Husband and I went to Hardee's for lunch yesterday. I really like Hardee's for their burgers, but they are no Carl's Jr. replacement for the east coast. They don't even have chicken nuggets! Carl's Jr. had those stars nuggets, remember? A little more expensive than say, Burger King or McDonald's, but totally worth it - but I digress.
As we were enjoying our lunch - watching trash lady from trash family panhandle in the parking lot - a dad and a group of four girls sat down near us. I'm a self-admitted eaves dropper, so I got a good earful of stories. One girl was going to St. Jude's Children's Hospital for their birthday to give sick children presents and whatnot. Which was really nice - but she turned it into a bragging contest of how saintly she was, and anyone that wanted presents on their birthday was simply selfish (color me guilty.)
But here's the kicker. After not paying attention for a while, voices are being raised, and I hear one girl say this to one of the other girls:
If you weren't adopted you'd be living on the streets of Guatemala getting diseases and stuff.
What?! I look at husband, and he totally missed it. I'm laughing. And the chaperon dad is saying, "Alright. That's enough. Let's chill out." And they leave.
I mean, who knows if she's right. Who knows if that girl is even from Guatemala. But the way she said it so matter-of-factly was classic. She wasn't trying to insult this girl - she was simply trying to be frank with her and tell her the alternative to where she is now.
I am Kun Chun, a legal practitioner. A deceased client of mine, that shares the same last name as yours, died as a result of a heart-related condition on January 12th 2005. His heart condition was due to the death of all the members of his family in the tsunami disaster on the 26th December2004 in Sumatra Indonesia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake
I am contacting you to seek your consent to present you as the beneficiary to my late client. He has a deposit of (US$19,000,000).
This will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you against any legal ramification. If this business proposition offends your moral values, do accept my apology.
I'm still volunteering at the shelter. Today was a rather fun day. We have a number of tiny kittens and puppies there right now. Without further ado, I show you the animals. Remember, if you're in the DC, MD, VA area and would like to adopt an animal, please check out www.arfusa.org. All the animals are after the jump (thanks Cotter).
Meet Stewie. Stewie is new. He's probably about three weeks old. Some girl found him near her house. His mom abandoned him. He's super tiny and ridiculously cute. He loves to hold on closely to you and doesn't like to be alone in his cage. He's currently alone in his cage until he goes to the doctor for his tests and vaccines. I have a feeling Stewie will be adoped quickly.
The twitter favorite: Sully. Sully is still here - and I don't believe there are any pending adoptions. We spent some good quality time together. He loves to be held - and purrs the instant you pick him up. This guy's face is ridiculous. And by ridiculous, I mean, cute!
Autumn is still here, with her relative (mom?), Fall. She's a nice, calm cat who loves to be pet. Her meow is like a creaky door - I like that: This is Bubba. Bubba is my husband's favorite teenage cat. He's a little shy at first, but loves to play with the other kittens in his room. His brother, Dickens was adopted a couple of weeks ago. (FYI: I'm the person cleaning those litter boxes in the morning - and you know what they like to do? They like to pee in the cleanest box, right after I'm done... while they're doing it, they stare at me - and laugh. I know they're laughing at me.) Please, someone adopt Dexter! I shouldn't play favorites, but he is my favorite teenage kitten to play with in the morning. He loves to get into mischief with me, leaves on a plant, or even a roll of paper towels. He's a bundle of energy and loves attention. The chocolate lab mix puppies are growing! I went into their pen today to pet them a little bit. They're up and walking around, giving a couple of whimpers. These guys are going to be adorable.
I apologize for the following blurry picture. Puppies are not the easiest thing to take pictures of. These guys here are the Lil' Rascals. Not really sure which one is which, but they are all named after characters from the movie. They like to eat my fingers, and love attention. I met Millie today. She was getting picked on by Riley and Hailey (I didn't get a picture of her, sorry!) This is Dani (I think). I like him. As soon as you walk into the kitten room, he begins to purr. Clearly, he likes attention and loves to be held. The purring just melts me every time. Sadie is Sully's and Ladybug's cagemate. Ladybug has a home visit coming up as soon as she's spayed. She found a forever home. Sadie causes quite a bit of mischief around the place. She likes to run places. She also liked holding onto my iPhone while I was trying to take pictures of her. The best I could do was get a half shot of her. This is Squeaker. He's in the kitten room. He is related to Dani - his other brother was adopted. I had to take this picture because he was giving me such a nice pose. They get sleepy after I feed them. If you've made it this far, I thank you. All of these animals are great, and they deserve to be in a forever home. If we were homeowners, I believe that we'd be in trouble - because I'd be taking a different animal home each week. There are many other animals (especially more dogs) that you can check out at ARF's website. I don't really write these posts for them - it's more out of my own interest in seeing these animals adopted. Maybe it's something I can bring up to them to do. Maybe ARF needs a twitter page... My wheels are turning.
