why i'm annoyed today

I had a nice, relaxing yet productive weekend, and even enjoyed some time out with the girls on Saturday night. The Superbowl was even fun!

But now it's Monday, and the crap has set in. I've got a story deadline for school tomorrow night, so this morning I got up and got to it. I had done all I could before the weekend (because honestly, when you're calling professional sources, they're not going to talk to you on the weekend. No one bothered to remind my professor of this, however, when she gave us this ridiculous deadline.). I was feeling good before class today because I had found a perfect source and emailed and called him. I really thought it was going to be one of those days where everything worked out perfectly.

Turns out, I was wrong. Not only am I getting sick (throat yuckiness), but I missed the bus to school by about one minute this morning, and the next one was late. That equalled me standing in the snow, feeling sick, wasting time that I should have been spending on this article.

Finally got to class, heard another two journalism professionals tell us just how hard (and poorly compensated) this job is. Great! Class let out early, so I went to my internship and worked for a couple of hours on the article (which is also for the internship. Shh.).

Was actually feeling like I had made some progress, interviewed a woman, got some other good contacts....then I realized that because of the stupid PC I work on there, the changes I had made had somehow not saved. I've done this before on this computer, so I should know that when you download something from an email and don't save it right away on your desktop, it disappears. Ludicrous!! I did all this work, hit save, and then couldn't find the document for the life of me. Called IT who was no help, and then just frantically tried to remember the quotes this woman had just given me.

When I had done all I could do, I left for the day, not even helped by the piece of toffee my nice co-worker shared. I walked out of the office and could see the bus waiting, but knew that there was no way I was running on the snowy sidewalks with a sore throat. So I managed to miss that bus by about one minute too. Then I'm standing waiting for the next one, and some crazy man (maybe not crazy, maybe just Tourrette's) walks up and starts yelling nonsense at everyone.

Then I started thinking, if I had Tourrette's and couldn't control what I say, wouldn't I try to tell people? Would I wear a sign? Something like, "Please ignore my offensive rantings, I really can't help it"? Just a thought.

The biggest bummer is that tonight is supposed to be Date Night for RL and I, and the dumping snow and throat yuckiness are making me think that's just not going to happen.

At least there's Tuesday...right?

politicians, god love em

Okay, i know i'm treading in dangerous political waters here (well, at least for a blog that's supposed to be light-hearted), but i just have to share this.

For school i've been doing a little research on my home town of San Diego, figuring out just how little their major media outlets are talking about their impending water crisis. In my research i came across a little clip of the Republican mayor of San Diego speaking out for gay marriage. Apparently his daughter is gay (Hi. Dick Cheney? Are you watching this?) as are members of his staff, so he's now asking the city attorneys to pass a resolution to allow gay marriage. In San Diego of all places!

Watch at least the last half of the video. It's amazing that he's so emotional about this--gives us a little insight on what it's like to be a politician that's promised one thing to his constituents, and another thing to his family. But kudos for actually doing the right thing for once (Hi! Dick Cheney? Are you watching this?).



In other news, Barack Obama recently linked his faith to his environmentalism. Wha? God never told us anything about taking care of the earth. Oh wait, yes he did.

...my dear, i don't give a damn

being the super-anal grammar and language person that i am, i always notice when people say things repeatedly, or wrongly. when RL and i started dating he said "to tell you the truth" a lot, which i thought was funny. when i pointed it out he stopped doing it. i sure hope you're still telling me the truth RL!

he also said, "least we forget" until i corrected him. apparently all of his life he'd been laboring under the assumption that the least we could do is not forget.

my current boss' name is frank. he says "frankly" a lot. as in "frankly, i think the design isn't what we need right now." it's like he's using himself as an adjective. like, what other way are you going to do things but frankly? i wonder if he notices the inherent irony. i do things tee-plately. how do you do them?

