Such petty frustrations

I’ve been all set to write a nice post about how well I’m settling in here. But then this day happened, and I need to vent! Argh!!

Today I rented a car so that I could move my dozen boxes of office books and files up to my university. What did I find there?

- A filing cabinet, in my office, that is locked – with no key. My department’s admin assistant is on vacation, and she had given all my other keys (office, mailroom, etc.) to another admin person for me to pick up. Which I did. No filing cabinet key, to be sure. My file boxes sit in that tiny office, unpacked. (I did get to unpack books, though.)
- The guy who was supposed to give me my new laptop, on vacation. No one told me this – they just said, “go pick up the computer from that guy.” No new computer for me. This wouldn’t matter so much, except that my personal laptop is on its last legs. This week the wireless card died, for instance – so much for enjoying my brand new wireless Internet at home. And there have been other signs of imminent disaster.
- A phone in my office that I absolutely could not figure out how to work – and nobody who could tell me how.

Ugh. You get the picture. It was just hot, and frustrating, and heavy, and all the rest of it. And it aggravated my back quite a lot – I’d thought the back debacle was all done with, but oh, no, apparently not. Much hurting, now.

And my watch died in the middle of all this, too. So since I had the car, I stopped in at the Bay to get a new battery. Turns out the watch itself is actually fried – and I only bought it just over a year ago. Damn you, Fossil watch store in the Houston airport! (Shakes fist.) So I had to buy a new watch (cannot live without watch). Have I mentioned how I don’t have any money at the mo? Like, none, still – things will absolutely even out in two weeks, but it’s Frugality Central until then. Buying a new watch was not on the agenda, that’s for damn sure.

Also today:

- Breaking three glasses (one wineglass and two everyday ones) when I was wrestling with trying to close a stubborn plastic food container on the counter below them; they slid off their racks and shattered all over the kitchen and into the living room.
- Breaking a pricey compact fluorescent light bulb I had just bought an hour before, as I went to screw it in to the lamp; it slipped out of my hand and shattered all over the spare room floor.
- At the end of the day, sorely in need of a break from this grimness, identifying a beach on the map and thinking, “Since I have a car, I’ll go out there to that faraway spot; that looks like it must be a lovely place.” Going all the way out there and discovering it was the shittiest spot around. I didn’t even park.
- Then turning around and heading toward a beach I do like, but not being able to park anywhere near it. No beach for me. (Also, a realization of the drawbacks of having a car; when I ride to this beach on my bike, I can always park!!)

How do days like this happen??? Good god.

What almost made up for it, though? The university, I found – this was the first time I’d been there since I moved – was like the Institute of Lesbians. Seriously. It was pretty quiet, being August and all, but tons of the women I saw, I swear to you, were Sisters. The students, especially. Given the complete dearth of queer culture in this city – it really is quite astonishing – I certainly wasn’t expecting this. But I guess it is ever so. The uni always provides the space, doesn’t it? Anyway, I was pleased. Though they won’t recognize me, Invisible Dyke that I am, I feel heartened.