#5347 - tales of the unexpected shipping pallets
woah, so the past few weeks have been CRAZY. all sorts of weird and fun and unexpected stuff has been happening!
when festive lost her job at the beginning of the month i took her out drinking, and since she lives not too far away from my office (maybe about 10 minutes or so), she crashed at my place and i drove her back home the next morning. we didn't count on a truck out delivering kitchen appliances to suddenly have a SHIPPING PALLET catch the wind and pop up like a jack-in-the-box from the center of the truck's flatbed, hit the roof of my car while i was driving next to the truck, slide across my sunroof, and leave a dent on the back of my roof. it all sounds much worse than it actually is - the biggest damage was the dent, and that's about the diameter of a quarter, but rather shallow - but it's still crazy. i drove next to the truck to try to get the driver's attention but i don't think he noticed me at all. michelle was able to get the truck's license plate, and when we got off at the exit for her place we were able to see the company's details on the side of the truck. when i got to work that morning i placed my auto insurance claim and later that day GEICO called me back to discuss my options - they recommended getting a police report, and so after work i went to the state police barrack (and the officer didn't seem too pleased that i didn't think of calling it in when it happened that morning… i can't help it, i wasn't thinking straight because i was just attacked by a shipping pallet and was on my way to work!) where they took my report and gave me the insurance information for the delivery company. since then i've had my car's repairs appraised by the collision center at my MINI dealership (funny thing, too, receiving an email with their current promotions the day before this happened!), the other insurance company has had their claims adjuster look at my car and quote an estimate about $900 less than what the MINI collision center estimated, and the other insurance company has denied my claim categorizing it as "road hazard". i called GEICO back today about that so they're going to see what they can do to fight the other insurance company about it, but at least if i have to file a claim with GEICO myself at least it's only a $50 deductible for me.
i met the producer of the "girl with the dragon tattoo" films at an event at the swedish embassy. apparently he produced both the swedish movie trilogy, as well as the american version of the film, and apparently the original plan (this is common in sweden) was to film the first as a feature film, and then the other two as made-for-tv films, but it was so popular they decided to make all three feature films. they did a question and answer session with him after his presentation and i had the opportunity to ask how the planned tv versions differed from the feature films they ended up making: the budget for the first film was only about $5 million as well, and the budget for the made-for-tv versions was only $2 million each… in comparison, the american film's hollywood budget is about $90 million dollars. it sounded like they actually filmed a substantial bit of the tv versions as well. so, i can cross "have an international film producer answer a question of mine" off my imaginary bucket-list.
i helped to fund the hi-definition version of "manos - hands of fate"… my name's going to be on the final version as a sponsor, hahaha.
clary, the photography intern with metro collective (the photojournalists i help out) sent me a message online about a week ago how for her birthday she'd like it if i came to her get-together at this bar in dc. i ended up at the bar for about an hour before she and her friends showed up, but when the ratio of cute girls that just walked in the door to glenns is 5:1 you won't get much complaining out of me that you were running late, haha. besides, i had a nice little chat with the bartender (i'm starting to think that every female bartender in dc is very attractive, and they get only more attractive as you drink :P). anyway, i got clary's number and we were saying how we need to hang out more often since we were getting along so well. she actually called me at lunch today to ask me some questions about photographing / videotaping roller derby since she knew i'd done that as a project before (a group she's in for one of her classes is going to use that for a group project with the dc roller girls) and said how she flickr-stalked my roller derby photos and complimented me on my work. she called me back this evening to talk about it some more, and we might be doing karaoke with some of her friends this weekend. awesome. :)
i went to an event for fashion bloggers called "cocktails, fancy skirts & fitted shirts"… apparently the dc fashion blogger scene tends to have a lack of guys at events, and so to encourage the boyfriends and husbands of the female fashion bloggers they put on this event at a shirtmaker in dc called "hugh & crye". i had heard about hugh & crye some months ago and how they basically make shirts that are easy to fit on athletically-built guys, and since this event was free (i had heard about the event from someone retweeting it on twitter) i figured why not go. it was a little hard to find, and once i got there it was hard to figure out who worked there and who didn't since there were just a lot of people mingling around and drinking beer from a heineken mini-keg, but once i saw where people were going to try on shirts i grabbed a shirt i was interested in and headed back. turns out they don't even have changing rooms as their store is more of a showroom attached to a storeroom (most of their sales are mail-order; when i bought my shirt they didn't even have registers or anything, i had to use a laptop they had to create an online account and place my order for "in-store pickup" even though i was in the store and already wearing the shirt i was going to take home, haha). there were some pretty fashionable-looking people there… i'm going to have to step up my game if i want to look good in this town, and not look like a guy wandering around wearing a barrel with suspenders. i think the next time i go to one of these events i should bring my camera like some of these people did.
