Enjablog

Woo!

Ian and I started Saturday out with a quick trip to Costco for some last minute snacks for our party. He did some cleaning while I baked up some cookies. We finished much earlier than expected, so we took a break and went down to the pool and then headed over to Toys R Us for some Animal Crossing awesomeness. We spent almost an hour at Toys R Us trying to get the 6th Mario item, but with Ian’s diligence, we finally succeeded. Also, thanks to Sonny for looking up and double-checking the number of items we were trying to get.

Got home and finished up some dishes before Sean arrived a little early to have dinner with us. Soon after, people started showing up. Sonny and Ben had decorated a cake and brought it over to ensure that we had a party:

It was so cool. The cake was hollowed out and filled with Reese’s pieces. The sand surrounding the cake was crushed up vanilla wafers, in which they hid pieces of gold. I wish I had taken a picture with the lid open, but it really was a pretty authentic cake treasure chest.

Anyway, about a dozen people showed up: friends, coworkers, siblings, siblings’ friends. I’m incredibly pleased that the party didn’t split up into small cliques this time with groups gathered in different areas of the apartment. Everyone seemed to have something in common that they could chat with other people about. Mostly, it was just a competition for being the biggest nerd.

Around midnight or so, we got our first complaint that we were talking too loudly and there was thumping. With a dozen people sitting around chatting and music barely audible in the background, I was skeptical. But our living room is right next to our condo board president’s bedroom, so we moved everyone to the other end of the living room to try to alleviate matters.

Twenty minutes later, with our guests gathered in half our living room talking in hushed whispers, we got another call from the front desk saying there was still too much thumping and the police would be called if they needed to complain again. It seemed obvious by the fact that I could hear everything on the phone and she could hear me clearly that it couldn’t be that loud in my apartment. But that seemed irrelevant to the situation.

I think everyone thought it was amusing enough that they wanted to stick around and find out what happened. So, at least that didn’t ruin everyone’s fun. The last of the guests trailed out a little after 3, with no police officers to speak of. It was an incredibly entertaining night. If only there had been more thumping…

Ian took me out Friday night for a birthday dinner. So good! We went to Rustico in Old Town. They’re relatively new. They have great pizza and an extensive beer menu. I wasn’t so interested in the beer, but they did also have some tasty sangria. And when I was done with that, I had my choice of root beer and cream soda, which was fine by me. :)

After that, we came home and retrieved the awesome package BFF sent me. A delivery from Burdick’s that the mean lady at the front desk was actually nice enough to store in the fridge for me. So exciting! There was a cake inside and a traditional Burdick’s hot chocolate mug with a package of the chocolate concoction. Mmm… chocolate overload.

Decided to just stay in the for the rest of the evening since we had a big day planned on Saturday and watched A History of Violence. Surprisingly rated R for things other than violence. But also pretty violent. Good movie, though I probably wouldn’t recommend it to my parents.

I am SO ANGRY. I’m not sure if I should be angry at Walgreens or at USPS or what. I ordered a prescription refill a month ago and still have not received it. So, I called up the prescription by mail thing to find out what’s going on. The first person said that I should have received it within a week of being billed (July 7th) and she transferred me to someone who would be able to find out more about my account. She was very polite and helpful.

The second person I talked to, Johnny, had me tell him my address 3 times and my phone number twice. He told me repeatedly that my prescription should have arrived by now. Thanks, buddy. I couldn’t have figured that out on my own. I just thought I’d call customer service because you’re so friendly and nice to talk to.

He put in a request for this to be investigated and marked it “critical.” They’ll look into this matter and if it turns out that I’m not a dealer, they might send me another refill. I had to ask him for a tracking number and he had no idea how to look it up, so I got the number and looked it up myself…

Label/Receipt Number: 2179 6483 5430 1348 8428
Status: Acceptance

Your item was accepted at 1:44 pm on July 12, 2006 in ORLANDO, FL 32862. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.

Alright, so maybe not everyone knows where I live, but it’s not in freakin’ FLORIDA. They’re off by about half the east coast!

