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mandolin...well, I do now.
Had an appointment between 2 and 6 today for a tech to come in and fix the panel my coaxial cable was attached to. Not an emergency fix, but it had to be done, and I had to take my last three credit hours to do it. So I got home, changed, did laundry, packed a few more boxes, made dinner, re-checked the customer service line to ensure I had the right day, and no one came.
At 5:52, I called the customer service line. The CSR looked it up, probably silently cursed the computer system as we both waited, confirmed that the tech hadn't been there yet and called dispatch to find out what the hell was going on. Apparently, the amount of outages had all the techs running behind, and the tech hadn't gotten to me yet (and wouldn't, at this rate). The CSR said we could reschedule, and I pointed out that I'd used the last of my credit hours to wait for the tech and that I couldn't be home til 4:30 at the latest tomorrow since I was taking my car in for her 60,000 mile checkup. (She's not there YET, but I'm having it done now while I can pay for it and so they can investigate the twittering.)
So I have an after-5 appointment tomorrow. If the tech still doesn't show, I'm going to be back on the phone and being firm about how unacceptable this kind of thing. Not bitchy, not sucky, just firm. It's not the CSR's fault, it's not the tech's fault, it's the fault of management morons who think they can stretch a handful of technicians out over an area that needs twice as many available technicians to service the amount of customers they have in the time frame they give them.
I am so getting DSL when I move. Cable may be slightly faster, but dammit, I'm going to minimize how much I pay Comcast. (I may have to get cable TV with them eventually, but it's one less service.)
Where was I? Oh, yeah, the Wallflowers concert.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
violetbloom has already gone into great detail about the concert, but I'm still going to add my supplementary two cents.
I got to my place a few minutes before Lara did - apparently, for once traffic was actually moving on the Beltway around rush hour. Despite Jewel hiccuping once on the way home, we took my car into the Inner Harbor to park and get dinner. (Did I mention I named my car Jewel? Well, now I have.) Since there was a witness, my car behaved. We got into the Inner Harbor with relatively little trouble, although I went the wrong way at the fork AGAIN and accidentally got off Pratt Street, so we just parked in the Gallery before we could get turned around and get stuck heading for Caton Avenue in the wrong direction again. (Note to self: It's the RIGHT FORK, stupid!)
("Again" for me at least; I remember getting forced into the wrong lane when Nina and I were trying to get to Camden Yards last summer and having to get off on Caton Avenue and go all the way back through town to get to the game on time. I have yet to get that lost with Lara while driving. Yet.)
After dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (which needs to invest in a Splenda-made cheesecake recipe, since they have so many kinds already) and threatening bodily harm to pigeons who ventured too close to my feet, we headed for the Barnes and Noble. I realized as we walked along that I'd also left my earplugs in the apartment. *facepalm* After that, we went to try and find Ram's Head Live. Now I'd glanced at the map that told us where Ram's Head was, but I made a big mistake: I left it in the car. You can see where this is going.
We found the cheaper Pier V parking, but I somehow thought the map said that Power Plant Live! was across President Street from there. Fortunately, one of the cashiers at the Office Depot straightened us out before I led us into Little Italy by accident. So the detour probably made it worse on Lara's feet with all the unnecessary walking.
Still, we got there by 7:15, and I was positive that my aunt and uncle had beaten us there. Turns out I was wrong: as we people-watched from the railing, I spotted Aunt Vivi and Pete coming past the stage. So we got to holler and scream and wave our arms around and look silly to get their attention. :)
While the spot on the railing we snagged was a good spot - above the crush of people that would mob the stage when the Wallflowers came on, but still maybe 15 feet from the stage - Lara's feet were killing her, and we crashed up on the bleachers in the upper back while Anna Nalick came on. Fortunately, whoever built Ram's Head made sure that the upper bleachers could see over the lower rows below them (unless someone stood up), so we mostly had a good view. Until the Twit Twins showed up.
Okay, Ram's Head is a nice venue, worked out so you can get a view almost no matter where you stand or sit. But for safety concerns, they had to put a railing up beside the steps and landing leading up to the bleachers. The landing is NOT below the first row of bleachers. So the Twit Twins parked themselves at the left corner of that railing - completely blocking the view of the first row. This would not have been quite so annoying if not for the fact that in order to get the same exact view without blocking anyone, they could have moved three feet to the right. When I pointed them out to her, Aunt Vivi commented, "They shouldn't be there!" so it wasn't just me.
