We picked up our Toyota Prius this morning. Pure bliss. Words can not convey the awesomeness of this car. We paid about 31K for it completely and utterly decked out and it was worth every penny. If I didn’t know the price and had to estimate its value, I would have guessed much higher.
Pictures and details will be forthcoming.
34 years old and I had my very first fillings on Wednesday. First a little back story:
Up until I was somewhere in my teens I had been to the dentist every six months like a good person and had never had a single cavity or filling in my life. At some point, once I became more responsible for myself, I quit going to the dentist. For somewhere in the realm of 10 years or more, I did not go to the dentist for checkups. The only exception during that time was when my wisdom teeth started bothering me so I went to have them checked, and subsequently had them removed.
A few years ago, once I had a job with insurance, I started going again fearing that my many years of neglect might have left a disaster zone in my mouth. Luckily I found out that I had a bunch of very minor cavities but nothing big. I didn’t have the money to get them fixed (even with insurance paying a portion) so I put it off. And put it off.
Cut to several years later, I’m now living in Austin with a good job and insurance again. I figure I should probably bite the bullet, find me a regular dentist in my new home city and perhaps get some of the work done that’s been lingering for years. I send out an email at work asking for recommendations and decide to try the “Austin Dental Spa” I’m pretty sure they’re going to be more expensive than other dentists, but I figure if I have to do something I don’t want to do, I might as well make it as pleasant as possible, even if it costs a little more. I’m glad I did. The offices are really nice with a really pleasant atmosphere and the staff are all very friendly and helpful. They give you a little bottle of water when you come in and have a nice private bathroom and a little alcove with a couple of sinks where you can brush and floss before you appointment with some disposable brushes which produce their own toothpaste when you get them wet and start brushing. They also have a masseuse who comes around and gives you a hand/arm massage while you’re in the chair.
I went and had an examination, and of course my teeth and gums weren’t in great shape after having been once again neglected for several years, but nothing was dire. I came back in for a cleaning, and got some special rinse to help with my poor neglected gums. I had about 8-10 teeth which had some degree of cavities, but much to my surprise, none of them were very bad at all. I was given the option of having them all done at once, or doing two visits with half my mouth being done on each visit. I chose that option thinking that would be better since I wouldn’t end up with my entire face numb and being in the chair for three hours.
They also have cool flat computer monitors over the chair which serve various purposes. When they took my x-rays and digital pictures of my mouth, they were displayed on the monitor so I could see what was going on and they could explain and discuss exactly what was up with my teeth. They also showed me some videos on brushing and flossing and fillings since I’d never had any before.
Last Wednesday I had the left half of my face done. I was a bit nervous (as I always am before any kind of medical or dental procedure) but as has always turned out to be the case for me, the actual event was nothing at all. Before they began they asked if I wanted Nitrous (laughing gas), and being a little nervous and having never tried it, I said “sure!” I can’t say I really noticed any effects from it though. If it did have effects, they were very subtle. So much so, that I wasn’t really sure if I was feeling any effects at all. The only time I remember definitely noticing anything was when they were done and they sat me up and I felt really light headed for about a minute or two.
I had five teeth filled on my left side. At first the dentist said my cavities were so shallow that she didn’t think I needed any anesthetic, but that she would gladly administer it if I wanted. I said that if she didn’t think I needed it we could try without (if I could get away without that annoying numb face factor then I was all for it), and she said that if I felt anything at all, just say so and we would do the whole numbing thing. At one pint I kind of winced, but to be honest, I’m not even sure if it was actual “pain” or just the pressure and coldness from the constant water rinse they spray while drilling. Just to be safe she went ahead and numbed me up, even though I would have been willing to try a little longer since, as I said, I hadn’t really felt anything “hurt” as of yet.
I always hear that the shots are the only part of fillings that may kind of sting for a second, but my dentist rocked. I didn’t feel a thing, even as she was administering the shots.
About an hour and a half later, I had five new fillings and went back to work feeling like I only had half a face since the other half felt like a big slab of fake rubber just attached to my head. I took great joy that it allowed me to do a really great Eddie Money impression.
In hindsight I do wish I had just done them all at once though and just got it all done with. Now I have to go back in a month for the other half which is more of a pain with the travel time, waiting in the lobby, etc. It would have been better to just spend extra time in the chair while I was there. All in all, as usual my dread leading up to the event was far worse than the actual event which was nothing at all.