Well well. A big welcome back to those of you who have stuck with me. Work has kept me rather busy and blah blah more excuses. But thanks for coming back, regardless.
Today I am going to continue the praise for my move. The husband and I have officially become Eastern Shore snobs. It is our goal on the weekends to never cross the Bay Bridge going west. And we succeed. But today we're going to be specific in praise. Today it is about my favorite food group: Pizza.
Growing up in North Jersey I was privy to some of the greatest pizza on earth (see: Benny Tudino's, anything in Brooklyn).
After leaving Jersey when I was 16, there was a constant struggle to find even a decent slice of Pizza. We managed in Las Vegas: Verazzano's on Rainbow. We managed in Pittsburgh: Milano's in Oakland. Both had really good pizza.
But Alexandria? Fail. We ate *gasp* Domino's. Throughout the 2 years in Alexandria we could not find decent pizza. My boss claimed it was because we were technically in the south and they didn't know what good pizza is (he's from Brooklyn). I only slightly believed that. We were near a large city like DC, where are the pizza shops run by Joey Jr. and his dad Joe Sr.? Needless to say, it didn't help to improve our thoughts on the area. We finally settled on a place with fair pizza: Primos. In the Belle View shopping center off of Fort Hunt. Very good for the area, but only fair compared to the other places we lived.
Then we moved to the Eastern Shore. Mike, the owner of Wye Knot Framing alerted me to a place called Carini's in Stevensville. The guy running it was from Sicily and had excellent pizza. Husband and I added it onto our places to try list.
Lo and behold, Mike was beyond right. Since first trying it two weeks ago, we have eaten Carini's four or five times. Including the past two nights in a row. Here, you can order a "pie" without them looking at you like you're insane. You can order pizza by the slice. You can get cannoli's for dessert. Sal will even keep them in the freezer while you eat your slices.
And the pizza? Thin crust that's just crispy enough. Grease that drips onto the plate as you eat it "Brooklyn style" (according to Domino's). Cheese and sauce together for a perfect mix - and no, I put nothing on my pizza. I enjoy the pure cheese, tomato sauce, and doughy goodness. The crust: a perfect mixture of crispy on the outside and soft inside. This is NY/NJ pizza material.
The best thing?
It's a pizza place I would take my mother to. (she's from Brooklyn).
Add great pizza to the many reasons we are glad to have moved out here.
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I've moved. And I felt it necessary to involve myself in the community - basically because I like it here, and feel that it is worthwhile to invest my time here. So since I can't adopt anymore animals (husband said hell no), I thought it would be nice to volunteer at an animal shelter. The shelter I found is a non-profit organization that shelters cats and dogs. They are the Animal Resource Foundation. What I wanted to do today was introduce you to some of my friends that I've met while volunteering there. I volunteer each Friday, and throughout the week I can't wait to go back. Sure, I have to clean out litter boxes, sweep and mop floors - but it's worth it to play with animals that don't have a forever home and a family life that I provide to my own cats. Also, while I'm only there to volunteer to clean the cat rooms, I take the time to spend with some of the dogs (mainly puppies, but I say hi to the older ones too) because well, I always wish I could take a dog home with me as well. Let me tell you, if husband and I owned a house, we'd be in trouble. That place would be a farm of animals.
ARF has a website (see the link above) where you can see the animals that are still up for adoption. Sometimes the pictures do them justice, sometimes you are missing the cuteness that they exude. If you live in the DC/Baltimore area (it's actually closer to B-More, but worth the hour drive up here from the DC area anyway - shit, I do it every week to get to work) I would consider checking these guys out if you want to adopt an animal.
So without further ado, I introduce you to my new friends!
This is Autumn. She is a calico (almost) adult cat - she is one of a mother/daughter combo (I'm not sure if she's the mother or daughter). She is very sweet, and follows me around so that I can pet her. Her meow sounds like a creaky door. I think she'd fit in perfectly in our home, but husband says no.
This is Dexter. Dexter is a kitten who became friends with me this past Sunday. A feisty little guy who wants to play all the time. He resides in the kitten room with 13 other little guys who are ridiculously adorable. I wanted to take Dexter home as a playmate for Mr. Ratman, but husband said no. As much as I hope Dexter gets adopted, I wouldn't mind playing with him again when I go volunteer. He's fun.
This is Mason (left) and (i think) Mooch (right). I don't know too much about the puppies since I don't spend too much time with them - but, if you are looking for puppies there are a bunch of them! These guys are lab mixes and love to play. They would nibble on my hand and just fight for my attention. And, look at those faces! When Mason was loose at the shelter, he liked to chase the cats around. He would often get swatted at - but he kept going.
Sydney is a beautiful and intelligent shepherd mix. On my third day coming into the shelter she began to get used to my presence. I think they said she's a little older than 1 - if you check the website you can get better information. She has a load of energy and loves to play with this block that you put a treat in the middle of. She's pretty smart and can get the treat out fairly quick. You can't see them, but she has beautiful brown eyes. I would like a dog like Sydney.
