My least favorite episode of "Say Yes to the Dress"

I watch "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC, which features the Kleinfeld, the salon with the biggest selection of gowns in NYC, even after finding my wedding dress. My dress didn't come from Kleinfeld, although I did have an appointment there. The show makes it seem like the consultants and managers will be your buddy and lower prices if you make a sad face, but when I went, I found out that dress prices start at $2000, and they push you to purchase way before you need. My knot.com calendar was telling me I had until March/April to purchase a dress for a late November wedding. My consultant was pushing me to purchase the first week of January, saying that I was already late.

Perhaps that's the way Kleinfeld works, as so many of the post-purchase brides they show at first fitting talk about how they're not sure if they remember their dress, and worry whether they'll still like it, because it's been A YEAR since they saw their dress. I bought my dress elsewhere for less than $1000, and it has attributes that would sell for over $3000 at Kleinfeld. It's so ridiculous how some brides on the show want a ballgown but want to stick to a $2000 budget. One particular bride was told that if she wanted a ballgown, she'd have to up her budget, but she could've found one at a less ritzy salon easily.

My least favorite episode of "Say Yes to the Dress" is titled "The Art of Negotiation," where one bride, Melanie, bought a dress a year earlier, but cancelled it because she had second thoughts. For once, I took Kleinfeld's side. Melanie wound up choosing the same dress she purchased in the first place! Why didn't she come back to the salon and try the dress on again before cancelling the order and losing the 50% deposit she already paid? It turns out the dress increased in price from $5000 to $6300 since she first purchased it, and Melanie and her mom are outraged. They complain that they should've been told that the price would increase when Melanie called to cancel the order, that Melanie cancelled the order the way they told her she should. How was the store supposed to know that Melanie would come back and want the same dress again (crazy bride, anyone?) and that the price would actually increase? In the end, the store didn't want to lose the sale, so they discounted the dress down to $5000 and gave her a free veil worth a couple hundred bucks. But ha ha, Melanie pretty much paid $7500 for the dress because of the deposit she spent on the first dress.

To change or not to change?

I've been pretty frustrated with Verizon customer service over the last three months, and have found out that the early termination fee is prorated based on how many months you've been in your contract, so I'm seriously considering leaving for another carrier. That said, I've been looking at Sprint and AT&T as my replacement. I crossed T-Mobile off the list when I visited a store and all the phones were fake display models. I heard some bad things about their new 3G service, and the fact that you aren't allowed to try out the phones makes it seem like they're hiding something.

I hear tons of bad things about AT&T, but all my cousins have that service and don't have a problem, and when I had it for two years, I didn't notice anything bad. I hear really bad things about the iPhone, but it wasn't even on my list of phones because I want a keyboard. My brother highly recommends Sprint and his smartphone doesn't have problems when he's visiting me in Manhattan or Brooklyn. I'd hate to stay with Verizon because they have a monopoly on NYC - it makes them seem more evil to me in a "Ha ha, you have no choice" way.

Lo and behold, I discovered this site that shows users' cell phone signal strength and dead spots. It pretty much shows that no service is flawless in NYC. I'm thinking of a Blackberry Curve 8900 or the new Palm Pre from Sprint at this point, unless AT&T gets a new iPhone that has decent coverage, a realy QWERTY, and MMS capability.

No Teavana for me

I was at the mall in my home town this morning, and visited the new Teavana shop that opened where my Häagen Dazs used to be.

I'd rather they kept the Häagen Dazs.

I have no problems with nice tea; I've been ordered from Revolution Tea for some time. Teavana was giving out samples of a couple teas and when I asked how they sell it (loose? bag?), the salesgirl roped me into the store and showed me the gigantic canisters holding the loose teas. She'd open a lid and then fan it in my direction. Yeah, smells good. Then she keeps firing her schpeel at me, while waving a huge can lid, about how they sell it at a certain price (i.e. $12.00 per 2 oz), but generally sell them in 1/2 lb canisters. Uh, how about you put the per pound price on the canister then? You don't need to be an expert in math to see why you're trying to make the price seem lower.

