Mornin' peeps. Greetings from BWI. No delays so far...

See you saturday!

Addendum: ok, this is why I hate southwest. Hmm ok I can't add pix from my phone. But it's of a little old lady in sensible travelling shoes barricading the A gate with her bag, so she can be first on the plane. The freaking flight doesn't even start boarding for an hour. This is not good for my type A competitive (neurotic, compulsive) side, b/c now I feel like I have to stand here for an hour and not move. Even though it REALLY DOESN'T MATTER and I know it. Damn you southwest and your open seating... you stress me out. But you're so cheap....

Buffalo was among the three WORST cities to meet men, according to this article from MSNBC.



It may not be the most scientifically valid research, I know... but still interesting.

So, a series of (really, really shitty) events has brought me to some important realizations.

I have just realized that some of my "friends" are not my friends, but my drinking buddies.

I mean less to them than a bottle of wine.

I can not, and should not, count on them for anything. They will not be there for me when I need someone, and they will not change their plans for me.

Not that they don't enjoy my company- they do. We have a great time together. I really enjoy hanging out with them; it's always a blast. And I do believe they really do like having me around.

But why? what am I to them?

A chick, first of all. A chick that will hang out with them and drink and let them act like pigs. I get points for that.

I am someone to grope when drunk that will not kick them in the balls. (but I'm ok with that, b/c I'll grope back most of the time.)

And I might be some sort of weird status symbol- in that they get to introduce me to their friends as "our friend, THE SURGEON". It's like they're really proud of me. It's almost cute. Which is fine, except that it usually leads to the assumption that I will foot the bill for the rest of the night. Ironic, since I make less than all of them.

So, this realization is kind of depressing- but maybe liberating at the same time.

Now that I have a better grasp of the situation, maybe I can adjust my expectations accordingly, and stop being disappointed all the time.

Hmm.

-J

p.s. T-2 days!!!!!! (though due to some crap at work, this is suddenly about the worst time I could possibly be out of town, and will lead to me getting fucked.)

p.p.s.
Next saturday is:
1: a saturday
2: cinco de mayo
3: my first night back in town
4: my last night of vacation
5: my birthday

Everyone should come out!! I don't know when or where, since I don't even land til 10:30. But somewhere, fo sho!

later peaches.

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. :(