A long and.. interesting weekend
Dec. 28th, 2003 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hkellickLet me give you some background in what I expected this weekend to be like first and then tell you where things went from there.
The plan was... Kristen comes to Buffalo on Christmas Eve, stays through Saturday afternoon and goes about the time her dad's friend "Uncle" Mark leaves.
My work schedule was.. Working Christmas Eve until 6:30, Christmas off, Friday 5 - 10:30, Saturday 9 - 5:30 and Sunday 10 - 3.
So I expected to see Kristen Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and maybe Friday before work, but not Friday after work because I'd be tired and it'd be a strain on me.
Now let me tell you what happened..
Christmas Eve
Kristen calls and tells me that her family told her that had she consulted them at all, she'd know that I was not invited to Christmas Eve because none of the boyfriend and girlfriends were invited. Um... K. So I suggest that maybe she break out about 8 or 9 and hang with me for the rest of the night.
I get out of work, call her, and she's having a good time. She calls back later to say basically that she feels obligated to stay and it's not that painful so... maybe tommorow.
Um.. K. So a day of SimCity fun with me. No problem, that :)
Christmas
The plan was Kristen would come over before Christmas Dinner with the family to exchange gifts both with me and the family. But that was before... well, I won't say... but circumstances forced Kristen to stay home. So I went over to her parents place instead and we exchanged gifts (and she did love the necklace I bought for her! :D :D :D)
Basically tried to stay out of the way while Kristen and family frantically got dressed.
Dinner was good and the company was good. I met "Uncle" Mark and his nephew Michael who were both nice peoples.
After Dinner got a bit much for me, though, while large number of unknown relatives walked in and out of the house and left me feeling shy.
Kristen and her brother and sister (plus all boyfriends, girlfriends etc.) had agreed on a gift exchange and we did that sometime after dinner.
Then by that time, I was pretty much in my shell for the whole rest of the night until we came back to my house and Kristen and my family exchanged gifts (I hope Kristen enjoys playing LOTR Trivial Pursuit. I knew she'd like it :D)
Friday
Things got... interesting Friday.
I woke up at 4;30, used my computer for an hour and went back to bed. Woke up about 10.. and.. the screen was blank. So I rebooted and... it booted fine for a few minutes then suddenly rebooted. And then after that, I kept getting error messages that Windows could not run.
So I panicked. Called Kristen. Didn't know what to do. She listened calmly to the error message, looked to see if she could fix it, but she couldn't. Wait! I realized I have a full set of restart discs from Compaq and there are two choices.. one that just recopies the WinXP files and the other that erases everything first and reinstall fresh. So I pull out the discs and go to use them...
... and... I error out. It doesn't work.
WHAT THE FUCK?!?!
So I call Compaq up, since I had a one year warranty on the machine and I'd gotten it January 19th.
Spoke to a couple of "really nice" Indian folks who wanted to know my name, addres, phone number, serial number, model number.. meanwhile I'm really pissed because not only had the computer crashed but the restart disks don't work!
Finally spoke to an actual Tech who said "Sorry sir, your warranty is expired." Who to the what now? So I fight with him and tell him I bought it in January and he doesn't care and it doesn't matter because he has the date fo purchase (probably by CompUSA) as mid-october.
So I'm seriously pissed off now.
So I ransack my room looking for the receipt from CompUSA showing that I bought the computer from them and giving the service number and find it. Yay, that.
Kristen comes over and I tell her about it and she explains how it's now CompUSA's problem/fault and I should get them to fix it (which I was going to do anyways)
So.. the computer goes to CompUSA...
We do some errands (like get my check and put it in the bank) and then meet Kristen's cousin at TGI Friday's for lunch.
I run from there to home to feed the cats and call CompUSA.
CompUSA said I MIGHT have a faulty chip and some Windows degradation, but I still had my data. They were going to check into the chip and, if it needed replacing, they were thinking Monday night or Tuesday.
Bummer. :/
So I go to work and do that for 8 hours, get home, call Kristen and we hang out for a couple of hours before I go to sleep.
Saturday
I figured I'd seen the last of Kristen on Friday night and that she was heading to Rochester while I was at work for another 8 hours.
I was mistaken (as those of you who read Kristen's latest LJ know)
I had brought my cell phone with me, but had forgotten to turn it off, so imagine my surprise when at about 12:25, 5 minutes before my break, it goes off.
I won't get into it, but Kristen had a big fight with her family and she needed to talk to me.
So.. I called her back during my break and we talked and I helped calm her down.
Went back to work, figuring she was probably going to stay in town a little longer, if for no other reason than to talk to me and have someone to hold onto while she cried.
Get out of work, call her and find out she'd spent an hour trying to find my job so she could meet me at my car. Things had gotten worse and she needed some comfort.
Beat her home and found out my computer was ready (yay!) but mom's had to go into the shop now. (It was crashing too often and consistently). Talking to the guy, it was strongly suggested (and I readily agreed) that I back up all my important files (can we say burnfest folks?) and then try the restart disk again, as a full restart.
