random crap
Well, this is my last full week here at home. Next Thurs/Friday, I am off. And I'm starting to get scared...
I got my new laptop! w00t! It's a lot more than I asked for--my dad really outdid himself. It has a widescreen display, integrated microphone and WebCam and LightScibe DVD labeler, which burns labels directly onto disks. How cool is that? I didn't even know such technology existed on laptops until now. Oh, also, some have this integrated fingerprint reader which makes it so that instead of typing in a password, it will analyze your fingerprints to log in! Mine isn't that fancy but it's pretty damn nice. The operating system is Windows Vista which, according to my dad, 'sucks' and dims in comparison to Windows XP but who cares. It will more than do.
The only real complaint I have about it is that it got my hopes up when I saw a preinstalled Microsoft Word program but much to my dismay, it was only a trial version. I seriously doubt this will recognize the MS Word 1995 I've used all these years so I'm looking to see if I can take it from a friend of family member.
I am also proud to say that I figured out how to establish Internet connection on this. My dad tried for two hours when it took my about thirty seconds. Oh yes. I am a genius. (I tend to gloat when I am happy, I admit it.)
That being said, relations between my dad and I haven't really gotten any better. He's still angry at me for who-knows-what though I've made it perfectly clear to move on from the past. And I'm the one holding a grudge?
Naturally, a computer like this did not come cheap so it should be no surprise when I, out of deep gratitude, declared that I will pay for anything and everything I can with my own money. So the two jackets and bed set I bought today was all me. And the Epica and The Birthday Massacre CD I will buy next week will be all me.
I'm hoping to get a decent job at UCSD though I am avoiding one for fall quarter. I just want to get adjusted first but after that, I want to work at the library. It isn't a particularly difficult job and when I get bored, I can always read. :)
College shopping is almost over--I still need a cell phone. I already told my parents that I don't care what kind it is. I don't need a fancy pink RAZR or one with a camera. And I'm hoping to get new glasses because our health insurance covers a free pair of glasses for me every year and we still have to redeem that offer for this year. I've long given up on contact and frankly, I don't care. I feel as if I've spent enough of my parent's money. My mother says that they will pay for college for as long as they can and then, I'll have to pay my own way through. I don't mind. The fact that you worked hard to earn money and then, paid your way through and/or for something makes that something a lot more valuable, right?
This whole entry seems a lot more materialistic than I had originally intended so I guess the subject title is very fitting.
[EDIT] I just remembered something else I meant to discuss in here and while I was writing this entry, it totally slipped my mind. Bit strange really because I would say that it's more important than some recent purchases I may have made but still small enough for the subject "random crap" to be fitting. Did I mention I paid another, perhaps last visit, to IrvTown? That's what my old high school was called. I went with Katie and after that day, I wouldn't be seeing Katie for a long time. She moved yesterday to Cal Poly at San Luis-Obispo, see. Anyway, I was in the empty lot across the street from the school talking on my mother's cell phone to Katie when I see this guy coming in from the traffic intersection. He stares at me and the words 'Oh my God' stop at my lips. It was my old English teacher, Mr, Phillips! He was the student teacher that become one of our substitutes after my regular English teacher took sick leave last year. He was staring at me as if hardly believing it was me and then, turned back to walk towards the donut shop. I didn't recognize him fully until he had turned; his signature feature had always been sideburns.
Anyway, I saw him again while on school campus with Katie. He got promoted and so we congratulated him and I also made sure to tell him to torture the sophomores because the teacher he was replacing, Mrs. Pike, used to torture me and my fellow classmates when we were humble sophomores.
So, after that big blob of a paragraph, you wonder: where is she going with all this?
Simple. I felt envious. Can you believe that? I felt jealous towards high school kids. Their lifestyles are so simple! They're all so sheltered! It wasn't a particularly strong feeling initially but as I walked back home during their lunch break, it got stronger.
But that feeling of nostalgia was strongest not when I was at IrvTown but when dropping my brother off at the elementary school. He's in the sixth grade and I had attended that school during the sixth grade. Memories came rushing back all of a sudden.
I thought things like "There is the bathroom I spent all lunch in one day trying to get a stain out of my white pants."
or "There is the lawn across the street where I sat next to my then best-friend Alyssa on the last day of sixth grade, wondering how junior high was going to be.
And I realized how lucky we all had it when we were such small children but we never realized it. Sure, we may have imagined it at some point or another but the full realization never strikes until we have moved on and seen how much worse life can be.