Colin and I moved to our new flat a few weeks ago. It's a million times better and more quiet than the old one. I watch the ferries go in and out of the harbor every morning, and we see beautiful sunsets over downtown wellington every night. The wind is really insane here. There's nothing between us and the Cook Straight, and it comes blasting through the area, and there are no big trees to shelter the flat. There are medium size pohutakawa trees out the back door and the sliding glass door, and they are both blooming and absolutely beautiful. I can spend my mornings off watching the wood pigeons playing above the canyon. They like to do kamikaze dive-bombs, and it's a blast to watch.
We lost internet access before the move thanks to a screw-up in vodafone's part. I spent all move-in day submitting my U Washington application at the new flat while Colin and his mom moved everything. A couple days later, we lost internet again. I had to call Vodafone every day nearly in tears, and tell them they were destroying my graduate career, to get them to fix it in a miraculous 4 days. This was in the middle of the application season. OMFG. Turns out that indoor phone wiring was used outside, and it just corroded and suddenly stopped working. I spent the next 2 weeks catching up on work, because those 4 days were really critical, considering the impending holiday season. I've got everything figured out for my U Conn application, which my *amazing* sister and brother-in-law are going to fed ex for me, because the application is not entirely electronic. My advisors are leaving letters of recommendation sprinkled throughout campus and I have to get a rush transcript with special pickup instructions, so Sissy and Tom and pick up everything and mail. THANK YOU again, by the way.
My UC Davis application is in major limbo. UCD contracts out grad admissions to www.embark.com. I haven't been able to log in to the website for weeks now. I've been emailing back and forth with tech support for a week or so now. I've updated all my browsers, talked to my ISP, and tried logging in from the PC at Colin's job at the mirror shop in Petone. Today I called embark. They say that lots of people in India have the same problem, and they don't know why. They don't know how to fix it, and that they basically don't intend to and don't care. They told me to contact my home university and have them deal with it. I did, and eventually my call was transferred to Marlene in the Geology office. She's concerned that the department didn't get any applications from India this year, and that I literally can't apply because the UCD app is entirely electronic. Jan 15th is the deadline. Marlene is contacting the grad office. I told my advisors/references what was going on. Dawn's working on it too now. With Dawn and Marlene on my side, I feel a whole lot better.
I hate grad school apps. Including my GRE preparation, I've been working on grad school related business for hours every night since early October, except for a 2 week break after the GRE. I worked on Christmas day; I worked on New Year's Eve and New Years day. I leave work, eat dinner, sleep until 11pm or so, then wake up and work until 3 am, because my stupid brain only escapes writers block from 11 pm to 3 am. It's always been like that... since high school at least. Anyway, I'm still barely making deadlines.
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." -Douglas Adams
I don't like deadlines. They whoosh in mean ways for me.
After UCD, I only have UC Riverside left. That deadlines is in March. I hope to finish that app before Rosemary's Wedding. We're leaving on Jan 23rd for Havelock North, near Napier. I plan to celebrate being done with apps while celebrating Rosemary and Andrew's wedding.
Colin and I might go meet Moko the dolphin afterwards. Moko is a friendly dolphin who lives on a beach in the little town of Mahia. He brings fish and seahorses to swimmers and steals boogie boards and the occasional rugby ball and takes them out to sea. I really want to meet Moko. We might make the journey out there after the wedding if we've clocked up enough time-in-liew from working on holidays.
Work is fine. Still running the store 2 days a week. My non-injured boss of course got in a nasty mountain bike accident a few weeks ago, resulting in an ER visit, nasty road rash, a missing chunk of skin on his nose, and me losing a day off I needed for grad schools apps! He's not allowed back on his bike until my apps are done, because I can't finish those AND run the store. I got a pay raise until Anthony, the assistant manager with the broken back, comes back to work.
Tomorrow, Colin and I have our first non-holiday day off together in weeks, so he's taking me to the wineries in Martinbourough. We're going olive oil and wine tasting. :) I should get some sleep. He says we're leaving at 9 am sharp!
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