this past saturday, bruno_boy and his girlfriend's friend jae and i went to another one of these board game meetups at a public library in northern virginia. we played settlers of catan ourselves, and then some other people joined us for a bit of monopoly before we had to call it quits and go to dave's girlfriend's place for a party. there were about 20 or so people there in her efficiency apartment, the party was pot-luck style (i brought homemade donuts), and we all played rock band. i'm still not sure if there's anything happening between me and jae (don't get me wrong, we had a fun time playing board games and chatting and all that), but i'm just taking things easy.
valentine's day was ok. i made some more homemade donuts and brought them home to mom and dad; we had dinner, watched another episode of "jeeves & wooster", and i cuddled with the cats and ate hershey kisses. not a bad way to spend the evening! one of my coworkers got engaged on valentine's day - some of my coworkers who are close friends with her knew the news already and were really excited for her when she arrived a bit later than usual today. she said how she had been up late and drank too much wine so "don't expect too much" from her, so later i joked with whammywah that after hearing her say that i was trying to see if she seemed to be walking funny, bahahaha. :P
i got a postcard in the mail from dc today saying how the ticket i got for removing the inspection sticker from my car was dismissed, so hooray, that's $50 i won't have to pay!
i just did my taxes tonight: i owe federal, but i get back ALL of my maryland income tax withheld (if you live in maryland for 183+ days you're considered a maryland resident, and i moved out of the state after living in maryland for only 180 days, so for income tax purposes i was a nonresident. and, since i live in dc - or if i lived in pennsylvania or virginia - i'm exempt from all my maryland tax withheld unlike nonresidents who live in other states), and i get back a little from dc as well. altogether i come out ahead about $1,700! methinks i might use that to get myself a new laptop a bit earlier than i planned!
my throat's been bothering me today, and i've just felt this general slight illness for the past week or two. it's not enough to bother calling out of work for since even if i just stay home it won't make me feel any better, but it's just enough to make me feel miserable with sneezing and coughing and runny noses and so on and so forth. i originally was going to go to the arlington cinema drafthouse tonight for their comedy film bucket list showing of "fletch", but i figured that since it's been a few days since i've really stayed in and had a nice, quiet evening, i might as well stay in tonight, and then when clary called me this afternoon to say she wanted to talk with me this evening, that settled it. so, quiet evening in, good chat on the phone, $1700 richer, not a bad night. now to get ready for bed so i can get a good night's rest, hopefully i'll feel better tomorrow.
when festive lost her job at the beginning of the month i took her out drinking, and since she lives not too far away from my office (maybe about 10 minutes or so), she crashed at my place and i drove her back home the next morning. we didn't count on a truck out delivering kitchen appliances to suddenly have a SHIPPING PALLET catch the wind and pop up like a jack-in-the-box from the center of the truck's flatbed, hit the roof of my car while i was driving next to the truck, slide across my sunroof, and leave a dent on the back of my roof. it all sounds much worse than it actually is - the biggest damage was the dent, and that's about the diameter of a quarter, but rather shallow - but it's still crazy. i drove next to the truck to try to get the driver's attention but i don't think he noticed me at all. michelle was able to get the truck's license plate, and when we got off at the exit for her place we were able to see the company's details on the side of the truck. when i got to work that morning i placed my auto insurance claim and later that day GEICO called me back to discuss my options - they recommended getting a police report, and so after work i went to the state police barrack (and the officer didn't seem too pleased that i didn't think of calling it in when it happened that morning… i can't help it, i wasn't thinking straight because i was just attacked by a shipping pallet and was on my way to work!) where they took my report and gave me the insurance information for the delivery company. since then i've had my car's repairs appraised by the collision center at my MINI dealership (funny thing, too, receiving an email with their current promotions the day before this happened!), the other insurance company has had their claims adjuster look at my car and quote an estimate about $900 less than what the MINI collision center estimated, and the other insurance company has denied my claim categorizing it as "road hazard". i called GEICO back today about that so they're going to see what they can do to fight the other insurance company about it, but at least if i have to file a claim with GEICO myself at least it's only a $50 deductible for me.
i met the producer of the "girl with the dragon tattoo" films at an event at the swedish embassy. apparently he produced both the swedish movie trilogy, as well as the american version of the film, and apparently the original plan (this is common in sweden) was to film the first as a feature film, and then the other two as made-for-tv films, but it was so popular they decided to make all three feature films. they did a question and answer session with him after his presentation and i had the opportunity to ask how the planned tv versions differed from the feature films they ended up making: the budget for the first film was only about $5 million as well, and the budget for the made-for-tv versions was only $2 million each… in comparison, the american film's hollywood budget is about $90 million dollars. it sounded like they actually filmed a substantial bit of the tv versions as well. so, i can cross "have an international film producer answer a question of mine" off my imaginary bucket-list.