I said I preferred my tea in individual infuser bags and she got hostile with me, "So you're saying you like canned vegetables? You know, people are getting concerned with the preservatives in their food nowadays." I said that I'd been buying organic teas from Revolution for some time and I enjoy the convenience of the single serving. She saw that I was annoyed, and said, "But we have easy ways for you to make a single serving with loose teas!" I said no thanks, and walked out, shaking my head. If she hadn't gotten so uppity with me, I may have gone for some of the tea, which was very nice, but I didn't want to have someone lecture me like a timeshare salesman to guilt me into buying some very expensive tea.

My shoes go out!

So the whole reason I bought my new red shoes was so I could have appropriate summer footwear for going on a plant tour, lest I lose some toes in a tragic printing press accident. I was a little scatterbrained the morning of my departure though, as Josh is away visiting relatives (he's been gone practically a month with all his vacations) and the cats needed to be prepped for a couple days without supervision. A car service came to pick me up and as I was about to walk out, I remembered to fill the cats' water fountain. Whoops! That could've been really bad.

We had a good trip out to PA and when we checked in, I found out I was staying in one of their deluxe rooms because they were absolutely packed. My boss got the super deluxe room. It's okay; I roughed it in my gigantic room with the gas fireplace and jacuzzi tub. After a three-hour car ride, it was heaven to walk into this quiet, beautiful, air-conditioned room with relaxing classical music playing subtly from the nightstand. The picture really doesn't do it justice. I felt so bad that I was enjoying myself so much with gourmet food prepared by a local celebrity and lovely accommodations while Josh was sweating it out in Florida at his grandmother's place. His grandmother does not believe in using the air conditioning. I don't even want to imagine what it's like.

When I got home, the apartment was the warmest it's been all year, and the cats were stretched out on the floor to their longest extension, as though they had melted. Air conditioning on!

Harry Potter Watch 2007

I ordered my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Amazon for Saturday delivery. It is almost 3:30 and I still don't have it in my hot little hands. I'm a little worried and jump up whenever I hear what I think is our front gate (it's the neighbors' front gates). I've already gotten my Saturday mail delivery, so maybe they're going to do another trip with the Harry Potter overflow? The front door wasn't closed all the way, so hopefully my book wasn't stolen? I'm overwrought!!

Spoiling it

With all the brouhaha with the last Harry Potter book, I've been staying away from the news and much of the internet. I thought I was safe, but I opened up my Publisher's Lunch Deluxe weekly e-mail to find a bold blurb that pretty much answers that "Does Harry live" question. I was so angry because you'd think that an industry publication would be a little more sensitive to all of this. Or did they figure that it was a free-for-all now that the book's leaked out and the cat's out of the bag?

And the kicker? 1 1/2 hours later, somebody from Lunch Weekly e-mails everyone and warns against reading the weekly e-mail if you don't want the ending spoiled. It appears they also believe in "better late than never."

Thanks, Lunch Weekly.

Squeaky Wheel

Josh bought me a gift card to Bliss for Christmas. He tried paying for overnight shipping, but it was taking forever, and it turns out they'd never shipped it. I canceled the order, figuring that we could save the $30 shipping fee and pick up a gift card in person. Then Josh made another order to surprise me, replacing the first. Late last week, the first order arrived, showing that the order was never cancelled and that if I didn't call soon enough and get someone who knew what they were doing, we'd wind up with a second non-returnable gift card. I checked Josh's credit card and it showed that there were three charges! I called right away to complain and when I got to a supervisor, he apologized, explaining that the statement was showing the temporary authorizations. He canceled the second order for me and then offered to send me free Bliss stuff for my trouble!

He wound up comping me the head-to-toe spa in a box, which actually costs $175. It arrived at my office today in a big blue box, less than a week after I complained! Josh says I really made out this year for Christmas: All-Clad roasting pan, Bliss gift card, and a box o' Bliss stuff. I can't wait to make my appointment!

