Honey, I'm home!

I got kicked out of my apartment Friday at noon. If I was still in there after that time, they were going to charge me sick amounts of money. Apparently, if I stay there even an hour past the time I was supposed to be gone, they charge me for the entire month of Christmas break (or "winter break," as the PC-nazis demand).

I woke up around 3:30 in the morning on Friday and couldn't get to sleep again, which was fine. I still had to pack and clean up a bit. So I packed and vacuumed and then sat down to play my computer for a little while. Rob showed up around 9:00, after I'd been playing for only about ten minutes. Since I was being kicked out at noon, and my plane wouldn't leave until six o'clock the next morning, he had agreed to let me leave my stuff (the stuff I was bringing home) in his car. He also had agreed to take care of Maxxie while I was gone. (He was going to be gone for two weeks himself, but he's really good with technological gadgets, so he made a pump thingy on a timer that would drip water into both Maxxie and Randy (his spider plant) for 45 minutes a day.

We wrapped Maxxie up in a trash bag that he blew warm air into, and Rob handed me his car keys and told me to put my stuff in his car and meet him inside, because he wanted to get Maxxie indoors as quick as possible before she got too cold. Rob's car is an older one that has one key for the door and a different key for the ignition. I wasn't sure which was which, so I tried them both. One of the keys wouldn't fit in the door at all, so I put in the other key. It fit just fine, but when I turned it, it snapped in half. And I felt really terrible about it, because I could tell Rob was already not in a great mood, and this would definitely not help.

I was right. Rob didn't yell at me or blame me, but he definitely wasn't happy. We sprinted to the bus stop right then because the next bus to Fred Meyer was leaving in five minutes. (It would have been so useful if MY car were working, but no, I just had to go and break that one two days before! I swear, I jinx everything I touch.) So we got to Fred Meyer, and the guy said that sorry, he couldn't help us. We'd have to go to a professional locksmith. Fortunately, he knew one, so he gave us directions. Because I had to unplug my computer and throw away the perishable food left in the fridge still, Rob wanted me to go home while he went across town to get the key fixed. But I felt bad and would have felt worse if I didn't take responsibility and get the darn key fixed myself. But the way the busses ran, it would have taken hours to get to the locksmith and back.

Then I remembered that I had some other friends with cars. So I called up Katie. She said she was just about to leave the town to go to Anchorage, but she was willing to take us to the locksmith. So she dropped us off and drove away. We went inside, the lady fixed the key in under a minute, we paid two dollars, and then walked around outside for about six blocks or so to find the bus stop to go back to the U. (Good thing it was warm that day--which "warm" means the temperature in Fahrenheit was a positive number.)

The next bus back to the U wouldn't get there until quarter after noon, which was after the time I was to be kicked out. While we were waiting, a guy from my English class came into the transit station. I'd noticed this guy before because he has an accent I can't place and he talks a lot in class, but I've never actually spoken with him. He apparently knew Rob too, but then, Rob's lived on campus in the freshman dorms for so long that he knows like half the people on campus, and probably like a third of everyone else in Fairbanks too. (Seriously, we can't go ANYWHERE without people saying hi to him and calling him by name.) Well, Rob was grouchy and I was, I admit, more than a little sulky, so this guy did pretty much all the talking. He didn't stop talking/monologuing for the next 45 minutes except for the occasional yes/no question, such as, "Have you met my father?" I didn't mind too much, though. It was better than trying to disappear into the floor while I watched Rob glare at his feet and made the occasional tentative but miserably failed remark to attempt to lighten the mood.

After we got back, I left Rob, hoping he would cheer up faster if I weren't around. He told me not to bother going back to my dorm to try and unplug my computer because it was already too late, and I was going to get charged a fee for improper checkout and I couldn't do anything about it. I ignored him and went back anyway, figuring they'd probably just go down the line to check if everyone was out. My dorms towards the middle-ish, so they hopefully hadn't gotten there yet. To be safe, I knocked before going in, and called out real loud. If I ran into someone, I figured I could just explain what had happened and that I just needed three minutes. I figured they'd be nice about it. At least, I hoped so.

