New Job

Back to the rat race, I go. I start my new job as a "financial analyst", my usual title is "staff accountant". I hope I like it. I hope there will be things for me to do that are important and that people will use the information that i produce and not just generating a bunch of reports that get filed somewhere. In accounting at least i knew that journal entries are a necessity. And i have to be there at 8am. Grrrr... that is so early and it is going to be so cold outside. Okay, I am done complaining. It is time that i went back to work and get back to a normal life.

My check!

The Baltimore City Finance department sent me a check for reimbursement of my bogus parking ticket! I am so pleased, I wasnt sure that this day would come.

$367.00 was refunded to me- after I fought an abandoned vehicle ticket on my own car (used daily). I was told NOT to pay the ticket because I would never get my money back by the girl at the Finance department but it took 2 years to get a court date and they had a "flag" on my car and I couldnt get my registration renewed. So a $152.00 ticket turned into a $367.00 bill and I never thought that I would get it back.

But, 3 months after the court date and my "not guilty" verdict- a nice little surprise was in my mailbox. Oh, I cherish the little victories in life!

Computer meltdown and short bangs

I decided that my computer needed a "clean install". Okay, I am no techie. But my computer was running so slow and I had tried everything. Deleting temp internet files daily. Scanning for viruses. Using multiple spyware removers. Using Regicure software to "clean the registry". I tried a clean boot, taking off unused programs off the startup disk and unistalling unnecessary programs from the control panel. I even did a repair install. I tried everything.

So, I just did it. I printed out two seperate but different, sets of instructions of how to do a clean installation of Windows XP and crossed my fingers.

First, you have to delete the partitions that are on your hard drive. What I am assuming that I did was remove all software from my computer. What you have left is unformated space. Than you have to reboot from the XP disk by changing the boot order to "boot from disk" instead of boot from hard drive. Then you follow a list of instructions, and I had about 30 error messages pop up in the process. I finally got windows back up and running on the computer after a few hours when I realized that my Dell computer need all of the drivers to be reinstalled.

That is when cut my bangs.

See, I had a new haircut, a couple of "swooping" bangs, like the movie stars according to my hair dresser.. but they were poking me in the eye when I am getting frustrated with the computer. So, in the heat of the moment, out came the scissors and SNIP! I have the bangs of a first grader. I hate them. They stick out when I wake up in the morning. They feather to the side, half way throughout the day. They hate me, I hate them.

And the computer has been reset. We downloaded (okay, not "we", my boyfriend, a law student at UB downloaded the drivers at school the other night) the drivers and although the computer does not have anything on it besides windows and comcast internet- it is fast. Super fast. The screen is a little distorted due to the fact that we can seem to get the monitor driver on the computer, we still have the default monitor, but everything is working great. So the hair cutting was for nothing. Just a momentary freak out over nothing. And I have a constant reminder of it when I feel my furry little bangs on my forehead.

Driving- lets make it safer to drive.....

I know that I have an unpopular opinion about driving. But I dont care, if we all took more care driving, less people will die in car accidents. That is a huge deal. So little can be given up in order to receive so much, in my opinion.

For one- no eating, applying make-up, texting, talking on the phone, reading, computing while driving. Period. You are operating a large piece of deadly machinery at rapid speed. Not the time to apply mascra, or text your friend about what you are wearing to the party tonight. Those things are not important while you are driving. Driving is important.

No speeding. Okay, you are not supposed to speed but a $1,000 ticket for 10 miles an hour or more, will deter speeding. Double the fine for out of state speeders. Dont come into Maryland and speed on our roads.

Drinking and driving will cause you to loose your license for one year and 6 months in jail. No pass, no PBJ, no fancy lawyers can save you. If you drink and drive, you will have a mandatory mininum of 6 months in jail on work release.

Teenagers will not drive at 16. (Come on now, that is crazy, how stupid are we at 16!!!) They can have a learners permit at 15 and 1/2 and then they must log in a certain amount of hours of driving with parents, verified by parents by a signed form, until they can apply for their drivers license at 18 or at high school graduation. Teenagers do not have the maturity needed to drive a vehicle and the school bus can get them to the one place they need to go. Do you know how many accident this will prevent? Insurance will go down.

This are just some of my ideas. Maryland could be the place where driving is the least dangerous in the country if we go for these high standards. I think that we would be giving up so little and gaining so much in return.

