Its like a bag of sand!

It’s like a bag of sand! I was going to save this post for whenever my summer job had given me enough witty, engaging stories to constitute an entire entry, but in light of some less-than-important recent events, I decided to put up a short post. 1: I got pushed off the MIT Admissions front page. If you obsessively (or even just sporadically) read the blogs, then you probably know that this happened quite a while ago. My days have been filled with RA training for the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University, which Ill affectionately refer to as either CTD or nerd camp from here on out. Our week-long training was almost entirely composed of twelve different authority figures telling us not to kill the kids and a psychologist delivering sweeping, vaguely inaccurate generalizations about gifted students. (These children are cognitively advanced, but only at the expense of being emotionally and even physically delayed And to think, my gifted teachers just said I was special.) theres more to it, of course, but do you really want me to elaborate? Anyway, working with the kids (all of whom moved in on Sunday) has left me no time for the essential things in life, like sleeping (I HAVE TO BE AT BREAKFAST BY 7 AM EVERY SINGLE MORNING FROM NOW UNTIL AUGUST. WHATS UP WITH THAT?!) and spending too much time on the Internet. Its just as well, since this post has nothing to do with nerd camp and instead has to do with 2: My first full day off, which was on Tuesday. I took advantage of this day and set out on a Very Important Mission. You can tell that my Very Important Mission was Very Important because it took six months to complete. Also, I keep capitalizing the Very Important descriptor. Back in December, I got a Christmas present from my close friend Adrian. In true Adrian fashion, this gift had the following characteristics: -It was something I absolutely loved. -It was something really, really obvious that no one else had thought of before and that, consequently, I had never received. -It was absolutely riddled with issues. See, this gift was a $40 gift card to Virgin Megastore. Attempting to redeem the thing has been one of the most frustrating experiences ever. EVAR. Netspeak is absolutely necessary here. This is because every Virgin Megastore in the Eastern United States is closing or has shut down. The Miami location closed not two weeks after Adrian got the card, and the Boston store had been nonexistent for over a month when he gave it to me. Fine. I can just use it online, right? After all, the web address is displayed in a splashy font across the front of the card. As it turns out, virginmega.com a subsidiary of Amazon DOESNT ACCEPT VIRGIN MEGASTORE GIFT CARDS. Thats right. The Virgin Megastore website does not actually sell anything itself, instead redirecting you to Amazon. I have yet to understand this. What store doesnt allow you to buy things off its own website? Was there some revolutionary logic involved in making this decision, or is it one of those things that just managed to slip through the minds of every single person in a management position? Had I called customer service, the only response they could have possibly given me would most likely run along the lines of, Whoops! Sorry for the inconvenience, but we only sell things in our actual stores! Looks like youll have to go to the nearest open location in Chicago! Come on, quick like a bunny theyre closing in two weeks! This is, of course, exactly what I ended up doing. I flew thirteen hundred miles and spent a full day in the pouring rain for the sake of getting a Busdriver CD, Young Galaxys debut album, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin on DVD. And yeah, I came up here for that summer job thing too. That, however, is another story to be told another time, like after tonights dance. Ill be sure to fill you in on my four hours of racing around with a flashlight and a ruler No grinding, guys! NO GRINDING!