Sneaking Suspicion

My MSN is not working; it crashes my laptop every time I try and use it. Everything else is fine, just being kind of slow to turn on.

The house phones are not working, they say they're engaged, but I've hung them all up and they're not.

I had to organise my Australia travel insurance while my parents are in Spain. My Dad supplied me with his credit card details- but his credit card is not working so I paid it from my savings account.

There is only one possible explanation- my parents are being arrested in Spain (probably for murder or drug trafficking or something) and so the government have hacked into my laptop in case I use MSN to communicate with the criminal underworld, cut off my Dad's credit card and discommunicated all our house phones.

This is probably not true, but then my parents were recent victims of credit card fraud, and all their old cards were cut off. And now, apparently, a new card.

Communication is a little tricky. but my mobile is working fine (although rapidly running out of credit due to lack of house phone, but my parents have given me permission to use some food money on credit), as is facebook, and yahoo. And my parents instructed me to get the neighbours to ring BT tomorrow.

WHY DOES NOTHING WORK? WHY?

At least I have the main computer if I need MSN, and the TV, and the microwave. But this is still a little bit like the beginning of a horror movie. Going to Company of Teens in 15 mins will make me slightly less freaked out.

Nostalgia

It is just beginning to dawn on me that I am sort of a grown-up now.

I mean, I am going to be alone in the house for 2 weeks, I have driven a car (admittedly not without a lot of prompting,) I now have a job, although saying that makes me feel anxious that I'll turn up tomorrow and the other staff will be like 'ha, just kidding. Go home.' I have stopped growing. I can legally purchase alcohol. I do my own laundry and go to the bank by myself and tick the box saying 'I am over 18' to watch the Inbetweeners on 4od without having to lie.

This is weird, because it feels like about three and a half minutes ago that I was upset in Resistant Materials because Zia said in a patronising way 'Anne, have you ever even been out with a boy?' and then laughed. And now that just seems kind of stupid because that shouldn't really have worried me much at thirteen. I found a diary that I wrote when I was thirteen to fourteen (and might have to burn) which made me realise that it was a lot longer ago than it actually feels like. All the REALLY SHOCKING gossip from 2006 or whatever is actually really, really mundane.

I am kind of hoping that when I get back from Australia I will actually feel a bit more like a real grown-up, because I will have wrestled kangaroos and fried shrimps or whatever it is people do in Australia.

WooHoo

I got a job!

At The Breakfast Club, where five kids from different social groups sit in Saturday detention and learn things about themselves along the way.

I am officially going to Australia from the 13th February to the 14th August 2011.

Wow.

I would like to thank my father and his 380,000 spare air miles and my relatives who live in Australia and left a message on my Dad's voicemail saying 'whenever and for as long as she likes.'

Wow.

No Room at the Inn

So my Mum and I left to go to Kent at seven o'clock in the morning. We ran around, talking quickly, drinking coffee and making pro/con lists Gilmore-style. And then sat in a four-hour traffic jam on the way back, because today is just one of those days.

Here were the pros of deferring, which are major and numerous:

1. Time to learn to drive
2. Time to learn to cook
3. Guaranteed on-campus accommodation next year
4. Off-campus: distance and difficulty
5. This one is stupid, but I would be 21 for the third year in the US, and therefore the legal drinking age.
6. July birthday, so I'm young in the year anyway
7. Lack of first year Halls experience off-campus
8. Waiting for something good rather than settling for mediocre
9. Able to change to preferred module, as I only got my second choice this year
10. Difficulty acquiring internet access off-campus
11. Unpredictability of small group of roomies, can't visit other uni friends on campus easily
12. I am mentally prepared for Halls, not a house.
13. It is not like second year when you choose who you live with among your best friends and have lived away from home before.

The only major con was not getting to go this year, but I know that I made the right decision for me. I plan to do the aforementioned continuing to learn to drive and cook, start looking for jobs and talk to my relatives in Australia about possibly seeing them.

I am happy with my choice but still kind of disappointed generally, as Kent keep building me up buttercup baby and then letting me down and messing me around. I really need something good to happen at some point soon.

How To Make Friends Quickly

What an afternoon.

I have not officially got anywhere to live next year, and have three options.

1. Defer university, which ensures that I get on-campus accommodation for 2011, and find something to do for a year.

2. Hastily find equally desperate Kent first years, do a group e-mail and become very quick BFFs and potential roommates with some friendly-seeming strangers looking for a place to live.

3. Buy a tent. Live in it. Become known as the Campus Hobo.

I have gone for option number 2, and have sent more e-mails to strangers today than in my entire life, and my stress levels are set to Maximum.