Comments?

Metrogal84 brought it to my attention that my comments were "not working". I checked out this section, and it looks like they are good to go. I have no idea what I did, and I apologize for whatever it is. Anyway, comments should be good to go now. Sorry about that!

The expense

Ah, my ship has not come in just yet. No new camera, but I am hoping I can get pictures from friends for a time. Instead, I got my mail yesterday and there was a lot in there (I only get my mail once a week because I really only get mail once a week, because this is Chicago and my mail person is lazy. The only problem with this is that there is the potential to have two weeks worth of mail that will not fix in your mailbox. I have no control over what day is delivered) that I didn't want to see. The usual junk mail, magazines (yay vogue and vanity fair), advertisements for a new roof or driveway (don't have either of those), and of course the bills. Except that this time there were 4 nasty nasties. the first of which being a bill for the doctors office for an appointment I didn't have and didn't go to. The second being a bill from the city for parking tickets I appealed nearly two years ago. Apparently I didn't win because not only am I being billed, but they are twice as much and interest is being charged! WTF?! I called to try and resolved the issue, but was told I had to pay for the tix. Then sat on hold for another 20 minutes (the city has awful hold music, like a cross between muzak, Kenny G, and bad German Techno beats) to talk about setting up a payment plan for this ungodly sum ($786.00!!!!!). Alas, the phone is finally picked up by a disgruntled sounding customer service rep (this must be the worst job in the world, hands down) who informed me that I am unable to set up a plan because I am not on Welfare (I have a job and no kids. . . shouldn't I get rewarded?)and that I had better pay up at least half today and then I could pay the rest over the next 6 months, but still with interest. I paid up the initial $100 and then put the rest of the $343.00 on 3 different credit cards (stupid city) because I was informed that for each month I don't pay up, interest plus another $100 accrues. Good God! This is bad news in the mail if I have ever gotten it. The next offending piece was a letter from my landlord with a move out checklist (like the dorms!)and a note reminding me that my move out date is 8-30-2008. . .WHAT?????? According to my lease I can stay until 9/1 @ 12noon. This is imperative because BF has to be out of his place on 8/31 @ 12 noon, and we are still negotiating the new place, but it really looks like 9/1. Sh*t~! So I call them up, (2nd nasty call involving lots of waiting) and after getting the busy signal twice, get "Brittany" the nitwit at the front desk. Brit and I have history, as I have threatened lawsuits and sicced government agencies on this management company on multiple occasions, so of course she puts me on hold forever upon hearing my name. Great. Finally I get the office manager and she informs me that I do in fact need to be out on 8/30 @ 12noon because that is the time I specified? I didn't specify anything. I mentioned my lease at this point and she chewed me out, saying that it meant nothing because it was with the previous management company. Grrrr. I am going to call the building manager now and see if anyone is actually moving into this rat trap. I doubt it, as over half the complex is vacant. If no one is moving in, then why should this even be an issue. Yuck. Last offending piece of mail was note from credit card (the one I put the parking tix on incidentally) that interest rates are going to be the prime rate + a bajillion percent. So now my parking tickets are going to cost $786.00+ (786x (28.99%)= a lot of frickin money for tix I thought I was off the hook for. Seriously, how can anyone afford this city?

Will post later when have cooled down more. Was not as productive as one would have hoped (we have an Oberon supplier in Chicago now, what can you do?) because I got a little extra tipsy on Friday night. However, just because I didn't make it to a place of internet, doesn't mean I didn't write anything. More word documents, to be uploaded when I do make it to said internet place. No pictures though. Sorry for the lack of entertainment!

Holy Field Trip

After an interesting time last weekend, I am happy to say that I have limited plans this weekend. A lot of people are out of town, so maybe I can manage to catch up on sleep and on here. I am beginning to think that this just isn't meant to have pictures on it. My digital camera died a slow and painful death this weekend. THen again, I have had it since 2004, so what am I complaining about? having to buy a new one. It amazes me that a new camera, same model (canon elph sd), more pixels (obviously some time has passed here), but same camera is the same price it was when I bought my original one. Needless to say, that purchase will have to wait until my ship comes in. I don't really know when that will be, but I am hoping soon. So what i am saying is, no pictures for now. :( sorry, i really like to blog and i really like to take pictures, but when i get busy, these are the first things that get pushed to the backburner. I would like to write in more detail about last weekend, but all i can seem to get out are the events that unfolded:

First and foremost, L+Z's beautiful wedding. I cannot describe how beautiful this was. Gorgeous! totally worth her two years of planning! We took pictures at one of the places i think i wuold eventually like to be married, so you can imagine how amazing those are. Unfortunately, i don't have any of these pictures because of aforementioned camera misfortune. But I have friends that took pics, so hopefully I can just mooch off of theirs. The entire weekend, from Thursday boating and bachelorette tanning to rehearsal dinner atop the Park Place, to the sweet reception was everything I would have dreamed of in L+Z's case. There were 6 people in my overpriced room at the Park Place: Woody, otherspartangirl, Metrogal84 and her husband, and of course BF. BF was a bit of a surprise showing seeing as event number two. . . .

