Flat tires, innane questions and babies, oh my!

2003-01-30 - 1:44 p.m.

Argh...I so don't want to be here today....

Last night, as I was leaving my dinner and a movie 'date' (with Ross' girlfriend, before people start frantically calling Mike and telling him how terrible I am), I noticed my car making weird scrapey sounds. So I pulled into the SaveRite parking lot - the one right next to the movie theater, and scoped out the situation. My front right tire was completely flat! I'm not entirely sure how it happened, since I didn't hit anything, and it was fine on my drive TO the date.

So anyway, I called roadside assistance (since I pay for it anyway), because it was raining and I was alone and didn't feel much like getting soaking wet and cold changing a tire when somebody else could just do it for me. That was going to take 45 minutes. So I called Mike and he kept me company.

The guys came and changed my tire, it was all good. I got it fixed this morning. I also had a few other things to fix, so I figured I'd just take care of them as well. It took almost 2 hours, but at least it was near Target, so I got to go shopping (got a Swiffer sweeper - yay!!).

But now it's nearly 2, and I'm still not in the swing of the whole working thing.

I also have my brother IMming me with innane questions. I guess they're not innane to him, so I should be patient. He just started taking classes at Bergen and it turns out he needs a math tutor. So he was asking me how that works, and if it would help. I was totally honest with him, I told him it would work just fine as long as he studied, and did practice problems, and tried to understand. But if he didn't pay attention or do any extra work, then it would be a waste of time and money. I don't think he liked that answer. Also, since he went to a special school and has a learning disability, he's much younger educationally than he should be, and therefore is taking many general classes. He's learning things about taking effective notes, and has a million questions about it. He doesn't understand why writing margin notes would be useful at all, so he asked me if I do it and how it helps. I don't know how to answer those questions. I don't think I have the greatest study skills in the world, and I'm always evolving what I do, but I don't know how to explain it to him. It's just my system and it works for me. I've never really struggled much until graduate school (and even then I'm fine, I just don't get As anymore), so I guess I just don't understand. I listed all of the things I do to learn stuff, and he didn't like the list (which included paying attention in class, paying attention to my homework, reasoning my way through problems, reading the text book, reading my notes, doing practice problems, asking questions, etc). My baby brother is a very lazy boy. Not that I'm the quintessential, all star student or anything.

He also used the word 'lucky' to describe me because I know how to 'label' properly when I write an essay. Apparantly, 'labeling' involves writing a topic sentence and using punctuation properly. I never called that 'labeling' before - I've always called it writing.

I'm not sure which one of these things I've always taken for granted - my intellect or my education. Or maybe it's a combination of the two.

On a positive note - only 15 more days :-). I don't think I've EVER looked forward to Valentine's Day before. But then, I've never anticipated anybody special coming into town to celebrate it with me.

Also, I guess Mike does deserve a shout out - because he kept me company on the phone while I waited for the tire guys to show up, while they fixed my car, and while I drove home so he could make sure I got there safely. He then proceded to stay on the phone with me until I had calmed down enough and felt better about the world. This was all despite the fact he had a test at work that he needed to study for.

Actually, I have more to write about. but I'm getting tired of writing, so I'll make it quick. I had a weird dream that I had a baby! Her name was Mena (which is my cousin Nancy's baby's name), and she lived with my mom while I was in graduate school. I wanted her back, though, so I told my mother I was taking her. We had a whole fight about it. There was other stuff, too, but I don't want to get into the details. Mike was the father, despite the fact that she was nearly a year old.