The Dangerous Existence of Madame Lee

I went to the dentist today. Due to first a long spell of no insurance, and then a spell of bad insurance that did not cover a dental visit (and the fact that when you have to work shitty retail due to the economy, $80 out of pocket is like a ten-hour shift at your shitty job), I hadn't been in a couple of years.

The good news is that I only have two cavities (...for the first time EVAR) and need fillings.

( I flap my yap about the bad news. )

Also! I swung by Panera tonight and ran into Joy, whom I haven't seen in yonks, so we had a grand old time catching up and yapping. That was quite nice.

Moar to follow.

LOLMOM update: Lolmom had been going to take the money from the insurance company and repair the car herself. The body shop estimated that the repairs would run around $4300, with the caveat that they hadn't actually looked at some of the interior damage yet and it might be more or less. After they actually did take a look at the damage, it turned out to be about $6500, so lolmom decided to take the car to the salvage yard and buy a new car (she'd already talked to the bank and knew she could get a loan, which is not a surprise since her credit is really good). So she went out on Thursday and bought a Chevy Equinox.

LIFE IN GENERAL update: I have been learning to work the update folder at work (where loan officers and title companies send things like updates or ohai-can-you-change-the-loan-amount or ohai-can-you-change-the-effective-date or ohai-when-can-we-expect-this-commitment), and have found that this inexplicably has not caused me to die. The main reason I've been learning to work the update folder is because one of my co-workers who usually handles that is going to be on vacation next week, but hey, it's a new job skill.

Also: I am trying to get my life into some semblance of order. HURRAH. Today, I have accomplished absolutely nothing other than remembering to pick up my meds (which I called in last night), reading a bit, and doing the laundry. (Of course, it doesn't help that the goddamn POWER was out for four hours today. FUCK YOU VECTREN ENERGY DELIVERY. YOU FUCKING SUCK. WHEN I LIVED IN BLOOMINGTON, WHERE EVERYTHING IS BETTER, WE DIDN'T HAVE THIS PROBLEM because we had underground lines.)

Oh, and I wrote a page of The Piece I Kind Of Like Okay and hacked out a few lines on The Piece I Don't Like Why Am I Writing It. Basically, I have adopted this new agenda of making myself write for things I want. We'll see if it works out, but at the moment I at least got something written today, so hurrah.

FUCK YOU UPS
FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU DIE IN A FIRE
WHERE IS MY FUCKING PACKAGE YOU LYING BASTARDS SAID YOU DELIVERED
I WANT MY GODDAMN PACKAGE NOW NOT WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE IT
I AM NOT GOING TO EAT $132
IS THIS ANOTHER DELIVERY ERROR
THIS HAD BETTER NOT BE ANOTHER DELIVERY ERROR
FUCK YOU EVEN THE FUCKING POST OFFICE CAN GET MY FUCKING ADDRESS RIGHT
I WILL GRIND YOUR LAZY, STUPID DELIVERYMAN'S FACE INTO THE PLACE IN THE BACKYARD WHERE THE FERAL CATS LIKE TO SHIT
I BET HE WILL REMEMBER WHICH HOUSE IS CORRECT THEN
WHEN THE REVOLUTION COMES YOU WILL NOT BE SPARED

(TL;DR: I ordered some stuff online. The seller only uses UPS. UPS says they delivered a package to our back door yesterday. There is no package there, at the front door, or at the porch door we never use. Lolmom did not find a package when she left for work, and according to UPS' delivery confirmation, it should have been there by the time she left. I was at work when the package was delivered. It wasn't something that needed to be signed for. It's possible that it was stolen, but unlikely; we don't exactly live in a high-crime neighborhood, and the contents of the package aren't something that normal people would want to steal. I think it was delivered to another address in error, which wouldn't be the first time this has happened in our neighborhood, speaking as someone who was once given a package meant for THREE STREETS OVER. I hate to drag the seller into this, because it's not their fault at all, but UPS won't advise the receiver of claim status, so I pretty much have to ask the seller to plz file a claim. GOD FUCKING DAMN IT I AM SO MAD SOME OF MY OUTFIT FOR EVILLECON WAS IN THERE I JUST WANT MY FUCKING STUFF.)

But! On the plus side, lolmom and I went to the Edgewater Grille on Sunday and I STILL have some delicious grilled veggie pizza left over. (I fell off the wagon pretty hard today, though. Nothing for it but to get back on.) Also: the MEGAHeart is coming to Evansville this Saturday and I am way more excited than I should be about walking through a GIANT INFLATABLE HEART (assuming I can get there early and walk through the heart before lunch, since I have another obligation at 11:30). It kind of reminds me of being 6 or 7 when we lived in Chicago and my father would take us to the Museum of Science and Industry all the time; there was a giant heart that you could walk through, though it wasn't inflatable. (The new Giant Heart is pretty cool, but I'm kind of saddened that the old one isn't there anymore.)

I must, alas, stop my wacky Facebook hijinks with pixelation and get some sleep. PERHAPS I CAN GET THE UPS ISSUES SORTED TOMORROW.

