Bang!

I got into yet another car accident today! I was on the off ramp about to head to the tolls when I had to come to a full stop for traffic. I left a lot of room between myself and the car in front of me. For some reason, I take a glance at my rear view mirror and notice that the car behind me is head straight towards my car at full speed while the driver is looking towards his passenger seat. My jaw dropped and I panicked. I swerved my car towards the left and hit the gas to get out of the way, but he was coming too fast. He hit me smack on the right hand side of my car's bumper! If it wasn't for my swerving to the left, I would have hit the car in front of me because the sheer distance my car flew forward due to the impact would have most definitely closed the gap between myself and the other car (and who knows what else may have happened).

I was in complete and utter shock. My nerves were frazzled, but luckily I wasn't injured. The guy's car was completely smashed in on the front left side. People were stopping to stare, especially since it was morning rush hour traffic. The state police came very quickly since it was part of an interstate highway. The guy who hit me didn't ask me if I was alright and didn't even apologize. What a jerk! The only satisfaction I get out of this is that it's COMPLETELY his fault, that his car is damaged more than mine and that he will have to pay for my damages. Ha ha ha.

What stinks about this whole situation though, is that within the last month I had my car bumper replaced because of ANOTHER car accident I had during earlier in the summer. Now the damage to my new bumper is even worse and my transmission may have been hurt by the accident too. And I'll have to go through all the insurance nightmares again. I'm sure that's the last thing I need with a 15 page paper, a presentation and a big publishing project due in the next couple of weeks. Please pray for my poor frazzled soul!

Quarter Life Relaxation

Yesterday, yours truly turned 25 years old. It was quite an unventful day. I went to watch a movie alone, and a child sitting behind me kicked the back of my chair at least 30 times. But I enjoyed the film (which wasn't Pride & Prejudice by the way) nonetheless. I went home. Ate lunch, watched TV, listened to my new itty bitty teeny weeny itsy bitsy iPod Nano (which now has 300 songs on it) and then ate dinner! Sounds boring, but the best part about it is that it was indeed mundane. I was able to, for the first time in a LONG WHILE, take the chance to relax, take it slow and easy and just enjoy some free time. That was indeed the best part of my birthday and the best present that I gave myself. And I don't mind working hard today and tomorrow knowing that it allowed me my one day of freedom.

Pride & Prejudice; Turkey & 25

I have a lot of nothing planned next week. It will be my first week in a while that I can actually take some time out to relax! I'll have part of Wednesday, all of Thursday, Thanksgiving affectionately known as Turkey Day, and all of Friday, my 25th Birthday, off! No work! Yippee! And since I have school only on Monday and Tuesday I'll have 4 straight days of freedom! I can catch up on some leisure reading, catching up on my favorite bloggers and some ZZZs. More importantly, I can take the time to watch a real movie at a real cinema. Something I haven't done almost all year! Particularly, I am anxious to to see the new Pride & Prejudice movie. I sobbed when I first saw the trailer (watch it here). I thought that I wouldn't want to see it, because that really annoying Keira Knightley is playing the best female character in all of fiction, Elizabeth Bennett. But when I saw some clips, I was in awe. It looked absolutely breath-taking. And it will be a nice change from the 5-hour BBC/A&E mini-series that I'm used to watching incessantly!

In other news, my parents have finally broken down and decided to join forces and buy me an iPod as a present. I gave them the huge sob story of how, year after year, I get unthoughtful presents like cash and TJMaxx clothing (my mom works for the store) while other daughters get REAL gifts, stuff they actually DESIRE! I told them how everyone at work and school has an iPod and how it would save them money if they made it a joint gift. I even offered to buy it online for them (with their credit card of course)! They fell for it, so I'm getting a white 4GB iPod Nano very soon! I'm so excited. I feel more technologically-advanced just knowing it's on its way!

Naughty Naughty

Now that I discovered that I can post to my blog via e-mail to a specific address (that I create), I know for a fact that I'm going to able to make more entries! Just thought I'd share something interesting with you guys (something interesting to me that is, but boring to most I'm sure). Recently I discovered that it is illegal for copy shops to photocopy parts of copyrighted books and in turn sell those copies to college students in coursepacks. The reason for it being illegal is that the copy shop is making money off of the publisher's product and the publisher doesn't make anything off the transaction. This makes sense, but I was confused because as an undergraduate at Northeastern University I would buy coursepacks of short stories, literary criticism, tables/charts/maps, etc. from the school's affiliate copy shop, Gnomon's. The coursepacks were basically photocopies from published books. And I thought to myself, in retrospect, how did Northeastern University and Gnomon's get away with this when my current school cannot?

