An Ugly Monday Already?

Thanks to the early morning downpour today’s commute in to work may have been the most stressful I have ever encountered. The rain didn’t slow people down much and lane changes were treacherous at best.

Things didn’t get much better upon arrival as I received an email from Amazon telling me that my account has been frozen due to a botched credit card fraud investigation. A few weeks ago when I confirmed a disputed purchase at Wal*Mart.com the credit card company also incorrectly reported an Amazon purchase as fraud and in turn Amazon has frozen my account. My attempt to clear things up by calling Amazon ended in complete frustration. My attempt to clear things up by calling my credit card company ended in a voice mail to the person responsible for investigating my case. Maybe Dave Ramsay has it right, dump credit and buy everything with cash?

Friday Night Was Right For Theatre
On Friday evening I drove down to Little Five Points to have some dinner (El Myr) before heading to Horizon Theatre for the performance of “Third.” The play was very entertaining and well acted, if not for the fact that the play’s run ended yesterday I’d recommend that you go see it.

Two funny things happened before the play.

As I was walking from Criminal Records (I purchased a magazine that I had intended to read during the hour wait I knew I’d have prior to the play’s start) I was seen by ITP-Reader Harold who was driving down the road. We exchanged pleasantries and kept it short because I thought that I’d see him at yesterday’s Black Sheep Hash. Such was not the case however. I sure hope that he went up to Fort Mountain to run the Mystery Mountain Marathon instead, because if he didn’t then I don’t know who he is any more.

I made in to the building which houses Horizon Theatre to find that they weren’t planning on opening the theatre until thirty minutes prior to the play’s start. With magazine in hand I wasn’t miffed and walked down one of the old school building’s hallways to find a comfortable seat. There’s a not-so-funny fact about old school buildings — their air conditioning left a lot to be desired. As I sat attempting to read I started to sweat, a feat that I pull off easily, but dislike immensely because I usually look like crap when I do (see also: “One of the many reasons I don’t dance”). I tweeted about my discomfort and was amused when I was subsequently followed by Horizon Theatre’s Twitter account and was assured that there would be sufficient air conditioning inside the theater.

ITP Flickr Pic
I did not put myself into situations conducive to photography this weekend.

Saturday Night Was Right For Music
On Saturday evening I decided to try a new (to me) restaurant before heading to meet ITP-Reader Randy’s brother Kevin at Masquerade for the Lucero show.

Dinner was had at DBA Barbecue where I had a two meat / two side plate consisting of three smoked chicken wings, two slices of beef brisket, four onion rings, and a cup of red beans and rice for $15. Even with a solid BBQ joint of Fox Brothers BBQ in my back pocket I wanted to branch out to see if DBA Barbecue was a competitor. Fox Brothers is still number one on my list. After dinner I immediately headed to SF Coffee for a coffee and dessert (tiramisu), and was also treated to a room full of pretty nerdy girls.

I met Kevin outside of Masquerade and when we entered one of the employees stopped me for a second and said “Normally we make people wearing STAFF shirts turn them inside-out, but yours is white so it should be okay.” I offered to turn my East Atlanta Beer Festival STAFF shirt (from a few years ago) shirt inside-out, but since he saw no need for me to do so I saw no need to get shirtless inside Masquerade. All night long I got weird looks from actual Masquerade staff members, but the funniest thing happened when one kid came up to me and asked if was okay for him to take his beer outside to go smoke. We all laughed when I admitted I didn’t know because I was not actually a member of the Masquerade’s staff.

Did you pick up on my subtle hint that Masquerade has banned smoking?!?! Woo Hoo! At one point one girl was smoking a cigarette and was asked by a real member of staff to put it out; I considered doing that but figured she’d never fall for my faux STAFF t-shirt.

As an added bonus the really wild, attractive, but highly tattooed (I think I counted only sixteen girls inside Masquerade who didn’t have tattoos — but they probably did under their clothing) and drunk bartender took off her bra and then flashed Kevin and me.

Yeah, I’ll say it was a fun night.

Sunday Night Was Right For TV
After thoroughly beating myself up hashing with the Black Sheep Hash I headed over to ITP-Readers Terri and Pat’s house where we were joined by ITP-Reader Tony for an incredibly delcious dinner and some The Amazing Race watching.

Last week I had to purchase a song as prescribed by ITP-Reader Stacy for her correct prediction about who would get eliminated. This week I was certain that the task would be repeated when my choice of Lance and Keri finished ahead of Terri’s selection (Mika/Canaan) as well as Stacy’s selection (Maria/Tiffany). I was only saved by Zev’s and Justin’s The Amazing Blunder of losing Zev’s passport. How one manages to lose a passport during The Amazing Race is beyond me. Even worse for Zev and Justin was that they had actually finished the leg of the race first, but the time spent searching for Zev’s passport sent them from first to last and eliminated them.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – frustrates and it’s only 8:30am on Monday
Current Music – listening to a Coverville podcast
Website Of The Day – I’m not saying that I’m starting a diet today, but if I were then I’d be referencing Spark People.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday: hashing, maybe 5 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 8 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 3, Carnivorous Days – 8
Marta Rides – 0

October Goals
– Not get fired from my job
– Take at least one photo every day
– Restart work on house, actually making progress this time (note: not successful during August)

2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]