nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey…

YES!!!

i’m annoyed i can’t get a straight answer from any of the big sites about north carolina and indiana, but i guess i can let it go…

ELECTION LIVE

wow, guys. like, for realz. first of all, if you don’t feel like reading about my adventures, you can click here to go straight through to the LIVE BLOG. but if you WOULD like to hear my awesome story, then get ready.

so as some of you may know, this was my first voting experience. yeah yeah, i totally pussed out in 2004, but come on, a democrat in massachusetts? there wasn’t a ton i could do. not that being a democrat in new york is that big of a change, but this election feels just a liiiiittle bit more relevant/important/life-changing to me. okay, so needless to say, i was pretty excited to vote. so excited, in fact, that i ended up waking up twenty minutes before my alarm went off this morning. it was 545 am.

luckily, the polls in ny open at 6 am, so i decided to deal with missing the last few minutes of slumber, and just head over to the polls (one block away). there was already a line out the door, but i had come prepared with my crossword, and it was surprisingly not totally crappy weather, so i was okay. anyway, i’ll skip to the important stuff.

i didn’t have my handy little registration direct-mail thing with me, so i went over to the district book guys, who told me that i’m in district 50, and to head to the line all to the way to the right, which i do. 7 minutes later, the guy comes up to me and says he accidentally put me in the wrong line, and that i should be all the way over to the left. luckily there wasn’t too much of a line inside (just out, i guess), so that was just fine. i get to the table, and they can’t find my name in the booklet thing. this bums me out because it means i have to fill out a provisional ballot, but hey, i’m still doing my part, right? i just assumed this happened because i sent in my registration form about 8 minutes before it was due on the 10th.

so i’m outta there in 45 minutes, which is sort of bittersweet because it gives me just enough time to NOT go back to sleep before work. oh well. so i tell este what district we’re in so he doesn’t have to wait, too, and i’m on my way out. two hours later (and four hours after i vote), i get a phone call from este. turns out, we’re not in district 50. we’re in district 49. apparently este had gone through the same shenanigans with the no-name-in-the-book deal, and was really disappointed at casting a prov ballot, so when he got home, he double-checked his registration guy, and right there, printed on the card, was the 49. SO LAME.

because he had some extra time before going to work and the fact that he was still around the corner, he went back to the polling place and settled everything, ripping up the paper ballot and doing that shit right. unfortunately, i was at work, and planned to be until later in the day. FORtunately, however, i decided to stroll by on my way home from work, just to see what was up with the wait, and there was none! the place was practically empty. so i popped in, explained my story to about 4 different people (who understood in varying degrees), got an (unprompted) apology from the guy who f’ed up my s in the morning, ripped up my paper ballot, and pulled the crap out of that lever!

so all in all, it worked out. :) here’s the link again if you want it: ELECTION LIVE. come check it out! last time, there were TWO WHOLE PEOPLE i’m not related to! it was awesome.

suck it, comcast: part two

THAT’S RIGHT.

BALLS TO THE WALL.

YES! yes. i did it. i won. i fought comcast and i WON! i love it. okay here’s the story, in brief:

once upon a time, i lived in massachusetts with two friends. since i already had a comcast account, i kept it under my name after we moved in together. two years later, i moved out of said apartment. however, i was leaving a month before the end of the lease. one of my roommates was staying in the apartment, so a new person was taking over my part of the lease, essentially. instead of having to change accounts a million times, i kept mine open until this new girl moved in, then promptly cancelled and forgot all about it.

two months later (this is november, ‘07 now) i get a bill in brooklyn for $210 for an unreturned cable box. hm, i think to myself, that’s odd, because i could’ve sworn ross said it got picked up. so i call ross to confirm. yup, a comcast tech guy came to set up the new stuff for the new account, and took the old stuff with him. so i obviously call comcast to see what’s the dilly, because i don’t want to pay for something i shouldn’t have to. after a few phone calls, we finally get it settled. cool.

fast forward to two weeks ago (september ‘08). i get another bill. from comcast, a company i haven’t used in over a year. this one is for $210 for an unreturned cable box. but there is a credit for $80 attached to it, so now i owe them $130. um, hello? so i call them the next day, but it’s after normal business hours so i end up talking to some customer service guy instead of someone in the billing & research department like i should. anyway, he tells me that sometimes the techs forget to fully disengage (or whatever) pieces of equipment, so maybe someone new just got my old cable box, turned it on, and it was still registered to me so i got a bill for it. he tells me he’ll put a note in the file, and i should expect a check for the $80 credit in the mail. uh, negative.

