I had a Halloween party I could have gone to this evening, but I wasn't really in the mood for it. I had a busy week, and I just wanted to be quiet and catch up on errands and watch some TV.
After the impromptu haircut, I went to Target for some basics and then on to Best Buy. However, when I left the mall with the Target, I made a big mistake and thought a lane I pulled into was a turn lane when it wasn't. I basically pulled into oncoming traffic (though there was none, thank goodness) but mostly it was a sort of half-median. The lines had confused me and it was an unfamiliar bit of the road (I usually turn the other way to go home and was turning this way to go to the Best Buy).
NATURALLY, there was a cop behind me somewhere who saw the whole thing, so along with scaring myself half to death, once I got back into the correct lane, I got pulled over. I managed to flail myself out of a ticket by explaining what had happened, but *nerve shattering.* I suppose that works for a Halloween trick, so I accidentally "celebrated" the day after all.
I went on to Best Buy because the real reason I decided to go out and run errands was to get a new modem/wireless router. The separate modem and router I've had are both 3+ years old, and I'd started having a lot of connection problems involving me re-re-restarting everything multiple times.
So far so good with the new one -- it seems MUCH faster which, of course, makes me annoyed with myself for not upgrading sooner. Still, one piece of machinery vs. two and faster vs. slower and cranky all equal win.
And in the end, there was leftover Aloo Ghobi, so no traffic ticket, faster internet, *and* Indian food? Happy Halloween!
I woke up to about the same amount of snow as had already fallen when I went to bed last night, so I got ready and headed out.
Slow going through Chicago, but I thought all would be fine once I reached I-65 -- not so! It was very windy with patches of black ice! WHY ME?
Ooh, and in spite of trying to drive carefully, not accellerating while on iffy areas, and not being distracted by eating, etc., in the car, and I still managed to hit a big patch of black ice and totally lose control of the car.
I spun across both lanes and ended up turned around the wrong way in the median. Fortunately, it was a fairly flat area of median and a fairly unpopulated bit of road so I hit nothing and no one and was able to drive back up and onto the road with no problems. I thought very seriously about just going home at that point, but I was about half-way there and wouldn't have reached home again until well after lunch leaving me with a short afternoon and no work accomplished.
So I womaned-up and drove on. I drove slower than usual due to trauma, but the road quickly improved and the drive home this afternoon was pretty clean (due to intermittent sun all day burning away the frost from the roads).
Remind me not to plan any roadtrips during January and February. What was I THINKING?
On the upside, I did get to wear my new sunglasses during the sunny bits of the drive!
Which means, in microcosm, that I just spent 40 minutes getting my car out of it's spot on the even side of the street so I could drive around and park on the odd side of the street for tomorrow's plows.
I'm exhausted!
I was a very sick puppy last night, but now I'm fine though distrustful of food. I'm going to have some tea and take it easy and will be tossing out some suspect things in my refrigerator.
It's warmed up outside, and the snow's almost all melted, but it's overcast and glum which matches my post illness mood. I think lazy TV watching is in order.
It's barely 5pm and it's pitch dark.
This stinks.
And Thanksgiving week is the WORST. Everyone's just ready to be off for a few days, and the time draaaaaaaaaaaaaags.
GAAAAAaaah.
It doesn't help that I have a couple of extra days' vacation after the weekend which seem to never get any closer because time has slowed down to a standstill.
I am *so ready* to be on vacation.
Blerg.
They established location, figured out no one was home, and went in. LOTS of smoke due to something left on the stove -- as they opened all the windows, smoke poured out (and these are big apartments). The firefighters used their superfans to blow the smoke away and a crowd of people and emergency personnel gathered and stared up at the windows right next to my apartment.
I also met my landlady's daughter who lives one floor up from smokey-the-apartment (so all the smoke being blown out was of course drifting into her windows on the way by.
All's well. The firetrucks are rumbling around as things are wrapped up. The culprits showed up a bit later looking young and scared and were getting talked to by the cops and firefighters. I was bracing to stuff the cats into their carriers in order to flee to safety if need be, but fortunately, that wasn't necessary.
Ah. They're driving away now. All's well.
*Phew!*
And right when I was feeling so snug and safe -- too high to be flooded out and not at the rooftop to worry about that stuff. HA!
Anyway, it's stopped now. I flailed around for a little bit because, of course, the water came in right by the TV and all the associated power cords, but it could have been worse (by/on the BOOK CASE) so I'm not complaining, but I was worried about getting zapped. Then I finally realized, "Wait... where the hell is this water even coming from?" Landlord wasn't home but my brain kicked into gear at last, and I went upstairs to check on that apartment. Neighbor and I found water coming in her windows only I think it might be a bad seal or roof problem because it was just coming in EVERYWHERE around her windows and not just from a slightly-open window or something like that.
Of course, there was just a hell of a lot of rain coming down against that side of the building, too, so it maybe just overflowed the capacity of the slightly opened window (cracked down from the top) to handle.
In any case... *adrenaline rush fading* Tired now. And it's still raining. I think the Midwest is going to wash away.
But I managed to suffer through this and my car's a/c (also something I don't use often but it was That Hot) FINALLY cooled off enough to count as a/c and when I got back home, I parked in the shade, went upstairs and changed, and then took a nap. This afternoon I finished up my errands, and things went much better, but... gah.
