Rave: Last exam is finished! No class for a bit. I'm excited. Rave: My new apartment's "solutions" are for me to pay $150 more per month to move into an apartment now OR I can move in and move to another apartment in a month where I pay $100 more each month. I can't stay at my current place because someone is moving in 3 days after my lease ends. New Place is unwilling to cover the costs of moving. I was on the phone/in their leasing office for the better part of the day yesterday negotiating and brought them down a little bit with the monthly rent (still higher than what is on the lease that I signed). I'm not upset with their fuck-up; I'm upset with their inability to fix the problem and total lack of customer service. Why is this a rave? Now my dad is upset and meeting me at their office this afternoon to talk. My dad has an extremely long fuse and is very patient, but when he feels like someone's taking advantage of someone, not treating them properly, jerking them around or being dishonest, shit hits the fan. I've seen him with his game face on, and when he puts it on it is on like Donkey Kong. No emotion, just an asshole playing hardball. Just finished my last exam and I'm in workout gear, but I'm dressing up like I'm going out because when we curb stomp a bitch/walk away with deuces in the air I want to look good.
Rant it's 90 degrees outside and I'm stuck inside at work. To make matters worse I'm on the project of designing hats for Budweiser. Fuck I want a beer!!
Rant: Final exam tonight from 8 til 10 PM, then another final exam tomorrow morning at 8 AM. Add in the one hour drive to and from campus along with some extra study time, and I am looking at about 5 hours sleep tonight. Fantastic. Rave: Intermediate Microeconomics professor apparently decided he had enough of his students bitching about how hard his essay questions were (draw these graphs from memory exactly how I drew them, or lose points), so he made the final exam all multiple choice. 33 questions, and I can miss up to 7 of them and still get an A for the class. I've also never missed more than 1 on the multiple choice sections. Knock on wood, but this should be a slam dunk A. Rant: Still have two papers to write, one by tomorrow and another by Thursday. Oh, and I work tomorrow night, so I have to work on that paper as soon as I get done with my final. Rave: After Thursday, I am fucking done with that long-ass drive for the summer. Rant: Maymester class. Rave: Online only Maymester class.
RANT: Oh fuck for all us Minnesota people. I'm glad I don't live in the mpls/st. paul area. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrismenning/the-most-hipster-state-in-the-us" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrismenning/th ... -in-the-us</a>
Rave: I've been building trellises for my peas and cucumbers. Cedar is so much fun to work with and it makes my workshop smell awesome. My gardens are going to be sweeeeeeet. Rave: The project bug has bitten me deep and I decided to try my hand at building a dry stack rock wall. It's fucking hard to make the stones fit and look right. I have a new appreciation for the stone walls that are all over the place out here. Rant: Back in the office tomorrow. After two days of being outside and enjoying life I'll be slogging through a bunch of technical quotes. Bleh.
?: I'm posting this here because frankly, anonymous strangers are easier than real life. I saw a new psychiatrist today who diagnosed me with Bipolar II (the Catherine Zeta-Jones kind). In a twisted way I'm just relieved. I've been taking anti-depressants and ADHD meds which haven't been working for over a year. It's nice to know that some of the fucked up stuff I've been through isn't entirely due to personal failings. I'm starting a partial hospitalization program next week and getting on crazypeople meds, wish me luck.
Rant: Canada Post. I'm expecting a package and it's being sent to my old address. Nonissue. I'm having my mail forwarded. I have a tracking number and have been watching the progress. CP just can't seem to deliver the fucking thing and as of yesterday afternoon, it was being held at a "postal facility" while they confirmed the address. So... I called. The rep claims that the apartment number is missing. That's odd because I can see the address that the package was supposed to have been sent to and an apartment number is clearly included, but people make mistakes. Perhaps the person who addressed the box messed up. Where's the postal facility? Can I go and pick the box up? "No, it's not at an actual post office." OK. Can I have it moved to a post office so I can pick it up? "No, we'll have to correct the address and attempt delivery again. Which could take up to 5 business days. There's a chance it could then be returned to the sender." But this was supposed to have been forwarded. Can I give you the new address and have it delivered there? "No. And mail forwarding doesn't apply to packages." Fuck. I mean... They HAVE the package. I can SEE that they have it. Just stop what you're fucking doing and put it on a table or the floor or something. Tell me where it is and I WILL COME TO YOU. You don't even have to do anything. Idiots.
Rave: Going on a date with my lady tonight to one of our favorite restaurants that we haven't been to in a while. Gonna sit outside and drink a new favorite beer (Fleur de Lehigh for those local enough to try it.) Pretty excited! Rave #2: We got 7 chickens this weekend and so far they are awesome and crazy easy to care for. Our town technically doesn't allow them but while on a walk earlier this week we saw a chicken pecking around in someone backyard & swear we heard a rooster crow - I am gonna start the Secret Chicken Society! They live in an awesome chicken house my dad built and it blends right into our house (same color - same trim, everything!). Can't wait to start getting those eggs!
