Bringing the Drama

eight months ago tonight, i was in baton rouge and i talked to my friend len on the phone to hear that my house had at least one tree on it. since then of course, i have had everything fixed, dealt with traffic problems and hardships at work. today i was watching part of the webcast from jazz fest and i noticed something. some of the celebrities that are coming to town have the wrong idea. they see all the destruction and blame the government. of course, its so easy to do that because a couple of them have been doing it for so long. however, they don’t understand that the city can’t just go bulldozing houses, because they’ve tried that already, much to the objection of the residents. even though houses are demolished beyond repair, the resident may not be authorizing anyone to raze it. they are having to pass a law that if the resident has not done anything with their home after one year (aug 2006) then the state will tear it down. a year is PLENTY enough time for something to have been done, even if you have to go in there yourself and do something, anything to get your house back to some semblance of progress. of course the celebrity drives by in his big car and goes “hey, why is that house still there? shouldn’t it be demolished by now? damn government!” then who’s the person on television telling millions of americans what’s going on in NOLA? the celebrity. what a ridiculous situation is all is. instead of seeing how in some neighborhoods, people are rebuilding and getting back on their feet, or like my neighborhood where everyone’s house is just about put back together, the celebrity chooses to point out what’s wrong with the rebuilding process. some people just don’t get it.

so this morning i get a call from a guy who says he’s coming to put in the t-molding for the floor today. he asks if i’ll be home for that, and i tell him i will, so he says he’ll be there in 20 minutes. i sat down and continued to watch the nfl draft. 20 minutes turned into 2 hours and the guy showed up. they put in the molding, but i guess i was expecting them to know what they were doing instead of asking me. but hey, its in, and i don’t have to worry about being home next friday or something. maybe i’ll go to jazz fest then.

i grilled out with some of the chicken i had in my fridge. marinating is the best ever. so easy, and it really tastes great. right now i’m checking out some ryan adams clips on youtube. its a miraculous thing this youtube. i’m catching up on some letterman performances that i’ve never seen before. hells yeah.

so last night, the saints got lucky with the nfl draft. let’s see if they can follow through or will they foul another draft up. i’ve seen it happen so many times, i side with them screwing it up if i had to choose.

yesterday at work was pretty good. i finished up the test myself, turned it in, got a sense of what i’ll be working on next week, and had cake to celebrate administrative assistant’s day. the secretary in the new department i work in is really nice, and apparently we not only had the cake, but she got gift cards were $237. to where i don’t know, but she said in a mass email afterward that she’s going to put it toward a laptop. i think the new dept is going to work out great, although i’ve noticed when people have stopped by my desk, they talk, and they talk, and they talk. they mean well though, so its just something i probably should get used to. i was funny to overhear someone talk about dave matthews band. they were talking about jazz fest, so i’m hearing them say “yeah, i didn’t know them the last time they played, but they came out and man, that’s some good stuff!” seeing a major act at jazz fest isn’t something i’d want to do, esp for a band i’ve seen almost 10 times.

last night i ended up playing halo with chad and thomas. it was the first time we had all played together in quite a while. i even drank some of the left over coors light that andy had brought over the last time he was here. don’t worry, i had the good abita beer before i started on the silver bullet. and the thing is, there’s still TONS of it in my fridge. i keep expecting a giant silver train to crash through my house.

so i have failed to keep up with the post everyday thing, but hey, within 8 hours of the next day, that should count for something right? besides, posting early means people will still read the post the same time they usually would. anyway…

at work yesterday i had a talk with my new supervisor. she might send me on a business trip next month sometime. not bad. i’ll take all the learning opportunities i can get! and hey, if its up to north carolina, even better!

i’ve been a less than perfect carpool team member this week. falling asleep on my couch instead of in my bed with alarms doesn’t help, but i am not going to use excuses. i must get better about waking up earlier than 15 minutes before i’m supposed to leave.

and i think jacob and i actually have something planned to do. we’ll go to jazz fest. though realizing the events of the past month where we supposed to do something and then didn’t, i’ll wait until i am actually on my way to meet him before thinking we’re actually going to go.

so on the way home today, i stopped at the floor place. i actually talked to the lady who had helped me all along with my floor instead of over the phone talking to the schedule lady. the schedule lady looked to have smoked a few thousand too many cigarettes, and didn’t have much of an excuse for not calling me last week. funny how much more you can get done with a face to face.

today in class today, a few of us were recalling our high school chemistry experiences because the people teaching the class this week were mostly chemistry majors. for the life of me i could not remember high school chemistry, and then after i got back to my desk today, i remembered how one day in chemistry how this guy i knew was all upset that kurt cobain killed himself. that was the first memory i had of high school chemistry. go figure. and now i just remembered that my teacher for chemistry had 10 kids. weird.

so i got home today and fell asleep on my couch to awaken to a completely dark living room. i thought i had fallen asleep again and at some point turned off the tv and gone back to sleep. no no, it was a power outage. the power company here has this weird thing with delayed outages. it had poured down rain just before i got home from work, but the power went off 3 hours later after the rain had stopped. crazy.

i must say, i started listening to a new radio station (wwoz) a few months ago, and it soothes me on the drive home. i know chad was driving and all, but we had to deal with the typical post katrina contractors that don’t care about you traffic on the way home. i didn’t care, i was just mellowed out with the smooth sound of jazz. no wonder better than ezra wrote a song about this station back on their last great cd. radio in new orleans sucks, but there are a couple of stations that make it worthwhite.

and tomorrow i’m going to stop by the floor place to have a talk. more news to come tomorrow.

