whiskey woes

The "self" was very "intoxicated" last Friday. It's probably a good thing that I don't remember that much of it. A friend of mine from work is moving away to go back to school for his PhD, and he had a going away party. He set up one of those dealies at a bar where for $30 it was all you can drink for three hours, including top shelf. Yeah, those never end well. Let's just say I drank a lot of whiskey, got shuffled off to another bar after the deal ended, don't remember what bar it was, but I do remember falling out of the cab outside of that bar. Yes, falling out. As in, one minute, I'm sitting inside the cab, the next minute I'm on the ground outside of the cab. Not pretty. I did have the presence of mind to order only water at this second bar, wherever it was, and I somehow made it home safely, too, so at least that worked out well for me. I remember the beginning of the night fairly well, but towards the end it gets rather foggy. I was just informed this afternoon by someone I barely remember being there, that I kept asking him to introduce me to guys. And there was something about a conversation about "cougars." Yeah, don't remember that. I shudder to think what other embarrassing things I'm not remembering. Especially considering some of the things I do remember were quite embarrassing. I am never drinking again. And you know that's a lie as well as I do.

kid stuff

I am loving Bring Your Child to Work Day! And I don't even have kids! Several of my coworkers have brought their kids in today, and I gotta tell ya, these kids are all pretty cool. The guy who sits in the cubicle across from me brought in his 8-year-old daughter and she was absolutely adorable! Another coworker and I (her dad stayed at his desk) got to take her down to the employee store to get a little gift they were giving out to the kids, and ALMOST got our picture taken with her as if she were our own. Now THAT might have started some unsavory rumors. :) Another coworker brought her son in (he's probably around 10 years old), and he has been helping us out by organizing binders and picking things up at the printer, and he LOVES IT! He's thanking us for giving him things to do and asking for more!! It's so cute! And earlier today, I tagged along with a big group of parents and kids for a tour of a couple different areas of our facility that I'd never been to before, and it was really interesting. I got to learn about some of our products in terms I can actually understand! Geez, how sad is that - I have to listen to the Kid's Day version of how our products work in order to understand it! ;) It's funny, though, when you don't spend that much time with kids, you forget how much fun they can be! And how cute and funny. I just wish I'd been able to hang out in MY Dad's office all day long instead of actually having to work. That would have been awesome!

p.s. If you'll notice above these posts, I have added a countdown to all things Harry Potter. Book 7 and Movie 5 coming out a week apart! This summer is so going to rock!

maybe my last post about moving ... maybe

Two things I was just thinking about:

1) I wish I'd been able to properly thank the random guy from my old building who helped me on move-out day. I had been out picking up the truck, and when I returned, my Dad and my friend told me that they met a guy in the hall who volunteered to help me move my stuff out "because he had nothing better to do." I mean, who does that??!! That is seriously awesome. And he helped SO MUCH! He moved a lot of the heavy stuff, stayed for a beer during our little break in the middle, moved some more stuff, then disappeared back up to his place before I could repay him with the food I'd promised to the rest of my movers. I feel immense gratitude to this guy (I think his name was John), and also some guilt for not being able to repay or really even thank him. So on the off-chance (and unlikely to the point of being near impossible) that he's reading this post, THANKS A MILLION!! :)

2) Maybe I should have been a truck driver. I was initially a bit frightened at the prospect of having to drive the moving truck through the city, around tight corners, down narrow roads, etc., and though I tried to pass the task off to as many other people as I possibly could, when I think back, I was damn good at driving that thing! Case in point, getting it out of the U-Haul parking lot! As my friend N can attest to (she was driving my car behind me), I pulled a beautiful maneuver around a car and another truck during the first two minutes. Yes, perhaps I shouldn't have even tried to pull out in between the cars that were stopped at the light, but a combination of my excellent truck handling skills, and the driver of the car backing up several feet for me to pass, got me through the left-hand-turn with nary a scratch. THEN, the next day, with two passengers with me (always makes me nervous), I managed a tight squeeze down a one-way street that was partially blocked by ANOTHER, BIGGER moving truck. Having navigators helped on that one, but man, did I feel accomplished afterwards.

It really is the little things.

maybe the new paint will hold up the walls

Last night I put together an etagere for my new teensy bathroom, and then I had a dream that my apartment was falling apart.

But before I get into either of those things, let me begin by apologizing that my posts have been so sucky lately and have mostly been about my apartment and/or the fact that I have nothing to write about. But, um, this post is going to be about my apartment because I have nothing else to write about.

On we go.

Yes. I bought a chrome etagere (at least that's what they called it on the box - it's a shelving unit that fits behind/above your toilet) from Bed, Bath and Beyond last week, and I finally put the thing together last night. It was actually quite enjoyable. I like putting things together (which is why the thought of buying things at IKEA sends me into a fit of giddy anticipation). I like seeing the finished product and being able to say, "Hey, I did that and it looks pretty cool." But anyway, in this case, there were a couple minor setbacks. Not with the construction of the item, but with its placement in the bathroom. First off, there was this butt-ugly yellowish "thing" attached to the wall behind the toilet that I desperately needed to get rid of because the sight of it made me want to vomit. I guess it was an attempt at a shelf to put tissue etc. on, since the toilet itself is one of those industrial ones that doesn't have a tank. But anyway, it had to go, so go it did. But behind it was all this discolored, chipped paint that I'm either going to have to Spackle before repainting, or try to sand down to a smoother texture. Secondly, I found out after setting the thing up that the unusually long toilet seat lid doesn't clear the bottom shelf. So now I am going to have to find something to put underneath it to raise it an inch or two. As it is, the toilet is set pretty far back, and is perhaps not the most comfortable seat what with the shelf directly behind it, but the added discomfort of having to hold up the lid ... well, I'm not going to let that happen. And lastly, it's not exactly stable at the moment because I had to leave off the bottom bar in order to get the thing behind the toilet to begin with. Now that it's in position, I can attach the bar for that added stability, but I don't want to do that until I do the painting in there that I intend to do at some point. Because if I attach it now, I'll just have to detach it again when I remove it to paint, only to reattach it when I'm done. Screw that. But yeah. It's in there. And it looks pretty cool.

