Song of the Day

Here's my song for the day. It's stuck in my head... and for once, I know why.

Confused
by Jack Johnson

Well he's not necessarily trying to say that he minds it
But someone plays evil tricks on that kid
Well he's not necessarily trying to say god can't be trusted
But someone plays evil tricks on that kid
And certain situations scream for deviations
But somehow he always gets stuck in the middle
Of this and that and man he should try less
Because every time he's rejected man he loses affection

But don't we all, don't we just got to give a little time
Maybe give a friend a call instead of making him confused
What a terrible thing for you to do
What an awful thing for you to say
What a terrible thing for you to relay

Well i know some people's they got a little less than nothing
But still find some to spare
And other people got more than they could use
But they don't share
And some people got problems man
They got awful complications
Other people got perfect situations
With no provocation

But don't we all, don't we just got to give a little time
Maybe give a friend a call instead of making him confused
What a terrible thing for you to do
What an awful thing for you to say
What a terrible thing for you
Confused
What a terrible thing for you to do
What an awful thing for you to say
What a terrible thing for you to relay

A new bed

Yay!

Travis showed up last week and moved in with us. W00t! He brought with him his first month's rent which made it possible for me to finally buy a bed! Yay! Went to craigslist and found a king-size bed with solid wood headboard and footboard, and a firm pillow-top simmons' mattress for $200 total.

It was humorous loading all of it on top of Jose's car... and I totally forgot to take a picture of it. Damn! Oh well, imagine a Ford Focus wagon with a king size bed taken apart and strapped down, piece-on-top-of-piece, to the top of it.

Went to the beach the evening Travis arrived. It was alright but I wasn't in a very good mood. I guess I'm still flushing my soul of some of the negativity it absorbed in the past. Gettin' a little better about it tho. Workin' on it!

Let's see... bought some groceries... played a little "Neverwinter Nights Gold" (since I never finished it before), watched some movies, played on the internet, spent Sunday pretty much in another plane of existence, and just generally relaxed for once. It was much needed after all the shit with the airline.

Wall-E is out now. Hoping to go see that soon. Tomorrow is pay-day. Life is decent.

Well, back to work.

Peace

Screw Air Travel

More than likely, anyone who's done a fair bit of air travel has one of these stories. Well, here's another.

I redeemed Delta SkyMiles for a reward ticket to fly from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Chicago, IL. The ticket was round trip from 6/26 to 6/29. The reservation was made on 6/24 ... so the airline chose to levy a $75.00 convenience fee and $7.50 for some other tax or fee or some shit. I wasn't happy about it.. but there wasn't much else I could do given the situation. I didn't pay for the fees... a friend did.

Now, I originally wanted to fly from 6/27 to 6/29. However, I couldn't find the right airport/date/time combination to get me there for the miles I had. I found this other option would get me there a day earlier, but still get me there within my award miles.

I had been trying to find a solution for this air travel for three days before I stumbled on to this flight. So I was pretty stoked. But in the confusion of flexible schedules, etc. I forgot I had set the ticket for departure a day early.

I show up at the airport and obviously can't get on the plane. When the mistake is revealed, I feel like an idiot and worked with the ticket counter associate to try to find another way to get there. It was either another awards ticket on Monday (whoops... missed my weekend window so that's no good) or almost $1000 for a ticket. Needless to say, didn't go to Chicago.

While still in Ft. Laud, (I live in Port St. Lucie), I spoke with the agent again about a refund. He said all I had to do was call and they would return the miles to my balance and refund the money.

I got back to PSL and called. The lady at Delta not only told me that I wouldn't be getting my $75.00 redemption fee back... but that it would cost an additional $100 to return the miles to my skymiles account!!

This is what I call predatory business practices in a distressed economy. Here people are already strapped as it is... leisure travel is something of a luxury compared to a few years ago... and they are actually planning to CHARGE me.. TWICE... for a FREE trip I didn't even get to take?!

Well, not this girl. As a result, I am boycotting air travel from now throughout the natural end of my days unless it is an ABSOLUTE emergency. I'll drive, take a train, a bus or a ship before I will put myself in a flying tin can again.

Now, I'm repaying my friend for the money... losing my miles... and still not going anywhere. Was it my mistake? Absolutely! I don't blame them for me mis-reading the date of departure. But to look at a long-time air customer and make those requirements... is just insane.

