Getting settled...

It's only Tuesday of zero week and I am exhausted. I think I've slept 11 hours in the past three days, but not without reason.

Saturday was move-in day. Unfortunately random roommate #1 beat Kim and I to the punch and took the significantly larger bedroom, with larger bathroom and walk-in closet also in the room. I cried inside. However, I've come to accept this reality and have settled in comfortably. I do appreciate that the kitchen is fairly spacious (in square footage, but certainly not in cabinet space, which is dreadful) as well as the living room and oddly long balcony. Fireplace, too, with pretty marble frame!

Markus had his birthday/apartment kickback that evening. Four hours of a Filipino karaoke program with very limited American song choices. Not only were the majorty of English songs by Tony Bennett (respect, love him), but the lyrics to any song we chose were also in good old Engrish. I'm sure an Asian person input what they thought they were hearing. So very amusing.
The party went into the wee hours of morning ending with an hour of big booty--I'd never played before, but coming up with ridiculous rules to make the game more difficult was more entertaining than you could imagine.

On Sunday I drove back home from LA for the first time, all by meself! I consider it Megan's driving adventure No. 2: missed the 405, had to go all the way to Pico to catch the freeway again; almost exited off Grand Ave when I got to downtown. Fischerspooner's "Cloud" is playing right now on my speaker, how appropriate for me: "I lost myself...you can't see how..." I'm a generally confused and flighty person. Actually, I wouldn't say flighty, for that implies that I'm irresponsible, which, I think and hope I am not. Maybe a little spacey 40% of the time, awkward 98% of the time. Everything tends to come together, though.

Bruin Bash was a huge success. Wristbanding for the film was a doozy as usual. I've become increasingly more comfortable raising my voice to a crowd and saying no to those who don't make the cut-off. I absolutely loved Eagle Eye up until the last five minutes. Reminded me of the awful ending to War of the Worlds.

As usual, I made my way to the activities fair for my annual "stuff a bag with everything the clubs/orgs are giving away" event. But! I took less crap, I really did. Only THREE pens, two highlighters, two post-its, a pom pom, some candy, and a UN flag. This is a huge improvement from 20+ pens, 10+ post-its, and Ann Rynd's Atlas Shrugged, which sits somewhere at home and will probably never be read. I tabled with Susan for USAC's voter reg.; got sunburned. Now I feel unpleasantly warm and flushed all day.

Had work too early in the morning. Snoozed from 7:30am-8am in three minute intervals, gasping each time because I thought I'd slept through my shift. I have yet to get a grasp on the amount of time it will take me to walk to various places on campus from my new home. Fortunately, I am starting to master the map of apartments and their not-so-parallel streets. I am not looking foward to opening again tomorrow morning. Sigh.

I still don't have pots and pans, but I am holding back from eating bowl noodles 3 times a day. I've been microwaving whatever I can and have been eating a great deal of Honey Bunches of Oats. Thank you Markus for saving me last night and letting me cook in your kitchen! Once I get cooking tools, I'll probably never leave my apartment.

We are having a mandatory apartment meeting tonight, including "fun, games, prizes" and meeting and mingling. I don't really want to go, but I should make the effort. Afterward, I'll be making a driving trip to Ralph's to buy groceries--driving, only because this is my initial stock-up trip and I won't be able to carry everything back. My dad recently gave me the budget speech, so I am nervous about having to be economical and officially manage my finances and spending. Although, I have already been penny-pinching over food for a while, making dinner decisions based on what coupons I have. My wallet explodes with them because I constantly collect. Maybe that's sad, but I is poor.

I plan to enjoy the rest of zero week as much as possible, as exhausting as it may be. Come Monday, the reality of fall quarter will sink in, as well as the burdensome knowledge that I cannot possible do everything I want to do. The activity count is high: CEC, radio news, SEBN, post office, the blogsite that Danny and I are attempting to have up and running by next week, oh, and classes, of course.
In addition to those committments, I desperately want to be more involved with sevice activities--I picked up about eight flyers for different service clubs and projects at the fair. Obviously, to commit to all of them is impossible, but I am set on joining at least one, as well as enrolling in just one recreation class. I have very little faith in myself that I'll keep up pilates in the apartment even though my mat is here. Also, I must force myself to run at Drake at least twice a week so I don't deteriorate into complete sloth this year.

Nap time. Need the beauty rest before I meet and mingle with people? Hah. I just want the bags under my eyes to go down a bit to create the illusion of a person who sleeps.

Note to self: my first Netflix movie should be arriving today! Anticipation! Now, if I could only find my mailbox key...