Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

I got some great gifts for my birthday. My parents got me a real, dedicated GPS. Most people use it on trips. I use it to get through a normal day. My brain is good at many things, and pretty freakin’ flawed at others – ESPECIALLY directionality.

My friends Ayse and David got me the most fitting t-shirt ever. They said it was very me, and I totally agree. Since I got it, my new favorite thing to say is, “Hey! Let’s go do fun stuff!”

Jake’s gift to me was so great! Well, actually, there were two. The BIG one was a two-day trip to Charleston. I’d never been, and we had the best time. The gift I was thinking of was the framed picture of us. It’s a picture Andy took and that I edited originally, only I didn’t have a large version of my edit anywhere, so Jake had to emulate my edit as best as he could. He did a great job. And it was just sweet as hell to give me that. Yay for Jake!

Me Singing Rejoice from The Messiah with the Carolina Ballet from abbyladybug on Vimeo.

I did some singing this week for the first time in forever. Man, it stressed me out. Not a perfect performance, but definitely acceptable. I feel pretty proud that I didn’t completely blow it! My parents are in town and came to see. Jake was there, as were his parents. Lalitree and John came. Shannon came and brought Brian’s mom. LOTS of my peeps made it out. Two more performances to go.

Hope you had a fine turkey day. We spent our day with my friends Roz and David and their family, as well as a visit with Jake and his family. A great day overall.

The obligatory Waffle House trip. My favorite waitress took this one for us! Can you believe my parents went back the next day for more?!

I’ve been meaning to blog about this for forever, but I just haven’t had the time. I did, however, get around to writing a short letter of complaint to Verizon regarding the version of Verizon Navigator created for Blackberries. It’s godawful, and I don’t see how they can’t know that. Here’s what I said:

I bought a Verizon Blackberry instead of an iPhone because I loved the VZ NAV software I’d used with my LG phone so much. I got the Blackberry and was brought back several builds to Verizon Navigator version 2.9 (having used version 4+ on my old LG phone). Once the NAV software finally DID upgrade a few months after I received my Blackberry, it was TERRIBLE. There’s a 30 second splash screen (hello, I’m LOST!); frequent lack of contact with satellites; when it DOES work, there’s a time lag meaning I miss turns; and no text prediction (I type in “RAL” and even though every place I go is in Raleigh, your software can’t predict the second half of that word in the city field!). Was this build even beta tested? I am extremely disappointed and regret even getting the Blackberry. I loved VZ NAV so much, and you’ve really blown it with this build. I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time and money on this product, and before, I was preaching the wonders of it to EVERYONE. A product this flawed should never have been released. I’ve now bought an external Garmin GPS for my car and have uninstalled the VZ NAV from my Blackberry. I expect others will do the same if you don’t improve the performance of this product VERY soon. I’m a big Verizon fan, but this was a huge misstep for you.

One thing I noticed when rewatching my video is that I failed to mention that this version I’m demonstrating in the video is actually the latest UPDATE of VZ Navigator. Yes, I had that v. 2.9 before, but I did upgrade a couple of months ago, as soon as that software was available.

NC still hasn’t been called, and it’s 8:30am the next morning, but I have hope. Obama and his campaign won an incredibly well-oiled ground game here in my state. It was something to see, because it felt like Barack, Michelle, and Joe were here every other day. There were Obama-related events here constantly, and many of my friends were heavy volunteers throughout the campaign. NC is up 11,000 right now. It’s not enough to call, but even though Obama has won the nation, it’s important to a LOT of us that he wins NC. We worked hard for it. We want it.

Click for a Large view

That map is what I fell asleep to, and it’s the same map I woke up to. From the NC Board of elections: Obama/Biden (DEM), 49.67%, 2,108,777 votes
McCain/Palin (REP), 49.40%, 2,097,531 votes

Come on, NC. I wonder if there will be a recount.

Take a look at some wonderful images my friend Massimo captured in downtown Raleigh. He must be thrilled, as he can’t vote in this country.

One more thing: I’m thrilled Libby Dole lost to Kay Hagen after that tacky “Godless” ad. That was tacky, tacky, tacky. People who hit below the belt shouldn’t win.

And last, a stupid video Jake and I made last night at our election watching party before the election was called:

Props to Jake for the title. He was singing Paint it Black this morning, but with the word blue. Clevah!

—

Update:

Halle-freakin-lujah!