Sweet Catastrophe

I love living at Parkview; it’s great to know all my neighbors as well as I do and be all set to hang out with someone at any given moment. There’s a major downside to being so close to everyone though, everyone is slack about locking doors! William just got home on the 31st and his first day home he left the back door OPEN and that night he went to bed with the front door unlocked! We never use the back door so I can forgive that one– it’s a crappy door and if you don’t use enough force, it’ll slide back open– but he really should’ve slammed it shut and locked it when he was finished airing out the kitchen. But the front door? I was in bed when he came in but I woke up in the middle of night and went downstairs to find the door completely unlocked even though he was snoozing. His excuse, “Well Ryan wasn’t home yet…” DUDE– Ryan has a key! It kills me to go to sleep or take a shower with that door unlocked, but it happens. We all go to a neighbors house without worrying about locking the door and taking our key. After all, we’re just a few yards away. That has to be remedied though. A friend of mine came home to find his Wii, his Xbox, and all his games and DVDs stolen. After that, I took down all our serial numbers and took pictures and emailed them to myself so we’ve got all the proof we need that it all belongs to us if it gets stolen and shows up at a pawn shop.

There are also all these inviting bicycles lining the fence right in front of our doors, drawing attention from all the low-lifes that scour our neighborhood. On top of that, our front door is an interior door. Not exactly tough to break into. The only thing deterring anyone from kicking in our door is that there’s actually a little vestibule between every two apartments with a heavy door out front and it appears to be our front door.

I don’t know how to get everyone out of this habit of leaving the doors unlocked. I felt a little better when we had a few ADT signs outside. A neighbor brought them from home and put them out. They disappeared over time– getting trashed by the lawn care people or just random folks, but at least while they were there we weren’t catching people trying to cut bike chains or any of the homeless people knocking on doors and asking for handouts or rides. Now that the signs are gone, all that’s back! JR’s bike actually walked away last week.

Being in apartments, we’re not authorized to add any sort of home security system, but I really wish we could. I spend a lot of nights here by myself and it’s never the most comforting situation. I’d feel so much better. The guys wouldn’t even have to get used to locking the door if we had a pin pad system. I’d be alerted immediately if someone came in and didn’t know the code, ya know?

I want to at least add in some extra locks this year since I can’t go all out. I think I’d like to look into some more ADT signs or window clings as an extra deterrent as well. I’m certainly ready to start yelling at the boys every time they leave the door unlocked as well. Sure, it’s much easier to go next door without your keys, but it’s really not that freakin’ hard to grab them either.

Last week I used some credits to pick up some books from amazon. Of course, as soon as I submitted the order, I was itching to start reading them all!

I love to order books online but I hate having to wait for them to show up! I’d love to have a Kindle, but at $359, I can’t even add it to my ’saving up for’ list!

I ordered The Time Traveler’s Wife:

This clever and inventive tale works on three levels: as an intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic character study and a touching love story. Henry De Tamble is a Chicago librarian with “Chrono Displacement” disorder; at random times, he suddenly disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. This leads to some wonderful paradoxes. From his point of view, he first met his wife, Clare, when he was 28 and she was 20. She ran up to him exclaiming that she’d known him all her life. He, however, had never seen her before. But when he reaches his 40s, already married to Clare, he suddenly finds himself time travelling to Clare’s childhood and meeting her as a 6-year-old.

I got the urge after reading that someone was reading through it for their third time in a “what are you reading” thread at DMI. The description and then following reviews caught my attention and then I found out it’s set to be a movie this year, so I added it to my cart.

I also ordered Fantasy Lover (Dark-Hunter, Book 1), and A Girl’s Guide to Vampires. These were suggested in a discussion where someone was asking for books similar to Twilight, but less PG13. Most of the suggestions are different series, as these two are, so I looked into them and found some of the ones that seemed like they would pull me in quickly.

I couldn’t get a real feel for the direction these last two novels will take, but I’m preparing myself for the fact that they may very well end up leaning more toward the ‘trashy romance novel’ genre. I might be okay with that though, we’ll see!

I’ve done a ton of research online into new cars and possible styles I’d like and such and in the beginning I made the mistake of looking up quotes online. For that, basically you’d have to fill in information for the different dealerships to email you information.

I’m getting emails almost every day from them! I never responded to any of them, just checked the quote for ideas since I don’t know what’s going on yet. But they keep emailing and asking if there’s anything they can do to get my business, etc. Really? Is this a tactic that works for you? Harass someone who has shown no followup interest?

I’ve been getting a lot of offers for auto insurance quotes in the mail as well lately which makes me wonder who in this whole process may have given out my information.

I’m trying to be patient, but it’s hard with all these constant reminders. I just want to know what I’m going to end up in. I’m ready to have my own car again, to be comfortable just hopping in my car to ride around and listen to music. I mean, the Pontiac works fine, but it’s not mine, and it’s not something I’m comfortable in so it gets driven as little as possible. I won’t bother leaving just to go get fast food or just to ride to Wal Mart for no particular reason– I’ve got to have a solid purpose.

