ALLERGY HEAD. Nose itchy. Head achy. Tired. Want to stay in bed for another 3 days at least. Not to mention the general Monday malaise coming off a 3 day weekend. I really should have taken the day off, but well, I don’t even know what the to-do list looks like…sigh.
At least 3 days.
I was not in a good mood last night. No siree.
Lil Ling went outside in the afternoon and didn’t come right back in when called several hours later so Sasha Kitten and Simba Cat could go outside. And Sasha Kitten was NOT happy and cried from about 8pm-9pm straight and drove me batty.
I kept yelling loudly. And all I could think of was this poor cat just wants to go out, he is telling me what he wants and I can’t give it to him and he is crying and crying.
OH GOD I’M GOING TO BE A TERRIBLE MOTHER SOMEDAY.
I mean I was screaming and swearing and went to reach for the water bottle I had hanging on the doorknob and was squirting him and by the 10th squirt I sniffed and realized I WAS SQUIRTING MY CAT WITH LYSOL ANTIBIOTIC KITCHEN CLEANER INSTEAD OF THE BOTTLE OF WATER (unsuccessfully I might add THANK GOD, he kept getting away.) (Insert: Terrible Mother Thoughts)
By the time Mark got home I couldn’t take it any longer. And I know how much Mark LOVES when I scream obscenities at the top of my high volume lungs at the cats to begin with, so once last time I tried to call Little Ling in and she wasn’t coming. So I said “to hell with it” and let my two boys out. (Insert: Terrible Mother Thoughts) While the outside is big and vast and has room for many cats, my boys LOVE TO CHASE LITTLE LING and I just knew I would hear a cat brawl 30 minutes later. Or end up hearing Little Ling crying in the neighbors backyard because she is up a tree and scared to come down because of Simba the Stalker. AND YET I DIDN’T CARE AND LET MY BOYS OUT ANYWAY.
Bad person. I’m a bad person.
By the time we went to bed, CNN was staked outside of the presumptive democratic vice-presidential picks house and Team Obama had still not sent out their text. I went to the air conditioner in the bedroom to dump the water tray, because it makes crackling sounds when too much water is in there, and I decided one last time to call for Little Ling. Nothing, oh well! I dumped at least two cups of water from the unit (I’m still amazed each time I do this, holy dehumidifier Batman!) and went to bed.
About 2 hours later…the annoying cry of Simba Cat was outside my window. I grudgingly get out of bed and let him inside. About 1 hour later? The wee mews of Little Ling outside the bedroom window. I move the air conditioning unit out so she can come in and WALLA just like that with a hop, skip, purr and a jolly jump she’s inside.
About 2.5 hours later the alarm goes off and I curse because I always forget that I HATE THE NPR SHOW IT’S ONLY A GAME. Grrr. I reprogram the clock to weekend time, 8 am and wouldn’t you know it SIMBA CAT STARTS THE HOWLING OUTSIDE THE BEDROOM DOOR. I tell Mark I can’t take it anymore and he needs to get up this time to see if he needs food because I just did twice overnight. (Seriously, does he NOT hear the cats?) It’s almost time to get up anyhow, so Mark is up and out of bed and in the shower when I get the wake up call that Obama sent his text message out at 3:30 announcing Biden.
BIDEN? REALLY? He had the world waiting on pins and needles all week and…(well read the next post to see what I thought.)
I get out of bed and turn on CNN and check my email and there it is. I always hate *missing* things by sleeping. Dammit.
At some point I turn to the counter near the bathroom when speaking to Mark and I see a bottle of Lysol Kitchen Cleaner. THAT’S WHERE I PUT THE *KITTY NO* WATER I KNEW I WASN’T GOING CRAZY! No, not crazy, but I did dump an entire new bottle of cleaner down the drain to fill it up with water after I realized I was squirting my bad vocal cat WITH POISON.
And to think it was only 8 am!
