Archive for the ‘Daily’ Category

Back off Frosty!

Friday, October 24th, 2008

October is almost over, I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday by not really doing a damn thing but going to work, getting to choose which fast food joint was going to be dinner and then I was fast asleep soon after, oh well it’s only my 24th, still have a year to go before that pesky auto-insurance drops down a bit.

Work has kept me pretty busy, I’m used to the hours now, to the point that I just can’t seem to do a damn thing when I get home from work.  At this point I just don’t care anymore.  I know there’s shit to do around the house,  and I should probably make an ounce of effort to maintain my sites and what-not but I truly couldn’t care too much about it these days.

As for the title – It’s freaking October – why is there a sheet of ice on my windows?  Where is this possible lake effect snow coming from, and why the hell is there NOT a scraper in the car to get the damn ice off!

So I’m going to be late to work so the sun can do the job of melting the ice down for me.  Overtime is out the window! :ugh:

Just keeps getting better!

Friday, September 12th, 2008

It’s been a pretty messed up week. On Tuesday I woke up bright and early to get to the dentist by 8am for what I thought was going to be a root canal. That didn’t happen, mainly because of the fact that the tooth was still sensitive so the dentist decided to work on the ones next to it. So I got two fillings but my gum had to be cut open in order to do it properly so that was a whole butt load of pain that I wound up missing work for. I’m technically fine, but it’s still pretty uncomfortable even though it’s been three days.

On Wednesday I came back to work with the goal of just getting through the day without having to deal with any major issues. Of course that was shot to hell on my way back from lunch with a co-worker. I smacked into the back of a brand new Range Rover and caused what looks to be a few thousand dollars in damages. The shocker was that it was only caused by the side view mirror on the Baretta, which is still fully intact, minus the fact that the mirror itself popped out and landed in the car. It’s an easy fix for the Baretta. A new side panel and plexiglass is the damage to the drivers rear side on the other car.

So yea, needless to say it’s been one of those weeks. I’d like to be able to check my email but all major email servers are blocked from being accessed at work.

Super Shitty Weekend

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

I left work on Friday with the goal of doing some minor clothes shopping over the weekend and then basically vegging out. While I did get myself down to DOTS, things still didn’t go as planned.

Saturday was some-what of a down day, minus the fact that my tooth was bothering me. My sister treated Sean and I to dinner and her and I were both vegging out in the living room playing with the dog. The next thing we hear is this extremely loud bang and our doorbell rings three times, very quickly. By this time Bella had made her way down to the door because she tends to bark with door bells, not uncommon with bratty animals. I go out to see what’s up and I’m then thrown into the dumbest argument in the world with the guy who lives in the next apartment.

He came out in a fury stating that I had gone out of my way to let Bella into his apartment to rip his papers up and have her take a shit on his carpet. Yes, this was his complaint. I had the “audacity” to find a key for his door, let my dog in to take a crap, and then bring her back into my apartment with out anyone seeing me.

Let’s back up a little bit though, shall we? I’ve lived in this building for 20 some-odd years. My grandmother owns the building and when she’s not around we’re basically the ‘active landlords’. Meaning, if somethings busted – it gets fixed. For as long as I’ve lived here I’ve never ONCE gone into any of the other apartments if there were tenants renting. I was in Jen’s apartment a lot when she was living up here but we were friends and the kids loved the dog. However, she moved out in 2006. I have not stepped foot into that apartment since.  I lived in DE for a year and a half with Sean and ever since I’ve been back up here, and working, the only thing I wish to do at the end of the day is go into my bedroom and crash.

Now, at night I have my friend Lucy over.  Sometimes it will be Alicia and Dave as well.  Hell, we’ll even throw Colin into the mix sometimes.  We hang out on the porch sitting at MY table (nope, not a community table for the other tenants, it’s mine – I’ve been using it for years.  ANYONE who’s been here, knows that.  It’s my designated smoking section.  The table just happens to be about 10 feet from his (neighbors) window.  We make every effort in the world to not get too rowdy and he’s also never said a damn thing to me about the noise.

So let’s fast forward to Saturday (again).  He’s going on and on about how I’m disrespectful and I have 15 minutes to find the landlord (grandparent’s) or I’ll be sorry (Yes, this is called a threat!).  So I called her house, no answer, I was then told by my sister (who works for my grandparents) that they’re out at a party.  So he’s continuing to scream that I need to call her.  Explaining the lack of alternate contact means nothing to this prick.  Thankfully, however, my sister had my grandfather’s cell phone number.  So I call and the conversation basically went like this:

Me: Momma? The douche in the middle apartment claims that I put Bella into his apartment to take a shit and rip up his crap.

Momma: What?

Me: Yea, he’s screaming that I need to call you or I’ll be sorry.

