Nancy

On Thursday, I was still in limbo. 

Today, San Jose State reports the following: "Congratulations! Your master's degree has been officially posted on our records." 

In six weeks, I should have received a diploma.

I don't recommend taking 7+ years to finish a Masters, but that's what worked for me. 

Thank you for your service.  Whatever caused you to join, whatever caused you to leave.  Thank you for your willingness.

In other news, my roommate's nephew is finishing paratrooper training and being fast-tracked into Special Forces.  His family is pleased.  I am concerned for his safety, and somewhat cynical about the fast-tracking.

In other other news, 11 of the 14+2 essays for my Master's portfolio have been approved.  yeah!  I should finish two more today, and turn them in after SJSU's "scheduled emergency electrical maintenance" ends at 10pm. 

All I wanted was to go this concert (Weird Al, free with admission to the San Mateo County Fair), with my roommate (Dan) and my sweetheart (Steve).

Plan #1: Steve would take off work around 5pm, BART over, we'd pick him up at 6ish, and we'd hit the road.
Plan #2: Dan would drive over to Oakland, pick up a guitar and Steve at 5ish, drive back, and we'd all head for San Mateo by 6pm.

Reality: Traffic was bad (on a Friday afternoon, during the summer getaway season.  Go figure.)  Dan got to Steve's around 5:40.  They decided to take BART instead of driving back, again because of traffic.  Although they had decided by 5:45 to BART back, they were mysteriously not able to get themselves onto a train until 6:20, arriving after 7:00.  I was pissed.  When we finally made it to San Mateo, the parking attendant helpfully informed us that the concert was full.  Since I had pre-purchased fair tickets, we went anyway.  With a show of immense maturity, I said "Meet me back here at 9:30," and stomped off to sulk and have a hissy fit on my own.

All in all, I spoke maybe 100 words to them all night, and pretended not to see them at the fair.  My mother and bigjohnsf kindly bore the brunt of my phone ranting.  The boys were wisely waiting for me at 9:30, and I silently dropped them off at BART.

One of my biggest issues with people is their failure to make and/or execute a plan.  In this case, it was the execution of the plan that was faulty.  And there's no way to make up for this.  When Dan melted the bottom off one of my saucepans, he replaced it.  In this case, all he can do is apologize, and all I can do is accept it, eventually, grudgingly.

Thus, another craptastic summer draws to a close.  Could it be that the high point of my summer was a visit to my 86 year old godmother?

In other news, the mice get bolder by the day.  They mosey around the kitchen, turning up their cute little noses at our carefully baited traps.  They stop and stretch luxuriously before scurrying up one of their holes.  They're just so darn cute, I hate to poison them.  However, the excessive pooping and nibbling must end. 

I'll be driving to LA this weekend with my folks to visit my very depressed godmother (her son is re-starting chemo, with a bad prognosis), and also my brother and sister-in-law.  Originally, I planned to fly home late Sunday night, as my folks weren't returning until Tuesday or Wednesday.  Now they're driving back Monday.  Given normal circumstances, I woud drive back, no hesitation.

But it's my last week of summer vacation, when I try to cram in all the stuff that I didn't do in the past two months. And the last day having the house all to myself.

Pros of driving: Saves money, more time basking in sunny LA, more familial bonding
Pros of flying: More time at home to do "stuff"; less familial annoyance; more time with my honey; potentially less stress about life

In reality, the late night flight will neither sell out nor increase in price, and I can essentially walk-on.  Ah, Southwest, thank you for allowing me to put off my decision making until the last minute!

• Looking back and seeing another wasted summer. 
• Having to find a new roommate
• Our messy house
• My messy room
• Fog
• The backyard - a weedy, unsafe disaster area
• The landlords who don't call back
• Laundry that doesn't wash itself, nor fold and put itself away
• Having to deal with the crap from the recently moved-out roommate, including dusting, vacuuming, possibly steam-cleaning the carpet
• Personal procrastination
• Being 3 pages into a 5 page research paper that was due yesterday
• Turning in two other late assignments, knocking 7% off my grade
• Inadvertantly receiving a free registration to a conference that I should, but don't really want to attend.  And now I feel guilty and will have to attend some of it.
• Feeling down, because my life really is fine.  Job, roof overhead, friends, family.  all fine.
• Microwave - totally dead.  Hosed.  less than 6 months old.  Serious crimp in my morning routine.

Looking on the bright side: 

• Remembered to take out trash and recycling
• Daily flossing continues
• New laptop from work
• Can still drive manual transmission w/o stalling

I have to upload some files for a class I'm taking.  Included in the email with my account information is this helpful statement: "Please note that you will need to use the SFTP protocol to upload your media files.  It is assumed that you already know how to use SFTP to transfer files to a UNIX server."

Um, ok.  But do they recommend a software? Not that I can tell.  I tried to download FireZilla, which just wouldn't install.

Anyone out there care to recommend a (preferably free) relatively user-friendly program?

Now that I've used up all my rollover minutes with ATT Wireless, I'm thinking about changing cell phone carriers.  (ack! $30 in overage last month. which I'm charging to work.) 

Does anyone have experience with Metro PCS in the San Francisco Bay Area?

Thanks!

I'm taking two classes this semester (Information Literacy, and Library Services to Diverse Communities) which are both completely online, using the same unfriendly software, Blackboard.

