Locked Out

It was my junior year of college, and I was in the midst of taking several Social Work classes, one of them being an afternoon class. If you prod me as to which one, I will never remember...but it was a required one, I do remember that much...actually, all of them are required, so that's a moot point.

I attended my noon class as normal, and then I sat the break waiting for my 7pm Spanish class to begin. The class was a 2 hour class, and was held twice a week, as was my noon class, so I had a five hour break- enough to drop in and buy a snack for dinner and perhaps study some vocab on the way to the building which was quite a distance away. It had horrible parking, so I usually walked, then walked back to my car after class, seeing as the walking distance had multiple emergency boxes and was well-lit.

Because I didn't drive my car between my noon and 7pm classes, it didn't dawn upon me to reach in my purse and check for my keys before I left the building. Big mistake.

When I was leaving my 7pm class- at nearly 9pm, in the winter, so it was dark out- I reached in my purse for my keys. Not there. Ohhh shit. Maybe I clipped them to my bag? I have a carabiner clip, so this is entirely possible. I check my bag, but my keys are not there. I dump out the entire contents of my purse on my car. Surely, there must be a set of keys in there somewhere. I dig through it all. Nothing.

I shove everything back in my purse, throw my purse over my shoulder, and unarm my backpack. I search through the small front pocket. No such luck. A few pens and a few stray items like a bottle of lotion, some ibuprofen, a highlighter, some notecards. Great. I can't find my keys. I'm locked out of my car. It's dark out, I'm in a parking lot, at the university, people are leaving, I'm 35 miles from home, and I'm locked out of my car.

I empty the large compartment of my backpack. I find books and a notebook. A stray package of crackers. More notecards. A very crumpled piece of paper. No keys. Great. I decide to backtrack, back to the building where I was last- maybe I dropped them there. (Not thinking to maybe check the Social Work building, where I was parked, first)

I call my mom and tell her I'm locked out of my car in Arlington, and that I am backtracking to see if I can find them. She says she's on her way, very unhappily I might add, since she's driving 70 miles to drop off a set of keys, and I take off for Preston Hall basement, the location of my Spanish class.

Freezing, I make my way into the building, and nobody is there but the cleaning crew. They let me in after trying to communicate for about 5 minutes about what it is I'm trying to find, but nothing is there. I bid farewell, and back to the Social Work Complex I go. My mom hasn't arrived yet, so I trek to my 10am class- no luck there (surprisingly, the door was unlocked). I ran upstairs to my noon class- ah, it was Practice III- but the doors are locked, so I find a cleaning crew lady, and she lets me in, but no luck.

Finally my mom arrives, with my keys, and I drive home, racking my brains trying to figure out where the heck I left my keys. It had to be Social Work, because I remembered having them in the morning, but I didn't remember seeing them in Spanish class. I was very frustrated with this, so I drove the 35 miles the next day (why didn't I call?) to ask if they had any keys turned into the office the day before (at both buildings).

Voilá. My keys had been in the Social Work building, in the office, the whole time.

I was locked out of my car and my keys were right there, within feet of where I was. I felt really smart idiotic that day. Now I almost compulsively check for my keys. We live and we learn!

Day 3- Pet Peeves

Day 3- Your Top 5 Pet Peeves

Being the overachiever that I am (and the person with a lot of pet peeves) I'll go ahead and list....10.

1) Ice. Why do places always have to fill your drinks with expanded chunks of water, and furthermore, why do people like them so much that they ask for extra and/or chew on them? I'll never understand it. I have to ask for easy ice so I can actually get a substantial amount to drink, instead of a lot of expanded frozen water, and that annoys the heck out of me. Irk.

2) People who think they own the parking lot (and swoop in and grab the parking space you've been waiting for). Assholes...I'm sitting here with my blinker on, obviously waiting for the spot...and you take it? What's your problem? No, I don't have road rage, I'm Texan....

3) When the radio plays new things (particularly Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, or Justin Bieber) ad nauseum. I get the point, they have a new song. Please stop stabbing my eardrums and actually play music, like you were meant to do. Really, it gets old, and it gets old fast.

4) When things break and the wait time for them to fix is longer than a week. Really, do you have to outsource it that far? Do you not have anyone in the state that knows how to fix a problem? What happened to all these technicians that are going to college?