I call back to let them know that the package arrived… in the wrong state. And the third person I talk to, Marilyn, lets me know that there’s already a request filed for me. They won’t send it out today, but when they’re done looking into this matter, they’ll need my doctor to ok them shipping me another package. Why can’t they look and see that it was never shipped to me in the first place? Why isn’t that enough information for them to just ship me a new refill? Because it’s a controlled substance and my doctor has to ok them to ship out a prescription that he wrote and Walgreens can confirm I never received. They just need to bother him because they messed up. Who cares that someone else is now wandering around with these drugs? Just make sure I don’t get any extras. Good thinking.

I’ll preface this by saying that I’m not actually mean to the people at work, so I need to make fun of them somewhere. And if it’s not going to be in the office, it’s definitely going to be on here.

Yesterday:

New guy: “Do you have any work for me to do?”
Me: “Not right now… I’ll talk with The Boss and get back to you in like half an hour. I think he’s on a telecon right now.”
*email boss*

An hour later…
Me: “Did The Boss come talk to you yet?”
New guy: “No, but Boss Jr stopped by and gave me something to do. I’m working on that now.”
Me: “Ok, cool. Just wanted to check.”
New guy: “Did you have something else for me to do?”
Me: “No, just wanted to follow up and make sure you had something to do.”
New guy: “Ok.” *assures me that he’s not just sitting around doing nothing*

Today:

New guy: “Do you have any work for me to do?”
Me: “No… Did you finish the other work you were assigned?”
New guy: “Yes. I finished Task A and Task B.”
Me: “What about the new thing Boss Jr gave you yesterday?”
New guy: “What thing?”
Me: “I don’t remember… but you said Boss Jr stopped by to talk to you yesterday.”
New guy: “… Nope. Those were the only things I had to do. I didn’t talk to Boss Jr yesterday.”

Uhh… ok… Is he lying? Did he forget a whole conversation with someone giving him something to do? And then the part where he told me he was working on it?

Whatever… I’ll just go find him something else to do.

*walk over to Boss Jr’s office*

Me: “Do you have anything for New Guy to work on?
Boss Jr: “Did you finish Task A?”
New Guy: “Yes. The Boss is reviewing it.”
Boss Jr: “Did you finish Task B?”
New Guy: “Yes. That’s waiting on the CAD guys.”
Boss Jr: “Did you finish [the new thing] I gave you yesterday?”
New Guy: “Oh, yeah.”
(to me) “That’s what I was working on.”

Idiot. How do you forget what you’re working on if it’s only one thing? Sure, he was probably goofing off and forgot what he was supposed to have been working on. And if that’s the case, I really don’t care that much. Just don’t question my memory and look at me like I’m stupid for repeating something you told me yesterday.

Yes, I know. My standards are way too high. I understand that. But these people’s competence levels are way too low. They don’t understand that. Learn how to goof off properly. Sheesh.

I received an email today from someone whose sig file included, “Please consider the environment before printing this email.”

At first glance, I thought that was nice. This person cares about the environment! But then, I realized that this was at the end of every email he sends. Why would someone print out an email? Possibly instructions or directions, in which case I feel that is justified, especially if they’re being taken somewhere where they might not have immediate internet access. So, I would have then considered and rejected the environment. I care about the environment. Really, I do. I go around in my free time hugging trees… But it’s not like I’m going to decide to print something out based on whether I saw that line. It’s true that one person can change the world, but I’m doubtful that that reminder is going to have any effect on anyone.

P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this blog.

I walk through an office building with two pairs of double doors as part of my normal commute to work. I normally open a door, walk through, open the next door, and continue on my way. *Amazing* If there’s someone ahead of me or behind me, they’ll either hold the door open long enough for me to grab it or vice versa. Polite, right? Last week, I had a guy race up from behind me headed for this building as well. Before I had a chance to reach for the door handle, he said he’d get the door for me. So, I paused a second while he got the door. No biggie. A little overenthusiastic, but it’s a door. Whatever.

Normally in this situation, if a guy gets the first door for me, I will open the second door and allow him to walk through first, reciprocating. If that turns out to be unacceptable, he can hold the door while I walk through first. Oh, but not this guy. No, no. He says, “This doors a little different,” as he raced around to the other side of me to open the door. This time, I actually did try to open the door because he was a couple seconds behind me from holding the first door. And yes, there was a difference between the doors. The exterior doors each had a handle and we walked through the door on the left side. The interior doors only had a handle on the door on the right side. *gasp*

I’m typically not one to make a big deal out of someone holding a door open for me. It’s polite, regardless of sex. But what’s with the weirdly awkward attempt at chivalry? I somehow make it to work every day, so I must have some concept of how doors work. It’d be one thing if he had just said, “Let me get that one for you too.” But no. “Doors are so complicated; let me help you.” Uhm… Thanks, dude.

