The I Hate Compass Club

OK, I hate my bank. I'm sure this is partially due to me spending too much money and not making enough and being in school and having a ton of bills, etc. I recognize it has to be partly my fault, but these things didn't happen this way at my old bank in Georgetown. BUT they always do this thing where they sort of disregard my paycheck. Like right now it shows negative and positive money in my account at the same time. Note the date and that my paycheck has probably been there since yesterday because that's the way my company does it. How does that happen? They'll take like 3 days to put my paycheck through, but if I went to HEB last night it's on my statement. What is their deal? And there's money in there, but since they haven't decided to post my paycheck yet they'll just keep charging me NSF funds until they decide to stop stalling and put it up. Which i want to know how they can do if they show I have money in my available balance. And then this automated thing calls and says they're worried about my account. Umm...I'm worried about it too you a-holes. Stop screwing with me! I'm seriously switching banks. I hate you Compass! I have had nothing but problems and overdrafts since I switched to you. You are shady and not customer friendly (the people at the locations are nice, but the company is on my list). I shake my fist and other things at you. I'm throwing rocks at you in my head. If you walked into a church you would be struck my lightening. On The Exorcism of Emily Rose I think one of the demons she was possessed by was YOU COMPASS!

Happy Year of the Dog

So the new New Year has officially started and I am determined to make it good. I will schedule my time wisely so that I don't miss out on too much because of school. I already had an uplifting weekend (previous entry), and started today out right with a dinner at PF Changs with my friends. The two "green teas" didn't hurt either. And as for dogs, I haven't had to clean up any poo yet so the year of the dog has been good to me. I have trip to NYC planned for next month, along with friend dinners and visits, and I talked to Marianne for about two hours today. So far things have been going well. This new year looks like it has a better take-off than the one last month!

All the President's (Wo)Men

I just returned from an inspirational weekend at the Board of Trustees retreat at the fabulous Westin La Cantera in San Antonio. I am the Homecoming/Reunion Chair for the newly formed alumni council (which according to everyone there is a BIG thing with much prestige). I already have tons of ideas and president of the council told me that he reserved the San Gabriel House from 10-2 each day for a sort of hospitality room for homecoming weekend. Hopefully by the time we're done with this alumni will be involved in Southwestern. And it was more than just a fun weekend and a fabulous place with free food and getting drinks with Danielle and the Ellis' who have to be the hippest couple with grandkids that I've ever met. They're also on the Board of Trustees which I thought until today was actually about 10 men that were 100 years old that looked like Abe Lincoln with white hair. I have to say that they aren't. At this meeting there was a Congresswoman, CEO's, CFO's, and the man that started the National Hispanic Institute to name a few impressive ones.

The thing though that was really touching happened at our meeting this morning. It was the first time most of us had met. We were asked to tell why Southwestern and how we felt about what we were about to do. I think about half the people there starting crying when they told why Southwestern. Including the men, and the older men, who I would never picture crying. It was nice to see people be so open and honest with their feelings, and that gave me even more dedication. I'm really excited about doing this and working with these new people. Thanks Ebony for backing me on my nomination - you're inspirational!!!

All things change when you stay the same

I feel an overwhelming sense of stillness. Not the good kind of still where you are just calm, but sort of like I’m running in sand, or taffy, or something else that just lets you get an inch farther for all of your effort. Sometimes I feel like I’m so much younger than my actual age. Like the world is whizzing past me. Everyone I know seems to be shacking up and saving to buy houses, planning their weddings and naming their kids. I feel like I’m doing the same thing I’ve always done, and by doing that I’m a million miles away from my friends. I’ll forever be out of the loop because we aren’t in the same loop anymore. I feel like I could move a million miles away and most people’s lives wouldn’t be that affected by it. I think it’s actually part of the reason I went to grad school because I didn’t really fit anywhere anymore. I live with my dog, and instead of paying off debt I’m accruing more with college. I want a PsyD too so forget all about me being done soon. If I ever get married I don’t even want a wedding, so I’m pretty much out of everything. I’m happy the way I am, but I feel like I’m between the way things were and the way things are going to be, and for someone who hates change it’s quite a struggle.

Year of the Dog

I don't know that my new year has brought me much that I'm totally excited about. Actually, my doctor took me off of my medicine so I end up feeling a little depressed a lot of the time. Apparently the doses of anti-depressant in my anxiety medicine kept me pepped up. So lately I've been feeling hermitish, tired, sad, and all the no fun things people don't really want to be. So I thought I might start the year over. Sunday the 29th is Chinese New Year and if anyone wants to celebrate it with me I propose an outing to eat Chinese (food not people). I know it won't magically make my 4 cavities go away or make my job more exciting, but it's something.