Well it seems they can't get away with it! And in a recent issue of Publisher's Weekly, it states that a whole list of publishers are suing the same Gnomon Copy that I used to buy undergraduate coursepacks at, for breach of copyright! They are not suing the whole chain of Gnomon Copys rather just the one that works in conjunction with Northeastern. So all those old coursepacks sitting up in my attic are HOT illegal goods.

Favicon

I'm experimenting with Favicons. Let me know if you see the above image in your Favorites if you bookmark it (if you already have it bookmarked 1) thank you! I love you! and 2) delete it and bookmark it again) or beside the web address above if you don't have IE. I don't think blogger is Favicon friendly, but it's worth a shot.

FYI- the image is of Norma Shearer's eye. Hee hee.

Everything's Changing, Nothing Stays the Same

Eveything seems to be changing all of a sudden, and I've had to accept it. The dynamics of my family are changing. When relatives die there is a bit of restructuring. For example, my uncle Joaquim passed away recently and my aunt Noemiah was left alone. She moved in with her son and left her family farm. When ever we visited Portugal, their farm was our mainstay. It was our base. All of our nearby relatives would congregate there to see us. Now that's gone. We also visited family in the Dominican Republic. But now they've all moved to New York to Washington Heights. So trips to that Caribbean island make no sense now since we've got no one to visit. And up north in Canada, my favorite uncle John has cancer. He just underwent major surgery and no one's sure how much time he's got left. If he passes away, my aunt would move down here with us. Both my aunt and my mother are twins and equally psychotic in their own ways. But together they are explosive. If my aunt moves down here, I move out!
Well, I should move out anyways. My parents both drive me up the wall insane! Throw my crazy aunt into the mix and I would wind up in an asylum! And I'm almost 25 and I've got no independence of my own. So plans are underway to move out. I'll have to move near work, which is a very difficult thing to do. The closer you live to the city, the more expensive it is. And I need to move close enough to merit the actual move. I can't live with a roommate either. I'm scared I'll grow dependant on them. I really need to be able to live by myself, on my own with only myself to lean on. At least for a little while, so I can grow up! The gamble in all of this is that, my job's not one that I'm absolutely sure I'll keep for a long time. The company could restructure (there is that word again) with all it's growth and decide that they can split my job into two positions, with me not being in either one. Then there is school, which is becoming a major regret of mine recently. This was the only time I could start, but it's also come at the most inconvenient time ever. I wish I could have put it off for one more year, but unfortunately the school does not accept deferment for that program. So I had to at least start. And now I'm contemplating a leave of abscence for one semester, to give me time to put my life in order.
Ok, so I just spilled my guts. So be nice and pray for me as I'll be expecting some very difficult months ahead.

All Dressed Up for Autumn!

Moment of Despair

Halloween is evil! Pure and unadulterated evil! With so much Halloween candy going around, basically being passed on an imaginary conveyor belt right beneath my nose so I can't escape it, I was led into temptation and I fell! Fortunately not very hard, but I still fell. I had a revolting coffee this morning, which spiked up my insulin requiring sugar to keep a balance. I could have eaten that banana I had on my desk, but no. I was in the throws of heady, psychedlic low-sugar trip and my hand went right for the Mystery Flavor Airhead. I haven't had an Airhead in years!!! (I used to do other people's homework and received big bars of the stuff as payment. Shameful I know!). But the sugary Airhead wasn't enough! I had to go for that snack size Butterfinger Crisp as well! I ate half before complete and utter embarassment and and overwhelming feeling of failure passed over me. ::sigh:: You know, I didn't even enjoy it. I'm so past the point of enjoying sugar, that it's only societal pressure and the obligatory caffeine induced insulin high that make me want to eat sugar. Otherwise, I don't even miss it! I think this relapse is also part of all the stress that I'm enduring. Anyways, that my rant. I'm sure you'll hear from me again once the other commercial holidays pop around the corner, luring me into another sugar-craving frenzy!