Oh Dear!

Shana Tova Umetuka Everyone!

Friday night I went to the 'rents for dinner, and they had a few people besides the family over. I think the total was 10 or 12. My mom didn't do her usual huge dinner because with my dad incapacitated, there's not a lot of time for her to be able to cook and host and do everything else she has to do. It was nice though, the conversation got a bit dull at times, but whatever. Saturday morning I went to Hillel because I am not a member of any synagogue. LONG STORY.

Services were nice, and I ran into a bunch of people, so we had lunch out at Everybody's across the street. I had 8 people coming for Second night Rosh Hashana to my house, so when I got home I went grocery shopping and then had to get to cooking! Everyone came for dinner after services, so it was about 9:00 before dinner started, and so people were here pretty late. When my parents left, my mom called me, apparently she saw a deer at the exit to my subdivision. So of course, when she called, we all walked out looking for it. We found Two!! Just playing the wooded area by the entrance to the subdivision. A little out of their territory, hopefully they found their way home at the end of the night. That was pretty cool.

Sunday morning, I was scheduled to volunteer and do door duty at Hillel, and on the schedule it said I needed to get there at 8 am. Yark! That's early. I noticed that around 1 am after I'd cleaned up stuff from dinner. So I set my alarm and got down there at 8 (services were at 9), and the person in charge to help me didn't show up until about 8:50. I was so mad, but what can you do. Services were nice, and I got to catch up with Jacob B. who I haven't seen in a while, and with Alanna Z.

I was exhausted, so I didn't do much for the rest of the day. well, I hope everyone has a sweet new year!

Gas

It's been a little over a year since Katrina hit the gulf coast to new orleans. I drove down last year on labor day weekend to visit with Leah, and almost was stuck there because there was no gas in any of the gas stations. After waiting in a GAS LINE for about 45 minutes, I finally got gas and was able to come home. I remember that weekend when gas went up to $3 a gallon, and we all gasped in fear of how high it had jumped. it lowered a little since then, but has maintainted a pretty high average since then. I breathed a sigh of relief this weekend when I saw gas for $2.15 in Macon.

I remember when I first started driving, I once filled up for $0.65 usually it was in the 70-80 cent range, but man, those were the good days.

hit a grand slam, braves are eliminated.

I have been so incredibly busy with work, that I just haven't had time to catch up on my blog!!! people have even commented that they were disappointed I was slacking, so here goes.

I spent a few days in Beech Island last week for work, and we had an end of project dinner. THere were 32 guys and me. No joke. It was funny because the night before, we were having dinner after our meeting, and I asked the guys what the dress code was (since of course, I was the only girl, I couldn't just align with a girl). They responded it was shirt and tie. Upon arriving at the dinner, I noticed that the place was set up quite nicely, but half the people came in their clothes that they were wearing in the plant, the other half put on clean polo shirts. I came in a dress and heels. Thanks guys, that was really a funny joke. Either way, it was a fun night, and nice to see work people (and clients) on a social basis.

this weekend was actually a lot of fun too. friday I went to have shabbat dinner with the 'rents, and then afterwards went out with Rochelle, Lisa, and shannon, and met up with Jeremy and Mett. We had fun, and managed to stay out pretty late. I had to set my alarm to make sure I was up and ready to go to the football game in the morning. We whooped Troy 35-20 yay!

I had made plans to drive after the game to Warner Robins (No matt, it is not a combination of warner brothers and baskin robbins). There was a dance happening with a great band (the Les Still "Still Swinging" Jazz band). Well, I arrived, and quickly realized that it wasn't a dance, but a concert, and they'd asked us to come to PERFORM. I was very surprised. But, we did it, and danced for the whole concert. I had a lot of fun, and I know the people in the crowd did as well.

Saturday night, instead of driving back to Atlanta, I went a little north to Macon, and hung out with Ross. We watched Lucky number Slevin, which no one seems to have seen, but was really good, and the next day went to a yummy deli and tried to do some touristy stuff, but our plan got foiled. I saved the day though by going to the outlet mall and of course getting some good deals =) Then at night, I went to dinner for Avital's b-day and a nice thai place near her house. It was pretty fun!!

