Month: January 2005

On the bus

Dating

I spotted her — well, to be honest, I spotted her even before I stepped on to the bus. As it was pulling up I saw her face through the window. Black straight hair, half over her face, Veronica Lake style, Hispanic features, petite, almond-shaped green (I swear!) eyes…

At any rate, as luck would have it, I ended up standing next to her; she was sitting in the front part of the bus, facing sideways, her hands folded over a spiral notebook, her legs in pinstripe slacks and crossed. She wore white high heels, and the toes were sharply pointed. Honestly, to me, the shoes looked a little ridiculous. I’m sure, to a girl, they had some other meaning.

I didn’t pay much attention to her, but at one point, as I hung on the strap to keep my balance, I started tracking some object outside the bus; an interesting car or something. I can’t even remember what it was, because as my line of sight moved to my left and down, I looked right at her, and stopped. She was smiling to herself, and must have caught the motion of my head, and looked up… and I held her gaze, not looking away, keeping my face neutral, no smile, no frown.

She smiled wider and glanced down, then back up, only her left eye showing, the other hidden under the curtain of her black hair.

I felt a warm flush start underneath my scarf and start to work its way up into my face. But I held her gaze. I smiled a little bit; I couldn’t help it. That was one of the sexiest looks I’d been given in a while. I smiled simply to acknowledge the compliment and waited for her to look away again, which she did.

The bus ride is only 20 minutes long overall, from when I board to my stop, so the next few moments couldn’t have been more than a five minutes at the most, but it seemed so much longer. I returned to not looking at her. Not out of embarassment; simply out of the urge to not spoil the moment previously. OK, OK, I kind of chickened out a bit. I was thrown, I’ll admit it.

But as the bus rolled down the boulevard, swaying back and forth, her leg swung back and forth, too, and her pointed white-leather-encased toe poked me in the ankle. It drew my attention back to her, and I glanced at her again. Her whole face smiled; but it was subtle. She whispered “sorry” and looked anything but.

I gave her a mock-stern look and said, “You have to watch those shoes.”

She looked at them again, and playfully kicked at me. “I know!”

“You might hurt someone.” Someone else, I thought, dammit, why didn’t I say that? But years of practice let me keep my face neutral, with just a hint of smirk.

“I’ll be more careful.”

But then every time the bus swayed, her toe brushed my pants leg again. I would give her a stern sideways look, and she would softly giggle.

At the first major stop downtown, the bus cleared out, and I had a choice of a seat next to her, and one across the aisle from her. I chose the one across the aisle from her, facing her. I maintained eye contact, just to continue to see her smile and her eyes, almost lit from within. I wondered about getting a phone number…

The bus stopped again, and she stood, joining the line of people deboarding, and I finally saw a clear view of her left hand, finally unhidden, and the plain gold band around her ring finger, an obvious wedding ring.

…damn.

But it was fun while it lasted.

Veterinary science

Smacky

Well, Smacky’s got some kind of skin infection. The doctor gave him a shot of cortisone, another treatment of flea-be-gone (I forget which brand this time, but a different one from before) and I have to administer medicine, twice daily, until it’s gone. I bring Smacky back next Wednesday for his “fixing”, since the doctor didn’t want to risk it while the poor cat’s, y’know, ailin’.

Argh. Of course I will do what’s necessary for Smacky. It’s just annoying to have to reschedule things around again to transport Smacky back and forth to the vet (especially since I don’t own a car and want to cut back on the FlexCar for a while), as well as the cost of multiple visits to the vet. It’s not a lot of money, it’s just… well… dammit, I had to dip into my iPod Shuffle money to pay for this visit.

If that’s not love I don’t know what is.

What I’m reading lately

General

What I’m reading lately:

“All The President’s Men” by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.

Yeah, the book about the Watergate break-in and all that that entailed.

Because everything old is new again…

After that: “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis. Just a silly little story about the (fictional (at the time)) rise of fascism in America. It was actually written in the 1930s, before Hitler’s agenda and atrocities became well-known. Should be entertaining…

To rearrange (a deck of cards) by sliding the cards over each other quickly

Tech

OK, I called the Apple Store in Washington Square today, the actual retail location, not the online store, and asked them if they’ve received any iPod Shuffles from Apple yet. They were supposed to have shipped out on Saturday. I’d been reading reports on the internets that some stores had gotten some in and promptly sold out. I didn’t expect the store to have any in stock, I just wanted to know if they were arriving now.

The salesman who answered the phone said, yes, they’d got them in and sold them out almost immediately. He didn’t remember how many they got, he just said, “a LOT” and he seemed pretty impressed with it all.

