I have to give myself props for posting my conversations/frustration with Comcast back in July of 2008. And why is that? Oh, well, you'll have to read further for an explanation.
I recently moved into a basement apartment of my friend Mike's house. He already has Comcast, so as a result, I just called into Comcast to get my account at my in-laws cancelled. Let the rigmarole begin.
First, I called into their toll-free number from my work phone. I went through the prompts to cancel my account. Something like, option 4 for downgrade/cancel, then option 1 for cancel. It then asked me if my account phone number ended with 2252. That isn't my phone number, and I assume that someone else at my company has called comcast from before. I hit option 2 because it wasn't my number. It then asked me to enter my phone number, which I did. It then kicked me out to the main menu again. So I again had to hit option 4 for downgrade/cancel, and this time it said option 2 for cancel, which I hit. About 10 seconds later... Dial tone. Here we go.
So, figuring that the agent answered and accidentally dropped the call, I repeat the process. Same result. That reminds me of a definition that I once heard. To repeat a process that you know the result of expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Call my psychiatrist, I'm sure he'll be happy and mutter something about "I told ya so..."
So, still needing to finish the process, I decided to go in and just hit option 1 to confirm my phone number was what I was calling from instead of going into my phone number. After I hit 1 to confirm, it asked me to confirm the digits of the address where the service was located. Well, since it wasn't for my account, I tried to enter my work's address, but that didn't work. After 3 failed attempts, it sent me to an agent. Finally!
I spoke with an agent who gathered some information about what I was trying to get completed. I told her what was going on, to which she asked for my phone number. Which I had to provide several times before she got it right. Then she asked what city I was calling from. I wasn't sure whether to say the city I worked in, the city of my previous residence, or the city of my current residence. I decided to go with the latter. She then asked what state that was in. Utah, I replied. She then informed me that she couldn't access my account and that she would have to transfer me to an agent in my "market." So.. she transferred me back to the IVR. Le sigh.
So I followed the prompts to cancel my account, then entered my phone number, but instead of hitting option 2, I went with option 1 to downgrade my service, hoping that the individual I spoke to could either help me, or get me to someone who could. It asked me for the last 4 of my SSN (No dial tone! Woot!) which I entered. It then told me 2 times in quick succession that there was high call volume and extended wait times. There was no hold music or anything, so I thought that maybe their IVR had put me into another loop. But, after hearing the message twice, a nice agent answered the call.
The cancellation conversation was fast, thorough and he was sharp as a tack (Cake), which was appreciated. He then said that everything was set, but I would have to return my cable modem to the nearest service center to avoid being charged an equipment charge. *Screech* Hold the phone.... Wha?! "Oh, but sir, I own that modem," I responded. "Ahh, but it says in my system that you don't," he replied. Oh no. Here we go again.
Now, to complete the full circle, you'll have to return to my July 2008 blog posts about how this happened when I first got the account setup, and it took several painful chats/emails/phone conversations to get the situation resolved then. I was able to tell the agent about my previous experience, exact dates, names, etc. Unfortunately, that didn't exactly solve the situation. He opened a ticket with the equipment investigation team to have them figure out whether I owned it or not. The agent guessed that the person who "solved" my problem a couple years ago, likely just took off the charge for the modem lease, but didn't in fact, "solve" my problem.
So. Now we wait. Wish me luck.
Showing posts with label present. Show all posts
Showing posts with label present. Show all posts
3.17.2011
11.03.2008
The weekend
I had a good weekend this past weekend. It started a little earlier than usual, and I gained an extra hour, so it was especially good.
Halloween was pretty crazy. We had 7 parties/options for the night:
1. Aaron and Jenny's party
2. Nathan and Emily's party
3. Chillaxing with Amandizzle and Duggle
4. Visiting Sandra and Roger's (to see all Trisha's nieces and nephews) (and take the little ones trick-or-treating)
5. Visiting my mom and dad's (to see all my nieces and nephews)
6. An ex-coworker at Mstar invited us to go to a party
7. Heather and Mike were throwing a halloween/Mike's birthday party
Because of the high number of options, and some recent anxiety I've been dealing with, I was extremely indecisive as to what we were going to do. I worked at home on Friday, and at mid-day, still hadn't come up with a plan for the evening.
At around 3:30 I came go a good stopping point with work, so decided to run with it. Trisha and I finally decided that we weren't going to do any parties or anything and that we would go see a movie, and then catch up with Amanda and Duggle after their party was over and play some rockband or something.
We decided to go see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist which started at 5:05. We packed up all our rockband stuff and left the house. When we were driving, we got a call from Jenny and Aaron inviting us to go to their party. They had invited us earlier, and we really wanted to go, but with so many other parties, especially family parties, going to a drinking party where we didn't know very many people was less tempting.
Aaron and Jenny had shown some interest in purchasing Rockband 1 from us so we could buy the new rockband set with the wireless guitars. When Trisha originally went to the store to get rockband 2, we didn't have a buyer for rockband 1, so we just bought the game (not the entire set with the wireless instruments).
When I was talking to Aaron on the phone he mentioned that they would indeed purchase rockband 1 so we went back to the store and purchased the rockband 2 set. Trisha went in to Toys R' Us by herself to get it (my mistake), and was tempted to buy the extra wireless guitar (so we would have 2 wireless guitars). She gave into the temptation and now we have the entire set.
After the stop at Toys R' Us, we had to stop off at Duggle's house to pick up a piece of the rockband 1 equipment so we could deliver it to Aaron and Jenny's. By this time, we had missed our movie time (we would have missed it anyway because of the horrible traffic), so we decided to go to a 7:15 showing of the same movie. After we left Duggle's, we realized that we didn't have the microphone with us (another component of Rockband 1), so we had to call Jaren and Kellie to see if we had left it at their house. Luckily we had, but now we had to drive to their house to get the microphone before the stop at Aaron and Jenny's. When we got there, we saw Livie in her cute lady bug outfit and Kellie's cute haircut. (Trisha chopped it off last week).
So, finally, we had everything we needed and we headed to Aaron and Jenny's to give them the stuff. We got to their place at 7 or so, but their party had not yet started.
While we were at their house, I did a tiny dry ice bomb. I only put an average ice cube size amount of dry ice in the 2-liter bottle and water. Because of the small amount, the bottle expanded, but did not pop. It was fairly dark by this time, so it was a bit of a trick to get it to go off. If you unscrew the cap wrong, you could set it off, so the preferred method of detonating it is to hit it with something heavy enough or sharp enough to persuade the exposion. We initially tried hitting it with some long sticks. The sticks broke, and the bottle would not pop. So then we found a heavier board with some nails in it. With the weight of the falling board itself, the nails still didn't pop it; they just bounced off. I finally got it to go off with a heavy swing and a direct hit with the nails. Ahh.. The fun of dry ice bombs.
We left Aaron and Jenny's at around 7:30, so we missed our movie time again. We were both pretty hungry at this point, so we stopped for dinner at Chili's. I absolutely love their mushroom jack fajitas with steak. I order the same thing nearly every time. It was really salty this time, so it wasn't great, but good nonetheless. Trisha had some honey BBQ ribs. They looked really yummy.
After Chili's, we decided to make an appearance at Trisha's Mom and Dads house since it was so close and since Douglas and Amanda weren't done with their party yet. We went over there and got to see Madison, Leslie, and Gracie, in their costumes and see pictures from Sandra and Roger's recent trip to Cancun. Looks like somewhere I'd like to be.
Eventually, Duggle and Amandizzle made it to Sandra and Roger's as well. We hung out there for a little bit, then went to Duggle and Amanda's house to play our new Rockband 2. Taunie and Angela came over a little later. We got Rockband 2 all set up and played it until late into the night. We decided to sleep at Amanda and Duggle's and I eventually went to bed at close to 3.
The next morning (7:15 AM) we went to breakfast with Trisha's Grandpa. He goes to breakfast every Saturday and invites all his kids and grandkids to come eat with him. We try to make it, but don't make it often enough due to the whole "crack of dawn" thing.
After breakfast, we headed back to Duggle's house and some friends came over for some Magic. Drew, Mike, David, Douglas, and I played Magic from 10-2:30. Then we played rockband for a little bit and I took a nap. Gotta love naps.
After the nap, we cooked dinner, played a little more rockband, and then Trisha and I went home.
We stayed up a bit and watched TV and whatnot to try and take advantage of the extra hour we were getting. I slept in until 10 (the new 9) and watched some TV. Trisha woke up a bit later and had a sore throat and a stuffy nose. She's still having the same nausea that she's had for 3 weeks now. Ugh.. Wish there was something I could do.
Sunday night I went to our annual family feud. Since Trisha wasn't feeling well, she stayed home to rest. Each year we get together to talk about our plans for the holiday season. We generally set our yearly tradition "in stone," but I never remember what the schedule is for holidays, and there is generally some change in the schedule every year that was a deviation from the "set in stone" plan. All the noise and commotion of having the kids there, plus the confusion and misunderstandings results in a heavy dose of anxiety for me. No one wants to hurt anyone's feelings on purpose, and generally no one wants to back down either, so there's a hint of contention that I hate confronting. It's likely a normal thing that large families deal with as they grow, but I hate the anxiety it causes. I doubt I'm the only one that feels it.
