I'm not a morning person. Yes, I have to get up at 6am every work day, but I wake up grumpy and tired. I need a long, hot shower, at least 1 cup of coffee, and to be completely dressed and ready by 7am in order to feel even remotely human. I only got 2 out of 3 of those things this morning, and it has made me a slug.
Harry regrouted all the tile in the tub area of our bathroom yesterday. He worked extremely hard doing it, and he did a fantastic job. I was seriously overwelmed by the amount of work I knew it was going to take, and I thought for sure he wouldn't be able to complete in one day's time. He managed to at least get the new grout on after a long day scraping and cutting the old grout. 50 year old grout. What a bitch!
There were a few loose tiles he knew he was going to have to re-adhere before he could really do anything else, and he was worried that all the water damage done to the tub area because of glass doors the previous owners had put in had seeped all the way to the drywall behind the tile. And dammit if he wasn't right.
He dried out what was left of our disintegrating wall before re-adhering the tile. We're hoping that will hold for a little while because we really don't have the money to demo and redo the bathroom right now. We were planning on doing it in a couple of years, and the look of the wall behind the tile solidifies those plans. We NEED to completely gut our bathroom and sooner rather than later. There's $5-6K gone. Lovely.
Anyway, the grout needed time to dry, and that meant no shower for me in the AM. Blech. I'm extremely cranky without my shower. I feel all fuzzy-headed without it. Wah.
At least the shower will be usable tonight/tomorrow morning.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
The Stakeout
We were insane. That's the only excuse for our stupidity.
The beginning of our senior year, my friend, Jessica, had this freaky stalker. It started in September, if I remember correctly. I know it was still warm out because the bedroom windows were open in the evenings to help alleviate the vast humidity that is CT in Indian Summer.
It started with a drive-by one weekend, some freakazoid screaming Jessica's name out his car window late at night as he zoomed past her house. A friend playing a joke? We had no clue.
This repeated for a few weekends after, always on a Friday or Saturday night or the night before a holiday/vacation day from school. This led us to believe it was possibly someone home from college, mostly because we didn't know anyone with a white sports car (Jess had managed to see the car zoom away one night after the yelling).
She was getting pretty sick of it, so we devised a plan. A stakeout. We were going to find out who this idiot was.
So, we planned a sleepover one weekend at her house. Around 10pm or so, we ventured out into her front yard and plopped ourselves between the two humongous pine trees in her front yard, armed with flashlights and snacks. We sat there for over two hours, waiting for this moron to drive by, hoping we'd get a glimpse of him or at least his license plate.
Two teenaged girls sitting in the dark in the middle of the night with nothing but a flashlight. There's no two ways about it... we were fucking nuts.
Finally, around 12:30am, we decided to go back inside. He just wasn't coming. Damn it all.
We got into our PJs, turned out the lights, and pulled our covers back. As we were each getting into our respective beds (mine was a makeshift one on the floor), a blood-curdling scream pierced the otherwise calm night air... "Jessssssss-ssssssiiieeeee!" Both of us froze in the dark, terrified and paralzyed with fear. Neither of us even made it to the window to take a look; neither of us could even move until we could no longer hear his car.
When it was over, we both agreed that we were glad we HADN'T been outside when he drove by.
Either later that weekend or the next, he took it to the next level and actually got OUT of his car. He and a friend (possibly two) approached her house and actually started talking to her outside her window, singing profane lyrics made on the fly. She was scared, of course, but she was also armed... with a tape recorder. She had their voices on tape.
She brought the tape into school Monday morning and played it for a few people, hoping someone would recognize one of the voices. One friend found the voices familiar. I remember that much.
We never did find out exactly who it was (although we had our suspicions after the tape). Soon after that, the stalking stopped. Maybe he got bored. Maybe he heard about the recording. Maybe he didn't come back from college for a couple of months and just lost interest. I don't think we'll ever find out.
The beginning of our senior year, my friend, Jessica, had this freaky stalker. It started in September, if I remember correctly. I know it was still warm out because the bedroom windows were open in the evenings to help alleviate the vast humidity that is CT in Indian Summer.
It started with a drive-by one weekend, some freakazoid screaming Jessica's name out his car window late at night as he zoomed past her house. A friend playing a joke? We had no clue.
This repeated for a few weekends after, always on a Friday or Saturday night or the night before a holiday/vacation day from school. This led us to believe it was possibly someone home from college, mostly because we didn't know anyone with a white sports car (Jess had managed to see the car zoom away one night after the yelling).
She was getting pretty sick of it, so we devised a plan. A stakeout. We were going to find out who this idiot was.
So, we planned a sleepover one weekend at her house. Around 10pm or so, we ventured out into her front yard and plopped ourselves between the two humongous pine trees in her front yard, armed with flashlights and snacks. We sat there for over two hours, waiting for this moron to drive by, hoping we'd get a glimpse of him or at least his license plate.
