So, Last Saturday... :(

...my transmission officially kicked the bucket.
My car is now officially unusable. I am without car. Sans vehicle. Screwed.
*sigh*
I don't know if it is going to be worth fixing ('93 Saturn SW2 in good condition- other than the tranny). I don't have money for a decent tranny job. But I don't really have money for a new car, either. Which means I'm stuck on campus, for now. Dammit, I loved that car.
I mean, living at Cornell, I'm REALLY used to walking everywhere by now, in all kinds of weather, but some places are just not cost-effective to walk to, timewise. Not to mention my friends who live a couple hours' drive away from me, both upstate and downstate, who might as well be living in Texas, for all I will get to see them now.

Last saturday, because it was my usual grocery shopping day and because I had a potluck dinner to cook for, I took the bus to the grocery store. Tops, not wegmans, because wegmans is farther away.

I left here around 2:15. I got back around 5:15. Waiting for the bus SUCKS. But you know what sucks worse? Waiting for the bus for half an hour, only to have it pass your official stop because it is too full.

But of course it's too full because not only has Cornell overenrolled itself again this year to milk every last tuition dollar they can get, but they've also raised the price of a parking permit to $900. !!!

(good thing I have a grandfather clause that lets mine stay at around 600.)

Nine hundred dollars? Are they mad? No, just extremely greedy. Parking is tight, yes, but we have a good many spaces left this year in the freshman campus lot where i park. Hmm, gee, I wonder why.

Could be that lots of kids' parents don't feel like paying to be EXTORTED more than they already are.
Which, of course, leads to overcrowded buses.

How convenient that T.C.A.T. also raised their prices this past year from $1 to $1.50. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it's enough to make me frown into my wallet trying to find two quarters that I don't have, and I'm an "affluent" Cornellian- I wonder how the minimum-wage townies with no transportation other than the buses feel about the price hike. Say you allocated $10 a week for your bus fare to and from work. but now its $15. Not counting any errands you might have to run on the weekend. When your paycheck is around $100 a week, that's not a happy thing. You haven't gotten a raise, but now it costs you 50% more to get to that same minimum wage job.

Much with the suckage. errrrrg.

Good thing I will only have to do this once a week.

I don't even want to think about trying to get to Wegmans on the bus. It would probably take me like 5 hours or so. I will miss it. Tops has decent coupons and savings if you have their little reward card, but their selection, at least at the store near me, is not-so-good. I had to buy my 2nd or 3rd choice item several times because they didn't have what I was looking for.

They didn't have jiffy cornbread mix, for crying out loud! They had jiffy pie crust mix, and jiffy all-purpose white dough mix, but not jiffy cornbread mix? This company has only been making cornbread mix since, like, what, the 1950's? But no. I had to buy crappy little Tops "corn muffin" mix in a weird pouch thing with all these other ingredients that make it more fine and sweet than corny and gritty. I don't want corn-fluff, damn you! But I digress.


On the plus side, I signed up for their savings card, which ended up saving me almost $18. So that was good.

So, Last Saturday (part 2)... :)

But Saturday, the day with the car-bus-grocery fiasco, didn't turn out as bad as it was starting to. It was actually unexpectedly downright fun. Because, even though I started cooking right away, my casserole didn't get done until i was already late for the potluck. I called our club president and let her know what was going on with me; she said if I felt like calling it a day and just not coming, that would be fine. so i did. That's when my day started to get better.

My casserole turned out GREAT, except for too much cheese, so it was a little richer than I wanted. I feel like it needs to be served over a bed of shredded lettece, kind of like a taco salad, next time. Then I made fresh salsa, which also turned out extremely yummy. I wrote out the recipe for reference, maybe i'll post it here later. I used my new Henkel knives (yay!) to chop away to my hearts content, both agression-releasing and fun. Plus, henkel knives are sharp and well balanced and just a joy to use. oh my goodness. no more tomato mush on the cutting board. yay new knives. okay. sorry. going to stop obsessing over that now. It just that... when i have good tools, like good paint or pencils or markers or clay or whatever, including knives (because of course food is a very useful art), it makes me very happy. I need to work on my technique, but since i have a copy of Gisslen's Professional Cooking to back me up, I should be ready for my Culinary Theory and Practice class next term.


After that, I got commandeered into our t.v. room by Adam, a fellow Risleyite, who was holding a 'Restore your faith in humanity' night by showing "Amelie" and "The Muppet Movie". Now, Muppets are very dear to me, I have a soft nostalgic spot for the old school muppets, and I love that movie. but I'd never seen Amelie, though I heard it was good. I sat down and watched it. It was. Oh! and Adam had bought lots and lots of good chocolate for everyone, and spread it around the coffee table as movie snack food. Yay Risley Kommittee that gave him free funding for chocolate. I love this place dearly. Why didn't i live here before?


So anwyay, after THAT, a guy named Justin was getting a bunch of us to dress up like pirates and go raid The Haunt, a local dance club, because it was '80's night, and of course what could be more of a non-sequitur than a pirate raid on '80's night? And of course, as you know, I am afflicted with a great love for dressing up in period clothing, and will use any excuse. So I grabbed one of my old shifts and O'er dresses, and laced my self up quickly, threw on a headscarf, and became an instant member of our bonny pirate crew.

We all piled into about 4 or 5 cars, and drove down to the backside of The Haunt, which is situated on the docks of one of the Cayuga Lake inlets. They have a deck/balcony thing that overlooks the water next to the piers. We all drove and parked a ways up stream from them. There were about 30 of us. Our plan was to use a giant kiddy pool to sail downstream, right up to the club's deck, and "raid" them. We had plainclothes plants on the deck for tying up and everything. However, the only problem was, our 'ship' only held 4-6 people at a time, so multiple trips would be necessary. And, after much deliberation as to the security situation and the seaworthiness of our vessel, our first brave crew shoved off, and the rest of us crept silently down the banks, tracking their progress.

They finally docked with a glorious cry, and clambered up on the club's deck from the boat below! We were a success!

Sadly, the bouncers came out and set a watch for the rest of us out there, so we all had to settle for going in the front way and paying, which kind of dampened our spirits a bit, but we were not going to give up so easily.

But once we were all inside, we ran about, freaking the mundanes, and commandeered the stage, and danced many a fine jig, and drank rum, and made some of the more amused clubbers honorary pirate crew members, and some of them even came with us when we drove back to campus to raid the frats later!

Arr, 'twas a glorious night, it was. I only regret that I didn't get to actually sail. Oh well. maybe next time.


After that, We returned triumphant, marching to risely singing at the top of our lungs the fine marching song of "99 bottles of rum on the wall", which I started and everyone else took up, much to my delight.


After that I chilled in Tammany (Risley's little nightclub thingy) with a cup of hot mint tea, and went to bed.


The next day, I slept late and spent the whole day reading. For pleasure. (how long has it been? I don't even remember.)

I feel a little guilty, but not really. I don't play around very often, and it was one of the most memorable weekends i've ever had at college.