That Awkward Thruway Moment

I’ve had my license for five years now and have driven various stretches of the NYS thruway countless times.  Yet I have still not figured out the easiest way to gather the appropriate amount of money to pay the toll when I get off.  Right now, I always drive the same stretch of the thruway which does make things easier because I can get the money together before I leave home, but then what do I do with it?

 

Obviously, I can’t hold onto the money while driving because that would require extreme coordination that I do not possess.  Leaving the money in my wallet is out of the question because then it takes too long to get it together again when I get to the toll booth.  I am left with leaving the money in a cup holder.  It’s there, but it’s still not in my hand when I pull up to the toll booth.

 

Upon exiting the thruway I am forced to gather every ounce of coordination I have in order to drive the curve of the exit ramp while getting all the money out of the cup holder and locating the ticket I picked up while entering the thruway.  Oh, and not to mention, paying attention to the road and making sure I wind up in the right lane at the toll.  And of course the coins refuse to be picked up.

 

Once, I accidentally gave the toll booth operator a penny instead of a dime and began to drive off.  Luckily I was still close enough to hand her the correct change when she noticed.  Is there any easy way to do this?  Does anyone not feel extremely awkward while attempting to gather correct change to pay the toll?

 

I really should just get an EZ-Pass.

That Would Have Been Embarrassing…

Last night I returned to my apartment after hanging out with friends all day.  I grabbed something to eat and settled in to watch an episode of Grey’s Anatomy on my laptop.  Then I noticed that my Wi-Fi network was not there.  One glance at the router and the modem and I saw that there were not any blinking lights on either device.  I was definitely not pleased about this development but decided to watch an episode of the Vampire Diaries instead because my roommate has the first season on DVD and wants me to watch it.  It definitely looks like a good show.  I would then call Road Runner in the morning and ask them to fix my Internet.

 

However I pushed the power button on the TV only to find that that did not work either.  I was utterly confused because the power was not out.  Then it dawned on me that the TV, modem, and router are all plugged into the same power strip.  I found another power strip in my room and proceeded to switch the plugs over.  Then I noticed that there was a switch on the old power strip and figured I couldn’t possibly break it anymore than it already was, so I flipped it.  Success!  The modem and router immediately lit up and the TV worked once again.

 

I’m positive that Baxter must have flipped the switch at some point during the day.  I’m so glad that I found that out before calling Road Runner.  It would have been really embarrassing to have them send a guy over only to tell me that my power strip was turned off…

New Camera Time!

I have been contemplating a new camera for quite some time since my Kodak does not take good pictures and I’ve had it for five years.  I kept putting it off since it’s not really a necessity and things like food and books are.  However this past summer I somehow managed to lose the Kodak and it still hasn’t turned up.  I’m considering it a goner.

 

Therefore, it’s time to begin the camera search! I want one that takes excellent pictures as well as decent video.  I need it to have a faster shutter speed than the Kodak since both Benny and Baxter like to move quickly.  Relatively cheap would be nice as well.  I’m hoping to get it soon since I actually need to make a video for one of my classes this semester.  Anyone have any suggestions? *cough*Mary*cough*

Grad School: 2nd Semester

Due to my lack of blogging for so long, those of you who do not follow me on Twitter (are there any?) might not know that I graduated undergrad and am now in grad school for Library Science, specializing in school libraries.  I have now completed the first week of my second semester and have had three of my four classes.  The fourth is on Monday nights and was not held this week due to Martin Luther King Day.

 

Class number 1 is Public Libraries, held at nine in the morning on Tuesdays.  NINE AM.  I have not had a class that early since my last semester of undergrad, when I had an 8am class.  But then I lived on campus.  Now I live off campus and have to leave 45 minutes at the latest before class in order to get there in time.  Coffee will be my friend on Tuesdays.  This week’s class started off with a fire drill.  Nobody knew what the noise was at first so we sat there for a good two minutes before realizing it was a fire alarm and left the building.  The class seems interesting and the professor is nice and the workload seems easy, so that will be nice.

 

Class number 2 is on Tuesday nights.  And thus I am faced with the situation of do I leave campus in between classes or sit around for six hours?  Back in community college I had a similar situation with a four hour wait and I stayed on campus.  But this wait is six hours.  This week I went back to my apartment since I needed to do major grocery shopping anyway.  Class 2 is Services for Young Adults which involves reading 10 young adult novels and doing various programming and other fun projects.  I think it’s going to be a great class and am very excited about the novels.  I love young adult literature.