We have found our store for home furnishings. It all started when we decided we needed a new bed. An actual bed. We currently sleep on a futon with 2 futon mattresses. This isn’t bad, but they develop huge craters where our bodies lay and we have to flip and swap mattresses to keep things remotely sleepable. I used to balk at bed prices as they are quite exorbitant in my opinion, but lately I’ve tried to think more along the lines that anywhere you have to spend one third of your life deserves some attention and expenditure.
I sent an email out at work asking for suggestions as to where to buy a bed, and one response suggested Eurway, if you don’t mind a slightly funkier style. Hey! That sounds like us! We like a slightly funkier style! Maybe even a lot funkier! Probably, on average, 47% funkier! The web site looked promising, so we went to the store here in Austin last night. We were in heaven. Being in the store was so much cooler than even the website. We could easily spend way too much money there furnishing an entire house.
We settled on the best mattress they have, The Gabrielle, and the Newton frame (because it was both cool, and the cheapest frame, while also being very sturdy metal). Next Thursday we can pick it up and be sleeping in luxury.
On a side note continuing our story from yesterday: I rented a car in the morning, and by noon the mechanic had out truck fixed. It wasn’t the fuel pump again, thankfully. It was the fuel pump relay which only cost us $110 to get fixed up. If anyone needs a really good mechanic in Austin who has very reasonable rates, will go to your vehicle (for much cheaper than a lot of other mobile mechanics) and who seems very friendly and cool (I never even met him; he told me he’d leave the invoice under our door mat and I could just mail payment to him), I highly recommend Auto Medics.
As most of you probably know, [joe walsh] life’s been good to me so far.[/joe walsh] So I guess for all my luckiness, it’s time to pay a few dues. In the grand scheme of things though, I still really can’t complain as my “dues” are really quite minor, however life is kind of comedic when it decides to throw things at you in rapid-fire bursts as more often happens in movies and television.
Tuesday night I decided to go ahead and do out taxes online. I usually take the band’s income on my taxes and everyone else just pays me their share. This, unfortunately makes doing my taxes much more complicated as I have to fill out extra forms for self-employment and blah, blah, blah (which usually one of the other band guys does for me since I agreed to take it all under my social security number on the condition that I didn’t have to do my now complicated taxes).
As luck would have it, there were various circumstances which meant I didn’t have to do that this year, and thus my taxes would once again be easy. In fact, so easy I could do the 1040EZ form! Ahh, how long it has been since I could use the 1040EZ!
Last year we got a nice big refund back, so I eagerly start my online entering to find out what big refund we’ll be getting this year! Unfortunately, as I get near the end, the program tells me that I can’t do 1040EZ since I started contributing to my 401k in December. One measly month of retirement fund and I have to do the regular 1040 which, judging by the lack of letters after its title, is not all that EZ.
Luckily, it really wasn’t that much more painful so I finish it up and wait for my big refund! More money towards the Prius down payment. The big moment comes and I find my refund will be… -$230. I owe $230. Boo. We suspect that this is because Jess learned the hard way what I had already learned the hard way many years ago: if you follow the directions on your tax form when starting a new job, you will have too many “allowances” and end up owing. The directions clearly say “if (blank) then put one” and then has you total all your “1”s to find your total allowances. What they don’t tell you is that you will end up owing money if you actually take that amount. So while I take 0 or 1 allowances usually, Jess took 3 as the directions indicated, and thus it looks as if Restoration Hardware didn’t take out any Federal Income Tax.
I go to bed a bit depressed. The next morning I get up and we do our usual morning thing which ends with us getting in the truck and going to work. Usually. When the truck starts. Which it is not doing this particular morning. The truck turns over, but won’t start much like it was doing when I had to have my fuel pump replaced just a little over a year ago. My immediate thought is “Well, I guess we’re not going in to work today.” Luckily my wife has a clearer head and more wisely calls or friend who lives nearby to beg for a ride.
Once at work I set about the task of finding a mobile mechanic who will go to my truck and fix it. I find that this plan is scuttled since I have the key with me at work and the truck is at the apartment. I decide that I’m going to try and rent a car, go home at lunch and drop my key off. I call the car rental place right by our house but they can’t pick me up from work because I’m out of their area. I call the one by work and all they have available are SUV’s which cost more to rent than smaller cars. I give up and accept the fact that I’m just not going to get anything done until the next day.
Just for comedic effect, when I went to make my lunch, I turned the little cap on the mustard and it spat a shower of tiny blobs onto my bitchin shirt.
