I'm angry at Wells Fargo.

Okay, so Wells Fargo is my bank and they've accumulated two strikes just in the past month.

Strike One: I walk into a branch to change my address. I dutifully approach the teller, who informs me that my request must be handled by a banker. Seems strange to me - I'm only changing my address, not really something for which a degree of finance is required. So I talk with a banker, who dutifully changes my address but then begins inquiring about the rest of my accounts. Am I happy with my checking? Wouldn't I want an upgraded account? My, there's a lot of money in my savings account. Would I be interested in CDs? Oh, and didn't I know that I could get text messages on my cell phone concerning bank transactions? Now I realize the reason why mundane address-change requests must be handled by bankers. Apparently, when I walk in the door, it's an opportunity for them to sell me something. I'm annoyed and a little offended that I can't walk into a branch office anymore without this level of hassle. I pledge to avoid walking into banks.

Strike Two: I search online at the Wells Fargo website, trying to find what the fee is for stopping payment on a check. (I think a check may have been lost in the mail.) I search everywhere and I can't find it so I call customer support. I have to ask the nice lady a couple of times because there's a bit of confusion - was this a payment made with their bill pay service or with a paper check? Because the fee for stopping payment on the online bill pay service is zero. However, she notices that my bill pay service "hasn't been activated yet". Quite frankly I was only vaguely aware that Wells Fargo offered online bill pay but I wasn't terribly interested - I can pay most of my bills online now anyway via the vendors' websites. So she looks up the fee (it's $29) and we bid each other good day. Well, lo and behold, about an hour later I get an email from Wells Fargo saying "Welcome to Bill Pay"! At first I thought maybe my account had been compromised but then I remembered my conversation from earlier - she probably "activated" this bill pay service without my permission. So I call back - at this time it's late in the afternoon, on a Friday - and I demand that this bill pay service be canceled. I don't care that it's free or whatever, I didn't ask for it so I want it turned off. The gentleman this time again asks about my savings account - wouldn't I want an upgraded savings account? I angrily answer "no". He cancels my bill pay but then transfers my call to an online banker who will discuss my savings account with me further. UGH. I am in no mood to discuss savings accounts right now but I talk with the banker. I don't change my savings account but I do go off on a tirade. I didn't ask for the online bill pay, it was wrong to sign me up for it without my permission, and would you be so kind as to carry this complaint to your superior? She meekly said that the call was recorded and the call hastily ended.

Afterward I felt a little bad on how I treated her, after all it wasn't her fault, but I was damn angry. I told her too that I was on the verge of changing banks, and I am. As far as I'm concerned, they've earned two strikes. One more strike and they're out. It makes me sad, too, because I've been a loyal customer of theirs for about 10 years now and up to this point I've been mostly satisfied with their service. But it's only been recently, I think, that they've adopted this business model where their object is to badger people into purchasing new financial products. Heck I might change banks anyway even if it doesn't take another "strike".

I Got Polled

I got polled by Rasmussen just now. So if tomorrow's polls seem out of whack you'll know why. :-) I gave the answers that I thought would support McCain because Lord knows he could use the help. One interesting question was if I thought it was likely that Hillary would win the Democratic nomination. At this late date? This question occurred right after the one about whether I thought the roll-call vote at the Democratic convention would help to unify the party or not. Hmm. I guess the people at Rasmussen are suspecting that Hillary still has a few tricks up her sleeve just yet. Wouldn't that be something - a floor fight at the convention? I was thinking about actually going to both conventions since I happen to be roughly right in between the two cities of Denver and Minneapolis. Of course I wouldn't be able to get in or anything but I'd at least get to see the antics and the protestors and the media circus aspect. But then again, do I really want to spend all that time and gas money to see idiots who have too much time on their hands make fools of themselves? I can do that for free from the comfort of my own home.

Woohoo

I now have cable and cable modem service in my apartment. Woohoo.

Two Realizations

Over the past couple of days, I've come to two important realizations.

First, I had a "fitness evaluation" at the Y with Brittany. Brittany is a recent graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University with an exercise science degree. So, I presume that she knows what she is talking about. She measured my heart rate, how many sit-ups/push-ups I could do in a minute, that sort of thing. She also measured my body fat percentage. Folks, I am 35% fat. It is really sad. And then she told me that my capacity for aerobic exercise was "low". We set up an exercise regimen together that I am praying will work.

This came as a bit of a shock to me - not the fat part, but that my capacity was considered "low". I had been exercising with Shaun since the beginning of the year and, granted, the past two months or so I hadn't been terribly consistent, but I had lost 15 pounds since the beginning of the year. I considered that a great achievement. I'm now really depressed over how little of an achievement that really is for me. It is one of my personal goals for my sabbatical that I take this "year off" to get in shape, this year when I don't have a fixed schedule and I have relative freedom to devote a great deal of time to the effort. But now I realize that I have a long, long, LONG way to go before I am anything close to "fit", and I seriously don't know if I can make it. I also view this sabbatical as my "last chance". I've tried to lose weight off and on for my entire life and none of it, obviously, has been successful. If I can't be successful this year in at least getting reasonably close to my target weight then it may just be time for me to give up, accept my obesity and that I'm going to die of heart disease before I'm 60. So, this sabbatical has taken on a new dimension for me. It is the Last Stand in the war between Jeff and Fat.