[Edit: Holy crap, my incoherent RAEG caused me to break my font tags. I win the Golden Derp Award!]

1.) We're having computer trouble. The computer refused to turn back on after being unplugged on 31 December. (How ominous.) It was in the shop for a week, I picked it up on Monday, and it still refuses to turn back on despite claims that it worked just fine in the shop. Well, this is well and good but the computer does not live at the shop, it lives at our house, and I cannot get it to turn on there. We've established that this is not a powerstrip issue. I don't know if it's the cord that hooks the tower to the power source, but otherwise I don't know what the hell to do; we've called the shop several times and they're worse than useless. I then called them today on my break, meaning that I listened to the phone ring 18 times and was then on hold for ten minutes before I gave up and hung up the phone which was probably their diabolical plan. (Yes, these were the same people who fixed it in 2009. We gave them another chance. Their last.) I wound up renewing my PLAC (which I had wanted to do anyway, though not quite this soon) because having some sort of regular Internet access is important to me and we're not getting it at home obv. I don't know when I'll be BACK back, gaiz, so don't expect lengthy missives.

2.) Work proceeds apace. I can now generate invoices. Sort of.

3.) Cat is doing much better now that he's feeling better and is free of parasites (and the diarrhea that the anti-parasite medicine gave him). We finally settled on a name for him: Oliver (as in Twist). It occurred to me only belatedly that I had stolen the name of one of forgottensanity's kittens. Srry Cat, but it fit. He does have a good personality and likes to play with balls in the dining room, also has figured out that lolmom and I do not eat meat-flavored kibble and keeps making plays for our food.

4.) I just feel really tired and depressed a lot right now and most of my evenings are spent waiting for it to be bedtime. I'm trying to goose myself out of this but like anything else it is hard.

The weather outside has taken a turn for the better--it's less oppressively hot during the daytime, and it's nice and cool at night--but due to barometric pressure and fronts and other things I have little interest in so don't fully understand, this is doing a number on my allergies and my sinuses are full of snot and throbbing pain. On my goddamn day off no less.

Unfortunately, I have to be back at work at 6 in the morning tomorrow, so I don't even have the consolation of sleeping late. Angst!

Also: I really, really want to go to Chautauqua Weekend, because I haven't been in like 3 years and this is not okay. Who's with me, once my sinuses have been adequately drained? :D

Okay, so I put the charger on the battery and it started like a dream last night. I drove around for about an hour to make sure it stayed charged, then came home, and this morning it was a little stuttery but started up without much trouble. Nonetheless, I drove to and from work (even coming home from lunch), then decided to do errands, on the grounds that driving to and from Mt. Vernon (about an hour away) ought to do the trick. Again, a little stuttery, but no trouble actually starting the car or driving once it did start.

I thought I might go for a walk, but there was some kind of athletic persiflage at the high school and they were using the track, so I opted against it and got back into the car--whereupon the ignition stuttered and stuttered and stuttered, but didn't start. No more than a minute or so had elapsed between the time I got out, saw the athletes, and decided to head home and the time I tried to start the car. I turned it off, figuring I'd try again; the dash lights came on, the radio and A/C were on, but the car wouldn't start. I was getting desperate at this point but decided I'd give it another try; two more times like this elapsed, and finally I was able to start it, though it stuttered for what seemed a small eternity before it finally kicked in. The high school is only a couple-three blocks from my house, so it wouldn't have been the end of the world; I could have walked home safely, and I'm glad this happened a few blocks from the house and not in Mt. Vernon, where I would have been screwed x at least 100. So I put the charger back on once I got home and will check on things in an hour or two.

If I can just nurse the current battery until I drop it at the dealership on Monday morning, I will be happy. Scratch that: I will feel as if this is a personal triumph and now I can die happy.

I have accomplished v. little this week and feel drained, although I have absolutely no business feeling this way.

[EDIT: Car now refuses to start. This fucking blows.]

Essure is not covered by my insurance plan. I do not anticipate having $1500-$3K ever again in the course of my life, and sadly I am not kidding.

Fuck you, Lol-Mart.

Whilst doing some preliminary research for road trips I may or may not take as work schedules and finances allow, I discovered that I am closer to, like, Nebraska than I am to the East Coast where I grew up. Seriously, Omaha is like 8 hours away, whereas Allentown, PA is like 12 hours away.

I love Indiana, and I could happily live here for the rest of my life (assuming I ever get to move back home to Bloomington), but this is completely not acceptable. I AM GOING TO GO WRITE MY CONGRESSMAN NOW.

Everything that's born must die someday.

( Cat update: last for this particular cat )

(Coda: I'm still on the library computers. The computer is still in the shop because, apparently, the hard drive has breathed its last (THAT'S ODD, IT WAS JUST FINE WHEN I TOOK IT IN) and we basically had to buy a new computer. The tech thinks he can get most of our old files off the old hard drive and onto the new, so hopefully we'll have that back within the week or so. I'm not holding my breath at this point. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about so that's why it's at the end of the post.)