i've been here for 2 months! hurray me! :)

Hello there, faithful blog readers (and not so faithful blog readers). It's been a few weeks I think. But I'm back with another addition of the "Exciting Times of Erica Tibbetts" (I didn't come up with that, I stole it from a very clever friend, but I like that it boiled down to the ET of ET, so I couldn't resist). Anyway, I'm sitting in a magazine shop eating a wonderfully sugary cookie and drinking a reasonabley sized coffee (both for the measly sum of 5 dollars) about 2 blocks from the center of Melbourne's downtown. Just got done with rowing practice, and will soon be off home to watch as much of the olympics as I can before I fall asleep.
Life has been, er interesting? for the last few weeks. Namely the last week. But I'll start where I left off like 2 weeks ago.
Since then I have a) bought a bike b) realized that my trip to and from work everyday encapsulates a small microcosm of society that could serve as a basis for defining most of human society c) gotten yet another job d) started to really enjoy coaching the little kiddies every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday e) realized how much I'm gonna miss Rollins f) really felt like I'm settling in here and g) um, lots of other things.
First of all, the days here are fantastic some of the time. Like today! It's cool- I think 10 degrees celsius, which is like 50 degrees F. But it's sunny and clear and there's very little wind and it's like the perfect day. I mean, for those of you who played sports when you were little, it's like those days when you'd wake up so excited to go out and run around and yell and win and run and just be content with the very moment in which you lived and the very act of playing, and there was nothing more to life than that day. I felt like that a lot growing up and playing soccer and just getting lost in single moments and games and days. Today felt like that, and Tuesday was the same. Just perfectly happy days.
But it's also really crappy here sometimes too. I got quite damp yesterday getting home from work at like 1245 am... gross.
Oh and on an entirely different note, I saw the coolest guy ever on the train that perfect tuesday earlier this week. He had an Australian Shepherd type dog (kind of grey and black and mottled and shaggy) and really eccentric clothing- like layers and raggy looking bits- he was unshaven, longish hair, but not too untidy or scary looking. And he had a little baby guitar looking thing that he was playing the whole train ride (only like 8 minutes for me, but still) and he had a skateboard. And I just thought he was the coolest guy ever. Really wanted to take his picture, but didn't have the guts to ask. Oh well.

Coaching has been great. The little devils have learned not to mess with me too much, and I've learned to have fun even when they're not listening or are unable to really grasp what I'm trying to tell them. But this last week has been kinda awesome and I actually look forward to going to practice. And apparently (or so I'm told by the parents) they look forward to coming too. Which is fun.
The day job is the usual- boring, repetitive, and I get barked at every single morning for something i didn't do or that is contradictory to what i was told earlier or something totally pointless. But i've learned to live with that. It's all good. And there are some regulars who know me now and who i have talking to.
I did pick up a night job, which was very exciting because a) i need a little more money and b) i never thought anyone was going to hire me. See, I don't have much experience doing anything except for scooping ice cream, answering phones, and thinking hard. And there's not much market for thinkers in the blue collar industry. And I'm too lazy (or something) to get a real job here. It would just be hard what with me not being here too long and not knowing where to start, and a part of me wants to be a hard working, coaching, starving artist type- at least til i get home in april.
Anyway, the night job. I work at Fiesta, a mexican restaurant right next to a reasonably big train station and sort of on the ritzy end of town (not the dodgy end). Well, I have worked there for two nights, and I expect to be going back either tonight (crossing my fingers that they don't call me... i really don't want to work tonight) or Monday. The other waitress and waiter seem quite reasonable and the boss seems like well a typical slightly obnoxious boss. But I have had no trouble with him thus far, and hopefully if i work my butt off i will remain on his good side and not have to worry. The two nights I have worked, I've been doing mostly drink orders adn running up and down stairs. They have an upstairs "party room" as it were, and it was booked out to large parties. And a lot of the food was on a set menu, so i just had to worry about bringing up copious amounts of beer and margarita. Got home last night exhausted after working friday 11 to 230 at the day job, then 3 to 5 coaching, then 630 to 1130 at Fiesta and then yesterday 11-4 at the day job and 6-1130 at fiesta. So yeah, a couple of long days.
Like I mnetioned, I now have a b-b-bike which makes life a lot easier. No more worrying about missing trains. It's about 6 or 7 miles each way to work. So around 13 or 14 miles roundtrip- which i have done a few times, but which I'd probably prefer not to do everyday. So some days I will train it one way or the other, and some days I'll ride the whole way. The bike is probably the best one I've owned in years (the last couple I had were pretty shoddy). It has decent breaks, good gears, and a seat that i'm steadily getting used to. I had a little bit of a misadventure actually getting this bike. I went into "Cash Converters" a rather legitimate and large pawn shop. ANd they had a huge selection of bicycles. I moseyed around for awhile (this was at about 530- not long before they closed at 6). Eventually picked one out. but it had a flat tire, so i picked another one. The seat was a little high, but I figured they could adjust that or I could take it down to the bike store a block away and have it adjusted. This was like 4 minutes before closing. The guy tried to adjust the seat, but to no avail, so he gave me 30 bucks off and mentioned that I would probably need the breaks tightened too. No worries, I thought, shouldn't be that hard to take care of, and for only 35 dollars it's a deal!. Picked out a helmet and was ready. The guy said noramlly they would let me test drive it, but because they were closing soon I didn't have time. So I just took off. I realized 2 blocks later that the seat not only wouldn't go down further but that it twisted around and was too high for me to sit on and pedal. I got to the bike store where I was told that the seat didn't even belong to the bike and that it was a piece of crap and I should go back and get my money! Unfortunately it was now after 6 and the pawn shop was closed... I was slightly miffed- well quite pissed and disappointed, actually. Still I mananged to get the bike home (despite thoughts of just leaving somewhere for someone else to steal and try to ride) and figured I'd go back the next day to give it back and maybe get a little of my money back. To my surprise they let me exchange it, pay another 30 bucks and get the nice little thing I have now, which is by no means a nice bike, but it's very rideable. It's sort of turquoisey green and called Starwind (or something like that). I'm quite fond of it...Every time I lock it up somewhere I have a sneaking suspicion that when I walk back out it will have been stolen and I will again be at the mercies of public transport. But, so far so good.
Anyway, for those of you still reading, I'm sure I've bored you quite enough by now. I have other things to rant and rave about, but I'll save that for later. For now, wish me luck juggling 3 jobs, rowing, and working out like a maniac (and still sleeping occasionally) oh, and applying to grad school again (so i can go back to being valued just for thinking- i like that).
Later kids.