Momma: What does he want me to do?  I’m no where near town, call your father.

Me: OK, but I’m sure he’ll have a major complaint on Tuesday.

(Yes, every time he goes downstairs to pay the rent or just to cause trouble – he’ll give someone a face full about the horrible living conditions and storm off.  Asshole, you’re paying $700 a month for a small studio apartment, utilities and cable included – get a fucking life).

So I call my father, he can’t leave work because he’s the only one there.  And at this point there’s steam coming out of this guys ears.  He’s waving this tiny piece of toilet paper around claiming it was my dog who shit there.  Now, I knew just looking at it that it wasn’t hers.  Why?  She’s been sick all week and shitting green liquid, this was a perfectly formed brown turd that resembled the large turd sitting on the grass down on the sidewalk (which at this point, was no longer there – guess who stepped in shit?)

My mother was then called in, she sent someone down for EMS to hold down the fort until a cop could get up here.  The douche-bag was screaming about how he’d call the cops so I went out of my way to have them called for him.  I know, and anyone who knows me, knows I wouldn’t allow my dog into someone else’s apartment – especially if it was just to take a shit.  What douche-bag doesn’t understand is that I wouldn’t do anything to screw up someone else’s income and I know that while he’s paying shit money it’s still keeping the mortgage paid on this building.

So the EMT shows up and has no idea as to what’s going on, we explain that he’s here for SHIT, literally.  He then laughs, which is no surprise because I found it amusing as well.  The cops are taking a while to get here, which is no surprise considering the police department in this town absolutely SUCKS because they’re too busy bull shitting with each other.  Saturday, there was supposedly some large fight down in the Landing (horrible area) where all hands were on deck.  One managed to sneak away, he came up the stairs with a shit-eating-grin on his face and my sister (known for diarrhea of the mouth) started in on him.  She explained the situation, he chuckled and then went into the guys apartment.

We knew we were fucked the second he opened the door.  They’re best fucking friends.  So he walks in, see’s the crap and then turns around to come out to us and point the finger.  Why? Because of course you’ll take HIS side over mine.  So I threw a hissy fit (with valid reason, of course). The douche bag comes out of his apartment and starts shooting his mouth off in a different tone than before the cop had shown up.

Supposedly I let the dog run loose whenever I please (even though she’s never outside with me anymore).  I’m outside of his window smoking up with friends until 3am and he’s going to have this place raided for drugs.  Yea – that’ll fly.  I’ll gladly piss in a cup or have a needle rip some blood out of my arm to prove his theories are shit.  Why? Because I’ve never touched anything illegal in my life.  AND I’m picked on for it too.  Heaven forbid I think anyone who smokes up or sniffs is a loser (recreational or not).  I do smoke about a pack of cigarettes a day but I’m also 23 years old and it’s completely legal to do.

The cop didn’t believe anyone of us when we told him that douche bag threatened us, he also believed that I’m that disrespectful and would actually allow my dog to shit in someone else’s apartment.  So the cop wrote down our information, laughed and then left.

Supposedly he later went down to EMS and spoke to my step-father (who sent over the EMT) and explained that this guy was a nut job and not to take him too seriously.

So I was close to killing someone, I walked into the house and almost put my fist through a wall because I needed to get the rage out of me, and taking it out on the douche bag just wasn’t worth the jail time (because yes – I was angry enough to do it in front of a cop).  I called Lucy and told her to basically get her ass over here ’cause I needed OUT and angry driving wasn’t an option.  We hung out in Bayville for a little bit, she brought me back here ’cause something came up with her girlfriend.  I then called Alicia and her and Dave picked me up and I was out long enough where I could mellow out.  Staying here was absolutely not an option for me on Saturday.

This entire time, my tooth is freaking killing me.  I just came off antibiotics for another tooth and then I knew damn well that the other side of my mouth was going to blow up like bloody hell.

SUNDAY

I wake up in a lot of pain, I can see the swelling going up on my left cheek and I haven’t been in this kind of pain since the last time I dealt with an abscess in my mouth.  This one, unfortunately, I knew was going to be much – much worse.  Why? It’s one of my top teeth and when you have an abscess that close to your optic nerve you know the turn out isn’t going to be good.  So I chugged some aspirin and then took some antibiotics that I had left over from a previous infection (horrible teeth – estimated $16,000 worth of work to get me back to where I need to be.  Front teeth are fine, it’s ALL the back ones that are shot to shit!).

I did some shopping with Sean to get some clothes for work – I still don’t have all of my stuff up here yet. Came back here and basically went to sleep.