Ryan and I were given a little money for Christmas to go out to eat or to the movies or something, but he decided it was more important for me to get some new shoes and I couldn’t disagree.  My shoes were over 4 years old and definitely not doing anything for my feet.

So Sunday I finally took myself shoe shopping. I love cute shoes, but when it comes to buying, I’m terribly practical. I’ve got to be able to wear them with like…everything I own.

So going through all the bigger stores in the mall, I finally settled on some that aren’t what I’d call cute, but they also aren’t ugly and they were cheeeeap and comfy! So they fit all my requirements– and because they were so cheap I was able to grab them in brown and black! So I’m set on shoes! lol

And of course Willow likes them too.

While I was already braving the mall I dropped into Hallmark to pick up some thank you cards. I don’t normally do thank you cards, but we were sent unexpected gifts from a few people we didn’t get to see this year and I really want them to know how much we appreciated it. Lucky me, they were half-off as well and I’d had no idea.

I pushed it and tried my luck with area rugs as well, but no luck!

I caught some good sales grocery shopping afterward though– luckily on stuff I was already planning to buy =)

I love a good bargain day!

…but we seriously need a humidifier. The air in this bedroom stays so dry through the winter and I always wake up with a sore throat. Right now it’s amplified because my sinuses are allllll sorts of jacked up and everything is drying out anyway so when I wake up it’s bad enough that I’m unable to talk for a while. So not cool. And on that same note, I just want to go on record saying I’m sick to death of sinus headaches. I think I’ve had more than my fair share these past few weeks thanks!

A humidifier would help with the throat thing though, right? Or am I inventing cures? Where do you even set up a humidifier? Does it need to be close to you? I mean, there’s a nice open spot under the tv stand but that’s on the other side of the room. Or should you just set it up in the middle of the room?

Ugh winter has barely started and I’m not doing this for the next three months so I guess I’d better go answer all these questions and get some prices.

I thought this was my computer. Apparently I was misinformed.

This is where she spends a good majority of her day– either sitting so that I can’t see the screen, or sitting with her rear against my mouse so that I have to move it unnaturally far away just to use it.

(Note: You can sorta see her flap of extra tummy skin here. When she sits right she looks like she has cow udders!)

I also thought this was my chair. Again, what a silly human thought.

Yup, she’s delightfully comfy despite my ass in her face.

But at least she offers entertainment:

Of course right after I cut off the camera she tried to hardcore bite the screen which was hilarious!

And just for good measure, some other cute kitty pics behind the cut!

Read the rest of this entry »

I get witnessed to fairly often at work; it’s just a part of working with the public, ya know? I don’t mind, while I’m very much not a fan of organized religion myself, I understand where these people are coming from and what they’re doing.

Of course, occasionally I get a serious fanatic who makes me uncomfortable and has me wishing for a pain-in-the-ass customer to come along and steal me away.

I also regularly get those folks who think religion, the government, and anything else you could refer to as an institution– is a crock of shit.

Today I got one of each. At the same time.

Religious Guy comes through first and in the middle of me explaining to him where he should look in the store for something he interrupts me and starts questioning me. I always just go along. It’s the easiest way to deal when I’m at work because I’m obligated to stay pleasant and this way they generally go through their spiel and go along their way. Anyway, I realize this one is a little eccentric when he gives me his card and starts in about empowering my possessions by giving them up to save others *raised eyebrow* Mercy you should just check out the poorly-designed site and look through a bit of the crazy. You can see by the url this is one of those ‘the end is here’ type deals.

Anyway, while he’s off shopping I get the other guy, we’ll just call him Angry Guy, comes through my line. This guy isn’t so bad, honestly, but he’s fallen on some seriously hard times himself so his thoughts are leaning on the angry side. He comes through and he’s chatting with me and JJ about who to talk to about a job in the store because he’s already put in an application. Religious Guy makes it to my line and tries to begin his spiel with Angry Guy. Angry Guy politely says no thanks but Religious Guy is pushing and I’m paraphrasing, but Angry Guy says something to the effect of, “Ya know, when people like you knock on my door I come to the door with my gun aimed and tell them to get the eff off my property.” Religious Guy is confused! But then they each start babbling about random stuff and I hear Religious Guy say something about how he’s seen 6 possessions *raised eyebrow* and all these other random things. He finally gives up and finishes paying for his stuff.

JJ has to go outside and help Religious Guy load a few pieces of lumber. Angry Guy stays at my register chatting. Again, Angry Guy wasn’t so bad. He told me about how he got stuck in his current crappy situation, he explained his thoughts on what Religious Guy had to say, and we chatted about some things he does on the internet (some articles he’s done and such). At the base of it all, he’s more where my thoughts lie with everything, but he was still a little extreme, deciding that those who claimed to have seen Jesus walk on water were high on something and he was really just walking on a wet road….anyhow, the issue was this: he stood at my register for almost an hour. It was a little slow, but still, even through other customers coming through he stood there continuing to say whatever he had to say. All the while, JJ is stuck outside with Religious Guy doing the same thing to him!!

