happy hallows!

happy halloweeeeeen!

this past weekend, willie & co. had a party in monterey, and for the first time in a long time, i actually dressed up. woohoo, it was fun -- i was a ball-girl (or well, as most assumed, a baseball/softball player) with a red sox hat :)

anyway, here's some scary stuff going on:

- i'm still SAT-tutoring people like mad. the SAT is scary. the amount of time and money that's spent to prepare for this unhealthy test is even scarier.
- the landlord wants to install astroturf (instead of real grass) in our yard. can you come up with something scarier than that? i can't. astroturf? we'd have our own mini-golf course. scary...
- my butt hasn't been running in weeks on end. terribly scary.
- i've been using gas up the wazoo because we've been driving up to richmond, ca for the boat voyages -- it's neato! we caught a sturgeon! but lots of gas is bad-scary.
- the november mid-term elections are coming up SOON. can the democrats take it back?? i sure hope so. i'm tired of stupid republicans; if the republicans weren't so stupid, it'd be one thing, but they are. therefore, the democrats need to do something. better yet, we voters should do something. guess i should register to vote. hmm. scary.
- i had an assignment to review and report on golden gate park in san francisco in conjunction with this slightly random freelance internship-thingy that i have with a media writing company. i took lots of photos and wrote a whole article... and now i'm awaiting feedback. a little scary...

happy halloweeeeen.... BOO! :)

Stupid-Arse-Test

there's a SAT test on november 4th. even though it's been like... 6 or 7 years since i last took that horrid exam, this upcoming nov. 4th test is stressing me out. mainly because there are high school students all over northern california who are cramming for it. and i, as a wonderful tutor, must help them cram.

dude man, i never really studied much for the SAT at all. isn't it supposed to be a test of aptitude and logic? now, it's just a test of how much money your parents are willing to spend on classes, practice books, and tutoring sessions. such lame-o-ness.

can you hear me now?

no biatch!


verizon is evil. why?
because:

five or six months ago, my cell phone (motorola v265) began to suck. the battery would die quickly; the phone signal would randomly drop; there'd be zero clarity; and the phone would get hot (cancer!!) after 10 minutes of conversation. but i was busy, and things were hectic, and i was enjoying life in dc, so i never got around to doing anything about it. when the end of july and early august rolled around and things were a bit slower, i decided to stop by the verizon store and ask if they could do anything about my phone -- could they replace its suckiness? could i buy a cheap refurbished one? did i have some options?

so i went to the verizon store, and lo and behold, they told me three things:
1. no, it can't be replaced.
2. but if i wanted, i could spend at least $80 on a refurbished one or $100 on a new one.
3. oh and hey look, we can't even access your account because your phone number is originally from the boston metropolitan area, and verizon on the west coast can't access accounts on the east coast. bwhaha, you'll have to do everything online or on the phone.

stupidheads.

so i tried accessing info and help on my online account, but they just directed me to the 1-800 number instead. so FINE, i finally called to ask -- "when the hell does my contract end? when the hell will i finally be able to leave verizon and get a better phone with better customer service and better signal?" miss customer service (or maybe it was mister) said: "your 2-year contract ends on september 29, 2006."

end of september -- that's okay, i can hold out till then. i can do it! go me! i'll hold out!

so i hold out. i deal with crappy coverage, stupid battery, even stupider battery charger, awful reception, deadly phone, and expensive bills due to lack of daytime minutes.

when the end of september rolls around, i begin to receive calls from verizon. at 6:30am in the morning. UGH. do they notice that i'm currently living in california... which is PACIFIC time? umm... obviously not. okay, so the first few times, i ignore the 800 number that shows up on my phone's caller ID. then, on the 3rd or 4th time, i finally answer. verizon lets me know -- "hey, guess what? you've been going over your daytime minutes! did you know that you can now renew your contract and get a better deal than what you're currently paying?" ha, bitch. i'm nice and patient, and i listen to their blurbs, and i respond with -- "thanks for the information, but my contract ends within the week, so i'm gonna wait and think about my options some more." they say -- "okay, that's totally fine. just let us when and how we can help you!"

so september 29, 2006 arrives. and passes. and i'm looking on amazon and at cingular and sprint for good phone and plan deals. i spend 3 or 4 hours reading cell phone reviews on cnet.com, and finally, i find a decent (and cheap) one on amazon and place an order. actually, i placed the order on sept. 25th. i await the shipment and delivery of the awesome phone.... and i wait some more.... and some more. and i keep checking the "tracking" link... and it still hasn't arrived. and the shipment/delivery dates continuously get pushed back further and further. in the meantime, verizon calls me everyday -- twice a day. once at 6 or 7am in the morning, another in the afternoon. it just so happens that i'm never around (really! i'm either sleeping, in the shower, or working), and they never leave a message, so we continue to ignore each other. and i continue to glare at amazon via the computer screen.