i get a phone call on monday from a billing & research guy who – in sum – told me that the guy from last week was totally wrong, ross is proooobably just lying about the tech, and that i’m going to get charged because it’s my name on the account. he didn’t say it as fresh as that, but the condescending tone got the message across just fine. i asked him a series of well thought-out and important questions (like… if this wasn’t resolved last year, why didn’t a receive a whole series of other bills threatening to send goons to beat me up if i don’t pay?) which this guy could not give concise answers to.

so finally i’m like… it’s time for some action. so i go to consumerist.com (and you should, too, because it’ll change your life) and look up “comcast”. one of, if not THE, first article is a list of about 80 comcast exec’s email addresses, and a few tips on how to write an “eecb”, or “executive email carpet bomb” without being a total douche. how it works is you write to many MANY of the most important people at a company (for example, comcast), explaining (nicely!) that their employees are relatively incompetent and are not doing anything to help a crappy situation that they caused. basically it’s meant to be a last resort, but a very very effective one.

and so it was. i wrote out a polite, thought out message about four other people’s incompetence and why i felt like it was unfair that i should have to pay such an extreme amount of money for their mistakes. AND IT WORKED. i got three emails within about two hours, all with apologies for my inconvenience. granted, they were kind of generic, but it paid off! because one of them said he’d call, and he did. i got a phone call from one of the exec peeps (or one of their cronies) today telling me that they were wiping out the bill and i can expect my $80 credit in the mail shortly.

that’s right! suck it, comcast!

read me a bedtime story?

oh, okay…

Chapter 1: P-E-P-E

It was early on a Thursday morning when Pepe arrived at our door. He came accompanied by, of course, Megan, as she was the one who made it possible for him to ride the Path and then a taxi to our building. She came bearing bags of goodies: one with Pepe’s leash and a comfortable spot for him to be carried on the subway, and the other with food and his favorite blanket. He was with us for four short days; just enough time to remember why we love him so dearly, but not enough to satisfy our desire to have him around always. We’ll miss you, dear Pepe, and having to sprint in and out of the building with you because dogs are not allowed here.

Chapter 2: Ciao, Little Italy!

so there was a festival going on in little italy last week so i dragged a bunch of people down there to check it out. it ended up being really fun! we decided to go to one of the restaurants on mulberry st (where all the action was), which, in retrospect, might have been kind of silly since there were about 4,453,692,485 street vendors that were carrying delicious (and far cheaper) food and snacks. oh well. regardless, we had a good time.

Chapter 3: Pot Luck

sorry i don’t have a clever title for this part. or pictures. but it was fun! we all hauled out to bed-stuy to see ross’ new apartment and eat delicious food. mission accomplished.

Chapter 4: ‘23, bitches…’

it was alex “let’s do a shot!” w’s birthday last weekend, so she had a rockin’ birthday party at the three jolly pigeons in bay ridge (for those of you who live in or are familiar with brooklyn: yes, we went from bed-stuy to bay ridge. yes, we took a cab because, as you know, that’s practically impossible to do in under 1.5 hours).

it was SUPER fun. i asked mariel to take some pictures while ross and i were playing pool, which ended up with her nearly crashing my camera because of all the pictures (not really), but i did manage to find this gem of ross cupping the pool table.

okay, now cough?

i would get more specific than that but i don’t have many details. sorry, mom. and more sorry for the next part:

Chapter 5: hangover, bitches…

there’s actually not much to tell here. este had to go to work at like 930 that morning, and thank god he took pepe out before he left, because i could not summon the strength to take him out until 7 that night. coincidentally, joe blog happened to post something about hangovers that very day, so i got to read about and experience one all at the same time. so that was nice. i also watched ‘michael clayton’, which was really good, but the end credits are george clooney riding around in a cab, which made me mega-nauseous, so i wasn’t too psyched about the end there. oh, well. i got to bum around and do nothing, so i guess that’s cool. next time maybe i’ll remember to drink some water, though, so i don’t end up on the brink of death from dehydration.