5) Jobs making you go online to apply and not accepting applications any other way, or even phone calls. I mean, I know this makes it easier for them, and it even helps when looking for a place that has openings, but it really makes it difficult to find out what their first impression is of you other than what they see on a screen, and it makes it really makes it difficult to give a first impression other than your application- in fact, you have to make it to the interview to really make any sort of impression aside from having the qualifications.

6) Speaking of jobs and their processes- the character interviews. They don't really tell you much about a person's character anyway. Did you know there are books out there about how to answer those, and people that "leak" how the answers work? Your character interviews are an ineffective and tedious part of the process.

7) People who claim to know things they really don't know (I won't name names here). There are things that don't happen for the reason that you claim they happen. You have backwards thinking. There are things that don't operate the way you say they do. Things have changed a little. Your beliefs are flawed.

8) Speaking of beliefs, voting- people who vote for someone because of the way they look, or because of where they're from- and I know people who do this. "I don't want to vote for someone from the north" or "I don't want to vote for someone white" or "I don't want to vote for someone black" (I've seen it both ways). "I don't want to vote for a woman" or "I don't want to vote for that person because they have a messed up nose"...people, really, is this what matters? I know, I'm not into politics, and I don't vote, because in the end...it's these kind of people that win out, and in my county/locality, my vote doesn't make any difference. If you have a very large group of Republicans, and add in one person who votes (any other way) (I don't have a party), their vote isn't going to make any waves no matter what it is. They aren't going to change the people who are stubborn in their ways, which number many. Stop trying to convince me! And stop voting in stupid ways, and maybe I'll consider it!!

9) Food touching. I don't see how people can just mix all their food together. I must separate them and eat them one at a time. I don't know why, I just must. My parents say when I was young I would "scream bloody murder" when my foods touch. I would still do this, if it was acceptable. However, I know acceptable table (couch?) behavior, and I don't scream, I just try to separate them.

10) Judgmental people. I know it sounds like I'm judgmental sometimes, but I'm not going to love or hate a person based on any of these things. In fact, I can't think of anyone I love or hate. There are some people that grind my gears, but I have a feeling that if I had some time away, it would be less stressful. Even if I dislike someone, most of the time I don't know why, and I tolerate them- they rarely know. There has been one person that I've expressed my dislike to- that I'd rather jump a cliff than see her again- and yet I tolerated seeing her. She stated that I was a very tolerant person, and had I not told her, she probably would not have known that I had such a dislike. Bottom line? Don't judge people, and even if you do, you don't have to make it known to the world, you should still treat them like humans. Better to not judge them at all though. I'm human, I admit I've done it, but it's not a practice I participate in regularly.



I think I could add more, but people might start thinking I'm bitter and have too many pet peeves. They might even start avoiding me. I don't want that to happen! It's actually really difficult to get onto my bad side (oh, spammers aren't on my list, and they should be way up there too....). I'm fairly easy to get along with and accepting. There are people who annoy me >.> They usually know who they are and why, because they instigate it, or they don't know because they really haven't done anything wrong and it's just a quirk of mine, in which case, there's no reason for them to think they've done anything wrong.

Day 8: Prioritize

Day 8- Something I Hate...

This is difficult for me. There's not a whole lot that I absolutely hate. There are things that bother me sometimes, but hate? That's really extreme for me. I don't know...maybe it's just that I don't want to say I "hate" something, it sounds so unpleasant and nasty to me.

Things that aren't prioritized appropriately?

I guess...let's start with university parking, which, at least for a while, will thankfully be over for me after this week, because I will have my degree! If I go back for my masters' degree...but that's another story...I'll just have to deal with the Social Work Complex parking.

Some schools have really expensive parking, some are cheaper. University of Texas at Arlington isn't the worst, but I wouldn't rank their parking as great. $120 a parking sticker- up from $90 when I started as a freshman- and you get to park- and I calculated- 3/4 of a mile from the building you're going to. That's if you're going to one of the closest buildings. If you're going to one of the inner buildings, it could be more than a mile.

To make it even better, they're destroying student lots one by one, and moving them farther away from campus. They're adding faculty lots closer. They're building a parking garage- way on the outer edge of campus- that's supposed to alleviate parking problems. Yes, so everyone can park on the outer edge of campus, in a fancy garage that will probably cost more than what they're already paying. They destroyed 3 lots for an engineering building. They destroyed 4 more lots for a new special events center. They already have 2 engineering buildings and a special events center.

