The Last Week: Good and Bad

Good: School finished! I'm done with all my finals and all my classes! It's summer!

Bad: School started! I have summer school (at least for the first six weeks of the summer), thrice a week at 9am.

Good: I'm all moved in to my new room!

(Address for care packages, checks, money orders, etc:
2650 Haste St.
EH 707
Berkeley, CA 94720)

Bad: My setup does not like to be moved. It especially doesn't like to be moved twice. So imagine my thoughts when, after spending 15 hours moving my stuff from one building to another, putting everything in its proper place, hooking up my computer, and putting my celebratory bottle of sparkling cider in my fridge, I then go to my meeting (oh, did I mention I finished at 8:20am?), where I'm told, "Yeah, you and the other CC (Community Coordinator) are in the wrong rooms. You'll have to switch. By tonight." Imagine a wave destroying your newly-finished sandcastle, and the wind then blowing the sand into your eyes. It was kinda like that.

Good: Luckily, I moved to this new building in less than half the time (only 7 hours!).

Bad: Not only had I not slept in 46 hours, but my fingers were cut, crushed, and bleeding (the rest of my body fared slightly better.

Good: Going back to classes, I got an A+ in my Consumer Behavior class (like I said, telling), and, somehow, a B+ in my Accounting class.

Bad: I also got a B+ in my personal finance class. Which sucks, as I was taking the class Pass/No Pass, and so I should have gotten a P. I know for a fact that I signed up for the class as P/NP, because this sort of thing has happened to me before! And yet, here I am, with a Goddamn letter grade in a class I stopped doing any real work on by the halfway point. Am I going to request that they change it? No, because they need some kind of proof, then they need a letter from the professor, then they need about ten pages of paperwork, and then they'll never, ever get back to you, pigeonholing your request in some Godforsaken desk. ...Like I said, I've been through this before, and it sucks.

Good: I've gotten through what is probably the busiest part of my summer job: the training and setup to make sure things go smoothly. And they have (thus far).

Bad: I'm not in the clear yet (though things should die down a bit from here on out).

Good: My staff is definitely enthusiastic.

Bad: My staff is definitely inexperienced (and yes, there is a strong correlation between those two.) They'll pick it up, though.

Good: A couple of my old residents came back.

Bad: They're not living anywhere near my room. (Hopefully, we'll still be able to get together for some poker.)

Good: There are more Finnish people!!! I always made fun of my mom for telling me that almost everyone she worked with was one of the best people in the world. But now I know she was just flat out mistaken: the best people in the world are in FINLAND!

Bad: Nothing bad can possibly be said about Finnish people! And don't let me catch you badmouthing Finland!

Good: We had a large, successful ice cream social this last Tuesday which will set the precedent for our upcoming Tuesday Night Socials.

Bad: The social was so successful (and loud, apparently) that the cops were called to break it up.

Good: My summer class so far seems interesting.

Bad: We had a reading on our first day, which had a reading response due that day by 9pm. Since I had work, I needed to turn mine in by 7pm. Which would be fine, except that the reading was 110 pages (literally, half the reader). Also, I'm not sure if the teacher is too keen on me, and I don't know why. :(

Good: Before moving out, I had the most fun going through piles of clothes, books, and other crap that people had thrown in the lobbies to be taken to Goodwill. I was like the Grinch, going in with my empty bag and filling it with goodies. I was able to pick out new pairs of jeans that actually fit my slimmer waist, shorts, notebooks, stuffed animals, and about seven pillows (including two full body pillows). It was great! It was like going to a thrift store, but you didn't have to pay! I probably got about $250 worth of stuff, a good number of which I was actually in need of.

Bad: The stares of the people as I was climbing on top of the mountain of clothing, excavating it. Their stares. Their judging stares!

Good: My room, which is basically one floor down and one room over from last year's summer room, looks pretty much the same, just a little nicer (and with a lot more pillows).

Bad: That tree is still in the way...

Good: It's summer which is my favorite season for the following reasons: longer days, balmy nights, dragonflies, the fact that the reduced number of students makes you feel like you actually own the school, and watermelon!!!

Bad: We need some actual summer weather around here!

Now, for this last one, I'm switching it around.

Bad: Ever since I mentioned at our first hall meeting that I worked in the Unit, people have been asking me questions as though I were just some RA.

Good: I can tell them: "I'm not an RA. Don't ask me." HAHA!!!