my internet's been schizo yadda yadda yadda
I won't comment on the fact that I haven't posted in over a week, all I"ll say is that last time yo uread this, I was home alone, most likely bored out of my wits, and home alone.
I forget what I updated last or what was last filled in, but there was drama Monday night. Taking my parents' recommendation to see Knocked Up (Judd Apatow wins again) but not being able to find anybody to go with and leaving on a short notice left me $1 short of parking at the Edwards Cinema in Greenway. Forced to search for alternate means of parking I searched all the side streets which were covered in no parking signs. I do find a parking spot without such a sign in the shopping center across the street and park there. When I leave the movie though, my car is noticably absent. There was a sign that was not clear from where I entered the parking lot (every other entrance seemed to be covered with them, however) so I did a little detective work by visiting the only open restaurant and getting the number for the storage lot (and a slice of key lime pie). Returning to the parking lot and calling the other lot, I actually found somebody else in my predicament who fortunately had a taxi service's number memorized. So I called a cab for us. Right before it showed up, a couple approached us who once again, found their car missing. So we all went to the lot where our cars were being kept. Boy was this place shady. There was a tall, corrugated metal fence all the way around it and to get to the office you had to go down a corridor, similarly lined to get to the office which had a large window covered in some kind of glass with al ittle opening on the bottom (bulletproof? probably given how many po'd people go through there). Unfortunately for me, getting my car back required handing over $182 cash (this all started becuase I had virtually no cash). Despite the presence of an ATM, my emergency credit card cannot be used to rustle up cash so I was severely SOL. AS I couldn't pay a taxi for a ride back home, I was out of luck there too. So, I got on a bus with a sympathetic driver (when you get on a bus asking "where does this go?" and have no cash left at 11 at night, it's easy to get sympathy). I was finally able to get the car out once my parents returned the next day, but at a significantly higher fee.
Now that rate is extreme to begin with and it happens to people way too often. Now, the economics of it all do clearly check out, but that doesn't mean taking advantage of desperate people is okay. Their MO goes further. Recently, my mother met somebody who was in my exact same situation but with a rental car. As you have to show proof of ownership to get your car back and you don't have this with a rental car, a notorized statement is required. Like the ATM, therei s a notary public there the entire time. At the same time, she met someone who was wrongfully towed. But still had to pay as the towing company and storage lot are not run by the same folks. Further research into this very lot and towing company show that they have lost numerous claims in small claims court but that their licensing and finances do not allow the plaintiffs to collect on any awarded claims. As it turns out these guys don't just look like money grubbing scoundrels--they actually are.
As having the house to myself proved to NOT be the vacation I thought it would be as the dog nearly died and my car got towed, it was a great relief to have my parents home the next day. They had a great time in Michigan, but their Northwest flights back home were cancelled and they had to come home through Chicago (huh...my Memphis-LR flight was delayed...Clare had to postpone her trip to Missouri a day...parents used alternate route...OH YEAH, WE WERE ALL ON NWA!)
Wednesday proved a more interesting day. For you other news junkies out there, it was the peak of the big Coulter/Edwards fight and I had turned on Hardball for the first time ever to watch John Edwards' response to his wife's call to Ann Coulter. Why? Because I think coulter and her type are dispicable for reducing our political discourse to such childish, profane banter that ignores any issue driven discussion. I liked his response. Heck, I liked it a lot. And when they said he's be campaigning in Houston, I decided to check out when and where. Luckily for me, he had an event not far from home at Goode's Armadillo Palace not half an hour after he was off the air so I went. I stood around an interesting assortment of people there. I was at one point next to former Fort Bend County Democratic Chair Don Bankston whose sons ran the office last year, but he was supplanted by an ex-marine intelligence officer who hated the whole system and knew things he couldn't say but did lead him to state that four consecutive Republican presidents should have been impeached for what they secretly did (and maybe even a Democrat!) ( I can't remember, it was almost a week ago) and an ex-Lampson volunteer who recognized me from the campaign and is now Melissa Noriega's campaign manager (note: without getting into too much detail, she's Houston's newest city council member who was elected to replace Shelly Sekula-Gibbs who represented TX-22 in the House for two weeks during which time all of DeLay's staff abandoned her unceremoniously)(Oh, and Noriega's husband is running for senate). Keep this in mind if you go to a presidential candidate's rally: Expect the candidate to be an hour late. Chris Bell (my less famous former congressman) introduced Edwards, who gave an excellent stump speech. He didn't go for anything smooth and saccharine like he would have four years ago--it was all meaty policy discussion, the kind of stuff we really need to be talking about, except for this one riff about Dick Cheney in the middle (it reminded me of that Lewis Black routine from a little over a year ago when he has a break and then just says "Dick Cheney" and the crowd laughs, to which he replies "See? I don't even have to say anything!" and then riffs about how crazy things happen in the news so fast he can't write jokes for them). I was thoroughly impressed. I liked him last time around, but he's clearly grown exponentially as a candidate.
