Congratulations to The Schaef’s on their new addition. It is pretty cool to know someone who has a real, live kid. The baby boy was a healthy 8lbs. 10oz. and almost 21″ long. The new mother is doing well. We look forward to babysitting on occasion and making fun of you if you become lamer than us.
Welcome to the world, Bodhi. We have been waiting to be rocked.
Maybe you’ve heard of the recent letter-bombing campaign in the UK, reminiscent of the US’s own Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski. Some reports have linked the attacks to road rage after three bombs were aimed at motor-vehicle offices this week. There must be a lot of rage pent up to bring someone to the act of building bombs at all, let along such intricate and delicate bombs.
On Wednesday, after putting up my post about the recent renting difficulties we’ve had, I went about my day as expected. I considered that my release of the rage that had been building up in my life. I found that in my next class I felt very relaxed and was able to generate clear and constructive comments during some group work where we critiqued each others work. The rest of the day I found my head filled with creative ideas and useful thoughts. It appeared that my blog had served as an outlet for my anger and that my mind celebrated its release from the shackles of anger. One potential confounder in this whole assessment is that Wednesday marked an emergence for the Atlanta Metro Area from a recent cold spell. The sun shined, coats came off and I was able to take advantage of it with some walking across campus to run my errands.
Nonetheless, my conscience self noticed the marked difference in mood, outlook, and especially cognitive activity that manifested itself during the middle of the day on Wednesday. I attribute it to the combination of the two coincident influences of venting and nice weather. Perhaps the blog, as a modern journal, has a role as a tool for healthy management of the psychosocial – physiological interaction. I’m glad to have it allow me to release without turning to violence, though I can’t give the blog all the credit.
EPILOGUE:
I specifically sectioned out midday Wednesday because later that day I let an unexpected mishap crush me. For the sake of time I will only say that I watched (and heard) my glasses get run over by my own car. Higher highs may make the lows lower.
I really want to write about something else, but this issue consumes me. Even the MARTA experience of last night has fled my mind and I am left with one name. Hooke Broward (changed to protect the guilty). It’s a complicated case. “Lotta ins and outs” So please keep up with it.
If you know anything about me, you know that I like to flaunt my knowledge of the word spoonerism. That said, the ordeal of getting out of our old apartment is really wearing on my family. FILA runs away when it’s brought up. We had an agreement with our property manager, Cooper Brown. If we find a renter, we can keep our security deposit, and not pay any extra months. Perfect! We put an add on Craigslist and find a few people who love the place and are asking about moving in during the first week of January. This is a little early for us (we closed on Dec. 29th) but we tried to (and succeeded) to accommodate. We even returned after the initial move out inspection to do the final cleaning step the property manager wanted. This included washing blinds, all the baseboards, and the bath tub (a third time). But we did this so they would not have to hire a cleaning crew and we would get more of our security deposit back.
So we got out of the place ahead of schedule and Hooke Broward could move in when she wanted. As I said, there were a few people interested moving in so you may be wondering how did you choose Hooke Broward. Well, being the honest and forthright people we believe ourselves to be (as I bash someone) we followed non-discriminatory housing practices and treated interested parties based on the order their interest was expressed. Godd Tilliland, I wish we had gone with you.
Hooke kept moving the move-in back. It wasn’t great news but we figured we were only out half of January’s rent. The contact through the property manager – we’ll call him C-Harley – is a real case. He never contacts me and is very waspy (Ben, preach!).
It is now February and later Today I will take a check over to the proerty manager for another month’s rent. Hooke backed out of the lease that C-Harley never got her to sign and Cooper Brown listed the apartment again, at $45/month more than they were going to lease it to anyone we found. Now, we lose our security deposit ($950) because Cooper Brown spends it ALL on ‘marketing’. They list on their website, Craigslist, Creative Loafing, and one other place. This costs $950. (I mean This costs $950?) I want C-Harley’s job. Lauren and I did it for free and had better luck.
Ok, so were out the security deposit and now all of January rent, thanks to Hooke. All told that’s $1,900 but we’ll call it $1,400 giving Hooke two weeks to get her move-in on. C-Harley is ready to use Hooke’s $950 security Deposit check, which Cooper Brown has already cashed, for the February rent. But yesterday he calls me to ask us to write a check for this month. He also needs us to turn on the power and take care of paying for whatever heat and electricity they use (“to keep the pipes from freezing”). What a guy, he finally finds my phone number when he needs money. He tells me that I’ll get it back if they can rent the place before March 1st. At that point they’ll reimburse me with Hooke’s cash. One catch, they don’t know if she’ll come back ad sue them to get that cash back with her lawyer shark sister (whom she lives with and hence is in no hurry to move-in anywhere, even to places she told people she would move into). Her sister signed that letter that said Hooke would not be taking the place and consequently forced C-Harley into the fetal position under his desk.
