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Friday, June 05, 2009

dealing with customer service...aka death by a thousand cuts

Argh! I just spent five hours of my Friday afternoon waiting at home for a package that FedEx just decided to update the delivery date for. So it actually won't be coming until Monday.

This is all especially irritating because due to the fact that I knew the address had been corrected from the original (my mistake, I accidentally gave my parents' zip code), I called customer service this afternoon to make sure the change had been processed. I was assured that it had been and that the package was out for delivery today. So I bailed out on drinks with coworkers (and then opted not to meet up with Paul and his friends) so I could stay home and wait for the package. Of course when I called with 15 minutes left to go during the delivery window I was told, oops, since the change wasn't processed until today, the package actually wouldn't be delivered til Monday, and uh, oh now the online tracking has been updated too. Is there anything else I can help you with?

You'd think that in this economy companies could hire people who aren't untrained idiots to work in customer service...Neither of the people I spoke with seemed to know how to use the system to properly track the changes. Annoying.

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wingless was still breathing at 8:07 PM - 0 comments

Monday, May 11, 2009

anyone surprised that she's a hardcore lefty liberal?

There's something I've been wanting to write about for awhile and yet haven't been quite sure how to without sounding too snarky and judge-y. But let's face it, I am being a bit judge-y and I don't necessarily think that it's wrong in this case because...well...read on.

I've been following this girl's blog off and on for awhile. I check in whenever I'm bored or happen to notice it in my bookmarks list not because it's particularly entertaining or well-written but mainly because she seems like such a train-wreck it's hard to look away. She's a couple years older than me, married to a much older, HIV positive man who's a former intravenous drug user (hence the HIV). She herself is a recovering alcoholic. She's still working on her undergraduate degree (her graduation date from State is constantly being pushed back due to incomplete courses and the like) and she earns money by babysitting. Not sure what her husband does but since she's written about fighting over things like whether or not to buy a new mop for $2 I feel it's safe to say he's not raking it in. They share a 2-bedroom apartment with a roommate somewhere in one of the less nice neighborhoods of SF. Oh and here's the kicker: They're trying very hard to get pregnant. Including through artificial means (since they kind of have to cause of the HIV and all).

As much as I love reading those infertility blogs where the couple eventually manages to conceive and posts a zillion adorable baby pictures, I've always held my breath a little every time I clicked onto her site. And then I would breathe a sigh of relief when I read her latest rant and was assured that she was still unsuccessful in her quest for procreation.

Until a couple weeks ago, that is, when I read about her first positive home pregnancy test. My heart dropped into my stomach and I felt angry, angry suddenly that we live in a country where we have to take a test to drive a car but any jackass can have a baby. I'm not saying that people who don't have all their ducks in a row should not be allowed to have children (see how annoyed I I am, I just used a triple negative), but I don't think that people in situations like the one she is in should be actively trying to bring a child into their roller-coaster of a world. If it happens, it happens, but to purposely bring a child into the world when you can't even provide for yourself? When there's a strong possibility your husband could get very sick and even die in the not so distant future? Does that not seem the least bit irresponsible to anyone else but me?? Her blog doesn't get a lot of readers but so far all the comments have been happy and supportive which I suppose is the norm. I don't like to post comments on blogs where I lurk (and in case you haven't noticed, I am not linking it here either) but I'm VERY tempted to in this case. But I won't. Because I know it won't make a difference.

The fact that she lives in SF only irritates me more because I know that I am going to end up being one of those sucker taxpayers who ends up contributing to her selfish need to procreate when she doesn't have the means to raise a kid without a government handout.

Ugh.

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wingless was still breathing at 3:16 PM - 0 comments

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

grumpy old...me

Paul and I went clubbing on Saturday. Yes, clubbing. Your eyes do not deceive you.

One of his frat bros was having a birthday party, and being a promoter (his frat bro, not Paul) decided to make all his aging buddies drag their bums out to a club. Not just any club, but a theme night club. Yes, in true fraternity form it was "everyone must wear black" night. Because you know, being a unique individual is just way overrated.