Chapter 5: Let’s Go, METS!

honestly, i couldn’t have cared less about the score of that game, but it was still wicked fun to go hang out at shea stadium before it’s demolished (or flattened, or whatever) next week. and for the record, they better be VERY careful when they do happen to smush it, because the new stadium is mere INCHES from the existing one:

we had that awesome view right across from the giant sign because we were about seven rows from the very end of the stadium. i wish i had gotten a better perspective shot of the whole thing, but you’re just going to have to take it from me… it’s really scary up there. the stairs are sosteep. but we did have a really nice view of like, the entire stadium.

the original plan involved 12 people going to this thing, but yadda yadda yadda… we ended up with 6 people and 6 empty seats. it actually provided a nice buffer. would’ve been nicer if it padded us from kid-who-can’t-keep-his-legs-from-pounding-the-back-of-my-seat or group-of-tweens-who-yell-a-lot, but what’re you gonna do?

Chapter 6: On an Unrelated Note, I Have About 15 Mosquito Bites

the end.

B.A.M.F.

that’s Bad Ass Maura Fields, for those of you who don’t know. also for those of you who don’t know, i’m a bad friend. it was the aforementioned maura’s big 2-4 recently, and although i obviously gave birthday wishes, i did not obviously give a birthday shout out. so lame. so in honor of the lovely maud squad, i’ve compiled several (SEVERAL) facebook pictures i blatantly stole, many from people i’ve never even met before, to create a sort of awkward MAUntage (yes, i did that) for everyone. so maura… THIS IS FOR YOU:

just to confirm… she IS a badass:

she kicks ass:

and takes names:

she’s a really fast runner:

and a mermaid of sorts:

she is very tall:

but doesn’t let being an OBVIOUS rockstar get to her head

because her gorgeous family keeps her grounded:

sometimes she likes to just think… think her thoughts:

oh, and she’s pretty:

happy birthday maura! you are truly one of a kind. and also in honor of your awesomeness, i wrote this poem for you:

hey maura, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind
hey maura!
hey hey, hey maura!

home sweet home.

kitchen.

living room.

bedroom.

(click on them for enlargements.)

i know they’re a teeny bit wonky, and you can’t actually tell the size of the rooms, but i think it’s better that way. it’s narrow, that’s all you need to know. you enter through the kitchen (the door with all the locks on it), and the bathroom’s connected there (the door without all the locks on it). then it’s a railroad to the living room and then the bedroom. the living room comp is actually missing one of the walls, but the only thing there is the tv and two windows that look pretty much directly into someone else’s windows. seriously. this girl across the alley and i are like best friends now, we’ve seen each other in our underwear so many times.

because that’s how you determine how good of friends you are. duh.

so este and i decided that we’re 93% done! the bathroom and kitchen have met his standards… there are still a few things going on in the bedroom that don’t work for him (ie, the toolbox that’s -gasp!- on top of his dresser), and there’s still some art that needs to go up in the living room (frames are needed first). otherwise, though, it’s great. we had our first official visitor last night – the lovely noah – so that was exciting. except i had to put pants on for that, so that SUCKED. i’m sorry but it’s been 92 degrees out in nyc for like a month straight and it is daaaaaaamn hot in this apartment with all the awesome windows and light and whatnot.

anyway, we helped chad and steve move out (and into their new place) this morning. it took a whopping three hours to get it done. i am never moving myself again. NEVER. it’s all professional movers, all the time, from now on. for realz. i’m not built ford tough enough to handle this crap. don’t get me wrong, i love helping out friends, and i was happy to do that this morning (especially since all i had to do was help steve’s dad organize stuff in the truck and then move boxes to the front for the boys to take), but good god. walk-ups are annoying enough as it is.

and in less whiny news, my buddy’s wife had a baaaaaby!

additional awesome news: i got a nintendo ds. what uuuup! i got mario kart and some brain-enhancing game so i didn’t feel like a total moron. it’s truly miraculous. now i can stop staring at strangers on the subway!

