I finally got to see the movie “Monster” in its entirety last night, as Adelphia chose not to have my digital cable cut out in the middle of it the way it did last week.
I have to say that I was impressed. The movie itself was only so-so, but the performance put in by Charlize Theron was every bit as amazing as I’ve heard. It was made especially impressive by the fact that none of her previous performances had ever even hinted at her being capable of something like this.
So if you get a chance, I’d advise checking it out.
What I found interesting is that I’ve known a lot of people very much like the characters presented in “Monster,” though so far as I know none of them have been serial killers, or even prostitutes for that matter.
It’s more in the way of similarities in an overall approach to life, I think, and some specific patterns of behavior that I recognized. There are a lot of people back home who wouldn’t have seemed out of place in the setting of the movie, and I’m sure there are people in small communities all across the country who would be equally at home there.
I got a very late start today, sleeping in until after 11, though considering that I was up until nearly 4, I guess it can’t really be looked at as “sleeping in.”
As I was sitting around trying to decide whether or not I was going to venture out into the world at all today, my mom called to ask me about something.
When I was hanging up I noticed that my phone’s LED flashed, which I knew meant…something.
I had gotten a text message while on the phone, maybe?
Yes, that was the one.
The message informed me that, once again, my service had been shut off due to the overall incompetence of the people who switched me over to the discounted plan.
A couple of hours on the phone with various people at Sprint, several contradictory explanations, and $200 later and I was finally working again.
Why $200? I still have no real idea.
Whenever I tried to pay my bill online I was unable to access my invoice, and it told me that I had a zero balance.
I sort of assumed that when I started the new billing cycle I might be hit with a surprise, but in the meantime there really wasn’t much that I could do, and I didn’t figure on being shut off again.
When I called in the first person I talked to told me that I owed $200, but that after I paid it I could talk to the actual customer service people, since he was with some group dedicated to dealing with suspended accounts, and straighten it out.
As I said, there was a tremendous amount of incompetence involved.
Anyway, after doing a lot of swearing, and hearing some vague explanations about prorating, I bit the bullet and paid the $200, then called back to talk to customer service, only to find that my service was STILL suspended, and that the automated system claimed that I still owed $86.
After getting connected to someone in Atlanta who couldn’t help me, I was transferred to India, and then finally I was transferred again and I talked to someone who explained that, just as I had known all along, all I really owed was the remaining payment on my old, pre-discount account, and that I now had a $200 credit on my new, discounted account.
The remaining balance on my old account still hadn’t been paid, though.
*Sigh*
She also figured out that some weird prorating issue had messed up my balance by performing some sort of arcane calculation of my minutes used, which put me well over my usage limit even though, as I always am, I was well below my monthly limit.
So she basically gave me a bunch of free minutes to put me below the limit, then took the amount I still owed on my old account from the $200 credit on my new account, and as it stands I have service, and should, presumably, be paid up in advance for some time to come.
Of course, the unexpected loss of $200 has tightened my purse strings considerably for the next week and a half, so on top of all of the irritation involved, I’m pretty much broke.
Fun stuff.
Beyond that, the day was pretty uneventful, apart from re-reading, and thoroughly enjoying, some “Sin City” stories.
Last night when I went out to push that guy off the ice I had sort of an odd experience.
I had gone out to help him because I know how much I would have appreciated having someone help me on Saturday, and because no one else, even though there were a bunch of people who were much closer, seemed to be doing it.
Anyway, when I got there, I noticed that the guy’s wife/girlfriend was standing there watching him try to back out.
The amount of force needed to push the car off the ice was so minimal that a child could have done it, so there’s reason that this woman couldn’t have pushed him.
It just struck me as incredibly anachronistic, like some fight scene in an old serial western in which the woman just stands helplessly by and watches while the men fight to the death.
Hey honey, haven’t you ever seen a Virginia Slims ad? You’ve come a long way, baby…now get your ass in front of the car and push.
After I accepted their thanks and headed back for my apartment I shook my head in dismay at the whole thing, and thought about all the times that my mom has helped my dad with chopping and piling firewood, or hauling heavy things around, and just generally helping him with various other tasks that this woman would, apparently, have been altogether too dainty for.
Still, even if she was somehow too dainty to engage in such an activity, why didn’t she get behind the wheel while he pushed?
I mean, that’s what I would do, even though I would expect the woman to at least offer to push.
Beyond the woman’s sexist view of herself and her capabilities (or maybe just her own selfishness), though, I guess that in a larger sense it’s just demonstrative of how utterly helpless people around here are when it comes to winter.
Considering this, it’s no wonder that school closures are announced hours in advance of the first flake even falling when a “storm” is predicted.
If I hadn’t helped them out, it’s likely that they never would have gotten out, since I doubt that they would have figured out that, since there were two of them, one of them could push.
I don’t think anyone else would have helped them, either, and not because they didn’t care, or were bad people, but because performing such an act would have never occurred to them. People in this area are just totally mystified by any weather pattern other than a warm, sunny day.
And sometimes even those can lead to panic in the streets.
In any case, this couple hung up on the ice was completely hosed until I came along, and we’re only talking about a relatively small patch of ice. There isn’t even any snow to be found anywhere in the area, so we’re not even talking about a winter wonderland, let alone the frozen tundra.
I guess I should be too hard on them, though, since not everyone has experienced just how harsh winter can be the way that I have.
Still, human beings are renowned for their ability to adapt, and considering how truly mild winter really is here, it shouldn’t be that difficult to adapt to it.
So I guess what I’m saying is that most of the people in Northern VA need to grow a pair. At worst they’re going to have to deal with a couple of inches of snow in a winter that will effectively be over before the end of February.
Just because you see a couple of flakes fall from the sky it doesn’t mean you have to turn into the Donner Party or something. You’ll survive.
The problem is, though, that they never learn that lesson after they do survive the winter. It’s as if they completely forget what just happened the moment spring arrives, and so they’re caught completely off guard the next time the temperature starts to dip again. “You mean this happens every year? I thought it was just the one time.”
Ah well, it’s going to be a long winter (In relative terms at least. Not a long, October through May winter like I'm used to), and I’m sure I’ll have plenty more complaining to do on this subject. Best not to vent it all today.
I did end up venturing out into the world briefly.
I walked over to Safeway to get some milk.
I did so unwashed and unshaven, as I decided that I just don’t care.
In any case, when I was heading up to the register I thought I had lucked out, as the Express lane was actually open (for a change) and free of customers. There was a couple in front of me, but they had more than fifteen items, and so they were going to keep walking...until the cashier decided to be generous and ring them up anyway.
Still, it was likely to be the fastest line in the place anyway, especially since they didn’t have that much more than fifteen items, so it shouldn’t have taken them that long to get through. So I got behind them.
Of course, I failed to factor in the fact that they were in their fifties, which meant that something would happen to make this take longer than it really should.
In my mind it was a toss-up as to whether that something would be some dispute (exacerbated by the language barrier with the cashier [which would itself be exacerbated by hearing impairment on the part of the couple]) over the price that some individual item rang up at, or if it would be caused by the fact that once you reach a certain age you lose the ability to comprehend any technology developed after 1970.
It was, as the lady struggled to understand the credit card reader, decidedly the latter.
Still, it didn’t take nearly as long as it could have, and eventually I made my way home, ate my dinner, and sat down to write this.
And that brings us up to date.
At least for the purposes of this entry.
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