This past Sunday was supposed to be a peaceful day. Go food shopping, work on a paper that was due the next day… nothing to hard to do. Instead, I end up driving back to my hometown, spend a ton more money than I wanted, and didn’t get back to my dorm until about 10:00 that night. So let’s take a look at what went right and what went wrong, shall we…

I got up, and took a shower…I think. I normally just take one when I get back from work in hte very early Sunday AM, and another Monday morning before class. But there is a chance I took one when I woke up. I took a look at my phone and what do you know, I had a voicemail waiting for me. From my mom. Saying that I got a notice saying I owed Blockbuster close to $40. WTF?! I knew I owed them some money for returning a couple videos late, but $40? No way, that had to be a mistake.

So I drove to the Blockbuster in Hamden, thinking that since Blockbuster has store’s all over, they must have a centralized database. Nope, the one in Hamden had nothing to say, except that I owed them $5 in restocking fees, for movies I took out last semester. Oops. So it was back in the car, and start heading back home. On the way, I called a friend that was in town from school in Maryland, and we made some plans to hang out later that day.

So I get to the Blockbuster that was wanting me to pay them, and it turns out it was from two movies that I had rented before I went on vacation to Alaska. So, ok, I knew they were returned late…but why wasn’t the fee $2.50 ($1.25 restocking fee per DVD). The girl helping me said it was because they weren’t returned. So ok, made a quick call to my brother. Since the time in between getting home from Alaska and me moving into the dorm was only three days, I had other things to do, and completely forgot to return them. I had sent him a text message asking him to return them, and he said OK. He had at least a week of vacation still until he went back to school, more than enough time.

So I went home to look for the DVD’s, while waiting for my brother to call me back. Which he did while I was driving back to the house. Apparently he forgot to return them. Great, so I knew they were somewhere in my house. Get into the house, and look in the big grey bin by the computer desk. Yeap, they were in there. After scaring my mom and saying hi to my sister, I went back to Blockbuster to see if I could get some credit for them. After paying what I owed, I could have gotten a single dollar back for one of them, and nada for the other. No thanks, I’ll keep them both.

So after that, I went to my friends’ house, where after saying hi to the one that was running out for a bit, went into their bathroom to clean my cut. I had cut my leg while closing the car door at Blockbuster, and it was bleeding more than I thought it would. After taking care of that, I started chatting with my friend about stuff. We went to Friendly’s where he works to chat with some of the people there. While I was outside talking on my phone to the friend that had left as I was going into his house, my cousin walked up. Apparently he works there now.

So after that we went to Chile’s to get some food. Another one of our friends was working there, so we chatted with him while we waited for our food. Eventually the friend I was talking to on the phone at Friendly’s showed up and we all chatted for a bit. Once we were done, he left, and the other friend and I paid the bill. And then we went to my car. I used the key remote to unlock the doors, and we got in. Went to start the car….and it would start. Apparently using the remote to unlock the doors killed the battery :s

So we called AAA to get it jumpstarted, and went into a nearby store to wait. After spending $5 on Smarties, we went back to the car, just as the tow truck was pulling up. We get the car jumped, and he tells us to wait about 10 minutes before leaving. So we (im)patiently wait, and after the 10 minutes are up, we start to leave. We make it 50 feet or so…and the car turns off. So I pull into the spot that’s next to where the crosswalk ends, because I didn’t want to risk hitting another car since it’s a bit hard to steer without power steering. We call AAA again, this time to get the car towed back.

The same guy comes, and jumps the car again since I had it on a wierd angle. He tells me to drive in a circle around hte parking lot. The car worked fine. He suggested trying to drive it back, and he would follow. So we left the parking lot, with my friend calling his brother to come meet us at my house. The car makes it all the way back without incident, and as I’m putting the car into park, it dies. Oh well, at least it’s back at the house. I thank the guy, go inside and tell my mom that the car is sitting where it normally does when at the house, and say goodbye to here and my sister.

So then my friends and I go back to there house to have dinner with their family and another friend and his mom. Food was good and stories were good. Watched a bit of Law and Order SVU, football, and Man vs. Wild. After a bit, got dropped of at my dorm by a friend, and started to work on my paper. Got some good progress amde on it, and then went to bed.