525,600 boxes

we moved!

we live here now!

moving day (and the days following, to be perfectly honest) was pretty trying. there were a lot of stairs. but everybody put in an amazing effort, which este and i truly appreciated, and we managed to get all of our stuff out of our respective apartments and into our joint new one in just 10 short hours, which were followed almost immediately by pizza and beer in the back of our uhaul truck (see picture, above).

este and are this close to being finished unpacking and arranging and whatnot. the original plan was to put everything we could into the living room, and then leave the bed and dressers for the bedroom, but it didn’t quite turn out that way. the blog command center had to be relocated to the bedroom after we realized that walking around the entire couch to get to the kitchen every day would be super annoying. but it’s cool because i can move around the room willy nilly and este sleeps through the whole thing.

most of our stuff (aside from clothes, etc) fits in este’s bookshelves, which is nothing short of a miracle, but we have had to work some shelf magic, too, especially in the kitchen. i have a lot of tupperware!

hopefully we’ll be done in the next day or two… mainly because unpacking sucks, but also partly because i think este might go into cardiac arrest if the clutter is here much longer. but in the end it will be completely worth it, because we live in the east village now! i walked home from union square today (after a not completely miserable experience at my new post office, i might add), and it was lovely. LOVELY.

private overheard in new york moment
girl screaming into cell phone, corner of 76th street and columbus: it’s about your inability to emotionally commit! even to an animal!

bzzz bzzz

that’s me being “busy as a bee”. sorry… they can’t all be winners.

anyway! a lot going on lately. for realz. first of all, miss mariel “short stak mak” (ghost)reiter had a birthday! she and i and este and steve and dan went to a lovely brunch in noho, and then mariel and went over to a free street concert because a friend of hers was “in a band that’s opening for morningwood or something.” oh wait, she was IN morningwood! it was wicked cool. and since mariel’s got the hookup, she got a fun little birthday shout out! followed immediately by the lead singer calling her up on stage to dance for the last couple of songs! it was crazy. then this woman decides she’s going to get everyone to do aerobics in the middle of the show, but she started by having everyone sit down. seriously:

it was pretty awesome. and so was the show!

the next day, i started babysitting my new little friend maddie. we decided to go on one of those awesome waterfalls tours that start at the south st seaport and go all around the east river. and the waterfalls are pretty magical, i must say. check out the info here. give it a sec to load. anyway, we wanted to take the water taxi tour because they have real live tour guides and they go by the statue of liberty, too, but they were sold out so we ended up on the normal cityride (or something) one. it was fine, i mean it got the job done… but it was just some funny pre-recording thing from the artist. and one of the waterfalls wasn’t waterfalling! it was pretty hilarious. it was the last one we saw, so by that point we kind of go the message, but it amused me all the hype surrounding these and then one (the biggest one, for that matter), was broken. anyway, here:

doesn’t it look like one of those inspirational pictures? like it should have a big black border around it with “SELF-INDULGENT: sometimes things need to be bigger and better than everyone else’s” written in big type below it? for the record, i just took about 10 minutes to look for one i could post up here, but they’re all super sarcastic now! there’s even one about mac users with the apple symbol carved into some punk chick’s arm. so do it yourself.

other fun things from this week: i got bumped up to full-time at my job, starting august 18, and este and i are moving tomorrow! fiiiiiinally! ask me if i’m packed. -pause- NOPE. i’m blogging instead! completely necessary.

can i get a ‘hallelujah!’?

okay so your prayers did NAWT work. we appreciate the effort, though! and for those of you who didn’t cross your fingers and whatnot… you should be ashamed of yourselves. you know who you are.

but we got ANOTHER apartment! and we’re officially approved and everything! it’s amazing. this place is also in the east village, just a slightly different area (aka, the AWESOME area). we move in next weekend, which is ridiculously soon, right after they mop and scrub and get rid of the cat pee smell. the current tenants have two cats, it’s not just the apartment. look!

it’s waaaay bigger than it looks here. and it has a real bedroom that’s actually not too small (which is what we were expecting to get, and would have in the other apartment, for that matter); a nice living room; a REAL kitchen, with room for a table; and a bathroom. with no sink. it’s fine.

anyway, we’re super excited. about the apartment, not the paying of the fees and the rent and whatnot, which we have to start on tomorrow.

on an unrelated note:

there’s a new york times article about this guy, too, but i don’t feel like looking for it. deal with it. i can give you a highlight reel if you want… this guy is now officially sponsored by stride gum. the end.

yay for me and este!!!