a day in the life

So, classes have begun. Just for a brief exerpt on those: Classes so far aren't that bad. My journalism editing class I haven't had a chance to get a good read on it yet. So far, I'm excited about it for the most part. I have an assignment due on Friday that requires me to diagram sentences with like parts of speech and all that, and I don't remember that at all. It shouldn't be that difficult though, once I get back into the swing of things. My journalism credibility/ethics class I think will end up being pretty interesting and fun. It has no midterm or final, just two papers to write that are like 80% of the final grade. It shouldn't be that difficult, you write the paper and read the material that the paper is on in your own time (before the due date of course), so it's feasible that I could knock that part out early. Anyway, then there is my comparative literature class, which, I don't think will be that bad, but it's been a while since I've written a comparative literature paper... and the class is now part of this new Writing Intensive Program (WIP - no pun intended) that UGA has set up, so there's supposed to be ... duh, intense writing. Again though, no final or midterm, just two papers and some random response papers. It should be fine. At least with writing your grade is how much you put into it. My french class seems like it will be a bit better this year. The teacher is funny and slightly eccentric (and old), but we don't have to buy the stupid French workbook, so I already think this class will be easier. Also, he doesn't grade, he just sort of assigns everyone a letter grade at the end of the year based on all the work, which basically means, as long as I participate (and my French speaking is probably at least a bit better than the writing) then I should be fine. The UGA Key has his grades as all A's and B's, so I'm probably in the clear. Not to mention, Elyas said he'd help me -- he's the exchange student from Africa that has a degree in French.

I just got offered a promotion at my job to QA, quality assurance person, which basically means I get a flat rate of $8 to review jobs that come in that other people have already typed up, and I just correct for errors, and then because I'm also agreeing to close for them on weekends and have a key to the building and the key code also, I negotiated working Shift Premium rates without having to fulfill the hour requirments that normally are involved with Shift Premium. Which basically means that I'll be getting over $10 at all other times that I'm not QAing jobs. Which means, that working less hours, I'll be making more money. Which is a good thing... considering....

I just paid $96 at the UGA vet school just for them to look at (not treat or diagnose) my guinea pigs for two hours, just for them to tell me that they're sick and are going to die, and it'd be best if I just put them down (if I didn't want to spend $60 on eye-drops that they weren't sure was the problem or $600 for them to actually figure out what the problem was and treat them). I felt bad telling them that I wasn't going to do either and that I'd just take them home as is. But seriously, I only spent $16 on them a piece. Anyway, so, I took them home and yeah, the little guy is on a slippery slope to death now. He's not eating or drinking or moving much. I feel bad. His eyes are all dischargey and gooey. I cleaned him up, but it's not looking so good. They said the other one was sick too, but he's eating and walking around and hasn't gotten gooey eyes or anything, so he might be okay. They both had cloudy eyes when I bought them at the pet store, but they said that they were just hard of sight. I asked the vet guy about it and so while they had them back in the back for two hours, no doubt being prodded by vet interns/students, they thought it was because they had clamydia, or the mom did when they were born (which causes blindness in children born to mother's that have that as I thought too). So, well they determined that the guineas are indeed blind. The vet guy was wow attractive by the way. He walked me and my guineas all the way out to my car (which was parked a good distance away). I don't know if that was just his hospitality after telling me my guineas were going to die or what. Well, anyway. That's a bummer. At least I didn't name them yet. Still, I feel that the other one might be okay, and maybe I'll go buy him a friend at some OTHER pet store, a baby guinea so he can get used to me from a young age. Still, I wont be shopping for live animals at that store again. I bought a beta fish there one time and the fish within 5 days (two days too late to return him) got fin rot and died. I'm going to see if I can get a refund or something. Afterall, I have the documentation that I took them to the vet, and I think I still have the receipt, but even so, since the guineas I bought were all from the same litter, if they still have some, or some of them got the same sickness, then they can't tell me that it's not true.

So, to top it all off, I had to work eight hours today, and that normally would be fine, but because of the extra long vet appointment, I missed my first four hours of work, the class that is the break in between, and so thus had to work 8 hours straight (which I didn't do because it was physically impossible unless I wanted to work 4pm-12am and then still be awake reading all night which I didn't.) Anyway, so, overall, it's been a pretty lousy day. And what can I look forward to but watching small guinea waste away and die and come in there one morning and find him all stiff and dead. *sigh* depressing really.

Anyway, I have to go read for my comp lit class tomorrow.