Post office shenanigans

I went to the post office this afternoon to mail a stuffed animal out to my cousin, counting on there being a priority mail box for me to pack said animal into. I only have Fresh Direct boxes at home and when I tried to mail something out with it, the USPS worker told me that I couldn't mail something out with a business logo on it unless the contents of the box were actually from that business. I remember having to use brown tape to cover up the logos that day, and had no desire to repeat that performance.

Unfortunately, the USPS stopped providing the larger box I remembered and has cheaply provided a flatter rectangular one and a small cube. I was perusing the selection of boxes, which happened to be next to the two policemen on duty in the post office.

ME
[picking up rectangular box]

COP
That's a rectangle shaped box.

MY INNER MONOLOGUE
Do I look like a dumb little girl?
[picking up cube box]

COP
That one's more like a square.

ME
Thanks.

I brought both boxes to a table and figured that the box would be better and started stuffing the poor toy into it, scrunching it up so horribly that I felt bad for it. I stopped when I heard laughing and a high pitched voice behind me.

COP
[in high pitched cartoony voice]
Oh no! Let me out! Don't put me in here!

I got really embarrassed because people started looking at me stuffing this huge toy into a tiny box. Maybe they thought I was cheap (trying to take advantage of the flat rate, which wasn't much of a deal), or like the cops, thought I was stupid. After I finally left, I waved to the cops, and one (I think did the cartoon voice) of them said, "Bye Sweetheart." I don't know whether to be enraged or just grateful not to be the butt of some USPS/NYPD joke anymore.

Stick that strike up your you-know-what

Since the TWU decided to strike starting yesterday. That means that I've walked to and from work since then, which is a bit longer than 2.5 miles. 2.5 miles isn't that long, but when it's freezing cold and windy, it quickly starts to feel a lot longer.

Even better, I've gotten sick from all the walking. I was so miserable at work today, staying later and later thanks to the ineptness of the operations department. My purchase orders didn't come through when they were supposed to, so one of my bosses kept telling me to go home, but if I didn't finish the POs, I would've had to come in the next day. I figured I'd feel better if I took a whole day off rather than leaving a couple hours early, so I stuck it out.

I told my boss, "Assume that I'm not going to be here tomorrow. If I'm well, I'll come in."

He told me not to come in even if I am well. Woohoo! Day off!

Non-customer service

I recently got a new Cingular phone, switching from Verizon Wireless. Because of the way Amazon did the deal, I couldn't carry my old phone number with me because I wouldn't have gotten my new phone for free. So far, there haven't been any problems with Cingular, but I've been getting weird phone calls, probably having to do with the previous holder of my phone number. Every day, I get a phone call from this 866 area code number. When I call it back, I get some kind of Sprint customer service department.

Last night, I decided to have a conversation with somebody at this number and figure why they keep calling me and not leaving a voicemail.

SPRINT REP #1
You're getting the calls because a Sprint customer put your number down for a reference number. Can you tell me the account number of that Sprint customer?

ME
I have no idea who had this phone number before me. Cingular issued the phone number to me when I opened a new account with them last week.

SPRINT REP #1
I see. Well, we can't do anything about the phone calls you get from us unless we have that account number. The next time you get a call from our number, just pick up the phone and ask the rep what account number they're calling in reference to.

ME
But that's someone from your department! You could just look up my phone number and take it out of your computer system!

SPRINT REP #1
We don't have that ability here. You should call the regular Sprint customer service department. We're the finance department. They have a different system than we do and they'll be able to tell you the account number.

So, I called the other customer service number, only to be asked for my Sprint phone number by the computer system. I didn't have one, so I tried dialing zero, which didn't work.

SPRINT REP #2
Hi, this is [Sprint REp #2], what's your Sprint account number?

ME
I don't have a Sprint account number. [Repeat story about daily phone calls]

SPRINT REP #2
You should just answer the phone and speak to the rep who calls you.

ME
How can I do that? I've had my phone out at work, and when I answer it, there's nobody at the other end! I find it slightly creepy to keep on getting these calls where no one's at the other end.

