3 movies

here is a list of a few movies i love that no one else seems to like, which all happen to star jason schwartzman. i'm not sure how that happened, exactly, but here they are in no particular order.

• shopgirl. this movie is icy and delicious and yet somehow is sweet at the center. he's a hapless doof in it, a perfect dark, hairy foil to steven martin. i just picked this up at the library today, and now that i have the place to myself i'm watching it. i love mirabelle's apartment in it, and it makes me miss my bobbed hair. once my bangs grow out, i will have that haircut again.
  
• i heart huckabees. i feel like a lot of people find this movie pretentious, and i suppose in a way it is, but i loved it anyhow. i remember the first time i rented it i watched it twice before returning it, and bought it a few days later. there are a list of films i can watch over and over again, sometimes paying attention, sometimes as background noise and this is one of them. i like albert markovski, i like his poems and the way isabelle huppert says "al-bear."
  
• the darljeeling limited. i have heard a lot of wes anderson fans dislike this film, but i liked it. i feel bad comparing various films directors/writers have done to each other because that seems unfair. yes, it wasn't the royal tenenbaums (which for me is my favorite wes anderson film), but it was also a different movie. it was during darjeeling that i realized that jason schwartzman looks like an ugly version of tom cruise. which is being unfair to jason, he's perfectly foxy on his own, but he's like an exaggerated version of tom. both are short, both have the long, darks bangs, both have prominent noses and eyes that crinkle up when they smile. i'll take jason over tom any day, though.
  

someone else out there must like at least one of these movies, right? is it you?

ho hum

the fisherman quit his job about a week ago? actually i think it was longer. this means i'm not alone pretty much ever, which is getting exhausting. this is worse than when he just wasn't working, because then you know, we weren't all tense and broken-up. i can't talk about him or the situation with anyone on the phone because the apartment is small and there's nowhere he can't hear me. i can't spend a lot of time on-line writing about it because he's always here and not shy about peeking over my shoulder. all i want is a day to myself, doing my own thing, and being left alone. evidently this is way too much to ask. i look forward to my weekend because work lately has been a drag but then i get home and it's not really comfortable or fun. i spend too much time here napping or drinking. you know that old modest mouse song, "i'm trying to drink away the parts of the day that i cannot sleep away?" ugh, i'm quoting songs. that's how lame i feel. i'm waiting for something to happen, something i started but can't quite finish yet. when i told my sister what was going on her advice was "don't say anything and just move out when the lease is up without saying anything." there are days when i wish i had just taken that advice. this protracted break-up is miserable for both of us, and what's worse is that i start feeling bad for him before reminding myself that i don't have to take care of him anymore. that sounds shitty to say, but he didn't care how i felt. he wasn't worried that i was upset about my pop, he was mad i wasn't at home for his weekend. he doesn't try to make shit better, i give him the benefit of the doubt, start trying to work shit out and he gets wasted and stays out all night. he tells me i don't pay enough attention to him. he's been here for six months and made one friend and expects me to spend all my free time with him.

i am tired beyond belief. i want a cocktail. i want a new place to live and a job with a boss whose mood swings don't dictate whether we have good days or shitty ones. i'm sick of her saying all sorts of shitty things to me and everyone else then laughing it off with a fake "just joking!" i hate that i don't make enough to pay my bills and i hate myself for getting into all sorts of credit card debt. i miss my stuff, still in storage and totally unpaid for. sometimes all this just feels so fucking overwhelming. all i can see are all the mistakes i made this past year and feel so ashamed. i feel ashamed feeling this bad about myself, and airing it out in public. i'm a retard. i need to just get my shit together, put on some eyeliner and stop whining. i might cry a little first, though.

ah, monday

little orange, originally uploaded by pinprick.

my favorite day. mainly because for me monday is friday, plus on monday i get a great big order of cheese and get to spend my day fussing around my table rearranging stuff and pricing things. those are parts of my job that i actually enjoy.

got some little people this week too; technically they are for baby (and she will get them! i promise!), but i admit they make me feel cheerful and i'll keep a few. i can't wait to take some photos of them. i want to do it during the day, though, when i can use my camera without a flash and not get that grainy effect.

i made bratwurst for dinner, with loads of kraut, and am having a happy cocktail made of melon vodka and diet squirt (it's a play on my grandmother's favorite drink which was just straight up vodka and squirt). tomorrow i'm going to ride my bike around town, do some laundry, and enjoy having the day off. yay!

strawberry season

strawberry 1, originally uploaded by pinprick.

i thought after spending a few weeks picking strawberries as a kid in high school that i would never eat strawberries again. i was kind of right about that, i never go out of my way to eat a strawberry and in fact kind of avoid them unless they are in ice cream or milkshakes. however, at work yesterday i passed a display of organic strawberries and the scent was overwhelming. i have never smelled something so good, and i stopped right then and bought a pack. at the checkout with a friend, we eat ate one and stood there staring at each other and saying, "oh my god." best. strawberry. ever.

