Oh the places you'll go...

So, since my last entry:

- I managed a 3.6 this semester. I'm pleased. Somehow, I got an (A-) in Astronomy and only a (B) in Comparative Politics. I suppose that balanced out.

- I don't hate my new job all that much. It's very boring, actually, at this point. The last two times I've worked, I've had the kitchen closed hours before the actual resturant closes. Even when I try to pace myself to keep work to do, I still end up way ahead.

- I went to Staten Island last Saturday night, after work. I arrived around 12:30 and met Rita's father. He was nice to let me stay. Then I finally saw Rita's room. The whole house was nothing like I expected, but I liked it. We stayed up and talked for a while, then went to bed. I slept amazingly well. Then, Sunday, we bummed around for a large part of the day, and then we went with Olga and her friend Anton (sp?) into Brooklyn, where I tried a piece of sushi at a Japanese place for the first time. It was interesting, and the piece of sushi looked like a chunk of The Very Hungry Catapiller. I think I would eat it again. Then we went to play pool, where Rita played New Super Mario Bros. for a majority of the time, much to Olga's chagrin. Then we went back to Staten Island and Rita and I wasted the night away reading and playing games. It was a lot like school.

On Monday morning, Rita's parents asked Rita to go outside and do some yardwork because Rita was having a barbeque for Olga and her mother and Rita's family and me. Rita didn't feel that the ten hours or so of sleep she got was enough and wouldn't get up, but I was already awake at that point, so I went outside and helped. It wasn't anything hard. Rita was fully addicted to New Super Mario Bros. at this point and wouldn't move for the majority of the day. She just kept playing, so we switched back and forth between playing. At one point, I banged my thumb against a metal part of her bed (after I flailed my arms in frustration at losing) and my nail is black now. It hurt a lot. I finally managed to pull her away from the DS long enough to make dinner for everyone. I made hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill (not my best of showings) and a salad, and Rita prepared the fries, corn, and beans. All in all, it was a pretty satisfying meal. I wasn't feeling well at that point, so I went inside and watched TV after cleaning the grill off. I was hot and kind of dizzy, and my hand hurt. Eventually I felt fine enough for wanting candy, and we were going to go get candy, but Rita's mom called and we had to find Robert, Rita's brother, instead. Eventually we did, and then Rita got a phone call that all her friends were going to be hanging out and she wanted to go, so we did.

This going seemed like another opportunity for candy. Along the way, I looked for candy, but we didn't stop for candy, because Rita seemed very pressed to get there. She hadn't hung out with her friends in "a couple of days" so apparently this was very important. I haven't seen Anthony or Zach, my two best friends, since May 21st, but apparently five minutes could not be taken to stop to get candy! We finally got to one of her friends houses where they were "jamming" and recording music. The music wasn't awful, but they didn't sing any lyrics, so it could have been. Someone mentioned the idea of getting drunk, and Rita was all ears. I couldn't drink, mind you, because I had to be up at 8:30-9:00AM so I could drive home for four hours and then go directly to work for another 8. At this point, it was already past midnight. By 1AM, Rita is still very much interested in drinking, and practically insisted that we stay with lines like "I've never gotten drunk with Olga before" (mind you, Olga had half of a Mike's Hard Lemonade and never ended up drunk) and puppy-dog eyes and pouts. Being that I wasn't man enough to say no because I didn't want to see her disappointed, I finally agreed that she stay, and alcohol was soon flowing. It wasn't until 4Am that I finally crawled into bed.

I was pretty exhausted on the ride home. My iPod battery died, so I sat in silence for a lot of the way until my CD player actually read a few CDs. It was so hot, I rode shirtless. I got home around 1PM, sat around for a while, trying to sleep, but not able to, and then I went to work. It was a very boring shift. I worked with a guy named Nick who's a good guy and I like working with him better than the other people there. After work, I sat around and watched some Daily Show and the Colbert Report for a while and then went to bed. Rita called at around 1-2AM and said she was driving up to see me. She was going to come today, but she decided to just drive from there instead of going to bed and waking up and driving. She got here around 6:00AM or so, we chatted for a while, and then she went to bed. All in all, it was a pretty good weekend, and I can't wait to go back to visit. I have to work tonight and tomorrow, but Rita's going to come in and eat, so that'll make that more interesting. We're going to go to the grocery store maybe and buy some food to make, since we're both poor and eating out is a waste of money. On Friday, we're going to Binghamton to settle her traffic ticket, and she's leaving Saturday. Then, I don't think we see eachother until like, the 20th of June, so I suppose I should enjoy this as much as I can.

