Jeff’s Journal

Apparently, my e-mail address gets to be the “sent” address in a variety of spam today. Thus, I’ve gotten roughly 400 undeliverable bouncebacks since 8am this morning with no end in sight.

Ugh.

Mario Kart anyone? 2707-2006-6250

For those of you who don’t wanna play, I offer this:

1) Tiff’s wedding was this weekend. Between the whole “blast from the past” wedding mass with Fr. Madden (former High School headmaster) presiding and the somewhat sketchball wedding band, it was a very nice wedding and a good time. I wish I had more to say about the wedding/ceremony than I do, but I don’t - congrats to Tiff and Rob in any regard.

2) We ended up crashing at my old place last night, and Ann & I slept nearly 11 hours on a futon. I can’t remember the last time I slept 11 hours period, but there you have it. We rushed out to Maxwell Silverman’s in Worcester for a pricey-but-worth-every-penny brunch with Julia, Danielle, Steph and Steph’s sister, where I ate more bacon than I should have, but what else is new? It’s good to see people, anyway.

3) Annoying guitar note - I’ve been picking up my guitar a lot more lately, in part because I’m somewhat obsessed with getting a cover version floating in my head onto some sort of recording, but a problem that I forgot about has been picking itself back up as of late - cramping. My hands are small, but not THAT small, and yet whenever I do any non-open chords, my hand invariably cramps up. Part of it may be that I’m simply using too much force in holding the frets down or whatever, but it’s crazy frustrating.

4) My face hurts. I’m very apprehensive about the removal of the wisdom teeth, but damn will I appreciate not having face/headaches almost daily from them.

All for now…

1) The Manchester City Library held a book sale today. Needless to say, I wish I could have spent a little more time there - fill a paper bag for $5? I wish I could have dug out some eBay fodder. Alas, I still came out with quite a haul:

Among the really good grabs:

* Stranger in a Strange Land hardcover, which replaces the copy I gave away many years ago. I’ve been meaning to reread this as well as have Ann read it.

* My Grandfather’s Son, Clarence Thomas. In a donation pile. At the library. If I didn’t know that the Manchester Library had a copy of this, I’d be pissed.

* Two Barry Goldwater-penned books: Conscience of a Majority and Where I Stand.

* The Story of Scientology, a coffee table book about Scientology. I did it for the lulz, or something.

* French Furniture Under Louis XIV. Because it was there.

A bunch of theatre books and some quirky US history tomes filled out the bag. Total haul was over 20 for $5 - I would have paid $20 for the Clarence Thomas and Robert Heinlein alone. Not too bad.

And Pigeon approves

2) Ann & I are fairly well addicted to the John Adams miniseries on HBO. It’s fun to engage in historical geekery with her - she’s become quite enamored with Ben Franklin.

3) Hung out with Steph, Mandy, and her husband, Bill, for a bit on Saturday. Dinner at the Outback, good times had. I’ve been friendly with Mandy through Steph for a couple years now, and this was the first time we’ve actually hung out in the real world, and she’s quite charming. With the dissolution of my D&D group, it looks like I’ll be joining them (and Mike, I understand?) in June for some Sunday gaming once the Fourth Edition Players Guide comes out. I’m pretty stoked.

4) Flag football started this weekend. I played fairly crappy, all things being equal, but I did have a couple receptions and got outleaped on an out pattern because I’m short. It’s a different feel than dodgeball (obviously) and I’m not sure I love it, but it’s still good to be active and I generally like my teammates, so good stuff.

Back to the Sox game…

1) I feel like a whiny little brat because of this head cold, but my goodness is it kicking my behind. I somehow survived the winter without as much as a sniffle - a few exhausted days, but nothing legitimately sickly, so yeah. Crappy, but what can you do?

2) Saturday night was fun - Lee Anne and Steve came up and came to a hockey game with us and then we did a little drinkin’. It’s always good to see them, and the hockey game was good as well.