 

Class number 3 is well…interesting.  That’s really the only word I have for it.  It’s about organizing information.  The syllabus and first few weeks of notes was 82 pages long.  We have to pay $80 for the remainder of the notes.  The professor requires us to purchase his $100 book that is older than I am.  I chose to purchase a used copy on Amazon for $37.  Only 2 of the 13 assignments are required, the mid-term is required but does not count, and I’ve heard that the final exam is 30 pages long.  He has a very odd teaching style which I am not used to.  When asked why I was taking the class I responded with “because it’s required.”  Hey, at least I was honest.

 

I think it’s safe to say that it’s going to be an interesting semester.

WW #2: Bed Thief

Fish: Meat or Not?

“Do you want your meat in a separate bag?”

“That’s not meat; it’s fish.”

“Ok…do you want it in a separate bag?”

“Yes, of course.”

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve had this conversation, or a similar one, with customers.  Today it went even further.  The customer in question informed me that he did not eat meat, as I put his fish in a separate bag for him.  He then proceeded to ask me if I ate meat and when I said “yes” he asked me what kind.  I replied with “all kinds.”  I have nothing against vegetarians and vegans.  I have friends who are both.  But it drives me nuts when customers insist that fish is not meat.  My definition of meat is that it is the flesh of an animal.  Fish are animals.  Therefore their flesh is meat.  Dictionary.com agrees with my definition, stating that meat is “the flesh of animals as used for food.”

 

Although the fact that the customers are wrong about the definition of meat is not even what bothers me the most.  What I dislike the most about that conversation is the fact that it does not help me to know whether they want their fish in a separate bag.  All I want is a yes or a no.

 

What do you think?  Is fish meat?

I’ve Seen it All

Now I can honestly say that I’ve seen it all at work.  Today a guy came through my line without any pants on.  He was wearing a very short pair of blue boxers and a winter coat.  His wife was with him.  I did not realize it until he was walking away, but by that point all the other cashiers nearby and the other customers were staring at him.  I can’t even begin to imagine what was going on in this guy’s mind.  It looked like he forgot his pants, but if that was true, why wouldn’t his wife have told him?

 

Apparently one of the security guys talked to him after he bought his groceries and the guy said that they were shorts, not boxers, but the security guy told him that they were boxers and he needed to wear real pants while in the store.  I mean, they were so short and thin that they were beyond inappropriate to be wearing in public.  And it was cold and snowy!  Why the heck would he even want to?

Smart Dog

It’s a tradition every year that my mom make eggnog cookies on the day we get our Christmas tree.  2010 was no different.  My mom made cookies, we decorated the tree, and the remaining cookies were put in the basement to protect them from Benny.  The following morning my mom got up and threw a load of laundry in, leaving the door open after she finished, and took Benny out for his walk.

 

Benny is seven now and sometimes he does not want to wake up to walk.  On these days my mom will drag him outside so he can do his business and then put him back in the house and go finish the walk by herself.  This day was one of those days, so my mom put him back in the house, forgetting that she had left the basement door open.

 

Upon coming back from the walk, my mom discovered that Benny had eaten two dozen cookies.  There was nutmeg in them, but due to the very small amount and Benny’s size, this only resulted in him drinking a lot of water and having to pee every two hours.  Sometimes I wonder if the reason he wants to go back inside is so he can search for food while no one is around, and this time it paid off.

Youtube

Ever since LeakyCon I’ve been fascinated by Youtube and how people use it to keep in touch with each other.  The first channel that explored this is the Vlogbrothers and I’ve been watching their videos for nearly two years.  Since they began, four years ago, plenty of other people have tried using Youtube to keep in touch with varying degrees of success.  Fiveawesomegirls is a good example of a successful one, having had the channel for three years.  Although they did just end their project of daily videos.  But after three years, who can blame them?

 

My LeakyCon friends and I tried doing a similar thing twice and while some of us still post occasional videos on the first channel, the second failed.  I haven’t posted a video to that channel in a nearly a year now.  I think mainly it’s because there are thirteen of us.

 

A few of my Infinitus friends and I started a channel a few weeks ago and so far we’ve been keeping up of us.  There are five of us, with a sixth trying to figure out her webcam and software enough to participate.  We each have an assigned day to make and upload a video each week.  I’m Friday.  It’s been fun and it’s a great way to keep in touch!  We named the channel AccioOfficeFire because we met at a Harry Potter convention and struck up a conversation because one of them was wearing a Hunger Games t-shirt and another was wearing a The Office t-shirt.  Feel free to check it out!

Blog 365 Fail

Would it be cheating to allow myself a few skip days in Blog 365?  Last night whilst watching Grey’s Anatomy I was thinking about what to blog about and then by the time the episode was over I had completely forgotten about it.  Then I went to bed without blogging and didn’t remember until this morning.  Fail.  Is it completely pathetic that I failed not even a week into the year?  Probably.