Saturday in the Park (Unintentionally).

Okay, so in the past three days so much craziness has happened, I'm going to have to split it up into a few different posts. But let's start with this afternoon.

I had quite the adventure.

I went to lunch with a couple of friends and had a great time. The craziness started when I was trying to leave.

I had parked in a parking garage to the left of a big concrete column. As I was leaving, I needed to go right. For those of you playing at home, that means that as I was backing out I was turning toward the column. Do you see where this is going?

I was looking left to make sure no cars were coming while I was backing out and turning right. As I turned my head to look right, I noticed how close I was to the column. But what I didn't realize was that I had not yet cleared it. I thought, That was close! and kept going. Half a second later I heard the screeching sound of my car scraping against the column.

Not knowing what to do, I then stopped backing out and went forward instead. My car screeched again as it scraped the column once more in the opposite direction. I straightened out my car and continued backing out, thankfully clearing the pole this time. And then I exited the parking garage, hoping the damage wasn't horrible.

As I was exiting the garage, I got confused about which way I was going and, though it really didn't matter, accidentally chose the more difficult way. Which I realized as soon as I turned, but it was too late so I was going with it. I knew what to do, so it wasn't a big deal.

Except I got distracted and missed the street I was supposed to turn on. Naturally, I assumed I could turn on the next street and it would lead me to the same place. Naturally, I was wrong.

I ended up on a weird street and was briefly concerned that it was going to lead me off a cliff. Instead, it led me to a park.

Side note: I have been to this park before but have never driven myself. It is across the river from where I work and I have always wondered how to get there. Now that I have figured it out...I really doubt I could do it again. Probably not even with a map.

Anyway, I pulled over in the park to gather my thoughts and come up with a game plan and check out the damage on my car and respond to a text message. My car looked like this:

Which was a lot better than I had imagined. So it's no big deal.

Anyway. This park is really confusing. Like, it has a bazillion roads to choose from. I wasn't sure what to do so I just went straight. I followed the road a little ways but it just led me to a dead end. So I turned around and turned onto a street that had this sign:

This photo is from google. I am not so crazy as to stop and take a picture of a sign just 

because I am already writing the blog post in my head.

I have no idea what this sign means. I have a vehicle and I'm pretty sure it has a motor...does that mean I drive a motorized vehicle? Wouldn't a de-motorized vehicle, like, not move? Confusing.

But there was a stop sign just up ahead facing me, and why would they have a stop sign if cars weren't allowed there? I decided that I was not in fact driving a motorized vehicle (even though I'm still convinced my car does have a motor) and that it was okay for me to proceed. I came to a turning point so I picked a direction and turned. I was sad for a minute because it led me to yet another dead end, but then I realized that there was an exit!! That led to a street!! That led to another street from which I knew how to get home!!!!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was below empty on gas this whole time. And unfortunately there are no gas stations in the park.

Maybe that wasn't as crazy as I made it sound but it felt pretty crazy to me. Sometimes I don't even know how I manage to be so...I don't even know what the word is. Me. That's the word. So me.

And what will I be like when I'm 30? I'm sort of afraid to find out.

Stay tuned...

I Just Can't Catch a Break.

Y'all know how I love my TV shows. (If you don't, see my last post). Well, I'm currently kind of in between shows because I finished Veronica Mars (in ONE WEEK, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not sure if that's a talent or an illness, but it's impressive either way) and I am waiting to borrow the DVDs of my next show -- Downton Abbey -- from a friend.

I'm super excited about Downton Abbey. I've heard it's amazing. Hopefully I will be getting the DVDs on Friday. That should occupy me for a few days at least.

As I was saying, I'm in between shows. I'm kinda watching New Girl on Netflix, which is pretty funny but I haven't gotten hooked on it yet so I'm not spending every spare moment watching it. Plus I'm almost done because there's only one season on Netflix. Though I do have a free two weeks of Hulu Plus I've been saving. I'll have to look into that.

ANYWAY. I'm also watching regular TV. Like today I discovered we have the game show channel again. I love me some game shows.

I got tired of watching game shows (mainly because I can't play along with Minute to Win It), so I was flipping through channels and came across a show that I used to watch with my family ALL THE TIME but haven't in a few years -- So You Think You Can Dance. I know nothing about dancing but I enjoy watching it so I got excited and started watching.

For some unknown reason that cannot be explained by anything other than an act of God because it makes absolutely no sense, it has been raining all day. In Texas. In AUGUST. Rain in the summer is not a normal thing here.

