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Paperwork errand
Jul. 21st, 2004 02:51 pmSo National Merit Scholarship wants me to send in a readmission form thingy to prove I'm back in school. Problem is, they want the school to fill out half the form too, officially. Meaning I have to run all the way up to Cal to get the Office of the Registrar to process the thing. Sounds easy, right? Ha.
Of course on the day that I have to get up early to catch the BART so as to get to Cal before the office closes or something, I get insomnia the night before. I was wide awake staring at the ceiling at like 3 or 4 a.m. Ugh. At least I wasn't too muggy when I got up this morning.
Then, 8:30 am, I leave for the BART station, 'cause it's cheaper than the gas cost of driving and 'cause I wouldn't have to worry about parking. Well, parking in Berkeley, anyway, 'cause apparently I didn't realize that on weekdays, the parking lot at the BART station would be crammed full of people who use BART to commute to/from work. Now, BART has a huge parking lot on both sides. They were both full. Crammed full. I even spotted a few illegal parkings. All the sidewalks around the area were full. All the parking lots of places nearby were either full or had huge signs saying you can't park there for BART. Le sigh. So after driving in circles for about 15 minutes or so, I finally threw up my hands and went, "whatever". At this rate I'm never gonna get onto BART, and since I have the car, I'll just drive the darn way to Berkeley.
*nukes BART parking lot*
Now, on the bright side, traffic wasn't too bad. Aside from a stretch in Oakland that crawled a bit, the rest of it was 60-75 all the way.
On the not-so-bright side, my period started this morning. (Fortunately, I found out before I left the house, so at least I wasn't caught unprepared or anything.) At that time, the cramps hadn't started yet, but I was feeling mighty uncomfortable in the tummy for most of the drive up. Rolling down all the front windows and letting the wind blow over me helped a little, but still...
Anyways. So I got to Cal and then I had to worry about parking. By habit, I'd driven up to Euclid, and then up the hill... I ended up parking by the curb in one of the residential areas. I didn't quite realize it at the time, but those curbs actually require permits to park on, and I didn't have one. As a result, I was actually illegally parked for over 3 hours, even though I wasn't caught. *sweatdrop* Eh-heheh... *sheepish*
The paperwork deal by itself went smoothly and finished pretty fast. Only downside was that they made me pay $6 for it. WTH?! A simple fill-in-the-blanks "yes, she is registered here" bit is $6?! I even had a stamped envelope for them! Geez. Vampires, I tell ya. Money-sucking vampires.
So after the paper work, I start wandering around with nothing to do. It was about 15 minutes to 11 and almost NOTHING was open. Most restaurants had signs saying they won't open until 11:30; Comic Relief was closed... I ended up browsing a bit in Barnes & Noble. For some reason, the air conditioning (or going from the hot air outside to the cold air inside) made me start to cramp. But where else could I go?
Had lunch at the Vietnamese (?) place next to the UA theater. Pho (sp?) of course, 'cause I didn't think my cramps could take solid food.
Return drive was okay after a false start. Apparently they changed the signs for the freeway entrances. Before, it marked 880 North and South. Now they changed the signs to highways 80 and 580. Now, I don't mind them adding the new signs. But did they have to *take down* the 880 signs? The first time I drove by, I went WTH and missed both downramps. Then I realized that 880 is on the same entrance as the other two and went "duh!", and circled back to them again.
The rest of the drive was uneventfull and painful due to cramping. 880 South was fine the whole way back while 880 North had slowed to a halt. I guess people usually go south for work in the morning and return north in the afternoon. Still... rush hour at 2:30-ish? That's California for you, I guess. Oh, and I also got off 880S a bit too early, so I took the local roads home for the last part. Just took a little longer than the freeway would've, that's all.
All in all, it's not the most fruitful day I've had where a trip up to Cal was involved. Le sigh.
Of course on the day that I have to get up early to catch the BART so as to get to Cal before the office closes or something, I get insomnia the night before. I was wide awake staring at the ceiling at like 3 or 4 a.m. Ugh. At least I wasn't too muggy when I got up this morning.
Then, 8:30 am, I leave for the BART station, 'cause it's cheaper than the gas cost of driving and 'cause I wouldn't have to worry about parking. Well, parking in Berkeley, anyway, 'cause apparently I didn't realize that on weekdays, the parking lot at the BART station would be crammed full of people who use BART to commute to/from work. Now, BART has a huge parking lot on both sides. They were both full. Crammed full. I even spotted a few illegal parkings. All the sidewalks around the area were full. All the parking lots of places nearby were either full or had huge signs saying you can't park there for BART. Le sigh. So after driving in circles for about 15 minutes or so, I finally threw up my hands and went, "whatever". At this rate I'm never gonna get onto BART, and since I have the car, I'll just drive the darn way to Berkeley.
*nukes BART parking lot*
Now, on the bright side, traffic wasn't too bad. Aside from a stretch in Oakland that crawled a bit, the rest of it was 60-75 all the way.
On the not-so-bright side, my period started this morning. (Fortunately, I found out before I left the house, so at least I wasn't caught unprepared or anything.) At that time, the cramps hadn't started yet, but I was feeling mighty uncomfortable in the tummy for most of the drive up. Rolling down all the front windows and letting the wind blow over me helped a little, but still...
Anyways. So I got to Cal and then I had to worry about parking. By habit, I'd driven up to Euclid, and then up the hill... I ended up parking by the curb in one of the residential areas. I didn't quite realize it at the time, but those curbs actually require permits to park on, and I didn't have one. As a result, I was actually illegally parked for over 3 hours, even though I wasn't caught. *sweatdrop* Eh-heheh... *sheepish*
The paperwork deal by itself went smoothly and finished pretty fast. Only downside was that they made me pay $6 for it. WTH?! A simple fill-in-the-blanks "yes, she is registered here" bit is $6?! I even had a stamped envelope for them! Geez. Vampires, I tell ya. Money-sucking vampires.
So after the paper work, I start wandering around with nothing to do. It was about 15 minutes to 11 and almost NOTHING was open. Most restaurants had signs saying they won't open until 11:30; Comic Relief was closed... I ended up browsing a bit in Barnes & Noble. For some reason, the air conditioning (or going from the hot air outside to the cold air inside) made me start to cramp. But where else could I go?
Had lunch at the Vietnamese (?) place next to the UA theater. Pho (sp?) of course, 'cause I didn't think my cramps could take solid food.
Return drive was okay after a false start. Apparently they changed the signs for the freeway entrances. Before, it marked 880 North and South. Now they changed the signs to highways 80 and 580. Now, I don't mind them adding the new signs. But did they have to *take down* the 880 signs? The first time I drove by, I went WTH and missed both downramps. Then I realized that 880 is on the same entrance as the other two and went "duh!", and circled back to them again.
The rest of the drive was uneventfull and painful due to cramping. 880 South was fine the whole way back while 880 North had slowed to a halt. I guess people usually go south for work in the morning and return north in the afternoon. Still... rush hour at 2:30-ish? That's California for you, I guess. Oh, and I also got off 880S a bit too early, so I took the local roads home for the last part. Just took a little longer than the freeway would've, that's all.
All in all, it's not the most fruitful day I've had where a trip up to Cal was involved. Le sigh.
