Random Thoughts and Happenings

Just a few random things from the past few days, in no particular order.

Gates 101
This morning, on the walk to class, I took the "shortcut" through the HPER field. It finally reopened after spring break. I'm not sure if it's that much shorter, but going that way avoids walking where the narrow sidewalk is right next to a busy street. If you wanted to, you could reach out and touch the cars and buses passing by. Walking through the field and then the arboretum is much, much nicer.

The field is fenced in, and the gates are chained shut and padlocked. When it's open, the chains are loose, so people can fit through the opening fairly easily. You might need to turn sideways to get through; you just can't open the gate all the way. I ended up following a group of about six sorority girls who were taking up the whole path so I couldn't pass. At the far gate, it was open enough to get through, but the metal latch was down. The sorority sisters all started complaining. They would have to not only squeeze through the gate opening, but they would have to bend down to get under the latch. All six of them did this, complaining the whole time. The two girls who came up behind me, seeing this, said, "you've got to be kidding."

I, however, flipped the latch up so it was parallel with the gate post and walked through sideways, without having to bend over at all. The girls behind me burst out laughing, one said, "good call," and we all shared a little giggle at the expense of the hapless sororiety girls. The sad thing is, the sororiety girls all headed into the business school, and I thought, they don't know how to get through a gate, but they'll all probably make several times (at least) the money I'll make in my lifetime.

Being Carded
Yesterday, I went to Friday's with Melissa for the traditional Easter cheeseburger. We had a festive fruity dacquiri to go with it. We both got carded, and I was told that I "look very good for my age." I'm not sure what that meant, but hey, I'll be 49 in October, so I'm telling everyone that I was carded! Woo hoo!

In Which I Try to Decide If I Should Spend My Tax Refund on a Tattoo...
I've been debating getting a tattoo. I even took an exploratory journey to a tattoo place over spring break. I fell in love with a cool magpie design (who could have predicted that?).

It's really beautiful, but to do it with the detail I'd want, it would be kind of big, and it would be expensive (like over $200 expensive). I got my tax return back, and was thinking that I might just splurge and get the tattoo. That was before I went to Bonnie's apartment on Friday before Easter to color Easter eggs.

She showed us some photos of the library in Flagstaff where she'll be doing her internship this summer. That lead to other photos - all of her summer in Montana. It made me so homesick for mountains, and all the people I know who live in them that I ended up looking at airfare randomly over the past few days. Lo and behold, while flying to Missoula was expensive, flying round trip from Indianapolis to Spokane was only $2 more than the tattoo. I guess the tattoo will wait. I leave Saturday, April 26th and come back to Indiana Saturday May 3rd. I scared Callie with my happy dance. Montana here I come!

Back to work

Sigh.

Last week was spring break, and I spent it visiting family. It was a nice, relaxing break from work and studying, but now I'm having a hard time getting back into the work/study mode. We had a couple of nice 60+ degree days, too, and I came back to rain and grey skies. You would think that would make it easier to concentrate on studying, but I have to report that, no, it does not. Callie is very happy that I'm back. She's been sticking to me like velcro. If she's not on me, she's right next to me.

I'm working tomorrow afternoon for someone. I'm guessing that it will be fairly quiet, so if nothing else, I should be able to get some work done then. We'll see...

Karmic Powers

I think I have discovered where my karmic powers lie. I was at a meeting today which got done earlier than anticipated. The last meeting like this I was at finished early, too. My coworker told me that she thought I was influencing meetings to end early. So, I have good meeting karma (?). Maybe some of it will rub off on the apartment karma.

I'd be happy if some of it rubbed off on the weather karma. It was in the 60s this weekend, but now is rainy and in the 30s. Winter has decided to return for an encore visit.

The Winner Is....

...Meadow Park, by a landslide. Thanks to everyone who voted. I signed a lease for a two-bedroom apartment. It was only $30 more a month than the one-bedrrom, and there's a $25 a month graduate student discount. So, it ended up not being that much more money for lots more space. Besides, all the one-bedrooms were on ground floor, and I didn't want to have to listen to people walking above me. I think it will be quieter this way. It really does seem like a much quieter part of town.

I'm not sure what I'll do with all the space. I've been living in studios for so long that actually having a bedroom was going to seem spacious. With two bedrooms, it'll be palatial. So, if any of you find yourself in Indiana, you'll have a place to stay. And hopefully, since I have been influenced in my decision, maybe my apartment karma will start to change.

Spring!

Okay, it probably won't stick around, but right now, this afternoon, it's 68 degrees. On a walk earlier, I could see all the green shoots of bulbs bursting through, along with some buds on the trees. I've got the window open, and the door.

Spring break starts the end of the week, so maybe, maybe spring will decide to stick around for awhile.

For those of you wondering about the voting so far, Meadow Park is resoundingly in the lead. I'll wait until tomorrow morning to see if that changes, but it looks very much like I will be signing a lease with them tomorrow afternoon...