This is a close up of a mom. I call her mom, because she wasn't named yet. She just came in last Saturday with a litter of 10 puppies. Mom is a chocolate lab and the friendliest thing on earth! She would jump up on the fence to say hello to me with her tail wagging. Just a precious and happy mom. I like her.
These are mom's puppies. They are believed to be Chesapeake Retriever/Chocolate Lab mixes. In this picture they are about a week old. ARF was in the process of building a new room to house mom and the puppies on Sunday. I can't wait to see it!
I think this is Doody. He comes from a crazy litter of puppies - some with terrier hair, another with curly hair, some black, and then Doody. I'm not sure what kind of dog he is, but all I know is that he is adorable. He loves attention, and will whine when you're petting one of his siblings. I think he was being fostered last time I was there - or he found a forever home. But I just wanted to put this up so you could see what a cute guy he was.
And finally, Shortie. Shortie is a kitten that lives in the kitten room with Dexter and 12 other little furballs. If you look at Shortie's tail, you can see that she has a nub tail! Apparently, she was born with a little nub tail. I love it. Like all kittens, Shortie is very curious and also follows you around while you're cleaning their room. This is a shot of her napping after running around and eating. Damn, I love kittens.
There you have it. Those are some photos I've taken of the friends I've made so far at the shelter. There is a huge overpopulation of cats around the area. Husband and I are taking care of a family of ferile kittens that are in the woods across the street from our place. My goal is to catch them and fix them before the cold weather comes. I have a feeling Mr. Ratman was hanging out with them last night. They came pretty close to me when I brought them fresh water.
If you'd like more information on the place I volunteer at, please go to www.arfusa.org. There, you can see the full family of animals looking for a forever home.
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I wasn't going to put anything up today - frankly because I'm a lazy ass. But this warrants 1) A warning and 2) A chuckle.
As I was checking my email account - not the spam email that I sign up for retarded shit with - I got this Gem in my inbox:
I absolutely suck at posting screengrabs, so if you can't read that it's from Jaret Wyetzner, and the subject is "Vacancy available". Looking at his full email address - you see "jaretwyetzner60@live.com".
Ok. This seems valid, right? Probably not. But when you open it, this is the first image that you see:
Actually, it's just the "monster" part of the logo - and not trademarked. So, there's a good tipoff as well.
The ad is for a money manager assistant - sounds important! You can work from home - score! And make $2,000/month.
Now - this job does not sound good for me... only because I like my job, and it doesn't force me to move to say, England, Canada, or Pittsburgh... And also, I have some decent job security. But you'd have to believe for the 9.5+% of Americans that do not have a job - this sounds spectacular! Work from home, make some money! Awesome.
But wait.
There's more:
The actual position is a Money Transfer Assistant.
Wtf is that?
This remote position itself covers a broad range of directions an individual would have to perform. It's a part time position, which let's you perform your duties directly from your home location. In the nearest future, we're planning to achieve the expansion of our company throughout the United States of America and United Kingdom, providing local offices and departments in the vast areas, where logistic and insurance services are definitely in demand. Until then, we're trying to fill in our personnel with new individuals, which will increase the efficiency of the services we're catering. If you wish to apply or have any questions regarding the position, feel free to contact me back either via e-mail. Hope to hear from you soon.
Uhhh... what? There's no mention of the name of said company. But let's read more...
1) This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with any other work.
2) The fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% instantly from each payment processed by you.
3) You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as Western Union. You will receive 5% of processed amount.
4) You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.
5) To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.
6) You can work 2-3 hours per day.
7) This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.
8) Your education and status don't matter.
9) We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.
Cool, I don't spend my own money - I only have to work a couple hours a day? Not bad. Education and status don't matter?? You never hear that in DC! Oh, and plus? I don't have to SELL the insurance! Awesome. Let's read the details of the job:
1) An ACH or Wire transfer will be made to your bank account from our client. I'll let you know it's exact transfer amount and date.
2) You should receive the transfer and send me the confirmation that you've received it. Then you'll have to cash out this transfer at your bank.
3) Then you'll have to sent the money you took from you bank account via Western Union. I'll let you know all the necessary information on this transfer(the name of person who will receive the money and destination city/country).
4) Then you should send an email to me to confirm the Western Union transfer is sent. This email should include sender's name, name of the city the transfer has been sent from, exact Western Union transfer amount, and Western Union MTCN (it's essential for receiving the money).
5) We communicate with our agents mainly by e-mail, but we will also communicate by phone (if your e-mail is not available). It is your responsibility to check your e-mail daily and inform us about any change in your contact information. Supporting communication is your top-priority obligation.
6) The fixed monthly salary which is 2000 usd will be sent to you by direct deposit after 30 day period from first transfer.
