ILLNESS

Friday, December 9, 2005

New Corpse

Inorganic Road Construction Under the Blue Heart Burn Shiny and Round.

Posted by Ann on 12/09/05@10:36 AM CST ..::Link::..Whisper or Scream?

Not that I MIND waiting until Monday...

...for my silver beads, but it's just odd. Checking FedEx's tracking hadn't shown an update on the package's destination for about 36 hours...that's a first. Sometimes I'll go to bed with the location still being in Cengkareng, Indonesia, and by the time I wake up, the package is already on the delivery truck enroute, having gone through the Memphis facility in the middle of the night. Sometimes I barely get out of bed and get dressed before the delivery person rings the bell! So I decided to give them a call. According to an international rep, it didn't pass security, so it was held in Indonesia an extra day until they verify it is in fact, a bunch of little silver Bali Beads for jewelry-making and not a scary metal object intended for nefarious purposes. That's also a first.

Sometimes I do worry that one day a package of Bali Beads will be met with a sorry fate somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, ending up in a strange jewelry design worn by a Tom Hanks character who talks to Soccer Balls named Wilson.

And while we're on the subject of tightening security measures, it was with that very order that I tried to pay online with my Mastercard and it got declined. WTF? I then attempted my Visa (I guess that 2nd credit card did come in handy, good thing I listened to Stan on that one) issued by the same bank, and it was accepted. No big whoop, I thought maybe it was just a glitch in the system. But yesterday, I tried to use the Masercard to pay for my new furnace and again, the transaction was declined! I couldn't use the other card for that one because the the furnace cost more than my credit limit on that card. This was getting absurd...I pay all my bills in full, the card hasn't expired, what was going on? And HOW inconvenient!

I called my credit card company and they put me through with a rep with a heavy Indian accent--but she also sounded a bit like Arianna Huffington or Zsa Zsa Gabor, although I suspect the rep was indeed Indian and not Greek or Hungarian. I couldn't understand her and had to keep asking her to repeat herself. She kept talking louder, not realizing that the volume was plenty loud, way more than plenty, thank you very much, it was her accent that I couldn't decipher. She said that large purchases are often declined for security measures.

WTF? What's the use of having a credit card then if I can't use it to make those large purchases? I kept going around with her about this, and she said if I need to make a large purchase, call them first to let them know so that they will allow the purchase. WTF? Isn't that a bit too...oh, I don't know, parental or something? "Hey dad, I'm gonna need that $4,000 for next semester's tuition now!" "OK, Wally, thanks for letting us know! Your mother and I will lift the hold on your account!"

One time after I made a large purchase, some credit card processor called *me* to verify I did indeed authorize that purchase. Actually, I thanked them for that. I think that was a good security measure. On the other hand, me having to call *them* BEFORE I make a purchase is a different matter. And I'll be put on hold for who knows how long? Better make sure I make those large purchases on weekends so that this doesn't kill my cellphone minutes.

Meanwhile, assholes out there are still able to buy my fonts through one of my vendors with a hijacked credit card number and the transaction *won't* get declined. So I get screwed both times, as a producer and a consumer.

Geez.

Is this world getting ridiculous with all the little security measures that don't actually stop "the bad guys" but just inconvenience us going about our legitimate business, or what?

The thing is, just what constitutes a large purchase? (I should've asked this of the CC rep, but I knew I wouldn't be able to understand what she said anyway) Although the furnace was $2600, which I would consider large, the Bali Bead purchase was only $578. So where does it end? Is $300 large? Is $100? Is $50? If cellphone minutes weren't an issue, and I was more obnoxious, I'd call them each time I make *any* purchase. "I'm in Target and I'm about to make a purchase that'l be around $110." "I'm going to make a $89 purchase through Amazon.com!" "I'm going to buy $33.74 at The Bead Bin, hope this will go through!"

Posted by Ann on 12/09/05@10:27 AM CST ..::Link::..Whisper or Scream?

Thursday, December 8, 2005

DREAM: Warning: Gross Content

Stan was out shovelling snow and he told me that there were a bunch of frogs and mice that had congregated on the sidewalk out back before we got the bad weather, and they had frozen to the ground. So when he was shovelling, he had to scrape the frozen mice and frog bodies off the sidewalk. Then, it was like it was summer and I was outside in my bare feet, remembering what he had told me. I looked on the sidewalk where I was walking, and sure enough, there were remains of scraped frog and mice corpses on the concrete. I started to freak out and step around them so I wouldn't touch the gross parts with my skin.

