Saturday, March 8, 2008
Adventures in travel and investment advice: All-in-1
Alexis got cut in the first round of the auditons, but I had already made my reservations to join them for the weekend. Of course, the Maryland/DC area was hit with a snow/ice storm on Thursday evening. Since I was flying out of Reagan, I left extra early for my 7am flight in case of traffic delays. (more later)
Adventures in Travel
Mark and Alexis went to Chicago for the American Girl auditions in January. It was decided that, rather than pay the parking at the garage for the possible 8 day trip, that I would just drive them to BWI and drop them off. We got up very early, drove to Baltimore, dropped off the "packages", and I headed home, almost getting there before the sun came up. I crawled in bed for a few hours.
Mark finally called to say they had arrived, though late. It turns out that when they boarded the plane, the only pilot was the first officer. The van that was picking up the captain, locked the keys inside, and they were waiting for a locksmith to let them into the van to get the captain there. So, everyone was kept waiting for nearly an hour. (Paul, I'm holding you personally responsible for this oversight. And it is abundantly obvious that this incident is the direct cause of the new baggage limits because you lost so much money by refunding all those tickets!)
My question: Why make all the people wait? Why not grab a cab or the hotel shuttle? Must the pilots only travel in the ascribed vehicle? If so, sounds like another 9/11 idiotic boondoggle to me.
To the other end, when I finally got up and moving, I decided to run some errands, only to find there was a giant nail in my tire. Always an adventure....
Mark finally called to say they had arrived, though late. It turns out that when they boarded the plane, the only pilot was the first officer. The van that was picking up the captain, locked the keys inside, and they were waiting for a locksmith to let them into the van to get the captain there. So, everyone was kept waiting for nearly an hour. (Paul, I'm holding you personally responsible for this oversight. And it is abundantly obvious that this incident is the direct cause of the new baggage limits because you lost so much money by refunding all those tickets!)
My question: Why make all the people wait? Why not grab a cab or the hotel shuttle? Must the pilots only travel in the ascribed vehicle? If so, sounds like another 9/11 idiotic boondoggle to me.
To the other end, when I finally got up and moving, I decided to run some errands, only to find there was a giant nail in my tire. Always an adventure....
The Lipstick Bitch
I was getting the brakes on my car replaced a few weeks, which forced me to drive the truck. Ya, know, the one I like to drive over raised flower beds? Yeah, so anyway, I had to drive it to school. Since I didn't have time to drive by the campus police station to get a temp permit before class, I parked in some free parking a few blocks over and hoofed it to my building. (You don't dare park on campus without a permit, lest the Nazi's will be on you like crows on roadkill) So after my first class, I moved the truck into the parking lot. Now, parking on campus is hard to come by, especially at certain times of day. When I moved the truck at 3:30, most of the day students are finished,so finding a spot is easy. It gets harder as 6pm rolls around and all the night classes start. It is not uncommon for people to "make" their own spaces along the outside aisle of the lot. That's generally not a big deal if I'm driving my little Hyundai. However, I need a whole lotta room to swing out the F-150 Supercrew (that I suck at parking and manuevering in general!). You know happened. Some dumbass decided to park me in. And of all things, the "NO PARKING" sign was right behind his car. Of course it was a dark and rainy night....but I was fortunate enough to have some kind fellow trying to help me get out of the space. It was a lot of back, turn , pull up, cut it, pull forward, and so on until I was about 2 inches from the Mustang off my nose and 3 inches from the Cavalier that had me blocked in. At that point, I gave up, pulled in and decided to call the campus police to have the bastard towed. I thanked the poor, wet, Samaritan who had been trying to help me. Just then, the girl parked across from came out and left! Yay! I could now pull through and escape! But not before taking my lipstick to the windows of the idiot who parked me in. In nice reverse letters, I wrote "No parking dumbass" across his windshield. I'm sure it was a lovely sight when he turned on his wipers to clear the rain!
Irresponsibility
In children, one expects irresponsibility, even though it is frustrating. In adults however, irresponsibility is unacceptable. Take the phone incident that we've been dealing with for the last week.
Tuesday: Alexis left her phone, yes, the one she's had for only 2 months that she got for Christmas, in the carpool mom's backseat. The carpool mom called to say she had it and would drop it by. She never showed.
Wednesday: So, we expected to get it back the next day at school, but it wasn't sent with her son, and Alexis rode home with a different carpool because of choir practice. I left a vociemail with carpool mom to see if there was a time that we could just come over and get it, or just send it with her son tomorrow. Alexis called the house and the son said they were heading out to a basketball game and that he would bring it tomorrow.
