Resting up for a wild next few weeks

Currently writing from Phoenix, Arizona, right now. I’m on vacation hanging out w/ the family. We had a good time visiting San Diego and I enjoyed the trip immensely. We took a couple days to visit the beach and stay in a nice hotel where we could walk everywhere. On the way to and from California, we stopped at all the cheesy tourist stops you can contemplate. (Pictures!!)

A pretty vacation photo, originally uploaded by N-Sai. [Full set]

It will be bittersweet symphonies a-go-go when I go back to ATL because there’s so much to be done at work and outside of work and just in general. My life is more complex than it ever has been, and that’s a good thing. It’s not just working all the time or studying all the time or what have you, but rather a nice mixture of all elements of a good life. This can only get better. I mean, I just got my first approval for a credit card and I’m going to have one for the first time, ever. Since the economy went to pot, I’ve been unable to get one. I had to take out a loan through the credit union and pay it off (and wait until my fraud flag expired — in regards to a couple instances of potential identity theft in the now-distant past) before I started having any luck with credit card companies.

But… I was just kinda freaking out about my timetables for the next few weeks… this could get wild and wacky. Here’s the absolute bare minimum of what needs to happen, and when:

• By August 28: I need to make it through the conventions coverage supreme (like a Taco Bell taco with all the fixins, for lack of a better term), with the DNC being fairly immediate upon my arrival, and also make my way through the RNC as well.
• By September 1: I need to have made it through the Dragon*Con in one piece, and potentially *in* a one-piece. It’s up in the air what I’ll be dressing as, but I know I will be doing something. Might have to look up a comic book store or costume shop or just hit up Psycho Sisters or another similar shop to find something fun that I can wear.
• By September 13: I need to be moved out of my old apartment and moved into a new one. The olde place has already been leased and a new occupant will be moving in by the 19th. Good luck hacking the cucaracha action, suckers! (Is that mean?)
• By September 18: I need to be in Beverly Hills for the Murray thingy, something I’m not even close to being ready for. I need to get plane tickets, figure out the itinerary, write my bio again (note to self), figure out where I’m staying… this all has to happen pretty soon.

So yeah, busy times await. But I am starting to get a little excited about all this.

Holy Smokes!

A spider just dropped on me from the ceiling! Eek! A Brown Recluse? I hope not. But this is why I needed to create an “Express Posts” category. And this is the kind of stuff that could go on Twitter, too.

Testing 1, 2, 3

This is just a test of the 57channels emergency alert system. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Disregard that annoying tone. It’s not important. There are alleged storms and even alleged tornadoes sprouting up around the state, so stick here and we’ll keep you posted. Nothing here, though, just some scattered thunderstorms and lightning last night.

Oh yeah, about the tornado

Shirley, you’ve heard about the tornado. The damage is slowly being cleaned up. The photo at left is from when they were wiping up all the water inside the atrium when it rained the Monday after the storm. Vacuums and everything were implemented. Coincidentally, this all happened on pi day.

Good to have you back

Today, thanks to the efforts of a kind stranger, I was reunited and it felt oh, so good. Not reunited with an old friend or a black-sheep relative, but reunited with my lost wallet. That pocket-sized polyester casing holds the keys to my identity and finances. Whether or not carrying such a valuable item on one’s person is a prudent idea, I can’t say, but it’s good to have you back, old friend.

Looking at it, you can tell it’s had a rough journey. (Of course the majority of this damage came from the inside of my purse(s)). The MARTA monthly pass and small bit of cash inside were stripped from it, and everything else was left intact. Who knows what filth it went through, what cockroaches and other vermin crawled over it while it sat so destitute at the bottom of the train tracks.

It’s hard to say what happened to it, really. After disastrous experiences like this, wallets rarely like to speak of the horrors they’ve seen. I can only go off the anecdotes of witnesses such as the credit union representative who left me a mildly unsettling message on my voice mail at work:

“Please call back immediately. It is imperative that you contact me as soon as you receive this message.”

After I listened to the message, my heart was racing and my adrenaline was surging. I was certain for sure that someone had broken into my financial fortress and tried to make hell for me. Unfortunately, I have past experience with such things, and have little desire to improve upon that experience. I was on hold for a long time, freaking out as I contemplated all the forbidden charges being racked up on my account. My mind went wild in those few minutes, imagining wild spending sprees and Duck-Tales-inspired dives through piles of golden coins. I could see my Web account access showing massive amounts of money being deducted (since, of course, I have massive amounts of money).

