lumière des étoiles

waaah.
2007-03-07 11:31 a.m.

So...Malesh. Malesh Malesh Malesh.

What that means, I'm not exactly sure. I think I read it first in a novel about Iranians living in Pakistan. They said it whenever a moment arose that called for someone to chime in with "well, that's life I guess." Then a guy from Greece that I met in South Africa (who was actually Turkish, if we're talking ethnicity) told me it meant "no worries".

So ambiguous though it may be, it's all I said, outloud to myself in my car like a crazy person, when the second hour of me waiting for the tow truck guy to show up was slowly passing yesterday. I also said it to myself in my head when, driving to work that morning just a few hours before, I downshifted to make the turn off of the big main street in Newark that leads to the University and found that my car wouldn't go into third gear. Or fourth. Or first - without grinding and squealing like a cappucino machine.

So hours later, when I finally got my go-nowhere car to my brother's mechanic (who luckily, was only 7 miles away; good when the tow truck guy charges $5/mile), and got from my brother's (cranky) mechanic to work to teach my 2:30 class (moms are awesome), I felt a little better. But then the (cranky but trustworthy) mechanic called, and told me a few things peppered with "unfortunately" and "several hours of labor". So I need a new clutch, etc., which when all is said and done will cost me $1k. Oh. Malesh.

And next week, we're having Radiation Data come to vent our basement foundation so that our radon levels go down. When we bought the house, we knew the radon reading was "a little high". NJ caps acceptable levels at 4 picoCuries per liter, and we have 9 picoCuries per liter. Since I know "really high" is like 40 picoCuries per liter (which some fellow townies had a few blocks from here, we were told), I wasn't freaking out. But then since cancer runs in our families like a freight train, and since part of what motivated us to move here was better air quality, etc., it would be really stupid not to deal with the problem. (BTW, here's what Radon does that's bad.) So we had (several) estimates done, each which gave us a radically different price, but all well over what we were told (when buying the house) the cost would be. The former owners gave us a credit for the radon mitigation process, but instead of half, it's now more like 1/4. I got a sinking feeling when the first company rep came by to do the estimate a few months ago and, upon entering the basement, said. "Oh dear." What I love about our house - that its original foundation from the early 1900s (as well as one room) was left intact when someone rennovated the rest ten years ago - is exactly what the problem is with the radon mitigation. It's easy enough to vent the new foundation, but the original - dirt and piled stones, essentially, is a "bitch to cover", as one company put it, because it's...dirt and piled stones. Each company rep that came out to inspect our poor little basement would poke around and grunt. Watching them do so reminded me of a Gary Larsen (The Farside) cartoon that always made me laugh. The caption said "Caveman Mechanics", and the picture showed one caveman looking at another caveman's stone wheel, saying "OooO, this not be cheap." So we settled on one company that will charge us 2500 to make this all go away. But it's our health! And everyone else's who comes to visit and sleeps over! And what about the cat we might adopt? What if we have a baby sometime? Malesh.

Part of the reason I had been freaking out so bad about getting semi-stranded in Newark with my bum clutch yesterday was because I had a paper due for my grad class just a few hours later; and really, at this level, to call the professor and say "well, like, my car broke down and, so, um, I can't give you my paper..." would just be humiliating, true or not. Besides, I worked on the paper like crazy crazy crazy, doing a ton of research and throwing myself into what I've been calling "catch-up stuff". With no background in policy or governance analysis, about.com and "for dummies" guides have been my best friends, reminding me who Hegel and Gramsci are, what they say about politics and power, and why the Bretton Woods system failed after all. Since much of what I'm reading makes references that assume you as a reader have an extensive background, I often have to do catch up before I can understand what I'm reading. I don't mind - that's how I learn, how anyone learns - but it's really time consuming. So given all that work, to turn in the paper late because the flywheel in my car's clutch package or whatever exploded while I was driving - just no. No Malesh. But like I said, thanks to mom, I was rescued and delivered the paper on time.

I really am enjoying this class now and falling back into that familiar sense of satisfaction that comes from academic accomplishments. I'm still not sure where I'm headed after this class; whether I will pursue this degree here or will consider another program is something I still have to decide.