how you used to say

So Apple Realty won't let me sign a lease unless I see the property first. A round trip for either of the next two weekends would cost me nearly $600 - which is about as much as I make every two weeks. So I guess not.

I suppose I could hold off on signing a lease until I arrived there for orientation, and just live out of a hotel until everything gets cleared and I can move in, but... I don't know. I'm not good with these things.

Damn. And they were both so nice.

Going to go curl up on the couch with the TV and Tactics and sulk.

Guess I shouldn't have stayed up until 2 playing Tactics :/

Woke up yesterday and made it to the Huntington, then spent the day there. I thought I was going to meet Ken to go over some things, but he thought he'd left his reader's card at home. Anyway. Long day spent at a desk reading and trying to find an apartment, any input on which would be most appreciated.

Headed back to the studio after work and fed my fish. Since Kevin was out at his orientation, my parents and I went to CVS to pick up my dad's prescription and then to The Monrovian for dinner. I had fish and chips! And cream of broccoli soup! And tapioca for dessert! I ate less than half my dinner :/ So now I have leftovers for tonight.

And that's pretty much it. I was really tired so even though I was going to do apartment things I literally passed out in the car, made it to the living room couch, and died until 4 in the morning, when I moved to my bed. Of course, at that point I lay in bed for at least half an hour trying to sleep, but you know. Whatever.

Now I am at work and hungry. I should go get a snack.

So. Have found 5 places that look promising, all with varying levels of pros and cons. Hopefully my parents will still be willing to help me, since all but one of these places are more expensive that the listings I was looking at. I just need help narrowing down to a favorite 3 or 4, so that I can ask the right questions.

If anybody but Tim has time to look through stuff, that'd be most appreciated.

o1. http://www.applerealty.org/rentallist.htm, search for 1010 A Clarendon
Rent: $550/month + utilities
Upsides: looks nice from the outside, central A/C
Downsides: Uncertain re: cable and internet and washer/dryer

o2. http://communityhousing.duke.edu/property_detail.php?id=38813, check that you're a Duke grad student.
Rent: $540/month + utilities
I can send pictures if you give me an email address

o3. http://www.applerealty.org/rentallist.htm, search for 816 D Berkley
Rent: $520/month + utilities
Upsides: ... has a loft!

o4. http://home.earthlink.net/~snonini1/id4.html
Rent: $485/month + utilities
Upsides: lightly furnished
Downsides: Uncertain re: internet/cable, doesn't open until late August, which means I'd have to live at a hotel or something for a couple weeks

o5. http://communityhousing.duke.edu/property_detail.php?id=43227
Rent: $480/month including utilities
Can send pictures with an email address
Upsides: furnished, utilities included
Downsides: no stove, uncertain re: cable/internet

So... *whistles* anybody got free time?

Totally feeling better now, even though I spent something like 7 hours staring at primary documents in largely illegible handwriting today. The headache notwithstanding, obviously. Or the fact that I didn't really have lunch - my mom packed me a lunch, but forgot? that I don't have a microwave when I'm at the Huntington, so the rice was cold and it bothered me. So I ate cherries and a breakfast bar instead.

When I get home I'll post the new, parent-approved apartment listings. There are like, 10 million of them. Some of them I don't really like, but others are pretty nice, so I want some opinions because clearly I'm Doing It Wrong. I have them all on my laptop, but it doesn't get internet at work.

This morning I thought Kevin was going to the studio with me, but I was mistaken, so I was half an hour late to work, hahaha. The Huntington was closed to the public, but the library was still open, so I got to park nice and close :D I spent the morning in the reading room working my way through a box, finished right before lunch, then went out to my car, where I ate and played Tactics. I really liked the GBA version, and the new DS version is pretty sweet too.

After lunch I worked my way through another box and finished the first one I'd started last week, taking a couple breaks to do other stuff. Around 4:20 my last box hadn't arrived and I didn't see the point in working for 15 minutes before they recalled the material, so I asked them to hold it until tomorrow morning and left.

Before heading back to the museum I stopped at Starbucks for an iced coffee and a Rice Krispie treat. Uhhhhh yeah. I don't know. Random craving, possibly brought on by some LJ entries... Anyway, I walked back to the museum and sat at my desk for an hour and a half. Everyone was still around when I got there, which was really surprising. Julie said they had some big meeting.

After work I helped with dinner and ate and played Tactics. And now I'm at home, going off to play more Tactics :D

Oh, and John is coming out next weekend before going to Taiwan --> Japan. \o/

Saturday morning I woke up, got ready, and then headed to the Huntington for a few hours to do research. Sat with the boxes and all, had lunch in my car, then went back to the boxes for a little while. Pretty uneventful, overall, except that the hook closure on the back of my shirt would not stay closed and kept getting caught in my hair, which was annoying as all heck.

