[Random Thoughts]

I'm assuming that was for something like Wear A Deliberately Tacky Christmas Outfit party. I hope. We had one like that at my office last year where everyone was supposed to wear the most horrible sweater they could find.

[Anti-Rants]

I filed a complaint for false advertising against Time Warner with the Better Business Bureau because their website claims the sports pass has GolTV. It doesn't, which I discovered when I called to ask why I wasn't getting it. I wanted to watch Bundesliga matches. Turns out you need the Spanish tier. The rep on the phone was infuriatingly unhelpful. So I stewed, and eventually complained.

Somebody from the "president's office" at TWC called today, said he'd looked at their website and I was totally right, and they were so sorry, and how about a free year of the Spanish tier to make up for it? I came home from work and lo and behold, I now get GolTV. Also a bunch of other channels I won't watch, but I'm not paying for them, so whatever. Thanks, BBB.

[Short rants.]

A couple years ago, after a winter break in Baltimore, I went back up to Philly for spring semester of college. The first thing I did was charge $4.00 at Wawa for a 32 oz diet coke and a snack. Then I went to the bookstore to charge $355 of textbooks for the semester. The second purchase was declined. When I called the credit card company, the guy said, "Sir, are you aware that the number 1 pattern for suspicious activity is being in a new city, attempting a very small purchase to make sure the card works, and then immediately initiating a big transaction?"

No, I was not aware, but I guess I learned.

On the flip side, the first time I came out to LA this summer, my first purchase attempt was a TAP card (kind of like the DC Metro SmarTrip cards) on their subway. The machine rejected my Wells Fargo credit card. I thought "Ah, shoot, I forgot to tell them I'd be traveling." Bought it using my debit card from a different bank, no problem. Stopped at 7-Eleven on the way to the hotel and bought some snacks, tried the credit card again, and it went through. Never got a call from the bank, no issues for the rest of the trip. I've since moved to LA and changed my billing address and haven't heard a thing from them. Conversely, my dad flew out with me to help me move and his card was rejected and frozen within an hour by Capital One, requiring a phone call. So it confuses me.

Online purchases from foreign companies have been the only thing that have gotten me a verification phone call from their fraud robot so far. Once it was a book I purchased from a seller in Spain, once a video download that apparently billed to Bavaria (I was asked to verify a charge from "Munching, Germany," good for a laugh). So unless my card is remotely stolen and used for a spending spree in Donetsk, Ukraine, I'm not too confident.

[Short rants.]

142mph.

I am legitimately impressed. If you're going to get a speeding ticket, you might as well REALLY deserve one.

[Anti-Rants]

Aaaaaand introducing twoBshorty, M.A.

Next stop, gainful employment. Hopefully one of these interviews pans out.

[Short rants.]

Today I became one of "those" people: I got so preoccupied playing with my iPhone that I zoned out and completely missed my subway stop. I have no memory of even going through it. All I remember is my ears turning back on just in time to hear "McPherson Square, doors right side," then thinking "I've never been to this stop before. . .CRAP!" So I had to get off, race up and over the tracks to the platform on the other side, and board a train going in the opposite direction to get back to my transfer station.

Fortunately, it was my last day of internship, so I don't have to ride the train anymore. And it cost me like 5 minutes, and I didn't have anywhere important to be anyway. But now I can't laugh at the people who do that any more.

[Short rants.]

In Alabama if you are a notary, you have to sign your name exactly as it appears on your voter registration. My name was on the records as FIRST MIDDLE INITIAL LAST. I literally went and changed my name to remove my middle initial so that I won't have to make a cursive "G" when signing as a notary. I just can't figure out how to do it efficiently.

LMAO my middle initial is also G and I don't know how to do it. It always looks like some sort of deranged D.

[Short rants.]

I took the Praxis today. I hadn't taken a paper-and-pencil standardized test since 11th grade, and I forgot what a pain in the butt it is. Highlights:

-We got seated late because one guy in the administration session before us (there was a 7:30 and a 10:45) had his paper taken away because he didn't put his pencil down immediately when time was called and proceeded to throw a 20-minute screaming tantrum about it.

-I had to show my driver's license FIVE separate times. Passing through Immigration at the Beijing airport was faster. Seriously.

-You can't leave when you're done. You have to wait until every last second on the clock has expired. I sat there for an hour staring at the wall. I guess the SAT was like this, but the GRE sure wasn't.

On a more amusing note, they had one of those certification statements that you have to copy and sign to swear that you didn't cheat. The instructions stated that you couldn't print it. The almost uniform looks of horror that passed across everyone's faces (including mine) as we realized we had to write in cursive (*gasp*) were pretty funny. It took me several minutes to copy two lines of text, thinking about how to form each letter, and I was one of the quicker ones. This is what happens in a room full of people who were taught cursive in 2nd grade, about 20 years ago, and haven't used it since except to sign their names.

[Short rants.]

I don't see how it's any worse than books like "Number the Stars," "The Giver," and "The Outsiders," all of which we had to read in school around that age. Some of it would probably go over a 10-year-old's head, but I don't think it would be damaging.

