Let the dead rest in peace, dammit. Zombies suck.

I did not know typing my thoughts could make this happen.
(Silverlight has been crashing on me for the last 12,000 years
without fail, so this is definitely not from that. Sigh.)

You know when you think about contacting someone from your past because doing so would be very relevant to your very hopeful immediate future job, even though you haven't spoken in years and the other person likely hates you because of not understanding "friend trying to help you not screw up your life even worse" and you shouldn't have to explain that but then you do, and as soon as you finish typing your thoughts you see your computer screen turn green and pixellate, and it locks up so much that when it's restarted you get a notice that your overclocking failed so you have to go into the BIOS to fix things? Yeah, I hate it when that happens.

As I'm a pantheist (Zen Pantheist Skeptic more than anything else, even though I love me some Catholic liturgy), I think I'll take this as a subtle hint from the universe to keep not talking to him, even though this job I want would entail working closely with someone in a very similar way to how we'd worked together, and I want him to give me proper props like he said he'd do but I kinda want to make sure but now the making sure is not gonna happen because my computer is a bitch to begin with and I don't want to aggravate her further. Balls.

The universe tends to get my attention in a big way when I think about being a nice more-than-decent human being and shouldn't even bother, or when I want to do things I know I shouldn't do. I'm generally way too nice to people to begin with (like Bjork, I err on the side of generosity), but sometimes I get forced to pay attention to what I'm thinking about (or trying to not think about), and that's always interesting. 

The last time anything noticeable like this happened was about a year and a half ago, when I knew hubby and I should've just stayed at home in Dallas one weekend. However, there were exciting things going on, so I pushed myself to attend said exciting things even though I knew better and even with knowing I'd be extremely worn down afterward from having pushed myself in similar ways then-recently, but some of these things interested hubby so of course I wanted him to go too, so yeah, hot messes happened. 

We had a very (literally) crappy weekend out of state while doing a few college homecoming things and museuming as usual when in the area. It was nice to see some of my classmates after 15 years, and it was awesome seeing a kickass production of "Antigone" there, but it was not so nice to be surprised by a wrong way driver heading straight for us on a back road highway. (Yay for being able to get my swerve on while thinking about how incredibly awful I felt.) We should've stayed in our hotel room the first night instead of hitting the big shindig done by the school of music, since hubby's gut was agitated and mine was getting that way, but nooooo, I had to insist on going and had to get Imodium so all would be fairly well. I now know that this was wrong. He felt better the next day, when I missed out on museuming thanks to being in the bathroom for like an hour and a half in literal gut-wrenching agony. 

Naturally it occurred to me then that these things could've been avoided had we just stayed home (especially as the driving scare happened about 20 minutes before getting to said museum). There wasn't anything life-changing going on that we would've missed out on, aside from my really getting what the chorus of a Greek play should ideally be like, and aside from seeing a "Clerks" reference in context in real life, but even those things don't compare to the crap that happened.

The first thought that came to mind when seeing this:
"I'm not even supposed to be here today!!"
Well played, universe. Well played.

Of course, we could've just felt bad from food poisoning, but my gut would've exploded within 4-12 hours as usual instead of waiting 40 hours, so I kinda think not. Still, I continue to not buy chicken from Target, just in case we did have bad chicken the night before we left, even though I know this all was really a gentle prod from the universe to get me to take even better care of myself. Then again, it could be both. It really doesn't matter. None of this matters, except that I really hate when the universe course-corrects me in a big obvious-to-me way.

Okay, I'm really going to the arboretum soon. Today. Because I've been wanting to but changed my mind about it on Monday and yesterday. And because I don't want the universe to kick me anymore for not getting out to enjoy it like I should. (And I apologize if my reposting this a zillion times right now screws up your feed but the text is all fubar and it is driving me nuts, and yes, I know how that all sounds after what I just said. Balls.)

We got a deal from Death Star!

I've been a Death Star (see the logo) customer since February 2006. It is now December 2011. You would think that I'd get great customer service from them, but even one of their automated systems kicked me out plus told me to go to a retail store. I've been a bit annoyed, very understatedly.

