February 2006

I read this morning that 26.9 inches of snow fell on Central Park in New York yesterday. Personally, I find it kind of neat that downstate got to experience a typical Upstate N.Y. winter storm. New Yorkers are tough and they’ll handle it just fine, but I’m sure they’re probably a little shocked from the amount of snow that fell. It’s the most snow that’s fallen since the late 19th century. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times that we’ve had that sort of snow up here.

It’s funny to think that New York is in the same state that we live in. (By the way, I refuse to refer to New York, N.Y. as “New York City”, it’s not the “City of New York City”, it’s the “City of New York”, unlike Oklahoma City which is the “City of Oklahoma City”.) It’s so different down there. They speak differently, the pace of life is much faster, politically the regions favor opposite ends of the scale and what is taken for granted down there (taxicabs and knishes, for example) are very scarce up here. I’ve often wondered why New York and Long Island aren’t in their own state. I’m not trying to kick them out of the Empire State or anything (they’d take most of the population with them!) but let’s face it, there’s not much in common between a person in Maspeth (Queens) and Cheektowaga, N.Y. (outside of Buffalo). Well, they do have some things in common; high taxes, decaying roads and a state government strangling itself with red tape.

When we visit people in other parts of the country and they find out we live in New York (the state), we often are asked about the twin towers being hit (“Did you see it?” “Yes, on television just like you, we live four hours away”) and sometimes we are asked if we’ve been mugged recently. (I’ve been chased by a cow on several occasions, if that counts for anything.)

I sometimes wonder if the same situation exists in Illinois, with Chicago at one end of the spectrum and Carbondale, Ill. at the other. Do they have the same differences though they live in the same state?

So here it is Sunday night and time to gear up for the work week that looms ahead. Earl is off to his weekly poker game and I just finished watching six consecutive episodes of “Isis”. (Thank goodness for videotape.)

As I sit here thinking back on the weekend, I have to wonder what I’ve really done to make the time pass so quickly. I’ve spent a lot of time working on my little video projects in an effort to better learn the software and to improve my videography skills. We often discuss at work that it helps to have some sort of hobby to engage yourself when you’re on call. It’s kind of hard to get out and about when the pager could go off at any moment, so doing something at home that you enjoy, that isn’t work related, makes the on-call time more bearable. I still complain about it though. It’s just my way I guess.

Earl and I have stuck to our healthy eating plans this weekend and we both feel much better for it. I started actively searching out better foods around January 10th, and I’m proud to say that I’ve already lost 14 pounds because of it. I’m really looking forward to hitting the roads and trails by cycling this spring and the nice weather can’t get here soon enough.

So it’s time to tackle another work week. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and Earl and I are doing a little celebrating at the local casino Tuesday night. Next weekend we’re taking a few extra days off and visiting his family in Pennsylvania.

Sigh. Who knew extra spinach in my diet could make me feel so centered?

I’ve encountered a couple of dumb things today.

1. Cheney accidentally shoots hunting companion. This particular link goes to Reuters.

2. “I need to return this computer. The cupholder is jammed.” Some old hag of a woman at the local “Barbie’s Dream House” Best Buy. (I call it Barbie’s Dream House Best Buy because all the local “big box” stores are mini-versions of the same store found in other cities. The only thing we have full sized are the four Wal*Mart Supercenters within 25 miles of here.) What I found incredibly dumb is that the Best Buy “tech” didn’t ask her what “cupholder” she was referring to! He just said “uh-huh”.

For the first time ever, I think, I am sitting in our front “parlor” while typing and surfing on my PowerBook. I love this room of our house. It’s a shame that it’s the least used room in the house because it has the most comfortable furniture in it. It also has the piano, which I play at least once a day, but I never just relax in the room. It’s a welcome change of pace.

So Earl is upstairs with iTunes cranked, I’m chatting with my blog friend Terry on iChat and just enjoying a quiet Saturday night.

It’s night like this where I start to get all philosophical. “Am I happy where I am in life right now?” “Do I know what I’m doing?” “Do I know where I’m going?” I’m happy to say that I can answer with an unquestionable ‘yes’ to all those questions and more. I’m eating healthier. I’m taking steps to make myself more valuable career-wise. I’m feeling better about the way I look. I’m feeling more confident. I’m working on coming out of my shell a little further.

The best is yet to come.

