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Mr. Cislo demolished my paper in front of the class. The sad thing is, it was a paper I was ashamed of (I know it was really bad) and was reluctant to turn in except to receive credit. "This is a perfect example of a paper that needs a lot of work," he said to the class, "It has not plot, no emotion, no climax, and it ends too suddenly." At the top of my paper, all he wrote was "This needs a LOT of work". I know I'm not a creative writer at all, but I guess I deserved that for not trying harder to come up with a better good plot.
I went outside to get the mail today and when I walked back to the house, there was a college looking guy with a backpack, clipboard, and backpack ringing our doorbell. If I had been inside, I might have ignored his knock (if I looked in the peephole and saw who it is), but how can you ignore someone who is looking at you walk up to your front door? It turns out he was just trying to get people to sign a petition (but he called ir something else) for a bill or law or something that would raise the rates of dumping pollution in Michigan. I guess Michigan is the number 3 state with the most imported trash from Canada. Although my mom was pretty rude to him (I don't think she cared to hear a word he'd said) I ended up running after after him to sign it for three reasons: 1-I have written a paper about this subject before and sort of understand the issue and 2-I know what it's like to scrounge up the energy and courage to sincerely ask people for support/money/etc. and not receive as much as a listening ear (even from the people you know well). 3-He just seemed really sincere. Needless to say, it sucks when you're trying to back something good that no one seems to believe you about.
D calls me to say his class was cancelled and he brought over a pack of Bosch cards that he bought for me today :) We take the Cobra out to Zach's where they and Josh shoot each other with paintballs until they run out. Then they go to Dick's to buy more. I, on the other hand, spent the evening with Mrs. Vetter who I love love love! She's great to talk to and spend time with. We had dinner with Mr. Vetter and talked about robotics, graduation, jobs, and Northville... I definately had a pleasant time and the fresh air was rejuvinating.
Oh yes and, Pistons beat Milwaukee again so now we're 2-0! Championship here we come!
Let me just put this in a Nutshell (since ranting hasn't made the situation better). At 4:30pm on Friday, Claude is like "Catherine and Tammy, have these 700-something licenses scanned, renumbed, and loaded into Lotus Notes with written descriptions by next Friday when I get back from the UK." And each license is about 5-10 or more pages long. This has got to be some kind of cruel and unusual punishment.
So to make me feel better, D brings me two lovely, pink orchids:
That night, we meet with Zach and Josh for some yummy Olive Garden food, a long ride around town in the Cobra, and ridiculous rounds of Poker with Bosch cards. Absolutely could not stop laughing the whole game :) I gotta say, it's the first time I've seen $2032 bets or $101 bets!
Lindsey sent me an email like "hi how are you?" and then "can you correct my paper?" Hahaha I love this girl!
Wednesday --
We left at about 11:00pm, packed up, loaded with snacks and DVDs, and a tank full of gas ready for this long drive to NY. Sometime between then and 6:00am (I slept the whole way and had a hard time waking up to do my share of driving), my mom accidentally took a wrong turn somewhere, or didn't take a turn at all, and we ended up 100 miles south of where we were supposed to be at the time. I guess what had happened when I was sleeping in the car was that Dusan and my mom were stretching their legs out at a rest station and there was a map on the wall. It said "you are here", and they looked at each other and said "no we're not". But we were. Good thing I was asleep!
Thursday --
In the morning we got to the buzzing city full of one way streets and honking taxis. The abuse of traffic laws in New York City never ceases to amaze me! Here's the Williamsburg Bridge, I think:
This was a watch shop that had international clocks on the building. Kind of cool the high class stores you see from just driving around New York.
After getting unloaded, parked, and up in the apartment on 72nd and Broadway, we realized the bathroom light didn't work, but that didn't stop us from showering! Of course Gray's Papaya was a must for hot dogs and drinks (here's a picture from last year):
First stop was the Empire State Building. What a disappointment, I have to say. I always pictured the interior to be an eloquent, fancy-schmancy building but it was beaten up, torn up, the lines were ridiculously long, the employees were ridiculously rude, and the NY Skyride (a show/simulation ride) was ridiculously terrible. If it wasn't for the amazing sight at the top, I would rate this a 1 out of 10. 
I love this picture! I took this at the 80-something-th floor of the Empire State Building. See the shadow?
Behind all these buildings in the middle/right are where the World Trade Centers are supposed to be. On the map that was displayed to show their old location, it showed that they were much taller than the building surrounding them (about half an inch taller on my computer screen).
Just so ya know, that's not my mom's hand in the picture below! It's Dusan's hand adjusting the binoculars for my mom. Haha... it looks funny, I know. 
Of course, we had to stop at Macy's which was just across the street from the Empire State Building. They were having some kind of annual flower show and everything inside was covered in flowers, plants, small trees, and fruits. This is a behive made of flowers with little, plastic bees sticking out of it:
If you've ever been to Time Square, you know at night it's pure lights and people!
There was this huge billboard that D had to take a picture of that was above Starbucks :) It just has all these mathmatical equations and all this stuff on it - it's actually pretty cool. The website for it is www.beyondthedrawingboard.com You don't know until after you go to the website that it's actually an ad for the GMC Yukon. Neat marketing technique huh?
At the end of the day, we were all kind of cranky and tired from the lack of sleep. We walked around trying to figure out for over an hour where we were going to eat, and finally we settled on Olive Garden. I know, lame... after driving hours and hours to New York, we just go to Olive Garden. It wasn't even that good, in fact, it was really really over priced compared to Novi's Olive Garden. It was cool though because it was like 4 stories and there was an escalator for waiters with lots to carry.