In the end, this year for the holidays is going to be a bit different. We have the opportunity to visit Amie and Damon in Florida over Christmas break. I'm going to take full advantage of the opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle this year. We're going to try to catch a last-minute cruise and visit with Amie and Damon, who are going to be away from family too.
After the meeting, I went home and cooked an amazing (if I may so) alfredo to have with chicken. Trisha made some noodles for herself and some broccoli for both of us. We then watched some TV for a bit before we headed to bed.
And that concludes the recap of my last weekend.
Halloween was pretty crazy. We had 7 parties/options for the night:
1. Aaron and Jenny's party
2. Nathan and Emily's party
3. Chillaxing with Amandizzle and Duggle
4. Visiting Sandra and Roger's (to see all Trisha's nieces and nephews) (and take the little ones trick-or-treating)
5. Visiting my mom and dad's (to see all my nieces and nephews)
6. An ex-coworker at Mstar invited us to go to a party
7. Heather and Mike were throwing a halloween/Mike's birthday party
Because of the high number of options, and some recent anxiety I've been dealing with, I was extremely indecisive as to what we were going to do. I worked at home on Friday, and at mid-day, still hadn't come up with a plan for the evening.
At around 3:30 I came go a good stopping point with work, so decided to run with it. Trisha and I finally decided that we weren't going to do any parties or anything and that we would go see a movie, and then catch up with Amanda and Duggle after their party was over and play some rockband or something.
We decided to go see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist which started at 5:05. We packed up all our rockband stuff and left the house. When we were driving, we got a call from Jenny and Aaron inviting us to go to their party. They had invited us earlier, and we really wanted to go, but with so many other parties, especially family parties, going to a drinking party where we didn't know very many people was less tempting.
Aaron and Jenny had shown some interest in purchasing Rockband 1 from us so we could buy the new rockband set with the wireless guitars. When Trisha originally went to the store to get rockband 2, we didn't have a buyer for rockband 1, so we just bought the game (not the entire set with the wireless instruments).
When I was talking to Aaron on the phone he mentioned that they would indeed purchase rockband 1 so we went back to the store and purchased the rockband 2 set. Trisha went in to Toys R' Us by herself to get it (my mistake), and was tempted to buy the extra wireless guitar (so we would have 2 wireless guitars). She gave into the temptation and now we have the entire set.
After the stop at Toys R' Us, we had to stop off at Duggle's house to pick up a piece of the rockband 1 equipment so we could deliver it to Aaron and Jenny's. By this time, we had missed our movie time (we would have missed it anyway because of the horrible traffic), so we decided to go to a 7:15 showing of the same movie. After we left Duggle's, we realized that we didn't have the microphone with us (another component of Rockband 1), so we had to call Jaren and Kellie to see if we had left it at their house. Luckily we had, but now we had to drive to their house to get the microphone before the stop at Aaron and Jenny's. When we got there, we saw Livie in her cute lady bug outfit and Kellie's cute haircut. (Trisha chopped it off last week).
So, finally, we had everything we needed and we headed to Aaron and Jenny's to give them the stuff. We got to their place at 7 or so, but their party had not yet started.
While we were at their house, I did a tiny dry ice bomb. I only put an average ice cube size amount of dry ice in the 2-liter bottle and water. Because of the small amount, the bottle expanded, but did not pop. It was fairly dark by this time, so it was a bit of a trick to get it to go off. If you unscrew the cap wrong, you could set it off, so the preferred method of detonating it is to hit it with something heavy enough or sharp enough to persuade the exposion. We initially tried hitting it with some long sticks. The sticks broke, and the bottle would not pop. So then we found a heavier board with some nails in it. With the weight of the falling board itself, the nails still didn't pop it; they just bounced off. I finally got it to go off with a heavy swing and a direct hit with the nails. Ahh.. The fun of dry ice bombs.
We left Aaron and Jenny's at around 7:30, so we missed our movie time again. We were both pretty hungry at this point, so we stopped for dinner at Chili's. I absolutely love their mushroom jack fajitas with steak. I order the same thing nearly every time. It was really salty this time, so it wasn't great, but good nonetheless. Trisha had some honey BBQ ribs. They looked really yummy.
After Chili's, we decided to make an appearance at Trisha's Mom and Dads house since it was so close and since Douglas and Amanda weren't done with their party yet. We went over there and got to see Madison, Leslie, and Gracie, in their costumes and see pictures from Sandra and Roger's recent trip to Cancun. Looks like somewhere I'd like to be.
Eventually, Duggle and Amandizzle made it to Sandra and Roger's as well. We hung out there for a little bit, then went to Duggle and Amanda's house to play our new Rockband 2. Taunie and Angela came over a little later. We got Rockband 2 all set up and played it until late into the night. We decided to sleep at Amanda and Duggle's and I eventually went to bed at close to 3.
The next morning (7:15 AM) we went to breakfast with Trisha's Grandpa. He goes to breakfast every Saturday and invites all his kids and grandkids to come eat with him. We try to make it, but don't make it often enough due to the whole "crack of dawn" thing.
After breakfast, we headed back to Duggle's house and some friends came over for some Magic. Drew, Mike, David, Douglas, and I played Magic from 10-2:30. Then we played rockband for a little bit and I took a nap. Gotta love naps.
After the nap, we cooked dinner, played a little more rockband, and then Trisha and I went home.
We stayed up a bit and watched TV and whatnot to try and take advantage of the extra hour we were getting. I slept in until 10 (the new 9) and watched some TV. Trisha woke up a bit later and had a sore throat and a stuffy nose. She's still having the same nausea that she's had for 3 weeks now. Ugh.. Wish there was something I could do.
Sunday night I went to our annual family feud. Since Trisha wasn't feeling well, she stayed home to rest. Each year we get together to talk about our plans for the holiday season. We generally set our yearly tradition "in stone," but I never remember what the schedule is for holidays, and there is generally some change in the schedule every year that was a deviation from the "set in stone" plan. All the noise and commotion of having the kids there, plus the confusion and misunderstandings results in a heavy dose of anxiety for me. No one wants to hurt anyone's feelings on purpose, and generally no one wants to back down either, so there's a hint of contention that I hate confronting. It's likely a normal thing that large families deal with as they grow, but I hate the anxiety it causes. I doubt I'm the only one that feels it.
In the end, this year for the holidays is going to be a bit different. We have the opportunity to visit Amie and Damon in Florida over Christmas break. I'm going to take full advantage of the opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle this year. We're going to try to catch a last-minute cruise and visit with Amie and Damon, who are going to be away from family too.
After the meeting, I went home and cooked an amazing (if I may so) alfredo to have with chicken. Trisha made some noodles for herself and some broccoli for both of us. We then watched some TV for a bit before we headed to bed.
And that concludes the recap of my last weekend.
10.28.2008
Gas selling below $2 in some areas
Incredible!
It's about effing time! Now when is this going to start affecting me? And it had better not skyrocket to over 4 bucks a gallon ever again!10.27.2008
Costa Rica - Day 3/4
Sorry for the delay in getting my day 3 post up. I was so tired at the end of the day and knowing that I had to wake up in 4 hours to go home, I figured I'd update it when I got back (or at the airport).
So Friday started out like the others.. Wake up and have some breakfast at the hotel. Huevos, queso, arroz con frijoles, agua. Then we embarked on the drive to Palmares to finish up our business. We decided to take a shortcut that we had taken on the way home the day before that had saved us 15 minutes or so. The problems is that there wasn't a way for the shortcut to go the opposite direction. Because of some barricades and one way streets we got pushed way out into BFE (or is that BFUSA) just to get turned back the right direction. We spent 20 minutes just to get turned back the right way.
I neglected to mention before that the family we were visiting to do business with had a chicken in their backyard. I had asked one of the guys if they used it to eat eggs or if it was a pet. He wasn't sure and thought that it was his grandpa's chicken, probably for eggs. I asked if it had a name, and he just laughed. We'll come back to the chicken in a moment.
When we got to their house/business, we immediately started back with the training. We quickly dived in and made some good progress before lunch. We had some other meetings we wanted to go to in the afternoon, so we were trying to leave before lunch. I'm glad that we didn't. The day before, the wife of the business owner had overheard Steve talk about how (on his mission) he loved arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) a flagship dish in Costa Rica. Because she overheard them talking about it, she decided to make some for us! Oh man. Amazing. We had the Chicken and Rice dish with a nice green salad, refried black beans (my new favorite), fresh squeezed passion fruit juice, and homemade (virgin) pina coladas! Best pina colada I have EVER had. It was made with fresh coconuts and real coconut milk. Simply amazing.
