So Jess and I decided to go to the mall today. I rolled her out to my car, which was parked in the ASSAF parking lot, and we thought we would try to put her wheelchair into my trunk instead of the backseat (it was dirty from rolling through the mud). I opened up my trunk (which I haven’t looked into since I moved in), and there was a web spun through half of it, and spider crawling around on it. And not just any spider, no–it was a black widow… I kind of screamed…..a lot.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t just leave it there; I had to do something about it. So I took off my flip flop and held it threateningly over the spider. I was even scared to attempt to kill it, because what if I missed and it disappeared before I could take another shot? I can’t have a black widow running around in my car. But I finally gathered up the nerve to launch my attack, and I smashed it. So there is a black widow smushed carcass in the trunk of my car. Hopefully, it was the only one…

That, paired with the dead locust in my back windshield kind of has me fed up with bugs. All bugs—beware! I will show no mercy!

I’m finally getting around to blogging about the poetry coffeehouse that was on Monday! It was a new experience trying to get everything organized on time. The back room where we keep all of the cups, plates, napkins, forks, coffee, etc., was filled with boxes, which made it almost impossible to get to everything I needed. I had move things, climb, and pray that nothing fell on my head! But I was able to, eventually, get everything and lay it out on the table. Quite a few people showed up for the first coffeehouse of the year, including professors like Dr. Keiley, Dr. Morgan, Dr. Goldstein, Professor Daily, and Professor Deering. A couple of graduates attended, and there were freshman as well, which was exciting. Hopefully next time, there will be an even better turn out. Naturally, there were microphone problems before we got started. We were really worried we might have to go without, which, for quiet people like me, might have been a problem. Fortunately, our MC (or should it be emcee? I don’t know, the person who introduces everyone on stage) Janae, was able to fix it, and everything from there went without a hitch. Here are some pictures:

 

 

I’m setting up my first coffeehouse as president! I should have probably blogged about it sooner so that people could know about it and attend, but I’ve been run ragged lately-I was so tired that I went to sleep at 9:20 on Saturday night!

So anyway, I got to experience everything that Christina used to do–minus shopping for snacks. Couldn’t fit it in anywhere…. Dr. Keiley did that instead. But I turned in the event proposal form and the financial form (so the coffeehouse could have money for snacks) to Jen last week. I made a flyer, printed it out, and made copies. Then I had to find time to put them up in all of the buildings on campus! I didn’t start putting them up until Thursday night, so I decided it would be smart to put them in all of the academic buildings first. That way, everyone who has class on Fridays can see them. Then, when I had time on Friday, I put them in the residential buildings. So hopefully as many people as possible saw them and will attend. Next time, I’ll have to put the flyers up sooner. When the coffeehouse is over tonight, I’ll blog about it again and tell everyone how wonderful it was!

So I love peanut butter. It’s up there with chocolate on my list of favorite foods. Plus, it’s extra healthy for vegetarians because it’s so full of protein. I eat it with apples, bananas, on sandwiches, and even by itself. Tonight, I was having it with an apple–good stuff. So I’m cutting pieces off the apple, spreading some peanut butter on it, and just generally enjoying it. I glance to the side at the lid to the container and notice something moving…..

Things moving where there are not supposed to be things moving is never good. This was no different–there were ants crawling around on the lid. I, with eyes full of dread, turned to look into the jar of peanut butter that my spoon was sticking out of, and my fears were realized….there were ants in my peanut butter. I froze in disgust. Then I screamed.

It took a few screams, a temper tantrum full of juvenile jumping up and down, and the vicious murder of a few ants to calm me down. My peanut butter, of all things! Apparently, I will have to move all of my food to a very secluded area because it is not safe on top of my refridgerator.

One of my roommates, Jess, broke two bones while she was at a concert this summer. She has a pink cast on her leg as a result. So today, I brought her to Wal-Mart to see if we could find a cast cover so she could take a shower without getting it wet. They didn’t seem to have one. So I suggested she could do one of two things: sit in the shower with her leg hanging out (she didn’t like that idea) or wrap it in saran wrap. So she bought two things of saran wrap, and we returned to the room so she could shower. She wrapped her leg in it and this is what it looked like:

I’ve been on a reading streak lately. I haven’t had much else to do, because I’m not swamped with homework yet. There is a tv in my room, but I’ve never been big on tv. Plus, it’s Brittany’s, and it’s not visible in my parts of the room (I feel awkward just sitting on her bed and watching it, even though she keeps saying that I can). I could check out one of the numerous movies from the library and watch it on my computer, but I don’t have the urge to. So I read. I’ve read Persuasion, by Jane Austen, The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield, Bloodsuckers, by Christopher Moore, and Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. All of them were great books. Austen’s was sentimental, Setterfield’s was a mystery, Moore’s was hilarious, and Vonnegut’s was….well, hard to describe. So I had a nice range of emotions in my picks. I pulled On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers, out of the library. I’m hoping I can finish those two before there is too much work for me to do.

So today was the second day of classes. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have Scientific Literacy, Creative Writing Poetry, and Brit Lit. Scientific Literacy and Creative Writing are both in the morning at 9:30 and 11:00 respectively…..or so I thought….

