Two Milestones

I'll try to keep this one short coz I have to pack, but today I received my first paycheck from Sherwin and my first bill (electricity, if you must know). I was extremely glad to have received my check today and was glad when I saw the bill, because even though they only charged me for a week, it was still mad cheap. I already started to write a budget and I'm excited to finally begin to truly be self-sufficient! Also "tax is a ho"! Taxes docked about 260 bucks off my paycheck. Yes, that really sucks, but what can you do? I actually thought it would be a bit less, but I guess that's not too bad, and at the very least, I'll still be pretty comfortable, even after paying everything. So, hope everything works out :D

and now for something completely different

OK, so maybe it's not completely different. After all, it's still me silly banter again, however, this time, with some form! As I've nothing particularly out of the ordinary to report - save walking a few miles to the bank on saturday and taking the train back( but that's about all that happened) - I've decided to share a haiku with you all. Now, ever since like the second day of work I've decided that my away message for aim for my non-work screen name is to be a haiku, different every day. If I remember it correctly the following is what today's was.

Actually, allow me one line of origin explanation. Basically, it was at church this sunday and one of the people speaking from the altar said jokingly "perhaps God really is a woman" and I thought "well that isn't the case simply because God is neither male nor female. He made both and in His image. Therefore, if man is to complement woman and vice versa, it is because they are, in a way, two halves of the whole that is God's image". Now, I'm no theologian and I'm sure there is errata in my line of thought, however, I like the romantic image that that displayed and furthermore, inspired the following Haiku:

He is who He is
so God, being who He is,
complements Himself.

I know it's not groundbreaking and personally I don't really care, it's just a simple thought that popped into my head given the formerly explained line of thought. If you like it though, I'm glad. :D

Living on my own

Well now, what neglect! I haven't written a thing in practically a week! For shame! Well, I have to say, one thing about having a 9-5 is that nights seem awfully short. In part because I'm going to sleep rather early and also because by the time work is done it's practically night and about 3/4ths of the day are over. Of course, it has its virtues in contrast to university. Take, for instance, the fact that, while you often only need to go to class for 4-6 hours a day, the rest of the day is possibly spent doing school work. Not to mention, weekends are also met with the same kind of industry, whereas in the workplace, the weekend is yours in its entirety.

But enough about such trifles! And what's with this scholastic tone? haha. Anyway, this week has been pretty normal at work. Save for monday, where we had the office party. That was fun. I was able to leave work a bit early, which is fine in its own right, but then I truly feasted at the party. My goodness, such a large amount of delicious food. There was a spinach lasagna and some chicken parmigiana (sp?) and some really good home fries like potatoes and salad and bread and it was just great. Afterwards, they took the covers off of the tables to reveal a bunch of pool tables... and brought in dessert!!! Two courses worth, but I had had so much food that I barely had enough space in my stomach for some of the first course, which, frankly, was good enough for me: marshmallows, crackers, chocolate cookies, strawberries and whatnot, and next to it... melted chocolaaaaaate!!!! Oh, also that night, after losing 2 games of pool and winning another one, I played table-top shuffle for the very first time. It was fun and cool.

I know I'm backtracking now but I remembered that I went to church on sunday and that was notable but I was already talking about monday so I kept on talking about it but now I wanna go back to sunday, k? ok! Well yes, sunday morning I went to church. I had to walk to it but it's not all that far away and the weather was fair so I decided to go for it. I found the church with no problem and it was a nice experience. I was given a ride back, which is good coz at that point it was raining and walking back under the rain would've been kind of bad. The service was interesting too. It was far more liturgical and protocol based than I'm used to but still enjoyable. I had previously had dinner with the pastor and his personality gave me a completely different image than I saw at the service. Not at all in terms of hypocrisy or anything like that. It's just he was so lively and youthful and I normally connect such liturgical style services with elderly, serious priests. Still, I like hymns so, at least, the music was to my liking, hehe. Ah yes, and the pastor lent me a jacket coz I left all my big ones at Rochester. Thankfully, the other co-op went to rochester randomly that night and was thoughtful enough to get me my jackets! He's a cool guy.

