Penny Hero (dot) Net

First class was Japanese… at bloody 8am. Gawd. Coffee shops are not even open in time for me to grab some caffeine before class either. Stupid coffee shops. I’m going to really dislike that morning class. Oh well.

I walked into my second class all stoked and happy because it meets in the spiffy-neat engineering building. (why do engineers get all the cool buildings?) I walked in early, and pretty soon the place was packed with lots of big loud male students. The first sign that something was wrong was the fact that everyone (all 2 or 3 hundred of them) seemed to know each other. Then I overheard much talk about engineering. Luckily, someone near me opened up their schedule to show someone, and I caught a glimpse of what class this really was. A 300-level engineering class. whoopie! So not CSS. hah. So I politely excused myself and about four other guys literally fought over my seat.

So, now I’ve got another 45 minutes to kill before I get to learn about dirt and shit. No, really. Dirt and shit. Crop and Soil Sciences, yo.

In Other News: I saw someone wearing a livejournal tee shirt on my way out of Japanese. I was too chicken to say hi though… maybe she’s a member of . For some reason, it made me think about how cool it would be if I could have a tee shirt that said I maintain <lj comm=”oregonstate”>. God, I’m so self-absorbed.

I was going through the stack of notebooks that I brought from my dad’s place and found a makeshift journal I had kept while in Japan. Some of it was clever and fun, other parts were melodramatic and much to inward-facing to be interesting to anyone but me. Here are excerpts from the more interesting parts.

August 2, 2002. After returning a movie, Tomo and I meet some of his friends at a bar.

Leaving the apartment, it had stopped raining, and the sky looked scrubbed and shiny. Bits of star poked out and looked around, but with little commitment to stay.

We returned the video, “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikaoshi”… I’ll own that one someday.

We were late, but Tomo said it was ok. Yu, in bright green plastic slippers, met us outside the station and took Tomo to the bank so he could pay for the night… and then he asked me my age. I guess I broke laws in both Japan and the US tonight.

Then we followed his green plastic slippers to another building and rode a smoky coffin of an elevator up to the 2nd floor. We arrived with much cheering and “kanpai!” and several Engrish “How do you do.”s I was told everyone’s name, but I already don’t remember. I’d recall their faces and wave if I saw them, but other than that…

A few minutes later, this “kid” in a business suit arrived and everyone yelled and screamed again. After handing his jacket to someone, he walked right up to me and grabbed my hand. “Very nice to meet you!”. At this point I figured I must be famous.

Tomo ordered some beer, and I ate bits of whatever had been ordered before. Kazu, the 8-year-old businessman, headed for the door suddenly and shot me this comical look and announced “I’ll be back for you, babe”, and cheers and yelling followed…. (It gets boring after this. )

August 9, 2002. After arriving in Kochi, Tomo’s hometown, I wrote down some first impressions:

Kochi is beautiful. Trees that scratch the sky by tippy-toeing from the tops of steep hills. Leafy skyscrapers, really. ….

I like this home. I like his dad. His mom is unbelievably sweet, and they are all so patient. Tomo on the other hand, changes dramatically in their presence. He becomes the Punk Kid… elbows on the table, too loud, with little respect. He never looks his parents in the eyes when having a conversation. Dissapointing and kind of a shock, but that’s just how it is.

August 15, 2002. Thoughts about heated toilet seats and the Yosakoi festival.

I’ve decided that I don’t like the heated toilet seats. they make me think that a really really fat person just got off the toilet. I sit down and think of that fat man’s ass pressed against where my ass is now, and get the yicks. I also worry that if I pee in the wrong direction, I might get electrocuted. Not to mention what might happen if the seat malfunctioned and the temperature kept rising… some unsuspecting person might end up with a toilet seat-shaped burnscar…

Yosakoi Matsuri. Imagine a hybrid of modern pop-techno music and traditional melodies exploding out of the backs of large parading semi-trucks, the bass lines audible from several miles away, followed by psychedelic lights and several hundred dancers per act. Wow. Won’t ever forget this. And to think that it goes on for about 18 hours straight.

I miss Japan. I’m glad I wrote stuff down. Don’t ever want to forget.

