Well, that didn’t last very long. What a horrible weekend. It started badly, with a phone call from the surgery center where I’ll be having surgery tomorrow. The person on the phone informed me that the money I’ve already paid to the doctor only covered the doctor’s services, and I’d be expected to pay quite a bit more for the surgery center’s services as well as the anesthesiologist. It was kind of a devastating realization. The medical bills keep piling up, and I don’t know what to do about it.
On Friday, I had some people over to play games in the afternoon, and then in the evening my roommate and I made dinner for friends of ours who just had a baby a month ago. My sister was going out that evening, and said to call her when dinner was over so I could meet her for drinks/music, so I called, and texted, and although she kept telling me that they weren’t done with dinner yet, she never called me back. I felt so alone in the world. After having no one to spend Friday night with, and finding out about even more medical bills, I spent the entire day Saturday in bed. I spent most of the morning crying in bed, and the entire afternoon and evening watching tv and movies, working on amigurumi projects for my neice and nephew, and sneezing uncontrollably, because the first rain of the season actually made my allergies worse instead of better. I only got out of bed to go to the bathroom, get some food (which I ate in bed), and get a beer from the fridge (which I drank in bed). The only thing that really made me feel better was watching the new Star Trek movie. Again. That always cheers me up.
Sunday was a bit better. I spent the day at my sister’s house, having a nice pancake brunch and carving pumpkins. The part of the day that sucked was running around in the pumpkin patch in the rain (by myself, of course) trying to find some decent carving pumpkins from what was left, and especially trying to find some that weren’t too big, because I assumed that they were sold by weight. Alas, they were $2.99 each, and I should have just bought three giant ones from the small pile that was under the overhang, where I wouldn’t have gotten soaked.
And then this morning just takes the cake. My alarm didn’t go off for whatever reason (unless I managed to turn it off in my sleep), but luckily my roommate woke me up somehow by making noise outside. Then I found all my Tupperware from last week in my bike bag, which I apparently forgot to clean out over the weekend. Oops. So I hurried to throw some food together and completely forgot to eat breakfast. I left for work extremely late because I took the time to put my new headlight on my bike, but the beam was so weak that I might as well not have even had it. As I was pedaling as quickly as I could to work, my stomach started growling loudly, reminding me that I had forgotten breakfast. Then, while waiting at a stop sign for a bunch of cars to go by, most of whom were turning and not using their turn signals, I decided to go for it during a break in traffic. I stood up on my pedal to push and BAM my foot slipped off and I landed partly on the seat and partly on the top tube. Boy did that hurt. I did the best I could to get to work as quickly as possible when I discovered that I didn’t have my badge with me and I had absolutely no idea where it even was. So I had to lock my bike outside because my badge is what gets me into the bike cage, which meant I had to take the headlight off anyway. So much for using my time efficiently. Hopefully the rest of the day will go better, but I’m not expecting much at this point.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Something's finally going right!
Well, I had a splendid night last night, thanks to my good friends who live less than half a mile from me. But first, some backstory. I’ll keep it short and sweet. Basically, about two weeks ago, my kitchen faucet, which had been acting funny for a while, finally broke completely, forcing my roommate and I to turn on the water using a pair of pliers. I finally got around to buying a new faucet last weekend, only to discover the next day when I tried to install it that there were several pieces missing. The weekend also proved to be disheartening. After spending an evening on the town Saturday night, we discovered that our bike lights had been stolen, and the next morning I woke up with a hangover to my roommate informing me that the toilet in her bathroom had started leaking all over. I was exhausted and not feeling well, and it seemed like everything was going wrong.
OK, back to the original story and why last night ended up so well. First, my roommate and I managed to take the toilet apart, replace the wax ring, and put it all back together in record time, with no accidents and almost no cursing. I decided to wait another day to exchange the faucet and buy new lights for my bike, so I made a quick dinner and settled down to eat. Just as I was finishing, my friends showed up. They’re a wonderful couple who are expecting a baby next month, and they came over to pick up some baby supplies my sister had given me to give to them. The husband, Mike, noticed the faucet sitting on my kitchen table, opened the box, found the one missing part that I actually needed (the other two were for an optional installation that wasn’t necessary for my countertop/sink type) and then proceeded to change out the faucet for me! While I’m sure I could have done it on my own, it was soooo nice to have something get fixed and not have to be the person to spend hours trying to figure it out and cursing a lot. Being independent and able to do everything for myself is nice, but it’s also really overrated. Sometimes it’s nice just to have someone around to fix things when they break. I feel like a huge load has been lifted off my shoulders. Tonight, I can go to happy hour with another friend and not worry that I’ve left my roommate without a working toilet or kitchen sink. Yay!
Oh, and a short update on the bathroom: Everything is done except the baseboards. The floor is uneven, but it’s not horrible, and the tile and colors and towel bars look awesome. My roommate did an amazing job decorating it, and it looks like a designer bathroom, and I absolutely love it. I’d like to get the baseboards in before the beginning of December so that I can have a combination Hanukkah dinner/bathroom grand opening. I’m just hoping to find the energy to redo my own bathroom next...