UPDATE: I got the miles back... but I didn't get the money back. Bastards.

Starting Over

I should probably be alarmed that I'm blogging again.

Those who have nothing to say typically are pretty wise and happy people (or so I've been told). Based on my own life experiences, I'd have to agree with that particular saying.

An old friend of mine told me once she only wrote in her journal when she had something to say and it usually wasn't very fun stuff to write about.

I've decided to challenge that particular notion. I'm choosing to write about my life and it's various twists and turns, not for pity or self-aggrandizement... but to just record my life... as it is... no frills, no philosophy... just stuff that happens, why it happens and how I feel about it.

I have won some, I have lost some. I have won BIG ... and I have lost big. I've learned to discern truth from fiction, sincerity from falsehoods and right from wrong as it applies to my life.

Here, I'll detail them.

These are all new stories from here on out. No past stories, old journal entries about the way life used to be and yadda yadda, blah. No point in digging up the past and pointing out how ugly it is... we already know how things rot in the ground. But at least they can provide good nutrients for future things. :)

So, if it interests you to read these things... great, I hope you get your internet dollar's worth. If not, please consider finding me and pulling me away from the keyboard and buying me a drink. I'll pay you back... I'm good for it.

Peace.

Happy Ferret Day

So today Twink and I are heading down to Coconut Creek to adopt a ferret or two. :) This is a happy day for me. It will make up for yesterday, that's for sure. I think I really blew the interview yesterday. I dunno, they seem like a collection of cool cats but I realized that the technology gap that exists is pretty wide. It's not something I can't overcome... but it's gonna take some determination and hard work to get caught up on all that has happened in the world of computers while I was wasting away at GCS. But that aside, like I said, today is a happy day!

Things have felt very peaceful and "right" since the sale of the house. I feel more relaxed and more focused now. I didn't realize how much of my energy was being sucked away by that place and that man. Slowly but surely, I'm getting my life into a more manageable state.

I also get to meet Bill today. Twink has been buying parrotlets from him for a while now and he has another that she's interested in. He's on the way so it's gonna be a cool thing for both of us.

I threw out a ton of shit last night. More still to throw out/give away. Stuff I don't need, stuff I don't want, stuff that means nothing, stuff that brings back bad memories, anything holding me back from the new direction my life is taking. It feels good... cathartic even. Anybody wanna buy a bed?

Anyway, more later.

Rapture

Wow... this is going to be a long read... I hope you're sitting comfortably. If so, then I'll begin.

I just woke up about an hour ago after getting some MUCH needed sleep. It's just now 4 a.m. on Sunday. I've been asleep for about 8 hours so I think I'm lucid enough to tell the tale.

Friday Daytime

Friday, after work, Sadao, Brian and I all were to go to Miami for Euphoria Project's Rapture event at the 66 Nightclub. Given the party was to start at 8 pm and it's a long drive, I planned to leave work early so we could get there when the party started. That morning, I couldn't find my badge or the Radixx phone. So I left for work without them, knowing I'd have to come back and find the phone and get it to Darrell at some point (he agreed to swap on-call weekends with me so I could go to the party). I left work at 4 so I could get home and hopefully find the phone and get to him and we could get on the road ASAP. I got home and tore the place apart but could not find either the phone or my badge. Sadao had had a rough night and was ready to get out of Orlando immediately so I figured I was probably just going to end up missing the party since I couldn't leave Radixx in that situation. I needed a cigarette. The box I had was empty and I knew I had another in my bag. I opened my bag and what did I find? Both the phone AND the badge were in there all the time. I even had them at work with me! ARGH!

Friday Evening

Brian ended up staying at home. That's a LONG story filled with drama of ridiculous proportions that I won't get into. Suffice to say, it was just the Crazy Twins that ended up going to the event. Sadao and I took off and went to drop off the phone. We ended up finally getting on the turn pike at around 7. We made pretty good time and made it to the club at about 10:30. The party was scheduled to run from 8 p.m. tpo 10 a.m and was just getting started, so we hadn't missed much.