3) Dodgeball is done for the time being - my team ended up with the 8 seed and nearly ousted the top team in the first round of the playoffs. Final record? 1-7, but a really fun season. I’m doing flag football starting this week, which should be…interesting. I’m short and my hands are too small to grip a football, so…

4) You’ll recall an entry a while back about the old friend I treated rather badly and recently got back in contact with. I met her for dinner this week, and it was a really great experience - aired out a lot of stuff, worked the awkwardness out a bit, and it was a good thing overall. Glad we’re making progress.

5) A belated and general thank you for the birthday well-wishes and gifts and whatnot. My 27th was a pleasant one, in no small part due to everyone in my life, so thanks!

6) Upcoming stuff in no particular order - R.E.M., Tiff’s wedding…life in general. For how crazy busy I tend to get, there’s really not a whole lot happening yet a ton happening all at once.

Ah well…

When you’ve had second row seats for your favorite band, nothing will ever reach that again, so I should consider myself blessed that I’ve been in the front ten rows twice when I’ve seen R.E.M.. But getting bounced out for a server error during the fan club presale when you had second row seats ready is annoying as hell, and when Ticketmaster blasts you out now when you’re reloading to find out when tickets go on sale is just wrong.

So, needless to say, I have a spare pair of tickets for the R.E.M. show in June. Face value for the two (ticket + service charges) is $140 for Row H in section 4 - not terrible seats by any stretch, although a bit further in the corner than I’d like compared to the ones I got that are further back but closer to the center.

So if anyone reading this wants them, let me know. Grr.

I suppose now is as good a time as any to discuss this publically. Ann & I had been waiting until we could sit my parents down and discuss it with them first - some of you know this through various inklings or because we’ve spoken to you since Easter, but we weren’t holding back for any other reason than wanting our parents to know before we talked about it to everyone else.

While I’d imagine I’m one of the few human beings who can boil down a pretty major life choice into a lolcat, there you have it - Ann & I plan on internationally adopting our first child.

Let’s get a few things out of the way - first, there’s no fertility issues that we’re aware of. The stereotype appears to be that this becomes an option only when you can’t biologically have your own children, and that’s not at issue here. In fact, we’d like to have “our own” kids at some point in the future. Just not now, and not before doing this.

Second, we’re not against domestic adoption, it’s just not really something we’re interested in. For one, domestic adoption costs make international adoption look cheap in comparison (and it’s not), and for another, the benefits for the child coming from China or Korea or Russia or someplace with similar upheaval and uncertainty is miles ahead of a child who may have a rough go of it domestically as a foster child, but still gets the benefits of growing up in the States.

Third, seriously, Angelina and Madonna have nothing to do with it. If they did, it would be the first trendy thing I’ve done in years. But yeah - the comments have come out before, and no. Just no.

This isn’t necessarily going to be easy for us. The costs are high, the requirements weird, but it’s something we’re really into. Right now, we’re leaning toward South Korea, although China is high on the list but is likely impossible. We thought about Russia as well, but that’s kind of difficult, and our religious situation (read: lack thereof) forces us out of places like the Philippines and (I think) Ethiopia from the start.

Granted, this is ultimately going to be years down the line - many places expect you to be at least 30 or married 3-5 years, but this also means that Ann & I need to start thinking about it now. It’ll be an interesting ride, for sure, but we’re very excited about the end result, and, amazingly, so are my parents, who are behind us 110%. My mother let me know today that she wants to be “Nanny Joan,” so I think we have people safely on board.

We’re doing this because we feel like we’re the right type of people to make some child’s life better. It’s a way we can give back to the world in a way that matches up with our values and beliefs, and it just feels like the right thing to do. I read stories like this and my heart breaks a little bit, and to think we might be able to do our own part for someone else in a way that others might not is a really neat thought.

We’re both excited. We’ll keep things updated as we learn and do more - Ann’s got her Big Book of International Adoption all tabbed out, I’ve been talking with parents at my library - we’re really all in. How scary. And fun. And amazing.

