neek up on it

Yeah, nothing clever to write about. I did tell myself I would most certainly write tonight, because I got a plot bunny while bumbling around a weird day at work, in which I'm very certain I was caught in some Buffyverse spell. But, yeah. I'm now going through my computer music library trying to weed out the hundreds of songs I've ripped from the public library cds, because why waste cds burning songs I'll turn out not to like?

In other news, the Vatican said today that it's ok to believe in aliens and that doing so does not refute God, because, duh, He made them, too. Now the REAL question is, did God start with them, or did they come after us? Did God in fact go, "Ah, shit, screw this place, I'm starting again." Or did he decide skinny bodies with ginormous heads and eyes just didn't do it for him? Like, He saw Callista Flockhart over in the other galactic arm, winced, and went over to this side of the Milky Way to add some meat to the bone?

Oh, I have made the overdue discovery that The Doors are, indeed, a good band. Not about to visit any trashed graves, but I dig it. However, I still haven't got over the library not having any Dandy Warhols! No!

Oh yes, and one of my buddies at work is quitting in June to go back to school for a creative writing track. Sad. I knew it was coming, I was her Secret Keeper, but still, I kind of hoped she wouldn't go through with it. Especially because she's got a kid. Maybe I'm a little jealous, too. Yet I really don't have any urge to return to the college scene.

Ugh, this whacko super conservative neo nazi has cornered me in the library and downtown park over the past two days (and hasn't changed his clothes) and it's seriously freaking me out. He's very leery, very arrogant AND WANTS US TO SHOOT AT THE BORDER. Among other things. Yeah, because immigrants, illegal or legal, aren't humans. Jerk.

In other exciting news, I continue want to have the babies of Ewan McGregor, Dave Barry, Joss Whedon and/or Terry Pratchett. Yep.

Wow, I'm exceedingly boring.

Ok, I'm moved to the new place (yay!) but won't have net until Thursday evening. So, quick stops into the library for some wi-fi lovin'. Will have a much better update later.

Finally, I can breathe a little! The past two days were rather hectic, but there's light! Yesterday in the midst of my apartment hunting dash, I called the Resident Hotline of Lund and (ha) they already had me flagged; however, it was agreed that my 30-day notice could start April 18, the day of the flood, so I would only pay for May up to the 18th rather than the full month. Plus, I should get my deposit back.

Anyhoo, it was looking like all my efforts were going to be all for not and I'd have to live with ticked off management and noise. Buuuuut, I went out to these apartments just out of town in a really nice setting. This one is a little more than I'm paying now, but I'd only pay electric (gas heat is included in the rent), and yes, it's a little larger so will take a little more energy, but it's got a good southern breeze and large hill to the north blocking cold air in the winter, so it shouldn't be too bad. And I'll turn the air off when I'm at work. Laundry's cheaper, too.

The trick was the fact the deposit is the same as the rent, so I'd be slapping $1,020 down right off, still pay half of May at Riverbend, plus utilities to the 18th here, electric at the new place ... but I just felt so lightened last night at the possibility of getting it, that I felt it was worth the short-term financial hit. Mum's spotting me the deposit, which I can pay back next paycheck or tax rebate, so it's cool, I don't feel completely horrible for having to lean on her.

Also last night even tho I pretty much said let's do it, my noise concerns were very much validate. I had the windows open to embrace the perfect night breeze, but from this apartment on the farthest end from the interstate, I couldn't sleep for the trucks screaming by. So, I had to shut the windows and turn on the AC. Call me crazy, I but methinks that would be even worse in the unfinished, interstate-cozy unit the management wanted to move me to eventually, sometime, no guarantee when.

So, at 8 a.m., I called up the landlord of the other place, said let's do it, I can take a lunch and drop off the deposit, etc. :-) I'm going to start moving things tomorrow, but the big stuff has to wait until Sunday, when Rick can bring the truck.

In other news, creepy guy saw me coming out of the flooded apartment, waited until I was inside this one, and knocked. I ignored him. Hopefully he takes the hint and backs off. He'd be cute if not for the creepy.

