the corner store closed down recently, which isn’t too big a deal because there’s another one on the next corner in either direction, but on the other side of the street. anyhow, Brian thinks it’s because they didn’t have enough business. i know better–it’s because they sold almond M&Ms, but not peanut M&Ms.
but that’s because we live on the northwest side, and the White Sox are on the south side. if the Cubs were going to the World Series, you better believe that fireworks would be going off, people would be honking their horns, and so on.
this marks the return of Chicago Living Tips! unlike last year, however, these will be posted as i think of them instead of every Monday.
today’s tip: while driving down an alley, as you approach a T-intersection, be sure to honk in order to avoid a collission with someone coming from another direction. it can just be a couple of little taps. you don’t have to lean on the horn or anything.
one side of our apartment overlooks an alley. because of this rule, i’ve learned that someone in the neighborhood has a car whose horn honks the first bar of "Tequila." you know: honk-honk honk-honk honk honk honk honk. what a treat.
this is a picture of Hee Seop that i took in the summer of 2003 before he decided to come indoors and stay. he had just finished eating the can of food i fed him every afternoon around 4:30.
saw the chiro on Wednesday, who says that there’s nothing physically wrong with me that my back should be hurting the way it is. with my flexibility and muscle strength i should be able to do high kicks all day, he said. and as much as i want to go back to martial arts, my back has just been too painful.
he’s convinced that the problem is organic, that my body is incredibly toxic because of all the medications i’ve been on, which he’s been telling me all along. and because i’m constipated (again, due to the meds, he said), i’m not getting rid of all the waste that you’re supposed to get rid of. once again, he advocated drinking those damn nasty-tasting protein shakes. now, he wants me to drink them twice a day!
and for the last couple of days, i have been drinking them twice a day! instead of making my own (ok, Brian makes them), i buy a smoothie from the pizza place across the street and add the 2 scoops of protein mix. ok, Brian adds them and throws it all in the blender. you can’t just stir it in with a spoon because it’s so lumpy.
i don’t like using the blender because the noise scares me. stupid, i know. high maintenance, according to the chiro. well, when Brian was at work yesterday i used it all by myself after buying the smoothie. it was a near disaster. everything went fine until i went to pour the stuff back in the cup. then the lid fell off and the rest of the smoothie ended up on it and in the sink.
today, i marched over to the pizza place with the tub of protein mix tucked under my arm. the counter girl didn’t want to take responsibility for making a smoothie and adding the stuff in, but the owner’s son didn’t mind. and he said that any time i come in, just ask for him and he’ll make it for me. yay. their smoothies have ice cream in them (as opposed to just frozen fruit, milk, and ice in the homemade ones), which is probably why they taste so good. but at least i’m drinking the shakes!
a few days ago the electrician called Brian insisting that the reason one of our circuit breakers keeps turning off is because the a/c is too big. this is the same guy that was here a couple of months ago who fixed the problem–or so we thought–though he did leave a hole in the ceiling.
whatever. i am so sick of this place.
Brian and i took Hopper to the new vet today for her annual exam and because she’s scratched behind her ear so much that she has a bald spot. at least she has been for the past 3 or 4 weeks, and though it hasn’t gotten worse, it hasn’t improved, either.
she and Basil had gone to the previous vet since 1995 except for the 2 years that i lived in Ohio. i used to work at that animal hospital actually, and even after i quit, they still gave me an employee discount. seemed like a good enough reason to keep going there even though it’s a 20- to 30-minute drive depending on traffic.
recently, however, they stopped giving us the discount, and who could blame them? i quit in 1996! now the drive just doesn’t seem worth it–especially with 4 cats. well, we don’t take all 4 of them at once, but we have to make multiple trips because Angelo’s on that prescription diet. also, they’re located right near DePaul so parking is really hard to find if the "standing zone" out front is fully occupied.
a mere half mile–and 3-minute drive–away is the Cat Hospital of Chicago, with its very own parking lot. i’ve always heard good things about the place but also heard that there was a waiting list and that the fees were expensive. worth it, but expensive.
well, i was able to get an appointment within 3 or 4 days of making the initial call, and they really aren’t more expensive than the old place. what with the time we save getting there, it’s definitely, definitely worth it. we’re very happy.
more important, it seems that Hopper is happy, too. she loathes going to the scarybadman/lady (usually it’s been a female vet). i’m glad to report that although she was nervous at first, crying the whole way there and while we waited in the reception area, she behaved magnificently! she likes her new vet, who she rubbed up against several times, even after she was touched in all her places–and she didn’t poop in the carrier, the exam room, or anywhere outside the litter box here at home.
