evl_redhead

Well, we're all moved in and set up. Me, Foxeh, Persephone, plus two brand new additions to the family:




( I Spy... )

So, about three days til fr srs Moving Day now. And this week has been so full of asshattery I almost wish I were going to be living in a box. The worst of it is that Target mail-order sucks, so I'm temporarily out a fair amount of money. To start at the beginning- before they switched our apt the last time, I ordered something from Amazon. While I was there, I figured I'd change my address. When they switched the apt, I changed it again. Target.com uses Amazon accounts. Now, we ordered a bunch of crap from them (dressers for our bedroom, coffee/end tables and a DVD/game rack). For some reason, the second change didn't "take" and since the addresses are so similar (two digits in the street number, and the apt number) I didn't notice until I got the confirmation email, several hours later. I went to try and change it on the website, no go, so I called. Target Lady said there was absolutely nothing I could do, not even cancel the order, until it had failed to be delivered once. THEN *I* could call UPS and have them reroute it. Nevermind that it hadn't even shipped yet. It was still in the warehouse. "So what if the people across the street just take it?" I say. "I've already paid..." Target Lady is "sure that will not be the case." Yeah. Sure. The other option is to let it come all the way back to Target and then THEY will reroute it. We harassed them a bit, and finally someone said that they would put a note on the order that the address was incorrect, and if it was successfully delivered, it wasn't to the right person. Furthermore, they are going to give us a full refund once everything makes it back to the warehouse. In the meantime, since I'm only off work for one week, we just reordered them under the correct address. I can see this becoming a serious clusterfuck, but I am limited in my options. Sigh.

Then I got stuck with a broken gas pump, had to try my card four times, and then Bank of America was like SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY!!!11!!!1ONE!! and froze my card. Naturally when I called, I got an automated thingee that "confirmed the purchases" with me (all the temporary $1 holds gas stations put on your card until the transaction actually goes through) and then it hung up on me! So I had to call back and sit on hold for twenty minutes for a real live person to tell me that everything was fine. FML.

On a brighter note, Yay Apartment! We signed the lease on Saturday, and started moving some boxes in. I'm actually doing pretty well in that department so far... I have most of my foldable clothes (except for the dirty ones and what I'm wearing this week) over there, also all my books, knickknacks and shoes. All that's really left other than furniture is the hangy clothes, kitchen and bathroom stuff, and my TV. I'm planning on taking the clothes and TV over there tonight, too. Of course there are the obligatory random objects lying around my room that have thus far escaped packing, but I'll deal with those soon enough *menace.* Also I have learned that Fox is lousy at packing. Instead of getting boxes (even though I offered him a couple of mine) he crammed stuff into shopping bags and whatnot and just threw it in his car. Sigh.

I have an absurd amount to do in the next couple of days. Apart from that I have to try not to worry about them fitting our furniture up the stairs... we have a couple of landings that are only like three feet wide... I don't know who designed this apt complex but apparently they designed it for Tibetan Monks who have no need of things like couches and dining room tables. Oy. The good news is we have many burly men-folk helping us haul all our shit up those three flights of stairs. Anyway I'll actually have internets at the new apartment BEFORE we move in (McShocker!) so I can update as soon as we're in. Stay tuned for a link to the FB album, when it goes live.

Behold! I am She-Woman, fixer of toilets!!!!

So last night I flushed the toilet, and as I put toothpaste on my brush I realized 'that sounded funny...' so I open the tank and...um wut? No water. WTF?!?! So I know roughly how toilets work, and I am of a mechanical mind...not for a profession but I like to fix things, so I take a look. Unfortunately the problem seemed to be somewhere *inside* the fill valve assembly (this thing.) I futzed with it a bit, and succeeded in making it worse (so the "float" didn't shut off the water and it just. kept. running.) So I just shut off the water supply to the toilet and called it a night. This morning, after a frustrating trip to Home Despot, ("Little Lady?" REALLY?! Jerk.) I had a new valve assembly in hand, and after a couple of false starts, I succeeded in replacing it. I call it a success because it works now, and if the valve on the damn supply pipe actually TURNED ALL THE WAY OFF LIKE IT IS SUPPOSED TO there would have been very little water on the floor.