they get so big

this picture breaks my heart a little. just when she's old enough to say, "yeah!" when i ask her if she's my sweet baby, she's getting bigger. she looks like a little girl, not a toddler or a baby. i love laying in bed with her in the afternoon reading and talking, and singing songs and listening to her dorky jokes, but i'm going to miss my baby. i have a sneaky suspicion she's going to be tall and lanky, but hopefully cuddly for a few more years. and by "few" i mean until she's thirty.

hooray! it's not just me!

reading mimi smartypants this morning i was happy to discover that i am not the only woman on earth who hates the snuggle. if there is one thing that breaking up with the fisherman has been good for, it is that i don't have to pretend to enjoy bed snuggles any more. in fact, i have decided that i will never again fake an interest or enjoyment in cuddling, because aside from the five minutes before or after sexy time, i have no use for it. yes, that makes me an asshole. what's weird is that i like hugs, and i like napping together on couches, but when it comes to bed i just want to sleep and it's impossible to do that while someone is either groping/pawing/or petting me. i have actually been woken up by the fisherman and rolled over to say, "dude, stop touching me" before falling back asleep. i blame it on the fact that he woke up from a sound sleep, but i felt that way pretty much the whole time we shared a bed. the first night i got to sleep alone on the couch i was so relieved to get to just go to bed and sleep, regardless of the fact that i now sleep on something less comfortable than a bed of nails. a bed of nails soaked in rubbing alcohol, to be exact.

so while the breakup is continuing to plod along uncomfortably i am at least happy to have quiet sleep-time back.

unexpected gem

i believe i have mentioned before how much i love my local library. i've loved all my local libraries, but this one i love because it has a rad graphic novel section. not many libraries take comics seriously, or stock very many, but mine has a fairly good selection. it's reason number #3 why i love anacortes and don't want to move. i look through the graphic novel/comic section every time i'm in there because i'm always sure to find something new or interesting. last week i found this book by chester brown, louis riel; a comic book biography. it's about louis riel, a 19th century canadian revolutionary. riel was metis; half french, half indian and fought for metis rights during the time the country of canada was being built. it goes into imperialism (british expansion and rule of canadian land), capaitalism (how big companies like hudson bay affected country and state building), and race relations. honestly, i wouldn't say i'm super-interested in canadian history, aside from watching old degrassi episodes, and just picked it up because that's the beauty of libraries; picking up stuff that might be cool with no worries. if you don't like it, you can bring it back. i don't even always finish reading library books (gasp!) if i don't like them because i figure i am a grown-up and there are a lot of books out there i want to read, so why waste time on books that suck? in any case, i am loving this book. aside from all the nerdy learning about canada stuff, the drawings are beautiful, the story is incredibly well told, and i can't recommend this book enough. even if you aren't that into comics i think you'll dig it.

another good reason to love my library: they had a copy of dude, where's my car? in the dvd section. awesome!

a little sleep deprived

i had to do inventory last night at work, which meant working from midnight to eight this morning. i tried to stay up late late late saturday night, thinking that would mean sleeping in the next morning, but even though i stayed up till three i only slept in until 10. argh. then i took one tiny nap, for about an hour and half, because my body was all, "what? we have to work tonight? whatever." i got out of work at seven this morning and was successfully asleep at eight, but only slept in until 11:30. i don't want to sleep all day, that's going to ruin my routine. so i'm up, i'm going to shower, and get stuff done today. i hope.

p.s.

when i'm not gnawing off the inside of my cheeks and contemplating cat acquisitions, i am busy bidding on fisher price little people on ebay. for one thing, seeing them makes me feel happy. for another, maggie has inherited mine and my sister's old little people house and it is strangely lacking in actual people. there's furniture, but where are the folks? i am nothing if not a sucker for nostalgia as well as convinced my childhood was the best, so i can't abide by the new-school little folks. she needs plastic, 1970's little people. they're hard to find at thrift stores, so i'm bidding on a lot of different lots hoping some pay out. some of them i will keep to look at when i feel pokey, and most will go to the most spoiled two year old i know.

p.p.s. i won some! i can't wait to get them and take photos before passing some of them on to maggie.

i wish i was the moon

i'm toying with the idea of drunkeness, but one of my readers (hi anne!) emailed me the other day saying, "dude, that smell thing and general yuckiness is like pregnancy 101." i paraphrase, of course, anne is a grown-up who uses the word "dude" less than i do, although not by much. i am quite positive that the only thing growing in my uterus is resentment, however, and that i really have just bought a lot of stinky lotions and emollients lately. they aren't all called "unguents" for nothing.