Around 2:15 I called the BofA auto loan line to ask about an auto loan... they confirmed what I kind of already knew, which is that I probably will need a cosign since I'm a mostly unemployed student with okay credit (that reminds me - need to make another payment), and the rates will probably be cheaper in North Carolina.

Then I drove myself out to Cerritos, got there really early, so I drove around the area a bit to get a feel for it. I ended up pulling over at a BofA to deposit a check, then went across the street to the 7-11. It was Free Slurpee Day, but since I really needed something to tide me over for 5 hours... I decided against it and just bought some bottled soda.

Went to the center, got myself in, and then found the class and set up. The test went pretty smoothly... I read The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (which is going surprisingly easily) and played a little bit of Trials and Tribulations. The cases where you play as Phoenix and have to do investigating are actually really long :/

After the test I drove home and did some laundry? email? Something. But I fell asleep pretty quickly, before everyone else got home. I was beat, and I barely did anything all day!

I eat it. This is a problem.

Sunday morning I woke up early-ish because I'd fallen asleep so quickly Saturday night. I hung out at home and did a little bit of stuff around the house, but then I moved on and took the car out to Walnut to drop off my testing materials. I hope I filled out all the paperwork correctly, so I get paid :D Then I went back the way I came to San Gabriel to meet Andrew for lunch.

Of course, as I was rounding the block looking for parking, Andrew txted to let me know he was going to be 15 minutes late. Which, by the way, ended up being just over half an hour. So in the interim time I waited outside the restaurant in the heat and made a bunch of phone calls.

Andrew finally got there and we got to eat. Mmmm Vietnamese food. I asked them to make sure not to put any peanuts on mine (especially since I realized that I'd switched wallets, and didn't have any Benadryl in thsi one), and was all nice and safe. The food was pretty good, and really reasonable - beef, rice, egg rolls, and a lemonade soda plus tax and tip for $9.

We parted ways, and I headed back home. Kevin and I hung out at home for a bit, then went to Forever 21 to get him a shirt he wanted. At first we couldn't find it, then with enough browsing IT WAS THERE. So he tried that and a jacket on and decided to get them. Since we thought he was going to Disneyland yesterday, I offered to pay for the jacket, which was more expensive, so that he'd have some money for Disneyland. Instead, the jacket was $9.99 on clearance! So he bought that, and I bought him the $22 shirt.

We stopped by the Verizon store so I could look at phones (mine is eligible for an upgrade, and my dad wants me to get a new one before I move). I wanted to look at a Venus, but they didn't have any ): So I think I might go with the enV3, because that is one nice phone. I really like slide phones, though, since I broke my last phone somewhere in the flip joint.

Then we went by my aunt's house to get something to drink, and so that Kevin could show off his purchases. Which is when he discovered that the cashier had forgotten to remove the safety button on his shirt. So, whining, we got back in the car and went back to the mall, then back to our house to clean/email/laundry/whatever it is that we do. My aunt called later and said to come by for dinner, after Kevin had eaten a piece of frozen pizza, hahaha.

So we went over to my aunt's house to eat sausage (jalapeno-mango?), sauteed carrots and rice and watch TV. We ended up watching Huell Howser, some Nature, and then moved on to House and The Parent Trap. Oh, Lindsey Lohan before she went batshit... and Natashia Richardson. I kept hopping between her house and ours doing laundry, but overall it was a good night, even if it took forever to get Monday morning figured out.

I seriously spent the entire time at my aunt's house grazing on sausage and carrots, and then the microwave mochi she made. WTF ME.

So I realize that I've been extremely remiss in updating... it happens when internet is not always easily accessible, and you're more interested in quick RP tags than actually sitting down to write an entry. Which is what I'm doing now. At work.

...

Eff apartment hunting with my parents getting involved. I'm so irritated right now I don't want to talk about it.

Yesterday was the Arts Summit at the Getty for the MUI interns. They set up a Facebook group so we could arrange carpools, so I offered to pick up the Catalina Historical Museum's intern Desiree (she met me in Montebello, btw). Then we drove up to Temple City to pick up Julie, and then we stopped for gas and provisions, since it was just after 8 and no one had eaten anything.

Hopped on the freeway, and made good time to the museum. Just over an hour! Parked, got up to the museum, and then waited in the auditorium for like an hour while everyone else arrived, haha. After the introduction and About the Program, we were herded outside to the steps to take a picture.

AND BLINDED BY THE SUN.

