as if screwing up in the privacy of your own home isn't bad enough...
i've gotten myself into some pretty ridiculous situations in the past month or so. i'm pretty well known for being an airhead, forgetting engagements and commitments, and pretty much acting like i'm about a quarter as smart as i really am. normally i do these things, chuckle, and shrug them off. but since i've been working with my mom and spend most of my time either around her or on some sort of predetermined schedule where i'm supposed to be doing things for her, i've just been making an ass out of myself over and over again.
for one thing, i've become a major klutz. since i've practically packed 75% of her house single handedly, i was bound to break a few things here and there. my first klutz moment came with her potted fake rose bush. i dropped it because i was trying to carry it around by the stem of the roses instead of the pot... cracked a piece right off of it. then came the big move day. i took responsibility for wrapping and placing my grandmother's antique cabinet with curved glass doors in the moving truck, taking extra care to wedge it in and wrap it in three blankets. thank god i did, or we would have had glass everywhere... of course one of the damn panes of glass broke in transit. then came the real winner... i was carrying something into my mom's old house and her front door has a habit of sticking. instead of putting down the package and pushing with my hands, or kicking the door, or god for bid walking around to the back door, i just leaned into it with my shoulder. unfortunately, the middle of the door is a big stained glass motif and i managed to put my shoulder right through it. after checking to make sure i wasn't cut, i wondered at how i had just had a cool movie moment (practically punching right through glass) and yet couldn't figure out how the hell i was going to explain this one... *sigh*
apart from that, i've forgotten to pick up items my mother has repeated told me to get (whoops). and then i have to call her back all the time right after i hang up the phone because i forget what she just told me. and then there was the day i locked her van keys in her car. luckily i was in the driveway and had already moved the box over that had her spares so she was able to open it up pretty easily. undaunted, i proceeded a week later to lock my own keys in my car while i was in her driveway. since i don't have a spare it proved to be a little more problematic. i'm telling you folks, the punches just keep coming...
anyway, i made it through thanksgiving week alive. i swear, huey came in town the friday before thanksgiving and stayed for 10 days, but it seemed a lot longer than that. and of course i mean in a good way. it almost felt like him and dylan lived here again. now that he's gone, i still just kind of feel like he's off on a trip somewhere. it helps that i'll see him this weekend (going to jacksonville via savannah to see the ACC championship game) and that i know he'll be back for 2 weeks in december. by the time january rolls around i'll have to get used to him being gone all over again... luckily i'll have another semester from hell starting up in time to distract me really well...
i swear, i think how smart i am is completely counteracted by my airheadedness and forgetfullness. i showed up to school last week to turn in a paper in the morning only to find out that it wasn't due until the following monday and it was my afternoon class that had the paper due. how the hell do i fuck this stuff up? i also went through and made myself a pretty well laid out study schedule for thanksgiving week since i had extra days off school. i've got six group projects to turn in during the next two weeks and i hadn't started any of them. thanks to the wii, my car acting like a fuckwith and general thanksgiving craziness i got absolutely none of it done. the consequence is that i've been busting my ass since sunday night, getting about 10 hours of sleep total since this past sunday. right now, i'm exhausted and feeling a little punchy. that's why this post will probably go on for forever...
so i did thanksgiving at my house again this year. my mom has two kitchens in her garage and none in either of her houses so we figured a different location would be desirable. unlike last year, i decided to grow a pair and make my own damn turkey this year. i watched alton brown's good eats on making a great turkey and decided that, him being the genius that he is, it was the way to go. i bought my turkey, let it defrost a coupla days, then made a crazy brine and basically pickled my turkey overnight. thanksgiving morning i didn't put it in until 10am. normally this would be a problem with that crazy slow-roasting for 20 hour normal method people use... luckily alton had my back. i cooked the bird for 30 minutes at 500 degrees to start off with, giving it a nice crunchy brown crust. unfortunately this is also pretty damn close to the temperature my oven cleans at, so it filled my house with smoke *blech* after 2.5 then at a normal temperature, i pulled out an absolutely perfect turkey, put it on my newly purchased ceramic turkey platter that will not fit in ANY of my cabinets, and handed huey our also newly purchased electric knife to carve with. i have to say... all the food i cooked was pretty good... but that turkey was AWESOME... i'm so proud of myself and will never fear a turkey again.
