Monthly Archives: February 2005

Blocking the Process

Posted by lorie on 2/25/2005 3 comments

I had to go renew my driver’s license at the DMV this afternoon. Normally I would have just done it online, but recently when I was out the bartender didn’t believe that my driver’s license belonged to me, because he said I looked nothing like the picture. I realized that it may be true – I’m a few years older, a few pounds heavier, my hair’s gotten a lot darker, and I’m wearing glasses most days lately – so I had to go get a new photo done. It turned out pretty awesomely, by the way, despite the fact that my description in the last sentence made it look like I’ve turned into a gigantic blobby four-eyed loser since college. Which isn’t the case. Well, it mostly isn’t. Anyway.

So when I was walking into the DMV office, this young guy waylaid me and begged me to sign a petition to put a Republican candidate on the ballot for governor here in Virginia. And I refused to sign it, although I did so very nicely and he smiled and told me to have a nice day.

But then I wondered – am I interfering with the democratic process by refusing to help get a Republican candidate on the ballot? It’s not like my signature will keep a Republican from running, after all, but it’s also not like signing the petition would have constituted an implicit vote for the candidate. Can I really have a may-the-best-man-win attitude if I refuse to take an action that would help the other candidate get a fair shot?

It’s really not that big a deal, and I don’t plan to lose any sleep over it. I was just thinking about it.

Gadget Geek

Posted by lorie on 2/25/2005 3 comments

You’d think we had never traveled before.

Seriously, Kathryn and I behaved just like girls fresh off the farm at the airport on Saturday. We couldn’t figure out how to get in the parking garage. We couldn’t figure out which floor to take the elevator to in order to reach the terminal. We didn’t know what skycap service was (despite the fact that I have actually used skycap service before, DUH) and I’m such a moron that I actually asked the skycap how much I was supposed to tip him. We didn’t know if you were supposed to get the food out of the cooler and then pay for it, or ask for it and have it brought to you after paying. We couldn’t figure out how to get a Link shuttle to the hotel, and once we did we couldn’t figure out whether to purchase a round-trip or one-way ticket. We stressed out briefly about whether we had enough ones to tip the bellhops at the hotel if they had attack-bellhop service, because we didn’t really need bellhops but didn’t want to be unable to tip if the bellhops attacked us with helpfulness. We couldn’t find the entrance to Benihana in Peachtree Center, and ended up walking outside and then walking back in to locate the main entrance we’d totally missed on our first trip by. Kathryn asked the host if there was a bar. The bar, as it turned out, was directly behind the hosting station, in plain view of both of us. What can I say? Traveling, it would seem, is hard work.

Later that night, in the hotel, Kathryn and my cell phone both got sick. Kathryn survived after a day or so of feeling just terrible. My cell phone did not fare so well.

On Sunday morning when I went to turn it on for the day, I got the Motorola load-up M and then it just went “waah” and died. My attempts to revive it were fruitless. After a call to the superawesome Verizon customer service hotline, they tried their best to help me but ultimately said there was little they could do if the phone wouldn’t start up all the way.

So the next day I skipped some of my afternoon stuff and took Marta up to Buckhead and walked about another mile (which was fine, the weather was good) to the Verizon store, where my technician, who bore a striking resemblance to Bernie Mac, told me my phone was well and truly dead.

If the warranty hadn’t expired a week ago they’d replace it for free, but since that wasn’t an option I could pay the $50 insurance deductible and they’d replace the dead phone, or I could look around the store and see if I wanted to buy a new one, since my contract was up for renewal and I could get the promotional price on a new phone. I guess I could have been upset about the whole thing, but the friendliness of the CS staff really went a long way toward keeping me in a good mood. Besides, I’ve never had problems with Motorola phones before, and I realize that electronic equipment just craps out sometimes. The problem was fixed quickly and to my satisfaction, so I’m happy.

With the help of Briton, the awesome frat-boy salesman, I ended up with a Motorola V265 cameraphone, two Jabra headsets, a car charger, a package of extra clips, and a leather case. For FIFTY DOLLARS. It totally should have cost me twice that much, according to the details on the card in the store.