A highlight reel of our busiest weekend since the holidays:

1) Friday night dinner with Tiff, Rob, Steph, and Julia. In a scary-ish thing to think about, my 10 year reunion from high school is coming up. While Steph didn’t graduate with us, it’s still really great to know that, even as we grow older and marry and move away and all that jazz, you’ve still got the old standbys who you may not see or speak to on a regular basis, but you fall right into place with once you’re all there. Just a really great, happy, pleasant evening with them, and another reminder that I need to make it a point to get down there more often.

2) That, for all the crap I’ve given them and all the slack I refused to cut them over the years, that my parents are really great people and that I’m really glad I have the parents I do. I’ll go more into detail on this another day, but I’ll just say that they impressed me a lot this weekend.

3) My cousin Nick just started college this year. It’s kind of funny - he’s 9 years younger than me, I remember going to the hospital when he was born, and now we can all sit around and have a normal human being conversation with him. Maybe it’s kind of nerdy and overly sentimental, but that’s pretty cool in my book.

4) Michelle and Josh are two great friends to have. I can’t say enough good things, and I’m glad they’ll be getting married. Finally.

5) Hanging with Dave in Boston for brunch on Sunday. To say that the way he’s presented himself in his journal over the last 4 years has no direct bearing on how much energy this man has (while partially hung over, mind you) is an understatement - a really cool and fun guy, and considering I was concerned we wouldn’t get to meet up with him at all, both Ann & I were glad we took the detour to get some time in. You’re good people, sir, and welcome at Chez Raymond anytime. His friends were awesome, as well, and a great plus to what ended up being a great cap to a great weekend.

This week is looking fun, but busy, as well - Friday night I have a dodgeball thing, Saturday we see Lee Anne and Steve (which will be a blast), and Sunday is Elf Power. Plus, I took Monday off to recharge, something I’ve rarely been able to do and something I’m doing sans guilt. That’s always awesome.

I’m seriously loving life right now.

…I got married.

Many of you reading this have known me, either through school or work or through LiveJournal, for longer than my wife has known me. You know full well where I’ve made my mistakes, where I’ve done embarrassing things, where I’ve made my life harder than it has to be. With Ann, all of that changed - she’s my rock, she gets me in ways most others have not, she validates my existence in ways I never could have imagined. Marrying her was the easiest and best choice I’ve ever made for myself, and I’m reminded of this fact nearly every day.

31 March 2007 was a really cool day in my life, and I’m glad so many people were able to share in it in their own way. For those who couldn’t be there, I’ve finally gotten video of one of the best parts up, so enjoy the Unity Volcano. Excuse the video quality - it was the best rip from the DVD we could get at the time, but it’s the idea that counts and YouTube isn’t entirely known for high definition anyway.

So yeah, today was a big day for dentistry for me. Odd notes from someone who can’t remember his last cleaning or anything at all.

1) Either I take very well to anaesthesia or things are very good in the dentistry world these days. I was completely prepared for a world of pain, and it turns out that I mistakened the drilling they had to do for my fillings for the actual cleaning. The drilling part I figured would be really bad, and it wasn’t. So, like, sweet on that!

2) The cleaning was…interesting. I was essentially Tartar Man, which is kind of gross and I’m a little ashamed of myself in retrospect, but holy crap did it make a difference visually. I could care less about visual appearance, but egads, seeing what it looks like now as opposed to before is like night and day. Absolutely crazy.

3) I still have some minor cleaning left (again, Tartar Man is my name and my superhero power is taking two cleanings to deal with what a mere mortal requires in one), but seriously? Very little in the way of pain, which was impressive. I was a little numbed up, but nothing crazy, and my gums are in rough shape anyway, so most of the pain was simply to gain later on. The worst part, honestly, was that damn suction thing, because I hate a dry mouth.

So yeah. Uh, not bad at all. Certainly not the way I’d like to spend a Wednesday morning, but whatever. Plus, everyone there seemed to agree that my teeth and stuff are really healthy, and once the inflammation and stuff goes down, I should be a-okay. So that’s nice to hear. I’m a real lucky bastard in a way due to that.

Now excuse me, I’m going to continue moving my tongue along my teeth like I have been all day, since I haven’t felt these parts in years.

EDIT: As I posted this, I’m totally lusting over this. I wish money wasn’t so tight right now, I’d totally do it.

