Not again

Well the weather is warm again and here in our apartment/neighborhood that means a lot of things.
-The living room will soon become a boiler
-The window air conditioner will create a nice ice box in our bedroom
-Everyone will descend on Washington Park to lay out and throw things at each other
-Dogs will be everywhere
-Everyone will try to sit outside at Lark Tavern and Lionheart
-Our neighbors will have parties with lost of people outside on their patios

-Most importantly, the wasps and carpenter bees are back!!!



They look like this! Ugh that noise makes my whole body tense up. I can hear them from across the street! Those females want to drill into my life.

The horrid things buzz around our screens and swoop at you when you are trying to innocently get up the stairs to your door. After a lot of research today I learned that they are rarely aggressive, yeah, whatever. I also learned that they return to where they are born every year and are pretty hard to get ride of. This information combined with the fact that our landlord has more important things on his mind means that I will spend another summer not sitting on our little porch. I hate them.

This week was also free food week for us.
Monday - free Bombers
Tuesday - free Ben and Jerry's
Wednesday - sadly none
Thursday - free Chipotle
Friday - we tried to use a Friendly's coupon for free ice cream and they called us fraudulent
Today - We are going to try again with a different Friendly's

Butterfly in the sky

Well after lots of studying for the hellish GMATs and lots of applications, I ended up getting into two SUNY Albany grad programs: the MBA program and the Masters of Science in Information Studies. I choose Information Studies and plan take courses to become a school media specialist (librarian). I blame all that working with kids I did, my parents for making me read so much, and obviously Reading Rainbow with some Wishbone thrown in.



I am really excited to go back to school full-time and start a new chapter (books!) of my life.

In other unemployment news, I am still unemployed. This left me free to go visit the fam in GR on easter. The 11 hour drive was pretty good. There was no traffic at any of the borders (never happens) and a book on tape made the time fly. The visit was really nice, I got to see lots of family and many friends. I think Bailey misses me already.

Brian and I have been going to a rescue mission to serve dinner about once a week. They really needed us yesterday when we showed up. It's always nice to feel needed there and we have become friendly with a lot of the staff. One of the guys was working on a word puzzle. He walked up to me to ask a question, "You should know this, is the term administration?"
I ask in what context, he can't seem to be able figure out how to answer me. I tell him administration is a word and it can be correct. We go round and round. He asks Brian, he asks other people, everyone is confused. He comes back to me, "This administration term is for a 20 day cycle. Maybe a 14-20 day cycle".
Ohhhh now I get what he doesn't want to ask, "Do you mean the female cycle?" I ask him.
"Yeah, yeah that cycle!"
"That is called MENstruation not administration."


And for good measure Wishbone as Mr. Darcy:

Keep it cool, what's the name of this club?

We had a special election yesterday which Brian and his parents voted in. It was kinda of a big deal with national coverage and all that jazz. A couple weeks ago I found out that two guys I graduated high school with were working on this same campaign for the democratic candidate. I went out to volunteer for a day which was pretty interesting. I was skittish about making phone calls before I got there but I eased into it and it was pretty easy. I was calling those listed on the absentee list, so it was mostly older people who have trouble getting out. Some where nice and some were not. Now this democratic candidate is ahead by 50 something votes and those absentee calls might matter. Like I said to Brian in a close race like this, how can you argue that your vote doesn't matter.

I have been reading all the books that I'd been meaning to read and watching all the movies I'd been meaning to watch. Most have been worth it. Ghost Town not so much.

This past Friday we went to the dinner dance Brian's program puts on every year. The food was awesome but sadly the DJ was not. He decided we loved 90s songs many of us had never heard and played them all night long.

Pancakes at my place!

It is currently 56 degrees here in Albany, NY. Tomorrow they say it will be 59. This means two things; I get to wear my sunglasses all the time (I enjoy wearing sunglasses) and that the wasps are back to hovering right outside out apartment windows (terrifying).