I'm getting to make a "substantive and thoughtful" post on the assigned reading for the week, discussing the 25% of the reading that I actually accomplished... (Thank god for the "respond to anything else that struck you in the reading" option!).  What strikes me is that everyone else seems to be talking about different articles than I read/printed out and carried around all week.  Because, lo and behold, one of my classes is at "Lesson 4" while the other is at "Lesson 3".  Unfortunately, all the reading I did was for Lesson 4 in both classes.  On the bright side, I'm ahead for next week.  On the down side, now I have to power through some reading on learning theory, learning styles, and library anxiety and hope to BS some 250-300 words and still get to sleep by midnight.  

*sigh*

In this case, they cruelest time of the day was 1:30am, when I was blissfully dreaming (about being at a square dance where there was sushi topped with red caviar described as "ferret"... but I digress).  Suddenly, I was awakened by knocking on my bedroom door, and a male voice saying "This the police... we've got your roommate and he's really drunk... can you guys get up?"

I guess there was a some kind of work thing (Mardi Gras? Super Tuesday Party?).  His co-workers were able to get him into a cab, who somehow transferred him to the local PD*, who opted to bring him home instead of throwing him in the drunk tank.  Maybe because he'd moved past "disorderly" into "passed out."  Thankfully, the cops were able to haul him up the stairs, and then drag him into his room and flop him into bed.  We took turns checking on him every 1.5 hours.  By 4:30 he was snoring, and by 7am had moved enough to rearrange his comforter.

My other roommate and I alternate between pissed off and concerned.  We really like him and just signed a year lease on our house.  However, there is some history of alcohol problems (binge drinking, perhaps?), and I don't want to get pulled into any co-dependent crap.

*for those overly interested in policemen, it was the police of the small town immediately south of us.  The cops were not big beefy fellows, but an Asian guy who didn't seem much taller than me and a skinny white guy. 

And then I proceeded to fall back asleep and dream about houses with wooden Christmas decorations, including an unusually high number of Nativity scenes, although they only had Mary and Jesus.

---addenda---I just realized that I may sound unsympathetic to my roommates problems.  I know that addiction is a medical disease and not simply a matter of poor willpower or lack of impulse control.  That being said, I've learned for myself to avoid situations are going to lead to bad personal results.

We lost our back fence in the storm.  Luckily, we immediately found loafing on the ground in the backyard.  We also found water dripping down the outside of the front door, and off one of the beams in the garage.  Time like this I'm glad to be a renter.

And in the driveway?  Along with three cars was the neighbor's recycling bin, all their waterlogged recycling, and their Christmas tree.  The very talented wind slid the recycling bin uphill, turned it 90 degrees, and and pushed it almost to the top of the driveway.  It had to be a fairly precise operation, because there's never a lot of room between the cars.

We also lost power for less than 20 minutes, a mere annoyance.

Is it only me, or is there something vaugely "adult content" about this quarter? The picture doesn't do it justice. The spike is even more, um,  outstanding in person...

(Since bigjohnsf was not able to attend.... in his honor, here's a write-up of the Diablo Dancers' dance.)

It was ok.  People seemed to have a good time.  I had a splitting headache which slowly subsided.

For those who want gory details, read on.  I think there were 6-8 squares.  It struck me as incredibly loud, both the music and the voice.  I was surprised to be doing "higher level" concepts, like "disconnected" and "concentric."  It's just a personal preference, but I don't really like to stop and workshop at a dance, especially if it doesn't lead anywhere (like into a cool singing call figure).  The club made cute raindeer ornaments as decorations/favors.  There was a brief commemoration of World Aids Day, with a reading of names.  The "Rainbow Ambassador" for the 2008 California State Square Dance Convention in April in Sacramento spoke, and he was a pleasure to listen to, unlike many square dance announcements. 

The regular cast of characters was there.  I was delighted to see Danielle, a young lady from  Marin County who dances with the Adobe Squares.  She confirmed the weird vibe that I get from one of the straight guy who was there with his girlfriend. (OMG, he and the girlfriend are taking the MNS Thursday Advanced class, and last I knew, she could barely dance plus.  Not to mention their smoochy-smoochy-ness.  Really, honey, nobody's going to try to steal him from you.) 

And that's all, folks. Sorry about not linking any websites, but ya'll know how to use google. or alltheweb.com

I had an appointment this afternoon (Friday) in downtown Martinez, which exhibited excessive flooding, due to old, small pipes, and at least one storm basin that doesn't actually drain to anywhere.  By the time I was done, the rain had stopped and most of the water has mysteriously drained away.  (yeah!)  So I'm standing outside talking to John, with whom I had met, and I glance at my beloved Prius.  I look again, and a third time, before rudely interrupting, to say "Does something look...odd?"  Lo and behold, a big old screw is sticking out of my now flat right rear tire.  Of course AAA would have taken hours to show up (idiot drivers... rain = slow down; first heavy rain = slow down; honestly, it's not neuroscience.)  John changes my tire, and I cruise to the family homestead, comfortable in the knowledge that my spare will get me back home.

But noooo.  A matching screw (a pan-head phillips, for those who care)  protrudes from the right front tire.  After a few moments of panic and consultation with the neighbors, I head back out to the local tire chain, which is about to close for the evening.  They claimed that both tires are too worn to patch.  So now I have two new tires, and two tires that still need replacement.  

Looking on the bright side, I've been meaning to replace the tires for a several months.  While I'm annoyed at being forced to deal with this now, at least I didn't have to replace brand new tires.

In summary, 1.7 inches of rain and 1.7 flat tires.

I kept hearing that all the coolest square dancers had LiveJournal accounts.  Of course, I'm technically challenged enough that I can't get any photos to downsize properly....


-------------------------------------
Or, I can get a blurry squinty user pic...