Guess what I saw pulling out of the school parking lot a few nights ago?


You just can't make this stuff up. Again, proving that USC students have too much money on their hands.

There's so much going on, I'm just totally overwhelmed.

• Mother's day and my dad's birthday are very close this year. They're usually close, but this year just a few days apart. I missed out on all of the free/expedited shipping specials, but turns out I'm still a little early for my delivery dates. Which kind of sucks, since that means I have to wait a few more days to check them off my list!
  
• I renewed my driver's license. Can I just say again: hooray for online renewal!
  
• Another repeated hooray for economic stimulus packages. I did direct deposit so I don't have anything to complain about, but I'm still going to be toward the end. Oh well - that day I'll be refreshing my bank account allllll day.
  
• Hm, what do you send as a wedding gift when their wedding is only a week and a half away ... ? I'm so, so excited we're going to my college roommate's wedding. Even if it is in Chicago and two days before my last final exam. I'm anxious to get my life back! Oh ... I need to rearrange my work hours for my flight! And figure out what to wear! And how to pack it in a duffel bag!
  
• I really, really need to plan a visit to my parents. I haven't seen them in a long time. I haven't talked to them in a long time. And I have a big bag of gifts that I don't want to ship. And wedding plans that need to be discussed.
• My final project for my international trip was a mess, but at least it's over. Saturday was really hot, so it almost wasn't too awful to spend the day in class presentations. Now, I'm a week and a half in to my month-long finals marathon, with an exam this Thursday and my last final exam in a couple of Tuesdays. Then, two weeks off (which I'll be spending part of making up time at work), and back to class Mondays & Tuesdays, 6-10 pm.
  
• Work is really, really busy. I like what I'm doing now, getting the hang of things, and feel like I'm helping people. But there's virtually no down time! A friend of ours started working in the same building as me, one floor down, and I just got to go by and say hello today - none of my software was working!
  
• Andy is out of town this weekend, so I'm considering a trip to the bridal shop. Just a low key, no pressure perusal of the options. Also, especially if it's going to be 1,000 degrees this weekend, I'll spend some time at Cerritos mall. I have a couple Victoria's Secret coupons burning a hole in my purse, and the recent heat wave pointed out I need some basics for warmer weather.
  
• It's about time I start talking to photographers. Mainly, the one that I want.
  
• Before you know it, I'll be 26. Another milestone toward being graduated and married!
  
• Someone at my mom's work lent my parents the movie Superbad. I understand it was quite an eye-opener for them.
  
• Hooray for a new X Files movie! I used to love that show. I'm sure I wouldn't like it as much now, but I'd go see it for nostalgia's sake.
• We still haven't used our free Sunday brunch coupon. I'm thinking: penultimate semester celebratory brunch.
  
• I wanted to order business cards through school. A lot of people have said they're cheap, and they look quite nice. When I went to fill out the form, however ... it asked for my name. I can't use up 500 business cards (for only $15!) by next April ... what name do I put on them?? As Andy says, "Everything about you is in flux!"

I could go on and on. This is just the to-do list for the next month!

Hooray for money!

And for all my economically-knowlegable friends ... don't judge me for getting excited about free money. I know it won't help the economy. I know it won't even make a real difference in my economy. But in my mind, I've already bought a posh-er dress, paid off my car insurance, reserved classier flowers, bought plane tickets to St. Louis, a Thanksgiving trip to Mexico, and spent this check a hundred more ways.

And God bless America for direct deposit!

Licensed

The other day I got a letter from the DMV. This year my little Civic friend and I have a date with the smog test, but that letter doesn't usually come until the late summer or fall. So, I was a little afraid that the DMV was trying to tell me "girl, your car is so old that you had better start getting it smog-proved now."

But, it's just too early in the year for that. And, it was in a different envelope.

Nope, it's time to renew my driver's license.

What???? The validity of your driver's license just isn't one of those things that you think about on a day to day basis. More like, "Is my credit card valid?" or "Do I need gas?"