My second realization came last night as I decided to venture out to Fox Sports Bar & Grill. I had been there a couple of times before; it's relatively far out of town and the other times I had been there, the clientele seemed to consist mostly of businesspeople enjoying happy hour. That seemed fine with me. But last night was the first time I went there on a weekend evening. To my relative surprise the place was full of frat-boy types and drunk blonde women. If I had wanted this experience I could go to any downtown bar and see the same thing. It finally dawned on me that this was not the place for me. Not just Fox, but this category of bar in general.

(This is going to sound Marxist, so if there are children in the room, tell them to close their eyes!)

Ever since I became a professor I've struggled with my class identity, or even if it matters. I am the kind of guy who, honestly, likes drinking Miller Lite. I can appreciate good beer but I'm not exactly a connoisseur or anything. And I've never been into wine snobbery or hard alcohol snobbery (e.g., Scotch, martinis), or pretentious activities in general. So I go to sports bars and the like that don't have that kind of pretentious atmosphere and who have bartenders who don't look at you funny if you deign to order a Miller Lite. But now I've realized that the type of woman for whom I am going to be able to compete is not likely to be found at this type of establishment, even if it's not strictly a sports bar. The type of woman likely to be found at the establishments that I frequent are indeed the ditzy drunk blondes that I saw last night, and even if they were attractive to me on more than just a physical level, I will be outcompeted for their affections by the frat boys.

So, this leaves the women who don't go to these types of bars. They are the ones who would more correctly fall into my class, as it is defined by my profession. They are more likely to be the wine snobs and appreciate more "highbrow" activities. That's what is expected of members of my class, right? So does that mean that if I want to find a woman who not only is appealing to me both physically and mentally, but also whom I have a chance of wooing over, that I must start acting like a pretentious snob and going to martini bars? Is this called "growing up" or "faking it"? I honestly don't know.

I guess I will see what happens tonight. I've decided to go here tonight to see what happens. I'd been there once before and it seemed like a strange place at the time but maybe this is the place I have to go to in order to finally end my loneliness. I think the review from the Seattle guy says it all.


Anyway, those have been my Deep Thoughts(TM) for the past few days. Let me know what you think.

FINALLY

The network ports in my office have FINALLY been activated. I now have a fully functional office. Woo-hoo. Just in time for the weekend.

Settling Down

So I have finally finished my month of transition and I'm starting to get into the groove of things here. I finally met with both my sabbatical hosts and I have a pretty good idea of both projects I'll be working on, in addition to my own personal research project. Oh and of course the book I'm co-authoring with Tom Herrmann. I think I have bitten off more than I can chew. But that is what goes with the sabbatical territory, I suppose: I'm paid not to teach and focus intensely on my work. My colloquium next year, though, is bound to be densely packed with chemical goodness.

The apartment complex at which I reside is in a relatively new area of town so things are still very much well maintained. The complex itself seems dorm-ish; the crowd consists mostly of young 20-somethings. And it really seemed like a dorm late on Saturday night when one tenant very loudly announced her drunken state. Ugh. Overall though it is a nice place.

I have noticed, though, that the town has seemed to take on more of a big-city feel, and not in a good way. The drivers seem more rude than from what I remembered from my grad school days. In fact I would joke that they were "too nice", i.e., failing to honk their horn when they should have. While people still aren't leaning on their horn (thank goodness), they do seem to be less courteous in passing and speeding. I had thought that the polite driver culture was a larger part of the Nebraska culture, but maybe it is just a part of the small-town culture that Lincoln is rapidly outgrowing.

But I do immensely like all the things that there are to do here in Lincoln that I completely took for granted when I lived here. Such as the multiplicity of movie theaters. And all of the various restaurants. So far I haven't ventured beyond the occasional chain restaurant, but I will try more of them. In fact, I hope to have a semi-regular restaurant review as a part of this blog.

On the other side, though, I do feel quite lonely. All of the friends that I had here when I went to school are long gone; Gerry's grad students are great people but they have their own circle of friends and besides, I'm 10 years older than all of them. Those of you who know me really well know that I'm not the kind of guy who tends to have lots of casual friends; I'm more of the few-close-friends person. So it's hard for me to strike up a conversation with the random person. The insurance agent that I'm working with, for my new auto and renter's policy, is a real cutie. So far we have only talked insurance, and just in casual chit-chat she laughed at my jokes and funny stories. Is this a sign that there is some interest? Or is she just trying to get me to buy more insurance? I don't know. I'm so confused over these matters that I tend not to even seriously think about it anymore. From what she told me about her work and college experience she would be about 8-10 years younger than me, so the age difference isn't terribly favorable. Would it hurt to ask her out for a casual drink after work? Maybe I can arrange it that the next time that I "must" meet with her over insurance matters just happens to be 4:30 or so on a Friday afternoon. That is kinda sneaky but I guess that is how the game is played.

Oh, and just to let you know, while you are all on my mind here, Kat especially is in the foreground of my consciousness because I must pass this street every day on the way to the university.



Please write back with thoughts, opinions, comments, idle chatter, lengthy blatherings, or all of the above. I'd love to read what you have to say.