Then last night I had a very scary dream. I dreamt that I woke up to an apartment that was literally falling apart. And this was one of those super-realistic dreams that leave you wondering if it really happened. In the dream, I woke up late because of a faulty alarm clock, opened my bedroom door and saw my place in a shambles. I leaned against my bedroom door frame, and the entire wall started moving. It was like the walls weren't attached to the ceiling anymore and were slowly crumbling and falling down. My parents were there (inexplicably), and I tried to show them what was happening, but they didn't seem to understand the urgency of it. My apartment walls were falling down!! This was bad!! I showed my Dad how I could literally push a wall over with the weight of my body, but he just kept putzing around the kitchen as if nothing was happening, and said maybe I should call the landlord and see if he could fix it. So I went downstairs to see if I could find someone else in the building who might be able to help or explain what was going on, but the apartment complex looked more like a hotel with red velvet all over the place, and all I could find was this restaurant, but there was nobody inside. I felt like I was in some kind of Stephen King story. When I actually woke up from the dream (on time, but to a faulty alarm clock that gives me loud static along with the alarm), I was incredibly relieved to see that all of my walls were firmly attached to both the floor and the ceiling, and my Dad was not putzing around in my kitchen.

So that's that. Maybe one day I'll be interesting.

I should blog

I was sitting here at my desk, eating my bag lunch from home, reading someone's blog online (Is that redundant?) and thought to myself, "I should write a new blog." It's been a while since I updated, and I really should. However, my dilemma is that I really don't have anything to write about. At least nothing of any real importance or significance in the grand scheme of things. I suppose I could write about yesterday's adventures with Comcast, but I think it's enough to say that despite a minor crisis, I now have cable. I could write about the encounter I just had with an insensitive coworker, but I think it's enough to say that ... well, he's insensitive and what he thinks doesn't matter. Wait, does that make me insensitive now? I don't know. Moving on. I could write about my new apartment and how it's still a mess, but I love it. But apparently that can be said in one sentence and wouldn't require an entire post. That's not to say that I have never taken a one-sentence idea and expanded it to the point of filling up paragraphs with repetitive, droning drivel. I mean, have you READ my blog? Or maybe I should regale you all with the riveting story of how I walked into a large wastebasket this morning and gave myself a nice bruise right over the spot where I had given myself an injection just hours before. That was pretty fun.

But instead of writing about any of those things, I think I will just sit here and list all of the things that I COULD write about, but won't. And you will read it. Because that's what you do.

bloggity bloo

I know I haven't written in a while, but I guarantee you I am alive. At the moment. And I have moved!! Yay!! I am currently living amongst a mess of boxes and bags, the contents of which are unknown and somewhat frightening to me. I am afraid of my own stuff. But I am learning to face my fears and little by little, things are falling into place. Well, they're not so much falling as I am putting them there. I moved in on Sunday, and did just the bare minimum on that day so that I could have a place to sleep and shower and make it to work in one piece on Monday. Then after work Monday, I made the very exciting trip to Target to get all the cleaning supplies and other essentials that I did not have so that I would feel a bit more confident in the cleanliness of the new place. I attempted to restrict myself to the bare-bones list I had made so that I did not go crazy in Le Tar-gee like I usually do and end up with $400 worth of stuff I have no room for, and aside from a couple unplanned baking pan and cutting board purchases, I did pretty well. Go me. So I was able to go home after that and clean the floors, the one thing that had been bothering me since I set foot inside the place. You know, supposedly they clean apartments between tenants, but who really knows how good a job they do? To me, it felt dirty, so I cleaned it. And that's pretty much all I had the energy to do on that day. Tuesday, I decided to tackle the kitchen, and DID I EVER! I have never in my life seen cabinets in such a state of disgustingness. They were ... well ... greasy. And gross. But now they're clean and sparkly!! Yay! On Wednesday, I slept. Seriously. I got home around 4:30, collapsed on my bed for two hours, got up to watch some TV and eat a little somethin', then went to bed. It was glorious. Yesterday, I regained a bit of my motivation and got my kitchen organized. As in, I PUT STUFF IN THE CABINETS. This was such a huge turning point for me, you have no idea! I've been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of closet space I have in this new place (not so much kitchen cabinet space, but whatever), and yet, I've been afraid to put things in those closets! I mean, what if I choose the wrong things? What if I choose the wrong closets for those things? What if I put something short in a tall space, and then don't have room for something tall in a short space? WHAT IF I DO IT WRONG??!! And then I got it. There is no wrong answer. This is MY apartment, I can put things where ever I want! And ... ummm ... move them if I do it wrong. :) But seriously, actually emptying boxes and getting rid of some of the clutter I've been living with was one of the best feelings in the world. And seeing my own things in my new kitchen felt pretty damn good too.

So my job for tonight and the rest of the weekend is to continue with my unpacking bonanza, and get things in order in the bedroom and the living room. I still have a few pieces of furniture I need to purchase in order to make this completely possible (like a shelving unit for the bathroom, and microwave cart and/or bakers rack for the kitchen), but I'm gradually starting to see things come together, which makes me happy. Tomorrow I have to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get a shower gift for a friend of mine who is getting married this summer, and I have the tiniest feeling (meaning a MASSIVE feeling) that I am going to come home with some of that "Beyond" for myself. AND THEN??!! First grocery shopping trip for the new apartment!! Oh joyous day!! :)