Today I went to the Progressive "Concierge Level of Service" Service Center up in Marietta to get my little Honda taken care of. There is a dent in my back bumper, my trunk does not line up with the car body anymore (but I can close it) and we have determined that the buckle on the back rear quarter-panel was indeed caused by this accident. See, I thought it was caused by that as I don't remember it being there so I just wanted to be sure.

For the "Concierge Level of Service" it is a one-stop shop - estimators, body shop and car rental on-site. Since it's all coming out of the impactor's insurance (which is with Progressive) so that's who I'm working with.

As my rental car, they gave me a 2006 VW Jetta because they try to rent you equivalent size. You know, the Jetta is a big car. I think it's bigger than the family's old 1990 Honda Accord. It's pretty tricked-out - the CD player plays MP3s and the radio adjusts it's volume depending on cabin noise it seems (although I think this ones adjuster is a little bit off). Power everything AND it has an auto-stick! I'm going to play with that :) I already miss my clutch-driven Civic though...

Tomorrow they're going to call me with what the estimate is and how long I might expect to be without my car.

Judgment on 30 min of driving the Jetta - I wouldn't buy one. I like other cars better. And it's just gotten too big for my tastes these days. I now lust after the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris Hatchback ;)

Let's see, interesting things I came across... While I was there, a guy brought in his Prelude and I couldn't see anything wrong with it. He went in to the lobby and the helper chicky asked him at some point if it was vandalism. He replied affirmatively, that his ex-girlfriend did it. She asked, "What did you do?" and he said, "Nothing!" I kinda laughed at this, I couldn't help it. I think it made him a little upset but whatever. I found out later that his ex, after he broke up with her cuz she was psycho, took a sledgehammer to his rear window (with all the defrosty stuff in it) and also to some places on the trunk. Damn. A sledgehammer. Turns out I only had seen the front which was fine. Dayyymmmmnnnnn - psycho hose beast for sure. Man, as mad as I was at Justin at various times after it was all over, I would never take a sledgehammer to his car. Maybe that makes me not psycho??
:)

On Tuesday evening, I returned from a trip to Montreal, Quebec, CANADA! :D (I left on Saturday)
I had a good deal of fun and look forward to returning. I met up with people that I met at the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender last month.

Observations of Montreal:

• my customs line was particularly and oddly long - it moved VERY quickly though.
  
• Quebec is a Francophone province and has made it law that signage must be in French - if English is on the sign, it must be smaller. In the part of town I was in, pretty much everything was in French with no English at all.
  
• everyone who has to deal with people is bilingual (at least). They would greet me with a 'bonjour' then I'd say 'hello' and they would switch right into lovely accented English. I totally felt like a stupid American, but I was assured that they just thought I was from the Anglo part of town. Being there for a couple of weeks would probably make me learn French pretty quickly - I was doing pretty well even with the few days I was there.
  
• one extreme case of multi-lingualism - I had a taxi driver that is Persian - he used to be a professor in Iran, he's a political refugee - he speaks Farsi, Urdu, Arabic, Turkish, English, French, and understands a bit of Spanish and Italian   o_O   omg
  
• housing was of the high density variety - most people lived in triplexes that were all right next to each other - staircases went up to the doors for the 2nd and 3rd floors (on the same landing). I didn't really see any single family homes while I was there - I hear they do exist in the suburbs...
  
• public transportation is really prevalent - lots of people riding the buses and the Metro. Also, many people walk everywhere or use a bicycle. I saw several people walking from the nearby grocery store with recyclable bags. Heck, the person I was staying with didn't have a car and we got around great (of course we got picked up by other people who had a car to go certain places).
  
• in the area of town I was in, pretty much everyone was trim (all that walking I'm sure)
  
• the Casino d'Montreal was totally an interesting place!! It was the French Pavilion for the World's Fair in 1976 or something... AND, it still used coins for winnings :D Vegas has gone to tickets or something - I won $5 on the quarter slots ;) And then decided to lose it :) We all went there to do some dancing anyways (jive!).
  