MONDAY

I woke up with the intent of getting to work and just relaxing while I’m training.  It didn’t work out that way though.  I woke up and couldn’t see out of my left eye.  It’s not that it was swollen shut – it’s that it was completely black.  When I pressed down on the intense swelling around my upper lip/nose area – my vision went from black to blurry – OK so the infection went up further than I thought it would.  I schedule an emergency appointment with the dentist so I can be put back on antibiotics and then I call in to work and explain that I’ll be absent for the day.

I go to the dentist, and instead of giving me antibiotics up front he wants x-rays done.  So I’m being poked and shifted and I’m changing rooms because his machines are messed up (for some reason).  They finally get the two x-rays they need (out of the 3-4 taken) and he then goes on to tell me how much trouble I’m in and tells me that if the nerve was completely dead he’d give me a root canal right then and there but being how I’m so infected the pain would be unbearable.  So he gave me Amoxicillian, asked if I wanted a pain killer but I refused because I have aspirin, and then sent me on my way after he told me I’m going back on September 9th at 8am for a double root canal – yea, like I can go to work after that.  I’ve got no choice though.

I slept for the rest of the day, in an extreme amount of pain and knew that Tuesday wasn’t going to be any better.

TUESDAY

I wake up and the swelling is worse than it’s ever been before, my eye is swollen shut and I called in.  I slept for the bulk of the day and then told myself that as long as I can see on Wednesday I’m going to have to go in.  I’m on probation and thankfully a doctors note is the only way I can keep my job right now.  I’m still in training, I was supposed to do a lot more this week too, so I have no idea what’s going to happen today.

WEDNESDAY

It’s pushing 9:30 and I need to get out of here.  I hope my time out of the house is much better than the crap I’ve been dealing with in-house.

Four Days Down

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

I started at a new job this past Monday.  It’s now Thursday morning and I’m finally able to get online to check my email.  A lot of client stuff that I need to take care of over the course of the weekend.  Sean has been picking up my slack in the hosting department.  Thankfully he knows how to use the new billing system, and has some experience with cPanel because that’s really the only thing to do.  Major things I’m sure he’ll kick in my direction but for now I’m sure he’ll be able to handle things on his own.

I’ve been doing 10-7 for the past few days, yesterday I worked through lunch so I could leave at 6 but you’re required to do a 40-hour minimum week.  So I’ve got to be in at 9:30 today so I can work until 7:30.  It’s a pain considering I’m not sleeping very well but that’s also because I’m not used to the hours yet.  I tend to come home, throw some food down my throat and sit outside with friends as though I’m still working for myself and don’t need to be up early in the morning.  Eventually I’ll be able to balance the two jobs and a social life, for now I’ll just take it day by day until I can get into the swing of things.

When you work for yourself you set your own hours, so I got used to crashing at 4am and waking up at 10am and then working for the bulk of the day and basically hanging out for the rest.  Now, at 9am, I’m sitting here trying to hold my head up and I just woke up at 7:30.  Tonight I hope to crash by 11, that’s my biggest goal.  Friday should run pretty quickly, then I’ll get some work done before I crash on Friday night – I picture myself crashing for 12 hours or so, just to make up the loss in hours.  I didn’t really fall asleep until about 1am this morning, and then only getting like 6 hours of sleep on top of that – not fun.  :: crosses fingers :: hopefully I don’t drive off the road on the way to work.

Anyway – email is basically up to date, so if I haven’t responded – don’t take it personal, blame Gmail ’cause I more than likely didn’t get it, I responded to every one I saw.

Hot damn!

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Sean and I just got back from the Mechanic.  We brought our car in because of a pretty funky issue we were having, unfortunately I was the only one to ever seem to experience this issue.  Whenever I would turn on the car the battery light would come on, knowing it’s a good battery I assumed it could be the alternator not properly sending charge to the battery.  This wasn’t the case at all.

I asked my neighbor of 20 years if he could take a look at it for me, because it’s an issue where I just didn’t feel safe driving the car, so of course I’ll talk to an off-the-clock mechanic before I actually bring it in to one.  He turned on the car and saw the battery light almost instantly go on, he then noticed that the air conditioner was shooting out hot air and that’s not normal.  A few moments later the hood started smoking – we’re leaking anti-freeze.  He told us that we’d need a serpentine belt, possibly a water pump and maybe a hose or two fixed but he couldn’t tell where other leaks were coming from, being as they were covered in anti-freeze.

So we call up the garage up the block, talk to the ball-busting mechanic and was told to bring the car in on Tuesday (mind you – this was Friday).  For the past few days we’ve been bored out of our minds, it’s not that there’s nothing going on here it’s that we’re used to just being able to get up and go and being kind of stuck for a few days doesn’t help our moods.  I know I was bored out of my mind on Saturday, to the point that I was about to pop a gasket.