After lunch we were talking about where she had gotten some of the ingredients and as it turns out, their "pet" chicken that we saw out back was the main course! At least, that's what I think. When the chicken out back was mentioned, everyone laughed because I had asked about it the day before, and I swear that I couldn't see the chicken out in the cage anymore. Because I don't spean spanish, I'm not 100% sure that it really was the chicken or not, but either way, it was pretty funny
One thing that I noticed about Costa Rica is that there are dogs EVERYWHERE. Every restaurant that we went to there was at least 1 dog there that just waits around for scraps. The dogs are surprisingly well behaved, however. They weren't aggressive, and they didn't approach you at all. I wonder if rabies is a problem down there.
After lunch, we finished up training within an hour or so, and the business discussions were at a breaking point, (plus Latin Americans like to leave early on Fridays) so we decided to go and explore a bit. When we were leaving Palmares, we decided to stop at the local Catholic iglesias and take some pictures. I will post all of my pictures in a seperate entry later today. The stained glass windows were breathtaking.
When we were driving back to the hotel, we passed a huge "flock" of what we initially thought were turkeys. They were huge! There were about 15-20 all black "turkeys" that were all gathered at this one point. As we passed them, I noticed that they were all gathered around a dead horse. They were not turkeys. They were vultures. Then the smell of rotting flesh entered the vehicle. Wow. Gag.
Fernando then told us a story of a friend and he driving through another part of Costa Rica years ago on a long road trip. They were driving and saw a vulture on the road eating roadkill of some kind. The friend (who was driving) thought it would be funny to try and run over the bird. He sped up and aimed the car at the bird. The bird, being large, attempted to fly away, but couldn't get enough lift and smashed into the windshield, it's head breaking through. They slammed on the breaks in fear (and because they couldn't see). The bird then opened it's eyes and vomited rotting meat onto the driver, pulled its head out of the windshield and flew away. The guy was covered in it, and was puking continually for the remainder of the 3 hour journey.
When we got back, we chilled at the hotel for a bit. Fernando checked out that morning because he was going to spend the night at his sister's house, so he chilled with me in my room until Steve and I left. Fernando, being the trixter he is, left me a couple surprises that I discovered upon my return later that night. He ripped up a bunch of tissues and stuffed them in the air conditioner, so when I turned it on, bits of tissue flied everywhere in the room. He also made and original smiley face drawing in the bathroom. I'll post pictures later today.
Steve and I left to go to the flea market in central San Jose. On the way to the flea market, we stopped to see one of his Missionary companions. We visited him at his business, which looked like a home, but was strictly for business. He is an accountant.
As we were driving around San Jose, I saw my first brothel ever. It was a "gentlemen's hotel." There were several that we saw throughout the city as we were trying to find the flea market. I also saw several prostitutes. I had never been to a place that I could say, without a doubt, that the girls were prostitues. We eventually found the flea market and found a parking place. We walked a few blocks to the flea market and went inside. The place STUNK. There were parrots and parakeets everywhere and a couple butchers. So, the combination of smells was not pleasant. I got a couple presents for Trisha (flip-flops, 2 t-shirts, and a little puzzle/jewelry holder). I also got my brother a shot glass (I get one for him everywhere I go) and a little hand carved warrior guy to match the ones I got in Mexico.
We got to the flea market at about 5:15, and they close at 6 PM. During our parusing, we got seperated. We didn't explicitly set a meeting point. They started closing everything down at 5:45. I was basically done at that point, so I walked towards the street corner where we had entered the market. The door was already closed and padlocked, I walked around for a few minutes until I found a door that the security was closing. They let me go out the door there, but at that point I was a bit turned around. I knew that the market was an entire street block, and figured that if I stayed on that block, there would be no problems. I stood at the corner for a few minutes and realized that I wasn't on the right street corner. I walked around the block (there were THOUSANDS of people walking everywhere). When I got the far side, I saw that there was 1 door that they were ushering people out of. I figured that I'd see him come out this door at some point, but it was kitty corner from where we had entered. I waited there for 5 or so minutes and the sidewalks started to clear a bit as the busses were leaving the area. I decided to walk around the block one more time to make sure that he wasn't on the far side where we had entered. He wasn't there. I waited there for about 10 minutes and eventually a guy that had helped me at one of the shops came and told me (in spanish) that my amigo was looking for me back at the "exit" corner. I walked back that direction and we found each other. While I wasn't scared that anything would happen to me, or anything like that, it was still a bit unnerving being there amidst thousands of people not understanding a word they were saying and not knowing if I had made a wrong turn somewhere and being in the wrong place. In the end, he did go to the corner where we had entered, but because I was a bit turned around, I was 1 corner away from the right corner. Then he went back in and searched inside until they made him leave.
As we were walking back to the car, we passed an icecream shop called Pops. We went in to get a treat that Steve talked about on his mission. Coconut icecream. Holy crap. I have a new favorite ice cream flavor. Of course, even if I could find it in the US, it wouldn't be as good as there because of the amazing fresh flavor. It was amazing. I would seriously take it over Haagen Daaz now. So good.
We got back to the car, and tipped a kid who was trying to sell stuff on the street for "watching" our car.
After the flea market, we went to have dinner with another one of Steve's missionary companions and his family. We met them at a grocery store in San Jose and then followed them to their house. Their house was beautiful as well. Apparently, when the Costa Rican temple was built, he spent his life savings remodeling their house to have it ready so visitors could stay with them during the dedication. In the end, no one stayed with them, but they've had the opportunity to host some members since then. We got to their house and I met their family. The father's name is Esteban. The wifes name is Veiria [sp?], pronounced Bee-ree-uh. They adopted 2 kids 8 months earlier. They are great kids, Andres and Diana. They really were a great family. She cooked us a homemade meal of arroz con pollo (rice with chicken (like we had for lunch)), platanos (fried plantaines), picadillos (a soft shell taco), and a cole slaw with cilantro type salad. We had fresh squeezed lemonade from lemons in their back yard. The platanos with the arroz con pollo was my favorite. It was SO good! She made us a traditional spice bread for dessert.
We met with them and they caught up on their lives. I couldn't understand much of what they were saying, but I picked up pieces along the way. Andres loved my iphone. I played games with him on it for a while to keep him occupied. Diana wanted me to read to her from a book about flowers. I did my best to read the words in spanish, even though I didn't know what they meant. At the end of the meeting, Esteban told me (with Steve translating) that I would always be welcome in his home and was grateful that I could eat dinner with them. I really had a good time there and would love to visit them again.
After we left their house, Steve drove me around to see the local chapels there and where the mission home was located. It was dark, so even though I could see them, I would NEVER be able to find my way to where they were. Then we went back to Pops and had some more coconut icecream. Mmmm..
We went back to the hotel and I packed my things and called Trisha on the phone. I was SO tired and had to wake back up in a few hours, so I went right to bed.
I woke up at 4:45 and finished packing and got ready for the trip home. I went down and had breakfast (same thing as before). We left the hotel, dropped off the rental car and went to the airport. There was more of a line than we expected, but we made it to our flight without any real problem. I had a crappy middle seat on the way home, but the lady next to me was nice enough to let me put the arm rest up so I wasn't as squished. I watched the rest of Incredible Hulk and some arrested development.
I wasn't looking forward to the 5 hour layover that we had in Dallas. There was an earlier flight leaving, but it was very close to leaving when we landed. We ran to make it through customs and security and barely made the flight home. I got an exit row with an open seat next to me. I watched more arrested development on that flight. I absolutely love that show.
So, that was my trip to Costa Rica. I found out this morning that I will probably be returning there sometime in the next month or 2. That should be fun!
So Friday started out like the others.. Wake up and have some breakfast at the hotel. Huevos, queso, arroz con frijoles, agua. Then we embarked on the drive to Palmares to finish up our business. We decided to take a shortcut that we had taken on the way home the day before that had saved us 15 minutes or so. The problems is that there wasn't a way for the shortcut to go the opposite direction. Because of some barricades and one way streets we got pushed way out into BFE (or is that BFUSA) just to get turned back the right direction. We spent 20 minutes just to get turned back the right way.
I neglected to mention before that the family we were visiting to do business with had a chicken in their backyard. I had asked one of the guys if they used it to eat eggs or if it was a pet. He wasn't sure and thought that it was his grandpa's chicken, probably for eggs. I asked if it had a name, and he just laughed. We'll come back to the chicken in a moment.
When we got to their house/business, we immediately started back with the training. We quickly dived in and made some good progress before lunch. We had some other meetings we wanted to go to in the afternoon, so we were trying to leave before lunch. I'm glad that we didn't. The day before, the wife of the business owner had overheard Steve talk about how (on his mission) he loved arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) a flagship dish in Costa Rica. Because she overheard them talking about it, she decided to make some for us! Oh man. Amazing. We had the Chicken and Rice dish with a nice green salad, refried black beans (my new favorite), fresh squeezed passion fruit juice, and homemade (virgin) pina coladas! Best pina colada I have EVER had. It was made with fresh coconuts and real coconut milk. Simply amazing.
