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Last Wednesday was a special episode of Beauty and the Geek. Seeing as how I saw every other episode of this reality series (I couldn’t help myself), I saw this one, too. They showed a flashback from a previous episode where Richard (a geek) said, “Things are going to come to a head between Chuck and I.”

I saw that segment when it first aired and it was like nails on a chalkboard. It’s “Chuck and me,” not “Chuck and I”! And this was supposed to be a “geek,” too. Come, now!

So, naturally, I grimaced when they showed the flashback. The host continued, asking, “So, hearing that comment, do you feel any differently now?”

“Yes,” said Richard. “I should have said ‘Chuck and me.’”

I was so happy at this point. (Well, I was kind of sad, too, considering this was the point where I realized how much of a nerd I really am.) The host (MTV’s Bryan McFayden) was confused: “What do you mean?” Everyone looked confused. I’m sitting in my TV room, talking (along with Richard) to the television, “It should be ‘Chuck and me.’”

No one seemed to understand. The “beauties” sat there, batting their eyelashes. One even said, “Huh?” The audience also didn’t comprehend. I don’t think even the fellow geeks understood.

I am a loser.

As you all know this, I love my 3G iPod. I gave him an actual name, for Christ’s sake. (He is my Marvin.) I call him a “he”!

…But I am not too fond of this one-way music transference. If I bought music from the iTunes Music Store and uploaded it to my iPod, why cannot I then “download” that same music back onto a computer — whether it be the one from which the newly purchased songs were uploaded or a completely different machine?

“If you purchased songs from the iTunes Music Store and didn’t back them up, there’s no way to download them again. You’ll have to buy new copies of the songs.”

That is a load of steaming crap.

I guess I’m pissed off because I had a lot of purchased music stored on my iPod when I sent it in for maintenance. (My warranty ran out last Thursday. Since I never bothered the people at Apple about the iPod and the battery had been deteriorating, I figured I’d send it to them while I could.) They sent me back a different iPod. The purchased music? Gone. I downloaded it on a different computer. The hard drive on which these songs are stored is gone. So now there’s no way to retrieve those tunes.

I’m going to try to not be bitter about this. Instead, I’m going to obsess over this new iPod’s purity. It’s untouched! There are no fingerprints! I’ve had it since 11 AM today… and I have yet to handle it using my bare hands. (The device came wrapped in a plastic baggie. I’ve been using that bag as a medium between Marvin and me, so as not to pass on my fluids to him.)

I am insane.

Oh, and I am now officially afraid of my living room furniture. I saw a 3-inch bug happily crawling around my couch’s armrest and I freaked out. I put on rubber gloves, got a paper towel, grabbed the Windex, and also managed to take a shoe. When I approached the culprit, I didn’t know with which tactic to go… so I just scooped him up into the paper towel and squeezed. For good measure, I also placed the amalgam of tree pulp & bug guts on the floor and made use of the shoe.

*twitch*

The mail carrier brought me gifts today!

• Thank you, Marina, for finally returning the Empire Records DVD you borrowed a year ago. Also, thank you for the two books which came today: Adventures in Marxism and Mere Christianity. (The ones that were ordered right in front of me — immediately after I had added them to Marina’s virtual shopping cart — and whose titles I had forgotten moments later. The arrival of the package was then a nice surprise… seeing as how it wasn’t supposed to be a surprise at all.)
• I love Trent for scaring me into thinking he sent me Teenage Caveman… when, in reality, Donnie Darko arrived in the mail today.
• From Stephen, I received a B&N gift card… which will probably be spent tomorrow. If I can bring myself to shower and leave my house, that is.
• My sister, Diana, bought me two DVDs off my wish list: Bambi and Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Diana’s boyfriend, Eugene, got me Memento, making me an incredibly happy girl… with a lot of DVDs.
• Lastly, thanks to all the family members and friends of the family who came bearing cash. This has been my most prosperous year ever, haha.

Thanks, everyone! It felt like my birthday all over again ♥

I’m thinking of changing my last name to Verbose. How does that sound to you all?

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. And those who got me presents (I love you best of all — but, shh, don’t tell the others). However, it is now time to sleep. And perhaps fast for a couple of days… *pats stomach*

Birthdays give me an excuse reason to call my family. I have some relatives over in Brooklyn and the rest of my family (my mother’s entire clan — there are dozens of them) back in Makhachkala. I don’t talk to my family members unless it’s my birthday. So today morning, I had to call my grandmother. I love hearing her voice but it’s incredibly awkward on my side. My Russian is limited to “Thank you” and “How’s the weather?” After we got all of the birthday wishes out of the way, she put on one of my cousins, Saida (sah-EE-da), on the phone. Now… I haven’t seen this girl in years. The last time I saw her, she was still in diapers. (She’s around 12 now or something.) I’ve never talked to her but here she was, on the phone, wishing me a happy birthday and asking me about my parents.

Next on my list was Madina (mah-DEE-na), my 16-year-old cousin. She was around 10 or 11 the last time I saw her. We exchanged pleasantries and all that. She asked me if we’re going to celebrate my birthday. I said, “Yeah, we’re having friends over tonight and family tomorrow.” My grandmother was apparently on another phone at the time because I heard her say, “I want to be there, too!”

My heart just broke. She is so adorable and I miss her so much.

Just now, I was on the phone with my father’s sister, my aunt Nelly. She’s the one who was at Brooklyn College last year. I need to talk with her more often — she’s hilarious. She graduated in June and has been job hunting ever since. While on the phone with me, she got a call from an employer who made her an offer. She was so excited. Yay.

She also told me how she got stung by a jellyfish at the beach recently. “Did you pee on it?” was my response. She then proceeded to tell me how she had a neighbor who came to her door one day, asking for her son’s diaper. My aunt thought she meant a clean diaper for her to wear — no, the woman wanted a used diaper. Something about applying the fecal matter to a wound or something like that. Some kind of old-world remedy.

Guhh… Unsanitary and weird. But the way she told it was funny, so it’s OK.

Um. The sky is crying. It’s been raining all day. It was especially heavy when my sister and I were enroute to IHOP at around 12 PM. There, I ordered a huge breakfast: 2 eggs (scrambled), 2 sausage links, 2 bacon strips, 2 pancakes (topped with whipped cream & strawberries), and 6 pieces of French toast. The waitress looked at me like I was insane: “That’s all for you?” Whatever happened to just taking my order, lady? No need to make comments. My sister said, “It’s her birthday today.” The waitress replied: “So? That doesn’t mean anything.” Well, yes, it does. It means I get to pig out. And have several IHOP staff members sing to me and bring me a free ice cream sundae when I was already on the verge of vomitting.

Happy birthday to me.