We’ve used my sister’s car for the quick errands, I really hate driving her car.  While it handles well, she needs rear-brakes and it would help if she had rear break lights as well.  There’s a big hole on her bumper that is causing the wiring underneath to corrode and when it rains she just has no back-end lights at all.  No blinker, no rear breaks – nothing.  So of course making the attempt to drive this thing at night was absolutely stupid of us.  She can deal with the tickets, we certainly don’t want to.

So since it was so bright out and close to impossible to actually see the back-end lights thanks to the way the sun is sitting in the sky – we were able to safely make it to the mechanic.  It only cost us $300 for a water pump, serpentine belt and a refill on the anti-freeze.  A very good price considering the estimate was $380 (originally).  I’m not sure if the name-dropping helped the price (considering my grandfather knows the guy) but either way, someone’s on our side.

So he drove my sisters car home and I drove ours.  And the reason for “Hot damn!” – it drives better than it ever has before, we very obviously have needed a water pump for a while now but I think since we only ever seem to do short-term in-town driving, it really didn’t matter too much.  The 5 hour drive from Delaware to New York is basically what did it for us.  Thankfully it happened after we had made it to town, it’s not like we were stranded on the Southern State Parkway or anything.  We managed to make it to the North Shore with absolutely no issues at all – and I have to say I’m pleased about that.

So everything is perfect now, we’ll figure out when we’re going to head back down to Delaware but at the advice of the mechanic, we’re going to stay up here for a day or two to drive the car on short distances and then go from there.  I’m not sure if we’re going anywhere tonight, but he’s talking about picking up dinner so maybe we’ll wind up going out and doing something.  If not tonight, we may take a quick trip to New Hyde Park tomorrow and poke around at a few different places – I know there’s a comic book store there that he wanted to see, and I know I want to see if PETS is still there so I can stand outside and warn people of the horrible condition they leave their animals in.  Thank god for veterinarians, or I wouldn’t have her.

Never buy a dog, cat, small mammal, fish, or reptile at PETS of New Hyde Park, they’re sleazy assholes.

Not a cloud in the sky…

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

CloudsToday is one of those days where you can look out the window and know for sure that it’s going to be absolutely fantastic. The estimated high is around 70°F(21°C for Bronnie) and with a fantastically clear sky the amount of sun that my garden is getting is wonderful. I went out there and did some watering today, I also hope to get down to the landscapers yard and pick up some huge bags of top soil so I can finish filling things in.

Karen and I were outside on Saturday pulling a lot of weeds and cleaning everything out. I did put a lot of fresh soil down and did some planting with extra Miracle Grow but there are a few spots that could use a bit more dirt, especially around our new fencing. We picked up mini-picket fencing from ACMoore and we’ve lined the garden with it to separate things from the main grass. I’m figuring the landscapers really won’t do much work now but that’s nothing a weed wacker couldn’t fix and since I’ve taught Sean how to use it without constantly snapping the wire we’re good to go!

Sunday was difficult for Karen and I, the constant bending we put into Saturday really threw us for a loop. Neither one of us could really move, our legs were all cramped up and my back was killing me. I’m coming off of a stint where I threw my back out a few weeks ago but I’ll admit that I’m a stubborn human being and pushing myself is the only thing I’ve ever known. We took it easy on Sunday and by Monday I was feeling a little better, I’m not too sure about Karen, I didn’t leave the room much yesterday since I was working all day but I assume she’s feeling a bit better as well.

Today’s goals are pretty simple, finish up on a couple of templates, do my laundry, straighten up and vacuum the bedroom, do the dishes, and straighten up around the living room and kitchen and then kick back and relax. In total it should only take me about an hour to accomplish everything cleaning wise, it’s more important to get my work done first though. Guess my “lunch break” will be pretty productive.

The LONG Weekly Breakdown

Friday, April 18th, 2008

It’s been quite a week, if I had the energy I probably would have updated sooner but when daily life gets in the way – a blog really isn’t a priority. I’ll break it down into categories so you can skip the areas you probably won’t care about. I also had to throw a break in it because I’m certain it’s going to be a 2500 word entry. Sue me, it’s been a week.