This morning I rented a nice car, and the mechanic is going to try and get to it today depending on his schedule. As I said, in the grand scheme of things I really can’t complain as life is good. I have a kick ass job (I can only think of 2 people that I actually know who give me job envy: Will, the Director of Development for a production company, and my uncle Brown who is a Director of Photography, although with him it’s more tangential since that’s not exactly what I aspire to do). I spent yesterday playing with our new toys: a steering wheel and pedals to control my armored/armed battle vehicle in the game I test. We have a Prius on order. Even though we owe taxes, it’s not much and we’re making decent money with which to pay them.
Even with such a great life, I’m often nagged by a since of something just under the surface though. A sense of dissatisfaction of some sort. A sense of unfulfilled dreams and ambitions. Nothing major, just slight stresses which are normal with life. Stressed about time, health, money, decisions, my extreme laziness and unproductiveness. While it all can be annoying, I also find some of it good in that I think it’s important to have dreams, ambitions, and further goals. I think it would be much more scary if I was just completely content with my current lot in life and resigned myself to the thought that this is the final stage of my journey and that I have crossed the big finish line and will coast out the rest of my (hopefully) many remaining years.
Perhaps a little dissatisfaction is a healthy thing. As life get better, it’s necessary to adjust your sights and recalibrate. Of course I’m sure it’s much easier to do as you move up in life as opposed to readjusting to a move for the worse.
What sad state we’re in. Jess’s Teeth have really been bothering her lately (she has a dentist appointment next week), and apparently two nights ago I slept in such a way as to make my neck reject the rest of my body. It’s completely stiff. I can’t turn my head at all and if I move the wrong way, the back left side completely seizes up and shoots pain throughout me for about a second or so like the Emperor’s force lightning in “Return of the Jedi”. This makes driving quite interesting. You never really realize how much you turn your head until you can’t do it. It also makes sleeping very difficult, and changing positions while sleeping becomes a huge and painful production. My band gig tomorrow should be interesting.
The truck was leaking coolant since we got back from L.A. and after spending $300 to replace the water pump, now the left side of my car stereo’s display no longer works. It appears that I’m listening to “7 FM”. Luckily we’re ordering a Toyota Prius. Wooo!
Despite all this, life is pretty damn good. We’ve both got good jobs where we’re happy and bringing in decent money between us, and can’t really complain in the big scheme of things.
Since I got this job, I’ve been so much more appreciative of everything. I’m constantly thinking about the people I deal with in any given situation. The guy who made my sandwich, the person in the retail shop, the waiter at the restaurant, etc. I know how lucky I am and really appreciate the people who are most likely doing jobs they don’t really want to be doing, as most of the world probably does.
This isn’t any kind of judgment such as “Oh you poor pathetic sandwich shop worker.” It’s more that I really wish everyone could be doing something they truly want to be doing. I want everyone to have full, happy, satisfied lives. Maybe the guy at the sandwich place is genuinely happy. Maybe he likes to make a little money, joke with his co-workers, and go home to play video games or something. If this is the case, then excellent. If this is not the case then I do appreciate the position he’s in and hope he finds something more fulfilling as I have. I always try to see the other side and fully appreciate the people I’m dealing with. I think it’s probably far too common and easy to get wrapped up in our own business, our own lives, and forget about our “fellow man” as it were.
All in all, most of us probably have pretty damn good lives, even if our necks cause us to erupt in violent bursts of profanity due to waves of pain.
As I mentioned, we had a blast. Everyone ruled. One person I failed to mention was Will’s friend Shelby who was also totally cool. I could easily see him as a friend.
I didn’t see one single famous person while I was there. I feel gypped! Next visit I’ll have to actually do the shameless tourist act.
Our plane landed early which was nice because we wanted to make it home in time to get our packages from the office and beat rush hour. Since we had arrived twenty minutes early though, the gate was not yet free so we had to wait around for about 15 minutes until the plane could pull up to the gate. By the time we got our bags and caught the shuttle to where our truck was parked it was now about 5:00. It would most likely take 45 minutes to get home and the office closes at 5:30.
As we drove along, I found it a bit hot and turned on the A/C. After a few minutes I noticed that it really wasn’t cooling at all. We also started hearing a very weird noise and smelling something that did not seem at all right. We saw a little smoke from under the hood, too. I immediately pulled over and turned the car off. I popped the hood and thought that maybe a belt had broken or something. That would explain the noise, and possibly the smell if it was rubbing somewhere, and could also explain the A/C not working if it was the belt to the compressor or something like that. Under the hood everything looked fine. I turned the car back on to see if I could hear the noise or see anything going wonky, but all seemed alright for the moment. I wondered if maybe the A/C compressor had burned out or something.
