MacBook.  I spent the entire morning sitting around waiting for the FedEx man to bring me my magical delivery – my MacBook was on its way back from being repaired.  I couldn’t believe how fast they had gotten it done.  After warning me the repairs would take longer than 7 days, they were sending it back a mere 5 days later.  Apparently, however, Apple saved time by not entering my apartment number into the address form, so there was a whole to-do with the FedEx people having to call me to find out where I live and then taking an extra two hours to bring me my dang package.  The happy part, though, is that now I have my baby back and it is as good as new! Except better than new, actually, because when it was new it was empty and now it is (still) filled with all my precious, uncorrupted data. Two hundred ninety-four smackeroos.

H1N1. I spent the afternoon at the flu shot clinic waiting to be sprayed in the nostril with the live vaccine. Since I have never had a flu vaccine before (really!), they made me wait around for 10 minutes afterward to make sure that if I went into anaphylactic shock I would be near someone with an epi-pen. It was all very anti-climactic, luckily.  And it was free.

Car Door. Remember that one time when it snowed here in New Wye and it was all pristine and glorious and beautiful (but, weirdly, not actually that cold)? And my car door froze shut and when I tried to open it I ripped the handle off? That was eleven months ago and I just today got it fixed. One hundred twenty-five smackeroos, my friends.  It’s not good not to know your own strength.

Dog. The dog had to go get his yearly vaccinations today (it was Vaccine Day for the Vague Family). One hundred and thirty smackeroos there.

Another Dog. On the walk back home from the vet, little Eegs and I were followed by a big Alaskan husky-type dog. I think he wanted to play with Egon, but the little dude was having none of it. I noticed a leash dangling from the dog’s neck and I even thought I could hear someone in the distance yelling “Marty! Marrrrr-teeee!” [SIDEBAR: who names a dog “Marty”? Everyone knows proper dog names are, for example, “Egon.”] I decided to be a good neighbor, so I scooped up my dog under one arm and gathered up the big husky’s leash and started walking him around the neighborhood looking for his owner.  Turned out to be a nice girl from the apartments next to mine, who was a bit teary-eyed and very grateful.  I hate that I am such a softy for dogs, because her reaction on seeing her dog had me almost start crying! Sheesh! Glad I found her, though.

Car Again. When I picked up my car from the body shop, the man in charge informed me that my interior door handle was about to break off, too (funny, no snow storm involved there, just wear and tear) and he thought it could “go at any time,” so he had already ordered me a new one. How nice! Only twelve smackeroos for that repair, for some reason. Oh, and when I went to the grocery store later, sure enough the door handle broke off.  Now I have to roll down the window and reach through to open the door from outside to let myself out of the car. Good thing I have power windows, which makes this so easy. You know, when the car is RUNNING. Jesus H.

Grading Papers. After finally being done with all this shite, I spent the remainder of the evening until 15 minutes ago grading freshman papers.  Life is fine, I tell you.

Oh, but wait! Here’s a FUN ONE:

Mix CDs. YES, friends, MIX CDs ARE HAPPENING FOR 2009! I have yet to figure out what to put on it, but if you want a copy, get to emailing me! Even if I might already have your address, please send it to zemblangrammar at gmail dot com so I don’t have to sift through last year’s list to find it.  More on this later!

P.S. Someone please stop me from saying “smackeroos.” What planet am I on tonight? Must be all the grading-necessitated caffeine.