The Wire

We just re-watched the entire first season of The Wire, now that it is on Comcast's Hbo on Demand. Dee, WeeBey, Avon, Stringer, Poot, Bodey, are all still in running the towers and the low rises. It has been awhile since I have seen season one- after seeing season four, in which the real young kids are the focus, you can see how they probably started out. I wonder if the characters are as interesting and textured as they are depicted in the show. Probably not. But maybe a few of them are. There might be a Bunk in the police department or a Omar out on the streets. I have known some characters in my lifetime, that is fo sho. :)

Baltimore Parking Tickets Stink

I am still waiting in the mail for my refund of $386 from the Department of Finance of Baltimore City. Gee, even the judge told me not to hold my breath. His exact words were "allegedly, you will be receiving a check from the department of finance. Allegedly." Whatever that means!

See, I received an "Abandoned Vehicle" ticket for parking my little Integra in the public lot behind my house. There are no signs, no restrictions on parking in the lots over in Brewer's Hill. But, because my neighbors were not happy with the fact that I made it home from work before they did, and took the spot that is closest to both of our houses, they called the Baltimore Parking Authority on me. Well, someone called, and I have my money on my neighbors that glare at me from time to time.

So a parking attendant came out, put a $152.00 ticket on my car, during a SNOW storm, and when I didn't move my car during the 48 hour period that the ticket was on the dash, she gave me the ticket. I didn't see the ticket because it was a little wet piece of paper under 3 inches of snow.

So.... I called the court house when I petitioned the court for a date, and they told me to call the Department of Finance, to see if I should pay the ticket or just wait until my court date to resolve it. The girl on the phone told me that if I paid the ticket, my case would be closed, so do not pay the ticket. And fines started accruing. And accruing. Until they had a flag on my vehicle and I could not get my registration renewed. So, I paid the $386 that had accrued.

Then I got a notice that I missed my court date! What?! I never got a notice! So I called the court, and they said I could ask for another court date, but that nothing was guaranteed. They asked me why I had not called sooner! Like it was my fault for not checking on the status of the ticket sooner. So, I went down to District Court 1, in Curtis Bay and filled out a petition. Then I heard nothing. No reply. A month later, I went down there again, and filled out a second petition. A few weeks later, I received a "petition granted" form and a promise that a court date would be soon. Then a few days later, I received a "petition denied" from my second petition! I again, called the court, and they said that I would get a court date most likely. Most likely?

A court date did arrive in the mail. About 8 months later for a date 4 months later. I still didn't know if I was going to get my money back from the city, because I was told not to pay it.....
Court was scheduled for this past summer, and the judge was kind. I sat there for hours, I was one of the last called for trial, listening to people with parking tickets for vehicles that were stolen or sold. Others had parking tickets because of bad neighbors, like myself. Other people had parking tickets because of broken meters and missing tags, etc. When it came my turn, I just told him about the weather, the neighbors, the soaking wet ticket and he pronounced me "not guilty!" Man, I know that it is a small victory, but it felt good.

So here I am... waiting for me check... trying not to hold my breath like the judge said....

The Baltimore Cat

I can't name my blog Baltimore Cat without actually giving homage to the meow-meow that is the inspiration for the name. This is my kitty- she is friendly and sweet. I like to believe that she is the most popular cat on our block. She loves to hang out in the front window and watch the neighbors get into their cars. When it is nice outside, I open the windows and she perches on the sill and greets everyone that walks by.

Our little social butterfly....

I wonder where we are going to go next. It has to be someplace interesting. Other planets do not have the life that we have that we know of. If we think about our world in terms of atoms, chemicals, clay, water, minerals, our planet is rich in life and history. We have animals, insects, plants and humans running around together in on a surface that changes from pole to pole.

Hanging out over in Highlandtown. well, they call it Brewer's Hill but ask anyone who has been here more than 5 years and they will tell you that "Foster avenue is Highlandtown, hon." welcome to Baltimore.

My neighbors on our block have finally become friendly with us. They didn't acknowledge our existence when we moved here in 2004 until this year, i guess we are a pleasant alternative to the group of wild kids that were squatting in a rowhome on Fagley last winter. Maybe they just take awhile to warm up to newcomers. I guess if i lived in this city my whole life i might be the same way. Maybe.

Costa Rica was my first trip out of the country, the adventure was exhilarating. I landed into San Jose by myself and cabbed it to the Pacific coast were i met my girlfriend from elementary school. She was standing in the middle of Jaco, waiting for me to arrive. We then took this plane ride over the ocean, and this was the first time i laid eyes on the Pacific.