Muffin attack

The sheer quantity of crap thrown at me on Friday went beyond humorous to actually scary. Cosmic Muffin didn't just get bored - it got vindictive.

Fridays = no classes. For grad students this is supposed to be a day for "research." In reality, it's the day you run all your errands. For me, this also includes making all those phone calls that have to be made during "normal business hours" which are inevitably on East Coast time. Unfortunately, this also involves burning cell minutes on hold. And apparently getting the run-around without resolution. So now I have to make yet another round of phone calls this Friday.

Running errands in Santa Barbara is also a challenge. Partially because I am still learning my way around town. Partially because I still underestimate traffic. Deposited my fellowship in the only branch of my bank in the area, which is on the opposite side of town. Then got hose down my car because it was infested with ants. I'm not sure how or why, since the windows were up and there wasn't any food/drink. And I'm not talking about a couple of stray ants. I'm talking multiple trails. I blame the construction at my apartment, which has made my car so dirty I can barely see out the windows. Forgot my bag in the car at Trader Joe's, and I couldn't find my TJ lo mein to replace what SuperK accidentally ate. Had to go to 4 different stores to get stuff I should I have just been able to get at Staples. Didn't make it to the post office. Went to the parking lot to meet the mail truck which left early. (It's only in the lot from 2-4 M-F to pick up oversized mail) UGH!

Suddenly it was nearly 4. I was super grumpy, and I was expected to attend the undergrad convocation for the department. But first, I had to pick up my course packets in IV. Biked down there to find out that they messed up my special order, thinking I just wanted the regular comb-bound packets. When I special-ordered them to be 3-hole punched because they are so damn huge, I don't want to carry 2.5inches of photocopies around. So they had to recopy both 700-page packets for me. (PS that's like $200 worth of course packets). Then I got a call from Mail Services insisting that the truck never left the lot, but that I could pick up my package directly from Mail Services before 5. By the time I explained that I wouldn't have missed a big white truck, I had about 12 minutes to bust ass down Los Carneros to get my book (and alot of attitude). Really? Why would I make this up? By the time I picked up my book (not the expensive textbook I have been waiting for and actually need this week), and they finished properly copying my packets (without so much as an apology), I had missed convocation. (Apparently they tried to introduce me, but I wasn't there. Awkward much?)

Being a couple flavors of fed up, I just decided to go to the Habit to get a cheeseburger and milkshake, because at the rate the Cosmic Muffin was going, my apartment would probably have caught on fire if I tried making food. But the road was blocked, involving a long detour. Got home, curled up and gave up. Only to be deafened by the sound of undergrads shrieking in the halls.

Yup, that's right. San Clemente is NOT grad housing as advertised, but rather overflow housing for undergrads where some grad students got suckered into living. Undergrads are loud, and the echoey architecture only exacerbates this. Closing the windows only cuts the shrill, but I still hear every drunk 19year old word clearly. And because this place is so disorganized, there is no one to complain to.

The Cosmic Muffin is relentless. It was really hard not only because of the individual piles of crap, but the fact that I got NOTHING accomplished, and I wasted my one day a week to do it. And I am still dealing with it (there is some hall-bonding game outside that involves screaming right now). I have an appointment with Financial Aid on Thursday, and will be hunting down a landline for all the bullshit phone calls I get to make. Again.

on iTunes: "High Rise" - Ladytron