Last weekend I went down to stay with my friend Thuan and see Anna in the city. I love visiting, but lord, all that walking wore me out. I think my feet are still recovering. We had a really good time. Thuan cooked us the most delicious Vietnamese meal which included some of her best egg-rolls ever. Her place is great and all her friends were super nice and fun to hang out with. I used my trusty TomTom to drive in and out of the city. It went surprisingly well, I only got honked at twice.

As I mentioned before in this blog, I have been looking forward to jury duty for a long time. Yesterday was finally the day! When the whole jury pool was finally in the court room the judge read the charges. It was for a murder case, a stabbing! Pretty intense stuff. Then they began pulling random juror numbers to begin the questioning for jury selection. I was the second number called. The questioning went on for what seemed like two hours, which was just of the thirty or so jurors, like myself, that had their numbers pulled in the first group. I really didn't have to answer them for many of their questions. Most of the other people were older than me and had way more life experience that might hinder then from being open-minded. In the end I, along with most all of the first group, was excused. I am curious why I was excused. It may have been because the accused was a young person like myself or because I had a family member in the military. I guess I'll never know.

I've always wanted to be on a jury, but a murder trial may have been too intense for me. Now I get to wait another six years for my next chance.

Take a look

Being unemployed has its ups and downs.

Between Tuesday when I got my new library card (very overdue) and Sunday I read three books. Three books in less than a week is more books than I have read in the last couple months. Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy reading.

I have also been happy to sleep in everyday of the week.

We went to a U Albany basketball game this weekend. Another loss, but this time it was heart breaking. The team played much better than the last time we saw them, but it wasn't enough.

Picking up the Pieces

I was gearing up to write a post on Friday afternoon at work, when something truly surprising happened; I got laid off. My boss walked in with my pay check and with it was another envelope. He started to explain that he was really sorry, and work was slow, and checks weren't coming in, and they couldn't afford to keep me. For a couple beats I thought it was a joke and did a head tilt at him, an are-you-for-real look. It wouldn't be the first time he jokingly fired someone. But after those beats I could tell that it wasn't a joke, he was serious and he looked like he might cry.

So now I'm part of the sad statistics of the US of A. I felt really sad and angry about it for a couple days. I wish I had some warning. He told me they were turned down for a loan so things must have been bad for a while and I didn't know about it. I hate thinking the guys knew all week and still talked to me as if things were normal. But it didn't matter much as I packed up my few belongings (and the good pens) and took off.

Now comes the hassle of figuring out unemployment, figuring out if I'm starting school in the fall, and figuring out what to do with myself. Mostly right now I'm in a waiting pattern. I'm really thankful that I don't have a mortgage or a car payment, things could be a lot worse I guess.


Other than that the Bachelor was nuts last night. I knew most of what happened in advance since I spend a lot of time on the internet and the show was leaked all over the place. I think Jason made a mistake and he did his best to correct it. Like him, I thought Molly was better anyway.

As a "wise" man once said...

"You have a blog, blog on it"

This weekend I visited my friend Rachel in Boston for Valentine's Day single girl weekend. I am not really single but it was a lot of fun to hang out with a group of hilarious, nice females. We all put on our skirts and dresses and enjoyed a truly delicious Valentine's Day dinner. The restaurant decided to play Eleanor Rigby which is about all the lonely people (and faces in jars). My table was having none of that.

Boston is very easy to get to from Albany.

I have a new site I visit all the time: http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/
Check it!

A couple weekends ago we attended a U Albany basketball game. It had been promoted as the, Big Purple Growl, and was kinda of a big deal. UA played awful and was lucky enough to stay within about ten points of the winners the whole game. The place was packed and the whole crowd was behind them, but Albany never rallied. Coming from GVSU this wasn't fun for me. The games I usually attended at college were almost always a win for us, often by huge margins.

On the way to work I always see the Hudson River. There have been some really cool ice flows lately. Since I am driving I don't really get a good look at them. When I was a freshmen in college, I took the bus from campus to downtown Grand Rapids all year to get to work. I would walk across the Grand River on my way to work. One of my favorite things (when I wasn't cursing the cold or the bus) was seeing the river everyday.

Note to Nicole: I gave up Diet Coke on New Years of 2007. Do you not remember my resolution?