Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

2:30 AM. I was sound asleep. Heard a crash and woke up with a start. Jumped out of bed to a really odd sound -- water running? In my kitchen?

The light in there didn't work, so I had to move a lamp so I could see.

The kitchen ceiling light was on the floor. Water was flooding out of my ceiling. The kitchen floor (lower than the rest of the floors) had a half-inch or so of standing water.

Called the apartment emergency line. A full hour later, someone arrived.

Now, 12 hours later, I've had three different groups of people inspecting my apartment.

"Major water damage"

I'm going to have to move out of my apartment for 1-2 weeks, starting as early as tomorrow. Where am I going? I have no idea.

Why did this happen? Some complete and utter idiot turned his faucet on full force and then left his apartment for the night. Why would anyone do that?

I wish the apartment complex would make him pay for all of the repairs. I wish he would have to pay for my arrangements and everyone else who has to move because of this.

I'm so exhausted. I've had 4-5 hours of sleep per night for the last week, and last night I was up at 2:30. There are currently massive fans and a dehumidifier almost as big as me set up in my kitchen, they're so loud I can barely think.

It's probably a good thing I don't know which neighbor it was...

Long, long ago, back when I was a preteen or a teenager, I read a book called It's a Cat's Life.



It was written by a woman who spent her life caring for cats. Cat sitter, vet tech, all sorts of different cat-related jobs. One of the lines in it stuck with me all these years: "Consistency breeds contentment in cats."

I think I'm a cat.

I really, really wish I could get a little consistency in my life right now. The temporary apartment has so many problems. The dishwasher didn't work (got no water). They came by and fixed it, now it gets water... and leaks all over the floor. The bigger issue is my Internet access. Two days ago it wasn't working, so they came in and fixed it. I asked them to confirm that it was the apartment's access and not my previous Comcast account (which wasn't turned off yet). They said they were certain. So I turned off my Comcast account, Comcast said it would take two business days to turn off...

Guess what. This morning I had no Internet access.

SIGH. S-I-G-H.

I'd like a day without problems. A day where it wasn't 90+ in my apartment. Today is not going to be that day.

In hopes of getting my deposit back, I've been cleaning my apartment from top to bottom for a couple weeks now. I've cleaned the ceiling (really, I dusted it and made sure no cobwebs were on it). I cleaned the floor. I cleaned every little thing in between.

And yet I still won't be getting my full deposit back. Not unless I pull out the fridge and the range and clean under/behind them. Seriously. How am I supposed to move the fridge? And I wouldn't think the range could even be pulled out! It must be hooked into the cabinet/counters somehow...

Plus, since I have a cat, they're going to use a blacklight on the carpet to look for pee. That's fine with me, as she's never once peed outside of the box... except google tells me it picks up saliva as well, which means it will show where she had hairballs. They told me if the blacklight picks up anything, they'll have to replace the carpet and do some kind of treatment to the floor.

Sigh. I really feel like this is a scam. I've lived here two years. How can they not expect there to be some wear and tear and some cleaning needed? It's probably stated in that 55 page lease I signed that you have to give it back in the same condition you got it in.

I'm tired of being an adult.

Such a fun topic for a post, huh?

I haven't done my push-ups for more than a week, because I pulled something in my shoulder and it hurts to the point of I'm losing at least half a night's sleep over it. Oh, it feels 100% fine when I'm sitting upright, but as soon as I lay flat, it really hurts. No comfortable position = very little sleep. zzz I hate that I'm not doing them, because my progress is going really slowly. I'm still doing them on the edge of the bathtub, not on the floor yet. I'm getting closer to being able to do five sets of 20, but even when I do hit that number, I'm not doing them "deep" enough yet, so I'll need to wait more to get down on the floor. It doesn't help that I no longer have fun doing it -- it used to be new and exciting and cool, now it's just exercise that takes too long. Five sets of 20, with a two minute rest between each set. Lots of downtime.

While I hate to talk about my running, because it likely makes people think I'm doing more than I am, I'm still doing it and slowly improving. I'm setting small goals along the way. First one is 20 minutes, at least half running (so close!). Then 20 minutes, all running. Then I'll go up from there.

I think I need new/better sneakers for it, I use the ones I've been walking around in/full daily use for a couple years now. It's really jarring when I run. I suspect sneakers with more cushioning would help.

( Related to that jarring thing, a gross/TMI bit of running stuff. )

Apparently I'm not wrong, that really is a thing. "Contributing factors likely include the physical jostling of the organs..."

Summer (or, well, any non-winter season, I guess) is so hard on me when it comes to sleep. I'm a seriously light sleeper, so the very moment even one bird makes a peep outside, I snap fully awake. There's some darned bird that is loud in the bush outside my window at 4:45 AM. It's not even June yet, it's only going to get light earlier and earlier (and thus wake the birds earlier). :/ My upstairs neighbor gets up at 5 AM, so I'd wake up then anyway, but still. 15 minutes means a lot, when you're not sleeping much! Plus it's an annoying way to wake up -- I hate that bird.

I've been trying to go to bed earlier at night, but that cuts into my very limited reading time.