But everything is bigger in Texas, so we don't just get "rain." No, we get the whole shebang. The whole lightninging, thundering, pouring, LOST-SATELLITE-SIGNALING shebang.

After the first dance the satellite decided I watch too much TV (true, but not for the TV to decide) and dropped its signal. And I sat on the couch in silence for the next ten minutes staring at a signal-less TV.

And THEN, something magical happened. It started searching for a signal. A box popped up that said "Searching for signal. This should not take more than 5 minutes."

And TEN (not five) minutes later, it came back! *happy dance*

For a whole five minutes, and then it changed the channel because TOO MANY THINGS WERE RECORDING.

 How I was feeling at this point. Minus the wheat field.

And I'm like, are you kidding me? All I wanted to do was watch a nice dance show and Dish Network was not cooperating.

So I canceled some recordings and fixed it so that I could watch my dance show, thank you very much. Because it was really important. Because, like...yeah. It just was.

And then I ate some snickerdoodle blondies to make up for the hard hour I had. Because I DESERVED IT, dang it.

OH MY GOSH. I just realized it's Tuesday. No wonder the whole world was against me today.*

*The whole world being the TV. Obviously.

It Goes Both Ways.

This morning, after having a conversation with a few friends about being an introvert, I found myself once again thinking about how extroverts just don't understand introverts.

I know all you introverts out there have complained about it. Because it's true. They just don't understand. I can't tell you how many times I have sent my extroverted friends links to articles explaining how introverts are wired (and there are PLENTY of them, probably because writers tend to be introverted). And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

But then I stopped myself. And I thought, Wow, I sure complain about extroverts a lot and how they don't understand me. But you know what? I don't understand them either. I wonder how often they complain about me?

It's so true, though.

 

Sometimes I feel like extroverts think their subdued friends carry a scarlet letter. Like introversion is a disease. Like there's something seriously wrong with introverts and we need to be fixed. And that just isn't true. There's nothing wrong with being an introvert.

But that doesn't mean we're perfect.

Just because extroverts don't understand us does not make us the victim. But it also doesn't mean we need to educate them on how they should treat us. It's not our job to fix others; it's our job to fix ourselves.

So I did a google search on "how to understand extroverts." And I learned some new things about my outgoing peers that I never realized before. And now I see that while there are definitely things that come more natural to them than to us, overall, they don't have it any easier than we do.

Extroverts cannot change us into one of them. And likewise, we can't change them into one of us. But what we can do is change how we relate to them. Because just like introverts want extroverts to treat them a certain way, extroverts want introverts to treat them a certain way.

Here are some articles about extroverts that I thought were really helpful:

5 Myths About Extroverts that Need to Die | Unfettered Ink
The Care and Feeding of Your Extrovert | The Badger's Sett
Understanding Extroverts: The Survival Guide | My Super Charged Life
Pickles' Guide to Understanding Extroverts | The Shadows Keep on Coming

Extroverts, if you guys want to learn a little bit more about how to relate to introverts, here is one of my all time favorite articles about introverts. As a fellow introvert, I can vouch for the validity of his post. Take good notes; there may be a pop quiz.

10 Myths About Introverts | Carl Kingdom

Keep in mind that everyone is different, so I'm sure none of these points apply to every extrovert/introvert in existence. They should more serve as a guide to better understanding.

And remember, just because we can't change what comes natural to us doesn't mean we can't choose to do it anyway. The choice is always there, we just have to make it.

And the Curse Continues.

So I bought a Mac last week. Because Macs are supposed to be top of the line and you know that's what I need with my technological issues.

Oh, but I am still having technological issues. I bought the Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Home & Student software and, well, it wouldn't work. So, I called a number that Best Buy gave me in order to fix the problem.

And this is (more or less) the conversation I had with Microsoft:
_____________________________________________________

Automated Voice: Hello, welcome to Microsoft. Do you have your set up wizard open on your computer?

Me: Yes.

Automated Voice: Please say or enter your product installation number. The product installation number is a long number set apart in different groups. Please read me the first group of numbers.

Me: MQBY9

Automated Voice: I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Please say "try again" or "transfer to a live person."

Me: Try again.

Automated Voice: Transferring to a live person.

(This is where I hung up the first time. I did not want to talk to a live person. I wanted to enter my number and get the thing activated. However, the scenario above was repeated about five times before I finally decided that a live person would be more helpful.)

Tech Support: (In a very thick Arab accent) Welcome to Apple Tech Support, jdkafjdhafhda fjakfjaklsfjds?

Me: Uh...I'm sorry, can you say that again?

Tech Support: Welcome to Apple Tech Support, what is ffdjaklfjdkalfjdasklfjkalfjldfjfauriof?

