InBlogNito

Hey! I’m back! At last, it’s been a while, I just haven’t found anything inspiring to write about (not that I’m ever particularly inspiring/inspired!). However, I’ve had a good couple of days. I’ll share once the bitching part of this post has ended. I just arrived home from 3 nights away and found the mail on my bed. Power bill, high, and also included a letter which basically said ‘we advise you to stay on your same plan because we don’t know enough about you’. Thanks for the oh so helpful info. Next up, a new credit card. Issue date: beginning of January. How the heck did it take so long to get to me?! There was no date on the letter (isn’t that like the first rule of letter writing? Write. The. Date.) and the previous card was issued not two weeks before the last one. Plus they said my old card would expire in a couple of weeks. Is that a couple of weeks after the issue date or a couple of weeks from the day the mail arrived?! Cos I’ve been using that card with no problems. WeIrD. I’m ringing them tomoro to say ‘wtf?!’. Then right after that I’m ringing my parents health insurance company. I rang with a simple query, mostly unrelated to my current policy, and gave them my address for some one-off info to be sent. Today I find they have sent me a huge package of information addressed to my Dad. I never said ‘update my details’. I certainly never said ‘update my whole family’s details, even though they live in another city and haven’t moved house in ten years’. *sigh*. How can all three pieces of mail cause me to waste so much time sorting out other people’s BS mistakes?!?! At least it will fill in the morning at work tomorrow!

Now, onto the great weekend. I headed south for work on Friday, turns out it was kind of a waste of time for the organisation because my colleague went early and did almost everything! Nevermind, I got to meet an awesome friend of mine, finally. He’s the one who always sends me stuff and remembers my birthday. You know the one, I sent him some home baking a while back. So N and I went out for dinner and it was like we had met already in the past, cos he was so familiar. We’ve spent heaps of time chatting on msn and the phone, and using webcams, so it was totally cool. Right before he was due to show up I started getting a little nervous and thinking ‘omg, what if I have NOTHING to say?!’. Turns out I couldn’t shut up (thanks to the house sav blanc no doubt!) and I probably told him stuff he’s heard a hundred times before, but he’d listen as if it was the first time. Then he took me to the airport (arrived 15 mins before the plane was due to take off! I was a little panicked lol) and I went to my next destination (home city). Then a little later I was thinking ‘hmm… I’m sure N’s birthday is in March, argh, I hope I haven’t missed it AGAIN!’. Checked on Facebook. Sure enough, 6 March, totally missed it. I’m the worst friend ever! He paid for dinner and everything and I couldn’t even remember to say ‘happy birthday’. I suck. So I emailed him apologising profusely and he said ‘it’s ok, I had some easter eggs in the car that I clean forgot to give you at the airport’. Uh, thanks, but that doesn’t make me feel better!! He bought me dinner AND easter eggs and I didn’t even wish him a late happy birthday…. *sigh*. I’m a disorganised wreck. This is just one example, I also left half of what I needed back here. I had to race out to the gas station first thing Saturday morning (in my mum’s Merc) to buy tampons. See? Disorganised wreck.

Anyhoo, onto home city, and it was so great to catch up with my friend and her kids. I did remember their birthdays and gave one of the girls a cute little handbag (totally regifted from my grandma, it’s cute for 5 yo’s, not 25 yo’s ) and a necklace, then took my friend out to see The Other Boleyn Girl. Was actually pretty well done, with all the costumes and accents and stuff, but not anything to rave about overall. I also bought the kids easter eggs, and when I was passing the lotto kiosk I grabbed a ticket on the way through. Checked it this morning while I was passing by another kiosk with my mum. Turns out I won!!! Not 1st division, I’m far from a millionaire, but a nice little bonus to stash in the bank for a rainy day! Lucky my bank is open on Sunday’s in the mall so I walked 20 metres from the kiosk to the bank and put most of it right into my account. So did a little more shopping than anticipated, and paid for the coffee seeing as I couldn’t very well feign poverty. Made it home tonight, eventually, cursed the mail, wrote this, now I’m off to bed. I’ve got just enough time to get in 8 hours sleep. Night!