Event #2. Several hours before I was supposed to head up to Traverse city for bachelorette fun, BF got the call that his mom had died. This is never a fun call to take, particularly being that she was young- 57 in fact. Plus it is his MOM. I would be a complete train wreck if my mom died at this point; in fact, you might have to commit me, because whenever anything gets bad in my world I do what any upset person does: call mummy dearest. BF was not particularly close with his mother, in fact they didn't talk all that much; he is much closer to his dad, and i suspect if his dad ever died, he would go to pieces as well. However, his mother did die and he is very upset, as we all would be. Of course this meant a funeral and viewing and wake and all of those lovely funeral activities when a loved one passes. The chosen date for the funeral was Friday. I am thankful it fell on that day, because even though I had to drive 4 hours downstate to attend the funeral (only to drive 4 hours back upstate to make the rehearsal dinner), I could at least attend and be there for BF. I was thinking it would be on Saturday and that would be a nightmare, as I was an attendant for L's wedding. The funeral was beautiful but sad. Someone had decided to paint his mom's nails red (her favorite color) and her lips too. This somehow reflected her personality well. Seeing his mom laid out like that only made me miss mine all the more. The last time i "saw" her was for Metrogal84's wedding, but we haven't hung out since my "episode" in early March. This seems like a really long time. She is coming to visit next weekend.

But all in all I cried buckets of tears this weekend, happy and sad.

I just love weddings :) All this talk of weddings made me want to get married and plan my own. But really I think I just want to have a wedding; not ready to be a grownup yet. Plus I can't even afford a ceremony, let alone the reception right now.

For now I am going to chill out, update things (this??), hunt for sales on Digital cameras, and catch up on sleep. Have a happy friday!

Unsolicited Opinions

Interestingly enough, just when I start getting it together to update regularly, I have to take time out to find a new place to live. This has been a very stressful past few weeks, but on Wednesday afternoon, BF and I finally found the apartment of our dreams. I was beginning to think that it didn't exist. We had the rug pulled out from under us on all of the other fabulous places, so I was definitely ready to celebrate when we got the call back that the place was ours! Yay! Some of my coworkers had already planned a going away soiree for Woot (one of the girls that I am friends with in the office). This was to take place as sort of a happy hour- into the night sort of thing. I was really happy for Woot, being that she was moving on to greener pastures. I envisioned a night of happy cocktails with good people. It didn't hurt that the place we were going to had great drink specials.

So we all arrive with Woot in tow. Being that she didn't have to work the next day, she was all out to have a good time. The rest of us felt the same way, but that work was NOT going to be fun the next day. A motley assortment of people managed to roll in; a mixture of Woot's personal friends, coworkers and other satellite friends. All was going well, the weather was behaving, and the drinks were flowing. This is where it gets ugly.

There are certain people that you will encounter over a lifetime that you aren't really a huge fan of, and they aren't really anyone who you value the opinion of. In may cases, these happen to be friends of friends; not really anyone important. Well, Woot's roommate is most def one those people. I have always tried to reserve my judgement about her, but last night she took it one step to far. She also managed to collude in this with one of M's best girlfriends (if you remember, M is another coworker that I am good friends with)that I expect poor behavior from consistently; we will call her "Princess", because that is the title that best suits her.

M, Woot's roommate, Princess and I were discussing my upcoming move with BF. It is kind of a big deal when you make a decision to move in with your significant other. I was saying that we planned to have a housewarming party and that I would sent out invites accordingly now that my place will be bigger than shoe closet I currently inhabit.(Note: these were the girls I went out with the night after BF and I broke up for two weeks, so some animosity is warranted, but not like I am about to write about)Princess, who always "tells it like it is"; one of the many not so charming facets of her personality, tells me that she "respects my decision", because I am "an adult", but honestly, she thinks I am really stupid for doing this and can't believe I would be "that dumb". Ah, nice to hear on a summer's night when I AM SUPPOSED TO BE CELEBRATING! Wait, it gets better. Woot's roommate had to chip her two cents in too: "yeah, he's a "d bag" and "no one likes him anyway", then also reminds me that "no one has any respect for someone that pathetic". I know we were drinking, but A) I didn't ask for your opinion, B) didn't your mother teach you how to speak properly, and C) do I look like I care? I have not run into such blatant rudeness and stupidity since High School. Who are these girls? A little bit about them: both come from $$, went to good schools, and have difficulty holding on to a boyfriend. In fact, Woot's roommate has never had one. or a fling. or anything.

Suffice to say, I am glad that they are M and Woot's friends, not mine. I don't even want to be in the same room as these obnoxious idiots! I don't offer my opinion (especially if it is bad, or rude, or stupid) up when it isn't asked for in social situations. I offer my opinion up here, but I am talking to no one in particular. I either know who you are and expect your reaction, or you just stumbled here and are lurking. That is okay too. By putting this out there, naturally I am asking for opinions. But no one does this when they are having a conversation about a completely different topic, and are simply stating a fact. I would be lying if I wasn't put off by it. Would you be comfortable if someone just trashed your significant other for no apparent reason in a social setting? and then just expected that everything was okay? There is a difference between being a doormat and being nice.

Very excited to go to Michigan for L+Z's wedding next weekend. I know that I can expect not to encounter such idiots there.

xoxoxoxoxo to everyone out there that has manners. I love you all!