Meg Speak

            Matt and I watched The Other Boleyn Girl last night. I still am unsure what to say about this. I think this was the first thing I have ever seen Scarlet Johanson in where she actually acted. It was actually pretty good. Typically she just kind of sucks, but she was decent in this. Up until now I couldn’t peg what she was famous for. She can’t really act, but she is in movies, she cannot sing, but she is putting out a record, and she is considered uber hot, but her nose is not so good. Then I realized it. BOOBS. If boobs = famous, then I’m the next big thing. But really… go watch a movie with her in it (like Match Point) and don’t look at her boobs. It makes a difference. Anyway, she was decent in Boleyn, which was much appreciated as it was 2 hours long.

            On my quest to better myself, I have decided to learn how to cook. *Queue ominous music* Cooking stresses me out! I don’t really know why, but it does. Perhaps it is the need to create seven things simultaneously, but I hate it. I do LOVE to bake though. I’m a cupcake kind of girl and love creating interesting and cute cupcakes. It brings together my love of creation and my need for my house to smell like heaven. That, and I’m not a huge fan of baked goods… unless it comes in a bread form, in which case it is mouth porn. So, I made an effort to cook something yesterday and it turned out quite well. I made pork and pineapple skewers with pineapple brown rice. It was quite yummy, much to my surprise. I even had to make my own marinade! Holy shit. I’m typically a macaroni and cheese from the box kind of girl, so this was an accomplishment. I’m going to try and make something every week. Who knows, maybe I will post pictures! I’m Martha Stewart bitches.

            So, I’m staying at my mom’s house, which is the ‘haunted’ one. I was home alone earlier and I heard knocking on my front door, so I went to inspect. I’m looking out the peephole when I hear the stairs creaking behind me as if someone was walking down them. I turned to look, and no one was there. I scurried back to my room after that.

            Alright, I have to go scope out apartments now for Matt. It will be interesting to see what happens with Matt and me as we are not quite sure if we will live together or not. I dunno… I will keep you updated.

            I’ve been totally MIA lately, and I’m sorry that I suck. So, I was doing summer school and was taking History and Political Science… neither of which are my strong subjects. It was a wicked brutal summer session, but I passed and lived, so that’s good. But, the fun didn’t stop there. We moved and it was also totally brutal. Did you know that moving = lots of fighting? I didn’t, but I do now.

            My parents came down on Thursday to help us out. They had to bring Mel, their adorable dog, down so we couldn’t really go out and do nice dinners or anything. Matt and I grabbed some Chinese food and headed over to my mom’s hotel where we split a bottle of wine and a couple of beers. Then we headed out to a little park with Mel. I had to pee, so I went back to the hotel. I put the card into the slot and it didn’t open. Then I tried again… and again and again. I was becoming more and more desparate and began assaulting the door when it suddenly opened. There stood a guy in his early 30s in the doorway and I saw a baby and wife sitting on the bed. He stood there staring at me expectantly when I realized that I had the wrong room… actually, wrong floor. I whimpered an apology and ran upstairs. Whaddaya know? The key card worked there.

            So, after I got over being an idiot, the four (or five, I suppose) of us went to this place on the pier where they serve a drink called the Mean Tai. It’s like a mai tai but twice as strong. Both of my parents and Matt had that and I got a drink called the Tropical Itch or something like that. All I know is that my mom and I were drunk and annoying and it was fabulous. Oh, also, my drink came with a backscratcher in it. Amazing.

            Saturday we got all packed up. We decided not to rent a Uhaul, so we crammed everything into my car, Matt’s car and my stepdad’s truck. Then we headed up to Sacramento. The ride would have been boring as I was crammed in my car alone, but between my book on tape and the stuff in the passenger seat falling on me periodically, I was quite entertained. You know what is weird? When the guy narrating your book on tape is also in one of your favorite tv shows. And the fact that he doesn’t change his voice very much for any of the characters except for the token black guy, who the narrator gets really into voicing. I was cracking up. You know what else is weird? Narrated sex scenes that involve quadriplegics and a woman who bought a book titled something along the lines of The Broken Lover. I almost peed myself. Anyway, the trip took roughly 7 hours including several stops, but we all made it. I just have to figure out what the hell to do now!

