2009 really isn't going very smoothly so far.
My car broke down again, for the second time in as many weeks (third time in the last four months). Last time it was the alternator, which is at least do-able financially. This time it's looking like there's a crack in the block. So, now I'm debating whether it is more effective to replace the motor or simply get a new (well, used but new to me) car, with my non-existent money. Gah. I suppose I should wait for the official diagnosis instead of just assuming the worst, but given how everything's been going lately, I'm a bit pessimistic.
I am rather suspicious of this week- it could either go very well or quite not-well depending on my car, a discussion I need to have with my landlord, a Work Thing, and my birthday on Friday. I'm attempting to remain neutral in my outlook on it, if not positive. I keep reminding myself that ultimately none of the things that are currently worrying me are life-changing events, as inconvenient as they may be at present.
On the upside of things, my guests have departed, so I'm able to actually relax again, which is a huge help. Oh, and the Sharks beat the Redwings, which is awesome.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Of lacking hostess skills and car mechanics
It's a whole new year, and I haven't posted a thing. In my defense, the new year has been somewhat trying so far. The bad news is that my year has started with house guests (this is something I have difficulty with), car trouble and a Sharks loss (boo!). The good news is I have a new favorite mechanic, as of this morning, and I was so very, very happy at the end of December that I at least started in a good place. I'm a little bit cranky, but overall I think I'll be fine.
Houseguest Confession: I am definitely not cut out to be a hostess. A good friend is staying with me for a few weeks, and asked me if her father could come to visit. It's not that he (or she, for that matter) isn't nice and all, but this has been problematic. I'm having to take very long, deep breaths and calm myself down roughly every half hour. I just feel like I have to be on all the time, and I have trouble relaxing around people (particularly male people) who I don't know. Additionally, I am the World's Lightest Sleeper, and also have trouble sleeping when I'm tense. Just to finish off the whole mess, I'm terribly territorial, though I'm not entirely sure why. In any event, being at home is a constant mantra of 'gaaaahhh!!! No, no, breathe, Monica, breathe, it's ooooookay. Just be calm. Calm. Calm. Calm. Calm."
I'm not sure what to do about this quirk on my part. I don't want to be the sort of person who just never has house guests- when I think about it in theory, I don't seem to mind, but in practice it drives me absolutely crazy. It's not even that my current guests are particularly impolite or anything, though they aren't excessively considerate either- they're fine. So what's up with me? Is this unusual? Am I missing some sort of Good Host Gene? Or is this just the flipside of being such a quiet/alone time loving quasi-hermit? WHY CAN I NOT BE BOTH? Sigh.
New Year's Car Trouble: My car is over ten years old, and is starting to show its age a bit. The check engine light went off on New Year's Day, and on Monday evening, the alternator died. Late at night. In the rain. When I'd forgotten my cell phone. Of course. After walking a few blocks to a pay phone and calling AAA, I was picked up by a tow truck whose driver had excellent taste in literature, as well as the grace not to be condescending when I asked a series of questions on precisely how the alternator works- I'd had a general idea, but I like to know in detail. (Really, I just like to know things in general. I hoard facts.) We ended up leaving my car at the nearest mechanic (just across the street, actually) and leaving me at the nearest coffee shop to await pickup by a family member.
(Fun side note: I learned how easy it can be to track someone down. I had a bit of dinner, as I hadn't eaten, and when I was finishing the waitress came over, gave me an odd look, and handed me the restaurant's phone saying, 'This is for you.' It was my Mom, who had been the first person I called when I got to the pay phone. She had started to worry, and so had called my cell phone, which was answered by one of my guests, who told her the service station he knew I had ended up at. She then called the service station who told her that AAA had picked me up. She called AAA who called the tow truck driver who told them what café I was at, which my Mother then called. It was neat, in a creepy 'gee, it would be easy to stalk someone' kinda way.)
I was worried about the mechanic, as I had no idea what this particular one was like, and I was fairly certain that I had been overcharged the last two times I had had to get my car fixed. (Being young and female exacerbates that, I think. Bleh.) However, not only did he get it done in less that twenty-four hours, he also charged me half what I'd paid the last time I had to replace the alternator and fixed the trunk for free. Free! He had to replace the whole latch and did not charge me for it! MEH! So, if anyone needs a mechanic in the San Jose/Los Gatos/Saratoga/Campbell-ish area, I have a fantastic recommendation for you.
And that, with a bunch of Work Stuff and one or two Personal Things I'm A Bit Upset About But Won't Talk About In A Blog, is my New Year thus far. Sorry for the tl;dr, but I needed to rant.
Hope everyone else is having a good year so far!
