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These past couple of days I’ve been wishing I were home basking in the great Florida sunshine, instead of being up here dealing with the Wisconsin cold. Tomorrow after 11:00 AM, when my last class for the day ends, spring break begins however, for me it is more of the same. I wish I were going home, but in all honesty one week worth of sunshine is not nearly enough for me to spend upwards of $300 to fly home. Especially when all I have to do is bear it out for the remaining half of the semester. Thinking of home, I couldn’t help but play “Welcome to Miami” by Will Smith, since it is the song that plays in my head as I debark the plane and exit the terminal into the warm, sunny, and azure sky filled city that has been my home for nearly 14 years. I never thought I would be thinking this, but I miss Miami. After wanting to leave it for years, now that I have, I actually miss it.

Ever since I can remember I have hated rainy days. Rainy days are gloomy, messy, and just downright depressing. Luckily, we don’t have to deal with many of those in Miami, considering that we get our 15-30 minutes of thunderstorms every day, and the occasional bad day, but they usually subside pretty quickly. In Wisconsin however, its a different ballgame. When it rains here, its not like at home, it rains and rains just enough to annoy you. Enough to get you sick or keep you sick essentially.

Since I woke up yesterday, it has been raining. It was the same today, until just a few minutes ago when it got cold enough for it to snow. Yup, from the annoying drizzle to snow, that’s Wisconsin for you; so erratic.

…since when did tipping become mandatory? I was just about to set my phone to wake me up tomorrow morning and I saw that I had received a text message. I opened it up, and it was from the guy that had delivered the pizza I ordered earlier that night. Yeah, I got dragged in by the $3.99 special Dominos was having…shouldn’t have fallen for that. Anyways, the only reason I went through with it was because I got out of class late, and Lost was about to start, so I didn’t want to risk missing any part of the episode. A $3.99 pizza became $6.99 with tax and delivery…w/e. I get a call that my pizza is here, its 3 minutes before Lost starts, so I rush to grab it, its dark and cold, i just sign and take my pizza rushing back to my TV as fast as I can. Anyways, the delivery guy sent me a text message telling me how uncool it is to not have tipped him, that he makes minimum wage and depends on tips for income. So once again I ask, when did tipping become mandatory? I honestly would have given him something, but I was in a rush…now, I vow never to order from Dominos again…this unprofessional behavior deserves that. I don’t think an employee should harass customers demanding a tip.

Well, I’ve managed to make it through some finals these past couple of days. I just want the semester to be over already so that I can once again get the chance to have a fresh start. Next semester’s classes are looking really good so far, but then again I thought the same about this semester’s classes a few months ago. Nevertheless, after a warm reprieve from cold this past weekend with temperatures up in the upper 40’s & lower 50’s, today it’s back in the single digits with wind chills in the negative double digits. In fact the weather report calls it “bitterly cold.”

I’ve been feeling sick th last couple of days. I’ve had a runny nose, slight fever, body aches, and stomach aches every once in a while. Everything short of puking my guts out basically. I intended to go yesterday…I suppose by now it will technically be the day before yesterday (November 29th)…to the mall to return a few things I had purchased but ended up deciding that I really didn’t like, or just didn’t work, but it never happened. After staying sickly couped up all day Saturday I decided to give it another shot on Sunday. So on Saturday night I had planned to wake up at 10 AM the next day and make my way to the mall, but after waking up at 8 AM to turn off my room mate’s alarm, waking up at 10 AM to turn off my own alarm, I decided to just sleep in and forgo my expedition. So I thought until around 1 PM when I hear a knock on my door. I managed to toss myself out of bed and open the door, not being able to see anything due to blood rushing into or out of my head (I can’t remember which of the two it is that blacks out your vision for a few seconds). All I hear is “good morning,” and I instantly recognize the voice as Jen. I welcome her in, and we start talking and watching some TV. I started feeling better and soon ask her what she has planned for the day so that she can join me on my trip to the mall. She agrees to go with me so I go shower and start getting ready as she watches the packers game.

While I showered Tyler got back from his trip home, so we tried to convince him to come along with us, but he refused. He did provide some important facts, mainly that we were supposed to get a few inches of snow today. I was so excited, I would finally get to wear the boots and coat I had bought last weekend. I put on my thermally insulated boots, my thick parka, my scarf, and my funny hat and I was set to go into the deepest, coldest corners of the earth. We passed by Steenbock library to return the Mac I had checked out while I fixed my computer, which was 2 days overdue by now (ouch $40 fine), but the library wouldn’t open until 5PM for some reason, so I had to lug around the damn thing.

We made efficient use of our time, and managed to catch the bus headed in the proper direction. Once we got to the west transfer point however, we had some trouble. We boarded the wrong bus, but soon noticed and got off, then we had to walk all they way back to the transfer point. By now about 1 inch of snow had fallen, so Jen and I started to throw snowballs at each other as we walked/ran to the transfer point. We made it back and shortly the correct bus arrived. We boarded and withing 15 minutes we were at the mall. I returned the pea coat at American Eagle, then we headed to grab a bite to eat. Of all the places I chose Sobarro’s, which normally has good pizza…that was not the case today. We got reheated slices of stale pizza which must have been laying there for hours, and some baked ziti which wasn’t all that good either. After downing my $6 crap meal we made out way to Walmart, which was a few blocks away. Outside it was windy and snowing, by now there was much more snow on the ground than when we had gone in. Once again we started our snowball fight, which continued all they way to Walmart and back, and concluded with a snowball in my face, which got stuck on the nose ridge of my glasses.

snowflake

Originally uploaded by lableupunn_tux

I suppose I’ll make my first post giddy with excitement about winter. While it was utterly cold yesterday. Well, at least colder than what I am used to, there was snow. Real snow this time, not the slush that has been falling for the past couple of days. This time it was cold enough for the snowflakes to solidify and form shapes. Mind you, this is the first time I’ve ever seen one. The shapes they form are amazing , you can’t help but admire nature’s beauty. I couldn’t help it, I had to take a picture, a bad one at that since my phone can’t focus on nearby things. Unfortunately this photo doesn’t fully capture the beauty of that snowflake.

With that out of the way, yesterday was quite interesting as I attempted another trip to the suburbs. Unlike my trip on Saturday, I actually made it to the correct place (Super Walmart). However, after finding myself in possibly one of the worst neighborhoods in Madison, I can’t help but to have second thoughts about my trip. Perhaps I shouldn’t have ventured somewhere I’ve never been and know nothing about by myself. It sort of tells you something when you have the fairest skin in the bus, and look completely out of place. Nevertheless, I ventured on and got what I needed. Getting back now proved to be more difficult, Walmarts are so different up north, the parking lot is in the basement, and the only part of the store that has an exit/entrance at ground level is the garden. Which, if you are not accustomed to it can be quite confusing, especially if you have 10 minutes to catch a bus. Needless to say, I got lost. The walmart had people escalators and shopping cart escalators (really cool, I would have taken a picture, but I would have looked like a retard) which lead to the underground parking garage. That exit was on the other side of where I needed to be, it was dark out already, and I was in a bad part of town. So I proceeded to gather by bags and walk with them to where I had gotten off of the bus. As I got there, the bust I thought I was supposed to get on was leaving. It was a good thing it left however, because that would have taken me in the wrong direction. I walked around a bit, trying to find the correct bus stop on the proper side of the street (not used to public transportation), while carrying my heavy bags. Soon enough, after walking a bit, I had found the bus stop, all that was left was to wait for the bus in 27 degree weather in the dark by myself. As I waited, every time I hard a rustle I would prepare myself for the worst, but soon enough the bus came and I was on my way back to campus.