I was pretty nervous because today we had a big presentation to some important people in Delta for the project we've been working on. Long story short, we "hit a home run" and they were thrilled with what we prepared. I tried to hide my emotion that I was truly excited and happy they liked it, but a little smile showed through =)

ok, I am up to date, I don't want to hear any more nagging ;-)

oh, sadly, my Atlanta Braves are out of any chance of making any appearance in postseason play. Boys, it was a good 14 year run. we'll get 'em next year.

Above rock bottom.

Alright everyone. Thanks for checking up on me, it was a long week, but it was much better than the weekend. On Tuesday I got to catch up with my friend Randy, and we went to this Thai place in Brookhaven that was actually really good. That day, he'd picked me up the new GT Jewish Student Union Teeshirt, that was really cute. The front is the same as the old one, but the back design has some sports fans with the letters JSU on them, and in Hebrew, it has the words "Fight, Win, Drink, Get Naked" which is a cheer that everyone yells in the football stadium. Once I got home, I realized that Moshe had gone with a Uhaul and Alex to his house to load his ENTIRE HOUSE in the evening. He returned here at 11:30, and though I was exhausted, I helped them unload until the Uhaul was empty.

Anyway, Wednesday was a long day at work, and I was wiped when I got home. I was pretty much still worn out from the weekend, and never really caught up on my sleep all week, But I helped Moshe move some more while making Challah. Thursday at lunch, Josh flew through Atlanta, so I met him for lunch at the Airport (since I was there anyway haha), and man, I forgot how great (and cute) of a guy he is. Sucks all the circumstances around that. But Thursday after work, I went to sub as a dance teacher with Ben at his weekly dance class. It was really fun. I like teaching, but have only had the opportunity here and there. Anyway, that was fun, and I finally got home at around 9:00 Thursday. I hope I get more opportunities to teach some dancing. It is fun.

Friday my dad went into surgery for his foot. They were supposed to put 2 pins in, but once they made the incision, it turned out they had to put in 6 because he broke it worse than they thought. Because my parents have been a wreck all week, I invited them to eat Shabbat dinner at my house. I had already made the Challah, and then Friday night I made Pasta with salmon and Spanikopita. Dad's surgery took longer than expected, and it was 8:00 before they released him. So mom called and said they wouldn't be driving out to me since dad was still in a lot of pain and on morphine. So I packed everything up and brought it to their house. It probably wasn't as good as it could have been since we had to eat it away from their kitchen and on paper plates since my house is not kosher. But from what they tell me, the meal hit the spot, and they really liked it.

Saturday was the football game, which we creamed Samford 38-6. I got to hang out with Ethan for half the game, and some of the AEPis for the other half. Afterwards I went swing dancing, but left at 11:30ish since I was drained from the day of being out in the sun. And today, I had lunch in Atlantic Station with Jessica and Jordan, and then pretty much wasted away the day, during which, I picked up and practiced my violin for a short bit, and went to the gym.

Overall though, the past 6 days have been much better than last weekend. I figure the only way to go is up!

meanwhile, A funny quote from tonight:
Bela: I know, you guys must think Betsy and I have naked pillow fights.
Josh: oh don't think I haven't imagined that one yet
Josh: but it wasn't naked. You were wearing thongs and white tank tops
Bela: haha
Bela: so who wins?
Josh: oh we all win
Josh: we all win

My weekend sucked, my weekend sucked, my weekend sucked because…

Well, I think this past week/weekend was the worst I’ve had in a long time. During the week leading to the weekend, my dad broke his foot, and while driving, a MARTA bus hit my mom. Friday was fairly uneventful, and then it went downhill. Amanda was able to get me a ticket to the football game, which was really sweet (THANKS AMANDA!!). Unfortunately, after standing up for 4 hours tailgating, 4 more at the game, and then waiting 3 more for game traffic to let up, we left, disappointed at the loss. Sunday I went with my family to the Decatur Book Festival, and then coming home, my Grandma, who is in town for the weekend, gets a call that her best friend back home died that morning. Damper on the day. I went back home in the evening, and was planning on going to a party, and managed to get in a car accident (see details in previous post). The guy I hit consistently called me Monday because I said I’d call him. He had asked me the day before if I wanted to pay out of pocket, or have insurance cover it, and I had said I would get back to him Monday (it was already past midnight when we were having this discussion anyway). Apparently, me calling him includes him dialing my number multiple times throughout the day. But since I had family over, I couldn’t get back to him until the evening. I called him to tell him to get an estimate, and if I could afford it, I may opt to pay for it myself to avoid the increase in my insurance cost. Well, he continued to ask me “how much is your limit?” I said, well, I am not sure. I will have to make that decision when I see how much it is (since obviously, if the cost to fix his car is a lot, then I will have insurance cover it regardless). Well, then he says “well, is $1000 too much? What is your limit. I again said, I didn’t know - To get a quote. After all this, he says “well, it doesn’t matter anyway since I already reported it this morning to State Farm. WTF??? Why the hell was he asking me all those questions and calling me all day if he Friggin’ ALREADY REPORTED IT??!!! I guess it doesn’t really matter that he reported it since I’d probably end up doing that anyway, but really, why be an ass about it??? There were a few smaller things this weekend that just added to the misery, but I’ll leave you hanging on those.

