Footprints on the Moon

I posted this picture to Facebook a few weeks ago, and that was one of my friends comments… “Haunted Party Lite.”

See… I’m pretty convinced that I don’t live alone in my apartment (and I’m not just talking about my cats). I’ve had a lot of things in my apartment disappear, never to be seen again. Example: the remote to my old TV. I walked two feet from my computer desk to the window to look outside. Turned around and walked back. No remote. I’ve torn the apartment apart, overturned/moved furniture… never found it. Still hasn’t turned up 3 years later.

Lucy ‘talks’ to the ceiling above the microwave, in the hallway and the bookcase.

I swear I turned off the air conditioner when I got up for work the last two days (trying to save money on the energy bill), yet it was running when I got home.

And getting back to the picture up top… I was sitting in the living room, watching a movie and probably reading a home improvement blog. I kept hearing this noise that I thought was on the movie at first. After a couple minutes though, I realized the sound didn’t make sense with what was on the TV. So I started looking around. That’s when I noticed those 3 candle holders on top of the bookshelf near me. The one in the middle was visibly shaking, hard enough that the votive inside was rattling against the glass. Not even a wiggle from the other candles or anything else on the bookshelf, for that matter. It was rather unsettling!

Do you have any extra company in your house?

I’m spending today being lazy. I don’t know how different this is from normal, but I’m being deliberately lazy and not allowing myself (or trying anyway) to feel guilty about not doing anything productive today. I’ve been so busy lately!

Dad was out of town for the last two weeks so I’ve been back and forth to his house 2-3 times a day to get the dog out. Between that and work and skating, I’ve felt like I haven’t been home in a week! Add onto that a fall I took skating last week (that left me hobbling around and feeling like I needed to look for age spot removal, aka I was moving around like a little old lady), I decided that a lazy day, or even a lazy weekend wasn’t a bad idea. So I’m hanging out on the couch with the cats and catching up on everything that’s been languishing on the TiVo without me.

I’m just trying to ignore the trash that needs to go out, the dishes that need washed, and the piles of clutter that really need to be picked up. Not to mention the litterboxes that are in desperate need of being changed. I don’t suppose I could pay someone to do that for me? My back still hurts me a bit when I bend over like that, and I’m reeeeaalllly wanting to avoid that particular task.

Boy, I’m looking forward to the google searches that will land people here from THAT title lol It’s not so much a dirty little secret as it is a bad, slightly embarrassing habit.

Any guesses? What you are looking at is a pile of kleenexes that I pulled out from beneath/behind my bed. (For scale, the furniture in the background is one of my nightstands doubling as tv stands in the bedroom. Well, only one is a tv stand…) See, I have a bad habit of falling asleep with a kleenex in my hand. At some point, I fall asleep, my hand relaxes, and I drop the Kleenex, usually behind the bed.

I don’t really know why I feel compelled to share this with you other than the fact that I recently got the broom out to get all the tissues out from behind my bed and was amused by how many there were! These just about filled up a grocery bag. Apparently I need to stop holding tissues while I’m falling asleep. Or clean under my bed more often. Or both.

OH! And just to clarify, this isn’t a pile of snotty used tissues… they were used to wipe my watery eyes. I don’t know if that makes it less gross or not.

… or hardly working. Mostly a little of both. I’ve been spending my Saturday cleaning everything down to the copper sinks. Well, having the good intention to clean everything down to the sinks anyway.

I’ve been up since waaay too early this morning, but I have gotten a few things done. As of right now, I’ve washed the dishes, cleaned the litterboxes, washed and changed the sheets on my bed. The comforter is in the dryer as I write this, and my uniforms are in the washer. Hopefully none of my neighbors planned on doing laundry today because I’ll definitely be hogging it for most of the day.

Right now, I’m “taking a break” (from, you know, taking a break) watching some TV, playing some computer games and eating some lunch. There’s still plenty left to do… including but not limited to putting away all the laundry I’m washing, organizing 3 different closets, and vacuuming the floors. Funny though… I’m not nearly as motivated now that the sun’s come out as I was when it was still dark and dreary this morning!

In my whole ignoring the blog thing, I neglected to tell you guys one important detail: I didn’t move.

When I said I wanted the apartment downstairs, it was sight unseen. When I finally got the keys and got in there to look around, I commenced with the freaking out. It didn’t help that I saw the apartment for the first time at the end of an upsetting phone call, but in the end, I decided that it just made more sense to stay upstairs. I could have had a patio downstairs, but I didn’t feel like it was worth the rest of the trade offs I’d have had to make. It certainly wasn’t an easy decision to make… but after a lot of agonizing and a pros and cons list, I’m sure I made the right one.

So for right now, I’m staying put, focusing on paying down my debt, and keeping my eyes open for other options. Trust me, I won’t be looking for mortgage life insurance anytime soon, but I wouldn’t complain if something fell in my lap. I wouldn’t mind moving to a nice apartment complex, but wouldn’t you know… nice apartment complexes come with nice rent payments! And nice rent payments are not conducive to paying off your credit cards. Seeing as I just added to my debt with a laptop, I think I better stay focused!

I finally got some keys for my new apartment. Yesterday they cleaned the carpets, and were cleaning up the kitchen when I got home from work. I found a note leaning against my door with a mailbox key, and a temporary key for the new apartment. Once I get moved, they’re going to move the lock from my apartment upstairs. Also in the note, it said that they were planning on cleaning the carpets, and I could start moving the big stuff in on Wednesday the 13th. Ha, I don’t move on one day’s notice. I already had plans for tonight, that were set in place about 3 weeks ago, so no, won’t be changing those. And moving on a weeknight after work?? Not my idea of a good time. This lets dad off the hook for moving me as he’s leaving the state on Friday after work and has to spend Thursday night packing up and getting ready to leave.

