Tried to Rip Me Off!

AEP is my electric company. My May-June bill was about $100. I thought it was a little high since my utility bill usually averages $35 a month but I figured the hike was because of running the a/c a few days out of that month. Keep in mind summer in Columbus is about 85º/65º so you can get away with opening windows. Then the bill for June-July came in a few days ago & it was $133! Now I was really pissed. I'm barely home during the day & I'm out most weekends & since it's cool at night, I practically did not run my a/c the entire month. So it didn't make sense for the current bill to be higher than the last month's when I'd used the a/c.

So I called AEP customer service & told them why I thought my bill was too high. Then the heifer told me with attitude, "well, I live in Columbus too & I know I was running my a/c the entire month. It was at least 98º on average everyday so there's no way your a/c could've been lower this month than last." Picture steam coming out of my ears. Trying to tell me that my bill is justified because she had her a/c running 24/7 so similarly, mine must've been running . . . who hires these idiots? But I resisted getting into a pissing match with her. She went on to tell me that my current bill was estimated so to go outside & get a reading from my meter. So I did & you know what the b* told me? "Well that reading is too low. There's no way you could have used such a little amount of energy." Unbef*&%$?#lievable. So I hang up the phone but called right back & spoke to someone else. Told them what had gone down & this new person said he'd send me a card in the mail that has little dials on it so I could draw the arrows as they appear on the meter. That way they get to read the numbers off the dials to make sure its an accurate reading. Idiot-proofing the process.

The card arrived a few days later. I drew the little dials in & mailed it right back to them. Fast forward five days later to today. I got an email that I had a bill from AEP. What was my balance you ask? $0. With a $35 credit to boot!!! This threw me off since I was just expecting my bill to be lowered not be obliterated. So I called them back to confirm this wasn't a typo. Turns out that when they received my card w/ the dials drawn in, the reading was so low that they sent someone to my house to double check the reading yesterday. And I was right. I had been wrongly billed for not one but 2 months! My May-June bill that was $100 should've been only $40 and this month's bill only about $35. They didn't get the memo that I'm very vigilanté about my bills. Nobody pulls a fast one on me! Except the mechanic . . .

Turns out I have to spend even more money on my car. Feel like I'm slowly rebuilding my car to a brand new old car. But even with this new diagnosis, I'm not convinced that it won't stall again. It refuses to stall for them so it's really a crap shoot of what could be the problem. But if it does, I just might file a small claims complaint against them to try & get some of my money back. Might as well start making use of my education. At a minimum, I'll be writing to their corporate office. You never know . . . might get some free oil changes from this little fiasco.

It Surely Did

My car stalled again yesterday! Called the shop that fixed it 2 weeks ago & told them I was having it towed right back in. As I was riding in the tow truck I noticed its engine was running very rough. Sure enough the nice tow man told me that the truck had stalled on him earlier that day. Great. It's 98º...my car is sitting on top of the truck...we're in the middle of nowhere...at the height of rush hour... was this really about to go down?

Movie Reviews:

1. Dark Knight - "A" Veeery creepy but very good.
2. Wanted - "B" Wee bit too matrix-like but decent.

Jog that almost was

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day of jogging. I'm trying to live up to Oprah's mantra: live your best life today (or whatever the heck it is). So anyway's, I was to get up at 5:30am then go walking/jogging along a trail by my house. But what time did the alarm go off? 6:30am! This is the time I usually get up to catch the bus so I forgot to reset it to the new & improved time. So we'll try it again tomorrow morning. No excuses this time which is why I'm sharing this with you my loyal readers. Makes me accountable in a cyber-sorta way.

Tomorrow I get to write my resignation letter. My last day is in a couple of weeks so we have to notify HR in writing that we are leaving. If you decide to stay on for the school year then no letter is needed. So yours truly will regrettably not be returning. I will not be able to free up 12-14 hrs which is what they require you to work at a minimum. I have about 5 classes scheduled and a judicial externship (clerking for a judge for the semester) for the fall semester so I can't work a regular schedule. I'll probably get a receptionist type job at the school since you can work whenever you have time e.g. in between classes.

This week has been slow at the office. So yesterday, showing initiative as usual, I went around asking folks if they had any work I could do. Didn't have any takers at first & then whack . . . even the secretaries wanted a piece of me. Now I'm deep into my eyeballs with the craziest array of stuff you can imagine. From copying to filing to drafting briefs - you name it I'm doing it. Prioritizing will be the name of this game.

Now about that New Yorker cover. Funny? Sure. Smart? Mmhm. Much ado about nothing? Yes. Satire? Yup. Until you realize how many Americans think that the cover depicted who Obama really is. Muslim, unpatriotic, madrasa-educated, etc. One guy put it best: "It is only satire if the cartoon is so absurd that no one would believe it as true." As ignorance surrounds us everywhere, this is not the case. That being said, shouldn't the blame fall on Obama for not educating/informing people about who he really is? If there are those who are still out there believing that Michelle & Obama are the people depicted on that cover why should the cartoonist have to take heat for their ignorance? Here's my unsolicited advice to Obama. Instead of taking out ads about how John McCain is 4 more years of W., he should be pounding it into our living rooms that he is an american-loving, non-turban wearing, harvard-educated, christian who did not get sworn into the senate on a Qur'an. And yes, that he loves muslims too.

My two favorite authors have books coming out within weeks of each other. Moscow Rules will be released on July 22 & Smoke Screen on August 12. Literary heaven.

