Monday, May 30, 2005

memorial day

happy memorial day.

my little brother has been activated and is going to iraq to dismantle landmines for 12-24 months. yippee!!!

"We need love and peace, love and peace. Lay down, lay down your guns, all your daughters of Zion, all your Abraham sons." ---U2

Sunday, May 22, 2005

reading list

until i figure out how to get this in my sidebar as a separate entity, i'll post it here.

current fare




previously read



any suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Monday, May 16, 2005

to do list

get.life.in.order.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

wtf!

why me?!?! no seriously.
i'm standing in my living room, alternating between watching the cubs game & checking on an angel food cake i'm baking for a little neighbourhood grill out later this afternoon. this is all less than an hour ago. i hear a truck drive by my window & then a loud crunch/crashing noise. thinking to myself no #ffing way, i run outside to find the bumper of my car just hanging. my newly washed this morning car, mind you.
it had been going on november '03 since i'd had any kindof major bang up. this is probably #6 since my first big & horrifying accident in december '02.
how does someone run into a parked car when the friggin' garbage truck backs up the driveway twice a week without putting a scratch on the 5 cars parked there? some people. of course, this is also the guy who is dating the girl in the next building who ran into the back of the lean-to where she parks. (she wasn't even backing in; she just ran into the back wall.) a perfect match.

*sigh*

happy mother's day.

banking 101

yesterday was fun. i made a little excursion to the bank to see if i could recoup some overdraft fees i'd managed to yet again accrue at the end of the month. i know, i know, at my age i should definitely have some fiscal safety net, but i don't. it's not like i'm some gucci/prada/louis vuitton-whoring fashionista who lives beyond her means. circumstances (read-college loans, overpriced property & assorted mishaps: automobile & health-induced) have led me to a life of scraping by on a monthly basis. anyroad, i digress, after changing jobs at the end of march, i basically went 6 weeks without a paycheck because my new employer only does payroll once a month. (over 3000 employees, can you imagine the 24/7 machine that would be printing paychecks if they did it every other week?) annoying, but that's university life. so on 4/28 i got a lovely $25 charge on my account, putting me another -25. one more check clears the next day, making the negative balance plunge deeper, so as banking logic has it, i'm now charged a $50 fee.
my mum has worked at a bank for ages, before i was born & again for the past 6 or 7 years. i asked if tellers ever take pity on poor wretches like me & reverse od fees and what excuses are plausible enough to do so. she told me it's been done & i meander into the bank with my pathetic 'well, i just started a new job where they only pay once a month & the end of this month just happened to fall over the weekend, so the paycheck wasn't deposited until monday... (stupid may 1st falling on a sunday!)'

and that's all it took.

the customer service guy tapped in a few keystrokes, looked at my account & said they were gone. i'll still be charged $12 for going under my $100 minimum balance, but $12 compared to $87 is chump change.

so folks, if you ever happen to find yourself in this situation, it never hurts to ask.

"Please know what I mean. I say nothing. I say nothing." ---Mason Jennings

Saturday, May 07, 2005

one stone

so i've put on a stone (read-14 lbs) in the past two weeks since my meds were increased. now comes the process of losing the weight & staying well. ugh! i don't believe in dieting, though i will acquiesce to not stuffing my face every second of the day. more pilates for me & i ordered one of those giant ball things. i wonder if they work?
speaking of stones, last night i was sitting in my parking lot with the neighbors, having a drink & getting gravel embedded into my palms since i sat on the asphalt. the creepy neighbor guy who lives in the basement came round when he saw my friend had her cats outside & started chatting. I was formally introduced & he asked if he could go inside & get his camera to take a picture of the cats, then asked if he could take a picture of the two of us. *shudder* i dislike being so judgmental, but this is a man who lurks around the corners of the buildings with a pair of binoculars & furtively scurries away when he sees people approaching. maybe he's just shy, but there are a hella lot of windows to accidentally look into when you roam the neighborhood with a pair of lenses. now that we've met, i'll try to be a bit more open.
one more stone reference for today: i watched stone reader last weekend, a documentary about a man searching for the author of a best-selling novel in the early '70s, who then dropped off the face the planet. much of it takes place locally as the author was at the ui writer's workshop. interesting for any bibliophile to watch, i'd say.

"It's not the end, the end of the world. It's just another day depending on grace." ---Matthew West (i really need to find this cd so i can listen to it again)

Sunday, May 01, 2005

food

it's all i can think of. it has to be all in my head because considering the massive quantities i've eaten today alone (two reuben sandwiches, cauliflower & cheese, two dinner rolls with butter, a thin mint cookie, half a bag of salt & vinegar potato chips, glass of milk & a hunk of red velvet cake), there's no way that my stomach actually needs anything else. but i want something, food in my mouth. call it an oral fixation, if you will. these stupid steroids. and it's so glaringly obvious to me that i've gained weight because i've been eating like this for at least the past two weeks. sickening, yet i know that i need the drugs to get well. i just wish the side effects weren't so, i don't know, noticeable. the fluctuation in my weight can't be all too healthy either.

oh yeah, and i'm all spotty. just what else i need. thanks again steroids. :-p

"Brace yourself with all that you have." ---Howie Day

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