It’s been a week since I came back to Berkeley. God, has it only been that long? . . .
My flight back from Montreal was delayed from 5:45 to 7 PM on Sunday 2 Apr 06. So I was gonna miss the connecting flight from Chicago to Oakland anyway. I didn’t mind too much because I was thinking about staying in Montreal till Monday morning before I ordered the tickets. Plus I thought I would just call my cousins up from Chicago (who I haven’t seen in 8 years) and just stay the night at a city I’ve always been fairly fond of. But the weather in Chicago was so bad that although we did take off for Chicago, circled above the city for a couple hours, and flew right back to where we started from, Montreal. No one landed or took off that night. Because I landed around midnight Eastern Time, I decided to stay at the airport instead and catch the 8:30AM flight to SFO instead. I arrived at SFO in time to catch the 2PM BA121 tax class, but instead I went home, watched the Dodgers almost make a crazy comeback as the baseball season opened, and took a nap.
I meant to sleep at the airport in Montreal that bears my name (Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport) but I ended up talking to other people that were stranded as well. By chance, I talked to this engineer, Stanford graduate, who worked at IBM for 16 years. He says the company is absolutely wonderful. If anyone has a chance to work there, he says, they should definitely not hesitate to take the offer. This was while my firm placement was still uncertain, and I wanted IBM more than Xerox, especially after listening to him.
I got the email on Thursday night, and I did get IBM Finance, in White Plains, NY. I’m not sure what division, although I might end up at human resources. But the mobility within the company seems really flexible from the previous intern I talked to. He says they really focus on a good balance of personal and professional lives for their workers, and never worked more than 50-55 hours a week, and he was among the people that worked in the high range. The interns also traveled to different parts of New England during the weekends, and at night they had plenty of time to relax and go out to the city if need be or go to a bar to hang out. He also said that the people in the company are absolutely wonderful, too, so I’m very optimistic at this point.
I did everything I set out to do for Spring break and then some. Yosemite was nice, but I took off earlier on Sunday because of a flight to catch. It was nice hanging out with church class people for the last time. I just enjoyed my time at home for a bit, but I took that time to buy a car, like I had promised myself to do. It was between a 97 Toyota Camry XLE V6 full option w/100K+ miles for $4000 or ’94 Honda Accord 4 cylinder manual transmission barely any options w/+200K miles for $3500. I test drove both, and ultimately ended up buying the Accord at $3000. I made the choice because it’s a 4 cylinder, easier to maintain, stickshift, and cheaper. The Camry was a steal, to be sure, but a full option in ’97 doesn’t really mean much, and a piston was misfiring. The V6 is also more expensive to maintain, the passenger door could be opened only from the inside, and the front passenger speakers were blown out. So I went with what I thought was a better fit for me. I’m having the brakes/suspension/battery replaced, with the clutch slave cylinder already having been replaced, too. I’m glad I finally got a car for next school year. I’m tired of biking to/from army every month, and going to my appointment in Fremont on the BART takes 2-3 times as long as just driving there. Plus it was raining when I went for a check up on the 4th of April. Not very fun. I had my desert boonie hat with my waterproof army windbreaker on.
I ended up spending $119.57 US in Canada. Not too shabby considering we went out every night and were pretty tipsy most nights. By the way, a Cuban cigar is just a novelty. The Montecristo didn’t taste much different, although I did notice that my throat was clearer in the morning. Weird thing on my credit card popped up. Some company named STAR CHOICE from CALGARY CANADA charged me $309.81 US. I called them to see what that’s all about. At first they’re like, we don’t have your number on file. So I asked them can they look up my address in California to see if I did it by accident or anything. Then he said that’s impossible because this is a satellite dish company that does business only in Canada. I called the credit card company, and they said because the amount of the dispute is so large, they need to open a new credit card account for me altogether. So right now I’m sitting without a credit card. This kind of thing’s never happened to me before, and I always had my card on me at all times, so I don’t know what could have happened.
Had a potluck at Tiffany’s last night. There must have been 9 or 10 of us there. I made stir fried cabbage from an internet recipe Tiffany linked me too. It was surprisingly ok, considering I’ve never made it before. The reason why I’m writing this now is because one of the ingredients called for onions and my hands, even after a couple showers and numerous trips to the sink to wash my hands with soap, still smell like onions.
I don’t know what it is, but I’m starting to get lazy. Perhaps it’s because even though all of us in this apartment graduated in the same high school class, Patrick’s already working and Tony’s ready to graduate. I’ve lost some focus, although I’m sure recruiting had a lot to do with it, too. That and the classes I’m taking right now are just horrible. Maybe it wasn’t the greatest idea to take Ralph Nader’s sister, Laura Nader’s, class Anthro 139 Controlling Processes in conjunction with BA 106 Marketing. She calls marketing propaganda, and although I do realize I am somewhat of a sellout at this point, these books/readers are horribly difficult to read.
These weekends suck. I have 2 Monday midterms, and then a 3 day army drill from 21st to the 23rd. I’m not liking April right now. My brother’s birthday is on the 27th, though, and I’m running out of idea of what to get him.
Baseball season’s started. So far, the Dodgers are 3-3, but it looks like they’ll be 4-3 by the end of today. I’m not into the sport as much as football anymore, but I’m definitely a Dodger fan first, Cal Football fan second. Personally, I think Brad Penny deserves a better recognition than he gets right now. I think he’s a better pitcher than Derek Lowe, although he’s a good pitcher, too.
Went to my first Movement showcase. It was better than I thought it would be, but I thought it ran a little longer than necessary. At first I was like, damn they’re really good dancers, but then towards the end I was starting to count the minutes. Still, no doubt they’re all really talented. A friend from high school sang the national anthem, and I gotta say that was a good note to open the show on.