SPRINT REP #2
Well, we use an auto dialer, so there's a pause. That's why you don't hear anything at first.

ME
So you use a telemarketing tool?

SPRINT REP #2
Yes. We make courtesy calls.

ME
Well, I don't want your Sprint courtesy calls. [Sprint Rep #1] told me to call this other customer service number and I'm not allowed to speak with a human unless I have a Sprint phone number. I've never even been a Sprint customer and I certainly will never be after all this! If you use an auto dialer, why don't you just delete my number?

SPRINT REP #2
We'd have to do that manually and that would take too long.

ME
I want to speak to a manager.

Call transfers

SPRINT REP #1
The manager has left for the day. You should call the customer service number tomorrow because they're not in anymore.

ME
Then why did you give me their number to call about this issue?

SPRINT REP #1
I assumed that you were going to call them tomorrow.

ME
I want to resolve this issue today, not tomorrow. Anyways, I can't reach a rep unless I have a Sprint phone number.

SPRINT REP #1
You need to dial *2

ME
What does the Sprint finance department do then?

SPRINT REP #1
We clear accounts that have outstanding balances.

ME
So you're tracking down delinquent Sprint customers who don't pay their bills.

I called the other number again, only to find that you're supposed to dial *2 from your Sprint cell phone, which I again, don't have!

SPRINT REP #3
Hi, can I have your Sprint account number?

ME
Hi, I'd like to speak to [Sprint Rep #1]

SPRINT REP #3
She's on another call right now.

ME
[Repeat story about daily phone calls and conflicting information given by Sprint reps #1 and 2]

SPRINT REP #3
Oh, I heard her talking to you about that. Hold please.

Call transfers

ME
I want an address where I can lodge a complaint. I also want the number of your legal department so I can speak to them about these harassing phone calls.

SPRINT REP #1
I don't know the number of the legal department. There's also another department that could help you but I don't have their new phone number. I can give you the business services number. Maybe they can help you.

ME
Look it up! How can Sprint departments not know how to contact each other or what they do? You can't even tell me how to contact a human being in customer service with instructions that actually work! You keep telling me that I should take the time out of my work day and waste my cell phone minutes trying to fix YOUR mistakes! I am never going to have a Sprint phone and even after this issue is someday resolved, I'm going to write a letter about this!

SPRINT REP #1
Hold please.

Call transfers

SPRINT MANAGER
Hi, this is [Sprint Manager].

By now, I'm seriously pissed about the lies/conflicting information provided by all Sprint reps.

ME
Did [Sprint Rep #1] tell you why I'm calling?

SPRINT MANAGER
Actually, the message was a bit garbled. Tell me again please.

ME
Surprise, surprise that she couldn't even tell her manager the problem clearly.
[Repeat story about daily phone calls and all the crappy information provided by their so-called finance department]

SPRINT MANAGER
I can take care of this for you. I'll just put your number on the do-not-call list.

ME
Thanks.

Insert screaming/ripping-out-hair here.

HP my ass

I just purchased an HP PSC 1315 printer-scanner-copier. It was on sale, and I've always liked HP printers.

Lo and behold, my USB print server can't add it. At first I thought it was because I couldn't find the driver, but when I went to the HP site to download one directly, I found out that the printer does not support wireless technology. I called technical support anyway, in case they didn't mean that it was incompatible with a print server. It's not like I was asking for Bluetooth technology in my $99 printer.

Right now, I'm on hold to speak with a manager for the second time (the first time I was disconnected because my battery died). The tech support guy told me that I should search for a wireless printer if that's what I want, but I don't see why I should have to do that when my old HP from 5 years ago didn't even gasp in protest at being hooked up to a print server for wireless compatability.

I told the guy that I was outraged that a printer I purchased in 2005 can't hook up to a print server when my old printer that was made when wireless technology wasn't widespread like it is today. I told him that the HP site, as well as other retail sites don't say that the printer is not compatible with print servers. Apparently, the HP Shopping website says that it has no networking capability although the regular HP site makes no comment about this. I complained for a while that I was angry that I wasn't informed that it wasn't network capable. I guess I'm demanding too much for HP to have the same information on all its sites.

