Customer Service Isn't Dead (Really, I Mean it)

Let me share my wonderful Tivo experience with you. As most of you know, I am currently staying on Coronado Island at the Navy Lodge on base. And yes, I was crazy enough to bring my Tivo because a) I paid for the service and b) I'm not sure that I could live without it. (Really, I might actually die if I have to watch a commericial. Try me!) Well, when I get to the Lodge, I realize that they have a private cable station, one that I can't program in to the Tivo. So I'm manually recording things, and believe me, I'm screwing it up at all possible instances. (I swear to you that Law & Order: SVU was supposed to be on Wednesday night and when I went to record it I ended up with Medium, which appeared to me to be a pretty lame show. What the hell? Editor's note: Apparently SVU is on Tuesday nights. I clearly need a machine that is smarter than me to record this stuff!) Enough about my idiocy. While I'm doing the guided setup there are instructions on whom to contact to enter a new cable station. I figured "why not?" and emailed them. They emailed me back within the day to ask me to send a copy of the station guide. I faxed this to them with a letter explaining that I was only there for three months but that I figured others might want this as well, that is, if they are psycho enough to bring their TIVO on travel with them. I get a call on my cell phone at the end of the Chargers-Patriots game and this very nice lady says "Ms Reed, this is Jennifer from Tivo. I just wanted to let you know we updated all your stations. You can just go ahead and run the setup again." I thanked her profusely and got off the phone just completely impressed. They set up a new cable station for a silly little girl who is on travel. That is just awesome.

So thank you Tivo, thank you.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico: Part I Getting There

Yesterday was an eventful day and I'll post pictures if Bill ever gets back from our friend Darby's house with his camera. (Bill is my friend from home who is visiting the area because he's considering a move out to the West coast and figured he might as well come out when he has a free place to stay.)

Bill and I started out the morning something like this.

Me: "So do you want to go to Mexico?"
Him: "Yeah, definitely if I can be home in time for surfing" (4:00 pm)
Me: "Ok, but I've been thinking that I want to park at the border and walk across so we don't have to get the car insurance stuff and wait in that long line."
Him: "Sounds fine."

So the upshot of the story is that we drove down to Rosarito and Puerto Nuevo. We didn't get out of the car in Rosarito because we were obsessed with finding PN, but Bill didn't want to look at a map until I was officially in panic mode. Yes folks, I was the one driving in Mexcio. I can barely drive here where the streets are clean, fancy and semi-labeled. For some reason, Mexico just hasn't chosen to spend what little money they have on the roads.

Let me describe a couple of the events that happened, which I realize may be funnier to us because we were there, but they really made us laugh.

When we first get to Puerto Nuevo there is a man with a red flag and a whistle adamantly directing us to the right and there is another man doing the same on the right. With tears of fear in my eyes I said "Well Bill, if I don't go to the right this man can actually strike the car, so I'm going with him." It was $3 to park and they gladly took our money. I had been forwarned about "Chickle? Chickle?" so I had some dimes in my pocket to give to the MASS OF CHILDREN that decended upon us. After shaking them with my silver treasures, we made our way through the town. Thank God that Bill knows some Spanish otherwise we'd be in trouble. People just sort of chased us down the street telling us to come into their shops and restaurants. My favorite part was that they all seemed to have a favorite American phrase. "What's it gonna hurt?" as in "What's it gonna hurt if you just stop in here and I push my cheap products on you while you attempt to haggle having no concept of the real value of this crap". Following our tradition of sticking with the plan (I wanted to eat at the lobster shack that the Mexican in the knit Corona hat had haggled us down to a $9 full meal and Bill had agreed) we naturally made our way up to the third floor of this shanty that had no Corona hatted men in it...only people that looked at us with crazy eyes and sheer excitement. (And yes, we got charged about $15 a person, but frankly I don't care. These people clearly need that money more than I do and I had a great meal while we were there.) Our free margarita and tequila shot (the best I've ever had) loosened me up enough that I relaxed my grip on both my wallet and my rectum. I had been so nervous about going there but people were pretty nice and I was actually learning all the Spanish I needed to buy the shitty merchandise I desired.

And did I ever desire some merchandise...