Finally Angry Guy decided to leave about the same time Religious Guy drove off and JJ came in and we just looked at each other and cracked up. JJ asked what the hell just happened there and I said, “I don’t know but I feel like you and I just got caught in the middle of some epic battle between good and evil…I don’t know who won, but I’m pretty sure we lost.”

It was just an honestly mind-boggling experience to get them both at the same time and watch them interact before they split up and stood around talking for an hour…my mind is still reeling a little.

I’m not at ALL making resolutions for next year. However, I do have goals in mind but I’m starting work on them now.

I’ve already lost a few pounds just from cutting sodas out of my diet (it’s amazing what you can go without when you go broke) and my next goal is to start working out when I wake up. If I can’t sleep past 9am anyway, I might as well be taking advantage of that. I’m giving myself another week for my body to get used to getting straight out of bed at 9 and then I’ll decide what I’m going to be doing every morning after Willow’s shots.

The amazing Los Angelista is giving a chance to win what I think would be the perfect morning workout for me! A Wii Fit! I just know a Wii Fit would be the perfect way for me to workout! If nothing else, I’ll be stuck on it until I set records on everything available and by then I’ll be well into a routine of working out in the mornings!

I’m so terribly interested in working through all the categories: Yoga, Aerobics, Strength Training, and Balance– most of all I really want to try out the Yoga!

So here’s hoping some of that old luck pops back up for me!!

I’m taking next semester off to take on more hours at work and finally take care of all my dental needs and hopefully get new glasses as well. This weekend I weeded through my insurance to really try to decipher everything and figure up what would really be covered. All my vision stuff is pretty clear-cut, but the dental stuff is ridiculous! Everything is listed individually in technical terms so there’s something like eleven pages of listed procedures and stuff and I have no idea which of them pertain to the different things I’ll be charged for in conjunction with having my wisdom teeth removed. There are a few obvious ones and I found the cavity filling as well, but the other stuff is completely over my head and searching online just takes me to other insurance listings. The percentages they’ll cover in my first year are pretty low anyway so I decided to just forget what insurance will cover and plan to cover the whole thing myself when I figure it all up. Of course it’ll all end up costing more than I figure up (since there will inevitably be more involved than I plan for) so if I plan that way, I should break even…I hope.

So this is what I hope to be spending money on next year:

New Car: About $18,000 would cover my ideal car plus taxes and warranty package. The more I get from insurance, the better. Of course, I’m hoping not to be making payments on anything, but I’m willing….and sort of able.

Cavity: I’m saying about $200 total here. That’ll be my initial visit, x-rays, and the actual filling all together. I hope. This is priority #1 in February when that aspect of my dental kicks in. I’ll save a portion of my paycheck to cover half and then pay them half after the next check. They should be accepting of that.

Wisdom Teeth: From everything I’ve looked into, I’m going to say about $2,000. I don’t know how I’ll manage that one, but it’s so got to be done. There’s definitely going to have to be some sort of payment plan for that to happen. X-rays will probably show that I only have three of them, and if that’s the case I may only have to have the bottom two removed. Unfortunately one of them in definitely impacted and the other will really be up to the dentist whether or not he considers it impacted. So it won’t be a cut-and-dry removal, which will drive my costs up as well.

Glasses: My insurance covers a flat $150 here so it’s really up to what I can find. My lenses are really thick and have to go through a process that I can’t remember the name of right now to shrink them down so they’ll fit properly in frames. I got a quote last time that for that plus some basic frames I’d be looking at around $400, so that’s what I’m expecting to pay out of pocket since I plan to get frames I actually like.

Lasik: About $1400 per eye. But I get some sort of discount through my insurance, but I have to call to find out how much and I’m really not ready to be getting constant phone calls about that. This is something I really want to do. Now that it’s become so common, I’m really comfortable with the idea. Did you know the procedure only takes about 15 minutes? 15 minutes and I could potentially correct my vision for life. With my vision as is, I know I’ll hit a point fairly early on where I can no longer utilize this surgery either at all, or without still having to wear contacts anyway. I’d really like to have it done before I reach that point. Of course, I still need to have a consultation and find out if I would still need reading glasses or anything like that before I decide if it would be worth it, but it’s certainly something I want to actively look into.

So if someone wants to loan/give me $5,000 for Christmas this year, you can see it would certainly be put to good use! I would absolutely love to have all of this done by summer next year.

If I miraculously get enough for my car, I’m thinking about keeping a few thousand and only putting part down. (Like say I end up with 18000 total, I’d put 14 down and keep 4) Then I’d take care of all this medical stuff at the beginning of the year and use all of my tax return towards a big car payment in April. This way I could use Daddy to sign on the car for a good rate and I’d only be making payments at one place rather than a few different ones. I can dream, right?

Everyone is having contests on their blogs right now and I’ve been entering into tons during this holiday season.

I keep getting really excited though. On my blog dashboard I can see incoming links. A lot of these blogs have different things set up to basically link back to you when you comment– stuff like do-follow settings and plugins like Comment Luv. So I keep seeing these links to my blog on my dashboard and I think, “Oh! Maybe I won and they’ve linked to me in their winner announcement post!”

Alas, I’ve won nothing yet :-P I miss the days when I was extraordinarily lucky!