Law school, Best Buy, and other things that made me almost vomit…

So this past week has been what can best be described as the week of the nearly-nervous-breakdown. One the one hand, there was a wonderful, new, and exciting experience. On the other, there was Best Buy, doing there best to try and get me to unleash the hounds of hell on their punk-ass employees. Here are the stories, condensed as much as possible.

Law School -

This week was officially my first week of classes at Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis. That’s right, after months of waiting, of saying, “I’ll BE a law student”, I can now officially say that “I AM a law student”. It’s be exciting, but nerve racking at the same time. Trying to be as prepared as possible, reading tons of cases, trying to meet people and get to know new folks, it’s all been just kinda of nuts. After three years of working in the real world, it’s very weird to be nothing but purely a student again. Still, I’m excited beyond all comprehension and I’m ready to try to do the best I possibly can.

Best Buy -

I don’t even know how to tell this story in a quick manner, but I’ll try. Last Wednesday, I went in to purchase a new computer. i already knew the model I wanted, and went straight to it. When Holly and myself got to the model I wanted, there were two price labels in front of it – one said $849, the other said $699. Obviously, I was excited that it might be only $699, so I asked a worker, “Hey, is this computer here only $699?”. He replied , “Ummm, yeah, I think so.” “You’re sure, this one right here?” “Ummm,…yeah, that’s it, it’s an older model of the same thing…I think” “Well, if it is, and it’s $699, then I want it.” “You want me to just get it, then” “Yes, I do”

So, he gets it for me, I decline for them to set it up for me (which I thought would be fine, because I’m not an idiot…this would later come back to haunt me), and Holly and myself head on home. I don’t open till the next day, and only briefly. When I do open it, though, I think to myself that something looks different. I decide it’s just buyers remorse, and that everything is fine.

Friday morning, I go to turn it on and set it up…and Windows XP Professional starts to boot up. Hmmm, that’s odd, because this was supposed to have Vista on it. So I try to call HP, and that gets me NOWHERE. So I’m agitated now, it’s not picking up our wireless, and I still can’t get over the fact that it doesn’t look like the one I pick out. I tell Holly that we’ll take it to the geek squad, and that night we proceed to Best Buy. We go to the one closer to us, which is actually not the one we purchased it from. The geek squad guy there proceeds to turn on the computer and tell me he has never seen anything like this.

That’s never good. He tells me that there is no way it should have Windows Professional XP on it, and that HP wouldn’t do that. To make it better, the model number on the computer is NOT the model number on the box OR my receipt. Yeah, you see where this is going. We then take it to the store we actually bought it from. There geek squad guy comes to the same conclusion. This leads to the manager, James, coming over. We tell him the story, and at the same time, we walk over to the computer floor models. I show him the model I wanted – definitely NOT the one I received. About a two inch wider screen makes it fairly obvious. So now, James goes back to make some calls. While he’s gone, i look at the price tags. The $699 has been moved down one to another computer, and the one I wanted has the $849 alone in front of it. The problem is, that the dimensions it says can’t be right.

James comes back, and proceeds to basically insinuate that there is no way HP would send them a computer that had XP on it, and because it’s a “clean install”, that means someone took it out of the store, wiped it, and put this OS on the computer. Yup, you see where this is going. He never proceeds to say I did anything…he just tells me, “My gut tells me that this is on the up and you’re not trying to pull anything.” Why, because you’re brain is telling you I did???? Screw off you pompous bastard! HP never does this??? Well, they did this time, so you better take that 100% certainty out of that statement. When I point out to him the disparities on the tags, he looks at them and says, “yeah, neither of these tags is for this computer, this is $899″. So why was EITHER of them there, James?

To sum this up, they took back the deformed computer, exchanged it for mine and the $200 difference. I called Best Buy HQ, chewed someone out, and got a $75 gift card to me. That’s what my rage is worth, I suppose.

Most of you know, I’m pretty slow to anger. Actually, very slow to anger. Best Buy, they magically found the anger button fairly quickly.

That’s all for now, kids. One love to you all, kids. Holla.