Me: I'm sorry, I'm having trouble understanding you. One more time?

Tech Support: Welcome to Apple Tech Support, what product fkdajkdajl calling about jfldkajfla?

Me: What product am I calling about?

Tech Support: Yes.

Me: Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Home & Student software.

Tech Support: And what is the problem?

Me: The PIN number I need to obtain the product key in order to activate my software is not activated. The store from which the software came gave me this number to call to activate the PIN.

Tech Support: Please read me the PIN number.

Me: *reads PIN number*

Tech Support: That is the product key.

Me: But it says right here, in big letters, "THIS IS NOT YOUR PRODUCT KEY."

Tech Support: It is the product key.

Me: Okay....

(I enter the PIN number where I am supposed to enter the product key).

Me: It says the product key is not valid.

Tech Support: Please hold.

(Two minutes later...)

Tech Support: Thank you for holding. Do you currently have an internet connection?

Me: Yes.

Tech Support: Please turn off your internet connection.

Me: (confused) Okay....

Tech Support: Now enter your product key.

Me: You mean the number I gave you a few minutes ago?

Tech Support: Yes.

Me: (even more confused) Okay...

(I enter the number again, not sure how turning off the internet will have helped).

Me: It still says it's invalid.

Tech Support: Let me transfer you to customer service.

(Five minutes later...)

Customer Service: What product are you calling about?

(Side note: This guy was easier to talk to. Because the other guy didn't understand what I was saying and I didn't understand what he was saying because he doesn't speak very good English and I don't speak very good Arab.)

Me: Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Home & Student software.

Customer Service: And what is the problem?

Me: My PIN number says it hasn't been activated and I can't get the product key to activate my software without it.

Customer Service: What is your PIN number?

Me: *reads PIN number*

Customer Service: It says this PIN has not been activated.

Me: Yes...I just said that...

Customer Service: Please hold.

(Five minutes later...)

Customer Service: Thank you for holding. This PIN has not been activated. It can only be activated at the store from which it was purchased. If the product key was not activated, we could help you with that. But we have a deal with all the stores that they are the only ones who can activate the PIN. You will need to contact them to activate your PIN.

Me: (frustrated) Okay....

Customer Service: Thank you and have a nice day.

Me: Thank you....?
____________________________________________________

I should also mention that I don't think I was even talking to someone in the United States, considering that both of them were clearly Middle Eastern (judging by the accents) and I called at 10:30 at night when everywhere in the United States is closed. And he told me to have a nice day. I was about to go to bed.

Not that there's anything wrong with non-Americans...it's just A LOT easier to talk to someone who, you know, speaks the same language as you...

So, after wasting 30+ minutes on the phone with these people...and found out nothing that was helpful...I went to bed, extremely frustrated.

We are going to Best Buy to exchange the software. Hopefully the new one will work better.

And, to answer the question that everyone was wondering: No, the highest quality laptop you can possibly buy is apparently NOT the answer to the curse that technology has thrust upon me.

But, I should have known. Something about my Mac had to be Kayla deficient, and I think I found the lucky winner.

This is Getting Ridiculous, Y'all.

What's getting ridiculous, you ask?

Everything. The getting lost. The malfunctioning technology. I'm as tired of it happening as you are of hearing about it. But oh my goodness...there is seriously something wrong with the directional part of my brain. You know, the part that most people have that contains a map so that they usually have some concept of where they are and what direction they need to be heading in? Yeah, I don't have that.

I just have eyes that know how to read a map and street signs, but occasionally that method fails me too.

As many of you know, I got a GPS for Christmas. Which was really exciting, because I can't count how many times I've gotten lost in the year and a half I've had my license. I've used my GPS twice since I got it: the first time I was only traveling about 5 minutes from my house, and I didn't get lost (yay!). The second time was last night. This is essentially the SparkNotes version of what happened:

I had a church event starting at 7:15. I got out of school and had time to kill so I ran a few errands. Well, I had time to stop by the Northeast Mall (about 30 minutes from my house) beforehand. Yes, it was far away, but I was getting a free drink out of it (from my friend who works at Chickfila and promised me a free drink), so I thought hey, why not? So I pull out the trusty old GPS to get me there. And I got there and avoided traffic and everything. It was awesome.

I leave the mall and put my church's address in the GPS. ETA: 6:59. Please remember that the program starts at 7:15. So, I should have been early.

I went from being 16 minutes early to 3 minutes late.

