book learnin'

I got mail from BCC Financial Aid today. Because I withdrew this term, I am not eligible for any financial aid next year. What's more, I have to repay financial aid from this term before they will release any of my information to another school - thus effectively prohibiting me from taking classes at anywhere else. Unless, of course, I want to pretend I didn't earn those 30 credits and that 4.0 and start all over somewhere else.

Yeah, I can appeal. I have to appeal to the dean to get the Ws (for withdrawal) off my transcript, but all that will take is a letter from me and a letter from my doctor. Financial Aid is a completely different appeal - more involved, more time-consuming, and it will take much longer. Long enough that most (if not all) of the work-study will be awarded, and since I've been completely disqualified, I have no chance at it now.
And I still have to pay the other stuff before I can register there... or anywhere else.

Scholastic bureaucracy. I don't have the strength for it right now.

Who is Monica Bellucci? Where did she come from? Can we make her go back?

Spam: I got e-mail from Robert Kennedy Jr. and Lara Croft in the same day. Delightful!

I picked up Tom Robbins' new book Villa Incognito at the library yesterday. I hope it's not as ghastly as Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates. That books was atrocious; I couldn't finish it.

Today I made my way through The Gallery of Regrettable Food. It's not perfect, and I wanted something a little different from it, but I am enamored of vintage cookbooks and advertising, so it was still incredibly enjoyable. I laughed a lot. You can have a small peek into the book prototype here. The site also offers some things that aren't in the book. If you're into retro, vintage or kitsch, you'll enjoy it.

I'm about to start Jonathan Franzen's How to be Alone. I didn't read The Corrections, so I don't know what to expect from Mr. Franzen, but I saw the book on Pinky's Amazon wishlist, and she has excellent taste.

We looked at a really fabulous house this week. I am really quite taken with it. It's in Seattle. Duncan's wanting to move more rural, though. We'll see. I like it quite a bit, as well as the neighborhood and the elementary school.

I want to go to bed. However, I seem to have gotten a touch of food poisoning, so it's best that I stay up until I feel somewhat better. Otherwise my unwell, unhappy tossing and constant crawling in and out of bed up will keep Duncan awake.

Family Ties it is!