Oh yes, and tomorrow I'm going to take photos all over the old apartment, so if they try to stick me with some sort of damage fine and withhold the deposit, I've got the proof. Whoo! Oh yes, and the mold is still there, stinking and growing and parts of the carpet are still damp. Idiots.

April 22, 2008

To Riverbend Management:

We’ve had a rough, damp time of it over the last few days. I’ve expressed my appreciation for your responsiveness to the flooding that occurred on Friday, April 18. Yet over the past few days, when I commend the helpfulness and temporary set-up, I’m met with exclamations over not being moved to a permanent solution (other unit) or being released from the lease.

So on Tuesday night, as I discovered the mold had not been touched and my carpet was still damp without fans and my couch was thoroughly damp, I sought some legal advice since I am a first time renter and this is my first flood. I was told that I should be concerned about a fanned-out and shampooed apartment and to document the events not just for my renter’s insurance but to prevent possible problems down the road.

The flood began after 2 a.m. on Friday, April 18, when I woke up to the neighbors’ fighting and inserted earplugs. When I woke at 6 a.m., the bedroom was already underwater and the carpet was soggy past the bedroom and seeping into the living room. I immediately checked the windows and discovered the window pit for the bedroom windows was full of water that was quickly emptying into my apartment. The living room windows were fine. I found the emergency maintenance number and placed my call.

* Maintenance arrived around 8, took a quick assessment and went to get shop vacs. Manager Patty Harker arrived shortly after to make the necessary phone calls to the carpet cleaners. It was determined that the backup in the bedroom window pit was due to a drainpipe being kicked out some time in the evening.

* Maintenance worked on the worst of the water (by this time only the tile in front of the door was dry, but the standing water remained mostly in the bedroom and closet) until the carpet cleaners could arrive (after 9:30 a.m.).

* Maintenance was very helpful and refused offers to buy lunch. Management offered to house me in an empty apartment while the apartment dried out. I accepted and appreciated maintenance moving a mattress, desk, TV, and TV stand up to the apartment. The couch, second mattress, bed frame, and majority of property remained in Apt. 14. I was moved by 11 a.m.

* Fans were used on the apartment throughout the weekend. By Friday night/Saturday morning, I’d developed a very aggravated cough on top of a sore throat from earlier in the week. I haven’t had much sleep since.

* On Monday, the carpet and apartment were still very damp. I discovered mold in the bedroom closet while gathering more clothes and informed management (voicemail) and maintenance (in person). Fans had been repositioned that day. I asked management (before I discovered the mold) if the carpet cleaners had an estimate on when I could move back. Wednesday at the latest, Suzanne Spiehs thought. I asked if it might be better for me to move to a different one bedroom, so they could really clean the place without worrying about inconveniencing me, and I was told that was not necessary.

* Also on Monday, I decided to toss all the wet towels and rugs in the tub. I’d already decided I would replace them, but maintenance said if I left them in the tub, they could use them elsewhere. But after entering a very damp apartment, I decided it might help the drying process to remove them.

* On Tuesday, I was left a voicemail that it looked like the carpet would not be ready for shampooing until Thursday. When I entered the apartment, once again to get more work clothes, I discovered the fans had been removed but the carpet was still damp in the bedroom and closet, and a large infestation of mold had settled into the closet corner and another had started along the living room baseboard under the window. The management office was closed at 5 p.m., though business hours are until 6.

* I decided to move more of my things (clothes, CDs, DVDs) out of Apt. 14 to 22, because they were soaked. Outside in the clearer air, they reeked.

* Also on Tuesday, I finally went to the doctor about my worsening cough (the sore throat cannot be attributed to the flooding, but rather than chalk the cough up to coincidence, I decided to play it safe). A sinus infection has started.

* Tuesday I also spoke to some other residents and learned that flooding has been a problem in other buildings, and under “old management” the dry and try again method was used.


