The Jas Says. . .

So tonight is my Business Law class.  Since last week’s was cancelled, this will be the first time that I’ll be in the class and get a chance to see if I’ll actually keep it or not.  I’m hoping that it’s good. . . I’m hoping I don’t have to drop the damn thing, which I really don’t want to do.  But I will if I have to.  I’m not going to suffer through a crappy class that is late at night.

Last night Michael came over to hang out.  We ended up going to eat at Red Lobster, since The Man hates fish/seafood so I only really go there with friends.  Food was good, except I couldn’t even eat half of my entree because by the time it arrived I had already filled up on appetizers and cheese biscuits.  That seems to be par for the course for my experiences at Red Lobster.  After dinner, we went back to my place and sat around watching the Queer Eye holiday special, South Park, and part of the Daily Show.  He took off at about 11 and I was in bed by 11:30.  Didn’t drink too much because I was already tired.

There’s something that I’ve been not writing about because I really didn’t want to go through the whole thing again, but I guess now it’s pretty much a done deal:  it looks like we actually are going to get the house.  After about two or three weeks of the sellers not returning Iris’s calls, their agent called her out of the blue and asked if we were still interested.  They wanted to take our last offer.  So, we did another purchase agreement, they signed it, and on Monday we went in to do the loan paperwork with Iris’s son (who doesn’t have a clever moniker because I’ve only seen him like twice).  Now we’re only waiting for underwriter approval on the loan before we can set a closing date.  We don’t anticipate any further issues, and Iris’s son said that we could close as early as next week.

And I just realized that no one’s ever really seen a picture of George (aka The House of Scary Aquatic Features), so here are the pics that are on the listing.  They’re not very good, but hell, it’s a real estate listing, not a portrait.

And here’s the description on the realtor’s web site:

Unique country brick home nestled on 1 acre. Features 3 bedrooms, porch, deck and 9-1/2 ft ceilings in kitchen, dining room and living room. Many updated including neutral decor, new furnace ’03, bedroom carpets. 33×30 garage/workshop with woodburner. All this and much more, a must see!!

It’s a must see!!  It’s nestled, even!  Realtor descriptions are so funny.  Anyway, when we move in I’ll try to get some better pictures, but since I don’t have a digital camera, it might be awhile.

I had to go in to work today for an hour to train a class and the roads were horrible. I was out before the plows, and as soon as I hit the freeway my windshield froze over with slush other people sprayed up onto me, so I was craning my neck to the one clear spot and trying to avoid causing an accident. By the time I came home the roads were much better.

It’s weird how much more energetic people are on a Saturday. Almost everyone there was there on overtime, so you’d think they’d be a little less than excited to be at work on their days off, but actually they were much more responsive than my normal classes. Made everything much more fun and the time passed much more quickly.

After work I went to Media Play and bought the fourth season of Babylon 5 on DVD, so that is what we’ve all been watching this afternoon. Now Michael is coming over to hang out and the boys are playing on their computers, so it looks like it will be a pretty mellow night.

I find it humorous that my keyboard has a euro sign on it. I like the euro sign, even if I’ve never seen an actual euro. I’d like to know how to make a euro sign, but I can’t make my keyboard do it. It’s on the 5 key, but I don’t know how to access it. Shift-5 brings up the percentage (%) and ALT-5 or CTRL-5 don’t do anything. Any ideas?

I managed to take a picture of me and a kitty today but it’s a bad picture. Destiny is camera shy and I look like a goon. Nevertheless. . .

I had the worst night last night. I was already a bit grouchity because my sleep has been so off lately, and what with all the snow and driving (or riding, The Man drove). . . anyway, I was tired. So I went to bed at about 11 PM, because I had to be up at 6:00 AM to do a class here at work.

So, at like 2:30 The Man comes to bed and wakes me up. Well, halfway wakes me up. Basically I cracked my eyes enough to note the time, but I wasn’t conscious. I was asleep five minutes later. I know this, because that’s when he woke me up again. And on it went. Between 2:30 AM and 3:30 AM, I was woken up five different times. After each time, it took me longer and longer to fall asleep, so at 3:30 AM I was wide awake and could not get back to sleep. I just lay there, seething. Seething and hot, because The Man kicks out major heat and he piles all the covers on me to boot. So I got up, pissily ripped the down comforter off the bed, lay back down and seethed some more. I fell back asleep around the time Chris got up to take a shower — I think that was 5 AM.

