Fortress Andrea

Okay, I'm back from my travels to Europe. I will post a lengthy recollection of events (although some of the best blogging has already been lost in the furthest cobwebs of my mind) later on. I just moved back home and it was quite an ordeal. Let me just say that this would be the third trip of moving things from my apartment. You'd think that I'd almost be finished with things, right? Hahahaha. I can't believe that after I managed to throw out half of my room, it STILL took 9 hours to move boxes, knick knacks, utensils, books, clothes....I even left two floor lamps ("oops") for my landlord to throw out.

It's interesting just how much people will do anything to make a scene. I don't know if they think that it will make themselves feel better by embarrassing other people or if they just figure that they will take out their anger on the nearest victim. When we moved we booked the service elevator, paying a deposit of $300 in case of damages. This presumably means that whoever books the elevator has sole use of it between the floors that they need. This seems to make logical sense to me, that no one else can use the elevator so that it stays on the floor while you load it up, and that no one else destroys it on your deposit money.

Well of COURSE that's not what happened. I had to go chase the elevator a couple of times to different floors, because it stays on a specific floor until someone stays in the elevator and holds the close button down until the doors shut. While the elevator was on the ground floor, I went to talk to the concierge for a moment. A woman came up to the elevator expecting to get on, and my family politely explained that this was the service elevator, that they were holding the door for me and that we were moving things from our floor. She said (rather loudly so everyone could hear), "Well you could at least share the elevator!" We weren't going anywhere while I was talking to the concierge, so we couldn't really take her at that instant. Besides, what if she lived on a floor above me? Would we send the elevator to her floor and then bring it back down? Anyways, not 10 seconds later the elevator that she had actually summoned arrived and she said to the person beside her (with full sarcastic bitchiness), "C'mon, I'll let YOU share the elevator with me". I actually would have been glad to chauffeur her to her floor, then come back down to the ground floor to resume our moving, because that is what nice people do. But after hearing those words come out of her mouth, I really couldn't do much..... but to give her the finger. Too bad she didn't see me. I think the guy beside her did.

Anyways, we got all of my stuff home safe and sound, and since my room is currently occupied by all of the stuff I left behind when I moved out, there was no room for the new stuff. So there it sits in the living room, in rows and rows of boxes. Almost enough to build a mini fortress. It reminds me of these foam building blocks that my cousins used to have. We would build forts and then play nintendo all night. Those were good times.

On a side note: I am addicted to Coke (the drink, silly). However, if I drink diet pop I refuse to drink Diet Coke - it has to be Diet Pepsi. What do you guys prefer?

This is why you should never travel with me

Not only am I the most indecisive person on the planet, I worry excessively about things. I would not only make you late for everything, or make you pay a lot more because it took so long to book, but I would constantly check our reservations, freak out about missing trains, or ask you to put all your money in different pockets.

My travel plans are finally coming together. We have all of our flights booked, and hotel for 4 of the 7 nights. Toronto - Amsterdam - Prague in 12 hours. Just need one more hotel in Amsterdam, and need to find out how to use the metro in Prague. Hopefully my friend, who is already there, can help us out. And hopefully my other friends, who are meeting us, will make it there alive.

You should see my room. It is a complete disaster, and there isn't even any furniture except for a chair and a mattress. Yes, I have been sleeping on the floor for the past few days since my bedframe has been moved home. Quite uncomfortable actually - I think I might sleep on the couch tonight.

P.S. Thanks Jamie Dawn for leaving comments. How do you get so many people to read your blog??? I guess my posts aren't that interesting....I've hit a blogger's block.

Dreaming of you

So in the final days before my huge huge 8 hour exam, I started having all these weird dreams. I had one where I was trying to get to the hospital, but I couldn't remember how to get there. All I knew was that it was due west. So I started walking...it was winter, by the way, and I wasn't wearing a jacket. I somehow ended up on a residential street, completely lost, so I backtracked my steps and went to an office, where an older man, who I apparently knew was there. He said he would show me the way there, and in fact, since he was going there anyways he rode the bus with me. While on the bus, my arm brushed his and he said, "Ummm, I don't want to give you the wrong idea" and he moved away. I was actually still confused that I even knew this person! This is when the bus started going through all these weird turns and side streets (so much for due west). We even went inside buildings and garages. I was beginning to think that we weren't in Kansas anymore. Finally, we ended up in this random building where a woman asked everyone if we had been to this museum before. I think I was so frustrated that I never made it to the hospital that I woke myself up.

Next dream...I was in this house, presumably mine, and we had a pet canary. I accidentally left the cage door open and it flew out. And then I was in trouble. So I had to go around the whole house looking for this canary. Finally I caught it and I was holding it in my hands. I was so confused about this dream that I woke myself up.

My friend just told me about a dream that she had, where I was in a room full of people, and I was describing to her how I saw this goose pushing paper plates across the floor. Then I wanted to show it to her, so I started pushing paper plates around the floor with my head. In front of a room of people. My friend was laughing so hard she woke herself up.

On an unrelated note, I am officially finished medical school. Going to Amsterdam in one week, and Paris in 4. Can't wait. :)

Idiot pt. 2

My friend and I are going to Paris in June, and we've been toying around with dates and such. I was supposed to book our flights on Sunday, but we decided to wait until Monday to see if one other girl was coming. She declined, so last night I went online to book the ticket...only to find out that our outbound flight was all sold out of economy tickets. So, we started looking at other airlines but nothing was cheap enough. Fortunately, I checked the first airline again and this time there was ONE seat available in economy. Well, we weren't going to sit apart, so we decided to wait a few more minutes then log on again. Sweet....third time around there were two economy seats available, so I started to proceed with the online reservation.

Five minutes later I'm at the last page....and I'm entering in my credit card number and such...and...DECLINED! Dammit! Tried one more time before I realized that I had entered the wrong month for the expiry date. So I corrected it and resubmitted....then the system just booted me off so I had to start ALL over again. I couldn't call the airline cause they were closed. So when I re-searched for the tickets, of course they were sold out again. That's probably because my reservation was still in the system. So I waited for another 2 hours but it was still sold out :(

This morning, I tried again, this time only one seat left. So I called the airline to see if maybe they had something different in their computer. Nope...she said maybe to wait half an hour for the system to reset, in case someone had reserved but then changed their mind. I said, screw it, just book us for the premium seats (extra $110) on the way there and we'll sit economy on the way back. So....all booked (I think....it doesn't indicate anywhere that I actually paid for the tickets).

Then, for some stupid reason, I checked the flights again, and.....of course, there were two available economy seats....so I just spent $110 of mine and my friend's money when I could have just waited an extra 20 minutes to get the cheaper seats. Oh well....I will be drinking heavily on board in row 2 with my extra leg room and free headphones.