**********
Different day, walking through the same set of doors, I was right behind someone. He opened the first door wide enough for him to walk through and for me to catch it before it shut. He was definitely aware after the first door that I was behind him because he looked back when the door didn’t shut when he expected to hear that sound. I was about half a pace behind him approaching the second set of doors and he opened it enough to slip himself through, but not even enough for my hand to catch the door. I caught the handle just as the door closed.

What kind of person does that? You don’t slam a door on someone. Even if you don’t want to hold a door open for the next person, don’t open it so little that it almost hits you in the process.

**********
Different day, different door (same building): I held a door open an extra second as I was walking out because two women were about a step away from walking in. And they showed such genuine gratitude for it. On the one hand, it’s just a door. On the other hand, they’ve probably gotten used to people like the previous two guys from walking around this area.

**********
Revolving doors:

Step 1 - Get in to an individual section.
Step 2 - Walk/push.
Step 3 - Exit.
Step 4 - Get out of the way!

I’ve found people to be least competent at revolving doors at crowded restaurants. I got a dirty look from someone because his heel got hit by the door as I was exiting. He, of course, didn’t take a step away from the door when he got through. He just stood in the way as the door continued to revolve and half a dozen people waited to get through.

My office building has a revolving door, which no one seems to use. I don’t understand this because I grew up loving revolving doors. They’re so much fun! (And conserves energy! How could that not be fun?) In any case, I was walking through one day as one of my coworkers also arrived at work and he went through the normal door. He told me as we waited for the elevator that he never goes through the revolving door because he saw [another coworker] get trapped inside. How does someone get trapped inside? Someone else is inconsiderate and leaves something in way so the door cannot turn or they, themselves, will not get out of the way.

So, do yourself a favor and get out of the way. Because if I’m the person behind you, I will not be polite and get trapped inside a glass cage. You will get hit by a door. And then hit again by the next door if you’re dumb enough to still be in the way.

I was talking to someone recently commenting about traffic in this area and how crazy drivers are. She said she dealt with it by treating everyone as though they were mentally handicapped and that allowed her to be more patient with people. That’s pretty much the same strategy my sister uses with her coworkers. I decided to try that method on my commute to and from work and it helped a little. But then I came up with my own version of their method. I make up stories…

Wow, that guy blew right through that red light. He really must be in a hurry to get to the kennel to find his seeing-eye dog.

That woman didn’t mean to cut me off. She just really needs to get back to the soccer field where she left her baby on a picnic table.

That guy’s so nice. He’s cutting in front of everyone else merging so he can get the bag of ice cream and pickles home to his pregnant wife before the ice cream melts.

Had the family over yesterday for some nice, quantity family time. My parents had better things to do next week, so they moved my birthday. It was pretty cool though. The siblings, parents, grandma, cousin+husband, and my sis’s roommie+kid all showed up. Lenny and Stephanie arrived bearing gifts from their trip to Hawaii. There was lots of lasagna (hehe… there was secret tofu in it. Thanks, Sonny!), veggies, and fruit salad. Best part: it was potluck style, so I mostly just provided a location and snacks. And to wrap up the meal, Ian made a fantastic lemon cake. So much better than store lemon cake. Everyone hung out for a bit, gossiped, and watched some baseball before heading out.

Sonny stuck around to go swimming and then we went over to Springfield mall to be hoodlums. Started out at the gigantic Target with the shopping cart escalator, then headed over to AE to try some pants on to get free movie passes. Again, super low rise jeans… Not my style. I just don’t think they fit right on me (that, and zippers should be longer than my thumb). But that’s just my opinion.

Anyway, that’s about it for today. Time to eat more leftovers!

OMG I got a golden axe! :)

Oh OH! Starting tomorrow: Animal Crossing Free Download Week

Hurry!!

I don’t know why I thought of this today, but I just remembered an adventure from my teenage years. It’s not very exciting compared to the antics a lot of kids got into, but it was memorable for me.

