tea berry-blue

Why, yes, that IS Tea's bricked up fireplace that she turned into a shoe rack.

I am so self-sufficient this week. Win for Tea!

Why, yes, that IS Tea's bricked up fireplace that she turned into a shoe rack.

I am so self-sufficient this week. Win for Tea!

It is nearly 6 am.



Why is Tea still up?






My apartment is well and truly clean for the first time since I moved in. It took me two full days of cleaning and shopping for cleaning things and hooks and screws to hang things. Well, one and a half, since I didn't clean till yesterday evening. Today, I cleaned from the minute I got up till now, only breaking for two hours to watch TV and make the hat of the day (pastel pink and blue) and an hour to get my hair cut.

I have this method to cleaning. I start at one side of my room/apartment, and move in the direction of the opposing side. Anything I can put away easily in the area I start in gets put away, anything alse gets shifted to the next section. Since I've moved in, I've started this process several times, always starting with the bathroom. My apartment layout is bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, living space. I have cleaned my bathroom tip to toe several times. I have never managed to get more than a third of the way through the bedroom. Today, I finally got to the other end of the living space.

It didn't help that I was never well and truly unpacked. I still have some odds and ends that really need better homes, and a set of dishes in boxes that I will send home with my parents at some point, and plastic moving bins that are empty and sitting on my kitchen floor. I have a magnificent mountain of shoes that need a place to go, but I think I've figured out how to turn my defunct fireplace into a shoe rack, so that is tomorrow's task (whee). But I am as unpacked as I can be. I have one set of shelves waiting to be put together, that somehow came without the little doodads from Ikea, but I called yesterday and they are mailing me the doodads. And I have a few more pictures and such to hang. But all and all, this is not only the cleanest this apartment has been, it's probably the cleanest and most organized I've been since I moved out of my parents' house.

I am terrible at cleaning. Some people are bad at math or languages or rocket science or baseball. I am bad at cleaning. My super sparkling apartment probably looks to some of you guys the way your habitats look when you're at your wits' end with the messiness of it all and must do something right, right away. But this is an amazing coup for me. The next challenge? Keeping it this way. There are still dishes in the sink and a refrigerator with some old leftovers waiting to be cleaned out-- more tasks for tomorrow-- but man, I am so proud. And sleepy. I have a feeling if I weren't delirious with sleep deprivation, I wouldn't be writing such a long post about cleaning.

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends, I can see the fucking floor.

IS SOFA:





YES. FOR ME.

There is a long and involved story about this sofa. It is about how I have a meeting at noon and they told me that there was no time besides noon when they could deliver the sofa, which sent me into a mad scramble to find someone to stay at my apartment for an hour while the sofa got delivered.

Then the sofa showed up at 9:15, after I had begged off work and told them I would be in at 11:45. Ha. And had to call my father to tell him I didn't need him!

Also, in other news! Transformers tickets are bought! $12 each, 9:40 pm, July 3! It's at the Regal in TSq, which is the one on the north side of the street. I have eight of them: Me, Rosie, Anna, Hannah, Kate, Jess, Destiny, Vedette.

Dinner first? YES! We can pick a place closer to then. Wear 80s clothes if possible! I have loads of tacky makeup so I can help on that front.

More later, but I have meeting now! w00t!

IS SOFA:





YES. FOR ME.

There is a long and involved story about this sofa. It is about how I have a meeting at noon and they told me that there was no time besides noon when they could deliver the sofa, which sent me into a mad scramble to find someone to stay at my apartment for an hour while the sofa got delivered.

Then the sofa showed up at 9:15, after I had begged off work and told them I would be in at 11:45. Ha. And had to call my father to tell him I didn't need him!

Also, in other news! Transformers tickets are bought! $12 each, 9:40 pm, July 3! It's at the Regal in TSq, which is the one on the north side of the street. I have eight of them: Me, Rosie, Anna, Hannah, Kate, Jess, Destiny, Vedette.

Dinner first? YES! We can pick a place closer to then. Wear 80s clothes if possible! I have loads of tacky makeup so I can help on that front.

More later, but I have meeting now! w00t!

I arrived home from my trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin to discover I had no electricity and all the food in my fridge had gone bad.

Why, you ask? Why did this happen?

Because the previous tenants owed the power company $2000 and they had apparently not been informed that the previous tenants had been evicted.

So my power was shut off.

This prompted me to go cry in Kris' office for a bit, at which point he bought me ice cream. I have the best bosses ever, just in case you all don't know this.

In the broiling weather we had yesterday, this amounted to a sheer impossibility of sleeping in the city without AC, so I told my parents I would be on the 6:52 train to Mount Kisco.

Then, at 6:30, my A key on my laptop stopped working.

I restarted my laptop.

Then, all the keys except for bcghos and z stopped working.

Then, all the keys except for S stopped working. And the S key would not stop working. It kept typing and typing and typing away with no assistance from yours truly. It would not stop typing.

