A Mighty Fine Life

Well it didn't kill me, but it tried!

I got up at 7. For those of you playing along at home, on a normal work day, I get up at 8:30. 7 AM is an unacceptable time in the morning to me. (The hour before that is "negative o'clock;" you count backwards.) But I did it, and dragged myself to the park, and met up with my team. Incidentally, all of them are way better fundraisers than I am; between the 8 of them, they raised almost $10,000.

We were ushered into the park around 9:30, and the walk began at 10. The walk was mostly fine. But long. And, uh, did I mention I'm way out of shape? And have something resembling chronic foot pain? Six miles is a long goddamn walk. The group was instantly broken up, my section was way fast, and we made fantastic time for the first 2/3 of the walk. Then we stopped to wait for the rest of our group. It took 20 minutes. That was enough time for the soreness to set in, so when we got started again, I was with the slower group.

Then I had a bit of a fight with the curb. Gravity refereed. I lost. It was actually kind of stunningly impressive; I stumbled forward, like, eight feet in my attempt to catch myself, but just couldn't do it. I damn near faceplanted, but caught myself on hands and knees. Here's how good physical therapy has been for my wrists; obviously when I caught myself on my palms, they took the brunt of my weight, but were fine! My hands weren't scratched, which was a surprise, because they felt like they should be. My knee? Well, it began to hurt near the end of the walk, and is fine whenever I'm sitting down, but man, that whole walking thing reeeeally hurts. We'll call the fall disaster #1, because ow.

So that was the AIDS walk. I didn't get to go to lunch with the team after; I had to run home, so we could proceed to Part 2 of the Day of Mild Disasters.

The plan was to hurry home, grab Blanca, and high-tail it to U-Haul. When I made my reservation for the pick up truck, I asked specifically about how late they were open for drop offs. They said 5. I double checked. Definitely 5. That meant it would be tight, but we should have been juuuuust able to get to Brooklyn, get the bed, get back home, drop it off, and get the truck back to U-Haul. Because if we couldn't do that, the truck would need to be returned Monday morning. (Upside: they wouldn't charge extra; technically it's mine for 24 hours. Downside: I haven't driven in 3 and a half years, I've never driven in the city, I am a nervous driver, I hate driving, and I've never even driven a moderately large car, let alone a truck.)

We arrived around 3. And were promptly told -- bum bum BUMMMM -- that the latest drop off time was 4. Disaster #2, because I had a FUCKING HEART ATTACK. Disaster loomed imminent! There just was no way humanly, physically possible to get that done. But luckily, by the time I had even PROCESSED that, Blanca was on the phone with our friend Cristina, who can and does drive, and who has graciously, wonderfully agreed to come into the city tomorrow to drive the truck back for me (HI CRIS, ILU).

So Blanca and I took off, got into Brooklyn, and promptly got lost thanks to crap directions. We'll call this disaster #3a, because it wasn't very big. We eventually got better directions and found the woman selling the bed; we moved it onto the truck, paid up, no issues. Except it's an open pick up truck, right? And an overcast day, right? And I was waaaay too busy and stressed to get a tarp, right? YOU CAN SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING, RIGHT? Disaster #3b, but the rain was thankfully brief and the mattress thankfully protected by an old mattress pad. So we headed back to Manhattan, but were stopped at the toll booth -- because we hadn't pulled over at the truck checking station, apparently. After lecturing us, we were waved on. Phew!

So that was basically the end of the disasters; after that it was just moving the pieces of the bed (frame, box, mattress) in, and moving the old POS futon and its frame out. Just FYI, if you've ever walked six miles and taken a dramatic spill in the process, wrangling large, heavy objects is NO FUN. But we prevailed. Blanca is a serious freaking HERO for all of her help here. (HI BLANCA ILU.) Now all that remains is cleaning my room (because it turns out I had a lot of crap in the 2 inches of space under the futon frame, who knew?) and putting sheets on the bed, AND THEN I AM GOING TO SLEEP FOR A MILLION HOURS.