we were sent home with Derma Caps, which will hopefully improve her skin condition, and she was given a Vetalog injection for it as well. it should start clearing up by the beginning of the week.
the past few days haven’t been going well at all. i already mentioned my messed up sleep schedule and the electricity problem.
yesterday i was supposed to take Hopper to the vet at 2:30pm. i managed to drag myself out of bed at about 1:45, only to find that someone had scarfed and barfed on the clean sheets we put on the bed the night before, and that the power was out. i had an anxiety attack and didn’t have any access to Ativan, so i called Brian at work and he came home early. it felt like i was going to cough out a lung. i was also worried that the electrician would show up while i was asleep, and that i’d miss him. he didn’t.
Brian rescheduled Hopper’s appointment for Saturday so if i can’t take her, at least he’ll be able to go; otherwise we’ll both go. he also called “ABCD Management” who insisted that our a/c unit is much too large for the electrical wiring to handle. bull fucking shit.
the guy we talked to has only worked there since July, and we’ve had this problem long before he came on board. he said that it was what he was specifically told to tell us. we asked for the owner, and the new guy said that she’s out of town. we asked for the electrician’s number, and he said he didn’t have it. we apologized that he was on the receiving end of our anger, but it was irresponsible on the owner’s part to go out of town (if, in fact, she is) without leaving him the electrician’s number–what if this happened at another building? finally we said that we’d hire our own electrician to look into this and deduct it from the rent.
i cannot take this bullshit. anyone who knows me or who reads this blog on a fairly regular basis knows that i need my environment to be as stable as possible. at this point, the hospital is a safer and more stable environment for me. i mean, i’m not going to hurt myself or OD or anything like that, but the situation here is giving me anxiety attacks, really bad ones.
i’m also having anxiety nightmares again, where i wake up completely drenched in sweat, the sheets are also soaked, but yet i feel very cold. the other night i dreamed that Angelo was shot but that the emergency vet clinic had become a pet supply store and that there no longer was an emergency clinic, at least not close enough to do Angelo any good because his pulse was so weak if it could be felt at all.
my back is still hurting me, and because i’m not sleeping well, i wake up and the rest of my muscles are stiff and sore. i tried to make it to the chiro today, but when i got in the car, i expected the Clash or Nas CD that i’ve been listening to recently to be in there, but apparently Brian took them–and all the rest of the CDs–out of the car to make my life better. he put new CDs in the CD wallet thing, which i forgot to take with me because i only ever listen to 1 or 2 CDs at a time. i know he meant well, but it was the last straw for today.
i just turned around and went home. i’m trying really hard not to fall asleep, but i think i might have dozed off for a bit. i’m also having a very hard time concentrating on anything.
my sleep schedule is as messed up as ever. for the past week or so, i’ve been going to bed at 11:30 in the morning, and getting up around 4:30 in the afternoon. not good. not good at all. obviously, i’m wide awake, but i’m going to try to sleep as soon as i post this.
of course, it would be much easier to fall asleep if we could keep the air conditioner on. but nope. while i was in the shower earlier this evening, the fucking bathroom lights went out. Brian wasn’t home yet, but at least it was still light enough out that some shone through the frosted window.
i knew immediately that whatever the landlord’s electricians did to fix the outage problem we we were having a couple of months ago when the temperature was in the 100s, it was a temporary fix. i’m really pissed at myself because i should have known better and we should have just broken the damn lease and moved. now it would be too much of a pain because everyone knows that October 1st is the busiest moving day of the year. God, i fucking hate “ABCD Management.”
what is the point of having the option to do an online search of your local Borders inventory for a book, only to find that it isn’t actually there when you go to get it? this is supposed to be a timesaving feature, not a timewasting feature, right?
to top it off, when i was at the store, there was a guy sitting at the end of the aisle where my book was supposed to be reading, well, a book. with my luck, it was the one i was looking for: one of the NJO books. so as politely as i could (which is pretty damn polite, surprisingly), i asked what he was reading. it wasn’t a Star Wars book at all but one of those Magic the Gathering books.
"oh," i replied, and not knowing what else to say, i asked if he played the game.
he said no because he doesn’t know anyone to play the game with.
instead of just dropping it and leaving, i named the local card shop that i go to to get Neopets TCG cards where i think they have Magic the Gathering TCG tournaments and stuff.
before he could say anything more, i left. how amazingly awkward.
