2010: so far, a lot of the potts

i failed to mention earlier that when i was in brady my dad gave me a few books that he had doubles of:

• Texas wanderlust: the adventures of dutch wurzbach – douglas v. meed (Texas a&m university press)
• julius theodor splittgerber (1819-1897), volume one: his life and times – mary lewis turner (the watercress press)
• the history of the german settlements in Texas 1831-1861 – rudolph leopold biesele (eakin press)
• a sojourn in Texas, 1846-47: alwin h. sorgel’s Texas writings – w. m. von-maszewski (german-Texan heritage society)

i also failed to mention a while back that i got a new set of nanini googles (these are brown leather with mirrored aviator-style shaped lenses) and a black “novelty” helmet. that means it fits close to the head and isn’t dot approved as a safety device. i bought the helmet because i thought it’d help hold stuff on my head and keep me warm during colder weather. not sure if that’s true, but i like the helmet enough.
very late on the 28th i logged into the online bank account for my visa card — the one where i’d recently had to work to get my name of my ex’s old account — because i was going to initiate an additional payment. you see, i set up an automatic payment on the account so it pays above the minimum monthly payment, then i go in and pay more myself. well, i had set it up. when i logged in, no payment had been made and there were none scheduled. in fact, it was as if i’d never set it up at all. nor did it appear i could any longer set one up. unfortunately, the due date for the payment was the 28th, so by the time i figured it out i already had a late fee. i was paranoid me missing a minimum payment would allow them to up my “introductory” interest rate, so the next day i talked with them. they said they hadn’t yet and i would have to be notified, but it was only one day after the due date. hopefully it’ll be okay. i switched the payment method so another bank of mine initiated the payment (pushing it) instead of the visa bank (pulling it). i’m not sure why taking my name off the joint checking account canceled all scheduled payments i had set up, or why i wasn’t notified of this somehow — but it did, and i wasn’t. wouldn’t you know anything with me involving my ex would screw things up for me somehow?
for new year’s eve i once again headed to chris and mary’s for their formal party. since i’m an under-dresser, they’re happy just to get me in a suit jacket. in addition, i wore my grey fedora and my red 8-bit thinkgeek tie. so i still looked like a slob with no fashion sense, but a fake-formally-dressed one. i spent the first part of my night sitting by myself, then finally some people started talking to me and from then on i was involved in conversations. going to parties in general is usually somewhat difficult for me, partially because i’m fairly introverted, partially because i lack some self-confidence, and partially because it reminds me that i am single which makes me sad.
new year’s day i ate lunch at the house of pies, then ran some errands. i was trying to get a halogen floor lamp to replace the one in the house that stopped working, but evidently no one makes them anymore. these are the floor lamps that used to cost $20 and exist everywhere and everyone (especially 20’s or younger) owned one. a guy at home depot said they stopped making them because they were too hot and people started fires with them so the companies decided liability on being sued was too much. i did pick up a motion sensor that goes between a bulb and the socket. i put it in the garage where the washer and dryer are. that light bulb tends to get turned on and never turned off, so this way it automatically comes on due to motion and then turns off after 10 minutes. it should save some electricity. i was looking for one of those plastic containers to hold your wrapping paper — i missed getting one last year, and evidently i did this year too. the few left were all broken ones. i might have thought about it earlier if i had cared to buy and wrap xmas presents this year. i did manage to use some best buy rewards money and got a new harmony remote. the one i’ve had still works, but a few months ago it fell off the back of the couch and now when the glow comes on it never goes off unless i press the button. something might be loose in it that i could fix, but i went ahead and got a new one. i got the 700. i didn’t really want touch-screen. unfortunately, it appears the models now limit the number of devices they control. the 700 can do 6. my older one, a 6 series, didn’t have a limit that i recall (or it was higher, because i have 7 or 8 devices on it). anyway, i have yet to set it up. later in the day, i went over to the potts.
saturday i ate supper at sylvia’s with the potts clan. it’d been awhile since i’d eaten there. there for awhile i could always count on the hrc (julia) to join me in going at least probably once a month. since she bailed on me, i’ve not gone as often. (over the last couple of months she actually finally started replying to texts sometimes and sort of having some level of conversation with me, but she still acts pretty indifferent about my existence in general and won’t seem to acknowledge anything about feelings or emotions or the past between us. it’s all rather odd, and i don’t really know how to deal with it. i’ll talk about this more some other time.) i actually met the potts at the half-price books. i bought quite a few cds (like 15 or something). i’ll list them in some other entry.
today i ate an einstein bagels with the potts, then jack and the boys came back to the house with me and we loaded up my pickup with my old tv and entertainment center. we took it up to jamie’s (amateria) place. we unloaded it, then jamie and her kids and my group all went to best buy and helped her get some electronic equipment. we stopped and ate supper at double dave’s, then went back to her place and jack and i tried to get everything set up and working (tv, dvd, wii, surround sound, plug-in for iphone/ipod. we got everything going (i think) then we hopped in my pickup and i took the potts guys back to their house.