The Suck-tastic Summer

Back on June 1st, I was pretty excited for summer's start.  Yes, we all needed this break from the work world to reset ourselves and the possible summer activities were endless. After the first week and a half,  summer changed.

I walked over to my car only to find that it had been broken into. I was a bit amazed at how the thief opened the car since there were no broken windows, doors or keyholes. Odd, but I'm sure there are plenty of ways that lowlives do their work without any visible damage. Yes, he took some things of value, but the objects he took mean nothing to me. Stuff is stuff and unimportant. I'm glad my car wasn't stolen or damaged in any way. I'm glad I (or anyone else) wasn't in the car when it happened. That's the important part. I did have to call the police though. They came, were nice, CSI did their thing and the report was done. I have no expectations that whoever did this will be caught. It's a car break in...surely not high on the investigation priority list. Other elements about this bother me. Those things lead to an insecure feeling and insomnia.

Those two feed off of each other for sure. I've dealt with insomnia before so I know I can handle it, but it does change your mood. The car-insurance ordeal is still not complete and it won't for a bit.

After that summer opener event, I had to dog/house sit for my parents. I've done this plenty of times and it's not a bother. While dog/house sitting, I made plans with a friend to watch World War Z on a Saturday. That morning I get a call telling me that I have to go to some neighborhood assembly meeting in the place of my father. WHAT? So I had traded in movie time to drive an hour away and sit at a meeting where all people wanted to do was argue. I was stuck there for three hours and left with a headache. I had of course moved my plans to Sunday.

I heard something kind of odd Sunday morning. I heard a drop of water. Sometimes when it rains a lot, a bit of water will drip through the air conditioner. That's what I thought it was since it hasn't stopped raining all summer. When I open my eyes, the whole room is flooded. I got up to check if it was coming from the bathroom. Nope. I opened the door and the whole hallway was covered in water. My parent's and brother's rooms all flooded. Water was cascading down the stairs to the first floor. The dining room and sitting room, flooded. I could hear water running, but didn't know where it was coming from until I went into the hallway bathroom. The culprit? The plastic screw on the toilet hose had broken off. Water everywhere. I turned off the water valve, but there was still some coming out. I couldn't get it all the way shut....old house...old valves. So I had to go outside and turn the main water valve off. There was also drops of water coming down from the kitchen, laundry and garage roofs.

I called for help. Four mops, one squeegee, one wet vac, four people and six hours later, the house was dry. We also moved everything that had gotten wet to other places and the actual clean up began. After a week of cleaning and throwing away water damaged items, we're still not done. That's a testament to my parent's "hoarding". So much stuff.

I'm hoping mid and end of July will make up for how suck-tastic the summer has been.

In Search Of: Tile Top Coffee Table

I found the coffee table I want. It's a tile top chrome coffee table.

Well, I thought I'd found it. The first time I saw this design was around 3 months ago. It was on some random site listed as "sold". These types of tables are from around the 1960's and 1970's. They're from Europe, mainly Danish, French or Italian. I've seen various other similar tables and know the wooden shelf isn't original. That was definitely added on later by a previous owner. Even so, it's a nice table and I didn't think I would find another, but a couple of days before the new year, I did. I was all happy and was emailing the owners about it. Then on New Year's Eve, I get an email saying, "Thought we should let you know straight away - the Coffee Table has been sold! Sorry about that".

Excuse me?! Here I am thinking I'm closing the deal waiting for them to get back to me about the final costs, and they sold it to someone else. WTF?! I mean, I'd really like things to start going my way for once. This company posted the availability of the table in November. So it was sitting in their store for a month before I saw it. And then as I'm almost about to buy it someone walks in from the street and buys it.

Sooooo close, yet so far. Story of my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will continue to keep an eye out for this specific design, but the chances of actually finding it I know aren't in my favor (what else is new!). So I put this out there in cyberspace. If anyone comes across this table, or you are actually an owner getting rid of it, don't be shy and leave me a message.

The search continues.

Summer 2011

Summer is here.

I have no big plans for the summer. No trips around the world, no boating excursions and no extreme adventures. I'm keeping it simple (not that I have the money to do anything grand anyway, but that's besides the point). My summer plans include:

1. Sleep as much as I can

2. Video games

3. Movies/Friends

4. Exercise

5. Read

So far I think I've been keeping true to my summer goals. It's pretty easy when it rains every day making you want to stay in.

I finally finished The Force Unleashed 2. I had gotten stuck on a hanger bay fight a couple of months ago and completely abandoned the game, till now. Now that that's done, I'm focusing on Super Mario Bros. I've had this game forever now and I'm only on world 3. Pathetic I know, but I will finish it. After Mario, I have Ghostbusters which I never played and Damnation.