Wait a minute... this sounds eerily similar to the process that Nigerian prince wanted me to use to get his inheritance to the United States. Hang on! It also sounds like the way that I won that lottery in England! I lost thousands because of that!
Long story short and an FYI -
I know it seems obvious now - but this isn't a real job. Don't apply. And don't do this:
If you want to apply please send all your questions and contact information at kotshonn@gmail.com . We're looking forward to our further communication.
We all know that I've moved. Now that I'm out in the boonies - so to speak - I take a commuter bus into the city, and then hop on the metro. It's a nice long ride, where I can listen to music close my eyes and relax. On the way home, I can do the same.
The Wednesday ride home was a little different:
I get onto the bus, and find an empty row of seats (2) that I can plop down and extend my legs. Sweet! Then I hear it.
ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZ Side note: I really have no clue how to phonetically spell snoring - so this will have to do.
Holy shit. This guy is snoring. Loud. Like that sleep apnea snoring that they warn you about if you get too fat. Yeah, that kind of snoring. It's LOUD. That's alright, I'll turn my music up. I wasn't tired to the extent that I needed to sleep on the bus. I was just going to get some extra work done, check twitter on my phone, and just read things. It's no big deal if I have to turn my music up a little louder. So I do.
I still hear the snoring. So yeah, at this point - 10 minutes into the hour-long ride - it's getting annoying. I deal. Because I've already spread my shit out, I'm not trying to go somewhere else. Music goes louder.
About 30 minutes into the ride, my legs are stretched, I'm leaning against the window dealing with his z's. All of a sudden, a hand latches onto my shoulder through the seats! It's HIM! Some how, in his slumber, he's grabbed my shoulder. I look back and dude is leaned against the window passed the fuck out and still:
Guy is passed out, snoring loudly, and now grabbing at things. I slowly moved away and he loosened his grip. When this happened, I looked around to see if anyone else is seeing this... No. Everyone else is sleeping on the bus too. I'm actually surprised you can't hear anyone else snoring.
Fifteen minutes later, guy is still snoring, everyone still sleeping, I am still doing some work. And then?
Dude rips one.
He ripped one. And LOUD! And everyone is asleep to miss the hilarity. Thankfully, it didn't smell. I covered my face into my sweatshirt just to make sure.
Needless to say, yesterday as I was getting on the bus, I picked out the snorer and did not sit in front of him again. However, I was close enough to hear his snoring without my earphones in. Dude's got sleeping issues. Granted, I wish I could sleep like that on a bus - minus the snoring... sleeping that hard/soundly, that is.
I'm kind of pleased by this experience. I thought that taking the commuter bus wouldn't be as exciting. But if I can experience things like this every now and then, I can still keep this blog!
Side note: It's cold on the bus, so I wear my favorite sweatshirt - a Steelers sweatshirt - of course. The security guards at work do not like this sweatshirt. Convo yesterday:
Guard: Well hello Steeler girl. Me: Hi! Guard: You don't mean those Steelers do you? Me: What do you mean? Guard: Those Steelers. Me: What, you mean the Six Time Superbowl Champion Steelers? Yes, yes I do! Have a good one! Read more...
So. We moved. We got a new place, and it's spectacular. The neighborhood is great. And get this: we've already met our neighbors! By name! Two weeks we've been here and we have met three sets of neighbors. Two years we were at the old place - never met a neighbor by name. Ever. I haven't been riding the Metro recently, so my Cheese People experiences are few and far between. Never fear, though - I start my public transit commute again next week. I'm sure a 1.5 hour commute one way will allow me plenty of time to come up with wonderful stories for you.
A new-ish friend of mine, Chris Illuminati, has recently moved as well. Last week, he told us four steps to move properly. Ohhh hindsight, you are SO lovely. So, I told Chris, that I would counter this - and advise you of ohhh let's say, 4 things you should NOT do when moving.
1. Don't throw away your Ikea tools. We have quite a bit of Ikea furniture. That includes a bed frame. We had to take said bed frame apart. This is impossible with normal tools. You need your Ikea tools if you ever plan on taking apart and moving your Ikea furniture.
2. Don't think that you will just easily pack your stuff on the day you move. Because two weeks later? I'm still moving unpacked shit out of the old place. The worst things to pack and unpack are books. We are not keeping the book case we had, so our second bedroom now has books all over the place... Bathrooms are the second worst. I pray that things in the bathroom were expired so they wouldn't go into our moving box. Moving time is definitely a good time to weed out that crap you just never throw away (see: really old makeup).
3. Don't move extra large boxes without a handtruck. I did this yesterday. The picture below shows my bruises. The damn box probably came up to my waist - and was probably 2 feet square around.I packed it light specifically for this reason, but when you load up all my shoes into a tall box, it's still not that light.