If anyone’s looking for birthday ideas for me, however…

1) Ann & I are fairly excited by the prospect of having finally made some possibly really good friends up here in Manchester. Granted, with her surgery and our schedules, we haven’t had the time to really foster a few relationships with good people we’ve met so far, but I met the children’s librarian from Amherst at the Jeff Kinney event in January, and we finally got together with her and her husband last night for drinks and dinner, which later turned into a three hour affair and an invitation to have an Easter lamb with them today. Another 5 hours with them tonight, and it was just a refreshingly good time. They’re a fun couple, we all have a lot in common, and yeah. It was really great.

We’ve had our share of trouble putting ourselves out there, meeting people is never easy, and Ann will be the first to admit that she doesn’t do well under any sort of social pressure, so this was admittedly a big deal for us, and it worked out really well so far. So hooray!

2) The next few weeks are pretty much a wreck for us. A jolly wreck, but a wreck nonetheless. Thursday of this week, we’re seeing Glen Phillips in Derry (20 minutes away!), and then Friday we’re headed to Massachusetts to see Tiff and Rob (and Julia, are you free? E-mail me, I don’t think you got my last e-mail), and then Saturday is family Easter. Yeah, don’t ask. But we’ll see Michelle and Josh Saturday night before heading home, and hopefully find time to see David while he visits from DC (we gotta work that out). After another work week, we have another…something on that Friday night followed by a visit from Lee Anne and Steve (which we’re psyched about) and then the Elf Power concert the following evening. And then things finally calm down.

And that’s just what I remember at the moment. I guarantee I’m missing something here.

3) Our car insurance went down! Hurrah!

4) Other than all that, life is good in Chez Raymond. We’re pretty excited for the spring and summer, and we’re going to make more of an effort to see people and work stuff out. So yeah. It’ll be fun.

I’m writing this last night, so I think I’m going to stop now.

Ann: “Play that Decemberists song I like.”
Jeff: *fires up “We Both Go Down Together”*
Ann: “I love this song, but it makes me uncomfortable. It’s such a nice song, but then he rapes her.”
Jeff: “What?!”
Ann: “Yeah! Why else would she be crying?!”
Jeff: “Uh, because it’s sorta like Romeo and Juliet. They’re in love and can’t be together, and it makes her sad.”
Ann: “Oh, come on. It’s a class thing, first, and second, why would she be crying.”

*keeps listening*

Ann: “Well, regardless, that shows how different you and I are. You hear romantic love, I hear rape.”

Tomorrow’s Ann’s birthday. Give her some love.

EDIT: Later

Ann: “I get the impression that they jump off a cliff, but at the end of the song, he says ‘Meet me at my veranda.’ Does he jump off a cliff into a veranda? Is the cliff a veranda? The only reason I know what a veranda is is from The Three Amigos.”

EDIT #2: “I never knew why she jumped off a cliff with a rapist. That confused me.”

Easter is my favorite time of year for candy. I’m not a huge candy person overall - a few cookies after lunch is good, the occasional candy bar, but I’m not a big sweets person. With that said, Easter means SweetTarts and the Easter version is “Chicks, Ducks, and Bunnies.” They’re a tiny bit more chalky than their round cousins, but are also larger and thus more flavorful. I love them.

This bowl pictured represents the contents of my bag of chicks, ducks, and bunnies today. ALL blue, orange/red, and purple. No green. No yellow. I don’t even like the blue ones, and my two favorite flavors didn’t even make the bag. Absolutely ridiculous.

I hate today.

The Good: My health insurance (read: not my dental) will pay 100% for wisdom teeth extraction. Even better, they’ll pay for all of them to be removed, not just the three impacted. I’m not going to say I’m excited to have them tear some stuff out of my face, but it’s nice to know I won’t have to worry about it.

The Bad: Vehicle registration this year - about $275 combined state and local. The annoyances of a new car, I suppose.

The Ugly: It turns out that we won’t be getting a refund from Massachusetts, and that we actually owe around $250. Annoying as hell, although I should have expected this.