I've already called out of work for at least tomorrow morning, for the truck returning adventure. We'll see about the rest of the day after that.

ETA: Ahahaha, how much do I suck? When I left the AIDS walk, I called Rachel and asked her to make me spaghetti so it would be ready when I got home, but we didn't have time, so Blanca suggested I eat in her car on the way to U-Haul. AND I TOTALLY LEFT THE BOWL IN HER CAR.

I just got the following in answer to my rather angry e-mail. Presumably it's a form, but in case anyone is curious:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Amazon.com.

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles - in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon's main product search.

Many books have now been fixed and we're in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.


Sincerely,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.com

Amazon is full of fucking fail; until this policy is undone, I am not shopping there, and I have written to tell them so.

In the mean time, let us spread the new definition of Amazon Rank, shall we? It's fun to use the power of Google for good.

Hi, friendslist! I missed you!

Just ducking in for an update: I saw the doctor about my wrists today. Evidently they suffer from joint strain and muscle fatigue, due to -- SHOCK! -- serious overuse. Resting complete would be best, but would leave me unemployed; next best thing is to not type outside of work unless necessary, while icing frequency, consuming ibuprofin every 4 hours, and seeing an occupational therapist for awhile. My first appointment is Thursday. I'd let you know how that goes, but, y'know... Typing.

And that's it.

I may accidentally have bought a plastic High School Musical wallet today. WHOOPS.

Anyway, this is a general notice that I'm taking some time away from the internets for a few days. My wrists have been hurting like whoa, so I'm taking a few days typing free.

Love to you all. Happy Batman Sticker day! (Long story.)

So: Leia's hard drive is dead and unsalvagable (well -- I could spend several hundred dollars on *attempting* to extract files, but I don't have several hundred dollars to spare). The Apple Genius was very nice and tried to break the news as kindly as possible, but basically... yeah, it just wore out and went splodey. Apple is replacing it for free, due to my lovely, lovely AppleCare plan (also because it's less than a year old), so at least I don't have to pay for it, but STILL. GOD DAMN IT.

The big loss is the novel I have been diligently working on for the last month or so -- I have the outline backed up, and the original nanowrimo draft, but not the 14,500 words of the new version. Which, needless to say, TOTALLY BLOWS. It was the only thing of major importance not backed up, though, so... sigh. (Also lost: my oddly huge collection of adorable animal pictures. I need more puppies!)

The verdict is 5-7 days for the repairs. So I'll be scarce until then; I can still check e-mail and whatnot at work, but not LJ. So this means:

1) You should all send me e-mail (allreb@gmail) to keep me entertained and cheery though the next week, 'cause it ain't going to be good, regardless. I have a dental appointment Tuesday and impending move stress and upcoming conference at work stress. So bleh.

2) I was going to do a much longer announcement with actual info and stuff, but fandom folks: yeah, Blink Week. It'll happen, somehow. My birthday is July 15, contest (which is not a week at all, actually) will be probably July 15-31. Write fics about Blink for me for my birthday? Pleeeeeease?

In better news, Rachel offered to buy me a book to console me about my computer death, and somehow this mutated into her buying me two seasons of the Justice League. Best sister ever? Yes, I think so.

Okay. See you all in a week. (Or... once or twice a day, probably.)

So my computer won't turn on. (I'm writing this from Rachel's.) It makes the start up noise, then sits at the first gray screen and doesn't even get to the little spinner thingy that comes up before the screen turns blue. I tried booting from disc and I tried starting in safe mode; neither one worked.

I have 14,500 words of a novel on that computer. (I backed up less than a month ago, so almost everything of importance is safe, but I started writing that novel, oh... that week. So I have the outline, but none of the additional notes or actual text. GOD DAMN IT.)