Kristen arrives and I hear her out and held her and we talked. It was decided (pretty easily) that she'd stay over night and rest and relax before going back to Rochester tommorow. We briefly considered going to see RotK but we hadn't eaten and I really wanted my computer back, so we skipped it and did Original Pancake House and some errands.
It was in the CompUSA plaza, right before picking up my computer that SOMETHING happened and the steering suddenly became.. difficult. Very difficult.
Long story short, it turns out that my car is leaking power steering fluid like crazy when on (and perhaps a little bit when off, but not as bad.)
Oh, we were a wonderful pair. Me stressing over my car. Kristen stressing over her family.
In the end, we agreed there wasn't much we could do in terms of either that night, so we snuggled and slept.
Sunday
I checked the level of power steering fluid in my car. This is when I realized how much it was dumping the fluid while the car was on (going from parking spot to parking spot and then letting it idle to warm up.)
Kristen drove me to work and I spent the five hours really worried about my car. What do I do? How will I pay for it? What the hell needs to be fixed?
Got home, called dad and left a message on his cell phone and then we all ran out to do errands.
First the bank where mom got money then the boulevard mall for various things.
While waiting for the family, I decided to wander over to the food court to see what they had to eat. (The problem with the job at Bed Bath and Beyond is, especially if I don't get a break and work odd hours, it fucks with my eating schedule and I come back from work really hungry) It turns out they had a Bubble Tea Cafe.
So.. I decided to try it. A Blueberry Bubble Tea
I don't know if it was "right". The tapioca tastes like nothing, but was just.. chewy and everpresent and the drink itself tasted like vaguely flavored water. it was OK for a while, but I got sick of it later on and chucked the last 1/3 of it.
Went to Tops, got some stuff and then came home.
Called Dad again and he has agreed to help me pay for the car if it's realistically expensive (ie.. not worth more than the car itself). Thank god.
Also, my friend Todd calls and invites me to his house for New Years Eve, which.. if I can't do Rochester, I will go ahead and get to.
So, right now I'm burning CDs (Just burned all my 00s, 50s, 60s and 70s hits and am now working on 80s)
Tommorow I'll get AAA to tow my car to my mechanic and we'll see what's wrong with it. Meanwhile, I'll relax and enjoy my day off.
I don't know if I can get to Rochester in time for New Years Eve, but if I can, I will. If not.. then.. not :p
And... life goes on.
Going to post 2003 in review soon. Perhaps tonight. Perhaps tommorow morning.
Soon, though.
Snuggles and much hugs to the one I love :)
The plan was... Kristen comes to Buffalo on Christmas Eve, stays through Saturday afternoon and goes about the time her dad's friend "Uncle" Mark leaves.
My work schedule was.. Working Christmas Eve until 6:30, Christmas off, Friday 5 - 10:30, Saturday 9 - 5:30 and Sunday 10 - 3.
So I expected to see Kristen Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and maybe Friday before work, but not Friday after work because I'd be tired and it'd be a strain on me.
Now let me tell you what happened..
Christmas Eve
Kristen calls and tells me that her family told her that had she consulted them at all, she'd know that I was not invited to Christmas Eve because none of the boyfriend and girlfriends were invited. Um... K. So I suggest that maybe she break out about 8 or 9 and hang with me for the rest of the night.
I get out of work, call her, and she's having a good time. She calls back later to say basically that she feels obligated to stay and it's not that painful so... maybe tommorow.
Um.. K. So a day of SimCity fun with me. No problem, that :)
Christmas
The plan was Kristen would come over before Christmas Dinner with the family to exchange gifts both with me and the family. But that was before... well, I won't say... but circumstances forced Kristen to stay home. So I went over to her parents place instead and we exchanged gifts (and she did love the necklace I bought for her! :D :D :D)
Basically tried to stay out of the way while Kristen and family frantically got dressed.
Dinner was good and the company was good. I met "Uncle" Mark and his nephew Michael who were both nice peoples.
After Dinner got a bit much for me, though, while large number of unknown relatives walked in and out of the house and left me feeling shy.
Kristen and her brother and sister (plus all boyfriends, girlfriends etc.) had agreed on a gift exchange and we did that sometime after dinner.
Then by that time, I was pretty much in my shell for the whole rest of the night until we came back to my house and Kristen and my family exchanged gifts (I hope Kristen enjoys playing LOTR Trivial Pursuit. I knew she'd like it :D)
Friday
Things got... interesting Friday.
I woke up at 4;30, used my computer for an hour and went back to bed. Woke up about 10.. and.. the screen was blank. So I rebooted and... it booted fine for a few minutes then suddenly rebooted. And then after that, I kept getting error messages that Windows could not run.
So I panicked. Called Kristen. Didn't know what to do. She listened calmly to the error message, looked to see if she could fix it, but she couldn't. Wait! I realized I have a full set of restart discs from Compaq and there are two choices.. one that just recopies the WinXP files and the other that erases everything first and reinstall fresh. So I pull out the discs and go to use them...
... and... I error out. It doesn't work.