Health & Wellness – Back Problems SUCK!
I threw out my back last weekend, it took me a few days to nurse myself back to health but me being the stubborn person that I am – I still insisted on cleaning whenever I could and getting some shopping done. I had trouble lifting the heavier items (soda, and even a gallon of milk for that matter) but we needed it and I know that Sean has been really busy working on a few different sites. He’s chugging along getting the social networking site up for one client, Jackie and her father have taken him under their wings with some programming work and he was approved to write plug-ins and hacks for Social Engine, the only out-of-the-box social networking site on the market right now. So it’s safe to say that while I’m not feeling well, he’s still very busy with other things. He did really help me out though, as far as the heavy lifting and laundry is concerned. I had to spend Sunday in bed, which is something I absolutely hated, because I don’t like being unproductive but when you can’t stand up it’s very difficult to accomplish just about anything.
(more…)

Reorganized & Unhealthy

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

I know I haven’t updated in a while but it has a lot to do with how busy I’ve been for the past five/six days.  Karen and I were talking the other night in the kitchen, which is a typical thing for us, and the topic of clearing up her desk area (in the kitchen) came up.  When she moved in she kind of threw all of the bills and other desk related things on a couple of shelves and into the filing cabinet and that’s been her system for the past few years now.  Me, being an organizational freak, asked if she’d ever let me do something with it and then out of no where she runs to her bedroom and pulls out all kinds of storage and organizational solutions that I was surprised she’d even had, considering the state of the desk to begin with.

The next morning (Thursday) she left to meet up with her sister in Atlantic City.  I then took over the daunting task of finally organizing all of her paperwork to make her life much, much easier.  After doing a complete and total clean up of the kitchen, giving me ample counter space to spread out on,  I started with the filing cabinet and about 6 hours later I’d completed my sort through about 10 years worth of paperwork to put it all into proper labeled folders.  When the weight of completing that was lifted from my shoulders, I looked up to the shelves above me and I’ll admit, my head began to throb a little.  I pulled things down a few piles at a time and sorted through everything.  I then reorganized the items that were meant to stay out on that shelf and everything is now complete.  The project time took me about 10 hours in total, and that’s not counting the two breaks I took to put my eyes back in the sockets.  Damn did they need a rest!

The next morning I knew that there was a lot more to accomplish, it was great to walk into the kitchen and not see that mess around the computer but when I’d gotten a paper cut the evening before I attempted to find a band aid in the medicine cabinet but was unable to dig through everything to easily find one.  Expired medicine and prescription medication for her mother (whom died in 2005) was taking over ample space in this cabinet.  So I went through all of that as well, and it turned out pretty nicely.  There was even extra space available on the top shelf so I then had room to get everything off of the counters that was medicine related as well.

I floated around the house and sprinkled some carpet fresh and then vacuumed the entire house and managed to clean up the coffee table and any other surface that was covered in clutter.  The only spot that I couldn’t get to (because my back went out again thanks to over-working myself) was our “Junk” area in the kitchen.  It’s a pile of just about everything, that’s hidden when you first look at the kitchen (it’s under the bar – that no one uses because of the awkward height of the chairs for it).

My back is still very sore, I have good days and bad days.  Unfortunately the really nasty weather isn’t helping very much either.  It’s got everyone in a funk and the cold weather isn’t doing anything good for my back these days.  I have the windows open during the day, even though it’s chilly, to air out the stale smoke smell in the house.  Karen went back to smoking when she put Candy down and she’s just now getting back on her Nicorette.  Unfortunately when she smokes in the house, my twinge for it kicks in and I started doing it as well.  I’ve always gone outside, probably why I was always able to tan so well considering I’d be outside all day long in the summer with my laptop and a cig.  But a few bad weeks and now I’m back on track with things.  I’ve also added filters to my cigs, even though I smoke Ultra-Lights I’m still injesting a lot of TAR, and now I’ve gotten myself tarless filters to help me cut down on that intake.  Eventually I’ll be completely done with it.  I’ve purchased my last carton and by this time next week (at the rate that I smoke) I’ll be “cold turkey” and able to get around without getting winded.  It’s a 10 year addiction that’s being thrown away in one night – hopefully my PMDD doesn’t kick in cause Sean won’t know what hit him.

I’m patiently waiting on call-backs from a few companies.  I’m still hoping to land the job for that interview I went on a few weeks ago.  I’m also waiting on some kind of an email from a company I was just accepted to as a contractor.  I sent in all of the paperwork last week, EIN# and everything else included.  I’m just not in their system yet so I can’t start floating through the LEADS to start working.

In any event, I need to find something to do.  There’s nothing really going on online and I don’t have any work waiting for me.  I think I’m going to straighten up the kitchen and make some lunch for Bella and I.  She isn’t feeling too well but that has a lot to do with the rain, we haven’t been able to bring her out as often as she’s used to so I think she’s feeling withdrawn as well.

Smells Clean!

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Renuzit TriScents The other day I was doing some of my regular shopping and went to pick up some refills for my Fabreeze Dual-Scent Plugin. They didn’t have the scents that I was looking for and I wound up picking up one of the new Renuzit Tri-Scents thanks to my trusty starter-kit coupon and I have to say that it was the best thing I’ve ever done. Thank you to Wal-mart for not properly stocking your shelves!