Because it's easy not to know what's going on, here's a small summary of the issues.

Issue	Thoughts/ Facts	Obama	McCain
Capital Gains Tax = the profit you make on your investment	Bush lowered Capital Gains tax from 25% to 15%	Obama wants to raise it back up to 25%	Leave it the same
Corporate Tax	Current rate: 34% Some conservatives believe that taxing the oil companies will not lower the price of gas, but increase it as the oil companies will reflect the extra tax they pay in the price of gas. Fun Fact: Oil companies make $.07/ dollar while Pharmaceuticals make $.17/dollar.	Wants windfall profits tax on oil companies. The general belief is that oil companies make so ridiculous amounts of money, so they should pay extra taxes, which would benefit all.	Wants to reduce to 25%. General view is that would = more money for the companies, so they could hire more people and pay higher wages to employees and that an increase of tax would cause people to lose their jobs or lead to economic outsourcing.
School Vouchers	Each parent would receive x amount of money to use towards any school they choose. Whichever school their child attends gets the money.	Opposes. The Liberal view typically is that vouchers = inequality because public schools have to take everyone, but private schools can be selective about who they accept. Fear is that public schools will be ghetto-ized as all limited English speakers, trouble makers and special ED children will be forced to attend public school.	Supports. Republican view is that vouchers would create economic liberty for parents. If you would not be able to afford the $10k tuition for that private school, a voucher would help ease your financial burden. Also, vouchers would create competition among the schools so they would all strive to be better.
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)	Free trade among US, Mexico and Canada	While most Liberals oppose NAFTA, Obama is in favor of it… after minor tweaking.	In support of Free Trade.
Immigration: Bush Plan	Tighter border security and a pathway towards legalization for illegal immigrants.	Support	Support
Estate Tax	The tax on the items or money that you inherit. Bush eliminated estate tax. In 2010, $625k inherited could be taxed up to 55% unless congress extends Bush’s tax cut.	Most liberals believe that there should be an estate tax. Without tax there is economic instability.	Conservatives argue that people should be able to pass on the fruits of their labor without punishment. Also, the money was taxed while the person was alive, so why is it being taxed again once they are dead?
Single payer healthcare	Where everyone is covered equally under the same insurance.	Opposes. Believes that healthcare should be employer mandated.	Opposes. Sees single payer systems as terrible as most don’t receive the care they need.

My thoughts exactly


<3

There was a huge hairy spider on my wall last night. I turned my back for 10 minutes and he was gone. I'll pretend my first thought wasn't that he was in my bed. Icky.

Don't forget your bluetooth California! It's now illegal to drive while talking on your cell phone... unless you're talking hands free. You're still permitted to text though, which makes absolutely no sense at all.

Adios

In the past week I’ve…

Gotten a parking ticket

Stepped on glass (it’s still in my toe)

Burnt my thumb

Burnt the roof of my mouth to the point that it blistered

Hit my head on free weights

Gotten locked out of my house

Been pooped on by a bird

Exposed myself to a professor

Royally hacked off my eyebrows when the light went out as I applied the wax

Spilled hot tea on myself

Cut my hand on my screen door

After class I popped on my backpack, bent down to pick up my pen, and then turned to my professor when he called my name. We talked for a moment or two about my paper, and then I left. When I got out to the hall I looked down to see that half my boob (in my bra) was showing. What the hell?!? My shirt was not very low, but it was square shaped and slightly loose, so somehow I managed to expose myself to my teacher. Why couldn't I have been wearing a cute bra? Only the ugly ones like to make an appearance.

People have always had problems remembering my name, which is fine and all seeing as how I am just as terrible with names as they appear to be, but when someone called me the wrong name today I was pissed. It isn’t that they forgot my name, it is who forgot my name.

            Last Tuesday I got an email from a former professor saying that his colleague needed a graded ASAP as the one she had lined up was “Un-American” and could not grade for her. I guess by that they mean she had problems with her visa, but I have no idea. Anyway, I decide that even though I am already talking a pretty hefty schedule, this person needed help (and I need money) so I said I would grade for her. Let me tell you, that was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made so far this semester. When I went to meet with her she seemed totally normal, well, at least until she told me what she expected.

