Gevalt what a schelp!

James and I drove back and forth to Texas to be with my family for Thanksgiving.

After pricing airfare and discovering that a ticket would be $450 apiece, we Mapquested the location and discovered that it is an 800 mile drive. Even though we decided to make the drive when gas was still $4.00 per gallon, it was much cheaper than flying (and probably more enjoyable) so that's what we did.

I've always enjoyed road trips. I like them even more now because when I drive, James reads to me, so it's entertaining, educational and a great way for us to spend time together.

While I used to enjoy flying, it's a total chore these days. Flying on Thanksgiving...I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it. Last year we flew out on Thanksgiving day. This used to be a great day to fly. Totally empty flights are a thing of history now. Even on Thanksgiving day, the airport was a disaster.

I prepared by going into the office to get my satellite radio. I plugged it in and discovered that it had died. I've had it for about 5 years and it was a Sirius Orbiter. I believe that the unit was previously made in Soviet Russia. It was huge, heavy and would heat up to about 250 degrees. First the display went, then it just died altogether. I shopped on-line for a new one, but I wasn't sure that it would come in time for the big trip, so then I went out to find one. I tried Circuit City first, but in calling around I discovered that they've all gone out of business in our area, I was hoping to get a deal but they only sold off their merchandise on one day, not the long, drawn out Linens and Things Dutch auction that's going on.

I went to Radio Shack and they only had two models. I knew that there was a $30 unit and that's what I was after. The cheapest one they had was $70, so I decided to try Wal-Mart and lo and behold, I got one for $29. Done and done.

Then we went to the library to get some books to read. We got a Stanley Bing book, always fabulous, and James found an interesting account of the days of the old neighborhoods in Bejing prior to the Olympics.

The outbound trip started on Tuesday, and not knowing how my endurance would hold up, I made reservations for us to stay at Sam's Town casino in Shreveport. It was about 9 hours from Atlanta as the crow flies on Interstate 20. Good choice. Great room, okay buffet, crappy gambling, but all in all a very good experience.

It was only 3 hours to Dallas from there. My family is as they always are, a bit out there. My mother was in pain due to her sciatica acting up. This did not prevent her from preparing the traditional Thanksgiving meal. My sister insisted on charting out our every movement to insure maximum time utilization. She did score us free tickets to the Tutankhamen exhibition at their local museum. It was an okay show, but there are a bunch of them touring the US now, including one here in Atlanta, so the relics are a bit spread thin. We then went to Richardson, TX for some great Chinese food, so all in all, props to Judy for orchestrating the whole thing.

The hotel in Texas was okay, Courtyard. I'm a silver member Marriott person, so I got one night free, and the other two were paid with my Rewards card from work, so we didn't pay anything for the 3 night stay. The place is fine but the beds are too soft. You'd get in and the mattress would curl up around you. Ow! My back!

We left Saturday morning and drove from 7 am Central time until 10 PM Eastern time to get home. All in one straight shot. We might have shaved an hour or so from our time, had it not been foggy and wet the entire trip. Here's a clue people. Do NOT use your high beams in fog. Idiots.

So I fell onto my very solid, hard mattress and slept well for the first time in four nights. Boy did I need it.

I got some communication from Georgia State. They are only taking 43 credits, leaving me with 77 to do. I don't think I'm going to get my Accounting degree. It's too much of a hassle, and as a friend of my observed, "with all the bank lay offs, there are a lot of unemployed finance and accounting folks around."

I do want to point out that there's this awesome site called SoloGig. They have contract work posted there. I've applied for year long gigs there. I might try that route should I be jobless tomorrow.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

A Visit to the Office

I went to Lenox/Piedmont to see if I could get a haircut at the local beauty college, but they were full of housewives getting their holiday hairdo's put together. I had a couple of errands to run, pick up some jeans that I had altered at the tailors, run into the office and pick up my satellite radio for our road trip to Texas, stuff like that.

My visit to the office was surreal, and it reminded me of why it is that I don't go there any more.

I got off on the 12th floor, after finding a parking space, right across from the door, I didn't even have to go into the parking deck. Marcia, the secretary for the Entertainment group was there, Keith, a guy on some NY accounts was there, and that was about it. I ran into one of the Admins coming out of the elevator, she was moving the new VP into the office of our former VP, a BellSouth guy, who took his golden parachute last month. Did I say surreal?

We traded some stories and wished each other a happy holiday.

I have a message on my desk phone that says, "call me on my cell." After two months, I had 17 messages (my mail box holds 50) every single one of them a hang up. People now know not to look for me at the office.

I got a call from a colleague who relocated to SC, he wanted to know what I knew. Apparently there are some more lay-offs pending and the date of the announcement is supposed to be Dec 1. My manager right out asked me what I had found out about separation packages. How warped is that? My manager is asking me about stuff he should be on top of.

I am strangely calm. Although I had an anxiety attack last night. As a person on anti-anxiety medication, it was an odd experience. Usually, my anxiety attack manifests itself in feeling exhausted, yet unable to sleep due to some dumb tune going through my head (in this case a Family Guy ditty about vasectomy.) Other symptoms include heavy breathing and a rapid heart rate. This time I had the tune and the sleeplessness, it was as though I knew I was anxious, but I couldn't feel it. So strange.

I guess we'll enjoy our holiday, and I'll find out on the Monday after, what the story is.

Gobble, Gobble!

"Real" Housewives of Atlanta

Okay. I've never really been a fan of the "Real Housewives" franchise, but since this iteration takes place in my current hometown, I was curious.

What we have is a collection of incredibly vile, selfish and self-serving women, who have more money than brains.

A couple of the wives aren't all that bad. Lisa has her own businesses and is married to a football player. At least her projects aren't vanity endeavors in that they generate more money than they cost.