Those are the events thus far. Not wanting to be troublesome has caused me not to complain about noisy neighbors (though I have communicated with them about the noise several times to no avail), and I’m not trying to be irksome now. However, I am worried about the prolonged dampness and mold. If it’s possible to move to a one bedroom above ground level without breaking the lease, I am definitely open to the possibility. I’ve been told that the flooding would count as grounds to break a lease without penalty, but I’d rather find a better solution than punishing either of us!

Again, thank you for what has already been done. I just want to get everything written down.






And now I have to be up in 6 hours. Yay frickin' yay.

Around 2 a.m., I woke up to the neighbors fighting again, popped in the earplugs, went back to bed. At 6 a.m., I shut off the alarm, swung my feet out of bed and - SPLASH!!

Yep. My floor splashed. My reaction? "Yeah, it figures." It's been a bad week, including my car losing its serpentine pulley for the tension belt on the Interstate 60 miles from work while going to an interview for an article. Awesome. My mom rocked it with the tow truck, mechanic, and swapping cars so I could conduct my business.

Anyway, Emily's Ark ... I'm in a subground apartment. So, I pull back the curtains to find water in the window pit about head level and it's just coming on in. Craptastic. I grab towels to stopper it, but it's kind of useless. Run into the living room, where at the moment, it's dry except for where my feet are. Those windows are fine, even though I know they're in worse shape than the bedrooms, but there's not water filling in the pit. I lost my emergency maintenance number, so, after making sure no wires are near water, I fire up the computer and look online, then call emergency maintenance and get my ticket number, woo!

Then it's a scramble to find the editors' home numbers, since they tend to not be listed so people aren't harassing them at home. Get a hold of one, get the okay for a "vacation" day, then see the water creeping into the living room like the early stages of the Titanic.

Have breakfast. Make coffee. Apartment manager calls me from home to say she's coming, maintenance calls to say they're coming. Rain stops. Water still draining in here. Maintenance gets here around 8. By this time, the window pit has emptied into my apartment (mud included, let's call it a mocha shot) and the only non wet part is by the front door. Standing water in the bedroom and bathroom. Awesome.

The two maintenance guys shop vac for a couple hours (emptied over 20-some loads of water down the toilet) while we wait for the carpet people (who had previous appointments). We get down to squish not splash level when the guys get here before 10. The managers moved me up two floors to a two bedroom while the carpet blowers do their work over the weekend. They won't let me buy them lunch for responding, working, and moving me up (including transfering my net connection) for no charge. So, this place isn't perfect, but the management is pretty good most of the time. Apparently they're also trying to get my noisy neighbors out of here!! That would solve most of my annoyance, except for the brats who kicked out the drainpipe so everything emptied into my apartment. But they're going to get some flexible pipes that shouldn't be kicked out, so let's hope this doesn't happen again!

At least it wasn't a fire.

Last night I treated my brother and myself to a birthday show at The Waiting Room, which is way up in north Omaha, and you apparently have to be a wizard to get there. Omaha has this problem with streets going schizophrenic, changing names w/o warning, cutting off one road that reappears 3 blocks later in the wrong direction, etc. So it took us an hour to get there. Awesome.

But Roger Kline and the Peacemakers utterly rocked. They played for 3 hours. :-) There was a duded I made eye contact with, but I couldn't tell if the girl was with him or the other dude in their group. Once I thought it was with the other dude, I focused on the red shirt guy again, but then on the last encore (there were several), it was a slow song, and red shirt was totally necking the chick that had been cuddly with his buddy all night ... so, yeah, I suck at judging stuff. Oh well.

But the band played past midnight because I turned 23 then. Yes, it was just for me, because I'm that awesome and super close with the band.

But there is snow in the forecast on my birthday!! Which just proves God has a sick sense of humor. I also work this weekend. And have been officially labeled the office Totto (i.e. office bitch - not in the mean way, in the slave way). Happy birthday to me!

I'll just have to hold on to the music.

Bleh. So don't want to go to work tonight.

I know I wasn't the one fired, so I shouldn't bitch, but ...