I feel very accomplished, but I still cannot wait to get out of this dump. Thirty four days til move-out.

Well, T-Minus twenty-eight days until we get the keys to our shiny new apartment. I'm really really excited. As I mentioned, we've already purchased two rooms of new furniture, and we have a few additional pieces lying around. Not too much left, mostly "accessory" furniture like coffee tables and stuff. I also bought a small china cabinet/curio cabinet, but I'm having some small amount of trouble actually getting it out of the store... I thought it was gonna fit in Fox's car, not so much apparently. Working on that.

Anyway, Foxy is away for the weekend. He's going to pack up some of his knickknacks so that his dad doesn't have to make guesses about what he wants to bring down when he helps us move. Thank goodness he has a giant Lexus, because Fox and I also have a couple of small pieces of furniture we want to come down here to our apartment. We have a lot of stuff between the two of us...not like, furniture wise, just stuff. Knickknacky stuff, books, TONS of DVDs, stuff like that. So it's going to be interesting trying to make all that work together. Anyway, for now I think I am going to go take a shower and then go to bed. I could really use some sleep. Or maybe I'll just go to sleep and shower in the morning...yeah, that's the ticket.

So we have it in writing now... We have an apartment!!!! We have an address and everything. We get the keys on July 25th. Since we had already set up all our plans (days off work and such) to move on August 1, we're still going to do that. We're just going to spend that interim week bringing over small things, breakable things, awkward and crushable things like art and crap. Basically whatever is ready to go and can fit in the Toyota. Then on August 1, we're doing the whole rent a UHaul thing and schlepping what little bit of furniture we already have over there. Later that week, more will arrive! Oh yeah, we are that good. We've had an apartment officially for less than twelve hours and we've already bought almost two full rooms of furnishings. As sucky as it is, I'm glad my dad had an insurance policy, because all the money I wound up spending the week of the funeral would've been extremely prohibitive of buying furniture. But that is depressing so I will STFU.

Would you like to see our furnishings? Of course you would.

( Mah room groups, let me show you them. )

We interrupt your regularly scheduled workday to bring you the following message:


We have an apartment! (Again.) Same as the floorplan I showed y'all two entries ago, except it is on the third floor. It opens up on July 1, and they are going to take their time cleaning it and getting it ready and stuff, and we get the keys the last weekend in July. For Serious Move Day is still set for August 1, but the important part is that we have an apartment!!!

Now hopefully this one will not be cruelly snatched away....

*Knocks on Wood*

Well, there's good news and bad news. I usually like to start with the bad, so here we go. We lost the apartment. What they said, is that the family that is there now decided not to leave. What Fox and his dad think actually happened is that they don't want the apartment to stand empty for two months (we can't move til end of July at the earliest) because they don't make any money that way, so they gave it away to someone else. I'm not entirely sure I buy it, just because their customer service seems to be really good otherwise, and I don't think they would've said "we can hold it for you until Mid-July" if they knew they weren't going to. Anyway we're really hoping that they'll find us something else similar because, despite the asshattery, this place really is very nice, and we'd still really like to live there. So we're just going to wait and see for now, and try to make a plan b.

Anyhow, had a pretty nice weekend. Got to go see Gabriel Iglesias (the "fluffy" latino comedian) on Friday night in DC. I laughed til I almost peed. Then Saturday I went to Kate 1.0's bridal shower, after helping her buy booze and food and whatnot. It was fun. Tiff and Xina were there and we all got to catch up. Then I scurried down to VA realfast to go to Mike W's housewarming. I got to pet Allison's puppehs, and drink a lot, of course. Also got to bond with Tori over some stuff that's really been frustrating me, which was really nice. We've never had a real long conversation before... it really sort of sucks that the first time we really get a chance to talk it's about shittiness, but it really made me feel better, at least. Anyway the moral of the story is that I should talk to Tori more, my theory is the more we talked the more we'd find out we have stuff in common. We were there til like three am because we were having such a good time, but I really wanted to sleep in my own bed. Which I did, for like twelve hours.