Edit: Since I'm flying soon, I've been really worried about all these news stories about how long the TSA security lines are at the airports. I checked the airport I'm flying out of, and average line time is 20 minutes. I'm not sure if that's because our airport is better, or if 20 minute lines could really spark the amount of news stories there have been lately, or maybe the airport's posted average is wrong...

A good weekend, just way too short. (Aren't weekends always too short?)

Good things, in a list:

- Watched the first seven episodes of Lost. Wow. I always forget how great the first season was. I've never gotten further than two or three seasons in, so I'm hoping to make it all the way this time. I know a few spoilers (including how the series ends/what the island was all about, if I'm correct about what I know), and the theme just works for me so very well. Do I need to put it behind a spoiler cut? When it's more than ten years old? Better safe than sorry, I suppose. If I remember correctly (don't correct me or confirm!), they did indeed end up having all died in the plane crash and the island was a purgatory sort of place. I love that idea so so so much!

These first episodes were genuinely creepy! The sound effects were so well done! When the monsters(?) shake the trees, there are odd metallic/industrial noises in the effects. It's just so jarring and odd and I love it to death.

- I'm afraid I have to just give up on Farscape for the near future. I tried watching it again this weekend, but it's just not a show you can multitask during. While that means it was a really good story, I cannot just sit there and stare at the screen and do nothing else. (Side note: I really want to see the new Jurassic Park movie in the theater when it comes out, but I don't know how I'll be able to sit there for two hours doing nothing else! Hopefully that I'll be in a theater will make a difference.)

- I got good RP, yay! More than that, I found a mature, experienced RPer, which is becoming more and more rare. RPers keep getting younger and less experienced (*cough* Really! It's not me getting older!), so it's getting harder and harder to find a good match for me to write with.

- The FFXIV benchmark came out this morning, and I was able to confirm that my new machine is indeed a monster. YAY! While there are a few people with a higher rating than mine, I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm usually in the "can barely run this" group of people, and now I'm near the top of the rankings. My new worry is that it will get stolen: I live on the ground floor, with a window RIGHT THERE next to my desk. Anyone could break in while I was away and steal it. :/ Unlikely, as my window faces our "quad" (grassy area where kids play and dogs crap), but it could still happen.

- I finally lost weight. After three weeks (gained a pound, stayed the same, gained pound) I lost five this week. That means in four weeks I lost five pounds. While isn't good (for me), it's better than the previous weeks had been. I'll take it. (I try not to worry how quickly the clock is running down. After surgery, you lose the most weight in the first six months, which are gone. Then the next six months it slows down but still happens. After a year, you're seriously going to be struggling to lose. I'm at 7.5 months, so my time is slipping quickly away.)

- I actually caught up on sleep this weekend, which was nice. Unfortunately my upstairs neighbors woke me at 4 AM this morning YET AGAIN, so I'm currently functioning on less than four hours sleep, which is not at all nice. Mumble grumble neighbors.

Edit: I feel like 2015 is my slowest year ever for reading. The book I'm reading now is really good, nearly perfect, yet... I lost my drive to read. Rarely in my life have I had a time where I just didn't feel like reading, so this is very strange. I've only finished eight books so far this year, so I'm pretty confident in saying that I won't be making my 50 book goal this year.

Well poo. For the first time in my entire life, I had a doctor I really liked. I've been seeing her for eight or nine years now. She's the most positive, wonderful person I know. She hugged me for losing weight (after asking if it would be okay), and forever after I wanted to lose more just because it made her so happy.

She was both a general practice/internal medicine doctor as well as a specialist. Thanks to the insurance company, she was forced to just take specialist patients. (I assume that she could have picked to stay with general instead of specialist, but I bet that would come with a cut in pay, so I don't blame her. The specialist medicine is probably more interesting, too.) So myself and her other general patients have to find a new doctor.

I really don't want to. Like I said, she was the only good doctor I've had in my entire life. What are the chances I'll get another one so friendly and positive?

Blah.

In unrelated news, I'm (FINALLY) almost done with Shadow Scales/Seraphina 2 book. Anyone who is holding their breath for the book: Reread the first one instead. The first 50% of it was boring as hell (just about humans and a bit about the half-dragons, no dragons at all). The second 50% has the dragons, so it's somewhat more interesting, but overall the book feels like such a slog. I have about an hour and a half left of reading in it. I want to be done just so I can move onto some other book that might be better. Sad! The first book was so good.

( Work safe but suggestive image behind the cut. )

I'm not a Doctor Who fan, but the above image made me snicker, so I decided to share this.

While I haven't watched it, the movie is free to watch online (if you're over 18). It is, of course, NWS. Porn and all.

Reviews say parts of it (the non-sex stuff: costuming and effects) are surprisingly good, but the sex is bad. That about matches up with the porn versions of the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, all those movies.

Unrelated: While I 100% failed on my diet today (or, well, 66% I guess -- breakfast and lunch), I seem to be on track to succeed on the sleeping end of things. I (sadly) bowed out of a good RP scene so I could go to bed.