The scent combinations have kept my room smelling fresh and clean, even with Bella’s stinky dog-bones on the floor. I picked up the Morning Meadow combination. It’s got three different scents – Waterfall Mist, After the Rain & Pure Breeze. The cool thing about the tri-scent is you have the ability to set the intensity of your scents. I happen to like Pure Breeze the most so that one will more than likely empty sooner than the other two. I don’t have everything set to maximum though, it’s a small 10×10 room so I really don’t have to set the dial to too high for the entire flow. I leave the window open about 99% of the time (except in the summer) so of course there’s no point in it being on all day long because the smell would just float out the window. So I turn it on a few moments before I’m about to get into bed for the night and then I come back in the room after getting ready for bed and just enjoy the relaxing scents that actually help me fall asleep pretty quick. It’s also a way for me to mask the smell of smoke that filters itself into the bedroom. I do have a sheet up over the door but if there aren’t any windows out in the living room for it to escape then it looks for the available wind-source (which happens to be my bedroom and the office.

BedroomSo in wanting to learn more about the TriScents I headed over to triscents.com to learn about the new product. Right now they’re running a really cool contest where you can enter to win a $20,000 home makeover. If you’re interested in entering the contest you can check out the official rules and sign up with your entry. It sounds really cool, I’d love to see what I can accomplish in a few rooms with someone else’s money heh. I’d have the office reorganized so that Sean and I have more room to move around. I’d definitely get something done in the bedroom because there isn’t enough color in there. I’d have Karen’s armoire replaced with a new one that isn’t about to fall over and I think I’d talk her into getting some new book cases and a real entertainment unit in the living room so that everything can match up nicely. Storage is also a great thing so I’d love for them to make some modifications in the kitchen as well. It’s a huge kitchen but even with all of the cabinets and drawers that are in there, it’s really hard to put something away – there has to be a way to organize all of that and I’d love to have someone come in and help me with it!

Not so Great…

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

I’m unsure as to how it happened but I’ve managed to throw my back out.  For the past couple of weeks it’s been increasingly sore.  Yesterday it felt worse than usual and after laying down for a little while my back completely locked up and won’t unlock no matter what I do.  It’s still bothering the hell out of me today, but that’s more mental than pain.  Yes, I’m in a hell of a lot of pain but I also have a lot of things to accomplish that I don’t see myself getting around to anytime soon.

I have to clean the bedroom, it’s been a week since it was last dusted and when you’ve got black furniture – dust is very noticeable.  I need to do my laundry but that can wait until tomorrow, Sunday is typically Karen’s laundry day.  The kitchen is a wreck, I’d like to do something about that but even standing takes a lot out of me right now.  I’ve got myself propped up in the living room at the moment, I can’t stay in bed – it’s too soft and offering no kind of support right now.

I’m itching to get into the office but with absolutely no chance of lumbar support with my office chair – there’s no way in hell I could sit there long enough to accomplish what I need to do.

This really sucks.

Little too early…

Friday, March 21st, 2008

It’s 7am, I’ve been up for about 15 minutes.  My first interview of the day is at 9am for the full-time IT position.  I’m hoping it goes well and I get a decent hourly wage to be able to make up for the loss with the paid blogging and lack of business-based design work right now.  I’m still working on personal and weblog templates but I heavily depended upon corporate/small-business work to get the bills paid.  Let’s just hope that $2200 a month slack is able to be picked up with this position.  I’m hoping for $12-$15 an hour, based on the companies standing and the items that they sell I hope that happens on the higher end, either way I’ll take what I can get.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, I officially went to bed around midnight  but since I’d woken up so late on Thursday I had a lot of trouble falling asleep.  I also couldn’t shut my mind up for a few hours either.  I alternated between watching TV and tossing and turning.  Counting sheep doesn’t work for me, and no matter what animal I tried to substitute things with I still just couldn’t crash.  I finally fell asleep around 3:30 and hopefully the three hours of sleep I got will be more than enough to keep me awake while driving.  I’m scared about going out on such little sleep but I’ll just make sure to have the window wide open (it’s a chilly morning) and a cup of coffee in the cup holder and a focus to keep my eyes open during the interview as well.  Heavy make-up will have to hide the dark circles, that’s the only option right now.

If all goes well I’ll be home in time to make a phone call before I miss my second interview.  I don’t think I’ll be able to handle 60 hours a week from the get-go, I do still have a business to run.  I think if I get lucky enough to make enough money with the IT position, I won’t have to take the part-time position down on the boardwalk.  I’ll base my afternoon on what happens this morning.

I have to be out of here in an hour and a half so I guess I should get my butt in gear.  Time to cake on the excess layers of make-up and re-iron my hair because it’s doing a weird crinkle thing from the angle I slept last night.

