Monday, April 30, 2007

happy birthday to me!

Today I turn a quarter century old. I have a feeling I'm going to be turning 25 for at least a few more years now. Am I too young to be lying about my age? I just don't want to turn late 20's. Ever. Blah. So far for my birthday I have recieved: an Anne Bonney action figure to add to my pirate collection, an electronice mousey thinggy, a $20.00 gift certificate to Olive Garden (a regift from my bro's wedding, but I don't care), a bottle of some really yummy lemony liquor, and Night at the Museum on DVD, which is a great movie.

I can't wait to see what Jared gets me!

I've just had such a great week.
-I got a new car
-Jared told me some great great news that I can't share yet
-I got DSL and have internet now!
-I haven't had to DO a whole lot
-Saturday I went to Kannapolis for a birthday party for my niece and I had a great time!
-Sunday I went to Carowinds with Carmen, my brother Alan, his new wife Wendy, and my nieces Elora and Emma. We had a blast even though the waterpark was closed.

Awesome. But there were also downers..
-My grandmother has a brain tumor which caused her to have stroke like symptoms. It's not malignant though, and hopefully she'll have a full recovery.
-The satellite company apparently can't put a satellite in my condo for some wiring reasons :(. So now I'm stuck with the cable company for my t.v. But at least I have DSL for my internet! And now I have internet at home! yay!

Here's to me having a great day! And another great week! And a fun Cinco de Mayo/Birthday Party on Saturday night!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Dear Cable Company, Here's why you suck.

Dear Cable Company,

First of all, let me just say that I have been a loyal customer of yours since 2001 when I was a poor college student who allowed herself the one luxury of cable t.v. I have never had problems before with your cable t.v. services, and still don't have any complaints there.

Your customer service and technical support, along with your sensitivity to time, however, suck. I would like to point out that there were other avenues I could have chosen when moving into my house and building my home entertainment options. I could have easily picked satellite. But since I had always been a cable customer, I chose to stay a cable customer. Along with my cable t.v. service, I added on high speed internet. This was very important to me in keeping in touch with friends and keeping my eye on things in the internet world. Also, it is especially important since I can not access Myspace at work. They blocked it :(.

Things were going fine and I didn't really have any complaints. But then, on March 3rd, a Saturday night, my boyfriend pointed out to me that my internet was no longer working. Since I know you have a 24 hour technical support line, I gave you a call and figured it wasn't a big deal.

First of all I have to point out that a) the automated system for "problem solving" when all agents are busy assisting other customers, she is a stupid whore. And b) the music we are forced to listen to while waiting on hold (after screaming at said automated prostitute) is quite possibly the most awful mind-numbing music i have ever been forced to listen to.

After finally getting to speak to an actual (agent after having to hold for 20 minutes), I was told that something must be wrong with the line going into my modem and you would have to send a technician out to my house. It would be a week before one was available. Disappointed, but satisfied that I was going to be solving this problem, I hung up.

I suffered a week with no internet at home. This was a terrible, frightening experience as I felt I was missing out on the world. I could no longer check my myspace daily, and could no longer watch funny youtube videos (also blocked at work) and could no longer laugh at funny, yet NSFW images on my favorite celebrity gossip blogs.

Saturday finally came and I excitedly waited for the technician to arrive. Around 2 pm he finally made it, and I was so happy I could barely contain myself. But after an hour and a half of fiddling around with my wiring inside and out, he told me he couldn't fix it. I was going to have to call back to your hot line and schedule a contractor to come and wire a direct line to my modem from the pole outside. Reluctantly, I said goodbye to this technician and called you again. After being jostled through several different people and having to yell at the automated sl*t again, I was finally able to schedule a contractor. For April 2nd. This was March 10th. Almost a month's difference. I was very, very sad that I would have to wait that long but understood that it was the contractor, and not your company that made this appointment.

Alas, 3 1/2 weeks went by with me saddened by no internet, but knowing there was nothing to be done, I accepted it. April 2nd finally came. And went. Without a single phone call or visit from your contractor. Weakened by this blow, I waved it off and went to work the next day expecting to call back later in the day. But thankfully, during my lunch break, the contractor came. Note, he didn't call first as I had requested, but luckily I was there.