When I woke up for the last time at 6:00 AM, I had a crashing headache, my eyes itched, and I was really, really pissed off. Few things piss me off as much as having my sleep messed with. So I didn’t really talk to The Man until we’d been at work for a few hours. I didn’t want to yell at him for something that’s not really his fault — he was just sleeping, or getting into bed, or whatever. I still have a headache, and I’m still tired, but I have three more hours of work to get through and then two hours of school after that, so the options are be a big freaking baby or suck it up.

Speaking of school, we actually had a snow day yesterday. My first Business Law class was canceled due to weather. I was so happy. I love snow days and when you’re an adult you just rarely get them anymore. I wish I could say that I used the extra time to sleep a little more or to clean the house or something, but really I sat on the couch and watched Star Trek TNG.

All right, I’m too hungry to keep writing. I have to go scrounge for food.

It’s snowing!  A lot!  Which is both good, because I love me some snow, and bad because I have an evening class tonight that lasts until 10 PM and I’m worried that the roads won’t be plowed by then.  We’re supposed to get 5-8 inches and the freeway was total ick on the way into work today.

I had my first Computer Competencies class on Monday and it was seriously easy.  I looked over the syllabus to see what we would be learning and the only two things I had no clue about were Unix and visual Basic.  Everything else was either very simple or programs I’ve been working with for years, so I don’t anticipate too much trouble with that class.  Tonight is Business Law, which I’m hoping does not center totally around group work like the Principles of Management class that I ended up dropping last semester.  If it does, I’ll drop this one too, because it also is later than I want to be at school.  Maybe I’ll try to get into Vicki’s class if that’s the case.

Physically, there are several annoying things going wrong with me right now.  My left temple hurts as though I caught an elbow there and my left lower eyelid has been twitching for several days.  Maybe I have a brain problem, huh?  Wouldn’t that suck?  Besides that, my feet are always cold (poor circulation).  I’m a mess.  Oh well.

Went shopping yesterday to pick up school supplies and also managed to snag two new sweaters on clearance.  It pisses me off that it’s only January but the stores are taking the winter clothes off the shelves and stocking capri pants and t-shirts.  Give me a break.  It will be MONTHS before anyone can wear those clothes.  Anyway, today I’m rocking the black-on-black look (new ribbed sweater laced up at one shoulder with a black ribbon and black Dockers) with my black Doc Martens.  I look vaguely high school angst but I think I’m saved because I’m not pouting or clutching my battered notebook full of depressing and horrible poems.   Plus my Tiffany pendant saves me a bit. . . no one can be high school depressed while wearing Tiffany, right?  Good jewelry always saves you in the end.  It makes your clothes look better, and if you have to flee you can usually sell your quality jewelry for passage on a freighter or something.  I don’t know.  I’m just guessing.  I’ve never had to flee anything except an awkward social situation.

According to my desk calendar, today was the day that the inventor of the breathalyzer was born.  Original name of the device:  the Drunkometer.  Sweet.

This one won’t be a big thing.  Just a little thing.  Just a little thing I was thinking of.  I think it’s funny, maybe you will just think I’m an idiot.

So, I’m driving out to school this afternoon and I’m merging onto the freeway on a two laned on-ramp.  I’m driving in one lane because I know that the other one ends before we actually get to the freeway.  And I start to notice the signs on the road, and it strikes me as funny.

The first sign I see is this one:

And it seems to me like a polite warning.  Kind of like your buddy is riding shotgun, knowing that you’re not paying attention.  “‘Scuse me, Bob, but Right Lane Ends.”  But as you go a bit further down the road, another sign pops up at you:

Now they’re getting bossy.  Now it’s not like your buddy is riding shotgun.  Now it’s more like your alcoholic, nasal mother is in the backseat and tapping you on the shoulder while squinting and blowing smoke in your face.  “Lane Ends, MERGE LEFT! Didnja see the first sign, genius?”  But maybe you don’t feel like listening to your annoying alcoholic backseat-driving mom.  So you keep tooling along, and soon enough you come to the last sign:

And the unspoken message is, of course:  “OK, moron.  You ignored two perfectly coherent signs in plain English.  I guess someone like you needs us to draw you a picture.”

And I think that’s funny.  I find it amusing that the poor Department of Transportation had to go from polite to condescending all within the span of a half-mile just because some people Refuse to Take Advice.