So what happened? I honestly don't even know. My GPS kept telling me to turn, but I kept trying to turn earlier than I was supposed to and didn't realize it until I was in a turn-only lane and couldn't get over anymore. So, I would turn, it would re-route me, add a few minutes to the ETA, and then I'd screw up again and turn too early. And repeat. And repeat and repeat.

Finally, I just called someone, although the first two people I talked to had no idea where I was, either.

Then I hung up the phone and couldn't remember the directions I had been given. So I decided to give the GPS a second chance. Thankfully, it did not let me down and I arrived at church 15 minutes later.

So yes, it has finally happened: I got lost using a GPS. Didn't take long either.

Let's face it: I'm a lost cause. I'm completely hopeless when it comes to directions. I'm pretty sure that if I ever move to another state, the first time I go to the grocery store will be the last time I ever see my house.

Guess I can cross "taxi driver" and "bus driver" and possibly "tour guide" off my list of possible career options.

Worst. Babysitting Experience. EVER.

Okay, so normally I try to just post happy/funny/random/profound things on this blog. BUT last night was sooo frustrating, that I feel the need to tell everyone exactly what happened. And actually, there's a good chance it will turn out to be a funny story because it has to do with none other than more Kayla-deficient technology....

So, last night I was babysitting, as I often do. I mean seriously. I babysit a lot. Well, sometimes. It kind of comes in spurts. Like, there will be several weeks in a row where I babysit 2-3 times a week, and then there will be several weeks where I don't babysit at all.

Anyway, on to the story. I was babysitting a little 3-year-old girl that I probably babysit more than any other child. I usually don't have any problems with her. She did go through this one phase of, like, separation anxiety or something when she would randomly start crying because she missed her parents. But me, being the super-sitter that I am, figured out the cure for that: singing Old McDonald Had A Farm, over and over and over....

That phase didn't last long though. It was over almost as quickly as it started. But last night...I don't know WHAT happened...but she randomly started crying about 2 hours in.

"Why are you crying?" I asked.

"I don't know," she would reply. And then promptly stop crying.

"Do you want to play with your computer?" I suggested. She has a click-start Leap Frog computer or something. She was happy with that suggestion so we started it up, and I went to go make myself some toast because I had forgotten to eat dinner before I came. While I'm making toast, she walks in and says, "I'm tired!"

I look at the clock. It's 7. Her bed time is 9. I don't feel authorized to put her to bed THAT early, so I suggest she keep playing with her computer. She sits down but does nothing with it. She says she doesn't want to play it anymore. So I suggest watching a movie.

She likes this idea! Yay! A happy camper. So we pick out a VHS (or an old school video, in case you read that and went "what?") and I go put it in the VCR. As a side note, I have ALWAYS been able to work their TV in the past. But now, it's not working.

After trying various things to get it to work, I switch to a DVD. Well, guess what? The DVD player won't open. I try for a few minutes, then decide to try a different VHS. Still doesn't work. Try the DVD player again. Nope. The little girl starts crying. Fantastic.

Wait! I have a brilliantly ingenious idea! You can watch DVDs on laptops. They have a laptop. I have a DVD. Fantastic! I locate the laptops (there's two). This is so going to work and the kid will be happy and I can eat my toast that is still sitting on the kitchen counter.

Well...for some unknown reason that makes absolutely NO sense to me, the laptops wouldn't play the DVD. Neither of them. I tried both. TWICE. They wouldn't play it. I tried EVERYTHING. I opened 3 different programs on the laptops that should be able to play DVDs and I couldn't get anything to work.

At this point, the girl is FLIPPING out because she wants to watch Blue's Clues, which halfway through switched to Veggie Tales just making my life more difficult, and I'm frustrated and about to throw these laptops against the wall along with the VCR and the DVD player. But I refrain, because these items do not belong to me.

So, like I said, she's freaking out which stresses me out even more and I'm trying so hard not to yell at the poor child. I keep asking her why she's crying and all I get is "I don't know!"

I'm not even kidding, I was about to start crying. Seemed like the easiest solution at this point.

And normally, this would be the part where I tell you how I saved the day and fixed the laptop, we watched Veggie Tales and everyone lived happily ever after. But alas, that is not what happened. Instead, I gave up. Yep. I put the laptops away and the movies away and I said, "Okay, we're not watching a movie."

She wasn't happy.

Now this is the part where I save the day. She wanted to watch Veggie Tales so much, but we couldn't. So this is where my second brilliantly ingenious idea of the night comes in. I remember they have a Veggie Tales CD. Sooo I find it with my awesome scavenger hunt skills, pop it in the CD player (which is apparently the only technological item that is not part of the technology conspiracy against me), and she remains happy until bedtime.

Win.

