Month: July 2006

On saying goodbye…

Today was full of a bunch of “lasts”. It was my last day at work. I also ran into TONS of people for what’s probably the last time I’ll see them in a while (or, realistically, some of them I’ll probably never see again).

Ran into Isaiah right when I took my lunch break. We had lunch together- such a great, balanced guy… (I know that our friendship is not ending, but rather only beginning. You rock, dude.)

A few other people came through at work that I didn’t have time to get to know better…. Mita, Erin Obr, and others.

I went to Gold Bar after work to hang out with Lizzy. Before she came, I ran into David Stoll, Vicki, and Margaret. Then Nate, my old drumline instructor came in. Jen, also from drumline, was working.

Lizzy and I talked for a little while… All of us PPA kids going out of state are sharing in the moving-away jitters. I have a cool idea in the works for coordinating an “out-of-state PPA kids’ care package ring” so that we can make each other feel more at home.

Leaving is getting really weird. I hate saying goodbye- for a long time, or even permanently. It’s really weird. I much prefer how it happens in “The Sixth Sense”:

Cole: "I'm not going to see you anymore, am I?"

Malcolm doesn't respond for a while.  He shakes his head, "No."
Cole: "...Maybe we can pretend we're going to see each other tomorrow? Just for pretend."
Malcolm: "Okay, Cole, I'm going to go now...
I'll see you tomorrow."
Cole (softly): "...See you tomorrow."

…Is it warm in here, or is it just my lap?

Ack.

In the last month, three Dell laptops have exploded.

With my luck, the TSA probably won’t let me carry my E1405 onto my flight to Colorado next week, since they’ll be classified as some kind of WMD by then.

(…I wonder if reproductive organs are covered since I went for the expensive “Accidental Damage” warranty… I wouldn’t want this baby to burst into flames with such proximity to my future children.)

Another kind of hot

So usually Arizona’s summer is very similar to what most people might percieve as “hell.” It’s not the worst idea- it’s gotten up to 118 degrees this year. Blar. And everyone says, “….but it’s a dry heat!”

And it’s true. For me, I bike to work, and I go, “Wow, it’s HOT!”
And I  get over it,  and forget about it since I maximize my time indoors.  Everyone in Arizona has air conditioning.

Ours broke in a huge monsoon a few nights ago. Ever since, the whole house has been horrible. The temperature everywhere else has dropped about 20 degrees… The high today was 94, and at 11:35 PM as I write this, it’s a cool 90 degrees right now. But it’s gotten humid everywhere. Humidity is soooo much worse than the high, dry heats here.

Add to that the fact that my house has no aire acondicionado, and you get a very unhappy Zeke. I’m tired of constantly sweating. I’m sitting in someone else’s house right now, with AC running, and I’m still sweating. A lot of it owes to my hair, which basically functions like a mop attached to my sweaty head.

So I’m actually considering cutting my hair again. Not just because of the heat, but I am yet again doing the “My-hair-is-having-an-identity-crisis-but-I-won’t-do-anything-about-it” thing.

So I’m looking for a hairstyle that will fit my personality. Which is why I hate hair- I don’t know what my hair’s personality looks like. I know that it doesn’t bother me when it’s really, really long, and it also doesn’t bother me when it’s bald.

Which reminds me. I was looking at my site statistics, and this year, 69.4% of search engine references to my site are from terms having to do with “emo hairstyles.” The word “emo” alone is responsible for 729 references this year.

And now I’m screwed for mentioning it, because there’s another reference to it on my blog, which will only give me more relevance on Emo PageRank.

Holy crap. I leave in 8 days. I don’t wanna leave…….. 🙁

Countdown: 13 days.

Wow…. less than two weeks left. Only one week left of working at Taco Del Mar.

I’m starting to think about arrangements that need to be made up in Colorado… Things like my dorm room, job, activities, and priorities. Reminding myself that God demands to be at the top of that list- I need to get plugged into a good community up there. I haven’t really been going to church for something like 6 months now, and I’m not the happiest about it.

Also weighing my options for a burrito job at TDM/Q’doba/Chipotle versus the idea of having an on-campus workstudy job. Right now I’m leaning in favor of the workstudy, just because of the flexible hours and how it would only be a day job- working nights sucks.

Still trying to decide whether or not I want to do marching band, too. Grr! This is the third summer in a row I’ve struggled with this decision. Part of me says it’s a waste of time, but I also think that it’d be a great way to get plugged in on campus. Right now I’m really out of practice, but I think that I could fix that somewhat in the next 2 weeks. I’m leaning towards doing it- though I need to send out a commitment form ASAP. Grr.
(another plus to being in Band is that I could move in to my dorm a few days early.)

So yeah. I’m undecided about a lot of things right now. I’m not worried- they’re exciting decisions to make.

I have always said that I will miss the people in Arizona much more than the place itself. However, upon reconsidering, there is a short list of things in AZ that I will miss:

  • Gold Bar
  • La Canasta (Taco Del Mar’s Arizona tortilla supplier…. they make the best chips ever… not in Colorado though.)
  • In-N-Out Burger
  • QuikTrip

I am moving.

We’ve finalized my plans now, and I will be leaving at about 11 AM on Sunday, August 6.

It’s scary. And also really exciting. I have no problem with the idea of leaving Arizona (it’s hot and I miss my old home) but there are some friends that I am really, really going to miss.

Plans are in the works for a massive sendoff party. More on that later.

Zeke ordered a laptop.

I finally placed the order that I’ve been waiting to make for about 6 months…

I decided on the Dell E1405. I had been considering a MacBook, but the price for the same configuration as my Dell would have been like…. $700 more.

Here are some speccy’s:

  • Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz, 667MHz bus (I like how every time superfast new laptop processors come out, they automatically lose about 500MHz.)
  • 1GB RAM, 533MHz, 2x512MB
  • 100GB 5400RPM hard disk (I hear rumors that some dell notebook drives have only 2MB of cache instead of the near-standard 8MB…. hope that’s not true 😛 )
  • 14.1″ WXGA widescreen
  • All kinds of cool multimedia crap

I can’t run Mac OS on it, but I plan on killing the Dellified trialware-ridden version of Windoze that comes with it, and dual-booting Ubuntu Linux and the free version of XP Pro that I get through CSU.

And again I must wait for the evils of UPS to deliver it. I hate buying things online because I’m so impulsive, so I’ve been hitting the “reload” button daily on the Dell Order Status site since I ordered it. Looks like it shipped today, and will make an early arrival on the 18th, so I’m happy.

In other news, it looks like I’ll be leaving Arizona in 3 weeks.

Final schedule

AP Credits transferred over to CSU…. I got a 4 on the Microeconomics (thought I would fail) and a 4 on Spanish (as expected; had hoped for a 5).

These credits officially make me a sophomore. Sweet.

So I registered for my last classes, and now I have my finalized schedule.

Everything but one recitation on MWF….. eww… But having 4 days off a week will obviously have its’ advantages.

Still trying to decide whether or not I want to bother with marching band. Right now I want to. GRRR! I do this every year. I don’t think I’ll end up doing it, though.