So we've found our apartment. It wasn't the first one we looked at, like we thought it would be, but it's in the same neighborhood. It's in a nice community, with a pool and a "fitness center" (gym room.) It's beautiful, and just the right size for us, lots of windows, lots of light, lots of space. We are putting down our security deposit tomorrow, and they're holding an apartment for us because we can't move in omgrightnow. Of course they can only hold it so long, so our moving plans have changed slightly. Rather than move everything all at the same time on one day, we're going to get the keys in mid-July, and just take our smaller stuff over a little at a time; boxed up stuff, winter clothes, art and small furniture, stuff like that. Then on what was originally supposed to be moving day, we're just going to bring our furniture over and stuff. It's going to be awesome. Fortunately, my dad's insurance money just came through, so we'll actually be able to purchase furniture instead of sitting on milk crates and cable spools. I am so very excited. In less than fifty one days, we will have the keys to our first home together. Pardon my squeeing. If you want to see a floorplan (if you are a nerd like me,) you can look ( HERE. )

Sarah thinks it's funny that I am "so ready to get new stuff." I guess that's true. Mostly I'm really excited about having my own home, a home I can be really proud of, and filling it with things that are actually mine. Not things that I bought because "it was cheap and I needed one" or ugly beige floor pillows that I meant to recover but never got around to. I'm excited that I don't have to split space between "your stuff" and "my stuff." Instead, we get to have "our stuff" and we can come to some sort of cohesive design other than "Goodwill Chic." Anyway, I'll keep yall posted, but the next step is just going to be signing a lease and moving in!

So we've visited our first apartment. It was really nice, we were really happy with it, and if it weren't for the fact that our parents would kick our asses we probably would've taken it just because neither of us really wants to do the apartment hunting thing. (Not that that isn't sound advice, because it really is.) Anyway it's a nice place... concrete between the floors so the neighbors won't bother us (and we won't bother them) plus a dishwasher and washer dryer in the unit. Not cheap of course, but like I said, I don't mind paying a little more for a nice quiet neighborhood and a nice apartment. We're finishing the search next Saturday... we kind of want to get it over with so we're just going to go look at another half dozen places that day and decide. Then we'll apply and do the background check thing and get that over with.

The next step after we find a place is going to be to find things to go in it. We already have a nice sized list of furniture we want, and we've already decided on a few pieces for sure, but actually *getting* them may prove to be the problem. One of the places we're looking, actually the place we're looking to get most of our living area furniture from, doesn't allow ordering from the website. You have to go to the store to buy it. I don't know what happens if the store doesn't have it...hopefully they can order it for us and we can just have it delivered, because I would rather someone else carry my sofa up to the apartment for me... plus those guys know what they're doing and are less likely to break shit getting it around the corners.

We actually bought our first piece today. A big department store near Fox's house is going out of business, so everything is on UBER sale. Of course they're closing in two days so there is not a lot left, but they're selling the fixtures too, and we were able to find a little wrought-iron glass topped display table that is going to work perfectly on our balcony. If only we could find chairs to go with it... hmm.

Anyway, one step at a time. Hopefully we'll at least HAVE an apartment soon, and then we can worry about filling it.

So, moving right along with life as usual. I'm making over the ol' blog here because I don't want the last thing on here to be something depressing, especially when I am coming up on such a non-depressing time in my life.

