Tuesday, July 31, 2001

Tuesday, July 31, 2001

Did I mention that I hate BellSouth and the way that they run their tech support? Yesterday, I was assigned a case number so that level 2 would call me back. Today, I called to check on the status of my case number. I was told that they don't work with case numbers. Aaaargh!

Okay, not too bad. Reinstalled Windows 2000, and Lotus Notes. Tomorrow I'll do the rest. And, guess what? My modem works. Yippee!!!!

Monday, July 30, 2001

Monday, July 30, 2001

I still am having laptop problems. BellSouth sucks! I asked some of my friends for help on this, and their best advice is that the registry is probably corrupted. So, tomorrow, if I don't hear from BellSouth level 2 tech support soon, I will wipe out my laptop and reinstall everything.

Sunday, July 29, 2001

Sunday, July 29, 2001

We watched the Godfather last night until 2am or so; but, I fell asleep before it ended. Galahad had to fill me in on the end. Then, we watched Godfather Two --- 3 hours and 20 minutes, with no intermission. How did people do that in 1970-era theaters? I could barely take that in the comfort of my own bed.

Saturday, July 28, 2001

Saturday, July 28, 2001

Wow! I'm having quite the time with my laptop. It's all f**ked up, thanks to BellSouth & their ineffectual DSL. I spent 4 hours with their tech support today to try to undo the problems. No such luck yet.

Friday, July 27, 2001

Friday, July 27, 2001

Feeling pretty good today. Last night was Tequila Night, but I didn't get to drink any since my head was iffy. We had a great time. Galahad's mother even came last night. I'm kind of bummed that a friend of mine told me he was coming and then never showed up. When we called him, he said he had a dinner party. I completely understand if other plans come up. I even try to understand if I get preempted for more preferred company. But, what I don't understand is why he couldn't just call me or email me and tell me he wouldn't be there. Should I ask him or, let it go?  I felt really stupid holding a table for him and him not showing. It ended up working out okay because another friend showed up unexpectedly (bonus!) with a new girl, so we needed that spot.

I hate when I develop high expectations and then I get let down. It's a neurosis of mine. Because I know that about myself, I try really hard to either have low expectations or none at all. But somehow, I slip one of those higher ones in once in a while --- like last night for my friend. Now I feel let down by him, and really, he's a great guy, so I'm sure he didn't do it maliciously.

Galahad said he doesn't want to do another Tequila night with everyone again. I'm kind of there with him on that. It got me too tense last night trying to coordinate people and seats even though I had so much fun seeing some friends who I hadn't seen in years. And, on a side note, I met a woman who is from Eritrea. I thought she was making that up, but I checked Rand McNally and it truly exists. Amazing to learn of a new country that I had never ever before heard of. No one at our large table had heard of it, and quite a few of us are well-traveled and knowledgeable about many areas of the world.

Thursday, July 26, 2001

Thursday, July 26, 2001

Nice. It would seem that our new state nickname is "Florida - the Please Don't Bite Me State."

BTW, my head is still not better. Now, I know why though. We had the most amazing lightning & thunderstorm last night that I can remember. It went on for hours. The thunder came in big rolling amounts. And, the lightning just lit up my whole house. It woke up both of us out of sound sleep (in my case, medicated as well). Some day, maybe I'll figure out why my head hurts when the weather changes and how I can avoid it. Maybe voodoo?

Wednesday, July 25, 2001

Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Great. All of the so-called leading weather experts are saying that hurricane season here on the East coast of the US will only be getting worse. Here's a photo of Floyd before it hit, luckily for us not Florida. I remember thinking that was such a scary sight. Three states at once, plus the Bahamas, were under Hurricane Warning. The Bahamas really got nailed, and then it weakened and went up to the Carolinas.

Here's a map of where they've hit in the last century or so.

Monday, July 23, 2001

Monday, July 23, 2001

Need to look up an acronym? Aren't you tired of people speaking in jargon just to make themselves appear more important? Me, too. Now, you can look up whatever the hell they were trying to say without letting them know you were completely lost.

Sunday, July 22, 2001

Sunday, July 22, 2001

Want free jelly beans? A friend of mine suggested this, but I hate having stuff mailed to my house because then I'm sure that they sell my address to a bazillion other companies who send me even more mail. As you might have read previously, I'm always trying to catch up on my mail.