i think the fisherman and i have had our last fight and blow-out. things were civil when i came home, but now he's in one room and i'm in the other. it's like being alone, only a lot more tense. last night during our big hurrah he told me how upset he was that i never seemed sad in front of him. i can't understand why he would think i would go to the person causing me pain with proof of it. call me small and petty, but i can't give him that satisfaction. instead of crying at him and wanting him to make it better, i went home. i went to my people. yes, it's true i retreated from him, but at that moment he felt like the enemy and i thought maybe this is indeed why domestication isn't for me. i see blogs like this and my friends happy and married with gorgeous, amazing children and want it, but can't seem to make it happen. i feel a little wistful and think, "man, that looks fun." real life, real practice with real problems and upsets and trial finds me totally faltering. there's a part of me that thinks maybe i did give up too soon with the fisherman and part of me who thinks that the clock is ticking and life isn't forever and at thirty i might very well be middle-aged and why settle? i told my mother over coffee the other day that i thought i just wasn't cut out for home-maker, that maybe i just missed the domestication gene. she thinks i'm just not in a very good domestic situation, but i wonder if she's just being kind. she is, after all, my mother and sees me in a nicer way than i see myself.

i am sad. i do feel like crying most of the time and feel horrible and shitty and ugly both inside and out. i can hardly talk about it seriously because my throat closes up and i feel so utterly ashamed that i fucked up. rationally i know this relationship disintegrated on a few different levels, but i can't help but feel like a failure, to take it personally. i just can't let him see that. i don't want to and i'm not going to.

maybe cocktails aren't the best idea.

what's that smell?

what's with things that offend my delicate olfactory senses lately? first the hair dye, now the lotion. (it puts the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again!) i admit i am a bit vain. not like, crazy-super-plastic-surgery-vain, but i feel pale lately. plus i miss spring. so i bought some of that tanning lotion, the kind that promises it takes a while and won't streak me or turn me oompa loompa orange, but i don't like the scent. i don't exactly hate it, but it isn't a smell i want to snuggle up with. it has the vague smell of something i like, cocoa butter, but then the chemical burn scent kicks in and kills it for me. grrr. now i am both vain and annoying.

all i want is black hair and skin that isn't so vampiric it hurts a zombie's eyes. do i ask that much, really?

i wish i were in l.a. this weekend

did you know they have a grilled cheese invitational?! i ask this rhetorically because, duh, now you do. oh man, i wish i were going this weekend. i have the awesome-est idea for a dessert grilled cheese you have ever heard of (that falls into the honeypot category). how much fun would it be to get all sauced up and make and eat grilled cheese sandwiches? that practically describes my perfect night out after hitting the bar. being here instead of there is lousy! i want some sun and grilled sandwiches!

had a cheese class today. it was a make-up for the one i missed while pop was in the hospital. it was awesome; mainly because there are two ladies in my class that annoy the hell out of me and they weren't there. one of them won't shut her piehole for more than fifteen consecutive seconds, and the other one won't shut the hell up about taleggio. yes, taleggio is good. yes, it's nice and soft. yes, i am a big fan of washed rind cheeses. this lady makes me want to smother her fat face with limburger, though. i have no love for her, and it makes me cringe to listen to her. having just my teacher and one of the other fun cheese mongers there was way more fun. i got to try a new cheese from satrtori, called bellavitano. i liked it enough i brought a little chunk of it home. we ate a bit of swiss as well, and my suspicions about how awesome cave-aged gruyere would be were confirmed. i've been working sort of haphazardly on a cheese blog, figuring out recipes and stuff, mainly for my own edification since there are a million internet sources about cheese. ooh, and i got to taste sbrinz. aw, shit. like i needed another cheese to love. boy howdy is it good. it has this gorgeous, fresh, green smell like young swiss and salty crystals like parmigiano reggiano. for a cheese as old as it is, it really doesn't taste it. the flavors are pronounced and yet subtle at the same time. it's a lot less salty than regular parm, and impossibly silky. if i could, i would totally eat a pound of it right now.

ah, cheese. i do love it. although the last time i went to see my doctor he wanted to talk about my cholesterol. evidently i don't have a tumor causing my buffalo hump, and my cortisol levels are either making me fat or the fat is raising my cortisol levels. chicken and egg! in short, he thinks my numbers are too high, both in cholesterol and weight. he wants me to lose twenty pounds and call him in the morning. as part of this plan, i am eating oatmeal for breakfast and trying to cut down on the cheesey goodness. and by "cut down" i mean less crackers and more veggies. although you can't blame a girl in my situation for loving the cheese sandwiches. this is the sort of home life that sends a chub scout right to comfort foods. it's okay, really. i am indulging in small ways and trying to watch what i eat while riding my bike more, but i'm not going all annie anorexic on you. promise.