Did anything happen the rest of the week? Don't think so.
Saturday I had to get up early to help the Venture Crew do the church's lawn. It's a big lawn. I also learned the hard way that you really should follow the instruction on the weed whacker that says "wear ear protection". It kinda made my hands numb too.
Sunday had two big events. First was seeing Ratatouille, which proved a richly layered film that was the rare piece to be deeply rewarding on both the visual and written levels. After that the church had its big now-annual independence day celebration with hot dogs and fireworks. As I was feeling unwell, I sat this out after helping set up but showed up just in time for fireworks (I had nothing else to do). They were okay. Usually I get some kind of patriotic feeling (is that was God feels like? (yeah, although I regularly attend church...well, used too, I've never had any spiritual feelings whatsoever)), this year it inspired nothing. Was it my aching abdomen or disaffection with how things are going? I think yesterday proved it was the former.
Oh, and I went to the doctor yesterday about being tireda ll the time (it's not like the normal "i'm drowsy and it's 2:30" kind of tired, it's more the "I've been awake for three hours, done nothing of note, and feel like I just walked ten miles while doing bicep curls the whole eway" kind of tired). Turns out I have high liver activity but nothing dangerous or exotic. OH YEAH, MY LIVER CAN KICK YOUR LIVER'S...uh...I guess a liver wouldn't have an ass...I'll come up with something later.
I forget what I updated last or what was last filled in, but there was drama Monday night. Taking my parents' recommendation to see Knocked Up (Judd Apatow wins again) but not being able to find anybody to go with and leaving on a short notice left me $1 short of parking at the Edwards Cinema in Greenway. Forced to search for alternate means of parking I searched all the side streets which were covered in no parking signs. I do find a parking spot without such a sign in the shopping center across the street and park there. When I leave the movie though, my car is noticably absent. There was a sign that was not clear from where I entered the parking lot (every other entrance seemed to be covered with them, however) so I did a little detective work by visiting the only open restaurant and getting the number for the storage lot (and a slice of key lime pie). Returning to the parking lot and calling the other lot, I actually found somebody else in my predicament who fortunately had a taxi service's number memorized. So I called a cab for us. Right before it showed up, a couple approached us who once again, found their car missing. So we all went to the lot where our cars were being kept. Boy was this place shady. There was a tall, corrugated metal fence all the way around it and to get to the office you had to go down a corridor, similarly lined to get to the office which had a large window covered in some kind of glass with al ittle opening on the bottom (bulletproof? probably given how many po'd people go through there). Unfortunately for me, getting my car back required handing over $182 cash (this all started becuase I had virtually no cash). Despite the presence of an ATM, my emergency credit card cannot be used to rustle up cash so I was severely SOL. AS I couldn't pay a taxi for a ride back home, I was out of luck there too. So, I got on a bus with a sympathetic driver (when you get on a bus asking "where does this go?" and have no cash left at 11 at night, it's easy to get sympathy). I was finally able to get the car out once my parents returned the next day, but at a significantly higher fee.