Saturday, July 21, 2001

Saturday, July 21, 2001

Wow, it's really storming here! We needed it though. I just heard that Orlando is being flooded. Weird how we can be in a drought and have flood conditions all at the same time.

Galahad and I read all day long. Nothing better than a good book, yummy food, and a rainy day.

Friday, July 20, 2001

Friday, July 20, 2001

I changed my hair color yesterday! Yikes! I'm not sure if I like it yet.

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

Our banana tree fell over. I guess that means the bananas are ripe now! ;-) Or maybe a little overripe, so I will attempt to bake banana bread. I used to love my mother's banana bread. Then, my father took over the tradition when she couldn't anymore. So, it must not be too difficult, right?

For those of you who have no idea of my culinary skills, well --- it's not pretty. When I was little, I set fire to our kitchen while attempting to make popcorn. My older brother put out the fire for me. When my parents came home and saw what I had done, my father woke me up and made me scrub the kitchen until 3 or 4 am. Since then, I've never had a desire to go back into that room unless there was food readily available to eat. Once, as an adult, I burned a kettle when boiling water. (short attention span)

I looked up a recipe for banana bread, actually several recipes because I like to do German over-engineering. Then, I combined the features of each that I wanted. By the time Galahad came home late from work and a meeting, it was almost done. And, actually it's not too bad.

Tuesday, July 17, 2001

Tuesday, July 17, 2001

I just seem to never be able to catch up on all of my mail, both email and snail mail. I think it procreates while I'm not looking.

Sunday, July 15, 2001

Sunday, July 15, 2001

I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck and lived to tell about it. My migraine was barely there. One Excedrin kept it away. And now I was voraciously hungry. It had been lunch time yesterday since I had really eaten anything substantial.

They had gone out for Korean sushi the night before and brought back leftovers. What's better for breakfast than that? And, his wife made us chimpas (I probably spelled it wrong). They are like dumplings but of a different consistency with red bean paste inside and are really delicious.

And that began my final day of food orgy.

From there, we went to a Korean Chinese restaurant. [It confused me, too.] I had the ja-chung-myun, based on our friend's recommendation. It was absolutely scrumptious. For those of you who don't speak Korean, it's noodles with a black bean sauce but much better than it sounds. Everyone stared at us at this restaurant. We were the only round-eyes there. At one point, the whole table across form us turned and looked at us. I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt and asked Galahad if there was a beautiful painting just above my head. But, no, it was an air conditioning vent. Oh well, I get curious, too.

We came back to his house, where his wife made us some fried dumplings and bulgogi. And then, it was off to the airport. Somehow, I still had room for the snackie goldfish on the plane.

It felt so good to be back in our own bed at midnight. I swore I would never leave again --- until my next trip.

Saturday, July 14, 2001

Saturday, July 14, 2001

Time to check out and see the city for the day. Then, off to NJ to visit a good friend, who happens to be Korean.

We went to Battery Park and walked around and had lunch. I started getting a headache, so I medicated very quickly. But, somehow, not quickly enough. So, I medicated some more. But, not enough apparently.

By the time we got to NJ, I was in serious pain. Luckily for me, our friends there understood about migraines. [He gets them, too, but that's a whole different story.] I went into our room and gave myself an injection. That felt like nothing more than a mosquito bite. By this point, my stomach wasn't doing too well, so I was a little nervous about taking something else. Pain won out, and I took an Amerge tablet. That usually does the trick, but it's very hard to get, so I ration it. Nothing. I was into full blown panic mode by this time, asking to go to the emergency room. Fortunately for me, first friend's wife (also a good friend of mine) offered to massage my neck and shoulders to relieve some of my pain. She is amazing at it (she also deals with similar pain to mine sometimes). By 10pm or so, I was feeling nice and drowsy despite the pain. About f**king time -- I had taken enough meds to stop a charging rhino.

Friday, July 13, 2001

Friday, July 13, 2001

Last day of class. Things are starting to come together a little bit, but this class is still not at all what I expected. We all agreed to work through our lunch and break and just leave early for the day.