My beef with Tyra

In today’s media-obsessed culture, there seem to be a few topics that get constant attention every few weeks. Currently, presidential politics is at the forefront. The economy is getting a lot of looks, with the weakening housing sector. Every few weeks, though, the issue of the growing waistlines of Americans gets the spotlight. Its usually the same: kids are getting fatter, more people are having gastric bypass, more people are at risk of a heart attack, etc. Unfortunately, I think the constant exposure to it has almost desensitized most people to the realities of these stories. These are very real, very serious problems. We are getting fatter, and if we don’t do something, America will have some major problems in the future.

Just think about the basic math. Unhealthy people are more likely to have medical issues (i.e. heart conditions, stroke, joint problems). These medical issues require them to go to the doctor more often, thus placing an extra tax on the medical profession. That, in the end, comes back to the insurance industry, your own insurance rates and premiums, and eventually a chain reaction that causes medical and health insurance to rise for all in the country.  We as people, though, don’t want to have to face that fact. We dont want to constantly pay attention to the fact that most of us could use to lose a few pounds. We feel ok today, so what’s the big deal? I should be able to live how I want to live, that’s my right as an American!

Here is where my beef with Tyra comes in. The Tyra I speak of is, who else, Tyra Banks. She has spent a lot of time on her day-time talk show recently promoting body image. Her goal is to try to make woman happy with themselves and their bodies. This in its self is a noble cause. My problem starts, though, when she starts to help very overweight woman feel its ok to be overweight at an unhealthy level (or on the verge of being an unhealthy level). Recently, she had a woman on who was pretty much what any doctor would call overweight. The woman exclaimed, “You know Tyra, I like being a big woman, I’m happy with it, and the men like it too, OK?” Tyra exclaimed, “You go GIRL! Preach it! Love yourself, ladies!”

This is just crazy to me! What if we had some smokers on a show. The smokers said, “hey Tyra, I’m happy being a smoker, and my husband likes it too. OK??” If Tyra encouraged her and backed her up on national TV, the media would go nuts. Why? Because smoking is dangerous. It’s dangerous to yourself and to other people. But so is being overweight!!!! The stress you put on your body after so many years leads to COUNTLESS medical issues that can arise. Even more, your eventual dependence on medical treatment and help makes you in the end become a burden on the system as a whole – i.e. other people. So why is it ok to be overweight and happy but not be a smoker and be happy? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

I apologize for the excessive exclamation points.  Also, don’t be confused and think that I am calling for all women to be “model” size, to all be size 2’s and 4’s. I realize that women come in all shapes and sizes and can be beautiful in many forms. My problem is that many people, men and women included, use being happy with their weight as an excuse to slide from a slightly bigger, yet healthy, size into a weight range that starts to put unhealthy strains upon their body. Its the unhealthy people that are still claiming there right to happiness that I have my issues with.

As many know, I have my own issues from the past with being overweight. I was 255 pounds by my freshman year of college. I made the decision that I didn’t want to die of a heart attack at 30. So I made the life changes necessary to get into a healthy shape. So why is it ok for everyone else to have an excuse? CNN recently had a girl on who’s mother took her to Mexico to get a lapband inserted. She’s 12 and was 200. The doctors here wouldn’t let her because she needed to first go through lots of psychiatric and dietary regimens before they’d resort to a lapband. The mother said, “Well, I know she’s a compulsive eater, we don’t need a psychiatrist to tell us that, so I went ahead and helped her get it done.”  Wow is all I can say.

Thoughts at the closing bell:

• The Tigers are just playing horrendous ball, no excuses needed.
• I’ve gotten the syllabus for my first two classes. Dear lord baby jesus, please save me.
• Headed to the sister-in-laws place this weekend, then the fantasy football draft on Sunday. I’m ready, I can feel it.
• The Indiana State Fair has officially started. Fried Snickers, anyone?
•  The market has been on a crazy ride since last September, why is everyone so surprised to see a correction occurring now? That said, Countrywide is looking to be in for a big hurt.
• We went to “All that Jazz” at the Indianapolis Zoo last night. I know jazz at the zoo sounds off, but we actually had a blast.

Thats all for now. One love to you all.

The mother comes, the mother leaves.