Oh, I also did laundry on sunday and, lo and behold, I spent more money than I normally would have had to and the dryers did suck. At least the one I used for 1 of my loads. I spent more money because 1) one of the washers ate like 3 of my quarters T_T and 2) because I had to run the dryer twice for one of the loads. Rawr, but what can I do? At least I got my clothes clean and dry and put awa- ok, not yet and omg, I know it's thursday and I haven't put my clothes away, what a terrible habit! Ah but as I said at the beginning, living on your own has its virtues :P. Anywho, work is going well. It's work after all, but at the very least, I'm learning a lot and being useful, even if little by little. I'm a bit :/ because my teammates haven't really "integrated" me into the group. I still very much feel like an outsider, but of course, that's because I am, I'm just an intern that's gonna be there for 6 months and I've only been there for a week and a half. I would, however, appreciate being asked to go to lunch with them every so often. In part it makes me wonder if it's me that's not doing something, but I'm sure it's just the fact that they're already a strong clique and I'm certainly not in there to break that. So, I suppose there's nothing for me to do but wait until I slowly meld in as part of the troupe. Thankfully, I'm not really in there alone, and there's the other co-op dude and we go to lunch together sometimes. In any case, I don't feel bad about not being part of the group yet. I know it's only a matter of time, and even if it's not, I don't feel lonely or anything. This is still a very transitional period and I understand that so having IM and a phone is good enough until I make some local friends :D

Ah, I'm sure there's probably things I'm leaving out, but I think it'll be ok for now. Ta-ta~

after a week

As the title says, it's been a whole week since I moved to cleveland. To the day, of course, since at this time 7 days ago I was still on the road here. The first week has had its ups and downs but, as I thought, things continue to even out. I'm sure before long I'll be so used to it I won't even think about it. Haven't done much but things are going well. There's a holiday office party on monday, which I'm sure will be fun and a good opportunity to start making friends.

I've been catching up on stuff I hadn't had the chance to do while in school, since I have a lot of free time now. I've read a ton of manga and seen some anime. Namely, tons of One Piece, a bit of shichinin no nana and sailor moon and some bleach and naruto. I need to get me an RF Modulator so I can get back to playing some vid games. I can't wait to get my hands on Super Mario Galaxy, but that might have to wait until Christmas. I suppose that's ok. I'll have even more time to play it then since I'll be vacationing at home! I'm also looking forward to NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams and going crazy over Smash Bros Brawl, although I have to wait like another two months for that one u_u.

I should try and do some laundry today, as I'm gonna run out of undergarments soon. That way I can see for myself just how crappy the dryers really are, hah. I might go out today and hang out with the other co-op dude. We'll see. I'm also hoping to go to church tomorrow.

Well there's not much to say, or not much in mind right now so I think this'll be a short one today. 'Till next time :)

You look like you could use a long one

Long blog that is, of course! Goodness, there is much too much to say! On top of it all, the network connection I am on is borrowed, but I suppose perhaps I shall get to that. Anywho, this post will be, inasmuch as I can muster the will to once more recount the past 3-4 days, an update. That is because I've already shared these stories with various people. Incidentally the people who generally read this blog, but alas, I am compelled to write these things here. For posterity's sake, perhaps.

I suppose it would be best to start on Saturday. Saturday morning I finished packing my things into the U-HAUL truck with the help of Bucky, Ryan and Summer. After which the guys and I went to Panera for some breakfast to then hit the road. Driving a truck in semi-snowy conditions of Henrietta (in Rochester) was somewhat horrifying but at the very least, once we left the city things were fine and the road was perfectly clear, in some places even dry, and the Lord blessed us with great weather the whole way to Cleveland. Also, Ryan was nice enough to ride with me in the u-haul and that helped ease the tension of driving a truck and just kept me company and we surfed the radio which was hilarious at times (like the grinch song hahaha!) Well we got to Cleveland with no problems or mishaps, albeit at a high expense of gasoline for the truck >.<, but that was inescapable. Once we hit Cleveland we made it to the apartments with ease and went up to the offices to find out we weren't home free just yet (and to what extent I would soon discover). Basically, we had to run a bit of an errand even after reaching the apartments but the guys were patient and super great so we got everything done and proceeded to move me into my apartment. After I was done moved in the question of what I would do with the u-haul lingered above me like a dark cloud darkening a rather bright day. I knew the guys had to go back and that we even had skipped the lunch in Cleveland that we had planned because we ran late. However, one last time, they saved me and took me to the u-haul place, which mind you, is in a sha~dy area, and this no less, at night. But we did that and then they dropped me back off at the apartment where we said our goodbyes. :'( The rest of the night I spent arranging things in the apartment but was urged by mum to go and get some groceries, which I did, and it was a good thing. Then I went to sleep somewhat early as I was exhausted from the trip.