DeShawn seems nice enough, although she has a "foundation" and that's where she spends the free time that she has between managing her mansion (seriously) dealing with her children and throwing parties.

I'm conflicted about NeNe. She's loud, obnoxious and in a way vulnerable and likable. She's the girlfriend who toes the line between fun and embarrassing. Also, she desperately needs to start wearing a bra. Girl, whenever you go out. If you can't wear it under the halter-top, tube top or tank-top, then don't wear that top!

Sheree is a bitter soon-to-be divorcee. She too was married to a football player and has confused his achievements with her own. She is desperate to be recognized for something of her own, but truly is just living off of her settlement and child support.

Kim is the one that I think is just the worst. She is the mistress of some guy she calls Big Papa (EW!) who is rich, probably married and must have the world's worst taste in women. She fancies herself a singer, although she is tone-deaf. Her children are horrible, spoiled brats. She seems to have three cars, although she only needs one.

All of these women seem to spend their time shopping for clothing and purses that will impress each other. None of them cooks, preferring to employ "private chefs" just to cook family meals. (!)

I'm not proud of the fact that these women facinate me. I'm sure they all view themselves as aspirational figures. Quite the contrary, they are off-putting to the n'th degree. I can't believe that grown women actually desire to continue to live in a high school scenario.

None of these women is what I would consider real. Fake boobs, fake hair, fake jobs, fake emotions. It's something that I have struggled with for a long time. I feel that in many ways these women have taken the Feminist Movement and completely twisted it. They are caracatures of strong, independent women who are also prostitutes.

Where did this whole, "I'm so fine I can get a man to support me in style" thing come from? I can understand it from forty years ago, but with all of the options that are open to us today, I don't understand why anyone would WANT to be "kept."

Kim is the worst. She is PROUD to be a hooker. She dresses slutty, she gets cosmetic procedures on camera (Botox Party!) She is crude and frankly only the worst kind of man would want a woman like her. All I can think is that she can suck a bowling ball through a garden hose because she's not pretty, or likeable or anything positive. I wouldn't let her sit on my sofa without a plastic cover on it. I don't want crabs.

I still watch, it's pornography. I watch, facinated, knowing that if I had to do what they do, for the money that they get, that it's completely out of the question. At the end of the day, Timex or Rolex, it's still the same time. I might be shopping at Target instead of Dior, but I have self-respect.

Going downtown

Last Friday I went to orientation, where I toured the campus, listened to some speakers and signed up for classes. They are still evaluating my transcripts (all nine of them) to see what can transfer. On Friday it was 30 hours, today it was 52 hours. We're getting there. I signed up for Business Law, Computer Information Systems and Accounting 2. I wanted to be sure that I was signed up for the right stuff, so I made an appointment to meet with an advisor today. I headed downtown at around 9:30 for my 10:00 appointment. As I came down Peachtree, looking for Broad St about 5 emergency vehicles screamed down the various side streets. County cops, GHP, Atlanta City Cops, fire engines, fire/rescue, SWAT, you name it. Streets were blocked off and all the news helicopers were flying around, a real scene.

Turns out some guy was running through the MARTA station with a knife, a MARTA cop chased him down, he got stabbed and that's when other cops shot the guy with the knife. Thankfully, everyone is still alive, recuperating in the hospital, but I'd say that the response was a bit overkill for the situation. People I visited in the building actually saw the action from their windows, that's how close I was to all of this.

As it turns out, I only needed about 5 minutes to get all sorted out. None of my MBA classes will count towards the business classes that are required for the BBA in Accounting. So I'll be taking the undergrad versions of classes that I took as a grad student. We weighed the options and decided that although I could get into the graduate program, for what I want to do, an undergrad degree with a CPA as the goal is the best way to approach it.

I've contacted my previous schools to get syllabi to show that Data Analysis in Education that I took at SFSU will be a good match for Math 3710, Statistics. Of course, Quantitative Methods that I took for my MBA can't count, even though, it was harder. I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused.

They have this weird thing called Institutional Options. It's very similar to my Ethnic Diversity Cluster that was required for graduation from SFSU. I took San Francisco and Geography of Ethnic Neighborhoods, (an excellent class, BTW.) I'm thinking that either of these would substitute for the Perspectives classes, which are 2 credit courses that cover topics like Pop Music, World Food, Television Violence, you get the idea.

So I don't have to take a second Lab Science (Thank goodness because the first one darn near put me under.) I do have to take American Government. James is still scratching his head over that one. I didn't even have to take it in high school because I tested out of it.

As a person who has been to a LOT of colleges you learn that each one has its own weirdness. As long as I don't have to take a Math class, I think I'll be pretty happy. It's not that I can't do math, its that I don't enjoy it.

Since 9 credits cost the same as 12, I'm debating as to what other class to take. I can't enroll in any Business classes until I've finished the "core program" and none of the other classes meld well with my schedule. I might start slow and kick it into gear later.

Voting in the South

I voted today. Nearly everyone in my family had taken advantage of early voting. I have all the time in the world to go out and do so myself, so why didn't I? Because in Atlanta there were only three places offering early voting, and the waits at each of them were in excess of three hours daily. In the last election 3.5 million people turned out. As of yesterday 2 million voters had already voted, so I figured that we'd roll the dice and brave the early birds voting in our local precinct. Since there are 150 precincts open on election day, versus 3 for early voting, I figured we'd be better off. And I was right.

We arrived in the darkness at the Middle School, waited in line. Although they didn't open the polls, the election workers had everything teed up. We filled out our certificates, and were located on the rolls (electronically!) all we had to do from there was wait for 7:00 AM and vote. We were done by 7:20 and on our way to the deli for breakfast.

I took advantage of my free Starbucks and had potato latkes.

Now all we have to do is wait for the results.