unfortunately, it seems for every good thing that happens, something equally crappy has to happen as well. the day before thanksgiving huey and i were out buying necessary items (like a 5 gallon bucket to brine our turkey in) and my car started making this awful metal scraping sound... it was very rythmic, obviously being caused by one of my wheels turning. it started out quiet and got louder pretty quickly. as well pulled into the home depot it was getting pretty nasty sounding. we looked at the wheels but they seemed in place so we decided to get our bucket and head for home to switch out cars. when we got back in the car to leave the parking lot, the back left wheel actually locked up. i tried to move forward and it just would not... i was actually dragging the tire along like a lame duck. luckily the damn thing would move backwards (kinda) so i backed it into a spot and called the brake company who had worked on my brakes a month ago...
after a lot of hassle, standing around and a tow to the nearest location, we find out that what happened is the actual caliper had come off the rotor and wedged itself between the rotor and the rim of my tire.... awesome. how does this happen you ask? most likely the bolts were not properly tightened the last time it was worked on, so over time one slowly loosened and then just fell off, leaving my caliper ready to just pop off whenever it felt like it. luckily i wasn't going 80 down the highway when it happened... something tells me it wouldn't have been pretty. and seeing as how it was this company (but not this exact location) that had touched it last, it seemed pretty obvious who's fault it was. luckily the mechanic took my view of things and paid for my tow and all the work to get it fixed... triumph!! i love chain stores!!
except that yesterday i was at my mom's house and i got in my car to leave and my car acted all funky again. it felt like i was driving with the parking brake on or something, even though it was fully released. my brother in law came over and took a look at it... he had me put the parking brake on and off, mess with the brakes, all that jazz... we jacked up the car, took off the wheel and threw it in neutral... the damn wheel just wouldn't spin at all. diagnosis? caliper locked up. we put it all back together and i went to move it out of the way and it felt a little better. we drive it down the street and back and everything seems to be going well! maybe it unstuck itself while we were poking around!! so i get in the car and head out of the neighborhood on my way home with my brother in law leaving right behind me...
only i get halfway through the neighborhood and realize my car is working twice as hard as usual to get up the hills, and if i take my foot off the gas on the downhills the car actually slows to a stop. and then i noticed the smell... that acrid smell of burning brake pad. dammit dammit dammit. i parked my car for the night and borrowed my mom's minivan (big pimpin) until i could call the mechanic back again this morning. damn franchises!! the guy tried to tell me that it could be my ebrake line freezing up and to drive it or have it towed to somewhere else to have it checked out (since i was now in powder springs, a long way from where he was). thinking he was getting off a little easy i google mapped the nearest location of this mechanic chain and called them up. at noon today they sent out another towtruck to pick up my car AGAIN and have the left rear calilper worked on AGAIN. luckily the guy called me at 4 and told me that they were just going to scrap the whole caliper and replace it for me, free of charge of course. strangely enough, they had found multiple problems with the caliper... seems that even though it had been jammed into my tire and knocked around and dragged about, the last place had seen fit to just stick it back on and call it a day....
*whew* man, what a week. and here it is practically midnite and i still have another paper to write tonite. i'm excited to get the hell out of this town for this weekend, but the amount of stress that will be waiting for me when i get back... ugh
the jury is still out on whether or not this is all worth it... all of this.
*blog*
posted by megs at 23:27
11.18.2006
i would do anything for love.... but i won't do that...
so at noon today, after talking about it and planning for it all week, huey and i decide to call our nearest wallyworld to check out the situation. after reading and watching news reports all week talking about people standing in freezing cold and snow for their chance at one of the five ps3's at their local gamestop, the day has come for the release of a system i'm actually interested in.... the nintendo wii!!
so huey calls and asks what the situation is. how many are they gettin in (at least twenty) when do they go on sale (midnight) when are tickets being handed out (at 10pm) and when can we get in line (there are already about 10-15 people in line). after spluttering, huey yells out "we have to go... now!!" he scrambles, i scramble, and in the middle of it all he says "i'm so excited!!" then does a mario-hitting-a-block leap into the air, one fist raised, and goes bling! bling! it seems kind of silly, but it made me laugh and got me excited...
