The Dangerous Existence of Madame Lee

+ I don't even know how I'm going to manage this weekend. I have arranged to change the oil in my car and have the power steering flushed (my car needs an awful lot of work, but this is the last of the "expensive" repairs. Well, until it's time to replace the tires in another few thousand miles, anyway). Also, it is likely that I will have to work again.

+ X-chan and I were talking about wisdom tooth removal (...in a couple of weeks, zomg how did this happen), and she was surprised that I'm not going to be put under. I said people die under that shit. X-chan said people die under nitrous, too. X-chan is a notorious hypochondriac and I shouldn't have listened to her, but due to having never had any kind of surgery, I freaked right out and hopped on Google. Most of the people who have died as a result of nitrous? Were stupid idiots who were ABUSING IT. I'm sorry, but if you open a can of pure nitrous in a small, enclosed space and start huffing away, you're pretty much asking for it. At least the dentist mixes it with oxygen first so you can breathe! (Also, I don't have contraindications--i.e., I don't smoke, I don't have long-term respiratory problems other than seasonal allergies, and I breathe through my nose unless I've been exercising or am in the throes of said allergies.)

+ I have lost about 6-7 pounds total in the past 3 weeks and now my smaller jeans are starting to be loose, which is just ridiculous. I am, of course, a notorious cheapskate who will not get smaller pants until she's out of viable options, so there we have it.

+ Guess who has Cosi fan tutte tix at the will-call window in Bloomington? MEMEMEMEMEMEME~

+ If any of you remember the heartwarming kitten story, there's a heartwarming update! Lolmom gave Rob and Lisa (the terribly sweet people who had the nursing cat) a call, only to initially get their eight- or nine-year-old daughter. Cue the following:
Lolmom: lol hi. i r teh lady who brot teh kitten? :D
Eight-year-old daughter: OMG MY KITTEN!!!!!!!111!!1!kitten!!!! :DDDDD

Well, at that point we knew the kitten wasn't coming back to live with us. I mean, there's no way you can take a kitten from an eight-year-old without ensuring a special place in Hell when you die. In conversation with Lisa, it was revealed that the momcat was something of an indifferent foster mother; she would occasionally get tired of nursing before the kitten was done, so they started supplementing with formula. The little girl would give the kitten its bottle and started calling it her baby, and although they hadn't been planning to get another cat, there really wasn't much choice once she became attached. Lisa said the kitten has a good personality and gets along with everyone (including the dog and the other two cats). The main thing is that it will have a loving home, so I'm not upset that it's not with us.

And that's all I've got, d00d.

Shit, I could have SWORN I hit "restore from saved draft".

First off: Sorry I haven't been around much. We have mandatory overtime at work and I basically worked the equivalent of 6 days instead of my usual 5, plus 4 and a half hours today before I ran out of work. (NOT COOL GAIZ.) I've been too tired to feel like being fun on the Internet. :\ I am reading along at home, though. I had a couple of episodes where I was dizzy and had serious concerns about fainting at the wheel after an 11-12 hour day, so had to jump off the wagon a couple of nights last week; I've started packing extra food in case I need something to eat, and trail mix is my new best friend. (It's pretty much the only thing I can eat from the vending machines, and if I go to the Fresh Market and get some, there's a little less sugar in the dried fruit, so all the better.)

Oh, and despite being told when I called the main security office that my employee badge should get me into the building, IT DIDN'T. I had to get a security guard to let me in; fortunately, the guards at our building are pretty nice, and it helps that we all see each other every day, so they know me and know that I work there. I sent an e-mail to request access, though, so hopefully we won't have this problem next week.

Anyway, after work today, I came home and slept for five hours and that was the best thing ever.

Also, I had the much-dreaded consultation with the oral surgeon on Thursday. ( Behind a cut because some of it is gross. )

And that's it, I'm going to bed.

Did you get stuff done at work, l33? Yes. Actually it was a very slow day on the updates folder, so much so that I kept having intermittent concerns that Outlook wasn't working.

Whiny missive from my father: No. I am amazed, because I thought surely he would send one (for the new additions to the flist who might need to be told this: my father and I are estranged and I will never love him again or allow him back into my life after the way he's treated me. He doesn't understand that this is final and not negotiable and keeps sending me whiny missives on my birthday and at Christmas).

New sandals: No, but they did ship! :D As of today, they are somewhere in Mississippi.

State Farm acting the fool up in here: No. They finally cashed my insurance check, so I can stop worrying about whether lolmom ditzed out and thought she dropped it off but didn't actually.

More lemon pavlova: There was. Then I ate it and now it's gone. :9

What kind of produce we got, l33? A cabbage. (Mmm, delicious coleslaw!) Some beets (slated to be turned into salad). MORE GODDAMN KALE (seriously, I like kale, but we already have like three or four bunches). Some tiny green onions, a cucumber, and some garlic. A bunch of Swiss chard.

Teeth update: The oral surgeon wants to do a Panorex. Fine. I am slated to go in at 7:30 on Friday morning and take care of this. They want me to pay $92, which is what I would pay if I were uninsured; while this is not chump change, I can handle it and am told my insurance carrier will reimburse me. However, if they expect me to plunk down $2000-$3000 when I have it done, I'm firing this oral surgeon. I will gladly pay the 20% for which I am responsible under my plan. I will NOT gladly pay the entire amount, in part because I really don't have $2K for this stupid shit. ($2K for serious business like moving back to Bloomington is another matter.) In part, also, the entire reason I have insurance is because a sudden payment of $2-$3K would be financially ruinous for me, as it is for a lot of people, and that. Is. The. PURPOSE. Of. Having. Insurance. ARGH.

And that's it, I gots e-mail to answer. Probably won't get to LJ comments right now.

