Rant Rant Rant

This weekend felt like a wild goose chase. On Friday some dumb kid swiped my computer power cord off my desk, so I was left with a drained battery and pages still to edit on my MA that was due today. I almost finished typing Saturday morning, but I then decided I needed to go find a new power cord before it was too late. I called CompUSA in Vacaville, the closest store that carries Apple products, and they said they had one. I got there, and they said they didn't have one. Next stop was UC Davis bookstore. None there. Next, I went to the Apple store in Sacramento, and they had just sold their last one. The salesman was willing to sell me his personal cord, but he didn't get off work until 9. I gave up, called Maria, and asked to charge my computer at her house. Luckily, she was home, and Robert was nice enough to let me borrow his cord. So, after finishing the paper and hanging out with Maria for awhile, I went to Kinko's for copies. I thought it would be simple: 5 copies, 2 bindings, drop off on campus on my way home. When I got there, I discovered 5 color copies would cost me $500. So, no color copies. After it took almost an hour to place my order (what do they not understand about copies and binding??), I discovered that they couldn't even process it then, and I would need to return in the morning. So, I drove back to Napa, returned to Davis in the morning, got to Kinko's and found they hadn't even made the copies. After the copies printed, I sorted through them and saw the page numbering messed up and tables were broken in half. The guy said it was because I gave them a word document. He said they see this happen all the time. Why didn't he tell me this yesterday, so I could have fixed it? So, I spent $50 on their self-serve printers printing out a new Table of Contents and new Reference page and Appendices. Finally, I left, looked through one of the binded copies and realized they didn't give me all the color copies I requested (and paid for). Next, I went to Academic Surge to drop off the paper and found the doors locked. So, I headed to Benicia to give Kathy the papers in person.
I spent this afternoon purging all the mounds and mounds of MA papers scattered around my floor. I'm sitting here looking at a clean apartment and 135 nicely bound pages and I feel no sense of satisfaction. I don't think I've recovered yet from the anxiety I felt all weekend. And I'm certainly not ready to go back to work tomorrow. All because some stupid kid thought it would be fun to take a cord that is probably now sitting in some dumpster somewhere. It makes me sad that any of my students would steal from me. I already lost the Butter Battle Book at the beginning of the year. I'm just going to have to get used to the fact that as long as I'm a teacher things are going to be stolen.
Anyway, my MA is done, my apartment is clean, and my lesson plans are at school. I don't know what to do with myself now.