If there's one thing I hope to never do again in my life, it's this: asking for letters of recommendation. Argh! Of course, my having stalled cuz I don't like asking for these letters have only made me look even more incompetent by waiting until the last minute. But hey, if I can get any scholarship money out of this deal, it will all be worth it. After getting stranded in Chino cuz my car blew a fuse and mechanics not being open on Sundays, my mom mentioned my needing a new car. Heck yeah, I need a new car. But I was hoping my current clunker could wheeze on for another year while I try to get a real job. Argh. It sucks being poor.

I'm really glad I qualify for the BOG fee waiver (free tuition, discounted parking) cuz it saves a few hundred dollars, at least, but I found out that I can't get more money (i.e. free textbooks) through EOPS cuz I'm not "academically disadvantaged." I mean, I oughtta be glad... to be that I would have to first of all, not gone to college, but have done horribly in high school math and/or english to begin with, but when you're scraping together every last penny to pay for rent and food... well, that $65 textbook just hurt. I know, I know, it's pretty good considering that people routinely spend hundreds of dollars in textbooks each year....

Alright, must buckle down. I've got a reel to work on!

...

On a different note, my birthday was decent. I mean, I had two classes and work in between (and a killer of a traffic jam whereby it took me 40 minutes to go 25 blocks... about 3 miles), but that night, I had an impromptu dinner with some classmates, which reminded me a lot of my Berkeley days. And after church on Sunday, a buncha ladies went out for dessert... which was really fun and also made me feel really guilty cuz we certainly haven't celebrated anyone else's birthdays like that, or else I wasn't present for it. So overall, turning 26... hasn't been too bad. I'll probably rant more about this later.