Of course, my parents never censored anything I read. My mom had the biggest hang-up about "Go Ask Alice," which I got ahold of at the library around age 11 or 12, but let me read it anyway because she didn't believe in restricting books. She told me she thought it was too heavy and mature, but go ahead if I wanted. So I did. I decided she had been right.

You want to talk about stuff popular with kids and pre-teens that shouldn't be, how about Grease? My parents wouldn't let me watch it when I was 10, even though I begged. I finally saw it a couple of years ago and totally agreed in retrospect with their decision. What an appalling message!

[Short rants.]

Two rants today:

1. Able-bodied people who walk slowly. Don't you want to GET THERE, Pokey McSlowpoke????? How can you stand to move this slowly? Negative bonus points if you're jaywalking while doing this.

2. Tourists should be banned from the Metro between 6:30-9:30am and 3:30-6:30pm. The following criteria should be cause for investigation by WMATA police for possible violations:

-fanny packs or enormous backpacks filled with sweatshirts, umbrellas, water bottles, and smashed sandwiches

-loud-patterned shirts coupled with either clunky sneakers or mismatched shorts

-standing on the #$*%^ left side of the escalator

-trying to get in the car before people have gotten off and looking baffled and put out as they glare and shove past you. Bonus: stopping dead right in the doorway to stare at a map and discuss where you're going (Answer: 8 feet to your left!)

-huge rolling luggage sets

-talking really really loudly, usually about inane topics like whether the station labeled "Smithsonian" contains the Smithsonian museums

-taking photos of yourself and your family sitting on the train like it's the front steps of the Capitol

Public transit is great, except for the part where it involves the public.

[Anti-Rants]

Thanks! It feels like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders. If you don't pass, you don't get a diploma until you retake the exam in November. If you don't have a diploma, you don't get a state license and you can't work in the field (speech therapy). So basically, failing=McDonald's fry cook for 6 months. Assuming you pass the retake. If you don't, that's it. Program terminated, no degree.

But, that won't be me.

[Anti-Rants]

Passed my comprehensive exams! I will be getting that MA in 6 weeks!

Off to order my graduation attire.

[Currently Reading]

I just finished The Hunger Games. It wasn't exactly high-brow literature and I have no intention of seeing the movie but the plot was riveting. I was hooked practically from the first sentence.

[Short rants.]

OK, well, I'm on day 6 (got sick last Thursday night) and no rash. However, I had three nosebleeds yesterday and it looks like one of the strep pustules has migrated under my tongue. Yay. With ibuprofen, I'm not feeling any fever or throat discomfort but this cough is driving me mental! And if it's part of the cold and not a strep side effect, then the antibiotics aren't going to do anything and I'll just have to wait until it moves out. Which, given my history with coughs, could be weeks from now.

I have comprehensive exams on Friday (meaning this was essentially the worst possible week of the semester to get sick) and will be stuck in a testing room with 20 other people for 6 hours. I am really hoping this cough at least lessens in severity by then because otherwise it's going to drive everyone else crazy. I can deal with it, but they're going to hate me.

[Short rants.]

Yikes! Well, I'm going to hope that doesn't happen. I don't think I've been as sick as you at any point yet. I let the Advil wear off yesterday for awhile as a trial and it was very unpleasant but I never got above 99.8 and was still able to swallow liquids, albeit with a lot of willpower. But I will keep monitoring it. And the rash is good to know about, because I'm allergic to a bunch of antibiotics (which is why I'm on azithromycin and not amoxicillin) and the hives always start as small bumps on my forearms, so I'd probably have assumed that's what it was.

I still think I have a cold, though. I've also got a cough, a stuffy/runny nose, fluid in my ears, and a froggy voice, none of which match strep and all of which match a cold. The throat swab was unmistakably positive, so I definitely have strep, but there may also be a virus on top of it. In which case the antibiotics may not make me feel all the way better. But if the cold started on Thursday it should be clearing out soon. A hacking dry cough with strep throat really hurts.

[Short rants.]

Watch out for a rash starting on your hands and spreading up. Remember my Scarlet Fever and complications from that for the past 2 weeks.

Hope it's not the same strain I had, it was ROUGH. Took 10 days of Levaquin (super-Cipro) AND some strong broad spectrum penicillin to finally get rid of it.

Feel better kid!

Oh, boy. How long was it before you knew there was a problem? I've been sick for four days. So far it seems pretty standard, reddish throat (not dramatically so) with some white bumps and low-grade fever. No rash, fever and throat pain mostly go away with Advil.

[Short rants.]

Huh. Well, positive strep test. Good thing I went in. Hopefully the double z-pack takes care of it.

[Short rants.]

Someone reassure me I'm not being a hypochondriac. I've had a sore throat since Thursday night. No fever, and I developed a dry cough and intermittent stuffy nose yesterday. I'm almost 100% positive it's a cold. But my throat is really red, I know for a fact I've been exposed to strep multiple times in the last 2 weeks, and I work with some kids who are immunocompromised. Going and getting a rapid strep test is reasonable, right? I feel like a huge weenie going to the doctor for what is almost certainly just a cold. I laugh at people who do that. Now I'm one of them.

