The Road to Waco

My best friend B and I traded Christmas presents last night over dinner in San Antonio.  We’ve both been so busy during the holidays that we never found the time to meet up until last night.  She gave me Law School in a Box.

It’s awesome!  It definitely made me laugh.  It includes a “rolled college diploma with real Latin words” and “10 heroes of the courtroom trading cards.”

This is my “I’m writing my moving checklist in my blog because I can’t find a notepad” post.  Sorry. But feel free to keep reading if you like.  I do have some updates about the carpet.

I called my complex on Monday, and immediately they started apologizing to me.  Apparently they were supposed to change the carpet before I moved in, and they just forgot.  So they’re giving me a week of free rent in February, and I’m getting new carpet!

As for my checklist, so far I have already:

Ordered my washer and dryer to be delivered on the 27th

Scheduled to have my internet turned on tomorrow

Still trying to get my vacation check from my previous employer

Scheduled a dentist appointment and a doctor appointment for next week before my insurance runs out

Reserved a Uhaul for Saturday

Paid off credit card

As for the things that I still need to do:

Change address with everybody and post office

Get parking pass

Set up health insurance with the university

Get a desk of some sort.

Hopefully I haven’t forgotten anything.

I got the keys to my new apartment today in Waco.  The view from my balcony is great.

The apartment is on the top floor and on the corner, so it should be rather quiet.  The layout is not bad, either.  The main downside is that the carpet actually stinks.  It has so many stains it looks like the person before me either left three dogs locked in the living room for four days or he was the clumsiest person on the face of the earth and spilled everything he attempted to pick up.  Why they didn’t change the carpet to begin with, I have no idea.  I’m trying to get them to change it before I move my furniture next weekend.  I just can’t see putting down another $150 nonrefundable pet deposit if i’m not even going to have liveable nonstinky carpet to worry about messing up.  If anyone has any ideas about how to get them to fix this, let me know.  So far I just begged, and they said they’ll let me know because the head manager wasn’t in the office today.

Needless to say, I’m a little peeved.  The only positive to the nasty stinky carpet is that if they don’t change it, I won’t have to worry about Gatsby (the pug) messing up anything.  It can’t get any worse.

My last day of work was Tuesday.  I actually liked that job, so I was a little sad to leave, though I’m really looking forward to getting into work that is more challenging.  Regardless, it seemed like a great excuse to do something extravagant and celebrate.

I started off my Wednesday with a nice pedicure and time in a hot tub at the beautiful Lake Austin Spa Resort with my roommate.  It was a bit ridiculous, but it was fantastic.  Here’s the view at the back of the resort:

It was extremely relaxing and was definitely the best way to start my day.  Once my roommate and I finished eating sushi for lunch, I went to pick up my friend K, and we were off to San Antonio.  I bought him tickets to the Spurs vs. Lakers game for Christmas, and we decided to make a little trip of it.

We arrived at the Emily Morgan Hotel around 4.30 and had about three hours before we needed to leave to go to the game.  Our room overlooked the Alamo, and it was gorgeous.  K said we should see if there was an observation deck or something.  It sounded like a good idea, so we decided to wander around the hotel since we had time to kill.

We went to the top floor (the 14th) and saw no roof access and no observation anything.  We did, however, see an exit door.  So we opened it, and there was an enclosed stairway with a big window/opening.  I was trying to be super careful and kept checking to make sure the doors didn’t lock because I was a bit paranoid about getting stuck in the enclosed cement creepy stairwell. The doors were fine and nothing locked.  The view was gorgeous, but it was a bit cold, so we went back inside after a few minutes. Since the roof access was obviously not going to happen, we were going to see where the hotel pool and hot tub were downstairs.

That’s when we noticed another exit sign and figured we should see what that side of the hotel overlooks.  We open the door, and there’s a covered hallway about five feet long and then nothing.  Just completely open.  There was a ladder going up (we assumed to the roof) and the emergency/fire stairway on the side of the building.  I’m a bit scared of heights (nothing serious, but I get a bit nervous around rickety old stairs that you can see straight through that are 14 stories high).  K was super excited and immediately after seeing the ladder said, “OH MY GOD I CAN GET ON THE ROOF!”

I convinced him not to because the ladder (and stairs for that matter) didn’t look terribly safe.  Plus, I really did NOT want to go up there after him.

I decided I was done with this view, and K and I turn around to go back inside.  We stopped.

There was no doorknob.

So, there we were, climbing down the rickety old fire escape/emergency stairs on the side of this four star hotel, 14 stories high.

It leads down to a basement like room with a door that leads to the street… right beside the valets.  They just stared at us, and K said to them, “So I bet you don’t see many people come out that door.” The valet just said, “Nope, sure don’t,” and we kept walking.

We went straight to the bar and ordered a drink.

Well, a few too many drinks later, we decide to eat dinner and spent way too much money.  Then we got a cab to the game.

