Wow I've really fallen off the writing wagon the past few days, haven't I? Well I sincerely apologize but I do have a few good excuses. One is that that I've been very busy still trying to get little pieces of my home together. In doing so I purchased a used vacuum advertised online. I wrote several emails back and forth with the seller, asking if it was good on carpets and double checking that it had an attachment for carpets. The seller kept assuring me that yes, it worked excellently on carpets and had the roller required for carpet vacuuming. Well they dropped the vacuum off on Tuesday and I was excited to be able to cross one more thing off my list. The lady was from Mexico and she spoke to me in Spanish. She said it was in perfect condition and the only reason she was getting rid of it was because her husband bought her a new one. She said, "If you have any problems just contact me."
I went upstairs with it and tried it and it worked well for about 2 min. but then every time I rolled the vacuum out and away from me (so it was on an angle instead of perpendicular), the motor would turn off and it wouldn't vacuum anything, and you can only attach the non-carpet attachments to the hose, it seems... so that means hard to reach places don't become any easier to reach and the non-carpet floor becomes a pain to do. And then I further realized that the cord-recoil button wasn't functioning either. I was pretty upset because she had assured me and reassured me so strongly about the functionality of the vacuum, and I believed her. And I started thinking how there should be a camaraderie between us Latin people and in particular Latin women, and how disappointing it was that there isn't... at least it didn't feel like there was any at that time. I wrote them an email right away (I didn't have their phone number, they only had mine and had called a couple of times but I don't have caller ID on my phone). I checked numerous times during the day for an email in my inbox, but to no avail.
The rest of that day was pretty crummy too mainly due to atrocious and inexcusable customer service. I got my cell phone exchanged because there were just things about the last one (a Samsung) that I couldn't get used to. Lines everywhere were so long, even though there were three people working at the phone kiosk!
Well I finally got a phone replacement - this one is a PINK Motorola, and the girl who sold me the first phone had mentioned it was available but I wanted to try the Samsung... and then when I came back the guy who worked there told me there was no other phone like the one I was looking for, and he said it with such certainty, but then I came back later and the girl I'd talked to before was there too and she straightened things out and I got my PINK PHONE :)
Then I went on to try and book an installation date for the cable through Bell. Omigosh I was waiting for over an hour while the representative took his sweet time and called some other higher-up representative or something... as it turns out, only a 2-year contract was available, not the 1-year contract I'd been promised when I bought the "All-in-one starter kit"... I don't want to go into it. Anyhow the bottom line is I got nowhere with them. It was kind of a nasty day, but then it got much better at night time because my dear friend Matthew drove up (10 hours?) to come see me (from Northeastern United States). I hadn't seen him in several months and it was so lovely to have someone dear and familiar nearby. We caught up until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore and me being such a good hostess couldn't even offer him anything better than a carpeted floor to sleep on. At least I also slept only on carpeted floor. The sofas are comfortable to sit upon, but they're not ideal for sleeping. I don't know if it's that they're not long enough or if the angle of the cushions just doesn't quite suit my sleeping position(s).
Fortunately it has cooled down substantially since my first days here. We spent Wednesday walking to campus, going to the "Next Door Grill" for lunch, doing laundry, reading, catching up, and indulging in leisure. It was such a beautiful day, too. It was sunny but not too hot, and a refreshing, soothing breeze was blessing the day. For all the malicious that had been the day before, this day was marvelous! I even got an email from the vacuum people saying that they were on holidays for a week but that they would help me out when they got back ~ and they tried to call but I missed it 'cause my ringer on my new phone was turned way down and I didn't notice. (So the vacuum ordeal is still not perfect but definitely an improvement over Tuesday's lack of replies and communication).
Matthew left yesterday (Thurs) morning, after I stuffed us both with pancakes - perhaps partially to make up for my hostess-faux-pas of making spend two nights sleeping on the floor.
I went back to Bell in the morning after he left and tried to talk to the employee who had specifically sold me internet and the all-in-one cable package together. I had to wait in line over half an hour (even though the store had only been open for about half an hour when I got there), and then he made a number of phone calls and it was in vain. Apparently last time he checked someone on the other end of the line (and it's true - I was there to witness it) told him yes, a one-year contract was available, but now it's only 2 years available. What a mess. Anyhow he was actually a good rep, but Bell as a whole came off as being embarrassingly disorganized and unprofessional in their methods of communication. I still don't know what I'm going to do about cable...
I then headed to campus to meet with one of my professors-to-be, pick up a welcome package, and rent a bicycle. The bicycle, it turns out, was a little to long for me, so I was slightly uncomfortable. It was also about half an inch too tall, so I had to fall onto my leg when I stopped instead of just putting it down, and it was heavy and butch. I rode it home just for practice and could feel the adrenaline building up and rushing through my veins even though it's not too scary a ride. I hadn't been on a bike in years! It was a great feeling, but exhausting and too much work. The other problem was that I didn't have a backpack (I can't remember if I told you but I had to mail it in to Burton to get it replaced or mended - we'll see which soon I hope). So I was riding somewhat lopsided and having to compensate for unequal distribution of weight due to my one-sided purse. I ended up returning the bike, managing to get my money back, and buying bus tickets instead.
Since then not too much has come up. I've been mildly acquiring a few more things required for the apartment, and I've been reading material for school because that starts up very soon! I'm looking forward to going to school and meeting new people because having Matthew here and then having him leave made me realize how much I miss live social contact with friends and people from my circle....
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