First day

Classes don't start until next week, but today was my first day at the assistantship job. It started at 8AM, which is early (at least in my world). The commute took an hour (about 20 minutes of walking through a snow storm and the rest on two subway lines.) That's about right for where I live, but is clearly going to take a bite out of my time. I'm going to have to learn to be productive on the subway. There is very little parking on campus, and will be virtually none when they tear out the main parking lot to start building a parking garage in May.

I spent most of the day at work being shown around and filling out paperwork. Still don't know precisely what I will have to do in the job -- we're supposedly going to go over some of that tomorrow. I'm essentially an assistant to the acting IT director for the Library School. The actual job is probably whatever she needs done. It's a small office, but seems to be staffed with nice folks.

I also spent the day making phone calls trying to shut down Nashville utilities, start up Mass. utilities, etc. I've been parking illegally on the street for the lastt few days, and I was hoping to get a resident permit today. I called about this, and was told I would need a Mass. auto registration and driver's license to get the permit. So I called the DMV, and was told that I would need proof of Mass. insurance to get the registration. So I called the insurance company, and they said I would need a Mass. driver's license to get insurance. Urgh! (Actually, turns out I can call back with the license info later, so this isn't a total catch-22. But when it all shakes out, I'm probably going to have to risk parking tickets for another week while I wait on all the paperwork.)

Despite the fact that I have a longstanding beef with Comcast (about running my own server at home), I signed up for their Internet service after Verizon told me they were overloaded with DSL subscribers in my area and couldn't currently take anymore. I guess I could have looked into other options, but I was too lazy. Also signed up for cable television. That may be a luxury on my student income. But the Internet costs a lot more without it. I even added the basic digital package for $5.95/month because this means they'll waive the installation fee. I can then cancel it in a month or two if if turns out to be pointless. I'm not thrilled about sending close to $100/month to Comcast, but I'll survive.

Only problem is, it will be almost two weeks before they can install it. So I'm stuck without reliable Internet at home. (Occasionally I can pick up someone else's WiFi router at night, but it's spotty.) Currently camped out in the lounge at school, and I can also go to the coffee shop around the corner. But still not as good as having it at home.

The apartment is still a mess, but I'm slowly getting it more organized. My office is more or less put together (although the computer doesn't really work due to the lack of Internet), and the living room is getting there. The kitchen still looks like a bomb went off -- need to tackle that this week.