Unwritten

Originally Posted, January 29, 2001.

“December twenty-fourth–ten PM eastern standard time. I can’t believe a year went by so fast. Time to see–What we have–time to see…..”

Location: Davis California. A Home in East Davis, 6:45AM

The early morning light filters through the fabric covered vertical venician blinds. Outside the air is crisp, but inside the room fills with the heat from the furnace. Underneight the blankets I’m warm. I’m dreaming of someone special, dreaming of….. The alarm goes off.

“Uggggghhh……..”

I hit the snooze button and mutter to myself

“Damn…. It was such a nice dream too..”

7:00AM

“BEEEEP…BEEEEEP….BEEEEEE…….” *Snooze*

7:15AM

“BEEEEP…BEEEEEP….BEEEEEEP…..”*Click* I turn off the alarm and sit up. I yawn, my mouth stretching out so much that i could probably fit my whole fist into it. Morning is here and its time to start another day. I get to my feet and head to the bathroom: Time to shower, brush, and make myself presentable.

7:40AM

All is ready, I need to get to Campus early if i want to get myself a parking space. Its amazing how things change. A couple years ago parking was pretty easy to find (especially since i didnt drive and i biked everywhere) but now i have to be on campus by 8am or i’ll be stuck with attendant assistant parking. What is that? its cheep valet parking =) where they drive your car around all day while other people come in and out. Waste of gas, milage, and you have to put all your valuables in the trunk!

I get into my car, yes MY car. I got it a year ago from my Aunt. Its the first “major” thing that i’ve owned completely on my own =) I back out of the driveway, groaning at all the junior high school kids who hang around my street. I curse to myself as yet another IDIOT parent decides that that empty spot in front of my house (and driveway) is perfect for dropping their kid off. I show them, i keep on backing out until they finally realize whats going on and move on to a better location. I get my butt into the street and wait for an opening.

7:49AM

Finally got on the road! Its a pretty tame ride. I head down one street, turn right onto fifth then head on down till i get to campus. I pull into the campus parking structure and find a parking spot. Work starts at eight, i gotta get my butt into gear!

8:00AM

WORK! =) well I work at the University of California, Davis, Counseling Center. Most people seem to think that i’m a counselor or something and they are partially right. I currently counsel all the counselors on how to use their computers! =) Its amazing how many people with their PH.D’s dont know how to use a simple program like Microsoft Word. Its even more amazing how many of these people dont know how to use a printer! How the heck did they get their Doctorate with this lack of knowledge in simple technology? How did they write their disertation without knowing how to print?! Howcome i feel like i have so much more common sense than them and yet i get paid so much less! haha, well thats how life goes i guess.

I like working here. Its not the GREATEST place in the world, but the people are friendly, they have lots of parties, and i get a decent wage. It is weird for me however, because i am the youngest person here. The only person closest to my age is probably a good 10 years older than me. Even more of them have children or grandchildren who are close to my age. Sometimes i feel lonely here, but when lunch time comes and we all sit around playing dominoes… age ceses to matter and we’re just a bunch of friends hanging out. =)

10:00AM

Time for my break. I’ve been working for two hours and here’s a brief list of things i’ve done.

1. Got to work and turned on my computers (3)
2. I checked my e-mail and updated myself on Ernie’s Blog
3. Updated myself on Milly’s Blog
4. I cheked my internal mail “QuickMail” to find out what things needed to be done today
5. Screamed to myself at all the problems that developed over the weekend….. Ugh
6. Installed microsoft work 2001 on about 5 computers (still have 40+ more to do)
7. Went to the big boss (The center director) and added little fox icons to her Microsoft Word toolbar. Why you ask? because she works late night and it keeps her company. Yeah, its a little childish, but as my supervisor says “A Happy Boss is a Good Boss”. I added a little extra touches myself =) I made it so that when she puts her mouse over the icon it pops up “Hi Judy!”
8. Pulled a G4 from storage to reformat and setup for another user. After this computer is in place, there will be 2 Macintosh 5400s left… one belonging to a counselor and the other belonging to me… How sad.
9. Called into apple to check up on a repair order. You know you have a good job when you can drop a $3000 powerbook computer and have your job pay for its repair. But not only that! you have your support team (me) spend a whole day trying to get the broken machine to work just long enough so you can get all the data off the hard drive.
10. checked out some web pages to see if any of our software has updates or new releases available

12:00

Well its lunchtime now, and work is over. I usually only work mornings or whenever i can fit it into my schedule. Sometimes the day goes by fast like today, mainly because i have a lot of things i need to do. Other days it feels like the day will never end (thats when i have NOTHING to do). Its a good fluxuation so that things are never too boring or too exciting. It keeps me interested =) and out of any rigid routine.