So I eventually got through and she told me that my wallet had in fact been found. Or rather, that a man had called to say he found my wallet and wanted to talk to me. She then proceeded to tell me that this man had basically defied death by jumping into the track area to get it and then quickly getting out before the next train came. (Well, this is MARTA we’re talking about.)

This kinda floored me, so I got the digits for this dude and called him. He seemed to be an average Joe. Or Jimmy, rather. That was his name. He said he did it because it was the holiday season and he didn’t want anyone to go down into the track area and use it for ill purposes. He told me he would take a bus and then a train to get down to where I work. He had just moved to A-Town and didn’t really know his way around. This was actually going to be his first trip to the Centennial Olympic Park area. I thanked him and he said he would come over to my workplace. In the meantime, I dashed off to the gift shop to buy a small gift. So he found his way over and called from the concierge, and an accomplice accompanied me down to the floor for safety reasons.

And there he was. An average guy who felt it was necessary to get that wallet. He told me that he’d gotten to Lindbergh Station (a point where the north line splits off into a Y, and typically a very busy station) and seen a wallet down there. That’s the same place where I realized I’d losst the wallet. He passed by it and then came back again and saw it. At that point, he decided the risk was worth it and got it. It’s a considerable risk, especially given that there is an electrified bar on one side of the track. Luckily, the wallet was not on that side. And if a train comes, it probably won’t be able to stop in time. Plus, I’ve been on trains on a few occasions where the operator has BREEZEd right through the station by accident. So he got the wallet and called my hair salon (yes, I have a poor-woman’s hair salon for my monthly trim off the ends of all five inches of my hair) and the credit union to see if they would make some effort to reach me.

Gotta say, I was touched. I gave him a gift basket and a $20 bill as a token of my appreciation, and my oft-tested faith in humanity was restored. I already have a new driver’s license and have applied for new cards, so that part isn’t so much of a big worry for me. Those cards were set to expire anyway I guess, so we’re just taking care of that a little early. It’s more the identity documents I wondered about. My only question now is, what happened? And how can I prevent this from happening?

On the way home tonight, I coincidentally saw a man get down onto the tracks and search around and then get back onto the platform. It’s quite possible to get something off the tracks and live to tell the tale, apparently, so just leaving it there on the tracks could have still led to ID theft. This sight seemed odd because that’s something I just never see, except on this day. The track area is so full of garbage and rats that you don’t want to go near it.

My inner non-cocaine-using Sherlock Holmes is currently conducting an investigation. Retracing my steps last Thursday night after work, I last remember seeing the wallet at Peachtree Center as I entered the turnstile and sticking it in my pocket (or — I hope not — setting it on the bench next to me). By the time I was exiting the train at Lindbergh, I knew I didn’t have my wallet anymore. So, if someone found my wallet strewn about the train tracks of that station, it’s probably because a person found the wallet and took what they wanted before discarding the rest. There’s also a slim possibility that someone picked my pocket along the way, but I’m not sure. One thing is certain, I think it’s highly unlikely that I dropped the wallet between the crack of the train and platform as I was getting out at Lindbergh. By that point, I knew I didn’t have it anymore.

It’s a mystery. I will try to be more careful from now on, and thank my lucky stars that everything has gone smoothly, so far. That wallet threatened to ruin my weekend (although that didn’t quite happen beyond some hours in the police station and on the phone) and possibly a little more. Nothing materialized though. Good to have you back, wallet of mine.

Pumpkin spice and everything nice

I like to go to Starbuck’s every now and then, and I’m not even talking about the one roughly 50 feet from my Place of Employment. I would rather go to a locally owned coffee house (that serves quality coffee), but it’s tough to find indie businesses in my corner of the OTP without a bit of travel. Anyways so the last two times I went to the particular ‘Bucks that I always go to, I have been the “every 50th customer.” This means I am eligible for TWO entries in the October drawing to win $1,000. I’m gonna give it a shot, you know? I figure this isn’t going to happen every day.

And by the way, I’m kicking myself for repeatedly ordering the Pumpkin Spice Latte, which cost me more than purchasing an actual pumpkin. It’s not unpleasant, but it bears resemblance to neither pumpkins nor spice. It is a fine and enjoyable latte, however. It’s a different story when tasting pumpkin beer, however. That stuff doesn’t sit well with me. The last time I tried some I thought it tasted vaguely like, um, “upchuck,” and I didn’t make it beyond a few sips. I’m tempted to give it another shot, but of course, that’s what I always say about the Pumpkin Spice Latte. My picks at Starbucks are straight-up cappuccino, the cinnamon dolce latte and the chai latte. Even then I have to be careful to just drink a little at a time and spread it out over a few hours to avoid getting an uncomfortable stomach-irritating caffeine rush, and you know, to make it last. I’ve tried non-dairy and that helps a lot, but the soy milk doesn’t touch real milk. If I want something a little lighter I’ll go for a green tea lemonade, lightly sweetened. Delish.

