April Showers

I spend 90% of my time on campus chillin' on the couch by the psych department, drawing on the chalkboards in the English building or, like today, listening to music in the auditorium. It's no wonder then that I feel some sense of ownership over the campus so I was kind of proud when I saw these flowers coming up today.

Not proud like a gardener would be, but maybe like the old English lady who hires a gardener and then accepts praise from her neighbors.

Anyway, I did get off campus for a little while yesterday. I took myself to the movies, choosing 21 Jump Street because a) it got good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and b) it came out a few weeks ago so I knew there would be very few people in the theater. Ideally I would be in the theater all alone but inevitably there are a few extra people and they always seem to sit near me. There are enough rows for us to each have our own and no one should be sitting in front of anyone else, but they manage to sit within spitting distance.

I had the good fortune to sit behind a woman and her teenage son. I actually walked in behind them and found a seat, then they moved so they could sit directly in front of me. Now, I'm not going to give away the film, but there were a few parts that might have made Betty White stand up and take notice so I can just imagine what this mother and prepubescent were dealing with. All in all, despite some cheap laughs, it was a pretty good movie but nothing like the original show.

So now it's Monday, April 2n and by this time last year I had given up my apartment. I house sat until April 7th when I officially moved into the Jetta full time. I'll have to think of a fun anniversary surprise...

Laptop Issues

About four years back, when my father upgraded to a new laptop, he passed this IBM Thinkpad onto me.

She has been a trooper.

She got me through college and acted as my television, personal shopper, filing cabinet, and link to the larger (and less collegial) world. Hauled around in backpacks, stuffed under seats, dropped and bumped more times than she should have been... It's amazing she's lasted this long.

Her fraying power cord is wrapped with black electrical tape and sometimes, when I tip her to the right, her CD-RW drive falls out. But these things are purely cosmetic, like the missing CAP lock button that disappeared a few years back. Sure, she's a little slow and I have to use Ctrl+Alt+Del a few times a day, but she still runs and, as you might have noticed, I'm loath to throw away anything that, with a little encouragement, will still function.

Despite my attachment to her, I did linger in the electronics department this morning messing about with the new laptops. They're so light and sleek, all their buttons work. Cameras and memory card readers seem to come standard now and they start up instantaneously. And they're so cheap!

Well, maybe someday when the girl needs more TLC than I'm willing to give her. At the rate she's disintegrating that might be sooner rather than later.