Monthly Archives: April 2002
I think I've lost 10 pounds in the last 5 days in snot weight alone. Finally, though, I'm able to smell a few things and taste a few things. This morning, I woke up and was able to breath clearly for a few minutes. I think I've almost licked this sickness. I've surely blasted my body with enough vitamin C to cure 80 million cases of scurvy.
Today, the sun is out... things seem to be going well for me and my friends. My friend Emily, got an unofficial offer from the Department of Defense, which would be a sweet job. Within the last week, Tom has finalized his grad school plans, got a web consulting job, and got a car. He's coming to BG in the fall and we're probably going to be roomies :) Won't that be fun :) Oh man, I'll be "living in sin." Gramma might not be so happy, but I've always wanted to say that I was "living in sin." :) Now that Tom, seems more affluent to her, she's less focused on the notion of me marrying Joe ("no Gramma, I like boys and so does Joe..." Gramma:"No, honey, that's just a phase, you hold on to that Joe!"). Although, I can just hear it now.. "you're living with Tom? What will Joe think?" :)
My friends dragged me to the ACM picnic on Saturday (actually came to my apartment and kidnapped me), and now I'm actually glad that I went. I was speaking with one of my favorite profs, Sub Ramakrishnan, about a company that I'm interviewing with. Apparently, he used to do consulting for them and said that I could use him as a reference :) Hooray! I applied for that ITS job too, which would be sweet if I could get as well. I also passed the first round at family movie video. Yeah, I know it's not in my major, but it would be a fun job if I could get it, and something where I could totally succeed. Quentin Terrantino started out in a video store ya know :) Somebody's gotta hire me! I have so much to offer! I can do next to anything if I need to do so!
I decided to head to the union dedication last night too (complete with a box of tissues and my cough drops), which was a good time. I got to hang out with some cool lab people, eat some good food, and even see a few of my friends do a traditional Indian dance (like from India, not the un-pc term for native americans). It was a good time.
I have 8 million things to do to today (mainly catching up from my sick time), so I'm going to get back to work :)
04.28.02 9:05am(0 comments)
In the last two days, I've:
-Mostly slept
-Used a full box of tissues
-Drank 4 quarts of orange juice
-Taken my medicine (as instructed)
-Used a half a bottle of nyquil
-Used a full box of Dayquil
-Stayed inside
So now... I'm getting pretty tired of staying cooped up. On the other hand, I can now breathe a bit better and I'm starting to be able to smell and taste things again. Hopefully, the worst of this bronchitis / upper respiratory infection is over. Hooray for me!
04.27.02 6:53am(0 comments)
I wonder why, sometimes, that when I go to do something nice for people.. they don't show up.
I had this cleaning initiative for my employees. They cleaned every week, and got a sticker on a board in the lab, kind of like that book-it thing that we all did as kids. At the end of the semester, I was going to pay out of my own pocket to take everyone out for pizza.
Well, I'd been asking for dates. No one said that they had a problem with the date that I had scheduled the pizza party. I asked for RSVP's earlier in the week, only got 2. Then I sent out a targeted email today that pretty much said "if I'm going to do something nice for you at least you can give me the courtesy of telling me whether or not you're coming." I got a few more responses then. One kid even said "thank you." Imagine that! Somebody showed some gratitude! GOLLY-GEE.
So today, I've been feeling like utter shit, but I decided that I would still go through with tonight's party. I needed to get out of the house and it was at polleyeyes, that has good food, and soup. Well... only one employee showed up, and another supervisor. I just don't understand. All semester my employees were like.. woo hoo pizza party, I'm so excited. It comes up.. and nobody comes.
I'm just really tired of doing nice things for people and then having no one show up. Perhaps I'm cranky because I'm sick, but still, at least acknowledge my fricken presence and say if you're coming or not, or even a "thanks but no thanks" would've been nice (and I got a few of those, so thanks to those who sent me those). I guess common courtesy is lost among the masses these days.
04.26.02 11:45pm(0 comments)
I'm feeling a little better. I can almost sorta kinda breath now :) Since I've been sick, people have been really nice to me :) My friends came over last night and cooked me dinner, which I'm sure was absolutely delicious, but I can't taste anything...
TOM SENT ME FLOWERS!!! :)
If you wanna see what they look like... go here. I don't think he got them from this website (I hope he didn't spend that much on me!), but they are so gorgeous and I bet they smell really nice (If I could smell them).
I'm just going to keep resting, and hopefully, I will be well by tomorrow (so I can go to the union dedication and do my thang).
04.26.02 6:34am(0 comments)
I'm sick...
