I WIN!

E-mail I received from the Seattle Central CC bookstore today:

"Hi, I'm not sure what went wrong with your original return of the rental. I have gone in and credited you the amount of $144.86 that you were charged. It will take several days or so for it to show up. 

Thank you and have a nice holiday weekend. 
Patti"


Thank you sweet, infant, baby Jesus. I get my money back! I received this after several back and forth e-mails trying to describe the week, date, amount of money I was returned, etc, so that the manager of the bookstore could go through their records and try to figure out what went wrong and prove, basically, that I was telling the truth about my return. 


Phew.
Last time I throw away a receipt.

I was taking a walk

I live close enough to downtown now that I can walk out the door with my camera and be in the middle of the shopping district within 10 minutes. Dangerous and so, so, beautiful. Either way, the whole point of dropping the $$$ for my camera was to walk out the door and have instant, creative, entertainment. The move to First Hill has made it tres simple.

SO PIST

So I returned the textbook for my logic class the second week of Fall quarter when my teacher said that the previous edition was alright (which I already owned) and today, those bastards took $145 out of my bank account like that shit never happened! I'm so mad! When I returned the other rental I had, I asked the guy behind the computer if I was all clear considering I had received an e-mail from the bookstore that implied they still thought I was in possession of the logic book. He looked and said I was all good.

A few days later, I cleared out my wallet and threw away 1000 old receipts and hesitated with the return receipt for the book, then threw it out considering I had sought and received confirmation from the bookstore employee only a few days before. I THREW IT OUT! Like an idiot! But honestly, I thought I was in the clear!

SO tomorrow I have to go to the bookstore before work and see if I can just have my money back with no goddamn receipt to show them. That idiot better have actually seen that I was clear and not just too lazy to argue with me. THINK OF THE BOOTS I COULD HAVE BOUGHT WITH THAT MONEY.

IM SO MAD.

Holidaze

Hot damn!
Christmas happened again!

I only bought a few presents and none of my recipients were at the holiday gatherings (including my MOTHER :[ ) and I'm pretty bummed I didn't get to do the whole "Do you like it?!" scenario because OF COURSE THEY DO and it feels good. But whatever. Woman's gotta get her gift sometime!

Ralph came to Christmas Eve on my dad's side last year but missed my mom's and they have been asking about him literally since our first date on Christmas two years ago (I guess that makes this our anniversary of sorts?), but he gets paid THRICE on holidays and it's really hard for him to turn that up. But this year I made him and it was so. good. Honestly, it's like he's always been a part of the family. That feeling makes me really warm and cozy inside. We are thinking that next year we might do Christmas with his mom in D.C.

A few of my favorites from x-mas dinner with both sides of my family:

 Like this picture of us. I look so much like my mom/grandma in this, its almost frightening.

 My uncle Darryl and my cousin, Darrylantè (don't get me started). This kid had Ralph and I grinning like idiots trying to suppress our desire to procreate. He is so. cute.

 Ralph and my dad playing cards together. Warms my little heart.

My dad and my older brother.

 This one just made me particularly happy and this is essentially what holidays look like with my family, except everyone behind me in this photo is dancing and laughing as well. I love, love, love my family. These are my cousins, Ashley and D.J.

 My big brother Jumokè and I! He moved to Atlanta a year ago and this was my first time seeing him since!

2/3 of my brothers.

And with my mom's side:

My cousins, Charly and Zawdie. The beginning of an installment titled: My Attractive Family.

My grandma and I! Just can't get over her face in this one. She didn't realize my camera was so big.

My awesome grandpa in his LEGENDARY STORYTELLING MODE.

Installment two of My Attractive Family. My cousin Robert. He is a professional basketball player for a team in Bolivia. Crazy right?!

Cousin Charly, Aunt Dee, and me. I've always appreciated that I can look them directly in the eye without tilting my head. Littles 4evr! Charly is currently getting her Masters in Mathematics crap at Wake Forest. Pretty cool.

My newest cousin! I don't even know her name. That new. My aunts were so excited about Ralph that they shoved this baby in my arms and started getting all glassy eyed and gooey and taking pictures. Couldn't be more subtle.

Final installment of My Attractive Family. My cousin Otieno. Totally single (& he sings!)