so we filled up our bookbag with all the necessay standing in line for hours items - my laptop, homework, ipods, phones, huey's ds lite and games - and head for the car. then huey announces he has a "wii standing in line" gift for me, and pulls out a new ds light for me that he picked up in savannah... now we can play games together! we got here about 1:15 and staked our place in line. luckily, they are being nice and letting people stand in line inside. since its chilly outside now and will rpolly be freezing by midnight, this is actually a pretty good deal.
so right now i'm feeling kind of like natalie portman in "where the heart is." i've set up camp and feel a little already like i'm living here. of course, nintendo has said repeatedly that there will be plenty of wii's for the holidays and most people assumed waiting in line would be pointless because you could probably just walk into a store and pick one up any time between now and christmas. while we completely believe them and know we don't HAVE to be here... it feels good knowing that i'll be walking out of here tonite with my very own wii. no point in chancing it since it is my christmas gift.
so a few more people have shown up since i've been writing this... it's good to know that we won't be last in line for the next 9 hours though... then i would have REALLY felt stupid!!
*blog*
posted by megs at 14:41
11.16.2006
eye on the prize...
well, i'm getting stressed. despite the fact that i have gotten A's on everything so far this semester (except the one thing i won't mention... damn group projects) i'm still freaking out about how i'll finish out the semester. i'm looking at my calendar for the next few weeks and i've got work to do EVERY SINGLE DAY... no days off for messing around, watching movies or just staring out the window... what is going to make this worse is that the nintendo wii is coming out on sunday and huey and i will be coming home with two of them. how can i get any work done with that thing around?? honestly?!?!
i did get one big thing out of the way... i sent out the christmas party evite. this year is the 8th annual peters' christmas extravaganza: the retrospective. it really doesn't make sense to hold it in savannah because we seem to lose more and more out of towners each year, so this will probably be the last year. it's actually kind of sad... sort of the end of an era. and it just makes me think even more of being in savannah and being cut off from everyone i'm used to seeing. but i'm really excited about this party and the place we are having it. i had been really worried that last year was our last year because of the location challenge, and i really didn't want to go out on a party that ended with us getting busted by the cops... the list of invitees is long as usual, but this year i really tried to focus on our core attendees as much as possible... kind of go for a quality over quantity thing. everyone important got their invitation... i think. it's kind of like packing for a trip... you are always sure you left something (or in this case someone) out of your bag... oh well.
so step one of the party is done... and i'm not going to harass people like i have done in years past about whether or not they are showing up. i've put the evite out there and now people have to take it from there... i'm just not going to think about it. but i'm so excited about the party! but i have to focus on school. finals end the 13th of december...
eye on the prize... eye on the prize...
*blog*
posted by megs at 23:10
11.14.2006
it's hard to decide which is worse...
talking about it or thinking about it?
the thing is, i've been thinking about it for days. in fact it is all i think about. when i'm sitting in class, typing my notes, my mind suddenly stops and starts, like i'm rebooting or something. at least that is what it feels like. when i stood up to give my presentation in class, i only took a second to think to myself that i just had to get through it. after i sat down, i spent the rest of the class thinking to myself that i just have to get through it.
so tomorrow morning at 8:15a i will be sitting in my class and thinking... thinking of two years ago when i was sitting on a stool at my job, having just opened the store and going through the mass of email i had accumulated while i was away on my cruise... i remember thinking that i needed a vacation after my vacation. i had gotten home at 10pm the previous night after a grueling drive from florida where i found myself crying on the phone to huey at a cracker barrel because i was so tired and just wanted to be home and my family just kept stopping for all these ridiculous reasons. i was so frustrated and just wanted to be home. i finally got home and pulled out all my wonderful purchases, still bubbling with stories about the trip and wanting to show everyone all the great things i brought home with me. i felt so alive after having one of the best weeks of my life...
so at about 8:15 i got the call from my sister. i remember actually falling off the stool. it didn't seem real. how could it be? it just couldn't... it wasn't supposed to be this way. your father doesn't just up and die in his sleep for no apparent reason while his entire family is over 1000 miles away on a cruise and he was left behind in a VA hospital for the week... alone. two years later i still think the same thing in my head... it wasn't supposed to be this way.
so i find i can't stop thinking about it. and maybe it's because i never talk about it. or maybe it's because it's the kind of thing you never stop thinking about... never stop punishing yourself for... never stop regretting.
another 12 hour day of class tomorrow... and i just have to get through it.