I went to the health center and they tell me I have bronchitis and an upper respiratory infection. The problem here is that I have *way* to much stuff to do. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it together enough to get all my stuff finished.
I got my laptop (thanks AMY!) because Amy was nice enough to let me ship it to her room in the dorm where they sign for packages at the front desk. If I had to deal with UPS in my current state, there would be *serious* issues. All is well with my laptop, I just need the windows98 upgrade cd and a number thingie and I'm set. I thought I had one, but it seems to be caput.
Well, I'm going to go drink some orange juice and take a nap.
04.25.02 3:03pm(2 comments)
I'm taking a quick study break to give this here journal a lil' lovin' (It's feeling neglected).
So this weekend rocked. Friday, I finally got my stuff from UPS (*grumble*) and picked up a few extra hours in the computer lab (where I was able to get a few things accomplished because you *know* it was absolutely dead in there). Friday night, Tom and I had a little cookout and invited a few people over, mainly CS people, including Jon's little sister HannaBeth, who was extremely well behaved. It was cool to sit around and rant with everyone. The food was good (hamburgs, hot dogs, pasta salad, baked beans, chips, fixin's, the whole nine yards). I had a good time and it seemed like everyone else did too. After it was over, Tom headed to the dorms to play and I stayed home and got some more stuff accomplished.
Saturday was the surplus auction. I managed to score a very nice bowling ball, a huge fish bowl, and some other misc. stuff for only two bucks. Tom got a bunch of cute little power macs, a few monitor, and an old power book for about 70 bucks total. They all work minus one monitor. Again, I got to hang out with some CS people and chat, which is always fun. I was dissapointed in the pallets of computers though. They were going for rediculous sums of money. I was not about to pay anything over 10 bucks for that crap and they were going for around 100+. However, if anyone from the auction has an extra working cd-rom drive laying around that they would like to sell to me, lemme know. I've needed one for quite some time now.
I ended up leaving the auction early so I could work on some stuff at home. Later on, I helped Tom and Brian load up their stuff from the auction and headed home. I took a wee nap and Tom and I headed back out for the night.
It was lil sibs and kids weekend, so Jon brought his sister into town. It was also her birthday, so he thought it would be fun to have a little party for her! We had a bit of ice cream cake and then went bowling (where HannaBeth proceeded to kick Jon's butt.. it was funny :) ). I got to test out my new ball, and after a run through the shiney ball machine, it worked rather well! We all bowled 3 games and then Tom and I took Amy home and headed out again.
The breakup was playing at howards, so we *had* to go :) Since the dismissal of the old bassist, I was also curious to see how the new guy was doing. I have to say, I was *very* impressed. The new guy could really rock out. The fire and passion was back and it was one of the best shows I've seen. I feel bad for Jeb, but... well.. ya' know. Anyway, they rocked out as usual and I'd hate to be the band that followed them (which was Crazy Eddie that night, but we didn't stick around). This thursday night is the cd release for the breakup. You *know* I'm gonna be there with my rock n roll t-shirt on :) It's a good show folks, you should check it out.
After the show, Tom and I went with scott and Jay to myles for some good tasty pizza. Feelin very heavy and tired, after it was over Tom and I went home. Myles pizza is good, but I can only eat it every so often.
Sunday, Tom's parents came to pick him up (which was *very* nice of them.. with all the stuff that I have due right now, there would've been no way I could've taken Tom home). They took us out to lunch at el Zarape (menudo is meat soup, *not* the mexican pop band we all know and love) and we had quite the tasty lunch. Tom's parents are really nice folks and it's cool that I can relax and have a good convo with them. I hope I can score some graduation tickets so that they can come see me get the B.S. (if you have two extra tickets, lemme know!). Sadly, they took Tom home and I spent most of the afternoon coding and studying.
Later that night, Amy, Jon, and I headed to cosmos to study for the 429 exam. We actually got a lot accomplished, so I'm very happy about that. Being the nice guy that he is, Jay hooked us up with some *tasty* sandwiches (jay makes an excellent roast beef sammich called "the big bang"). Later on, I went home and did more studying. Talked to Tom a bit... and then went to sleep.. got up... Studied more. Hooray.