[/whining]

So… beyond that, I endorse Stephen Colbert for president. To be quite honest, he’s the only candidate I have any sort of affection or affinity for.

I should also recap my recent journey to Stone Mountain Park for the pumpkin festival (featuring pumpkins that are probably NOT picked directly from a local patch, but I can pretend, right?). It was good times, and it was a lot easier to get there than I expected. Admission to the park itself is free (although attractions are not) so it’s a nice place to go and chill. I’m definitely going to go back and try out ALL the rides if I possibly can. I love the little touristy village inside the park. It reminds me of a Cracker Barrel on a massive scale. (And Stone Mountain Village itself has a charming little Main Street). What kind of weirds me out is the carving on the side, which is of course the main attraction of the whole thing. It’s a monument to the Old South, and you see a lot of, I dunno, characters going to see it. Then there was the kid who asked me if I was “from around here” and the lack of transit in the direct vicinity of the park. For these and other reasons, what I’m getting at here is that I sense that the crowd at this park is more representative of the population outside the city than the people inside it. If you catch my drift. And then there was a bunch of guys who drove by me and yelled “Hey!” to scare me. They laughed when I jumped. I don’t know, it was kind of a strange atmosphere over there peoplewise. Still, an enjoyable time, and I’ll definitely go back.

What I really miss is Young’s Farm in Dewey, Arizona, which used to have the most awesome pumpkin festivals featuring pumpkins grown right on the farm (if I understand correctly). I know I went at least once with my roommate at the time, and I’m glad. That place was totally awesome, but sadly, the owners had to sell it out for some reason or another, and now they can build a subdivision there for heat-weary Phoenician escapees. And by the way…

A CHALLENGE TO THOSE LOOKING AT THIS
Finally, I’m calling on all my readerses (I assume there’s at least a handful of you out there) to search for the term “adult balloon animals.” I’m currently the No. 5 result when you search for those words in Google, and the goal should be to become the No. 1 source of complete non-information on adult balloon animals. Together we can work together to make this happen.

Don’t Tase me, sis!

Pardon the bad joke. Look, I don’t have an opinion about *that* and I’m trying to remain impartial.

But anyways… according to my alma mater’s newspaper, for which I used to work, Taser International is coming out with a much more stylish, feminine kind of Taser. This is “shocking” news. Heh. Maybe they’ll offer custom skins and stick-on bling too, and BlueTooth compatibility.

Factoid: Taser International is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s interesting. Say what you will, but with GoDaddy and Cold Stone Creamery alone, the ‘Dale is making some attempt to rock the Kokopelli-adorned free world.

As an aside, what is up with leaving your BlueTooth cell phone earpiece cemented to the ear for hours, even when one is not on the phone? I see this a lot and I think it borders a little on the ridiculous.

Running commentary

Some commentary on life as of late.

1. Finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was a good read. The ending was satisfying. I just felt the pacing was off (much too slow to start) and the ending could have been better conceived and executed. Still, a pretty darn good read and a decent way to finish. I think adapting this book to film will be a fairly easy process if they cut out all the flotsam for the beginning and maybe play up the ending a little more. I’m really excited to see the 6th and 7th books adapted for the big screen. They’ll make excellent movies. The 6th book, by the way, is awesome. So at this point, I’ve read the 1st, 6th and 7th books and seen all the movies thus far. If I decide to backtrack on the reading, I might just skip (or skim) the second and go straight to the third.
2. This has not been a good weekend for air travel. Check the news.
3. I’m beginning to rethink the romanticism I sometimes feel about the college years. Those were pretty savage times. Did it have to be that way? I don’t think so. Knowing what I know now, there are different approaches I could have taken. But to what end? Maybe those occasionally fruitless or painful experiences were essential. In fact, they are essential. And the funny thing is, the journalism landscape now is totally different than it was when I was just starting out. It’s a lot more me-friendly now. Maybe ridiculously so. ALSO: The West has a different attitude from the South and from the East. The people I went to college with are almost a world away from the people I currently work with. People out here, whether from the area or from somewhere else, are just a lot more chill. Relaxed. No hurry. No rush. No pretense (relatively speaking). Be that good or bad, I’m not sure. But this attitude is less prevalent in Arizona, which picks up on the fast-paced nature of Los Angeles, although to a lesser degree. Image is of greater importance in Arizona. People are more sarcastic. Sometimes bitter, in fact. I don’t know why, but I know I had to tone it down a little when I moved here so that I fit in a little better. Somehow the traditionalism of the South cuts down on a lot of things: women wearing clothing that is too revealing, use of bad words, use of sarcasm, etc. But you know… for the most part, it’s that same sun-belt mentality of sunshine and possibility. That I like.
4. Went out, bought a vacuum and two area rugs, and then took them to Starbucks with me. And then I carried both these items on the train.