Rave Last day of annual tour today, getting the hell out of this shitty Texas town tomorrow. I've seen enough Wrangler wearin' dudes and toothless sea hags for the time being. Rant Saw Dallas for a bit last Saturday, city looked pretty cool but we ended up not staying around. I was looking forward to getting drunk at the House of Blues. Rant Going home just to turn around and drive out to base on Friday for drill weekend. Missing a wedding as well. Super. Rave Spending time with the girlfriend tomorrow. Time to wreak havoc.
Rave: Oh fuck yes, Phish is playing in Colorado on Labor Day weekend, 3 nights in a row. Just submitted my request for a three day pass!
RAVE: Getting the day off because I'm right at overtime, AND talked to an old friend today who's trying to hook me up with a better, part-time second job. RAVE: I've also come into possession of a really nice mountain bike that I've been riding the 5 miles round-trip for work. Exercise and saving on gas money? Hell yes, plus I have a lot more energy throughout the day. RANT: Since I didn't work today, I decided to be lazy and not ride my bike. I've felt tired all day, to the point where I feel like it would be a massive effort just to get up and turn on my Xbox right now.
Rave: Paper is done. Mother-fucking Done! Rant: 12 page paper turned into 16 pages. I went above and beyond by including an abstract (he said he wanted APA format and was going to be 'strict' so I was a smartass by including it, as I know it wasn't necessary) and an Appendix (mostly charts of test scores). Fuck him, just try to give me anything less than a fucking A. I will raise such hell. Rave: Only 1 exam left, tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM. Rant: Still have a lot of studying to do for it. Rave: Unless I get an A, I'll get an B in the class. There is very little pressure in this case, in that I can live with a B, but an A would be nice. I don't plan to freak out over this exam.
As of 4:45 this morning, I'm officially the father of a beautiful, healthy baby boy. The Wife and he are both fantastic. And my son and I now share the same birthday. ... Woo Hoo!
I'm assuming that's a rave, no? Any over/unders on how long it'll be before BD Jr. launches himself off a balcony? RAVE: I, too, gave birth today, kind of. We now have our first working prototype of my new software. It's ugly, it's stupid, it's got a long way to go, but it's there, and kind of actually does something. It's like it was just born and still has the juices all over it; next it gets to learn how to crawl. Still, there was much rejoicing.
My little dog, Finli, was run over by a van tonight. I had just put both dogs in my truck and was unsnapping their leashes when a treat fell out of my pocket. He saw it, went for it and as soon as he realized he wasn't on leash he was gone. He ran out from the alley into the front (busy) street. I whistled, he came running to me and at the last second saw something on the other side of the road and cut across the street. A van doing about 60km hit him full on, dragged him underneath and eventually he was thrown out the other side. He kept running, panicked, and turned right around and shot across the street again. This broke my heart: he ran right back to my house, and sat at the front door. He was incontinent, and I figured his back end was crushed and he was dead/dying. My vets are phenomenal. They had me bring him right in, even though they were closed. After a thorough exam and xrays, here is what the injuries are: nothing. He is not favoring any legs. He has no broken bones. He has no road rash or gashes, he didn't bite his tongue or break any teeth. He fucking got run over by a van and dragged under it and has nothing but muscle pulls and aspirin. The fucktard that hit him - there was no way to avoid hitting him; it was too quick and I don't blame the person for that - never bothered to stop. I did a full on Jamie Lee Curtis scream because I thought he'd just been killed, and the van slowed, almost stopped, then just drove away. Who the fuck does that?
Rave: Started a new kind of birth control pill last week. I've probably tried 3 or 4 types through the years, and they all had unpleasant side effects like making me feel gross, dizzy or causing my blood pressure to spike like crazy. I'd try them and then stop out of frustration. I'm stoked because those side effects are non-existent. My boobs are a little bit bigger and I feel nauseous, but that's it. Rave? Whenever I feel like I'm going to puke I remember that it's the Pill and keep doing whatever I'm doing. I can picture myself really having food poisoning/about to hurl and dismissing it as a side effect. I'll most likely end up projectile vomiting into my lap, purse, desk, or someone's face. BLEH! It will be hilarious.
RANT: Two deaths in two months. Both were friends from high school. It's just awful and freaky. I'm too young for this--I should be seeing these people and catching up at my next reunion, not in line waiting to give our condolences to stricken family members. And I'm not sure which one was worse...my freshman buddy who died of breast cancer at 31 or my old friend who died of an overdose just hours before his 36th birthday. Either way, I am really struggling to process it all. RANT: This shit always runs in threes. Unfortunately, I don't think Osama counts in this triad. I am dreading the next shoe to drop and am terrified it might hit even closer to home... RAVE: Looking around and seeing what a great life you had back in the day, realizing what a great life you've built, and knowing that you've made great choices in the people with whom you've surrounded yourself. I've never been more grateful to my parents for all their sacrifices to send me through my little Catholic school--I have friends who will last a lifetime. That's the silver lining I found out of all of this mess--it's so sobering that I can't help but reflect and be sentimental. We really are a family. RANDOM RANT: Face tattoos. I don't get it.