Then their visored boy toy showed up (I think he belonged to the one on the left, but I think they were both flirting with him), and he made things worse. See, the Twits were inconsiderate, but they were largely immobile; they stayed in the same place. Boy toy was shifting back and forth, turning this way and that, waving his cup of beer around, and every time you thought you could shift to see around him, he'd move again. I really wanted to pitch some ice cubes at him, but I didn't want to get kicked out before the Wallflowers came on. Security started eying Lara when she mentioned that she really wanted to take her shoes off, so they wouldn't tolerate me pitching ice cubes at idiots.
When the Wallflowers actually came on, I went back down to the railing (using the pretense of giving Aunt Vivi back her set list to squeeze in) for a couple songs. Around "Letters from the Wasteland," I started to feel the lack of earplugs and retreated to the bleachers where the bass wasn't as bad. The twits were still there. So, with everyone watching the Wallflowers, I tore up bits of a coupon I didn't need (on fairly stiff paper) and made little projectiles to pitch at Boy Toy when no one was watching. My aim sucked, but I did actually get one stuck in his collar. I think he was too drunk to notice.
During one of the louder songs (I think it was "The Difference" because I was singing along), Lara called Mikeito, got his voicemail, held up the phone towards the stage for a minute or two, then yelled, "I'm at a Wallflowers concert!" into the phone before hanging up. Ram's Head Live has a no photography policy, but so many people were breaking that rule and getting away with it I cursed myself for being a goody-two-shoes and leaving my camera at home. (Mom, don't say a WORD. You taught me too well.)
The twits finally went away, and after "One Headlight," Lara said she wanted to go back down to the railing. (I remember it was after that, because I remember seeing someone hanging off the railing waving her arms during that song, recognizing Aunt Vivi and cracking up.) Since Vivi and Pete were still there, it wasn't hard to reclaim our old spot. We'd heard Jakob giving the guy with the Bob Dylan shirt on a hard time, but we didn't know it was a Bob Dylan shirt until Aunt Vivi told us that.
They made their first exit shortly after we got down to the railing, but they did come out for encores after the crowd finally got loud enough - it took a little coaxing and shouts of, "It's not even 10:30 yet!" to get people yelling and cheering loudly enough. We were pretty much glued to the railing for the rest of the concert.
Despite my lack of sleep and Lara's poor feet, we made it back to the parking garage - taking the direct route this time. A woman with a child tried to ask me for money for McDonalds, but I truthfully told her that I had only enough money for parking. Even if she really did need the money - people with real need are also used as diversions or testing people by muggers and thieves. No.
So we found my car, and while Jewel didn't hiccup, the car treated Lara to that twittering rattle that I'd previously thought was my imagination. So, thinking that the Comcast tech might actually be able to come, I decided to schedule the car's 60,000 mile tune-up on Wednesday, since I had nothing planned but maybe a trip to Centennial Park to see Gaelic Storm.
It wasn't too hard to get out of town since Lara was there to point out that I was in the correct lane to get back on 395 for once. We talked about stupid drivers and how it must still drive Jakob Dylan nuts to be compared to his dad and how much fame must either be enjoyed by celebrities or drive celebrities crazy. (I still cringe every time I have to resort to pointing out that Jakob is Bob Dylan's son in order for people to recognize the band I was talking about. I had to do that this morning, in fact.)
I think we'd gotten onto 95 South when Mikeito called Lara back: "What was THAT?" :)
Ah, so much fun.
Oh, and I got the setlist off the website for those who care:
Empire of My Mind
Here He Comes (Confessions of a Drunken Marionette)
Letters From The Wasteland
We're Already There
Nearly Beloved
Closer To You
The Difference
Hand Me Down (Jakob on acoustic, Rami on keys)
How Good It Can Get (Jakob on acoustic, Rami on keys)
Sleepwalker (1/2 acoustic, 1/2 full band
I Am A Building
Back to California
One Headlight
Everything I Need
Encores:
Beautiful Side of Somewhere
The Passenger
Shy Of The Moon
Bring It On Home To Me
People Get Ready
Three Marlenas
Downloaded Rebel, Sweetheart on iTunes because I still had enough credit to cover it this morning. (The first word's a verb, for those who care.)
13 days til settlement.
17 boxes packed.