After about an hour, he informed me that the first technician had been wrong and that I *didn't* need to have a direct line put in. He apparently had been new and didn't know how to fix the problem. Finally, after a month with no internet, he saved me and it was back. My lovely wired friend with myspace and youtube and NSFW was back. I rejoiced quickly and went back to work, happy.

About 20 minutes later, Jared sent me a text message that the internet was out again.

Highly peeved, I called your technical support again. After bluntly telling the automated Jezebel to go to H-E-Double hockey sticks, I was connected with Sergio, who understood very little English, and who didn't grasp the fact that I was not going to deal with the normal procedure of checking all the wiring at the modem. He did not get that the contractor had left only 20 minutes ago and that something was wrong. I was too mad to listen to him, and didn't want to die of a heart attack, so I hung up and decided to call back later after cooling off.

Next day I called you back. I was connected with a very nice lady operator who listened carefully to my plight and very nicely connected me with her supervisor, claiming that she would be the best person to help me out. This supervisor was not as nice as the operator, but being that she was a woman, and I am sexist, I was good with speaking to her kindly. She refunded some of my money and after having me hold on the line a few times, finally told me she would get a contractor out here as soon as possible. This was the first week of April. The next available time slot for the contractor was April 23rd. Again, I was upset by the wait but I understand that it's a different company than yours and you have no control over that. So, reluctantly, I agreed to wait. Again.

April 23rd has come and gone. It is now April 26th and I have heard nothing from you or your contractors. I did, on Saturday, receive an all too pleasant apologetic card from your public relations department which was a nice gesture but I was fooled into thinking it was an early birthday card and was highly disappointed.

Yesterday I signed up with the satellite company and the local phone company to get DSL. Monday I will be cancelling my service with you. You are the worst company I have ever had to deal with, mainly because all I wanted was my darn internet and you were not able to fix it, not with your broken promises or your stupid cards. I can't wait to tell your dirty automated vixen to go screw herself.

Sincerely,
Allison, new Direct TV customer

Monday, April 23, 2007

Blue Pearl?

Will be mine by 6:00 today:






















More Pictures Here
I need a name for this one! The Black Pearl was a great car but it's time for a change.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Meet the newest member of my family

















Well, soon to be a member of my family anyways. In a few weeks, I'm taking home this little guy from Katie's house. It will give Meatwad a brother, a friend, and hopefully someone to cuddle with while I'm away. I only hope he doesn't beat up on the cute little guy. Maybe having another kitty around will calm my Meatwad down and make him less apt to claw and bite me all the time. Maybe. It's worth a shot. Plus, who could resist this cuteness:


Monday, April 16, 2007

you know you're in kannapolis, nc when...

You are driving down a fairly busy road. Suddenly, traffic slows to a crawl. Upon looking ahead, you see a man a horse.

You get closer to the horse and realize the man is wearing only shorts and a cowboy hat.

You get even closer and realize the man is super hottie. Upon doing a double take, the hottie naked cowboy waves hello and smiles.


I had a great time at the wedding, pictures below. No stories to tell other than I wore myself slap out. The best part was of course dancing with Jared. Unchained Melody really is a great song, I tell you.

wedding cake. yum-my

Friday, April 13, 2007

Yet, I never collected unemployment...

I think it's time I told you the story of my job history, and how I'm terrible bad luck for restaurants. I don't know why I'm such bad luck. I work hard, I do my job right. It's just fate I guess.

Job #1: Cox's Seafood in Kannapolis, NC. I was 15 and I was a busboy. I was getting paid $5.00/hour under the table, so I was rolling in dough. I had seriously never had that much money at once in my life. It was awesome. I only worked on Friday and Saturday nights, which kind of sucked because I had to give up my Friday nights at the skating rink (which is really hard for a 15 year old boy crazy girl to do). Then, about 5 months after I started there, I got the call, "We're going to have to close down the restaurant". So, that's job #1 that closed down. I didn't get another job until I was 16 because you have to hire 15 year olds illegally or you can only work them a couple hours a day.

