Morning Downs and Ups

The president of my condo board is a complete dick, as proven by this morning's round of emails. There's a lot of hot-headed self-centered bullshit in this building, and having grown up in a nest of hot-headed self-centered bullshit (frequently wrapped up in it myself) I now like to play peace ambassador whenever possible. But in Condoland, I know so little about the process and the rules and everything, I don't stand a conscilliatory chance.

Reading nasty emails full of personal attacks was ruining my morning when my brother called.
At 10 AM he was drunk.
It was the last day of finals. He was at a bar.
Ah, college. Memories. The bar staying open all night right up until graduation the next morning
My brother's call drastically improved my mood.

lure me not

Saturday's temptations and desires, in approximate order:

1. kill NBF
2. just keep NBF in some state of half-strangle, half-hug forever
3. kill parents
4. puke
5. fill stomach but puke at the same time
6. puke
7. decorate condo with everything in sight, or exact opposite of everything in sight, depending on sight
8. disassociate self from parents
9. redo ages 20-22
10. make other people interested in good beer
    
11. start watching Saturday Night Live regularly
12. go to random college party across the street from bed and breakfast and make up identity and story and anonymously screw random college boy

My mom wanted to spend Mother's Day with as many of her children as possible, so after much pressure she got me to agree to a weekend trip to my brother's college. "Just one night" she emphasized. Fine. I like my brother. I don't like long drives (it's only 4 1/2 hours, but I still get carsick and migrainey and all those lovely things my body likes to do...and I'm the girl who drove from Cleveland to Key West and back in a weekend for the hell of it...I don't know what happened). NBF moves away forever in a week and I want to spend time with him, but Mother's Day is very important to my mom and I have trouble saying "no" to her. So I'm here and it's not so terrible and I want to play "college kid" in a way I totally rejected when I actually was one. And now I want dental floss. That makes 13 major desires for the day. I think I'll leave it at that.

sittings

Last night I saw a very odd 3 1/2 hour play with my parents at the Goodman Theater. Parts were wonderful, parts were stupid. Kind of like my parents.

I woke up early to try to get some work done, but instead spent several hours battling some nasty-ass trojan buggy thing that decided to attach itself to my computer and ignore my multiple virus and spyware busters.

Then it took me an hour on the Edens to get to the Botanical Gardens/Ravinia area from my apartment in Rogers Park and another 20 minutes after that to arrive at Lake Forest College's soccer field.

Then I watched my brother play part of a game with his college soccer team against Lake Forest. He's been too injured/gimpy to play much or particularly well, but he did manage to score goals the last few games. Not this game, but his school won during their second overtime. Very exciting.

As I drove out of Lake Forest and towards 41, I noticed a cop behind me. It was a big street, two lanes in either direction and very little entering or exiting traffic, so I was going around 45-50mph. Then the cop pulled me over and I assumed I had a tail light out but no, apparently the speed limit on that large fast street is actually 35. He was very nice and even apologized that he had to give me a ticket, but there was some mandatory ticketing thing for anything more than 10 mph over the speed limit. Piece of shit. So now I've gotten my first ticket in almost 7 years and if I want it off my record I have to do some 4 hour online traffic school thing, which is obviously what I need right now on top of the rest of the time I'm stuck at my computer every day and going crazy.

Now I am sleepy and farty because I decided to treat myself to McDonalds fries (I was going for just coffee and didn't see a Dunkin Donuts and felt after a ticket I needed a treat). There are a number of friends I haven't seen in way too long and I would very much like to see, but I don't know when because I'm not caught up yet. It is my goal to be completely on top of everything by the time I go to bed tomorrow, and it's possible but difficult, so we'll see.

I'm such a kvetch.

I'll have the communications sampler, please

I'm bored. Play with me.

Does anyone know about submitting writing under a pen name? I want to use "Annabell" for the things I wrote about my family, but Annabell does not have a bank account or social security number.

I got a new phone today. It's totally hot. It has a QWERTY keyboard but is the size of a Razor and weighs less than my old phone. Also, I am now on my family's plan, so I have unlimited texting, but I have to be a bit more careful about my minutes or my parents will beat me. Basically, if you are not a Verizon customer, I am no longer your friend until after 9 PM. Ever. I don't care if you're dying, you can text me or shove it.

I said goodbye to my brother today since I'm not going to see him again before he goes off to college this weekend. My baby is all grown up. I just hope it's half as wonderful as he expects it to be and my mother gets used to her empty nest and doesn't start [s]mothering me to death instead.

I left my journal at a bar on Sunday. Not smart. Fortunately, they still had it when my friend who lives right there went back. I should probably be more mortified that they put it with the board games, but a) what do I care if a bunch of strangers read my dumb rambling shit and b) my deepest darkest secret gleanable from my journal is that I'm actually a boy-crazy flake, and that's not much of a secret. I tend not to have secrets. Hell, I don't even have discretion.