Yeah, so, off to the Apple Store this evening for me. Hopefully it will be a quick fix, but as I have no idea what's going on, that's just pure optimism on my part; they may have to ship the damn thing to California for repairs for all I know. In which case, I will be scarce for the next few weeks.

Grumble grumble grumble grumble. (But I just saw the mood icon in this theme that goes with "aggravated" and it makes me giggle.)

So you know that episode of South Park where the internet disappears and everyone goes into withdrawal? It is not as funny as it might otherwise seem!

Yeah, so after a couple months of being unrelible, our airport finally kicked it for good a couple days ago. Alas. This, of course, necessitated a trip to the Apple Store to buy a new one, only to discover they aren't selling any with setup compatable with anything older than 10.4, which...I didn't have. Neither did Rachel. Much hair pulling out; finally, my parents ageed to get me a the OS upgrade as my late Chanukah/early birthday type present.

So now I'm running 10.5, which is scary and weird, though I'm sure I'll get used to it; and also we have the internet again! Even though it flashed amber at me for five minutes and said it I was missing settings from our ISP. And then...it worked for no apparent reason I used my MAD SKILLS that I TOTALLY HAVE to get it to work. That's right.

Two days is a long time to go without reliable internet. And unplugging/replugging does not, in fact, bring things back from the dead.

In other news, I had dinner with the artist formerly known as irontears tonight. I absolutely did NOT attempt to tempt her back to fandom via discussion of adorable newsboys. Pshaw, that would be crazy.

And now...I should go to bed, seeing as how everything finally installed okay, and also I'm exhausted. And it would be nice to be able to speak coherently to Hot Starbucks Guy in the morning, which i have failed to do so far this week. (Which is sad. He has been quite flirty, and also hot. Why must I suck so hard at these things?)

The quick update: since last night, my whole mouth has started aching. Not because of what's actually wrong with it, but because I am a neurotic crazypants with psychosomatic symptoms, difficult to endure. Wait, where was I? Right.

So I am indeed eligible for insurance; I should get the forms on Friday (the person in charge of such things isn't at work until then) and hopefully turn them in Monday. No idea how long processing will take. The insurance won't cover dental directly, but it does include $1500 flex spending for medical needs, which includes dental. So hooray for that! My coworkers assured me it's super reliable.

So assuming I stop eating nerds for dinner (not that I EVER EVER do that) and stop...I can't believe I'm typing this...guzzling coke, I can probably survive until I can get work done.

ETA: You know, when I first started this thing, just about the week I graduated from high school, I don't think I ever imagined I'd be writing about my insurance plan in it.

So I started having the occasional tooth-falling-out dream again a couple weeks ago. As a sort of New Years resolution (I don't do them for a variety of reasons) I've begun being insane about dental hygiene; I've always brushed twice a day, now I'm also flossing and doing mouthwash.

I just realized I have a massive cavity. And probably several minor ones, but that's not new. There is a kind of a grey stripe across the bottom of one my teeth; it doesn't hurt, but it is a different texture than the rest of my tooth. My best guess is it's a massive cavity that should be filled.

The thing is, I don't have dental insurance. Actually, I have no idea what's going on with my insurance at the moment; I need to ask about that at work. I've been there for more than three months now, so I'm pretty sure I should have...something. Not sure if it'll include dental. (Doubtful of it, in fact.)

I had regular checkups as a kid, and only ever had one cavity. I had a root canal two years ago, right before I moved to the city; that's the only massive dental thing I've ever had. But I haven't been to the dentist since, because...again, no insurance. Now I guess I have to. I was going to put money into savings this month, and try and pay down some of my credit card (I'm still dealing with debt from when I was unemployed and from buying my computer over the summer--obviously wouldn't have bought the computer if I'd know I was about to lose my job...). But now I'm guessing that money will go to a dentist instead.

I don't even want to know how much this is going to cost me in the city... I'm trying not to freak out about it (I don't freak out too easily) but this sucks.