*blog*
posted by megs at 11:50
11.12.2006
even luke has a dark day...
so my "hell week" is finally over at school... i finished all my tests, wrote my 12 page group paper in a night myself, and have actually gotten back two grades already... surprise, surprise... a 90 and a 106... if i get straight A's this semester i will stand on my backporch and scream for five seconds... if i don't... then i'll probably do the same thing...
so tonite i went to what was basically an engagement party but with a fancy name... a swedish american unity gala... peters and his swede are getting married. huey couldn't make it since he's in savannah (of course) but peters, always being the ass, seems to insist on snubbing him for the insult of living in a different city. even though i pointed out that no one from out of town was there, he still insisted that he should have been there... it was one of those kinds of things that normally starts a fun, friendly argument between us... but tonite i just wasn't in the mood.
it's weird... normally i go to parties and the question i keep getting is "when are you getting married"... well, it has changed now, but not for the better. now, it's "do you miss him?" ummmm... no, i'm glad to be rid of him and finally be on my own. what a silly question. anyways, i know i seemed mopey tonite, and caught myself staring off as many times as other people did, but everyone was way off target... i got questions about huey, about school, about work... yes, they are all stressful, and i am always running through lists in my mind related to all three... but that really wasn't what was bothering me at all...
monday is the two year anniversary of my dad's death. and nobody knows. i don't even think huey remembers. and i haven't brought it up to anyone. but i keep having this mini panic attacks, especially with everything else that is going on. i find my mind wandering all the time and i seem to always be on the verge of tears. i hate feeling this way because i feel so out of control. at the same time, it all seems so appropriate, as if not feeling this way would be wrong. it is so hard to hate the way you feel and know that you have to embrace it and get through it at the same time... it's very tiring...
going back to the party, it was weird sitting there tonite... everyone reminiscing, stories being thrown around. i realized that i've known peters now since my freshman year of college... that is almost nine years. a long time. there are very few friends that i still see on a regular basis that i've known for so long. it makes me smile to think of him so happy... and speaking of smiling, i got to meet little alexandra grace brady tonite... such a beautiful baby and happy parents... i couldn't stop smilling at them all night.
*sigh* i hate feeling so conflicted... so happy... but so sad... everything overshadowed by the sad... my own dark day is fast approaching...
*blog*
posted by megs at 04:59
11.07.2006
ouch, ouch, ouch...
so registration was today at 1:15 for me.... since my list of required courses is getting really really short and it is important to get them now, this semester i decided that i would actually take part in early registration. last semester i spent a week and a half neurotically signing on and off the registration system to see if the classes i really wanted were available with the teachers i wanted and at the times i wanted... i said never again...
so this semester i checked a day early to figure out exactly when my turn would be so that i could get on and do it right this time... only to find out that those nazi bastards had put an immunization hold on my account again!! i say again because they did this to me back in may. it required a visit to the campus health center and a little talk with the immunizations guy, a trip to the county health services to get a report of my immunizations many moons ago, then another little talk with the immunization guy. after all that, he told me i still needed to get a tetanus shot. because i was already registering late for summer classes (surprise, surprise) he took the hold off and told me to get it taken care of... so i walked out of the office, registered, and promptly forgot about the whole thing...
so i went back to the health center on monday and got my tetanus shot so they would finally take the damn thing off and stop harassing me about it. after a tense few minutes, i got the shot and it really didn't hurt. the woman warned me that i could experience some muscle soreness afterwards and to take some advil... i didn't take her seriously until a few hours later when my left arm felt like someone had used it as a punching bag... two days later, i can still barely move it without wincing in pain... it sucks!!
and me, being stubborn like i am, still hasn't taken advil... in my head i keep saying, it doesn't hurt that bad...
you know what else sucks... i got invited to a fun party on thursday night, but i have class from 8-11pm... normally i would skip but the bastard is having a midterm... *sigh* sucks, sucks, sucks.
