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The
Soap Box Saturday, February 26, 2005 Dilemma It's freezing in my house and toasty warm in my beautiful king size bed complete with flannel sheets. I have cable TV and my wireless connection in bed but I really need to start studying for my stats test and getting some food would be a good idea too. I've been a slug in bed for over 2 hours now. Watched Sense & Sensibility and still can't seem to haul my ass outta this wonderful comfort zone...OK, in 12 minutes, I'm up and at'em...really... Thursday, February 24, 2005 Miracle of Miracles I was eating lunch today (some pasta and chicken) and realized, "Holy shit! I'm chewing on the left side of my mouth!" Right, seems like nothing to you perhaps but it was the first time in 2 weeks I could do that! I have NO idea how popping a few valium and using a night guard cured me of my intense jaw pain but it did the trick! I was supposed to take valium for 3 nights in a row but it was almost impossible to get out of bed the next morning so I didn't bother to take any last night but I was still better today! Maybe that $225 mouth guard is actually worth it! Blatant Plug Iron & Wine released an EP called Woman King on Tuesday and it does not disappoint. My favorite line so far come s from a song called "Evening on the Ground" which states,
I'll let you ponder that for a while. In the meantime, you can download the eponymous cut for free here. You can get the whole EP on iTunes for under $6. Tuesday, February 22, 2005 Wells Fargo Can Bite My Ass Back in December, out of the blue, WF sent me a platinum ATM card with my more-or-less defunct business name on it stating, "Here is the business ATM card you requested." Uh, I didn't request it and you guys just sent me a new gold ATM card like 2 months ago. What gives? I didn't want to activate the new platinum card because it had a different 16 digit number on it and that meant I'd have to change all the places that charge to my debit card automatically. So I didn't activate it. Last month, I went into a branch and asked why I got a new card that I hadn't requested. They were baffled. They said it had been ordered in Santa Fe. So now I'm thinking, "is someone trying to scam me?" After about a half an hour, they tell me that because I have a business account, I'm not allowed to have a gold card but have to have the platinum one with my business name on it. I told them I didn't order it and I didn't want it. They told me my current ATM would eventually not work anymore. Thanks butt-wipes. I go to a different branch and tell them to switch my account from business to personal and to let me use the ATM card I have. They can switch my account to personal but they can't let me use my ATM card but can get a new gold one. Whatever. A week later, my ATM card won't work at stores but will work in WF ATM machines and over the internet. Fuck. I go back to the branch where they changed my account back to a personal acct and complain. When they changed my account from business to personal, the platinum card could not be cancelled because there was no account to which it was attached. (Does this make sense?) Without the platinum card cancelled, the new gold card could not be ordered. It took an HOUR to get the platinum card cancelled. AN HOUR. So last Thursday I get the new gold card but there is no indication if the PIN is the same as the old one or if it's new. I call WF and they assure me the PIN is the same. Well, when I tried to check out of the grocery store Friday night, I found out it wasn't. FUCKERS. Now I have NO idea what the PIN is for this card. And it's a holiday weekend. So today, I leave school early so I can get to the bank before it closes and I tell them I have an ATM card and no PIN. The teller says cheerfully, "no problem!" I said, "No, it IS a problem!" She asks if I remember what the old PIN was. Uh DUH! It was the same PIN I've had for 5 years. Yes I remember it. So anyway, she recodes the card with the old PIN and I leave. When I get home, I have a piece of mail waiting for me from WF...containing the PIN for the new card. Thanks jerkwads. That's about 4 days too late. Un-Fucking-Believable! I got a spam today that makes me spitting mad. I'm immune to most spam...the "make your dick bigger," the "get your narcotic drugs here," the "we got cheating housewives looking for you," whatever...but when it deals with child pornography it really makes me sick. This one opened up with:
Uhhh, pardon me but there is NO WAY I or anyone I know bought any of that smut. I scrolled down the email to see if there was anything I could do about it...report it to someone...and here is what it said on the bottom (and I am NOT making this up):