Posted by Ann on 12/08/05@09:26 AM CST ..::Link::..3 Screamers.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

DREAM: Scandnavian Restaurant

I know there was more to this dream than I can remember, but it's just not coming to me. The only part I can recall is I was sitting outside some second-story restaurant or cafe (it was like an open mall in a building in an old section of some city/town and the restaurant was on the second floor with a walkway by it). It was early in the morning, and before the restaurant opened. I don't think Stan was with me, but possibly some other people were, including Bill, but I can't recall for sure. The restaurant had some Swedish/Norwegian name (what is this with Swedishness and Bill in my dreams? The two are NOT related!). There was a cook-looking guy that walked into the restaurant. He looked more Russian than Scandinavian...he had short buzzed brown hair, a very round face, round bulbous nose, moustache and very ugly (Picture a swarthier, lechier, Russian version of The Muppet's Swedish Chef). He was leering at me and I was repulsed. There was also something about a film crew being there, and I didn't want to be part of it because no one was supposed to know that I was there.

---

A slight aside, and I've wondered this for over a decade, why doesn't Madison and this surrounding area have any Swedish/Norwegian/Danish restaurants? Or at least eat-in Bakeries? Danish Kringle is one of life's great pleasures! There's a Kringle bakery in Racine, and when I would visit there when I was young, my mom always bought Kringle. Some of the grocery stores here stock Racine Kringle. But why no Scandinavian restaurants? Supposedly the food is incredibly bland by American Standards, but then much American food is bland by other Standards (Asian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, etc....and often my own.) Once when Stan and I were guests at someone-we-used-to-know's family's T-Day dinner, we were served Lefse. Yes, it was a rather a pointless and tasteless item, but I suspect that other dishes prepared by good cooks could find a place in the dining appetite of this region. Or maybe because Scandinavian, especially Norwegian food, is so ingrained in the home culture here, people have no need for a restaurant that features that food. A Norwegian restaurant featuring food their families served would be as nightmarish for those people as it would be for me going to a frank 'n beans and overcooked cheap fish and meatloaf restaurant.

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I also remember a dream from yesterday: It was late Wednesday night and I suddenly realized we forgot to watch Lost.

Posted by Ann on 12/07/05@07:22 AM CST ..::Link::..12 Screamers.

Tuesday, December 6, 2005

DREAM with Cards and Frogs

I was in someone else's house, like one of Stan's relative's. There was a large family gathering, and cards were exchanged. All the cards were kept in drawers. I was in a room like a bathroom or a dressing room, and I was going through the drawers and throwing away some cards because they were in the way and I had to make room for other things. I was careful to only throw out cards that were given to me by my own blood relatives (hell, that'd be an easy job) so as to not offend anyone of Stan's relatives.

Also, I don't know if this relates to the above part of the dream or not, but I also dreamt about this place that is a reocurring dream. It's like a nature sanctuary or just a bunch of mudholes and frog ponds. I don't know of its exact location, like if it's in Colorado or Wisconsin, but it's definitely a cold climate. We get out and walk to it, and as we keep walking, the weather is getting warmer and warmer. Ponds start to appear on the ground, and the ground gets soft and boggy, sort of like the way the ground was in Massachusetts. It starts out sort of brown and yellow and cold becomes very green, and there are so many living things in the ponds, frogs, fish, etc. We walk down to the ponds in our bare feet.

Posted by Ann on 12/06/05@09:00 AM CST ..::Link::..5 Screamers.

Monday, December 5, 2005

Early Relationship DREAM

I dreamt that Stan and I were travelling in a strange area that was some weird hybrid of the country surrounding Madison and Fort Collins. It was getting late at night, and for some odd reason, it was as if Stan and I were still in a very early stage of our relationship. When we were to arrive in the town, Stan would stay at some friend's house, but I suggested he stay at my parents' house, on the couch. He was reluctant, but as we drove and it got later and later, he decided to take me up on the offer. Both of us were very happy about that (not because he'd be staying, or I'd be staying, at my parents, but because it meant our relationship was progressing. It felt very late 1982.

Posted by Ann on 12/05/05@07:45 AM CST ..::Link::..2 Screamers.

By Ann @ 10:36 AM CST:12:09:05 ..::Link::..Whisper or Scream?

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