We got back on the road, kept the A/C off and after just a few minutes we detected something amiss again. This time I noticed that the temperature gage was pegged on the “hot” side. Doh! We pulled over again and seeing a gas station just down the road, Jess set off to procure a bottle of coolant for the radiator. By the time she got back the engine had cooled sufficiently to investigate and sure enough, my radiator was bone dry. We have no idea how or why this happened, but giving it a big drink of coolant seems to have saved the day. Since then I keep checking for leaks and such but all looks good.
There can be only one explanation: The Chupaveh�culo. While my vehicle sat helpless for 6 days the Chupaveh�culo skulked the airport parking lot under cover of night, drinking the fluids from the various vehicles there. It’s really the only logical explanation.
We are back form our big L.A.adventure and I’m not sure where to start. Let’s start with the most important thing: the people.
While we had many gracious offers for places to stay, we ended up with Will and Annika. There is not enough that can be said about these two wonderful people. I spent the most time with them, so I will probably ramble the most about them. Also since I’m damn tired, I may not get to everyone so apologies ahead of time.
First time meetings
Will is one of the most intelligent, charismatic, multi-talented and all around likable people you could ever meet. I had always sensed that he felt like a kindred spirit and that was definitely the case. He was like a long lost brother to me. With his looks and personality, he could easily be a successful actor in my opinion and has an amazing voice which can morph into myriad impressions and characters. He’s one of those people who would just disgust you if you could just get past liking him so much. He graciously put up with my many inquiries into his cool and enviable job without showing any annoyance. As I told him, he isn’t cool because he has a cool job, he deserves a cool job because he is so cool. I love seeing people get their “karmic payoff” and such. I hat seeing jerks, and others who just don’t seem to deserve anything fall into great jobs, pretty girlfriends, or whatever. With Will, I find great satisfaction that the universe has seen fit to throw some pretty cool stuff his way. Just like the satisfaction I felt when my friend Andy finally got a great job after many years of toiling and struggling. I could easily go on for days about Will and everyone else I met, so I’ll move along for now.
Annika is the perfect foil for Will. It is so easy to see why these two are married. All the qualities I mentioned for Will, easily apply to Annika as well. She sound like Joan Cusack, and looks a bit like her, too. Intelligence and wit abound. Both her and Will seem like the kind of people who are too cool to be your friends. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t act that way, but that’s what you’ll be feeling. They’re out of your league, man. They, however, make you feel like you’re their best friend in the world. These two are as good as people get. Not seeing these two on such a regular basis is going to really be difficult.
SoupyKatherine was everything I knew she would be. Her blog does her justice. In person she is every bit as fun, intelligent, cool, and funny as you would expect. Meeting her was a long time coming and I couldn’t be more glad that it finally came.
Rian/tinkcat was so incredibly funny and cool. Always smiling and making everyone else smile, she is a total hoot to hang out with.
Jen/coiledsoul was also so cool. I never really knew much of her online since I’m not on the board much any more, but I’m really glad I met her.
Mark and Megan get mine and Jess’ vote for Most Disgustingly Hot couple. They’re both good looking an in good shape and all that. They were also super cool and had the big gatherings at their place. It was really great to actually get to know them better.
Mike, a.k.a. Monte Cristo was a totally cool guy, and not just a tasty sandwich. We had a great time talking about the virtues of Greg The Bunny and other movies and shows. I hope to get to spend more time getting to know him in the future.
Allison, a.k.a. Costello Girl was so much fun and so easy to talk to. She made you feel comfortable as if she’d known you for ages. Her husband Grant seemed like a really nice guy too. He kept me company in the living room while everyone else got drunk playing drinking games in the other room.
Rich, a.k.a. Big Evil seemed very friendly and fun to talk to and I wish I’d had more time to talk to him too.
Jamie Marie! Finally I meet the person responsible for the website where I met my wife. She was absolutely fabulous. Had a blast getting to know her better and seeing her a couple of nights.
Xia could be a quiet guy, but also a pleasure to get to know and talk to. He reminded me a whole lot of another friend of mine.
Probably many more. If I left you out or didn’t ramble at length, it’s not because you didn’t make an impression. I’m just tired and can’t always think of extended paragraphs.
Re-meetings
Caz, was as pretty and sweet as ever and it’s always a pleasure to spend time with her. She is so much fun and nd so warm and cuddly. Her presence ups the happiness level in a room exponentially. If you were in a video game and needed to cheer your minions up you would place a Caz in the room.
Sharon is always an absolute blast to be with. I was glad she made it over with the UK contingent so we got to see her again!
It was also good to meet Andy a second time. Great guy, and good taste in gifts. 😉
Cassy Lee is always a pleasure to spend time with. I’ll always find it amusing that I first met her at a party in Scotland.