Meanwhile, the School of Social Work is the old early-20th century Arlington High School, 3 stories, not a lot of classrooms, and they're all very small. Don't plan on having a class more than 20 or so in any of those rooms. Sometimes social work classes get delegated to other buildings because they just don't fit. So instead of another engineering building, why don't they build an actual social work building?

I guess a better description of my "hate" would be the way that the funds I pay to the university are being used. They're more beneficial to all the other students. My benefits aren't much at all. They even closed the social work computer lab- it was using too much energy. Social work now has 1 printer and 9 computers. I take that back, Building B has a printer, but you have to supply your own paper, and I think it has 4 computers. Amazing. Meanwhile, the engineering complex completely overshadows the social work building, and they even built a corner...thing. Just a thing. Serves no purpose. Probably cost a lot of money. Just to look pretty. On the corner. All the engineering students are using our lot. They got a new building, and a ton of money spent for their fancy building, while we got our computer lab shut down.

Just goes to show where everyone's priorities are. It's ok though, because I don't want to be the priority. I don't deserve any entitlement. We do fine with what we have. We're problem solvers, we work things out, and we make things work. It's all working. I love everything about the school of social work, even if it's not perfect. Well...ok, not everything (or everyone), but in general, I love it. That's why I want to go into the masters' program, when I can. Hopefully, that time will come soon. You know where I'll be? In the school of social work. There may be things that I dislike, but that's my place, and I don't care if it's an old school or a new school, it's the place where I learnt everything I needed to know. It may not be perfect, but it serves its purpose.

Freshman

As I'm finishing this week, I'm going into some retrospect as to how I got where I am today, and the first thing I think back to is the beginning of my college experience.

This is where it all began, 6 years ago, almost to the day. Same university, I even remember the first classes I took. At the time I was working at a fast food chain- for the sake of said chain, let's call it FFC (fast food chain). I'm laughing at that. Those who know me probably are too. I had just received my drivers' license less than a month before I started commuting there every day, and, the joy of everyone who wears orthodontia, I had just gotten my braces removed.

August 2005.

It seems like so long ago, but relatively, it wasn't. So much has changed since then.

It was my first year of college. I was in the honors college, after graduating second in my class and having an above average SAT score, and I had a stable, but not all that great, full-time job at FFC. I started out with honors Calculus, honors Biology (which I later dropped, after the realization that I was not at all a science person), a freshman honors class, and some other class I really don't remember.

I was a busy person, and I didn't know what kind of sucker-punch I was in for. After 2 semesters, I was kicked out of the honors college, and I lost my scholarship after 3. High school doesn't prepare you for college. Nothing prepares you for college except starting college.

The classes are different. The professors are nothing like your teachers. The expectations are different. You have more freedom. You're not required to attend class, but it's recommended, and it definitely helps. You get a lot more out of the experience if you participate. You can go to class in your pajamas. You can eat and drink in class, and bring your laptop for notes (usually).

I, of course, was still in high school mode. I went to every class, even my 8am honors Calculus class through rush hour traffic in Ft. Worth. I worked my FFC job at night. Often I spent most of my evening at work, working until 11 or midnight, so that I could go home and do homework, and wake up again as early as 4-5am.

What I Learnt:

1) The routine got old. I learnt along the way that you actually don't have to sign up for 8am classes- they actually offer classes all day. It's better to choose classes that are more suitable for your sleeping and waking schedule, otherwise, you'll be less motivated to attend, which leads me to...

2) Motivation is key. If you're not motivated in the class, it will be a brutal semester, and you will have to force yourself to do the work. If you love the class, it will be much easier to complete the work you have to do because you'll actually like what you're doing. That doesn't mean you can skip the class, which leads me to...

3) Don't skip class. Really. The professors sometimes say that they don't give a flying flip whether you attend class, but really, your grade is at stake. If you really think you can skip all the classes and pass, you should have CLEP'd out of the class anyway, instead of paying to take it. Attending class is really important, and often you miss more material if you don't go. It helps to make the material sink in more easily. Some professors even consider upping marginal grades for good attendance. Remember that the next time you reach for that snooze button.

4) Parking will be bad, no matter what school you go to. Get used to it. Parking lots will be full, they will create increasing faculty lots. Think of it as exercise. Some people have problems with the "Freshman 15"....maybe this will help combat that. Plus, it'll give you some time to think, and learn how to navigate campus and dodge traffic. Always a plus....

