Recap: Just a ride?

Tuesdays, in theory, are suppose to be my easier days of the 5 weekdays. Somehow, Tuesdays of late have been anything but easy. Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, it is going to be yet another long post, featuring, yours truly, rambling about in words and on bike.

I knew I had a lot to do this morning, so even though my class doesn't start until the afternoon, I got up at 8 and, realizing that most places (meaning offices of customer service) doesn't open till 9, I decided to go and de-aphid my chrysanthemum again. A few weeks ago (forgotten if I've written this out), people started opening the windows in the lounge, aphids got in, ladybugs, which eat aphids, are too big to enter the screen. I had aphid problems, tried to solve it with diluted soap water, eventually realized it was faster when I just took a paper towel and wiped off the leaves. So, this morning, I spoted some aphids and thought I should do that. Then I realized that a lot more leaves are dying than what's normal so I (you do this when you can't see what's wrong with the plant immediately) flipped the plant to its side, and discovered that the bottom of all leaves are completedly COVERED with aphids.

Let me tell you, it is a truly disgusting site. And wiping with a paper towel was out of the option, so I retreated to my soap-solution and, like the other time, having no empty spray bottle, took a empty drinking water bottle, mixed my solution (3 drop liquid soap per 500mL, about), took off the spray top from my laundry detergent, and attached them together (for your information, it works, which is all I care about at the moment). I sprayed it and hoped it will recover. I returned the bottle to my room and, having a few more moments, examined my other plants, and discovered that the marigold was being attacked by weird things that looked like pillbugs (i.e. roly-polys or whatever people commonly calls them) that secrete sticky white foam things.

That was sort of disgusting too. I, having never seen them before, decided to try the soap and went to my room and got the spray bottle and sprayed THAT plant too. We'll see how that goes tomorrow.

At this point I checked the time, got my stuff, and went outside to start my round of phone calls because A. I have no inside-the-building reception to speak of and B. Molly was still sleeping, being somewhat more sane.

The first phone call was to paypal, which I have never used but which whoever used my credit card the other times apparently have. Last time, before the bill came in, I started getting fraudulent emails from paypal and, knowing they're fake (FYI, paypal emails address you by your name/company name, frauds go "dear customer" etc.) I deleted them but they seemed to got to my numbers (no clue how) anyway. I canceled the card (as you all know), and the email stopped. Yesterday I started receiving those emails again and naturally, I am deeply disturbed and decide to call the service number on paypal, upon which, 20 minutes of waiting in the cold later, they informed me that I do not have an account with paypal and that I have spent (from my bill the last time) money on 100 game tokens.

"I don't even know what the hell they are," I exclaimed, being cold, and sick of hearing the obvious you-don't-actually-have-an-account-with-us-how-strange when I've been repeating someone-made-a-purchase-in-my-account-which-I-dont-have to every single "agent" I've talked to, thus far, this morning. And yes I used the word 'hell', I felt like I was justified. Or at least my temper was. Eventually they tried to update my non-existing account, and was kicked out of the system for some reason (I am serious) so the agent told me he'd report this and he'll take down my information to enter to the system later and "Thank you very much for calling paypal, is there anything else I can do for you today?"

"No," I said, vowing to never visit ebay (which I've never done anyway) again.

Then it's attempting to schedule my renewal for my job training, which needs to happen once a year after you're employed and for Segundo (my area) it means it needs to happen in the winter quarter and, unlucky me, I was hired in December (technically), so that means after my December training I'll need to go through the bad movies again. And I need to find 4 different time chunks that do not interfer with my classes or my work shifts, which turned out to be a bit of a problem. (Not to mention no one picked up at the RSVP phone number that I was suppose to call, so I had to go over to the Human Resource Center.) But I need to get them done before the end of winter quarter, and the classes were offered at random times, and eventually it ends up that I'll have to bike out at 10pm tomorrow night and attend safety training which will last till 1am at which time I'll bike back and sleep, hopefully with enough time to prepare for my 9am bio lab/discussion and metabolism quiz the next...well I guess that would be that day since 1am....

Two of my Saturdays and one of my Fridays are also taken up. Now I just need to make sure that when they randomly shift my shift (no pun intended) they won't end up clashing together.

So--another item off of the list. Now it's to answer my parent's request which is to inquire about where to get the receipt for my school bills for their tax form and yes I know it's just almost February but what can I say--we, as a family, likes to do things early.

What I dislike about being asked to ask about things in college was that no one KNOWS anything for certain, it seems, they keep sending you to who they THINK will have the answer and you go around everywhere and eventually figure out that your original intuition was right and you just wasted your morning. So this morning, I asked my RA, who sent me to Mrak's hall's Registrar's office (south corner of campus, I live at norther end), which turned out to be located in the basement for some reason. The stairs leading to the basement are very narrow, and they go down quite a bit, and the walls were painted an interesting shade of reddish-orange so as I went down I was thinking: helllooooo Dante. The office itself? Dim lights. No windows. There were vending machines though. I found the sight of vending machines deeply reassuring in a strange environment. Oh yes, and the nice lady behind the counter sent me to Dutton Hall, Cashier's office, at east end of campus.

I got the receipt there (thankfully, I HOPE it's the right one). And there were a bit of trouble with it since originally the school decided I was not a resident of California, and charged me the non-resident fee (which is significantly more) until it figured out that I am, in fact, a resident, and then 'returned' the due amount to me under my Davis account, in credits. And when my winter quarter bill came around, they took it directly out of the credit (and I still have some credits left, just to give you an idea of the difference between resident and non-resident fees). The problem with this was that when I ask for both the fall and winter quarter receipts, the lady could only find one. Being that I actually used the card once and the rest of the time it was the UC system messing about on its own. So hence I say I hope this'll work...and if my parents check and say it won't work for the tax form...well...it's back to Dutton hall for me, I suppose.

By the way, the receipt looks exactly like a grocery receipt. With one item on it. That's the only real difference between that and a grocery receipt aside from the amount of money printed there (which, you might recall, is quite large). I find the grocery-receipt largely amusing and took a picture of Dutton hall as I was leaving because I remembered that I've been meaning to take a picture of that place for a long time and kept forgetting. So I got something for myself out of this morning, besides a headache: I have a photo.

Also, no, it's not that the world's crashing down or anything. I just had a real-life storytelling lesson yesterday and suddenly realized that all these things happening to me, while they're not world shattering or anything, can be very entertaining tales. Molly slept through most of this (I met her leaving as I was returning), through my continuous returns for spray bottles, account records, and so on. I am deeply envious (that she could sleep through almost anything, it seems) and felt, to quote Christine, like "I fail at life."
But:
"Defeat means nothing but defeat, no drearier can prevail!"
Yes I must be philosophical. It is in my nature.

Omens for hardworking have been holding true so far. I'm sorry to say, Lucy, that shredded carrots are in my near future since I'm destined to work at the salad bar once a week at least.

[edit 13:00]
The happy ending to the Sunday incident: I went to return the spare shirt today, explaning to one of the managers what had happened and he looked at me and asks: "Are you going to need two shirts?
And I, thinking that I don't know how long it will be before I finally learn to figure out my when my shift is BEFORE it starts, answers, "At this point, I'm really not sure."
To which he informs me, "Why don't you just keep both shirts for now?"

And the good thing about that was, see, the shirt they issued me Sunday night was size S, while the original one was size L (because they couldn't any other size that night of second orientation). Needless to say which one I'll be wearing from now on. No offense to the original shirt. It'll have a special spot in my drawers for as long as it's here.