According to Verizon, my internet connection is "intermittent." (The amount of No Shit in that statement is staggering, truly.) Therefore, after a full week of this and a replacement modem that does the same thing, and plugging it into every outlet within reach of the dsl cable, they're finally sending out a technician.

In theory.

Between 8am and 8pm.

Again - in theory.

Somehow I suspect I'll be calling Comcast next week.


In any case, I'll be sitting at home all day today. Maybe I'll actually watch the movies that Netflix sent me a week ago. Or write something. glasspyramids and I are supposed to outline Versus for NaNoWriMo today, but that may be slightly difficult if the internet is being an ass.

Maybe James McAvoy in my icon will glare it into submission.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present The Karnak Network:



Yes, quite.

Bubastis = iPod Touch
Ozymandias = MacBook

Today, in brief:

8:45 am: Wake up. Chat with people online.
9:15 am: Get up to bake a pound cake. Sift dry ingredients without incident.
9:20 am: Realize the oven is smoking. Turn it off and clean it.
9:30 am: Start seperating eggs. Break the second one. Sigh and begin again.
9:35 am: Break the third.
9:35 am-10:00 am: Continue to fail completely at separating eggs.
10:05 am: Decide to fuck this shit and just beat all the eggs together.
10:10-10:25 am: Finish mixing the cake without problems, put in oven.
10:30 am: Collapse back in bed with a headache. Vow to keep the hell out of the kitchen for the remainder of the weekend.

Today's intention was to get out of bed at 7 in order to make it to the Union Square Greenmarket by nine. I's now nine and, um, I've taken a shower? That's something, right?

It goes until 6 anyway. My hope is that it will not be as insane today as tomorrow.

In other massive fail news, my plan to get a lot of writing done on the book has pretty much been a dud. I've probably written 1000 words directly for the book in the last month....and thousands of words of RPing for either Watchmen or original characters. Oops.

I'm in the mood to write VeidtOwl, so if someone wants to toss a prompt my way, that'd be awesome.

A combination of a power outage and napping through said power outage until the lights came back on at 4:30 am has me wide awake, and since I have to get up at 7 there's no point in going back to bed.

So, we write.

( Alias, Jack/Nadia, blood. Takes place in some alternate reality in which neither Nadia nor Jack die. )

( Star Trek, Spock, Command. )

Dear Self:

The next time you wonder how half the restaurants in Midtown Manhattan seem to know you by sight, I would like to remind you that you put on the following:

- orange striped t-shirt
- denim skirt
- purple peep-toe flats
- pink knit beret

At the same time.


Seriously, it's like I took being the exception to the New Yorkers Wear Black rule to a crazy extreme.

So for various reasons, I'm still on my parents' cell phone plan (yeah, I'm 28. Every year I say: I can get one of my own! Every year it gets renewed and I continue to have a number in my parents' area code) and they don't have text messaging because they don't use it and I didn't really use it much until the last month or so. (I did, for the record, tell them they should add it to the account back in February)

Long story short, my mother woke me up this morning to tell me there was a $78 data charge this month on the cell phone bill. Thus, if you text me - and you know who you are - we're going to need to stop that until they get a text plan, which won't be until my father gets back from South America.

...And that was a fun way to start my Saturday,

(The fun part, of course, was when she went "what do they text you about?" because slash writing ideas is not actually something she'd get.)

So I got my laptop back with its shiny new LCD screen! Yes, I am carefully cradling it on my lap as I basically hug the internet.

Of course, my euphoric bubble burst when I opened my email and saw that the utilities bill is inexplicably $90 this month. I almost avoided but, we're going to have to dig into the savings account after all this month. Blegh. Sometimes I really despise being a grown up.

The computer is still broken. I took it to the Apple Store, they got back to me yesterday with an quote that caused hyperventilation and that cold pit in my stomach when I get near a panic attack.

That quote amount, for the curious, was $755, $200 less than a brand new laptop.

So today I will be spending lunch at a repair center that promises to be slightly more reasonably priced. I expect I will still be eating ramen for the rest of the month. Will probably lose weight. (I think I'll call it the Broken Computer Diet. Lose two sizes by dropping your MacBook on the floor and cracking the LED screen!)

Oy Vey.

So yeah, writing projects are on hold until the computer's fixed. This will hopefully be by Monday.

I am sitting in my apartment fully dressed in work clothes twiddling my thumbs because the building's door is stuck. As in the knob won't turn.

Oh, and the landlord can't get here for 45 minutes, and I was supposed to be at work, oh, seven minutes ago.

Can I start today over plz?

- I have taken a cold shower because I have no hot water
- The garbage bag split, spilling cat litter all over the common areas of the apartment building

I shudder to think what else the day has in store for me.

My boss was laid off.  She's been out for a month now, so I kind of expected it, but knowing it is different from expecting, you know? And now that I am the only librarian in the organization, I'm a tad bit nervous. 

The good part is that they're going to groom me into management, and I've got some job security.  The bad part is I'm still learning, and now will be doing it on my own.  It's kind of scary.