So Maciej tried to fix it. Still no luck. So Kris loaned me his old computer. Again with the best bosses ever bit.

Anyway, at this point, I could only catch the 7:52 and I was an hour late to my parents'. Which was fine, because the road was flooded out and I still spent about a half-hour stranded at Starbucks whilst they tried to figure out how to get to me in the rainstorm.

Then I got back to their house and there was a conflict with their network because the landlords put in a wireless network with the same name and IP address. So I had to fix the network. That was a minor problem.

Go to work today. Get set up with another computer (the one I'm on now) and our ops guy is taking care of getting mine fixed. Yay. Go home at lunch, check electricity. On. Yay.

Get home from work.

Electricity, on.

Water? No so much. I now have no water.

What evil, terrible thing did I do in a past life? OR was it walking under a ladder yesterday morning? Was I really, as arielchan seems to think, Hitler? Did I kill babies? Did I wear white after Labor Day? Please, someone tell me!

So I keep having things to update about and just not quite getting around to it.

Not anything important, really. Just things.

Apartment update:
Monday night, I ran into Jeff. Here is the conversation:
Jeff: Blah blah blah appliances are in, but I need a way to get into your apartment.
Tea: Don't you have a key?
Jeff: No?
Tea: What about that time you said you were going to make a key, so you borrowed my key for four hours to go get one made? Didn't you make one?
Jeff: Um, no? So I need a key. They're coming at ten AM.
Tea: Okay, that's around when I leave for work. If I don't run into you, I'll leave it in my mailbox for you, like I did last time.
Jeff: Okay!
Tea: Just put it back when you're done.
Jeff: Okay!
Tuesday (Yesterday) I get home from work. No appliances. I call my mother furious, halfway through call, Jeff walks into front lobby.
Tea: Hold on, he's here. I'll call you back. (Hangs up)
Jeff: Oh, hey, so the guy who was supposed to put the appliances in never showed up.
Tea: (thinking) riiiiight (speaking) Oh, okay. So...?
Jeff: They'll do it tomorrow.
Tea: Same time? Ten? I'll leave the key again.
Jeff: Okay!
Last night, I send Jeff an email confirming that this is the plan.
This morning at EIGHT TWENTY, the doorbell rings. Now, this is almost an hour before I have to get up for work. While in other circumstances, I would have been delighted that they came at all and let them in, my bathroom (in which I need to shower) and my clothes are all in the room in which they need to work. So this is a little difficult. So I told the guys to come back at ten. This is NOT JEFF, but I am assuming Jeff never bothered to tell them when to come.

So at ten to ten, I leave my apartment to head to work. And I run into the maintenance guy, whose name, I learn, is Angel.

Angel happily goes upstairs with me, looks at what needs to be done, and informs me that despite a work order for two air conditioners, there is only one. However, Angel, who spoke about six words of English, seemed to comprehend what I was saying and what needed to be done a lot better than Jeff, who is clearly American-born and speaks fluent English (mostly), is now working on getting my apartment done and I am very pleased with this progress.

In other news, I went to my local grocery store last night. I am madly, madly in love with my local grocery store, which is less than a block away from my apartment, although it has two separate entries and I keep leaving by the wrong one. I have already purchased sushi and delicious caprese salad from my local grocery store.

( Anyway, while I am in the grocery store, I overhear the following conversation: )

In other news, I bought a bed! I had no fucking clue how expensive beds were. Shit. But this is the first time in my life I have ever had a real, serious bed since I was 12 and swore off beds in favor of being a pirate. Since I (mostly) got over the pirate bit, I have only had college beds and futons. Which brings me to the next part of this post:

IMPORTANT PIRATE SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Pirates: TOMORROW. Tickets are safely in my purse, if anyone else wants to come, check Fandango and buy a ticket for the 11:35 show at the 42nd Street E-Walk theater.

Since I will supposedly have my new bed tonight, haldirsbitch, liret (and cacophonesque if you want to crash with us), I don't think you'll need a sleeping bag, because I have an air mattress. However, if you really prefer to sleep alone and not share, bring something to sleep on/in.

I usually get off work between 6-7, but since I am taking a couple days off, I might be a tad later. I'm thinking we can either meet at my place, I need to get pirated up, and then we can get food, or we can meet for food, go back, get pirated up, and then go to movie. Either way is fine with me.

OH. AND MY GROCERY STORE HAS SALAMAGUNDI IN THE SALAD BAR WTF O_O.

Finally, ( dreams )

That is all!

So I keep having things to update about and just not quite getting around to it.

Not anything important, really. Just things.

