Oxford Management Services

There is thing called repetition. A thing called redundancy. A thing called inevitability, futility, etc. There is also a little company you all know as the TeleCheck Bastards. Well, they did not call me today. Instead, a collection agency named in the title of this entry called. About a woman whose name is my name, except for -- you guessed it -- the middle name. Thank you Mom and Dad, for the middle name you gave me.

We got it all straightened out post haste, because I am an expert in dealing with wrong name issues at collection agencies. I was removed from their database on the code: wrong number, at about 1:30 PM today. Thank you Jennifer, for being a kind, caring individual, who does not eat small children for breakfast.

You'll recall that the TeleCheck Bastards were mean, rude, and used scare tactics in their calls. These people at the OMS are polite, calm, and very professional. Then again, since this woman has a third middle name (the first was "M", this one is "A", whereas I am "E"), chances are she has not written as many bad checks as the "M" woman did. That, and these people all sound slightly British. Their recording is extremely British, while the people only have a hint. It's odd. Maybe they are actually from Oxford.

Well. That concludes this morning's activities for me. I slept in late this morning, and only got up at ten or so. Then again, yesterday was busy, so I feel I had a good reason. Let me fill you in on all the sordid (okay, not quite sordid) details.

First, E and I took my little red car into the car doctor for a checkup, and to complain about a leak inside the car. They took my little red car into the back and told me they'd call with the diagnosis. Turns out, there's a radiator leak, and it will be expensive to fix it. At least, it's expensive to me. I've not dealt with cars much, and don't know what the price ranges on these things are. In any case, my little red car has to stay in the operating room until Monday.

Second, E and I went to campus to buy another book and to pick up knitting supplies left in the office to avoid exciting the cat. We accomplished this rather quickly, and parted ways until 5:30. At this point in time, we loaded up the knitting supplies, bundled up a few sweaters, and went to T's house, where we ate taco salad and learned how to knit. Wee! It's very fun.

Third, we all gathered for a hockey game between the Dirt Town Cotton Kings (guess you all know where I live now) and the Memphis River Kings. It was a fairly boring game for the first period, with all the players timidly skating around one another, afraid to step on toes. Then the RKs made a goal.

Side Note: In Austin, when the opponents score, there is a general cheering/booing. When the Ice Bats score, there is a more fervorous cheering. It is all pretty fair and balanced between the two sides. The home team naturally has more supporters, but the fans are the ones who decided how to scream. End Note.

In this game, when the RKs scored, there was a song that played, the lyrics of which went along the lines of: "So what? Who cares? Doesn't mean a thing..." There was a flushing toilet sound as well. Not a single note of cheering, and not even many boos. When the CKs scored, there were red lights that zoomed over the crowd, a huge buzzer sound, and much cheering from the crowd, and from the big screen. There were fake cheers thrown in, and an order issued to the crowd that they must get louder.


I found this to be incredibly unsportsmanlike. I almost started cheering for the RKs to try to make up for it, but I was sure I'd be lynched by an angry mob. Another irritating theme to the game was the advertising. "Domino's Pizza Off Side!" "McDougal Properties Icing!" Etc. Every single type of foul, breaking of rules, call, etc. was preceded by a sponsor name. Shameless, blatant and overall inducive to twitching eyeballs. Oh how it irked me.

The second period improved dramatically, and the boys started mashing one another against the sides. This was much more entertaining, and it almost got my mind off the freaky mascots running around. Taco Villa's mascot was a smerf-blue mouse in an apron. What kind of restaurant has giant rodents do the advertising? Do rodents really make people want to eat there?

The last period was great, and we actually saw some nice fights. Shirts ripped off, guys curled in the fetal position taking hits to their sides and backs, refs knocked into the walls, and all that. It was great. Now if they'd started out like this, the entire game would have been enjoyable. The loudspeaker didn't need to order people to cheer and yell during the third period, because we were all actually excited this time around.

After the game, we went skating on the ice, which would have been a lot more fun if they had smoothed the ice after the game. It was still a riot watching people teeter along before crashing and burning in a spectacular display of ineptitude. The rough ice wasn't so great for skating, the skates we rented for the night were on perhaps the lowest area of the quality spectrum. But what the hell, it was fun.

E and I declined the offer to then go to a karaoke bar and make idiots of ourselves, and instead went to her place to knit some more. I finally figured out how I kept screwing up, and think that with some practice, I might get really good at the basic part. I'll be making lots of rectangular pieces of stuff. Very simple, but relaxing.

At my door when I returned home, there was a three inch long grasshopper/locust looking thing. Smushed, but still huge. If it hadn't been so cold out, I'd have scooped it up and put it in a baggie.

Well, that was my yesterday, and now you've got my morning today as well. So I'm going to go let the cat back into the living room (she's been biting me all day), and then I'll start on Our Mutual Friend, a book I'm doing a 30 minute presentation on.

End.