So now it's an hour later, I've acquired a headache, and I still haven't eaten my toast. But at least the little girl was happy and there was no more crying--from either of us--the rest of the night.

I hope that ending was happy enough for you, because that's all I've got.

May all your babysitting adventures go much smoother than mine did last night.

A Timeline of My Day.

A day in the life of me...please enjoy, and then thank the good Lord that you are not me. :-)

7:15 am: Get up.

7:35 am: Leave for work.

8 am: Arrive at work.

10:30 am: Power goes out and fire alarm sounds.

10:35 am: PANIC!

10:40 am: Firemen arrive.

10:45 am: The girls decide to evacuate.

10:52 am: We discover that a transformer exploded and all the power in the area is out.

10:55 am: Employees are sent to work at home.

11:15 am: Arrive at home.

11:30 am: Begin work at home.

11:40 am: Receive call from supervisor. Power is back up.

11:45 am: Leave for work.

12 pm: Arrive at work. Discover that power is on, but Internet is down.

12:37 pm: Internet is back up. Happy day.

12:38 pm: Resume work.

1:30 pm: Computer begins going slow.

1:35 pm: Computer is still going slow. I think I'll reboot.

1:36 pm: Computer is rebooted but won't let me log in.

1:38 pm: Reboot #2.

1:39 pm: No success.

1:45 pm: Let's try this again.

1:46 pm: Nope.

1:50 pm: Inform tech guys that my computer has once again failed me. Find out that others are having this problem as well.

2:40 pm: Computer still down. I'm bored. Decided to try out the Blogger app on my phone. It works.

To be continued...
----------------------------------

[Update:] My computer never did start working. I got off work at 4, having only completed about three hours of work (I was working 8 hours). Thankfully, nothing else went wrong the rest of the day. I was prepared for the worst at this point. lol

Also, please take note that I was not the cause of the computer malfunctions. I DID NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG. This proves my theory: I am not technology challenged. Rather, technology is Kayla challenged. It just doesn't know how to handle me. I'm too cool for it. Yeah, that's it.

Computers Should Fear Me.

I swear I am not technologically challenged.

I'm normally pretty good with computers and the like. I'm good at figuring out how electronics work. But lately, I've been having MAJOR issues.

It all started on Monday. Oh, don't you just love Mondays that start out with nothing going right? Those are the best, no?

Yeah...no. I come into work Monday morning and attempt to log on to my computer. I enter my username. Fine. I enter my password. Okay. It says what it always says: Verifying password, please wait...

Normally this "verifying" takes about 5 seconds tops, and then I'm logged on. Yeah...I waited about 5 minutes. Then I entered my password again. Still nothing. Then, about 2 minutes later, the screen went black. Finally something is happening.

Then: No, wait, nevermind. It's making me log in again. Okay, not a big deal. So I enter my username. Fine. I enter my password. Verifying password, please wait...

FIVE MORE MINUTES.

Forget this. I'm rebooting. So I turn off my computer. I turn it back on. It starts up. And then it just stops. It gives me some error message. I don't understand, because I don't read computer. But it tells me to press F1 to retry boot. So I press F1. Nothing. I press it again. Nothing. I press it about 50 more times. Nothing.

Okay...let's try this again, shall we? Turn off computer. Turn on computer. Error message. F1. Nothing.

I literally had like 3 people trying to fix the problem. I have no idea what happened, but my computer just did not want to let me on.

Finally they decided to have me log onto another computer to see if I could get on that one. So, my friend and coworker logged off and I logged into hers. BAM. It let me in. Success. So I log out. And then her screen goes black. AND NOTHING IS WORKING ON HER COMPUTER ANYMORE.

Seriously??? Does everything I touch break? Like some sort of twisted version of King Midas? 

Thankfully, her computer started back up just fine. And then, magically, so did mine. I was very glad that my computer was working again, albeit I had lost an hour of work.

And I thought that was the end of my computer problems. But then yesterday, I was trying to log onto another computer (not at work--this was at church), and everything froze.

It's highly possible that it locked me out for entering too many wrong passwords. I didn't know the password so I kept guessing...I had no idea it would just stop letting me guess...I mean, I would have gotten it eventually.

I felt like the computer was taunting me. It was probably all "Haha, you don't know the password and you suck at guessing...and I'm a cool computer and have the power to just freeze on you and make you panic and think that you've broken yet another computer..."

Yeah. It was so laughing at me.

In conclusion. If you are or have a computer, be very afraid if I am near. Bad things happen when I touch computers. Horrible, terrible, awful things.

No wonder my laptop has so many issues...