I worked today, but not much. But I'm still exhausted. What did i do to make myself like this? Ideas?

What horrors the world has in store never ceases to shock me. I mean, even here, they can't be escaped. On Friday night, a drunk driver hit a sedan holding the Turcios family of Newbury Park. They all sustained minor injuries, except for Lestor, 15. He died of major injuries in a hospital bed at Los Robles. His parents will never see him graduate, or get married and have a family of his own, or be successful in a career because some asshole decided that he was the exception to the drunk driving law. Now he's not just an asshole... he's a felon, a murderer, and deserves the lethal injection. That's all for today. Good night.

I think blogging is easier when you're happy, but these past few weeks have been so stressful. Life is stressful. I'm not going to elaborate, because if you know me, you'll know the issues. Today, I'm gonna talk about Thousand Oaks. I grew up here. I have hardly been away from here. The only other city I've lived in is Camarillo, and then, I was very small. Thousand Oaks is a beautiful hole. It is. It's gorgeous with its rolling hills and clean streets and trees. But I swear, you lose yourself here. For kids and teens, it's a bubble, a protective bubble which most feel the need to leave. it feels like it's not the real world. For the people who are my age, the late teens/20-somethings, you get lost in the boredom. You yearn for something to pass the time, you search for something to inspire you, and it sure as hell isn't your boring suburban life. And what do you have to equip yourself for the real world? The hard issues? Health class, and 6th grade DARE. But in reality, kids are snorting coke in the bathrooms, having sex in their cars. It's scary, and no, not in the Horror Movie way, in the What Is This World Coming To kind of way. I worry for the Thousand Oaks youth. Enough of my rant. Cuadra out.

I'm tired, and very emo right now, not sure why. Maybe you can answer for me. Not emo like cutter or whatever, emo like hallmark commercials might make me cry. OH well, that's what being a girl is, I guess. I'm gonna go to bed before someone or something makes me crazy. Good night folks.

Yesterday was uneventful as can be. In the morning, I went on a jog, three miles around Thousand Oaks, which was fun, but my body is going "WHAT!?" now. Subsequently, in the afternoon, I vegged, and watched 30 Rock, which has turned out to be one of the funniest shows on television.
Then, that night, we had the first Office Party of 2008! Woo! Auntie Audie made peanut butter dip that was really good.
The show was great, drama and comedy and ice cream on the car (lol). I can't really think of anything too notable. So the next few days are gonna be pretty damn boring, so i would advise against reading my blog, 53 readers of the week, until Monday. I'm working all weekend, and things have been pretty boring lately. People don't really want to buy cars because of the economy, which ends up getting customers REALLY good deals, so buy cars now people, before we get the new president economy bump.
I was just thinking (OMG, WHAT?!), you people should give me tasks to do while at work. Like, dares. Make em good. Please comment. Well, I should go get ready.
Cheers!
~Ren~

Went to Yellowcard today. It was AMAZING. I forgot how talented they were. I’m so tired, but I wanna say a couple random things before I go. One, my teacher sophomore math teacher, Mrs. MacNamara was there. RANDOM. I didn’t say hi... I didn’t get a good grade in that class, lol. The other thing is that when I heard the song Dear Bobbie, it made me think of MaMark and Grandad, and I burst into tears, surprising the hell out of poor Dani. Oh, and during the early opening acts, Andrew McMahon from Jack’s Mannequin was standing behind us. It was neat. I didn’t know who he was until he went on stage to play the piano with The Spill Canvas and they introduced him. Holly would be so jealous (if she ever talked to me). So there’s my blog for today. Good night, folks.