Houseguest Confession: I am definitely not cut out to be a hostess. A good friend is staying with me for a few weeks, and asked me if her father could come to visit. It's not that he (or she, for that matter) isn't nice and all, but this has been problematic. I'm having to take very long, deep breaths and calm myself down roughly every half hour. I just feel like I have to be on all the time, and I have trouble relaxing around people (particularly male people) who I don't know. Additionally, I am the World's Lightest Sleeper, and also have trouble sleeping when I'm tense. Just to finish off the whole mess, I'm terribly territorial, though I'm not entirely sure why. In any event, being at home is a constant mantra of 'gaaaahhh!!! No, no, breathe, Monica, breathe, it's ooooookay. Just be calm. Calm. Calm. Calm. Calm."
I'm not sure what to do about this quirk on my part. I don't want to be the sort of person who just never has house guests- when I think about it in theory, I don't seem to mind, but in practice it drives me absolutely crazy. It's not even that my current guests are particularly impolite or anything, though they aren't excessively considerate either- they're fine. So what's up with me? Is this unusual? Am I missing some sort of Good Host Gene? Or is this just the flipside of being such a quiet/alone time loving quasi-hermit? WHY CAN I NOT BE BOTH? Sigh.
New Year's Car Trouble: My car is over ten years old, and is starting to show its age a bit. The check engine light went off on New Year's Day, and on Monday evening, the alternator died. Late at night. In the rain. When I'd forgotten my cell phone. Of course. After walking a few blocks to a pay phone and calling AAA, I was picked up by a tow truck whose driver had excellent taste in literature, as well as the grace not to be condescending when I asked a series of questions on precisely how the alternator works- I'd had a general idea, but I like to know in detail. (Really, I just like to know things in general. I hoard facts.) We ended up leaving my car at the nearest mechanic (just across the street, actually) and leaving me at the nearest coffee shop to await pickup by a family member.
(Fun side note: I learned how easy it can be to track someone down. I had a bit of dinner, as I hadn't eaten, and when I was finishing the waitress came over, gave me an odd look, and handed me the restaurant's phone saying, 'This is for you.' It was my Mom, who had been the first person I called when I got to the pay phone. She had started to worry, and so had called my cell phone, which was answered by one of my guests, who told her the service station he knew I had ended up at. She then called the service station who told her that AAA had picked me up. She called AAA who called the tow truck driver who told them what café I was at, which my Mother then called. It was neat, in a creepy 'gee, it would be easy to stalk someone' kinda way.)
I was worried about the mechanic, as I had no idea what this particular one was like, and I was fairly certain that I had been overcharged the last two times I had had to get my car fixed. (Being young and female exacerbates that, I think. Bleh.) However, not only did he get it done in less that twenty-four hours, he also charged me half what I'd paid the last time I had to replace the alternator and fixed the trunk for free. Free! He had to replace the whole latch and did not charge me for it! MEH! So, if anyone needs a mechanic in the San Jose/Los Gatos/Saratoga/Campbell-ish area, I have a fantastic recommendation for you.
And that, with a bunch of Work Stuff and one or two Personal Things I'm A Bit Upset About But Won't Talk About In A Blog, is my New Year thus far. Sorry for the tl;dr, but I needed to rant.
Hope everyone else is having a good year so far!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Busy, busy, busy. In a 'sitting quietly knitting' kind of way.
I haven't been posting, as life has largely been: work work work knit knit knit work work work Christmas Event! knit knit knit work work work and so on an so forth. My poor fingers are about to fall off between the typing and the knitting.
On the up side of things, I've been listening to a lot of new (for me) music as I've been sitting knitting. (Rhyming FTW!) 'Faultline' by Eliot Morris is my current song obsession. It actually touches me quite a lot, beyond a new song mini-obsession. It makes my heart ache; it is so beautiful. It very nearly made me cry, which is extremely unusual for me, and I'm not entirely sure why.
I've actually been very folksy and/or introspective in my musical selections of late- my current play list also includes 'We're All the Same' by Lukas Haas, 'I Explode' by E for Explosion and 'I Don't Feel It Anymore (Song of the Sparrow)' by William Fitzsimmons. They are all awesome, and you should go look them up RIGHT NOW. Go on. I'll wait.
Also, musical confession- I, erm, have kinda sorta grown to like Coldplay a little bit, and have been listening to 'Viva la Vida' (the entire album). Most of their older stuff (the songs 'Yellow' and 'In My Place' in particular) still makes me want to throttle Chris Martin, though. SOOOOO WHINY AUGH. Nevertheless, I do like Viva la Vida- 'Cemeteries of London' pulled me in. It's a dratted siren, that song. And then I found out that they are (reportedly) stitchy, and admit to sewing and/or knitting (no, srsly, yo!) and it was all downhill from there.