Hubby and I both have an iPhone 3GS. Over 75 minutes, I attempted the hell to communicate with AT&T about transferring from the 550 minute a month plan (since we never use our minutes) to the 10 cent a minute paygo plan while keeping our data services. I've heard this is possible from the interweb plus from 3 of the reps I talked with today, even though this possibility is nowhere to be found on the AT&T website. This should be easy to accomplish, yes?

No. Not only no, but a booming resounding HELL NO all Moses and Ten Commandments and lightning from the top of Mount Olympus style.

The first call went well until there was no option to get to a customer service representative on the GoPhone side. I got booted out of the system because my wireless number wasn't in their system and because I did not have documentation needed for activating a new phone.

The second call sucked major ass because I could barely hear the person on the other line. (I actually giggled about calling about a phone issue while being on a line with horrid quality. I now know this was wrong. Giggling was soon replaced by thoughts of beheading and smiting, especially after many fake and obligatory apologies.) I was transferred to someone who could allegedly better help me, but that person was also difficult to hear, and ended up giving me the 800 number to the first person.

The third call was answered by a very friendly and helpful lady. She was genuinely apologetic and gave me two good numbers to call. Yay!

The fourth call ended with the same result as the first call, so I tried the second number given by Helpful Lady.

The fifth call featured me lying about having documentation and/or SIM cards and/or I don't know what else, just to try to get to a person on the GoPhone side. The automated system told me I'd have to go to an AT&T retail store and speak with someone there.

Seriously? The automated phone wench didn't have a human serviceperson to boot me to at all??

Have I mentioned that it feels so barbaric to use a land line and have to dial 1 before the 800??

The sixth call was answered by someone who sounded like Denzel. He was extremely helpful and knew exactly where I needed to be in the phone labyrinth. He also mentioned (unlike the other reps) that hubby's phone is actually still under contract and wouldn't be up until April. Well, alrightie then.

Denzel hooked me up with someone who was freaking incredible to talk with. (Benjamin Prius, I hope I didn't mangle the spelling of your last name. Mad props to you sir, and I hope you get lovely snow this weekend in Lubbock!) Apparently the iPhone is an exception to the GoPhone rules and doesn't count as a regular smartphone. Balls. After some chatting and some amazement on his part since he could see that I'd talked with a few people within the hour, he hooked me up with some better rates on plans not normally offered. The upshot is that we'll save $20 a month, which will help since we're planning to move across town in two months (aah!). I'd hoped to save $60 a month with getting the 10 cent a minute plan for both of us, but oh well. At least I tried and something good happened out of the ordeal.

Maybe in April when hubby's contract is up, we'll look at paygo again, but the iPhone 5 should be hitting about then (or news about it, anyway), so we'll see. Technically we could go paygo now, but I'd have to buy a different smartphone and he'd have to get a new phone too plus fork up the early termination fee. No thanks. We're both happy with our 3GS phones and use our computers way more for computery things anyway, but I'd still love a better phone cam. I could get that now with the 4S on a new contract but I'll wait. I'll be busy packing and jobbing and job looking and crashing so I might as well wait.

In other news for today, I'm still frustrated at not having my personal website finished. I'm streamlining the holiday card list and putting everything together for mailing. I finally got my certificate of creditable coverage from UHC so added that to my BCBSTX certificate and faxed them to Cigna today. Now they'll pay several of my doctors for working my pre-existing conditions plus pay for labwork (well, when I call everyone back with the all clear to refile the claims). It's been so annoying at trying to get this from UHC since like, oh, June. Of course, while cleaning while packing last night, I found the original one they sent to me in April in an unopened envelope, so that's very much a my bad and I feel utterly stupid for not realizing I've had it all this time!! I'm a day late for making sure our tags are registered but am glad there's a 5 day grace period. I was hoping to have already been to the local Tom Thumb (to do the tag thing) and be back home by now. I haven't even showered yet! Gah, it's 3:45 pm and I haven't even eaten lunch yet. I suppose I should do that next.

We got deathstar, we got deathstar....