Thursday, May 29, 2014

BUT YOU'RE BARELY SCRAPING BY!!!

Yeah. So I can't tell if I'm killing this adulthood stuff or if I'm barely getting by and messing up everything I can along the way. Somehow I decided that studying for the FE, a superhuman feat that I barely touched during the 2 months leading up to my exam, gave me license to blow off all other worldly responsibilities and deadlines.

Bad adult example #1: put off renewing my car registration until it was already 2 weeks late. (In my defense, I never received a renewal notice BECAUSE I NEVER UPDATED THE RESIDENCE ADDRESS).  Fun fact - the DMV will not tell you ANYTHING if you admit to not being the owner of the car and just being the driver. The insurance company, on the other hand, will tell you approximately 50% of the information you need if you start to cry and yell and bitch about the DMV while on the phone with them. Unfortunately, neither agency is really up-to-date with the latest information being paraded on their website, so 50% of the dirty details that you get by pulling teeth and having a breakdown while on the phone with them will be lies anyway.

Good adult solution #1: Wait sufficiently long to hope that the first person I talked to at the DMV has gone to lunch, call back, impersonate my mother and announce that I am traveling and therefore must have my daughter submit the registration form for me, and she is a shit show and is already 2 weeks behind on doing it. Note that I gave the DMV no other information than the same license plate number and a different first name, and suddenly everything I have to do is crystal clear and they walk me through the process of having "my daughter" renew the registration for me instead of saying "I'm sorry madam, we can't help you, your mother has to do everything." So basically I can do everything and supposedly it won't accrue any more late fees than it already has, so my stupidity has only cost me $52. What is $52 to a broke grad school student than a mere two nice sushi meals at a semi nice restaurant?!

Bad adult example #2: Wait until the last possible day that I can to get my graduation gown. Little did I realize this might not be the best strategy since apparently they do not have an endless supply of gowns in every size and have been known to run out.  At least I had the foresight to exacerbate this problem by not pre-ordering a gown!

Why did I not do any of this, you ask? Again, while "studying for the FE" I blew off even finding out how many dress-up items I need to wear on my body so that they let me into the auditorium to receive my diploma. (In case you're still wondering, the answer is 4).

Good adult solution #2: Show up at the bookstore without a plan, find out they still have my size, and not having preordered makes it easier for the employee because she doesn't have to look for my order on a form.

The other examples are less dramatic, but similarly involve running around and doing a thousand errands (by a thousand I mean two more, who are we kidding?!) at the last minute, if not after.

Soo… it all got done somehow, and it seems so haphazard, yet it did come together, and in this day and age, what more can we really ask for? Is it the journey or the eventual, 2 week delayed, $52 fined destination? And does anybody else really do this any better at this point?


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