Now we’re out January (1/2), security deposit, and Feb (maybe). Possibly $2,350 and you may be saying you are an idiot for getting in to this situation. Perhaps you are right. Cooper Brown is trying to rent the place for more than they led us to believe it would go for. If we found a tenant (such as Hooke) they would only pay $950, same as us. Now that they run the show, the price is higher. And why not? They effectively have the place rented with a check from us every month. Damn.
Thanks for letting me get this down and out. Wish us luck.
Hooke Broward, I wish you no physical harm. I did for awhile but now I am past that now. I do wish you exceedingly great misfortune in everything and maybe a retarded kid. I am sorry, eventually I will not be so hateful but as I sign this check I only think of how your one action has created so much trouble for me. If I am missing some information, please contact me to tell me what is going on.
This morning I had my 3rd-ever encounter with the phenomenon I refer to as jasovargal occurrence. It is more commonly recognized as vasovagal syncope or vagal response.
As some of you know Lauren and I are participating in a clinical trial to test delivery methods for the yellow fever vaccine. We basically get the vaccine (today) with an additional two shots in your butt. This is either immune globulin or saline solution (the placebo), and this is what the test really is. After that we have to go for a lot of blood draws and they look at the immune response to both methods of administering the vaccine.
About a month ago we went for our first visit where they took blood to check for existing immunity and other peculiarities. Everything was fine and today we went back for the vaccine itself. First they did a blood draw for a baseline and this is where I ran into my jasovargal occurrence.
The first time I ever had a jasovargal experience was junior year in high school when I was finally eligible to donate blood at the blood drive. Questionnaire, check. Ear prick iron test, check. Give blood, check. I headed over to the table for some cookies and orange juice confident in my deed and ready to slap a little red cross sticker on my shirt. The next thing I knew I was laying on the ground staring at the ceiling. I had fainted and fallen straight back in the chair I was sitting upon. I decided to take a break from donating.
Let me step back and tell you that I have always been told that I have lovely veins. They are sort of popping out of the skin and phlebotomists look at them and start drooling. Such flattery does nothing to dissuade me from situations where my blood is drawn, thus compounding my problems with jasovargal occurrences.
In college I decided to give it another change. The ole’ college try, if you will. The whole act of doing something that was not graded or intoxicating drew immediate attention and ridicule from my hyper-masculine roommates. At the student union, again I made it through the pint and again I felt weak and dizzy but made it over to the beds with some help. There a paper bag was quickly held to my face and I was given more cookies and juice. More ridicule followed. It just occurred to me that the nurse told me not to give blood again. This study is different (I have just convinced myself).
Today I again felt weak, the lights got bright, I was sweating, and my ears ringing. In this setting, it is nice that the nurse and doctors are right there for you, and there are repeat interactions. Tomorrow they’ll know what they’re getting into and take precautions (drink juices before as well as after). They’ve seen this before. I’ll let you know what happens.
Have your own vagal response story?
On Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, my family (visiting from Michigan) and I went to the Georgia Aquarium. It is a painful irony that on this day all the white-collar jobs have the day off and all the retail positions have to report to duty. My dad and I took a trip to Lowes and witnessed the whole situation with clarity. As I was driving and it is my town, I choose the radio selection. First I went to 89.3 and found that they were playing MLK speeches mixed with James Brown’s “Say it Loud”. I really liked it. On the way home I was delighted to find another speech playing on another station. Later in the day we got in the car again to go to the aquarium and I found another recording of a speech. This one was about all the negative synonyms for the word black and all the positive meanings for the word white and the subtle but repetitive, if not relentless ways the Negro has been taught to think less of himself and more of the Caucasian. I found listening to the speeches very thought provoking and a great way to squeeze in some reverence for Dr. King even though it was inadequate. No one else in the car seemed to thin the same. My dad asked me a few times to change the station.