A friend got tickets to see Everything at some club in DC for New Year’s Eve 1998 (That is, 12/31/1998). Without really considering the implications, I agreed to go. I’m sure I lied to my parents about this event in some way, so, uh, yeah. This is where I went. Don’t worry, it all turned out ok…

When we arrived, we surprisingly (no, not really) found out that you had to be 18 to get in. In retrospect, I’m surprised you didn’t have to be 21 to get in. In any case, we all got carded and, poor little underage me, I got stopped at the door. I couldn’t get in, was in some sketchy DC neighborhood, and didn’t know my way home, much less have any mode of transportation to get there. It was New Year’s Eve and my poor college budget just blew something like $20 for this waste of time.

As you can imagine, the bouncer would make no exceptions for me. I wasn’t on The List and only underage people on The List were allowed to come in. We were quite a nuisance standing at the doorway though, blocking people from entering and creating a fire hazard of ourselves. We politely got out of the way until the influx slowed down a little. I asked the bouncer if there was any way I was going to get in tonight. What was that? I think I saw a twinge of sympathy coming from him! He said he would let me talk to the manager and if I could convince him, I was free to spend my evening there.

So, we stand outside a while longer, waiting for the manager. He shows up… seems like a nice enough guy. I explain to him that I was here with my friends and didn’t realize I needed to be 18 to get in. I showed him my college ID and assured him that if I wanted to get in trouble for underage drinking, I would have just gone out and found a frat party. My friends were all here and I had no way of getting home by myself without them, so they would all have to leave, etc., etc..

The manager conceded that the tickets had already been bought and they probably wouldn’t have people just showing up looking for something to do at this point. (Getting close to 10 pm.) So, if I promised not to get into any trouble, they would put me on The List and I could go in. (Yeah, because that’s how business works. “Ok, little girl. Just promise not to get into any mischief.”) They drew extra big Xs on my hands and in we went.

I made sure to thank them on the way out and demonstrate how completely sober I was. I was very convincing, I’m sure.

Sometimes when I’m sitting in a large meeting or at one of the engineering conferences, I like to play Guess Who? It’s pretty entertaining. I’ll pick out one of the stereotypical people in the room and start narrowing down: man, glasses, facial hair, caucasian, balding, gray hair, gray suit, blue tie, black shoes, white shirt…

And at that point, I’m usually still left with a quarter of the room. The tie color usually narrows it down a lot. The other half of the room would either fall in the red tie category or black tie, if they’re in the military. I could start with names. Odds are good he’ll be named Bill or Paul if I’m at a society meeting. John or Bob if I’m at a work meeting. Let’s see… Over 50? Visible cell phone? Taking notes on paper? in a PDA? Wearing a watch? Left-handed?

Oh! Oh! It’s Bob! I win.

Just as a follow-up, we got our dishwasher installed and ran it for the first time that same day to make sure everything was working properly. It was so much quieter than Old Dishwasher. And we even saved up a week-old, caked-on Chinese food plate and put it straight into the dishwasher without pre-rinsing. It came out perfectly clean. We did have a few sesame seeds stuck to the outside of a couple glasses, but that seems rather minor. The dishwasher was completely filled with about 2 dozen glasses and mugs, about a dozen plates, half a dozen bowls, and some flatware. So I’m confident that the load we washed last night will come out completely clean since we don’t typically leave food all over the plates.

Also packs so much more efficiently than Old Dishwasher. It’s especially helpful that all the prongs holding the dishes in place aren’t all bent and pointing in the wrong direction. I don’t know if that’s a function of the washer being old, though. That was probably someone who really wanted one of those dishwashers that had the changeable rack settings. Too bad that wasn’t invented yet.

Our winner: Maytag MDBH955AWW

Ian’s cousin got married today. It was a very nice ceremony and then we spent the evening at his aunt and uncle’s house. Most of which was spent playing Uno. It was an exciting day…

Tomorrow: a trip to Costco!

Need sleep.

So, I haven’t been able to send email at work for the past week. I can still receive email just fine, just can’t send it. One of my coworkers didn’t have email at all, so I definitely wasn’t a high priority. He had to resort to making copies of a memo, hand carrying them to a meeting, and said “To” as he handed it to the first person, then “CC” as he passed out the rest.

This made me feel a little less embarrassed today when I replied to his email by printing it out, hand-writing a one-sentence reply, and then dropping it on his desk with a big “Re” at the top.