i helped to fund the hi-definition version of "manos - hands of fate"… my name's going to be on the final version as a sponsor, hahaha.
clary, the photography intern with metro collective (the photojournalists i help out) sent me a message online about a week ago how for her birthday she'd like it if i came to her get-together at this bar in dc. i ended up at the bar for about an hour before she and her friends showed up, but when the ratio of cute girls that just walked in the door to glenns is 5:1 you won't get much complaining out of me that you were running late, haha. besides, i had a nice little chat with the bartender (i'm starting to think that every female bartender in dc is very attractive, and they get only more attractive as you drink :P). anyway, i got clary's number and we were saying how we need to hang out more often since we were getting along so well. she actually called me at lunch today to ask me some questions about photographing / videotaping roller derby since she knew i'd done that as a project before (a group she's in for one of her classes is going to use that for a group project with the dc roller girls) and said how she flickr-stalked my roller derby photos and complimented me on my work. she called me back this evening to talk about it some more, and we might be doing karaoke with some of her friends this weekend. awesome. :)
i went to an event for fashion bloggers called "cocktails, fancy skirts & fitted shirts"… apparently the dc fashion blogger scene tends to have a lack of guys at events, and so to encourage the boyfriends and husbands of the female fashion bloggers they put on this event at a shirtmaker in dc called "hugh & crye". i had heard about hugh & crye some months ago and how they basically make shirts that are easy to fit on athletically-built guys, and since this event was free (i had heard about the event from someone retweeting it on twitter) i figured why not go. it was a little hard to find, and once i got there it was hard to figure out who worked there and who didn't since there were just a lot of people mingling around and drinking beer from a heineken mini-keg, but once i saw where people were going to try on shirts i grabbed a shirt i was interested in and headed back. turns out they don't even have changing rooms as their store is more of a showroom attached to a storeroom (most of their sales are mail-order; when i bought my shirt they didn't even have registers or anything, i had to use a laptop they had to create an online account and place my order for "in-store pickup" even though i was in the store and already wearing the shirt i was going to take home, haha). there were some pretty fashionable-looking people there… i'm going to have to step up my game if i want to look good in this town, and not look like a guy wandering around wearing a barrel with suspenders. i think the next time i go to one of these events i should bring my camera like some of these people did.
this past saturday, bruno_boy and his girlfriend's friend jae and i went to another one of these board game meetups at a public library in northern virginia. we played settlers of catan ourselves, and then some other people joined us for a bit of monopoly before we had to call it quits and go to dave's girlfriend's place for a party. there were about 20 or so people there in her efficiency apartment, the party was pot-luck style (i brought homemade donuts), and we all played rock band. i'm still not sure if there's anything happening between me and jae (don't get me wrong, we had a fun time playing board games and chatting and all that), but i'm just taking things easy.
valentine's day was ok. i made some more homemade donuts and brought them home to mom and dad; we had dinner, watched another episode of "jeeves & wooster", and i cuddled with the cats and ate hershey kisses. not a bad way to spend the evening! one of my coworkers got engaged on valentine's day - some of my coworkers who are close friends with her knew the news already and were really excited for her when she arrived a bit later than usual today. she said how she had been up late and drank too much wine so "don't expect too much" from her, so later i joked with whammywah that after hearing her say that i was trying to see if she seemed to be walking funny, bahahaha. :P
i got a postcard in the mail from dc today saying how the ticket i got for removing the inspection sticker from my car was dismissed, so hooray, that's $50 i won't have to pay!
i just did my taxes tonight: i owe federal, but i get back ALL of my maryland income tax withheld (if you live in maryland for 183+ days you're considered a maryland resident, and i moved out of the state after living in maryland for only 180 days, so for income tax purposes i was a nonresident. and, since i live in dc - or if i lived in pennsylvania or virginia - i'm exempt from all my maryland tax withheld unlike nonresidents who live in other states), and i get back a little from dc as well. altogether i come out ahead about $1,700! methinks i might use that to get myself a new laptop a bit earlier than i planned!
my throat's been bothering me today, and i've just felt this general slight illness for the past week or two. it's not enough to bother calling out of work for since even if i just stay home it won't make me feel any better, but it's just enough to make me feel miserable with sneezing and coughing and runny noses and so on and so forth. i originally was going to go to the arlington cinema drafthouse tonight for their comedy film bucket list showing of "fletch", but i figured that since it's been a few days since i've really stayed in and had a nice, quiet evening, i might as well stay in tonight, and then when clary called me this afternoon to say she wanted to talk with me this evening, that settled it. so, quiet evening in, good chat on the phone, $1700 richer, not a bad night. now to get ready for bed so i can get a good night's rest, hopefully i'll feel better tomorrow.