5) Take good notes. It's a good way to get people who want to study with you. Don't be the one looking for people with good notes, because the ones with good notes will probably want to avoid you. So...errr...maybe you should take good notes secretly or something. Don't be a magnet. Don't do all the work on group projects.

6) Remember some of the stuff you're learning. It's actually kind of useful. I've found myself reciting facts I learnt in some other class and I'm like "woah, I actually did learn something useful in there!" There is something to take from almost every class. You may not think so, but there is a reason for every class.

7) Depending on your major, learn APA or MLA formatting really quickly. I have, on my jump drive, a document that is already APA formatted (running head, margins, page numbers, title page, and whatnot) so that I can just input the information I need. This has been extremely helpful, so that I don't have to go through and try to remember how I edit the individual running heads on each page. Since I'm doing social work, most of my documents will be APA. Usually, you know by the end of your 1st year of classes which format most of your papers will be in. If you can't figure it out, the library almost always has someone who can help you, and most college campuses even have a writing center that can help you out with this. Use your resources. They're there for a reason!! (also, learn the difference between their, they're, and there, as well as your and you're...these are very common mistakes).

8) When you must do group projects, which you will at one point or another, make sure to get names and phone numbers of each group member, and archive any contact with them, for your purposes. This way, if they don't communicate, you have record of it. If they communicate poorly, or tell you they don't "want" to do something, you have record of it. This can be helpful when going through the process, and make sure you keep in touch with the professor if you have any problems.

9) You absolutely must have a jump drive, and this thing will be your savior. I even have a follower, who will go unnamed, who can attest to this. She had a computer crash while printing out a paper, and was able to take the jump drive to another computer and print it out. It saves your files, and it is helpful during presentations, rather than pulling up your email account in front of the class to open a presentation. It also holds lots of information, and it's easy to carry. It plugs into a USB port, and is compatible with the majority of computers (but make sure they don't require encryption as major corporations do, otherwise it will mess up your drive). They don't usually cost much, often less than $10, and they last forever. Get one.

These are just some of the things I wish I had known my freshman year of college. I stumbled my way through college, not having many people to turn to for advice in my family, and not having any friends that had been through the process. Eventually, I got through it, and learnt how things work, and now I'm close to graduation, so close that I can feel it breathing down my neck. I have a lot of apprehension about it, and it's been quite a journey. There's so much more I could write about it, but for now, I'll just "save it for later".

Deuces

Umbrella Desperation

Today started out mostly uneventful. Went to school, found a nice, close parking space, and went to class. Didn't think twice about it. I'm a bit disappointed that my psychology professor told us that we all did the assignments wrong, and is having us re-do them. After class, I went to the student centre to await a call from my doctor and then spend the next 5 hours....typing, studying, playing some sudoku, whatever I needed to do to pass the time.

Somewhere in the midst of this, I started to drift off into sleep. My sudoku game showed that I had been on the same game for 73:14, which means it was probably around an hour, because it typically takes less than 10 minutes for the difficult level. What alerted me was the siren. The tornado siren. And the TCC policemen making their way through the building telling everyone to take cover and get away from the windows. I instantly went into panic mode. If you've been watching, I tend to be easily sent into panic. Suddenly, I was nowhere near sleeping, a siren was blaring, the few people in the building were yelling, and I had gone from pretty much asleep, to in a daze, to super-alert.

Instantly I tried calling my mom, but no luck. My phone pretended like it was trying to dial the number. I had almost a full signal. No luck again. And again. I was insisting on standing by the window, in hopes that would help my service....as they continued to yell at people to stay away from the windows. I look up, and suddenly I notice it's also pouring down rain, and dime to quarter-size hail is falling from the sky, it almost looks like it's snowing.

I freeze. My cognition stops. I'm standing there open-mouthed staring out the window. By this time it is quieter, except for the rain, and the officer telling me to get away from the window. Obviously, I wasn't comprehending. I watched as....nothing happened. The sirens stopped, after about 15 minutes. I dropped back into my chair, and at THAT time...pulled my iPod out to check out the weather. It's still pouring down rain, and the thunder is shaking the windows, almost as much as the iPod is shaking in my hands, as I try to log on the network on the tiny screen, missing letters and getting frustrated.