As we walked around, we started meeting some of the folks there and started checking out the stages. We never DID find the DnB stage, which is a bummer because I really wanted to see Danny Bled. Steven gave me a CD of Danny's a long time ago and I was looking forward to hearing him spin. We ended up spending most of the night up on the roof in the House/Electro/Breaks area. Rabbit and Mad Hatter, Skylab 2000, DJ London, and plenty of others that were just tearing it up on the roof! While we were up there, we met some of the most wonderful people! Angel, who did body/face painting and photography took our picture for the website (hoping to get a copy because it was adorable). Ellie and Kris ran the hookah lounge where we hung out quite a bit... it became our "Safe Zone."

While we there, we saw Monk and Bunny spin in the main room. We also caught the last bit of Divine and emilyPLAY... man that girl can sing! But the highlight of the night was Bunny. Sadao was still somewhat wrapped up in the drama he had experience the night before and Bunny's set just made it all disappear. I took a picture of Sadao during the set which says it all... the look on his face was priceless. I gave the creator (and Bunny) a big thank you for that. The rest of the night was magical. :)

Saturday Morning

After seeing Bunny spin, we were both ready to just chill and hang out with the new friends we had made. So, back up to the roof we went and hung out at the hookah lounge. As the night wore on into the morning, there were a couple of times that they tried to shut down the event... but the place was filled with rebels that kept the part going until 8 a.m. when it was finally shut down about 2 hours earlier than expected.

We stayed a little longer and helped Kris, Ellie and their friends clean up their area and pack their car. As a thank you, they gave us a hookah! Sadao and I were completely stunned and so thankful to them! We hugged and cried and said our goodbyes. Now, at this point, I need to mention that we parked in a secure area across from club Area 51... which is quite a hike from the club we were at. They had shuttles going back and forth from the parking area to the event. Since the party was shut down early and since we had stayed to help clean up, we missed the last shuttle. So, I racked my mangled brain (by this point) to remember the address and we started walking. After doing a big circle, we eventually found the car. Yay! Sadao had driven his van to the event. On the way home, we stopped to put fluids in the van and started the long journey back to Orlando.

Saturday Afternoon

Mile Marker 223 Northbound on the Florida Turnpike. Sadao and I must go back there at some point and have a picture taken of us flipping off that marker. For it was there that the van stopped. We were just 22 miles away from Kissimmee/St. Cloud, 35 miles from Orlando when his car started smoking. We pulled over and what I thought was antifreeze at first, suddenly gave way to the smell of burning oil. Oh boy. I called my dad and he warned me that there might be damage to the engine. We hoped for the best and began walking north. The next service area was only 6 miles away (we thought it was closer but come to find out it wasn't). I was filled with a sense of peace and calm during all of this. I had never experienced something like this. A few years ago, I probably would have been very frightened, upset and angry at all of it. But instead, I kept my wits about me and we started walking. About 3 miles down the way, we were picked up by the State Farm Safety Patrol. He took us the rest of the way to the service area where we got a tow to Serrone's Auto Repair. While we waited for them to diagnose the problem, Sadao and I went to the Rodeo Diner just across the street and put some much needed food in our bellies. Tired, stinky, worried, we ate and kept each others' spirits up. After eating, we went back to hear the report. It wasn't good. It had apparently run so long in an overheated condition that it completely warped the valves and head gasket. The damage? About $1200 to repair.

God Bless Sadao's heart. He was upset but he took it in stride and stayed focused. He called his dad to tell him what had happened. They eventually decided that given the age of the vehicle and the damage, it was better to sell the van to the auto repair shop and look for a new vehicle when he can, later. I called Heather (since she lives 10 minutes away from where we were) and she agreed to give us a lift home.

Saturday Evening

Exhausted, broken and ready to call it a night, we made one last stop to end the evening on a peaceful note. We went to a little smoke shop on University and picked up what we needed to use the hookah. It wasn't long before we had it all figured out and were enjoying some Strawberry flavored tobacco and watching TV as we let the recent events pass by into memory. Then I went to bed.

All in all, I must say that this was a cathartic experience. Sadao and I talked quite a bit and had a wonderful adventure together. I will never forget this weekend. The experience has left me more focused and determined to carve out a better life for myself and those that important to me... those willing to walk the journey with me.

New challenges await. New adventures await. Now it's time to get them started.

Peace,
Jenna

Sprout!

Here's a little game that Jose turned me on to. You play the part of a little seed that wants to be an oak tree. You have to figure out how to learn about the different trees and navigate from a desert island to where the oaks are.

Click Here to Play Sprout!

Peace,
Jenna