May 27, 2003

Triumphant Return

Yesterday marked my triumphant return to the proverbial "dorm" life. It was definitely a weird sensation moving back to the Units, especially since Unit Three is really different from Unit One. Moving in was a horrendous experience, not only because I had to move EVERYTHING I own out of my apartment and into the dorms, but also because of general circumstances and problems that arose.

I woke up at around 7am after going to bed at around 3am packing stupid crap in the kitchen and cleaning out the "bag room" (don't ask). I went to UHaul, picked up my van thing, and then headed to fill gas and to my apartment. The van was freakin' huge, and I was afraid that I was either going to hit someone or just crash into a light pole. I also have very little experience driving in Berkeley, so the crazy traffic wasn't helping either. After loading up all my stuff, I drove to Unit Three, expecting to stop at the Durant side loading zone, only to find it completely occupied by PARKED CARS! What the hell?! Why are there people just PARKED in the loading zone! So I had to drive ALL the way to Bowditch, and come back around to Channing side, only to find large construction equipment in the loading zone on that side. Hey, look at that. What an opportune time to block off the loading zone with large vehicles and just crap. Thousands of people have to move out of the unit, and more importantly, I, have to move in, and here you dumbasses are, BLOCKING OFF BOTH LOADING ZONES. I was so frustrated by this and the van being huge and unmanageable, that I turned right onto Dana. WHOOPS! That's a one way street and I was going the wrong way. Luckily, there were no cars coming down the other way, or I would probably have just crashed and died.

Anyway, I finally was able to find parking and unload all my crap. The really cute part of this whole situation was that the rat bastards living on Ida Sproul floor 2 had totally junked the floor, and they had to bring in an extra special cleaning battalion to clean it up. Even then, the place sorta smelled funny (not haha funny, more like let me murder you in your sleep funny) -- especially certain rooms. So instead of moving in right away at noon, we had to put our stuff in the lounge and then move in at night. This wasn't as big of an inconvenience as I was expecting, but it still sucked. Much hate goes out to the 2002-2003 Ida floor 2 residents. I hope your hell smells of rotten eggs and barf.

The rest of Sunday was dedicated to moving in and finding a place to store all my excess garbage (mostly computer parts and such), and I was so tired I fell asleep almost immediately after going to bed. Today was 10 hours of training, from 9am to 10pm, which has left me tired and not wanting to do much else. I have managed to clean my room and get adjusted to living in a small space again, but there are still many things tleft to do to settle in. Some especially nostalgic events in the last day have included the "smell" of a dorm room, showering with shoes on, crapping on a piece of paper, finding a bathroom locker that wasn't dirty, walking down the hall and loud music bumping out of every room, and of course waiting around for the elevator in the hall lobby. Almost feels like freshman year all over again, except the good part is that this is the ideal living situation. We get to live in the dorms, party and have fun, and there is NO school! NONE! So awesome! I have started a plan to go to Yoghurt Park every night. Sure as hell beats eating La Burrita every night like I used to do back in Unit One!

Although I'm only on the second floor, my room has a pretty decent view of the city and the bay. Some lame tree is blocking our view of Golden Gate, but hey, you can't have everything, right? A couple things I noticed about Unit Three that differ from Units One and Two: the ethernet jacks aren't underneath your desk -- that's so stupid. Why would they put the jacks on the side of the room? Why? Why be dumb like that. No one's computer is there -- why should there be a plug there? Another thing is that the lockers in the bathrooms are taller, but more narrow, which prevents my basket thing from going in. It's pretty annoying that I have to like spin my basket around and around to get it to fit inside the locker. Finally, the U shaped bathroom arrangement is super trippy, with the sinks on one side, and the showers/stalls on the other side. In my opinion, Unit 1 and 2 have a better arrangement, but that could just be me bringing my bias to the table. Who knows? Moreover, who really cares? All in all, it's been a pretty exhausting few days, but I'm sure it will settle down once I get used to living here and finish up moving all my stuff around. In any case, CalSO is fast approaching and I'm pretty excited.