There was more I wrote, but I'll leave it off the Internet. So long.

Rita and I returned our upside-down catfish, but we were too late - minutes before we were leaving the lovely, very missed SUNY Oswego, our beautiful Betta fish (which I keep typing "Battle Fish" by mistake) parished. After flushing the Battle Fish down the toilet, we left Oswego.

Rita followed me home!

She ended up staying over here Friday and Saturday nights. We had a lot of fun. We went to Talk of the Town and Red Lobster to eat dinner. I tried shrimp again. They're so weird in your mouth. She came with me to eat at my future employer, Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe. I had tuna. It had onions and celery in it. I was not a fan. We mostly spent the weekend straightening up my room and bumming around. I can't complain. Rita and I ended up returning the tank and the heater to Warlmart. We then went to Petsmart to look at fish, and somehow we ended up buying a hamster. She's brown and we named her Kiwi. She doesn't seem very interested in doing anything but sleep and doesn't seem to be eating too much. I tried different food with her today and I'm going to go to Hannaford to buy some veggies for her. I hear they like vegies. Rita and I seem to have a knack for picking out pets that don't eat what they're supposed to - her bunny is obnoxiously picky, the catfish ate the Battle Fish, and the hamster seems to have an attitude against the food we've bought it. Oh well.

So, as many of you know, I'm looking for a new car. I've decided I want a sub-compact. A five door. But only a Honda Fit. I went to Toyota today and looked at a Yaris and a Scion X-A, and while the Scion was nice (did not like the Yaris at all), it doesn't come standard with a center armrest and they don't offer cruise control. So even though the Fit is about $3000 more expensive, that's the one I'm going to push. I'm not looking for anything flashy, but I really like that ALL the seats fold down in the car, so I'll be able to pack the thing full of shit for school, instead of the meager space that my Civic affords. Plus, let's face it, the Civic is fucking broken.

Repairs to the Civic:

Front Axle, Rotors Resurfaced: $292.62
Fuel Filter, Ignition Wires, Ignition Rotors, Distributor Caps, Spark Plugs: $ 349.24
Tires: $312.82
Muffler: $131.84
Window Regulator: $213.43
Exhaust Pipe: $169.11
Belts: $218.62
Rear Door, Painting: ~$950.00

I'm pretty sure something else is missing from that list, but all in total, the car has cost about $2500 to repair in two years. And the back door doesn't even open. And the window is help up with duct tape. And the stereo is broken. And it has 163,000 miles on it. Bottom line: my car is a sinkhole, sucking in money and providing little in reliability at this point. I should stop whining though, it's still a nice car. It gets me from point A to point B. For how much longer, I'm not sure, but I don't think that car can handle another year of back-and-forth Oswego driving.

Rita comes back to visit in about 10 days, and I'm excited. It's a short visit. We're going to Binghamton to settle her traffic ticket. I'm trying to convince her that upstate food is good. She's so far unimpressed. I'm going to have to take her to Pickle Barrel. Maybe Martha's or that other Ice Cream place by East Field. Maybe Smokey Bears BBQ. Somewhere. I don't know.

I got a few grades. I'm obsessed. I have a problem. I got an (A-) in Middle East Politics, an (A) in Public Policy and Administration, a (B+) in History, and an (A) in IST. I'm looking at a GPA between 3.56-3.62 depending on if I get an (A) or an (A-) in Comparative Politics. I'm sure I'm getting a B in Astronomy. Watch me get owned by Roby.

Other than that, not much is going on. I can't tell if I'm happy to be home or not. I miss being around Rita. I miss having regular meals that don't cost me money. I like hanging out with the guys. I like not having homework.

I don't like that my house is a mess. My room STILL isn't finished, and now it's filled with my shit, so when my parents do FINALLY get the people in that are supposed to do the walls and carpet in my room, it's going to be a pain in the ass. I'm going to have to find places in the center of the room for all of my stuff and all of Rita's stuff, which is taking up a small corner in my room right now. Apparently my parents refinanced their mortgage and have a bunch of money. They're having an architect draw up plans or something for an upstairs to our house with two bedrooms and a bathroom. The girls will live up there. I think that's pretty shitty, but I'm not going to complain. Yeah, they live in the same room, but I clearly have the shittiest room in the house. They should finish my room before they go and build a whole new story onto our house for the two of them. I'm assuming they're also going to expand Andrew's room too. I don't know. I suppose they don't see as much urgency in my living conditions because I'm not here for 8 months of the year and they only have to hear me bitch about it for 4 months of the year (and I sure bitch!).

