Today's rambling: Orientation
Written on Thursday, Jun. 13, 2002 at 6:58 p.m.
while feeling a bit

Around 11 o'clock this morning, Sue from the Admissions office called me again. Of course, at that time of morning I was in bed, so as I scrambled out of bed to turn off my fan (I can't have any background noise when I'm on the phone, or my concentration wanders), I kept coughing in an attempt to clear my throat so I didn't SOUND like I'd just woken up. If she noticed that I sounded sleepy, she didn't say so.

I was prepared to put in my deposit for orientation right away, but for some reason she kept saying she didn't want to put me on the spot and wanted me to get my letter first. We both figured it would be in my mailbox today, and then she told me that I could just call Admissions later if I'd determined that yes, I did want to go to Clarion. The way she was talking, I thought there was more than just an acceptance letter waiting for me, so I told her I'd wait.

As it happened, I might as well have just given her my deposit, because as you college-goers probably already know, all I got was the acceptance letter. I didn't have time to call Admissions back, though, because I had to go to my dentist appointment.

I was put in a room well back from where I usually am, and then the dentist and the hygienist started talking to each other about how I needed to get two teeth sealed, and I needed a 'panning'...all the while, I was sitting there thinking, "What...??" Then I remembered that during my last visit, they wanted to seal two of my back molars (the front parts had already been filled, but they wanted to put sealant on the back parts so I didn't get cavities there). Mom had told me on our short drive over that she was going to try and put me on her insurance, so I certainly hope it goes through...otherwise, we'll be paying quite a sum of money!

I didn't tell them about that bothersome molar I wrote about last night. I figured that since they were taking that X-ray (aka 'panning'), if there WAS a problem they'd see it and tell me. They didn't see anything, apparently, so I wasn't about to bring it up. Then again, I was a little upset over what they DID find (the reason they wanted to do the panning in the first place): my wisdom teeth are going to have to be cut out.

As I've said before (I think), I've never even had stitches before, so this sort of procedure has me terrified. The only reason I'm not doubled over with nervous pains is because we didn't make an appointment, so I can pretend for the time being that I don't need to worry about having scalpels and whatever else hacking inside my mouth. Actually, thinking about it right now makes me want to cry, I'm so scared, so I'll go on to something else.

When I got home, I called up Admissions (they have a handy toll-free number, thankfully, hehe). Partway through our conversation, we were somehow disconnected, so when I called back, there was laughter in her voice as she did her opening spiel thing. But then she took down my credit card information, transferred me over to the Orientation department, and they got all the needed info. When I told her that the 27-28 orientation was pretty much the only one I could make it to, the woman laughed and said that that one was still basically empty, so I'd have plenty of time to register for it. They're sending the packet (or whatever it is) tomorrow, so I'll get it within 3 days or so, I guess.

Yesterday, when I told Kay that I didn't want to go to the July 1-2 orientation because that would mean I couldn't be around for my birthday, she was hardly understanding. "Well what's more important?" she asked rhetorically.

"Actually, this birthday is pretty important," I retorted.

Thankfully, Sue agreed with me. When we were talking about orientation this morning, I said, "I know it's going to sound really silly, but I would rather not go to the July 1-2 one because my 21st birthday is on the 30th and I don't want to miss it!"

She said something about 21 being...not 'monumental', exactly, but something along those lines..."like turning 30 and 40!" And then she went on to say that it'd be better for me to go as soon as possible anyway. So yay, what a nice, understanding person!

Actually, all 3 of the people I've spoken to over the phone were super nice. I guess I'd been halfway imagining them as something only a few steps down from ogres: not exactly mean, but too businesslike to laugh and joke and things like that. But all 3 ladies I talked to were great, and even the people who responded to my emails were nice!

Mom told me what she was planning for my b-day, hehe...It's nothing super big, I don't think. But she's only really told me half of it, so who knows. All I know at this point is that Kirsten, Keith, a few other people from work, and most likely Geoff (I'll get to that in a minute) will be coming up, and then I think we're going to go out to TGIFriday(s?) again. Then Mom said we'd be coming back here, but she was vague about that part so who knows if there's more to the story or if I'm just reading into it.

When she said that Geoff would be coming up, I gave a dubious, "Did he actually SAY he'd come up?" in reply. She said that not only had she talked to him, but I guess Kirsten had said something to him about it as well, and in Mom's words, "He's actually pretty psyched about it!"

When she told me that Kirsten was coming up, though, I got a little confused and wary. From the way Frank had talked to me a couple of weeks ago, Kirsten and some of the other girls from up front were going to be going out to celebrate with Erin (whose birthday is the same day as mine). It's not that I completely dislike Erin, but as I've mentioned somewhere before, I don't like to share my birthday, hehe...it's the one day where people actually pay attention to ME, so I like to be selfish and not let anyone else share with me. ;) But if Kirsten is going to be coming up here, then I guess that means Erin will be celebrating with her boyfriend (I worded that wrong)...Maybe the 'Girls' Night Out' will be on another night. *shrugs*

I wish all this was happening THIS Sunday instead of the 30th! Augh, that seems so far awayyyy! *dies* It's going to be a whirlwind sort of week, though, what with orientation that Thursday and Friday, and then my party two days afterward! It'll be the most action I've ever had, ha ha!!!

Oo, before I go, I'd just like to rant about how silly Classmates is. If you don't even know what Classmates is, it's a website where you can 'keep in touch' with people you graduated with. The premise is really neat, but here's where the stupid part comes in: the only real 'free' part is registering your name and making a useless profile (where you can't even write your own answers; you have to pick from a list of responses they give you). For everything else, you either have to pay $3 a month or $36 a year. So you can't use the Biography feature or anything. But here's where I got REALLY irritated: you can't even READ another classmate's biography unless you're a Gold Member!!! That'd be like Andrew telling us we can't read anyone else's diary unless we pay the Gold membership fee! I think the ability to make a 'profile' is something they just turned into a free feature, because I know when I first signed up, I couldn't do ANYTHING. I don't even think I could email anybody (though I'm not sure I can do that now). Like I'm going to give them any of my cash, the sharks.

Alright, I'm going to go now. I'm not quite sure what I'll do, but it's got to be better than ranting about swindling websites, right? ;)