Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

And on call week continues. It is currently 1:28 a.m. as I type this, I have been on hold with Verizon since 12:55 a.m. I will probably be on hold for another 30 minutes before someone picks up the phone. At least I’m getting paid for sitting here on hold.

I’d rather be asleep.

One of the worst aspects of this round of on call is that Verizon has decided to replace their suicide inducing selection of instrumental ditties on their hold music with some of the worst selection of vocal tracks that I have ever heard. They are all down tempo, intense, sad songs that make Debbie Boone’s “You Light Up My Life” sound like a snappy disco track. To keep it interesting, they have included a bunch of Christian rock ballads as well.

I miss the days when people would have fun songs for their hold music. The peppy sounds of big band intermingled with lovely messages such as “Thank you for calling Medical Billing. Press 1 to speak with a representative. Press 2 to hear ‘Happy Days Are Hear Again’. Press 3 to declare yourself clinically insane” are long gone in a sea of, pick one: 1. depressing music or 2. marketing messages cranked up to such an insane volume level that it makes Billy Mays sound like he’s whispering in church.

…

I just got off the phone with Norma, a Verizon representative that sounds like she just swallowed a Peterbuilt. She barked the trouble ticket status at me and wanted to know if I wanted them to fix it. I miss the days when Lily Tomlin said “We’re the phone company, we don’t have to care!” At least she didn’t bark, she snorted. Nevertheless I let Norma know that the music on hold was just terrible and she said she’s never had the opportunity to listen but I was the third person to comment on it tonight.

I’d finish this entry off with some snappy closing but instead I’m just going back to bed.

Earl is lying in bed next time. He gets up earlier than me so therefore he tends to fall asleep faster than I do. I’m on call, which makes me tend to lie in bed and sort of just wait for my pager to go off so I’m quite tired from last night but I also need to fall asleep. I probably will soon.

We are almost a week into the New Year and I must say that I am feeling very good about 2009 thus far. I have been working on my goals that I set for myself this year – I’ve been sticking to my healthy eating plan, I am going to be seeing an acupuncturist soon and I’m staying within my budget; we haven’t had a money discussion yet this year. That’s always a good sign. I’m good at spending money. This year I hope to add some wisdom to the talent.

I’m trying to type quietly here in bed so as not to disturb Earl. It’s not an easy thing to do, I type quickly but I learned on a typewriter, so my touch is a little intense.

I watched the live updates from Macworld this afternoon like most Mac users and I have to say that initially I was a little disappointed in what was presented today; I’m not in the market for a new MacBook Pro but I’m kind of excited about the enhancements to iLife. I was really hoping for a new incarnation of the Mac Mini, but I’m guessing that might be down the line a little bit. Then after watching the video of the keynote speech I decided that I liked what Apple presented today. I never really expect them to take my breath away, they just make really cool technology. That’s all it is.

Tonight has been about just hanging around the house and doing on-call stuff. I like just hanging around sometimes.

DJing in relative darkness.

So today is the first day of 2009. I feel I started the New Year off on the right foot; whilst working at the bar last night I drank only water. It was amateur night as far as the crowd was concerned, the lightweights were drunk at midnight and the bar cleared down to about a quarter of the crowd by 12:30. The crowd was by no means impressive by way of size but they were nonetheless festive. The gig went well. I received several compliments on my music selection last night. I was also approached by a DJ based in the Poconos who invited me to spin down there some time. I am pleased.

With the ushering of the New Year everyone has resolutions and promises and goals and all that sort of thing and I suppose I am no different when it comes to this. There are a couple of things in the way of self-improvement that I am focusing on this year and hopefully the results will be evident in various aspects of my life. Some will be discussed on this blog and some will not. I’ll probably discuss more things than I have lately, because one of my goals is to get back into the habit of blogging on a regular basis again. I need the creative outlet.

I have done surprisingly well in maintaining a healthier lifestyle over this past holiday season. I jumped on the scale and noticed that my BMI has decreased a little bit and that my weight has dropped a couple of pounds. This is a good thing. One of my goals this year is to do more photography work, both behind and in front of the camera. Feeling more confident in this body will help me on both sides of the lens.

My faith in western medicine continues to decline as I get older. I remember talking with a psychic (not the one that told me I should be dead by now) about 10 years ago who said that some people are wired for natural remedies and some people are wired for chemical remedies. I fully believe that I am in the former group on that one and I am going to swing my health pendulum back in that direction again. I think that’s the basis of a few things that have been bothering me lately; I’ve been a little cranky the past month or two. I feel like I really have a turned over a new leaf with the ushering in of the New Year.

I started an informal blog of recipes. When I find something interesting that I’m going to endeavour to cook in the kitchen, I’ll post the recipe here.