NOTHING CATCHY, JUST AN UPDATE
My piece-of-shit computer is fading fast.

Yesterday I chaperoned a field trip for our students. I came home, shoved some food in my face, took some Remeron, and promptly collapsed.

Shortly after 1am I was jerked awake by the sound of my cell phone beeping. I had received a text message. It was from my computer geek friend whom I had told back at the end of July that I needed to replace my crap NOW. His text msg said that he & his friend might be able to swing by my place today to set up specifics. They also want me to write them a check so they can go out & purchase my new stuff.

Am I crazy, or is it just a little bit inconsiderate to wait until 1am the day you want to come over to tell me you want to come over?

It gets better. I initially told this friend that I had $600 to spend thanks to Uncle Sam's stimulus check. Shortly after I sent him the email that my stuff had to be updated ASAP, he sends me an email back saying that he's just a consultant, his friend is the engineer who hooks everything up, and he wants $150. My friend will be happy to take whatever I'm willing to offer him. I can't exactly pay his friend $150 & pay him less, now can I? So I agreed to pay them both $150.

Then my friend sends me an estimate of what my computer equipment is going to cost. Somewhere in the $850-1,000 range. Did I mention that my budget was $600? And if I'm paying them each $150, that knocks my budget down to $300?

So I sent out an email blast this morning to my friends asking if anyone knew a computer geek. One friend sent me a link to Gateway's site (I'll check it out at work where I have better internet service), another told me to go to Best Buy & the Geek Squad would help me.

If either one of these companies will send a geek out to my apartment to install, I'm going to go with it. And to hell with this "friend" of mine.

In other news, I have an appointment this week with a staffing agency. We'll see how it goes. But it doesn't look as though there will be a problem finding me a job that pays at least $40k/year. Let's just hope it's a job that doesn't destroy my sanity.
- posted by Pat @ 9:07 PM