            She wants all of the homework for her math class graded not by accuracy, but by process. Great and all, but there is no key, so she wants me to go through and do each problem myself, count how many steps it took me to do each problem, add up the total and then that’s what I would be basing the grades off of (my total divided by their total x 10, as she only wants it out of 10 points. Also, I am to take a full point off if they do not use graph paper). Ok, this seems doable, but she didn’t want it to end there. She handed me the homework and each packet was huge. Each student had a minimum of 12 sheets of paper used for the 13 sections that she assigned. Ok, so that’s a lot of paper, and there are 20-something students in the class, so this should only take me a couple of days (when combined with the 10 chapters I have to read for History and Political Science and the two papers that I have to write) as I have to first do the entire math assignment before I can start grading. I grab the papers and start heading out when she tells me that she wants it by 8 a.m. the next day. Ummm… this bugs me for several reasons. 1) It’s already 4 and I have a shit load of work to do in preparation for my tests the next day. 2) Her class isn’t until 11, but she wants me to drop off the papers at 8 a.m. (even though I don’t have to be on campus until 10) because she doesn’t want to have to walk back to her office in between classes. 3) That’s a lot of homework problems that she would like me to do before grading for her. I mean, the kids got several days and I get a couple of hours… on top of going through each and every one of their problems step by step.

            Now, if I was in “dire need” of a grader I don’t think I would be extremely demanding about what I want. I wouldn’t make the grader come in at 7:30 just so I didn’t have to walk back to my office, and I definitely wouldn’t make it as complex as possible. You know what else I wouldn’t do? Forget her name. I went in to drop off the papers and saw she was with a student, so I waited outside her door (out of sight) so as to not disturb them. After a minute or so I hear “Amanda!” coming from her office. I know she’s in there with a guy, so perhaps she could be talking to me? She calls out the name once more and I peak my head around the corner and look at her quizzically. She then informs me that she has no reason to talk to me if I am just dropping off the assignments and that I can be on my way. Ummm… okay. Oh, and also, there will be another assignment for me to pick up, but she may go home after her classes, so she’ll just leave it outside the door for me. Whatever.

            I’m just pissy in general, really. In the past week I’ve burned myself (on accident), been pooped on by a bird (while at school), and stepped on broken glass, which is still lodged into my toe. I’m taking two 4 unit classes that were designed to be taught in 6 months, that my professors have condensed into 6 weeks for summer session. The problem is that they still want us to do the reading and coursework for the regular session, so I have several chapters to read nightly along with constant tests and papers. The professor I am grading for knows my schedule. I kind of figured she would be a little considerate of my schedule when it comes to grading, but clearly I am wrong. Seriously though, I am thinking her previous grader may have made up the whole ‘problems with her visa’ thing just to get out of grading for this woman.

            Bleh. I am off to have a chat with my counselor to see what the hell I am going to do about classes if I end up going back to Sacramento . It messes up my transferring plan as each school has their own requirements. God I hope I can still transfer to Sac State … I just want to be done with all of this.

            Also, Matt is in Sacramento for 6 weeks doing an internship for a marketing company that he wants to work for. I am super excited for him, but at the same time not. I’m trying to be loving and supportive while secretly stewing over the fact that his project manager happens to be a girl he and I used to fight about all the time (he was an idiot and let me know he was attracted to her, and then would lie about hanging out with her. This is HELL) and hoping that perhaps she drops off the face of the earth. I tried having the “talk” with Matt last night to see what our plan was (we’ve been together for 3 ½ years and lived together for two) and basically he wants to live together, but doesn’t want to discuss anything else. Dude, I’m not asking you to propose to me this moment, I just want to know it’s in the cards. AND I don’t even want to get married at this time, which he knows, as I would want a two year engagement. Whatever. His whole answer was vague and that was obnoxious. So, I’m currently living alone, which I hate, and working my ass off for school and grading. This is the best summer ever! I’m over it. I really think once it cools off (it’s been 90+ here, and I don’t have AC) I will be in a much better mood. I hate the heat, though to be fair, at this moment I hate everything.