Let me make a comment for Chrissakes

I can’t make comments for the current time period. This sucks. It says I’m making them “too quickly.” Hmmm. Well it *is* my blog.

In Iowa news: They’re going to have a Harry Potter carved out of butter at the state fair this year. Unfortunately, I’m planning to be in Arizona rather than illustrious Iowa at that time. Hey, if I were going to Iowa, I could get my dingblasted birth certificate AND stare at fictional characters gloriously represented in butter at the same time. Dang. In Arizona, of course, they do have a cactus carved out of butter most years, so I guess it’s a tradeoff.

The Chinese Takeout Ninja is back again. Yesterday, while in the middle of a really suspenseful Harry Potter passage, as rain beat down pretty hard outside, I heard a sort of faint scratching noise, and then I looked back into the kitchen and was surprised to see one of those folded takeout menus moving in and out of my door crack in a sort of a sawing motion. It was like some wizard (or maybe just a jerk) on the other side was like, “Hahaha, I bet we can really annoy her by doing this!” Finally the person or thing or whatever left it jammed in the door and booked it. I never saw who or what it was. Whoever it is is driving me batty because I can’t use any more of these. I’ve got so many. And it’s not just one restaurant. It’s practically every restaurant on Roswell Road. Sigh.

I had a post office adventure to go pick up that iPod Nano that mom sent me. I like it. I’m using it right now. This is my fourth MP3 player. The ones that came before it died after two months or less due to cheap construction. The iPod Nano feels solid and the click-wheel thing is really nice once you get used to how it works. My only gripe is that Apple has rigged this thing to babysit you to some degree; you can’t just drag and drop music, but you can drag and drop other kinds of files. To gain access to the music, you have to search around the Internet for one of the many workarounds that have been created. For example, I wanted to save the music that was already on it, so used a third-party app to extract it before my first sync. (I’m not stealing music per se; it belongs in the family and we have the original CDs). Otherwise, illustrious iTunes would have wiped the iPod clean before copying a new set of files to the device.

I ate at the World Peace Cafe. I’m not a big vegetarian-vegan type person, but I enjoyed the food. (Unfortunately, I was very tempted to stop at Burger King immediately afterward.) This place rocks. They even have mint juleps. I also went to this noodle place that has great iced tea selections and decent food.

I wanted to shop at Psycho Sisters, but it was closed. This is a consignment store that sells all kinds of retro stuff. It’s cool.

I attended a Harry Potter party thingy at Barnes & Noble. Yeah. Quiet down there in the peanut gallery, please. The one nearest me had costumed people from local radio theater reading parts of the book. At the stroke of midnight, the players received the new book and began reading the first few pages. They did a good job reading the passages in character, given that none of them appeared to have seen this new book before. The guy dressed as Snape was particularly impressive. His cape was long and imposing. People had to step out of his way to avoid tripping him. It was a good look for him.

I have not bought the new book yet. I will do it eventually, but I’m still on the sixth book. I already heard a little bit about how the last book ends and I guess it can wait until I’ve spent the time reading the book before it. The fun isn’t the destination, but the journey.

I think it’s impressive that this book has developed such a following and that people dig it so much. I hope it does a bit of good for our collective psyches. Honestly, watching some parts reminded me of the feeling I got the first time I saw the Star Wars movies. It’s beyond comprehension, really. And for once, it really lives up to the lofty hype.

New York shoot, I mean state, of mind

I’m on the phone with my mom AS I’M TYPING RIGHT NOW and we’re talking about that shooting at the New York New York Hotel and Casino on early Friday morning, which  is where we stayed during the aforementioned vacation. The shooter just stood on the balcony that comes off the strip overpasses and started firing into the casino. It’s freaky, especially if you’ve been in that hotel and you know how it’s laid out.

Mom says she has an iPod nano that she can’t use, so she might send it to me so I can break another MP3 player. That would be awesome.