Anyway, I realized that at the ripe old age of not-quite-twenty-seven, I have become a grumpy old man. Outwardly, I smiled and made polite conversation and only yawned visibly a few times, while inwardly I was shaking my fists and complaining about young people and their loud music. Seriously, though, am I too young to feel like I am way too old to be in a crowded, sweaty, dark, loud club full of people so drunk they can barely stand up without swaying back and forth? Do I really want to see some girl grinding on top of some guy she literally met five minutes ago? (A guy who happened to be one of Paul's college buddies) - a scene that made me really glad I opted to check my coat for $3 instead of tossing it on the couch. Do I really want to wonder whether or not the girl behind me on my way to the bathroom is going to throw up on me because she doesn't seem to be able to stand on her own and her friend seems in quite a rush to get her to the bathroom? Am I really supposed to enjoy being in a room so crowded I can't walk from one point to another without being bumped and jostled and having literally no personal space to speak of? Do I enjoy having other people's drinks spilled on me?

I think I can safely say that the answer to all of those questions is a clear and resounding: No.

Pardon me for being prematurely crotchety but I just don't get why clubbing is considered "so fun!" Give me a glass of wine and a good History Channel documentary any day...

Oh and by the way, although I did put on makeup and a dress, I wore my crocs. Because I'm awesome like that.

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wingless was still breathing at 7:46 PM - 0 comments

Saturday, June 07, 2008

What is this crap?!?

Initially this story didn't bother me that much. Desperate people trying to get into America is nothing new and is just more proof of how much better the US is compared to pretty much every other country in the world.

However, this is the part that shocked me (and riled me up) because well, you'll see...

For years, Chinese and fellow "other than Mexican" illegal immigrants were processed and released with a date to return for a court hearing. The process was known as "catch and release."

Only about one-third of those released showed up in court, according to a 2005 report prepared for Congress.

That began changing in late 2005 and early 2006, with a policy that sought to close that loophole.

Non-Mexicans caught trying to enter the U.S. now are steered into a streamlined process for "expedited removal."

Pardon the profanity, but what the f*ck?!?! Why are illegals of Mexican origin put in a category all their own? Why is it that for almost three years we've been expediting kicking illegals out of this country, except for the biggest freaking offenders of them all??? This makes no sense whatsoever and I doubt a lot of people know about it or wouldn't it be made a bigger deal of?

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wingless was still breathing at 7:37 AM - 1 comments

Thursday, May 15, 2008

how about a gun and a bullet?

There are some weeks, more than others, where I come out at the end feeling like someone just kicked my ass. Hard.

It's only Thursday, but it's safe to say this has already been one of those weeks. The funny thing is, though I can point to certain things that made this week hurt so bad (i.e. $52,000 in losses to company due to trade errors...not really my fault but at least $12,000 could probably have been prevented by me, so sh*t, go me) a lot goes wrong at work on a daily basis and this week wasn't really unique in that sense. It's the nature of the business and why I have a job.

I just wasn't up for it today, being bombarded from the first hour in the morning with stupid compliance/trade issues (cancel this, terminate that, then assign this before you rebook it with all the same details EXCEPT change this one line) and things just kind of getting worse as the day went on...Sigh. Wow. This is a downer.

Every job has days like this though, yes? Right?

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wingless was still breathing at 3:29 PM - 0 comments

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Supporting some real Republicans

After reading Michelle Malkin's lead story for today, I decided to donate to the NC GOP.

Time to show the jackass at the top of our ticket who REAL conservatives support. McCain just couldn't resist the opportunity to throw some conservatives under the bus could he? So eager to maintain his status as a liberal media darling that he couldn't even be bothered to watch an ad put out by principled conservatives before he ran out and accused them of being racist.

Which, by the way, can someone explain to me why it's racist to simply point out the truth? Did the NC GOP lie? Did Obama not attend that man's church for twenty years?

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wingless was still breathing at 8:53 AM - 0 comments

Thursday, April 03, 2008

your tax dollars at work

Senate Foreclosure Relief Bill Advances

>A floor battle still looms over whether to change bankruptcy laws to help borrowers trapped in subprime mortgages keep their homes. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., is the top backer of the idea, which has drawn withering opposition from banks, Republicans and a few Democrats.

Durbin said more than 2 million homeowners face foreclosure by the end of 2009, many of whom were duped into signing mortgages with unfair terms. The Center for Responsible Lending, which combats predatory lending practices, estimates about 600,000 people would keep their homes under Durbin's plan instead of ending up before bankruptcy judges who aren't permitted to adjust mortgage terms, regardless of how onerous they are.

The hotly contested provision rewriting the bankruptcy code, opponents say, would allow borrowers to effectively rewrite their mortgage contracts and would prompt lenders to tighten their standards and raise interest rates.

Between this and the astonishingly stupid questions asked during the Bear Stearns bailout hearing, I'm pretty disgusted with how completely retarded the people who supposedly lead this country are.

Hm...volatility's a problem in the market right now?

