Wow, I feel so loved!

Two people (Streets & my Dad) have emailed to see if I've been run over by a lorry, on account of I haven't posted in two whole days. Let me just say that even though I haven't been posting, I've been thinking about posting pretty much nonstop. This becomes a problem during times when I'm supposed to be thinking about other things, like Information Retrieval Services.

For instance, I debated about telling you this story, and it looks like I'm going to.

Ahem.

Yesterday I got up from a very long lecture and started walking to my next class. As I walked, I noticed that my jeans felt odd, like they weren't fitting right or were bunched up in some weird way. I kept walking, figuring that I was just imagining things. But then I got cold, so I tugged at my scarf to re-tie it around my neck, and one of the ends didn't move. So I tugged harder, and pulled about a foot of pink scarf out from between the legs of my jeans. When I'd been sitting in the lecture I must have sat on the end and it just stayed there, so I was walking down the sidewalk like that. I don't even want to think about what that would have looked like, so I won't.

A good thing that has happened is that I'm liking my classes so far! I was kind of terrified that I would get there and go, "Wow. This is the most boring thing I've ever heard. When can I leave?" So I'm relieved about that. What we're learning about so far is how to look for information (other than just Googling it) and the ways to organize stuff so people can find what they're looking for. And hey, I'm all about being able to find what I'm looking for.

My sad experience of today happened when I had to spend a lot of money. This usually causes me pain, but today it was especially bad. It took me about 30 seconds to blow out the electrical outlet with my flat-iron, and then after the outlet was fixed it took me 6 seconds with my rechargable batteries to blow out the outlet and the voltage adapter. And all this was after I'd prepared so well!! So my life is pretty much a perfect graveyard of buried hopes, as Anne of Green Gables would say. I had to buy a curling iron, a flat-iron, a hair-dryer w/diffuser, a pack of rechargable batteries w/charger, and a hole-punch, on account of the hole punching & binder system here is freaky weird--don't get me started. Anyway, having to rebuy all this stuff depressed me greatly. Ladies, if you ever come here, just give in and accept defeat now. So then I had to spend my bus money on Cadbury's Whole Nut chocolate bars, which were 4 for a pound. I did this because at the moment I needed chocolate more than I needed a ride home. And if I've already eaten three of them, well, that's none of your business. I needed them.

Oh! The other sad experience of today was to do with the bathroom. You may remember that my landlord is in the middle of tiling the bathroom, and that there is no shower at the moment. Getting a bath around here is not an easy thing. Now there are houseguests added to the mix, repairs are still underway, and I never know when it's safe to use the thing. Plus, hello, it's a bathtub. Who the heck even takes baths? I mean, by the end of it you're pretty much sitting in your own dirt and soap and shampoo and shaving residue (if you actually shave your legs, which I certainly haven't done lately) and conditioner. If you're me, and it's only like the 2nd bath you've had all week, that's a lot of filth. Also, you're sitting where other people sit. With a shower, you're only putting your feet where other people's feet have been. I would much rather do that than be putting other parts of me where other people's parts have been. I mean, I barely even know these people!

So last night I gave my landlord the heads up, "Hi [Landlord], just wanted to let you know that I'll be using the bath in the morning, and I wanted to know if there was a time when you or [The Houseguests] were planning to use it." Because the day before everyone else decided that they needed a bath just as I woke up, so I didn't get one. Anyway, she got this stricken look and said that she was sorry, but she'd just put up more tiling and it needs 24 hours to set before anyone uses the bath, and could I possibly wait till the afternoon? Okay, see, by this point my curly hair looks, at best, like someone who's been at Girl's Camp too long. At worst, I look like a Rastafarian with blond matted dredlocks. It's really quite horrible, so I've been pinning it up for days now and I look like some freakish character from Gone with the Wind or something, all school marmish.

So tonight I told her again, "Okay then. I'm taking a bath in the morning."
Her: "Yes, that should be just fine."
Me: "At like 7:30. Or maybe even 7:00, if I feel like it."
Her: "Great."
Me: "And noooobody else will need to be doing anything whatsoever related to the bathroom at that time?"
Her: "No."
Me: "Alright then. 7:30. It's on."

Have I mentioned that she's not charging me rent until the shower's installed? I think that's very decent of her. It doesn't make me smell any better, but it will help negate the pain I felt at my recent purchases. That and the chocolate. Ooooh . . . one bar left . . .