Overall, all of the Christmas knitting has been going passably well. I've eliminated or pushed back a few projects, so it's a bit less intense. More to the point, I'm having a fantastic time doing it. ^_^ Here's hoping I can get everything I want to done.
On the up side of things, I've been listening to a lot of new (for me) music as I've been sitting knitting. (Rhyming FTW!) 'Faultline' by Eliot Morris is my current song obsession. It actually touches me quite a lot, beyond a new song mini-obsession. It makes my heart ache; it is so beautiful. It very nearly made me cry, which is extremely unusual for me, and I'm not entirely sure why.
I've actually been very folksy and/or introspective in my musical selections of late- my current play list also includes 'We're All the Same' by Lukas Haas, 'I Explode' by E for Explosion and 'I Don't Feel It Anymore (Song of the Sparrow)' by William Fitzsimmons. They are all awesome, and you should go look them up RIGHT NOW. Go on. I'll wait.
Also, musical confession- I, erm, have kinda sorta grown to like Coldplay a little bit, and have been listening to 'Viva la Vida' (the entire album). Most of their older stuff (the songs 'Yellow' and 'In My Place' in particular) still makes me want to throttle Chris Martin, though. SOOOOO WHINY AUGH. Nevertheless, I do like Viva la Vida- 'Cemeteries of London' pulled me in. It's a dratted siren, that song. And then I found out that they are (reportedly) stitchy, and admit to sewing and/or knitting (no, srsly, yo!) and it was all downhill from there.
Overall, all of the Christmas knitting has been going passably well. I've eliminated or pushed back a few projects, so it's a bit less intense. More to the point, I'm having a fantastic time doing it. ^_^ Here's hoping I can get everything I want to done.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
OOOOOHHHH!!!!!!!!!! OOH!!!!! OH! OH!
I live in a small house in the mountains, in a rather rural area. This evening as I was sitting at the computer, which is right next to the sliding glass door, when the most exciting thing EVER happened. It went like this:
Me: *hums happy net surfing song*
Something on the back deck: rustle
Me: Wait, did I just see something move on the deck?
Something on the back deck: *yellow eyes*
Me: ...cat?
Cat: *comes closer*
Me: IT is a cat! I wonder what it's doing here...
Cat: *stares*
Me: Huh, maybe it belongs to someone...it sure is a big cat, though, I mean, it's huge...
Cat: *presses nose to glass, right next to me, stares more*
Me: A VERY large cat. A very large, gray spotted cat...with an oddly-shaped face...and fat, tufted cheeks...wait...
BOBcat: *stares more*
Me: ................!!!
Bobcat: *more staring*
Me: *twitch*
Bobcat: *RUNNING AWAY!!*
Me: THAT WAS SO AWESOME!
I have never, ever seen one so close- it was only a foot or so away!
Me: *hums happy net surfing song*
Something on the back deck: rustle
Me: Wait, did I just see something move on the deck?
Something on the back deck: *yellow eyes*
Me: ...cat?
Cat: *comes closer*
Me: IT is a cat! I wonder what it's doing here...
Cat: *stares*
Me: Huh, maybe it belongs to someone...it sure is a big cat, though, I mean, it's huge...
Cat: *presses nose to glass, right next to me, stares more*
Me: A VERY large cat. A very large, gray spotted cat...with an oddly-shaped face...and fat, tufted cheeks...wait...
BOBcat: *stares more*
Me: ................!!!
Bobcat: *more staring*
Me: *twitch*
Bobcat: *RUNNING AWAY!!*
Me: THAT WAS SO AWESOME!
I have never, ever seen one so close- it was only a foot or so away!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
................wait, what?
I own one cat, and foster multiple others for a rescue (this one, to be precise). This means that I currently have 4 cats under my care:
My perma-cat, Lillith, who is awesome and gorgeous and loooovvvveelllyy:
(By the way, if you're thinking of adopting a cat and don't have a color-bias, please consider adopting a black one- they get placed way, way less often than any other type of cat.)
Victoria, who my Grandmother is planning on adopting, and who drives me mildly crazy:
And my latest, youngest additions- Peter and Parker (I did not have any control over the names, just so you know):
I've had these two for about a week now, and besides the general bounciness that is eight-week-old kittens, they've been very well behaved. Currently, they live in the bathroom most of the time because their food is different than what the girls get, and because it really isn't a great idea to let them have the run of the house unsupervised- kind of like toddlers, mmm?