TINY ROBERT (father being the aforepictured of b-ball infamy). THIS IS THE CUTEST KID IN THE UNIVERSE.

I just really love my family. I really do. I appreciate them more and more as I get older and understand (say it again!) more and more what it really is to be, have and know your family.

I have to be awake in 5.5 hours and I want to DIE thinking about my alarm clock going off at 4:11am. Hey! Its an important 11 minutes.

On sense and sensibility

I'm going through a personal revolution right now. A REVOLUTION. Firstly, if theres anything I've learned about growing up thus far, it's that growth will happen if you let it and it will happen in its own time. I've gone through so much in the past two years--these years are just so huge for personal development and habit making and breaking. I think they may set the tone for the rest of my twenties and I want to be aware of progress...and lack thereof.

Anyway, I am learning that buying multiples of something you use often will save you trips to the store.
-That auto-bill pay saves a lot on anxiety--It's there for a reason.
-"It won't be any more pleasant later" gets chores done before they would be otherwise.
-You don't need to respond when your boyfriend is stressed out from moving/finishing a -degree/emotionally wearing job and looks for 1000 reasons to be upset. Let him get it out, don't take it personally, continue whatever task is at hand. Responding will probably lead to a completely useless argument.
-Making unpleasant phone calls to Whatever Company is part of life. JUST GOTTA MAKE EM (This advice 4 years ago could have saved me a lot of money, man).
[We have had an unfortunate incident with a broken radiator in our living room. After several phone calls, we got an electrician to finally come and fix it but when he fixed it, we couldn't turn it off! Even on low our apartment felt like a sauna. And we couldn't turn it off. Just couldn't. SO FRUSTRATING. And we live on the loudest, busiest, street in the world and with the windows open everything just sucked. Sucked. More phone calls were made, and we now have a radiator that turns off. No one said it would be easy.]

Probably 3/4 of anyone who ever reads this is thinking DUH but imagine trying to live your life without knowing these things! What a pain! Why don't parents teach you any of these things? Or school? Maybe we are supposed to learn by synthesis and I wasn't paying attention.

Either way, it has finally clicked for me that laziness and procrastination are not effective and that shit just has to get done--one way or another. This does not mean that I will procrastinate any less. But I've definitely learned that getting ____ done means I don't have to spend any time feeling guilty about what I SHOULD be doing as opposed to what I AM doing, which means my time has gotten so much sweeter.

The rest of my night will be devoted to Breaking Bad and this bomb ass salad I'm about to make. Hold the side of guilt, please!

BLOGABOUDIT

Well, I really suck at blogging. I moved over to Tumblr because I suspected people I wanted to follow were there, but it turns out you're here! So that's good!

R and I moved to a new place a few weeks ago (almost a month already!) and it has been so damn great. I had no idea how much our living situation sucked until I wasn't there anymore. Roommates suck! I didn't realize that when I had them. $1,000,000 later, we finally have a good number of the necessities we need. 

The house we lived in before just kind of came with all of the kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, etc. so we actually needed silverware, pots, pans, measuring cups, cups for drinking liquids, bowls, plates, ALL THAT SHIT. We still don't have a lot of what we need, but one step at a time right? I built the dining room table all by myself! Felt like Jesus.

Our apartment is freakishly perfectly located which is really exciting. I can walk to Capitol Hill, Seattle U and Seattle Central, and Downtown within 10 minutes! Drinking, shopping, and learning! What else is there? 

Still very miserable and sad regarding the additional quarter at Seattle Central, but getting over it like big girls do. Its only a few months! Pshhhh. Seattle Central is a great school and everything, but it's ghetto as hell. The library is always super noisy with people eating, talking, yelling, spelunking and what have you. Homeless people wander in all the time and fall asleep on benches and chairs not to mention the schools graduation rate (which is super low although I don't know the number off the top of my noggin). Everyone goes and not so many people graduate, and you can feel that in the hallways. I just want to be inspired and surrounded by those who inspire. I suppose people bringing their kids to class is inspiring in a "Places Not To Be" way. 

I have a bad habit of selling coffee to homeless people instead of kicking them out immediately. Ima deal with that now. Even though its NOT EVEN 7AM YET.