Unbelievable Week

It's way too tough to begin explaining how crazy this past week has been. It's a story even I wouldn't have believed if someone had relayed it to me before. But its not a work of fiction, nor a nightmare or even a crazy daydream. It's happening to me right effing now.

It breaks down like this:
Two weekends ago, I took a trip to Seattle to hang out with a few old friends and relax my mind just a bit before handing in final deliverables and running headlong into Finals. Last week was "dead week", though it didn't seem all that "dead" to me. Papers and essays and projects and presentations... one for every day of the week! And then at last, the weekend. But it was not your typical weekend. Rather than catch up on sleep and whatnot, I was up at nearly the first light of dawn and in the library or school computer lab studying and cramming and working the last bits of information on my three papers due during, and in addition to, FINAL EXAMS. So the weekend pretty much flew by with my nose either pressed against a computer screen or buried in some book.

Then came Monday, and the all to real nightmare grew towards its climax. An exam in Advanced Corporate Finance and more work on projects & papers sped the clock 'round on its axis. Then evening, and my stomach craved something other than the sandwiches I'd been living on for who knows how long. I ran out to my car and... and... NOTHING. The battery was dead, or so I thought at the time. So, back to the fridge for another sandwich and more study and off to bed figuring I'd take care of the damn thing after my exam on Tuesday.

So Tuesday morning hits and I'm off for a final exam in Mangement Negotiations. That, I must say, went extremely well. I actually chuckled very quietly when I read the exam questions. Everything I'd studied and nothing I hadn't. Niiiice. And I was feeling pretty confident that I'd just jumpstart the car and head off to the auto store and grab a new battery. But no help! No one was available to jump the car. Everyone I knew was busy either taking or studying for an exam. So, I figured I'd have to just put it off until wednesday. And then I noticed a missed call...

It was Intel, calling to make sure that I had submitted all of my documentation to be considered for future interviews and such. I scrambled to make sure that I had done all that jazz and sent it in and whatnot and tried to see the bright side. "At least they're interested and haven't tossed my app on the discard pile," I told myself. My g/f is an architecture student and is even more busy than I am this week, but in a different way. She's got to create building models and draw appropriate representations of those and then present the full deal to a panel of professors. Multiply that process by three and you get her week. Even now she's off working on some masterpiece, during which she sliced open her finger and caused a panic in the architecture studio. It's probably not serious, just startling was all.

Since I'd no exams today, Wednesday, so I stayed up with Cici until about 6am as she pulled an all-nighter working on a bldg. model. I awoke to hear my phone ringing at around 10:30 this morning. It was Intel again. But this time it was with a job offer! Whoa! Now that really came out of leftfield because I hadn't even interviewed with that particular department yet! Of course, I did have a weird impromptu telephone interview with the HR rep about a week ago, but I had no idea that that conversation was the first and last interview I'd have or need with the firm. I did intern with them last summer, and perhaps I just did such a great job that I was a sort of "first round draft pick", so to speak. Anyway, there is a problem with the offer. The money's good and benefits as well, but they want me to move to Santa Clara, CA. Now, my family is up in Portland and I'd like to stay up in the Pac NW. It's just my home and that's it. So, I haven't accepted the offer yet. The HR rep said that I could call her back tomorrow and discuss this further. So, I'll call her tomorrow and negotiate for a homebase office in Hillsboro. I'll keep y'all posted.

So, that minor situation handled for the time being, I went to check my email. Brief story: I'd missed my flight to Japan a few months ago and subsequently bought another ticket. I'm trying to get a refund for the unused portion of my first tickets but have been given the run-around. And that saga continues. They had requested some documents as well, and are now claiming that those documents I had sent were incorrect. B/S! So, it looks like this will drag on for awhile longer. But what a time to get this message, on top of all else I'm under this week. So, I replied to their message appropriately and headed off to try and fix my car.

A friend of mine took me out to a battery store where they tested my battery and told me it was low, but that it should be able to start my car with a jump. Not again! So, the problem must be something else. The starter perhaps? The alternator? The connector cables? Or maybe the damn thing just doesn't like me. Whatever it is, I'll need to get it towed out to the shop, probably on Saturday. Good news is that a friend of mine offered to help me tow it out there on Saturday. Nice. Now all I need are some chains/cables to attach it to his truck. But I'll think about that part later, most likely when I call the shop tomorrow.

After the battery ordeal, I went back to the computer lab to finish my part of a marketing team assignment. That was about the time I heard from Cici that she'd cut her finger. Awesome, I mean, just spec-effin-tacular. So, we went out for a bite to eat, eventually heading back to work. 11pm rolled by just as I was wrapping up my paper. Exhausted, I shuffled home and sit before you all now, staring blankly at my computer screen with its flashes and blips and bleeps and things that move upon which I can no longer focus my eyes or attention.

That has been my week, and it is not yet half-way over.

Goodnight.