Poor Lisa, she had a great weekend and wanted to tell me about it, and I was such a sourpuss about it. I told her that hers must’ve been the one to balance mine out. I’m glad at least someone had a good weekend.

Roadkill

Scary Night. I was on my way to see everyone at a party at Scott's, because a lot of people that I'd gone to school with were in town for the long weekend. I'd gotten all dressed up, and was going to go by Rochelle's on the way there to pick her up. That's the best the story gets. On the way there, I was going from 285 to 85, and on the on-ramp, I was in the right merging lane and another guy was in the left merging lane. Eventually these two lanes become one and are the righthand lane of 85S. Well, the roads were wet from the rain an hour earlier, and I assume a wheel on my car slipped, because my car started spinning. It was REALLY REALLY SCARY. I spun left, and knocked the car on my left, and then spun right off the road. Thank G-d I didn't spin INTO the highway. It could have been a lot worse. There was a girl that saw the accident that pulled over too, and not 5 minutes after the accident, there was a police on the scene. Everyone's stories matched, so it was a no-brainer, I guess. Well, the guy I hit kept asking me if I was "under the influence". Apparently, me telling him no, and the cop not asking me about it wasn't enough, he had to ask me multiple times. I was trying to stay really calm throughout the whole process, even though I was scared shitless - alone, on the side of I-85, after hydroplaning and spinning out of control. And he must've asked me 3-4 times if I was drunk. Well anyway, I was shaking, and we all traded info, I got a ticket for "Failure to Maintain Lane", and we were all on our way.

Right as I got back home, the guy I hit called me. He wanted basically to know how I wanted to settle - if I wanted my insurance to pay, or to pay out of pocket. I need to look and see how the insurance companies work or whatever, since this is my first time having to deal with this, so I told him I would call him back tomorrow. Well, twice more, he asked me if I "was under the influence". I finally cracked my cool, and said "I'm not an idiot, I wouldn't be driving if I'd had something to drink". I guess that was that and we got off the phone. I still have to call him tomorrow and follow-up, but I am still in a shaky mood, and frustrated and mad at the whole event.

I'm sure he would love to see me if I was drunk, and maybe compare me to the demeanor I was in today, and maybe then, he'd believe me that I was not drunk. But I guess that's not an option.

I need to try to go to sleep, or else I will keep replaying this event in my head for hours.

Oh, I need to figure out some stuff about the police report, if anyone knows. I had to sign outside in the dark - he just pointed to where I had to sign and said what he was giving me the ticket for. When I got home and I could read it in the light, I noticed he had marked that the road was dry - which it wasn't. Is there a way to contest that? Also, he marked that my hair was brown - not sure if he was looking at me, or my license, since all my other info was off my license. Can I get the road condition changed? Does it matter?

Roomate changeover.

Well, Betsy told me today that she is planning on moving out after her lease is up at the end of October. That sucks because it's actually been pretty fun living with Betsy. I had a really hard time with roomates in my early years at tech, but have been pretty fortunate with roomates for the last few years. I guess I'll have to start a quest for someone else to live here.

It's funny with roomates. There are always times that you feel like you're imposing on them (usually because you are) - for example, by throwing parties too often. But then on days when you come home and they're not around, it is a lot quieter and lonely around the house - not that it's EVER quiet here haha. But anyway, sad news that betsy's leaving. Maybe I can find someone else to move in. otherwise, I'll have to cut some spending to pay more of the mortgage all by my lonesome.

I'll begin interviewing...Now.