Monday one of our reporters was fired, and I was saddled with the job of boxing her up and escorting her out, even though I am not the boss or a senior employee or the human resources manager. To top it off, I now must fill her hole, continue with my duties, and train our newest reporter (different beat). Um, once again, why am I being saddled with training duties? Oh yes, and where's my raise? How can I do 2-3 different jobs in 40 hours?

This morning I basically said as much to the boss, along the lines of "You will be hiring someone soon, right? Because there's no way I can do all of this for very long."

To which I was told they didn't expect me to (even though they told I would be doing this) and they were putting an ad out today. Oh HO - but wait! At the late staff meeting they said there was a 60-day freeze on hiring someone. WTF?!

And, of course, I didn't have a chance to say "so where's my raise?" after the meeting, because the higher ups bolted to another meeting and I had a lot of shit to do before leaving today. Plus, tomorrow, I have to do Wed, Thur, and Fri duties because I'm weekend, so Thursday I'll be off and Friday I work late, so tomorrow is going to blow monkey balls WITHOUT having cover 5 counties for news. EXCUSE ME FOR BEING BITCHY!

THEN I'm also still trying to beat the taxes out of my brother, who is space mcspacerson, and mum, who has the info I need, has been unreachable for two days. In fact, yesterday NO ONE ON THE PLANET WOULD ANSWER THEIR DAMN PHONES, MAKING MY JOB AND HOME LIFE VERY DIFFICULT, AND I WAS FEELING SICK FROM SPOILED CHEESE BECAUSE MY FRIDGE QUIT ON SUNDAY AND MONDAY!!!

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

"u shud buy me a drink"

What cracked pick-up line is that?

1) Generally you offer to buy the other person a drink. It might be unoriginal, but it's much more polite than demanding the stranger treat you.
2) Spell, please. I'm somewhat lenient in the texting world, but "should" should never be spelled as "shud", especially when trying to impress somebody.
3) Offering to treat someone also implies that you have an income of some sort, which, let's face it, ladies, we prefer to date someone who has his life a little together.

So, yeah. Not impress, bucko.

And because this is addictive:


Btw, got a new couch! I wuvs it!

UGH! Men are right. There is something wrong with estrogen.

I'm working myself up over nothing, I'm sure. Because estrogen says 'oh, you think you're so smart and not a raving bitch, eh? we'll see about that.' Yes, I have every right to be annoyed with Dude, who drunk dialed me all through St. Paddy's Day, because he's brilliant enough to get up at 6:30 a.m. to start drinking all day like a total mindless moron and can't get the message through text or numerous phone calls that I have to get these articles done that night and have late coverage Tuesday night, so just leave me the hell alone and don't pass the phone to your drunk friends.

HOWEVER, what's irking me is this: as fun as the dates have been and hanging out, I don't feel sparky or fluttery or any of that. It feels like I'm just going along because I've been starved for so long, and just telling myself to not get annoyed by things. Basically, it's kind of like dating one of your guy friends and making out with him.

I've had one guy friend and a potential guy friend say, well, just tell him you don't have that spark. But part of me is worried I'm just turning scared or shut off and making up excuses, or that I'm ruining something that could be good or fun for awhile. But ... I could just be overcomplicating things like a stupid, stupid bitch.

Yes, the world is getting smashed and I'm stuck at home working on articles for work because I don't have enough time in the day to be a reporter and an editor. Explained this predicament to the boy on Sunday, when I did take a break to watch a movie with him. But then he had to spend the day sending my txts emphasizing the stupid fact he got up at 6:30 a.m. to start drinking.

I'm not much of a lush, so I guess the appeal of waking up early on a day off to get drunk is lost on me. THEN, after reminding him several times that, no, I can't go out and party tonight because 1) I need to get these articles done and 2) I have to go back to work the next morning and not be hungover. THEN, he CALLS me at night, even after I've sent him more text reminders. I'm sorry, but constantly telling me I'm awesome after I've gotten an edge to my voice and very much said I am working is not going to help the fact you're bugging the hell out of me.

"So I'll see you tomorrow."
"No, I have to cover a meeting tomorrow night, remember, that's why I have to get all this done tonight."
"Oh ... so come out afterward."
"Not if I want to be awake the next morning."