weeks come and go. and finally, after 2 emails and 3 phone calls to amazon (whose customer service is admittedly pretty nice and awesome), i get my phone! YAHOO!!!!

happy ending? hardly. the story gets better.

so i receive my phone, hurry up and start playing with it, and get around to activating it and porting my original number over to my new sprint service. it works! the phone is nice! its battery doesn't die! i can hear people on the other end! 2 days later, the verizon phone calls end! AMAZING!!!

wait, there's more.

two days ago, i check my email and find.... an email regarding my final bill with verizon. phew, yay. except that my final bill is... not $20 or $35 or $50... my final bill is $197. WHAAAAAAAT?!? ugh ugh blahblahblah.

so i go online and try to access my account to take a closer look at this retarded bill. and i find out that i've been charged an "early termination fee" of $175. oh shit no. so i look closer... through all of my bills (which are currently the only info available on my verizon account website anymore), and suddenly, i notice in itty-bitty print on the side that i initiated service with verizon on 11/29/04. oh god. which means that 2 years later..... the end of contract would be november 29, 2006, not september. GAH! but they told me september! GAAAAH! (why were these dates never provided before??)

so i call customer service. after yelling at one woman who refused to even consider taking away the early termination fee, i speak to another one (manager or whatnot) who listens a little bit better. she suggests that i'm lying and that customer service reps would never provide me with a wrong date. we conclude, after much disagreement, that there was simply (unrecorded and un-noted) miscommunication between company and customer. whatever, just give me my money back. so she decides that in lieu of the $175 early termination fee, i can just reconnect back to verizon and finish out my contract and pay the rest till the end of the november. she says -- "three and a half months -- about $120 -- would be better than $175." i agree that $175 is outrageous, but i tell her... "umm.. three and a half months? woman, i just disconnected two days ago. to finish out my contract, i have about 1.5 months left. that's probably $50" at this point, she decides that she's tired of talking to me, refuses to calculate the time between october 11 and november 29 (3.5 months, of course), and transfers me to some other automated machine.

i hang up, scream at my phone, stomp into willie's room, growl, breathe 4 times... and call again.

this story goes on forever.

woman #3 verifies my social security number and reads on her screen some notes from the previous two people. she reads: "customer escalated conversation, became rude and irate." i bust out laughing -- rude and irate? i'm rude and irate -- YESSSS! damnit, verizon deserves some rude and irate customers. anyway... we more calmly discuss options, including the hey-there's-only-1.5-months-left possibility. she thinks that i'd have to transfer back to my original number, and i calmly (not rudely or irately) explain that it might be sorta ridiculous if i had two different phones, two different cell phone services, and one number. if someone calls, which phone do i use?? would it work on both? she thinks -- "hmm, yeah, that'd be not-so-good." i finally reached a reasonable woman. thank the lord.

after another 15 minutes of discussion, holding, and reiteration, she finally discovers that i might, after all, be able to reconnect service to dumb-ass verizon with a NEW number, not disturb my current number and service, finish off the contract, and be done forever. she does note, however, that the re-connect service people won't be available till monday. wonderous. so for the rest of the weekend, i take a break from the v.

monday afternoon, i give verizon a call to reconnect to a new mobile number. the first woman tells me that -- sure! that'll be fine! -- but that my identity can't be confirmed. huh? i gave her my address, my name, and my social security number. some man comes on the phone to ask two questions: one about my mortgage payments from 2002 (um, no) and another about my previous phone numbers (all with 925 or 301 area codes? nope). and then, the woman returns to the phone and says, "sorry, your identity can't be confirmed. will you fax us a copy of a current utility bill, your SS card, and your driver's license?"

sigh. two hours later, i call again. new customer service rep who transfers me 3 times to a final dude in massachusetts (because i have an 857 area code apparently). i sit on the phone for 20 minutes listening to "i'm sorry, all respresentatives are currently busy. we appreciate your patience." psssh, no more patience, so i hang up.

an hour later, i try once more. it's 4:45pm PT, i'm at the grocery store, and i've gathered enough resilience and patience for one more verizon phone call for that day. i call, get transferred between "new customer cell sales" and "existing customer billing" twice -- and i finally reach some woman who, after some finagling, gets permission from her boss to go through with the transaction herself (well, yay!). after 30 minutes on the phone, she says, "well, i have a problem."

oh no.