And finally? 4. Don't think you can do it yourself. We were moving 50 miles away from our old place. I got a great estimate from a moving company that would pack/unpack and move all our stuff for us. For some reason, we decided against that. Between the traffic back and forth, still moving stuff out of the old place, and my bruises.. I think paying the extra money for movers maybe would have been worth it.
So we moved. And those are some lessons that I learned. As annoying as this move was, it was not stressful. I will be getting a u-haul trailer and a hand truck next Friday, shoving the rest of our crap in there, and taking it over to the new place. I deem next Friday our final move out day.
Enjoy your holiday weekend. We're going to sit out by the bay.
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It started normal. It was a beautiful day in Denver - the men there are super attractive. So thank you, men of Denver, for the wonderful view.
The conference ended early, we strolled the 16th Street Mall. Got close to the state capitol. It has a gold top:
We called a shuttle service to take us to the airport. We got there a little early, check my luggage - assign our seats so that we're next to each other - with an aisle separating us. Both get aisle seats, score!
It's a crowded plane, a lot of uptight people going back to DC. Just like I could tell New Yorkers/Northern New Jersey-ers from the bags under their eyes... You could tell a DC-er by how uptight and annoying they look.
We board - on time. We even LEAVE on time. And let the torture begin:
In front of a me was a woman w/ a large bottom, a mother and her 2.5 year-old and an infant on her lap. The infant cried, often. But it was usually just a wimper, that could be forgiven by upping the volume on my DirecTV I got for free. (score.)
Then? I smelled poop. Her other daughter needed to change her diaper. So the mom, brilliantly leaves her infant with the scary unknown lady with the large bottom. What we heard next could be equivalent to this:
Yeah... that sounds about right. Lady with the large bottom would get in this poor infant's face with baby talk. She didn't want your baby talk, lady - she wanted her mom... who decided it would be ok to leave her scared child with an unknown crazy. Nice work mom. Flight attendant to the rescue - after reading her the instructions on how to properly dispose of a diaper at 35,000 feet, the flight attendant snatches the screeching infant and shows her where her mom is. This quiets it a little bit. That ordeal took about 7 minutes of my sanity.
Our flight is supposed to last 3 hours and 2 minutes. 2.5 hours into our trip home, we are flying over Ohio and Virginia. The captain gets on the loud speaker:
"Folks, this is your captain speaking. We just got word from Air Traffic Control that there are some pretty bad thunderstorms in the DC area right now, and we can't land. So, we're gonna circle around here for a bit and hopefully get us down on the ground about 30 minutes later than expected. Sorry for the delay; we'll keep you posted."
I look over at my friend and say this: "We don't have the fuel to circle around to long, hope we can land soon." Planes aren't like cars - you don't fill 'er up. You put just enough fuel to get you from point A to point B.. otherwise - it's not efficient, or something.
Sniff, sniff... great. The kid shit her pants again:
That was another 5-10 minutes of my sanity. So we're up in the air circling... Sweet, at least I can watch So You Think You Can Dance while I'm waiting to land. FYI, we were supposed to arrive in DC at 9:50. We're getting close to 9:45 and the captain gets on again:
"Heeeey folks, it's your captain again. We seem to be running out of fuel. So, we're close to the Akron/Canton Airport. They've given us clearance to land. We're gonna get some fuel, and then hopefully we'll get clearance from Air Traffic Control to land in DC. Hopefully we can get you guys into DC by 11:50"
Fuck. Really?I called this. It's time for a drink. I ask the flight attendant if they'll be coming around with the cart on our way back to DC. I get an affirmative, and tell her that I'll be looking forward to purchasing an insanely expensive beer from her. She found that amusing.
We land in Akron. We're down there for about 30 minutes. Refuel, get paperwork done, back up in the air. Pure efficiency on the behalf of Frontier Airlines. I can definitely say that this the way home was NOT their fault. Except for this suckage from the flight attendant:
"Ladies and gentleman, the captain has informed us that we will be able to immediately land in DC. As a result, our current flight will last only 42 minutes. With such a short flight, we will not be able to come around with the full beverage cart. We will be coming around with some bottled water instead."
Are you kidding me?!Sorry, sweetheart, but water is no substitution for my need of beer at this point.Thankfully, the kids are sleeping at this point.I'm now watching Team USA get pummelled by Costa Rica.
It's 12am, we land. We bolt off the plane, only to hurry up and wait for our baggage. That took quite some time. I guess we waited for a half an hour. 12:30... the Metro has stopped running. I missed the last Yellow line train by like, 4 minutes. That's fine. I'll just take a cab, yeah? This is what we walked out to:
That's 100+ people waiting for taxis. After waiting for 30 minutes and the line not moving, we realize a brilliant idea of calling a cab company. I called the Red Top Cab Company. They will have a cab for me in 10 minutes (it's 1am), and yes, they would be pleased to take my credit card. Sweet. I'm on my way home.
It's 1:15. About five Red Top cabs have now driven past me. One finally pulls up, "You need a cab?"