Job #2: Papa's Pizza to Go in China Grove, NC. This job was awesome. They had just opened the store right before my 16th birthday and I began working there 2 weeks later. I loved it. Free food, easy job, cool people, and a real paycheck. I started as a cashier and worked my way up to head pizza cook after a year. Of course, after a year, the sales dwindled. We went through five managers (one was an embezzler). After I had been there about a year and a month, I got the call, "We're going to have to close down the store, and we're selling the store to another pizza restaurant from Concord". This sucked, as I was afraid of my job status. The new store, Pi-zon's Pizzeria, offered me a job at the new store. I was apprehensive at first because this store was run by yankee NASCAR fans. If there's anything worse than NASCAR fans, it's yankee NASCAR fans.

Job #3: Pi-zon's China Grove. I decided to go ahead and work for the yankees. I started out at their Concord store while they were renovating the China Grove store, then moved back to the China Grove after a while. The China Grove store was doomed to fail though, from the beginning. Why? Prices. Those New Yorkers didn't realize that redneck China Grove does NOT want to pay $15.00 for one large pizza. After six months, I got the call, "We're going to close the store down, but you can still work for us in Concord". I knew it was best.

Job#4: Pi-zon's Concord. This job was great. I worked with all kinds of cool people who loved me (even yankee NASCAR fans). I learned from a real New Yorker all about making real New York style pizza. I was great at it too. I could toss a pizza, and spin a pizza. I knew everything there was to know about brick oven pizza. The best part came the day after graduating high school when I met Adam, my first love. But that's another story. Then, I went away to college. I still worked there when I came home for Christmas and the next couple of summers. But alas, the next time I came home, they were closed. No more yankee NASCAR fans.

Job #5 was on campus at App, in the Park Place Cafe in Trivette Hall. As long as the school wills it, this place will stay open. This job was ok, but I only got paid once a month so I was very very very poor.

Job #6: Big Pauly's Pizza in Boone, NC. I have had a lot of great jobs, but this one was by far the best. I was 19. I needed a job desperately and so I decided to apply there. As soon as I talked to the asst. manager over the phone, I went down there. Who should I see when I walk in the door but my ex, Adam (the one from Pi-zon's). So we worked together for a while until he quit due to our manager who hated him. After 2 months, I was given the job of assistant manager, and I was getting paid $7.50 (after 2 raises) under the table. AND since the other asst. manager was also 19, when I was off work and wanted beer all I had to do was go there and buy a 6 pack from him (at a discounted rate!!!). I LOVED it. But of course, since the yankee italiano mafia a**hole who ran the place did such a shotty job with "taxes" and "paychecks" and "health inspections", we closed down shortly before that Christmas. And once again, I was out of a job. But Big Pauly (the a**hole) also owned a deli and bagelry in Boone, and I was given a job there, making pizza (even though it was a deli).

Job #7: Ma's Deli & Bagelry. This wasn't a great job. In the deli, Big Pauly's wife was in charge. And she just may be the biggest biotch I have ever known. She hated me because I wasn't a preppy little sorostitute like all the other girls that worked there. But I still had power, having been the Asst. Manager at Pauly's. But here at this deli, I had to be paid by a real paycheck, with taxes and everything. Only problem is, Pauly never paid us on time. Not once in the 5 months at the deli did we get our paycheck on time. It was always at least a week late. Once in February I deposited one of these very late paychecks into my checking account. What do you know, it bounced. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until it was too late and I had already spent the money. So I told Big Pauly it bounced. He told me it didn't. He claimed my bank must have messed up. I call my bank, get a copy of the bounced check and have hard proof that he bounced this check. He still denies it. I took a legal course of action and wrote him a certified letter demanding the money in 15 days or else I was going to sue. In the meantime I quit Ma's Deli and even worked my 2 weeks notice. Note, this is the only job I've ever quit that wasn't due to moving. On the very last day of the 15 days I had given him, I recieved another check. I immediately cashed it and savored my victory by holding onto the $367.81 for 1 year in an envelope until I really, really needed it. Two weeks after I quit, the deli closed down, go figure.

I went for a few months without a job. I went home for the summer (Pi-Zon's was still open at this time so I "worked" there). Once I got back to Boone, it took me 2 months to find a job before I finally found the Boone Bowling Center, or the BBC for short.