"it turns out that you have some corporate discount associated with your account [yup, i got it when i was still working with abbott way back when], and we can't change anything without a code from the business support department. the business support department happens to be closed right now."

boooooooooooooooooo.

so the next morning at 7am, while i'm in the middle of setting stuff up for the boat, i walk around with the cell phone stuck between my shoulder and ear and spend 15 minutes gaining contact with the business support department. and ohmygosh, it finally gets done!!

I GOT RECONNECTED! why am i so excited about that...? hm. so now, i'm currently reconnected with a new cell phone number, same cell phone (which i haven't turned on since i transferred to sprint), and a return of the $175 early termination fee. the woman confirmed that my contract will end on november 29, 2006, and i can continue with that contract till its finale.

today is october 23, 2006, and last night, as i was taking care of bills, i decided -- "hmm, hey i'll check my verizon bill online to see if they actually waived the $175." i access my account online, and voila, yup, the $175 is gone. wonderful! could it really be true?! :)

oh wait.

i scroll down a little further... and in small-ish print, i noticed that it says -- "end of contract: october 18, 2008."

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

so guess who i get to call today?

mwhahaha

boo-ya.

the detroit tigers beat the overpaid new york yankees in the postseason al-east alds 3-1. YAY! first game, the yankees won. the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th games, the tigers kicked pinstriped booty.

mwhahaha, who knew detroit had it in them. rawr! :)

i'm a cheeseball

thesis:
i'm a cheeseball.

supporting evidence:
1. i LOVE grey's anatomy. i can't help it; i know that it's written to tug at the heartstrings, and whether it's actually true that residents and interns frolic in the basement of respected hospitals, i love how the show is able to incorporate so many different facets of life and PEOPLE into each episode and story. each of the characters is so unique, so not generic. i'm a cheeseball -- the show is great, and i've been known to get teary during a few.
2. even worse, i love the soundtracks of popular tv shows. yeah. they include, but are not limited to, the music that accompanies the O.C. (though i haven't seen the show in almost 2 years), grey's anatomy, dawson's creek (from way back when), and all the other stupidly wonderful WB angsty shows that i used to watch in high school.

conclusion:
i'm a cheeseball. a total cheeseball.

** the format of this entry pays tribute to the expected format of today's SAT essays. i've been grading/scoring them by the hundreds recently, so... yeah... :)

nouvelles of the novel length

contrary to popular belief, i haven't actually been resting on my (ever-growing) laurels since moving to california in late june. i stopped the laurel-resting in august-ish. or maybe it was september...

anyway, lately though, i've rediscovered the word busy. "busy". and it's a strange feeling to come back to. but in a way, it's really nice too -- to have something to do on an almost-daily basis, to scrape up some money, to stop going to ikea to furnish and decorate the house, to be useful after a nice relaxing summer away from the office. aha -- but that's the catch! (haha, catch! get it?!) i'm no longer in an office. my cubicle now consists of a 90-ft (or something like that) research vessel that contentedly travels the waters of the san francisco bay (or estuary, as i'm learning). the marine science institute is great. i get to catch fishies and bay rays and sharks -- and i play with mud (more formerly known as the benthos of the bay) -- and i spy on plankton and teach about water and get muddy and wet and stand on my 2 feet for most of the day. sometimes, my day lasts from 7:30am till 6:00pm with a 20-minute break for lunch... before launching into another round on the boat. other days, i get the day off. it all depends. i wear rubber clogs and msi t-shirts and sunglasses... and golly gee, i only check my email once a day on my working days. it's kinda cool.

and at night, when i finally stumble home (via bike or car, usually after a stint with tutoring), i'm exhausted. but oddly happy with what i accomplished. sometimes last year, when i rode the metro home from the hill to the suburbs, i wouldn't really feel like i'd finished or done anything that day. i mean, i might've succeeded in researching a few things.. maybe contacted a senator or learned a bit more about biosecurity standards at biological labs -- and those are good, solid, and important tasks... but sorta unfulfilling. those memos and papers had to be handed off to the web editor, then off to the wide expanse of the internet and accumulated in inboxes for weeks at a time until a senator's or rep's office staff decided to read it, passed it on to the boss-man, and poked and prodded until the senator or rep determined that it was important enough to draft a proposal about. months and years later, the topic might come up in congressional hearings or meetings... and in the minutest of minute possibilities, it'd get voted on. and maybe, just maybe, it'd have an effect on the general public and the rest of the world. but it'd take a long while.....