Apparently a Democrat's solution to that is to introduce more risk.

Because, obviously, that's helpful.

As someone who someday hopes to be a homeowner I have no desire to allow my mortgage rates to be driven up just so some irresponsible person can stay in a home they could never afford in the first place. Because let's face it, a lot of these people knew their mortgages were going to go up, possibly to a point they couldn't afford but they ignored that risk and decided to bet that the housing market had no ceiling. It sucks and it's sad, but it's a risk THEY chose to take and I don't really feel like I need to be punished for their choices. Prices in SF are still high and if interest rates are 1-2% higher than they are now Paul and I will be renting forever.

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wingless was still breathing at 3:39 PM - 0 comments

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

we wuz robbed

Paul and I were in attendance on Monday night for Warriors-Lakers Part Deux. Great game, shameful ending.

If you saw the game then you understand why - two days later - I'm still kind of miffed over the last four seconds. As far as I'm concerned the series is 2-1 because let's face it that was a bad call. Paul is a huge Lakers fan so I've been subjected to a lot of Lakers games (especially this year since we have NBA league pass) and dude, Derek Fisher flops when you breathe on him (although to be fair I think he did actually really lose his balance on Monday). After we got home I watched the replay over and over again on On Demand and they should have just let them play. There was no foul, at least not one on Monta, Derek Fisher maybe...

I hope the Warriors have the privilege of knocking the Lakers out of the first round this season...Gasol and Bynum (yeah, yeah, Kobe too) be damned.

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wingless was still breathing at 4:22 PM - 0 comments

Monday, November 19, 2007

its all downhill from here

I just started watching last Sunday's episode of Family Guy and I can't even bring myself to finish it. Disgusting.

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wingless was still breathing at 3:28 PM - 0 comments

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

So let me get this straight

You want me to help you, get my fiance into a strip club?

He won't go in? And you really want him to go in and have fun with you guys?

Hang on let me get the world's tiniest violin so I can play it for you.

Oh and please don't patronize me, because y'all? Y'all are really shitty liars.

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wingless was still breathing at 3:45 AM - 0 comments

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Being the bitch

I'm in a funk. And I'm sure Paul is really happy about the fact that he came up a week early and is spending his time off with this little crab.

I can't really figure out what my problem is and I wouldn't call it a mood swing because there is no swinging being done. Only steady, unabated crabbiness and unprovoked anger and prolonged periods of holding back tears for no apparent reason.

Of course, certain events do not help this situation. For example I got home this afternoon to find a reply card from one of Paul's friends. On Paul's instruction I clearly marked "1" after "total number of guests attending" on his reply card before I sent it. It was sent back with two names though, and one of those names happens to be the name of someone who was expressly NOT invited. She was expressly NOT invited because she's managed to rub me the wrong way each and every time we've met and since my parents are paying for the entire shindig and Paul did not seem to particularly care whether or not she was on the guestlist she was not sent an invitation. Awhile back, another one of Paul's friends also seemed determined to invite her and managed to really piss me off. For some reason, and I admit this may only be because of my current extremely emotional state, it now goes way beyond the fact this chick has gotten on my bad side and has turned into this thing where I'm miffed that people seem so freaking determined that she be at my wedding. I try not to fit into the whole self-centered bridezilla stereotype but it really bugs me that this wedding seems to be turning into something about her when it's supposed to be about ME! Remember, me? The bride?

And I HATE that I'm like this but I can't help it! I've let Paul take the reigns on 99% of this wedding (the only thing I've really picked so far has been my dress, I wasn't even there when Paul chose our cake) but this has now become the one thing that I feel adamant about. And I'm trying to figure out how I can be adamant about this without coming off like a complete bitch to Paul's friends who seem utterly determined that one way or another **** comes to the wedding. Ugh.

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wingless was still breathing at 5:28 PM - 0 comments

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Flutter by

So the last post probably makes me sound like a complete and total b*tch. Whatever. This blog is a form of catharsis for me and it was something that really needed to be released.

But, that is also why I'm writing this post. To get that one off the top of the page.

It's three thirty in the morning and I should be studying for a ridiculous test I have to take on Monday, but I am not. I am thinking about how the hell I'm going to study tomorrow, entertain my sister who does not deserve to be trapped in an apartment on a beautiful day in Paris, and how to control the intense crabbiness I've been feeling these last few days.

