Live Forever or Die Trying

So we get home yesterday about 6pm, hook up our computers, and NO internet!

We have had net issues at every place we have lived. I think it might be part of the package you get when you sign up: High speed internet only 19.99 a month! At least one issue every few months included at no extra cost!

We have lived in our current apartment for about a year now and day 1 we started having issues. I called a MONTH in advance to set it up to make SURE we had service the day we moved in because we have yet to have internet running the day we moved into any apartment. Well we get here and tada! No net. So I called Verizon to see what the deal was and they said our account did not exist. Grrrr. I told them I called a month in advance AND a guy came out a few days before we moved in to get it set up.

They set us up a new account.

We got their modem and hooked it up, but it did not work. We called them and they could not make a connection to do a line check, it was like I was on Mars and they could into reach us. We plugged in one of our old modems, and lo-and-behold we had net!

This is where it gets weird. The modem we used is Verizon Avenue, a company of Verizon. Apparently we have had them in one of our previous residences. So the avenue modern works and the regular Verizon one does not. Whatever. We have net and we are paying a bill each month.

A few months pass and we have interruption in our service again. I call Verizon and they can’t do a like check, like we don’t exist. They send a new modem and say the one we have is not the one we need. We get the new modem, but it does not work, while the Avenue modem starts working again.

A few more months pass and we get a collection notice from Verizon Avenue for unpaid service at a previous address and a package to send the modem back in or be charged $99.99 for it. Luckily we have 2 of their modems so I sent one back and called them to see what the bill was for. It was for unpaid services at our previous address. I said that is impossible and read her the cancellation ID (I have learned over the years that those are the most valuable things in the world!). She found it but said we still owed the money because the account was transferred. I said nu-uh because we have Verizon now.

Now we are back to the present and the net did not work. I called Verizon Avenue. That had issues finding our account but he managed to do it. Apparently the net we have is Verizon AVENUE and not regular Verizon. Regular Verizon has been charging us almost $40 a month for a service that they can’t even give us at this address!!!! Avenue has been collecting our bills from my credit card, but when I lost it and had to get it replaced, they could not draft payments and sent us that collection letter.

Well as you can see, our net is up. It is all ironed our on the Verizon Avenue side and now we are waiting to hear back from regular Verizon. Dean composed this nifty little mail to them, so of which might be redundant to what I have written here:

When we initially moved into our new apartments, we signed up for Verizon Avenue DSL, as that was the information provided to us by our office. We had disconnection issues for some time, and at some point we were told that we should not be receiving our internet access through Verizon Avenue but through Verizon (a distinction which was poorly delineated).

So, we ordered Verizon DSL. Apparently, the person responsible for setting up our Verizon DSL account failed to notice that our apartment complex is not serviced by Verizon (only by Verizon Avenue) and set up the account anyways.

We received our new DSL modem from Verizon, but it did not work. We continued to use the Verizon Avenue modem, since it did work (most of the time). We continued to pay for Verizon DSL, even though you did not even have the ability to provide the service for which you had signed us up and for which we were paying. Every time we attempted to use our Verizon DSL modem and called your customer support, they were unable to do a line check to verify the connection, so the problem was not on our end.

Now we have gotten things straightened out with Verizon Avenue and have our account restarted with them. We have been paying you for a DSL service that you knew full well you could not provide in the first place, and as such we expect a full refund of all of our past DSL payments.

LOL Dean is RARELY this aggressive! I got an e-mail from them today that said they will get back to us within one business day with our issue. It was a generic form letter and I am sure they are doing all they can to try and keep our money. And another blow to them, we are shutting off our phone service since Avenue internet does not need a home phone line to function. We were paying $25 a MONTH for basic phone service with no frills. We don’t even use it to order pizza anymore b/c you can do it online!

Most of our communication is over the net and we have free minutes on the cell after 9pm so we are good.

So is it just me who thinks that one of the two companies (Verizon and Verizon Avenue) should have to LEGALLY change their name? I just thought Verizon is Verizon, but that train of thought got us into the whole headache.

So we are packing to go out of town for a few days and visit our family. This caused something to happen that has not happened in a while…putting away clothes. For the last few month we have basically been dumping the clean clothes in a pile on the closet floor and clothing ourselves from it, but last night when I packed, I spent about an hour putting away all of my clothes (Dean’s was put in a pile for him to deal with!).

Also, I am going to try and dress more professional why we are down. It sounds very silly to do something like that, but I am a person who puts on PJ pants and a tank top and call myself dressed. Now that I am no longer a college student, I need to feel comfortable in uncomfortable clothes. Shirts with buttons and pants with out elastic bands just are not me, but I don’t have a choice if I want to be a professional.