Well, my time as a temp is done, finished, finito, O-V-E-R over!! The last couple of weeks have actually been really good, and I was a little sad to leave the assignment! However it was in the same place as my new permanent job is going to be, so I will be able to hang with my new friends for morning tea and catch up at lunch time, so it’s all good

Classes have finally started, I have to write a 5000 word article by October, that is potentially going to be published in a journal or some publication, scary!! Like one of my professors said the other day though, everyone should be aiming for first class honours, or at least a second first. I don’t actually know what that means exactly, but I want first class!! I’m a first class kinda girl hehe. So I really need to work hard and keep working on it throughout the year, not leave it all to the last month!

By the way, Amazon? fantastic website!! I knew all about it of course, but I never bought anything before, then about a month ago I bought a secondhand book for THIRTY TWO cents!! 32, three-two. CENTS. Okay, so they had to send it half way round the world, so postage was another $10, then in NZ dollars it works out about $15. But still, fantastic deal!! That one took about 3 weeks to arrive, then when it did, I ordered another one. $7 this time, still a bargain AND it arrived in one week!! That’s like incredibly good service for the USPS. When I was in the hostel, exchange students would wait months for parcels, sometimes they would already be back home before the parcel arrived here.

Do you guys have the Banana.Java.Chip.Frappe at S/bucks? I had one today. I looooove java chip, it’s my favourite! So I was quite excited about the banana version. What was I thinking??!?!? Banana AND coffee?? In the same cup?!?! Crazy ass thoughts… it actually wasn’t that bad, it was edible (drinkable? they are like a meal in their own right!), but I will stick with java chip straight up from now on.

No news on the love life front I was hoping for a phone call this week, cos I know he is back in town. But he lives less than 100metres (~330 feet) from where I’ll be working and another 100 metres in the other direction is where he works. Which is a building also used by mu workplace. So many opportunities for stalking!! haha, no, I’m not like that, I will just give him a call next week. It’s so hard, he told me straight up he’s not in a place where he’s looking for a relationship. But I kinda am, apart from the fact I will be pulling 60-70 hour weeks with work and study (he works that much too i think sometimes tho), and I just haven’t found anyone in a looooooooong time where I felt any serious attraction to them. I just want the chance to meet for lunch and explain exactly that too him! And just let him know I’ve got all the time in the world, so we can just take to time to be friends at least. And who knows? I only met him for one day a month ago…. maybe in another month I’ll think ‘what was I thinking?!’ haha.

Anyway, bed time for me! My sad household are all in bed and lights out by like 9:30pm most nights, lol. And it will be that way for some time I hope. My plan is to get up at 6 with the flatmates, go to the gym, go to work, come home and study, then dinner and bed and start all over again the next day! Full on. But keeping busy is good, I think I’m really going to enjoy studying this year, I’m so glad I made the decision to study part time for another 2.5-3 years instead of getting it over with in one.

Wow, it’s been over a month since I posted… apologies to the few people who still visit from time to time! And thanks

So lots has been happening lately, so I’m gonna summarise:

Yay’s:

• I have a job!! Going to be working in the education sector, advising important people on policy for special education, which will be super interesting I hope. I don’t start till the 26th. It also pays a lot more than I was expecting
• I finally got rid of the BS that goes with being on unemployment, damn I was sick of jumping through a million hoops just to get a few dollars to pay the rent!
• I’m studying again! Was weird but great to be back in a classroom on Friday morning. My lecturer was freaking hilarious, he should be on stage as a stand-up comedian, soooo funny! That paper is about bureaucracy’s in the western world (seeing as I’m now a ‘bureaucrat’ it’s quite fitting! I can spend he next 38 weeks defending my peeps hehehe). And I’m doing an education policy paper. So that’s 37 hours and 55 minutes a week of work (seriously, that’s what my contract says) and 15-20 hours of study a week….
• I have a little wee crush on someone. I met him at one of my temping assignments! He’s a hot lawyer It’s been FOREVER since I met someone that I was actually really attracted to. There have been ‘things’ along the way, but nothing I ever wanted to pursue for anything serious. At this stage I still can’t say I know him that well, but I want to get to know him, it’s just a little hard cos he’s so busy with work, having to travel out of town etc. So I’m just patiently waiting… a little worried he might meet someone else in the mean time! He has some issues from a recent breakup tho, so I don’t think he’s going to rush into anything. Hopefully I will see him again next week for a lunch date, I’ll keep you posted!
• I been going to the gym in morning before my temp work that I’m doing in the mean time. Okay, so I actually went twice. But it’s a start! It’s really good, I’ve been sleeping crappy anyways, so getting up at 6:30 is no problems, I’m usually awake anyway! So great to get my exercise out of the way for the day, by lunchtime you forget you were even there. This is going to be part of my new routine. It also means I can get a ride to town instead of catching the stupid train.