Let’s make the afternoon better. I just found a CD for the ride back to the office. “80’s Dance Party”. Selected tracks include:

• “Back To Life”, Soul II Soul featuring Caron Wheeler
• “Head To Toe”, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
• “Tell It To My Heart”, Taylor Dayne. As an aside, I NEED this video, very hot men in it.
• “I Can’t Wait”, Nu Shooz.
• “Don’t Disturb This Groove”, The System.

Now that’s the way to kick off a Friday afternoon.

I should be full of joy because today is Friday but instead of I’m finding that I’m a little short on patience today. I really don’t know what made my mood head in this direction today, but I’m finding that I’m failing at attempts to set this crankiness aside and to just get on with it.

Now that I think about it, I know what’s put me in this mood. In my job I work closely with a montrosity of a phone company whose name rhymes with horizon. Once part of Ma Bell, they’ve inherited, spindled, folded and mutilated any records that may have been coherent back in the good old days. They have directory listings for a 212 phone number with the address “New York, MA” as the city. They frequently change the “business rules”, the industry agreed upon guidelines that all telephone communications are suppose to operate under, without warning or notice. They revel in their tunnel vision, if you don’t put “install a jack” when requesting new service, they’ll leave the bare wires hanging in some old woman’s basement, it’s up the old lady to do the rest. In short, they live up to the slogan in that old Laugh In with Ernastine the operator, “We’re the phone company, we don’t have to care.”

Today’s project involves getting phone service to a brand new house, in a brand new McMansion development on a newly built street. In 80 characters or less, I have to describe where this house is and give them as much information as possible. (In the telecommunications industry, spelling out complete words is a sign of weakness, and no they don’t accept l33t sp3@k.) I gave VZ (the favored abbreviation for this company) the name of the three closest cross streets. I got back “NEED NEAR TN ON SAME” which translates to they need someone else’s phone number on the same street as the location I am referencing.

When I explained, as briefly as possible (“ONLY HSE ON ST”) that it’s the first house on a brand new street and requested a NEW ADDR, I apparently pissed someone off because they dared use an exclamation point, using up a precious byte. “NEED NEAR TN ON SAME!”

So now we are at a crossroads. I’m not budging and the overpaid union slacker on the other end isn’t budging either. But at the very least, writing about the tale has improved my mood ten-fold and made me realize just how ridiculous it is to waste time and energy on “VZ”. I’ve got better things to do.

Happy Friday.

Earl and I have been trying to give network television a second chance this winter and have added a few shows to the TiVo over the past couple of weeks.

Medium. My current favorite show, Medium freaks me out a little bit when she’s dreaming some bad things, but I love the cinematography, the actors, the writing and the overall production. Top notch. Let’s hope they don’t jump it over a shark, because NBC has a good thing going.

Will and Grace. I wish I could say that I love this show all over again but it has become very, very weak. Sean Hayes running around naked, Debra Messing’s ever present clavicle and very cheap, re-hashed one-liners do not a show make. And don’t get me started on that old fartbag Rosario. What the hell happened to her? Sadly, we’d rather watch the early years of W&G on Lifetime.

Courting Alex. I like to think of this show as Dharma’s grown-up dream. Jenna Elfman is Jenna Elfman and Earl and I have giggled at each episode at least once. One thing I must say is that I do not think her boyfriend on the show is as hot as the cast off from her office (the guy that wears glasses). Now he’s hot. The boyfriend’s teeth look alarmingly big and/or fake. He reminds me of Dionne Warwick when he smiles. And that’s not good.

How I Met Your Mother. I was kind of wavering on this show when we first watched it last week, but this past episode we both found quite entertaining in a fun sort of way. In a frightening way, Earl and I found our relationship identifies well with “Marshall” and “Band Camp Girl”. And the swords on the wall that were highlighted last week totally rock, Earl and I are thinking of having a duel one weekend.

Crumbs. We are on the fence on this one still. The dysfunctional family hits a little too close for comfort sometimes. (Just kidding Mom.)

Charmed. Buh bye. When you killed off Leo, just when everything was feeling normal in the Halliwell house, you lost two faithful viewers.

American Idol. Personally I’ve found this season boring but I’m saving this week’s episodes for the weekend. The most interesting thing I’ve looked forward to this season is whether Ryan has stubble on his face or not.

The West Wing. If it wasn’t for Allison Janney, this would have been dropped off the TiVo when they started the whole election campaign. Talk about killing a quality show in less than a season!

Judging Amy. Oh that’s right, the jackasses at CBS cancelled that one and have nothing to put in it’s place. Yes I’m still very bitter.

Four Kings. [insert cricket noises] Sorry, not TiVo worthy.