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Line
   "I write because I do not know what I think until I read what I say."                                                             -Flannery O' Connor

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Line2

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Always Keep WD-40 Handy || November Diary

I seldom wear rings, scratch that, I never wear rings. I have a tendency to lose things pretty often (you can ask my friends), so a ring would be anywhere else but my finger. A couple of weeks back there was a Vendor Fair at school and I thought I would check it out. There were plenty of shops lying around, clothing, geeky stickers, plushies larger than necessary, books (BOOKS!), and a whole lotta jewelry.

I recalled a friend told me that there were rings on sale for $5.00. That sounded pretty cheap, I guess? I wouldn't really know. Anyway, I decided to go look at the rings, try a few on, and maybe I'd break my no ring wearing rule.

The exact octopus that tried to take my finger off.
There was a super awesome ring that- wait for it... LOOKED LIKE AN OCTOPUS WAS WRAPPED ON YOUR FINGER. If anything was cool in my book it would be sea animals on my hand. I tried on the ring and... stuck, obviously the ring was stuck on my sausage finger. I tried taking it off but that thing wouldn't budge. I stood in the booth for ten minutes trying to twist the blasted thing off my finger. Mind you, it was just the booth owner and myself standing there.

In my panicked mind I thought I would have to buy the ring and it would stay on my finger forever. After several more minutes of struggling, the owner offered some hand sanitizer to help take it off. I wasn't really sure if it would work, but I guess I'd better try. Even with the sanitizer there was still nothing. My index finger was almost purple at this point, NEED BLOOD CIRCULATION NOW.

I thought there would be some lotion in my bag so I gave it a quick check and found something better, I had my WD-40 pen. For those who may not know, WD-40 is basically an oil and water mixture.

I quickly put some of the WD-40 around my finger and the ring slipped off with ease! The booth owner was a bit confused,

"Why... do you carry WD-40 with you?" he asked.

The only answer I could think of,

"I'm an engineer .___." (If this isn't what an engineer would have then I don't know what is)

With that I slowly gave the ring back to him, warned him that he should give it a quick rinse/wash, and profusey apologize for the trouble I had caused.

I think I'll keep away from rings for now.


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Spaghetti Sauce on My Homework || October Diary

How can that bowl be perfectly broken? 

Mornings are not my thing.

Luckily for me on Tuesdays and Thursdays I get to wake up extra early (cue sarcasm). Sadly, my first class begins at 7:30 am, is that even legal? I feel like I ask that question too often.

On the subject of 'asking questions' I was also wondering if maybe I should vlog these entries, because honestly that is what's happening here (what a horrible segue). You're just missing my intense FLUCTUATIONS. And the uhms and uhhs I say in between. Not that many people actually read this, do you, do they? Maybe I will sometime soon... or if you're actually reading this (thank you, by the way) could you in someway let me know? Through telepathy obviously, just kidding my radar is a bit off. Wait, where was I...

Ah, YES! So back to this morning, it was indeed early. Since I live off campus I need to commute via bus; so I'd have to wake up earlier at 6:30 am. Sometimes I can sneak in a 6:45 am wake up.

Yesterday I had been up all night working on one of my engineering assignments which only took about ten pages and a mountainous pile of eraser shavings to do (maybe a few tears too). My Tuesdays are pretty long, so I also made spaghetti to bring with me. Little did I know that this would be used against me. The homework was due promptly in the beginning of my 7:30 am class.

I was in a bit of a rush this coming morning so I packed my spaghetti in a presumably leak proof container (that I had too much faith in), dropped it in my backpack and dashed off to school. Do you see where I am going with this?

Late to class, great. I shyly walked to the nearest empty seat.

"Now, I just need to get my paper into the homework pile."

As I opened my bag an aroma similar to an Italian restaurant filled the air. Maybe I should use another description, my cooking isn't that great, but you get the point. Oh no... the container failed me. Tomato sauce was all inside my backpack, my notebooks were stained, and there were diced onion pieces floating around. I didn't care too much about that, I was more concerned with the  assignment I had to turn in. It looked like a bloody mess --the homework was 1/4 drenched in sauce.

What other choice did I have other than to turn the assignment in, it was already due! Thankfully, I had at least one napkin in my bag to wipe off the chunky bits from the assignment. So apologies to the Teacher Aid who has to grade my oily, spaghetti stained paper.

Lesson of the day? I suppose it could be 'don't trust your containers.' Well, you can trust yours, but don't trust mine.

On a brighter note at least I turned the assignment in.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

What Not to Do at the DMV || October Diary

Hi-yo Everyone!

So do I keep right, stop, what?

Don't stone me for this but... I can't drive. I don't mean "I'm just a bad driver" (well, that is true), but what I mean is that I don't have my license... yet. I KNOW, I KNOW,  I know what you're all thinking, but Paulina, aren't you already 22? Isn't your insurance going to cost more in the future?? WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ALL THIS TIME?!?! DON'T YOU WANT FREEDOM???? Believe me I have heard it all; my non-licensed self was a constant topic in every single car ride when I was in Boston. The thing is, I got my permit later in my senior year of high school and never had the time to actually... drive. If I did drive it wasn't that much and I was quite terrified. And so, as I bounced off to college my permit expired and I was in for a long ride of forever being a passenger.

Whilst in college I couldn't really do much, my friends generally drove, and I didn't have any other opportunity to continue learning, so that was basically it.

Since time is passing quickly I decided to take the permit test again so I can finally be on the road to obtain my license (literally).

This past Friday I went to the DMV and of course it was a mistake laden experience. To keep things short here's my list of WHAT NOT TO DO AT THE DMV (that I obviously ended up doing).

1. WAIT IN THE INCORRECT LINE
I made an appointment before I went to the DMV, but didn't realize that there would be separate lines. So I waited in the horrendously long "non-appointment" line for 15 minutes before realizing there was another line specifically for appointments. I had to awkwardly nudge my way out.

2. KNOCK PEOPLE OVER WITH YOUR PURSE
I have an affinity for insanely large purses. I like to bring a lot of material and knick knacks with me (you never know when you'll need a phillips head screwdriver am I right?). However, this one bag I have goes above and beyond large. Since there were so many people waltzing around it was difficult not to have my bag occasionally getting too intimate with others or just knocking them over. Apologies to this one child I accidentally hit in the shoulder!!

3. PANIC WHEN TAKING THE TEST
You're probably chuckling at this point because everyone and their mother has their permit by now. Or not chuckling, just blowing more air out of your nose than usual. They have the option of taking the test on the computer instead of paper which I opted for. A big mistake on my part. I don't think I read the instructions well, I didn't. I think you could skip questions, but I wasn't sure if that meant skip without answering, or meaning you could go back. Most of the questions had to be answered on the spot (aka how can I double check?). I was looking around so much in a fret I misread many questions, and the guy overlooking everyone had to remind me to stay focused. Which brings me to my next point...

4. FAIL THE TEST
So... because I was unprepared and misread everything left and right, I inevitably ended up failing the test. Sadly, when you fail the online test, the test sort of just ends and I was just standing there wondering what I should do next.

Anyway, I failed the test but thankfully I was able to take the test again right after. When I say right after what I mean is after waiting another forty minutes. The second time I requested to take the paper test so I could actually review my answers instead of being under pressure via computer. AND I FAILED AGAIN, just kidding I passed this time with flying colors (Paulina, it's just a permit test).

These coming weeks I'll be out and about driving on the road, so watch out world! If you're not concerned you should be, because I am.

Cheers,
Po