Boo’s

• It’s still a while till I start work, so even longer till I see a paycheck. I also need to temp in the mean time. Temping is awful. I sit around doing NOTHING all day everyday. Reception jobs are the worst, cos you are tied to a desk all day too. At the moment I’m actually temping where I have my permanent job, but in a different area. I was supposed to be in the same building the lawyer is in! But the people I’m working for moved buildings Not that it would have mattered, seeing as he is away most of the two weeks I’m working!

So that’s it really… lots of good things happening! Or about to happen… I’ve been waiting soooo long, and now things are finally set to happen I just want them to be happening so I can get into a routine of work, study, fitness, and hopefully a bit of play time too! A financial routine won’t go astray either, I really wanna save up to head to England before my brother gets back in about June next year.

I just had a friend to stay for the weekend. Overall it was a good weekend. But he was much nicer drunk than sober! We had a great friday night out in town, but the rest of the weekend was pretty average… I dunno what I feel exactly, but I feel kinda flat now that he’s left…. it’s not like I wanted to be with this guy. In fact I was worried about the messiness that may have ensued with him being here while I got the lawyer thing happening too so I should be pleased it wasn’t so successful! I don’t even know why I’m writing about it, I can’t explain it… basically he was an ass at times, but also really nice at times so I feel I shouldn’t complain about the not so good stuff. I’m just not used to being with someone for such long periods of time. I’m very independent in that way, I like my time alone.

Even with all this new stuff happening I’m going to attempt to blog more often!

And be better at commenting so people come visit me too.  

So it’s been a while…. gosh that last post was dramatic. The good news is that I have my beloved computer back, had to do a complete windows reinstall, which meant reinstalling ALLL my programs, but luckily the important stuff, all my songs and files and photos were saved. So now that it’s all over it’s actually quite nice having a clean slate as far as windows goes. Apart from that I really have nothing to write about, but if I didn’t write soon this blog would have been lost into oblivion. Having no internet for a week (apart from the 2 hours a day I stole my friends laptop!) wasn’t actually as hard as I thought!! Plus I still had one more exam to study for.

Anyway, here’s some new stuff:

• Have moved outta the hostel (yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!) and living in the suburbs, but still only 10 minutes from town.
• Have the most gorgeous puppy to keep me company with during the day, also fills in about 2 unemployed hours keep her entertained!
• Have no job. Have one weeks rent to cover before the dole kicks in. When the dole does kick in it will cover my rent. I will have $1 a week spare cash after that.
• Have signed up to one temping agency, calling two more today.
• Had a great interview last week for a permanent position, but will be next week before I find out if I get the job.
• Results so far from exams: B, B+, B+  - not bad considering the massive workload I had and the constant fatigue that required a 2 hour nap every afternoon.
• New flatmates are good so far. Only problem is my lack of conversation! I have NOTHING to talk about, and even if I could think of something, I’m just not used to talking, living with the german’s meant I very rarely conversed with my flatmates, because everything they said was in German.
• I’m a gamer geek. Never though I’d say those words, but I have been spending HOURS a day playing World of Warcraft. A game you have to PAY to play… I need a job to pay for it, but if I had a job I wouldn’t have time to play it… anyway, I’m on a 10 day trial for  US$1.25, after that we’ll see what happens.

Apart from that, my days are filled with nothing, nothing and more nothing. It’s nice to have a break, but the whole cash flow situation is going to be very stressful very soon… all donations gratefully received!!

NEVER!!

Stupid student loan people rang me to say they wanna ask some questions about whether I want to return to study next year (Can you not see I’ve been racking up the damn thing for 7 years, do you really think I wanna go get more debt?!). So they’re all ‘is this is a good time to talk?’ and I’m all ‘No! You’re calling right in the middle of exam time, it’s not a good time to talk to ANY students!’ dumbasses…. 

Am I like totally anal to the point of being OCD about hygiene and cleanliness? Is it wrong to expect the kitchen bench be cleaned down every day? That the toilet be cleaned with a bucket of hot water and bleach every week? That anything that has been touched by fish be cleaned instead of thrown straight in the dishwasher so that it stinks our entire apartment out?

Take exhibit #1256:

Conversation between flatmate and me:

Me: ‘When you put raw chicken or meat in the fridge, can you please put it on a plate first.’

