All The Luck - February 11, 2008

This weekend I slept.

I broke all kinds of personal records over the last two days: hours awake; hours asleep; percentage of time spent drinking wine with a professor. Yeah, I broke some records, alright.

Friday night I went to sleep at 11:45PM. I woke up Saturday at 5:15PM. I did not have much time to enjoy my incredible 17.5 hours of slumber, as I was slated to be at a dinner with my professor at 6:00PM. I did not think to set my alarm to wake up, because I did not believe there to be a need to assure I would be awake. Apparently, there was a good reason; a reason that made me run through my house in an effort to get ready to go in the blink of an eye. I was running late.

I have had many meals and meetings with professors, but this was very different than that with which I had become accustomed.

Besides the fact that everything was surreal (it felt like one of those times where I got home from school and fell asleep, and woke up a few hours later: when I awoke those times, I thought I slept through the very next day; this time I actually did sleep through the very next day) the conversation was much more intense and amusing. Not only did the professor persuade all six of us in attendance that the world was flat, and not globular, but, for the first time, I accidentally made reference to a sexual act by its name. The slang for oral copulation never sounded worse, as if that is possible. To compound the situation, one of my classmates became very inebriated from the fantastic wine we were served, and made it a point to bring the professors attention to the sexual reference by saying "I can't believe I just heard H say _______!"

Thank you Ms. S, I shall not soon forget your deed! It was all fine, though.

Anyhow, I thought that there would be no way I would fall asleep when I got home from the dinner. I was wrong.

I got home, got in bed, and slept another 14-plus hours. When I looked at this last week before it happened, I had no idea that it would leave me this drained. And yet, all I can think about is more sleep.

This morning swiftly approached my sleep quenched soul. The loud beep of my alarm was a cruel sound that left me no choice but to get on my way to school.

One class was all that today brought.

I did not check the weather before I left my house this morning. I did not think it was going to be too cold outside. As with most things, I was wrong. The wind brought the temperature to an astonishing nine degrees. I thought my face was going to fall off; never mind my sandal-clad feet.

Property was as dissatisfying as I have come to expect it to be. Estates, wills, trusts, and plain property-based law can be the goldmine for another to trudge. I'll stick with something else.

After the class ceased, I rushed to my car and zoomed back to the town in which I reside. I had a dentist appointment to take care of my teeth. I had to threaten them over the phone to give me an appointment today. They put off finishing my other tooth problem for so long that the tooth started to have new problems. Luckily, my threat and thank tactics paid off with a fantastically quick appointment. I wanted to schedule my next few visits, and as it turns out, they had an opening later today for a check-up and normal cleaning.

I had a three-hour window to spend my time pondering life, so I decided to tackle another issue I had been having: my phone bill. Basically, I got a nicer phone, and the idiots at customer service added a new line of service without my knowing. When I received my next bill, I noticed the new line and the exorbitant charges, and called them up. They removed the charges, but not the line of service. I had the same problem the next month, and they did the same stupid thing the next month. Finally, after this occurred three times, I wanted to make sure everything was removed. When I talked to them, they said they could remove it, but that I would have to pay a termination fee. I told them that I would be agreeable to a termination fee I had agreed to the contract in the first place.

They then told me that by using my phone, I agreed to their terms of service and their contract. I replied that not only am I on a month-to-month plan, but I have not used even one minute on the line I want off my plan, that I never asked for in the first place. Girl on the line told me (when she found out I was a Law Student) that I should know that when I use a service I agree to the provider's terms and contract. I basically gave her the "what-for" textbook response and told her to do two things. (1) She was to go find anything that shows I agreed to a new contract; and (2) Transfer me to her supervisor. After a 20 minute wait, the supervisor told me that I would have to either live with the over 150 dollars of overcharged bill, or pay them back for the phone discount. I told her that I am the one who has an even better set of options to give her. Either she can be reasonable and credit me back the over-charges on my account, or I can file a small claims action for the fraudulent charges and my time. I explained to her that her corporate attorneys probably charge somewhere over 300 dollars per hour, and that my even filing a complaint in court would cost her company more than that which I am seeking to reply. I even added the fact that my evidence was going to include the phone records that her own company supplied me. Oh, the irony. She said "see you in court." Then, she hung up.

I love customer service.

After having a wonderful time pointing out inadequacies in their logical thinking and deductive reasoning skills, I went back to the dentist.

After the cleaning I went back to school for a meeting, after which I came back home to tackle stupid assignment for dumb class.

My life is hectic. However, it does provide me a lot of entertainment.

What more could I ask for?

In other news, the organization at whose interview I thought I performed miserably called two of my three references. I have not before had a possible employer call the references I supplied. I hope this is a good thing. It definitely cannot be bad. Stay tuned for periodic updates.

"Some guys have all the luck;
Some guys have all the pain;
Some guys get all the breaks;
Some guys do nothing but complain."
- Rod Stewart