my sad little adventures, LOL
Nov. 23rd, 2012 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
floatingleafSo this is a five-day weekend - you'd think I would get sooo much accomplished, right?... Sadly, the more time I THINK I have, the faster it disappears with barely a trace of its passing. Yesterday was Thanksgiving, obviously, which means I spent most of the day at my parents' house, stuffing my face with food. And today I had to take a trip to the city, because next Tuesday I am supposed to go to this one-day training course taking place at a hotel downtown. So I needed to make sure I know where exactly the hotel is and how long it might take me to get there. I always do that when I am expected to show up at some unfamiliar location at a certain time - I actually go there beforehand to get a "feel" of the area and the "logistics" of finding my way around it. Otherwise I am extremely anxious and afraid of getting lost and never actually making it there, or arriving ridiculously late (which has actually happened on a number of occasions). So anyway... this took far longer than expected due to a number of circumstances. First of all, there is a temporary change to the bus route, because they're renovating the train station where I intended to transfer. The bus goes to the next station along the way instead, which is not a problem in itself - except I got confused by this and unsure where to get off, and ended up walking around in circles for a while (honestly, my spacial orientation - or lack thereof - is legendary). When I FINALLY got downtown, I realized it's fucking BLACK FRIDAY and ALL of Chicago is out shopping. Seriously, the area was so crowded I almost felt claustrophobic. Plus, it was bitterly cold and windy, which didn't help any. By the time I found the hotel I was looking for, I felt so exhausted and miserable I had to stop at a Starbucks for some liquid fortification (a hot cup to wrap my freezing hands around and a sugar infusion to keep a headache at bay, mostly). Still, I forced myself to pop into a store or two along the way - not because I felt like it, but because I hoped I might get at least part of Christmas shopping done while I was "out and about". Well... no such luck. I didn't find anything for anyone, except myself.:P I bought two nice sweaters - except I probably have to exchange one of them for a bigger size, since it's too tight around the shoulders. I did try on a seemingly identical one, and it fit perfectly well, so I'm not sure how this happened. I really don't feel like going all the way back to that particular store anytime soon... *sigh* Anyway... on my return trip I got confused by the bus reroute again, and took a ride in the wrong direction.:/ By the time I got back home, I was utterly drained, starving and generally blah, so nothing else got done today. And I still have to clean the apartment, in addition to my regular grocery shopping & cooking, before this weekend is over...
In other exciting news, I think I may have accidentally solved the squirrel problem. See, there are - or used to be - squirrels living on my window sill, in the little space next to the air conditioner (the old one, which I'm not really using since I got the fancy new one last summer, but which is too heavy for me to remove from the window by myself, and so continues to languish there for the time being). It's a long story, but the short version of it is that the little stinkers love to make a hell of a racket sometimes, especially in the bright and early morning hours when I am still in bed (which is fine on weekdays, since I have to be getting up soon anyway - but definitely not on weekends). Yesterday morning there were THREE of them having a party on top of the air conditioner, jumping all over each other and screeching loud enough to resurrect the dead. I had gone to bed extremely late the night before (as evidenced by my previous LJ post), slept badly (upset by the movie I had written about) and had a headache. I was in absolutely NO MOOD for squirrel playfulness. I got out of bed, strode purposefully towards the window and banged the thick wad of plastic blinds against the glass, to scare them off (the blinds on that particular window are broken, by the way, which is why they are all bunched up together like that; I damaged them while trying to clean them - which only proves I shouldn't bother cleaning the window blinds, right?...;P). And guess what? I broke the glass. Yep. I must have been more pissed off then I realized. *wry smirk* Anyway... the squirrels scampered off in a blink, and I was left staring in confusion at a broken window. Oh great, this is EXACTLY what I needed, I thought. However, as I went to remove the bigger shards of glass, I suddenly realized that the squirrels have no way of coming back now - unless they want to risk cutting themselves. The small space through which they used to jump on top of the air conditioner is pretty much blocked by sharp objects that are probably too big for them to move. As for the hole in the window pane, I covered it up quickly with a rectangular piece of metal sheet that came with my new air conditioner. Fastened to the glass with duct tape.:P Heh. Go me. It doesn't look pretty, but it never did anyway since the squirrels took up residence, and it solves the problem for the time being (I don't have to worry about insulation, since it's a tiny apartment and the radiators are a blazing inferno, most of the time). I am sure my parents would be appalled, but I can't seem to care much. I now have PEACE and QUIET. I'll take that over new, shiny windows anytime. *snort*
Yes, my life is singularly pathetic, why do you ask?
In other exciting news, I think I may have accidentally solved the squirrel problem. See, there are - or used to be - squirrels living on my window sill, in the little space next to the air conditioner (the old one, which I'm not really using since I got the fancy new one last summer, but which is too heavy for me to remove from the window by myself, and so continues to languish there for the time being). It's a long story, but the short version of it is that the little stinkers love to make a hell of a racket sometimes, especially in the bright and early morning hours when I am still in bed (which is fine on weekdays, since I have to be getting up soon anyway - but definitely not on weekends). Yesterday morning there were THREE of them having a party on top of the air conditioner, jumping all over each other and screeching loud enough to resurrect the dead. I had gone to bed extremely late the night before (as evidenced by my previous LJ post), slept badly (upset by the movie I had written about) and had a headache. I was in absolutely NO MOOD for squirrel playfulness. I got out of bed, strode purposefully towards the window and banged the thick wad of plastic blinds against the glass, to scare them off (the blinds on that particular window are broken, by the way, which is why they are all bunched up together like that; I damaged them while trying to clean them - which only proves I shouldn't bother cleaning the window blinds, right?...;P). And guess what? I broke the glass. Yep. I must have been more pissed off then I realized. *wry smirk* Anyway... the squirrels scampered off in a blink, and I was left staring in confusion at a broken window. Oh great, this is EXACTLY what I needed, I thought. However, as I went to remove the bigger shards of glass, I suddenly realized that the squirrels have no way of coming back now - unless they want to risk cutting themselves. The small space through which they used to jump on top of the air conditioner is pretty much blocked by sharp objects that are probably too big for them to move. As for the hole in the window pane, I covered it up quickly with a rectangular piece of metal sheet that came with my new air conditioner. Fastened to the glass with duct tape.:P Heh. Go me. It doesn't look pretty, but it never did anyway since the squirrels took up residence, and it solves the problem for the time being (I don't have to worry about insulation, since it's a tiny apartment and the radiators are a blazing inferno, most of the time). I am sure my parents would be appalled, but I can't seem to care much. I now have PEACE and QUIET. I'll take that over new, shiny windows anytime. *snort*
Yes, my life is singularly pathetic, why do you ask?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-24 02:02 pm (UTC)I like to check out places first before I have to travel anywhere as well. Like to the hotel for the seminar last month - I drove there before with my parents (a few weeks earlier) but we couldn't find it then. So I was extremely nervous having to drive there ... :-(
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-25 03:10 am (UTC)