Like Sand In An Hourglass....

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VeraBlue

Executive Chef
Joined
Jul 10, 2006
Messages
3,683
Location
northern NJ
That opening statement, from a soap opera, ended with 'these are the days of our lives....' How prolific, eh? Like they could possibly be something else? Who writes that stuff, anyway?

I realized it's been ages since I've taken you for a ride, and baby, that's what I've been doing lately. There's a Souxie and the Banshees song "I am the passenger" ...and I ride and I ride. You all see what's going on at the Stock Exchange. Back in July they had another shift and the client wanted changes. Not enough business any longer to support my salary..(and it's not like it's some macro salary, either. Micro is more like it) they decided to proceed without an executive chef. Watching the news lately, you gotta wonder what the atmosphere is like in a joint where financial institutions are bailing faster than toilet water.. First week in August I was in Rochester NY for the Buffalo Bills training camp. Since then I've been driving back and forth to Garden City, Long Island to help close an account my company lost when the building was sold. In these grand financial times, my commute went from nine extremely green (all public transportation) dollars a day to thirty horribly wasteful dollars a day. $45 a week to $150 a week and people wonder why I look forward to cocktail hour with such gusto each week. I did manage to whine my way to getting one gas receipt expensed a week, so it's not a total loss. This gig officially ends on 26 September.

My divorce was finalized 2 weeks ago. I don't feel very different. We'd been married 25 years, but seperated 5 years ago. He lived around the corner all that time, and still had dinner at the house twice a week. :). Long story short, we married very young, and started to want to follow different paths after a while. He's a wonderful man who is with a wonderful woman who makes him very happy. Problem is, I've tasted her food often enough.....he's gonna get hungry soon for my meatballs. He always does.

Now, about this divorce procedure....we did it ourselves, no lawyers. HA! Our relationship is still based on trust and respect and there was no reason to pay someone to split what we already agreed to split. After all the paperwork was filed, (and I had to be the defendent, don't think I cared for that part) it took all of 7 minutes for the official signature to legaly sever the relationship. Verizon Wireless could take lessons from the court system. It took about 4 hours on the phone today with that agregation of numbnuts. My ex had to talk to them, I had to talk to them, countless minutes of mind altering hold music. All this to have our triple play (fios, phone and internet) changed from his name to mine. It's not like we're moving the house down the street or anything. I'm still here. So, in order for them to backspace over his first name and insert mine in it's place, get this: Everything has to be turned off and then turned back on. Now how many guesses will it take for you to guess how long this will take??? Who said two days?? Give that person a kewpie doll. Yes folks, it takes two days of interupted service (now there's an oxymoron if ever there was one) to change the name on the bill. That they actually have to walk down some ailse and flip a switch and turn it all off boggles the mind. No phone, no television and no computer for two days. Yeah, I know Rome wasn't built in a day, but we're not actually talking aquaducts and colliseums here, are we? It's a wire. Now it's on...and now it's still on, you know? You realize of course that I'm going to be hit with a service charge to turn the :censored: things back on, don't you? That whole story is true, filed beneath a banner headline "you cannot make this stuff up". As it turns out, I'm going to Florida to see my parents on Thursday, so it's as good a time as any to shut it down. Poor Coco though..I suggested she stay with her father during that time. He moved into his girlfriends home a couple of weeks ago. No one is turning her stuff off; well, at least until she gets her divorce from her husband (who wants alimony, by the way:ohmy:) But that bit of Peyton Place is for a whole different thread. I've never paid bills before. This should be interesting. Maybe I'll write a book about it.

Lou and I are going off to see Marianne and Jim on Thursday. I could write for hours on the perils of my parents. My mother had knee surgery recently. She mentions going to PT, and I expect the word 'barnum' to follow. I don't know why she doesn't just say 'physical therapy' like a normal person, but then again, we're talking about Marianne. Still, she's doing very well. Both parents are early 70s and very very active and it was sad to see her in so much pain and unable to do the things she likes doing. I suggest she stick to things that require little movement, like nagging my dad and hovering over my adult sister's life like a black shroud and all... She was hopped up on a half a pain pill at the time, so she just laughed when I said the word 'hover'. Marianne has a fear of pills and becoming addicted so we had to literally cajole and coax her into taking half a pill just to get some relief. What a riot it was..poor thing:angel: The really scary thing was that my Dad was lost when she was in such pain. Talk about getting together young..those two have been a couple since they were 14, and got married when they were 20, back in 1956. I don't want to wax morbid here, but when one goes, the other better hop on the same bus, too. I don't think they know how to live without the other, and don't know how they'd manage alone.

We all know there is no good food in Florida, so I have to bring stuff for them. Lou's carry on luggage will have all the politically correct 3 oz liquid bottles in clear baggies, etc. My carry on luggage will be chock full of ravioli, cured olives, italian bread, bagels, salami, mortadella and fresh mozzarella. Does anyone know if there is any reason security will stop me, other than to make them lunch?? You know, a really dedicated terrorist could stuff a ravioli with plastique, yes? Do you think they'll force me to eat one, just to prove it's really ravioli? "take my shoes off? Sure, just don't confiscate the ravioli and canoli..my family is starving to death in jacksonville"

My parents are members of an italian club. There's a bocce tournament while we're down there and Jim is participating. $300 prize to the winning team. You'd think I could play bocce, but I really don't. Neither does Lou, but he's going to anyway, :LOL:. We'll cheer for them both, and I imagine my mother and I will make off with the winnings should we be so lucky to actually be associated with killer bocce players. Everyone is always talking about how cheaper the cost of living is down there. I imagine a booty of three hundred bucks will buy us a nice caddilac or perhaps a mini mansion, right?

