tea berry-blue

About five or six tiles fell off the bathroom wall into my bathtub this morning while I was in the shower.

My super has not called me back. I am getting antsy because if you all remember I kept hearing warnings about how bad this management company was at taking care of problems. I know it's only been an hour but...I don't want to have a giant gaping hole in my bathroom wall. I'm afraid they're going to use this as an excuse to not give me back my (double the usual) deposit if they don't come and fix it. I'm just generally freaking out.

The problem looks, from what's left in my tub, like this happened before and whoever fixed it just popped the tiles back up and didn't replace the dry wall. There is a huge chunk of dry wall gone but it's not in my tub, which is where it would naturally be if it had just fallen off.

My mom told me to just cover the spot with duct tape and plastic garbage bags and not to try to fix it myself but ugggggh. I just want to fix the fucker. I hate things not being fixed.

Before this happened, I was very excited because I made crazy amounts of candy yesterday. I have homemade marshmallows, fudge, mint patties, and Turkish Delight. They are all in pans at home and I am going to go get little party favor bags to put them in for my coworkers tonight. I HAVE MOUNTAINS OF CANDY, PEOPLE. MOUNTAINS. I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU.

Also: karnythia asked us to get the message out-- Brianna Lacey is a teenaged girl from Chicago who is missing. If you're from Chicago or know people in Chicago, please see if there is anything you can do. If you are not from Chicago, please pass on the message. There is no Amber Alert because she's being treated as a runaway and not a kidnapee, so please do what you can to help.

Good things today: My parents gave me my Christmas presents early, because we are having a lot of people coming for Christmas and it gets crazy. So today, I got mine.

I had been saving up to buy a proper television for a while now-- the TV I've had for the past two years is actually smaller than my computer monitor. Which is fine for TV watching, but not so fine for playing Wii games, which are hard to make out. But due to one thing or another, I had to spend the money I had been saving for a TV.

My parents totally bought me one. So now I have a 32 inch Sony LCD that just barely fits on top of my bookshelf. But it fits, and it's big and shiny and I couldn't be more pleased. I hooked up the cable today; tomorrow's goal is to hook up the DVD player and the Wii.

My other gift is one of those orthopedic memory foam pillows that is like ten times more supporting of your head than a normal pillow. I sneak my parents' memory foam pillows whenever I can because my neck goes out of joint at the drop of a hat, so now I have one of my own. It has a kind of chemical-y smell, which I am hoping goes away? But I figure I can spray some lavender on it or something and then it will be all good.

When I got back into the city, I had brunch, which was Irish Breakfast, with my parents, saw Frost/Nixon, which was very good, and now I think the only movie I want to see that's out is Doubt. And then I went to the grocery store.

They have one of those Christmas trees where you're meant to get a gift for a needy child and bring it to the store? So I went up to pick out a child to get a gift for. I pulled an ornament off the tree, read it...and saw the child in question was asking for a Wii.

Yes, a Wii.

I was completely shocked. I mean, I don't mind spending $30 or 40 on a child I don't know in the spirit of the holidays, but a Nintendo Wii? Most not-needy people I know can't afford to just pop out and buy one of those. When I was a kid, growing up in one of the wealthiest areas in the country, it took my parents three years to save up to buy me and my brother a classic NES. And we were not what one would consider needy by any stretch of the imagination. The Wii I have now my mother bought for me as a thank-you gift for helping out with some stuff for my brother. If my mother hadn't bought me a Wii, I couldn't have afforded it.

So I picked another ornament.

Another Wii.

I picked another ornament.

This one was asking for an XBox.

I picked another ornament.

Nintendo DS.

I picked another ornament.

Another Wii.

I tried a few more, and every single one of them was for an item that cost more than a hundred dollars, most of them being video game related. At this point, my WTFery was so strong that I stopped looking. I just-- I realize that the point of this exercise is to buy these kids something they want and not something they need, but the average middle class kid's parents can't afford these kinds of gifts for their own kids, forget for someone else's. And it's not as if they had multiple requests. Like, I would have been cool with the kids asking for the Wii if it had had another gift under $50 OR a Wii, in case somebody wealthy happened to pick their ornament and didn't mind spending $250. I see nothing wrong with dreaming big. But to me, this just dampened the entire spirit of giving I had been in, to see such extravagant wishes without really any thought given to whether the people willing to give could afford those presents.

