They have White Castle up here!!!

So I'm here in Ann Arbor! Whoever said that the journey was as important as the destination was on a ton of crack. That or maybe they've just never met my parents. Here's how the trip basically went.

8:30 AM: We leave the house.
8:32 AM: I get a call on my cell phone. Apparently my parents have left all of their gospel CDs in the house. (This is because they've been playing them 24/7 on the stereo in an attempt to passive/aggressively convert me back to Christianity. Very awkward)
8:33 AM: I turn around, knowing this to indeed be a bad omen for the rest of the trip.
9:00 AM: I get a call on my cell phone. Again. This time it's to let me know that I have passed my Dad's car. Shocking, I hadn't realized. Nor really cared for that matter.
9:10 AM: I get another call. I'm driving too fast.
9:15 AM: Apparently now I'm really driving too fast. I am at 75 mph trying to accelerate on a road where people in the right lane are going at least 80. I could listen to my parents. I could also die. So I chose to ignore them.
9:45 AM: Mom calls. Asks if I need to take a break, get a snack, or go to the bathroom.
9:46 AM: I nearly die while telling my mom no on the phone.

That's enough for you to appreciate the wonder of my 500 mile drive to Ann Arbor. But indeed I am there now. We stayed in a hotel and I started to take on a rather murderous rage. It was unfortunate. Luckily the place has wireless internet so I sign onto AIM and Jenny tells me that murdering my parents is a bad idea because they may prove to be useful the next day.

The hotel we were at was pretty decent, they had a bunch of premium channels. Yet as all people over the age of 40 apparently do, they naturally found the weather channel and proceeded to let me know of the 10% chance of rain I would have tomorrow. I nearly lost my hearing blasting my music through my headphones to drown out the 45th explanation of what heat index is.

Anyway, this morning I'm woken up at 7 AM by my dad, who wants to go to Bob Evans for breakfast. Now I've never been to Bob Evans, but it became the ideal conduit for my anger at the time. So I said no, and was then scolded an hour later when they both returned from their wonderful breakfast. Why you might wonder. Because I'm still in the bed. At 8 AM. I'm told I can't sign my lease until 9:30 anyway. Ugh.

I sign the lease, and get the apt. It's sweet. It's on the 2nd floor (or like the 3rd floor I guess, the bottom floor is underground). Only a few things were wrong with it and it's minor enough for me to easily tolerate the week it'll take for them to fix it. When I find my digital camera among the rubble of my apt I'll take some pictures. My favorite is the multiple signs warning about watching your step in icy weather. They weren't there in June. I guess winter is just a few weeks away up here. Actually, before I got my keys I had to sign 2 different waivers saying I wouldn't sue if I or my property received any damage as a result of snow, ice, or cold weather. And I don't even have a coat yet. Though the phone guy almost tripped on the sidewalk on the way up, so maybe I should be more cautious. Oh, and apparently he changed my phone number after installing the line. I only figured this out after calling SBC sounding like a moron. Why not I guess.

Later I went back to the hotel to get the parents. In the span of several hours, we then become expert shoppers at Walmart and Kmart. Something I hate to admit, especially since I hate Walmart on principle. But when you're living right around the Federal Poverty Level and the amount of money you have for the semester only goes down and never up, then you swallow your quite literally worthless pride.

So now my parents have left me with an apartment full of assorted things. I'm not entirely looking forward to sorting all this crap out. I setup my coffee maker (though I have no coffee) and have halfway installed my water filter. This is an elaborate way of saying I have taken these things out of their boxes. Anyway, I'm just vegging out now. I don't know where anything is, let alone anyone really. I know a couple of people from Rice up here, and Dan is getting here in about a week- so it's not all bad. And I'll meet people next week when what I call Gradstudent O-Week starts. In case you were wondering, it's like O-Week minus all the fun. It starts at 8 AM everyday with a review of epidemiology and biostatistics. I bet you just wet yourself you're so excited.

As a fun little tidbit, my parents were originally planning to stay through Sunday morning. Luckily there's some huge NASCAR thing near Ann Arbor this weekend, so all the hotels have tripled their prices. They were less than happy at the prospect of sleeping in my furnitureless apartment, so they leave tomorrow morning after I show them the School of Public Health. I think I deserved that nice little surprise personally. I still don't think racing cars is a sport, and I will continue to judge them- but I'll never make fun of them in public again. It's the least I can do.