La Vie En Rose for 2006 October 17

I was at dagny's working on my french homework... which has to be done online since the workbook is on this website, and the connection suddenly expired and wouldn't let me reconnect so I lost all of the work I'd done. Fab. Of course, the work I had done wasn't very much, I don't know if that makes it better or not.

I convinced the people at Flame and Skewer to make me a gyro like I had in Greece & Albania, with fries, but it still doesn't taste right. It needs tzatiki, I guess, and perhaps the meat is not shady enough.

Then I spied a for sale sign on the home front! I couldn't believe it at first, I thought "bad news, the neighbors are trying to sell, too," before I realised it was in our yard! Of course this means I'll have to live as spotlessly as possible from now on (which may involve buying a new mop), lucky I spent Sunday cleaning. I do think I need to unpack the box of winter clothes, though. It's getting a bit nippy especially in the evenings, and I have only a few sweaters and light jackets to call my own. Everything else is in the *other* box, the one behind the bookcase & underneath several boxes of crystal. I may have to call for help. I barely managed with the box of clothes I did unpack Sunday. I dropped it twice. Those things can get heavy. Anyway, I had to be unpacking because my bottom sheet, from the set I have had for over 5 years, from when we first moved into the house, ripped. I have been patching them for a year now hoping to "mend and make do" but the damage was finally irreparable, and it spread even worse because I couldn't do anything about it & just slept on it anyway for a few nights. Still, I wasn't too worried because it was time for the flannel sheets that I got for Christmas last year, anyway. But of course, these sheets weren't in the bag that I thought they were in (I wonder why Susie labelled it "Rachel's sheets") nor where they in the easily accesible box of "Rachel's linens." All the same, it's worth it to have them nice and cosy on my bed, and Tonks was just thrilled to see the flannel sheets emerge. He likes them even more than I do & has been sleeping on them constantly.

Overall it was a nice weekend of break from schoolwork, even if it was cleaning (I scrubbed the tub and used it for a bath!) and sucky Universal Studios (I have no idea why anyone would go there when all the other parks are so much better, and now I realise why I had never till this point in my life been there before. Nor will I go again. I would rather just go to the Citywalk. There is, after all, a LUSH there). I got to see Jess finally, and her cute house in Pasedena. We met up with her & Chris for a short time in old town. ("Old towns" are so different in Eastern Europe from places like pasedena... you won't find pottery barn there, unless it is a real one. Just walled, cobble stone, windy, narrow streets, into which cars are not allowed, but mopeds whizz down at a threatening speed, you'd better watch out or you'll get run over. Old men sit in derelict shops & bars & coffee shops, old women manage small markets or bazaars, people hawk their wares on blankets or tables, stray kittens break the hearts of tourists, old fountains leak puddles onto the uneven streets, calls for prayer are heard from the towers of mosques... perhaps the only thing the two kinds of "old towns" have in common is that they both make me think of the Corrs song.) After the park I went over to Rob's and we watched Curse of the Wererabbit while recovering from the crappiness. I fell asleep after the movie and when I woke up he was watching college football, so I stayed for a little while longer, hoping in vain to see USC lose. I wish my Bruins had a better football team but I suppose their day will come. I never used to care about football at all, but I find my pride vis-a-vis all things Bruin increases as time passes. I actually think it is a compensation for going to such an unknown, overall crappy school now. Walking to the history forumn with one of my professors, she observed that we seem to be hypersenstive about being "Bakersfield," and in compensation, viligantly read NY Times, and other such symbolic acts. It's like the British in India being more British than the British in Britain. I cheer for the UCLA football team because it's a way of reminding myself, and others, of a level of validity in my education.

Sometimes I think I think too much.

I hate being one of those people who holds phone conversations in the library... actually I never was till just now, but the lady from the finacial aid office called me about the frantic scholarship application of a few weeks ago. I had about given up, but apparently they have all my stuff & will look at it. Apparently they has 90 applicants and are only accepting 4, so I musn't get my hopes up, but it's nice to know at least I have a shot, so it was worth it to do all that franticness.

One month till my next application is due, but I'm working on it now & going to sent it early to avoid more franticness.

Also I am calling for a ban of the post office. First off, Leonard's packages of heirlooms disappear of the face of the planet. This is quite unacceptable. How does one lose a large rubbermaid tub full of scrapbooks, hardcover OEDs, baby blankets, etc.... I mean really, HOW? Earlier this summer I had a real spook when I recieved not one but TWO of Aunt Jeuney's yearly newsletters addressed to mom. I didn't really look at them, just wondered why someone was using Aunt Jeuney's address lables. Then I saw something that looked a lot like a younger version of myself. One of them had picutures from her 80th birthday party and had handwritten on it something like "Dear Frances, thanks for all the hard work you did for my party..." The dead trying to communicate to the dead through the living? No, just the post office delivering a few pieces of mail about 5 years late. So perhaps there is hope for Leonard's packages after all? And the silver earrings from Dublin that were supposed to be Jen's 19th birthday present? I haven't forgotten, USPS.

Then I stopped getting my mail recently. I was so absorbed in franticness that I didn't notice for a while, but when the $160 worth of transcripts never arrived I suddenly realised that I also hadn't gotten the book and DVD I'd also ordered, or any bank statements, or anything AT ALL. I had my mail forwarded to SF for the summer, and stopped it when I got back, but I never got my mail until I spoke to the postman in person and he said he hadn't gotten anything, but he'd give me my mail. Thanks. I spoke with him again after the crisis, and he said he's gotten another forward for me. It must have been my stop forward, put through as another forward, only about a month after I submitted it. BRAVO, USPS. I stand and applaud your incompetence, which has managed to reach a level beyond comprehension. Is there any other company that would get away with this kind of crap? I'm afraid this may get me taken off Bush's communist alert list, but perhaps what needs to happen is the PS should be privatized. I don't know, I'm not an economist. But if nothing else, going to the competition will show the USPS what's what, and maybe they will be motivated to change their ways (yeah right). It may be a bit like, to borrow from a really old Newsweek that I read recently, cleaning my house with baking soda and vinegar while everyone in China is lining up to buy a car for the first time... but doing something is better than doing nothing. From now on I'm going to reduce my use of the postal system to the bare minimum. I will pay all bills online if I possibley can. Packages will be sent via UPS or FedEx or DHL. Especially important ones like grad school applications. I don't want them showing on the doorstep of the board of graduate studies when I've already recieved by degree from somewhere else because the first place never got my application... till now. Anyway, who's with me?

That's ok, I don't mind travelling alone.