After lunch we were talking about where she had gotten some of the ingredients and as it turns out, their "pet" chicken that we saw out back was the main course! At least, that's what I think. When the chicken out back was mentioned, everyone laughed because I had asked about it the day before, and I swear that I couldn't see the chicken out in the cage anymore. Because I don't spean spanish, I'm not 100% sure that it really was the chicken or not, but either way, it was pretty funny
One thing that I noticed about Costa Rica is that there are dogs EVERYWHERE. Every restaurant that we went to there was at least 1 dog there that just waits around for scraps. The dogs are surprisingly well behaved, however. They weren't aggressive, and they didn't approach you at all. I wonder if rabies is a problem down there.
After lunch, we finished up training within an hour or so, and the business discussions were at a breaking point, (plus Latin Americans like to leave early on Fridays) so we decided to go and explore a bit. When we were leaving Palmares, we decided to stop at the local Catholic iglesias and take some pictures. I will post all of my pictures in a seperate entry later today. The stained glass windows were breathtaking.
When we were driving back to the hotel, we passed a huge "flock" of what we initially thought were turkeys. They were huge! There were about 15-20 all black "turkeys" that were all gathered at this one point. As we passed them, I noticed that they were all gathered around a dead horse. They were not turkeys. They were vultures. Then the smell of rotting flesh entered the vehicle. Wow. Gag.
Fernando then told us a story of a friend and he driving through another part of Costa Rica years ago on a long road trip. They were driving and saw a vulture on the road eating roadkill of some kind. The friend (who was driving) thought it would be funny to try and run over the bird. He sped up and aimed the car at the bird. The bird, being large, attempted to fly away, but couldn't get enough lift and smashed into the windshield, it's head breaking through. They slammed on the breaks in fear (and because they couldn't see). The bird then opened it's eyes and vomited rotting meat onto the driver, pulled its head out of the windshield and flew away. The guy was covered in it, and was puking continually for the remainder of the 3 hour journey.
When we got back, we chilled at the hotel for a bit. Fernando checked out that morning because he was going to spend the night at his sister's house, so he chilled with me in my room until Steve and I left. Fernando, being the trixter he is, left me a couple surprises that I discovered upon my return later that night. He ripped up a bunch of tissues and stuffed them in the air conditioner, so when I turned it on, bits of tissue flied everywhere in the room. He also made and original smiley face drawing in the bathroom. I'll post pictures later today.
Steve and I left to go to the flea market in central San Jose. On the way to the flea market, we stopped to see one of his Missionary companions. We visited him at his business, which looked like a home, but was strictly for business. He is an accountant.
As we were driving around San Jose, I saw my first brothel ever. It was a "gentlemen's hotel." There were several that we saw throughout the city as we were trying to find the flea market. I also saw several prostitutes. I had never been to a place that I could say, without a doubt, that the girls were prostitues. We eventually found the flea market and found a parking place. We walked a few blocks to the flea market and went inside. The place STUNK. There were parrots and parakeets everywhere and a couple butchers. So, the combination of smells was not pleasant. I got a couple presents for Trisha (flip-flops, 2 t-shirts, and a little puzzle/jewelry holder). I also got my brother a shot glass (I get one for him everywhere I go) and a little hand carved warrior guy to match the ones I got in Mexico.
We got to the flea market at about 5:15, and they close at 6 PM. During our parusing, we got seperated. We didn't explicitly set a meeting point. They started closing everything down at 5:45. I was basically done at that point, so I walked towards the street corner where we had entered the market. The door was already closed and padlocked, I walked around for a few minutes until I found a door that the security was closing. They let me go out the door there, but at that point I was a bit turned around. I knew that the market was an entire street block, and figured that if I stayed on that block, there would be no problems. I stood at the corner for a few minutes and realized that I wasn't on the right street corner. I walked around the block (there were THOUSANDS of people walking everywhere). When I got the far side, I saw that there was 1 door that they were ushering people out of. I figured that I'd see him come out this door at some point, but it was kitty corner from where we had entered. I waited there for 5 or so minutes and the sidewalks started to clear a bit as the busses were leaving the area. I decided to walk around the block one more time to make sure that he wasn't on the far side where we had entered. He wasn't there. I waited there for about 10 minutes and eventually a guy that had helped me at one of the shops came and told me (in spanish) that my amigo was looking for me back at the "exit" corner. I walked back that direction and we found each other. While I wasn't scared that anything would happen to me, or anything like that, it was still a bit unnerving being there amidst thousands of people not understanding a word they were saying and not knowing if I had made a wrong turn somewhere and being in the wrong place. In the end, he did go to the corner where we had entered, but because I was a bit turned around, I was 1 corner away from the right corner. Then he went back in and searched inside until they made him leave.
As we were walking back to the car, we passed an icecream shop called Pops. We went in to get a treat that Steve talked about on his mission. Coconut icecream. Holy crap. I have a new favorite ice cream flavor. Of course, even if I could find it in the US, it wouldn't be as good as there because of the amazing fresh flavor. It was amazing. I would seriously take it over Haagen Daaz now. So good.
We got back to the car, and tipped a kid who was trying to sell stuff on the street for "watching" our car.
After the flea market, we went to have dinner with another one of Steve's missionary companions and his family. We met them at a grocery store in San Jose and then followed them to their house. Their house was beautiful as well. Apparently, when the Costa Rican temple was built, he spent his life savings remodeling their house to have it ready so visitors could stay with them during the dedication. In the end, no one stayed with them, but they've had the opportunity to host some members since then. We got to their house and I met their family. The father's name is Esteban. The wifes name is Veiria [sp?], pronounced Bee-ree-uh. They adopted 2 kids 8 months earlier. They are great kids, Andres and Diana. They really were a great family. She cooked us a homemade meal of arroz con pollo (rice with chicken (like we had for lunch)), platanos (fried plantaines), picadillos (a soft shell taco), and a cole slaw with cilantro type salad. We had fresh squeezed lemonade from lemons in their back yard. The platanos with the arroz con pollo was my favorite. It was SO good! She made us a traditional spice bread for dessert.
We met with them and they caught up on their lives. I couldn't understand much of what they were saying, but I picked up pieces along the way. Andres loved my iphone. I played games with him on it for a while to keep him occupied. Diana wanted me to read to her from a book about flowers. I did my best to read the words in spanish, even though I didn't know what they meant. At the end of the meeting, Esteban told me (with Steve translating) that I would always be welcome in his home and was grateful that I could eat dinner with them. I really had a good time there and would love to visit them again.
After we left their house, Steve drove me around to see the local chapels there and where the mission home was located. It was dark, so even though I could see them, I would NEVER be able to find my way to where they were. Then we went back to Pops and had some more coconut icecream. Mmmm..
We went back to the hotel and I packed my things and called Trisha on the phone. I was SO tired and had to wake back up in a few hours, so I went right to bed.
I woke up at 4:45 and finished packing and got ready for the trip home. I went down and had breakfast (same thing as before). We left the hotel, dropped off the rental car and went to the airport. There was more of a line than we expected, but we made it to our flight without any real problem. I had a crappy middle seat on the way home, but the lady next to me was nice enough to let me put the arm rest up so I wasn't as squished. I watched the rest of Incredible Hulk and some arrested development.
I wasn't looking forward to the 5 hour layover that we had in Dallas. There was an earlier flight leaving, but it was very close to leaving when we landed. We ran to make it through customs and security and barely made the flight home. I got an exit row with an open seat next to me. I watched more arrested development on that flight. I absolutely love that show.
So, that was my trip to Costa Rica. I found out this morning that I will probably be returning there sometime in the next month or 2. That should be fun!
10.23.2008
Costa Rica - Day 2
Ahh.. There's nothing like something going on to make me want to blog...
Today started as a typical business trip day would begin. I woke up and didn't want to. I got ready for the day and met the other guys down in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. I had eggs, cheese, and some cold-cuts. Nothing terribly exiting going on with that.
We drove to Palmares, a small (emphasis on small) town about an hour west of San Jose. This was really my first opportunity to see Costa Rica, and I was amazed. Everything is green and bursting with vegitation. It was gorgeous passing through the steep valleys and cliffs on the drive to the town. On the drive there, we passed the Costa Rica Temple. It is a very beautiful structure. One of my favorites. The white of the exterior was exceedingly white. The contrast of white and green was very pretty.
One of the first things I noticed about Costa Rica is that ALL of the houses have fences around them. They have very small yards with 6-8 foot vertical metal post fences. Every single house. With out fail. It was bizarre to see. Later in the day, I asked one of the guys from the company I was visiting why they had fences. He said that they were for security, but they ususally didn't deter thieves from striking. He spent 6 years in New Jersey and mentioned to me that when he first got to the US, his first thought was why DIDN'T the houses in the US have fences?
After we arrived in Palmares, we looked up the "address" of the business. Instead of addresses, Costa Ricans generally rely on vague directions. The directions we were given was something like, "drive to the corner of x road and the Catholic Church. A few blocks after the church, turn east. We're on the left side of the road." It took us a few minutes to get lost and we made a phone call and were walked through how to get there. The funny thing is that when we were "lost," we turned around on the road exactly in front of the house where the business is located. We just weren't aware that we were looking for a house.