As far as my reading goal, that one has been lacking. I started reading "Nine Kinds of Naked" and even though I was really interested in it, I fell asleep allowing me to accomplish more of my 1st goal :) Movies? Those are coming up. Exercising? I just went for a run this morning :)

We'll see what I really end up doing with my summer vacation.

A Bee

A friend gave me a small stuffed animal in college, a bee. I’m not sure when I decided this bee carried luck, but I started placing it on my desk while I studied. I figured that since the word “bee” started with a “B”, it would help me get at least a “B” on my tests. Of course the next logical step was to have the bee present during my exams. It worked and that bee went to every college exam and final I had for 3 years.

At first I kept it in my coat pocket. I didn’t want to seem like a weirdo, but part of the bee’s luck was that it had to be ON the desk. When I realized that, it went from my pocket to the desk and stayed there. Yes I received strange looks, but I didn’t care. In all that time, only one professor picked it up and asked me, “For good luck?” I said yes and he smiled in amusement. I still have the bee and it still lives on my desk.

Spring Break

Yes it's that time of year again. I'm on vacation. I haven't had the desire to do much besides sleep.

I woke up today, put on my running clothes and promptly went back to bed. I do want to go running, but sleeping is more comfy. I have had this nagging cough for the past week as well. The problem is that it gets worse at night which forces me to take medicine and that makes me drowsy in the mornings so I don't go running. This cough needs to go away already.

Until then, I will sleep which is fine by me :)

I Miss My Gamu

It's been almost a month since my dog Gamu(za) died. How do I feel? At times I'm still quite sad about it. It creeps up and overwhelms me.

I've had pets almost my entire life, so of course I've gone through similar situations. This one feels different though. Gamu was a dog who found her way to me by chance. She was an older dog to begin with and her previous home was about to get rid of her. She slept inbetween greasy mechanic car parts and they just couldn't take care of her anymore. When Gamu arrived at my house, my mother didn't want to keep her. She might claim otherwise now, but at the time she wanted Gamu returned to sender. I walked to my room, Gamu followed me and that was that.

She was a bit scary looking when she first arrived. They had pretty much shaved her fur off because it was all knotted. She looked like a rat. But her dog hair grew back, long and beautiful. The one thing everyone always noticed about her was her tongue....it stuck out because she was missing all, but 2 teeth. She also had a bad ear infection, pseudomona all over her back, was blind, arthritic and pooped blood (which we would find out 3 years later was caused by foreign objects in her intestine). To say this dog had gone through a lot is an understatement. But she was taken care of , loved and had a good life with me for 4 years.

What saddens me is the way she died, my out-of-characer reaction and my inability to have done anything about it. I don't like thinking about it and try my best to bury it. But like I said, it creeps up on me. I understand that my reaction was not typical because of insomnia and I shouldn't beat myself up about having thought and said things. Even so, my irrational side carries guilt over it. I'm human and have guilt. And Gamu didn't deserve the end she had.

I miss you Gamu and I'm sorry. RIP

Going retro?

Why is Captain Crunch going back to old logos?

I hate it when...

I hate it when I forget my ChapStick! Today I completely forgot to pocket my ChapStick. I couldn't stop thinking that I'd forgotten something I use everyday. And thinking that made me think of how dry my lips were getting making me annoyed I'd forgotten my ChapStick.

Yes, I am an addict.

Logan

Meet my new dog. She's my mini dachshund who thinks she's the biggest dog in the house :)

Logan

Belly Troubles

One of my dogs was sick recently so I took her to the vet. This is what they found:

I was shocked. This is a dog that is quite old, has no teeth, is blind and death. How in the world did she manage this? And what is the hell are they?

At first I thought they were those plastic pins that hold the paper and cardboard in place in men's shirts and maybe she swallowed them sometime during xmas. But around 2 weeks later, she had another vet visit and the pins haven't moved. So after thinking about her history, these pins could actually have been there ever since I've had her. See, she's a rescue and in her previous house, she used to live and sleep around mechanic equipment and stuff. It's very possible she swallowed them there and they've just intergrated into her intestine after all these years. She doesn't seem to be in any pain from them and she goes to the bathroom just fine.

So weird!

Neglect

Yes, I have been neglectful. It's been almost a year since I wrote anything on this blog.

Happy 2011 everyone!

So how has the year been so far? The first 23 days of the year have been good. We had another earthquake the other day. I didn't feel anything...I was outside on my way to lunch when it happened. I can say that I felt the one back in Decemeber before Christmas. THAT was interesting! I was sitting at my desk when I heard a low rumble. Then my chair started to shake. My thought was, "Why is my chair shaking? Is there a truck passing by?" Of course that would make no sense because I live in a gated community. Almost instantly everything shook violently. It was like the house was bitch slapped and everything rattled. I stood up and walked to my doorway, but just as fast as it came, it was over.