Foxy and I are moving in together in August! We've just begun looking for apartments, our first tour is tomorrow. I know they say don't ever take the first one you look at, but I have a really good feeling about all of the first four communities on our list. They're actually all owned by the same parent company, but in different parts of the town we're looking to live in. Each community has its own website where you can connect your utilities, pay rent, request maintenance, plus a live chat feature where you can actually talk to someone at the company about your issue. The rent isn't cheap, but it's actually not too much more expensive than it is here, for an apartment with way more amenities. If all goes well, we'll have a dishwasher and our very own washer and dryer. Admittedly, we'll have to pay some of the utilities, but really, I can live with that if it gets me the hell out of here.

So that's where we are now. This whole thing is really weird, but I'm looking forward to it. I mean, the spending all our time together thing won't be weird...we do that now, we just have to commute one way or the other to do it is all. This is just a lot of firsts at once. I've never lived with a guy (but I am FR SRS looking forward to it), I've never had to go buy furniture or anything, except for my desk (Ikea) and my bed (Furniture NOW!!!) I've never lived in an apartment where it was our stuff, instead of your stuff and my stuff. I'm really looking forward to it. For the first time in my life my furniture will match (and not be hideous) and all the art on the walls will be framed, and at least somewhat classy. I mean my stuff will always be sort of weirdo and mismatched, but for the first time ever, I don't have to feel like I'm living in a dorm room with a roommate. Not that that's a bad thing, in its place, but I'm twenty three and I'm really sort of over that feeling. I'm going to get to live in a home, with a family, who is variously furry and not furry.


So to summarize- we've still got a pretty long road ahead, but one of the hardest parts is actually over. Finding apartments to look at is the worst of it, from there it's sort of going through the motions. Anyway, we'll get there.

Moving To-Do List

Make a list of apartments to visit.
Visit said apartments
Narrow down and choose one
Apply/get credit checks/etc
Make deposit, sign lease
Set up utilities to start on move-in day
Fill out change of address forms
Pack!
Secure manual labour payable in Pizza and Beer (cough cough, a-HEM)
Move
Buy a houseful of furniture
Try not to kill each other.


Check. This is gonna be a long two months.

Hi all. For those of you (if there are any) who haven't heard yet, my dad died this week. He'd been sick for a while and had a bunch of surgery and basically his body couldn't take the stress any more.

Here's the viewing information if anyone would like it. We're not going to have a church funeral or anything, just a viewing and prayer service. The viewings will be this Wednesday, from 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm, should anyone wish to attend. If you do decide to come in the afternoon please do not arrive early because 1-2 pm is the private family viewing. There will be a brief prayer service in the evening, starting at 7 pm.

You aren't expected or obligated to come or send flowers or cards or anything. If you want to do any of the above, that's perfectly fine with me, but if you want to ignore this totally, that is ok too. Whatever you decide I promise I won't be hurt or pissed off or offended or anything. As usual, if you know anyone who would like this info, feel free to pass it on.

The viewings will be held at:

The Leonard J Ruck Funeral Home
3505 Harford Road
Baltimore, MD 21214
Ph: (410) 426-1517

Crossposted to my Facebook.

Ok, so to start at the beginning without getting too complicated, my dad got sick sometime in mid-November with some sort of fluish thing (supposedly.)He was ill at Thanksgiving but I saw him, and he looked normal, was eating normally, so I figured no big deal. I hadn't been home since then, prior to Christmas Eve, but I knew he was still sick. Cioci (my aunt) and he work opposite shifts, so it isn't unusual for them to not see each other very often. She knew he was still sick, but that was about it, and I was annoyed, but not especially worried. I mean, I've had bronchitis that hung around for months, colds I can't shake, and my dad is kind of old so whatever.