Well, in a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am of a weekend, my mother was here and gone quicker than I could imagine. It was a really fun weekend, and it was great to spend some time with her. When you live over 13 hours away (yeah, I could fly, but I have you ever tried to book a flight to Mobile? EXPENSIVE) you just don’t get alot of chances to see each other. So all in all, I was glad she could come up, and hopefully it won’t be a whole year before I get to see her again.

She came in Thursday night, and we got her settled in. Since Holly had her pediatrics rotation test Friday morning, Thursday night was just mom and me. So we headed to Buca di Beppo for dinner, and then stopped for dessert at the South Bend Chocolate Cafe. Friday morning we just kinda took it easy, going to Wal-Mart to print out some pictures for her from the wedding. After that, Holly met up with us once she was finished, and we all went to get pedicures.

Yeah, I get pedicures. Got a problem with that. It makes my feet feel good and frankly, they look better than most guys. So stick that in your pipe, manly-men.

Friday night, we headed down to Holly’s parents place for dinner. We stayed the night, and the next day got up and went to Oliver Winery for a free tour and wine tasting. The highlight, you ask? Holly’s hilarious grandmother having a bit more wine than she’s used to and saying things like “Wow, this place sure is CLEAN. It’s great knowing I’m drinking some good, clean, wine.” Absolutely hilarious. We came home Saturday night, went to church on Sunday morning, and then to Uncle Tom’s for swimming and dinner. Then, this morning we had some coffee, and around 11:30 I sent my mother on her way to around Louisville to see my cousin Sara. Hopefully, We’ll get down to Mobile soon to repay the visit.

Thoughts at the closing bell:

• It’s a Monday night, and there is NOTHING on TV. It’s just sad the crap that’s on here. I’m watching a rerun of the Colbert Report from Aug. 1st, and I’m pretty sure it’s the best thing on. I’m about as burnt out on Reality TV as I could be at this point. Bring back sitcoms, please.
• Looking around at some of the relationship problems that friends and brothers have had in recent months, it just makes me love and appreciate my wife that much more.
•  The Fantasy Football draft is this Sunday. I’ve got the draft order prepared, I’ve gotten myself into a better drafting position after some trading, and I think I’m pretty ready to build another Championship team.
• The Tigers are scaring the mess out of me right now. Get it together guys, seriously.
• To answer the most common question right now: Yes, I’m nervous for law school to start.
• Saw “The Pursuit of Happyness” last night. Should have called it “The Pursuit of Two Hours of Depression and Five Minutes of Happyness”

One love to you all, holla atcha boy.

It’s not that nothings been going on…but nothings been going on.

So I have not made a post in a few weeks. Almost a month. It’s not that nothing’s been happening in my life, but I’ve just found myself actually busy enough in the day (unemployed, no less) that I’ve just not found the time to sit down and write an actual post. Well, the buck stops here!

Right now, as I type, my mother is now here in Indianapolis with us. She came in this afternoon and will be up here till Monday morning. It’s pretty exciting, this is the first time she’s been up here since Holly and myself got married. So, I took her to Buca di Beppo tonight and then to the South Bend Chocolate Cafe. We’ll go down to Holly parent’s this weekend and take her to the Oliver Winery. All in all, it should be a really good time to spend some QT with my mother.

This past weekend was Holly and me’s one year anniversary (que the trumpets). I took her to Cincinnati for the weekend, we had dinner at a really nice restaurant. There were carraige rides, wedding cakes, big gifts, and much more. I’m going light on the details for sake of it being alot to type, but needless to say, she was very happy and gave the weekend a huge thumbs up. After many weeks of planning, it was more than worth it.

Thoughts at the closing bell:

• The Tigers are in first, so are the Cubbies. Buckley, that World Series trip might be on after all.
• I’m about to wrap up my last MBA class of the summer. At that point, it’s a waiting game till law school starts.
• 13% of the bridges in the US are in worse condition that the one that just collapsed in Minneapolis. That’s a horrible thought.
• Russia has planted a flag at the bottom of the artic ocean. Many people are thinking China should be  our biggest concern. Don’t overlook the bear above her.
• Is there ANY republican worth voting for? Yikes.

One love to you all. Holla.