[Short rants.]

To the woman in front of me at Potbelly's who asked, about almost every item on the menu, "Is it good?": You're stupid. No, it's not good! It's awful! They just keep it on the menu to confuse you!

Seriously, what are you expecting the employees to say? "No, actually our food is terrible, try Panera around the corner." What sort of information are you even trying to get here?

[Short rants.]

There's another one.

I don't care about (in no particular order):

1. Your bracket

2. Your round of golf

3. Your fantasy football team

4. Your recent Texas hold 'em experience

Just don't care.

I loathe watching sports with fellow fans who are too into their fantasy teams. That's when you get this kind of stuff:

Me: One more strike and we're out of this inning. Come on.

*batter hits a long fly ball that the left fielder misplays into a walkoff inside-the-park grand slam*

Fantasy-loving Idiot: Hey, [batter] is on my fantasy team! That'll get me a lot of points!

Me: Your real-life team just lost!

FLI: Yeah, but I just advanced to play the Garbage Disposals in the next round!

Me: Go away.

This is why I don't, nor will I ever, play fantasy sports.

[Anti-Rants]

They give you a ton of fries.

I always laugh at Five Guys' orders because I think they just throw an empty cup in the bag and then fill the bag up with fries. What is even the point of putting the cup in there?

Last time I went there, I shared the fries with 5 others and we still didn't finish them.

[Short rants.]

Thought that was the worst...infection spread and got hospitalized for 2.5 days. Home now, but some of the care at the hospital was just terrible. It's amazing how understaffed they are and how some of the "qualified" people hate their jobs. I saw some doctors that thought they knew better than everyone else because they took 40 seconds out of their busy day to see you, so they would change your whole diagnosis without reading your file. They also don't like it when you tell them they are wrong, especially when you PROVE them wrong and then they look like an asshole in front of other staff because they got all loud with you. That guy didn't show his face again for 2 days, but I got some applause from the rest of the staff for it. He much be a douche all the time.

Wow, I'm sorry things got so bad and I hope you're feeling better. Hospitals and the like suck. Good for you for self-advocating. I did an internship in a nursing home last semester and those types were always the ones who wound up getting the best care, even if they had to work for it. Those and the people whose families were always around, always making sure the right things were being done and chasing down the Amazing Disappearing Nurse. There are plenty of good nurses and doctors out there, but there are also plenty of lazy, stupid ones. And some of the good ones get burned out from constantly picking up the slack of the lazy, stupid ones.

[Anti-Rants]

We had an awesome Metro operator riding home on the Orange line today. There was a suicidal track jumper at one of the stations, so everything was really backed up and crowded. Most Metro drivers are pretty boring ("Red Line to Glenmont. . .this is Judiciary Square, doors opening on the right," etc.). But this guy was different. Some quotes:

-"Thank you for riding Metrorail. Somebody jumped in front of a train at Foggy Bottom, so we're running a little behind, but we'll get there."

-"Attention, customers in large groups. A tip for when you exit the train: all the doors lead to the same platform. So you will not lose your party if you go out a different door than them."

-"To the customers in the fourth car back, please stop sticking your body parts between the doors to try to force them open. It doesn't work and it just means we can't move."

-"This is Metro Center, doors, all 24 of them, opening on the left. Customers on the platform, please back up and let everybody off, this isn't working otherwise. And spread out!"

He consistently kept us informed and tried to manage the unusually large crowds inside and outside the train. Most operators don't seem to give a hoot. If I knew his name, I'd send a complimentary note about him. I had to switch to the Red Line at Metro Center to get home and I was actually sorry to get off.

[Short rants.]

I am a member of the stomach bug party. I couldn't even keep water down last night. Today is better, managed to keep some oatmeal down, but whole body aches from dry heaves last night.

Had this three weeks ago. I went about 24 hours without being able to keep down more than a couple mouthfuls of water and it was horrible. I stopped actually throwing up after that point but was in bed for 5 days because I was so messed up from dehydration and not eating. Next time I'm going to the ER if it gets that bad with the fluids. Having your pulse race at 140 for like two and a half straight days is really uncomfortable.

Man, was I eternally grateful that I just happened to have a plastic bin under my bed the night it hit, though. Usually I get enough warning to make it to the bathroom, but not with this bug.

[Anti-Rants]

I was in line at Chipotle yesterday and the kid in front of me (looked maybe 13 or so) got to the register and had forgotten about sales tax, so he was about 40 cents short on his order. He had this sad little pile of cash in his hand and looked so crestfallen and embarrassed. Having done that before and being bailed out by the people in line behind me, I started reaching for my wallet to get a dollar out to cover the kid's sales tax, but before I managed it, the cashier just voided the transaction, took whatever cash he had, and told him it was fine and not to worry about it. I thought that was very nice. Warmed my heart.