Domestic Geek

Current mood: lethargic
I. am. so. burnt. out.

Seriously, the two weeks off from school was supposed to recharge my batteries so that I could get through the last ten weeks of my associates degree. I've spent the last month in pain which has drained me more than ever. Top it off with a car that keeps wanting to be put out of its misery (it has got over 280,000 miles on it) and I'm freakin' burnt.

I need a leave of absence. Five weeks off last year did wonders for my well-being. Too bad they rarely offer the class I'm taking at the moment. *sigh* I had a part of my final project due today. Did I finish it? No. Did I feel guilty about that? A little. Is this like me? Not at all. Normal me would've stayed up all night with absolutley no sleep to meet a deadline. Burnt me went to bed at 1 a.m. and said "f-ck it." Not good. Not good at all.

I love the new Bowling for Soup song called 1985. It's hilarious. There is a video for the song on the band's website. Check it out, it's too damned funny (especially if you're a child of the '80s like I am!).

So, it's a day late, but here's the story about the neighbor kids. I was trying to nap on Saturday afternoon because I'm so damned tired lately. They were jumping on the trampoline, but I was blocking that out. I started to hear thunder rumble and then I hear what I thought, in my half asleep state, was the tornado warning thing. I heard a mechanical voice talking, but it was in Spanish. I thought to myself, "Self, since when did they start doing warning information in Spanish?" Then I hear one of the kids on the trampoline yell, "What did you say?" Then the mechanical voice answers, "Burrito!" or some other such nonsense (I'm still half asleep, mind you). Yep, they had some kind of dumb Mr. Microphone or Karaoke machine pointed at my bedroom window. Oh, the joy of it all. Needless to say, my nap was over. Sadly, I was a bit grumpy the rest of the day.

They moved a double-wide out of here the other day. I think they displaced a bunch of cockroaches. I found one running across my dryer last night. Between Marcus with the wasp killer and me with the vacuum, we got him. I hope he was just a scout and, since he will not return to the troops, the rest will not venture into my humble abode. The last thing I need is a cockroach problem. Ewww.

OK, well, I've got reading to do for class tomorrow, so I'm going to bed and I'll get up early to do it. The old me would've just sucked it up and read it and had the sleeping hours to let the info sink it. Oh, well.

Current mood: gloomy
OK, I know I said I'd post a long entry last Sunday, but I've been so damned out of it this week. Between the neck thing and getting back into a school routine and really, really hating being around the people I work with, sitting at a computer for any length of time was out of the question last week.

The visit with Marcus' mom went well. She's a really nice woman. I wish we could get out to see her more often. We ate breakfast at LePeep three days in a row, Marcus taught her how to iChat with his sister in Germany, had a BBQ so that my father could finally meet his mother (we've only been together 12 years and the parents had never met!), shared many Marcus stories. Good times. Marcus' mom wants me to come to Germany with her to visit Marcus' sister in March. Since I'm totally broke, don't see how I'll accomplish that. It would be cool to go, though. We're going to Tennessee in early October. That's the only time that Marcus and his mom could coordinate time off from work. I'll just have to miss a week of school, I guess.

After much internal debate, I decided to go ahead and enroll in the Bachelor degree program at Platt. Supposedly, some of my UNC credits should transfer so that I won't have to take as many general ed classes. I'm supposed to find out which ones early next week. The classes with only be 2-3 nights a week, so I can still find some other work. Good news is, the placement lady told me to come see her on Friday--she's being inundated with people wanting web design. Bad news is, she wasn't in her office on Friday. :( Oh, well. Monday is only a couple of days away!

I read a good portion of the "Save Karyn" book at Barnes & Noble the other day. I've been toying with the idea of starting a "begging website". I mean, people have sent gigglechick over $1,000 to buy a stupid car. I don't know, maybe I have too much self respect left. I just can't seem to do it. Things will go on sale on eBay this weekend, though and if some web work comes my way, I'll probably be ok. I'm considering selling my plasma again. I've just been so depressed about my finances, lately. My debt is way higher than I realized, my car is still having major problems, I recently got the bills from when I sliced my thumb open, I hate living in this trailer park, I really need to get software if I'm going to make a go of doing any sort of freelance design work. *sigh* Top it off with the fact that Marcus' employment future seems less than solid. No wonder I'm losing my hair and not getting enough sleep.

Well, speaking of sleep, I'd better go get some before I have to get to work. The stupid manager gets back from his vacation tomorrow and I want to get out of there before he "pops in" to see the assistant he is stalking. G'night.