I'm trying not to get annoyed by him, but the word awesome, which he uses a lot for me, is really starting to bug me. And he wants to hang every single day. Um, I don't operate like that. It must be the spinster writer in me, but I do need decompression time. Needy guys really bother me. Gah, I'll still give it a try, tho.

Hurrah! The 8-year snog drought is over!

Didn't get home until 3 a.m. after a night of arcade, bowling, movies and snogging, I can happily say I'm a step back from being the crazy cat lady. :-) Somewhere after midnight the conversation came up that, oh yeah, is this now a date instead of loosely called hanging out? Since we'd been snogging, it was determined that, yep, it's a date. And, hey, whatever happened to awkward date moments? We apparently skipped those. And it was also agreed that if later down the road we decide the dating doesn't work out for us, we still need to be geek-out buddies.

Half the games were broken at the arcade. At one point, I had to handle the joystick for a Star Wars game while he rigged the wires to make the shooting buttons work. I suck at DDR, but it was still fun. Bowling rocked: 3 games, I won the last by one point (130) after doing two doubles. Didn't turkey, but I've never doubled like that. w00t! Then we rented Family Guy Blue Harvest, then there was snogging with Superbad in the background, which made it a rather stupid-amusing snog rather than faked romance. Have no idea what happened in that movie, except saw way too many cartoon penises during the credit. That's what I get for random curiosity!

Heather's coming over today. YAY!

Powered By Stimulators


and stuff

Last week JJJ (that's what I'm going to call the managing editor, because he reminds me of the Daily Bugle editor) called me into his office. It turned out to be a good but weird thing.

"How do you like paginating?"
"I'm liking it. Mondays are kind of slow, so I think up Tell It questions by searching CNN and ABC and OWH."
"You want to do some more writing?"
"Sure, if you want me to. Anything in mind?"
"Oh, I don't care. I just don't want you to get bored and leave us." (EH?) "You're a good writer, we'd love to have you write more." (EH?!)

Tickled me pink, it did. That was Wednesday, and then ThursdayI realized "Duh!" C, next editor, had mentioned a month or so ago that she really wanted to have a social issues columnist in the house again, so Friday I asked JJJ if I should think about that. Bit of a hot seat, the trick is coming up with stuff and then writing about it on time. He said I could write up some samples and run them by the publisher. Gah, not sure if I really want to dive into that or not, but I have editorials in my head. So, tonight, I wrote a test run:

( Eco-terrorists hurting their cause )

In other news, I took the plunge and signed up on www.plentyoffish.com, which is a free dating/social networking site. And went brutally honest. Strangely enough, I got some responses. Guys like geeks. At least, on paper. Once they meet me, they'll run!

At the risk of sounding weird: why is it I get plot bunnies in the shower? Most of my scenes for fics were played out in my head while getting clean, and the same thing happened this morning (it's been awhile, actually). It used to be I'd do a lot of staging in my head while droning out a professor's voice, working, walking, etc., but a lot of it happened in the shower. Why is that? Maybe it has to do with being completely closed off from everyone else. In college, I lived with 3 other girls, so there was usually someone else in the room at all times, so the toilet and shower were just about the only alone spots, I guess. But now I'm alone all the frickin' time (except for at work), and the bunnies waited until shower time. Hmm.

Unfortunately, now I can mull over them in class, anymore. At work I'm too focused on other stuff to let things simmer and stew. *sigh* Real life, you suck! (Yet I don't really have the urge to go to graduate school, either, so I guess i'm stuck with this).

In other news, I need to kidnap an IT guy. He can live in the small conference room at the office and help us, since our IT guy is always MIA. We'll feed him, take him for walks, etc.

Gah, got nothing accomplished tonight except another unhealthy food binge. I seriously shouldn't be home alone anymore, because all I do is stuff my face and feel sick. Bleh!

The new precious phone that WORKS! Sorry, I'm just a little enamored with the precious.

