Trials and Tribulations
I understand that this is how life works. That after one thing goes wrong and you fix it, sooner rather than later, something else will break.
But my current situation is driving me mad.
My car died last summer so I had to get a new one, in December my furnace died, in January the oven died, in February I purchased a new oven with my extra special bonus check, and now I have a leak in my bathroom.
It would just be nice to have a financial break where I can finally get things in order, just in case. Michigan is kind of a scary place to live right now, I hear on the national news all the time how well the economy is doing, however in Michigan there are layoffs and plant/office closures every week. Companies are fleeing the state and taking their jobs with them, which means that people obviously have less money, which means stores are losing business, houses and cars aren’t selling, and things just aren’t getting better.
What all this means to me, personally, besides making me completely depressed on a daily basis (70 degree sunny days notwithstanding), is that when I finally get my master’s degree, when I finally get that piece of paper which states I can be a librarian, I am looking at a job market in a state through which tumbleweeds roll. It’s not good.
Maybe I just need more 70 degree sunny days…
Today
My friends, today has been a very good day so far.
And tomorrow it’s actually supposed to be above freezing.
Isn’t life sometimes just glorious?
The Benefits of Illness
So my daughter gave me some kind of horrible hacking cough which I suffered with for three days. By day four the lack of sleep and inability to go longer than 10 minutes without coughing drove me to actually Go To the Doctor.
I love that I pay hundreds of dollars a year for health insurance and yet when I get sick I somehow end up paying another $70. $40 for the prescription cough medicine alone.
However, my friends, I have discovered that it is way worth it. According to the little page of information that comes with the prescription this cough medicine doesn’t actually do anything medically to cure the cough, no no, this cough medicine flags some kind of receptor in the BRAIN which has something to do with coughing so that you should no longer feel the urge to cough.
That and it gives you all of the floaty, goofy feelings of being medicated without the nasty undercurrent that one generally gets with over the counter cold medicine. So even though I’m still coughing every now and then, people, I am feeling F I N E.
God Bless America.
Hello Again, Old Friend
I wonder sometimes why I keep this blog around. With the exception of the first 2 years of this website (or so, in one of its forms) I’ve never really posted on a regular basis. I go a few days sometimes, usually weeks, sometimes months without posting. I think about posting, I see funny things, I read interesting things on the Internet, newsworthy things happen… and yet, I never do it. And I’m not entirely sure why. I seem to be suffering from a lack of motivation lately. Obviously my neglect of this webpage has lasted longer than my lack of general motivation, but…
Let’s just say I’ve figured it all out. Now it’s just a matter of how long it’s going to take me to fix it. I’ve grown to like laziness.
In other news it’s been dangerous times for cats in my house. My beloved pet Stupy (I will post pictures – obviously of him alive, der – on flickr soon, hopefully (see above, motivational issues) died suddenly at the beginning of this month. My boys, my three fat bastard cats that I’ve had since college, whom I love dearly, are now getting older. The vet at the emergency clinic I took Stupy to told me that my cats are now GERIATRIC! It turned out that Stupy had some kind of kidney disorder, which is somewhat common in older cats, and if he ever let me pick him up I may have caught it sooner (then I would’ve noticed the weight loss, he had always been a pretty skinny cat). But, one Saturday morning I just noticed that he looked sick and he was shuffling around, so I took him to the emergency clinic where I learned the bad news.
For those of you with pets, you’ll totally understand this next part… You know how you always talk about, God Forbid anything should happen to the cat/dog/ferret/mongoose, you could really only afford to pay X before you would just have to put them to sleep? Yeah, forget whatever you think because when you see your beloved pet dying on the cold, metal table in front of you, well, it’s hard to be rational. In the end, I didn’t want him to suffer, because the treatment just wasn’t working, so I had to put him down two days later. And that was a rough two days. Kyle and I had him cremated and now I have a box of Stupy sitting on my bookcase in the living room. I kind of love it.
So now begins the period where I worry that the rest of the cats are all going to die at any minute.
In other traumatic news, the glorious Mr. Pudding escaped the household on Wednesday night through an open window. He didn’t come home until yesterday morning. Look at this stupid cat! Gone! For DAYS! He’d never been outside before! (well, ok, except for once or twice when Kyle or I held him) But, thankfully he has returned, although he’s more subdued than he was before. Like someone who just got out of prison, you know? Really aware of what’s going on all the time. My mom said he must have become a man those two nights. But look at him! Hee. A MAN!
That is all, for now. I wonder when I’ll post again?
The Training Process
I realized something tonight, as I measured my daughter’s cold medicine and then poured a glass of cold water for her to drink.
Parents kind of inadvertantly teach their kids how to do shots. Think of it… I hand my daughter her little plastic shotglass (cup?) of Triaminic Nighttime Cold and Cough medicine and then a cold glass of water for her chaser.
She does the shot like a champ, takes a long drink of her chaser, licks her lips and then smiles at me.
It’s a bizarre little ritual, but it makes complete sense.
Misery Loves Company
Man, my daughter and I had one of those days today. One of those days where it doesn’t matter who says what or how you say it but you’re just picking on each other all… day… long.
Now it’s 8:30pm and I’m seriously considering going to bed.
Who knew fighting with a small child could be so exhausting?
How do you enjoy this?
So I was flipping channels tonight and I happened to catch a few minutes of a show on MTV, My Sweet Sixteen (I think that’s what it’s called). This girl threw a temper tantrum (told her mom to SHUT UP! Shut up! I can’t even believe it) because her mom bought centerpieces for the table which the girl did not like. The mom explained that it saved them three thousand dollars (!!) and the girl told her that the mom was going to have to pay her the difference.
Then she went crying to her dad and her dad GAVE IT TO HER.
I know that people exist in the world who are like this. I know that our culture is based on capitalism, the mighty dollar, materialism, whatever. But the few minutes I saw of this show appalled me so much that it drove me to shut off the television and write this post. How on earth does this family live? I mean, I understand they’re rich, I’m not talking about being able to afford thousand dollar lanterns (or whatever the hell they were). I can’t believe that this mother let her daughter talk to her that way (first) and the dad basically threw his wife under the bus and gave the whiney brat whatever she wanted (second)! And this is considered entertainment.
Look, I understand guilty pleasures, I understand taking some small glee in people acting like jackasses on national television. But this didn’t seem funny or amusing to me, this felt like glorifying obnoxious behavior. Maybe because it was a snapshot of this family’s real life, or maybe because our protaganist was a teenager, whatever it was it was too much for me.
The Rut
I’ve been in a mood for awhile now, it’s most likely the reason why I haven’t really updated much in a long time. I’m not sure why I’ve been in this particular mood, especially since it irritates me to no end. Yet I can’t seem to shake it, and I have tried.
There’s no area in my life which is horrible or awful or traumatic. I just don’t have any energy. I just don’t have the desire to DO anything, which is very unlike me.
I do have to say though, I had a fantastic weekend. My friend Melissa throws a fabulous party, and I got to see Kyle (who was on vacation for a week).
So there we are, I’m not sure where that leads us. Maybe I need to sell all of my possessions and embrace Buddhism.
Or maybe not.
Ok
I think we’re cooking with gas now. Theoretically I should have DNS forwarding set up, I attempted to import all of my old stuff (since I should now be able to have archives, which is really a large part of the reason why I moved) but I cannot get it to work, so that will have to wait for Mr. Banas.
So! Here we are. Isn’t it pretty?