Well, I start work tomorrow. It seems like it won't be that hard. I'm not really nervous. I was nervous on my first days at Regal, EB, and Boston Scientific, but I already know some of the people there and I'm really positive that the job won't be that hard. I really anticipate being bored a lot. I'm going to get owned on that anticipation too. Apparently I get to eat for free there. Judging by the quality of the tuna fish, I'm not going to be eating that too frequently (ever). But I'm going to get fat.

I'm a solid 150 pounds now that I'm off dairy and soda. I don't think it's too good to lose ~25 pounds in a 2 months span, but it happened, and there's nothing I can do to fix it now. I don't feel bad or anything anymore, and that's important.

Alright, enough of this. I'm going to Hannaford to buy food for Kiwi. Did you know "hamster" didn't have a p in it? I always thought it was hampster. Rita did too. Turns out, it's just hamster. Oh well. Good day.

No more teachers, no more books...

I think I had a blog entry titled this before, but on Xanga. Oh well.

So, finals are done. I think I'm going to end up with a 3.5. Hopefully. I don't really know. I think I did well on all of my tests though and would be surprised if my grades didn't work out that way. But then again, I've been surprised before.

My History 101 final was on Monday. The night before, I studied by going through the notes, summerizing them, highlighting the most important parts, and then writing essays based on the topics he gave us. I think I did really well on that one. Then I had to hand in two three-page papers for Dr. Warkentin and then a 10-page Reform Plan on Yemen for my final in Middle East Politics. He essentially told me I'll get an A on the Reform Plan. I'm not certain on the two other papers. I think they were good, but I just hope I followed the directions. I can't really afford another low grade in that class if I want a good grade in it.

I had my Comparative Politics and Astronomy finals on Wednesday. They were my last two tests. I really want to get a good grade in Comparative Politics and I think this last test sealed the deal for me. I knew the answers to every question and did extra credit. I didn't study quite so hard for Astronomy, but I think I managed to get a B on the test and get a B in the class too.

Dan's packing now. I'm going to pack tonight once he's gone. It's weird to be leaving Oswego for the summer. This place feels more like home now than home does, but I'm sure that will change. I start work on Tuesday at Rockhill Cafe in Glens Falls. I'll be making sandwiches from 12-10 on my first day. BUH that's a long day. I hate my mom. But after that, it's 2-10 once I'm trained, and I get out at 8 on Saturdays.

Rita's coming to visit on June 1st or so! I'm excited about that already.

Rita and I bought fish the other day. That was pretty exciting. We bought an upside-down catfish to go along with the Betta fish that she got from a ceremony. The upside-down catfish apparently started eating the Betta last night, so we're taking him back to Walmart today. I've returned a lot of things in my day, but this will be the first time I've tried to return something alive. We're going to use the money to buy a heater for the Betta and medicine that should make the part of his tail that was eaten off regrow. Stupid fish. Rita was very upset.

I'm kind of excited to be going home. I want to set up my room. It's kind of depressing that I'm excited to go home just so I can organize it. I'm looking forward to sleeping better, too, but I don't think that's going to happen. These beds are getting more uncomfortable by the day. Rita and I are buying a very comfortable futon and mattress next year. While my bed at home will certainly be more comfortable than a dorm bed, it'll be a lot more empty and I don't think I'm going to like sleeping alone again. At the beginning of our relationship, Rita and I decided that we wouldn't sleep next to each other every night. We've slept apart this semester for less than seven days, and two of them were because she was away from Oswego.

I look forward to hanging out with the guys too. I also look forward to car shopping. I'm trying to get my parents to take the money they were going to spend on getting my car window fixed and put it towards a down payment on an all-new ride. Considering the window will probably cost a thousand dollars to get fixed, this may actually be practical. My stepmom seems to be considering it. My father seems against it. I'm not going to push it very hard, but I would like a car that's more reliable than my current one.

So, that's that. I'm very bored. The Internet isn't interesting.

Bored and awake...

Rita is sleeping and I've got nothing to do because I don't want to wake her up. She stays up late every day of the week working on things she should have done days ago and then sleeps all weekend. But she looks cute. She's got the blanket all over her, except for one knee that's sticking up in the air. Her head is under a pile of pillows.

So, I decided to update this.

School is going well. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make Dean's List again, provided nothing catastrophic happens.