Side note: No. I don't need a cab. It's clearly a pastime of mine to hang out outside of airports at 1 in the morning. Asshole.
"Yes," I reply. "I called your company 20 minutes ago."
"Hmph," she says, "You and like 70 other people... Where you going?"
"Alexandria."
"Oh no... I won't go there. I'll take Arlington." Well, CLEARLY she'll go to Arlington, since it's a longer ride, ergo a larger fare. Of course. She then tells the woman that is going to Arlington that she refuses to take credit cards (you know, since there's a fee associated with credit card payments). This is completely false - because I specifically asked the Red Top Cab Company that same question when I called.
So, I called the Red Top Cab Company again to ask where my car was. While on the phone I told them the story of what just happened. If you are wondering - almost three weeks later, I still remember the number of that lady's cab: 83. Her cab was number 83. I reported her. I'm sure there were no repurcussions for her actions, but it still felt better to tattle.
Finally, another Red Top cab drives by and stops. It is now 1:45. I don't ask questions anymore:
"You're a Red Top cab. I called for one. You're taking me home."
"Where are you going?" He asks.
"Alexandria,"I tell him. In return I get a huge sigh.
"Can't you find anyone else to come with you?"
"I am not going to fucking round up a crew. I've been waiting here for 45 minutes since I called and you're driving me home." I was angry. I was yelling. The man standing next to me thought I was going to get violent. I cursed at the cabbie. I was supposed to be home 4 hours ago. In times of desperation, the Jersey comes out.
At this point, I'm rambling... complaining about the woman that refused to drive me home and everything else up to this point. He grabs my bag and reluctantly puts it in the back of the car.
"You're going to take my credit card, right?" I ask.
Another sigh, "Don't you have any cash?"
"No, I don't have any fucking cash. I will tip you just fine to make this worth your while. And just think, in the time it would take you for one fare to Arlington, you can drive me home and come back for another fare." I totally understand that this guy needs to make money. But I need to get home.
During the ride home, I apologize for my actions and explain to him the travel trip from hell. He was rather understanding, and we had a pleasant conversation on the trip to my apartment.
At 2:05am, my travel trip from hell ended. I sent my boss an email explaining that I would be taking sick leave that day. I also told him that I didn't feel like traveling for a little while - like a year.
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I normally don't write about sports here. But today is a different day. The Penguins will be going into Game 7 tonight of the Stanley Cup Finals. I got a penguin hat from a friend earlier in the SCF playoff series. Throughout the Playoffs, Mario has stayed in my cube or another Pittsburgh fan's cube, rooting for the Pens along with our posters (that apparently offend some DC fans, but whatever). But for game 6, I felt like we needed a little boost. We needed more motivation. Mario came with me where ever I went. I took pictures of him. Here is the picture diary of Mario, up until now:
He usually would hang out up here:
There's a Red Wings fan at work. Mario doesn't like that.
He does, however, love my desktop background:
And, he loves the Steelers:
We had a Pictionary tourney to take care of at lunch. He helped me solve "Gazebo."
He totally liked this room color:
We took Metro home that day. He we are, going home to get ready for game 6:
When we finally made it home, we got locked out of the house. We waited for a bit in the lobby:
That night, I bought some Rogue Dead Guy Ale. Never drank it during the playoffs. We won. We're drinking it for the rest of the week... I'm not buying it at our convenience store - $15 for a six pack! WTF? I'll get it at the grocery store. Only a few more days until I can't do that anymore.
Rather than leave Mario at home... I brought him back to work with me on Wednesday and Thursday. I missed pics on Wednesday... But got back into the swing of things on Thursday:
I apologize for being unsafe and not buckling him up. Things changed on the way home:
We woke up rather late this morning... had to catch up on our DVR playlist:
I introduced Mario to Al today. They appear to be getting along swimmingly.
That's all I've got for now. Mario will stay with me throughout the day. He calms the nerves.
So everyone, make it through the day. I promise... I will update you about my trip home from Denver. But today - I will only think about the Pens.
Let me preface this by saying - I've made it home safe, and I am beyond thankful for that. Seeing the things that have occurred to other fliers, I am grateful for making it home in one piece. But now, my whining and complaints will commence. Because although I am home, the journey itself sucked ass.
I will cut this up into two pieces. Today, I'll focus on the trip out to Denver:
Our contract for flights from DCA to Denver International is through Frontier. They are a smaller, budget-type airline that is based out of Colorado. Their employees are friendly. They only have one gate in all of DCA.
I arrived an hour before my flight was scheduled to leave. I had checked in online, so checking my bag at the counter was relatively easy. I go to meet my friend/co-worker at the gate. It is 8:00am, we are scheduled to board at 9:00am. At 9am, the woman at the desk gets on the loudspeaker and tells us this:
"We are sorry to inform you, but we have to delay our flight for quite some time. It is technically not cancelled, but we do not expect you to leave for Denver until 2:30pm today. Please meet me back up at our ticket counter to issue your new tickets..."