I went to Scientific Literacy at 9:30 this morning, sat through the entire class and wondered why the syllabus said DSL 100 G and E when I thought I was supposed to be in J. But I disregarded the inconsistency. Then, I went to my Creative Writing class, but when I walked in, there was no one I recognized. The number of English majors is pretty small, so I at least recognize most of them. I walked back out. I called my friend Brittany and she was near my schedule. She told me my Creative Writing class was at 9:30. I denied it, saying I had just sat through my Scientific Literacy class at 9:30. Then I realized what I had done….

I got the times for my classes mixed up. It was just coincidence that the class I happened to sit through was another science class. I did not feel very smart. You’d think by my junior year in college I would know what I was doing……but apparently not!

Boca Raton is taking a bit of a beating from Hurricane Ike. I had to work in the library this morning, so I had to venture out into the rain. There was some flooding on the sides of streets the same as always after hours of rain, but the campus is where I saw the real flooding. I came through the Potomac gate so I could park in the lot on the left (it usually has a spot or two open). I drove through the gate, started to enter the parking lot and stopped. There was an SUV in front of me with it’s tires half covered in water. My little bitty Chevy Cavalier was not going to make it through that lot unscathed, so I put the car in reverse and backed out.

Next, I thought I would try the ASSAF parking lot. I started to drive into it and noticed all of the puddles and potholes sprinkling the mulch lot. And I began to worry. What if my little bitty car gets stuck in one of these potholes? That would be so embarrassing and frustrating because not only is it pouring rain, but I would be stuck in it, and countless other people would be stuck in it because my car would be blocking there cars. But I didn’t get stuck. Instead, someone in another SUV drove around the opposite side of the lot and was facing me. Neither of us could move forward, because there is only enough space for one car at a time. We were in a quandary. I had very little space (and am not experienced with backin up any further than it takes to get out of a parking spot), so I was very worried about backing up. And getting stuck. The lady in her car came out with an umbrella and said that she had tried to reverse, but I guess because of the puddles, her car wouldn’t do it. So I persevered and made my way safely out of the lot, and drove to yet another parking lot. I was successful in that final attempt, and my only dilemma from that point was whether or not I should brave the rain….

I am so excited to have something to do. I started working in the library today, covering people while they are at lunch. There are so many changes! Everything has been moved and changed around. There are more study areas than there were last year. The movies are now in the middle of the library on the right side instead of in the back on both sides. The reference books and children’s books have both been moved, the latter upstairs. Archives is now in the old children’s section. Music now has it’s own desk where the reference desk used to be. All of the reference librarians are now behind the circulation desk. The circulation desk also no longer schedules study rooms, so there’s technically a little less work for us to do. There’s a lot to get used to, now that I’m back. I’m sure I (and many returning students) will have plenty of questions as they get accustomed to the changes.  Here are some of the people to talk to: Charles Kuhn-the big boss, Vesko-the circulation desk manager, Susan-a jack-of-all-trades?? (I ask her for help with everything), Leecy-a reference librarian, Sally-cataloguer, and Tsukasa-the music librarian. These are the people I’ve worked with most since I used to work in the mornings. There are others always ready to answer any questions, including the student workers. So if you need help, now you know where to go!

P.S., I’m also working at Barnes and Noble again, and I can’t wait to get back there!

Wow I had a crazy afternoon! I went to Lynn today to make sure that everything is in order so I can start the semester off without a hitch.

First, I went to the Parking Office to get a decal for my car. The person in charge was at lunch.

So I decided to go to SAS to find out why I had a hold on my account that was keeping me from checking in. I almost had a heart attack when the lady I was talking to told me that I still owed a ridiculous amount of money. It turns out that she had forgotten to add my awards to the equation. We got everything worked out and the hold was taken off of my account.

Next, I went to ask the work study dept. how much money I had available for work study so that I could get my hours. They sent me back to SAS because they were missing paperwork. SAS told me the amount and talked to the work study dept., so that was cleared up.

My next trip was to the library to let Vesko know how much I could work. He was at lunch.

So, I walked back across campus to the nurse’s office. I had blisters and needed two band aids. She generously gave me four.

Then I headed to the parking office, and the guy was back from lunch, so I was able to get a red sticker for my car, which means I can park almost anywhere on campus! I walked to my car, and stuck it on my windshield.

Then, I walked to the College of Arts and Sciences in Frieburger. I talked to Sally, the secretary, and she gave me some tape to put over my band aids, which refused to stay on my heels. I needed to talk to Dr. Morgan, my advisor, about adding another class, because I was one short. He had left for the day. Fortunately, Dr. Goldstein was there, and she set me up for my new class. I’m taking Creative Writing Poetry, British Literature I, Abnormal Psychology, Scientific Literacy, and Computer Applications.

I decided to walk back to my car (where I rememembered that I had another pair of shoes!) and drove around to the parking lot behind the library, because I still needed to talk to Vesko about scheduling my hours.  However, he had a different award amount than what SAS had told me.

So I had to walk back over to SAS and find out why the amounts were different (Vesko’s sheet was done by semester instead of year, so it was less).

Then I walked back to the library and decided with Vesko what hours I could work with my schedule. We decided every Monday and Wednesday from 8:30-9:30 and 2-6. That will still give me time to work my other job at Barnes and Noble….

…Which was my next stop. I had to let my supervisor there know my availability so she could start scheduling me as soon as possible.

That ended a very productive day. I went back to my friend’s apartment and just relaxed for the remainder of it. I wanted to go to the Marketing Department and see Ashlea, Jason, and Debbie, 3 of my fellow bloggers, but I thought it should wait for a day when I was not so worn out. I might go over there on Monday to catch up with them.