So I have this exam, a *huge* psyc lab, two programs, and 5 bowls with trimmed feet (Ceramics) to finish this week. Hopefully, My thumb will be okay enough to throw today. If not, I'm going to have a problem. This whole dislocation of the thumb really hadnt been that much of a trouble, but when I throw on the wheel, I kinda need it to center my piece (which is *really* important). The heel of my hand is still pretty sore and swollen, but I think I can handle a little pain in order to get a good grade. Wouldn't be the first time :)
My laptop is supposed to come today via UPS (HA!) so Im thinking about just telling them to leave it at the depot and I'll come get it. There's no way I'll be able to get it otherwise. I really don't want to go through what I did last week. That was *unreal.* And the customer service... SUCKED! When you have a customer who has some sort of need, you take care of it... there's no SORRY we can't do that.. leaving the customer high and dry. NO NO NO! You find a way to fix the problem. Always, when I call UPS with a problem, they just give me this flat answer and no solution. I say, we obviously have a problem here that needs to be resolved. Here's what I can and cannot do. What can you do to help me. NOTHING! GEEZE! I shouldn't *have* to speak to a supervisor. Okay.. I need to get back to studying before I get too upset :)
Have a good week all!
04.22.02 7:19am(3 comments)
I HATE UPS!
They are the most incompetant, un-customer friendly delivery service ... EVER.
They deliver my package and I'm not there, they leave a little note telling me they'll be back during a certain time frame. I make it a point to be back during that time frame. They come early. No package for me. I call them up. I ask them to deliver on a certain day, when I know someone will be home to get the package. We wait *ALL DAY* for this package. I want to leave, it's gorgeous out. I tell them to deliver it on friday. They say they can't do it. They say it's on the way. A friend offers me *free sushi* but I have to wait on this package (fortunately enough they waited too.. Thanks Jon!). I keep calling. They find my package (After seven pm) and it's *still* in the warehouse! They tell me they'll deliver it today during a certain time frame, but I'm not holding my breath. I just want my damn sweeper!!!
So my question is...
WHATS WRONG WITH THE F-IN' POST OFFICE?
So many websites / ebay-ers use ONLY UPS. Why? The post office offers the same services, is competant and friendly, is much cheaper and they GET ME MY DAMN PACKAGE MUCH FASTER WITHOUT ANY HASSLE!
I love the USPS. Someone delivers a package and you're not home, they leave you a note, you go to your local post office and pick it up. You don't have to call over and over again. You don't have to go a half an hour to pick it up. IT'S NOT A DIFFICULT PROCESS. USPS has laws and a quality of service that they need to uphold. They are friendly and help you out if you need to track a package. THEY GET YOU YOUR PACKAGE.
I just want my new bissel sweeper, my mixing bowls, and my blender / food processor. Is that really to much to ask? NO! GIMME MY STUFF UPS!
04.19.02 8:13am(3 comments)
What a wildly fun day!
Yesterday, I worked most of the day, signed my summer lease, and went home to find that I had new windows in my apartment (finally).
I had a great interview in the afternoon and hit Kmart for some good deals. After I came home from that, I went rollerblading with Jon & Emily. We cruised a bit in Emily's jeep and ended up at the bike trail south of town. Since I am a beginner, I couldn't quite keep up and they were always ahead of me, but I had fun learning anyway. While I was trying to catch up, I hit the asphalt pretty hard. I scraped up my left knee, tore my pants, and messed up my hands pretty hard. My thumb really hurts, but other than that, I'm ok. Jon and Emily were nice enough to go get the car and come get me on the bike trail (I was near a road). We all went home after that because everyone had work to do.
I came home and was pretty hungry, so I went to meijer and picked up some sweet corn (13 for $2). It helped me get back to my roots when I was shucking the corn and the corn was soooo tasty. *MMMMMMM*
I did some work, but it had been quite the long day so I talked to Tom a bit on the phone and went to bed early.
Tom is coming into town today :) My stuff from UPS is supposed to come today too. Maybe I'll be home in time to intercept it!! Tom and I plan on doing a lot of grilling and chilling out, so I'm excited for that. His parents are coming to town on sunday so that should be fun too :)
Hooray! It's gorgeous outside! I'm graduating in a few weeks! Life is good :) (sorta)
04.17.02 7:47am(0 comments)
I'm having issues with motivation lately. i can't seem to get myself to do anything. It's not like I'm doing anything fun in the meantime either.
I just sit here.
04.15.02 6:45pm(0 comments)
If you haven't heard from me... sorry..
I've been busy.
I'm trying to get my affairs in order and am doing a pretty good job of it.
I'm kinda workin three jobs right now: the student job, the lab supervisor job, and the finding a new job job. I'm really pushing myself here, but hey.... I work my best under pressure :)
If you really want to know my battle plan, talk to me sometime. I don't really have much time to jot it all down here.
But yeah, if you're wondering... I'm still alive and I'm doing okay.
04.10.02 11:14am(1 comment)