Satellites and Museums and Concerts, Oh My!

Friday night, I stayed home, because my visiting teachers were coming that evening, and because I was expecting the DirecTV guy on Saturday. Sister W. gave me cookies with M&M's and chocolate chips in them--yum! On the way home from work, I had stopped at Blockbuster, because I wanted to see if they had any copies of the one movie made that was based on Northanger Abbey, but they didn't. So I looked at the pre-viewed movies instead, and bought Becoming Jane and Driving Lessons.

Saturday morning, at about 10, I got a call from the DirecTV guy. At first, he said that he wasn't going to be able to do anything because of the gusts of wind making it unsafe for him to climb on the roof with the ladder. Then, when I said we already had a dish set up, he said something about a smart box, and that he'd be there after he'd finished the four appointments he had in front of mine, and that he would call me back when he was on his way over.

The original appointment was for between 12 and 5 pm, so I figured I would hold off on taking a shower until 5, so as not to be caught in the shower when he called. I didn't get a call until almost exactly 5pm. He got there at about a quarter after, and then looked at the box which sends the cable to the rooms in the house.

Turns out, the sub-contractor who originally installed the dish didn't put down two cables like he was supposed to--only one. The one cable goes to the main hookup, and then the other one gets splitters on it to go to the other rooms with receivers.

But, since the wind was gusting at unpredictable moments that day, the DirecTV guy couldn't get up on the roof and add the second cable on Saturday. He said that the earliest he could reschedule would be for March 10th, but that the sub-contractor may have an earlier appointment open. Since it's the sub-contractor's fault, I won't have to pay for him to come out and do what he was supposed to do in the first place.

Around 6pm, the receptionist from the sub-contractor called (the DirecTV guy called the sub-contractor from his truck while he was parked outside the house), and set up an appointment for this coming Thursday (March 6th) between 4pm and 8pm. I figure, as long as he gets there after five, and before 7:30, I'll have no trouble getting to class on time. I want to be there myself, so that the guy can explain things coherently, and I won't get confused when I try to ask Jen and Amit what went on with it.

So, I have to go almost another full week until I can get regular TV in my room (as opposed to movies and serieses on DVD). Hopefully, there won't be any wind gusts on Thursday evening.

Anyway, after I got the call from the sub-contractor, I packed up to go to Mom & Dad's house for the weekend (or what was left of it, anyway).

I got to the house, and hung out with Anna for a while. We watched some TV, then got ready to sleep. I realized then that, in my hurry to pack and leave my house, I had not packed a single shirt! Sure, I had jeans, socks, and all of the other accoutrements for staying the night someplace, but I had no clean shirts with me. So I borrowed a shirt from Anna to sleep in, and took a shower. We watched a little more TV, then went to sleep after that.

Yesterday morning, Anna's alarm woke us up at 8:30, because Anna's art class was having a field trip, and she invited me as a guest. I borrowed another shirt while Anna showered.

We got to FCC around 9:45, and waited a while until the teachers, other students, and the bus came. We watched the first half of Driving Lessons on Anna's laptop on the way to the capital.

Once we were in D.C. (around 11am), we stopped at the National Gallery of Art and got off the bus. Anna and I looked around there for a few hours (had lunch in the underground concourse between the buildings), then sat outside on the main steps for about half an hour until the bus came back at 2.

The next stop was the Kennedy Center, where we saw the National Symphony Orchestra perform Peter and the Wolf. That was fun.

Once the concert was done, we went back to the school and took Anna's car back home. Both of us had headaches, and Anna suspects that it was because we were up on the highest tier of the concert hall--the view was great, but they don't call them the "nosebleed seats" for nothing.

A little while after we got home, dinner was ready, so we ate. Kayla got home a little later, while we were finishing Driving Lessons. So, we decided to watch a few cartoons (an episode of Danny Phantom, and all the rest of the episodes of Family Guy that were on Anna's TiVo) before it was Jason's bed time.

Next, we watched a couple episodes each of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series. Between the second episode of Buffy and the second episode of Angel, Anna was kind of freaking out because her headache had been getting worse all evening, and she couldn't find her headache medicine. She can't use regular over-the-counter stuff, so she has a special prescription.

After about 10 minutes, she found it, and all was well, so we watched the second episode of Angel. It was the one with the zombie police men.

By that time, it was about 1am, so Anna, Kayla and I talked for about an hour and then went to sleep.