(As a side note, they also got some of the Mac Minis in, and sold most of them; he said they had some of the lower-end model in stock. When I get one, I’m getting the one with the SuperDrive DVD-burning monster, so that was less important to me.)

I did, however, forget to ask him if they’d gotten both the 512 MB and 1 GB models in. I’m 87.73% sure I’m getting the 1 GB model, just ’cause it’s only $49 more for double the space. I’ve checked my favorite playlists, and they’re all more than a gig, though, so I’ll still have to cut down what I listen to.

So… the online Apple Store is showing a 4- to 6-week shipping time for orders placed today for the iPod Shuffle. On the other hand, how long will I have to wait for the demand to die down at the retail locations before I can walk in and pick one up… without having to camp out at the door?

Decisions… decisions… I’d prefer to have my “Must! Have! One! NOW!” impulse satisfied quickly, by plunking down the benjamins and walking away with one in my hot grasp… but there’s also something to be said for not having to stalk the poor Apple retail salesfolk until I can get one.

Still not sure which path to take… but the pressure of consumerism, combined with the nice weather and my new expectation of being able to run with music, will probably force my hand into ordering one online this week. We’ll see if I can hold out longer than that.

But signs, as they say, don’t look good.

OH! And, get this: my old iBook has the old, slow, USB, not the super-fast USB 2.0 that the iPod Shuffle uses. So, when I get it, it’s going to take frickin’ for-ever to fill it up. So, until I get that Mac Mini, I’m not going to be changing the playlist on my Shuffle very often. Do you see just how insidious Apple and Steve Jobs are? It’s like they’re forcing me to upgrade!

Curse you, Steve Jobs!!

I’d make a comment about Apple owning my soul, but I don’t believe I have one in the first place, so, y’know, it’s all good.

Run after work

exercise

Went running yesterday after work. The weather was warm for late January. Practically spring-like, again. Which is strange after the freezing rain of last weekend. Kind of almost feels like, oh, maybe there’s something out of whack with the world… or the weather… or… y’know.

Anyway, I did the 2.5 miles of the Esplanade, and kept a slow pace. Stopped and walked a couple of times, but tried to do that for no more than 20-30 steps before I got myself running again. My legs were sore last night, and are a bit tight today, but not too bad.

I tried, I tried, oh, how I tried not to keep track of time. But, in the end, I did, although I’m not going to post it here because if I don’t, then eventually I’ll forget it and that’s almost as good as not keeping track in the first place, right? But I was slow.

Strange to think that I’m about at the same place, both weight-wise and running-wise, where I am last year at this time. Maybe a bit better, with a bit more stamina, but not that much improved. Being too hard on myself? OK, yeah, I am. You wanna make something of it? Didn’t think so… Anyway, if I’m marginally better than I was last year, even considering how well I did during the year, then maybe I’ll finish this year even stronger. That’s my plan. Did I mention in previous posts somewhere that I want to run a half-marathon this year? Yes, I believe I did.

I do have to keep track of my “exercise-induced bronchial spasms” (Nurse Cindy wanted to avoid giving me a diagnosis of “asthma”) over the next couple of weeks, and if it flares up again, I’ll probably have to retain a prescription for albuterol or something similar. Bummer. But, hey, I have friends who use it, and some of them are actual athletes, so I should be OK. I just worry that I’ll internalize it and… oh, nevermind.

I’ve got some thoughts on friendship that I’ll post later. Tonight or sometime tomorrow, depending on how the evening goes.

Over-worry

Smacky

I was a bad political activist.

I was more concerned yesterday with my and my kittens’ personal health than exercising my free speech rights in protesting the current presidential administrations’ lack of ethics and accountability.

My apologies.

The good news is that I’m in pretty good health. Smacky, however, has been scratching himself horribly and has scabs on both of his shoulders. Apparently the fleas haven’t been quite as under control as I thought. Poor thing. I guess the one application of the flea stuff wasn’t enough. Or (this is my worry) he’s having some kind of reaction to the flea stuff… or he’s got some horrible cancer and is dying. Yeah, I’m worried and probably over-worrying. Remember, people, thinking too much is a bad thing. So I’m taking Smacky in on Monday (the earliest appointment I could get) to have him checked out.

I’ve felt so guilty that I’ve been letting him sleep in my bed again. At least until he starts attacking my toes at 1:27 AM and waking me up, and pissing me off, at which point the guilt turns into sleepy anger and I kick him out of the bedroorm.