I'm going to go make out with my phone now.

!!!

My brother just got into his early decision college! And much rejoicing followed!

Oh! The Humanity!

A few weeks ago, my brother hurt his right wrist in soccer. It still hurt, so this week he finally went to have it checked out. It's broken, and he has to be in a cast for three months. He's right handed. Now, he's sick, too, complete with feaver and chills. If he's not careful, he will soon replace me as Family Member Most Likely To Be Picked Off By Wolves. Poor kid.

After work last night my boss and I went out for dinner. I really like her. It's a little strange hanging out and being friends with both her and SUC so seperately, especially since right now I think I'm spending more awake time with each of them than they are with eachother, and they live together. But they are exceptionally busy people and I happen to be a part of each of their unshared activities. For the month of November, I will see one of the other of them at least 24 of the 30 days. Crazy.

At work yesterday patrons were being cranky. We were out of decaf coffee and you'd think we were out of oxygen rations or something. It was crazy. Then I ran out of regular coffee and the world ended. I have trouble not taking things personally and blaming myself for any and all unhappiness in the world. I think I took my father's aphorisms a little too far. His cries for "personal responsibility" and "look before you leap" and all the common sense things that messing up means you're an idiot. I forget that it's ok to make mistakes and that they are not automatically the result of me not being smart enough. Thank goodness for the handful of fabulous people who made comments like "It's only coffee, don't worry about it" and the patron who actually went to the main bar and brought me back a pot of coffee without anyone asking or suggesting it. He was so sweet about it, too. People like that are amazing. They're the ones who remind me that humanity doesn't suck, and I don't suck for being human.

I do a little bit suck for not having done the things I was going to do today. So perhaps my big laundry day will become a load of blacks and undies so I won't have to be naked at work this coming week. I just have to get off my ass and actually do that. I'm on a bit of a down-swing. Someone at work was talking about the full moon and "Mercury in retrograde" and how that means we're all out of whack. I'd rather blame daylight savings and my parents, but whatever it is, it's indeed whack. I did get one big huge thing done that I've been putting off for a very long time, so that's a big monkey off my back. Take that, monkey!

Penelope (my computer) is dead. She should be undead in a few days, but the power cord finally became 100% useless and HP didn't have me in their computer as having paid for the 3 year I can hit it with a hammer and it's still covered warranty, so I had to fax my warranty proof of purchase and a bunch of other crap that I fortunately still had and in theory they'll come pick up, fix, and return Penelope good as new.

I'm at my parents house for the next three days but without my parents. My brother is 17 years old but because he is not 18 my mother thinks I have to be around as a legal adult. I think that's stupid. I'd be happy to be here to keep him company, but this is all just further proof that my mother needs to think of her children as incapable of functioning on their own. And she's all friggin' worried about us, too, like that my brother won't wake up in the morning or do his homework. Fortunately, he's all for proving to her that he's better off without her nagging and reminding him to do things every five minutes, so he plans to get all his work done and even get ahead and then leave it in a nice neat pile with a smiley face post-itted on top while he's out with his friends when they get home. I think it's brilliant.

In the less-than-brilliant category, I left my flash drive at my apartment and I'd made a pact with one of my improv class friends that we'd turn in our Triumphant College Return applications by Saturday and my essay crap is all on there. Grrr.

It is absolutely freezing here. Red, my dog and I went to my brother's soccer game this afternoon and it started snowing. I had my dog layered in a sweater and his fleece-lined coat and he was still all shivery. I'm a terrible doggie mama.

dog paw

Happy birthday to my dad. Not that he reads this, but still.

I'd left tonight clear of plans so I could go out for my dad's birthday, but my brother has a date and his girlfriend can't do anything tomorrow night so the birthday festivities are being postponed. I was annoyed, since I did have plans for tomorrow, but now they'll just have to end early. I was on the phone kvetching about such things when I saw my dog's paw. Big icky cyst/boil thing between his front two toes. It's huge and gross. I freaked out and called the vet and we were there and being seen in less than an hour. The vet looked at it and x-rayed it and poked it with a needle for the biopsy. After poking it it started oozing and I now have dog blood on my jeans. They had to throw me out because my dog was spazzing (understandable, I must say) and they thought it might be easier if I wasn't in the room. They also did all his regular annual vet things while we were there since he's due in about two months anyway. Now, he's got one of those collar things on so he can't lick his paw and twice a day antibiotics for the next two weeks and I've got a $371 bill. Ack. I just keep telling myself it includes all his vaccinations and heartworm tests and whatnot, but holy shit. I need to do the dog insurance thing. I know my particular vet is very expensive, too, but they're really good with him, and he's my baby.

I watched Heathers last night. Crazy, crazy movie, but I enjoyed it immensely.