We live in a strange world

I tried to consolidate my student loans yesterday, as the interest rate is rising on July 1st. However, I found out I can't consolidate them until I'm officially finished with all of my coursework, which isn't until August. My feelings are best expressed through the words of David Sedaris from The Santaland Diaries:

Sallie Mae sounds like a naive and barefoot hillbilly girl but in fact they are a ruthless and aggressive conglomeration of bullies located in a tall brick building somewhere in Kansas. I picture it to be the tallest building in that state and I have decided they hire their employees straight out of prison. It scares me.

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

In other news, I went to the Wal-Mart in Bloomington (now even MORE gigantic and frightening!) to get materials for a Positive Link project I'm working on (please note that this was after going to Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Target, and Big Lots, without finding what I wanted). They were playing Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" when I got there. After the song ended, they played a recording of some douchebag giving shout-outs to various people for birthdays, anniversaries, etc etc ("And a big happy birthday to Harlan Pepper on his 40th birthday in New Palestine, Indiana!). I felt scared and alone. The worst part was that I went to Wal-Mart in order to get cheaper materials (Target was the only store that had what I wanted, but was too expensive for a non-profit organization's budget), and the stuff I wanted to buy was actually more expensive at Wal-Mart. It took all the strength I had not to poop in the middle of the Home/Office section.

And now for an update on my life, since I'm sure you're all interested:

• My family and I went to Vancouver for a week. It was an amazing trip. I can definitely see myself living there in the future, except for the fact that it's often gray and rainy (similar to Seattle), and pretty expensive. We stayed here. I'll post pictures on my Flickr page as soon as I get a chance.


• I got a full-time job as Student Services Assistant (a.k.a. Duty Cutie) at Collins Living-Learning Center. I start training next week, and I start full-time on August 6th. I'm really excited about it.


• I'm moving in with my super awesome lady friend Bethany in the beginning of August. We'll be living at 11th and Park which is only about 3 blocks away from Collins. We have a sweet front porch, as well as a front and back yard, and our rent is dirt cheap. In Bethany's words: Think of all the beer we can have!


• I've been working on an internship at Bloomington Hospital's Positive Link since January. I'm getting some great experience, and as an added bonus, I'm getting a living stipend through the Americorps Improving Health Throughout Indiana program. And by "living stipend" I mean "barely enough money to feed my cat for a week."


• I'm seeing The Avett Brothers at The Vogue in Indy on July 10th. I saw them at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco last summer, and have been dying to see them again. Go here and listen to "Paranoia in Bb Major" and "Matrimony." So good.


• I'm hungry.

That's about it for now. Does anyone actually read this?