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey
Name: Lauren
Birthday: 09-10-88
Birthplace: Los Robles Hospital Thousand Oaks
Current Location: Thousand Oaks
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Brown
Height: 4’11
Right Handed or Left Handed: lefty
Your Heritage: Nicaraguan
The Shoes You Wore Today: black flip flops
Your Weakness: food, boy
Your Fears: needles, blood, people I love dying
Your Perfect Pizza: ricotta cheese, spinach, and pepperoni
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year: become more financially stable, make my boyfriend happy, maybe lose a little weight
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger: Hahaha or Hehehe
Thoughts First Waking Up: Who the heck woke me up before my alarm!?!
Your Best Physical Feature: my eyes
Your Bedtime: whenever
Your Most Missed Memory: Hmm... being little
Pepsi or Coke: Pepsi
MacDonalds or Burger King: Mcdonald’s (snack wrap... yummmmmm)
Single or Group Dates: I like having my bf all to myself, but being with friends is great too
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Arizona
Chocolate or Vanilla: Vanilla
Cappuccino or Coffee: ESPRESSO!!!!
Do you Smoke: no... but I’m smokIN (hahahaha :) )
Do you Swear: trying to quit ... not as much
Do you Sing: all the time
Do you Shower Daily: yes
Have you Been in Love: yep ;) Love is a many-splendored thing
Do you want to go to College: yes ... I’m in college right now.
Do you want to get Married: yes
Do you belive in yourself: depends on the day
Do you get Motion Sickness: oh yeah.
Do you think you are Attractive: I have my moments
Are you a Health Freak: I know an awful lot about eating healthy... but I usually don’t.
Do you get along with your Parents: yes
Do you like Thunderstorms: love them
Do you play an Instrument: i dabble in piano and guitar
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol: no
In the past month have you Smoked: no ... I don’t
In the past month have you been on Drugs: Nope
In the past month have you gone on a Date: Yeah! WICKED babeh!
In the past month have you gone to a Mall: I believe so
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos: Nope, none at all in fact.
In the past month have you eaten Sushi: No ma’am
In the past month have you been on Stage: nope
In the past month have you been Dumped: no
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping: nope
In the past month have you Stolen Anything: nope
Ever been Drunk: :-|
Ever been called a Tease: yes...
Ever been Beaten up: nope
Ever Shoplifted: no
How do you want to Die: happy
What do you want to be when you Grow Up: A baker
What country would you most like to Visit: Italy
In a Boy/Girl.. (I usually don’t care, but these are the trends...)
Favourite Eye Color: Blue
Favourite Hair Color: Blond
Short or Long Hair: short
Height: taller than me
Weight: I really REALLY don’t care.
Best Clothing Style: clean
Number of Drugs I have taken: 0
Number of CDs I own: i dunno
Number of Piercings: 4
Number of Tattoos: Not yet. When I get one, it will be the sea maiden from the Spiderwick Chronicles.
Number of things in my Past I Regret: Can’t think of any right now!

Now tell me about you!

Because Monica wrote one, and that made me want to write.

Know what sucks? Being tired at 9 pm. Yup. Know what else? Yeah, neither do I. Just a word of warning, this is gonna be one of those blogs, where you’re gonna be like... Ren. WTF? So here we go. Pull down your restraint and let your feet dangle, folks, we’re going for a ride. God, I miss six flags. You know Batman? That’s my favorite. I think i like walking into Batman more than I like the entire rest of the ride. Usually when I go to Six Flags, I wear flip flops and I end up having to take them off, because they will fly off otherwise. But I don’t mind. I love feeling the crisp, cool air in between my toes and my body is taken through space, upside down and all around. Ahhh.

Know what else sucks? Having muffins in the fridge. Okay, well that’s not true. Having muffins in the fridge is awesome, not having muffins in the fridge SUCKS. I want my damn muffins back! Oh, people you probably think I’m high. Well, I’m not, just extremely tired. Danny and I went to the Jacuzzi last night, then when we came home, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was on... so we watched it. Then he went home, and I stayed up and watched Coupling online. For anyone who doesn’t know what Coupling is, it is a British Sitcom. It’s what Friends was based off of, and it is brilliant. The worst part about it was that it only lasted 3 seasons. Beware though, parents who may stumble upon my blog, this is not one to watch with the kiddies. It is not the PG-rated friends you know and love, that may talk once in a while about sex, it’s like every episode has lots of sexual innuendos in it. Sex is the foundation of the show, thus making it very entertaining.

