It is true that, with my final undergraduate semester behind me, I went briefly into “the dumps” and wished I had another semester or two ahead of me. However, I also never considered going as far as Azia Kim at Stanford:

Azia Kim was like any other Stanford freshman. She graduated from one of California’s most competitive high schools last June, moved into the dorms during New Student Orientation, talked about upcoming tests and spent her free time with friends.

The only problem is that Azia Kim was never a Stanford student.

Kim moved into Okada 108 on Apr. 18. She told student staff that Stanford Housing had approved her transfer from Roble because she had more friends on East Campus.

“At RA training, this will be one of those stories that you would never expect to happen,” said a resident assistant who lived with Kim. “It’s kind of impressive, how she was able to figure everything out and trick so many people.”

Still, Kim had neither a Stanford ID nor a key, forcing her to sneak into meals and enter her room through its window, which overlooked the Munger construction pit, the Wilbur parking lot and a dumpster, three feet off the ground. Zhou never noticed, as she spent nearly all her nights in her boyfriend’s room.

“She took off the screen and always left one of the windows wide open and the blinds up,” Zhou said. “I just guessed she always wanted a breezy room.”

To avoid suspicion while in Okada, Kim pretended to be a sophomore majoring in human biology, going as far as to buy textbooks and study with friends for tests she would never take. Residents of the 94-person dorm were none the wiser.

“She really knew her stuff, and really knew the schedule,” Zhou said. “For HumBio, she would say, ‘I have a midterm Monday in this room,’ and I knew that was true because my friends are HumBio [students].”

Police are currently investigating the situation. They could press trespassing or theft of services charges — Stanford Housing charges unauthorized visitors $175 daily, bringing Kim’s eight-month liability up to $42,000.

But after filing a report with the Department of Public Safety, Zhou doesn’t think much will be done.

“The police just said, ‘If we see her on campus, we’ll evict her,’ and say, ‘Don’t do anything anymore,’” Zhou said. “Even after hacking into my email account, they said there’s nothing they can do unless she was using it to fraud anyone. I don’t think they’re going to do anything.”

But closer friends hinted at deeper troubles underneath a sweet veneer.

“There must be something big behind this,” said Lee, “because I don’t think people behave this way for no reason. We’re hoping she gets help if she needs it.”

I’d say … yes, she certainly needs help.

Unfortunatly, it isn’t about the forthcoming third-season DVD release (everything I’ve heard indicates late summer, early fall), but about an HD-DVD box-set of the first season. All I’ve got to say about the ongoing format war between HD and Blue-Ray is that I don’t have the money or the desire to invest until either one format has succeeded, or both have failed (and, y’know, ultimately until they drop in place so as to be affordable).

So in the summer months, when the days get darker later and college kids come home from far, far away, and high schoolers get to pretend to be grown-up by staying up late, the business trends tend to shift. It’s a good thing for people like me who work late or closing shifts — things tend to be steady (or downright “slow”) — until it begins to get dark. 7:30 is usually the magic hour. In the winter, often, at 7:30, the sinks are filled with hot water, the front line is broken down, and people get to bagging up trash and sweeping and preparing the mop bucket.

Yeah, and then the summer rolls around, and business actually hits at 7:30ish, and often continues up to and past closing (at which point people get told “sure, we’ll bring this out to you in thirteen hours when we reopen!”). Why is it good for people like me? Because I often work “late” or “close” shifts, and by 7:30, if there is a “rush” driver, he’s usually long gone. Long story short — more runs, later, with fewer drivers, means more moolah in my wallet.

Thursday was a night like that. Zebulon running around all frizzy, the store a wreck, and the phones just absolutely refusing to shut the fuck up. Our phones don’t actually have a ring — they buzz. A nasty, annoying, skull-scratching noise that just drives a person absolutely up the fucking wall.

I had fourteen runs working five and a half hours on Thursday night. Showed up at 4:45, and finally left at 10:30 after sweeping and taking out the trash. I had six runs by 7:30, and seven by ten, which is when I took my final run (#14) waaaaay out to Phoenix Road.

I can’t say I’m unhappy — needed the cash. Plus, Gump, who occasionally teases me in my comments “Hey, you cut me off today!” or “I saw you driving down so-and-so road”, stopped in for an order of chicken strips. If he’d introduced himself before Zebulon rang him up, I would’ve made sure he wasn’t charged — alas, but I did make sure he got an extra blue cheese dipping sauce (hey, I do what I can).

Also annoying? The door chimes when people enter or exit, so that if the staff isn’t upfront (on slow days, the manager often loafs around in the office and I often loaf around in the back reading) and Greg recently changed it (because certain managers *cough* don’t hear the chime) to a “grandfather clock tone.” It’s been driving me up the fucking wall (and, no, not the proverbial wall, the walls at work are very very real!)