You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2009.
That’s my wait time thus far with Time Warner Cable. Which I find interesting because you can’t just call them, you have to put your number in the website and ostensibly they call you when they’re ready to
/
AND STOP.
Yes! Yes, in the ultimate of cosmic practical jokes, as I was literally typing the above sentence, I finally had a live person pick up, just in time to immediately tell me that their BILLING SYSTEM IS DOWN AND THEREFORE SHE CAN NOT HELP ME AT THIS TIME.
Sigh.
I was going to sit out here and type up an update about how I move in two days and I’m not done packing and I don’t have the logistics of the actual move hammered down and I don’t even know if I can drive the damned Uhaul because I don’t know if my insurance on my beloved Xterra has totally expired or just hasn’t been renewed because I can’t find the info because I’m half packed everywhere
..but now I’m just going to go drink a beer and laugh. Because some days that’s just what needs to be done.
More Friday, or next week: whichever comes first with my interwebs hookup. Literally.
Well kids, I’m back. And my trip was, to put it mildly, fairly craptastic. Oy vey I hate when you have such anticipatory excitement about something, and then it doesn’t work out. It exacerbates the disappointment, y’know?
I’m thankful I got to spend a lot of time with my mom and sister, and it was so good to see my grandparents, but the rest of it just.. sucked, really. There was some unexpected tension with my extended family about the divorce, half of the visitors ended up with colds or some sort of stomach issue, the kids were nutjobs on the long drive home, and as soon as I got back a freak thunderstorm knocked power out of my apartment for a couple hours (in 90 some-odd degree heat) and drenched my poor new phone that had fallen out of my bag.
I think the straw, though, the straw that made me almost just lose it altogether, came a few days ago when I realized my (relatively low) credit card limit was suddenly – and arbitrarily – lowered by a couple grand while I was trying to use it for such minor things as, I dunno, gas. A COUPLE THOUSAND DOLLARS. I was so irate I couldn’t see straight. My card is maxed now, and if they raise the rate – like I’m now learning is just as probable – I will be socked with charges I never would have incurred before, when I was an on-time and regularly paying-over customer. And more infuriating was the conversation I had with the unabashedly apathetic Capital One twit, who basically told me I could take my indignant sputterings and go f*** myself. Turns out apparently a lot of people are having this done to them, because the companies are trying to hurry and bleed us out of even more, before the Federal regulations eventually kick in.
I have such disgust for the ethics of big business it’s almost immeasurable.
But the real kicker of all this to me is not only the frustration that comes with feeling so powerless to that whole machine, but more that I was going to use some of that to cushion the unexpected costs that come when you move to a new place. I have very carefully organized my life such that for this brief time, I needed that. Not because I’m wantonly buying crap at Best Buy, but because I want to know that I can spend a hundred on things like trash cans and shower curtains and other miscellaneous necessities at Target. It’s been difficult for me to continue to swallow my pity-party tendencies these last few months; I’m trying hard to make good choices, and things just seem to keep, well, arbitrarily turning in a direction that has so much impact on my precarious stability. And it’s fine, I’m fine. I promise I know there are so many people who would beg to have my problems if it meant they still had food and shelter, I’m not that self-absorbed. But to know that some (let’s assume far wealthier than I) corporate asshat in a boardroom decided to screw me over just because he still can, blows. It tests my still-stubbornly naive need for fairness in life, I guess.
Blerg. Ok. /end rant.
Who knows, maybe some karmic chain reaction will get to the aforementioned asshat, and he’ll feel compelled to give a COUPLE THOUSAND to a charity serving economically-challenged kids. Let’s hope, eh?
On a lighter note, I got this message in my inbox this morning. I’m so on it because it promised 3k a month for working three hours a day from home. KA-CHING!
A venerable insurance company within the underlying market of
operation, is proud to announce yet another feasible entry for
uprising accounting adepts.
Comfort working environment will most definitely justify the necessity
to excel in the vast sphere of professional goals, and thereof lay a
firm foundation for your career advancement.
Salient associates, with profound work knowledge, will assist you in
unwrapping avocation related techniques, which will best integrate
with the development and popularization of high-caliber insurance
solutions.
Feel free to consider the prerequisites table right below, to amass
the important information.
.
Yup. Totally legit. I’m sure of it.
But before I start my new illustrious career (or go finish my relaxing book in the waning hours left in my vacation), I want everyone to listen to this song I have resoundingly fallen in love with while driving that straight-and-narrow path that is I-70 across Kansas. It’s “Kingdom of Rust” by the Doves. Good stuff, I say.