Combine that with the federal tax we owe (around $330) and that’s over $800 we have to lay out in the next 6 weeks. Doable, but ugh.

1) Meet Gobbles:

I got home from work today, and Ann started yelling “Did you see!? Did you see?!” I, of course, did not see, and we went out to the patio to see a large wild turkey chilling out on the roof of someone’s SUV. Pretty hilarious - he hung out for a few hours, hopped on a couple other cars before shuffling off into the sunset.

It’s not rare to see flocks/packs of wild turkeys off the side of the highway up here - it’s one of those great, odd things about New Hampshire wildlife that I appreciate. Ann took these pictures over the course of the afternoon.

2) So, since they’ve made their way to Chicago by now, I guess it’s safe to talk about them - thank you cards!

We made a deal early on after the wedding - Ann’s in charge of her family, I’m in charge of mine. She got her cards done before the summer, I think, and I was bogged down in summer reading and then dodgeball and then dodgeball and I never really got to it. Ann went to Philly a few weeks ago, and I totally intended to just do them and be done with it (if you were at the wedding, you know how many people we’re talking), and I essentially slacked off and played video games all weekend. Monday rolled around, and I’m swearing to myself, so I tell her that I’m needing to crack down and need her help finding things, which is when she shows me the cards, finished (and finished for weeks at that). I felt like more of a tool at that moment than I have the entire time we’ve been married.

If you got a neat little joke in your card outside of the pre-printed headline, I promise every word is true. If you didn’t get a card because you weren’t there, the text at the top was something close to “The Most Important Thing I’ve Learned After 11 Months of Marriage…When Your Husband Says He’ll Do the Thank You Cards, Don’t Trust Him.” It’s true.

So, publically, thank you all for coming, again, and making our big day worth it. Our anniversary is in 2 weeks, and I’ll have a fun post up for that.

3) Speaking of why New Hampshire is awesome, I bet your criminals don’t try to leap out of the courthouse window, and if they do, I bet they don’t apologize first. I love my state.

4) Our dodgeball team won! We;re 1-5! We’re 1-5!

Okay, ’tis all.

1) If I was one to do those “Do 101 things in 1001 days” lists like everyone else I know, I would have crossed one thing off my list today: The Baconator.

I don’t generally eat fast food. It’s one of those things that used to appeal to me, but just doesn’t anymore - I go to a Burger King or McDonald’s or something maybe twice in a given year, and usually out of convenience rather than desire. With that said, around 12:30 today, the craving for two huge burger patties with six strips of bacon overwhelmed me, and since Ann is out for the day and there’s a Wendy’s less than a mile down the road, well…

The verdict? Good, but not amazing. With that much bacon, it should be amazing, but alas, it was only good. What it definitely was was amazingly greasy, though - I’ve washed my hands twice since lunch and I still feel gooey.

2) I’m overdue regarding music and stuff, but I’m so addicted to Kathleen Edwards’s new album it’s not even funny. It’s quite good, and Ann feels threatened by her, so it’s win-win.

3) Any technologically savvy people want to help me figure out why embedded flash videos (YouTube et al) just freeze without sound after about 2 seconds? I can’t figure out if it was an update, or clashing programs, or something else, but it’s completely weird. Never had this problem before, and I never realized how much I actually use YouTube until recently.

4) Speaking of YouTube, if every Celtics game was as exciting as this moment, I’d probably be on the bandwagon:

More later, I suppose.

1) I had my first dentist appointment in a very, very long time today. Very long time. Long enough where I honestly feared the worst, and you know me and fear…

a) The X-Rays were pretty interesting, although I had forgotten how intense my gag reflex was. Thankfully, I hadn’t eaten before going and I didn’t give the assisstant/nurse any presents, either.

b) The best news: only 2 cavities, both surface. This was ultimately shocking to me, as I expected much worse and in much more difficult places, but no, instead it’s a relatively simple situation. Considering my haphazard use of mouthwash (only been consistent over the last 6 months or so) and my relative lack of flossing (I know, I know), I was very happy.

c) The somewhat good news is that the problems I’ve complained about with my front teeth are entirely treatable, and are only significant because I haven’t been to the dentist in ages. If anything, it serves me right for waiting as long as I did (only partially my fault), but it was a bit of a relief to know that it’ll be dealt with relatively soon.

d) The crappy: wisdom teeth. While they’re not bothering me too much, there’s enough concern for them that I’m gonna have to get them out - hopefully all four, but probably three of them. Annoying, and does not fit with my schedule at all. So we’ll see how that works out, but that kind of blows.