Friday -- More Grey's Papya hot dogs. And they have good drinks too like pineapple juice, coconut milk, banana milk, and of course, papaya drinks. Here's me trying to hurry up and finish one so we can get on our way:
And then off to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum! This was probably Dusan's favorite place. It was a museum actually on the retired Intrepid. Next to it was this airplane that D says is rare to find. Is it an Airbus? I can't remember but he took a million pictures of it so it must be a big deal!
Then the inside of the musem had a G-force ride that was crazzzyy. You could sit two people into one of these things and play flight simulator, except the little thing-a-ma-bobber you sit in actually spins 360 depending on how you drive it. Of course, Dusan drove and we did spins and upside downs and swerves left and right. There was also this 4D ride:
That evening, we went to the the place where the World Trade Center used to be. They're planting the "Freedom Tower" there, which is a tower made completely of glass that will be built in place of the World Trade Centers.
That night, we went to Chinatown for some authentic food. We got there kind of late so there's wasn't much to do or anything open, really.
Saturday --
Woke at 5am (yes, I can't believe it either) to get in line for SNL tickets at the Rockerfeller Center. Or so we thought. There were about 50 people in front of us who had been camping out all night with their sleeping bags and fold out chairs, so we thought we weren't getting tickets. 7:00am rolled around and we got these pinkish, reddish tickets that turned out to be stand by tickets (but we didn't know). That night, when we got to the SNL at 10:00, we were told that the tickets were standby tickets and only 8 people made it in. So much for all that waiting :(
On top of waiting almost 2 hours for SNL tickets that were non-existent, we waited a total of at least 5 hours in lines that day to see the Statue of Liberty. Like last time, we witnessed a couple guys get arrested by undercover cops for selling Folexes, Foakleys, and pirated DVDs. Anyway, we were in line for 1 1/2 hours and got towards the front when we realized we were in the wrong line! This wasn't the line for tickets, this was the boarding line! So D stayed in line for board while I went to a 1/2 hour line to buy tickets. Luckily, we made it in time but I can't remember when our feet have ever hurt that much in my life! Dusan and I took turns standing and sitting because our feet were just killer.
Dusan was like "pose for a picture" and I shook my head to get my hair out of my face because the wind was blowing, but he took the picture early and we ended up with this:
So he's like "looks like a model runway shot" and we started doing this thing where one of us had the camera, the other would walk away, turn on command, and we'd take these random, dorky shots:
After Libery Island, we went to Little Italy's for authentic, not to mention expensive, Italian pasta. We got such a kick out of the waiters there with their thick, heavy accents. Our waiter had a whole speech prepared (with hand motions and all) about the dinner specials for the day. D was like "I don't understand a word he's saying but it's fun to listen to him talk! Something about chicken and potatoes?" Haha his face is so pink from the sun. 
We went back to Columbus Circle just to hang out with in the park and listen to the amazing street performers. Here's the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Columbus Circle:
Sunday --
Ahh I gotta finish this entry later...
Our booth at the SAE World Congress with Steve and Roger in the white shirts talking to two Japanese guys (this was right before the show closed): 
I really lost it yesterday when I plopped down on D's couch and realized what kind of a week it had been. Machining through this past week and working every extra hour I had in my life on this Draft for John (plus checking on Brent's spaghetti code), I'm pretty frustrated with myself that the quality of my work is not my best. And sitting half awake in school bored to death (except for Psych and math) makes it that much more upsetting to know I have the time to work but don't have the opportunity. I'm upset because I feel like I spent every last ounce of energy trying to make my work deadlines and balance what's left of school, and the time was still not enough to accomplish things as well as my original standards had been. I'm pretty upset with myself.
I woke up at 6am today to find cramp pains exploding inside of me (sorry if this subject bothers you boys, but you probably don't understand anyway). I dragged myself out of bed to find one of those therma-heat things I bought, slapped one on, and fell back asleep. At 11am, I went with my mom to this kitchen interior design workshop. It was actually really informative and I love the idea that my mom and I are going to be able to do all this remodeling every step of the way - that is, if we end up in the original condo we had planned. It's amazing what you don't know notice about kitches: the toe-kicks, the crowning above your cabinets, the angle of your counters, the height between your counter and the cabinets above...
Then a late lunch with Natalie at Olga's where we discussed Prisonbreak, relationships, and dresses. I love this girl and I we need to hang out more often!
Tonight: I don't know. I have so much going on but I'm still irritable from the week's results. I'll probably end up going to D's and watching a movie until we're half awake, but I kind of feel like dressing up and going out. Oh well.
What makes me laugh: the person who instantly wants the most out of everything while continuously doing nothing.
What a winning characteristic to be like that person.And I never want to be the limo driver left out in the cold to wait for a man who is busy crying at a sad opera story.
Yesterday, we had a day off of school, but I spent it at work instead. It almost spoiled my day when I went to the lunchroom and found that the vending machine was out of Pay Days and Almond Joys. I went for the Raisinets instead.
Prisonbreak last night was most definately my favorite episode so far. Apprentice's time slot got changed so I only caught the last 20 minutes of it :( But I'm going strong because Allie, Tammy (can you guess why she's my favorite?), the European, and Lee are all still on!
I can't wait for this Thursday because D and I are going to go through the twenty-something bookmarks I made online of places the three of us will go over break. Only eight more days until we leave for Manhattan!
(A Berlitz commercial)
English man on radio: mayday mayday! Hello, can you hear us? Over. We are sinking...we are sinking!
German Coast Guard: Hallo... dis is ze german coast guard....
English man on radio: We're sinking, we're sinking!
German Coast Guard: vat are you... sinking about?