OK, back to the original story and why last night ended up so well. First, my roommate and I managed to take the toilet apart, replace the wax ring, and put it all back together in record time, with no accidents and almost no cursing. I decided to wait another day to exchange the faucet and buy new lights for my bike, so I made a quick dinner and settled down to eat. Just as I was finishing, my friends showed up. They’re a wonderful couple who are expecting a baby next month, and they came over to pick up some baby supplies my sister had given me to give to them. The husband, Mike, noticed the faucet sitting on my kitchen table, opened the box, found the one missing part that I actually needed (the other two were for an optional installation that wasn’t necessary for my countertop/sink type) and then proceeded to change out the faucet for me! While I’m sure I could have done it on my own, it was soooo nice to have something get fixed and not have to be the person to spend hours trying to figure it out and cursing a lot. Being independent and able to do everything for myself is nice, but it’s also really overrated. Sometimes it’s nice just to have someone around to fix things when they break. I feel like a huge load has been lifted off my shoulders. Tonight, I can go to happy hour with another friend and not worry that I’ve left my roommate without a working toilet or kitchen sink. Yay!
Oh, and a short update on the bathroom: Everything is done except the baseboards. The floor is uneven, but it’s not horrible, and the tile and colors and towel bars look awesome. My roommate did an amazing job decorating it, and it looks like a designer bathroom, and I absolutely love it. I’d like to get the baseboards in before the beginning of December so that I can have a combination Hanukkah dinner/bathroom grand opening. I’m just hoping to find the energy to redo my own bathroom next...
Monday, October 11, 2010
Alone
Lately, I’ve been feeling more and more alone, and I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on why. I know that part of it has to do with the vast majority of my friends getting married and starting families, while I can barely get a date. It seems the relationship train left the station a while ago, and I was late and missed it. Dang. And while I’m ok with being single, being one of the few single people I know is starting to take its toll. Everyone has their own family now. They don’t need my company anymore, and they certainly don’t have time for it. My circle of friends has slowly disintegrated until I can barely tell its there. And on those rare occasions when someone does manage to have some time to spend with me, I’m the one who has to put in all of the effort. After all, I’m the single one!
Another part of it is that I have been working in a field other than architecture for the last 7 months (and was out of work for 3 months before that). Architecture tends to be a very communal field. People work together on projects, and you rarely see real cubicles or offices in architecture firms, with most office layouts being very open. My new job is nothing like that. I sit in my enclosed cubicle for hours at a stretch without talking to anyone. I can literally go all day without having a conversation with another person. And then I go to the gym and either run (which is very unsocial, unfortunately) or climb, and when I climb, I talk my partner’s ear off because it’s the first human interaction I’ve had in some time. And then I go home, where my roommate is often not home or is busy working on projects in her room. So I’ve started watching TV, mainly because it makes me feel like I have some sort of community, even though the other people in the community are only characters, and they don’t even know I exist. But at least I’m a bit less lonely.
Something my sister said to me recently made me want to cry. She basically said that I was lucky to be single, because I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. If only life were that simple! Yes, I might have a bit more freedom with my schedule, but I always have to do everything alone. Which often means I don’t get to do it at all, because it’s just not safe or efficient to do it alone (such as backpacking. I don't feel comfortable heading into the wilderness by myself). Also, it means that I HAVE to do all of the necessary things. I don’t have anyone else to pick up the slack. For example, I wasn’t feeling good yesterday. When I lay down, I felt better, but I was starving. But when I got up to make something, I felt so sick that I just wanted to lie down again. Since I’m single and have no one to help me out, I spent the day lying down and starving. It was one of the worse days I’ve had lately. And then I woke up this morning to a mess in my kitchen because there was no one else to clean it up. That's just not the way to start my week. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be feeling a bit better about all of this. And today I'm feeling much better physically, so at least that's a start.
Another part of it is that I have been working in a field other than architecture for the last 7 months (and was out of work for 3 months before that). Architecture tends to be a very communal field. People work together on projects, and you rarely see real cubicles or offices in architecture firms, with most office layouts being very open. My new job is nothing like that. I sit in my enclosed cubicle for hours at a stretch without talking to anyone. I can literally go all day without having a conversation with another person. And then I go to the gym and either run (which is very unsocial, unfortunately) or climb, and when I climb, I talk my partner’s ear off because it’s the first human interaction I’ve had in some time. And then I go home, where my roommate is often not home or is busy working on projects in her room. So I’ve started watching TV, mainly because it makes me feel like I have some sort of community, even though the other people in the community are only characters, and they don’t even know I exist. But at least I’m a bit less lonely.
Something my sister said to me recently made me want to cry. She basically said that I was lucky to be single, because I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. If only life were that simple! Yes, I might have a bit more freedom with my schedule, but I always have to do everything alone. Which often means I don’t get to do it at all, because it’s just not safe or efficient to do it alone (such as backpacking. I don't feel comfortable heading into the wilderness by myself). Also, it means that I HAVE to do all of the necessary things. I don’t have anyone else to pick up the slack. For example, I wasn’t feeling good yesterday. When I lay down, I felt better, but I was starving. But when I got up to make something, I felt so sick that I just wanted to lie down again. Since I’m single and have no one to help me out, I spent the day lying down and starving. It was one of the worse days I’ve had lately. And then I woke up this morning to a mess in my kitchen because there was no one else to clean it up. That's just not the way to start my week. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be feeling a bit better about all of this. And today I'm feeling much better physically, so at least that's a start.
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