Time to go walk.
Had an appointment between 2 and 6 today for a tech to come in and fix the panel my coaxial cable was attached to. Not an emergency fix, but it had to be done, and I had to take my last three credit hours to do it. So I got home, changed, did laundry, packed a few more boxes, made dinner, re-checked the customer service line to ensure I had the right day, and no one came.
At 5:52, I called the customer service line. The CSR looked it up, probably silently cursed the computer system as we both waited, confirmed that the tech hadn't been there yet and called dispatch to find out what the hell was going on. Apparently, the amount of outages had all the techs running behind, and the tech hadn't gotten to me yet (and wouldn't, at this rate). The CSR said we could reschedule, and I pointed out that I'd used the last of my credit hours to wait for the tech and that I couldn't be home til 4:30 at the latest tomorrow since I was taking my car in for her 60,000 mile checkup. (She's not there YET, but I'm having it done now while I can pay for it and so they can investigate the twittering.)
So I have an after-5 appointment tomorrow. If the tech still doesn't show, I'm going to be back on the phone and being firm about how unacceptable this kind of thing. Not bitchy, not sucky, just firm. It's not the CSR's fault, it's not the tech's fault, it's the fault of management morons who think they can stretch a handful of technicians out over an area that needs twice as many available technicians to service the amount of customers they have in the time frame they give them.
I am so getting DSL when I move. Cable may be slightly faster, but dammit, I'm going to minimize how much I pay Comcast. (I may have to get cable TV with them eventually, but it's one less service.)
Where was I? Oh, yeah, the Wallflowers concert.
violetbloom has already gone into great detail about the concert, but I'm still going to add my supplementary two cents.I got to my place a few minutes before Lara did - apparently, for once traffic was actually moving on the Beltway around rush hour. Despite Jewel hiccuping once on the way home, we took my car into the Inner Harbor to park and get dinner. (Did I mention I named my car Jewel? Well, now I have.) Since there was a witness, my car behaved. We got into the Inner Harbor with relatively little trouble, although I went the wrong way at the fork AGAIN and accidentally got off Pratt Street, so we just parked in the Gallery before we could get turned around and get stuck heading for Caton Avenue in the wrong direction again. (Note to self: It's the RIGHT FORK, stupid!)
("Again" for me at least; I remember getting forced into the wrong lane when Nina and I were trying to get to Camden Yards last summer and having to get off on Caton Avenue and go all the way back through town to get to the game on time. I have yet to get that lost with Lara while driving. Yet.)
After dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (which needs to invest in a Splenda-made cheesecake recipe, since they have so many kinds already) and threatening bodily harm to pigeons who ventured too close to my feet, we headed for the Barnes and Noble. I realized as we walked along that I'd also left my earplugs in the apartment. *facepalm* After that, we went to try and find Ram's Head Live. Now I'd glanced at the map that told us where Ram's Head was, but I made a big mistake: I left it in the car. You can see where this is going.
We found the cheaper Pier V parking, but I somehow thought the map said that Power Plant Live! was across President Street from there. Fortunately, one of the cashiers at the Office Depot straightened us out before I led us into Little Italy by accident. So the detour probably made it worse on Lara's feet with all the unnecessary walking.
Still, we got there by 7:15, and I was positive that my aunt and uncle had beaten us there. Turns out I was wrong: as we people-watched from the railing, I spotted Aunt Vivi and Pete coming past the stage. So we got to holler and scream and wave our arms around and look silly to get their attention. :)
While the spot on the railing we snagged was a good spot - above the crush of people that would mob the stage when the Wallflowers came on, but still maybe 15 feet from the stage - Lara's feet were killing her, and we crashed up on the bleachers in the upper back while Anna Nalick came on. Fortunately, whoever built Ram's Head made sure that the upper bleachers could see over the lower rows below them (unless someone stood up), so we mostly had a good view. Until the Twit Twins showed up.
Okay, Ram's Head is a nice venue, worked out so you can get a view almost no matter where you stand or sit. But for safety concerns, they had to put a railing up beside the steps and landing leading up to the bleachers. The landing is NOT below the first row of bleachers. So the Twit Twins parked themselves at the left corner of that railing - completely blocking the view of the first row. This would not have been quite so annoying if not for the fact that in order to get the same exact view without blocking anyone, they could have moved three feet to the right. When I pointed them out to her, Aunt Vivi commented, "They shouldn't be there!" so it wasn't just me.