Of course, the guilt returns when I wake up and open the door to find he has been sleeping against my door, and looks up at me and scratches himself and makes these piteous cries.

Is this what being a parent is like? Lurching from impatience and anger… to fear and guilt? Not sure I like it… But I will do whatever I can to make sure Smacky is OK.

Corporate confuser

General

I just love dealing with gianormous corporations.

Well, technically, I don’t deal with the corporations. Despite the fact that corporations have legal status as persons (psychotic persons, but persons nonetheless), what I, like the rest of y’all, deal with is the paid minions of the corporations.

I’ve been in the process of paying off my credit cards, and I had some questions about one in particular. It was one of the earliest cards I got, several years ago, when I realized that my years of not having credit had actually put me at a disadvantage. So, because a person with no credit history is worse off than someone with a bad credit history (take my word for this one), the interest rate and annual fee were fairly large and I wanted to negotiate with them to reduce both of those items.

My current balance is just $8.06, which is the interest accrued on last month’s balance, which I had just paid off. So, I had a simple question, to wit: since there’s a “grace period” of 25 days on new purchases before a finance charge begins accruing, does that grace period also apply to a balance that is entirely finance charge?

Basically, when is the “grace period” observed if we’re not talking about “purchases”? I could read in the contract that there is no grace period on things like cash advances or balance transfers, but it never specifically mentioned, y’know, finance charge.

So, time to contact the minions.

Since this bank has online banking, and by the time the question occurred to me it was after business hours, I decided to shoot them an email. Seemed simple enough. I made two attempts. So far I’ve received two responses. Here they are, edited slightly to remove all remaining accountability:

Response #1

From “Corporate Bank Customer Confuser”

Subject Re: Billing Questions (KMM19842426V5662L0KM)

Date Thu, January 20, 2005 3:08 am

To “Brian Moon”

Dear Brian Moon,

Thank you for your inquiry dated 1/19/2005.

Calculating when your payment is due each month is fairly simple. Your account billing cycle closes on or around the 19th of each month. Household Bank allows at least 20 days from the end of your previous billing cycle for you to make your payment due without penalty. Your current due date will be approximately 02/13/2005.

You are important to us and we appreciate your business.

Sincerely,

EmailMonkey

Corporate Bank Customer Confuser

Response #2

From “Corporate Bank Customer Confuser”

Subject Re: Billing Questions (KMM19842431V5687L0KM)

Date Fri, January 21, 2005 3:08 am

To “Brian Moon”

Dear Brian Moon,

We understand your concern regarding this matter.

Please be advised, finance charges on purchases will be assessed using the Average Daily Balance method during any billing period in which the previously billed balance was not paid in full by the due date. To obtain the average daily balance, take the beginning balance on your account each day, add any new purchases, previous days periodic finance charges, late charges, overlimit fees, and other administrative charges, subtracting any payments and credits. All of the daily balances for the billing cycle are then added together and divided by the total number of days in the billing cycle to obtain the Average Daily Balance. The Average Daily Balance is used in conjunction with your annual percentage rate to determine the monthly finance charge.

You are important to us and we appreciate your business.

Sincerely,

Corporo-Droid

Corporate Bank Customer Confuser

Now, read those carefully. The information in them is correct information. The English is proper and grammatically correct (OK, one typo that I see but it’s not a big deal).

But do they ever actually answer my question?

Ummm… no.

Does anyone think that they actually, y’know, comprehended the question in question?

Ummm… probably not.

*sigh*

Hook

General

As some kind of karmic payment (that I don’t really believe in) for my inadvertently linking a Blues Traveler song yesterday to some spam- and spyware-infested site, today I couldn’t stop hearing Blues Traveler songs wherever I went. In the mall, in the restaurant where I had lunch, in the doctor’s office waiting for the nurse to come in… Sometimes the actual songs, twice a bastardized Muzak version denuded of all percussion and depth and stripped of lyrics.

So eventually I gave in, pulled out the iPod, and dialed up some more Blues Traveler. Might as well seep in it if karma is going to club me over the head with it.

Counter-inaugural

General

If you follow Geeks Against Bush, the political blog that I also contribute to, you are probably aware that my friends Caleb and Gus are in Washington D.C. today, joining in the counter-inaugural events taking place today.

I got an email and a text from Caleb during the night telling his friends that he made it there safe. I haven’t yet hit any news sites so I don’t know what has been happening as I write this. I’ll do that as soon as I publish this post.

I save my political opinions (mostly) for GAB, but here I just want to say that I hope Caleb and Gus are effective in voicing their opinion, and also hope that they return home safe.

Freedom isn’t free, you know.