Saturday, September 21, 2002
 

The people (or person; I can't tell if the scuzzy guy actually lives there or not) across the hall are disappointing me by moving out in broad daylight. I was hoping for some shady, middle-of-the-night deal. Parents (I assume the girl's) are here, assisting. She must be a student, which makes me wonder why she's moving out mid school year. They're making a tremendous amount of noise; even when they're just working in the apartment, they leave the door open. The hallways here are bare, and the noise echoes. I realize that moving out is going to make a certain amount of noise, but if they'd close the door, it would help. They've gotten packing material taped over the door frame, though, so I guess there's no such luck there. I woke up about 7:30, which must have been when they started. Of course, I also went to bed at about 9:00 last night, which might explain the early awaking.

In my ongoing inability to refuse official positions, I've been elected treasurer for the grad school union here (good thing they didn't ask to see my math records). Apparently, it's a do-nothing position, which suits me just fine. The co-treasurer is a friend of mine, so if we do have to do anything, it'll be fun anyway.

When I left the apartment yesterday to meet a friend at 2:00, it was beautiful, hot, bright, and sunny. Because it was so hot, I ditched my ubiquitous jeans in favor of a skirt and wore sandals. I even forewent (is that the past tense of forego?) my usual coffee at Starbucks in favor of a frappacino. By the time the meetings ended, it was cold, windy, and pouring buckets of rain. We walked to a deli in aforementioned rain; umbrellas didn't do much good because of the wind. We all hightailed it to the bathrooms, hoping for one of those hand dryers, but no such luck (they're always there when you just want a paper towel; never there when you actually need them). The Department Daddy, bless his heart, gave me a ride back to my apartment, and he and Former-Mentor spoke more encouraging words. These are nice people. I was also assured repeatedly that no one actually does all the reading. Former-Mentor gave the best advice with the critical stuff: read what you're interested in, because that's what you'll be writing about, anyway. I'm getting all the reading done (with varying degrees of depth) right now, but as soon as it starts getting closer to time to start research for the final papers (which will be in the next few weeks; I'm not sure I'm ready to start heavy research again), that won't be able to happen anymore.

Happy news: Granta came yesterday!

Ok. Time for me to go partake of this battery of medicines, and then it's showertime. Toodles.

Elvisette philosophized at 8:54 AM