Tales of an air conditioner gone wrong by allthingsdrinkalittlewinepunchjennifer.com
A few weeks back I broke down and decided life was way too short to be such a bitch and I realized I was NEVER going to get a damn KITCHENAID mixer from a wedding to Mark if I kept being so grumpy because I hate the heat. (Seriously, not jealous of any of the marrieds I know or the child filled friends I know, but the damn KITCHENAID MIXER…grrr…I WANT ONE! Bad.)
Anyhow.
Where was I? Dreaming of Kitchenaid mixers…
Oh yeah. I hate the heat. Front page of Buffalo News Lifestyle Section. AIR CONDITIONER.
Considering just how much I hate the heat and humidity one would think I would already own one of these air conditioner units I hear so much about. But you see. I’m cheap. I used to be just poor. And then DIRT ROCK BOTTOM DESPERATE POOR and now just plain cheap and a little bit poor.
It’s only miserable hot in Buffalo what…6-7 days the entire year? And rarely in a row. I just take 27 quicky showers and deal. Fans blow on me all is ok, except not really ok because in my bedroom if fans blow on me that means cat hair blows on me and I wake up stuffy and filled with unhappy itchyness. I have air conditioning in the office. It’s all ok.
Except when it’s not. And I hate it. So I decided to proactively do something about this situation a few weeks ago when Target had wee air conditioners on sale for $79.99. I secured a raincheck for 2 and thought life will be good the next time it is hot.
But here I am, on the tail end of next time it is hot and Target hasn’t had a damn air conditioner in stock let alone the one they had on special! The raincheck expires on July 24th. This morning when I called and asked, once again, if they knew if they would have stock in the woman told me that they DID last week but they were gone within an hour and they have no control. NO CONTROL? What the hell? We’re not talking barrels of oil from Iraq people! Order more god dammed air conditioners to meet the demand of your customers!
Ok…so I called Target again and they didn’t satisfy, again. I called Home Depot on a whim. And after being on hold for a long time, the woman told me a shipment came in and they had $99 air conditioners and $150 ones IN STOCK. So what did I do this morning before work? DRIVE TO HOME DEPOT TO GET AN AIR CONDITIONER. The entire way there I was trying to decide if I wanted one or two. I might want two at the $79.99 price but at $99? Um, I can just move it from room to room or something…
Anyhow, I get to Home Depot. And SURPRISE SURPRISE no $99 air conditioners in sight. (Wah, wah.) I am ambivalent towards the $150 model, but my friend Jen and Tim (central air peeps) will be staying at my house on Sat. I simply MUST. I buy one unit.
I bring the one unit into the middle room, open up the box and find WAY TOO MANY FREAKING INSTRUCTIONS. And something unattached with screws. SCREWS? DON’T YOU JUST STICK IT IN AND IT MAKES EVERYTHING ALL BETTER? Ahem. The more I read the more frustrated I got. So instead of going dress shopping which I have waited until the very last second to do so I know I am going to find the PERFECT DRESS in EXACTLY MY SIZE for $10!! Cause that’s what always happens…um…
I started drinking wine punch instead. I poured a glass had a few sips and came back in the middle room and asked Mark for help. We got about as far as looking at our outlet when we realized this darn thing doesn’t work. We don’t have a three pronger. And well there are all these warnings and scary pictures in the instructions
“Fire. Hazard. DANGER! Licensed and qualified electrician!”
Forget it. I didn’t want the damn $150 model anyhow. And Jen and Tim will be drunk after the wedding and not even notice how hot it is in the bright orange middle room. Right?