Thursday: Again, the phone wasn't brought to school. The other carpool mom picked up the kids today. So I called the first carpool mom and left a voicemail telling her that perhaps we could swing by before or after dance class to get the phone. Besides, they only live in the next subdivision over! I also called the phone itself to see if anyone would pick it up. I didn't get a call back, so we stopped by about 7:30 anyway. Dad answered the door, said Mom wasn't home, and that it must still be in her backseat. Alexis could get it tomorrow since she would be picking up the carpool again.
Friday: Alexis came home from school early because she was sick, and Mark took her to the doctor. I called carpool mom to ask her to bring the phone by after school, as both Mark and Alexis would both be home. She was completely flabbergasted that the phone had not been returned. She had told her husband to get it out to send back with the son. Out of frustration, I called the phone several times, hoping they would hear it in the car and find it. We went to dinner and the theatre to see Hello Dolly and got home around 9:30. There was a message from the son saying they couldn't find it. Alexis called back, but there was no answer. Thinking it had been lost, we went online to check usage. Nothing out of the ordinary was on the account, so if someone had found it, maybe they had turned it in at lost and found somewhere. In any case, we called Sprint and had the phone service disconnected.
Saturday: Since we didn't get to talk to them last night, I tried calling all three numbers listed in the school directory, but got messaging on all of them. I didn't leave a message. I'm tired of playing phone tag. I want to yell at these people myself. About a half hour later, carpool mom called to say they found the phone between the seats of the car when they heard it ringing (ha! my plan worked!) and she would be bringing it over in a couple of hours.
So, the point is this: Why, when you live two streets away and say you are going to bring it over, didn't you do it? And furthermore, if someone leaves something small behind in your car, don't you think you should put it somewhere safe where it won't slide around, onto the floor, and maybe out the door at God-knows-where when people are getting in and out of the car? I'm frustrated with Alexis for being irresponsible. I'm angry at the carpool mom for being irresponsible, disappointed in her non-chalant attitude in resolving the situation (it's a $200 phone, not a lunch box), and frustrated with the excuses that she was too busy to drop it by. I live two blocks away, right off the main road! She had to have driven past here at least once a day!
Responsibility: Get it, use it!
Tuesday: Alexis left her phone, yes, the one she's had for only 2 months that she got for Christmas, in the carpool mom's backseat. The carpool mom called to say she had it and would drop it by. She never showed.
Wednesday: So, we expected to get it back the next day at school, but it wasn't sent with her son, and Alexis rode home with a different carpool because of choir practice. I left a vociemail with carpool mom to see if there was a time that we could just come over and get it, or just send it with her son tomorrow. Alexis called the house and the son said they were heading out to a basketball game and that he would bring it tomorrow.
Thursday: Again, the phone wasn't brought to school. The other carpool mom picked up the kids today. So I called the first carpool mom and left a voicemail telling her that perhaps we could swing by before or after dance class to get the phone. Besides, they only live in the next subdivision over! I also called the phone itself to see if anyone would pick it up. I didn't get a call back, so we stopped by about 7:30 anyway. Dad answered the door, said Mom wasn't home, and that it must still be in her backseat. Alexis could get it tomorrow since she would be picking up the carpool again.
Friday: Alexis came home from school early because she was sick, and Mark took her to the doctor. I called carpool mom to ask her to bring the phone by after school, as both Mark and Alexis would both be home. She was completely flabbergasted that the phone had not been returned. She had told her husband to get it out to send back with the son. Out of frustration, I called the phone several times, hoping they would hear it in the car and find it. We went to dinner and the theatre to see Hello Dolly and got home around 9:30. There was a message from the son saying they couldn't find it. Alexis called back, but there was no answer. Thinking it had been lost, we went online to check usage. Nothing out of the ordinary was on the account, so if someone had found it, maybe they had turned it in at lost and found somewhere. In any case, we called Sprint and had the phone service disconnected.
Saturday: Since we didn't get to talk to them last night, I tried calling all three numbers listed in the school directory, but got messaging on all of them. I didn't leave a message. I'm tired of playing phone tag. I want to yell at these people myself. About a half hour later, carpool mom called to say they found the phone between the seats of the car when they heard it ringing (ha! my plan worked!) and she would be bringing it over in a couple of hours.
So, the point is this: Why, when you live two streets away and say you are going to bring it over, didn't you do it? And furthermore, if someone leaves something small behind in your car, don't you think you should put it somewhere safe where it won't slide around, onto the floor, and maybe out the door at God-knows-where when people are getting in and out of the car? I'm frustrated with Alexis for being irresponsible. I'm angry at the carpool mom for being irresponsible, disappointed in her non-chalant attitude in resolving the situation (it's a $200 phone, not a lunch box), and frustrated with the excuses that she was too busy to drop it by. I live two blocks away, right off the main road! She had to have driven past here at least once a day!
Responsibility: Get it, use it!
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