Seriously. I don't know what it's all about. I just know that I feel really pissy and frustrated and I keep snapping at things that shouldn't bug me. Or at least, not enough to get snappy over. I am also still feeling totally exhausted, So exhausted that when my sister and I took a walk to the gardens near the Louvre today I completely passed out in one of the nifty lawn chairs that are distributed in Parisian gardens. So people like me can nap under a tree.

Seriously, I could have been robbed, I was that asleep.

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wingless was still breathing at 6:27 PM - 1 comments



Letters that you never meant to send

Dear Person Who Has Managed To Systematically Destroy Any And All Sympathy And Good Feeling I Might Have Once Had For You Until All That Remains Is A Touch Of Bitterness That Someone As Incompetent And Slow As Yourself Might Receive The Same Degree As Me:

It makes perfect sense to me now why you so adamantly advocate for affirmative action, it really does. When I walked into the room tonight as you "studied" for the comprehensive exam and found your laptop on, music playing, notes and papers scattered all over the entire queen sized bed...and you. On the phone. Once again. Chatting to God-only-knows-who about this and that and so and so's "baby momma."

Maybe if you actually studied once in awhile instead of spending 75% of your time talking on the phone trying to give every person you've ever met a piece of your "wisdom" you might actually deserve this degree. Maybe. Because as mean as this sounds, I've come to conclude that you are simply Not That Smart.

But really though, if you're going to "try" to pass this comprehensive exam, then, well, geez! TRY! You really think they're going to just give you this degree, don't you? You think that simply because you've paid your tuition and showed up to class that somehow that means you've earned this degree. Well, I have no say in whether or not you do end up receiving it, but in my mind, you have already failed to earn it.

You might say, "But I've proven myself by having higher grades here in France."

I call BS.

From what I know of your scores, you have yet to score higher than a C on any test this year (an in class, individual test). The fact that you can boost your grades on the French side where the vast majority of our scores depend on groupwork does not impress me in the slightest. You do not impress me in the slightest.

And I can tell that, that is what drives you crazy about me. You hate that I don't look up to you, that I don't heed your advice and your "words of wisdom." That I don't aspire to be like you in any way. Joe pointed this out to me awhile ago and the more time has gone by the more this seems to be so. All of your phone conversations consist of you telling people what they should do and you HATE that I really don't care what you think about anything.

And you hate that Joe and Poon feel the same way about you as I do. You hate that you're not the queen bee amongst the three of us and this is probably why you pulled away from us in the beginning. When we tried to be friends with you, you said you had to go "to the KFC" to make friends (note: the KFC near our apartment is mostly patronized by black people).

You're always talking about how you're so proud of who you are and how you'll never let anyone change you. Maybe that's your problem. Maybe you should realize that sometimes people can change for the BETTER and maybe this is what you should be striving for. Instead of stagnating in your world of crappy grammar and blaming everyone and everything else for your failures. Maybe you should have looked to yourself and your own short comings instead of blaming the fact that you "only have a bachelor's degree" for your sh*tty job (where you couldn't get promoted even though they were promoting people who only had their high school degrees).

You're so deluded in how perfect and how capable you are that you actually believe this degree will somehow propel you to an income level where your husband and father can both quit their jobs. I repeat: If you couldn't get promoted in a high school level job, having a Master's degree is not really going to help you out. Stop blaming your bachelor's degree. It's not the bachelor's degree's fault.

And I know that in your mind you're sacrificing and "doing the right thing" for your son and yourself, but seriously? If you had any brains at all in that head of yours you would have actually planned this year out. You would have squared away your finances at some point before halfway through the first semester. You, with two mortgages and child care costs to pay should have figured out FIRST whether or not it was economically feasible for you to undertake a full-time program that would not only involve quitting your job but also four and a half months in Europe at a time when the euro is really strong. But that's your biggest problem of all isn't it? You don't think things through. You just do things, like sign up for a finance program even though you don't even know what the hell "finance" really is.

There was a time when I liked you. There was a time when I felt bad for you. There was a time when I genuinely wanted to help you. But you're so...infuriating. You get so upset when people give you constructive criticism out of genuine concern for you (like when Poon suggested that you NOT walk around holding your laptop with one hand by its screen). You're so SURE that you're right even when you've been PROVEN wrong (like the time you insisted in class that "in America, parents are not allowed to smoke if their children are around").

I could go on and on about all the completely obnoxious, inane things that you say and do ("This conversation is done! D-U-N-E! Done!") but really, all I want to say is that I am so glad this is almost over. I am so glad that in a few short days you will be out of my life and I will never have to smell your cooking or listen to you talk to someone for four hours about their husband's "baby momma" situation again. Or, for that matter, listen to you talk to yourself again.