Sure, it's no big deal. I've even lived in one spot long enough to renew online (that's awesome, by the way). But that means I've been here for a whopping four years. Since my old license expired right around the time I moved, as I was a cool kid who got their license on their 16th birthday, I just didn't renew it and instead took the California test (which I studied and got 100% on, yet still wasn't allowed to smile for the picture). But this means I've been a California resident for quite a while. Not only that, a relatively stable resident.

Thank goodness they sent a letter. I would have never given that a thought. Sadly, they don't realize I'll be there next year for a new one anyway.

Triathlon

Yesterday I got my April Disney half marathon newsletter, and it was once again full of information totally useless to someone who can drive to Disneyland the morning of the race. Yes, I know it's time to start training. No, I don't need a hotel or plane tickets to get there.

But there was this interesting little Danskin sidebar that caught my eye, only because I've been a fan of Danskin stuff since gymnastics in grade school. And, they sell some good workout clothes at Wal Mart now.

And I thought, "Self, you couldn't do a triathlon. You can't even spell triathlon. {I can now though.} Sure, you could probably bike 12 miles. And yes, you can definately run 2 miles. But you can't swim. And you can't do it all in one day. Drop it in the calendar, and do it next year."

I clicked on the link. Class was pretty slow, anyway.

And the more I sat there, the more I thought, "maybe I could swim that far." And how many people can say they jumped in the California Adventure lagoon and swam across it?? Much less the number of people who have completed a triathlon, albeit a sprint. And they made it sound so friendly - it's for women only, if you get tired or scared, you can hang out on a buoy or kayak, they even mentioned not worrying about being a "Glamour don't."

So, here I am, signed up for my very first triathlon in only 2 months. I really, really need to be stopped.

Ladeez

Hey girls...

Having been playing in the good old boy's club for so long, this was kind of an interesting article. It's over-simplified, obviously, but I think it's a more fair assessment of the battle of the sexes. I mean, I like pink - that shouldn't mean I'm less professional. No one would ever say a man was unprofessional for wearing light blue (unless in leisure-suit form, then ... all bets off). Someone even asked if it was OK to wear a dress to work, because their female manager told them only secretaries wore dresses.

There's plenty of examples of women who have done it all, as well as stay at home moms and women who don't want kids at all. And, despite all the evidence, women are less compensated, promoted less, and, albeit subconsciously, thought of as less dependable and more volatile.

Sigh. I know I'm probably overly sensitive, as I tend to want to work in male-dominated fields. But that doesn't mean I don't like dresses, or wearing makeup, or have a general scorn for babies. Is it really so wrong, and punishable, to do both?

TraffICK

Traffic has been just mad today.

This morning I was on my way to work, and even a little on the early side. But when I got off the highway, all three lanes going my direction were stopped. Now, just a few months ago, there was a fatal accident just across the street from work, and the whole street was closed for the investigation. I couldn't believe that happened again so soon, but not far down the street I saw police lights. It ended up that three lanes going each way were funneling down to one (on a super busy street, during morning rush hour no less) and police from Westminster, Irvine, and even Anaheim were pulling over trucks and inspecting them. One officer was on a dolly underneath a truck, another was looking under the hood of another truck. They didn't appear to be looking inside the trucks, and they didn't pull over two FedEx trucks that went by. The only trucks that were pulled over were semis, and the smaller sized trucks like the ones landscapers use. I have no idea what they were looking for, but I still got to work on time.

On the way up to class, on the same street, the traffic was all backed up again! I thought there might be an accident, or an accident closing the highway on-ramp, or something else. It ended up one of the traffic lights was out, and wreaking havoc from past the highway almost to work! The rest of the drive was uneventful up until I got on campus, and a huge black Expedition tried to t-bone me because they were, apparently, tired of waiting to pull out from the parking garage. Never mind I had the right of way, and the last one through the traffic light with no one behind me.

Yikes, people. The rules of the road are pretty simple. Let's be kind.