So now I’m a cameraphone gal, complete with a Flickr photostream. As a matter of fact, there’s a picture of all the stuff I got in there somewhere, which also features my old dead phone and my left big toe. Between the iPod mini and the cameraphone, I’m suddenly turning into a gadget geek – which is fine with me. I never thought I needed a cameraphone before but now I’ve had one for like four days and will never go back. And we are back from Atlanta safely and I am busy as crap.

Have I mentioned that Verizon Wireless is the best wireless service provider in the entire universe? I love them.

25 and I’m a Rock Star

Posted by lorie on 2/18/2005 23 comments

I have dinner plans tonight with some friends and coworkers, so my family decided we’d celebrate my birthday and do presents last night. And oh, did we ever. We had my mom’s Spanish rice, which is one of my favorite meals from childhood and nothing like the Spanish rice you get in TV dinners or with Mexican restaurant combos, and my Nanie made a “better than sex” cake, which was like this crazy awesome concoction of toffee and cool whip and chocolate cake with pudding or syrup or something in it. Holy crap. I want some. I should have had that for breakfast.

AND I got my birthday presents:

  1. a microwave, from my mom & dad (for whenever I move the hell out already);
  2. a cool coat I’d eyed when out with my mom once recently, because what I really need is four (!!) winter coats. But this one is seriously awesome;
  3. a pair of lounging pants I’d wanted from my sisters, and the pants are sooo warm and comfy and loungy;
  4. AND an iPod mini, in pink, from my awesome sister Ginny, who is awesome and generous and did I mention awesome?

Everyone kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday and I couldn’t come up with anything. I was seriously not expecting any of this, especially the iPod. My family is not into extravagant gifts and this was a huge surprise.

So although I have to wear a suit and be in meetings all day today, I’m really happy to have so many friends and family members who love me. And thank you all for the birthday wishes you’ve already given.

Now, I have a request for you all. I have this iPod mini now, see, and I’m at a complete loss for things to get on iTunes for it. I’ve come up with a few things, mostly 70s music since I’m on a huge 70s kick these days, but I need more stuff. Especially since I’m taking a plane trip tomorrow. (I’m going to Atlanta for a few days for work, did I mention that?) So, I want everyone reading to think of ONE cool song – just one – that I should download from iTunes. You can only pick one because, for starters, I don’t have a bazillion dollars to spend on iTunes, but also, because if everyone gives me a ginormous playlist, I’ll get all overwhelmed and forget to download anything.

So that’s your task. For my birthday, I want songs.

You guys rock.

Grr.

Posted by lorie on 2/16/2005 6 comments

I hate you, stupid flu-or-whatever-disease-I-have-contracted. I want to go home and get back in bed but I can’t, because of course you always hit me in the third week of February every.freakin’.year, the week when I have tons of stuff to do at work, and my birthday is coming up, and I’m usually getting ready to go out of town to a conference.

I hate you I hate you Ihateyou.

All Brown X-Shapes

Posted by lorie on 2/14/2005 6 comments

Our cats are spoiled, and very picky about their food. This is all my fault, I think, because I felt guilty buying them the cheap-o stuff when they were kittens and always got a midgrade cat food, and now they’re conditioned to expect it. I think it’s not about the taste, though.

Specifically, they don’t like the cat food that’s all brown X-shapes. Every once in a while we have a cat food emergency and must feed them the all brown X-shapes, and they get seriously pissed. They’ll follow us around the house and yowl like neglected little alley cats, and if they hear anything that sounds remotely cat-food-like, they’ll come tearing in from the other room to see if we’ve come to our senses and gotten out the real food yet.

Weirdly, this one time I got them Iams because I read that it’s better for them and also makes their litter less – well, less offensive. And Iams cat food is a consistent shape and color, although not all brown X-shapes. It’s more like all brown oval shapes.

They were having NONE OF THAT, and I ended up wasting $24 on a bag of cat food they wouldn’t touch because it was all brown oval shapes.

Beyond this, they don’t appear to have too much of a preference. So I can buy pretty much any brand of cat food I want to, but I must inspect the pictures on the bag first to see if it’s a variety of shapes and colors, and then everyone thinks I’m nuts, but maybe not quite as nuts as if I devoted an entire web site post to the fact that my cats hate the all brown X-shapes.