The officer is still there, somewhat curious as to why I wasn't following directions I suppose, and the only words I could seem to muster at the time were "and I thought I had parked close to the building today, and I left my umbrella in my car. How am I going to eat?" That's it. He lost interest and left. I finally got my phone to dial out and called my mom to find out what was going on at home. Just some light hail there. I don't remember if she mentioned sirens or not, but I think those sirens on campus are about 20x louder than they are in the residential areas, seeing as I can never hear them when they go off at home, and I don't live in the city.

At that point, my only concern became that my umbrella was in my car, and I was not. I was in the building, and I didn't have my umbrella. I didn't have a way to get the umbrella unless I went outside. I was stuck in a tunnel of thinking: umbrella in car....me in building...umbrella in car....me in building....because I wanted to avoid the thought of the tornado warning that had just occurred. I wasn't even thinking about the class I was waiting for, just the umbrella, and my lack of proximity to it- in my car... (ps, that is my car, that is NOT my umbrella. For the record.)

Eventually, I went to class, and it had stopped raining. I still continued to think about my umbrella. After class, when I walked to my car, I realized I had unconsciously parked it under a tree, which probably helped to alleviate any hail damage that may have occurred. Go me! Oh, and my professor has planned an economics exam for next week. The day after my presentation. Go figure. *facepalm*

See spot. Parking spot!!

So, today is the last class day of the semester :) AMEN!!! I had enough days present in lecture to exempt me from the final, so I don't have to stress over studying the material from the whole semester! It'll be nice to not worry about it over the weekend.

The topic today? Parrrrking. Ah, I got the idea from yesterday's Kidd Kraddick in the Morning show on KISS FM. Don't you hate it when you're waiting for a parking spot, and someone jumps in in front of you and swings into that spot? I find it rather annoying!

What I find funny about parking is the disparity in quality & cost of parking at the TCC campus and the UTA campus. You see, at TCC, parking is free, and your pass lasts 2 years. I very, very rarely have problems parking. In fact, I usually find a spot almost right away. In contrast, at UTA, I pay $112.50 for a one year parking pass, and sometimes even MISS CLASS because the parking is so awful. Sometimes, I even parked illegally in desperation to save my grades. That's pitiful, that the campus that gets more revenue from parking has such a horrible parking problem, while the campus without that same revenue has great parking.

In fact, at UTA it's kind of funny, almost a predatory game to find parking. Here's the method- you watch for a student to walk into the parking lot. The first person to fall behind that student usually gets the spot. At peak times, when classes usually release (20 after & 10 til), it can get really intense. Some people go so far as to offer the departing student a ride to their car (so they're guaranteed to get the spot).

I've never given a ride, but I admit to slowly driving behind students while they're walking to their car. I hate when people do that to me, and I kinda get a kick out of walking slowly to see who is patient enough to defend that spot. Who is desperate enough? Besides, I have nowhere to go, so no hurry! It's hilarious how far people will go to get that precious spot- remember, though, that we've paid $112.50 for those few available spots.

I've been very angry about this, because not only is the parking situation shameful, but they keep knocking out student lots to make them faculty, or destroying them altogether to build a second special events building (for sporting events and such). Why?? We already have one!! We need the parking more!!

To make matters worse, they've just built a second building for the Engineering students. Again, WHY?? My tuition money is going into a building I'll get nothing out of. Even better, they didn't add more parking for that new building, so the already packed, tiny social work lot will see a significant influx of engineering students who want close parking too. Social work parking will be destroyed starting in January. What a SHAME!! They're talking about building another garage- to which, of course, the admission will be outrageous. Hardly anyone uses the already existing garage simply because of the expense.

Typically, I don't get overly angry over losing a parking spot unless I've been waiting and missing class. Even then, I typically don't SHOW anger, except for maybe using a few choice words. Sometimes, people try to get a rise out of me, but it doesn't work very well! However, I've seen people get too angry, even aggressive, over parking, which doesn't help.

So, to wrap up, I just kinda wanna laugh over the way parking is created and maintained, and especially the hawk-like behavior of people looking for a spot. You may feel victorious over finding a spot right away, but remember the people who have been waiting. Doesn't mean you should give up the spot, but at least use common courtesy (even in desperate times), and don't steal spots. Since it's a really important time of year for retail, I think this is a rational suggestion, and hopefully it'll spark some thought in those who really want to think about others and use respect.

Auf weidersehen!