Stupid Drivers!

Someone sideswiped M's car sometime between 5:30pm last night and noon today. They broke his driver-side taillight and his side mirror. Of course they didn't leave insurance info. If you hear anyone talking about doing this, please let us know. I hope it was some drunk fuck who sustained some damage to their car and wonders what happened last night. Whoever did it definitely has some gold paint transfer on their car.

This could have been so much worse. Luckily, M is friends with a Honda mechanic who probably has all the spare parts needed. It makes me mad, is all.

My days off this week were split because of xmas. I don't feel like I've gotten time off because we had to do "family get-together" on xmas, and tonight we have to go to a friend's house for a birthday party. I don't have to go, but I'm obligated. I wish I had internet on my phone so I could watch the Blazers game while I'm there. I don't like being hugged by hippies that I don't know, and that's gonna be happening.

A Long Friday

It snowed again last night, and the silence outside woke M and I up early. Really early--out of bed before 5am. We made boozy coffee, steak and sweet potato hashbrowns for breakfast. Yum.

My plan for today had been to go to the Social Security office today and apply for a replacement card. I lost my secondary wallet last week and have been dealing with that ever since. I swear I won't ever carry my Social Security card or account numbers with me ever again, I promise. My lunch hours and time after work have been filled with phone calls to credit agencies (and getting yelled at by the Experian agent for paying for my bank's monthly fraud service instead of theirs), closing and re-opening checking and savings accounts. I gave my car insurance my new checking account number, only to find out that my payment had been posted to the old account the same day I closed it. So back to the bank for a letter to prove I'd closed my account due to fraud.

Anyway, I still need to get a new Social Security card. It had snowed overnight, the weathermen were saying how slippery the roads were, and M saw a minivan do a 360 in front of our house. It's probably gonna be a couple of weeks before I can get to the Social Security office. They don't do anything about your number unless actual fraud is committed, so I might as well not not deal with the bad weather.

So, I lost my wallet because I wasn't paying attention. Hopefully whoever found it looked for cash, threw the rest away, and it's buried in a landfill. Hopefully none of the homeless who hang out in my work's parking lot know how to commit identity theft. I console myself that my social security number can be accessed any number of ways besides by my own stupidity. I wonder which illegal alien is gonna have my name. The odds of someone using my spare keys are slim. I'm gonna be reading my monthly credit reports like a hawk.

The weather's been really shitty all week. Oregon is unable to handle ice, and I'm tired of white-knuckling the drive to work. I'm tired of my car doors icing shut every single time, and having to spend a half hour to get the car's windows scraped and defrosted.

This is the worst possible time to have bad weather, workwise. The recession has been really hitting us, and the ice & snow is making it so much worse. I've never seen it like this.

Peggy also died a few years ago during Christmastime, during shitty weather. I couldn't fly home because the weather in Colorado was so bad, and it was Christmas retail.

This week has been a real grind. It's been nice staying inside and not having to deal with it. This week really wore me down. So fuck it, why bother getting my social security card right away if I don't need it?

I made spaghetti carbonara (mmm, bacon) for dinner, then we watched the Heat beat the Lakers. We flipped off Kobe after his final shot didn't go in. Fuck Kobe. Brandon Roy got 52 points against Phoenix tonight. Close game all night. Right now, Denver is getting their asses handed to them by Cleveland. Cleveland's uniforms tonight are ugly. They remind me of McDonalds.

Christmas on Mars

We're watching the Flaming Lips' "Christmas on Mars", and I think it's gonna be 86 minutes of my life that I can't get back. Sorry, Chad. But I did recognize Fred Armisen right off. I think I'll go take a nap now.

Picadilly!

We scored some vinyl finds at the Picadilly Flea Market. Actually, M found a bunch of stuff:

ZZ Top--Tres Hombres
a couple Joe Walsh albums (I'm too lazy to get up from the couch and see)
Joan Jett--Bad Reputation
a Johnnny Cash

I got: B-52s--Whammy and Billy Squier--Don't Say No. I love that Billy Squier album. When I still had Christine the Datsun, Eric and I would rock out to a badly warped cassette of it.

We're listening to the ZZ Top right now, and it's not half bad. They had some good stuff before they became an MTV era novelty act.

P.S. Karma's a bitch, isn't it, OJ?

Lazy-Ass Friday

Digital Cable is pretty awesome. Last night I watched two NBA games, Celebrity Rehab, and Food Network until 3am. Needless to say, I don't feel like doing much today.

Grrr! UPS was supposed to deliver my Threadless t-shirt today. As of 6:15am it was "out for delivery." I tracked it at 4pm, and UPS says, "A CORRECT STREET NUMBER IS NEEDED FOR DELIVERY. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THIS INFORMATION." AKA: the driver was too lazy to get out of his truck to look for my house, which is directly behind the apartment building in front of it. I've received UPS packages before, so I'm guessing that the usual driver has the day off. I called UPS to tell them my address is correct and behind another building, so now it's supposed to be delivered on Monday. Here's the new tracking message: "A DELIVERY CHANGE REQUEST FOR THIS PACKAGE WILL BE PROCESSED / THE PACKAGE IS BEING HELD FOR FUTURE DELIVERY. UPS WILL ATTEMPT DELIVERY ON THE DATE REQUESTED." And this is why I usually have stuff shipped to work. When M has stuff shipped UPS to our house, he doesn't have problems. And my shirt would've been perfect for Halloween, too.

Tonight I'm going to watch the Blazers game and whatever awesomeness digital cable has to offer. M has a gig tonight with that band, but I'm not going. Tomorrow is the Picadilly Flea Market. The last one (my first) was pretty cool. I plan on going whenever they have one on a Saturday.

A Fun Thursday Night Was Had

I met up with Katie and Dusty at Davis' for a friend's birthday dinner. The poor service and the fact that I never got my change back on my beer reinforced my dislike for the place. Granted, it was $1.50 change on a five, but maybe if I wasn't a member of the working poor, the principle of it wouldn't bother me. Especially when I asked for my change, and she said she'd bring it.

Davis' sure is pretty looking. I like the color scheme. However, the menu is too chi-chi and spendy for my low-wage job taste. I'm not a yuppie or yuppie-in-training, or aspiring to be one, and that is the crowd that it desires & draws. I am normal folk who like kicking it with normal folk. The positive I can give Davis' is that you can dress casually and still fit in. And that their burger is the shit--get it with blue cheese and bacon.

Next we got dinner (mmm chicken strips!) and drinks at Horsehead. I like Horsehead because all kinds of people go there. You've got your resident alcoholics, business people getting a drink after work, aging hipsters, troubled hipsters. It has more of a feel of a neighborhood bar with awesome food than its uptight prissy cousin across the street.

M was supposed to meet up with us when his band practice ended, but of course, some stupid bullshit happened like it always does. Katie and Dusty walked me home because M's band practice didn't get started until late, and we were ready to leave by then. Anyone got a band my BF can jam with?

Anyway, the three of us hung out at my house for awhile. They got to check out the Memory Foam mattress pad, and we talked about all kinds of pop culture. I wish I got to hang out with Katie and Dusty more often because I like them so much. They are super-cool and we think alike on a lot of the same things. I'm glad they're my friends.