Category: Miscellaneous

Yesterday was a bad day, the kind of day that meant I had to apologize to someone today. I hate apologizing, because I hate it when I do something that merits an apology. The apology recipient let me off the hook, and now I feel guilty for accepting that, because I think he was just trying to ease it all over, when really, an explanation was totally warranted.

Ah well. I’m kinda stuck with the situation now, and hopefully I didn’t lose his respect, but I would totally deserve it if I did.

In other news, my landlord has decided my termite problem is not a high priority, and I have no ETA on when he’ll be sending someone to kill the bastards. I’m thinking of mailing him my termite-filled dustbuster so *he* can empty the damned thing.

Sucky week.

I’m way behind on my Things About Me list, so here are the entries for the past four days:

25. I studied German for three years in high school.

26. I studied Spanish for two semesters in college.

27. English is my only fluent language, despite my best efforts. *sigh*

28. I love Christmas. I love it so much that I don’t even mind that the season starts before Halloween, although I’ll bluster along with everyone else. It’s a struggle to not listen to Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving.

29. Ever since 9/11, I can’t watch “disaster” movies–any movies where mass groups of people are killed–without having a panic attack. Even old favorites like Independence Day can trigger it.

30. I’m so afraid of confrontation that I still go to the same dentist who tortured me during a three hour wisdom teeth extraction, rather than ask for my records to go elsewhere.

31. Sob stories usually make me sob. Mistreated puppies, homeless children, victims of misjustice or government bureaucracy, even unfair treatment by someone’s boss–doesn’t take much.

32. I’m a packrat.

33. I still have the report I wrote in sixth grade about the Greek gods and goddesses.

34. I’m a slob. Actually, that should be SLOB. I hate housework and do it as little as I can possibly get away with it, which I manage by rarely inviting anyone to my home.

35. I’m not terribly good at relationships.

36. I love to wrap presents.

Breakfast today: Protein bar and tea
Weather today: Looks sunny. I hear it’s gonna be 70s.
😀

My building can’t decide if it wants to be too hot or too cold. It was a sauna when we got in this morning, but now it’s cold enough for the space heater. Plus I’m cranky, from hormones and work stress, so I’m not really enjoying today all that much, despite a pleasant dream last night and a marvelously light commute this morning (the upside to working on a holiday).

I fell off the yarn wagon yesterday and spent too much at the sale at Michael’s, but since it’s all feltable yarn to be used for Xmas presents, I gave myself a pass. After the fiber gorge, I went to visit Miss G and dropped off the cute Pooh jammies I picked up at Target last week. She seems more aware than ever, doesn’t get as cranky as she used to, and even looks directly at me when I sing to her. Such a cutiehead, she’s still the highlight of my Sundays.

Today I had to lock the cats in the bedroom–someone’s supposed to spray the termite-infested window today. *fingers crossed* Please oh please oh please let it work! After doing some cleaning yesterday, I don’t hate my place as much as I did Saturday, but it would help a lot to minimize the termite invasions.

My Day of Laundry has turned into my Weekend of Laundry. Seriously, I did TEN loads yesterday, and 11-14 are currently occupying the washers and dryers downstairs. I’m *almost* done, but there’s still two blankets, one couch slipcover, one winter jacket, and the linens from my bed. Damn good thing I picked up two extra rolls of quarters at the bank yesterday! Sheesh.

However, the reason I had so much is because I finally cleaned out my closet yesterday, and I managed to cull four bags and a box worth of clothes to go to Out of the Closet (which I also did yesterday–it was a very productive day!). All the winter clothes that I had left went into the wash (some moths were discovered in the closet, so I’m taking no chances), and anything that doesn’t fit after a stint in the dryer will also go to OotC.

Now, in the bad news department, my living room was invaded by termites yesterday afternoon, when the sun got hot enough to drive them from the wall and onto my couch (which is right under the window where they live). The rest of my afternoon was spent in a depressed funk, for several reasons:

1. My landlord doesn’t “fix” the wall, he patches it up. It started with the rains about three years ago that got into and destroyed a lot of my south wall–cracks, holes, you name it. Even the AC unit nearly came crashing down. But instead of finding where the water was coming from and fixing it, they just patched up the visible damage. This has led to years of leaky windows and, yes, termites, which I’m sure is making the damage that much worse. I fully expect the ceiling to cave in some day.

2. I live in a rent-controlled city, which means that I’m currently paying only about 2/3 of current rents, which means I can’t afford to move, unless I want to move somewhere that would increase my commute by about 30 miles.

3. Money is tight enough that I can’t even really replace the couch. (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the part where the couch is under the infested window/wall, so when the sun forces the bugs out, they crawl all over my couch). The couch is old (and has a wooden frame, which I try not to think about to hard) and hurts my back, so I rarely even sit on it anymore. What I’d like is a convertible love seat–the full sized couch is so big, the only place for it is under that window, but a love seat is small enough to go in the middle of the room without overpowering it, and hence, away from that cursed window. I should just toss the couch and live without until I can find another solution, but I’ve never lived without a couch, and it just seems so, I dunno, college student-y. I’m too old to not have furniture without feeling like a failure.

So, that was yesterday–some triumphs, some defeats. Also, I need someone to empty my dustbuster for me. I can’t bear to see all those termites in there.

I was up and outta bed at 7am this morning. Why? Beats me. Trouble woke me around 6:30 and I couldn’t go back to sleep, and worse, I was wide awake, so I figured what the hell, I’d get up. Had myself a cup of tea, and NOW I feel sleepy. *sigh* Whatever.

I actually have a plan today, but it’s a plan born of necessity. The mountains of laundry and dishes are calling to me too loudly to ignore, and singing backup are the fridge and car that desperately need clearing out.

And maybe, if I can motivate myself and decide I’m willing to risk it, I may attempt to hand-felt one of the bags that’s awaiting felting. I bought a bucket (eat it, Walrus!), plunger and strainer last week specifically for the task. I fear failure, which would suck considering the work that goes into knitting one of these babies up, but the machines downstairs aren’t very good at felting–the water doesn’t get hot enough, and the wash cycle is so short it takes at least three washes to get the job done. At a dollar a wash, that’s a lot of quarters to waste.

An example of a purse waiting for felting:

We’ll see. Given the amount of laundry I have to do, it might just be easier to keep throwing the bags in with the rest of the laundry until everything is properly felted.

And I should probably get started, otherwise I’ll be wasting my early 7am start.