so long sweet summer...

I'm definitely starting to feel like this blog is probably not expressing my usual outgoing, cheerful and happy persona very accurately. So my apologies but I have more ranting and raving to express.

This week has been as close as it can get to a stressful, unorganized, chaotic mess. My neck has had a kink in it for at least three weeks - I'm pretty sure almost four. And there are knots galore in my shoulder blades. Stress I'm sure, but it was happening before school even started. I had one wonderful massage but he said I needed to come back at least twice to take care of all the tension. Sorry buddy, but on a student budget the wallet was a little too thin to begin with. Maybe that's why I've been so cranky lately. Hmmm.

On that note, school is not settling well and my un-motivation is at an all time high. Professors have been handing out gobs of ambiguous and time-consuming homework. Procrastination it at a new personal level, as I've been waking up at wee hours of the morning (okay I'm exaggerating but 6:00am feels early when I go to bed at 1:00am) just to finish the homework I was too tired to do the night before. Of course it always takes longer than expected so I'm flying out the door half dressed, searching desperately for my car keys with sack lunch, water bottle, juice, purse, cell phone and schoolbag trailing loosely behind - I know, I'm so organized. By the time I reach my first class I've broken into a sweat. Gross. At least I've made a friend so I can copy his notes when I can't keep my eyes open. Lukcy him.

Today was hectic as hell. During the forty-five minute break I waited patiently for the ID center to replace my card. All summer I was showing up as "Rick So-and-So on the Rec computer. Well little Ricky no longer has a membership so I finally had to do something about it. Which is besides the fact that it's a little bent and got stuck in the print scanners in the computer lab Tuesday. I had to pry it out with my handy-dandy spare tweezers. Yes I was embarrassed. Three full moons later the new ID printed and I was on my way.

Bridget and Brian entertained me as a shoved a turkey sandwich down my throat and chugged a double espresso. Delicious. Brian and I sprinted to the business college and I bee-lined for the computer lab, praying the machine would take my two crumpled dollars and put it on my new card. Five minutes until class. Perfect. The girl in front of me had half a million copies and then it just stopped. I think it was laughing at me, mocking me. "Ha ha you're going to be late and there's nothing you can do because you have to have the powerpoints for class." Grrr. Well I am part genius and after punching enough buttons it spit out my copies. As luck would have it we had a guest speaker that my entrance rudely interrupted. I took my frazzled self to the front of the class and slunk into my assigned seat. One more class to go.

Good news - the quiz I didn't study for was cancelled. Shwew.

I walked out to my car, trying to figure out if I should cover a shift for one of the supervisors who wanted to trade with me. He called during the middle of class with a sob story about how sick he was. Work was the last place I wanted to be today. As I neared the parking lot I caught a glimpse of a yellow envelope glaring at me from my windshield. What the crap? How did I get an $18 parking ticket when I purchased the necessary $75 pass that was... oops... still in my purse. Dang it. Once again props to me. The parking lady on the phone didn't care to hear my reasoning nor want proof that I really did own a permit. It didn't matter to them. "You just need to be more adult about it," she says. Wow. I really wanted to punch her.

After that I definitely wasn't going into work. Sorry Jeff. I guess you could say Karma is a bi-atch. There were two occasions I was in desperate need of extra hands and you were nowhere to be found. Actually you never even called back. I guess you could say I'm resentful. Sorry.

Okay so here I am complaining about life in general when I really have no place to at all. I've been watching the New Orleans hurricane catastrophe unfold and it makes me sick to my stomach. Families, infants and elderly who haven't eaten or showered in three days, enduring 98 degree weather with no place to call home. Snipers shooting at rescue workers while they search for survivors. Looters destroying what little the city has left. People of all backgrounds, beliefs and social status residing together in the Superdome - everyone on the same playing field and everyone's life forced into perspective.

Maybe sometimes a parking ticket isn't such a big deal.