Current mood: sore
Man, I feel like I've been hit by a truck today. Oh, wait, I kinda was. I think all the severe weather the last couple of days are wreaking havok with my accident injuries. My neck is killing me today.

Well, Marcus' mom made it in safely, so I must go entertain. I'll post a good, long entry on Sunday.

Current mood: frantic
ARGH, Marcus' mom is going to be here the day after tomorrow and I haven't made a dent in my housecleaning! (So, why the hell are you sitting at your computer?) I just got home from work and am reading my email and decided I needed to post about a possibly disturbing development about our accident.

An Aurora police officer has been trying to contact me for the last three days and I keep missing him. Apparently there is some sort of "ongoing investigation" into the whole "alleged incident". Marcus talked to the officer this afternoon and, while he can't say anything until their investigation is complete, he gave Marcus the impression that the story has changed from the guy that hit us. If he wasn't the victim of an attempted carjacking, I'm going to be super pissed off, especially since I've been in pain for more than a week because of the accident. I hope they finish the investigation soon because I want to know! I guess the good news is that if he didn't cause the accident because of a "moment of peril," Marcus should be able to collect the deductable from the guys' insurance company. Hmmm......

Current mood: sore
It's been a really interesting weekend. I didn't get much sleep Thursday night trying to get my project finished to turn it in. I lost about 2 hours worth of work when the program crashed and I hadn't saved. Doh! I got enough of it done to turn it--probably won't get a really good grade, but didn't really care. I left school about 3:30 and went home to take a nap. This huge storm rolled in and between the storm and the nervous dog, I couldn't sleep.

When Marcus got home from work, I asked him if he wanted to order in a pizza and watch "Enemy at the Gates" that I rented for him. He wanted to go to Michaels to look at shadow boxes first for a project he wants to do. Since we were out, we decided to go out to eat instead of getting a pizza. As we're sitting at the light on our way to restaurant row on Abilene, we got rear-ended at Sable/Mississippi. Marcus had seen him coming up on him and knew he wasn't going to stop. He held hard on the brakes to make sure we didn't chain react into the car in front of us. The guy's Jeep got pretty jacked because I could see all the antifreeze immediatley all over the street. Then Marcus got out of the truck to go read the guy the riot act and it turns out he had been the victim of an attempted car jacking at Chambers/Mississippi and since he refused to give up his car, the dude tried to stab him. The poor guy was in shock and a little disoriented and was trying to drive himself to the hospital. Marcus decided to escort the guy to the hosptial and file an accident report from there (there are actually alot of police officers there on a Friday night!). I didn't think the guy was going to make it because first of all, he had lost all his radiator fluid. Second, he started weaving badly and I was getting afraid he was going to cause another accident. I thought maybe he was losing consciousness or something. It turns out this was because the accident jacked up his steering/power steering.

Fortunately, the carjacker only sliced through the guy's shirt and scratched the skin. He was mostly suffering from panic and shock, I think.

The story is really bizarre in that he had recently returned from Iraq because of some injuries he received there and was awaiting a medical discharge. He totally hates living here and was looking forward to moving home. He only had liability insurance, so he is screwed as far as repairing his vehicle. He said at the hospital that he should've let the guy have the car, at least he might have gotten it back in one piece. Marcus found out today when he called to check on him and apologize for being initally gruff with him that the poor guy is also in the midst of a divorce. With all that poor guy is going through right now, my problems don't seem so significant.

Marcus was a little unnerved that a car jacking could happen around here. I asked him if he was totally oblivious to the news lately. It seems like almost every day anymore that something bad is happening in Aurora. I remember seeing a thing on the news a couple of weeks back about how gang activity is up just as the city is cutting funding to the gang unit.

Fortunatley, Marcus' truck has a sturdy bumper and the damage is minimal compared to the other vehicle. We took it to the adjustor today. Marcus will have to pay the deductable and he may not get it back. When our insurance tries to collect from his, they may claim it was a "moment of peril" and that they are not responsible for paying. If they do pay, though, Marcus is supposed to get the money back. We'll see, but we're not holding our breath.

Today my neck is totally sore. I felt a little achy Friday night where the seat belt cross my chest, but I expected that. I'm sure that making dough for two days on top of any slight injury I might have had just made it worse. Oh, well. At least it wasn't worse.

So, tonight we finally got the see the movie. Except for a sex scene (that was totally unnecessary is a war movie), it was an excellent movie. As soon as I get the laundry in the dryer, I'm going to bed. I have no school for the next two weeks and I need to get my life in order.

Anway, if you want to read Marcus' account of the whole accident ordeal, read it here.