Today i’m going to head over to the Coffee House to hang out with my Alpha Phi Omega Buddies. This year we are celebrating Fifty years of service to the Davis campus and community. I’m psyched! Ive been with Iota Phi for what? five years now and i’ve held an office almost EVERY term. I’ve been everything from the Corresponding Secretary, to Fellowship Vice President, to Pledge Parent, to President. This is probably my last really active term and i’ve been elected to the office of Pledge Parent for the second time!

Who would have guessed that Alpha Phi Omega would mean so much to me? It has brought me so many friendships and opportunities that i would have never gotten on my own. Its shown me how to be a leader, a friend, and how to perform service to others in a way that makes it fun and rewarding. Today at the Coffee House we all talk about the upcoming term and the upcoming 50th Anniversary Banquet.

I chill with my friends and spend the time eatting and catching up with some minor homework assignments…

2:00

Damn, time went by so fast that its time to get back into the groove of things. Its 2:00 and i have to head over to class. Today’s class is “History of Costume Design” a class that in itself seems interesting, but watching slides fly by my face on two screens for two hours isnt my idea of a good time. To top it all off the text book for this class cost me a whopping $120! and thats just for the main text book, there was a secondary book that cost me $40. Man! being a design major is an expensive field of work.

4:00

two hours and a couple of catnaps later, class is over. I have a good page of notes to go along with the good two or three pages of notes my classmates have. But luckily for me they are my friends and theres no shame in sharing notes with the design community. I head back over to the Coffee house to see if there is anyone around. Of course there are =) when isnt there someone i know hanging out at the Coffee House? I grab a seat and we shoot the breeze for a while.

4:30

Well i should be heading home now, there is an Alpha Phi Omega general meeting today at six, so i should head home and get some things i need (and some food). I get home and change into more APO clothing and get ready for the meeting. After a quick snack I call to check if people need rides then head off to the meeting. Today’s meeting is in Chem 174.

6:15

Meeting is supposed to start right now, but we’re a few minutes off. This is much better than the half hour or even the one hour late starts that used to happen back in the days. Today’s meeting goes by pretty quickly and efficently (i think this is mainly because this term is prettymuch done with, and most of the offices have nothing new to report).

7:00

The meeting ends gracefully =). The Muggings at the end of the meeting last longer than the meeting itself! For those of you who dont know, mugs are when you either praise or repremand members for things that happened the last week. Its not ment to humiliate anyone, just some good fun. An example would be to mug someone for giving you a ride to a the meeting =) (thats a good mug). Another example is mugging someone for giving you a ride to a project, but getting lost and ending up missing the project all togehter (thats a bad mug). After muggings end we sang our Toast Song. After all is said and done, the few really hard core people seem to hang around catching eachother up on the weekend’s events. Its really quite fun, just hanging out with actual people and talking. It reminds me of my days Mucking except i know these people personally. They know who i really am and can see my face.

Its a different feeling having face to face friends. People that I can watch movies with, or just go someplace to talk. It feels real good going to parties, planing parties, and just having lots of fun. I dont really see what was so fascinating with the online life. Its so much better talking online to people that i have an chance of seeing in person. It seems so much more real and more genuine. I dont have to secondguess their words, or wonder what they are really trying to do online. Ah, but i can talk for hours on this, right now its time to talk with my friends.

8:00

Eight o’clock allready?! damn… i just got home and i’m starving. I get some dinner together and turn on my computer. Its time to check my e-mail and see if there is anything new. I spend the rest of the evening relaxing in front of my TV and idly doing some projects.

10:00

Well its time to goto sleep. I have most of my work done and i have an early day tomorrow. I get on the floor and do some exercises. Nothing big =) just some crunches, and some pushups, and leg lifts, and whatever else i feel up to doing.

11:00

Ok i lied, i didnt head off to bed, but i did do a good fifteen minutes of exercises, then sat up and watched a little TV. But now i swear! i’m going to goto bed, just as soon as i see whos online and tell them goodnight….

Midnight

Ok, so it took me a little longer to say goodnight. But its hard! i love talking with my friends. but now its midnight and i HAVE to goto sleep. I spend a couple minutes figuring out things that i have to finish up in the next couple days and write it down (sometimes =P). I finally get around to shutting down my computer and turn off the light. I cuddle up in my bed pull the covers over me and slowly fall asleep. Tomorrow’s another day.

The day is over…