So then I went to do my grocery shopping, and I don't remember whether I ever posted about this, but way back in like, March or April, I had some problems with a manager at my grocery store that was a half-block from my then-apartment, and I stopped going there, choosing to walk to the one that was seven blocks away instead. The one with the nasty manager is still closer to my current apartment, and I have been there a couple times when I need to buy heavier items, but I try to avoid it.

Well, that's the store I went to tonight. I left the Tree of Unreasonable Demands and started into the store, only to see Nasty Manager push a row of shopping carts head-on into an elderly customer, who cried out in surprise at being nearly knocked over by a 20-something guy and a lot of shopping carts.

"Watch where you're going!" Nasty Manager shouted at the old guy.
Old guy had happened to be facing the other direction, there was no way he would have seen Nasty Manager coming. He said something to that affect and then told the Nasty Manager that he had nearly run him over.
"Well, that's because you were in the way!" Nasty Manager shouted at him.
"You could have asked me to move," the old man pointed out, very reasonably but clearly getting frustrated.
"I just told you to watch where you were going!" Nasty manager snapped.

At this point, I walked out, in favor of going to the farther-away grocery store. Ugh.

The trouble with Nasty Manager is that because he's a manager, there is never anyone else on staff above him to lodge a complaint with when he is in the store. I am thinking about writing to the regional headquarters for the store. I see no reason why, when so many decent, hardworking people are out of work and would kill for a manager's position, for this guy to be employed instead.

Good things today: My parents gave me my Christmas presents early, because we are having a lot of people coming for Christmas and it gets crazy. So today, I got mine.

I had been saving up to buy a proper television for a while now-- the TV I've had for the past two years is actually smaller than my computer monitor. Which is fine for TV watching, but not so fine for playing Wii games, which are hard to make out. But due to one thing or another, I had to spend the money I had been saving for a TV.

My parents totally bought me one. So now I have a 32 inch Sony LCD that just barely fits on top of my bookshelf. But it fits, and it's big and shiny and I couldn't be more pleased. I hooked up the cable today; tomorrow's goal is to hook up the DVD player and the Wii.

My other gift is one of those orthopedic memory foam pillows that is like ten times more supporting of your head than a normal pillow. I sneak my parents' memory foam pillows whenever I can because my neck goes out of joint at the drop of a hat, so now I have one of my own. It has a kind of chemical-y smell, which I am hoping goes away? But I figure I can spray some lavender on it or something and then it will be all good.

When I got back into the city, I had brunch, which was Irish Breakfast, with my parents, saw Frost/Nixon, which was very good, and now I think the only movie I want to see that's out is Doubt. And then I went to the grocery store.

They have one of those Christmas trees where you're meant to get a gift for a needy child and bring it to the store? So I went up to pick out a child to get a gift for. I pulled an ornament off the tree, read it...and saw the child in question was asking for a Wii.

Yes, a Wii.

I was completely shocked. I mean, I don't mind spending $30 or 40 on a child I don't know in the spirit of the holidays, but a Nintendo Wii? Most not-needy people I know can't afford to just pop out and buy one of those. When I was a kid, growing up in one of the wealthiest areas in the country, it took my parents three years to save up to buy me and my brother a classic NES. And we were not what one would consider needy by any stretch of the imagination. The Wii I have now my mother bought for me as a thank-you gift for helping out with some stuff for my brother. If my mother hadn't bought me a Wii, I couldn't have afforded it.

So I picked another ornament.

Another Wii.

I picked another ornament.

This one was asking for an XBox.

I picked another ornament.

Nintendo DS.

I picked another ornament.

Another Wii.

I tried a few more, and every single one of them was for an item that cost more than a hundred dollars, most of them being video game related. At this point, my WTFery was so strong that I stopped looking. I just-- I realize that the point of this exercise is to buy these kids something they want and not something they need, but the average middle class kid's parents can't afford these kinds of gifts for their own kids, forget for someone else's. And it's not as if they had multiple requests. Like, I would have been cool with the kids asking for the Wii if it had had another gift under $50 OR a Wii, in case somebody wealthy happened to pick their ornament and didn't mind spending $250. I see nothing wrong with dreaming big. But to me, this just dampened the entire spirit of giving I had been in, to see such extravagant wishes without really any thought given to whether the people willing to give could afford those presents.

