In brief...
Haven't written for quite some time, and have been feeling so guilty about it (yes, Jewish, female, breathing -- so of course I feel guilty!) that I haven't even been reading my Friends page. And then 2.5 weeks ago, I moved upstairs...
I moved into my current digs on 9/1/04. The roof had been leaking during the Summer, and, thanks to some incompetent contractors and a dispute among sub-contractors, it continued to leak. Altho' I live in the 2nd floor apartment of a 3 floor house, my apartment sustained considerable water damage. The 3rd floor tenants moved out at the end of June, so my landfolk had made arrangements to clear 2 rooms for repairs and move me, some of my stuff and my cats upstairs so that the contractors could replace the kitchen ceiling, a hallway ceiling, and strip/replace wallboard/paint the walls in my outer bedroom. My Very Determined, Cheerful, Competent, and Saintly Landlady said she'd make it all happen, and, I gotta tell you... she did. She and her husband, with some help from me, got it done.
Those of you who know me, or have seen my various apartments, or have heard The Stories from others know... I'm not tidy. And I have way, waaaay, waaaaay too much stuff. Both my parents are dead, which does tend to increase the "stuff"age, too. And it puts little emotional time bombs in some of the boxes.
I've also moved three times in the past four years. I'm not good at this at the best of times -- just staying out of the way of others takes up most of my available energy. It's an annoying problem for me and others -- it looks like I'm being a brat or a bitch, when what I'm trying to do is keep from whingeing helpful things like "But I didn't want to pack that yet!" and staving off an anxiety attack or three.
I used to unpack my "comfort things" -- mostly books -- as soon as possible, but over the past few years, I've gotten overwhelmed (or allowed myself to wallow, you pick), and it's gotten harder and harder to deal. Clinical depression doesn't help matters. So... despite working with an organizer during March and April to actually get some of this unpacking etc. done, those rooms were Not Easy.
All hail my Very Determined, Cheerful, etc. Landlady! She's even helping me move back downstairs, slowly, cleaning and re-structuring as we go (and putting up with my Utter Hatred of this task. I will feel better when it's done, and I know it. But I still HATE this. Sigh.).
However, while I'm living on the 3rd floor, I don't have access to my land-line... which means my Internet access is sporadic. So, even less time to keep up/catch up with LJ (and the online update interface I'm currently using is not conducive to using LJ cut-tags and the like, so I apologize for the Boring Expository Lump exposed to all.
So, quick version: in the last couple of months I have:
-attended 2 Morris Ales
-crossed the Canadian border for the first time
-put my ex-next-door-neighbor in the hospital (he was showing symptoms of a stroke) while averting flashbacks to my mom's illness (she did not have a stroke, and it was my Evil Twin who took her to the ER, but I did take her to the doctor, and I get spooky about stuff like that)
-said Kaddish for mom on her fifth Yahrzheit (with Evil Twin)
-continued to tinker with antidepressants and try to look for work despite major depression, sigh
-made a lot of earrings
-started going to a rapper team practice and learning to play its music
-got new glasses (argh! full optical upgrade! new prescription!)
-continued helping to hydrate (sub-q fluids) a recalcitrant tabby
-cat-sat my ex-next-door-neighbors 3 black-and-white kitties
-filled in at a local Scottish import shop a few times
-got the UK edition of the most recent Harry Potter and read the end first
-developed a disturbing addiction to Buffy/Angel fanfic
-finished knitting a pretty blue/turquoise/purple shawl and just need to finish the border
-brushed nearly an entire kitten's worth of fur from one of my longhaired cats
And for my next trick, I'm gonna end this entry... now.
I'll try to respond to comments when next I'm online... and my apologies for dropping off the planet again. I do that periodically. Sigh.
I moved into my current digs on 9/1/04. The roof had been leaking during the Summer, and, thanks to some incompetent contractors and a dispute among sub-contractors, it continued to leak. Altho' I live in the 2nd floor apartment of a 3 floor house, my apartment sustained considerable water damage. The 3rd floor tenants moved out at the end of June, so my landfolk had made arrangements to clear 2 rooms for repairs and move me, some of my stuff and my cats upstairs so that the contractors could replace the kitchen ceiling, a hallway ceiling, and strip/replace wallboard/paint the walls in my outer bedroom. My Very Determined, Cheerful, Competent, and Saintly Landlady said she'd make it all happen, and, I gotta tell you... she did. She and her husband, with some help from me, got it done.
Those of you who know me, or have seen my various apartments, or have heard The Stories from others know... I'm not tidy. And I have way, waaaay, waaaaay too much stuff. Both my parents are dead, which does tend to increase the "stuff"age, too. And it puts little emotional time bombs in some of the boxes.
I've also moved three times in the past four years. I'm not good at this at the best of times -- just staying out of the way of others takes up most of my available energy. It's an annoying problem for me and others -- it looks like I'm being a brat or a bitch, when what I'm trying to do is keep from whingeing helpful things like "But I didn't want to pack that yet!" and staving off an anxiety attack or three.
I used to unpack my "comfort things" -- mostly books -- as soon as possible, but over the past few years, I've gotten overwhelmed (or allowed myself to wallow, you pick), and it's gotten harder and harder to deal. Clinical depression doesn't help matters. So... despite working with an organizer during March and April to actually get some of this unpacking etc. done, those rooms were Not Easy.
All hail my Very Determined, Cheerful, etc. Landlady! She's even helping me move back downstairs, slowly, cleaning and re-structuring as we go (and putting up with my Utter Hatred of this task. I will feel better when it's done, and I know it. But I still HATE this. Sigh.).
However, while I'm living on the 3rd floor, I don't have access to my land-line... which means my Internet access is sporadic. So, even less time to keep up/catch up with LJ (and the online update interface I'm currently using is not conducive to using LJ cut-tags and the like, so I apologize for the Boring Expository Lump exposed to all.
So, quick version: in the last couple of months I have:
-attended 2 Morris Ales
-crossed the Canadian border for the first time
-put my ex-next-door-neighbor in the hospital (he was showing symptoms of a stroke) while averting flashbacks to my mom's illness (she did not have a stroke, and it was my Evil Twin who took her to the ER, but I did take her to the doctor, and I get spooky about stuff like that)
-said Kaddish for mom on her fifth Yahrzheit (with Evil Twin)
-continued to tinker with antidepressants and try to look for work despite major depression, sigh
-made a lot of earrings
-started going to a rapper team practice and learning to play its music
-got new glasses (argh! full optical upgrade! new prescription!)
-continued helping to hydrate (sub-q fluids) a recalcitrant tabby
-cat-sat my ex-next-door-neighbors 3 black-and-white kitties
-filled in at a local Scottish import shop a few times
-got the UK edition of the most recent Harry Potter and read the end first
-developed a disturbing addiction to Buffy/Angel fanfic
-finished knitting a pretty blue/turquoise/purple shawl and just need to finish the border
-brushed nearly an entire kitten's worth of fur from one of my longhaired cats
And for my next trick, I'm gonna end this entry... now.
I'll try to respond to comments when next I'm online... and my apologies for dropping off the planet again. I do that periodically. Sigh.