After putting the air conditioner back in the box I realized I needed more punch. Um, and it has gone all down hill from there friends…
Things greater than or equal to my dislike of this heat and humidity…
1. Eye Surgery
2. Gin
3. The Twitter Whale
5. Asking people for help
6. Casino Gambling as the panacea for all of Buffalo’s woes
7. Ignorance
8. A child who looked to be 17 hanging with his girl while wearing this shirt and pushing around a baby stroller at the 4th of July fireworks family celebration
9. Mondays
10. Watching the Buffalo Bills lose
11. My ability to misplace my glasses (both pairs) 100 times a week
12. Nursing homes
13. The shocking low stock of air conditioners available in the city of Buffalo.
14. Reading posts from the past about things I hate that end up turning into happy posts when I am still hot and humid and muggy and can’t find either pair of glasses to get the hell out of here and into air conditioning somewhere else while shipping for a dress to wear this weekend.
Ah…I sort of take this as a little complement.
You see my new co-worker friend Marina just moved back to the area from Boston where she lived for 10 years. Every day I come into work with “something” that I just have to talk about, or rant about…and today it was the history of the casino in Buffalo and my feelings about this topic. (Short version, she asked for the short version.) When I was finished with the short version 10 minutes later she told me that I reminded her of someone… 
Pretty funny.
So I’m Cartman, but not evil. Rally the troops and listen to my cause!!!
Oh boy. Earlier this week, like most Americans, we received notices from the IRS stating that soon we will get a rebate check. I’m pretty certain in that letter it also said that they would send another notice closer to the date of the check release. Just for our information.
What a freaking waste of time and money.
And do you want to know HOW MUCH OF A WASTE OF MONEY?
Add another round of letters likely to the same amount and you have the Government spending $84 MILLION dollars to let us know we will be getting $600 in the mail.
Does this seem like an INCREDIBLE WASTE TO ANYONE ELSE?
Oh what could we do with $42 MILLION DOLLARS? Or $84?
So you’re telling me person writing for the TimesOnline in London that “the former First Lady would give the Democrats a much stronger assurance of success on November 4″ BECAUSE SHE IS FIRST AND FOREMOST A WOMAN? Ugh, you shame my gender.
Her first and most obvious quality is that she is a woman. While official opinion, especially in the US media, self-righteously insists that America is an egalitarian, multicultural society where gender and race should play no role in political allegiance or personal advancement, the fact is that this is nonsense…
Everyone also knows that what makes Mr Obama’s candidacy so exciting is not his oratory or his good looks. It is his race. The possibility of a black president has electrified the world – and rightly so. President Obama would become an inspiring role model, not only for black Americans, but for oppressed races around the world, not least in Africa.
Ok, informal poll here on All Things Jennifer on PEOPLE WHO WOULD VOTE FOR OBAMA. Is it because of his…
a. Oratory Skills
b. Good Looks
c. RACE
d. OBVIOUSLY NONE OF THE ABOVE. PERHAPS HIS OVERALL CANDIDACY INSPIRES? No, never, that couldn’t be! In fact, I’m a registered Republican. WHITE. Not a liberal upper class college professor OR college student. My GOD AM I EVEN ALLOWED TO SUPPORT OBAMA?
e. (Fill in your answer below in the comments.)
Gloria Steinem, the iconic intellectual leader of the 1970s feminist movement, crystallised this reaction in a passionate call to arms that she issued to women voters after Mrs Clinton’s defeat in Iowa: “Why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one? We have to be able to say: “I am supporting Hillary because she’ll be a great president and because she’s a woman’.”
Yes. And we also have to be able to say “I am NOT supporting Hillary because she will be a terrible president regardless of the fact she is a woman.” As a woman PERSON, this is my OUR right… I’m offended every time I hear otherwise. I grew up believing I could be President. Don’t you dare tell me that I need to vote for a woman because I am a woman. It’s embarrassing.
I’m fuming right now. Simply fuming. If there’s one thing I hate in this world it’s ignorant idiots who work in customer service.
Here’s the “cleaned up” version of my GREYHOUND BUS EXPERIENCE last night and continuing into this morning. Cleaned up as in the version I sent to my co-workers just now. Truthfully? I could care less if I got snowed in to Cleveland today, but for the whole part that I JUST STARTED A NEW JOB and do not have ANY TIME OFF (even though my Director is quite accommodating and understanding and wonderful and I was told when I left Friday that she expected they wouldn’t see me on Monday because of the weather, I told her it was just Winter.)