When I got home Christmas Eve he looked like total shit. He'd lost a lot of weight, wasn't making a whole lot of sense, and I was basically like "you dumbass, I am taking you to the doctor." He, of course, refused to go, and started telling me I was just making him feel worse because I was arguing with him and blah blah blah. So I told him we'd discuss it on the 26th, and he said "No, we'll discuss it on Sunday." My father is a stubborn idiot. So, Christmas Day he was worse (of course) and when Cioci and I got home from Christmas dinner, we all got into a huge gigantic argument about when he would go to the hospital. (It had already been decided that we would need to call an ambulance because he couldn't, y'know, walk.) I basically threw a fit and my aunt and I were like "no, you are going tomorrow, end of story." (I guess those latent only child skills ARE good for something)

So we called him an ambulance the next afternoon, and they took him to Bayview. He was in the emergency room for something like 14 hours because they wanted to finish running tests so they could figure out where to admit him to. He was eventually moved to the Cardiac ICU because his heart was beating really irregularly from being under so much stress. Then they moved him to regular medical, then BACK to the CICU because his heart rhythm wasn't improving.

So what we do know right now is that he has a crazy high white blood cell count, which denotes either a massive infection or some kind of cancer. He also is bleeding internally somewhere and has had a whole bunch of transfusions because he keeps getting anemic. Problem with this is that because so much else is wrong they can't see where yet. Based on some of the tests they've run they surmise it is someplace in his GI tract but that's the best they can do. He was severely dehydrated (duh) so his kidneys aren't functioning well at all, which is why they can't get a good picture of his intestines. When you get a CT scan of your abdomen they make you drink this contrast dye so they can see your intestines. His kidneys could not even begin to filter the stuff out right now so they can't give it to him. He has pancreatitis and it seems like something is pushing on his pancreas (possibly a tumor of some sort.) He also has fluid building up in his abdominal cavity for some reason, and a pain in his lower left abdomen that they can't really explain. (I am assuming they've ruled out appendicitis, since that would be my first guess.) They took a bone marrow biopsy Monday to check for Leukemia, and they've started him on antibiotics to clear him of any possible infection. They're also going to have to go in at some point and drain the fluid out of his abdomen. He's on massive doses of painkillers right now so he's mostly not feeling any pain, but he still looks like shit.

As for me, I am ok. Aside from just being used to people getting catastrophically sick in my family, I have limited sympathy for him because he has been sick for over a month and didn't go to a damn doctor. He was all "I'm waiting until I turn 66 to sign up for Medicare so I don't get locked into the higher rate" or whatever. For fuck's sake. We'll just see what happens, but if he hadn't been a total dumbass and had gone to the doctor when he didn't get better, when he got sick again, had a fever over 104 degrees, when he PASSED OUT on the way to work, or when his digestive system CEASED TO FUNCTION, (all things that Cioci and I didn't hear about until he went to the hospital) then he wouldn't be in this mess now. Anyway I'm in Baltimore until Friday at the earliest, so yeah.

The way I see it, it'll either all be ok in the end, or it won't, either way I hope it doesn't drag on forever this time.

(Crossposted to Facebook.)

The Kittahs approve of my new hardware.

Well, I'm back, for a little while anyway. I got a new computer, which is extremely helpful. One of the reasons anyone stopped hearing from me on here was because my old computer was so ultra shitty that I feared using it, lest it actually explode. My intention was to keep it and just store a bunch of shit on it, but that may wind up not happening as I seem to have lost a driver disk, and my vid card is all fucked up (plus I can't get teh intarwebs to work on it, which I'm not at all broken up about, but it means I can't find the drivers automatically.) If anyone has any ideas about how to fix this, let me know. I'm a little upset at the prospect of getting rid of Blinky, because he's been with me a long time (he's the comp I got when I went away to college) and also because I recently got a new monitor for him. Oh well, I guess I can sell that, right? It's a pretty nice monitor. Or maybe I'll just keep it so I can dual-screen my laptop. Ooh, nerdy. Speaking of which, having a laptop rocks. I can LJ and Facebook and look at lolcats all without ever getting out from under the covers. I am STILL NAKED AND IN BED RIGHT NOW. You probably didn't need to know that, but I happen to think it's awesome. The only issue is that to keep the maximum amount of me covered, I have to lie on my side, and it's super hard to type. Oh well, I'll deal.