Another great show to watch, even with the children, ESPECIALLY with the children is Doctor Who. Doctor Who has been around since the 1960’s, and it’s a great show because they never allow it to get old. I personally love Doctor Who because I can relate to the show’s off-the-wall humor. And, Well... David Tennant is amazing and gorgeous. Look him up. Find a picture where he does a sort of mischievous smirk and you too will fall in love. The reason why it is great for children is because it indeed does not get old, because the doctor "regenerates" every few seasons, meaning there is a new doctor every few seasons, meaning that with each generation of Who watchers, there is a doctor that people come to know and love. For my parent’s generation (although they are not yet Who fans) it would be Tom Baker. For my generation, it is David Tennant.

If you are looking for a good darker version of Doctor Who, check out Torchwood. Start with the first episode, but don’t give up on it until you watch at least the first two episodes. It follows the strikingly handsome omnisexual (human-alien-man-woman) Time Agent, Undying Jack Harkness as he leads the Torchwood institute Cardiff (which is like British area 51). I personally didn’t fall in LOVE with it until the episode "From Out Of The Dark" in the second season, but it was nevertheless entertaining throughout.

If you’re looking for a laugh, look up Catherine Tate. She is like the Molly Shannon of England. She’s also the Doctor’s new partner (although no one can replace rose, of course). THIS is how I entertained myself throughout the strike.

ANYWAY! Horray for the return of Office!!! WOOT!

