Capitalism and eBay

In my efforts to make my new digs aesthetically pleasing on a student budget, I turned to slipcovers. I found that covers for my grandma's armchair can cost quite a bit. The slipcover store "Surefit" charges $99 for a cover that size. Macy's had it listed online for $89, but didn't stock it anywhere. Although I really like Ikea, I couldn't find anything that fits standard American size stuff, so I went to my good buddy Craigslist. However, Craigslist is only as good as the people who offer items, and no one was selling anything that I wanted. So I decided to reaquaint myself with eBay.

The evil eBay and I go way back. It was a quick relationship with a terrible ending. The address listed in my eBay account is 2505 Cedar St, in Berkeley, so it's been about five years since I last (and first) used eBay. I was a brand-new firefighter at the time and I bought a "Firefighter Barbie" for kicks. It didn't cost me much, but I got janked out of my money as the seller never sent it to me. So five years later, still without a Firefighter Barbie, I trepidatiously logged on and found something that could work for $4.99 from the Surefit Outlet Store. So when Surefit can't sell stuff for $99, they send it to their outlet store for $4.99! Amazing how much markup people can be conned into paying. If like the Surgeon General's warnings on tobacco containers, or the USDA's food labels, they required the Checkbook General's warning to outline what the markup was on merchandise, people might think twice about parting with their hard-earned dollars so easily.

So the bidding deadline quickly approached. I planned my day to stay at home until the bid was over. I had heard that one should not bid until the last minute, so that's what I did. I bid, was outbid, bid again... my heart was pounding. Incredible how one can feel at war when bidding on a $4.99 item (or should I say a $99 item?? -which would make me feel less silly). I could feel my face flush, my muscles tense, my concentration intensify. Total sympathetic response (a.k.a. flight-or-fight response), man! And I won! My wily predatory nature garnered my success, and now I stand proudly before you, the newest owner of the Surefit Separate-Seat Matelasse Chili-colored Chair Slipcover, and I am only $7.51 poorer for it. Sure beats $99 + tax and gas/time costs to get to the store.

I just hope I get it in the mail!

The Pros of Living in Irvine (However Far and Few in Between)

There are, surprisingly, some good things about living here. I've been trying to look on the bright side of things. Which leads me to the first thing: it's bright. The weather can't be beat. Even when I lived in the wonderful Bay Area, I did always say I wished I could bring LA weather to the Bay. Although it would be nice if it rained just a tad more. The other day it did rain, and it was great! I stood on my porch and let it rain around me because it wasn't cold. The other nice thing is that it's safe. We won't go into why it is so safe and people being economically discriminated against and bored cops pulling anyone over because they have nothing else to do. We'll just say that it's nice when you lock your bike up on campus, and your front tire doesn't fit into the U-lock along with your frame to the bike rack, you don't have to worry about someone making off with just the front tire as is bound to happen (and did, many a time) in Berkeley. And the third thing is that there is some neat wildlife around here. There are bunnies everywhere! Wild bunnies. They just hop along and are quite cool. I didn't realize that I'd gotten tired of looking at squirrels, but it's nice to see little wild rabbits scampering around my complex. And on the bike ride home from school today, I saw a roadrunner! I'd never seen a real live roadrunner before, but I could tell exactly what it was because of Bugs Bunny. So neat! Conclusion: Orange County is still a totally horrible place but there are a couple of neat things about it.

Where Have You Been?

I've been waiting for you to log on so that I could write something. It's about time you checked on my blog!

In the past few weeks, I've lost a lot of hair. The remainder of it has turned white. And it is all due to... Apple and its stupid Computers. Macs are supposed to be easy, man! But they aren't. I've become quite savvy at network connection-ese. I can rattle off my IP address, I know what an IPv6 address is, I know the first three digits to a bad (self-addressed) IP address, I know how the IP address distribution between your router and the computers that wirelessly hook up to it works, I learned how to trick my Mac into telling me "congratulations, you're now connected to the internet" when I'm not really, I know that renewing one's DHCP lease is one of the first things to do when troubleshooting for network problems, and a whole host of other things. It took me since 9/16 to figure all this out, a little each day, but now I'm ready for the Network Final Exam.

The only problem? I'm in MEDICAL school, not computer engineering school!

I am supposed to know all about genetics and epigenetics and histology (yes, Darron - HistoTime is coming back) and immunology and statistics right now. But instead I spent my time learning about that other crap. Why couldn't all that have happened when I had a lucrative job with plenty of time off? I have to say though, genetics and immunology are pretty interesting. One of my classmates' strategy for learning about genetic disorders is to play "Genetics Charades." For those of you who don't know what charades is, it's a game where you act something out. So, those of us who in four short years are to be deemed professionals, are acting out genetic mutations in order to commit them to memory. How un-PC can one get than that? But I will tell you, I'll never forget what Marfan's syndrome is.

I got to visit Darron this past weekend. It was great! Long overdue. You know you got a good boyfriend when he spots a vista point after riding up a very steep and long hill, in his first bike race, without much physical activity in the preceeding months, on his buddy's wife's bike, in funny pants, and stores it in his mental rolodex long enough to take you to gaze at it three weeks later. =) There is much more that's sweet about him, but one only has so many hours in a day to type. I could use some sleep. Thank goodness we have an "online course" from 8-10am. Ha!

Thanks for reading. And next time, don't stay away so long!