I have mixed feelings about the layoff myself.  I'm really sorry she lost her job, and she's a great researcher and had been with the company a long time.  At the same time, she could be hard to deal with.  She's confrontational and panicky and I'm...not confrontational, and try to at least appear calm even if I'm not. I'm also pretty laid back, and she's not.  It caused clashes.  I'm sorry we won't be working together anymore, but at the same time it's kind of a load off.  She made me nervous about my continued job security, and after the problems at my last job, I did NOT like that.

All in all, I think it's good for me, but I kind of feel bad about the fact that her losing her job is good for me.  If that makes sense.

Even today, at work, I was wondering if we were going to pull this out. But we did it. We didn't fuck it up again.

CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!!!

I'm happy to be an American tonight.  It's been a while.

So the saga of Dominick constantly peeing on the bed continues.

( Cut for possible TMI )

Dominick is the kind of cat that semi-frequently inspires you never to own a cat again. Ever.

I'm dying here, people. My throat is completely raw, I can't breathe, I'm shivering uncontrollably, and to make it even worse, the cat will have nothing to do with me. D: I always get sick on weekends, generally on Friday nights, and I'll probably feel crappy all weekend because that's how it always is. Then in time for work on Monday, I'll be just fine. Naturally. Having squandered TWO FREE DAYS lying sick in bed.

I hate my life.

...

I tried, gekidasa, but I just can't maintain the tone of epic self-pity for a sick post :D

I do feel crappy, though. I'm pretty sure it's the annual combination of fall allergies with a dash of First Cold of the Season and a pinch of Not Getting Enough Vitamin C. And I probably will be sick most of the weekend, and it sucks, but that's pretty much the pattern since I started working full time, so I'm used to it.

However, if anyone were to want to write me Feel Better pr0n, I wouldn't say no. :D

Proven by the facts that 1) I had to swap out my pink (yeah, yeah, shut up) light jacket today for my leather coat - plus a heavy sweater, jeans and boots and 2) I really was in the mood for chili. Oh, and 3) I had a sudden inexplicable urge to see a hockey game.

Of course, I'm out of chili powder and have no intention of using up my precious Metrocard money to go to New York and pick up a bottle from the spice store I go to, so I'm making taco soup instead. Yes, I will be halving the recipe. At least.

Of course, I decided to make this after going grocery shopping today, so I need to pick up ground beef, an onion, an extra can of beans, tomatoes, and ranch dressing mix in order to do this. Yes, my kitchen is distinctly lacking in basics because I am distinctly lacking in extra storage space.

As for hockey, after realizing that the only available tickets for the next Saturday Rangers game would cost about $1300, I decided to check out the NJ Devils. Who will cost me $38. So that'll probably happen the first weekend in November.

Because I'm bored.

( 10 years! )

Damn. I should really do some work today.

Next week I am taking my first vacation sans parental units.  Yes, I'm 28.  I'm also poor, so I generally tag along when they come east.  Getting this vacation has not been without its drama.

( Cut for work drama )
But anyway.  I'm mostly putting my apartment together during this vacation, but I'm also going to spend a long weekend (Friday evening through Monday morning) in Washington.  So far my plans are the US Capitol, The Smithsonian, and the International Museum of Espionage - will probably also do the usual  pictures of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.  Anything else I absolutely must see?  Sunday looks to be fairly open.

I still don't have internet at home, which I'm dealing with fairly well, but this weekend I went to Barnes & Noble not once, but twice, and on one of these trips I decided that I hate teenagers.

I was actually pretty sure of this beforehand, but the shrieking by two separate trios of teenage girls both going to and coming from Hoboken yesterday was enough to make me consider homicide several times.   It didn't help that my shuffle died about five minutes into the first trip, so I was without anything to drown them out.

Also done this weekend: Finished unpacking most of the kitchen.  Yes, I have lived in my apartment for a month, but my excuses were that 1) the landlord had to finish fixing the sink, so I couldn't use the bottom cabinets and 2) I need to get some shelving because I don't have enough cabinets in the kitchen to store all my stuff.  I managed to store everything except most of my bakeware, a couple of casserole pans, and all my dry and canned goods.  I can actually see most of the floor in the spare room now.

I also need to figure out where to put the contents of the four Mostly Junk boxes (one has my Bose Dock and my DVD player, a bunch of candles, and Random Shit That Was On My Desk, one has two separate Trivial Pursuit game sets, one has blankets, handbags, and Myriad Contents Of My Closet, and the last is Bathroom Stuff That Wouldn't Fit In My New Bathroom.)

And to think I actually pitched a bunch of stuff before I moved.

So I sat in an urgent care waiting room for an hour on Saturday to find out:

1. I'm not anemic
   
2. I don't have any other symptoms (other than being tired) of thyroid problems

Apparently though, my nutrition sucks.  Which is entirely unsurprising, given that I get home at 8-9 pm every night, look in the fridge, and end up eating something like...cheese and crackers.  Or hummus.  Or a frozen dinner.

So I need to start taking vitamins and eating better.  Last night I had a salad, but I doubt that will happen on a regular basis.