In these past four months, I have not learned a lot from you but I have learned a lot about you. And about where I don't hope to be ten years from now.

Being around you has been one long test of my patience, something which is normally already in short supply. And being around you has made me feel so bad about myself because of how hard it is has been for me to be nice to you, or even just tolerate you. Maybe this was the point. Maybe that was why God put me here with you to begin with - to teach me how to be a better person, and really, I feel sad because if that is the case, then I failed. Miserably. But with only four days to go there probably isn't anything I can do about that except be happy about the fact that pretty soon I will be able to forget that you exist at all.

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wingless was still breathing at 2:33 PM - 0 comments



Thinking online (this post has no real point)

Before I came I wrote about how I'm one of those people who likes my space. Well, yeah, after four months this is really, really getting to me. And even though I am soo glad that my little sister is here, it's really not helping things in terms of the crowding. In fact, it means I now have to share my laptop on top of everything else.

Which, you know, is fine. I love my sister, I wanted her to come and I still want her here. I'm just really not used to being in such close quarters with so many people for such a long period of time. After all, I lived alone for two full years and for some reason I never felt crowded living with Paul. Just really, really happy. Which, I suppose, is why I'm marrying the man. We "mesh" so well it always felt like we were just one person, not two people sharing a space.

I guess part of it is that I'm a person who, when I'm feeling very overwhelmed emotionally, tends to shut off around people. Or I'd like to be able to shut off, close the door and just hide.

Last night I was feeling very "ugh" over some job-search-effort-related-stuff and there were just people everywhere. I hate it when the people around me know I'm depressed and I don't like to show my negative emotions. In fact, even when my grandmother died while I was here I barely cried because I just didn't feel comfortable doing that in front of my roommates. With Paul, I can let these things out because I don't mind telling him everything. If I'm grumpy I just tell him, I'm feeling grumpy and somehow he has this way of making me not grumpy. When I'm being my normal neurotic hyper-obsessive self, he has a way of calming me and reassuring me that things will be okay.

So I guess part of the reason I'm feeling so...antsy...crabby...generally annoyed and wanting to snap...is because I'm away from my security blanket (Paul).

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wingless was still breathing at 1:56 AM - 0 comments

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Who knew?

Proofing my rm's part of the paper and apparently Morgan Stanley is "Morgan Standley."

Goldman Sachs? "Goldman and Sachs."

But best of all, you no longer launch an IPO, you "lunch" an IPO.

And no, these are not just typos because they were used repeatedly throughout the paper.

Ah. I need to quit being so mean but after four months I'm at my wits end and exploding with stories to share with you.

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wingless was still breathing at 12:00 PM - 0 comments



Suffering a fool

Although studying in a foreign university system has been, I believe, a valuable experience, one of the things that has really frustrated me about the French system (or at least the system as it applies to this particular program) is how heavily our grades rely upon groupwork. I don't mind groupwork but I really do not believe that it should constitute more than 25% of your grade and certainly not 100% of it as it does in about 75% of our classes here in France.

I definitely understand the importance and benefit of groupwork, particularly for business/finance students, but I think it is still important to measure individual achievement, especially in the case of students who severely under-perform in each and every class where their grade depends upon only their own work and not that of others. Say hello to the competitive freak in me once again rearing its ugly head, but I honestly believe that people who should fail out of the program due to their complete incompetence and inability to grasp even the simplest concepts relevant to our studies...well...they should actually fail out and not be propped up by the fact that for half of the program they can pretty much piggyback on group members who actually understand the information well enough to get a decent grade.

In one of our classes we're writing a group term paper and guess who I got in my group? Yup, my roommate. While she was on vacation the rest of the group decided it would be best to give her something simple to do, like the history of the company, which to her credit she did turn into me for editing on schedule. But when I looked at it this morning and told her that, because it's a research paper, she needed to cite her work, she gave me this dumbfounded look and an explanation of how she'd have to go through all her work again because she wasn't sure where each part came from. Then she actually asked me if I needed her to add those in before I could turn it into the professor.

UM?

I choked back the urge to ask, "What kind of a stupid question is that?" and politely said, "Of course."

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wingless was still breathing at 4:44 AM - 0 comments

Sunday, April 15, 2007

I'm pretty sure God is testing me...or maybe punishing me

There really is something about Paris in the springtime. Unfortunately, I'm so homesick at this point I would rather be back in Los Angeles stuck in traffic in a rainstorm (ha! rain in LA! hee!).