Now that rate is extreme to begin with and it happens to people way too often. Now, the economics of it all do clearly check out, but that doesn't mean taking advantage of desperate people is okay. Their MO goes further. Recently, my mother met somebody who was in my exact same situation but with a rental car. As you have to show proof of ownership to get your car back and you don't have this with a rental car, a notorized statement is required. Like the ATM, therei s a notary public there the entire time. At the same time, she met someone who was wrongfully towed. But still had to pay as the towing company and storage lot are not run by the same folks. Further research into this very lot and towing company show that they have lost numerous claims in small claims court but that their licensing and finances do not allow the plaintiffs to collect on any awarded claims. As it turns out these guys don't just look like money grubbing scoundrels--they actually are.
As having the house to myself proved to NOT be the vacation I thought it would be as the dog nearly died and my car got towed, it was a great relief to have my parents home the next day. They had a great time in Michigan, but their Northwest flights back home were cancelled and they had to come home through Chicago (huh...my Memphis-LR flight was delayed...Clare had to postpone her trip to Missouri a day...parents used alternate route...OH YEAH, WE WERE ALL ON NWA!)
Wednesday proved a more interesting day. For you other news junkies out there, it was the peak of the big Coulter/Edwards fight and I had turned on Hardball for the first time ever to watch John Edwards' response to his wife's call to Ann Coulter. Why? Because I think coulter and her type are dispicable for reducing our political discourse to such childish, profane banter that ignores any issue driven discussion. I liked his response. Heck, I liked it a lot. And when they said he's be campaigning in Houston, I decided to check out when and where. Luckily for me, he had an event not far from home at Goode's Armadillo Palace not half an hour after he was off the air so I went. I stood around an interesting assortment of people there. I was at one point next to former Fort Bend County Democratic Chair Don Bankston whose sons ran the office last year, but he was supplanted by an ex-marine intelligence officer who hated the whole system and knew things he couldn't say but did lead him to state that four consecutive Republican presidents should have been impeached for what they secretly did (and maybe even a Democrat!) ( I can't remember, it was almost a week ago) and an ex-Lampson volunteer who recognized me from the campaign and is now Melissa Noriega's campaign manager (note: without getting into too much detail, she's Houston's newest city council member who was elected to replace Shelly Sekula-Gibbs who represented TX-22 in the House for two weeks during which time all of DeLay's staff abandoned her unceremoniously)(Oh, and Noriega's husband is running for senate). Keep this in mind if you go to a presidential candidate's rally: Expect the candidate to be an hour late. Chris Bell (my less famous former congressman) introduced Edwards, who gave an excellent stump speech. He didn't go for anything smooth and saccharine like he would have four years ago--it was all meaty policy discussion, the kind of stuff we really need to be talking about, except for this one riff about Dick Cheney in the middle (it reminded me of that Lewis Black routine from a little over a year ago when he has a break and then just says "Dick Cheney" and the crowd laughs, to which he replies "See? I don't even have to say anything!" and then riffs about how crazy things happen in the news so fast he can't write jokes for them). I was thoroughly impressed. I liked him last time around, but he's clearly grown exponentially as a candidate.
Did anything happen the rest of the week? Don't think so.
Saturday I had to get up early to help the Venture Crew do the church's lawn. It's a big lawn. I also learned the hard way that you really should follow the instruction on the weed whacker that says "wear ear protection". It kinda made my hands numb too.
Sunday had two big events. First was seeing Ratatouille, which proved a richly layered film that was the rare piece to be deeply rewarding on both the visual and written levels. After that the church had its big now-annual independence day celebration with hot dogs and fireworks. As I was feeling unwell, I sat this out after helping set up but showed up just in time for fireworks (I had nothing else to do). They were okay. Usually I get some kind of patriotic feeling (is that was God feels like? (yeah, although I regularly attend church...well, used too, I've never had any spiritual feelings whatsoever)), this year it inspired nothing. Was it my aching abdomen or disaffection with how things are going? I think yesterday proved it was the former.
Oh, and I went to the doctor yesterday about being tireda ll the time (it's not like the normal "i'm drowsy and it's 2:30" kind of tired, it's more the "I've been awake for three hours, done nothing of note, and feel like I just walked ten miles while doing bicep curls the whole eway" kind of tired). Turns out I have high liver activity but nothing dangerous or exotic. OH YEAH, MY LIVER CAN KICK YOUR LIVER'S...uh...I guess a liver wouldn't have an ass...I'll come up with something later.