i played flag football after work today. it was funny to see a bunch of under 30 guys get winded after about 20 minutes. everybody was running deep routes and then everyone started running shorter, underneath routes. who would have thought we would lose our abilities to run and jump constantly for hours? it was the first time i had played an organized game of football in years. funny how that works. nobody got injured up until i went to grab a flag and my friend crystal ran into me. her face hit me in the shoulder, but being the trooper that she is, she walked it off and then proceeded to stand on the sidelines and heckle. funny girl! it did make her nose bleed a little, but thankfully nothing major happened, and she really did walk it off and was fine when she left. though it did bring back memories of when i ran face first into a guy setting a block, which incidentally was the last time i played organized football.

then i came home and was mesmerized by 24. unbelievable that show is. i’m totally addicted.

so today i went to late church this morning and met up with my mom. we went out for lunch afterward to subway where apparently we walked in on the least efficient crew in town. twenty minutes after we had walked in, we had our sandwiches, but i digress. she mostly hangs with my sister all the time, but since my sister is in disneyworld, and my dad had worked the polls in new orleans all day yesterday, she’s had the past couple of days to herself. she finally got a new car last week, one of those new camrys. its like a red letter day, because both my parents and my sister have driven compact cars for the past 4 years at least. so her having a nice car made me feel good, she deserves it.

i cut my grass this afternoon, and leveled off some of the indentions in my yard left by the fallen tree and where the debris trucks came and picked up debris. i was able to use one of the sprinklers i bought last night. it took me about 10 minutes for me to aim it and get it spraying where i wanted it. its too bad the dog that lives behind me didn’t come out and start barking, i probably would have seen if i could have hit him with the water.

i have some homework to do for class this week. (fyi, we take one class a week on different subjects ranging from caring about the environment to fracture mechanics). the guy that taught one of the classes last week thought he could give us a college level exam. nobody gives us exams that hard, but it’ll be the first time i’ve done that much work since i had an actual undergrad engineering class. and actually on some level, i’m looking forward to working on it.

well, as if in response to yesterday, today was one of the busiest saturday’s i’ve had in a while. i woke up pretty early (for a saturday) and rolled over to walmart to get my tires rotated. the guy tells me “its going to be a couple of hours at least.” it was actually 1. so then i did my food shopping and got back about 11. not bad at all considering post hurricane crowds at walmart the past 8 months. then it was off to get the necessary things to change my car’s oil. on the way, i stopped off and mailed jamie’s new remix cd. i stopped at two different auto parts stores before settling on pepboys where i was able to buy the oil filter and the oil. i was going to stop by the floor place, but it was around lunch, i was hungry, and i didn’t want to keep chad waiting since he was going to help me change the oil. i stopped by quizno’s on the way to pick up lunch, then to chad’s. we changed the oil, then i came back to the house, killed some time, then went back out to sears where i got a hose reel, then back to walmart where i bought a couple of sprinklers. tomorrow’s a big yard day. then i made dinner, drank a couple of beers, and watched the bulls/heat game. nice.

now, interspersed in today were run-ins with people who were not the sharpest tacks in the box. first, the post office, where i was in line to mail my package. the P.O. wasn’t very crowded, so the line was me and one or two other people. so the one guy working the line is finished with his customer, so i walk to the counter. as i’m walking, i notice the lady who was behind me is walking with me. she gets to the counter the same time that i do and the P.O. guy is confused. so i stand there, look at him, look at the lady, and i didn’t say anything because i was so surprised this lady would think somehow that i was not in line. then as i’m standing there, the light flickers in her brain and she realizes “oh wait, we were all in line”. she profusely apologizes to me and the P.O. worker, and goes back to the line area. i mail my package and leave. then at quizno’s, i order my food and get the combo. the guy gives me a small drink cup. i look at him and at the cup, and ask “are you sure that’s the right size cup?” because i’ve been going to this quizno’s for almost 2 years, and when you get the combo, you get the medium cup. so the guy says “yeah” as if i’m supposed to get the small cup. i respond with an “okay” and proceed to pay. then the guy goes “do you want a bigger cup?” i said “yes” and he gives me one. he didn’t charge me or anything, so why didn’t he just do the right thing the first time? and finally, when i was in sears, i was in line and i counted 7 sears workers in the area, and only one register out of 4 open. at least 3 of them were showing customers how a treadmill worked. i’m not kidding. then some girl stops at the counter to talk with the girl at the register to go over what the plans would be for the evening. apparently the girl at the counter was supposed to get off at 5. at least i got the hose reel for $6 cheaper than the rack said. cool.

i’m sure you’ve heard of the dreaded cable ballpark. if not, you’ll know when i say its that 4 hour time block that the cable company says they’ll come out. i was supposed to have the floor guys come today. i was lazy this morning, and didn’t exactly get out to do anything early, cause i was thinking, “if i leave, then they’ll call to say they’re coming.” fast forward to about 10 am, and i call the place:

floor lady: “yes, you’re on the list for today”
me: “what time? right after lunch, late this afternoon?”
floor lady: “oh, i can’t tell you that. once he’s got the paper, that’s it. it could be after lunch, or after 4″
me: “ok”

so basically today i sat around today, did laundry, played xbox, and waited. no one ever showed up. a thunderstorm moved through, the power flickered, nobody ever showed up. i ate a dinner of scrambled eggs, toast, and an apple. no one ever showed up. tomorrow i plan on waking up early to get some stuff done on my car, buy some supplies to change my oil, and pay the floor place a visit. i hate being told something and nothing happen. if they couldn’t come, then fine, but call and let me know so i’m not sitting at home.

today in the mail i received a mix cd from my friend jamie. i had sent her a mix cd about a month ago, and somehow it arrived to her place scratched beyond recognition. its not as if i had not had ‘fragile’ stamped on the envelope for the postman to read. anyway, i have now made her a remix cd as a replacement and hope to have it in the mail sometime soon (maybe tomorrow).