Keeping Busy

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

I did quite a bit of cleaning yesterday.  I went into the laundry room and it looked as though a few laundry bins had exploded all over the room.  So I straightened everything up and finally got around to doing my own laundry.  After I was done with that I started on everything else in there and now the room is so damn clean it looks like it’s never been used.  That’s always a plus side when you’re trying to cut down on dust collecting.

So while all of that was in the wash I vacuumed the entire house and went extra heavy in the bedroom because there’s sand and food all over the floor.  The sand is from me, it stays in my socks while I’m walking back to the room to change them.  The food is thanks to Bella, I crunched up something for her the other night and she didn’t finish eating it all, Sean being someone who refuses to look down he stepped on the plate and they went all over the place.  I think it was left-over nachos from taco bell, I’m not really sure.  It was something crunchy that almost went through my foot when I stepped out of bed yesterday morning.  There was also some dust piling up on the side-tables so that had to go.  Now the room is nice and clean and so much more relaxing.  I do need to invest in a good duster though, the fan blades are kind of icky looking.  I’ll get up there later on today with a wet rag so the dust doesn’t go all over the bed.  The bed takes up almost the entire room (it’s a king in a 10×10 bedroom) so the only option is to stand on it.  It helps to get the height I need but it’s such a soft bed that it’s no where near as stable as I’d need it to be to stand up there for a long period of time…heh.

Headache Central

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

I’m not sure if it’s from my previous stomach ache today or if it’s got something to do with all of the chaos in the house right now, but my head is throbbing.¬† It’s not my usual eye headache from looking at the screen, it’s kind of bouncing around all over.¬† I’ve got myself setup in the bedroom with my laptop.¬† There are a few things for me to accomplish today but that’s really nothing major.¬† You’ll see a few posts here and there on other domains but that’s about it.¬† I do hope to get around to finishing the template I started for acidgloss.net but I’ll get to that when I’m in the mood to.

As of right now I’m flipping through channels in hopes to find something to watch.¬† Unfortunately I don’t see that happening considering there’s nothing on TV on Tuesday’s now that House and Nip/Tuck are off the air.¬† Stupid writers strike!

So for now I’ve got Jackie keeping me company on AIM, I’m going through email and also responding to a few job postings looking for resumes.¬† Hopefully something will spring up, because I’m unsure of what to do anymore.

Extra Work

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

I’ve been working extra hard on getting my totals up for the month. I slacked off for about a week and now I’m so far behind I wonder if I’ll make enough to cover my taxes this year. There are a few big write-offs though, so that’ll certainly help me out. With everything factored in I owe about $1200 or-so to taxes. After that I have about $1500 worth of write-offs including two computers, monitors and other electronics that I needed in order to even work during 2007. So hopefully that will balance everything out.

I’m dealing with a flood-zone at the moment. It’s been raining pretty hard for the last five hours or so and while everyone north of DE is enjoying snowfall or some kind of mixture, I’m dealing with horrible drainage and the lack of ability to see the drive-way because it’s under water right now. I hope it lets up soon. While I do love a good rainy day, it’s bringing me down today and I just don’t like it.

Once I accomplish getting all of my work done today I’ll be in the kitchen for a while. It desperately needs to be cleaned because we’re having house-guests this weekend, and after I’m done with that I’m going to be making about 4 dozen valentines cupcakes. Two dozen are going to work with Karen and the other two are staying here as my treat to Sean. Tomorrow night I’m going nuts on dinner too, it’s just cheaper to have V-Day at home this year, so I’ll pull some chicken out and make all kinds of sides for it and the rest is history.

Not a good day.

Monday, February 11th, 2008

I’m in a funk right now because of a rather hectic morning. A little over an hour ago, Karen’s dog made a horrible crying/moaning sound and collapsed. She’s 16 years-old, with a level 3 heart murmur, arthritis and a thyroid problem. Yesterday she had a similar episode where she just fell over, I awoke to the horrifying scream coming from Karen who needed help. Today it was a bit worse, and Karen wasn’t here to witness it.

Candy did her usual pacing around the house. She spends a lot of time sleeping so I guess to get her exercise she walks up and down the hall for a little while and goes back to bed. While that may not seem like much she’s a Shih Tzu who only weighs about 15-pounds so she really doesn’t have to go very far in order to get some kind of exercise during the day.

I saw her walk past, she looked at me as she usually does “Who the hell are you?” because she’s pretty old, close to completely blind and when she sees a waving hand she attempts to come closer but half-way through will forget what she’s doing there. It happens at that age though, based on charts she’s the equivalent of an 82 year-old woman. (It’s not 1 year to us is 7 to them, it’s based on weight and actual age).

