamps on my way to the bus.

The reason I'm taking the bus, by the way, is that my car is in the shop. My car has been in the shop for nine days. We, in fact, dropped my car off at the shop before we left for Maui, with the understanding that when we returned to California yesterday, they would have finished working on my car. Not so, apparently. We called yesterday morning and they assured us it would be finished by the end of the day. So then we called a bit before they closed and they assured us it was nearly done and that they would call when it was. They did not call. So then my mum had to drive me to my apartment last night, and whenever my car is ready to be picked up (hopefully today!) she will have to drive back and pick me up so that I may drive myself back again. This is absurd. And highly inconvenient.
Dear Norm's,
You've been good to my car in the past but this is Not Okay. I need my car back.
Disappointed,
S

The bus was interesting, though. I like walking places in my new environs, and I found out that I don't even have to go all the way to the end of the street to get to the post office (which is across the alleyway from my bedroom window, BTW -- or at least the top of it's parking is, and post office employees drive loudly in the mornings), because the customer lot has an entrance on the alley and I can just walk through from there to the inside. Cool! And the bus stops pretty close to my building, about three blocks up and one or two over. And a cute boy sat by me: tall, lanky, glasses, auburn dreads. Flatmate (and probably malikamalisha as well) would scold me for not trying to chat him up or something, but I do find that it's nice to just smile on the inside.

So, errands and practising this evening and tomorrow, and hopefully this evening I will be able to get my car back as well.