I have to send out a special thanks to my BFFL gal, Prabha, who took my ass shopping and helped me to get the type of clothes I will need in the professional world. At first I was apprehensive because I did not think that I would be able to keep my style of bright colors, but I was surprised! I am kinda strange in that I find something I like, and then buy it in many different colors; it makes dressing stupid easy. And that was exactly what I did, got a nice button-down in many colors!

Next item on the agenda that ties into the last, getting a job. I have a list of places that I am going to send my resume to, but I am waiting on a few letters of recommendations from some of my professors in college. I just sent out mail last night and only one has got back to me, but to be fair one is writing a book and another is a super activist. Dr. Neumann who got back to me asked me to write the letter and he would edit it (he said “polish” it and made fun of my Polish last name!). He said that is how it is done, so I guess my next few days will be spent on that.

Let’s see, what else is going on? Oh, the glamor shots pic. It is STILL not in yet. They said it could be here today, but I wished that there would have been done a few days ago so I could have some ready for the family why we are down, but nooooo they are dragging their ass on it. I think it was because the whole thing was free. The first time I went and spend oober money, they were back in TWO DAYS, but we have been waiting over a week now for this one.

On a little more serious note, I do not know if I want/should visit my dad while I am down. It has been months since I have seen him and over a week since we have talked. The last I remember of him is the sound of him hanging up on me while I was crying because he would not come to my graduation. I don’t cry, so you can imagine how much pain I must have been in in order to make me cry. What would I say if I saw him? Do I want to risk pouring salt in my wound?

That brings me to George. George is a guy that wandered upon my friends blog and left some comments. I enjoyed what he said so I went to his blog and spent 2 days reading it from the beginning. Reading his words is like reading my dad’s thoughts. George has been married twice and divorced twice, has a few kids, lives alone, has depression, but unlike my dad, he is working his ass off to get better. His story is so inspiring to me that I copied all of his entries with the intent of printing and binding it for my dad. I think his story might show my dad what his life could be like and might get him to consider getting some help. Hell, who knows they could be pen palls. Yeah, yeah I always expect WAY more than life actually provides.

This leaves me with a lot of disappointments in life: money (salary expectations), sex (the “Hollywood” orgasm), jobs (doing what I want to do), life goals (changing the world), and legacy (get a national holiday in my honor). I am slowly learning the reality of life: I will slowly work up the ladder towards a salary that we can pay off all our debt and build a home with, only actors acting have a perfect orgasms, I might not change the world but I can change the lives of many people, and it will be those people who will honor me and be my legacy.

In closing, I am young enough to have wild ambitions, but only enough to know that their only use to be the fire under my ass to get done whatever I can do.

Why do stray cats always find me?  Is there some sort of homeless cat forum somewhere that has my address?  Or do I just pay more attention to these poor little critters than most other humans?

If you can’t tell where this is going, this morning I spotted a teen-aged gray tabby male from our porch.  I can always tell a homeless cat from an outdoor cat just by looking at it.  So I did what my compassionate side told me and put out food for it.  Ten minuets later it was on our porch playing with our cats through the glass.

I took it some water and it was kinda skittish.  It stayed on the porch with me there for 1/2 an hour, but would not let me pet it.  It loved our cats and was doing flips and pawing at the glass while our cats mimicked it on the other side.  After interacting with it for a while I realized it was deaf.  While it was napping I made all sorts of loud noises and not even an ear twitch.

I called animal control to come get him so it could have a chance at a home.  I know that it has a better chance than some of getting adopted because he is young, but I know the reality too.  He has a large chance of being put to sleep.  I hate the thought of it, but I know if I were to just leave him alone, he has the potential of making hundreds of other little kitties that would be homeless.

I wish I had the power to snap my fingers and spay/neuter every feral cat so no kitten ever has to shiver hungry in the cold of the winter or pant thirsty is the summer heat.

But I am only one person.

Worthplaying has posted a SpyHunter: Nowhere to Run preview, and it seems to have pretty positive things to say.

When you pull off a particularly cool kill, of which there are many, you’re treated to a “crash cam,” a kind of slow-motion, zoomed-in view of the other vehicle wrecking.

Hey, I did that!

Also, it appears that we have an official street date (or at least WP is claiming we do) of September 5th. Awesome - my first game on shelves!

So I have wanted a Honda Element for over a year now, so I am pretty sure that I actually want one. Of course, they don’t have a color I like, so out of boredom, I made one the color I want it!

Pink, big surprise eh?

Well Dean come up with a car system for us. Since after a car is about 3 years old, it is easier to get a new car than to put more money into the car to keep it going. So, once I am employed for a while, I will get an Element on a 3 year pay off and Dean will take the Sunfire. In 3 more years, the Sunfire will be traded in for a new car for me and Dean will take the Element. The cycle will continue and we will only have one car note.

I wonder why Dean does not want a new car? Maybe he just feels better knowing I am in a new car with less chances of issues that could leave me stranded on the side of a dark road where I will be raped and killed lol =)