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.