When we got to the gated house, they let us in and we went inside to start talking. That house is AMAZING! It's not amazingly huge or anything, but it was very nice. Custom tile floors throughout the entire house, including the stairs and a 150 square foot covered patio outside. I would love to live in that house. Simply beautiful. The back yard was quite large and had a garden. You can see the mountains just over the thick jungle that marks the end of their backyard. Banana and other fruit trees could be found everywhere.
We sat down and talked for a little bit in an office they had set up. After a few minutes, 3 of us migrated to another room to begin the training. We sat at the kitchen table and got everything set up. It was quite distracting to be looking out the window at the rain forest.
After getting everything set up I sat down at the table and ripped a 6 inch hole into the crotch of my pants. I tried to play it cool like nothing happened, and the other guys never said anything, but I honestly don't know how they couldn't have heard it. For the rest of the day I was either sitting at a table, walking with my theighs held together, or sitting with my necktie between my legs. How embarrasing.
Training went well. We got heavy into the training, and the guys (even with English as their second language) are doing very well. At about 12:30 we decided to break for lunch.
We went to a nearby open-air restaurant. We sat under a covered patio. It was awesome. The menu was in Spanish with "literal" english translations, so not everything made sense. Everyone suggested that I try the Cerviches for lunch. Everyone ordered it, so I thought I'd give it a try. Cerviches is raw fish and shrimp that is marinated in lime juice for a day which "cooks" the fish. I guess it's the acidity, but it didn't seem raw to me at all. You top it with lime Mayo and tobasco. It was very good!
Again, everyone ordered in Spanish (sans me) and the menu was vague in English. When the waiter asked if I wanted a half or whole side of the Cerviches, I ordered a whole side. 10 minutes later, the waiter brought out the food. Everyone had ordered it, but I was the only one that ordered a large side (embarrasing!). The dish wasn't very big, so I didn't feel that bad. Nearing the end of us eating our Cerviches, I was starting to feel full, so even though it was a relatively small dish, I thought I would be satisfied. I was confused as to how everyone else at the table would be filled up on such a small portion, and thought that perhaps that's why central americans are more healthy and less obese. Then the waiter came back out and people started ordering what I thought were another round of drinks. A couple guys were drinking cervesa, while I had a Coke light. Then I heard someone say "pollo" which is chicken. I was pretty sure that there weren't any chicken drinks or desserts, so I looked over to Steve, one of the English speakers that I work with and asked them what was going on. He said that everyone was ordering lunch. With a puzzled look on my face, I said "you mean that wasn't it?" referring to the Cerviches. Everyone at the table had a good laugh at my expense. The cerviches is an appitizer, and I had no idea. I was wondering why everyone ordered the half side of cerviches.
Anyway, I ordered a beef and cheese meal with refried beans. It was REALLY good. There was about 75% cheese and 25% meat. And the cheese was fried in a pan, so it carmelized and was chewy. Yum!
While we were waiting for our food to be delivered, it started raining. Winter in Costa Rica is when the rainy season is. Like clockwork, 1 PM to 6 PM it rains. We had an AWESOME thunderstorm that passed right over us. Lightning struck a tree about 50 meters away from us. it was LOUD! I love the rain though, so it was relaxing to be sitting there enjoying food and listening to the rain.
After lunch, we sat at the table for another hour and talked. About 1% of ther conversation was in English. I'm proud of myself'; of the entire conversation, I understood about 1.5%!
We went back to the house and continued training until about 5 PM. There were several short power outages in the afternoon due to the thunderstorm(s) that was(were) passing over. The power went out at one point for about 30 minutes. We were able to do some, but the darkness and lack of the ability to show them our system made things difficult.
We finally hit the road at about 5:30 and made it back to the Hotel around 6:30. Fernando was leaving to meet up with some friends and family, which left me and Steve to go to Dinner. Let me start by saying that Steve is awesome. He understands that I don't know spanish, and things like that make it uncomfortable and difficult, so he's done a great job making me feel welcome and everything. We went to dinner at a place that exclusively serves chicken dishes. I was peer pressured (I SWEAR that he had to physically twist my arm until it nearly broke under the pressure and I was crying out in pain ;) ) into breaking my diet to try a couple things local to Costa Rica. The first is a flavored, whipped milk drink. It's similar to a shake. I had a pineapple one. I also had to try the fried plantanes and fresh guacamole. That was very yummy. The entire menu was in Spanish with no English translation. Steve had to tell me what everything was. Because there wasn't much on the menu that didn't have rice, beans, tortillas, etc. on it, I decided to get some chicken crepes. They were decent. The crepe portion was the best part. Steve again peer pressured me into splitting a tres leches for dessert. Oh my goodness. AMAZING!
When we left the restaurant, there was a guy wearing a reflective vest that was walking around the parking lot. Steve told me that he just stands in parking lots to "keep an eye" on your car while you're eating (even though the restaurant was another open-air kind and we could see our car from our table.). The guy doesn't even work at the restaurant. He just stands out there on his own accord and gets tips for watching the cars. We tipped him for watching our car so closely. I just found that it was strange that people do that. Very different from the US. I love experiencing local culture!
After dinner I came back to the hotel. I'm going to try and get my PC DVD player working so I can watch The Incredible Hulk before bed.
Buenos Noches beeyawtches.
Today started as a typical business trip day would begin. I woke up and didn't want to. I got ready for the day and met the other guys down in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. I had eggs, cheese, and some cold-cuts. Nothing terribly exiting going on with that.
We drove to Palmares, a small (emphasis on small) town about an hour west of San Jose. This was really my first opportunity to see Costa Rica, and I was amazed. Everything is green and bursting with vegitation. It was gorgeous passing through the steep valleys and cliffs on the drive to the town. On the drive there, we passed the Costa Rica Temple. It is a very beautiful structure. One of my favorites. The white of the exterior was exceedingly white. The contrast of white and green was very pretty.
One of the first things I noticed about Costa Rica is that ALL of the houses have fences around them. They have very small yards with 6-8 foot vertical metal post fences. Every single house. With out fail. It was bizarre to see. Later in the day, I asked one of the guys from the company I was visiting why they had fences. He said that they were for security, but they ususally didn't deter thieves from striking. He spent 6 years in New Jersey and mentioned to me that when he first got to the US, his first thought was why DIDN'T the houses in the US have fences?
After we arrived in Palmares, we looked up the "address" of the business. Instead of addresses, Costa Ricans generally rely on vague directions. The directions we were given was something like, "drive to the corner of x road and the Catholic Church. A few blocks after the church, turn east. We're on the left side of the road." It took us a few minutes to get lost and we made a phone call and were walked through how to get there. The funny thing is that when we were "lost," we turned around on the road exactly in front of the house where the business is located. We just weren't aware that we were looking for a house.
When we got to the gated house, they let us in and we went inside to start talking. That house is AMAZING! It's not amazingly huge or anything, but it was very nice. Custom tile floors throughout the entire house, including the stairs and a 150 square foot covered patio outside. I would love to live in that house. Simply beautiful. The back yard was quite large and had a garden. You can see the mountains just over the thick jungle that marks the end of their backyard. Banana and other fruit trees could be found everywhere.
We sat down and talked for a little bit in an office they had set up. After a few minutes, 3 of us migrated to another room to begin the training. We sat at the kitchen table and got everything set up. It was quite distracting to be looking out the window at the rain forest.
After getting everything set up I sat down at the table and ripped a 6 inch hole into the crotch of my pants. I tried to play it cool like nothing happened, and the other guys never said anything, but I honestly don't know how they couldn't have heard it. For the rest of the day I was either sitting at a table, walking with my theighs held together, or sitting with my necktie between my legs. How embarrasing.
Training went well. We got heavy into the training, and the guys (even with English as their second language) are doing very well. At about 12:30 we decided to break for lunch.
We went to a nearby open-air restaurant. We sat under a covered patio. It was awesome. The menu was in Spanish with "literal" english translations, so not everything made sense. Everyone suggested that I try the Cerviches for lunch. Everyone ordered it, so I thought I'd give it a try. Cerviches is raw fish and shrimp that is marinated in lime juice for a day which "cooks" the fish. I guess it's the acidity, but it didn't seem raw to me at all. You top it with lime Mayo and tobasco. It was very good!
Again, everyone ordered in Spanish (sans me) and the menu was vague in English. When the waiter asked if I wanted a half or whole side of the Cerviches, I ordered a whole side. 10 minutes later, the waiter brought out the food. Everyone had ordered it, but I was the only one that ordered a large side (embarrasing!). The dish wasn't very big, so I didn't feel that bad. Nearing the end of us eating our Cerviches, I was starting to feel full, so even though it was a relatively small dish, I thought I would be satisfied. I was confused as to how everyone else at the table would be filled up on such a small portion, and thought that perhaps that's why central americans are more healthy and less obese. Then the waiter came back out and people started ordering what I thought were another round of drinks. A couple guys were drinking cervesa, while I had a Coke light. Then I heard someone say "pollo" which is chicken. I was pretty sure that there weren't any chicken drinks or desserts, so I looked over to Steve, one of the English speakers that I work with and asked them what was going on. He said that everyone was ordering lunch. With a puzzled look on my face, I said "you mean that wasn't it?" referring to the Cerviches. Everyone at the table had a good laugh at my expense. The cerviches is an appitizer, and I had no idea. I was wondering why everyone ordered the half side of cerviches.