Job #8: Boone Bowling Center. I was the snack bar girl and I was very good at it. I learned how to bowl, and even joined a league. I worked for 2 very cool people, Mario and Diana, who were from Curacao, and island country next to Aruba. I worked here for 2 years until I graduated college and moved away. This is one place that hasn't closed. There is only one bowling alley in Boone, and I'm sure that is why they are still open. I loved this job and would go back in heartbeat if I didn't need more money than that.

Since then, I've had a state internship and now I have my real job at a real office that will never close. But at night I work at the brush. I give the brush 6 months before it closes down.

I swear I don't know why every place I work at closes down. I've never been a slacker when it comes to physical labor. I usually love my jobs, even if they suck. I'm just bad luck I guess.

I really hope the brush can turn around and come back to life, but I doubt it will happen. Especially if they move Jared to the Lenoir store like I think they might do.

Monday, April 09, 2007

i love google.

And I LOVE my Google homepage. It's so pretty!















You can click on it to see it big.


This weekend is my brother's wedding and Jared is finally confirmed to be coming with me! Yay! Now I get to show off my man in front of all of my brother's butthole friends who were mean to me growing up. Now I get to laugh in their face and say "Look, I'm a successful woman who has a college degree, a real job, my own home, and the finest piece of manmeat this side of the Mississippi."


Or at least that's what I'll feel like. This is so exciting!!


Tomorrow night I get to go to my first Crawdad's baseball game of the season! Yippee! This will be a good week.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Bat Shot Crazy.

This morning as I was walking into city hall in Lenoir, NC, I happened to look down at the sidewalk. There on the sidewalk was a familiar looking shape. Down on the ground at my feet was a dead bat. At least I thought it was dead. It's not everyday (especially during the daylight) that you see a bat just laying on the sidewalk. I bent down for a closer look. He opened his mouth at me!

An alive bat, just hanging out on the sidewalk? I then deduced that he must have flown into the side of the building, and was stunned. That or he blew into the building. Lenoir was quite windy this April morning.

I bent down and took a picture with my camera phone, as it was all I had with me. I thought I had a better angle but here it is:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Okay that's a terrible picture but it is what it is.

I told someone at city hall about the bat and they told the street sweeper, who was going to move it somewhere out of the sidewalk. He bent down, put his hands around the bat when all of a sudden it HISSED at him and tried to fly up to his neck! Can you imagine how high the guy probably jumped!? HA! Then the little bat flew away. Apparently he was just stunned and has found his way again. Poor little guy. :) I'm glad he was okay (the bat, not the sweeper).

In other news, whoever hasn't seen the Alanis Morissette version of the Black Eyed Peas "My Humps" song, please dear God click here and watch how awesome.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Getting Ready..

My brother Alan is getting married on April 14th. It is his third wedding, and most likely his last. He and Wendy have known each other since middle school (early 1990's) but have only been dating for 10 or so months. They seem to fit together really well though. They are more open with each other than I can even imagine being with Jared. But I guess knowing each other for more than 10 years will do that to you.


I am in the wedding, a bridesmaid. This would be my fourth bridesmaid venture. My others include my oldest brother's (divorced), my mother's (will probably be divorced within a year) and Carmen's (divorced) weddings. Maybe I'm bad luck, but I hope not.


Jared is going to be my date, hopefully. The brush is getting a new General Manager this week and his schedule for this month has not been made yet. Saturdays are the busiest days of the week and generally they would like to have 2 managers present just in case. If Jared goes to my brother's wedding with me, there won't be an extra manager. I'm just hoping our new manager is cool and that she will understand that if I have to go to my brother's wedding without my date, I will most likely cry. Damn it. Nothing is sadder than dancing alone at a wedding.

Urgh.


On the bright side, Wendy's friend Holly is going to do my hair for the wedding. Every other wedding I was in, I had to do my own hair. I've only had someone else fix my hair once before, for my senior prom. It's going to look awesome. Yesterday I drove down to Kannapolis so she could try out a little somethin' to do to my "perfectly virgin hair". Apparently since I never dye my hair and it's really long and thick, it's easy to mess around with. Yippee!


Here is a preview that I took with my cameraphone. You can't really tell, but there is an awesome boufant like bump on the back of my head containing half of my hair!