We’ll see if I’m still singing praises after what will probably be a rough cleaning, but consider me surprised.

2) I think I’m coming to terms with my ability, or, more to the point, my lack thereof. I’ve found myself to be relatively happy with the way things have panned out for me as of late - I work a decent schedule, I do my sporting activities one or two nights a week, I have my gaming night, and plenty of spare time to spend with Ann, see friends, or just hang around. Now that I’m feeling settled, it’s almost as if I don’t feel overly stressed out or stretched too thin.

Of course, this means some sacrifices, but ones that I’m not entirely upset about. After all, where could I fit in a theatrical production in my schedule? How could I possibly rehearse with a band twice a week? Do I miss those things? Sure, but I also find I enjoy being at home and getting a decent night’s sleep and not being overwhelmed, too. In a lot of ways, the stability I’m finally experiencing now is the stablity I’ve been yearning for over the last few years. So it’s nice to not rock that boat. I can still write and read and create and be myself without being burdened.

Life ain’t too bad right now.

So I’ve taken yet another step in development - a smidge nerdier and a smidge more social, as I joined a Saturday night D&D group.

I have to say, it’s more fun than I thought it would be - a 5 hour session last night essentially flew by. I’m playing a Cleric for this campaign, which is interesting, and my problem is more overthinking (”Hey, can’t I just cast a command spell on this guard and MAKE him let us into the city?”) than getting the hang of it, although it’s still a lot more complicated than I remembered. But I’ll get the hang of it, I’m sure.

Steph, didn’t you give me a book at some point? I think I may have left it at my house, which is annoying, but isn’t a 4th edition coming soon as well? I’m wary of picking up a bunch of stuff anyway, but still, pretty fun stuff.

I’ll have more later, I suppose.

So we did our taxes today.

1) We went to Liberty Tax, which is another chain, but a little classier than H & R, not that it’d take much. It was snowy, so we were in and out in 40 minutes, and it was quick and easy.

2) We actually owe the federal government, those rat bastards. I didn’t expect to owe, quite honestly, but we do based on some bonds we cashed in so we could kill some debts and get a mortgage. Quite frankly, if you boil down the tax savings + interest savings + lesser bills + everything else we were able to do with the bonds we cashed in, the $330 we owe the fed isn’t terrible, but still annoying as hell.

3) Massachusetts owes us! Big time! That was a surprise - I figured we’d owe them given the weird circumstances of the move and the wedding and everything else, but we’re actually getting $500-something back from the looks of things.

4) This means we’re somehow +$200ish or so. At least we’re in the black.

I’ll be glad to go back to doing my own taxes next year, though.

I know I’m posting this awfully late, but yeah.

Ann’s fine. Surgery went swimmingly, high compliments from the surgeon and such. Took a little while longer to get discharged than anticipated, and a snowstorm didn’t help matters. Ann’s still pretty sore at times, tonight should be interesting, but we’re glad that we’re home and everyone’s okay.

Thanks for all the supportive words and such. I’ve burned off enough antsiness and I’m heading to bed now.

1) So this weekend, we bring Ann in for gallbladder surgery. She’s nervous, and the fact that she keeps reading up on the surgery doesn’t help much for what’s generally a routine situation that will more than likely result in us spending 6 hours at the hospital and being done with it. If there’s one flaw in our relationship, it’s that we’re both generally worrywarts, but rarely at the same time and never for ourselves, just for each other. Thus, I sound like the rational human being whenever something’s going wrong for her, but I become the illogical moron and she ends up having to talk me down when it has to do with me. Maybe it’s not actually a flaw, but simply amusing.

