Wow, where the hell do I start?
So I left the office yesterday afternoon around 5-ish, not long after a thunderstorm had decided to move in. When I got downstairs, everyone else was standing in the building entryway, having decided to wait the storm out. Yours truly decided to brave the rain and wind for the one block walk to the Metro. Bad call... the winds (as I later learned) were near-hurricane strength, and my umbrella did absolutely nothing to keep me dry. Also, the winds were so strong that they actually bent and snapped one of the (steel!) ribs on the umbrella. Nice start.
So I got thru my one-block walk to the Metro stop, thoroughly drenched. The ride, fortunately, went fairly uneventfully, but the weather caused delays (the rains were so heavy that they were even leaking into the Ballston Metro station underground onto the tracks). I finally managed to make it to the Silver Spring Metro station to catch the 6:30 bus back to my apartment, giving me just enough time to meet Rob for dinner, or so I thought...
As I was riding the bus home, it became apparent to me that the electricity in the area was out, something I hadn't noticed until after I got on the bus... thinking that there'd probably be a minor delay until Rob could get to the house, I got to my apartment, dried off a bit, and sat down in the dark to wait, unable to watch TV, listen to music, get online, or pretty much anything else because of the blackout. By 8:30, he hadn't shown up, so I called him and left a message on his machine, saying I assumed he'd gotten stuck somewhere because of the storm. He then called back a few minutes later, saying that yes, he had been stuck, had just gotten home, was still in his suit, and could we do dinner Wednesday night instead. Done.
Having nothing to do and a lot of time to do it in, I fired up the notebook computer for a little while to play Astrosquid. Unfortunately, my notebook's batteries don't last a hell of a long time, so that little distraction had to come to an end fairly shortly... I went outside to have a look at Mars, which was rather impressive considering the weather conditions (the storm had passed pretty quickly, since it was moving so fast, but it was still rather overcast). Then I went back indoors to take a nap, interrupted only briefly by the power coming back on for a few minutes around a quarter to ten, then going back out again.
Finally, around 10:30, I got a call from Denise, who did not sound good at all... she was frantic with worry over my silence after "that nasty flame I sent you right before you left work" (because of something very thoughtless that I had said to her), and I said, "Err... what flame?" not having received it. That was followed by a great deal of discussion, comfort, and reassurance on both our parts, combined with my giving her a "Reader's Digest" account of all the above, along with my assuring her that if I'm ever out of contact like that again, I'll find a way to let her know.
Whuff!
Well, Rob and I are supposed to have dinner tonight, assuming, of course, that another storm doesn't hit (which the Washington Post says is a distinct possibility). We'll have to see how it goes.
Anyone interested in reading what kind of damage the storm did to the area can take a look at the Washington Post's front page article on the storm. Last I had checked there were still some areas that hadn't fully recovered from last night's weather.
To top everything else off, my bathtub's drain is clogged, and the display on my notebook computer is now deciding to black out when it's tilted at certain angles. Wouldn't want my life to get boring, I guess.
Posted by Zathras at August 27, 2003 11:59 AMHey y'all
I'm at the near end of my week long housesitting here in beautiful Jeffersonville, VT.
I see P-man has had a lotta adventures as of late. Lemme summarize mine real quick:
In one week of being in upper VT.:
-I walked the POwell family's dog, Seal, about a gazillion miles in farm country.
-ate some damn fine submarine sandwhiches from the local yocal store
-drank a shitload of fine wine
-roamed around the house I'm housesitting for all naked (that's prob. something none of you guys wanna know...)
-relaxed...breathed some really wonderful VT. air
-hanged with my friend Dan in Burlington. He purchased a wrestling PPV on Sunday for da both of us, and we hanged out again on Mon. - really fun. Wish I had a chance to hang with him more often ;( .
-Travelled and saw a lot of nice antique stores - mostly located outta old barn houses. I wanna live in one . . .
-And, finally, got a real condecending email from the ex-ex (x2000) and finally told her to fuck off.
