convocatum est, bitches

it's odd to eat crab chips in santa fe. i don't think i ever had the things in maryland.

so i've been convoked, and stuff. someone managed to knock over the flag while signing the register, but that someone was not me, i swear it.

after chasing around weigel some more, i have discovered that, in fact, i was not waitlisted for work-study. this is because financial aid thought there was no point in signing me up for work-study, since i'd just be waitlisted anyway, and it was too much trouble. so NOW i am waitlisted for work-study, and with luck, forty people will end up declining and i'll get something on-campus. aramark is hiring, but working the dishpit on campus would pay less than working a dishpit off campus, as the college is not a living-wage employer.

i am feeling far more secure in my decision to quit trader joe's outright, though, after noticing one of this morning's local headlines (second down). i was there that night. i didn't see what happened, because i was working in the refrigerator, but having put together some really odd behaviour i'd sort of just ignored, i know who it was, i think. i'm not sure who did it, and i've been off these past two days, but... jesus. and they only just put whoever-it-was on leave yesterday? there was a fight, that night. one kid nearly broke his hand. i saw managers talking to several people afterwards, outside, and one guy -- probably the guy implicated here -- was forcibly removed from the store. they knew something had happened, but they waited until the police got involved.

now the question, though, is what to do for money.

fact: 'mi' actually is in the dictionary.

i found all the weird people. it turned out they were hiding in their dorms during the day and only emerged for dinner. when i saw the kid in full SCA regalia chatting to the kid in inked-up hightops and a stencilled Dead Kennedys shirt, i knew it was going to be okay.

dinner proved unsettling, given the discussion at my table, which revolved mostly around 300, and when the topic did finally turn to Meno, at least three people repeatedly conflated plato and socrates, and a fourth did nothing but enthuse over the hotness of young greek men. a fifth played dejectedly with his salad, after mumbling that he was only here because his parents refused to send him anywhere else.

but then i went to seminar, and i realised that finally, i am home. it took seven years, but i'm home.

i skipped the waltz party in favour of cheap shiraz and scrabble, though. (and a special viewing of 300.)

no, it is in fact That Harrison, the one who was denied tenure last year for the reason, evidently, of sucking hardcore. upon informing greg of my tutors, i was told to try and transfer out of basically everything. it can't be that bad, can it?

HOWEVER: more important things. my tutors!

cornell for chorus.

levine for greek.

harrison for math -- no, not the one who got fired, the other one.

singleton for lab. he's something of an unknown quantity, as he just started last year with the febbie class. i think i read an interview with him in last year's Moon, and he seemed rather sweet and harmless.

and for seminar.... poppele and van Boxel. i am afraid of van Boxel. reassure me pls.

i'm no-hope waitlisted for a work-study job, and i'm not sure what to do. i'm pretty sure i can't work three days a week at Trader Joe's, and that's the minimum they want of me. i could work Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday nights, but that's all my schedule really allows, and that doesn't give me much free time. i suppose i can make it work -- i sort of have to, evidently, so i will.

and i have a weird ID picture, but that's to be expected

i think i was expecting more nerds, somehow. more outcasts, more freaks. more... something. everyone here looks far too well-kempt and socially well-adjusted. (except for the one awkward dude in the pyjama pants and sandals who kept muddling through evidently-memorised one-liners in the "why do you drive on a parkway and park in a driveway?" vein, but still, there are a whole lot of cargo shorts, tans, and sorority girl laughs going on here.)

then again, most everyone is being shepherded about campus in the company of their parents. this could be a factor in the noticeable lack of affectation and eccentricity. i do hope so. hell, i'm the only one with weird hair, even!

also, i don't have a mailbox yet. i blame cobalt for this. i know that i have a mailbox. i have been in the Restricted Area and i have *seen* my mailbox. also, somehow, they have managed to make The Moon suck even more than it used to suck. i didn't think it could be done. i will remedy this, by force if necessary.

so, theoretically: how hard would it be to hack someone's LJ account to read friendslocked posts?

sadly, they don't make TrapperKeepers any more.

for the first time in my life, i am preparing for a class. with a list of written questions, together with line notations. and with sticky notes, yet. who am i, and what have i done with me?

all of my paperwork is done. i was pleasantly surprised at my own efficiency. this isn't meant to be boastful -- efficiency, at least in personal matters, is not my strong suit. i have yet to finish the medical forms, but a whirlwind tour of weigel hall netted me the valuable information that, actually, no one is going to care about the medical forms, despite the scary boldface warning that NO STUDENT WILL BE ALLOWED TO REGISTER without having submitted said forms. (i had to sing the greek alphabet to the PowerPuff Girls theme in order to secure this promise, though -- don't ask. sidenote: it also can be sung to the Jonny Quest theme, if you get creative with your verse breaks.)i even got them to correct my name, which they'd spelled wrong, and i've got hold of library copies of books that haven't made it out here yet. also, a new messenger bag, one which boasts of its ability to survive angry dogs, broadswords, and being set on fire. because, really, you never know.

while crossing campus, i saw the B&G dudes putting up banners for registration. i found this curious, at first -- it's nearly a week away, and it does, you know, rain and stuff, and why not wait til the day before? then i saw the effort involved, and realised why they'd budgeted themselves ample time: evidently, putting up three banners is an eight-person affair, with six people to sit on the grass under the trees and listen to AC/DC and two people to stare perpelxedly down at a roll of duct tape sitting on the concrete in front of them, each holding up their own side of a waterproofed banner, the middle of which sags in neglect upon the ground.

also, i have a new haircut. i don't know what colour to make it, though, since it's still a rather sad faded pink left over from the HP7 release. i've used that shade before, but it was a different brand, and evidently the awesome Glows-In-Blacklight! powers of this new brand make it hang on for longer than one would reasonably anticipate. i could just dye it pink again, i suppose, but a lavender might be nice.

so far, i basically hate everyone but thersites. everyone is reasonably hateable, mind you, but agamemnon justly draws most of my ire. i suddenly feel sorry for the poor goldfish who was once forced to take that asshat's name.

aaaah! i have not one, but two readings! because there is also a seminar next wednesday! plus a chorus reading! plus and i was supposed to know the greek alphabet already! and i think also some euclid! and to have had a meningitis vaccination and a physical, which i'm not sure how to get because i'm between insurance policies! and the enormous packet of papers they gave me yesterday were all marked 'due by 15 June'! aaaaaaah!

also, i can't for the life of me figure out what i'm supposed to wear to convocation, or if i'm supposed to care. the closest available options for meeting the 'formal dress' requirement are a tarty black silk cocktail dress or office attire, and the only information i really got, when i asked, were that jeans, sneakers, and prom dresses were all Bad Ideas, which, while not actively frowned upon, might be laughed at.

also: aaaaaaaah!

...so a spot just opened up for me in the Fall 07 class.

which starts in a week.

so, um.

wow.

i should probably start the seminar reading...

(this is, of course, pending contact with financial aid; i'm not sure whether changing my start date would reduce or invalidate their aid offer. if it does, well, i'll have time to read the iliad a bit more thoroughly. but still.)

where is PedoBear when you need him

how did i survive 25 years without ever getting a massage? my god, i can move my neck for the first time in months.

oh god no please no

somehow, one of my favourite feminist blogs has been sucked into an epic retaliatory bad-breakup shitfest from a BBS i used to frequent. which is still going on. two years later.

i hate the internet.

the new sjca.edu: setting the standard for Shittiness In Web Design.