On! And gonzostar (or anyone), do you have a protein shake you like? I tried to research it tonight, but opinions on brands/flavors are surprisingly hard to find. I must be failing in my searches, because the opinions have to be out there somewhere. I need to start shopping for the shakes, powders, and the special vitamins soon.

Must not get nervous. Still lots of time left to figure all this out. *meditation noises*

I did bad dieting this week. I broke my diet four or five times, including cookies last night (serving = 2 cookies, I had 6 -- annoyingly, they weren't even very good). I just spot-checked my weight to see how bad it would be when I check officially on Wednesday.

I'm down seven pounds in five days.

I'm not complaining at all, but I had french fries on Saturday. I thought I was doomed.

This is just all so strange.

Also: So very very tired. Stayed up until 3 AM Friday and Saturday night RPing (eeee!), never caught up on sleep from being low last week. It's been more than a week since I got more than 5-6 hours sleep per night. zzz

I don't like writing about diet/weight nonstop, but it seems the only news I have to share lately. However, I'll make it brief. I lost three pounds this week (WOO). Yesterday my schedule got messed up (had to stay late for work meeting), so I ate a "bad" lunch (not just a deli sandwich with bread, but a large one instead of small -- I bought it telling myself I'd save half for later, knowing full well that was a complete and total lie). Felt like crap the rest of the day from eating too much.

In sleep news, stayed up too late RPing last night, but oh was it good and totally worth it. :D I suspect my RP is going to take a turn into the dark and depressing, which is A-OK with me. Skipped using the CPAP machine because it was so late, and slept wonderfully -- best sleep I've gotten in weeks. Even short on hours, I feel a lot more rested today than usual.

Still no word on the insurance covering my surgery or not. They said it could take up to 15 business days to decide (starting this week), so that puts us awfully close to the surgery date itself... Worry worry.

I did that 40 minute phone call with the nurse. Was boring and pointless, but mostly painless. Mostly stupid covering-their-asses questions like "Have you ever been so sad you didn't want to get out of bed?". First off, no. Second off, if I did feel that way, I sure as heck wouldn't tell you as that would likely red flag me on surgery.

Off to work! Have a good almost-Friday everyone!

Sheepsquatch by I. Ronik
Rating: 2/disliked (1-5/hated-loved)
(Book received free for review from Streetlight Graphics Publishing .)



You know, if a book bills itself as being bad, it should be. With a title like Sheepsquatch, I thought this book would have to be amusingly bad. It wasn't. It wasn't even plain-bad (though it wasn't good, either).

A comment on Amazon compared it to one of those bad SyFy movies, which was pretty accurate. Unfortunately, what works for a movie (not caring about the characters because they're all stupid and will be dead soon) doesn't work in a book.

There's not much plot to explain. A Sheepsquatch (or, I suppose to be more exact, a were-sheepsquatch) is loose in the woods and likes to kidnap women. The police are trying to catch it. Unfortunately the chief of police has a fatal flaw: When he saw a dead woman, he had a massive heart attack and died. The book outright said it was because he saw a dead body. (Not grossly killed or gory or anything.) How in the world does one survive as a copy long enough to become chief if he will fall over dead when he sees a dead body? (I know, I know, the book description says "it's best not taken seriously", but how can one read a book without questioning things like that?)

The subtitle was what sold the book to me. "It's ba-aaad." Sheepsquatch. Ba-aad. I'm easily amused.

The writing was surprisingly good. Not like "wow I have to stop reading to admire that sentence!" good, but no typos and no grammar issues. That was a nice change from the books I've been reading lately.

There was one odd issue: There must have been a typo in the file name(?). On the home screen of my Kindle, the book's title shows as Sleepsquatch instead of Sheep.

---

Speaking of sleep... This five day sleep study is going to be the death of me. I didn't sleep Sunday night, so I came into this already very short on sleep. I got about 45 minutes of sleep last night (30 minutes of that when I took off the stupid machine and tried to get a brief nap in before my alarm went off).

Forget about waterboarding, they should put the Guantanamo detainees on CPAP machines.

For those lucky enough not to know, CPAP machines force air into you while you sleep, to keep you breathing steadily. Your mouth/nose gets covered with a mask, a hose attached to the mask, and air is pushed in at wind tunnel force. I'm not exaggerating, there is real wind coming out of the hose. So yeah, you're trying to sleep with a mask on, if the mask slips at all you get WIND hitting you in the eyes, the mask is attached to a big hose, the hose to a small-ish machine (so don't turn over or it might knock the machine off your bedside stand!). Plus for these first five days I get to be wired up to a finger oxygen/pulse sensor as well.

I'm a light sleeper. Someone walking by on the sidewalk outside my apartment wakes me up. I also can't sleep with the covers even touching my chin, let alone anything covering my mouth. And I'm supposed to be able to sleep with this setup?

I have to do this for four more nights. I've gotten three hours of sleep total in the last two nights, and I doubt I'll get much more while on this damned study. I'm so exhausted now, I think I'll be a danger near the end of the week.

Why am I doing this? The third in a series of miserable sleep studies? Just another damned hoop I have to jump through to get surgery. Sigh.