Shopping lessons...

Whew! Another boxing day in the books. I learned some important lessons today:

1) Do NOT underestimate the draw of cheap electronics.
So Nanaimo is not really that big. I didn't expect huge lineups at all. I was wrong. WRONG! Future Shop, though not nearly as bad as it could have been, say, if I was in Toronto, was still gong show crazy! I left my parent's place at 5:25 or so and drove in to Nanaimo, pulled into the FULL parking lot, and joined the throng. I was going for the cheap ass 250gig external hard drive. I found them fairly easily. Cleverly, I looked at the system requirements, which leads me to lesson 2.

2) ALWAYS check the system requirements. Preferable before getting up at 5AM. I discovered that the cheap ass external hard drive makers discriminate against Mac users. Bastards! I was not amused. It's a frickin USB hard drive! WHY can it not be Mac compatible??? I don't pretend to know a lot about computers, but it just doesn't seem like rocket surgery to me... In any case, I left Future Shop empty handed. I drove into town, thinking I would check out A&B Sound, which we don't have in TO. And this is where I learned lesson 3.

3) People are sheep. They will join a line for no particular reason other than there were other people in line. This stop was a bust. At this point it was 7:30 and I had to find somewhere to kill some time until 9 when the mall opened. So I go to see if Wal-mart is open. And it is!

4) Mall parking lots are empty at 7:30 in the morning. You can get a spot right by the door. Which people may bludgeon each other for later when you leave. So I go into Wal-mart and find CHEAP DVDs. Which I really don't need, but buy anyway. Not just DVDs, seasons of TV on DVD. Not a wise purchase for a girl with work to do, but the boxing day bargains clouded my judgement.

I went to about a million other places and found some stuff and was at home eating brunch by 11:30. 5 solid hours of shopping. Yikes! I am very, very tired now. Thank goodness boxing day happens just once a year... I think I'm getting too old for this nonsense!

Oh. My. God.

I'm home, We barely made it alive. No, seriously. I'll share my tale, it's pretty awesome.

My day started at 4 AM. So I had 4 hours of sleep, which was fantastic. The cab actually came on time, which was good, so I packed up the dogs and off we went (with only one minor incident... sorry Lady!). We go to the airport and get checked in relatively easily. I fly from Toronto to Winterpeg (I stop I didn't know we were making). After 45min or so in Winterpeg we fly to Calgary where I have a 6 hour (yes, 6 hour) layover. It was long, but good as Mary came to hang out with me! (Thanks Mary!!!). So after lunch and browsing and coffee, I go through security and go wait for my flight. We board pretty quickly, but have to wait for a no show. Boooo. So we leave (finally) and the flight is pretty okay. We saw the Northern Lights at 40000 feet! So cool! Landing was kind of rough as the pilot couldn't really see the ground. We had to wait to go to the terminal as they were PLOWING the SNOW away so we could get closer to the terminal. So. Much. Snow. So gross. So we finally get my bag and the dogs and go out to the car, getting wet up to my knees practically because it's so mucky. The dogs drink some water and Chloe eats a few cookies and then proceeds to vomit all over my pants. Yay! So we're driving over the bridge from the airport toward Courtenay in the rain/snow and all of a sudden there's a big 'BANG' and we're skidding over to the side of the road and making the most horrible screeching sound... So we stop, put our flashers on, and my Dad gets out of the car to see what happened and discovers our tire is flat and something is stuck under the wheel. Luckily a policeman pulled up behind us almost right away with his lights on. So he gets out of the car and he and my dad are trying to figure out what is wrong, a tow truck is called, cars are passing, rain is falling. So the tow truck comes, and my Mom goes and sits in the front of the police car, and I'm outside with the dogs, getting wet, crying, and feeling miserable. The tow truck starts pulling the car up and we discover that we ran over a snowplow guide or foot or something (which weighs about 60 pounds!). So the tow truck gets the car up, the dogs go in the car, Dad goes with the tow truck, Mom's in the front of the police car and I'm in the back. Yes, I was in the back of the police car. We go over to Canadian Tire where they are just closing their garage, but they (thankfully) stay open and fix our car. We finally got home without further incident. So that is my story. A big, grateful shout out to the police officer, tow truck guy, and two Canadian Tire employees who made sure we didn't get hit by anything, freeze, or have to stay the night in Courtenay.

Here's hoping that the rest of my vacation is better...

Karma's a bitch...

I've been haveing a run of the "I hate people"s. This is quite the unfortunate syndrome, whereby the individual who is afflicted has severe homicidal thoughts towards numerous people around them. Usually these people are being retarded in some way, which makes the symptoms worse. In any case, I can trace the onset of my affliction to Tuesday morning, when I spent 40 minutes underlying bits of an essay that had been copied verbatim from an article that students were supposed to be summarizing. Did he think I wouldn't notice? The article they needed to read is only 5 pages long!!! And changing the verb in the sentence isn't gonna be enough to throw me off your trail! So I was realllly unimpressed. Add a flu shot, some crowded subway rides, and people who walk slow, and I am slowly going crazy. Drizzle with lack of sleep. And don't forget the cherry! A girl came to see me today who wanted to know why she only got 1/4 on a question on the midterm. So I look at the test and discover that this girl has CHANGED HER ANSWER. Are your freaking kidding me??? Here's what happened:
me: what was under this white out?
idiot girl: i did that during the exam
(okay, maybe)
me: (reads answer) this is a nice try
idiot girl: what?
me: you changed your answer!
idiot girl: no I didn't
me: you totally did! you had 'B's' written here and you changed them to 'A's'
idiot girl: i did not!
me: you so did!
idiot girl: you must have misread the first letter I wrote
me: I don't think so! I know you changed your answer
idiot girl: I did not!
me: (stews for a moment, then huffily slams some things around and changes the grade, because I can't actually prove she changed her answer) Fine! But I'll be keeping a really close eye on you!

Good LORD!. I almost strangled her. I hope I'm marking her paper. I need some revenge... I cannot even believe the nerve. And she LIED! Stupid cow! I hate hate hate her guts. If I ever see her again I may break her kneecaps.

Let this be a message to the cheaters of the world: TAs may be busy, but we're not stupid. We know when you're cheating and we know when you're lying. You might get away with it, but payback's a bitch. Oh, and I hope you fail life. Go to hell.

Well, here's hoping that that is the end of my I hate peopleitis. But I do have 76 more papers to mark, so it is likely that there will be more people on my shit list before this is all over.

Oh, and a special message to idiot girl: I still have things to mark for you. Don't expect any favours from me...