Which leaves me looking for some muscle to help with the furniture. I can move a lot of stuff by myself. My nightstands, the tv stand, the Papasan chair… all those I can move by myself. But there are plenty of things I can’t move alone– the loveseat, couch, computer desk, bookshelf, bed and dresser. And the couch? That I can’t even help with. It’s so heavy there is no way I could even pretend to hold up one end of it. My friend Amy’s son said he was willing to get a buddy and come help me move furniture on Saturday. It makes me feel uncomfortable to have them do it because I’ve only met him twice, and have never met his friend, but I’m not seeing where I have another option. I’ll probably run out and get them each a $10 gift card to Subway or something for helping me out.

So it looks like that’s what the rest of my week is going to look like. Tonight Sarah and I are getting dinner and watching last night’s Biggest Loser finale. Tomorrow, Friday night, and Saturday morning, I’ll be moving the little things that I can do on my own, and then Saturday afternoon help will come to move the furniture. Sitting where I am right now, I just keep thinking Why did I want to move again? Maybe I just should have stayed where I am… but I know that once I’m down there, I’ll be happy I made the move. Just need to get through the next several days first.

I’ve been announcing that to people all day. Just like that. Basically because I like seeing them go “Whaaaa…?” Here’s the thing. I’m not moving far. I’m not leaving the state, and I’m not leaving the city. In fact, I’m not even leaving the building!! An apartment on the first floor of my building is opening up, and I’m going to move down there. What can I say? I am so tired of carrying my groceries and my laundry up and down a flight of stairs!

Most importantly, the first floor apartments have small patios. Now, I won’t be looking at outdoor dining sets or anything, but I might look for a chair for my patio. I can’t wait for some nice weather so I can sit outside on my patio and enjoy it!

When I still lived at home, I used to spend a good amount of time sitting on the front porch swing reading a book when it was nice out. It’s probably the biggest thing I’ve missed since I moved into my current apartment 3 years ago. I have to wait for the current tenant to turn in her keys and for maintenance to get the apartment ready, but hopefully I’ll be moving down there next weekend. If it’s not ready before then, I’m in trouble– my “muscle” (aka, my dad) will be leaving town the following weekend. I’ll keep you posted!

I had big plans for today. Writing posts on my blogs, like one about a site that reviews diet pills, a post for Jenn Cooks which is always woefully behind in updates. Major cleaning, a little bit of sewing. It’s now 9pm and this is the first blog post I’ve written today, and likely the only one for today. I’ve done a (very) little cleaning, and a whole lot of blog reading. Absolutely no sewing. *whispers* I didn’t even take a shower today.

I’m just feeling slightly under the weather which leaves me completely unmotivated. I’m not feeling lousy enough to say that I’m sick, but I’m not feeling great either. I developed a headache this afternoon so I laid down for a pretty late nap, and I’m still just about ready for bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. I promise I will at least get in the shower though!

I’m writing a post at 0345, it must be another third shift night! My boss asked me earlier this week if I wanted some more overtime as one of my coworkers had surgery today (well, I guess that would be yesterday now). I said yes without really thinking it all the way through. See, I worked 6:45-4pm Friday and had to be back here about 10:45. Which is not great, but survivable. The problem really lies in the fact that I completely forgot about the eye doctor appointment I have at 8:30 this morning. So not only do I have to stay awake through the rest of this shift, I have to stay awake (and take an eye exam!) until about 9:30 or so. I keep saying, how can I choose which screen is clearer if I’m too tired to see either one?

On top of all that, I still don’t have a completed shower, so I will have to take a quick shower at work before I can come home. Hopefully today will be the last day for that, but I said the same thing when I was trudging in the door at 6am this morning. So what’s the deal with my shower? Really incompetent maintenance.

I came home Tuesday afternoon and found this:

That’s the view of my living room from the front door. Hmm… a living room full of shower parts, and no maintenance man in sight. It’s actually worse than it looks because there was also a pile that included my shower curtain on the floor that you can’t see. Venturing further into the apartment uncovered something scarier.

Yikes. The guy showed up a couple minutes after I got home, then disappeared for an hour. Worked for 5 minutes, disappeared for another hour. Worked for about 45 minutes, disappeared for another hour. Finally left about 8:30. Everything looked exactly the same, just less tools in the way. Came home Wednesday afternoon to the exact same thing. He worked for about 20 minutes, disappeared for 2 hours, then finally came back and put the main part of the surround up and didn’t leave until 9:15pm. Have I mentioned that I get up for work at 0500? Yeah, not happy. He did nothing on Thursday, came home Friday to some drywall mud on the walls. But it’s still not done, and my shower curtain is still on the floor in the living room.

I’m not sure what I’m more unhappy about… how long I had to wait before the project was even started, or the work that’s taking so long to finish. Seeing that I’ll be showering at work in a couple hours for the 4th time this week, it just might be the latter of those two options.

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about telling you all the goings-on with my shower, there simply hasn’t been anything to report. Yes, that’s right. 8 weeks today… or is it 9? I’ve lost count… either way. A ridiculously long time, and my shower still has plastic on it.

This is what my shower currently looks like. After the wall behind the tile he plucked off had the chance to dry out, the rest of the tiles started buckling off of the wall, and eventually started falling. Which is just pleasant debris to have to clean out of your bathtub, let me tell you. There is a tentatively scheduled start date on the repairs, but I’m not holding my breath since this is the second time I’ve heard that. I normally like my apartment complex… it’s on the cheaper side for my area, and it’s quiet, but you can be assured that at the moment, I’m not clamoring to hand out their promotional pens and encouraging others to turn in applications.

Hopefully by the end of the week, I’ll be sharing pictures of my new tub surround. But I had hoped to be doing that sometime in July as well…