Yeah, that's a good way to get new customers. Swear at them. And since when can you pay off authorities in order to peddle child pornography? And that PS makes me want to turn these assholes over even more. So...what can I do? Can I alert the police somehow? Anyone have any ideas? Please let me know. Child pornographers deserve to have their genitals burned off but barring that, they should at LEAST be arrested and face a judge. Saturday, February 19, 2005 The Fun Keeps Comin' My sister just called to tell my that my bro has squamous lung cancer. Apparently it's advanced enough that the doctor himself called hospice, which they don't tend to do unless you have 6 months at most. Funny thing is, he feels pretty good! He is even living in an apartment he just got, thinking he'd have at least a year. I guess he's pretty devastated, as anyone would be. I can't imagine going to the doctor's and getting a death sentence. Thursday, February 17, 2005 Round Up So, I have diagnosed myself with Bruxism. It's when you clench your teeth at night in your sleep. From a web site:
Let's see, I have sensitive teeth, headaches, earaches and noisy joints. It dawned on me today that I really couldn't tell if my tooth pain was coming from my upper or lower jaw. Well, being the amazingly smart person that I am, I deduced that it's not my teeth that are the problem, it's my jaw! DERRRR. Then I read this:
Oh joy. Something to look forward to... In Other News... An abstract I submitted to the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association was accepted meaning that I now need to present an "oral paper" (really dumb term) at their annual meeting in Phoenix in April. From what I hear, it's very rare for first year grad students to present at a conference, at least for first year students form UNM. I should be excited but all I can think is, "Shit, something else I gotta do." Maybe I'll get excited after I get a good weekend's worth of sleep. I mean it will be a wonderful experience and my mentor was very generous with his time, helping me with the abstract, which I greatly appreciate. And some of the other "oral papers" sound really interesting...so I'm blaming my lack of enthusiasm on the need to close my eyes...I mean I only need to be back at school in a little over 8 hours....zzzzzz... Wednesday, February 16, 2005 Today's Lesson There are very few things in life more precious than a friend who can make you laugh. Tuesday, February 15, 2005 Catching Up So far this semester, I just sit in my stats class and wonder what the hell is going on. The class is too theoretical. I'm good with equations and logic but not real crazy on theory. Also the professor's voice tends to lull me into zone land. I'm awake in class but I'm listening to the sounds of his voice, not what he's actually saying. Then today, I actually followed the lecture! The key? 16oz of Diet Mountain Dew! Woohoo! Normally, I don't drink caffeine at all. I don't like coffee and I drink decaffeinated soda but today I felt I needed something a little extra so I hit the bottle, as it were and it made a huge difference! Now if I can just get over the headaches the caffeine causes, I'll be all set. This afternoon I had to go back to the dentist to get my permanent crown. I told him the filling he gave me last week was killing me and he said the 2 words I fear the most...Root Canal! He said some BS about every time you get a filling you do more damage to the pulp and that this was at least the second filling in the same place so the tooth may be dying now, yadda yadda yadda. He wanted to reshape my bite to see if that would stop the tooth from rubbing on the tooth below it and give it some time to possibly heal on its own which means drilling. Which he did without Novocain! I told him he was KILLING me and I was going to cry! JERK! I said the tooth KILLS! Don't fucking drill it! Sheeit! 3 shots of Novocain later and all was well. I left the office with my prescription of Vicodin and figured I should get some lunch while the Novocain was still working. I ended up chewing the inside of my lip...which now looks like ground beef...and is swollen...dammit I'm an idiot! So that's the good and the bad...caffeine helps me pay attention and I can't eat with Novocain. Two lessons well learned. Saturday, February 12, 2005 UGH! I have become addicted to the Discovery Health channel and Plastic Surgery: Before & After in particular. Every week is truly like a train wreck -- it's positively disgusting but I HAVE TO WATCH! This one woman had lost around 200 lbs and had to get the left-over skin removed. They took 9 inches off one arm alone! All told, 20 lbs of skin was removed from her! Cost? $40K. Why why why do they show the fat that has been liposuctioned? HELLO? That's GROSS! Another young man had half his nose that was taken off due to cancer reconstructed out of skin from his forehead and his groin! Ewwww! A nose made out of a groin? I end up watching half the show through my fingers to block out the surgery stuff but keep watching because I MUST see the before and after. I think I need help. WTF is Wrong with Albuquerque? About once every 10 days or so, there is a local news story about an elementary school on lock-down. Apparently this morning there