YAY!!

praise the Lord!! He blessed me with a job, finally. haha. not trying to suan God or anything but it has been a trying time. all thru' the summer, i've been looking.. not super actively but it has always been on my mind, worrying abt how to get thru' next year w/o a job and wanting so much to go home but just can't leave coz i won't be able to re-enter w/o a job offer. then, just at 'crunch time' (sch's starting next week..) woala, the HOD calls back couple of hours after the interview and tells me i got the job! actually, he asked a very cute qn when i answered the call: "do you want a job?" obviously my answer was "yes!" and he replied, "you've got one." heh, i thanked him, to which he replied "made your day huh? *smiling*"

anyway, been away from internet for abit. i'm actually using my housemate's powerbook (to which i only managed the web browser and not msn, not even web msn - cant seem to enable the popout thingy) but not complaining coz he offered to let me use it. =P the weekend was more driving again. sigh. now getting quite tired of driving long distance. oh yes, must tell you all the adventures we had! let's start with sat..

i happily reserved a mini-van online some couple of days before. we planned to rent the vehicle sat am, until mon am (read further for details) but when we arrived at the place to rent the vehicle, love was told that in connecticut, the state laws do not allow drivers under the age of 25 to rent. shucks, how come the website didn't show?! ok, so we had to come up with another plan. we called love's shuttle bus drivers (he gets a ride to work in the morning and since he's always the first to get on & hence takes a "ride-about" while they pick up other interns, he gets to interact with both drivers - they're a couple - most and has forged friendships with them) and they offered to sign as the main person renting the van, and add him as co-driver. however, we soon find out that co-drivers must also be above 25 and slashed the idea. in the end, God blessed and we asked (pretty boldly i must say) the shuttle bus driver to borrow their vehicle. they said the mini-van's company vehicle but they have a jeep they could spare. =P they have been trying to sell it off coz well, they're leaving US for Brazil. anyway, to cut the long story shorter, the jeep was just good. in case you are all confused, love and i were trying to bring back to boston abt 80-90% of our stuff over the weekends so we'll have a light move on friday - our car overheats easily so we have to make multiple stops and wont fit too much stuff.

ok, so by the time we managed to get the jeep - the couple had to drive home to pass us the key and help clear the jeep (as well as put the seats down) - we were already 2hrs behind schedule. the jam on I-95 didnt help at all and we only got to boston around evening time. unloaded at our place, our housemate met us to pass us keys. went over to barry's. his family was going to move back to singapore and wah, they werent at any ready stage to move out. barry was still busy trying to sell off furniture. he even offered to drive the guy who bought the queen sized bed & microwave. gosh. greg (their church friend) came by to help dismantle the bunk bed which we were buying over. i tried to help the girls pack but wasnt quite successful coz i didnt know what they wanted and what they didnt. just helped fold after asking what is whose (twins lah). barry came back then helped drive love back to our apt to dump the wood for the bed. at 2am, barry, puay yin (his wife) and us were still awake. trying to pack. love and i made maggie mee for them. with loads of yummy ingredients like scallops, mushrooms, prawns & char siew! haha. mid-night snack. py went to sleep after while barry started on his packing. i headed to bed and love joined me soon after. there wasnt much, the twin were squeezing on the air bed; we had 2 mattresses left so py took one and love & i shared one. was on the floor by the wall so it was ok. managed to catch some sleep despite barry & py coming in and out later in the morning. i duno if barry slept at all but he said he caught an hour's nap.

sunday. i woke up at 8am, even tho love had set the alarm at 10. py had to go to airport to catch her flight so i volunteered to send her there (barry was still packing). got the twins to walk me to the car (had to park somewhere far away coz they couldn't park at their house - some weird restrictions). then drove py to logan. stupid me forgot to check and locked ourselves out of the jeep! was quite stressed coz she had all her luggages inside! haha. i went to ask for help while she called keng (he called AAA). luckily at the airport, they had tow truck pple ready & available. it wasnt 5min and the guy came to unlock the car. heh. =p thank God! o off i went, back to barry's to load our mattresses and some other stuff they were giving to us. made a trip to our apt again, and ran some errands like returning lib books and withdrawing cash to pay barry. oh yes, we were gonna drive barry & the kids (3 of them) to newark airport. which is in new jersey (~5hrs away). another church family came by to help and the wife was just amazing! she cleaned out everything! greg sent barry & me to rent a car (they had like 10 pieces of luggages, excluding hand-carrys) so we could drive both the jeep (which contained alot of their luggages) and the car to newark. thing is, their flight was at 11pm and we left boston at 4-ish pm. (had planned to leave at 1pm, latest but that of coz didnt happen) for international flights, it's better to arrive abt 2hr before but a 5hr non-stop journey would bring us to exactly 9pm, minus any form of traffic jams. which was stressing. it also meant no rest for the drivers (love drove the jeep and barry drove the car). we didnt pack any food in the car so was hungry halfway thru but we were determined to get them there in time so just tahan. sped most of the way - which was quite scary coz there was so much luggage in the jeep! amazing we didnt miss a turn or get lost coz we took off from the original route - an alternate suggested by the shuttle bus driver. arrived 9:15pm. phew! truly amazing!!

headed back to our house in stamford from there. stopped to have dinner at BK. the fish & chicken burger tasted good. haha! by the time we reached home, it was 12+am. slept after showering and emailing some errands for barry. i wasnt going to attempt heading back to boston alone at that time, after being so drained so decided to wake up early, to beat the traffic and head back to boston for my interview. had to peel myself off the bed - almost didnt want to drive back and skip the interview. haha. drove for the next 3+hrs with three 5-min-stops. twice to top up petrol.. i didnt want to fill much coz it was expensive and also wanted a reason to stop more. haha. at one point i was pretty sleepy, but managed to stay awake up cranking up the music and singing (read: screaming). some portions i also signed the song just to keep my brains active. it was an estimated >3.5hrs' drive but thank God i made it in a little off 3hrs. came to our apt, rested and changed. =) interview nothing much to say (usual lah).. except the sch looks great, and it's smack right in the middle of many colleges. abit too tired to elaborate at this moment. gonna pack up a little and get ready to head back to stamford by bus.