From now on...
... when I disagree with copy I get in a copy deck,
Hahahaha.
Today was exasperating. Thankfully, the reasons why it was exasperating were communicated in no uncertain terms. I am optimistic that the exasperation will soon abate.
I hope.
:>
Letters I'm composing in my head
Dear New York,
Why do people like you so much? What's so great about you? Seriously, I just don't get it. Why do you have to be rich to get a place larger than 200 sq ft in a nice area? Is that some kind of a joke?
Dear Apartment on 66th St,
Seriously, 47x income requirement? Do you think if I had 47x, I would be looking at paying THAT MUCH for a 300 sq ft apartment?
Dear Apartment on 58th St That I Saw Last Week,
Are you still available?
Dear Taxi Driver,
Why don't you complain some more about the route that it is my right to tell you to take. Seriously, wtf?
Dear James,
Is it wrong that sometimes I wish we weren't splitting up and that we could be happy together? You're such a great guy. Splitting up is scary.
Dear Job,
Are you worth all of this? Really? Do you appreciate me as much as you should? Are you going to show me some love when it comes time for love to be shown next year?
Dear Furniture,
I love you. I'm really trying to find you a home.
Dear London,
I miss you.
Dear Change,
I hate you.
Dear Self,
Suck it up, for Christ's sake.
A letter from me
Dear parents of annoying kids,
Please refrain from bringing your ill-behaved children to restaurants. If you can't make your kid sit in his seat for the entirety of the meal, he doesn't belong in a restaurant. If you can't keep him from singing his ABCs at the top of his lungs several times while wandering around my table, he doesn't belong in a restaurant. Every moment he is out of his seat, he is stressing me out.
My husband and I can go out to eat once a week - work is busy and all. During that one time a week, we want to relax and enjoy each others' company. We don't enjoy your child and his trotting around and his loud pleas for attention. Shut him up. I blame you and, frankly, I think you need to be slapped.
Or sterilized. Your choice, really.
Love,
me
p.s. I'm completely happy to listen to you trying to discipline your kids, until you reach a point where they are either sitting down quietly or taken out of the restaurant. But I don't have patience for your applause once he finishes the ABCs for the fifth time at the top of his lungs.
p.p.s. This is obviously not directed at parents of children with special needs. I completely understand you're in a more difficult situation and as such have tons of patience and respect for you.
Note also that this post was written with quite a lot of sarcasm. I think most of you understand that, but just in case you didn't, I'm just throwing it out there. :) Obviously, I don't think anyone needs to be sterilized. I don't really want to offend anyone - just, we've all sat in a restaurant next to the table with annoying children before. What's wrong with the parents! :)
Broken.
This city is broken.
I have eight boxes to donate to charity. There's some good stuff in there. A set of plates, a full set of silverware. Glassware. Tons of good books. Games. Toys. Stuffed animals. Clothes.
I live in a green building, you'd think they'd know what to do with donation. But no. No help there.
None of the charities pick stuff up in Manhattan. And yes, I've called them all. And yes, I'm aware that they'll pick up in Brooklyn/Queens/whatever. But not Manhattan.
Renting a car is like $90 a day. No.
I can't do ZipCar because I have a foreign license.
It's not all going to fit in one cab, besides which I can't call somewhere and tell them to send a mini-van cab. I'd have to wait for one to come along and flag it.
I cannot find a courier that's open today.
GRRRRRR! I am a seething ball of raw frustration! Heaven forfend I try to do the right thing and donate instead of just throwing stuff out!
Edit [14:30]: My mom is the best. It was her idea to do the courier thing, and there's a van on its way now. Hopefully this stuff will be gone by 3:00! GO MOM!
Edit [14:43]: It's gone!!!
*#@$ing Charity
I have eight boxes of stuff for donation.
1 big box of clothes
1 big box of stuffed animals
3 boxes of games
3 boxes of books
The Salvation army does not pick up anything but clothes. Goodwill does not pick up anything. I am SO FRUSTRATED. I don't want to throw this stuff out, but I also don't want to spend $40 on two taxi journeys to get it all to Chelsea to the Goodwill store. And I don't have a car, of course. What sane person would have a car in Manhattan??
EUGH. My mood is ruined.
Eugh!
No sooner did I post about my new furniture that's on its way than I get a call from the guys we bought it all from.
Someone didn't cancel my china cabinet order (the ORIGINAL order). It arrives at the end of this week. They wanted to know if they should deliver both the table and cabinet at the same time. Obviously, the answer is no.
And of course, the lady I talked to about this when I cancelled didn't give me her name. So they have only my word that I called.
I told the delivery guy that there was no way I was accepting this. Hopefully I'll get a call soon from someone who has the authority to do something about that. What a day this is already shaping up to be. :P
Bleh.
Update (12:05): Our sales rep, Jim, called, rather upset, and reminded me that I was supposed to have called him about this before the Tuesday after I ordered if I wanted to cancel. I told him I'd called him on Monday. of course the: who did you speak to? question came up and of course I was useless. I said that obviously, this is not an outcome that I was looking for and what could I do to help mitigate this problem. He said it was his problem now and we hung up.
He called back half an hour later to appologize. The person who was supposed to have given him the message had been identified. It was her fault, not mine. We'll get our deposit refunded to us, now, and have nothing further to worry about.
I feel bad for the guy, but I'm glad it's not my problem.
Note for making 2007 (and future years) more stress-free: Write the name of who you talk to down when you're doing shit like this.
Epiphany?
Oh yeah, so now I remember the reason I haven't had my hair this long in years.
It looks really bad all the time.
It probably would've been nice to have figured this out before the lead up to Christmas. But oh well.
I wasn't expecting that
We get our second phone bill. It's over $400.
Included in the calls? A 30 minute ($108) call to a UK cell phone. A 43 minute ($129) call to a UK land line.
WTF?!?!?!
So. Obviously AT&T is appalling for international long distance. Does anyone have any suggestions for an add-on service that will not cost us our souls to say hello to James's family? I knew American long distance wasn't as good as other countries' services but this is INSANE. I am completely stunned.
In the UK, our international long distance bill was around £20 a month... and that included the 45 minute calls I made to my mother every other day.
Update:
I called AT&T and spent 48 minutes on a phone with a woman who barely spoke English. Frustrating. I explained my problem - I was supposed to pay $40 a month for unlimited calls to the UK - and after a long time on hold, she fixed it. And refunded certain expensive calls on my bill.
This would have been a hell of a lot more satisfying if we hadn't had people arriving at the time. I guess that's my problem, for having chosen that time to call, but I really didn't expect it to take that long.
Thanks for all of the suggestions, guys. Believe me when I say that I'm investigating all of them. AT&T can suck it, for all I care.
From the Department of Bad Engineering
Taken from PayPal's FAQ:
Q: I'm moving to another country. How do I change my postal address?
A: When moving from country to country, you will need to close your existing account and open a new account in the country where you will be residing.
For example, if you move from the US to Canada, you will need to close your US account and open a Canadian account. If you move from Canada to the US, you will need to close your Canadian account and open a US account.
Yeah that shows a lot of foresight.
Duh
Note to self:
When going out in New York (or anywhere in the United States, really), bring photo ID.