Let's see... I totally bruised my knee in a highly ungracious tumble while bowling :/ Damn. It is a lovely shade of purple :( But 9 pins ain't bad... Ooo, I'm distinctly stronger (pumping iron you know) because I could easily deal with the 12-lb ball for 3 games and not feel jelly-armed when done :D
We had croissants and crepes and brunch-y stuff and pasta (of course!) and the food was generally excellent!
We watched "The World's Fastest Indian" and "Tucker: A Man and his Dream" - both quite good movies.
We meandered the Underground City a little.
We got to ride the Metro (I like public rail transit).
Mont Royal (the source of Montreal's name) is quite lovely :)

In my admittedly brief stay, I formed a favorable opinion of Montreal :) I would be happy to go back there for a visit. It wouldn't be a bad place to live either (since I'm used to cold climates). I gotta keep those options open! Heh, then again, even if I were teaching at one of the Anglo universities, I'd have to know French explanations or be able to direct someone to such explanations (the Quebecois thing)... I'll cross those types of bridges when I come to them though :)

There are so few people in this world I dislike to the core of my being; in fact, with every fiber of my being.

From the VERY MOMENT I laid eyes on GSU alumnus R.R. I KNEW I was going to dislike him. He turned that dislike to hatred through every movement, every time he opened his mouth, every e-mail that happened my way (as I am currently a webmistress to the CHARA webpage). Also, every story I hear about him from others provides more information for my little file...

Why do people insist on being so very stupid and clueless and asshole-y????

How he raised my ire today:
He wanted me to update a picture on the webpage because he had taken said picture and it was running around on the internet and it was not being attributed to him. Sure fine whatever. So he had taken the picture and put a little text thingy on it with his name. But it was smaller than the one on the webpage and the nifty transparent corners of the webpage picture were filled in with black and the color of the text was offensive. So I just GIMPED in a nice pretty text box on the webpage picture.
His response...
Ok, thanks...I noticed the transparency after I sent the picture to you, I was just dashing it off in a hurry. I was just too busy to do it right. :) Thanks again.

What the hell. He's got his panties so in a bunch about this that he has to e-mail me about it and then is "too busy to do it right"?? Why are you stupid??

THEREFORE I HAVE COME UP WITH A NEFARIOUS (AND PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE) PLAN!!!
The picture in question is somewhat grainy and stuff - I believe it is scanned. We need a new one. Someone else's. We can do so much better :)
So... does anyone have a pretty picture of HLCO currently in their digital collection?? There are also several possibilities in the near future to get such a picture. Cloudless skies would be nice...
Who wants to join in on the plan??


Yes, perhaps I'm overreacting and stuff, but I just totally think he sucks. Kiss my lily-white a$$ you bastard!

Plus, I get to debut this brand-new icon, designed by my very own self for just this occasion :)

I gots me a sinus infection!!
I've never had one before. Thanks to the seester for cluing me in...

So I was at the clinic and after the customary small talk (he found out I'm an astrophysicist), the nice doctor dude was saying that Motrin would be my friend. I said, "Oh, because it's an anti-inflammatory, right?" He gave me this look (I was a little unsure as to what it meant) and I said, "Motrin is ibuprofen, right? And that's an anti-inflammatory - take down the swelling and all." He said to me (with a grin), "You know, are you married?" I shook my head no. He said, "Yeah. *grin* Can't you turn that off? Don't you know that guys are intimidated by that?" It was all very joking, but one could tell he liked the intelligence. (by the way, yeah, I'm right)
See this whole incident I found kinda funny - the dude is a MEDICAL DOCTOR and and he sez, "You ever get that feeling that someone is three times smarter than you?" Now, the guy has got to have some brains if he could get through medical school yet here he is, somewhat fixated on the fact that I'm an astrophysicist who pays attention to medical advice (I've been researching sinusitis) and to what certain drugs do...

Other advice:
- keep the nose running!! (then the mucus can't build up)
- a decongestant might not be the best thing (may thicken mucus)
- hot compresses and steam and stuff (which I've been doing)
- go eat Thai food! Or Indian food! Or Mexican food! As long as it is spicy and makes my nose run :)

I got to thinking about his "Can't you turn that off?" statement.
Yes I can turn it off and I do know it is intimidating.
But why would I want to turn it off??
If a person cannot handle the fact that I'm intelligent and show it, if it would intimidate them so much that they would not want to talk to me or be around me, why would I ever want to spend time with them?? Also, it's false advertising and I don't approve of that. This is also why I don't wear padded bras ;) If someone doesn't like me just the way I am (intelligence and rather small boobage and all), then they shouldn't waste my time.
Hmmm, you know, maybe I can't turn it off. Once my sister told me that I can't hide it :)

Whaddaya y'all think?
Can intelligence be turned off? Or muted? Or is it going to shine through no matter what?