Her: *blank stare* ‘Why?’

Me: *blank stare back*

Are you serious? Did you just ask me WHY??!! 

Is it just that my mother, in her own screwed up way, was actually exceptional at teaching me the things I need to know? Cos I always though this sorta thing was common knowledge.

I know there are like a kabillion other things happening in the world that are more important than whether or not my bench got cleaned properly today or if my fridge is home to a lovely clan of salmonella just waiting to infect everyone. I have an exam on Wednesday though, and as much as I’d love to get out of it, I’m really not picking salmonella or campylobactor as the way to go!

So, now for some good news… not that I can remember if my last post was good or bad, but anyhoo. Decisions have been reached, interviews are being conducted, things are moving foward.

I had an interview to have my job back for next year on Monday, it went well, a little too well considering I didn’t really want the job! I kinda wanted to see if I would actually get the job before turning it down, but I live and work with my managers very closely and decided I would rather be up front with them, so I told him (they are a husband/wife ‘team’) tonight that I’m no longer interested in the job and why. He was very understanding and appreciative, and offered to be a referee for me anytime. He even seemed a bit upset! Said he’d miss having me around and was sad to hear I’d changed my mind, but totally respectful of my decision, which was very sweet.

So that’s all sorted, I will be living in a real house with no rules, no structure, no office hours, no duty nights!! And a BIG bed, I worked out the other day that I’ve owned my bed for more than twice as long as I’ve actually slept on it (if you can work that little riddle out!), it’s in my parents garage at the moment, so I will have it shipped up here in November, I need to buy a new mattress though.

Next piece of news: I have an interview with my dream employer!! Woohoo!! It’s just for a summer internship, but still, foot in the door and all that. So that’s Monday morning.

And that’s the end of my news, I could still end up anywhere doing just about anything by the time the school year starts next year, but I have a plan: apply for any and all jobs between now and Feb, and if nothing by Feb, then I will enrol in Honours.

Oh, there was some bad news, my cousins birthday dinner is tomoro night, not saturday as per the original plan,  and I’m working tomoro night! Damnit all, I’m trying to swap though.

And there was some really awful awful news, and if I figure out how to do a password protected post, I’ll share with some of you, but for now everything is okay, and it should stay that way, so that’s the main thing!!

Enjoy the rest of your week!!

Ka kite

N  

I’m feeling better about a whole lot of stuff this week. I think losing weight helped (despite going over my ‘allowance’ every single day! hard to stick to something like this when it gets harder when you didn’t even stick to it in the first place). Also getting all those good grades back was a boost. And getting some extra $$ and treating myself to some pretty jewelry definately helped! Gotta have priorities

(attempted to post pics, but damn thing is being a bitch)

I also made some decisions about the ‘future’. Basically I decided to put off the decision making!

I’m going to apply for real jobs, and if I was offered a good one I would take it and skip the whole Honours thing. I also applied for my job back at the hostel, though I actually I don’t want it! I think and hope they won’t give it to me. I want a real house! With a real car park! (I saw a lawyer about the car park and he is absolutely in breach of our lease agreement and I have a case if he continues to hold me to only two weeks notice).

So basically I’m just applying for anything and everything, either the decisions will be made for me, or I will get offered everything I apply for and will have to make some decisions later on.

And that’s about it really… nothing much to talk about when I’m feeling pretty ok with things apparently!

 

I haven’t really felt like posting the last few days, I have been enjoying my last day of working at the bagel shop, last weekend of ‘holiday’ break, last days without flatmates. That’s all over now, it’s back to classes, back to assignments, back to the big decision making time. I was absolutely dead set on doing my Honours, even up to this morning. But then I searched for government jobs and found a graduate position that looks quite cool, so I applied for it. I figure the interview experience alone will be worth it. I’d be working with my cousin though, I know it’s the same area, and I think even the same team/group thing. Not that that’s a bad thing, without her I might not even be in this position today! She was my tutor when I first signed up part time to uni to study sociology, and helped me enormously with my first assignments and things. Who knows, without her I may have ended up lost amongst the 300 other people and never bothered to go back. So we’ll see…

I also have to reapply for my current job, I finally got the courage up to ask the parents for some financial assistance for next year, so that I can concentrate 100% on my study. Text from mum today said I have to wait at least six weeks to find out! They are going away for a month in two weeks, so I knew the timing wasn’t great, so to speak, but I really didn’t think it was that big of a decision! Supporting your daughter through her final year of uni after she’s worked so damn hard to get an A average, worked 2 jobs for most of that time, and done everything in her power to put herself into a fantastic position that will be attractive to employers? No-brainer I would have thought, but obviously my and my parents don’t think alike!  Otherwise I wouldn’t even be in this stressed out MESS right now. For me, I wouldn’t hesitate to pay my kids way through uni, but whatever. Even if they said NO right away, which I expect anyway, at least I would know and I could plan. My mum muttered something about borrowing the money, but I said I can’t, I cannot borrow ONE MORE CENT for this whole damn debarcle.