Anyway, I ordered a beef and cheese meal with refried beans. It was REALLY good. There was about 75% cheese and 25% meat. And the cheese was fried in a pan, so it carmelized and was chewy. Yum!
While we were waiting for our food to be delivered, it started raining. Winter in Costa Rica is when the rainy season is. Like clockwork, 1 PM to 6 PM it rains. We had an AWESOME thunderstorm that passed right over us. Lightning struck a tree about 50 meters away from us. it was LOUD! I love the rain though, so it was relaxing to be sitting there enjoying food and listening to the rain.
After lunch, we sat at the table for another hour and talked. About 1% of ther conversation was in English. I'm proud of myself'; of the entire conversation, I understood about 1.5%!
We went back to the house and continued training until about 5 PM. There were several short power outages in the afternoon due to the thunderstorm(s) that was(were) passing over. The power went out at one point for about 30 minutes. We were able to do some, but the darkness and lack of the ability to show them our system made things difficult.
We finally hit the road at about 5:30 and made it back to the Hotel around 6:30. Fernando was leaving to meet up with some friends and family, which left me and Steve to go to Dinner. Let me start by saying that Steve is awesome. He understands that I don't know spanish, and things like that make it uncomfortable and difficult, so he's done a great job making me feel welcome and everything. We went to dinner at a place that exclusively serves chicken dishes. I was peer pressured (I SWEAR that he had to physically twist my arm until it nearly broke under the pressure and I was crying out in pain ;) ) into breaking my diet to try a couple things local to Costa Rica. The first is a flavored, whipped milk drink. It's similar to a shake. I had a pineapple one. I also had to try the fried plantanes and fresh guacamole. That was very yummy. The entire menu was in Spanish with no English translation. Steve had to tell me what everything was. Because there wasn't much on the menu that didn't have rice, beans, tortillas, etc. on it, I decided to get some chicken crepes. They were decent. The crepe portion was the best part. Steve again peer pressured me into splitting a tres leches for dessert. Oh my goodness. AMAZING!
When we left the restaurant, there was a guy wearing a reflective vest that was walking around the parking lot. Steve told me that he just stands in parking lots to "keep an eye" on your car while you're eating (even though the restaurant was another open-air kind and we could see our car from our table.). The guy doesn't even work at the restaurant. He just stands out there on his own accord and gets tips for watching the cars. We tipped him for watching our car so closely. I just found that it was strange that people do that. Very different from the US. I love experiencing local culture!
After dinner I came back to the hotel. I'm going to try and get my PC DVD player working so I can watch The Incredible Hulk before bed.
Buenos Noches beeyawtches.
10.22.2008
Travelling FUN!
Oh, what joy today has been! Seriously!
Life can become so boring and stagnant sometimes. Even though nothing terribly exciting happened, I had LIFE EXPERIENCES today! That doesn't happen very often anymore due to the duldrums of everyday life. So, here's how my day went.
-I woke up this morning and had a nice refreshing shower and shave, got dressed and finished packing.
-I got ride from Trisha to the airport. Since Trisha has been sick for the past 4 days or so, it was really hard to go. Last time I went on a business trip she was sick too. It was hard to say goodbye. I feel bad leaving her in that condition. :(
-I checked my bags, got my boarding pass and passed through security without a hitch and proceeded to wait for the plane.
-I boarded with first class. Even though this is nothing actually special, especially since I didn't even sit in first class, I did feel special being able to board early. It's nice not having to wait for the idiot(s) in front of you trying to figure out how to find their seat and fit their ginormous carry on bag into the tiny space above their seat.
-I was seated on an exit row (REALLY nice extra space in front.). I have never sat on the exit row before, but I can vouch for how nice the extra space is. It makes stretching your legs MUCH easier. Also, there was and empty space between me and the other person on my row/side.
-I had a great flight watching several episodes of Arrested Development.
-When we landed in Dallas, I went to the Admirals Club! Yes. Another AWESOME life experience. I've always wanted to see what it's like in there. Oh man. Amazingly comfortable chairs, free soft drinks (and a voucher for a free alcoholic drink (that I gave to Fernando)), decent food, free internet, places to plug in laptops... It was great. Even though we were only in there for an hour or so. It beats the PANTS off of trying to find a seat at the gate. The chair I sat in was leather, it reclined, and had an ottoman. Nice.
-Then we left the admirals club and immediately boarded the airplane (again with first class).
-I had another good seat with no one sitting next to me so I could stretch out a bit.
-I watched The Dark Knight on the flight. It was awesome.
-Another one of those lame life experiences that really is insignificant, but I find cool: I had a meal served to me on a flight. When I was 5 year old (or so) I went to Hawaii with my family. My grandpa paid to have us all go. I had breakfast on that flight then, but I don't think that counts. They gave me the option of pancakes or and omelette. I didn't know what an omelette was at that age, so i tried it. It was gross. The food on this flight wasn't anything to sing about either, but, especially since the food flights are becoming more rare, it was cool. I got the beef dish which was kind of a roast beef in some sauce with mashed potatoes and veggies. I didn't eat the mashed potatoes or veggies. It also had a salad, a roll and a dessert. I didn't eat the roll or dessert, just the salad and beef.
-When I got off the flight the humidity hit me like a ton of bricks. And I hadn't even hit the real stuff yet. It was the humidity after air conditioning that I was feeling.
-I went through customs and waited for my baggage with Fernando. Fernando got his bag early and decided to go outside without me to call his sister (who lives nearby and was thinking of going to dinner with him tonight).
-I finally got my bag and went outside to find Fernando. I was surrounded by 100+ cabbies (not exaggerating) that wanted to take me to my hotel. This reminded me of an experience I had on my last cruise. I went to a flea market in Jamaica. We were acosted by many people asking if we would go to their store and buy stuff. Crazy. Annoying. Scary? Yeah a bit. Anyway.. Same thing here.
-I found Fernando a few minutes later, and he decided to go with his family to dinner. No invitation. Whatever. That's ok.. At that point I was anxious to get to the hotel and get to my room so I could call Trisha.
-I go back into the airport to use their "official" taxi service. 22 bucks to get me to my hotel. They take me to a "certified/licensed" taxi driver. He starts driving. As we left, he asked me if I was going to the Holiday Inn. I told him no, and it took a minute or so to break the language barrier so he knew where I was headed.
-At this point, I was mildly anxious. I'm in a country in Central America (not the "safest" of places on Earth for inexperienced travelers). I don't speak Spanish. It's already dark out (around 9:30 or 10 PM). I'm by myself. But it doesn't really bother me. Until...
-The cabbie continues to drive away from the airport. We weren't on what I would consider a "main thoroughfare." In fact, the path seems to be getting darker, and less "modern." The lines painted on the road disappear (at least it was paved). The street lights stop. I glance down at my phone. Whew. There were 3 bars of service. At that exact moment, the service bars drop down to 2. 15 seconds later, 1 bar. Then no service. I glance up at where we're going. It's almost like a neighborhood. I see homes on either side of the road. We pass a car that's going slower than us and nearly run into some pedestrians. The cabbie barely swerves out of the way of an oncoming car. At this point I had a funny thought. "Even though the next few hours might suck, it would be a really cool life experience to say to someone that you got mugged by a cab driver in a foreign country." I'd be left without any money, identification, cell phone, luggage. I'd try to find my way to a house or business and break through the language barrier to make some phone calls and get everything straightened out. Then it struck me that the cabbie could just mug me and then kill me. That wouldn't be a very fun life experience. Shortly after these thoughts passed through my mind we turned a corner and I saw a Pizza Hut. We immediately entered a more pubic/city type setting. My mind was put at ease.
-I wanted to make sure the cabbie took me to the right place, so I (knowing that it would be expensive) used my phone to look up the address of the hotel I was staying in just to make sure we were going to the right place.
-We got stuck behing a really slow Toyota Tercel. I was getting annoyed with how slow it was, but couldn't voice my opinion in such a way as to make the driver understand. I remembered that I downloaded a translation app on my iphone a few days earlier. I looked up the word "slow" in spanish (lento). I said to the driver, "Aye yi yi! Tercel es Lento." The driver laughed and passed the Tercel at the next available opportunity. A few minutes later we pulled up to the Quality Inn (the right place).
-I tipped the guy and went in the hotel to check in. I had to fill out a form because I'm not a local, and then they ran my Visa credit card. Declined. "Hrmm.. That's weird.. There's plenty of money in there," I thought. So I gave them my AMEX. Declined. The knot that was present in my stomach when we were driving through the dark suburbs returned. Apparently, my bank requires some advance notification of international travel (especailly with the amount to be charged to my card.) So, I had to make some phone calls to get that straightened out. Called my bank and transfered extra money from savings into checking. Then i called AMEX to make a payment over the phone. They don't accept toll-free calls from places outside of the US, so it took me a few minutes and a few calls to get the international toll free number for Costa Rica. I track that down and call them and make a payment large enough to have the hotel charge it to that. The card went though. Whew.
