Category: life and living

While I’ve been in Oregon, I’ve been keeping an eye on New York weather. So I could plan ahead, ask the people watching my house to take care of things if necessary – check the pipes, or get out my flannels, or even close windows. Basic things. And the weather in Albany has been, for the most part, a little colder, but still a lot warmer than it had been in Portland.

Until I flew in last night, and apparently brought the eastern wind with me, and her handbag of snow and cold. By the time we got to my house, it was freezing out, and ice patches were forming from the melted snow (the clouds moved off basically as I landed, and it became very crisp, clear and cold rapidly).

I got out the flannels. Then an extra blanket. Then shut the storm windows, and inside windows. Then got out two more blankets and my flannel PJs. And then the cats slept under the covers (once they deigned to sleep). And still, I was cold.

I woke up this morning to find that the towels had.. I don’t know if mildewed or frozen is the right word, but I think it might be something in between. And the showerhead isn’t working; I can’t tell if the pipes frozen up, rusted, or… what. I called in maintenance, but apparently the rapid cold snap caught a lot of tenants by surprise, so maintenance is backed up.

Of course, the entire point of coming back on Tuesday was to go to class Weds and Thurs. Of course, I couldn’t shower – no towels, no water – but that wasn’t necessarily a dealbreaker. No, the dealbreaker was that I couldn’t shower to loosen up the right shoulder/arm/hand, which had badly stiffened over night, to the point that I can’t actually even flex my right fingers, and have extremely limited movement of the rest of the joints leading up to my neck. (Yes, I typed all of this with my left hand.) I’ll spare you any attempts at describing the pain, and just assure you that I’m keeping myself sedated while I try to work out the stiffened limb.

For now, I think I’m going to succumb to jet lag and go back to sleep. Today was a huge wash, and I should have known better than thinking it would have even been possible to fly in so late and go to school the next day; I had to get food, the cats gave me no choice about giving them attention, and I had household matters to take care of (practical things like fixing the toilet whose water evaporated while I was gone, or making my bed, finding blankets, closing multiple windows, fixing the water fountain, fixing the broken automagic litter cleaner. I was up a good two hours before I could even think about going to sleep.)

Dear World,
I want this. iPhone’s are neat and all, but this? This I would so use…

Note: Mr. Magarium’s Wonder Imporium? Perhaps not the best movie to see two weeks on the nose of your mother’s death, given that, you know, the entire plot is around death and dying. Not that you’d know from the adverts or reviews.

Oddly, with a cast including Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman, Jason Bateman was the best part of the movie. Well, no, actually, the sock monkey was the best part. But Bateman was a close second.

In other not surprising news, my family might be a little twisted and wrong. We got home from dinner (met my bro and his gf for sushi after the movie), and there was a message from Kaiser’s grief services saying they were available for any of us, call if we want to talk, etc and so forth. Tracy asked if we could delete it, and we then had the following conversation:

Dad: I think Molly needs to talk to them.
Tracy: She really hasn’t been herself.
Me: Yeah, she’s just been sleeping on the couch all day…
Tracy: Hey Molly, we’re gonna call the counseling service for you!

Molly just looked up at us and meowed.

10 hours later, we’ve put at least 2, and in some cases, 3 coats of paint on the dining room and living rooms walls (one level of a multi-split level house). Bone white, sage green, and a bali-esque sunrise-y melon that I’m the only one that likes, on the raised half wall – at least for the moment. We’ll see how it looks in sunlight.

I’m exhausted – I think we all are – but it’s a good exhaustion. Of course, tomorrow I’ll barely be able to move… then again, that’s why Trace and I are just planning on browsing, and then the three of us are going to the movies and a nice sushi dinner. I should be able to do that, although it’s gonna take a lot of diverse pain management skills to do so without pain.

Thankfully, I have those mad skillz, eh?

Also, if you missed the Supersize Mythbusters, you really missed out. Just sayin’.

100%ALCOHOLIC