The aquarium was much like the trip to Lowes; another venue held open on the holiday. This facility is different, however, the workers are not too strained. Which leads me to the thing that brought about this entry. the woman taking tickets at the entrance the the aquatic carnival that is the Georgia Aquarium. She takes your ticket and scans it just like at a sporting event or concert but the computer next to her chimes in and says “thank you” and you walk past. The scanner technology took the eye contact out of such a social transaction; focusing the attention of the employee on the bar code of the ticket and removing the handing back and forth of the ticket which would normally include some, albeit brief, face time. This latest innovation takes another facet of the exchange and completely removes it. It adds a new dimension (or rather removes one) to unteraction (non-interaction). I don’t like to think about jobs being taken by automation, but any thoughts of it are usually short lived because I can also think of tons of new jobs that exist today because of similar technologies. It is almost harder to think about giving people jobs that they are not needed for. Watching them try to do them may be even harder.
Regardless MLK Day in the ATL passed and he remains as much a fascinating and admirable figure as ever.
In a culture where the bigger your rims are the more respect you get, why is the bike not more popular? The question is a bit absurd but let’s consider it for a minute.
In the meantime, you can find me rollin’ on 700s (ccs).
Dear subscribers…
Sorry to have been away for a bit. School is occupying much of my time. Coffee most of my diet. Also, buying a house and trying to rent the apartment we now live in is weighing on the whole family (who I hardly see now). Lauren, thanks for driving me to school, doing the grocery shopping, corresponding with the various contacts for homebuying, and apartment renting. Thanks for keeping the bed warm at night and worrying about the right things. Fila, thanks for biting my arm and staying up late with me to work on this paper or that presentation. You’re a real trooper. Friday I will be done but it does not end. I will starting the in-vehicle sampling week for the SCOPE study on which I work. Me, Ajay, a CO monitor, manifolds and more in a minivan for 8 hours of driving fun. And where are we going you may be wondering… in circles around the perimeter. That should make for some good stories. Stay tuned.
.v.
You want orange juice? You go to the store, you buy it, you take it home. Ahhhhhhh, that’s good OJ. But when you want a house, you have to get started early. Figure out what you can afford, find those houses, look at them, consider them, look at them again, look online and hundreds more, go back and forth, look again, make an offer, get shot down. That’s how you buy a house. I have been learning a lot about buying houses lately and this weekend I learned a new step I had never even seen before. “Have offer accepted.”
Yes, Lauren and I are finally engaged in a successful bid for a home and there a bunch of new steps we’re starting to learn now. Get an inspection, pay, find things wrong with the home that will make you want to get out of the contract (maybe), pay lawyers, something about escrow, pay, close, pay. Oh, and then move in.
All that said we are really excited about getting a place. We’re already researching Energystar appliances, CFLs, and spots in the yard for a garden. We don’t mean to get ahead of ourselves but it is kinda fun. I have also been busy researching my new bus/bike routes and destinations. I still need to look into the venue and times for the meetings of our new NPU.
We’ll have you over soon enough.
With all the new things we’ve been receiving lately it feels like the holidays came a little early this year. In a sense they have; we exchanged gifts with my family when we were home last week for Thanksgiving. My parents got us some sleeping bags we registered for and they arrived before we even headed to Detroit. We when got back home I had a new phone waiting for me free through an upgrade, and I’m sure you noticed that I’ve been doin’ some new boot goofin’. Well to keep it going Lauren’s new bike arrived yesterday.
As many of you know, she had her’s stolen a few months ago. I did some research to find the perfect one and Ben came through with a great recommendation. The Jamis Coda Sport. I looked for a slightly cheaper price and came across some deals out a bike store in Reno, NV. They had old models (new bikes) and offered free shipping so I went with it and ordered it.
Yesterday it showed up and we were stoked to set her up and get her back on the road. The box showed up with a large hole in. But hey, they package these things to withstand some of the bumps in the road. So we carted it over to Ben’s for his help in setting it up. Everything was going swell until we were just about to take it for a spin and try out the fit. I was inspecting the frame after removing some of the last foam and paper packing and stickers. Then I found a dent in the frame. It was, of course in the same location as the hole in the box.
We contacted FedEx and filed a claim. Now we’re in the process of sending pics to the sellers and then waiting for a shipping slip from them so we can return the bike and have them send us a new one. I have no complaints about any of the parties involved thusfar. Both FedEx and the bike shop have been very pleasant to deal with and helpful, I am just disappointed about having to wait for a new bike for Lauren. I will keep you updated on the status of the situation.
Hey Mom, I got some new shoes. Thanks. Dad, I know you had a part in these as well, but Mom wanted me to spend money specifically on new shoes. Thus, she gets the shout out.
VARGOCITY 