All in all, happy times :)
I gotta head on down to a wedding in Rhode Island on Sat. and try to drive back home to CT. afterwards. But man, it's been fuckin' great out here.
I'll try to be back around monday - gotta start a job hunt/career hunt (feel free to help out...someone, er, anyone...)
Posted by: Shaw at August 29, 2003 01:55 AMCongrats for telling the ex to fuck off! :-D
You need to drag P up to VT sometime, or to anywhere that isn't uber-urban. He's a good person to be around, so it'd be good for you, plus he needs to get the hell away from the suits before his brain melts!
All of the antique stores here are in the downtown "historic" district, mostly because we don't have old barn houses. However, we do have far too many chicken coops...
Posted by: Moggy at August 29, 2003 02:47 AMThanx!
Yea - real briefly, lemme tellya the (quick) story.
After our last email tiff, I told her that it was funny for her to be upset about how I've hurt her feelings, and yet, in 9 yrs., she never really cared about mine. She emailed me back that I was right, and she was going to think about things.
Flash forward to Monday - she emailed me back saying "I sure don't know why you're so angry at me. I never intentionally have tried to hurt you whatsoever." That just, right there, was the breaking point. She's just treated me like total shit all this time, and it wasn't worth it any longer. I explained to her that she was the same exact person she was back in college, playing the exact same games. Since I'm turning 30 on Monday (labor day - HAH), I've learned that, over time, life is too short for games. Of course, she doesn't even give a shit that my b-day is coming up, so it prob. wasn't worth it at all.
So, that FINALLY ended that. I am no longer heartbroken over someone who turned out to be a real lousy person.
P-man would love it up here - but he'd also prob. get really lazy, just like I've done - lying in the grass, drinking a shitload of wine, diggin' the fresh air. I almost feel like I'm in a movie 'cuz it's so nice up here. I'm gonna try to find me a hippie girl in VT. to date - maybe one that won't turn into an Adrienne-Stein of a monster. I could use a sweet hippie g-friend about now.
Now that I've finished typing that, I'm gonna go out and spend a few more minutes in my fav. antique shop before I leave tomorrow morning. No chicken coops anywhere's...
Posted by: Shaw at August 29, 2003 04:25 PM:(
Now she just emailed me saying that she's writing a long response to my last email.
Do either of you guys know if I can, like, file "domestic disturbance" charges due to emails????? Maybe if I send her my therapy bills she'd be disuaded into continuing this.
Bad things do come in threes.
-My friend's dog got attacked big time by a neighbor's dog when I was walking him (the poor fella was ok - but it was a brutal fight. I almost got in the middle, bad idea - almost lost a few fingers there). Fortunatly, the dog had all his shots.
-My aunt had a mild heart attack yesterday. I talked to her today, and she's alright.
-And now this.
Make some room, Parrish. I'm getting closer and closer to accepting that D.C. offer of yours
*cue Odd Couple theme song*
Posted by: Shaw at August 29, 2003 07:49 PMUgh, I've been in your situation... :-p
It's possible to take legal action, but imho not really worth it. What usually works is to email the person with a short note saying that you're no longer interested in discussing "things" with her and that you'll be using a filter that will automatically delete all incoming messages from her.
I've only had one case where that didn't work... Quoting the law to him and pointing out the number of potentially nasty individuals he did *not* want coming after him did the trick, though. ;)
Posted by: Moggy at August 30, 2003 12:02 AMIt's not worth it...it really isnt.
im just going to stop answering her emails. I think it's more than obvious that she cant let go of me.
I've already laid out the law to her, and yet, she says "I dont know why yer so angry at me."
I think I'll just make her direct all comments made towards me to Parrish. Her emails to him are about a gazillion times more pleasent (from what he tells me).
Posted by: Shaw at August 31, 2003 06:09 AMIn general, involving other parties in a triangle isn't good for the person in the middle. Both angry parties end up wanting to 'shoot the messenger'. At least Parrish can shoot back though. :)
I agree with Moggy 100% - tell her no contact, then spam filter her.