Min was as cute as ever, and I love her voice. It was nice to get to know her even more on our second meeting. She is so much fun and quite funny.
I’m really regretting naming names now as I will inevitably forget someone and then exclaim “DOH!” very loudly. Everyone was so great to meet, and leaving L.A. was really hard because of them all. I already miss all my new friends and hope it’s not several more years before I see them again. If I somehow blanked and didn’t mention you by name, let me assure you that it has no bearing on my opinion of you. Everyone was so much fun and I throughly enjoyed meeting/seeing you all. I only wish I’d had more time to spend with each one of you. I also apologize for not getting to say goodbye to some of you since we were all just way to wiped out to go anywhere on our last night.
My strange dichotomy with L.A has only grown more complex. I want to live in L.A. for so many reasons, and yet I don’t want to live in L.A. for so many others. Who knows? Someday the right opportunity may come along and you’ll all have to deal with us on a much more frequent basis! Mwua ha ha ha ha! I’m off to bed. I’m becoming increasingly sore from our horseback riding adventure.
We arrived in L.A safe and sound and have been enjoying the hell out of Annika and Will’s company. They are without doubt two of the coolest human beings (or otherwise) in the universe. I feel like coming to L.A. is sort of like my own “pilgramage to Mecca”. I can feel a certain energy and buzz here, and there is undoubtedly a part of me that will not want to leave. However as I fully expected, there is the other part of me that loves Austin and also acknowledges the not so keen aspects of L.A. I’m not ready to up to move out to old Cali yet (if ever) but there is a sort of cosmic pull that tempts me, mostly since this is where the vast majority of my career choices lie.
Gotta go! Katherine and Min are here now. On a cool side not, you can go out on the balcony here and see the “Hollywood” sign. Although that’s probably true for much of L.A. since it’s on a big friggin’ hill overlooking the city.
So yeah, I suck at updating lately. It’s been a whirlwind life, I tells ya!
My new job is everything I knew it would be. Absolutely love going in every day. We have been trying to play EQII (we still plan on playing CoH too), keep up with TiVo and Netflix, wash clothes, eat, sleep, work, shop, socialize, etc. It just seems like I never have any time at all any more.
We got almost all of our X-mas shopping done in one night of online shopping, so that rocks.
I’m still working on completing our CD (not going to happen by the end of the year as I’d hoped), and we’re kicking into busy band month. I need to learn two new songs by this weekend. Doh!
I think I’ve taken the plunge and ditched Outlook in favor of Thunderbird. It can sync with my Palm if I use an extension, and it’s much improved in its 1.0 state from when I tried it back at 0.3. I’ll miss the calender in Outlook but I can just use the palm desktop calender (with the extra effort of opening up a nother program).
I’m jonesing to build a new computer and drooling heavily over the Treo 650. Must have it.
And of course we are determined to get a Toyota Prius. That’s it for now! Off to get Jess and run around some more!
First let’s just get this out of the way:
My new job rocks AND rolls.
It feels so right. Mu cubicle rules, the department rules, the people rule, the atmosphere rules, the job rules. Even my bitchin’ fancy phone which emails your voice mails to you in an message with the caller ID info and the audio of the message in a .wav file rules.
For anyone who doesn’t know, I’m working for a video game company as a Quality Assurance Tester. This means I try and break things. Due to the whole confidentiality thing, I’m being purposefully overly vague just be safe here, but I spent yesterday getting settled, getting my computer feeling all home-y and getting to know the game.
This means I pretty much spent the day playing the game (what there is of it so far) and getting to know the part which I will be responsible for testing.
It still pretty much puts a damper on any acting/film crew work I’d like to do, but I think the good far outweighs the bad. If these are “chains” they are soft velvety chains which are kind of nice to wear.
Now that Jess and I are both gainfully employed at “real” jobs with decent pay and benefits, we’re planning to go order us a Toyota Prius. I’s going to be quite the financial leap, but as much gas as we use, it should be worth it.
I tend to walk around in a dreamy daze with a giddy smile on my face these days, a bit stunned at the whole predicament. It all happened so fast, there were three or four other people interviewing for this position, too. I had felt that the interview had went really well though, and I’m glad I was right. Over the weekend, I actually found myself waiting for Monday with excitement and anticipation.
Today I am “moving in”. I’m bringing all my geeky cubicle accoutrements. I think I’ll even get into the whole 401K retirement fund thing that I’ve never bothered with before. This is the first company that’s actually provided me with enough information and literature that I feel comfortable knowing how it all works.
So in conclusion, WOOHOO!