*blog*
posted by megs at 23:15
11.03.2006
even a poor man gets his ice in the winter...
so after suffering through a summer with no air conditioning i was really looking forward to the winter... my car may not be able to pump out any cool air but it can blast out 90 degree air like it's nothing. i've been biding my time and riding with my windows down, wearing my hat to keep my hair from going nuts. so today was the coldest day that we've had all year, and i was really looking forward to taking advantage of my heat, only to find that (surprise, surprise) there is something wrong with it too. maybe it is because i haven't used the air in months, but i turned it on and it just sat there for a few seconds, then kind of power surged, shutting off the radio for a second... then sat there... then surged... nothing, nothing, nothing. it's going to be a long, cold winter.
it's all just too much...
i was doing fine all this past weekend. i think tuesday is when things started getting a little... stretched. two tests on wednesday. then a paper due wednesday. now a paper due today. then two tests on monday. and a presentation next wednesday. then a test over 15 chapters on thursday. someone shoot me now...
i have had a constant headache since tuesday afternoon, and as i drove home from class last night i suddenly figured out why... my jaw was actually clenched. i've been biting down hard for two days as my panic and stress have grown and grown. i don't remember ever being so unnerved by something as simple, as easy, as trivial as school... but the thing is, for the first time since highschol, school isn't trivial.
i drove around all day today in my moms minivan. she has those ribbon bumper magnets on the back. one says "support the troops," one says "support organ donation," and another says "pray for our priests." all this is capped off by an anti-abortion sticker on the bumper. i stood there today staring at them all and feeling kinda weird driving around, as if somone would think they're mine. then i thought... can't priests pray for themselves?
one of my marketing group projects is on a small cable/internet/telephone provider in north ga. i've been doing demographics research all week and realized i'm glad i don't live there.
i'm all over the place today...
my phone email has been blowing up lately. it's funny because the only place i've really used that email is at school. then during a class discussion the other day someone mentioned that the school sells student emails and any other ones that are registered with the school to third parties as a revenue booster for the school... and i'm still trying to figure out why my tuition is going up because they are clearly getting their monies worth.
so here is one of the fun emails i got today on my phone... i don't know where they come up with this stuff...
Zebras aren't black and white, they are white and black. One man's junk is another man's treasure. From Sandy Elsberg's BREAD WINNER BREAD MAKER; Upline Press, Charlottesville, VA; 1977, p. 80. Cobbler, stick to thy last. He that lives too fast, goes to his grave too soon.
Every dog has its day. Purely bluster and no substance. Don't mend what ain't broken. Misery loves company. Health is better than wealth. Paddle your own ...
Don't trudge mud into the house of love. Because then you are a mile away and you have his shoes. There's always a deep breath before a plunge. The nail that sticks out gets pounded. It's better to give than to receive.
Alternate version: Pray for the best, prepare for the worst. If it isn't broke, don't fix it Interpretation: A person who is active will not grow stale. There is no 'I' in TEAM, but there is a ME There is no 'I' in TEAM, But there is an I in Win also, It takes all kinds to make the world go round.
Repeating a lie doesn't make that lie true. If it jams, force it. If it breaks, it probably needed fixing anyway. Do unto others as you would have done to you. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Well begun is half done. This could also be read as, A friend in need is a friend in debt. Don't cry over spilt milk. Followup: Satisfaction brought it back, that's why the cat has nine lives All frills and no knickers.
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy? Help a lame dog over a stile. Paddle your own ... A fellow describing the distinction between coral and king snakes.
Never eat the yellow snow. A Frank Zappa song. A guilty conscience needs no accuser. 'Well done' is better than 'Well said' Possible Interpretation: You cannot enjoy two mutually-exclusive benefits of the same situation. One murder makes a villian, millions a hero. Possible Interpretation: Do the task while it is possible. Lead to Success, Follow to Failure (Robert D)
Possible Interpretation: Do not take on more responsibility than you can handle at any one time. You can't have it both ways. A penny saved is very grateful. The truth shall set you free, or The truth will set you free. He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. It takes two to tango.
It's easy to be wise after the event. If wishes were horses, pigs would fly. The value of ANYTHING is determined by the agreement of only two people. Meaning: Admit it when there is some good in an adversary. It never rains, but it pours.
Possible Interpretation: World War II propaganda illustrating the perils of gossip. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Well begun is half done. A penny saved is very grateful. Home is where you hang your hat.If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
You can't take it with you. Don't cross a bridge until you come to it. Tomorrow is another day. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. -- Jesus Christ An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Beauty may open doors but only virtue enters. If you can't join them, beat them. Possible Interpretation: A person cannot be told what to do in his own house.
oddly enough, the email was for a penis enlargement patch... ummmm, right.