Then their visored boy toy showed up (I think he belonged to the one on the left, but I think they were both flirting with him), and he made things worse. See, the Twits were inconsiderate, but they were largely immobile; they stayed in the same place. Boy toy was shifting back and forth, turning this way and that, waving his cup of beer around, and every time you thought you could shift to see around him, he'd move again. I really wanted to pitch some ice cubes at him, but I didn't want to get kicked out before the Wallflowers came on. Security started eying Lara when she mentioned that she really wanted to take her shoes off, so they wouldn't tolerate me pitching ice cubes at idiots.
When the Wallflowers actually came on, I went back down to the railing (using the pretense of giving Aunt Vivi back her set list to squeeze in) for a couple songs. Around "Letters from the Wasteland," I started to feel the lack of earplugs and retreated to the bleachers where the bass wasn't as bad. The twits were still there. So, with everyone watching the Wallflowers, I tore up bits of a coupon I didn't need (on fairly stiff paper) and made little projectiles to pitch at Boy Toy when no one was watching. My aim sucked, but I did actually get one stuck in his collar. I think he was too drunk to notice.
During one of the louder songs (I think it was "The Difference" because I was singing along), Lara called Mikeito, got his voicemail, held up the phone towards the stage for a minute or two, then yelled, "I'm at a Wallflowers concert!" into the phone before hanging up. Ram's Head Live has a no photography policy, but so many people were breaking that rule and getting away with it I cursed myself for being a goody-two-shoes and leaving my camera at home. (Mom, don't say a WORD. You taught me too well.)
The twits finally went away, and after "One Headlight," Lara said she wanted to go back down to the railing. (I remember it was after that, because I remember seeing someone hanging off the railing waving her arms during that song, recognizing Aunt Vivi and cracking up.) Since Vivi and Pete were still there, it wasn't hard to reclaim our old spot. We'd heard Jakob giving the guy with the Bob Dylan shirt on a hard time, but we didn't know it was a Bob Dylan shirt until Aunt Vivi told us that.
They made their first exit shortly after we got down to the railing, but they did come out for encores after the crowd finally got loud enough - it took a little coaxing and shouts of, "It's not even 10:30 yet!" to get people yelling and cheering loudly enough. We were pretty much glued to the railing for the rest of the concert.
Despite my lack of sleep and Lara's poor feet, we made it back to the parking garage - taking the direct route this time. A woman with a child tried to ask me for money for McDonalds, but I truthfully told her that I had only enough money for parking. Even if she really did need the money - people with real need are also used as diversions or testing people by muggers and thieves. No.
So we found my car, and while Jewel didn't hiccup, the car treated Lara to that twittering rattle that I'd previously thought was my imagination. So, thinking that the Comcast tech might actually be able to come, I decided to schedule the car's 60,000 mile tune-up on Wednesday, since I had nothing planned but maybe a trip to Centennial Park to see Gaelic Storm.
It wasn't too hard to get out of town since Lara was there to point out that I was in the correct lane to get back on 395 for once. We talked about stupid drivers and how it must still drive Jakob Dylan nuts to be compared to his dad and how much fame must either be enjoyed by celebrities or drive celebrities crazy. (I still cringe every time I have to resort to pointing out that Jakob is Bob Dylan's son in order for people to recognize the band I was talking about. I had to do that this morning, in fact.)
I think we'd gotten onto 95 South when Mikeito called Lara back: "What was THAT?" :)
Ah, so much fun.
Oh, and I got the setlist off the website for those who care:
Empire of My Mind
Here He Comes (Confessions of a Drunken Marionette)
Letters From The Wasteland
We're Already There
Nearly Beloved
Closer To You
The Difference
Hand Me Down (Jakob on acoustic, Rami on keys)
How Good It Can Get (Jakob on acoustic, Rami on keys)
Sleepwalker (1/2 acoustic, 1/2 full band
I Am A Building
Back to California
One Headlight
Everything I Need
Encores:
Beautiful Side of Somewhere
The Passenger
Shy Of The Moon
Bring It On Home To Me
People Get Ready
Three Marlenas
Downloaded Rebel, Sweetheart on iTunes because I still had enough credit to cover it this morning. (The first word's a verb, for those who care.)
13 days til settlement.
17 boxes packed.
Time to go walk.
