I think the universe is telling me that I'm not destined to drive because:

01. When I went to get my permit, I forgot some identification requirement and ended up waiting hours longer than I had to.
02. The moment I woke up today, it began to rain.
03. The moment I woke up today, I clutched my stomach in pain. Cramps. Lovely.
04. When I went to do my driving test, I ended up at the wrong MVA and fell into a state of panic as my dad rushed me to the right one.
05. I failed my driving test.

But luckily, I extended my permit by a year so now I have another 365 days to humiliate myself behind the wheel.

There has been no water in my building and in surrounding buildings ALL DAY.

This means:
NO BATHROOMS
NO SHOWERS
NO FAUCET WATER
NO HOT WATER

This means:
Going to the bathroom in buildings where your classes are
Running to the gym when nature calls
No drinking water at the diner
No ramen

And when the promised water comes back at 7 PM, it is disgusting yellow color.

Well, I knew that I would eventually end up skipping Bio because it is too early, but I didn't expect to oversleep less than a week before our midterm. Fuck. :( I hate this class.

I'm kind of having a terrible day.

1. 77/100 on my chem test. Not exactly how I pictured starting out the semester.
2. Bio test sucked. He put on every memorization problem possible. The eons, eras, periods, epochs. The bacterial, archael, protist phylums. It was ridiculous. I kind of hate my professor.
3. I'm sick.

I could create a TV series about the amount of angst I go through for every test.

EPISODE 01: CHEM TEST

01. I've been studying for this since last week.
02. This is the most I've studied for anything. Seriously. I only crammed for a day for APs.
03. I really felt I understood the material, inside and out.
04. The questions on the test were totally reasonable.
05. There wasn't enough time.
06. I hate my non-graphing calculator. I was trying to subtract 28.48 from 29.19 and it kept telling me it was 58. Fuck you, TI-36.
07. I left two questions that were eight points each, blank.
08. This test is out of 100.
09. I hope there is a curve.
10. Please let there be a curve.

PREVIEW OF EPISODE 02: BIO TEST
(coming to LJ on Monday, when I've failed it)

01. It's on 10 chapters.
02. Each chapter has >20 pages.
03. We have to memorize certain groups of bacteria, archaea, and protists.
04. We have to memorize the eons, eras, and periods.
05. He tests on the most specific things.
06. Like things he doesn't even mention.
07. How does the QWERTY keyboard have anything to do with organismal biology?
08. (The answer: it doesn't.)
09. The class average is 60.
10. But apparently there is a girl in the class who does too well.

So all that reading that I skipped out on the first two weeks of school? Starting to catch up to me. I stopped understanding what the professor was talking about in chem, so I have to actually read the chapter in the book.

Also, my honors seminar? Way too much work. It's also consuming so much ink from my printer for readings, notes, and commentary. Commentary that should synthesize and analyze the information. She's actually making sure it's a cohesive essay! Ridiculous. :(

My English class is still incredibly awesome. Today, we discussed what a conversation would be like between an unmarried, impregnated woman in the 19th century and her impregnator, and we interpreted pedophilia from between the lines of The Turn of the Screw (by Henry James). Also, my professor has the best reading voice ever. It's fantastic.


Reason 8 Why Life is Made of EPIC FAIL

I went to open a checking account at Chevy Chase, and they had some trouble getting me an account because some guy had used my social security number to open a bank account. So I had to go to the Social Security Office to get my number verified and go back to the bank. BUT THEY STILL COULDN'T DO ANYTHING.

Chevy Chase: Go to the police and file for identity theft; go to court and fight over it; and then we can give you an account.
Me: But there's been no accounts of my SSN being used--
CC: Go to the police!
Me: But that's going to take forever. I have checks that will expire--
CC: Go!

So my dad and I went. To Bank of America. And they opened an account for me. And found no signs of this guy using my SSN. And my credit report is clean.

We went back to Chevy Chase to gloat, but the assistant manager's like, "I'm not making this up. This could be a serious problem. Here. Listen to this Voice of God. You'll see." So we listened. And we heard about this guy in Tennessee who opened an account in Alabama, which was closed because of non-sufficient funds.

We listened to his address. Multiple times.

My dad has that address in his hands now.

...I'm pretty sure the bank isn't supposed to do that. All of a sudden, I'm glad I'm trusting the privacy of my bank account information to Bank of America.

But still, I have to call to get a free credit report (just in case) and we might file for identity theft (just in case) and I have to get that record of Tennessee guy expunged from my ChexSystems record.

GEMS100. Carl Burton & Ekta Taneja. M 3-4:30PM.
01. This is basically the class that helps me adjust to college life/Gemstone program (research thing that only crazy people will do).
02. It's led by a sophomore and junior who are awesome.
03. We do icebreakers. Lots of icebreakers.
04. We also play telephone charades, which is fun. (The rules are this: Divide a group into 2 teams. One team thinks up a word/phrase and tells it to the first person of the team. The first person must act it out for the next person on the team, but no one else on that team can look. And so on, until the last person in the line guesses at the word. The thing is, if one person in the chain has no idea what the person before was doing, then you're all screwed. Which is how dragon was guessed elephant. And skydiving was guessed elevator/taking a dump.)
05. Apparently, we can't escape icebreakers. Ever.