Son of a bitch! I just got disconnected after 10 minutes of "transfer time" to speak to a manager! Fresh anger is flowing through my veins.

5 minutes later...

I just got connected to my third tech support person of the day who wanted me to state my story all over again and I told her to stop asking me and just get me the supervisor. This time, it worked. Apparently, there's some moronic way of making the printer work with a print server, and that's to apply the generic driver for the HP 560C model, which is half the printer of my old one, the 895cse. I asked the guy if using the driver would compromise the quality of the printing, and of course, it would. I'd get 300 dpi, which was half the dpi of my old printer.

In the end, I'm keeping both printers. For $80 I'll deal with the fact that I can't print wirelessly and keep my old printer, which works wirelessly, until all the ink runs out. Throughout this whole 2 1/2 hour ordeal of being constantly angry, I think Josh was amused to see me angry at somebody other than him.

At least it's downhill from here

I don't know what happened, but it seems that around late Wednesday, I become really depressed about school. Normally, when my classes end, I don't feel this desperate need to escape the building and not come back again until it's absolutely necessary. Today I was supposed to be in school from 9:00 to 12:40. I didn't finally leave school until 5:00. My head was pounding by then.

I had a craving for a McFlurry, so I stopped by the McDonald's on Broadway close to my school. When the girl was making the Flurry, she didn't put a cover on, so all the Oreo bits didn't even stay in the cup. At this point, I started to have a bad feeling. She handed the cup to me after putting the top on. I asked, "Isn't it supposed to be blended?" She responded, "You want it blended?" Umm... isn't that the essence of the Flurry? Well, I guess she didn't know what she was doing because she messed it up and the machine got the better of her, while barely mixing the Flurry up. She handed it back to me and said, "You'll have to get a napkin," since the cup was covered in bits of ice cream and Oreo. I stirred it up and the bottom half of the Flurry didn't have any Oreo at all.

Worst. Flurry. Ever.

Breakfast of champions

This morning, the phone woke me up when it rang at 8:20. I ran to get it, swearing that if it was AOL for the FOURTH time in two weeks, I would definitely be mean.

Apparently, the doorman said that I had an order of tamales coming upstairs.

"What?!" He gave the phone to the delivery guy.

"You called for tamales," the guy said.

"Sorry, I didn't make the order," I told him.

Who the heck would order tamales at 8 a.m.???

Then I looked at Morty and Eli, who were whining for breakfast. Maybe they did it.

Weekday update

Forget what I said about spring having sprung. It's raining/slushing right now and I think it'll be doing so for the rest of break.

A few days ago, Josh and I went to our go-to restaurant for a late dinner. When our server came to ask us about the drinks, Josh asked for a Long Island Iced Tea, and I wanted water. When I said water, I saw the waiter's expression change. He probably thought we were a couple of kids who came to a restaurant that was too fancy for them, jumping to the conclusion that we were uncultured and unsophisticated, judging by Josh's Nike shirt and NY Giants knit hat.

When he brought the drinks, Josh's glass held a regular iced tea. I asked, "Isn't that a regular iced tea?" The server said yes. I said, "He ordered a Long Island Iced Tea." The server said, "We don't make those here." At that point, I was annoyed because I knew they did make that drink since Josh has ordered it before. The server had misheard Josh and didn't want to admit his mistake, so he figured we were dumb and would accept his explanation.

"Actually, they do make Long Island Iced Teas here. We've ordered it several times before," we informed him. The server left to check with the bartender. He brought the correct drink back with him. He was making his escape after plunking the glass down when I asked him what soup was available for the day and only when I asked did he tell me the soup and the fact that the restaurant had run out of a number of dishes. Normally, when we have a good server, we're told right away what the soup is and any outages.

After the tip we left him, I doubt that server likes us any more than he did when we first sat down.