Apartment update:
Monday night, I ran into Jeff. Here is the conversation:
Jeff: Blah blah blah appliances are in, but I need a way to get into your apartment.
Tea: Don't you have a key?
Jeff: No?
Tea: What about that time you said you were going to make a key, so you borrowed my key for four hours to go get one made? Didn't you make one?
Jeff: Um, no? So I need a key. They're coming at ten AM.
Tea: Okay, that's around when I leave for work. If I don't run into you, I'll leave it in my mailbox for you, like I did last time.
Jeff: Okay!
Tea: Just put it back when you're done.
Jeff: Okay!
Tuesday (Yesterday) I get home from work. No appliances. I call my mother furious, halfway through call, Jeff walks into front lobby.
Tea: Hold on, he's here. I'll call you back. (Hangs up)
Jeff: Oh, hey, so the guy who was supposed to put the appliances in never showed up.
Tea: (thinking) riiiiight (speaking) Oh, okay. So...?
Jeff: They'll do it tomorrow.
Tea: Same time? Ten? I'll leave the key again.
Jeff: Okay!
Last night, I send Jeff an email confirming that this is the plan.
This morning at EIGHT TWENTY, the doorbell rings. Now, this is almost an hour before I have to get up for work. While in other circumstances, I would have been delighted that they came at all and let them in, my bathroom (in which I need to shower) and my clothes are all in the room in which they need to work. So this is a little difficult. So I told the guys to come back at ten. This is NOT JEFF, but I am assuming Jeff never bothered to tell them when to come.

So at ten to ten, I leave my apartment to head to work. And I run into the maintenance guy, whose name, I learn, is Angel.

Angel happily goes upstairs with me, looks at what needs to be done, and informs me that despite a work order for two air conditioners, there is only one. However, Angel, who spoke about six words of English, seemed to comprehend what I was saying and what needed to be done a lot better than Jeff, who is clearly American-born and speaks fluent English (mostly), is now working on getting my apartment done and I am very pleased with this progress.

In other news, I went to my local grocery store last night. I am madly, madly in love with my local grocery store, which is less than a block away from my apartment, although it has two separate entries and I keep leaving by the wrong one. I have already purchased sushi and delicious caprese salad from my local grocery store.

( Anyway, while I am in the grocery store, I overhear the following conversation: )

In other news, I bought a bed! I had no fucking clue how expensive beds were. Shit. But this is the first time in my life I have ever had a real, serious bed since I was 12 and swore off beds in favor of being a pirate. Since I (mostly) got over the pirate bit, I have only had college beds and futons. Which brings me to the next part of this post:

IMPORTANT PIRATE SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Pirates: TOMORROW. Tickets are safely in my purse, if anyone else wants to come, check Fandango and buy a ticket for the 11:35 show at the 42nd Street E-Walk theater.

Since I will supposedly have my new bed tonight, haldirsbitch, liret (and cacophonesque if you want to crash with us), I don't think you'll need a sleeping bag, because I have an air mattress. However, if you really prefer to sleep alone and not share, bring something to sleep on/in.

I usually get off work between 6-7, but since I am taking a couple days off, I might be a tad later. I'm thinking we can either meet at my place, I need to get pirated up, and then we can get food, or we can meet for food, go back, get pirated up, and then go to movie. Either way is fine with me.

OH. AND MY GROCERY STORE HAS SALAMAGUNDI IN THE SALAD BAR WTF O_O.

Finally, ( dreams )

That is all!

Apartment: I have a fridge, but no oven or dishwasher or air conditioning or smoke detector. I am supposed to be moving stuff in this evening so apparently I am going to have to move all my stuff over there and then live in the empty apartment that actually has appliances.

I am not going to pay any rent for the days that the apartment isn't completely ready.

I do, however, have a ceiling hook. Which means I need to get a hanging lamp or a hanging plant. Have to decide.

But why decide when I can ask y'all to?

[Poll #987288]

I am significantly less stressed today. Yay!

Now, for those of you who have been saying you are jealous of my dreams, here is where you may or may not stop being so.

( Dream )

ETA: quizzicalsphinx just informed me that Lloyd Alexander died.

Besides the part where all my childhood heroes are apparently abandoning this mortal coil, this is another one that is particularly important to me because when I was eight years old, I went to see Lloyd Alexander read at a local bookshop.

A week later, I got a letter from him thanking me for the opportunity to meet me.

He was such a kind and wonderful, warm, affectionate man. I wrote to him a few times and saw him a few times when I was a kid and he was just a lovely, lovely person.

RIP.

I don't normally submit to the evil of the letter-style rant, but today I am in the mood for it because, well, it seems like the most graceful way to put this.

Dear Fucking Fuckwad of Flaming Fuck Who Can't Fucking be Fucked to do his Fucking Job,

Fuck you.

There we go.

This is not work-related, this is apartment-related. Let me just say that this Jeff guy? Not the brightest or sharpest crayon in the box, and it's getting to the point where I think he may have melted a little and be stuck to Burnt Sienna by now.

Ugh.

I would explain in more detail but I think I've already used my allotment of fucks for the day. I might have to go take some out on loan from David Mamet.

In other news, I kind of want to start keeping track of dreams a bit more. I have always known vaguely that my dreams are more complex than most peoples, but I didn't realize to what extent. So I feel like I need to try to record them better. Also, you guys will all see that no, I don't always dream complex plots.

( last night's dream )