My mother asked "¿Qué fue eso?"
Really mother? :)
So I said, "Un temblor..." and laughed.

Anyway, I can't promise I'll write more often this year. Between work and life (and tv shows of course, ehem, Bravo), blogging has fallen down the priority list. We'll see.

Saturday Solution

I've had a Rubix Cube forever. Like many other people, I never did know how to solve it. I could do a single side just fine. Then one day I did two sides. And by a sheer stoke of luck I solved three sides and left it at that. Of course I knew there was no way you could solve each side on its own to solve the whole cube.

Today I decided that I was going to learn how it's done. And I did. It took a while and I still need practice, but I can now say that I have solved a Rubix Cube.

2010

Feliz Año Nuevo!
Happy New Year!

Events and Halloween

A lot has happened in a short time on the island:

We had an island wide protest against the more than 17,000 govt. layoffs. Of course most of the world didn't hear about this because of the rivetting and important coverage of "Balloon Boy".

Then, there was the explosion at a gas refinery causing a huge smoke cloud over the SJ metro area.

And of course there's always Halloween :)

Facebook Run Around

I just experienced my first facebook run around!

I wanted to upload a picture from my phone. A while back, I used to do this via MMS using the address mobile@facebook.com just like everyone else used to. Recently I got a more sophisticated phone and noticed that it kept asking me to upload pictures with a personalized email they provided. These uploads go directly from your mobile email to facebook. So, I decided to give it a try last week. It worked.

However, today I tried uploading a picture using the personalized email. All I got was an Delivery Status Failure email from facebook. Okay. I tried again thinking maybe I did something wrong, but received another failed email notification. I tried a different email account with the same failed result. I even tried sending it via MMS and not even that has posted my picture on my profile.

So what do I do? I contact Facebook. I navigate their extensive Help Center and reach the Mobile section. I input all my info and click away waiting for help. I receive an email from "The Facebook Team" with all these wonderful suggestions on how to fix the problem before actually contacting them. Thing is these suggestions don't apply to my issue. I try them anyway. Nothing.

At the end of "The Facebook Team" email, it says, "If your question is not in the list above, please reply to this email with any details that will help us to resolve your issue." Ok. So I hit reply and explain my issue. Literally, 2 seconds later I receive a delivery status failure notification from "The Facebook Team". WHAT?! This is ridiculous. I go back to facebook to see if there is some other way to contact them. No, it's not possible. If you write your issue in one of their pre-made boxes, you'll just get an automated email from them.

There literally is no way to get actual problem solving help/answers through facebook. Isn't that interesting?

Traffic

Traffic here sucks. My work is about 20 or 25 min away. I leave the house at 7am or at the latest 7:10am. As everyone knows, the police here cause more traffic when they "direct" traffic. That was the case this morning. I was stuck at a light for 15 min! It's ridiculous! I was also stuck at the light right before my work.

I ususally arrive at work around 7:35 or 7:40am. Today, thanks to the cops, I made it to work at 8am. I hate the police sometimes.

Tri-Colored Treat

It's the middle of the work day and I've just eaten lunch. While I was standing there watching the kids, I got a big bag of the best tri-colored treat there is: Candy Corn!

I love candy corn. I had prohibited my sister from buying this delicious treat until October. Well, my brother beat her to it. Oh goodness.

Heavy Clouds

Looks like rain...

Late Night Stroll

I see the strangest things.

The other night I was on my way to pick my dog up from the vet. I reached the light and waited for it to change. I looked over to the other side of the avenue and saw this older lady on one of those electric scooter chairs. Nothing wrong there. BUT, she was taking a stroll on the street! She had a huge bag of dog food with her while she drove her chair on the street.

People are weird.

Kids And Their Teeth

I hate it when the kids show me they have a loose tooth! Ok, "hate" might be too strong a word. I don't hate it, I just don't like it. It completely grosses me out. I don't know when this started to bother me. I'm certainly not a squimish person, but loose teeth. No.

Today a kid comes up to me and says "Missy, I have a loose tooth, look!" He proceeds to show me a dangling molar. They're obsessed with showing me their falling teeth! I just closed my eyes and said something like "ok...that's nice, thank you".

I can't deal. Maybe it has to do with my hatred of the falling teeth dream. Everyone's had that dream before so you know what I'm talking about. Well, I don't know if everyone FEELS it as much as I do, but my dreams are very vivid and with that comes loads of feelings. So anytime I have a loss of teeth dream, I feel every moment they fall out and the pain. At times it's so intense my teeth will hurt and be sensitive the next day...and no I don't grind my teeth.

So I guess I have a bad association. I can't help it. I get completely grossed out when a kid shows me their loose tooth.