2) I have another funny relationship story, but it’ll become funnier in a couple weeks, so I’ll come back to it.

3) The fun news for us was that Michelle and Josh, two of our closest friends in Massachusetts, finally got engaged this past weekend. We’ve been giving Josh a bit of a hard time about it, but he kept everyone in the dark and it sounded like a lovely proposal. I’ve known Michelle since I was 11 or 12, and we’ve been good friends ever since we re-met in college, so we’re very happy for her.

4) I also heard from an old friend who I’ve been trying to get in contact with a few weeks ago. I finally got around to writing back last night, so that was pleasant.

5) “Pleasant” is a good word for my state of mind currently. Things are generally good, and I can’t really complain about anything much. I’m just waiting for it to get warmer at this point.

Today is a good day, even if I do have to work. So much to talk about, but no time for it. I’ll post something more detailed soon, enjoy some Presidential videos:

1) I love tax season, really.

Usually, I’ll do my taxes online. Takes 30 minutes, just a lot of number plugging and not getting distracted. Of course, when you a) get married, and b) move to a new state because of c) a new job that d) doesn’t deduct state taxes for the arbitrary amount of time your primary residence is in your old state, it’s almost worth saving the hassle and paying other people to do it.

The key word of this exchange is “hassle.” As in, I don’t want one.

You’ll recall my noting that I scheduled our taxes to be done by H & R Block this year, since they’re 3 minutes away from the condo and they’re H & R Block. What you won’t recall is my own distaste with the whole affair to begin with. I like being self-sufficient in these areas, and something didn’t sit well with me, but I was able to brush it aside as a residual from my whole issue with paying people $100 to do something I can do myself. Frankly, I should have listened to myself.

The first strike was late Friday night. Late being around 6:45ish - I get a call from the H & R Block people saying that the person I scheduled with doesn’t work Sundays even though the website form claimed she did and allowed me to set an appointment. Now, I didn’t care that much - the differences between the folks on the website that were listed (we’ll get to that) were minimal for me, I just wanted to get my taxes done. But anyway, the person I’m scheduled with doesn’t exist on Sundays, so do I want to switch to a day she’ll be there or what? Well, I tell them I want the Sunday for a reason (the reason being that Ann goes away this coming weekend, she goes in for surgery next weekend, and then it’s February vacation), and to just swap me to someone who’s there. Okay then.

So we fast-forward to today, we head there a little early to a near-empty office. Two “tax professionals” in cubes with their clients finishing up, and that’s it. So we take a seat in front of reception and wait. One of the people there poke their head out and see us with a semi-bewildered look on her face, and we tell her we have an appointment scheduled. She seems unaware. Great.

Our preparing protagonist takes another 10 or 15 minutes, finishes up with the young couple she had, and talks to us. We tell her the situation (new marriage, new state, no withholding at the new job for me, odd investment income, etc), and, well…she pawns us off on the other woman working. Since, you know, she doesn’t have that much experience with that many complex schedules and doesn’t want to screw it up. On one hand, I can accept that - if you’re not 100%, hand it off to someone who knows. On the other hand, you work at H & R Block. This isn’t “I don’t know what the best book for your 60 year old grandmother is, let me ask the other clerk,” this is “You are a paid tax professional who doesn’t know how to deal with a new marriage in a state where people move from Massachusetts all the time.” So now I’m angry, but hey, I really want to get this out of the way. So we sit back down and wait for the other woman.

Another 5 or 10 minutes pass by, and nothing’s finishing up yet, but our new woman comes out of her cubicle looking at us funny. Tells us (paraphrased) “so this is going a while, and I don’t want to hold you guys for lunch or anything, so we’ll hold your spot for you until you get back.” I tell her that we had an appointment for 1:00pm, and her response is that she can’t get to us for “at least another half hour or so.” Strike three. I tell her to cancel the appointment, and I tell Ann that we’re leaving. She gave me an extremely odd look as if it was absurd of me to not want to be held up further because her co-worker doesn’t know how to do what they’re paying her for, and that was that.