Here are some grades from my list exams/papers:

Comparative Politics Exam 2 - United States, India, Mexico, Brazil, and Nigeria: 93
Middle East Politics Country Update - Egypt: 99
Middle East Politics Country Update - Yemen: 99
Middle East Politics Presentation - Egypt: 92
Middle East Politics Exam 2: 78
Public Policy and Administration - NASA Paper - 96
Astronomy Exam 2: 72
History Exam 2: 86

I had my final in Public Policy and Administration last Thursday and I completely forgot about it, but with extra credit, every other grade I've gotten in the class is a 95 and above, so I'm not concerned too much about it. I fucked up my second Middle East Politics exam too, but nearly every other grade in there is a 95 and above too, so I'm pretty sure I'll do fine as long as my next test and final paper is done right. All in all, I'm pleased with this semester, and I'm going to miss it next semester. Dan can vouch for me, I did nothing this semester. I didn't really have any work to do, which is good considering I had the Rita to focus on. =)

But next year is going to be a lot harder. Here are my classes:

- Spanish 101
- English 220: Modern Culture and Media
- Political Science 319: International Organization
- Political Science 329: US Foreign Policy
- Political Science 497: Global Security

I'm really going to have to try hard to pass Spanish. I can't just give up when I don't get it this time. Global Security sounds fun and interesting, but it's going to be a shitload of reading. But, I'm almost done with my political science major after the fall semester. I'll only need to take two more classes and it's done and I can focus on my American Studies major. Not to make that major sound stupid or anything, but I don't expect it to be hard. I don't know. I've already done 24 credits of it. Only four classes and that shit is done. The other classes I'm taking could go either way. I think I'm going to have a lot - A LOT - of reading next year.

I've decided I'm buying a hamster. I'm excited. I want a pet. I don't know where I'll keep it. Rita said I could keep it in her room since she's going to be an RA and has a huge room. It depends on the furniture here in 'Daga. But I want a pet. It'll be fun. We're going to get a bed next year to sleep in because these beds are awful for couples.

And soon my friends, summer. I'm not really looking forward to it. My mom got me a job working with her, making sandwiches or serving them to people. I'm not sure what to think of the job, but it pays well enough and I'm kind of desperate. It's not that I don't want to go back to EB and the theater, but I feel out of place there. I'm older than nearly everyone who works at the theater and I have no interest in talking to anyone new there. They're all in high school. And EB used to be a really fun place to work in, but it's so dramatic and I feel like I don't really belong there anymore. Part of growing up I suppose. Who knows, maybe I'll find my calling in sandwiches. I have a dentist appointment to get some gum removed on the 14th of June.

And I guess I can look forward to all the times I'm going to see Rita. She's coming to visit right at the beginning of June and we're going to go to Binghamton so settle her speeding ticket. I'm going down around the 24th of June to attend her aunt's wedding and meet her family. Then I'm going back down for the 4th of July. And then she's coming to visit me hopefully after that. And then we're back to school! Naturally I'm going to try to sneak back to school early so I can see her sooner. I might have to pay again, but I don't mind. I'm going to miss her terribly.

Other news: the new Tool album, 10,000 Days, rocks. I'm listening to it right now and it's getting me PUMPED. I like parts of it more than Lateralus. I might actually buy it, even though I've already downloaded it.

My dad told me that I now have a new window in my bedroom (one that opens, with a screen) and my new door is in place and the old one is removed and walled over. So now I have to come up with ideas of how I'm going to set up my room once I get back. I'm excited about that at least. It'll keep me preoccupied for a few days. I know where I want my bed, but that's about it.

Last night, I sat around the room by myself. Dan and Anthony and Zach went off to a party and Rita was supposed to go to a party so she was gone too, so I just sat around. I beat Black, which I didn't really like and played Untold Legends: The Warriors Code. Getting GameFly was a great idea. I'm keeping it over the summer. I'm getting MediEvil Resurrection next. I played the PSOne original and liked it, so I think I'll like this one.

I went to a bonfire last night down by the lake with Rita. It was interesting. I stink of smoke, even though I showered as soon as I got back. I think it's my clothes. Rita and I made out a little and then I talked to some guy from one of my classes about how random a teacher we have is. Her and I just bummed around yesterday and watched movies. We watched John Q. and Sleepless in Seattle. They were both pretty good. I bought six VHS movies from the Onondaga Movie Sale yesterday for four dollars. I got Natural Born Killers, Get Shorty, Glory, Boyz N The Hood, Behind Enemy Lines, and something else that I can't remember or see right now because I don't have my glasses on.

And that's it. I'm getting hungry and it's getting late, so I think I'm going to wake up Sleeping Beauty over there and go to the dining hall and be disappointed. Good day my friends.