July 18: I pre-ordered both books from Amazon. 40% off + free shipping + no tax = heck of a deal!

Crisis Averted

The bus that I take to work makes it to my stop at 7:18am. I usually leave my house at around 7:10am just in case the bus is a few minutes early (stop is less than 1 minute away). So this morning I left my house at the usual time. Then guess what I saw rolling past the bus stop? The freakin' bus. It was 8 minutes early. Picture me running towards the bus waving my arms frantically hoping the bus driver would see me & stop (they usually never stop unless its by a clearly marked bus stop). But she saw me from the corner of her eye & stopped. So I ran across the road, got in, & thanked her profusely, all the while thinking it was my lucky day.

So I get to work & couldn't wait to tell my office friend what had transpired. At about 3pm, I walked to her cubicle & relayed that morning's drama. I concluded by saying, "I don't know what I'd have done had that bus left me." She looked at me like I was going crazy and deadpanned, "you'd have driven your car like you normally do!"

Do you know up until that point it had not crossed my mind that I could've simply jumped into my car & driven to work had the bus driver refused to stop? Nooo. Instead, I'd have gone back to the house, waited an hour for the next bus to come along, and been late to work. Talk about having a brain fart.

TV: It's now 7pm Mon evening & am watching on ESPN Classic the repeat of yesterday's instant classic Wimbledon match btn Roger Federer & Rafa Nadal. This is after I watched the whole match yesterday but it was so good, I have to relieve it in its entirety (I started watching it at 9am Sun morning & the match didn't get done until about 5pm). Just classic.

Tonight is the season finale of the Bachelorette. I'm hooked on the show this year because the guys as well as the gal are compelling. I think I liked all the last 5 bachelors left so I'm super excited to see who she's going to pick. Must see t.v.

I'm Lovin' Sports!

1. Rafael Nadal - won wimbledon today!!!!

2. Spain - won Euro 2008

3. Boston Celtics - won the NBA championship

4. Tiger Woods - won the U.S. Open

5. Rafael Nadal - won the French Open

Ban Capital Punishment!

While the guy wasn't convicted of a capital crime, stories like this reaffirm my conviction there should be a ban on the death penalty. There are too many wrongly convicted folks sitting on death row to justify a punishment so irreversible. Considering that Dallas is a county in Texas, it's a shame that the state continues to lead the country in the number of inmates put to death.

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DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- A Texas man who spent more than 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of kidnapping and robbery raised both arms skyward and collapsed in his mother's embrace Thursday after being told he was a free man.

Patrick Waller, along with Innocence Project director John Stickels, rejoices as the decision is announced.

Patrick Waller's sobs were the only sound at a crowded hearing attended by four other inmates also exonerated by DNA testing. "It's all right, honey," Patricia Cunningham told her son. "It's over. You're out of here. You're going home."

Waller had been behind bars since 1992 for aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping stemming from the abduction of a Dallas couple. He was proved innocent by DNA testing late last year. "I feel vindicated," said Waller, 38. "I feel thankful. Most of all, I feel blessed."

His release had been all but certain since last week, when the Dallas County prosecutor's office announced that DNA evidence had cleared Waller and matched the profile of another man. That suspect identified his accomplice, and both men subsequently confessed in front of a grand jury, prosecutors said. Neither man is in prison, although one is on parole, and they won't face criminal charges because the statute of limitations has expired.

Waller is the 19th man in Dallas County since 2001 shown by DNA evidence to be innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. That's more than any county in the nation, according to The Innocence Project in New York, a legal center specializing in wrongful-conviction cases.

Four former inmates who collectively served nearly 100 years in prison before being exonerated lined the back wall of the crowded courtroom. The men freed by DNA testing in Dallas County have made a habit of showing up in court for exoneration hearings, and on Thursday they presented Waller with a prepaid cell phone as a gift. Their exoneration stories helped Waller during his incarceration.

"All these guys I just met, I have all their clippings," Waller said. "It always gave me hope that one day it would be my turn." Waller said he plans to ask the other exonoreated men about the challenges of rejoining society. He is also about 20 credit hours short of a degree.

John Stickels, an Innocence Project of Texas board member and a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, said he wants to help Waller enroll at the suburban Dallas school.

Waller's ordeal began in 1992 when two men kidnapped a couple and stole several hundred dollars. The men also sexually assaulted the woman after tying up the man, District Attorney Mike Ware said. Another couple who drove up to the scene were also held at gunpoint. A security guard arrived and scared off the men, who fled in separate cars. Three of the four people abducted picked Waller in a photo lineup. The fourth later picked him out of a live lineup, Ware said.

Waller maintained his innocence and presented an alibi at trial but was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He also pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated kidnapping, fearing more life sentences if he were convicted, said his lawyer, Gary Udashen.

In 2001, Waller requested post-conviction DNA testing under a new state law. The DA's office, then under different leadership, opposed the request, and it was denied by a judge. A second attempt in 2005 was also unsuccessful.

Bill Hill, who was the district attorney when Waller requested his DNA tests, did not return a message from The Associated Press.

Waller's 2007 request, which came after Craig Watkins had taken office as the new district attorney, was granted. Watkins has started a program in which law students, supervised by the Innocence Project of Texas, review old cases in which inmates have requested DNA testing. In Waller's case, DNA testing was paid for by the Innocence Project of Texas.