Haven't moved a whole lot

I just ventured to my front entrance to get the mail. Since it's my rest day from running it was the first time all day I've been out the door of my apartment. Someone will have to remind me about this sloggy feeling two months from now...

All White People Really Do Look The Same

My mom first told me about this story and then my friend Colleen linked it on her blog. I can't resist adding it here because it's so hilarious...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/7569430.stm

Bad day at the office?

You know, I have to assume that customer service is not going well when I call to check on a subscription that was supposed to be canceled back in April and when I tell the woman my problem she replies by saying "Oh God."

No shortage of entertainment

Seriously, riding the bus never fails to give me a dose of entertainment during the day. I have to make sure to ride the 16 or the 50 down University, as the commuter buses that go to and from downtown just don't provide the same quality entertainment. Yesterday as I rode the 50 at about 3 p.m. a woman behind me kept yelling out "Anyone want to open a Wells Fargo bank account? Wells Fargo checking account?"

"Hmmm," I thought to myself. "This seems like awfully strange street marketing for Wells Fargo. Do they really need to put people on buses to open bank accounts?"

Yeah, so it turns out that Wells Fargo has some kind of referral deal going on and if you get people to sign up for new checking accounts you get $25 in your own checking account. The bus bank account hawker revealed this shortly after no one responded to her original offer by saying "I need $50, so at least two people need to sign up for bank accounts!"

Oh, yes please, complete stranger. Let me supply you with all my most personal information in this world of identity theft so that I can help you make money. Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

Random bus moment of the day

On the ever-dangerous 16 today it was fairly empty and quiet. Maybe all my mid-day bus riding friends have a case of the Mondays and aren't out riding around town today. Anyway, I thought it was going to be a fairly peaceful trip with the exception of the man laughing manically to himself near the front. Laughter like that always make me nervous because, since I always expect disaster, I feel as though the Laugher is envisioning the imminent death of everyone on the bus and is crazy, so thinks it's funny.

However, the Laugher wasn't my biggest problem. As well pulled into Huron to make a right onto Washington there was a Jeep coming straight toward oncoming traffic. Yup, driving on the wrong side of the road. The bus driver, who had been pretty quiet up to this point (maybe the Laugher was making her nervous, too) yelled out "Look at this idiot!" and look we all did. The Jeep guy realized that he was driving the wrong damn way down the road and managed to back up and pull onto the correct side of the divided roadway.

After the wrong-way Jeep had moved on the bus driver decided to continue her commentary by saying "Where did he learn to drive? And I thought I was a bad driver."

Uh, okay, you drive for a LIVING and not only do you consider yourself a bad driver, but you announce it to a busload full of people who are at your driving mercy? Even worse, I was the only one on the entire bus who seemed somewhat shocked by this announcement. Maybe I'm not the public transport aficionado I thought I was...

That fourth grade recall

I just realized that most of the Spanish I was able to recall while in Mexico came from watching West Side Story in elementary school. Man, if only they'd been teaching me another language then, too.

And it's unplugged

So I'm pretty sure my microwave is possessed by the devil. The other day I was sitting in my living room/office/dining room (okay, so it's my all-purpose room where I spend 95% of my time when I'm in my apartment) and I heard a beep. I thought at first it must be coming from a car parked in the alley. I heard it again a few seconds later, so I went to look out my kitchen window. That's when I realized it was my own microwave beeping at me.

When I first looked at the microwave screen where the time should have been it was empty. Then, the beeping happened again, and one 6 came up. A few milliseconds later, another beep and a second 6. Clearly, I could see where this was going and I was not happy about it. I hit clear and reprogrammed the time into the microwave.

The microwave accepted the time I set, then beeped and 666 came up. Uh, not okay. I hit cancel as quickly as I could, but the numbers did not clear. I hit it again and the screen cleared out. I set the time again and walked away. Minutes later, more beeping and 666 was back.

Freaking out a little, I called my friend, who shrieked a little and advised me to unplug the devil. Good call. I unplugged the microwave while it beeped at me repeatedly, all the while displaying 666.

Since then I've plugged the microwave back again and used it, but after a few hours the devil will arise again. Yeah, not cool. And it's only 11 months old...