Sunday: I woke up rather early and proceeded to make some breakfast and relax on the day before work began. I would've liked to go to church but it was already a bit late for me to do that but I did get in touch with a pastor who is willing to have lunch with me some time this week and I hope to visit his and maybe some other churches in the search for a church for my time here. After being at my apartment not doing much for a good time, and taking a shower with no shower curtain >.<, I decided to check out where the Sherwin-Williams offices are: my soon-to-be daily commute. So using google earth (and after readjusting my living place in google earth, as I had it wrong) I realized that the distance from my apartment to work is rather shorter than I initially thought it was, much to my pleasant surprise. So I calculated a route and made my way to the building. I discovered what I believe to be the nearest Starbucks, which makes me happy but is sure to impact my wallet, although for now I won't have any because I have to save my money. So I reached the work-place, which I recognized thanks to Max's dad having driven us oven back when I came with him to set things up in Crittenden Court (the apartments). One thing I was also glad to discover is that there is a mall right next to the workplace! This was good for me as I was in need of some things I needed for my apartment, of which a shower curtain was of utmost urgency. Well I walked around the whole mall just perusing and seeing what kinds of stores they have. Eventually, as I was walking to the food court where I would have lunch I came across a dollar store and felt like I should check it out. Well it's a good thing I did because I was able to get some plates and cups (which I also needed), and a shower curtain and some rings to hold it all. All these things for a dollar each were great for me and I was extremely glad. I had lunch and head back with renewed vigor, as saturday had been a bit of a downer day with plentiful occurrence and a good bit of stress, not to mention having to say good-bye to close friends, if only for a while. That night I decided to dig out some old anime I hadn't seen (courtesy of Alex, who had been kind enough to give me some and I simply had never gotten around to it) and saw some Shichinin no Nana and a Sailor Moon Movie. I then went to sleep somewhat early.

Monday: I woke up at 7 and got ready and made my way to work. Got there with no problems and went through orientation. Let me just say that from the get-go, this co-op feels better than my previous one. Of course, this company has a co-op program and is just a bigger company altogether, so it would figure but everything just felt right. The orientation was interesting but of particular hilarity were some of the videos we had to see, which were clearly from the early 90's late 80's, as was evidenced by the hair and clothing styles. All this on top of a little intro in that very video which featured computers and TVs crashing into each other and exploding, it felt out of place but was so funny I couldn't help but chuckle. After all the orientation time I got to have lunch. I went to the adjacent mall's (the one from sunday) food court and had food with the other Co-op, which also happens to be a 4th year IT major from RIT. Also serendipitously, one of the people we had lunch with is an alumnus of RIT, which I recognized because he was in the RIT singers and one of the a cappella groups. So after that, we went back and Meghan, my social mentor and person I'm here because of (she was the scouter at the career fair) and she gave me and Jeremy, the other co-op, the building(s) tour and we got our pictures taken for our badges/IDs/keys to places around the building. After this we got set up in our individual stations and I started tinkering with the options on the computer which is to be my work station. Work got out, I said 'see ya tomorrow' to everyone but then I went out with Jeremy and we went to a few places. Basically, I had mentioned to him that I needed to go to Target or something and get myself an iron and an ironing board and he has a car so he offered to take me to Target but we didn't stop there (coz the cheap irons were sold out), we went to a super strange but super cheap grocery store and then Walmart where I ended up getting the iron and board for less than 20 bucks! Then we hung out at his place for a while where I got online for the first time since saturday night (because I don't have internet in the apartment quite yet) and just went nuts checking my e-mails and whatnot. After just chillin at his place for a while he drove me back to crittenden and I made myself a quick dinner and went to sleep after looking at random old pictures on the comp.

Tuesday: (don't worry, this is where this blog ends haha) Well I went through the usual morning grind and got to work. Settled in my work station and kept on tinkering with it. Finally got the updates I didn't get yesterday. Basically, the mac I'm on got reformatted on monday and although the internet was working I couldn't get the updates to the os or even iTunes at all, but it all worked first thing in the morning on tuesday. At some point during the morning Meghan asks me what I want for lunch today. I was kind of taken for a loop but after a while they got out of me what I like to eat. My first thing I said was italian food so they went with that and we ended up choosing this upscale super fancy italian RISTORANTE in the mall called Bice (pronounced "bee-cheh", much to the team's enjoyment). The lunch was very tasty and the conversation and interaction with the team was a ton of fun! After the lunch we all went back into work and into work mode and my tech mentor hooked me up with some work to try my hand at. Real stuff for the first time!!! So that's what I worked on for the rest of the day and much to my self-fulfillment, I finished one of the tasks I had been charged with. After that I left work (a half hour early coz the lunch threw me off hahaha, but that's alright, I'll just make up for it tomorrow), and made my way to the dollar store again to get some things I needed (namely a can opener) and I also got some other things I thought would be good to have, again for a killer price. Unfortunately the can opener sucked but oh well, it was only a dollar haha, and maybe it was just the can of tuna being gimp. So I came back home, saw another sailor moon movie (haha) and had dinner. Then I made got back on the computer and lo and behold: INTERNET! So I got on, checked my e-mails and decided I just had to blog about this crazy experience I've been having. And that's what this blog was.

So that's that. Boy that was a type-full. hehe, Aaaaaanyway, I'm calling it a day on this one. Hopefully I'll get internet at my place tomorrow and won't have to resort to mega-ton blogs every few days.

Love y'all ;)