posted by John Osvald
6:01 PM
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I'll start at the endnd fill in the blanks a. Right now I am sitting in my own studio apartment in the Nob Hill section of San Francisco, typing on my sweet sweet swank new Toshiba laptop. Life is good.
So, after a very nice if not a bit emotional farewell fourth of July bbq at my folks house, we set off cross country, first stop Charleston West VA. It was as boring as it sounds, although Tupelo seemed to dig it. Next Nashville Tennessee, where I heard the phrase "In the infinite wisdom of George W. Bush..." uttered without a hint of sarcasm. Heard some kick ass country music though. Then New Orleans. We got drunk a lot. Had a fantastic run through the french quarter. The ex and I were getting along great. Friends. The friend she brought along? They weren't getting on quite so well. He made it as far as Austin, where his cross country expereince ended with the airport. Dispite that rather uncomfortable and awkward situation, and the days prior, Austin was amazing. Everything was 50's kisch. The people were friendly. Weather hot, but nice, and the bats are awesome. They have like 700000 bats that emerge every night from under one of the bridges down there, at the same time. Awesome. El Paso was entirely forgettable, especially since I forgot my passport and couldn't go to Mexico. Vegas was quick. LA we saw the directors cut of Donnie Darko, with a cast & crew discussion after. And now SF.
We arrived a week ago today. I spent the first two nights in t he city here. I really love it, so I started re-exploring the idea of getting an apartment in SF. I found an $850 pet friendly studio, close to BART (whcihwill take me to school and back for about $6/day). The difference in cost of the Berkeley apartment shares I was looking at was negligible ($725), the transportation do-able, and the apartment and area amazing so I went for it. I've spent the last few days in Vallejo with my best friend from HS, and having a great time. Went to a Giants game... sbc is an amazing ballpark. Finally moved into the place yesterday, and got the computer today.
The computer. Toshiba. 512 MB DDR, 60 G Hard Drive, Intel Pro Wireless, 1.5 ghz Pentium M, 15" screen, DVD burner. $1500 after rebate. They beat my corporate discount at HP/Compac.
Whew. Ok, now to start focusing on school. After 2 more weeks off just messing around of course.
Life is good.
posted by John Osvald
8:06 PM
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This is my 100th post, and I wonder how many times I'll have to type it. I'm on my mom's 1995 PC and for some reason everytime I hit the backspace key, it goes back a page. Then everything is erased.
Lots and lots going on. Big news.
One, I got my loan. I went for the CitiAssist, as planned, with my mom as a cosigner. I got approved for the full amount, and amazingly,got the rate for "Excellent" credit, Prime +.25%! I was scared when reading the details as it said the the credit decision was primarily based on the borrowers history, not the cosigner's. It looked like with "Fair" credit and a cosigner, I would get Prime +3%, instead of Prime +4% (without a cosigner). "Good" credit would get me +1% (instead of 3%), and excellent was +.25% either way. I thought best case would be the 1%. Surprise. Yay. : )
Not only that, but I got a FULL paycheck from work. So I signed up for orientation and all that junk with the $930 bill. I opted out of the ropes course and San Francisco photo scavenger hunt, and in for the A's game and bar night. Also in for the challenge for charity picnic. Basically if it didn't carry an extra fee, I signed up (save the scavenger hunt, which sounded too geeky, even for an ice breaker). Yes, I did sign up for math camp, why?
On the personal front... that friend I wasn't speaking with turned into an email blow-up fight. Now we are definitely not speaking. I've never had this happen before... a multi-year close friendship end. It's pretty much as troubling and hurtful as a break up. I moved out of the apartement without much incident, people took a bunch more crap I threw on the street. I saw the Yankees lose to the Mets twice and beat the Sox once. I sold some furniture on Craig's list. I went to the zoo with my nephews. I've been busting my ass to do last minute chores for the family and prepare for our fourth of july bbq/going away party tomorrow.
And Monday we leave. 11 days. Still need to book hotels. Oh, and I almost forgot. The ex threw a new stereo in the car and got Sirius for free! After sampling it, I have to say, Sirius is m'f'in awesome. Seriously. On that lame pun, I'll take off.