T Mobile Fun

Two interesting (in the sense that I'll never get the time I spent on them back, so I'll dub them "interesting" so at the end of my existence I won't look back bitterly at the 25 minutes I wasted on them last night) experiences with T Mobile, my cell phone carrier, last night:

1. I got a random text message. In spite of having a relatively new phone that can store like a hundred digital images at a time, for some great reason I can only carry 34 text messages before my inbox gets filled up. From my crises/adventures/whatever, I've acquired 30-some messages that I want to keep. 33, as a matter of fact, which gives me (I'll let you work out the math on your end first) one empty 'slot' for a txt message. So I end up checking my text messages immediately, when possible, to evaluate whether the new one makes my top 33 and, if so, which of my current list is going to get zapped.

Anyways, I got a random text message last night from an area code that appears to be in Ohio... as you're all aware, as a child I was forced to do 1000 situps and recite all of the area codes to my nanny before being allowed to go to sleep. And while I've let my abs get a little out of shape, I still keep up on my area codes, so I knew instantly the location of the message.

But I don't know anyone from Ohio, and, further, the message wasn't much help. It read:

OTA. OK.

That was all.I wish that I was actually curious when I received it, but I have walked too many days on this earth to approach anything unexpected as either a threat or a false alarm. "OTA OK" wasn't some sort of code that I'd won a million dollars, and it wasn't a shorthand message from some hot chick in Ohio that was interested in bedding me. (I'm sure both of those messages will be coming any day now, though...)

Fortuntately, Google exists. I did a search for "OTA OK text message" or something similar and I got links to a few pages that explained that it's a message from T Mobile confirming some sort of software update ("On The Air OK").

So I zapped it. My messages from November and Reno are still safe...

2. I might be calling British Columbia a bit over the next few weeks, and I called T Mobile to make sure that it wasn't going to be SUPER-expensive to call to BC. So I dialed "611" and after about 30 security questions the woman asked me what I'd like, and I asked how much it would cost me to call to British Columbia. I said that I had the area code if that would help.

She seemed friendly, but she didn't seem like she knew what she was talking about. I don't know why my instincts gave me that impression. Call it "Geek Intuition", but I had a bad feeling.

After a couple more questions that I don't even remember, she put me on hold for like 3 minutes. She then came back and asked me if I wanted to call from BC. I said, no, I wanted to call from my home area here in Seattle to BC. She put me on hold for like 30 seconds and came back and said that it would be $1.64 a minute.

Now, I'm no genius, but that seemed MORE than a bit high.

I asked if there was a plan I could get on for a discount, and she said, "No, the only countries we offer discounts to on calls are Canada, and--"

"But," I noted as I cut her off (politely but firmly), "I want to call British Columbia. British Columbia is in Canada."

So she went to put me on hold and I insisted that she take the area code this time.

Anyways, it was like twenty cents a minute, and I got on a plan for like $5 a month that reduces that to only 9 cents a minute.

But man, it was amazing how she took so long and knew so little. And yet: no, it's not.

Thank-you notes

I'm not a negative person, I don't think. I try not to dwell on bad things, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I really try to responsible and thankful for things.

But yesterday, when I was cleaning out my mailbox (I don't get much actual mail, but my mailbox is about 13 cubic inches, so I need to clean it out every day or else the crap I do get jams it all up), I pulled out a thank-you card.

It was a card from my cousin, to whom I'd given like $20 for her high school graduation last month. It was very sweet and responsible for her to do.

But my reaction? Unhappiness. Why, you might ask youself (as, indeed, I asked myself), would I have a negative reaction? After all, I like my cousin, and I am delighted to hear from her. I should have some pride that she's fulfilling the responsibility of sending out thank-you notes to people that gave her gifts.

I think that my unhappiness comes from my egocentricism... I didn't think right off the bat of how the card reflected on my cousin, but instead how it reflected on me. To wit, I had at least two branches of angst (light angst, clearly, but angst nevertheless):

1. Was $20 enough? Was I being cheap? Did her other cousins give her $40, and she just shook her head at the $20 in my card to her?, and

2. Why couldn't I have been able to send out thank-you notes? I was (and am) pretty lousy about that sort of thing, and getting one from her reminded me of all the people that might have expected thank-you notes from me but never received them.