In other news, I'm no longer the newbie at work! Our new paginator arrived, and of course there wasn't a computer or anything set up for him yet. Aaaand, for some unknown reason (well, the other editors not wanting to deal with it, I suspect) I get to tutor him. Which is insane, because I'm still a rookie. This morning they only had me do records, which was really boring because classifieds were a half hour late with obits, and I can't do much with records until I get the obits in, so I sat on my arse for two hours. Tomorrow J's going to sit in with me again, I've got 2 pages, and this guy, well, doesn't have a self-esteem problem, so I have a feeling he's going to try to give me his input. I hate people hovering, and of course now he has to hover and I have to teach him stuff while I'm still learning and trying not to kill the girls in classifieds for their indefatigable lateness.

Oh yeah, and I'm weekend editor. Fun!

So, once again, I'm at the end of a weekend and feel like I didn't get to have one. Friday night's quest for a coffee grinder was all for not. I was looking craptastic but didn't care because I don't really know anyone here aside from work, and heck, it was only Family Dollar and Dollar General (neither of which had a coffee grinder, so I had to wait until Saturday to swing my K-mart on my way to Mum's). At the time, I just threw on jeans to keep myself on the high end of trailer trash. Well ... then I realized Saturday afternoon that I'm not completely anonymous, which I should know by now because people are starting to go "Oh, you're Emily ..." when I'm out and about. My name and bad, bad picture are in the paper, so I better start dressing decent in public in my off hours!

Which I did today. I even put make-up on. Whoa, man. Had to run across town to Verizon to reactivate my plan and upgrade my phone. Part of me felt stupid for upgrading along with the marketing ploy, but I'm on Mum's shared plan, my phone never liked working as a phone, and so I wound up with the LG X8350 Red (so pwetty) that holds a gig of music. Sweeeet. Don't REALLY need it, but a more simplistic phone would've cost me the same and I get Mum's gov discount, so what the heck, right?

Okay, this baby is making me happy. I'm scared to jinx it, but it did awesomely in the mall, in my apartment, even on one bar. Hasn't dropped a call, it comes in freakishly clear, and the speaker phone's rather nice, too. I had quite the debacle trying to get some of my own music to be a ring tone, had it downsized to 30 secs, etc., and finally called support, did the musical operator thingy, and then got a good techie who told me how to email it to myself (though, honestly, how stupid is it you have to be so roundabout when you've got a GIG of music just sitting there but out of reach of the ringtone selection? Retarded, peeps, retarded.) Anyway, got Supermario for a ringer, and I'm thinking of tacking on some Trio (they're groovy for the car, don't judge me!!), some Interpol, Bravery, Hellogoodbye ... I'm going to get so spoiled. But really, it's the call quality that's making me happiest.

Bumped into my ex, who is stalking my brother. I seriously wish I was joking, but I'm not. So, a couple weekends ago, I thought I saw Adam, my last boyfriend (the one who bought me a horse and lots of boyfriend paranoia for years to come) at the Verizon kiosk (I went to the store today), but I wasn't quite sure because he'd put on weight, his hair wasn't as red, etc. Well, today I was headed for the food court and we passed each other, did a double and triple check, and did the niceties.

"Yeah, the great thing about working at Verizon is I get to see Dave (at the watch kiosk) a lot."
"Oh, that's cool!" Translation: Dave, I'm so sorry about this.

We part. Dave stops by after work, I mention Adam, and he gets this 'I'm a tortured puppy that has been run over 5 times and can't move out of the way headlights because I've been run over 5 times." Poor boy.

Oh yes, did manage to crank out a fic post Saturday night, meant to hit it hard today, but the phone, another Mum visit, then brother visit, and a new lamp debacle kind of skewered the day. Oi.

Just discovered that my coffee grinder is on strike. So, I will have to go to dollar general when my clothes hit the dry cycle to get another one. Yeah, it'll be cheap, but so was this one (free), and it'll get me by.

Another shooting: WTF, PEOPLE?!

I was going to post something, and now I can't remember what it was. Damn.

This is what comes of socializing: fearing your brother is an alcoholic and possibly going to off himself or burn your coworker's apartment down.