Is it really that selfish or assumptive to believe that my parents should help me out? I signed up for this mess (kinda, change of rules means I’m in 3 times as much shit as I was led to believe initially), so I know I should be the one to get myself out and shouldn’t expect someone to just bail me out everytime I get into debt. But still, this isn’t like I borrowed on a stupid car and can’t afford the repayments, or something like that, this is an investment in my education! Plus the reason I receive no government support is because I am considered dependant on my parents, until July of next year when I turn 25. The govt expect them to help me, but don’t enforce it.

For now though, I have to reapply for my job, in case parents say no and I need the job to get my accommodation covered. And even then I’m highly doubtful I will get the job back. The managers want new people and 2nd years, they don’t want people in their 4th year of study or 3rd year of RA-ing, because those people quit, after they realise they don’t have the time or the energy to commit to the job as well as is needed. And I know I don’t have the time and won’t have the energy to put 100% into the job, I don’t know how the fuck I’ll convince them I can in the interview when I know for a fact that I can’t do it! Without that 10-15 hour a week job though I would need to work 20-30 hours a week elsewhere, which is of course even less doable.

So from this morning believing 100% that I would be back at Uni for honours next year, now I’m about 80% thinking I will cut and run and start working so I can start digging my way out of this enormous hole we are forced to put ourselves into just to try and get ahead in life. How is it getting ahead when you start soooooo damn far behind the people who left school and started working straight away? Even the people on unemployment benefits are better off than we are at first!

You know when you’re SO damn close to the end, and you just want it to be over with? I’m so there. My essay is due in like 8 hours, but I have to work for two of those. I got up set the alarm for 7am, it’s now 8:3958 am and I’ve written about 40 words so far. I just cannot.get.motivated. It’s a dumb essay, and I wish I put more effort into, although as we all know, effort doesn’t not always equal results. Maybe this will be the best mark I ever got? They are so much tougher here than the uni I transferred from. I don’t know if the old one was too nice or if these guys are tough asses. That’s why a B is even worse now than before, a B at my old uni was 63-66% here it’s….. oh, it’s 65-69%…. Which is better… that’s confusing!! If I get an A grade here it’s worse than my old A’s, but if I get a B it’s better than my old B’s?? Well that makes me feel mildly better, though thoroughly confused. My B was possibly a B+ equivalent of my old grading system. wEiRd!!

My room is a complete mess, I’m so.damn.tired I can hardly keep my eyes open. I’m addicted to the book my mum brought up for me and the Grey’s DVD’s my flatmates gave me (god I’m a bitch, bitching about how they STILL haven’t taken the recycling out, and they are making me DVDs, I should shut the fuck up about them. It’s just cos I’m so irritable with all the school stress). Just one more day! not even that, in 8 hours I’m FREEEEEEE for TWO whole weeks. Cept for the 3 essays I was planning on writing in that time, but I can sleep in, and watch grey’s, sex and the city and House on dvd, I can hire more dvd’s, catch up on all those movies I’ve missed. I can take a break from coffee! Those 3 cappa’s a day are killing me financially, I bought some ground stuff this week for the plunger at home to save some $$ lol. I can quit my second job too, must find out if it’s one week or two that I have to give for notice. I’m hoping it’s one so I can ask for extra hours, then hand in the notice after those hours are scheduled in haha.

Just as a random aside, I was checking activemeter before, and apparently I’m accessing the internet from NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES. Used to say Auckland, New Zealand (no, I don’t live in Auckland, ugh, who would want to?!), now it says NEW JERSEY! wEirD.

And as another random aside, I have NO idea why my blog suddenly went all italicised on me. I think used italics for a couple of words, and suddenly EVERYTHING before then is italicised. RANDOM. Another holiday project: Make my blog pretty!