And Even More Settling

I officially begin week #3 of classes tonight. I’ve been pretty busy with classes and Ellie stuff and apartment stuff, so I’ve been super-duper neglectful of blogging, or much of anything except Facebook and PackRat lately. I’m loving living here, and we’re really pulling things together. I have class tonight, but am spending tomorrow putting away the rest of my stuff, doing laundry, cleaning the apartment (it’s Fall Cleaning time!!), and general domestic stuff. I’ll also spend some time playing catch-up with my reading since I was waiting for one book to arrive via mail, and for my refund to come in before buying the rest of them. I’m also pretty busy with Girl Scout stuff and trying to find an assistantship or other job to make a little bit of income.

 

Settling In

We’ve gotten to the point of moving in where we’re decorating. We’ve got some pictures up and are slowly distributing our other stuff around. I’m also working on organizing since I have free time lately.

Only one of my classes has posted to Blackboard and I’m kinda pissed about it. I want to buy as many of my books online as possible because, quite frankly, I’m broke. And cheap.

Girl Scouts–I’m not sure if it’s doing to be a good thing or if it’s going to slowly kill me. Hopefully it’s only because we are just starting out for the new year. I don’t even have a troop and I’m already running raged! I just need to figure out some stuff, prioritize and realize that I don’t have to do everything myself.

 

I’m Not Going to Work Tomorrow

Today was my last day…wow. The office had a cake and a small gift, which was really nice of them, but I hate being the center of attention so it was uncomfortable. Then my boss took my co-worker and I out to Firefly’s for dinner, where she gave me another card with money in it (she’s not great at buying gifts…). I’m definitely nervous about a ton of things–where am I going to get money to pay my bills? how difficult will my classes be? can I actually hack grad school? But overall, I’m okay.

The weirdest thing is going to be the fact that I no longer have to get up early and go to work anymore. Now all I have to concern myself with is school and Girl Scouts. It’s pretty freeing to be honest.

 

Culture Comes in Many Forms

I never talked about our day this past Sunday. Even though it was absolutely disgusting weather-wise, wtbrosie had a full day in Boston. That morning we went into Chinatown for the August Moon Festival. I used to go in with my family as a kid and teen, but I hadn’t been since probably my first year of college. it’s always a ton of fun, and I like begin able to expose wtbrosie to new things, like Dim Sum and Moon Cakes.

Afterwards, we joined the Boston Queer Adventurers and my friends Kim and Mel for Shakespeare in the Park. This is an annual free show performed by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (formerly affiliated with CitiCenter). This year they did The Comedy of Errors . I haven’t been able to get much theater in due to money and time, so I’m glad this is still happening in Boston–it’s good for the city too.

 

Adventures in Laundry

Here’s the backstory: Yesterday, while doing the laundry that had piled up during the move, I made the following Tweet, “I had no idea laundry could be such a process” I was posting this  on Facebook in reply to a comment on it, but I think it’ll be too long.

I got there with a ton of quarters, but they don’t TAKE quarters, you have to use a card. So I had to beg the other patrons to change quarters into a dollar so I could buy the card (I only had 10’s on me). Thank the gods someone was able to do so, I’d already put the laundry and detergent into the machine. I also had to figure out how to work the card–put it in, THEN select the cycle. The dryers required me to do that for every block of 8 minutes I wanted…

 

Almost Done

Our new place--click for more

I’m going to say we’re about 97% done with the move. All the furniture, most of my stuff and the cats are in. We’re heading back to Plymouth Saturday to pick up the last of the stuff that’s ours and that should be about it. There is still some cleaning and organizing that needs to be done, as well as some shopping (especially for bathroom stuff!), but the three of us are really pleased are are settling in. The boys are slowly getting used to the new place and were all over us last night, which is way better than hiding like they were Tuesday night when they arrived.

 

Living in Opulence

Despite tough economy, college presidents live in style – The Boston Globe.

Some schools’ public relations teams expressed concern that it wouldn’t look good to show off their presidents’ luxury quarters amid penny-pinching times. Those thoughts also crossed the mind of Wellesley president Kim Bottomly, but she ultimately concluded, “We have nothing to hide.’’

Last week, she opened her estate to a reporter and a photographer, even allowing a glimpse at her bedroom, which overlooks Lake Waban.

School Presidents don’t want the media seeing their paid-for homes in this time of their staff having their salaries slashed at best, being laid off at worst? No kidding… Good for the Wellesley President actually having the balls to show off the house and staff she’s provided with. With all the benefits and perks a university president gets (I work in HR at a university, I know what I’m talking about), you’d think they would have taken the same hits their staff have had to. Just a small percentage of their salary could have been kept someone on. Make them pay for their own staff or (shock and awe!!) get rid of some of that staff and there’s even more savings!

But what am I thinking? This world doesn’t care for the working (wo)man. This is why Brandeis costs $37,000 per year for just tuition…and a lot of schools are more.

 

Your Rights Only Go So Far

Mass. transgender inmate denied electrolysis – Boston.com.

You know what? I’m GLAD about this. I am all for Trans rights, but you are a convicted murderer and are already living on my tax dollar. I agree with her treatment and being allowed to live as a woman (I do think she should be moved to a female prison), but I can’t even afford my own electrolysis, let alone that of someone who is in prison! If you are in prison, you are being PUNISHED for breaking the law and don’t deserve more than basic human rights.

People, especially my girlfriend, are going to disagree with me, but that’s okay. This is not a case of discrimination, it’s a case of “tough cookies, you should have thought about the fact that there are consequences to your actions.”

 

Talk About Starting Over

Well, the verdict has come in. I can’t get a reduced schedule at my current job, so as of Sept 1, I will be unemployed unless I am able to score an Assistantship or some other job(s) to help with making ends meet for the next 2 years. Luckily, wtbrosie is starting her new job on Monday, so that will help a lot with her end of things. Yesterday I applied for a PLUS loan to cover the NU and living expenses that my financial aid package doesn’t cover (which of course, is most of it). Unfortunately, due to the timing of my acceptance and all, I am too late to apply for most scholarships. I’m still hunting them down, but I’m really not counting on anything from that source this year.

Speaking of NU, I’m really getting my crap together for next month. I’m registered for classes, half-way through my summer reading, getting my immunizations records Friday, and will be looking into the NU health plan later on today to see how all that works with doctors and check-ups and stuff. Luckily I was able to sneak in a physical with my doctor before I lose my current health insurance–’cause we all know that school insurance is less than ideal.

AND, we’ll be moving next week–I’m pretty sure we’re getting the keys this weekend, which is super awesome. Now to do all the moving crap–gods I hope I don’t have to move again for a long time.

 

Internet Whores Revisited

I have been doing some thinking about Social Networking sites, and realized I’ve already made this post before. It’s amazing the number of people that request me to be their friends that never spoke to me in high school, and who still don’t speak to me know that we’re ‘friends.’ I’m making another cut to LJ and Facebook, and am getting rid of MySpace before the end of August in order to cut back on the amount of time I spend online. There are dozens of ways to get in touch with me, and if you leave a comment, I’ll give you those that you may not already have.