Get Real Paid

I guess deep down I knew, when I picked up my Spanish work visa, that the New York City Spanish Consulate wasn't really out of my life for good. They're too incompetent to just go away like that. Turns out I need some documents that they told me I didn't need, so now the University has to get the documents from the Consulate, and I won't be getting paid for a while. What a shocker.

I'm probably forgetting some things, but getting my visa required no fewer than six trips to the Consulate; four trips to NYC Police Headquarters; a doctor's appointment and two follow-up visits; three trips to the New York County Clerk's office (employer of the most miserable clerk I've ever personally experienced, ever); at least $300, most of which was payable only by money order so throw in some trips to the bank; hours waiting in line; miles walked all over Manhattan; one very sketchy notary; several bouts of talking to myself in public like a crazy person; and one crying fit. And it's not over. Fuck. [Don't get me wrong. Six months in Barcelona may very well turn out to be priceless; I'm not saying that the above list of errands wasn't worth doing. But it was a huge hassle.]

...so that sucks. But still, it will take more than one late paycheck to top the levels of incompetence I got used to dealing with at Columbia. The bar's been set pretty low.

I bought a new shower curtain today. The old one had some mildew on it and my shower is so small that you can't not touch the shower curtain when you're in it. My shower is also so small that the new shower curtain is way too big for it. So I was all frustrated about everything I do being wrong, when it occurred to me that I can just cut it. Is that ghetto or is it yankee ingenuity? I can't decide.

Oh. And I did laundry today. I knew that European washing machines are much slower than their American counterparts; I nearly had a nervous breakdown once waiting for a Russian washing machine to finish. I thought an hour was a reasonable or slightly conservative estimate of how long a load of wash would take. It took an hour and a half, and that was on the delicate cycle, which is probably the slowest one. Jeez. I was almost late to my meeting with Human Resources which, in retrospect, would have been okay since all I did there was find out I'm not getting paid any time soon. But still. An hour and a half is a really long time. And, 12+ hours later, nothing's dry. So washing clothes is a very slow process here. Whine. It's free though, and I guess I'd be complaining more if I had to carry everything up and down 5 flights of stairs to go to a laundromat.