Procrastination

Hello, it's been a while. And it's been another rough week. First of all, my primary reason for lack of posts this week is the amount of homework. I have a presentation due on Wednesday on Nathaniel Hawthorne. While it isn't a terribly difficult assignment, it is time-consuming. Mainly because I'm a good, responsible little grad student and I'm writing down every single website/book I find any sort of information in. I think I have most of the information I need. I just need to put it all together in a nice little presentation. One that looks nice, is informative, and as I always strive to be, somewhat clever. The worst part of all this will be leading the class discussion afterward by asking questions, acting all teacher-like, blah blah blah. Yuck. Oh, and I have to have at least half of the book read by Wednesday as well.

I'm a procrastinator at heart, so here I am. Really, I just got the urge to do some writing. I wrote a tiny little poem which isn't much of anything significant currently. But eventually I'll get around to revisions. I had what I thought might be a good idea for a story earlier today--or maybe it was last night--but it's gone now. I have no idea what it was. I've been reading war stories and poetry all week for an anthology we're doing and that's all that's in my head lately. I know nothing of war or military life, nor am I ambitious enough to do any research, to write about it.

Work has been crazy. I've had a ton of homework, which is what I'll be spending most of my weekend getting done. To top it all off, I locked my keys in my car Wednesday night after class. First time that's every happened to me. And of course, I was two hours away from my spare key. No bueno. I called the police because apparently somewhere in the world they actually help people with these sorts of things. As I may or may not have mentioned before, the police in this town are completely and utterly useless. The guy said they no longer had the "tools" to help with such things. But he offered to call me tow truck, so that's super helpful! Not. Pretty sure if I was capable of calling the police, I'm more than capable of calling myself a tow truck. Idiots.

Next plan was a locksmith. The one that is supposedly "24 hours" never answered. I called twice. Nothing. So I called the only other locksmith I could find online. He said he could do it, but it would cost $55. Okay, not bad. Except he wouldn't take a credit card or a check. He said he'd follow me to an ATM to get cash. Well since I still don't have my new debit card, that's not a possibility. Next plan of action: call Rhyen. This lady knows much more about cars than most guys I know, so I figured if anyone knew how to break into a car, it'd be her. Thankfully, she came through and showed up with all the "supplies" needed. Unfortunately (fortunately?) the seals on my car are super tight (the "that's what he/she said jokes were numerous), which made it hard to get in (that's what he said).

Long story short, it took a total of 7 people to finally get my car unlocked. It was well after midnight. I had a terrible migraine. I didn't get to bed until about 1:30. Lessons learned: Most of my neighbors are dicks. For all they knew we were just breaking into someone's car. We did meet one neighbor and his friend who actually checked to see if we needed help. They weren't much help, but they did provide some comic relief (including, but not limited to, that's what she said jokes). The seals on my doors/windows are tight. So happy to know my car's not a slut. Most important lesson of all: make sure your spare key isn't two hours away.

Seriously though, this is the first time it's ever happened. But people love to make you feel like a total idiot for it--like they've never done it. I was a little hysterical for a while, given all my car troubles in the past month. Luckily Kirsten and Rhyen were there to help and keep me sort of sane, and kept me from breaking the window with a hammer :)