As soon as she instructed us back up to the ticket counter, I hauled my ass up there. To beat the 150 other passengers. Thankfully, there were only 7 people ahead of us in line. I wish I had taken a shot of the madness that was the Frontier Airlines ticket counter area. The line zigged and zagged... and practically covered up the US Airways ticket counter. There were two women working the ticket counter.
We find out while we're up there, that there was a mechanical problem with the plane, and that they had to fly in a mechanic from Denver on their next flight in to fix the issue. That flight arrived at 12:40pm. As we're standing up with this woman, she issues us our new boarding passes. Then she leaves us to help the ticket counter person next to us. Another ticket counter person leaves to answer the phone. She comes back, and to try to make things better, she issues us $7 meal vouchers. We didn't need the meal vouchers. We wanted other people to get helped. An impatient passenger comes up and interrupts our transaction trying to tell the lady how to do her job... It flustered her a bit.
After the interruption, she decides to also give us $25 off our next flight on Frontier. Again, nice gesture, but you have 100+ passengers trying to catch connecting flights - or just trying to go to Denver. We're fine without the $25. Seriously.
In defense of Frontier - they did their best. They are a small airline, with limited resources in DC. I'm not sure they were prepared for a potential scheduling disaster like this.
So after about 15 minutes up at the ticket counter I am told to go pick up my bag at the baggage claim and bring it back up to the ticket counter to give to TSA so they can re-check my bag. Another horrible sight: A pile of luggage from our flight hanging out in an emtpy baggage claim area with no one there to prevent theft. My bag was still there.
We finally left the airport at around 9:45 to hang out at Pentagon Row for a couple of hours, and arrived back at the airport around 11:45.
Out of curiosity I went back upstairs to check out the people waiting for tickets from our morning flight. There were probably 200 people there. I recognized people that were waiting in line before we had left. Needless to say, people were angry.
I checked our flight online, it now said we were leaving at 3:30. Ok... another hour.
After getting through security, it's about 12:30. We walk up and down the gate area to get some exercise. Then I decided it's time for a beer. While sitting at the airport bar, we made friends with fellow stranded passengers, random other passengers, and the bartender. Thank goodness we made friends with the bartender - I was given remote privileges. We watched a cheerleading competition on ESPN2. Forgive me, it was Sunday.
I was ragged on for being a Pittsburgh fan, but defended myself well.
I checked our flight status again at 3pm. Now we weren't leaving until 4. And we almost did that. Our flight, which was supposed to leave at 9:00am did not leave until 4:30pm. The flight itself went really well. No complaints there.
Let's just say, this was the lesser stressful traveling experience from the trip.
So what happened on the way home? You ask. That, my friends, is for another day. Read more...
I'm in Denver. Our experience can be something taken out of a depressing comedy - a comic tragedy, if you will. I'll fully update when I get home, but here are some observations thus far:
The air is super thin. But we all knew that.
They have a jamba juice, and I miss those.
I have now come to understand why DC is determined to be the second ugliest city in the country. There are some super attractive people here in Denver. It's nice.
There are a lot of homeless people in downtown Denver.
For the Nuggets just losing the WCF, I've seen quite a few Kobe jerseys still walking around.
7.5 hour flight delays aren't really that much fun. Seeing the Pens lose after finally arriving in my hotel room added insult to injury.
I like working out.
So that's it. The thin air combined with a workout has been quite taxing on the brain.
There's quite the dilemma tomorrow - we have our closing banquet tomorrow night. It's over at 9. That's when the hockey game ends. I need to watch this game. I'll figure it out... I have faith. Just like I have faith in the Pens.
I've disliked my apartment complex for quite sometime. While it is not a slum, and I do have a roof over my head, it is by far the worst place (and most expensive) that I've ever lived in. The apartment itself is spacious - and have only had one major problem that was fixed very quick, but some of our neighbors in the complex are questionable at best.
I feel like I have already mentioned the 13+ burglaries in the complex. So there's that. In addition to the apartment burglaries, there have been numerous attempts on people's vehicles - both simple vandilization and burglary. So that's old hat. Let's now discuss the weekend.
I decided to catch up on laundry. I'm a lazy housewife, and tend to do a number of loads of laundry at a time. We have a laundry room facility. There are a lot of washing machines and dryers. I took two machines in the corner - near no one else and do my laundry. I left my detergent and liquid fabric softener there since I was going to be doing more laundry. Much to my surprise, when I came downstairs to move my clothes to the dryers - my special pet detergent (gets out pet odor and whatnot) and liquid fabric softener were gone! Oh... but they were nice enough to leave my regular detergent... that was basically empty. That's sweet. I go upstairs to make sure that I didn't forget that I had brought it upstairs - nope. It's been stolen. What do I do? I post this up: I don't know if I used "whomever" correctly, but you get the point. Nobody brought my detergent back. I'm pretty miffed about this - simply because I have to order that Nature's Miracle online, as they do not sell it at the PetSmart/Petcos in the area anymore. Who the hell steals detergent? I guess it's just a sign of the economic times. Oh yeah... somebody tore down my sign the following day. I will put another one up today. Right next to the "The Management is not responsible for items lost or stolen in the laundry facility" sign.