Making the phone lines safe

I was sitting at my desk, ripping my hair out, thanks to my second appellate brief, when the telephone rang:

TELEMARKETER

Doooooooora!

DORA

Um... who is this?

TELEMARKETER

I'm calling on behalf of the New York City police chief, who's asking you for your sponsorship in some important programs. These programs include after-school programs for underprivileged children, reducing gun violence, and anti-terrorism. Is it all right if I ask you for your commitment of $30 and send you your decal with payment envelope to be returned in one week?

DORA

$30 is a lot of money! Why can't I decide how much to donate?

Wait, so you're sending me a bill?

TELEMARKETER

No, it's not a bill. [Repeat TELEMARKETER's above speech] The police chief is asking for your help and this is our once-a-year call.

DORA

Actually, I got a call in August being asked to contribute to the NYPD, and the guy who called me was really rude. He said I'd get a bumper sticker, but I told him I didn't have a car or bicycle to stick that bumper sticker to, and he told me to stick it on my forehead. I didn't appreciate being talked to like that.

TELEMARKETER

Oh.... that wasn't us. This is our first time calling you.

DORA

Yes, but you're calling for the NYPD, and that other guy in August was calling for the NYPD.

TELEMARKETER

[Repeat first speech]

DORA

You know, my friend once got a call like this, and she was sent a bill.

TELEMARKETER

Oh... really? This isn't a bill. I'm not asking for you to pay over the phone. I'm just asking for your commitment and we'll send you a decal and payment envelope for you to pay within a week.

DORA

You said that I have to pay within a week. That sounds like a bill.

TELEMARKETER

It's not a bill. It's a donation. You send us a check or money order in a week.

DORA

So I'm required to send a check or money order once I get the envelope?

TELEMARKETER

Yes.

DORA

You send me an envelope with a week's deadline to pay. Isn't that a bill?

TELEMARKETER

Yesssss.... So, can I get your commitment over the phone tonight?

DORA

No. [click]

Josh informed me later that a lot of these supposed police departments who call asking for donations are scams. They'll donate about $0.25 of your $30 to the police so it's not a complete lie.

Before anyone suggests it to me - Yes, I'm on the Do Not Call List. I've been on it since I moved in here.

Dora: 2

Telemarketers: 0

I'm a big kid, look what I can do...

I can wear big kid pants too!

I changed my mind about buying a suit, as you can see. I caved in to all the "You want to look professional" advice from fellow law students/lawyer cousins rather than being a hopeless penny pincher. Of course, I decided to go shopping for a suit right after the weekend ended.

The stores down at South Street Seaport close at 7:00, so I left my apartment at 6:20 (unwisely). First, J. Crew, which disappointed me to no end because their website had suit skirts. Then, Ann Taylor, where I thought everything would be seriously out of my price range. Lo and behold, there was a sale sign that my bargain hunting senses homed in on within 2 minutes. I now have a suit that was originally priced at $400 (not including NY's horrifying 8.625% sales tax) for $250 ($230 before the blood curdling tax). Scary.... I'm grown up. I bought a real suit.

I did have some issues with the jacket. Let's just say one was tight across the chest and the next size up was a bag on me. My boobage is always my downfall while shopping. I went with the boob emphasizing jacket in the end, to Josh's approval. Of course, the jacket wasn't the last bump on the road to buying a suit. I realized I left my credit card at home while I was paying as the store was closing. Smooth. S'okay - I paid with my debit card, which will fine me $5 for having insufficient funds in my checking account.

I got my hair cut today, in a pre-Chinese New Year tradition. It was the most painful hair cut I'd ever had. My stylist used this method of holding my hair up and sliding his scissors into it, like when you glide your scissors to cut across a roll of wrapping paper. Every time he did it, the scissors would yank each strand individually. It felt like I had 30 Elis chewing and yanking on my hair at once. I told him to trim my face frames to just above chin length, and I was slightly alarmed when they turned out closer to nose length, but shrugged it off, figuring the hair was wet and would look better when dry. Nope. He wound up trimming some more off at the end, and now I've got long bangs rather than face frames that won't stay behind my ears and if allowed to swing free, tickle me right above my lips. Needless to say, I will be hiding my "bangs" until they grow back out again.