but on the boat, the kids -- and teachers (and me too) -- emit "WHOA" and "COOOOOOL" and "huh, i didn't know that" time and time again. and though i honestly had a blast encircling the offices on capitol hill and learning how our government functions in real-time (and not just in a history book in tennessee), it's just a little bit awesome-r when i'm on a big ship pulling up a sting ray wiggling in seaweed.

so i like my job :)

my job also makes me poor. sigh... life's a game of give and take.

so i've been tutoring too: geometry and biology and calculus and SAT and chemistry and algebra II. dude, i know my quadratics all over again, and i got a library card solely to check out calculus books to review. i'm such a gigantic nerd. but the high schoolers are good kids... and well.. hey, once again, there's no middle man. i see them face-to-face, and when one of them scrunches up her nose and wrinkles her eyebrow, i know that i have to find another way to explain derivations fast. stat. it's surprisingly fun.

in my spare time (har har har), i've been reuniting with phi sig west.. and mit-ers. and ma familia. and the msi staff. and those good ole climbing jugs and pinchers. and vegas-the-puppy has grown larger and more rambunctious, but his balls still haven't dropped. poor dude.



speaking of dudes, the red sox died. completely kaput. they ended their season ranked THIRD in the AL east behind both the yankees AND the blue jays. how awfully embarassing. so in the alds championship series, those damn yanks and the detroit tigers (yeah, how did they stay up there in the central league??) meet. insane. the red sox just weren't able to hold onto the energy from earlier in the season, and by the end, everyone was hurt, even the seemingly invincible jason varitek and jonathan papelbon. oh sigh. but i have faith -- the red sox will rise again next year :)

in the meantime, fart on jeter. posada yo mama. and boo on gay-rod. i'm rooting for detroit, pollution capital of the world. eesh.

hmmm, did you hear about that whole controversy with the CITGO sign in boston? pssssshhhawwww. the citgo sign is a staple of the boston skyline (when viewed from cambridge or around the charles river area) -- it's been there for ages and decades and forever. in college, it flickered on and off for a while, but it always kept me on track and notified me of my utter procrastination when it turned off at midnight. it blinks and flashes and emits neon red, blue, and white light onto the murky waters of the charles, and really, it's the bestest ever. but noooo, a few weeks ago, city council began to discuss the possibility of taking it down and replacing it with a large american flag. why? because chavez, the venezuelan president (citgo is partially owned and operated by some venezuelan company, it seems), called the u.s. president: "the devil".


to me, that's just sorta funny. and partially true. but whatever, fine, it's not exactly kosher to call other world leaders evil names and refer to burning hellfire. but replace the citgo sign with the american flag? i'm not really patriotic per se, but i do sincerely respect and appreciate our rights and liberties and history; however, being a practical and realistic college grad of the democratic persuasion (of which boston mostly consists of), i highly doubt that anyone -- least of all the fanatic fans of fenway, which is located 1 foot away from the citgo sign -- would rather have the american flag up there instead of the citgo sign -- all because it somehow represents the devil-caller. aye caramba.

it's already october.... i'm still trying to figure out where september and august and july disappeared to. my cell phone, which is currently giving me brain cancer, still sucks donkey nuts, and because amazon suddenly hates me, i still own my TPOS and therefore, must continue to use it. also, verizon -- because they're total stupidheads and won't take a hint -- calls me every morning around 6:30am because 1) they stupidly fail to note the fact that i now live in california and thus, am NOT on EST, 2) they're trying to convince me to change plans and continue with verizon coverage (even though i haven't technically cancelled with them yet), and 3) they're in partnership with george w. bush (them devils). can you hear me now?

i randomly keep in contact with people in dc.. and in boston too. sometimes, it seems like the east coast is so far away.. but other days, it's like i'll be an atlantic-coaster forever. the cult in dc is ... dynamic (good word?), but it worries me and makes me sad.. because it was (and should be) such a big solid group of foodies and jokesters and sarcastic meanies and happy climbers. and awesome, wonderful things like that in life should stay intact forever.

last weekend, while others in our high school class were gathering awkwardly in chattanooga for the 5th year reunion, me and susan and carolyn met up in san fran and had our own little shindig. much funner, methinks. do people change between 18 and 23? i think so... definitely. but i also think that i was already "me" by 18. 5 years later, i'm just a more solid version of "me".. does that make any sense?

hmm... life is busy and strange. i'm getting used to it. and i'm acclimating to the weather in norcal... nowadays, 60 degrees is chilly. i've become a wuss of the worst degree... hehe.