First of all, last night at work was freaking crazy.
We took out FOUR appendixes (appendices?) between 11pm and 3am. Every time we finished the ER would call "we have another one".

But so before the shit hit the fan we decided we wanted sushi, and we decided to try Fuji Grill. So I googled it to try to find a website and hopefully the menu online. Well, they don't have a website. Lame.

But when I googled them, (e:Paul)'s journal was in the top ten hits.

heh.

Ok, I am really losing my patience with customer service-type issues of all sorts.

First of all, the computer nonsense. They fixed my hard drive, but in the meantime seem to have broken/disconnected the isight camera. After a week of phone tag, they are sending a guy to my house on wed to fix it. In the meantime, the wireless card seems to be dying. Apple doesn't seem to believe me, b/c every time I call them it miraculously works, and then of course dies five minutes later. I talked to them today, from work, and they said "call back tonight when you're in front of the computer". But of course all night tonight it was working. Then it died, so I called- oh, "call back tomorrow during business hours". Unfortunately I do not have the kind of job where I sit at a desk all day and can make all sorts of phone calls.

Then there's the crap with my car- also scheduled to be fixed on wed.

And the new one tonight-

I just got three emails from Vonage.
8:48 PM "here is the RMA# for your vonage equipment"
8:49 "your account has been disconnected as you requested"
8:50 "Welcome to vonage!"

Nothing asking for a password or account info. Nothing from fake-looking email addresses. I.e. doesn't look phish-y.

So I called: they say they got some call at 1pm from some man who said to cancel the account and that he was in a hurry and not to ask a lot of questions.

WTF. I said clearly that was not me.

The response "call back tomorrow"

What is the point of 24/7 customer service if you can't actually do anything?

And the girl said "well to make any changes to the account, he would have had to know your account info". I asked WHAT account info, and she said "your email and billing address."

Gee, so if someone knows my email address and my home address they can just cancel my phone service? Yeah, that's secure. No PIN#, no mother's maiden name...

The thing that's weird is that today is 30d after I signed up, and the first month is free... i wonder if the account was just transitioned from "free trial" to "paying customer" and technically has to be cancelled/reinstated? But the chick on the phone said no.

What a PITA.

I can't wait until all my technology is behaving itself again.

-J

p.s. T-7!!!!!!!!!!

and PPS paul/estrip: congrats on the artvoice nominations! This is your/our year! I can feel it!

Must say, I don't really understand the point of this. It takes twice as long and I'm sure is much more difficult, all to avoid 3 <1cm scars?

Here's a teaser quote:
"Doctors in New York have removed a woman's gallbladder with instruments passed through her vagina."

So, except that I am getting a cold and was sniffly, call was positively lovely last night. I slept from like 11 to 6, which is more than I sleep at home. Then we had a leisurely greasy omelette breakfast on the way out. And now I have all of today to do whatever I want, and it's beautiful out.

So I got home, and found this image sitting on my desktop- leftover from my presentation. Sitting there with some cute pix from st. patrick's day, a "sample activity schedule" PDF from carnival.com, was "anatomy_of_the_anus.jpg". Ahh, my glamorous life. ;)

But for the hell of it I'll also put up a few st pat's pictures and some cute face paintings.

-J


(lovely, no?)


Me and my friend.

Me and my-friend's-boyfriend's-boss - who knows why we were asked to pose together. Random!






p.s. T-10 days!

Ok, I did it!

I just booked myself on a cruise, all alone, for my vacation! I'm a little scared, but super-excited. I've never been on a cruise before. Found this on Southwest's "travel deals" page. 5 night mexican cruise (cozumel etc) to/from new orleans. On Carnival. What a huge range of prices... From about $300 to >$1500 depending on the room, etc. And I had to pay a "single supplement" since I'm only one person in a 2-person room, but it was still fairly reasonable (or so I'm told by my cruise-veteran friends). I was hoping to spend an extra day in new orleans, but flights were too expensive and then I'd need an extra night of hotel, blah blah. But I'll have a few hours on either end, and the cruise ships dock downtown- maybe I'll have just enough time for some beignets at Cafe du Monde. Or maybe I can see if my old house is standing.

Yay!!

Let the countdown begin! T-14 days!