Posted by: Matt at August 31, 2003 09:31 AMMake that another vote for no contact. Ordinarily, I wouldn't recommend killfiling, but in this case, it might be a good idea. You need to move on.
Yes, Adrienne's letters to me are a *lot* more pleasant than the ones I've seen her send you. Man, that's some pretty nasty flameage she's sent you, jeez...
Posted by: Zathras at August 31, 2003 09:53 AMSee, my attitude is that people and corporations need to be treated basically the same way to learn to treat others with respect. If one actively causes harm to others, like by flaming or really lame customer support, that individual does not deserve my commerce (in friendship or cash) and will not get it. If one is good, offering nice support for a product or individual, I go out of my way to give back to them.
Only thing that being nice to asshats, whether corporate or personal, accomplishes is reinforcing horrible behavior *towards* those who are too good. In reality, a lack of protest = approval, so anybody not condemning one who attacks others (or who quietly ignore that their friends are being attacked) is on some level no better than the corporate/personal scum that harming them, regardless of whether one hears about it secondhand or witnesses it in the street. It allows the harm to continue, in which case one might as well be hurting the victim personally given the end effect. I know there's ethical rules regarding this, but I don't recall the name of the concepts.
Er, sorry for the longass comment. The ethical implications of actions and their absence on a minute level greatly interest me. Good thing I'm not raising children, growing up with my attitude is very difficult (I had it from the beginning). *grin*
Posted by: Moggy at August 31, 2003 01:32 PMWell, good news (I guess) ...
I jokingly wrote her: "Here I am turnin' 30 in a few hrs., and here y'are going to write me *yet
another* "Dear John" letter. Times really don't change..."
She wrote:
"(sigh.) If that's the way you want it, I will delete what I've written. You can considered yourself "Dear Johned."
I don't need this kind of stress in my life. You don't either. I think it's best we have nothing more to do with each other.
Good bye and good luck."
At least now I won't need to press the delete button. That, FINALLY, ends all of that mess.
The person emailing Parrish and the person who emailed me are not the same person. I dunno who the hell the person emailing me was, but I'm glad she's stopping . . .
And I agree with what Moggy's saying - personal or corporation or not, you get what you give . . .
30th b-day, not too many hours to go...
Posted by: Shaw at August 31, 2003 05:21 PMDamn. I've wasted a shitload of time on that $!#@ person - esp. polluting this blog about the mess. Let's talk about something more pleasant....
What movie should I rent from the vid store 2nite? I dunno about renting DVD's cuz with the 5 bux u spend to rent 'em you might as well just shell out da other 10 bucks to get 'em
Posted by: Shaw at August 31, 2003 05:31 PMHave you looked into NetFlix? I had that for a while, and it really kicked ass. *grin*
I can't help you much in terms of what movies to watch, because my taste is limited and weird. *grin* What kinds of titles do you like?
Posted by: Moggy at August 31, 2003 06:12 PMPorn ;)
Posted by: Shaw at August 31, 2003 06:59 PMSeriously though, I like indie movies - as well as (relatively) obscure stuff.
Gimmie Fellini's La Dolce Vita over Vanilla Sky. The First Nudie Musical over Chicago. Death Race 3000 over Fast and the Furious. Dark Star over Apollo 13. Eating Raoul over How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. Chasing Amy over Gugaliwhatever. She Devils on Wheels over Charlie's Angels . . .
Posted by: Shaw at August 31, 2003 07:49 PMHee, I've seen most of those. I remember watching "The First Nudie Musical" when I was a kid, and having to sneak around my parents to watch it. Who could ever forget "the dancing dildoes"? *snicker*
Netflix is a good deal *if* you watch movies frequently enough to make it worthwhile. I thought I would, but I didn't, and I ultimately ended up cancelling my membership.
In Europe right now, Shaw is thirty years old... ;-)
Posted by: Zathras at August 31, 2003 08:11 PMwugh....
Posted by: Shaw at August 31, 2003 10:23 PM