Well, I lucked out. No one was there. And it was a really good thing I had gone back, too, because Sarah, thinking I was going to come back, had left the lights on and the doors unlocked. Man, I would have gotten in so much trouble for that! So I dashed upstairs, unplugged everything without bothering to shut it down properly (I'm going to hate myself when it turns out I fried my computer by doing that), then ran downstairs, grabbed some of the perishables from the fridge, like milk and bologna and salami, turned off the lights, and left, locking the door. Man, I felt so much better! And I was highly amused that I had to sneak into my own apartment.

Anyway, fast-forwarding to the plane flight. First of all, my first flight left from Fairbanks at six in the morning. It was really cool, too, because I got a window seat, and once we got above the clouds, I could look out the window and see eleventy billion stars, except down on the horizon, where I couldn't see any because the dancing green lights got in the way. Well, they weren't dancing so much as just slowly creeping around, but it was still really pretty.

Then I got to Minneapolis to discover that my flight to Washington-Dulles had been canceled. That was the first time that's ever happened to me. Fascinating. Now what? So I talked to a flight attendant lady, who seemed really grumpy, like her day had been absolutely horrible and she wanted to take it out on someone. She told me that there would be no flights to Dulles for at least the next day or two. I asked if she could get me to Raleigh instead. She said yes, there would be a flight to Raleigh in an hour and a half, but my stuff was going to Dulles, it would not be rerouted, and I was responsible for getting to Dulles to retrieve it. She was pretty nasty about it, too. I said that was fine, I would get to Dulles if she would get me to Raleigh. She reminded me several times that I would not be going the same place as my bags. Yes, lady. You told me.

So I flew down to Raleigh and stayed with my grandma and uncle for the night. My little sister drove south this morning to pick me up. We had a fun drive back. I forgot how fun it is to have a sister. I'm sure I'll hate her guts again in a week or two, but for today, I thoroughly enjoyed having someone to be stupid with. At one point, she pointed out the window at a cow and announced, "Fat!" Another time, I was impressed with how well she remembered directions, where to turn, what the landmarks were, and so on. "Geez, Dianna, you have such an uncanny sense of direction!" I said.

"Thanks," she replied. "At this light, you need to turn right," she added, pointing to the left.

Well, so much for that.

I got home and we ("we" being Dad because he's better at getting things done than me because he's more assertive, and anyway, I'm sick of acting responsible) called up the airport to ask about my suitcase. Turns out it isn't in Dulles. It isn't even in Minneapolis. It went to Raleigh. On the same flight I was on. And by leaving the airport without filing the claim, I had officially abandoned the bag, and they could, by rights, keep it, sell it, burn it, or do whatever the heck they wanted. I was really ticked about the fact that the lady had been so adamant with me that my bags would NOT be going to Raleigh with me, and yet, there they were, after I didn't even bother looking because my uncle was already there to pick me up and I had assumed there was no way they would be there.

But, like I said, Dad has an amazing way of getting things done, and he had some strings pulled, and they're shipping it to us on the very next flight, and it should be in the Weyers Cave airport (like five miles away) by 9:35 tomorrow morning. Dad says if it shows up like they said, he's going to write a very nice thank you letter. I think I may do the same. I hate hassles, and I'll be relieved if this one gets resolved so smoothly.

I'll stop there for tonight, since this post is practically a novel already.

PS - Rob gets points for being thoughtful and paying attention. A few months ago, I was drooling over the game Apples to Apples in Fred Meyer. It's a fantastic game, and it was on sale... for... 27 dollars. Which is sick. So I eventually decided not to get it, being the poor college student that I am. Well, two days before I left, Rob asked what I wanted for Christmas. I shrugged and gave a noncommittal answer. "I dunno... like a t-shirt or something... I keep a wish list on my blog..." The next day he showed up with... guess what. I'll give you a hint: Not a t-shirt. A+! Rob gets a gold star for paying attention and remembering something I had drooled over months before. Ten points! :D