Ok, back to working on my presentation for tomorrow. Blah. I have been procrastinating for 3 days on it. And of course now I seem to be getting a cold and all I want to do is go to bed. :( But instead I'll stay up til 1 doing a shitty job on this powerpoint, and then have to take call tomorrow. But who cares! I'm going on vacation!!!!!!!

To call this all a tragedy is obviously an understatement. Looks like the kid was a senior, a Korean national, who had been treated for depression in the past. Seems like he left a note railing against "deceitful charlatans" and "rich kids".

But this coverage is what brought tears to my eyes- a professor, a holocaust survivor no less, used his body to block the door in an attempt to save his students. He was, of course, killed, but I guess did manage to save some people.

At least there are still SOME truly selfless people in the world...

Among the dead was a professor, Liviu Librescu. Students who were in Librescu's engineering class at Norris Hall told the Tribune late Monday that the professor tried to protect the students in his class when they realized a gunmen was loose in the building.

Alec Calhoun was in Librescu's solid mechanics engineering class when gunfire erupted in the room next door. He said Librescu, went to the door and pushed himself against it in case the shooter tried to come in.

Librescu, an Israeli, was born in Romania and was known internationally for his research in aeronautical engineering.

Heartbreaking. :(

Ok, I'm probably the only person in the world dorky enough to like this, but I just had to take my car in and saw this at the dealer and thought it was cute:




(and in case it's too small to read, it says 'does this sweater make me look fast?' And on the back it says 'unleash a MINI')

Ok, so last weekend, I had dinner at Trattoria Aroma with some people from work. And then my friend was going to meet me there for a drink. But he was totally late, and I was sitting at the bar, alone, for quite a while. (and then he went on to be a jerk anyway).

But so while I was waiting for him, I was checking out this guy at the end of the bar... he was pretty cute, clean cut, preppy- my kind of guy, sitting there with a friend having dinner and wine. They were conveniently sitting right under the TV, so I could check him out while pretending to watch hockey.

Later on I figured 'what the hell' and put a 'missed connection' message on Craigslist. I never expect these things to work, but figured what the hell. I wrote something about how he was there with a friend in a green sweater.

And then today, a week later, I get this message- Granted, it could be totally fake- I have no way to know he's not some random guy answering a random ad (I guess I should make him give me some identifying info, shouldn't I?)-

But in any case, the fact that I got a reply at all just blows my mind. And it's a pretty funny one at that-

We were, in fact, at Trattoria Aroma having dinner at the end of the bar that night. Here is the problem: My friend and I cannot figure out what we were wearing that night and are at each other's throats claiming the other was wearing the green sweater. I think he's full of shit. Either way, we have to meet, and considering you went through the trouble of initiating a misconnect, please suggest a situation that is most comfortable to you.

Sweet! I mean I don't know that I actually want to meet him or anything- I'm just amused that I got an answer.

and (e:mike), I'm with you. drama=fun. Some of the time, at least.

1: woohoo, my computer is fixed!

2: the gave me an estimate on my car- they're saying $150. No, I did not forget a zero. I would love it if they're right, but somehow I doubt it.

3: Cutest puppies ever! And I love that there's one named Wally.


4: I can't believe they fired Imus. Yes, what he said was wrong, but really. I think that's ridiculous.

Will try to keep this quick, b/c my food coma is about to knock me out- just had some yum italian at Trattoria Aroma.

But maybe my luck is changing a bit- I took my computer in to the Genius Bar at the Apple store in the Galleria today, and I was speeding as always, and got pulled over. Cop asked why I was in such a rush, and I said I had an appt (just didn't tell him how non-essential it was). But then he noticed my ECMC parking sticker, and asked if I work in the ER at all, and when I said yes, he just told me to "slow it down" and let me go. Woohoo! Then the apple store told me my hard drive is fucked, which is almost a relief b/c now they actually have to fix something, but (the best news of all)- it seems they'll be able to recover the data. Moral of the story: BACKUP, people! (and thanks for the superduper link, I'll check it out. Have been using the LaCie utility... SilverKeeper I think.)