So, that's where my broomstick has been taking me lately...

you may say I'm a dreamer...but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will live as one.
 
Vera, I have missed you.

I know everything will sort it self out, and I am sure you have the same thought.

You and Lou are both adults. If I go through any such scenario, I would hope things would remain as amicable, and have the report you and Lou have/maintain.

as for work....We are always looking for good chefs in my company in D.C.;)

As for the 3floz, you know that three shots won't go very far on the flight, right?:angel: Have a great time!
 
Oh-Ohhh...... Did you say Verizon was cancelling your service and then turning it back on? :ermm:
:LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
Good luck with that!

I called them once. Gave them my phone number as asked. They told me that the number they had on file for me was not the number I gave them. I said, I know, I changed my number a couple years ago, you guys should know this.
Sooooo, they did a cancel/reinstall on my DSL because like you said, that is apparently easier for them than using the backspace key.

Guess what? When they went to "reinstall" my DSL, their computers were telling them that my phone line could not support DSL. Something about new subdivisions being built, miles of new phone lines that mine were indirectly tied into.... nope, sorry, no DSL for you. :mad: It took them a month to straighten out the problem and get me back online.

So good luck, Vera! :D
 
Vera, I have missed you.

I know everything will sort it self out, and I am sure you have the same thought.

You and Lou are both adults. If I go through any such scenario, I would hope things would remain as amicable, and have the report you and Lou have/maintain.

as for work....We are always looking for good chefs in my company in D.C.;)

As for the 3floz, you know that three shots won't go very far on the flight, right?:angel: Have a great time!

Just a quick clarification: Lou is my boyfriend, Ivan is my exhusband. Lou, he's not going anywhere. I just tightened the knots about an hour ago!

Thanks for the thoughts, I really appreciate them.
 
Oh-Ohhh...... Did you say Verizon was cancelling your service and then turning it back on? :ermm:
:LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
Good luck with that!

I called them once. Gave them my phone number as asked. They told me that the number they had on file for me was not the number I gave them. I said, I know, I changed my number a couple years ago, you guys should know this.
Sooooo, they did a cancel/reinstall on my DSL because like you said, that is apparently easier for them than using the backspace key.

Guess what? When they went to "reinstall" my DSL, their computers were telling them that my phone line could not support DSL. Something about new subdivisions being built, miles of new phone lines that mine were indirectly tied into.... nope, sorry, no DSL for you. :mad: It took them a month to straighten out the problem and get me back online.

So good luck, Vera! :D
This would be a good time to mention that as I was leaving work my phone rang. A computer was calling me. It wanted to remind me that a service representative was coming to my home for an installation on the Friday I am planning to be in Florida, and that I should expect to be available for 4-6 hours. It also suggested that if I had any questions, I should call back the same number the computer was calling from. Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.
 
missed you vera!!!
posted you a messeage 'bout honeycomb last nite!!
glad your divorce went so smoothly. that's a relief.
 
I was just thinking about you today, after listening to all the mess on Wall Street, wondering how things were going at the Exchange. Glad you're able to keep a sense of humor, and to get away for a bit! Enjoy Florida! And watch out for the "grouper."
 
Thanks for the update, Vera. Glad to hear that the domestic front is good. I've been wondering about your Wall Street gig and how it was going...so sorry to hear.about your job. But this must look very good on your resume, right? Hope you find something that works for you really soon.

I had to laugh at your description of going through security with all your food. The last time my daughter left Mexico to go back home, she had a package of 10 home made flour tortillas that my neighbor makes. They are heavenly - so thin they are translucent. The guy searching luggage paused and looked at them and she said, "If you try to take those, you and I are going to eat every one of them right here and now." He laughed and put them back.

Have a safe trip - I guess we all have our Verizon horror stories. I won't bore you with ours. Suffice to say it will be a miracle if it works out on the first try.
 
OH MY GOSH. What a mess of bureaucratic idiocy. Good luck girl, I'll be thinking of you. Oh, and if you should decide that Florida is too chock full of parental units and sunshine and all that jazz...hop a plane up here with all that yummy stuff. I'm off all weekend and have a fresh end of prosciutto and some sambuca that I am going to be messing with. Join me!
 
I am the one who did James's divorce for him. LOL

How ridiculous that you had to turn the phone off and then back on. All our bills were in my name when James and I married, since I was already established in South Carolina and he moved down here. When he tried to change his driver's licence over to a South Carolina license, they wouldn't do it until he could show a bill in his name. We switched the phone bill over to his name, but fortunately we didn't have to go through that mess.

Have fun in Florida!

:)Barbara
 
I've missed ya too! I'm not one for reading anything longer than 5 sentences, but I have to say that I enjoyed reading where your life has taken you recently, although it does not sound so pleaseant for you.

I work for Verizon's competition... so I'm sure there are plenty of horror stories about my company!!!!
 
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