I’m calling this temporary cease=fire with Direct Loans ONLY because their office hours are now over. (Fuck office hours).

What I learned today:

• Direct Loans needs verification that I was enrolled in school prior to a Sept. 21st, 2003 deadline in order to return my grace-period to me.
• OSU relies on the National Student Clearinghouse to report enrollment information to Loan/medical/etc etc organizations.
• OSU last posted information to the NSC on Sept. 10, 2003 (note: before Sept. 21st.)
• Because the information was known and posted on the 10th, it would seem that OSU knew I was enrolled on or before that date. Unfortunately, no certified date-of-registration to prove this is included in my NSC record, so I can’t just print that out and mail it off like the Registrar said I could.

There are a few things I need to find out in order to completely understand how to get my grace period back.

For example: In my Direct Loans “Borrower’s Rights and Responsibilities”, it clearly states when a borrower’s grace period begins. (The day “enrollment” falls below a certain point) However, it does not clearly state when the grace-period ends. If I can find something that says that it ends when 6-months pass and student remains not enrolled, then I know I’m right. It would be only a small task to prove that the date I registered for Fall classes was LONG before Sept. 21st.

However, if I find something that states that the grace period ends when 6 months pass and ’student is not attending class‘ or ’school-term has not yet begun’, then I’m in trouble.

In that possible case, I am not sure how far I could get with my original “I was misadvised in March by OSU Financial AID office” argument because I have nothing to document the conversation that led me to decide to take Spring term off in the first place.

I’m told that the last thing I’ll be able to do is submit a letter explaining my situation and OSU’s various offices will “see what we can do”. The Financial Aid office even said that they doubted they could do anything at all (bad form, you!), but to “keep it in mind.”

*sigh* I’m tired now.

In Other News: For shits and giggles, I downloaded an NES emulator and started playing Legend of Zelda. For the record: that game is infuriating. I’m coming to understand that players are expected to die a million times in order to get ANYWHERE. Wah. that just feels like cheating. But then again, I got hooked on gaming no sooner than N64-era games (And LATE N64-era at that.), so I don’t know what all this old-school shit is really all about.

Question for those who have played LoZ: You can buy arrows in one of the caves… where the fuck do you get the bow? I can’t use them. and I want to. wah.

I just got off the phone with “Becky” with Direct Loans. I’m going to try really really hard not to swear about this. (crying is a whole different story though.)

When I had to take a term off of school last March, I specifically asked the financial aid offices what would happen. I asked if I would have to pay anything on my loans, if I would lose any kind of financial aid, etc etc. They specifically told me that as long as I was enrolled in school by September, there would be no problems.

BUT… Direct Loans does not look at registration information before the date that school actually begins. This means that until the date that school actually begins, all students are considered to be unenrolled. Now, with schools that begin in early September, this is no problem, because the grace period doesn’t end until Sept 21st.

Unfortunately for me, OSU begins on September 29th… and as far as Direct Loans is concerned, I’ve been unenrolled with no intention of going back to school for six months, plus a measly 8 frickin days.

If school had begun last week, I would still be eligible for the six-month grace period after I graduate. But because OSU starts a week later than most schools, I’m now obligated to begin paying off my loans the month after I graduate. That leaves me about zero time to find a post-graduation job, and forces me to try and work even more though school so that I can have a cushion of money ready for the day I graduate.

The bottom line is, if the financial aid offices had told me that I would lose my 6-month grace period if I took Spring term off of school, I would have chosen to just eat the debt, and stay.

I genuinely thought that I was being smart by taking some time to work my fucking ass off at two jobs (to the detriment of some of my closest friendships … Takeshi, Paul, Mitsuha, Ben… to name a few) to earn enough money to come back with a clean slate. Nothing led me to believe that taking time off to work and earn money would be a stupid idea.

But now, I don’t think any of it was worth it. I should have just stayed.

Maybe I’m over-reacting. But it royally pisses me off that the financial aid offices failed to tell me that I would lose my 6-month grace period. I’m going over there today and detonating a thermo-nuclear-weapon asking if there is anything they can do since it is OSU’s fault, NOT MINE, that I lost my grace-period..