On another, equally boring note, I must stop buying produce when I'm not in the mood to eat it. I go in phases on this, and sometimes I'm all about the healthy yummy fresh stuff and other times, it just sits in the fridge getting gross. I need some sort of gauge I can check when I'm at the store to tell me what mood I'm in for real as opposed to the me who thinks, "you should get produce because it's good for you" and buys it regardless. It's sad and wasteful and guilt-riddling.
- Music:HP I Soundtrack
Not surprisingly, what with the move and some choices I made at that time, I owed this year. EVERYONE. I paid the Feds and two states (though my new state just needed a fiver, t'anks verra much, lassie). But I'm done at least, and next year I should be back to getting a few bucks instead of paying. Used Turbo Tax which is irritating because it's so much for this and then for that and then again for that, but even so, when I looked at the forms to do them myself, I decided it was worth paying to have the computer do it for me. Tax forms are written by crazy people and the instructions are written by even crazier people.
And why don't I ever qualify for any of the deductions? Shouldn't there be a "natural redhead" tax break? Or a "bookstore shelf tidier" tax break? I make the world a better place, dang it! I want some kick-backs!
- Mood:
crankypants - Music:"Breakdown" by Mae
- Mood:
grumpy
Now I have satellite TV as part of my package with my new internet and phone... and the satellite is out due to weather... on Oscar night...
I can't win. Technology hates me.
- Mood:
crushed
I have DSL now and already I've had an issue, but I *think* it's my router which is very old (and this would not have been the cable's issue since the phone also didn't work and even running the line NOT through the router did not work and in the exact same way it did not work THROUGH the router. So I'm testing without router right now in hopes that NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN. And then I'll go buy a new router and all will be shiny and good again!
*sigh*
Why am I web chick? I hate technology sometimes...
Which is not a name to inspire one to transports over the prospect of ingesting it, but for me, when paired with the word "curry," I thought, "Hey! Bean curd! And curry!" So I ordered that from my (new) favorite Chinese delivery place. Perhaps ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
marimarguerite will give me points for trying this vegetarian delight and near cousin of tofu, but those are the only points I'll get 'cause I did not like it. At all. Fortunately, I'd also ordered a couple of veggie rolls, so I didn't starve (never happen, people). And I tried a new thing which is good -- to try even when one ends of failing, or, in this case, disliking -- so there's that. Now I know. I hate bean curd.
- Music:"Calling All Angels" by Train
I think weary is a better word. Everything seems to be going not wrong exactly but not right. I'm tired of it and would like to see some progress on some front. And I'm bored. I'm soooooo bored and lethargic and unmotivated. Urgh. Spring fever? I hope that's all it is. Wah-wah-waaaaaah... gah. Now I'm sick of this whinging, too ;-)
- Mood:
exhausted - Music:Interview with Helen Mirren on Fresh Air
Darned allergies, anyway. I am on daily Allegra and have been for years, but at the end of the day, before pill-taking time, sometimes the irritants slip through and ARGH! So my eye hurts.
Week's almost over -- yay! Weekend! Yay! Plans are set for Indian cuisine and movie-going. Probably book-shopping and coffee-drinking, too. The wild life, but I like it.
My novel continues apace. I don't write about my writing. Heck, I don't talk about my writing, but *shrug* -- why not? Habit, probably. Superstition? Nah. Just habit.
At CascadiaCon this year, I found out that an average novel length is about 80,000 words. To which my brain said, "Oh? Well, I'm not even 2/3rds done and I'm almost at twice that." So this tells me I need to chop things up a bit. So I've chopped part one off and am giving it a more complete arc so when it ends, it also has an ending rather than a cliffhanger into part two. I'm nearly done with that. A few weeks should wrap it up, then I can proceed to part two and wrap THAT up and then onto part three and DONE! And then part four which was always supposed to be it's own book anyway. The realization that I had three or four books rather than one in the works, though, was a bit of a shock. A nice shock, as it means I'll actually be able to say "I finished my novel!" much sooner than I thought. For the record, it's a fantasy and quite a dark one, at that.
- Mood:
allergic - Music:"Closing Time" by Semisonic
Could I get BUSIER?! And all of you out there who are, like, nurses and cops and waitpersons are just rolling your eyes at my whininess ;-) But after a quiet spell at work, things have just exPLODED. And this is better than the opposite, ’cause time flies yadda yadda yadda...
I did manage to purchase and watch About a Boy on its release date. What a great movie. Loaned it to Mom, and she loved it, too.
Another one of those cable shows I just love :: Animal Precinct. That show is just great; those cops are just great. I wish my city had animal cops empowered to ACT when people abuse and neglect and are just plain awful to their animals. I watch the show, and it always makes me want to go hug and pet my cats or give them treats or just do something extremely positive for an animal. It is horribly sad how clueless people can be that they don’t even seem to register that their pets are living beings who are suffering because of them. Why even HAVE a pet if you aren’t going to love it?
It’s gearing up to tax time. I’m happy because I no longer have to worry about people coming into the library for tax forms. I used to dread tax season because of that. Libraries have forms as a service, but the library employees not only aren’t trained to help with your taxes, they are expressly instructed not to help by the IRS! If you don’t know what form you need, you need to find out for yourself from the experts -- tax experts, trained tax helpers, the IRS... not have some poor librarian try to think for you. I can say that now that I’m not a librarian any longer. That used to be my secret mantra :: "I draw the line at thinking for people." Well, frankly, that’s still one of my mantras ;-)
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