Two teenaged girls sitting in the dark in the middle of the night with nothing but a flashlight. There's no two ways about it... we were fucking nuts.
Finally, around 12:30am, we decided to go back inside. He just wasn't coming. Damn it all.
We got into our PJs, turned out the lights, and pulled our covers back. As we were each getting into our respective beds (mine was a makeshift one on the floor), a blood-curdling scream pierced the otherwise calm night air... "Jessssssss-ssssssiiieeeee!" Both of us froze in the dark, terrified and paralzyed with fear. Neither of us even made it to the window to take a look; neither of us could even move until we could no longer hear his car.
When it was over, we both agreed that we were glad we HADN'T been outside when he drove by.
Either later that weekend or the next, he took it to the next level and actually got OUT of his car. He and a friend (possibly two) approached her house and actually started talking to her outside her window, singing profane lyrics made on the fly. She was scared, of course, but she was also armed... with a tape recorder. She had their voices on tape.
She brought the tape into school Monday morning and played it for a few people, hoping someone would recognize one of the voices. One friend found the voices familiar. I remember that much.
We never did find out exactly who it was (although we had our suspicions after the tape). Soon after that, the stalking stopped. Maybe he got bored. Maybe he heard about the recording. Maybe he didn't come back from college for a couple of months and just lost interest. I don't think we'll ever find out.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
My sister is getting married!
My older sister, Debby, got engaged this past Christmas. Steve, her fiance, seems like a pretty nice guy. I don't really know him all that well yet, but he makes her happy and that's what matters.
They got engaged pretty quickly, just 9 or 10 months after they met, but they both seem very sure of their relationship. That's good enough for me.
When they first announced it, they were planning on a big wedding with all the bells and whistles. It's what my sister wanted, and well, he wants whatever she wants (awwww). They started planning and set a date for May of next year.
After a few months of wedding stress, my sister emailed me today, letting me know that they've decided to go the small-private-ceremony-at-a-park-at-sunset route with a fun party/shindig at their house for all the next day instead. And they're getting married this August. She asked for my thoughts on it.
Naturally, I'm all for it. It's exactly what her wedding should be... about the two of them getting married. No "this person needs to be in the wedding party" and "if I invite this person, I have to invite this person" and "no, we can't sit those two together" crap. It's not about the flowers or the venue or the music or the daughter/father dance. It's about the two people who've decided to spend the rest of their lives together pledging their love and loyalty to one another*.
BUT... I wondered "why the change of heart?" My sister has been married before, and she had the big old wedding 20 years ago. Unfortunately, she and her ex didn't really get to decide what the wedding would actually be like. Since my parents were footing the bill, the wedding really belonged to them. Their friends, their choice of a band, their choice of venue. After Deb got divorced, she had said she'd have another big wedding if she remarried, but she'd get to call all the shots this time.
So I asked about the sudden change of heart, and her answer was exactly what I wanted to hear... that really, she just wanted to get married to the man she loved.
So, yay, my sister's getting married!
*by the way, I am totally not against big weddings. I am totally against the vast amounts of stress they cause and the crazy amount of cash needed to pull them off. If you've got a planner and the mula, have at it!
They got engaged pretty quickly, just 9 or 10 months after they met, but they both seem very sure of their relationship. That's good enough for me.
When they first announced it, they were planning on a big wedding with all the bells and whistles. It's what my sister wanted, and well, he wants whatever she wants (awwww). They started planning and set a date for May of next year.
After a few months of wedding stress, my sister emailed me today, letting me know that they've decided to go the small-private-ceremony-at-a-park-at-sunset route with a fun party/shindig at their house for all the next day instead. And they're getting married this August. She asked for my thoughts on it.
Naturally, I'm all for it. It's exactly what her wedding should be... about the two of them getting married. No "this person needs to be in the wedding party" and "if I invite this person, I have to invite this person" and "no, we can't sit those two together" crap. It's not about the flowers or the venue or the music or the daughter/father dance. It's about the two people who've decided to spend the rest of their lives together pledging their love and loyalty to one another*.
BUT... I wondered "why the change of heart?" My sister has been married before, and she had the big old wedding 20 years ago. Unfortunately, she and her ex didn't really get to decide what the wedding would actually be like. Since my parents were footing the bill, the wedding really belonged to them. Their friends, their choice of a band, their choice of venue. After Deb got divorced, she had said she'd have another big wedding if she remarried, but she'd get to call all the shots this time.
So I asked about the sudden change of heart, and her answer was exactly what I wanted to hear... that really, she just wanted to get married to the man she loved.
So, yay, my sister's getting married!
*by the way, I am totally not against big weddings. I am totally against the vast amounts of stress they cause and the crazy amount of cash needed to pull them off. If you've got a planner and the mula, have at it!
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