I am BEYOND frustrated right now. I am currently still stuck in Cleveland from last night. When I called Greyhound yesterday to see if the buses were running on time I got “There ain’t no buses going to Buffalo” as my response. After several attempts to explain that I understood there might be cancellations, but I wanted to know when I could find out when the next bus might be scheduled or how I would go about finding out when the travel ban was lifted I got a bunch more “I told you we ain’t got no buses going to Buffalo” answers. So I called the 1-800 line and at least they helped me understand that I might have a better time just calling in the morning. I was assured that I shouldn’t have to pay for another ticket. (Let’s bet on how likely this is to occur.) I checked the airports and felt better after seeing flights were canceled too.
So I called in the morning, around 6:30 am, the customer service rep in Cleveland told me there aren’t any buses scheduled for Buffalo. None. (Which is odd because most certainly there are buses scheduled but they are currently canceled.) She told me to call after 9 am. Of course I have not been trying to call for
30 minutesan hour and no one is ANSWERING THE PHONE. Not even answering the phone.Oh my GOD!
So basically, I called the national office to complain, they told me they see that there are NO BUSES GOING TO BUFFALO and I would just have to keep TRYING TO CALL the office. Period.
Whatever that means, I have no idea. Having Mark drive 4 hours to Cleveland and then 4 hours back (at the cost of at least $100 in gas) so I can get home is not my idea of a fun time but as of now…I’m stuck. Or if I were made of money, I could pay $300 for a flight to get home today, because the airports are open. I think we all know I am anything but made of money.
I’m seriously boiling over here. All the airports and roads are OPEN IN BOTH CITIES. What the hell is going on? And what the hell is it going to be like when 8 bus loads of passengers that have been stuck in Cleveland the last 24 hours attempt to get on the next bus (if there is a bus) to Buffalo?
I don’t expect MUCH from Greyhound. I’ve had pretty continual shitty service for years now and yet tis the only way I can afford to travel to see my friends out of town (or Mark when he lived in Rochester.) Leaving from Buffalo on Friday night the bus was 45 minutes late loading. Why? No reason. All the passengers were lined up, the bus driver was there…the bus was there. No reason at all. Once everyone was on the bus, the bus driver said we were running about an hour behind…to which passengers who had connecting buses in Erie and Cleveland called out “So what do we do about our connecting bus?” The asshole ignorant piece of crap cocky bus driver looked right at them and ignored them. And ya know what? This is the kind of service I expect. I shouldn’t even be surprised that they aren’t answering the phone, because this too has happened more than once.
I guess expecting ANY OUNCE OF professionalism what-so-ever is too much to ask for. And I’m already anticipating the drama of having to purchase another ticket. You see Greyhound recently added the restricted and no restricted level tickets. So you can pay TWICE as much to get an unrestricted ticket that you can change at anytime, or you can buy the regular ticket that requires you to pay money if you have to change your bus ticket. Mind you, when there “ain’t no buses going to Buffalo” common sense would dictate that my ticket would automatically transfer to the next available bus. As I know, common sense never dictates the behavior of the bus.
I shouldn’t be this frustrated!! I had a nice evening with my friends, extra time YAY!!!
But right now I can’t let it go…seriously cannot let it go. I am brimming over!!!
The Literacy Volunteers Holiday Party is tonight. Will I be there? No.
My new office Christmas Party is this evening. Will I be there? No.
Do I have any time to take off of work when I started three weeks ago? No.
Did I have to call in on my 3rd day because my truck died? Yes.
Does this look responsible or promising to a new place of employment? Or pathetic?
Is the place I work at amazingly understanding and wonderful and understands these things happen? Yeah…more than I could ever hope for.
So why am I so stressed/anxious????