(Conjunction Junction) What's Your Function?

I'm going to have a heart attack at the ripe old age of 26. I am working on my intermediate analytical methods class (or calculus) and it makes me want to shoot myself. I hate this so much. It makes me feel like an idiot. I don't have a pencil either, so I am permenantly writing my errors in pen for the world to see and watch me scratch out. My paper actually has tear stains on it from the heartbreak I had over problem 16.

Ok, I'm going to go back to it. Here's hoping someone calls me for a distraction...

7 Minutes in Heaven?

I have myself cracking up here so I am going to describe the past 7 minutes of my life, as I came home from work to eat lunch in my hotel room.

0:00-0:20 Think to myself "am I really this messy?" (everyone answer "yes" in unison)
0:20-1:00 Unwrap Lean Pocket sandwich, giggle about stupid "tales from the scales on the back" 1:00-1:10 Eat some unwashed alfalfa sprouts before reading "wash before eating"
1:10-1:12 Spit into trash can
1:12-2:00 Wash alfalfa sprouts and wonder if those are little bugs in them and if they are now in me
2:00-5:00 Looking for salad dressing. Not finding salad dressing. Wondering where the hell I could have lost salad dressing in a 10 x 6 room
5:00-5:10 Found 6 skittles on the desk. Ate skittles. Enjoyed them
5:10-5:30 Ate more unwashed strawberries while reading the [redacted] blog
5:30-6:00 Prepared strange little udon noodle microwavable disaster
6:00-7:00 waited patiently for noodles, snacked on some baked lays, worried if I'd eaten too many points, talked to drqshadow on AIM, checked MySpace (lame) and heard the sound of tortured kittens from under my bed.
7:00 Verified that those were not kittens under the bed, but did not determine what they are

The highlight was definitely the skittles. There were much funnier things that happened but managed to forget between now and then (which is later in the afternoon back at the office-I'm spending your tax dollars wisely.)

I Laugh in the Face of Danger

I was living on the edge last night. I went to a little Farmer's Market on the bay in Coronado. I bought 3 pints of beautiful strawberries that were "fresh picked from Oceanside this morning", though I've been told that they were probably from Mexico. I also bought some yummy clementines and a couple of apples (because the taste tests of both proved to be worth it). I was starving as I'd just returned from the gym so I said "I'll just eat one strawberry and then wash the rest at home". Two pints of unwashed strawberries later (that's right, two pints!) I'm here to say that they were wonderful and juicy and I'm not dead yet.

I'm a rebel without a cause, huh? What will it be next? Not washing my hands after the bathroom (not likely)? Running barefoot in glass? Time will tell...

Awww!

I had to make a quick post tonight before I head to the gym...where I should have been a long time ago but I was instructed to go home first. Commanded to go home first is more like it, but I was happy to do so (any excuse not to work out-though I'm going as soon as I'm done with this!)

Look what beautiful surprise was waiting for me.

Ok, off to the gym, but thanks to Mircea for the wonderful surprise and little note. Can't wait to see you! Off to the gym now!!!

Wowzers!

I don't want to bitch at all today (or really any day) because I'm really quite happy in my life lately. But holy crap! I put on a skirt (the one with the leaves Lainie) and that mofo is TIGHT. By the end of AMO school it was so big it would fall off and now it is very very snug. I had planned on working out this week (and all subsequent weeks) anyway, but now I'm officially kicking it into over drive. I gained so much weight (surely it was all the good cooking from Mircea) and didn't work out at all over the Holidays. So now little Miss Powerhouse is back in action. My friend Robyn made me a workout plan so this gal is going to be buff when she returns to Maryland. I've got good goals too, which I will now share...

• Return to pre-holiday weight (none of your business!!)
• Run at least 3 races while I'm in San Diego
• Run at least 5x a week
• Lift 4x a week following Robyn's plan
• Participate in a group class at the gym 1x a week
• STOP EATING LIKE A LITTLE PIGGY.

My biggest weakness lately is beer, which is just ridiculous because the fat goes straight to my belly which is not attractive on me. I have a couple of microbrewery tours set up for when Mircea is here, but I've already designated myself as the driver so I'll be consuming less calories.

Wish me luck on this-I sure need it!!