- I went up to my room and unpacked and attempted to call Trisha. My softphone on my computer (that allows me to call her for free) wasn't working. After 20 minutes of fiddling with it, I realized that I had the wrong version of the software installed. I tracked down someone at my work that was on IM who gave me the link to the right version. When I started downloading my connection speed was at 3.5 KB/s. That is essentially the same as dial up. It took 40 minutes to download, but finally I got it installed. While it was downloading I looked up the cost of international calls. It took me around 12 minutes to get the whole money situation figured out so I could get into my room. It's $2.29 per minute for roaming plus $.80 per minute for the international call. Oh man, I'm grateful that I can get reimbursed for that.
-While waiting for the software to download I ordered some room service. The restaurant in the lobby closed sometime in between the time that I arrived at the hotel and the time I got checked into my room. There are a couple of restaurants within walking distance that I could go to, but because of the hassle, I decided room service was in. I ordered some broccoli soup and some Salmon (with veggies and sauted mushrooms). I have to say... Even though this is a chain hotel where I didn't even expect room service to be available. The food was pretty effing good. Especially the salmon and mushrooms. I also had 2 Diet Cokes which they refer to as Coca-Cola Light. They come in old-school glass bottles! Effing awesome.
-I finally was able to make a call to Trisha, but since the internet connection here sucks, it was a bit choppy. We were able to talk for 30 minutes or so though. It was good to hear from her. I miss her already!
Well. That was my day. I'm now going to try to get to bed so I can get up in 6 hours and the "real" fun begins.
Life can become so boring and stagnant sometimes. Even though nothing terribly exciting happened, I had LIFE EXPERIENCES today! That doesn't happen very often anymore due to the duldrums of everyday life. So, here's how my day went.
-I woke up this morning and had a nice refreshing shower and shave, got dressed and finished packing.
-I got ride from Trisha to the airport. Since Trisha has been sick for the past 4 days or so, it was really hard to go. Last time I went on a business trip she was sick too. It was hard to say goodbye. I feel bad leaving her in that condition. :(
-I checked my bags, got my boarding pass and passed through security without a hitch and proceeded to wait for the plane.
-I boarded with first class. Even though this is nothing actually special, especially since I didn't even sit in first class, I did feel special being able to board early. It's nice not having to wait for the idiot(s) in front of you trying to figure out how to find their seat and fit their ginormous carry on bag into the tiny space above their seat.
-I was seated on an exit row (REALLY nice extra space in front.). I have never sat on the exit row before, but I can vouch for how nice the extra space is. It makes stretching your legs MUCH easier. Also, there was and empty space between me and the other person on my row/side.
-I had a great flight watching several episodes of Arrested Development.
-When we landed in Dallas, I went to the Admirals Club! Yes. Another AWESOME life experience. I've always wanted to see what it's like in there. Oh man. Amazingly comfortable chairs, free soft drinks (and a voucher for a free alcoholic drink (that I gave to Fernando)), decent food, free internet, places to plug in laptops... It was great. Even though we were only in there for an hour or so. It beats the PANTS off of trying to find a seat at the gate. The chair I sat in was leather, it reclined, and had an ottoman. Nice.
-Then we left the admirals club and immediately boarded the airplane (again with first class).
-I had another good seat with no one sitting next to me so I could stretch out a bit.
-I watched The Dark Knight on the flight. It was awesome.
-Another one of those lame life experiences that really is insignificant, but I find cool: I had a meal served to me on a flight. When I was 5 year old (or so) I went to Hawaii with my family. My grandpa paid to have us all go. I had breakfast on that flight then, but I don't think that counts. They gave me the option of pancakes or and omelette. I didn't know what an omelette was at that age, so i tried it. It was gross. The food on this flight wasn't anything to sing about either, but, especially since the food flights are becoming more rare, it was cool. I got the beef dish which was kind of a roast beef in some sauce with mashed potatoes and veggies. I didn't eat the mashed potatoes or veggies. It also had a salad, a roll and a dessert. I didn't eat the roll or dessert, just the salad and beef.
-When I got off the flight the humidity hit me like a ton of bricks. And I hadn't even hit the real stuff yet. It was the humidity after air conditioning that I was feeling.
-I went through customs and waited for my baggage with Fernando. Fernando got his bag early and decided to go outside without me to call his sister (who lives nearby and was thinking of going to dinner with him tonight).
-I finally got my bag and went outside to find Fernando. I was surrounded by 100+ cabbies (not exaggerating) that wanted to take me to my hotel. This reminded me of an experience I had on my last cruise. I went to a flea market in Jamaica. We were acosted by many people asking if we would go to their store and buy stuff. Crazy. Annoying. Scary? Yeah a bit. Anyway.. Same thing here.
-I found Fernando a few minutes later, and he decided to go with his family to dinner. No invitation. Whatever. That's ok.. At that point I was anxious to get to the hotel and get to my room so I could call Trisha.
-I go back into the airport to use their "official" taxi service. 22 bucks to get me to my hotel. They take me to a "certified/licensed" taxi driver. He starts driving. As we left, he asked me if I was going to the Holiday Inn. I told him no, and it took a minute or so to break the language barrier so he knew where I was headed.
-At this point, I was mildly anxious. I'm in a country in Central America (not the "safest" of places on Earth for inexperienced travelers). I don't speak Spanish. It's already dark out (around 9:30 or 10 PM). I'm by myself. But it doesn't really bother me. Until...
-The cabbie continues to drive away from the airport. We weren't on what I would consider a "main thoroughfare." In fact, the path seems to be getting darker, and less "modern." The lines painted on the road disappear (at least it was paved). The street lights stop. I glance down at my phone. Whew. There were 3 bars of service. At that exact moment, the service bars drop down to 2. 15 seconds later, 1 bar. Then no service. I glance up at where we're going. It's almost like a neighborhood. I see homes on either side of the road. We pass a car that's going slower than us and nearly run into some pedestrians. The cabbie barely swerves out of the way of an oncoming car. At this point I had a funny thought. "Even though the next few hours might suck, it would be a really cool life experience to say to someone that you got mugged by a cab driver in a foreign country." I'd be left without any money, identification, cell phone, luggage. I'd try to find my way to a house or business and break through the language barrier to make some phone calls and get everything straightened out. Then it struck me that the cabbie could just mug me and then kill me. That wouldn't be a very fun life experience. Shortly after these thoughts passed through my mind we turned a corner and I saw a Pizza Hut. We immediately entered a more pubic/city type setting. My mind was put at ease.
-I wanted to make sure the cabbie took me to the right place, so I (knowing that it would be expensive) used my phone to look up the address of the hotel I was staying in just to make sure we were going to the right place.
-We got stuck behing a really slow Toyota Tercel. I was getting annoyed with how slow it was, but couldn't voice my opinion in such a way as to make the driver understand. I remembered that I downloaded a translation app on my iphone a few days earlier. I looked up the word "slow" in spanish (lento). I said to the driver, "Aye yi yi! Tercel es Lento." The driver laughed and passed the Tercel at the next available opportunity. A few minutes later we pulled up to the Quality Inn (the right place).
-I tipped the guy and went in the hotel to check in. I had to fill out a form because I'm not a local, and then they ran my Visa credit card. Declined. "Hrmm.. That's weird.. There's plenty of money in there," I thought. So I gave them my AMEX. Declined. The knot that was present in my stomach when we were driving through the dark suburbs returned. Apparently, my bank requires some advance notification of international travel (especailly with the amount to be charged to my card.) So, I had to make some phone calls to get that straightened out. Called my bank and transfered extra money from savings into checking. Then i called AMEX to make a payment over the phone. They don't accept toll-free calls from places outside of the US, so it took me a few minutes and a few calls to get the international toll free number for Costa Rica. I track that down and call them and make a payment large enough to have the hotel charge it to that. The card went though. Whew.
- I went up to my room and unpacked and attempted to call Trisha. My softphone on my computer (that allows me to call her for free) wasn't working. After 20 minutes of fiddling with it, I realized that I had the wrong version of the software installed. I tracked down someone at my work that was on IM who gave me the link to the right version. When I started downloading my connection speed was at 3.5 KB/s. That is essentially the same as dial up. It took 40 minutes to download, but finally I got it installed. While it was downloading I looked up the cost of international calls. It took me around 12 minutes to get the whole money situation figured out so I could get into my room. It's $2.29 per minute for roaming plus $.80 per minute for the international call. Oh man, I'm grateful that I can get reimbursed for that.