She headed down towards the living room and the next thing I hear is a screaming cry that scared the living hell out of me, her legs didn’t buckle she just toppled over and then urinated all over herself. She was barely breathing, her heart-rate very obviously increased (you could see the little thing pounding out of her chest) and usually if you touch her or if another dog (Say Bella or Princess) comes anywhere near her, she’ll typically take off. She didn’t move.

I called Karen at work and couldn’t get through the four times I did. Sean finally called and used a term other than “Emergency” because supposedly the other member of support at her job has no idea what “emergency” means and changed it to “very important, life & death situation”. Within two words “It’s Candy” she hung up the phone and within five minutes was in the drive way.

Now both her and Sean are at the Vet, they have been for a little over an hour now and I have to say I’m concerned. She did this yesterday without the cry and the urination so obviously something pretty bad is going on.

Karen is obviously upset about it. Candy is her baby and she’s reacting in a way that’s shocking to everyone. She was the sole-caretaker of her mother (Sean’s grandmother) for quite some time before she passed away. Whenever something went wrong Karen was in full control. Say Shorty (grandmother’s nickname) had trouble breathing or she broke her hip or just something that would happen to someone with disintegrating health, Karen always had the right paperwork in hand when the paramedics showed up and she knew exactly what to do in order to fix the situation.

When it comes to Candy however, it’s the complete opposite. She becomes erratic, has no idea what to do and screams bloody murder if something goes wrong and she needs someone’s help. This makes me wonder what would happen if Sean and I did actually make that move to Ohio a few months ago. Would she be able to manage a situation like this on her own? Would Candy have passed away by herself because no one was here to look after her during the day? It’s just questions on top of questions and it does scare me. Candy is Karen’s baby, she actually treats her better than Sean sometimes but that’s a whole different situation. She gets full priority and I honestly believe Karen wouldn’t know what to do with herself if Candy was no longer around.

Lately she’s accepting of the fact that she’s a very old dog and a lot of trouble to take care of. From medication, having to hand-feed her because too many things on a plate can be overwhelming, to grooming, wee-wee pads having to constantly be picked up because she refuses to go in the same place twice unless it’s clean.

It’s a lot to maintain and at the same time Candy keeps it interesting. She’ll tell on the other dogs when they’ve done something in the bedroom. She’ll tell on anyone who walks within a few feet of her because they’ve disturbed her. She’ll run too quick (which isn’t good for her heart) and wind up bumping into something because she didn’t see it coming. And while it’s horrible to laugh at something like that, she’ll then tell on the wall for being there so you honestly can show no other emotion but humor when it happens.

It’s almost 2pm, they left around 12:30. I just hope she comes home with her. Something tells me this is going to be a very difficult week.

Slacking Off

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

I’ve been slacking on just about everything lately.¬† I finished the template for my interview but I have to say I really don’t like anything past the main header image.¬† I don’t know what’s wrong with my creativity lately.¬† I used to have inspiration busting out of the seams but it just isn’t that way anymore.¬† I’ve been down to the beach pretty frequently over the course of the last few weeks and I have to say it gave me enough creativity as one would require to tie their shoes.¬† I wear slip ons 90% of the time, so you can imagine my annoyance.

Right now I’m staring at a blank screen in Photoshop in hopes to be able to come up with a new template for AGn Designs, the current one is bothering the crap out of me and even surfing around template related sites for ideas – I still can’t come up with anything.¬† While everything looks great in my little bookmark folder of favorite templates, when you start merging things together and doing it for yourself – it just doesn’t come out the way you’d really want it to.

There’s really nothing going on on the ‘net either, same BS different day as far as blogs are concerned, there’s nothing interesting in the news either.¬† Something tells me this is just going to be one of those down days where nothing’s really accomplished.¬† I would like to head down to the beach but since it’s a bit warmer than usual I assume that it’s going to be packed and that’s really not worth it – I’d prefer peace and quiet instead of barking dogs and rowdy children.

I’d like to clean the office up today but Sean has a “day off” so he’s more than likely going to be playing Halo or Assassins Creed for the entire day.¬† Either way he’ll be in the way so getting a vacuum in here is going to be damn near impossible.¬† I’m sure a fight will break out between someone and he’ll head to bed to go to sleep to get away from it – then I can get the vacuum in here and get some shit done.¬† My desk is in shambles and cleaning it up before I sit down and get my taxes done is pretty important to me.¬† I owe money this year, I know that already.¬† Unfortunately there’s no money to pay it with.¬† I may wind up having to have someone do my taxes for me, just so I can do some kind of “pay with installments” option.¬† I’m sure I owe about $1500 (at least) considering my income last year on just paid blogging alone, I didn’t even factor in the business aspect of things.¬† This is just going to be HEAPS of freaking fun, I can sense it already.