Things wouldn't be so bad except for one little thing. One not-so-little person who is driving everyone else in the apartment absolutely batty. I've had, um, not great roommates in the past (and some fabulous roommates) but she unquestionably takes the cake. After three peaceful, noise free, stink free days while she was on vacation in the west of France within thirty minutes of her return she had me and the Poon hiding in our rooms with the doors shut and our earphones on.

Why? you ask. Well, let me tell you.

First there was the juice slurping. Not one accidental slurp in her overzealousness to quench her thirst, but a constant, repeated and LOUD "slurp, slurp, slurp" with every damn sip that she took. Shockingly the woman is 34 years old and not 3.4 years old.

After she had finally finished slurping down two cups of juice she preceded to fill the entire apartment with the wretched stench of her fish and fried something or the other cooking. Nevermind that it was nearly midnight and the doors to the bedrooms were open. That's what led to cowering in the room with the doors shut.

But you know what couldn't be blocked out by the paper thin doors? The singing. The off-key singing. The off-key singing of someone who clearly thinks their singing is not so bad and so they don't sing quietly to themselves but very much so out loud in such a way that they obviously think other people might want to hear them sing. That was not even what drove me and the Poon to earphones though, oh no, it gets better.

The coup de grace? She paused in the middle of a song to talk to herself about how she was going to cook and then, and then, she SPELLED THE WORD COOKING. C-O-O-K-I-N-G. Thank you! You know, I almost forgot how it was spelled. But now I know. Now it will forever be committed to my memory.

When I relayed this sad story to The Hubs he laughed and asked if she spells DUMP while on the toilet.

Thankfully I'm not privy to that sort of information. (Although she has gotten in the habit of leaving the bathroom door open when she pees in the early mornings, ugh.)

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wingless was still breathing at 9:04 AM - 0 comments

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The suspense is killing me.

I'm so tired I can barely function. I just spent five minutes doing and redoing a problem because I couldn't get the same answer as the corrections only to realize that I was using an interest rate of 6.5% rather than 6.25%. I think a nap is in order.

Except it's already 8pm here and I have class all day tomorrow which means I have to get up at 7am and won't get home until 6pm and I have a final on Friday and I had two other projects due this week so I haven't had time to study. Until now. Ugh.

I think it's partly the lack of sleep but I'm in an exceptionally crabby mood right now. Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that talking to some of my classmates has me really worried that someone who REALLY can't hack it in this program may slide by and get the degree whether or not this person deserves it. I don't know why this bothers me so much, except for the fact that I came from such a competitive academic background and having someone who I feel is so clearly incompetent getting the same degree as me is, well, kind of insulting.

I mean seriously, how is someone who can't even figure out exchange rates well enough to figure out how many euros they'll get for their dollars going to pass themself off as a Master of International Finance??? How? For the love of...

Told ya I was crabby today.

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wingless was still breathing at 10:53 AM - 0 comments

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Don't drink and idiot.

I've finally reached my limit. I went and re-read all the posts on this page and was completely disgusted by all the whining and poor, pathetic Joyce bullcrap.

Of course, I reserve the right to go back to whining AT ANY MOMENT. So try to enjoy this. Who knows how long it will last?

Ok, so now I don't have anything to say, imagine that.

Well, here's something that gets me all riled up every time I think about it. I'm not sure why exactly, as it has absolutely nothing to do with me; I didn't know the girl who died and I don't remember meeting any of the boys involved even though I apparently have.

The thing of it is, is that most (maybe all) of the boys involved in the accident are in Paul's fraternity and I guess because of that I've sort of prejudged them as a bunch of egotistic goons. I should probably clarify that I don't think ALL frat boys are egotistic goons (only most of them) but that I kind of have something against Paul's fraternity in particular because of their reputation and the fact that most of the people I have been associated with in the past are from fraternities that have nothing good to say about them.

So anyway, the whole thing just gets me all frothy at the mouth because, How! Could! They! Be! So! Dumb! The fact that they killed a girl in one of their own cars is absolutely tragic, but what makes me really angry is that they could have killed a totally innocent bystander who was just trying to get home to family after a long day of whatever. If idiots want to be self-destructive, please go right ahead but don't be destructive in a way where you could easily take out innocent people who want no part of your idiocy.

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wingless was still breathing at 1:45 PM - 0 comments

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Ignorance is just, well, stupid.

I woke up this morning with every intention of trying to be nice to my roommate. I really, really did. Honestly, when I first woke up I was feeling a little irked by her because she woke me up to ask me if I had the phone before checking in the living room first. But I told myself, look, just try to think good thoughts about her and maybe magically you'll feel less annoyed.