The Getty is made almost entirely of white marble and stone, so SoCal sun at 11:30 + white floor and walls = BLIND INTERNS. After that painful break, we moved on to lunch in the main courtyard in our Learning Communities. Julie and I sat with an intern from CalArts and an intern from Art Center. Somehow lunch went by really fast, so we had lots of time to search for a restroom, and I got to catch up a little with Hai-Minh and Rody and hear about their projects.

We went down into the Cafeteria where we were having small discussion groups on various topics related to museum professions... I sat through one on media production, grantmaking, independent curating, and then curating in general. None of them were very good, with the exception of the grantmaking one. Mostly they were all people I would really want to talk to individually, not in a small group. They weren't really suited to sort of lecturing us or answering broad questions about their profession. The grantmaking discussion, on the other hand, was very informative and she spoke loudly enough for me to hear.

For the last session I managed to edge my way into the Exhibition Design discussion, where they took us into the Getty design studio. Really, really cool. That was the best one, I think, because you actually got to see stuff in the works. Only big museums with large budgets, I think, can afford to have an entire design staff and studio, but it was pretty cool nevertheless. Design is such an important part of the exhibition - as I've learned from looking through our galleries and then looking at others, like the Huntington, Getty, MoMA, the Met, Guggeheim, MFA. The average viewer will accept a poorly curated or conceptualized exhibit, but they will not accept a poorly designed exhibit.

Then we got split up into random groups to take tours of galleries, and luckily my carpool group ended up in the group touring the French Bronzes exhibit! Quite an interesting show... I was really paying more attention to the design more than anything else, but I did have questions about curatorial conceptual choices in terms of how the show was organized and displayed to show the differences they were trying to highlight. The last piece of the show, which depicts Winter as a girl shivering with cold, is quite beautiful and very different from all the other, more classical pieces shown. Hai-Minh, Rody and I all liked it the best.

At last it was time to go home... only I had to call my parents first, which ended in a very long disaster. Anyway. We finally got to driving, and Julie managed to direct us to a Korean barbeque place in Koreatown with help from her dad. The bill was extremely reasonable, and we got plenty of food. Desiree, the other intern we'd picked up, was really excited about it, which was good. I was more than happy, plus Julie took responsibility for cooking the meat.

Dropped Julie off at home, and had a long conversation about AX and anime with her in the car (hahaha WHAT). Then I took Desiree back to the Montebello mall, and we shopped a little bit in Forever 21 until her friends showed up to pick her up. I ended up buying a black-and-white polka dot strapless dress, which is really cute, but loses some cuteness when I put it on. Oh well.

Went home and passed out, after managing to do only a couple of things I needed to (i.e. laundry at all stages, unpacking, packing, cleaning, email, etc.).

"Men are life's little sleeping pills. The parting, though, that's the waking up in the morning. It hurts. Oh, it hurts so. Sorry for saying something so pretentious. But when a girl is in love, she cries at night, and she cries in the morning when she says good-bye. When she no longer cries in the morning, a girl has really grown into a woman."

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Medium
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	Medium

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

Friends are the people who you forget to tell you're coming to their area, but want to see you anyway once they find out.

Not friends are the people you tell you're coming who come up with every excuse under the sun to not care.

Your result for Roleplayer Test!...

The Shipper

Random, Character-Oriented, Sexual

Take Roleplayer Test! at HelloQuizzy

... Really? *wibbles*

Friday, July 3

( In which everybody does stuff for me: AX Day 2 )

Saturday, July 4

( In which there is, at the very least, Bus Fail and Alcoholic Beverage Fail )

So to follow up on last year's blogging backwards:

( In which the lines actually aren't as bad as they could be: AX Day 4 )

Happy 4th of July!




Hope everyone gets to see fireworks and eat hot dogs and spend time with family or friends. Or at the very least, watch a baseball game :D

SO. REMEMBER HOW WHEN TIM AND MICHELLE CAME TO VISIT I GOT A CHIBI!BYAKUYA FIGURE?

WELL. I found a small box of them at AX, with only two left. I asked my brother to pick one of the two for me to buy, since they were only $5 and the cuteness, it kills.

GUESS WHO TOTALLY HAS A TINY LITTLE CHIBI!ISHIDA.

Oh. I also have a shiny new and signed copy of the KKM fanbook (shut up. Yes I bought a new one. MORIKAWA TOSHIYUKI TOUCHED IT OKAY.) and a copy of the Gundam 00 character design book.

...
...
...

TINY CHIBI!ISHIDA!

I TOTALLY OWN THE KKM FANBOOK. WHERE THE HELL IS IT.

*cries*

PENGUINS! I SAW PENGUINS TODAY!

Now I'm trying to pack. omg. How did I get so much stuff D:

I'm going home tomorrow! Yay! And then there's AX! Whoooo!

Plus work. :D