- Indiana connections - the past two days I attended "new faculty orientation" at Saint Mary's College. I was thrilled the first day when I met a second-year faculty member who said she had attended Indiana University for her Masters. Not only that, but she is from Louisville, KY, and has taught at Bellarmine University, where Karl went for his undergrad! This woman was extremely friendly and I hope to see more of her around campus. To top it off, today I met TWO MORE IU alums who are both at Saint Mary's. One of them was assigned to me as my faculty mentor for the year, so that should be fun. Meeting such wonderful people who are also alumni of IU just makes my heart swell with pride for my alma mater. I absolutely love IU and it's great to see the alumni network that exists throughout the country.
- The weather - it is really a lot different than I expected! People think "California" and immediately think "warm". In the Bay Area, that's just not so! In the mornings it is consistently foggy and overcast. Around 10:00 a.m. the sun comes out and it gets very sunny with temperatures around 70 degrees for the rest of the day, and then in the evenings it cools off a great deal. I am learning quickly to always take a cardigan, scarf, or jacket with me wherever I go because the temperature changes so drastically!
- Looks can be deceiving - although I hate to complain about our townhouse, let's just say there have been some bumps in the road. It is brand new, never been lived in, so it is supposed to be absolutely perfect, right? Wrong! Our brand new KitchenAid convection oven hasn't worked since we moved in, and our landlord has been achingly slow at getting it fixed. We have had the appliance people AND an electrician here and the problem still isn't solved. On top of the oven issue, we have ants. Yes, ants in a brand new townhouse. We thought at first that we just brought them in when we moved our boxes and things in, but that isn't the case. We've found them in our bedroom, the living room, and the kitchen. Obviously this place wasn't constructed well enough to keep the ants from getting in little nooks and crannies. We told the landlord (who also built these places) about it today and we're hoping he will address this issue a little more swiftly than the oven.
- The right gym is very important - we started off with memberships to the Berkeley YMCA, but about two weeks into that we decided it was time to seek out other gyms. The YMCA, as Karl would say, is a place that very old men like to hang out naked in the locker room. We soon found that the Cal-Berkeley gym, "Recreational Sport Facility", or RSF as it is commonly known, is VERY similar to IU's SRSC. We switched our memberships and have been so much more pleased with our workouts since then! I have to say that moving here has made me so impressed with IU's RecSports facilities though - the equipment at IU is top-of-the-line and quite current compared to the equipment at Cal-Berkeley...but like I said, it is a much better fit for us than the YMCA was!
- Bank of America is AWFUL - while in Indiana, Karl and I banked with Fifth-Third, which we loved. Well, there are no Fifth-Third banks within a 1,000 mile radius of here (trust me, I looked it up to try to find the nearest one!) so we were forced to switch banks. We decided to go with Bank of America because of the number of branches in close proximity to our place. BIG MISTAKE. First, they made an error when opening our account and said we lived in Virginia...which meant the branches here couldn't access our account since it wasn't a California account (long story on why that is the case!) So...we had to close that account and open another one. At that point we thought, "Problem solved." Wrong. Since we are "new customers" they have been putting 10-day holds on any deposit we make. When I asked about this craziness, pleading with the woman that it was impossible to live my life and pay bills when 10 day holds were placed on every deposit, I was told that these holds would take place for our first three months with the bank since we are still "establishing a relationship with them." I doubt the Bank of America personnel are huge fans of me. In fact, I'm willing to bet they have notes on my account about the "disgruntled customer who owns this account"! I have definitely spoken my mind both in person and on the phone and on their online support system about these ridiculous practices they are employing. At this point we've been through so much getting this account set up that I am really mentally exhausted and can't find it in myself to start all over again with a new bank...so for now we are sticking with B of A. Word of advice to anyone who is thinking about switching banks - whatever you do, stay away from Bank of America at all costs!!!!
- My drive to work is quite pleasant - whew, this is great news! :) It's been quite a while since I have had to "commute" to work...for the last three years I lived just a mile away from my office and the classes I taught, so I wasn't sure how I would deal with driving to work again. Luckily the commute to Saint Mary's from our place in Oakland is just about 20 - 25 minutes and the drive is gorgeous. After a short stint on Highway 24 and making it through the Caldecott Tunnel (which can get backed up, but it's still not bad at all) I get to drive through the towns of Orinda and Moraga for the last 10-15 minutes of my drive on a two-lane highway lined by tall trees, beautiful homes, and rolling hills.
Now, just a few more random thoughts unrelated to our life in California:
1) I have to bring up the latest Olympic controversy with the Chinese gymnasts! If the IOC does not rule that some of those girls are under the age of 16 after all of the evidence that has come out, I have lost all faith in the entire IOC organization. After a computer hacker found documents from the cache of an official Chinese website proving that at least one gymnast, He Kexin, is underage, I cannot fathom how the IOC could say that it believes the false documentation that the Chinese delegation is presenting. It is an absolute JOKE and an embarrassment to the sport of gymnastics. Any Chinese gymnast who is underage should have her medals taken away, including the team gold, which should be rightly awarded to the U.S. team, which followed all of the rules. If you didn't see the news about the hacker, it was on several major news websites, and here is a direct link to the hacker's website with all of the proof. The funny thing is this guy isn't some crazy gymnastics fan who was out to make things right for the sport...he was just curious and ended up finding these things because of his hacking persistence!
2) Barack Obama selects Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential candidate. WHAT?!?!?! AHHHHH my frustration level has never been higher during this election season!!! JOE BIDEN?! Are you serious?!?! You all know what I am thinking: HILLARY, HILLARY, HILLARY. No one else is a better choice than her, plain and simple. Or what about Evan Bayh? Come on, Joe Biden?!?! This is so frustrating I don't even feel like voting in this election. I know I'll come around, (it's just part of being a Taurus - I can be a little stubborn!) but I am really bothered by this news.
That's all for now! Have a great weekend everyone!!! :)
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