I am generally a bath person, and will take very, very long baths quite frequently. (It'a a great time to read, actually, if you're careful.) Because the boys had been in the bathroom, I had been doing the quick-shower thing since I got them, and was getting a bit pouty about it. So last night I decided I would let them out (after some quick kitten-proofing in the rest of the house), have bathtime, and we would all live happily ever after, or something along those lines. Lil and Vic seem to think that water is their kryptonite, which is a usual trait for felines, so I wasn't expecting too many problems with this plan.
I'd been in the bath about ten minutes when I felt something pat my head. I looked up to find Peter, who had hopped up onto the shelf-like place at the end of the tub, and was staring at the water. This was unusual, but I was reluctant to grab him with wet hands, as I didn't think he'd like it much, so I let it go. This was not a good idea on my part. Peter apparently decided that he needed to touch that sloshy stuff, and fell in with a SPLASH, landing submerged to his neck and somehow sitting on my shoulder.
Me: *Gasp* Oh no oh no *braces for yowly scratchy time*
Peter: *stares at water* Huh.
M: *frozen stare* ??
P: You know, I appear to be mostly under water. Interesting.
M: Wha.....?!
P: *splashes* Oooohhh, this is kinda neat! Hey can, I try walking over to your other shoulder?
M: *de-freeze* Augh! *grabs Pete and sets him down on the rug, outside the bath*
P: *immediately jumps back up on the ledge, staring at the water again*
M: What is wrong with you? *sets him back down*
P: *solemn look*
M: *amazed look*
P: ........please?
M: NO!
P: Sigh. *starts grooming*
M: !!!?!
Yeah, what? Straaange little kitty, if adorable. It was just....different. He's actually really, really sweet, while his brother is a bit more runrunrunrunrunrunPOUNCErunrunrunrunrunJUMPrunrunrun and so on and so forth.
In other news, thank-you Simplicity for the award thingamajig:
I appreciate it, in an 'Aw shucks' kinda way. =) For those of you who might not know, she has a really nifty blog called Chasing Wentworth Miller, which you should definitely check out.
My perma-cat, Lillith, who is awesome and gorgeous and loooovvvveelllyy:
(By the way, if you're thinking of adopting a cat and don't have a color-bias, please consider adopting a black one- they get placed way, way less often than any other type of cat.)
Victoria, who my Grandmother is planning on adopting, and who drives me mildly crazy:
And my latest, youngest additions- Peter and Parker (I did not have any control over the names, just so you know):
I've had these two for about a week now, and besides the general bounciness that is eight-week-old kittens, they've been very well behaved. Currently, they live in the bathroom most of the time because their food is different than what the girls get, and because it really isn't a great idea to let them have the run of the house unsupervised- kind of like toddlers, mmm?
I am generally a bath person, and will take very, very long baths quite frequently. (It'a a great time to read, actually, if you're careful.) Because the boys had been in the bathroom, I had been doing the quick-shower thing since I got them, and was getting a bit pouty about it. So last night I decided I would let them out (after some quick kitten-proofing in the rest of the house), have bathtime, and we would all live happily ever after, or something along those lines. Lil and Vic seem to think that water is their kryptonite, which is a usual trait for felines, so I wasn't expecting too many problems with this plan.
I'd been in the bath about ten minutes when I felt something pat my head. I looked up to find Peter, who had hopped up onto the shelf-like place at the end of the tub, and was staring at the water. This was unusual, but I was reluctant to grab him with wet hands, as I didn't think he'd like it much, so I let it go. This was not a good idea on my part. Peter apparently decided that he needed to touch that sloshy stuff, and fell in with a SPLASH, landing submerged to his neck and somehow sitting on my shoulder.
Me: *Gasp* Oh no oh no *braces for yowly scratchy time*
Peter: *stares at water* Huh.
M: *frozen stare* ??
P: You know, I appear to be mostly under water. Interesting.
M: Wha.....?!
P: *splashes* Oooohhh, this is kinda neat! Hey can, I try walking over to your other shoulder?
M: *de-freeze* Augh! *grabs Pete and sets him down on the rug, outside the bath*
P: *immediately jumps back up on the ledge, staring at the water again*
M: What is wrong with you? *sets him back down*
P: *solemn look*
M: *amazed look*
P: ........please?
M: NO!
P: Sigh. *starts grooming*
M: !!!?!
Yeah, what? Straaange little kitty, if adorable. It was just....different. He's actually really, really sweet, while his brother is a bit more runrunrunrunrunrunPOUNCErunrunrunrunrunJUMPrunrunrun and so on and so forth.
In other news, thank-you Simplicity for the award thingamajig:
I appreciate it, in an 'Aw shucks' kinda way. =) For those of you who might not know, she has a really nifty blog called Chasing Wentworth Miller, which you should definitely check out.
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