"Just keep telling yourself 'They're only independent factors.'"

That's the advice my wife gave to me, anyway. It's the first day of classes here at Rutgers, and things got off to a rather hellish start. After driving back and forth to North Carolina over the course of the past weekend without any major problems, my car decided to stall out in the middle of a major intersection here in New Brunswick. I was able to start the unwieldy behemoth, cursing the sputtering and shaking giant as it barely made it around the corner to safety, but this problem really was all my fault. Even though I was toasty beneath the covers last night the temperature outside dipped pretty low, and I did not warm up my car before I headed out. After running the engine for a few minutes everything was fine again, but I'll think twice before I run out the door and hop into the car without warming it up again.

After I got the car started I headed over to the student center to print out a new ID (my old on expired), but the place where I was supposed to obtain a replacement was shut down due to construction. No note of this was made on the website, so in a bit of frustration I drove off to try and find a professor who has been trying to help me in my battle to study what I actually want to study at this university. He wasn't in his office, so I was feeling a little bit run-down as I headed back to my apartment to regroup. With a new review copy of a book on human evolution in hand, I headed off to a different study center to get my ID made and brave the DMV-like lines at the student accounting office in an attempt to get my refund check. Having a book definitely helped, and even though I left the office with a bit of a headache I can't complain too much about walking out with enough money to start paying down some of my debts.

My classes don't actually start until this afternoon so I have a little bit of time to relax, read, and wind-down before heading off for biology and human osteology, but the major problem I'm having with RU remains (as of this moment) unresolved. Hopefully I'll have some better news on that front later this week, but for now I'm trying to be persistent even if I'm doubtful that I'll persevere.

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Sounds like a frustrating day! I had Microstratigraphic Analysis of Archaeological sites today, which is a 300 level undergrad course Jane and I are taking, then we had to haul ass over to Busch to arrive at the Geology building in time for our 4-7 Palynology class... for which the professor never showed! I have no idea what happened, but the five of us in the class (me, Jane, Sarita, Jay, and a girl from Plant Ecology, Alex) sat and talked for 45 minutes then decided to go. My class tomorrow has already been cancelled. What a light week for me!

I think "I headed over to the student center to print out a new idea (my old on expired)" was supposed to be "I headed over to the student center to print out a new ID (my old one expired)." It took me a while to figure that one out ... but I was bemused at the concept of having to print out a new idea because an old one had expired ... ;)

Well, here's hoping that tomorrow is a better day! (I think the law of averages pretty much makes this a given.)

By Stevo Darkly (not verified) on 22 Jan 2008 #permalink

Thanks for the correction, Stevo. I was a bit frustrated yesterday and I didn't proofread this entry like I should have, so I appreciate the help.

Melanie; That's pretty bizarre about your prof. not showing up. I wonder why. I'm sure you have a bit harder schedule than I do, though. I'm just hoping that I can find out more about switching soon before it's too late to do anything about it.