While I love GEMS100, my first Monday with classes was horrible. Since I have Bio at 9, I thought I'd just hang around/do my homework on that side of campus till my next class. So at noon, I went to English, followed by Chem at 1. Then I went to the bookstore to return a book (last day for full refunds), and ended up in line for ~40 minutes. By that time, I couldn't get my latelatelate lunch/dinner (lunner? Dinch?), and had to endure 90 minutes of hunger.

General Chem Lab. Jones. TA: Ye. T 3:30-6:20PM.
01. Horrible.
02. So, so horrible.
03. The TA doesn't seem to have any idea what he's doing.
04. The room is hot (especially under your labcoat).
05. We spent 90 minutes measuring water. That was our lab. Measuring water.
06. There are no stools.
07. Did I already mention it was horrible? 'Cause it was.

Japan's Silk Road Music. Yoshikami. W 6:30-9PM
01. It ends ridiculously late.
02. By the time this class rolls around, I'm already exhausted by Bio, Chem, and English.
03. The teacher is so fun. She is quirky and funny,
04. We are listening to a lot of old, classical music. I'm a pop kind of girl. This is not my style...
05. I'm disappointed we can't analyze contemporary J-pop.


My biology teacher is kind of awesome. Today, we had a lecture about evolution, and he starts off with an example:

"There are gray squirrels on campus. There are gray squirrels that look black and red on campus. There are white squirrels, though they are very rare. And then there is this: roadkill squirrel. These squirrels aren't able to produce offspring, therefore their alleles are not passed down."

Though, still kind of terrified about the preliminary exam. Because, uh, I never learned anything about plants or anatomy, and the cell biology stuff? Yeah, wiped from my mind when APs were over.

(Also, he has a Facebook. Which is kind of hilarious.)


My chemistry teacher is also kind of awesome. Today, we had a lecture about classifying Diet Coke, and somehow we diverged to the topic of testing pH. So apparently, next Monday, she's buying lots of Diet Coke so we can figure out its pH. (According to some girl in the class, it is more acidic than acid rain. T/F?)


In conclusion, I have lots of awesome teachers. Now, if only college didn't include testing, I think I would be all set.


Ways That Life Fails Me:
7. It is still ridiculously hot out. It is already September, world, please stop being 90 degrees outside.

Organismal Biology. Delwiche. MWF 9:00AM
01. The time sucks. I adore biology. I hate mornings.
02. This is the third in a series of bio classes that I placed out of thanks to AP. We have a preliminary exam on the subject matter taught in those classes. I haven't done actual bio since junior year.
03. He says that to brush up on aforementioned subject matter, read chapters 1-24, 50-55 in the textbook. Dying.
04. Delwiche is kind of awesome. Very informal, very blunt, very fun.

Introduction to the Novel. Auchard. MW 12:00PM. Th (discussion) 2:00PM.
01. I took this class because we get to read The Great Gatsby. I love that book.
02. The teacher is very cool. He says insane and quirky a lot. I love insane and quirky people.
03. We discussed the sexual implications of Little Red Riding Hood. Apparently, it's told to children because parents don't want their child to be raped in the metaphorical woods or preyed upon by sexual predators. Oh. And also, they'd rather we not fall for the bad boy (big bad wolf) and instead marry the surgeon/lawyer (woodcutter).
04. The first two readings are rife with sexual implications, apparently. I'm kind of excited.
05. I don't think I actually have to self-study for this class (besides reading the selected books). Which is awesome. I hate self-studying.

General Chemistry. Dixon. MWF 1:00PM. T (discussion) 2:00PM.
01. The teacher is enthusiastic and fun. That promises good things.
02. We have to read chapter 1 of the textbook. It's 32 pages long. I loathe textbook reading.
03. We get extra credit for signing her door. That's pretty sweet. I love extra credit. (I will need extra credit.)
04. This class is huge. The room is massive.

Chemistry Lab. Jones. T 3:30 PM.
01. I just downloaded a .pdf file that was 7 pages long and told me all the ways I could fail this class.
02. I hear labs suck. I'm not looking forward to this.
03. I hear the teacher sucks. I'm really not looking forward to this.
04. We have to buy so much crap for this class: labcoat, goggles, labbook, lock, 2 lab breakage cards. I have done a ridiculous amount of waiting in lines at the University Book Center spending ridiculous amounts of money.

I have Japan's Silk Road Music tonight, which promises to be easy if not fun. It's an honors seminar though, which means I'll at least have a small class so I can actually interact with people. Because I haven't really interacted with people in my classes yet, as they are large.

I also have my Gemstone introductory class on Monday, which promises to be fun because our team leader is really chill and awesome. Also, we're reading Fight Club, which automatically makes my section awesome (and apparently, we get to watch the movie, too). It might be the only class that doesn't have serious homework, besides writing journal entries (about life, not about research) and sending them to our team leader.


Ways That Life Fails Me:
4. I stood in line for like thirty minutes buying lab stuff. When I get to the counter, they're all out of locks.
5. I bought a labbook. Afterwards, I get an email saying I need one with alternating carbon-copy rip-out sheets.
6. It's ridiculously hot out.

Or, alternately, why life fails me:

1. First day of classes. My first class starts at 2PM. I forget my pencil case.
2. My first class (Chem) ends after ~15 minutes.
3. My second class (Chem lab) is supposed to start ~40 min after my first, so I wait around on some benches. Turns out, labs don't start till 9/8.

In conclusion. I should never have left my room today.