And for about thirty minutes it kind of worked. That is, until we got to our first class and had to discuss affirmative action and race.

Now the first time we "discussed" affirmative action on the metro it was bad enough. It was bad enough when she said she didn't care if AA hurt Asians since, from her "experience" most Asians "cheated anyway." Yeah, that was bad enough (especially considering I distinctly remember HER copying off MY work last semester). But today? Oh today she just reached a whole new level of ignorant, racist, bitch.

So she's there defending AA, of course, talking about how it's still necessary and this and that, I jump in a couple times because she's rambling and not giving anyone else a chance to talk. Eventually I'm allowed to get a sentence in and bring up the fact that AA hurts Asians, and technically we are also a minority.

Her response? And please keep in mind that I am NOT embellishing here and have an entire class worth of people to back me up on this...She says: "Well 100% of Asians are smuggled over from China and they just live in those Chinatowns that are all over America and they just stay in those Chinatowns and work in Mr. Chang's grocery store."

Jaws dropped. I was speechless. And my roommate Joe slams his head down into his hands and yells out, "Oh my GOD! That's SO racist!" To which she replies, "No, I'm not being racist." I think I tried to point out to her that statistically Asians are probably the immigrant group with the largest number of college degrees (before coming to America) but she would have none of it. Nope. We all come over in shipping crates and work at Mr. Chang's grocery store in her world.

So, yeah, being nice and trying to "think nice" just went straight out the window after that. I could barely look at her without thinking "What a freaking moron." Luckily, I wasn't alone since she managed to insult almost everyone in the class at some point with her rambling tirades about race. For some reason she's got it in her head that anyone from Africa is black, including all of our Arabic classmates who seemed quite offended at the suggestion. Even after being shot down several times with reasons as to why Arabic does not equal black she STILL spent ten minutes talking about how in her mind (and if it's true to her it must be true period) they ARE black.

UGGGGHHHH...my cat is smarter than this girl. I don't know how I'm going to last two more months. I feel like just being near her is making my IQ drop.

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wingless was still breathing at 10:57 AM - 3 comments

Sunday, March 11, 2007

I can't hold this in anymore

I'm trying really hard not to let this program turn me into a complete bitch. And it's getting pretty tough.

Don't get me wrong, for the most part I like my classmates, I really do. There are just a couple of people that I consider to be complete and utter morons. As Carlos Mencia would say, they're classic "dee dee dee's." How they made it through their undergraduate degrees is beyond me. Whether they will or should make it through this program is not up to me so I just won't comment on that.

Anyway, I have a lot of pet peeves, for one blatant stupidity irks the hell out of me. For example, someone who entered into this (International Finance) program without even knowing what the hell "finance" is makes zero sense to me. The fact that this same person now wants to work with non-profits in a very human resources type position is not so surprising but what is, is when I asked "So maybe an MBA specializing in HR would have been a better program for you?" I got "No, I'm not interested in HR" shot back at me. Hm...okay.

The fact that this same person who was supposedly in a professional working environment for a number of years and yet still doesn't understand that you don't walk up to a professor who's class you've just skipped (as in you literally walk in the moment class ends) and ask him if he can help you find a job...well perhaps it would have surprised me at the beginning of this semester but not at this point. Not even when I asked said person if that was really a good idea and was told, "(The professor) didn't care anyway." Right, cause professors never care when students skip their class for no particular reason.

And the list goes on and on and on and I know that you're probably thinking, well it's not your problem, just ignore it. Trust me. I have. I try. One of the problems is that I share close quarters with said person and am often unable to block out of the sound of said person's voice. And frequent grammar errors. And what really worries me is the fact that this person is (most likely) going to be representing the same degree program that I'm coming out of. Representing it with a significantly lower GPA, but representing it nonetheless, and perhaps lowering the value of my degree with said person's awful grammar and affinity for saying "aks" instead of "ask." And dropping verbs out of sentences (i.e. "why you tryna scare me").

The fact is I'm only in the third class coming out of this program and every single one of my classmates is representing not only themselves but this program and therefore me and it seriously irks/worries/scares the crap out of me that this person is going to be walking around branding my degree.

But at the same time I feel like I'm degenerating into some kind of awful human being who lacks the ability to empathize with this persons um...issues. I don't want to be that person. But the type A, competitive, control freak in me can't help but squirm inside.

I know that this is a test from God. My ability to love those who are difficult to love is being tested. And I feel like I'm failing miserably but I don't know how to turn myself around. I just don't know. And I hate that feeling.