Worst...hair cut.... ever!

Oh geez, my duodenum's acting up!

I love Scrubbing Bubbles' Fresh Brush. I got it this past summer and haven't looked back. I know people who've had the same toilet brush for a decade. That is one stanky brush! Then again, I also know someone who used his toilet brush as a makeshift plunger. That is a stankier brush.

A couple weeks ago, I ran out of my last Fresh Brush refill. This week, I figured it was time to do a big cleanup in the apartment since New Year's Eve is coming up. Lo and behold, the Fresh Brush refills are nowhere to be found. Yesterday, I went to CVS, Duane Reade, and two grocery stores. Only Duane Reade had the starter kit, but I didn't need another one of those! You figure that if you stock the kit, you'd have the refills.

Today, I went to another Duane Reade, which turned up nothing, but after buying some ingredients for dinner, I decided to visit this shady basement discount store. Of course, this place had every kind of cleaner I could ever desire, and my beloved brush refills. I bought two packages just in case I have this problem again.

Maybe the shady discount store stockpiled the refills so no other store would have them...

Exploding toilets

I had class at 9:00 this morning for Contracts. When I got there, the school was a disaster area. Apparently, there was a "leak." However, when I walked in the entire floor was wet and they were still vacuuming it up. The air conditioning was also broken and our class was moved from the third floor to the first floor reading room where there weren't enough seats.

During our class, the fire alarm went off intermittently, the law school supplied us with mini water bottles, and one fan for 138 people. We melted and began dreading our second class of the day considering it was supposed to be 9 floors up and still no air conditioning. Our professor realized that we were too hot and too distracted by the fire alarm to continue and ended the class 15 minutes early. At that time, we were informed that our second class would be held in the same room again, so we didn't have to move.

During our break in between classes, my tablemates and I talked about various things, like our classes and the toilets that started geysering as one of us had just finished doing her business. We said, "The bathroom is a lawsuit waiting to happen!" I stepped out a moment later to get some fresh air and saw the dean of the law school talking with the maintenance guys. As I was walking by, the dean said sorry to me. I just remember how we never saw the president of Rutgers when we were in school.

At the start of our second class, we found out that the other first year section was trapped on the 9th floor because the elevators weren't working. The air conditioning started working while we were taking our grammar and punctuation test, which improved our moods until we marked our tests and found out that a good deal of us who thought we were good at grammar need a little help.

The dean got us pizza and soda after class becase he felt that we deserved it. The line was too long, so Josh and I just went to our lockers, picked up our stuff, and left.

Pizza for lunch on Friday and lockers.... Thousands of dollars spent, and I'm back in high school

Paperwork

I got another envelope from law school last week asking for a doctor to verify my immunization records. This was not good news. I don't have a doctor or a copy of my immunization records. All of this information was in my parents' house, and they're not speaking with me. The last thing I want to do is go home.

I wound up calling Rutgers last Friday because they were the last people I had to provide records for in that department and surprisingly, they were more than happy to help me. In fact, they told me I didn't have to go to a doctor at all; a copy of my records with a Rutgers seal was acceptable grad schools. They said it would go out in the mail that day and surprisingly, I received it on Tuesday.

Rutgers has never been so helpful to me, even as a paying student.

School spirit

This afternoon, I got a call from some "representative" of the class of 2003 asking for money to support Rutgers. She asked me for $200, and then when I said no, $100. After I rejected that, she settled for $25. I said to the telemarketer, "I don't plan on giving any money to Rutgers." She asked me why I felt that way and I said, "I didn't like Rutgers." She asked me what about Rutgers I didn't like. I said, "Everything - I felt I didn't get my money's worth for what I paid." Well, that finally stopped her mile-a-minute talking and got rid of her. She hardly let me answer the yes and no questions she was asking me anyways.