The great thing about credit unions is that they're there for you at the most unexpected times. I bounced a few checks recently (and I may end up bouncing my rent check too), and Desert Schools gave me a line of credit to cover them. Thank goodness! Keep in mind that I am NOT poor, ASU is just not paying my stipend that I am supposed to receive each month.

There's a bunch of new rocks in my office, so I guess Joe is back from Iceland. Tom (my advisor) is back in the states too, but I haven't hear or seen from him yet.

Kelly is still feeling distant from me. She just left my apartment to go home and be alone. I have a lot of different emotions right now, including confusion, anger, and worry. But I can't really elaborate on anything because they are private matters. I just need to mention these things so I won't stay up all night obsessing about it all.

I have a grant number now. Yay!

I was really pissed off at ASU last night, particularly the part of ASU that is in chart of grant disbursements. I found out that the guy in charge of that stuff has been on vacation for the past three weeks, and his replacement just went on vacation. So this week the replacement's replacement gets to figure out what to do. Of course, each replacement knows less and less about what to do, which makes my confidence that this situation will be resolved before I have to pay next month's rent less and less.

Not only am I pissed at ASU for causing me physical and mental stress FOR THEIR INCOMPETENCE, but now all that worrying is straining my relationship with Kelly. I can't devote all my attentions toward her like I used to. Every moment I'm not preoccupied with something, I'm thinking about how this grant situation will be resolved, or if it isn't resolved in time, what I can do to not get totally fucked. I wish I could sue ASU for this nonsense.

My ass was totally kicked by a cookie last night. Actually it was a scoop of homemade ice cream between two homemade chocolate chip cookies. That's a lot of dessert! After I finished it, I went into a major sugar coma. I was totally out of it. I'm sure my eyes were glazed over. Everybody else that I was with stayed out, but I decided to go home and wait it out. I got my mental capacities back after about an hour, but then I couldn't go to sleep. I was up until around 3AM.

So Kiwi Tom is off to Delaware today. A bunch of people had a farewell dinner for him at the Bamboo Club, and I stuffed myself. It was really good. I'm sorry I wasn't much fun afterwards, but that cookie took me out!

Thank God Kelly is back. I was missing all the snuggling and beatings. Love her!

Yesterday I went to the Grand Canyon with Kelly and Beth's new love interest, Tom. He's from New Zealand. I want to call him "Kiwi Tom" but I don't know if that would be rude. He's a great guy, and I hope he and Beth get to successfully hook up.

Kelly is on her way back from Jellystone today. I expect them back either really late tomorrow or midday saturday.

My brother just got on imdb!
 

So, it seems that Tom forgot to put me on the list of people he's paying. Also, there doesn't seem to be a record of my GSRP grant account. All I have to say that I got the grant is my acceptance letter.
 

To make things worse, I didn't get paid yesterday. My GSRP grant was supposed to kick in this month, and I guess somebody didn't make sure all the paperwork was done. I haven't received anything from GSRP about my award except the acceptance letter. The grant included some money to buy supplies, but ASU never sent me anything about that. Without a grant number, I can't charge anything to my own account! It also seems other people didn't get paid yesterday as well, which makes it likely that everything will be worked out as soon as possible. I really hope so, or I will be fucked for bills at the end of this month.
 

Frickin' A, man. It looks like my synchroton proposal got pushed to the side because the beamline was "oversubscribed". I'm trying to see if I can get time on another beamline, but it looks doubtful.
 

Canyonlands pictures are online! Look in Session 4 to find them.

Also, check out my panorama of Chesler Park.

I heard from Kelly yesterday, and she's doing great. She's working hard and having a lot of fun in the beautiful countryside. I'm happy that she's having a good time.

I hope Kelly is having fun in Jellystone!

I was freaked out today because I saw an honest-to-God clown driving a car. And it wasn't a funny clown car either. It was a PT Cruiser. I guess that is kindof a clown car. But it was still freaky. And his license place was "FOOT Z". I get shivers just thinking of it.

Well, Kelly is on her way to Jellystone to do research, and I'm taking a few days off to take care of the dog (everyone else is on vacation too). I know it's not "necessary" to take time off just for a dog, but Ed is just so goddamn fun! Plus, I get to watch a few movies and read a few books that I couldn't normally if Kelly was around.