-While waiting for the software to download I ordered some room service. The restaurant in the lobby closed sometime in between the time that I arrived at the hotel and the time I got checked into my room. There are a couple of restaurants within walking distance that I could go to, but because of the hassle, I decided room service was in. I ordered some broccoli soup and some Salmon (with veggies and sauted mushrooms). I have to say... Even though this is a chain hotel where I didn't even expect room service to be available. The food was pretty effing good. Especially the salmon and mushrooms. I also had 2 Diet Cokes which they refer to as Coca-Cola Light. They come in old-school glass bottles! Effing awesome.
-I finally was able to make a call to Trisha, but since the internet connection here sucks, it was a bit choppy. We were able to talk for 30 minutes or so though. It was good to hear from her. I miss her already!
Well. That was my day. I'm now going to try to get to bed so I can get up in 6 hours and the "real" fun begins.
9.30.2008
8.22.2008
On a down note...
Prior to purchasing our condo, I checked and re-checked what utilities were included in our HOA fee. I was told (and re-told) that our electricity was included. About 2 months ago I got a note on my door saying that my electricity was going to be cut off because there was "no applicant on file." I was confused as to what that meant and just assumed it was a mistake. About a month ago I got another note on my door. This time I decided to verify (again) with my HOA that my electricity was covered. The lady I spoke with was not 100% sure but she thought that it was included. She said she would check with the HOA president and call me back if she was mistaken.
I never received a call back so I assumed that I was ok. I assumed wrong apparently.
Thank heaven that I was home today waiting for the swamp cooler. Rocky mountain power came to shut off my electricity. I answered and the tech told me if I called right now he wouldn't shut it off. So I did.
And they back-billed me to march 1. I now owe 300 dollars.
Lame.
I never received a call back so I assumed that I was ok. I assumed wrong apparently.
Thank heaven that I was home today waiting for the swamp cooler. Rocky mountain power came to shut off my electricity. I answered and the tech told me if I called right now he wouldn't shut it off. So I did.
And they back-billed me to march 1. I now owe 300 dollars.
Lame.
8.20.2008
Yet again...
The HVAC peeps are coming back out (for the 4th or 5th time (I can't remember)) to check on why the BRAND NEW swamp cooler isn't working properly. I hope it gets fixed soon, cuz it being 90+ inside when you have no where to go to cool off is getting really annoying.
I have tried a multitude of differnt configuration options that have been suggested including having the windows only 1-2 inches wide, turning theswamp cooler down to low-cool and opening the windows up wider. Nothing helps. All I know is that it should be blowing cool air, and it's not. I assume that the water is either off, or not properly being pumped to the pads.
Make it stop.
8.19.2008
Here "hopefully" goes something...
My work is starting 2 new contests. "The Biggest Loser" and "The Biggest Winner."
"Loser" starts today and consists of a weight loss competition. It will end on November 30th. I thought it would be interesting to get a face shot and a body shot of myself on several days throughout the competition so my progress can be visually documented. I won't be able to get a picture every day, I'm sure, but I'll document what day of the contest it is. Here are my disappointing starting pictures.
In the end, I'm hoping to get back to being closer like my old self. When I envision myself at my best, I look like this (or better!):
I really want and need to lose weight, so I'm going to work at it hard. Any and all forms of motivation are appreciated.
"The Biggest Winner" starts on September 1 and is a fitness competition to encourage those who work here to get out and excercise. I'm not sure exactly how the competition will be layed out, but it will help further encourage those who work here to get fit. I'm excited! If I do well, I have the potential to win an iPod and/or a $500 Visa Gift Card.
"Loser" starts today and consists of a weight loss competition. It will end on November 30th. I thought it would be interesting to get a face shot and a body shot of myself on several days throughout the competition so my progress can be visually documented. I won't be able to get a picture every day, I'm sure, but I'll document what day of the contest it is. Here are my disappointing starting pictures.
In the end, I'm hoping to get back to being closer like my old self. When I envision myself at my best, I look like this (or better!):
I really want and need to lose weight, so I'm going to work at it hard. Any and all forms of motivation are appreciated.
"The Biggest Winner" starts on September 1 and is a fitness competition to encourage those who work here to get out and excercise. I'm not sure exactly how the competition will be layed out, but it will help further encourage those who work here to get fit. I'm excited! If I do well, I have the potential to win an iPod and/or a $500 Visa Gift Card.
7.22.2008
Then, Now and Yet To Come...
20 Years Ago1. I don't recall the dates specifically, but I was either going, gone to, or just returned from Hawaii with my family. I was so young that I don't remember much about it. I only remember being "abandoned" by my brothers at the hotel. They were screwing around on the elevators and didn't want me to come, so they left me on the bottom floor and told me to wait. 30 minutes later my brother sheepishly came and got me.
2. I got grounded for the first time right around this time. My friend Bryson and I were throwing rocks from the gutter up into the flower bed of my neighbor's house. For some reason, he went to go investigate a rock he had thrown, and I didn't notice. I threw the next rock and beaned him right in the forehead.
3. I had my first "not real" kiss. It was the (older) next door neighbor Holly Diefendorfer
10 Years Ago
1. I was in 9th grade at Kearns Jr. High.
2. I was lead stage-crew guy, and loved it. Too bad Mr. Carling was the teacher. What an ass.
3. I "modemed" on a daily basis to Lowerlights and Chatterbox (http://www.lowerlights.com/). That was really the start of my "growing up online." Most of my friends were found through Lowerlights.
5 Years Ago1. I served a mission in Columbus, Ohio. I lived in Whitehall, Reynoldsburg and London. I came home after 11 months due to depression. Boo.
2. Moved in to David's parent's house and slept on a fold out couch for a couple months, then the floor for a couple more. I bought their old car, which shall forever be known as the Ghetro. It was a ghetto Geo Metro.
3. I started working at DirecTV. Ugh.
3 Years Ago1. I got married to the love of my life, Trisha! We got married in the Salt Lake Temple after having met 5 months prior. I must be from Utah.
2. We moved into the Mark Twain apartments in Taylorsville. Surprisingly we never got robbed, nor shot at. Our cars didn't even get broken into. Ironically, Trisha's car got broken into at my parent's house in Murray, where we would never have expected it.
3. I started working at Mstar. (http://www.mstar.com/) I started at 7 bucks an hour doing technical support for the WebSentinel product. After a couple months of only working for 2 hours a day (playing games and looking for another job the remainder of the time), they started getting busy with the UTOPIA project. I started working in order support to make sure installs were completed.
4. We got a cute little Shi-tzu named Mosley. He had a hard time potty training because both Trisha and I were working. We had him for a year and a half and then decided to give him to a friend of Trisha's who had 3 little girls that could play with him. He's much happier now. We visit him occasionally.
1 Year Ago
1. I started looking for a new job because Mstar had just moved down to Orem. The drive (being 45 minutes each way) and the company running out of money were the main factors leading to me looking. I didn't really find anything worth accepting, however.
2. We moved in with Trisha's parents (in their basement). After seeing Trisha's sister live there for almost a year prior to us moving in, we were really worried that it was going to be a horrible living situation. It turned out to be ok. I kept to myself, and the basement was 10 degrees cooler than anywhere else, so I was in heaven.
3. Trisha was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. It sucks. She is always in pain and it has made things difficult for her. I wish I could just take her pain away, but I feel helpless.
So Far This Year1. We bought a condo in West Valley City. It's a bit ugly on the outside, but the inside is upgraded and nice. Finally we are living on our own again. After 2+ years of living with other people, it was about time that we were on our own.
2. We got new cars! I got an 2006 Nissan Altima. Very nice. Trisha got a 2007 Suzuki Forenza. It's nice to have nice things again. Both of our cars were starting to fall apart.
3. I got laid off at Mstar. It wasn't much of a surprise, but I was pretty upset about it initially. It was just really bad timing... (refer to So Far This Year, Number 1 and 2.)
4. Started a job with a VoIP provider in Lindon, Utah called Alianza (http://www.alianza.com/). I'm a Sales Engineer. I assist the sale's guys to prove to potential customers that our product works and that it will work in their network environment. I love it. It's the perfect fit for me as far as my desire to be both technical and professional. The people that work here are especially awesome. The work environment is unlike any I have ever seen. Free snacks and drinks and I travel occasionally. It's been fun.
Today
1. Trisha woke up with me and made me breakfast. It was really nice. I had 2 egg-McMuffin type things that she made. She also made me a lunch. This is a part of our effort to save as much money as possible because Trisha is no longer working full time. It has been a bit of a strain on us financially, but we're going to make it work.
2. I started a blog, and I wrote this blog.
Tomorrow
1. I want to go to the shooting range to get in some more practice with my 9mm. I need to be more comfortable with handling it in high pressure situations. There was recently a bad fist fight outside of my condo and based on the commotion, I thought someone was getting robbed. I dispatched my weapon, and realized that it has been too long since I've used it, so I need to go use it again.
In the Next Year
1. I'll start back up with school at Western Governor's University (http://www.wgu.edu/).
2. I would like to start making progress about getting out of debt. It has been a challenge for us, and it's certainly not getting any better.
3. I hope to be able to go to Lake Powell later this summer. We'll see if I can get the time off. Not to mention the money required to go. It's not looking good.
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