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Later, gators. Thanks for letting me vent; it’s good to be home. 😛
I’m supposed to come back Wednesday.
I make no promises.
I swear I had full intentions to post something coherent today; I even tried to set aside time this week to do it. But I think this will be if not an epic fail, at least a substantial one. I’m sorry. I’ve got myself a tidy little cold, and the only positive thing about it is that being this stuffed up, the acoustics in my head when I sing are uhhmaaazing. Other than that I’m drinking vitamin C-laced hot water like crazy, and walking around in a tired fog.
Let’s see.. Jack and Lorelei started swim lessons last week. The gal who is teaching them is an older Jewish (I’m guessing) ex-New Yawker (pretty sure about this one) who apparently used to run an autism program somewhere. Whatever, she’s hysterical and the best teacher for my particular knuckleheads. She’s very (on par with the above-mentioned stereotypes) no-nonsense, and you could tell she was smitten with Jack’s eagerness, which, if you remember from last year, is a tremendous 180. I’m pretty stoked.
I’m also stoked because I’m headed on over to Colorado next weekend with the kids and my mom and sister for a short trip and SWEET JEEBUS I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW MUCH I NEED THIS.
In exciting news, in a few weeks I’ll be moving into the little blue house that sits next door to the house I work out of! My boss’s brother owns the house (but lives in CA), and is giving me a pretty sweet deal on rent. I’m so excited to do this I am almost unable to verbalize it. Really. That big. So if you’re free any weekend in the next couple months, let me know. Best of all I get my beloved, cantankerous old-man cat, Lucky, back. That grumpy old goat has been with me for almost 12 years, and I miss him something fierce. I might bring that stupid Oscar too, but I think it’s funny hearing the stories Jon tells me about him knocking over the Britta pitcher at night. (Heh. I kid, I’ll see if I can bring them both.)
[So, in an ADD look-a-squirrel sidenote, I’ve been singing this song non-stop for a few weeks now. It’s Band of Horses – “The Funeral”, and I was convinced it was a side/new project from the lead singer of Sunny Day Real Estate, but it’s not. I’m curious if anyone else thinks they sound the same, though.]
Hmm… Took the kids to the movie Up this weekend and it was.. erm.. disjointed. Odd, mostly. Predictably sweet because it was Pixar, with one particularly sad part, but meh overall. Ironic since they opened with a montage of all the cool movies they’ve made <<scratches head>>. Moving on to television, I’m officially kind of embarrassed to admit that I’ve been watching the first and second seasons of Friday Night Lights. It’s so soap operaish, with every conceivable after-school special theme possible. First season alone they dealt with underage drinking, underage sex, parapalegics, steroids, rape, infidelity, deadbeat dads, deadbeat moms, Alzheimers and football in Texas, of course. But like a fool, I keep watching. Shrug.
(I’m also reading the book The Stone Diaries for my book club, so that renews some brain cells, right?)
And, I think that just about sums up everything I could think to talk about at the moment, my brain now officially hurts. But as a last appeal, if you help me move I’ll give you some of my totally-stolen-from-Hippy-Chick spaghetti sauce, because it’s da bomb.
Have a great week, everyone.
In the car, playing a card game where you ask kids questions to engage their imagination.
Me: “Lorelei, if you could be an animal for a day, what would you be?”
Lo: “A ucorn.”
…
Me: “What is your favorite thing to wear?”
Lo: “My pricess dress.”
…
Me: “What’s your favorite meal, and who would you like to share it with?”
Lo: “Carrots with my ucorn.”
…
Me: “What is your favorite song?”
Lo: “The pricess ucorn song.”
Me: “Where did you learn that one, honey? I don’t know it.”
Lo: “From my ucorn.”
Me: “How does it go?”
Lo: “Lalalalucornmmmmla”
…
Me: “If you could be an astronaut in space, where would you want to go?”
Lo: “To visit my ucorn.”
…
Me: “What’s your favorite movie character? Who do you like to watch best in a movie?”
Lo: “The pricess.”
Me: “Ok, but which one, honey?”
Lo: “Yeah.”
…
Me: “If one of your toys came to life for a day, which one would it be and what would you do to play with it?”
Lo: “My ucorn would dress up like a pricess with me and play tea party.”
…
Me: “What’s the best magic trick you’ve ever seen?”
Lo: “The ucorn is the best trick because ucorns are magic.”
…
Me: “If you could be on a team where you can wear uniforms, what team would you play on and what would your uniforms look like?”
Lo: “My uform would be a pricess dress, and my ucorn would wear a pricess dress too and we’d kick the ball for bassetball.”
.
..Fair enough, I guess.
Huzzah! 