Oh, well. Somehow I managed to get over the shock and tremendous stress induced by the thank-you note... I didn't even cry myself to sleep over it last night (I'd already scheduled that night for an entirely different matter).

I wonder if I should send a thank-you card for her thank-you card?

My Music

I forgot: if you're interested, you can listen to my music at http://www.myspace.com/edotunes

The lyrics are a bit depressing. Sorry if that bugs you. There are, to be honest, bigger problems with my voice and my guitar playing. :)

Weekend in Wisconsin

My brother turned 30 about 2.5 hours ago. As part of my efforts to make him feel a bit less ancient, I decided to fly out to Milwaukee, WI, and hang out. To show him that life doesn't end at 30. Of course, I might only show him that it definitely ends at some time before 32 years and 10 months.

Some highlights of the trip so far:

• It was 11:00 AM and I was in the airport. I had my book (Ballad of the Whiskey Robber ... good book so far) and a fantasy football magazine and I was ready to wait for the plane to board. But I was hungry, and the Burger King was so close... I'm not a huge BK guy, but there were only like 6 people in line, so I queued up. After the first couple of people were taken care of, someone approached the person two places ahead of me with the most feared phrases in the book (at least from the perspective of a hungry person in a slow-moving restaurant line): "Thanks for saving me a spot!" So whatever. Not a huge deal, right? One more person. Well... it wasn't just one person. It was FIVE FUCKING PEOPLE. There were only like 3 people behind that guy, and all five had to cut in front of us. And four of them paid for their own meals, so it wasn't even like they were all together. Total assholes. They also spoke with southern accents, which didn't help things. Interestingly, if they had spoken with British accent, I would have forgiven them. I'm an anglophile.


• My sister graciously picked me up from the airport, and we went to a friend's place. He works for Miller and was having a Miller-sponsored party at his apartment, which is on the ground floor of a complex very near a music festival called "Summer Fest". He had LITERALLY rolled out a red carpet (actually, that might not be quite true... someone had unfolded a red carpet; I'm not sure that HE did anything, and I'm not sure the carpet was unrolled). Anyways, there was velvet rope up and there was a stool near the opening of the rope where people (who we knew (actually who THEY knew; I only knew about 4 people in the state, so going by who I knew woulda been a bad move in terms of attendance)) could come and go. I was talking to a young woman (named after a Dr. Who character... the geek in me was thrilled with that) for some time, and I ended up sitting in that stool as the music festival was getting out. Well, predictably, people walked by and were wondering what was going on. Some asked what the cover was. Some took my standard "It's a private party. Invite only." line in stride and kept moving. One group of guys, though, had other ideas. There were four of them, and the first guy just walked right past me into the apartment like he knew what he was doing. The second one was a bit slower, and the third one looked kinda shifty and uncertain. The woman I was talking to and I looked at one another and contemplated whether we should, like, stop them. So after a moment, I stepped in front of the second guy and told him it was a private party and asked him to leave. I placed my hand on his lower back and started guiding him back away from the apartment. He gave me the classic "Push me again..." line, but I was able to steer him out and away without either of us feasting on knuckle sandwiches. The first guy was inside the apartment, probably trying to find a lady to rub up against, to get his hands on some free beer, or to give a critique of the apartment's decor. I approached him and let him know that it was a private party, and he looked me in the eye and gave... no expression. He'd been drinking a little bit, but he knew what he was doing. I sort of invaded his personal space and herded him out of the apartment, but he at onepoint stopped and I had to do the old "hand on the lower back" push, to which he (predictably) replied, "Push me one more time..." It's bizarre how his reaction was the exact same as his buddy's. It's also strange how there were like 10 guys who were SUPPOSED to be at the party standing around, and the only one who seemed to give a damn as to what was going on was me... and then my brother stepped in and eventually the guy turned tail. It wasn't overly tense, but it was the closest I've been to being in a fight since... hrm... like Tuesday. I'm always kicking ass over something.


• I enjoyed hanging out with the woman I talked to so much tonight. She lives near Chicago and I'll never see her again. Odd to think of it, but that's life.


• I think we might go golfing tomorrow. I talked a lot of smack about not being sore last time I played, and even though it'll only be nine holes I have a bad feeling about this...

Expect more exciting happenings from the Cheese State soon! (#1: Maybe not "more", since these happenings weren't exciting; #2: Is this the Cheese State? If not, it should be.)