Monday, November 26, 2012

Lost battle

So I'm applying to medical school this year and basically got completely and utterly screwed by the central application system for three schools. To the point where I effectively did not even apply to them but they are keeping my money even though that money essentially was not exchanged for anything. They just got my money for no reason.

So here's the story morning glory.

The massive A...M-C-AS (randomly hyphenated and punctuated so I don't get somehow penalized for this later) who handles literally all medical school a,pp.;s has a website where you input all of your course info... excuse me. ALL of your college courses that you have taken. Ever. The reason why I make this point bold and italic is because that is the reason why I got royally screwed. Because I didn't input classes that I "took" in high school, they "unsubmitted" my application THE DAY before the "Forms" due date for most of my schools (or the day AFTER as well). The why is the word took in quotes? Because the classes they told me that I had to input were from when I was in the California Youth Symphony and had to enroll during the academic year I was there to allow us to use their facilities. All pass/fail. Did not count towards anything. BUT because apparently they're still on my stupid Foothill transcripts I was supposed to input them. Okay. For reals??? FROM AGE FOURTEEN. FOR CLASSES THAT DIDN'T EVEN COUNT. How FREAKING ridiculous is that? I was literally livid.

I have never in my life called for the sole purpose of complaining but I couldn't keep it in. I called to yell at anyone who answered the phone. I did tell them that I wasn't mad at them but rather their organization and the ridiculous bureaucracy that they make students jump through. Seriously. What is the freaking point of making us put in all of our courses, when you scan our transcripts anyway? And then the guy I was talking at literally laughed while I was yelling at him and I said, "I fail to see the humor in this. You are messing with my career and the rest of my life..." To which he replied, "Woah ma'am. We are not messing with anything." And I said, "Effectively you are." I could go on and on and on about the absolute crud he was telling me but I won't bore you with the details.

The point is I lost my battle and also a ton of money because of the bitches that are this organization. Because of their shitty monopoly. If only there was another service out that that I could use. Le. SIGH.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Thankful

This week I have much to be thankful for. I mean in general I have tons  to be thankful for... but this week specifically has been utterly ... well. Undeserved by me.

Let's start with the fact that on Monday I had an interview at this behemoth of a company here in the Silicon Valley. I can say that without disclosing actually where because there are a number of ginormous companies here so HA!

Oh wait let me back up.

So last week was the week of comedy. I saw Louis CK on Wednesday, Rex Navarette on Friday, and Hannibal Buress on Saturday. All in all, hilarious. But by Friday I was not feeling great. Woke up with a sore throat and generally just tired. I figured it was lady times. It wasn't. The next day I woke up with a sore throat too and was phlegmy and gross. BUT I had signed up for the Awesome 80s Run in San Francisco (which indeed was AWESOME) for Sunday and I wasn't about to back out. My outfit was too great.
Yes. That is a Delorean. And yes. I sat in it after pointing at it. One of my prouder moments in life.
So I did the stupid, stubborn thing and ran a 10K on Sunday. The event was incredibly fun. The running? The worst. It was super hard for me to breathe but I pushed myself to finish it ... And I did!

With A HUGE COST. The next morning I woke up super super sick.  Like, sneezing with a ton of snot coming out. The sneezing felt great, everything else was annoying and stupid. And of course I had the interview with the already mentioned prestigious company. Mind you I have been working in a job for a month that has absolutely nothing to do with want I want to do in life, so while I have been extremely  thankful for a job, I have been super bored at this job. So when this interview was offered I jumped. There was no way I was going to back out. By the grace of God, I didn't sneeze during the whole 35 minute interview and then was able to blow my nose like I had never done before when they left me to do my writing sample. Two and a half hours later, I was offered the job! Beyond thankful for this

Up until this point, I have applied to about 80 jobs. I did not get an interview for any of them. I didn't even get contacted back from about half of them (effing Stanford thinks they are so great that they don't need to extend the courtesy of an email rejecting someone). I applied for a job at this non-profit too that seemed perfect for me because I would get to apply my masters degree knowledge whilst  doing what I want to do the most in life... help underserved communities get quality health care.

I'm also thankful that my current job is so great and understanding and is letting me go. A large part of this is my friend who initially got me the job. She made sure that the manager understood that I could leave at any moment. OH and on Monday, I had my first call fully in Spanish! I was so proud of myself and everyone was proud of me too! I didn't falter one bit and I even remembered words for random things were we talking about! And I made her laugh. Mostly because she asked me immediately if I spoke Spanish and at first I said no. Then I felt bad and said (in Spanish), well, if you speak really slowly, I speak a little Spanish. I even used the subjunctive. It felt awesome. Jaja (yeah. I did that.)

Then of course my brother came home who I always love to see because well he's my brother but also he brings home this barrage of films. This time we watched Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, End of Watch, and ParaNorman. The last one we watched just the two of us and it was nice. I know that's a weird word to use but it was. Nice.

We had dinner at my cousins' just about 40 minutes north of me where we not only celebrated Thanksgiving with our Korean flare but our niece's first birthday! She's so freaking adorable. She and her older brother have husky voices which I love. And they're both so sweet! I made a gif of her because I could not get enough. Then my friends and I had BFF Thanksgiving which was great as well. So this point is... I'm thankful for people that love me but also like me

What can I say? I've got it pretty good :)