In the past, we've had incidences of obnoxious drunkards in the complex. Including a woman screaming racially fueled obscenities at the people down in the parking lot, skinny dippers in the pool... and just loud people. Loud drunks I have no problem with. I'm one myself - especially during a football game. Other background to the story - we have a beautiful magnolia tree right next to our patio. Here's a nice shot of last year when it was in bloom: It's a beautiful tree, especially around this time of the year. The flowers start blooming - they're huge flowers and are nice to look at. Except now - this is in the tree now: Those are boxers. Hanging in the beautiful magnolia tree. They've been there since Friday, at least. Nobody will get them down. I wonder if I call maintenance, they'll get it.
These were the humorous experiences, that I can look back and laugh at. Hell, I can still stare at the boxers and laugh at them while on my patio - which I cleaned this weekend, yes! The following story bothers me, so it'll be quick.
We have a pigeon problem. There are a lot of them. We're not supposed to feed them - clearly. But they're still around. Walking out to our car, we saw an injured pigeon hanging out by the front of our building. Amid the process of calling animal control, and the wildlife rescue league - we hear *THUD* and see another pigeon fall from the sky. The thud made it sound like a bird hitting a really clean window - but this is impossible for 2 reasons:
Nobody's windows are THAT clean in our building.
If they were to fly into a sliding glass door, they would have landed on the patio - not fall down to the ground.
So basically, somebody was throwing shit at the pigeons and injuring them, and then just leaving them there to suffer.
Long story short, we rescued the pigeons and left them with a wildlife rehabilitator. I'm going to call her tomorrow to make sure they are ok. I'm glad I made an attempt to rescue them. We called maintenance and management. Both said that it wasn't their responsibility to take care of injured birds. I don't like seeing any animal suffer - even if it is a pigeon. So we saved it.
Needless to say, we need to move. The place we found is beautiful. Our lease application is in - and it has now been forwarded to the owner/landlord. Keep your fingers crossed. I should find out in the next few days.
Read more...
I guess I had been leaving later than I thought, as I haven't seen Trenchcoat Man in quite sometime. Until yesterday. Trenchcoat Man was back in all his glory - well, sans trench coat. But I could recognize that Carmen San Diego Hat and beard anywhere!
So what's been going on in the life of Trenchcoat Man? Well, what a killer beige/brown three piece suit he wore yesterday! I don't often see a man wearing a three-piece suit throughout my day - apparently, us Gen X-ers don't really believe in dressing up for work either... you know, khakis, polo... Business Casual - if you would. Trenchcoat Man? All Business. Suitcoat, vest - the whole shebang. He was mighty fancy.
Just as I assume my usual seat on the train - Trenchcoat Man gets on two stops before our stop, and takes his normal place standing in front of the door, Express in hand. The shame in my excitement? I was so psyched to see him again - writing furiously in my notebook for notes, I missed the point where he would have folded his paper and slapped it into his hand. I'm sorry, I just was so excited!
As we approach our stop, Trenchcoat Man was ready as ever to leave the train. As usual, the doors open and he rushes out the train before anyone else. Up the esalator and out of my life he went. Again.
On the second leg of my ride home... I encountered this:
This has gotta be some study. Can I be an observer?
Read more...
Last week I had a class. My mind tends to wander while I'm in said classes. The kicker? This was only a 3 hour class. So, I will ready my thoughts for you all to stew over.
A guy at my table has a Steelers watch. He's immediately cool in my book.
I should have had more coffee.
Our instructor is totally rocking the shoulder pads.
My knees are sunburned... they itch.
This dude is seriously fanning himself and I'm in here, freezing my ass off.
I got a subscription to Women's Health magazine. Aside from constantly staring at thin women to motivate my work outs, I'm actually learning things!
I giggle at the word "abreast". Yet I hate when people use it.
So those were my thoughts. Feel free to leave your thoughts on my thoughts in the comments. Yeah, this is weak. But I had to get this out there.
I have a two day class this week. Get excited! More thoughts.
Read more...
This is a gnome. His likeness has been put on a skateboard, thanks to Doug. I would like to see at least one sold, because I think this skateboard is just that awesome.
So, it would be really nice if you all could go here take a look at his board, and buy it! Or check out his shirts.
My twitter updates are now private due to enormous amounts of Britneys doing things I'd rather not see. So send me a request to follow me and I will allow it - as long as there are no creepy pictures of Britney.
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