Ooh, this makes me SO SO mad. Okay. So 2 1/2 weeks ago, I was sitting at my computer, and I noticed that in my toolbar, the battery symbol was up... which means that it was not plugged into the power source. So I figured that the upper cord got disconnected to the battery, so i checked that and it was fine, then i unplugged it and right when I noticed that a HOLE was MELTED into the top part of the cord. MELTED. It was a defective product. If you know anything about computers, or electronics, you know as well as I do that this was NOT MY FAULT. Anyway, I look at my cord and right as I notice that it was melting, it starts shooting blue sparks and making "zzztttt" noises. I fuh-REAKED out! Oh my Gosh!!! i was SO SCARED. I called Compaq, close to tears, and who did I get? Some outsource with a very very THICK Middle-Eastern accent named Joe. He asked me the same question a million times, finally coming to the conclusion that since my warranty was out of date, it was not his problem. He proceeded to ask me for my credit card number. Me being in my erratic state, shouted that I was not going to give him the number and that I WOULD get my cord. After being yelled at for a good 5 minutes, "Joe", sounding close to tears, told me that there was nothing he could do, and then transferred me to a supervisor. The supervisor then followed the same script, and then told me HE could not do anything either, that it was "out of his hands".
WTF? Out of his hands? So... I said, whose hands is it in, because i want to talk to them. I was told that who I needed to talk to was a case manager, but since this day happened to be a Saturday, I needed to call back Monday.
Well, I was not about to call during school, so I called back the following Tuesday. I knew I needed to speak with a case manager, I said, very calmly I might add, that I needed to speak with a case manager, and still, I was told the same stuff that "Joe" told me.
Then, I got angry. I threatened to blog, to call the news, everything, at the top of my lungs, and wondered why i was not talking to a case manager at that moment. I guess 3-way calls from India are a bit expensive. So after another good hour and a half of shouting, I finally got the supervisor to transfer me to a case manager.
I was then put on hold for another 20 minutes. I seriously felt like I was going to burst into tears again, so when the case manager got onto the phone, my explanation went something to the effect of:
(in a very defeated and tired tone)
"Listen, I have been on the phone with your outsourcers for hours trying to get them to let me talk to you, and they JUST let me through. I KNOW that my warranty is up, but my power cord shot sparks at me. Sparks. Blue ones. And made a "zzzztttt" noise. It was very scary, and I'm sure it's a story worthy of the channel four news. I'm not asking for a brand new computer, I'm not asking for anything, but I do have the power as a consumer to bring your sales way down. I feel like I have been treated very disrespectfully, and I don't want to blog this or call the news, because I don't want to put forth the effort. But I will. So please, just give me my cord."
Okay. It was this simple. He replied, in a perfectly accentless voice "Okay, ma'am. I am so sorry for the inconvenience. Let me just verify the address and it'll be right to you."
I was ecstatic! I mean, WOO HOO! I did it! So I got my cord in the mail the next day and we all lived happily ever after, right? WRONG! What the case manager neglected to tell me, or bothered to call me about was that my cord was on backorder.
After 4 days of waiting, giving the company the benefit of the doubt (after all, they're owned by HP and I had a great HP printer for many years) I called them back. After going through the same outsourcing, being told that it was IMPOSSIBLE to be sent a new cord because my warranty was out of date, I finally said
"Look, I know you don't believe that you could POSSIBLY be wrong, but please, look in your computer. Look at my case, humor me because I am the customer, and it will SHOW that a case manager authorized a cord to be sent to my home."
It was then that they told me it was on backorder. I was okay with that, it happens. And the people i talked to were polite enough. So they told me that when it comes in, it will be rush ordered to my house and that made me happy too. Cool. That was this past Tuesday.
After this call, I realized that I didn't ask for the estimated arrival date. So I called back a couple days later. Here we go again! Without bothering to check my case, they told me that it was simply IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a new cord, because my warranty was up. SCREAM! So this time, I got transferred to 4 different departments, each telling me that they could not handle my problem, and all i wanted was a date when the product might be off backorder.
It was at this point I started to wonder if maybe they were just TELLING me that it was on backorder and if I would ever get my product. It has now been 14 days since I have been able to use my laptop.
After being delegated back to where I started, I got what I THOUGHT was another "Joe". Ooh was I in for a surprise. This guy was, like, the product of Joe spawning with the devil. After giving me the same schpeil about the warranty blah blah blah, I asked, very calmly may I add (much to Kasey's dismay) to speak to a case manager. He said I didn't need to, that he could tell me the answer. I asked once again. "Let. Me. Speak. To. A. Case. Manager. NOW." He said "Hold on a minute." and there was silence. When a customer service rep says Hold on a Minute, they are SUPPOSED to either put you on hold, or put the phone down. Thinking this is what happened, I started talking to Kasey. I said:
"I cannot believe how horrible the customer service is with this company. I mean, I had a Dell, I had an IBM, I had Kodak and Fuji issues, and i have NEVER been treated this poorly. I mean, the stripping started to wear down just a LITTLE bit on the cord for my IBM and even though I was out of warranty, the first person I spoke to got my address and sent me one FREE. No hassle, nothing."
It was then that I heard a little ... cough on the line. The "Joe" was listening! Oh my God! So he came back, told me that he was "reviewing my case" and that there was no need for me to get my cord in any case, because I was out of warranty. No, he did not direct me to a case manager. And then, he said "And if the same thing happened with your IBM computer, then MAYBE it's a problem with your wiring." Ooh. I was so pissed. I screamed "GET ME A CASE MANAGER!!!!!" And he said "Okay, Ma'am." and then put me on hold for like 20 minutes.
After this, It was the same man, and I ask "Is this a case manager?" and he said "No." and I said "Why not?" and he said I could not get him on the line." And I again asked "Why not?" and he would NOT give me a straight answer. So I calmly explained to him that if I did not speak with a case manager by 6 that day, I would go on every blog possible, and if I didn't hear from one, or get my cord within the next 2 days, I would be contacting a lawyer.
The smartass then told me, in a very snide and condescending way, that I would have no case, because the same thing happened with IBM and it was probably a case with my home electricity. So I went off. WOW did I go off. That went something like this:
(VERY loudly and concise and uncharacteristic of me) "Listen to me. The case with IBM went very smoothly, it was normal wear and tear, I saw no wires, and they sent me a new cord right away. I didn't even have to ask for it to be free, they just sent it, no problem. With the Compaq, it MELTED. It was a defective product and it could have KILLED me. I have spoken with my fair share of outsourced "customer care" representatives, and you, sir, are by FAR the rudest one. I WILL get that cord in the next 2 days, and if I don't, I WILL post on every blog site possible, I will get a lawyer, and I will contact the news. I will say your name SPECIFICALLY, so you get fired, and trust me... snotty comments and eavesdropping is enough to make sure you're working at the local burger king for the rest of your life. Have a nice day."
I just checked Fed Ex (No, they didn't even have the decency to send it UPS, David) and it's going to be on my doorstep this afternoon. Hah-shah.