It could be worse than the scraper

I had today off for MLK day. The only really eventful thing I did was go to the dentist. My dentist is hot and my hygienist is really funny so I wasn't too bothered by it. The first blow came though when I found out that my hottie dentist had decided to become his own boss somewhere in Cedar Park. Bye-bye Dr. Stancey and hello some lady whose name I didn't get, but she said I have 3 cavities and need one filling replaced because it's getting old and crusty. That's $125 down the drain. All that after my hygienist told me that he didn't see any cavities and that I was at a low risk of getting them. One positive thing though-- I only got the scraper. What's worse than the scraper? It's the pik. The water pik. It shoots water under your gums, and if you think the scraper hurts... well you've never met the pik. The first time I went they used it on me, and my eyes literally teared up many a time. They had to stop and take breaks because of the pain. This thing is evil and for that reason I will be brushing and flossing optimally this year. Beware the pik!

Collectable

Lots of people have hobbies, and inadvertently, it seems that everyone always ends up collecting something. I oddly seem to collect coffee mugs. I have a whole cabinet full. At Christmas I got a new favorite from my dad. It is white with black tulips on the outside, and teal on the inside. Teal is my new “it” color. I love it. It’s like blue, but jazzed up. Nicole collects Nightmare Before Christmas stuff, Melissa collects belts, Barbara collects JFK, Ebony collects Streisand, Sarah collects stray dogs, my dad collects frog stuff, and on and on. Well, Saffy also collects something. She takes in stray tennis balls. Her first one is this really ratty old tennis ball she has seen repeatedly in the field behind our apartment. One day she picked it up and wouldn’t put it down. I wasn’t about to touch the gross thing, so I let her keep it. The joy it brings her is enough reason. This morning we were out and on the mini putting turf there was a newer tennis ball. I picked it up and bounced it and she was off after it. She picked it up and literally ran home. I tried to make her walk but we ended up running because she was so happy to bring her new friend home. She has also been insistently trying to rip apart the rope toy Jason’s mom gave her in order to free the tennis ball from the middle. Maybe her attraction is something that doesn’t shred. I’m not sure. If only I knew what my little Saffy was thinking.

Make me a geisha

This weekend we saw Memoirs of a Geisha. It was a pretty good movie, and I have decided that when I grow up I want to be a geisha also. Their job is to pretty much go out and flirt, dance, play music, etc. They get to wear fancy dresses, platforms, have people do their hair and make-up. And they get to sell their virginity. Fun stuff right? So now I just have to figure out how to get into geisha school, and how to get men to give me money for hanging out with them. Sounds sort of like a cocktail waitress I guess.



Now I'm going to go figure out what is in the ceiling between me and my upstairs neighbor's apartments. Probably a squirrel. But it's digging and I think it's just going to end up coming through my ceiling.

I got my much anticipated mini tv yesterday. It took me a day to get it from the office people, but now that I have it we’re hard to separate. Last night I had it on while I cooked dinner. Normally I listen, but seeing the picture is a whole new deal. I'm not normally much of a tv watcher, but I took a bubble bath where I watched CSI and Without a Trace. That was one of the best bubble baths ever (second only to the ones with my cute man toy who rubs my feet and laughs at the fizzy ball with me). It is so easy to just stay in the bath for forever with the tv to watch. Then this morning I got to see all of Good Morning America. I love the mini tv. I was afraid I would feel like I wasted that $94.90 but I don’t think so at all. Oh mini tv you make life so easy!

I love...

I just found the I Love Anything website. It's pretty cool. You can get a t-shirt that says I heart (picture not word) and then you fill in the blank. And it's only $18. Of course there's always Zazzle where you can design your own shirts and other stuff (it's where I got both of my veggie t's). So go out and create!

On a side note, make sure you know that postage is going up on the 8th to 39 cents.

The Audition - she always gets a part

I just watched The Audition, which according to one poll I saw was supposed to be the scariest movie of all time. (I think) it’s a Japanese movie, and it’s in subtitles. First of all, nothing is ever as scary in subtitles as it is in your language. The Grudge is much scarier in English than it was in Japanese. And, since they versioned it for American audiences it made more sense since we aren’t all up to date on traditions of other cultures. Who knows, maybe in other countries not everyone says, “I’ll be right back” or runs up the stairs to get away like they do in our movies. Luckily for us they que us in on when someone is about to die. Needless to say, The Audition was not versioned for me. A lot of it was dull and didn’t quite make sense. It was gruesome, but no more disturbing than Dawn of the Dead (the new version with the fast zombies) or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I can’t say that I jumped once. I mean, sure cutting someone’s foot off with a wire, or poking them in the eye with a needle, or making them eat your vomit is disgusting, but is it grosser than your zombie neighbor kid eating your husband or being trapped in the back of a bus with zombies eating your brains? I think not. It definitely creeped me out and made me a little nervous about going to bed alone in the dark, but not worse than The Ring did. At least with this movie I don't keep looking at my tv to make sure nothing is crawiling out. The bad thing about this movie is that it doesn’t really make sense so I keep thinking about it to see if I can figure it out. That’s the really bad part. It was a decent movie, and pretty scary, but not my type of scary I guess. It scares me more to NOT be able to see who's doing the killing or mutilating. Yeah, gross that she sing-songy says "deeper deeper" while sticking needles into the dude, but we knew all along she was going to do it.