But to end- my dad just sent me this essay my cousin wrote for a writing class she's taking, and it's about my sister's wedding. I thought the wedding was marvelous, but couldn't have written a whole essay about it. But somehow this brought tears to my eyes. I think it's well written, and thought I'd share.:

You began the evening in a church so breathtaking that you snuck back in after the ceremony to take pictures. Hundreds of years old, the grey stone chapel seemed to breath cool air and whisper "hush." The stained glass window scenes in colors so bold that the memory of them knocks you backward - blues plucked from the sky and sea, yellows plied from the sun itself, greens peeled from somewhere in a forest never touched by man and reds borrowed from the very blood they depicted. You feel as if you are stealing by taking pictures of beauty that, once taken from their proper context, will seem diluted and small. Still, you cannot stop yourself.


The wedding reception takes place in a club where moneyed members take great pride in its seclusion, its proximity to the ocean that supplies the majority of its menu night to night. The main hall, with its cavernous, wooden beamed ceiling, slate floors and gorgeous, linen draped tables twinkles from the combined effect of hundreds of tealights snugged into small round crystal goblets and strings of thousands of tiny white lights hung from the rafters. Guests spill out onto the lawn, a bluff overlooking the churning Atlantic. Salt spray from crashing waves coats your lips, and you taste the brine as you sip your wine. You stand near your husband, quiet and at peace as he drinks his scotch and looks out at the water. You are celebrating your tenth anniversary witnessing the union of a young cousin and her longtime boyfriend.


You don't know them well. You hope they are wise beyond their youth and know that they will need to love each other with faith and forgiveness and fervor. You hope they know that this evening is a rare and beautiful gift, but that the most memorable times will likely be much less elegant. You remember your own wedding, but much more clearly remember your own young husband running down a hospital hallway late at night, screaming for help because the blood and the baby started to come quickly and with terrifying ferocity. You vaguely remember repeating vows "for better or for worse," but remember with crystal clarity looking into his eyes, searching for understanding, when you learned of your mother's death. You remember that it was THEN that you knew you would be with him forever, that his sad blue eyes would be the ones you looked into for decades to come.


You dance after dinner. Your dress, made of navy blue silk so heavy and fine that its cool folds feel like water as they swish around your legs, fits you beautifully. You dance with abandon, wine coursing through you and the freedom of 2,000 miles distance from responsibility of caring for the children and the house leaving you giddy. You dance to the band as they play songs with thick,plonking base artfully woven in with the delicate pluck of guitar and warm, deep thrum of piano. You dance near cousins who taught you the art of skinny dipping in Lake Pocotopaug when you were 6. You yell above the din them that you want to go skinny dipping again, tonight, in the cold ocean with them. It has been 30 years and you want to play naked in the water more than anything tonight.


You and your husband leave the reception with your cousins and both of their husbands and drive to a beach. It is after midnight and fog has rolled in thick and wet. The three men seem incredulous and embarrassed that these three tipsy women cousins are so adamantly, energetically racing toward the water. You are yards from the water when you three stop and look at each other and then at the foreboding black water. Shaking, you giggle as you unzip your dresses and slip out of them. You all race to the water, slowing down only a bit as you wade into the frothy cold. You wade further until you lose your footing and you all three float. Sobered, your voices shake with chill and adrenalin. Your conversation turns oddly practical - how long will we stay in? What are the guys talking about? You decide to breaststroke back after a few minutes.


You emerge from the sea, three women, nude and empowered by your comfort and familiarity with the cold salty water. On land now, you feel awkward and acutely aware of the fact that your naked body, the body that felt so elegant in silk and so graceful in water is now going to be seen by men you barely know. You each scoop up your dresses and walk through the fog to the men. Each husband walks to his wife and stands at an angle to perhaps keep her from being seen by the other men. Your husband seems the most uncomfortable and a cousin rescues you both by offering his jacket to wrap up in. You are annoyed that your husband did not think to do it himself. The dreaminess of the evening is beginning to fade.


You drive to your hotel and shower, hoping that a good dry cleaning will take the salt stains from your silk dress. In the morning, your aunt calls to make sure no one was arrested, you all have a laugh at the impetuous late night stunt.


Later that day, you board a flight home and replay the whole evening in your head. It was glorious in its perfection and imperfection alike.


You wonder if the young couple will remember their wedding night with the same clarity and passion that you remember it with.