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wingless was still breathing at 11:12 AM - 1 comments

Saturday, March 03, 2007

But I still think she's hot

I used to love Angelina Jolie. I really did. But lately? She's really starting to bug the hell out of me. Especially since she said what she said about her biological daughter Shiloh being "a blob" and feeling "so much more" for her adopted kids.

I know that calling Shiloh "a blob" was taken out of context, but whatever, she just told her kid that she "feels so much more" for her brothers and sisters. Is it really poor Shiloh's fault that she is the biological child of two huge egos Hollywood celebs?

Anyway, I was just reminded about how much Angelina annoys me by this article regarding her latest adoption in Vietnam.

Of course, the argument in Jolie's favor is, "So what? As long as she's saving the little kid from poverty, who cares about the rules?" But the rules exist for a reason - to protect the kids. You screen adoption candidates because certain people aren't great prospects, they don't have stable situations, and bad things can happen. Am I saying we should be worried that Angelina is a bad mom? No. But why should we assume that, just because she's rich and famous, she will necessarily be able to give the kids she adopts a better life? If she's really such a wonderful mother, then let her go through the process like everyone else. She'll be vindicated in the end. The only reason she's circumventing the rules is because she doesn't want to be inconvenienced. Movie-stars get used to being fast-tracked, moved to the front of the line, let in through the side-door. And Angelina is no exception. However, if she's really such a great advocate of adoption as she claims, then she should have more respect for the rules. She shouldn't turn the adoption process into a farce. She should set a better example for other prospective adopters. Her behavior frankly makes her seem very selfish and unconcerned about supporting a system that, after all, exists to keep the kids from harm. But, of course, it's all about Angelina, isn't it? What Angelina wants Angelina gets.

(emphasis mine)

And yes, ever since I moved to Paris, I've been keeping a dirty little secret from y'all...I'm addicted to Perez Hilton, The Superficial and more recently Crabbie's Hollywood and I Don't Like You In That Way. Feel free to throw stones at me or whatever. I also got my roommates (Joe and Poon) addicted too.

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wingless was still breathing at 11:36 PM - 0 comments

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

It's true, you get what you pay for

So um, remember that time I was on hold "forever" with the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works?

Try two hours, seventeen minutes, forty-five seconds and counting.

French Social Security rules.

NOT!

I'm sorry for every mean thing I've ever said about Blue Cross because at least they answered their damn phone.

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wingless was still breathing at 6:55 AM - 0 comments

Thursday, February 15, 2007

I see London, I see France...

If you're looking for pictures...well there aren't any yet. Instead I'm going to tell you about how I'm cranky and it's partly due to PMS but also partly due to the fact that I didn't get enough sleep yesterday which by the way was Valentine's Day which by the way I spent waiting to talk to my fiance on the phone except his plane to JFK ended up being diverted to Atlantic City where he spent 5-6 hours on the runway and then his cell phone died and they finally let him out into the airport where he found a computer and sent me an email but by then it was already 1 a.m.

That was a fun run-on sentence, wasn't it?

So now it is today but almost tomorrow and I STILL haven't actually been able to speak to Paul on the phone because he's been in some bank loan conference thingy all day and now I'm pretty sure his phone has died because it tends to die after simply being on for more than 2 hours.

So what does everybody think about me maybe telling Paul we should move to Paris because one of the professors offered to help me get into a couple companies I'd really love to get into but he only has connections in France. And possibly London. But who wants to go to crappy London where the food sucks and gum costs 15 dollars? Not me.

Paris I could tolerate for a couple years.

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wingless was still breathing at 1:41 PM - 0 comments

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Leaking

Trust me, I know I'm no picnic to live with. I tend not to be the neatest person, sometimes I leave dishes out for longer than I should and more often than not I keep weird hours. The thing is, I think for the most part I recognize the things that I do which can be bothersome to roommates and I usually make an effort to minimize these things as much as possible.

All that being said, I don't like having roommates mainly because I hate confrontation and I hate having to do things like tell a roommate that the copious amounts of bengay she rubs on herself smells like buttcrack and gives me (and, I think, everyone else in the entire apartment) a giant headache. Plus I have a lot of pet peeves (like people who say "libary" or drop "are" and "is" out of sentences) and of course with my luck I end up living with someone who is constantly poking at the little grammar nazi who lives inside me.

It's amazing the things you don't notice about a person until you're forced to share a tiny space with them for a month.

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wingless was still breathing at 6:24 AM - 1 comments



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