The "L" Word

It may be too soon for me to be saying this, but I'm going to go out on a limb and be completely vulnerable here. I've said it too soon before and I've gotten burned, but I think that although we've been together for a short time, I am ready to use the L word...

I LOVE SAN DIEGO!! This place rocks! The beaches, the weather, the nightlife, the events-its just great! I love that everyone runs and has an active lifestyle (though I feel like a whale here) and there is just so much to do. I love the food-everything is fresh and wonderful and damn I love this place.

Today I'm going to venture out into town in search of some provisions, as my authorization to use the Commisary and Exchange are taking much longer than they ever have in the past. I am also going to stop for sushi at this little dive sushi place that apparently has the best on Coronado, so I'm pumped!

Notes from the West Coast

Thank you to all of those that wished me well on my travels. They have definitely been interesting and I'm sure that they'll only get better. Here are some of the highlights...

• Although I love Southwest, I am angry at them for charging me a total of $50 for my over weight bags. At the least they could have let me combine them. I complained that I was on Government travel, but they did not care (apparently they don't realize that their tax dollars are paying for that baggage fee) and then later found out that on Gov. travel you have up to 70 lbs so I shouldn't have been charged at all. Scammers!
• The man that sat behind me on the plane had to get up to go to the bathroom about 40 times on the flight. This wouldn't bother me at all, but he was the kind of guy who had to grab the back of my seat in order to stand up and get around, so he woke me and my row mate up pretty much each of those 40 times.
• Since we were already up we got to listen to the hacking, burping, belching, vomiting cough of the guy in front of us. He was making everyone quite uncomfortable on the plane and you could just see people holding their breath. It was the most amazing display of germs I've ever been privy to.
• I have been upset about going to California because I didn't want to be away from all of my friends. Well, I got off that plane, took one breath of fresh air and I was like "well, I guess I can make the best of this!" The weather was 72, sunny, breezy and just plain beautiful. Wild horses couldn't drag me away from this place!! And the irony is that they were prepared to let me stay out here permenantly. I keep telling myself, that California will always be here and that my friends are much too important to leave right now!
• My room kind of sucks and it makes me depressed.
• I'm still coughing and I'm going to the doctor today, which is an adventure in itself because I have a Maryland HMO, which means I have to go to an urgent care or emergency room to get assistance. Oy vey! If only I had gone to the doctor two weeks ago when this hit me instead of thinking that I was "all better". Although it was great, I shouldn't have relied on my Romanian health care plan, which consisted of orange juice and movies!
• My cell phone doesn't work worth a darn in my room. So I'll be sending out an email soon with my phone number and po box if anyone wants to send me mail!
• My friend David and I are picking up my TIVO today. It came in last night. I'm very excited and that will definitely make this trip a little better.
• Oooh, I ran about a mile yesterday before I wanted to die. Maybe I shouldn't have tried it while I was sick and maybe I shouldn't have eaten so much over the Holidays. I feel like I felt when I first started running at 210 lbs.

Ok, enough whining. David just brought me a running pamphlet that has all the local races. There is one this weekend...I wonder if I can hack my way through it!

The Eve of California Dreamin'

Tomorrow is the big day when I hop on a plane and travel to California for three months. I'd like to make some predictions.

• Something terrible is going to happen with my suitcases. Here's the problem. I have two, weighing about 60 lbs each, which means I may be looking at $50 in overweight charges. I'm pretty sure I can sob story them out of charging me, but still...the other part is being able to handle the two suitcases, plus the two carryons, plus my freaking head, which will be crazy spinning at that time of morning.
• I will get a shitty rental car when I get to California. Everyone else always gets a free upgrade. I get the free "bend over" discount and get the car with the trunk that won't latch.
• Work is going to be busy, but fun and I'm not going to want to leave.
• I will make lots of nice friends while I'm out there.
• I will do a great job with running and getting in shape. Not just losing my holiday-schnitzel spare tire either, finally getting in shape!!
• I will take the time to take care of myself and get myself in a better place.

Oh, not sure how things will go with email while I'm out there. Here is the email address you can reach me at, well, that is if you know my last name.

kathleen.r.(mylastname)@navy.mil

Happy New Year!!