Another Sunday from hell was over.

This past Monday, like any other Monday, I went to the main cafe for my dinner. With a class at getting out at 5:00 and my next class starting at 6:30, it just doesn’t make sense to go back to my room and cook myself dinner. The fact that I don’t have any food to cook with is another matter that has made me eat in the cafe and the other cafe (at least at the other cafe I get food for free since I work there).

So I get what I normally get:

• Grilled chese
• 5piece chicken tenders
• Salad bar
• A soda

Normally this meal costs me around $10…which is ok for the amount of food I get. But this time, I also got a bottle of Life Water and a slice of pecan pie. I’ve never had pecan pie before, and felt like giving it a try.

This time, I paid $17.42 for my dinner. Somewhat in shock, I asked for a receipt so I could check the prices when I went to sit down. Amazingly, the prices I was charged for everything were the right prices. So why did the meal cost so much? Let’s take a look at what everything costs a studen when they buy it.

• Pecan Pie - $1.75
• 32 oz soda from the fountain - $1.99
• 0.75lb of stuff from the salad bar @$5.79/lb - $4.28
• 5pc chicken tenders - $4.99
• Grilled cheese - $2.02
• Bottle of Life Water - $2.39

Looking at that, I was shocked. I know that it doesn’t cost that much for the soda. A trip to the salad bar should not cost that much. The Life Water definitely should not be that much. The chicken tenders aren’t worth a buck a piece, and the grilled cheese looked like it had been on the side of the grill for a bit too long. The pecan pie was good…it was worth the $1.75 I got charged for it.

So why can Chartwells get away with this? Because they are the only vender on campus. If we had more space, we could possibly get other venders in. But unfortunately, there is nowhere else to put venders, and we cannot build on the main campus anymore. Yes, we can order delivery from several of the pizza, Chinese, Italian places in town, but it still does not do anything to force Chartwells to be competitive with their pricing. But until something happens, students will be forced to pay an arm and a leg for food.

Ugh…. I thought last week would never end… Let’s take a look at what went on…

Monday is normally my busy day, and last week was no exception. Four classes, plus finding time to get the work for those classes done. Of course, I also had to find time to eat, and take a look at what courses I need/want to take next semester (wow, it seems that the semester just started, not that it’s midterm week now and advising sessions are starting). Add in the other stuff I needed to get done, and Monday was hectic just by itself. Monday was also “eat in the main cafe” day for me…where I spent more money than the fodd I got should have cost (another story for another post).

Tuesday was a bit calmer. Just two classes, so I spent some of the day looking at what I needed to write a paper about for Philosophy that was due this past Monday. Took some time to work on my program for computer science. Simple program to write, the hardest part was figuring out which questions to ask the user. Found out I was having a midterm in my Tuesday night class (which was this past Tuesday; it seemed a bit too easy [not a bad thing], and I was out in about 30 minutes).

Wednesday was another light day class wise, but it was the 9AM class and philosophy…not my favorite two. I think I would be more interested in the 9AM class if it were at some other time; I’m just not a morning person. I’d rather stay up until 2-3AM and wake up at 11AM than go to bed at 1-2AM and wake up at 8AM. Philosophy wasn’t all that bad, we started to watch Life is Beautiful. It’s actually not that bad of a movie. I also finished my program and submitted it. Wednesday also marked the start of paid work for me that week. Normally I work Friday and Saturday, but this week I worked Wednesday and Thursday as well. Should be getting a nice check next week.

Thursday is the best day, since I only have one class. So it was in the computer lab from programming for an hour, and then I had the rest of the day free until I went into work at 5. I don’t think there wasn’t a job that I didn’t do that day. I worked the hot line, I did Mexican, I did subs/sandwiches, I did the a la carte. I swept, I mopped, I took the garbage out.

Friday was just a regular old Friday. Two classes and work. Get out of work at midnight, go to the room, take a shower, go to bed eventually. Saturday was also a typical Saturday. Wake up, brush my teeth, chill for an hour or so, then its off to work. Get back at midnight, shower and bed.

Sunday was an adventure in its own…and will be its own post tommorrow, since I’m exhausted and about to sleep.