So yeah, nothing new right now. Same job, same apartment, same boyfriend, though I am looking forward to August, because then it will be same boyfriend, but in a different apartment with me! We're moving in together and it promises to be awesome (except for the times when I will want to shiv him for leaving dishes all over the house) Anyway, I'm gonna go do some stuff...from my bed!!!

I was linked to this, but I am ZOMGONUNIVERSITYTIME so I will make this fast.

In case anyone is wanting to buy me something for any reason, this is RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS.

Ok I suck at this game, and yes I know we've played it before, but I reserve the right to ask retarded questions if I can't think of anything.

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me" or something of an equally pithy nature.
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature. Be warned!
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions, or there will be trouble.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.

( Daneille's Questions: )

In other news, why is everyone in Retail so shitty to their customers? Discuss.

Announcing (officially) a very special summer show with a fantastic "All-Star" cast!

(begin gratuitous HTML)




I will be playing Janet, for those of you familiar with the movie. There will probably be a cost to the tickets, to be announced, but it will most likely be between six and ten dollars for adults, with a possible discount for students. More information (including prices and ticket sales) will be posted HERE as it becomes available. Prop bags will most likely be for sale, so bring some cash if you would like to throw things at us!

Well since it was officially announced at my office today, I can officially announce it here. I got a new job! :) Same office I'm working in now, just a different job. Among other things, I'm gonna be the hiring manager for student workers for the school year. I'm a little nervous about it, but I'm also pretty excited. It comes with a pay raise and maybe a new desk, depending on what they manage to bang out furniture wise down here. The raise is not *that* impressive, but it's a solid chunk more than what I'm making now, and will help cover all those godawful deductions that they take out of my cheque every two weeks. (Or the ones that aren't based on a percentage of my salary, anyway. Sigh.)

Aside from that work has been a bit crap lately...there's some shit going down that I am *cough* not supposed to mention *cough cough* so I won't, 'cause I don't want to get le fired. Suffice it to say someone (not me) has a real good chance of being sacked and, as seems to be the status quo of the University, it is not someone who *really* deserves it, at least not in my opinion. It's one of those deals where I understand the necessity of a "zero tolerance" policy but I wish we could bend it this once, since there was no harm done. Sigh again. Also not that I'm complaining (oh who am I kidding) but this series of events has left me doing extra work for the past three days which is oh-so-frustrating when the fucking Grad School keeps dumping piles of crap on my desk while my back is turned and stealing off into the night... Fuckers. I'll do it, naturally, 'cause it's my job, but if I didn't have a social filter there would be bags of flaming dog poo all over the Grad School's steps.

Also there's the usual animosity of my workplace. Most people are nice but there are a few who I think do not like me, and I think are really not going to enjoy the fact that I got this new job, 'cause I am but a whippersnapper. Perhaps I should get off their lawns.

There's an off-season Rocky show coming up, but that'll get its own post because I don't want to futz with HTML in such a long post...

Um, other than that...well, Foxeh sent me sunflowers to congratulate me on the job, they is pretty. Oh, and teh kittahs have pretty much all been adopted out. We're just waiting for the last person to come pick up hers. I need to buy a new litter pan because holy crap the one we have smells and is small. I think that's it for interesting things to say, which is convenient since it's about time for me to STFU and GBTW. Later y'all.

I swear. This is the last one...

Anyway...
Meet Persephone.

( Meow! )

So, a couple of nights ago I went to do my laundry and found more than dryer lint on the floor of the laundry room. Five kittens, all in good health, so it seems. Sarah and I took them in until we can find homes for them, but we like them so much we think we might keep two. They are very sweet and playful, and clean and free of ear mites and fleas, as far as we can tell. We estimate them to be about eight weeks old, they are eating solid (albeit canned) food and understand the concept of the litter box. If you are in the market for a pet please consider taking one, we have a few nibbles right now, but nothing that looks like it's going to pan out, and I would really rather not give them to any-ol-body off craigslist.

If you can't take one, enjoy the pictures anyway, for they are teh cute. Behind a cut, for teh bigness.

( KITTAHS!!! )