were multiple elementary schools on lock-down due to a car-jacker who was on the loose and apparently dangerous. They wouldn't even let the busses drop the kids off. They were told just to drive around until further notice. Honestly, growing up, I NEVER heard of a school on lock-down. I have to wonder if it's part of the wild west...a place where some people prefer a warm gun in their hands than their loved ones. Does anyone else live in a city where elementary schools are locked-down on a regular basis? Thursday, February 10, 2005 Perchance to Dream Are you, for whatever reason, ever afraid to go to bed for fear that you'll just lay there without falling asleep? Then while you're laying there you'll start remembering things you were supposed to do and didn't? Then you're like "well, do I get up and do them or just bag it until morning? Because I *think* I was almost asleep and if I get up now, I'll have to start all over again!" So then your mind is racing and you think you'll never fall asleep when all of a sudden it dawns on you that you were just asleep for a second and then you think, "Hey! That was sleep! I must be close!" and then that goes on for a while and before you know it, and WAY too soon, the alarm is going off and you gotta haul your ass out of bed and start another grueling day... Pretty terrible feeling huh? Tuesday, February 8, 2005 Ugh It's only 10:15 am and I need a nap...how am I going to get through this day? Zzzzzzz.... Monday, February 7, 2005 Barbarism Only in my mouth can a filling and a crown turn into 3 fillings and a crown in 2 weeks! WTF? Damn cruddy Irish teeth! I told the doc I was terrifies to be there and he offered me laughing gas. I passed tho because my body doesn't react well to anesthesia and I didn't have anyone to drive me home in case of some sort of reaction so I told him I'd tough it out. So I got 4 shots of Novocain and held a death grip on the chair while I was literally tipped with my head facing downward. Wanna know how gross it all was? I'm gonna let your mind wander except that I will tell you that when he was done drilling, there was blood on my iPod which was resting on my stomach. I got up to go to the bathroom while they were waiting for God-only-knows-what to happen and I had blood on my face and lips. Charming. You'd think they'd want to clean that up before other patients saw it and ran out of there screaming. The hygienist that was shaping my temporary crown had it fly out of her hand twice. Once it hit me on the thigh and fell on the ground, the other it flew over my body and bounced off the sink. Yeah, I want that in my mouth now. Thanks. My permanent crown will be ready next Monday, Valentine's Day. I told them I refuse to come then. Give me a break! So next Tuesday, I get to have the temporary crown ripped off my stump of a tooth and the permanent one cemented into place. I suspect I will have about 6 months of cold sensitivity and pain associated with the new crown, like I did with the last one. Bah. Oh, total price for the 2 hours of torture? $1000. It amazes me that humans pay good money for this. Sunday, February 6, 2005 Anxiety Guess what tomorrow is? It's get a filling and crown day! WOOHOOO!!! The fun begins at 8am. Pardon me if I don't post tomorrow. I'm planning to be in a really shitty mood. The Clan of the Snooze Fest I started reading The Clan of the Cave Bear series over Christmas. I'm up to page 110 in book 4, The Plains of Passage, and I'm sooo bored! Please, someone tell me if somewhere in the next 600+ pages if Ayla and whats-his-face do anything more than have "Pleasures" and look at plants and animals! I have such little spare time, I'd hate to waste it on a book that goes nowhere. Saturday, February 5, 2005 I Feel Sick I claim that when a society abuses and/or kills its young, the society is sick. Discuss. People Are Weird Yes, I'm just coming to that conclusion. What led me to that? Well, just look at some of the keyphrases people used to reach my site this month alone (uh, that's 4.5 days for those of you without a calendar handy):
The comments in the parentheses are mine. I couldn't resist. Thursday, February 3, 2005 WTF? I ran out for an errand earlier and was accosted by the smell of burning cigarettes when I opened my front door, even though no one in this house smokes and no one on either side of me smokes as far as I know. When I say "accosted," I'm not kidding. My hair smelled like smoke afterwards. Then again when I went to take the trash out an hour later or so, it still reeked of cigarette smoke out my front door! What's up with that? Happy Birthday... ...to Maura Tierney, one of my favorite underrated actors! Can you guess how old she is? The answer is in the comments... "In The Media Group They All Smoke The Company
Dope On That One" Hmmmm, it seems that too many Microsoft employees are using iPods on the job and Bill's pissed. Read all about it here. |
Blog Name: The Soap Box
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