A little overboard? Perhaps. But as I expect even a basic level of competence, the fact that I walked into a business who’s entire existence is to deal with tax returns and I a) couldn’t find more than two people on a weekend during tax season, and b) of those two people, half of them didn’t know how to deal with my “complex” return, enough is enough. Was I going to wait 30 more minutes to find out that this person couldn’t do our return properly and have wasted an entire afternoon in the process? And, hello, H & R Block? YOU DO TAXES. THAT IS YOUR VALUE TO SOCIETY. That’s the part that irritated me the most.

So now our taxes will have to wait until March. That’s annoying, but that’s life. Granted, we won’t be going to H & R Block for it, but yeah. At least I know I won’t be blowing my money on something I’m uncomfortable with who can’t even do my return because it’s apparently too hard.

2) Enough bad stuff, here’s some questions for people:

a) I’m still plugging away at the book (I’m hoping to take a HUGE step this weekend if I can make it work out), but part of my goal in terms of getting a Real Life Publisher is proving that I can write and actually having some sort of consistent writing schedule to show for it. Sure, blogging’s a very informal medium by nature, but since I’m not a journalist and more of an enthusiast, it’s a bit of an uphill climb. Essentially, I want to run a film blog of sorts for really bad movies like the kind Kroger made his millions on. Anyone have an idea as to what a good name for it would be? Anything I come up with sounds lame.

b) Related to a, anyone want to help contribute on it? Flesh things out a bit? Chelsea, Mike, Stacey, I’m looking in your general directions, I wouldn’t be looking for more than a post a week or something. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll give you more information vision-wise.

3) Dustin Pedroia cracks me up. I don’t think I’ve been this excited for a baseball season in 4 years.

And another week begins…

Well, not really.

1) I got to hear the new R.E.M. song last night, it appears to be streaming at Pitchfork today. I like it, I don’t love it, but I didn’t like it much the first listen. It’s a grower, I suppose. Even expecting a bit more of a “rock” effort from them, this was a bit of a jarring listen for me. Considering the leanings of “I’m Gonna DJ” and the fact that Snow Patrol’s newer producer took care of this one, it’ll be fascinating to see what happens. Commence R.E.M. freakout in 3…2…

2) I was productive today:

* Made my first car payment, which got me lost in Manchester again - I’ve lived here 10 months and still can’t find my way around.

* Scheduled our taxes for Sunday at H & R Block, which is annoying but kind of necessary - between the state move and the wedding and the fact that we can suddenly deduct a whole ton of new things, we’re kind of clueless and would rather waste some money and get it done somewhat correctly than anything else. I can already hear the howls from people, but the end result is that too many things changed for us this year, we’re definitely getting a refund of some sort, and we’ll be able to go back to doing it ourselves online next year. I hate spending the money, though, but they don’t make it easy.

* Scheduled a dentist appointment. Because I’m long overdue. Teeth are weird - mine don’t bother me, but they probably should, and I’m very paranoid, but whatever.

3) Big snowstorm tonight, that’s news.

I don’t have a lot going on, obviously. More later, I suppose.

Well, that sucked.

Ann: “Fuck you very muchfor getting me into sports, Jeff.”

1) A year ago today, my wife and I signed the paperwork for our condo in New Hampshire, and made fleeing from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts official. On the same day was the silly Mooninite scandal, where the Adult Swim marketing scheme wreaked havoc over an amused populace.

A year later, I still regret nothing.

2) Anyone have more than a passing familiarity with WordPress and can help me with a link exporting problem?

3) I’m currently very addicted to clementines.

I feel like I have more to say here, but no dice.

1) 5 hour workday. Working Sunday kinda sucked, but being home at 4p after sleeping in is always good.

2) Future of the Left - Curses. The album’s been out in the UK for ages, but I haven’t been able to get my mclusky fix in a while, so this does the trick.

3) Kathleen Edwards has a new album coming out this spring. And she’s touring for it! David, you have your Beantown itinerary set up yet?

4) My medical drama from last summer? Yeah, just got a refund check from the hospital for that, which means my insurance decided to cover it after all. That’s $400 to bolster my savings I didn’t have 24 hours ago, awesome.