The more entertaining one: I had a dream that I could fall through some kind of hole/portal (like in Zelda), take the left or right paths (it was like a warped up sparkly cave) and experience something. Down the path on the right (which I’d already done last week or whatever) was the “correct” road to complete some kind of puzzle, and exit the cave safely. I really wanted to know what was down the other path, so I went… and was confronted by a guy-aquaintance “from my past”, (well, his ghost or whatever). He was supposed to battle with me and try to kill me, but for some reason, we decided to have sex. We got interrupted once when I got pulled from the cave through a ceiling portal by the gods/overseers-of-the-cave-puzzle, and had to make up some reason why I wasn’t finishing the puzzle and was spending so much time on the left-path. Then I jumped back down to the cave and had a really great romp with this ghost. Neat.

The longer and stranger one: I also had a dream that I had been informed ahead of time that my “sister” was going to be kidnapped on a bus by the actor who plays Col. Jack ONeill on Stargate SG-1. So I snuck on the bus ahead of time armed with an empty backpack, some soda-water, and a box knife (not sure how that would have helped.) When everyone started piling on, I hid, but everyone saw me anyway. They all assumed I was there for the same reason they were, so I felt pretty silly hiding. My “sister” never got dragged on the bus, like I expected. Lastly, Richard Dean Anderson (the actor dude, aka “bad guy”) gets on, and walks up to my seat and sits with me. Our legs get tangled, it’s uncomfortable, but I realize that he seems to know why I’m here. He sees my box knife, and my backpack and just kinda grins.

We get into a conversation about how “when we get there” we should pretend to be friends for the sake of the person who died. I gather that the bus is taking all of us to a funeral. I find this odd because everyone else is drunk and celebrating. perhaps they didn’t like the guy who died. He says “and when it’s all over, you should give me the kiss on the cheek like everyone else”. I explain that it’s fine. I can do that. And that I could have been a “great actress”. He gives me a really dirty look for that one.

After a long time, I realize something is wrong. My sister is still not with us, and we are getting closer to the funeral. So finally, I ask Mr.Anderson: “so… are you kidnapping my sister today?” he gives me this look of ha ha ha, she’s so dumb and says “no, I did that yesterday.” I’m dumbfounded and decide to get off the bus and call my parents from someone’s house to get picked up. Suddenly it doesn’t matter and I’m just upset that I got my “schedule mixed up” as if I’d shown up to class on the wrong day or something.

P.S. I’ve been getting an obscene amount of wrong number phone calls. This is getting annoying. *yawn*

I just got a phone call from Kahili!! (Best girl-friend from back-in-the-day in Hawaii) whoo hoo!! Best birthday phone call EVER! Not losing her phone number ever ever again. *hugs sony clie*

In Other News: My birthday was pretty nice. Slow and lame until 3pm when my dad came home though. (I had a crappy adventure trying to pick up some drugs at the pharmacy. Stupid insurance companies… YES I’m in school, YES I’m covered, fucking give me my drugs!) Around 2:30, I got a phone call from Washington-Boy saying that he wasn’t coming, which sucked so hard, I couldn’t help but harbor the hope that he was going to jump out and surprise me and say “ha ha, I lied”. But he never came.

After opening presents with my family, I went out to dinner with extended family, and received gifts, hugs and a bottle of wine (from my aunt). My first legal drink was this yummy vodka in strawberry lemonade, and all the servers were very cute, and treated us all special and stuff. :)

Gift highlights:

• a frame for my Luis Royo print (print was a gift from Washington-boy last year)
• frames for my 3 (out of 4) Smashing Pumpkins Machina lithographs.
• Cowboy Bebop movie
• Samurai Jack movie
• Stuffed kitty from mom. (looks just like one of our first cats when I was small. Named him “Puff” after that cat.)

So, I had fun. Washington-Boy owes me lunch, since he didn’t show up, and I might even get to go get drunk with Eriko in Portland on Friday. weee!

Comment Topic: So, what did YOU do on my birthday??! (Mega bonus points if you took a shot of strawberry Stoli.)

I’m 21! I’m 21! I’m 21!

Legally, that is. I’ve still got a few more hours if you are counting hours and such. But hey… the government doesn’t care about that, so why should I?