Next, she'll take care of that Iraq-war thingy

On the radio yesterday: Sprint lost one million customers in the last month alone.

A few months ago, my sister's Sprint contract was almost up and the Sprint representative misstated some part of her contract that resulted in her paying more than she had expected. She said she wanted to cancel the contract completely, and asked for the payoff amount. It was more than outrageous. She was furious but still threatened to cancel.

The woman she talked to next was from Customer Retention, which was laughable since M says she was rude and absolutely WRONG about some of the charges.

So my sister kept that phone for the 3 remaining months of the contract but changed her voicemail message to one that extolled the phenomenally lousy service she'd received at Sprint--"and here's my new Verizon cell phone number!"

And now they've lost a million customers in just one month.

I called her up and asked her to find a way to end the Iraq war, if she's that damned powerful. It's the least she can do. (She'll get right on it.)

5-4: A hard won victory

Our game yesterday was a tough one. Andrea said something at the beginning that made me think we didn't really have a chance but should try hard anyway. And when the other team scored a slider in the first 20 seconds (I swear I could feel all our disbelieving eyes watching the puck slide into the goal), I felt more dejected than resolute.

But we did fight hard, and we did lots of good stuff, and we did score 5 to their 4.

I don't actually think a lot while on the ice, so I can't write down great plays from the game, but it was really fun. And several folks said, "Nice shift!" to me after some of my shifts, which was very sweet to hear. I do feel like I'm getting better, and now I charge the defender with the puck as much as I want, since our coach has given me carte blanche to do that. It does seem to force them to make panicky passes, so I know I'm doing some good. Now to keep my legs moving after they give up the puck, and win it back. Oh, and take the puck down to the net past defenders.

And skate faster, and bend my knees, and do backwards crossovers...

Looks like I still have some work to do. But I'll take my one assist, and gladly!

I knew it would work

So y'all may remember that I signed up for water polo class not to learn/excel at/be great at water polo, but to improve my conditioning, provided that I didn't die.

Well, I'm not dead yet, and even though I'm still the slowest swimmer in the class, I am getting better at this thing.

And today, when I made up a missed class in the coach's regular swim class, I got a clear message that my conditioning is definitely better. We did a timed 500-yd swim and she happened to have my times from the last timed swim (must have been another make-up class).

Previous time: 13:56

New time: 12:10

Wow! So it is worth it to nearly drown and die of exhaustion twice a week. Who knew?

Denial is an unpleasant place to leave

Tonight is the official evaluation for G for whatever it is that might be sparking his behavior problems. We have one appointment tonight and one next Monday night.

What I keep doing, though, is forgetting about this appointment. Then I remember with a start. I am really concerned that I'll gasp at 7:10, "Oh shit!" and go screaming off to make part of the appointment... argh.

I know what it's about, that I don't want this to be our reality even as a possibility, but that still doesn't make it pleasant to have these horrid wake-up calls. Perhaps after tonight it will seem easier.

And largely, it has been easier. Whatever has been happening, G has been much more calm and mostly sweet. He had a rough day yesterday, breaking down in tears a few times, but that has been very rare. (The last episode was over a guy at the next table over in the restaurant joking with G who had just picked up the guy's keys, having thought they were mine. The guy said, "You can't drive my car" and G just crumpled, embarrassed and feeling chastised, I think. The guy felt SO bad, but how could he know? G doesn't know how people might joke in that sort of situation.)

Anyway, I'm off to set a bunch of alarms and leave myself a phone message. If anyone wants to call me at 6:20PM, you're welcome to.

Why

does this shirt make me think of Liz?