one of my professors is moroccan, though he's lived in the states for awhile and is a working journalist. for the most part he's got the language down, but there are always a few words he just can't pronounce right. my cohort and i sit in class and make notes of his weird pronunciations and then compare after class. the other day he was telling us a story about a coroner, but the way he said it sounded like Tony Danza ordering a mexican beer. Cor-OWN-er ("Hey Angela, go get me a coroner."). it was hard not to giggle in class.

but my absolute favorite saying of this professor is the substitution of the word "gouge" for the word "gauge." as in, "think about your surroundings and gouge your stories appropriately." i'm sure he doesn't even think about it, but the word takes on a totally different meaning when you pronounce it this way. does this not happen in morocco?

Tuesday: Tripping to School

My friend gave me some feedback on my blog and told me she liked the self-deprecating nature of it. In the spirit of that, here's a little more self-deprecation. It's amazing how easy it comes when you're kind of a klutz.

So today I was feeling sort of rushed as I left the house to get to my 9:30am class (so early). I managed to get on the right bus to get to class on time, but didn't manage to get there very gracefully. I got off the bus and was happily walking down the street, coffee in hand, when all of the sudden the sidewalk jumped in front of me and I nearly went down (to be fair, the sidewalks on that part of campus are notoriously frost-heaved*. Everyone knows it).

I don't know what I was looking at, but one of my classmates was about three feet in front of me, so when I almost went down, I nearly took her out. She's all walking down the street, totally not tripping, when all of the sudden she hears "Ack!" from behind her and turns to see me nearly crashing into her.

Some nice older ladies who were just passing stopped to make sure I was ok, and I of course tried to play it cool, but there was just no going back with the classmate. I tried to start a normal conversation as we walked to class, but I think she thought I was a little weird. To make matters worse, I totally cut my toe up on the stupid sidewalk. By the time I got to class it was bleeding and gross.

Ah yes, tripping during my second week of grad school. Reminds me of the time I tripped down the stairs on my first day of high school (true story! In a brand new school and everything). Here's to me learning how to walk better.


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*Meaning buckled, sticking up, whatever you want to call it. Thanks to RL for the whole "frost-heaved" descriptor though. He's very technical when it comes to cold weather problems.

Grad school is just like college, only different

So I’m almost done with my first week of graduate school. It’s been a big week of firsts for me, since I took the bus for the first time (well, in Boulder), got lost on campus (had to ask a freshman for directions), and met a lot of new people.

Last week was actually the first time we met everyone, as we all sat through an entire day of orientation talks by just about every group on campus (no Womynists though. What kind of a PC campus is this?). By the end of this long day we were all sort of bonded in our common tiredness and looking forward to our short-by-comparison 2.5 hour classes.

But it was fun getting to know everyone, and, well, sizing each other up. Journalism is a practical degree, but only about half of the people have actual journalism experience. There’s that one woman who was working as an associate producer for Martha Stewart Living in NYC, another one who’s been writing for a newspaper in Argentina, and still another who’s making her own documentaries.

And then there are the brand new college grads, who have for some reason decided that two more years of school is the way to go right now. There’s the 50-year-old woman with three kids who wants to do something new and interesting, and the Jersey girl who, after getting to the orientation 30 minutes late, asked five million stupid questions in that irritating Jersey girl way. Later she proceeded to eat a bag of chips while sitting right behind me, crunching her way through a kind of important talk by the Dean. (Note to self: Do not sit near to Jersey girl in future classes.)

My favorite part of the day was on the bus ride home. I got surrounded by undergrads, who were sharing their own stories of life at school. Two boys/men sitting right next to me were chuckling about all of the freshmen who were wandering lost around campus, huddling around school maps trying to find their way to class. Then the subject turned to food, and boy/man #1 says “we’ve got to get some real food to eat. I mean, all we’ve been eating is ramen, hot dogs, ramen, pop tarts, and more ramen.” Ah yes, the foods of the undergraduate gods. Thank god I’m not one of them anymore.