A conversation I had last night with lolmom when we were both punchdrunk. We were talking about my wisdom teeth, since I finally got a referral from my dentist.

Lolmom: lol maybe u cans kepe ur teef n hav tehm in, liek, a neklas or sthg
l33: Yeah. I'll tell people I removed them myself.
Lolmom: lol
l33: In the wilderness. With a flint knife.
Lolmom: lolol ppl wil b impresst
l33: It will give off this nice "don't fuck with me" vibe.

You know, because my normal personality isn't offputting enough :D

Good things:

+ My performance was rly good last month, so I actually got to have incentive pay on this check :D I am forcing myself to put the extra money into savings, on top of what I usually put in there anyway, but hey. My boss says I've shown quite a bit of improvement (I was struggling with a few things earlier, so I'm glad my efforts are paying off, literally and figuratively).

+ My federal and state tax returns have been accepted (I e-filed). I don't know if this just means they went through okay, or if it's more along the lines of "okay you were poor in 2010, plz accept refund". If e-file is correct, I can expect a refund. I am torn between putting that in savings vs. putting it towards my MasterCard (it wouldn't knock out the ENTIRE balance, but it would leave me with a much smaller debt there, and I would really like to get this monkey off my back). I tend to be pretty conservative so it's probably going into savings.

+ We have delicious leftovers. I made asparagus-and-salmon spring rolls over the weekend, and last night lolmom was home early (she went to some job thing in Louisville) so we made chickpea-and-avocado tacos. Tomorrow night, I definitely see some reverse-engineered asparagus salad in our future. Also, the new Cooking Light came and there is a picture of shrimp Cobb salad on the cover and I need to eat that nau plz.

+ X-chan is coming to visit for Easter! She wants us to color and hide eggs for her. (This was one of her favorite things about Easter as a kid, and lolmom had to get more and more savvy as we aged.) The bitch of this is that we have to plan a real meal, though, for various reasons; Mom wants a cake, which I am all in favor of, but we kind of need to see what X-chan wants. Worst-case scenario? OH NOES, DELICIOUS FRUIT SALAD!

+ I don't think I remembered how much I love classics--I mean, I know I do, obviously, but sometimes it kind of gets pushed to the back--and I just finished the Iliad (again, I re-read it every year, IT NEVER GETS OLD U GAIZ) and I might be talking about Homer in here because Greek epic poetry makes me happy and so do Homer and the Trojan War. Oh my God you guys this is so vital to me, for fuckin' srs.

+ My package full of jewelry came. (This sounds really extravagant until you consider that it was more at costume jewelry, but hey.) Pictures to follow, eventually.

+ Hot guy is profile-stalking me on OKStupid. Possibly he's just laughing at my venomous harpyness, which is fine by me, but hey! Something pleasant to look at! (Unfortunately a lot of the women who profile-stalk me are looking for threesomes and I have a rather snippy note in there to the effect that Madame Lee don't play that. Tragically, no lesbian couples have ever approached me about their threesome fantasy. Also as a parenthetical aside I think I might be a happier person if I would just, you know, stop being so repressed about my queerness. And maybe say Hi to girls once in a while.)

+ Mmm. Talenti Gelato's pistachio ice cream, so good. (They also make the only chocolate ice cream I actually like.)

Minor-league annoyances:
( After the jump so you can ignore them, because seriously if these are my worst problems I'm doing pretty well )

All in all: l33 up, circumstances down. Peace.

There was a momentary scare with my insurance. Turns out it's cleared up, but I'm going to have to wait 7-10 days for my insurance cards, which means nothing can be done about the teeth (which are still trying to kill me). I'm not feeling so bad in the mornings but by the last half of the afternoon, I'm starting to ache, and I popped four Tylenol before I left work and am still hurting. Also, I reached back to poke them with my tongue and felt something that I'm pretty sure shouldn't be there, like a supernumerary tooth or something. Thank God I sprung for the more expensive dental plan in case I have to have things extracted.

I really, really hope this goes away on its own and does not require surgical intervention.

In conclusion: Misery. Also suffering.

This is, basically, a giant brain dump, because I can't be arsed to post on a regular basis. For that, I apologize. Perhaps I will manage to get my shit together by January.

l33: L33 HAS HAND-EYE COORDINATION SUPERIOR TO THAT OF A BRAIN-DEAD ZOMBIE AND CAN HOLD ON TO THINGS
The Universe: ERROR

( BREAKING SHIT is my power! )

( OVERANALYSIS is my power! )

( MISCELLANEOUS BABBLE is my power! )

( BLATANT GREED is my power! )

uigenna: RAIEN. RAIEN. RAIEN. I have hopped on but not seen j00. Also, I have most of Friday and most of Saturday free (though I do have to work for a few hours in the evening). Just FYI. I do want to play with j00!

Things that happened this weekend:

+ I slept all I wanted on Friday night/Saturday morning. Whee.
+ I saw Elizabeth: the Golden Age, which I enjoyed even if there was blatant oversimplification of historical elements for the sake of a good film and Philip II (the Spanish one not the Macedonian one) was not quite so neurotically religious as was made out.
+ After this, I went to IHOP, read The Hours by Michael Cunningham in one sitting, and drank coffee. It was nice to have coffee because that was what I wanted to drink, rather than because I needed the caffeine in order to stay awake.
+ I think one of my wisdom teeth is erupting. I'm trying not to panic or think too far ahead, because at least one other erupted and I barely felt it, but if something needs to be done with it, I don't know what I'm going to do or how I can pay for it. Obviously it's stupid to panic--I have no reason to believe that my wisdom teeth are impacted in bone or anything--but thinking about this sort of thing is how my mind runs, for good or ill.

Night.