So then I went to do my grocery shopping, and I don't remember whether I ever posted about this, but way back in like, March or April, I had some problems with a manager at my grocery store that was a half-block from my then-apartment, and I stopped going there, choosing to walk to the one that was seven blocks away instead. The one with the nasty manager is still closer to my current apartment, and I have been there a couple times when I need to buy heavier items, but I try to avoid it.

Well, that's the store I went to tonight. I left the Tree of Unreasonable Demands and started into the store, only to see Nasty Manager push a row of shopping carts head-on into an elderly customer, who cried out in surprise at being nearly knocked over by a 20-something guy and a lot of shopping carts.

"Watch where you're going!" Nasty Manager shouted at the old guy.
Old guy had happened to be facing the other direction, there was no way he would have seen Nasty Manager coming. He said something to that affect and then told the Nasty Manager that he had nearly run him over.
"Well, that's because you were in the way!" Nasty Manager shouted at him.
"You could have asked me to move," the old man pointed out, very reasonably but clearly getting frustrated.
"I just told you to watch where you were going!" Nasty manager snapped.

At this point, I walked out, in favor of going to the farther-away grocery store. Ugh.

The trouble with Nasty Manager is that because he's a manager, there is never anyone else on staff above him to lodge a complaint with when he is in the store. I am thinking about writing to the regional headquarters for the store. I see no reason why, when so many decent, hardworking people are out of work and would kill for a manager's position, for this guy to be employed instead.

it's wonderful when you have so many reminders that you're the most stable person in your family.

"Two of those they were seeking were in the home. One was cuffed and on the hallway floor; the other was cuffed and in the living room. A woman and child were in the kitchen, although they were not arrested. The man said once police realized he had nothing to do with the drug case, they were particularly kind and respectful about minimizing the effects of the home invasion and search.

In fact, he said, they allowed him to isolate his cat while the K-9 searched for drugs. The K-9 was turned loose in the roommate's bedroom. "She hit it right away," he said. "His room - they tossed everything, and they got stuff out of there. I don't know what it is." He believes it is likely the drugs were cocaine. "You can armchair quarterback this thing," he said. "For the last three months, he stayed in his room, but he was working. He was uncommunicative...what a bunch of stone-ground idiots..."

yarg. the rogue is down this morning, which is frustrating for obvious reasons. only have three new userpics to do today or tomorrow, so they should get done and up (yay i get to draw a doi!) *IF* the site comes back. at least it wasn't down yesterday when sara was here.

yarg, but i want to reply to our apps email today and can't.

the one thing i really hate is replying to good writers who are having trouble coming up with approrpriate, viable, or interesting characters. these are people who might be fun to have in the game, and who can write, but who just aren't demonstrating that they understand what this game is about. it's not a traditional RP in the sense that there's rarely any fighting and storylines are very much character-driven. right now we're in the middle of an assembly on quality cheese and magic milk powder, thanks to kalliona and neverneverland3. man, but i love having guest characters :D <3s lord rocin. <3s the Ministry of BS.

okay, whoever started calling them the Ministry of BS gets a bonus cookie, too.

mikey got me potting soil, so i re-potted my work plant. hopefully now it will forgive me for leaving it for a week (no one here remembered to water it) and start being bayoutiful again.

i need to gets back to works now.

yarg. the rogue is down this morning, which is frustrating for obvious reasons. only have three new userpics to do today or tomorrow, so they should get done and up (yay i get to draw a doi!) *IF* the site comes back. at least it wasn't down yesterday when sara was here.

yarg, but i want to reply to our apps email today and can't.

the one thing i really hate is replying to good writers who are having trouble coming up with approrpriate, viable, or interesting characters. these are people who might be fun to have in the game, and who can write, but who just aren't demonstrating that they understand what this game is about. it's not a traditional RP in the sense that there's rarely any fighting and storylines are very much character-driven. right now we're in the middle of an assembly on quality cheese and magic milk powder, thanks to kalliona and neverneverland3. man, but i love having guest characters :D <3s lord rocin. <3s the Ministry of BS.

