Okay, I take it back, resolutioners can go suck my metal-enhanced cock.
Got to the gym tonight and all 6 treadmills were full. Including with one of my favorite gym goers, the treadmill walker. Yes, I know there are reasons why someone would just want to walk, but honestly, go hop on an eliptical and let someone who wants to actually use the treadmill for what it was designed for, running, use it.
Grrr.
Ah, early January. That time when every Tom, Dick and Sally comes out to the gym with hopes of shaping up for the new year. That time when these ‘resolutioners’ take up space in the pool, cardio and weight rooms, trying (and failing miserably) not to look clueless about how to use the equipment, all the while making the space and the process more confusing than it ever needs to be.
I think I’ve finally mellowed in my approach to them. I used to not-quite-snarl at them, and inside I’m still disdainful, but mainly I ignore them now, or politely ask them to move (and just as politely answer questions if asked), and just general try to stay out of their way until this burst of energy dissipates and they go back into their soda, sweets and (pseudo) Atkins/South Beach/faddish-diet induced comas.
The cooking I started this weekend continued through today. Made a big batch of homemade soy chai (caffeine free) and a similarly large batch of hummus. A touch too much olive oil taste in it right now, but I think that’ll be mellowed out somewhat once I let it sit and meld together. Added cumin this time, and I liked the effect it had. Will have to remember that for the next batch.
Otherwise I did cold wash (yay for having clean exercise gear for the week) and took out the big stack of empty boxes that was in the living room from all the holiday packages. Is nice to have a clean area. Now if I could just get rid of the extra futon mattress (anyone need a full-size futon mattress?) it’d be really and truly empty. Still have some boxes of financial records I need to shred, but those can wait for now.
Drained the batteries on both iPods completely and recharged them. Rode my bike for 40 minutes (still a tad gun shy there as the last ride caused some IT band pain – had a few tinges there today, which seemed to be helped when I rode more forward in the saddle than I normally do – might have to get the seat adjusted forward again when I go in for the first checkup). May do a few more things this evening, but for now, it’s zone out in front of the TV/Nintendo DS time.
I’ve done my southern roots proud and had my black-eyed peas, served up in a vegan version of hoppin’ john. Alas, I did not make cornbread or collard greens, but I did make the peas, and that was the important part, according to my grandmother.
Otherwise, the new year has thus far been nice and quiet.
I did my traditional new years day run. Since recovering from mono back in 99/00, and making my first run on new year’s day 2000, I’ve made it a tradition to run on that day. No heart rate monitor, no watch, no music, just whatever clothes are needed for the weather, my shoes, and me. Was a good run this afternoon, my first outside in a while.
I apologize to those of you who’ve been so kind in your emails, calls or text messages. As you may have figured out by now, I’ve been dealing with some pretty nasty depression of late. Right now I just want to get moved to a new place, get settled there, get away from the bugs and the loud music, and see where it is I’m going from there. This has not been helped by the lovely cold sore that popped up yesterday morning with none of the usual warnings (no tingling, etc.). Woke up and there the little fucker was. Thankfully it’s progressed along just as quickly and the meds I have seem to be helping speed it along. ‘Tis past the painful stage and onto just plain annoying. But it did not help my mood any yesterday, and it just reinforced the decision to stay at home and just ruminate on stuff.
The good part of this, however, has been that I’ve been cooking up a storm. In additon to the aforementioned hoppin’ john, I’ve made roasted butternut squash, breakfast tofu scramble, barbeque baked lentils, and garlic roasted asparagus for various meals. I’ll have leftovers galore this week for lunches, which is better than buying stuff on campus any day of the week.
Still working on this year’s uberlist. Did learn some things from the past year’s list, and I want to make this thing work.
So, looked over this past year’s Uberlist 2005, and listed below is what I accomplished off the list (not bad, at 63 items done out of 105). Some of these were rather nebulous goals, but I felt like I met the ones listed below (there were some others that, while partially successful, did not make this list). Overall, I think I did okay at it. Working on the upcoming year’s list, and will post that after the new year begins. Some of the unfinished goals will carry over, some will be modified. In any case, this is as close to a year-end wrap-up as you’re going to get out of me.
Uberlist 2005
Its four in the morning and I just had to call security to come break up the party next door. There’s loud Tejano music (or is it Norteño? I can’t tell, and frankly I don’t know that I really care) coming through the wall, loud enough for me to understand the lyrics (if I spoke Spanish, that is), as well as drunken Spanish being spoken, over the music, loud enough for me to understand (again, if I spoke Spanish). Oh, and some of them are singing along now, too. Badly.
I may have to kill someone soon if they don’t stop. Four in the morning on a Sunday. And they wonder why I want to move?!?!
Okay, so the stuff I ordered from Amazon three days ago, and that supposedly shipped out on Wednesday hasn’t arrived yet, but the AppleCare™ agreement for my iBook that I ordered at 5:57 pm last night is here. Riddle me that one, kiddies.