So, I met up with Galahad and a friend of his and went out to lunch at a Ukrainian restaurant. We puttered around all day wandering our way through the village and SoHo. Basically we would stop and have a drink (fine tequila for Galahad, a sip for me and then water, and Coke for aforementioned friend) at any place that had a restroom clean enough for me to pee in. I did lower my standards quite a bit, so we didn't have to go back to my hotel. We also stopped every time I got hungry, so I could have a little snack.

Our friend's wife drove into the city after work and met us for dinner. Spain was the country of choice for this.

Thursday, July 12, 2001

Thursday, July, 12, 2001

Breakfast at the deli across the street. Yummy, inexpensive and best of all, no hairs in it!

Class is getting better. Lunch --- we added one more person to our group and went for Italian food. Mmmmmm!

Destiny's Child was at the MTV studio for TRL. There was quite a crowd in the street for them. Of course, they all came over to the window and waved at everyone. They seemed to take the time to read their fans' signs, too, which I thought was nice.

I saw some very talented kids doing a break-dancing show on the sidewalk. I tipped them $1 but left when they got hostile instead of happy with their proceeds.

Dinner was Afghani. The appetizer was scrumptious, but I could take or leave the main meat dish.

Yay, Galahad finally arrived! I walked over to Port Authority and met him as he came off of the shuttle from LaGuardia airport.

Wednesday, July 11, 2001

Wednesday, July, 11, 2001

Ewwwww! I found hair in my breakfast --- not a great way to start off my day. I won't be eating at my hotel anymore.

Lunch was Thai with 3 classmates -- we gained one. I did get lucky with my little group. The class may not be the most informative, but I am having quite a bit of fun.

After class, some of my group suggested that we purchase half-price tickets to a Broadway show, so I went along for the ride. It turns out that half-price is still overpriced in my eyes. We paid nearly $50 for great seats to a so-so show, Kiss Me Kate. To be honest though, it seemed like many other people loved it. I thought it was rather low-brow humor. I did enjoy the costumes and the set, though.

I actually wanted to see Eat the Runt, but my classmates didn't, so I didn't push it since I had no real expectations of either show.

Before the show, I had a quick sushi dinner.

After the show, I walked right by Crystal Bernhard, who stars in Annie Get Your Gun.

Tuesday, July 10, 2001

Tuesday, July 10, 2001

First day of class. I froze last night! The damn hotel room has the air set at full blast. I called down to the front desk today, and they came and turned it off. Nice, huh? Full blast or off.

Class was fun but didn't feel very meaty yet.

Lunch, on the other hand, was marvelous. Two classmates and I ate at Ruby Foo's. They have Pan-Asian cuisine.

For dinner, I went out to a Turkish restaurant with a friend. It was fabulous! Get ready to read about my week-long orgy of eating.

Monday, July 9, 2001

Monday, July 9, 2001

Fly to NYC! I forgot how hot it can get here. And, I really forgot the smells and the dirt and the noise.

I'm staying at a hotel in midtown Manhattan. I love being near everything and being able to walk everywhere. I feel so healthy with all the exercise I'm getting, but that is counteracted by all the pollution around me. My room is on the 10th floor with one very slow elevator, so I've been taking the stairs down all the time. I decided not to try climbing up just yet. I wouldn't want to have a heart attack in the city and not be able to get my ambulance through all the traffic.

Saturday, July 7, 2001

Saturday, July 7, 2001

Well, I just sunk to a low level this morning. There was a squirrel in our mango tree, which I didn't want there anymore. I wouldn't have minded so much if he just ate one or two mangoes. The problem was he was eating a bite out of several mangoes. We were sitting in our living room watching cartoons, minding our own business when this squirrel just mocked us like that. I went out, yelled at him, and clapped my hands loudly. Poor thing. He just froze up with fear for three whole minutes. I felt so terrible that I went back out with cracked nuts as a piece offering. Do you know what that bastard did? He went right back to eating the freshest prettiest mango in the tree. Then, a woodpecker came over and started nibbling also. That set me off again, and I ended up throwing the nut shells back at him to scare him out of the tree. He stopped temporarily.

Then, right back to that perfect little mango hanging just so. Galahad charged out the back door, picked up a BBQ grill brush and winged it at the squirrel. Damn if that wasn't the best aim I ever saw! He hit the branch it was on from over 60 feet away. I was so thrilled to see my man out there brandishing this grill brush like a club, defending his territory and fending off maniacal squirrels.