okay, whoever started calling them the Ministry of BS gets a bonus cookie, too.

mikey got me potting soil, so i re-potted my work plant. hopefully now it will forgive me for leaving it for a week (no one here remembered to water it) and start being bayoutiful again.

i need to gets back to works now.

and, in an attempt to be EVEN COOLER...

a couple things:

netomat starring maciej

one thing i hate most about the warm weather is that as soon as i'm not wearing eight layers, sleazy men think that they're doing me a favor by telling me things like "whoo! i'd like to squeeze those." where the HELL does the dirty catcall mindframe come from anyway? if a guy comes up to me and tells me i look nice, i'm not gonna let him pick me up, but i'll say thank you, you know? if a guy makes a lewd comment about my boobs-- uhh, what exactly is he trying to get out of that? i'm not entirely sure. i don't really see the appeal in a man who shouts "whoa big tits!" or "hey red!" on the street. the redhaired thing i also don't get, but it's slightly less disturbing than the tit comments. i mean, yes, i know i have big tits. are you trying to point this out to me or do you have a disorder which forces you to vocalize all your observances? i don't know. i wish guys didn't do this-- and while i doubt any guys who do this are reading this, i would like to make a formal announcement:

FEWER LEWD GESTURES/CATCALLS= MORE SKIN

believe me. i DELIBERATELY cover up to avoid the comments. if you stop making the comments, you might see midriff. keep it in mind.

and now i'm off to boston shortly. whoo!

i just got accosted by some freakish old woman wearing nothing but a slip in the laundry room because i moved someone's laundry from the washer to the dryer for them so i could do my laundry. she was all "you don't know what those people want dried" and "they won't like it if you move their stuff."

firstly, it was all light cottons. i've done laundry before, thanks, and that was all driable stuff. secondly, i moved their stuff for them, and didn't leave it out on top of the dryer. where i come from that's considered a *favor.* thirdly, if someone doesn't like it, they should be coming back to get their laundry as soon as it's done, thankyouverymuch.

people are dumb

ba-aby, you're driving me crazy

i just got accosted by some freakish old woman wearing nothing but a slip in the laundry room because i moved someone's laundry from the washer to the dryer for them so i could do my laundry. she was all "you don't know what those people want dried" and "they won't like it if you move their stuff."

firstly, it was all light cottons. i've done laundry before, thanks, and that was all driable stuff. secondly, i moved their stuff for them, and didn't leave it out on top of the dryer. where i come from that's considered a *favor.* thirdly, if someone doesn't like it, they should be coming back to get their laundry as soon as it's done, thankyouverymuch.

people are dumb

ba-aby, you're driving me crazy

so i had a pretty okay morning, i got my welcome letter from my new hosting company and was all happy. but then i checked my site logs at they were at 7 for the day...that's much lower than they usually are when i get to work, which is somewhere in the teens for the day.

then i went to get something from the IKL and i got a 404!! i mean, it's on my site...that's absurd. but i got a 404! so i thought, okay, maybe the site is down; there's a server problem...so i did what i always do; i ftp'd in to see if that worked-- because if ftp works then it means there's a router down. ftp worked fine...but ALL MY FRAPPIN FILES WERE GONE! my entire site!!! GONE!!

boo.

so i re-upped the IKL, since i have that backed up here at work, and called mikey. he re-upped most of the rest of my site, but i had to put up an old version of nakama (i will get the new one up ASAP) and a few of my dolls are still missing. i am really pissed off.

i immediately contacted network solutions to do my server switchover. i will have my new servers very soon! i will be able to support lots of traffic. i will have 400 mb of web space instead of my measly 50 that i have now. so happy will i be.

cool. so those of you who expressed interest in doing something for my new site, i will get in touch with you soon. mariye, since you said you'd be interested in doing other stuff, i'm gonna ask you to do other stuff and i'll hold off on interviewing you till a later update.

if any of you have specific people you would like to see stuff from on my new site, please let me know and i will try to contact them and get stuff from them. favorite artists you don't know personally? people whose work you're interested in but don't know much about?

yee.

tea