We got to our seats, and they were fantastic.  We were really high up, but we were mid court and could see everything.  To our left, we had two extremely obnoxious Spurs fans (Ginobili bobble head included), and to our right, we had two extremely obnoxious Lakers fans (who did nothing but heckle the refs the entire time).  It made for a really fun game, though.

The Spurs won by one point with just a few seconds remaining, and everyone went crazy.  It was definitely a great game.  We also got tickets for $20 for next Tuesday’s game against the Pacers, and they gave us a free jersey.  This may be a more common pastime than I expected.

Despite the craziness, I couldn’t have asked for a better day.

This person completely made my day with this post:  http://otahyoni.livejournal.com/130432.html

There is something inherently wrong with the fact that while clicking my StumbleUpon button, I cringe at the website title “sea creature” and welcome one that says “night creature”.

I’m terrified of weird sea creatures and pretty much anything with teeth living in water (that specifically includes sharks of any kind).  I can’t even go into big aquariums without throwing a bit of a fit.

It’s kind of ridiculous, really.  I have no reason to be terrified of these things.  I certainly have no reason to squeak at the possibility of seeing a photo of one on my laptop.  I most certainly shouldn’t be welcoming critters of evil over a weird jellyfish with fangs that will never ever ever come in contact with me.   However odd it may be, the night creatures are usually less creepy to me than the vampire jellyfish or giant sharks that could actually eat me.  Alive.  Probably in one gulp.

Not to say a werewolf wouldn’t, but seriously… the werewolf attack would at least make a much better story.

This is the story of what happened to me on my first day of 2009.

The sun beams were hitting me in the face because I had forgotten to close the blinds correctly,  so I woke up rather early.  Surprisingly, despite all the alcohol consumption the night before, I didn’t feel the need to hurt anyone nor did I feel like I should sleep in the bathroom.  That was a pleasant surprise.  I didn’t even need the Advil my roommates so graciously left on the table for me before they left town.   I went on with my day watching Sweeny Todd and being lazy.  Dairy Queen was my choice for lunch (actually Maki sushi was, but it was too far and required me actually getting out of my car… so DQ it was) and before I could even get back to the house from DQ, D called.  Who is D?  D is the guy who asked for my phone number on New Years Eve, and I apparently gave it to him.  I didn’t answer.  Nor did I call him back.  I’ve decided to just forget it all happened, and maybe if I keep not answering my phone, he’ll get the hint.  But seriously, who calls someone at 12:15pm on New Years Day after meeting them only the night before for a brief period of time?   Anyway, if he asks my roommate J (who knows him) about it, I’ll make up some crazy story about how I died and J can tell him that.

I ended up doing nothing all day and my ex (the notorious one first mentioned in the first few posts of this blog) offered to cook us steak and watch a movie.  So I went over there for a while.   It’s surprising how much better we are at being friends than significant others, but anyway… I did, however, leave the entry way light on before I left  the house (because I hate walking into a dark house when I know nobody else is there, and the Js were going to be out of town for the evening).

But when I got home, that light was turned off.  At first I was a bit hesitant , but then I realized it was probably just M, the new roommate, who turned it off after dropping off some stuff.  M hasn’t actually moved in yet, but she’s been gradually moving her things over for the past week or so.

I opened the front door slowly and saw a table in the living room I didn’t recognized and sighed with relief.  It must have just been M who turned the light off.  I turned the light back on as I turned around to close the door.  Then, as I was slowly turning, I see this GIANT LIFE SIZE VERSION OF A WICKER MAN HANGING HIMSELF. RIGHT BY THE FRONT DOOR. FACING ME.

After almost soiling myself, I quickly ran upstairs and closed my bedroom door.  And then got online.  And told my mom.  Who laughed until she cried and almost peed on herself.

You see, M is an artist – sculptor actually.  And that was one of her pieces.  I wish I would’ve had some warning.  Regardless, it was quite terrifying.

The real problem occurred when I realized the dogs still needed food, eye drops, and a potty break, which meant I had to actually put my big girl panties on and go back downstairs again.   But I didn’t want to go outside of my room for fear that Bob (that’s what I named him) came to life and moved upstairs and was going to put a voodoo curse on me.  (I have a whole story outlined about Bob already. It’s scary as hell.)

So I called my mom, who was still wiping the tears from her eyes as I slowly walked downstairs trying to avoid all visual contact with Bob.  I basically got survival food for myself (which was a pomegranate, chocolate covered cherries and water), gave my roommate’s dog her eyedrops,  let her and Gatsby outside,  and gave them food and water.  Then I ran back upstairs and barricaded the door.  And here I am now, still alive but lacking some sleep.

As long as M doen’t come over early in the morning and move that thing around before I wake up, we’ll be in good shape.

How do you kindly say, “No, I do not want to give you my phone number.  Good day, sir.”

I guess I could say somethig like that, but I never do.  Seriously, it’s a problem I have.  I just feel awful saying something that might be rude to someone in a large party full of their friends – especially when we’re the only two single people on New Years Eve.

Sigh.  I just love the holidays.