WHAT THE FUCK?!?!
So I call Compaq up, since I had a one year warranty on the machine and I'd gotten it January 19th.
Spoke to a couple of "really nice" Indian folks who wanted to know my name, addres, phone number, serial number, model number.. meanwhile I'm really pissed because not only had the computer crashed but the restart disks don't work!
Finally spoke to an actual Tech who said "Sorry sir, your warranty is expired." Who to the what now? So I fight with him and tell him I bought it in January and he doesn't care and it doesn't matter because he has the date fo purchase (probably by CompUSA) as mid-october.
So I'm seriously pissed off now.
So I ransack my room looking for the receipt from CompUSA showing that I bought the computer from them and giving the service number and find it. Yay, that.
Kristen comes over and I tell her about it and she explains how it's now CompUSA's problem/fault and I should get them to fix it (which I was going to do anyways)
So.. the computer goes to CompUSA...
We do some errands (like get my check and put it in the bank) and then meet Kristen's cousin at TGI Friday's for lunch.
I run from there to home to feed the cats and call CompUSA.
CompUSA said I MIGHT have a faulty chip and some Windows degradation, but I still had my data. They were going to check into the chip and, if it needed replacing, they were thinking Monday night or Tuesday.
Bummer. :/
So I go to work and do that for 8 hours, get home, call Kristen and we hang out for a couple of hours before I go to sleep.
Saturday
I figured I'd seen the last of Kristen on Friday night and that she was heading to Rochester while I was at work for another 8 hours.
I was mistaken (as those of you who read Kristen's latest LJ know)
I had brought my cell phone with me, but had forgotten to turn it off, so imagine my surprise when at about 12:25, 5 minutes before my break, it goes off.
I won't get into it, but Kristen had a big fight with her family and she needed to talk to me.
So.. I called her back during my break and we talked and I helped calm her down.
Went back to work, figuring she was probably going to stay in town a little longer, if for no other reason than to talk to me and have someone to hold onto while she cried.
Get out of work, call her and find out she'd spent an hour trying to find my job so she could meet me at my car. Things had gotten worse and she needed some comfort.
Beat her home and found out my computer was ready (yay!) but mom's had to go into the shop now. (It was crashing too often and consistently). Talking to the guy, it was strongly suggested (and I readily agreed) that I back up all my important files (can we say burnfest folks?) and then try the restart disk again, as a full restart.
Kristen arrives and I hear her out and held her and we talked. It was decided (pretty easily) that she'd stay over night and rest and relax before going back to Rochester tommorow. We briefly considered going to see RotK but we hadn't eaten and I really wanted my computer back, so we skipped it and did Original Pancake House and some errands.
It was in the CompUSA plaza, right before picking up my computer that SOMETHING happened and the steering suddenly became.. difficult. Very difficult.
Long story short, it turns out that my car is leaking power steering fluid like crazy when on (and perhaps a little bit when off, but not as bad.)
Oh, we were a wonderful pair. Me stressing over my car. Kristen stressing over her family.
In the end, we agreed there wasn't much we could do in terms of either that night, so we snuggled and slept.
Sunday
I checked the level of power steering fluid in my car. This is when I realized how much it was dumping the fluid while the car was on (going from parking spot to parking spot and then letting it idle to warm up.)
Kristen drove me to work and I spent the five hours really worried about my car. What do I do? How will I pay for it? What the hell needs to be fixed?
Got home, called dad and left a message on his cell phone and then we all ran out to do errands.
First the bank where mom got money then the boulevard mall for various things.
While waiting for the family, I decided to wander over to the food court to see what they had to eat. (The problem with the job at Bed Bath and Beyond is, especially if I don't get a break and work odd hours, it fucks with my eating schedule and I come back from work really hungry) It turns out they had a Bubble Tea Cafe.
So.. I decided to try it. A Blueberry Bubble Tea
I don't know if it was "right". The tapioca tastes like nothing, but was just.. chewy and everpresent and the drink itself tasted like vaguely flavored water. it was OK for a while, but I got sick of it later on and chucked the last 1/3 of it.
Went to Tops, got some stuff and then came home.
Called Dad again and he has agreed to help me pay for the car if it's realistically expensive (ie.. not worth more than the car itself). Thank god.
Also, my friend Todd calls and invites me to his house for New Years Eve, which.. if I can't do Rochester, I will go ahead and get to.
So, right now I'm burning CDs (Just burned all my 00s, 50s, 60s and 70s hits and am now working on 80s)
Tommorow I'll get AAA to tow my car to my mechanic and we'll see what's wrong with it. Meanwhile, I'll relax and enjoy my day off.
I don't know if I can get to Rochester in time for New Years Eve, but if I can, I will. If not.. then.. not :p
And... life goes on.
Going to post 2003 in review soon. Perhaps tonight. Perhaps tommorow morning.
Soon, though.
Snuggles and much hugs to the one I love :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-29 05:24 am (UTC):P~
Been missing ya, actually. Go figure, tha. :)
-A-
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-29 07:19 am (UTC)