Closed one card in its entirety today, lowered the interest rate on one of the remaining ones, and removed a third one from my wallet.
I called the large servicer of my two main cards to dump the low-limit ($700) bank-I’m-not-with-any-more visa I had with them. Since I no longer have an account at said bank, it’s not needed for overdraft protection, and I don’t have particularly fond memories of the bank anyway, so Die, Die, Die. It was my oldest credit card, which is supposedly worth keeping on the report, but screw it, I was simply ready (emotionally) to get rid of the thing. It had been the little credit card I started with, waaaay back under a previous bank, and it had been one of the most reasonable ones for making payments and interest rates and what not, but as soon as previous and not-with-any-more merged, not-with-any-more farmed out their card serving to the large servicer instead of handling it in-house, and the servicer promptly jacked up the interest rate on the card. Jerks.
They did get rid of the card, but in a sneaky way. The servicer merged the credit limit into the other visa I have with them (upping it by the aforementioned $700), and somehow merged the accounts so that the remaining visa now looks like it’s the old one, to keep the “cardholder since” longevity. Whatever. So long as a card died today, I’m happy. The old one is now tacked to my bulletin board, along with the other ones I’ve paid off.
Oh, and the servicer was so happy with me for completely paying off the cards that they lowered the interest rate on the remaining card to their lowest available one. One that is less than half what I had on the card a year ago, and is actually lower than the original rate I’d had waaay back when under the previous bank. Wunderbar.
DiscoverCard™, on the other hand, did not want to play when I called about an interest rate deduction. Instead of processing a rate reduction over the phone, as they’ve done the past 3-4 times I’ve talked to them., they’re sending me paperwork to fill out (!!!!!) to request a rate decrease from the current one, which is also now somehow a floating prime+ rate instead of the fixed rate I’ve always had with them. So that got the card removed from the wallet so it won’t be used. Don’t want to play nice, I don’t have to give you any business – no transaction fees for you! Meh. Not like their “cash back” rates are any good anyway, unless you’re participating in one of their specials. AmEx has better return rates (on paper, at least).
And at this point, it’s “who can give me the most for giving them the business” when it comes to cards. I’m going to try AmEx once their new card arrives and see how I like them. I’ve heard very good things about them, and I like the options available on their web site (payments can be made every 2-3 days, not every 8 [!!!], nor do you have to “schedule” payments several days in advance before they credit to the account), so we’ll see how that works. No more carry-over balances for this man, that’s for sure.
Is much happier to be in this position than the one I was in a year ago, owing out the whazoo and begging for rate reductions to get rid of balances faster, and not seeing any end in site to the debt. I still have a good chunk of debt (student loans – oy!), but there’s an end in sight, and I’m in a much better position to actually be able to plan for things like, say, buying a place of my own now, rather than simply spending all my money and psychic energy dealing with existing debt. Definitely a happier place to be.
Equifax seems to have finally realized that I am, in fact, Moose II and not Moose, Sr., nor Moose III. I can’t get to the actual file yet – they’ve not yet combined the two – but I did go over the credit accounts in the duplicate account in my name and they were all mine. So now I wait another week and call back to try to weasel them out of get an updated, corrected credit report from them. Finally all three bureas should be up to date and happy now, which makes for a very happy Moose.
Speaking of happy Moose, it’s the solstice, meaning days can get longer once more and I can get more sunlight. More sunlight = happy Moose. I don’t do well in all-dark, and would probably be a total mess if I had to live somewhere near or above the artic circle. Give me warmth and sunlight (and yes, even humidity) any day of the week over this cold, dark crap we lovingly refer to as “winter.”
And on yet another happy Moose note, I have been happily floating through the day on a dose of prescription sudephedrine. Whee! I’m guessing I picked up the cold on the train, as none of my relatives were sick this past weekend (normally there’s one family “assassin” who brings the rest of us the annual holiday cold, but none were in evidence this time). No biggie, it’ll be gone soon enough, but in the meantime I’m nice and mellow (and on legal substances, much to the chagrin of one of the older attorneys here at work who, it seems from his comments, would have preferred me mellow on something more… organic).
Of all the Christmas traditions my family has, I think the one I love the most is that Mom always makes stockings for us. When we were growing up it was usually candy, an orange, a toothbrush, maybe a little toy. As we got older there were variations on the theme – small umbrellas, different candies, other useful things. Eventually, it dwindled down to just candy, until one year when I was in graduate school, Mom decided since my brother and I were both now over 21, we were too old for candy and she was going to get us more adult stuff.
Miniature bottles of booze.
This year, knowing that I like bourbon and/or whiskey, I got 11 mini bottles in a variety of those two liquors. Including, I might add, some Knob Creek, which I’d been meaning to try as a variation on my favorite, Maker’s Mark.
So when you see these mini bottles show up on my liquor table at a party, now you know why.
But this is still definitely my favorite tradition.