Friday, July 6, 2001

Friday, July 6, 2001

Very cool! I saw one of my very best friends online last night. What's the big deal you might ask? She now lives in Australia, while I am still here in Florida. And, she just gave birth to her first child. If she ever sends me his photo, I'll put it up someday. [hint, hint]

Thursday, July 5, 2001

Thursday, July 5, 2001

I guess I'm not the only one with a problem with Sprint PCS. Check this page out -- Sprint PCS sucks.

Wednesday, July 4, 2001

Wednesday, July 4, 2001

Happy Independence Day! We are just gorging ourselves on mangoes from our tree. They are fabulous but falling too fast to keep up with.

Tuesday, July 3, 2001

Tuesday, July 3, 2001

Fortuitously or not, I happened to be in the vicinity of the Sprint store this morning. So, I stopped in of course. (See yesterday's entry if you're confused.) I asked for my software update which they gave me. And, I may have vented a bit of my past frustration and let him know how shitty their service is. To this, my Sprint helper asked me not to engage in any more profane remarks that apparently offended his 24 year old ears. I apologized and asked for a manager.

First, I was told that she wasn't available. When I wouldn't leave this poor innocent boy alone, she magically materialized. Amazing how that works! They were willing to give me 60 minutes of additional time. Does anybody get the fucking point that I'm not looking for additional minutes that I can't use anyway?!!! I guess not. That would take way too much comprehension on their part and too much thinking outside their small realms. God forbid that they actually make an unhappy customer a happy one. Her whole attitude was "That's not my problem. I did what I was supposed to do." [I know you're dying to know if my phone is any better after the software update.]

Did I tell you yet that I'm supposed to get this software update every 3 - 4 months at random? They won't notify me when it's ready. I just have to check back in. When I mentioned to the manager that it would have been nice for the Sprint employee who initially activated my phone to mention this at that time (or the Radio Shack employee who sold the phone to me), she responded with, "Did you tell her you were getting dropped calls?" This is the fucking manager! What part about getting my phone activated didn't she understand?!!! Then, when I finally (maybe) got her to understand that, she told me that it was written in the Terms & Conditions in my user manual if I had bothered to read that. How she kept a straight face during that pronouncement, I'll never know. Who the fuck reads those cover to cover? It's over 150 pages long and much of it in tiny kill-my-fucking-eyes print.

And, NO, my phone isn't noticeably working any better. Yes, I was going to write one of my famous letters to let Sprint know EXACTLY how I am feeling. But, since this is a company phone, I am trying to follow company protocol first before I make another fucking scene.

Please excuse my profanity.

Monday, July 2, 2001

Monday, July 2, 2001

Wow, it's been so nice to read every night instead of watching TV. Except, I think I have eyestrain. Galahad & I are just plowing through books.

I called up Sprint to complain about my cellphone service, or lack thereof. They were completely unhelpful. I prepaid for 2500 minutes and was able to use only 400 or so because my phone either had no service or it dropped my calls. They offered me a courtesy 15 minute credit. Bumbocloth! (Jamaican for WTF, or so I'm told.) They also told me that I had to get a software update for my new phone. I just bought the phone and the service about 30 days ago. Apparently, it's already out of date. It would have been nice for Sprint to let me know this when I first got it instead of letting me suffer all this time to the point where I detest them, their service, and their phone.

Sprint did inform me that they do not guarantee their phone to work inside any building. Why exactly do I need their phone then?

I drove over to Radio Shack, where I bought the phone, to get my software update. It turns out that even though they have a HUGE sign that says Sprint PCS Communication Store, that they're not *really* a Sprint PCS store. Nice, huh? Can you feel my frustration with me? It turns out the the closest Sprint store is across town.

Sunday, July 1, 2001

Sunday, July 1, 2001

Galahad & I went out last night to listen to a friend perform at a West Palm Beach bar. While it was nice to get out and socialize, I still prefer being a recluse most of the time. I don't have to worry about someone smoking near me and getting me sick. I don't have to worry about the proper response to an acquaintance who's definitely had too much alcohol to drink and says stupid shit. Although, I guess if he's had too much to drink, then he probably won't remember if I say something stupid back. Somehow, that never seems to work. If I'm mean, drunks usually get oversensitive and overly emotional and beg me not to be mad.