colorsilk can suck it

i bought two boxes of revlon's colorsilk hair dye over six months ago because it was a package deal; both boxes for $4. they had a lot of black, and i bought a set and remember thinking at the time, "maybe i should buy more, that's a good price..." however, the first time i used it the fumes almost killed me. which is why i waited so long to dye again. i conned myself into believing it couldn't have been that bad, but it is. colorsilk smells awful. it works okay (i mean, i use black, it's hard to mess that up), it's always cheap, but the smell. my god! it's way over the top; like burning plastic and heaps of flowers. it takes two days for the scent to stop causing headaches. everyone around you will look at you funny. being in public is hard. i feel it's best to use it at night, get drunk, then go to sleep. then try to stay drunk the next day, while washing it some more. i never use it the day before i have to go to work, and i never use it in the morning. and i promise myself to never use it again. cheap or not, black hair or no, i will gladly pay more for a hair dye whose scent does not make me want to die. natural instincts, anyone?

blueberry vodka and lemonade

much better combo than you might think. yesterday was all ups and downs, starting with a huge fight between me and who else? he says he wants me out of the apartment if i don't think we'll get back together, i said that was bullshit. then i came home and he was all nice and friendly and i was tired of stressing about the situation and agreed to dinner and a movie. subway and blockbuster, to be exact. we watched run ronnie run! which is david cross genius, i had two drinks and we actually got along. of course, this morning now i'm all worried he thinks this means reconciliation is imminent. this is how my life has been lately, angry in the morning and relaxed by bedtime. the stress of it is going to kill me, i know. which is why i am indeed looking for somewhere else to live. i don't want to get pushed out but i know it's better for both of us. primarily, though, it's better for me.

what bothers me the most right now is his reaction to me being angry. if i get mad about something legitimate, instead of being sorry or even confused, he just gets mad right back. i can't talk to him, because he storms off, i think to make up stories or excuses, although i don't know for sure. i'm sick to death of having to explain to him why i'm upset, how it's a normal response, and why what he does doesn't help any. maybe we could have worked this out, but when i came home and confronted him about the personal ad he shrugged and said, "i'm sorry your friends found it." then yesterday he digs into that wound a bit more by saying "oh yeah, your 'friends;' what awesome friends to tell everyone first then you. you have great 'friends." and at first i was so fucking angry and then i realized shit! yes, those people might not be my friends so much, i might not want to hang out with them anymore, but wasn't he just deflecting blame? i mean, yeah, what they did was lame and shit but they weren't my boyfriend looking for an internet girlfriend. what he did trumps what they did. and then when we tried to talk later and i called him out on being a dick while i was at my folks recently and he pouted and said that he'd had plans for the weekend for us but then i just up and left. um, yes. i did just up and leave because my dad was in the hospital. i wasn't on fucking vacation and how big a baby do you have to be to begrudge a girl for spending time with her sick pop and not you? jesus.

this is fucked up, right? i mean, i know it is, but he's always trying to make me feel like i'm crazy. what it all boils down to is that even if i love him, our relationship is not working. it's not going to work, we have too many things not in common and that work against us. i don't want to grow up and marry him. i don't want to have kids with him. and really, does it matter why i'm not feeling it? i'm not. i don't have to do this anymore if i don't want to, and while that may hurt his feelings i'm not going to stick around just so things can be hunky-dory for him.

this sucks. this is why i've never shacked up before! i was right! the break-up part of it is miserable.

i wish i could make out with my bike!

seriously. today was painfully gorgeous out, the first warm, sunny spring day i've seen. temps in the sixties, sun shining and blue sky. i had to work early, which i hated this morning, but loved when i got off at five and knew i had hours of sun left. i would have gone straight home and hopped on my bike, but i wanted to go jabber at my sister for a while first. i found her these amazing shoes at my favorite place (ross, dress for less!), and wanted to drop them off. they are very kanye, yes? after picking up these gems yesterday there too, i was feeling like sharing the love. bonus: i knew her boyfriend would hate them. indeed, he wasn't impressed. we think it's funny how much he hates a lot of her shoes. oh, if only he could see all my shoes.

yeah, so it was lovely. i got home, got changed real quick and headed out with my red grocery sack and rode all over town. the air was fresh and clean, heavy with the scent of green things growing and grass being cut. i rode down to the marina because a day without seeing pretty boats seems wasted, and it was low tide and all sorts of cool birds were out. i was so happy, i'm sure if you'd seen me riding around i would have been grinning like a goofball and swerving from side to side, alternately peddling super hard and then lazing back and coasting. i forgot how much fun the whole "stand up and pedal fast!" thing could be. i was all giggly by the time i hit the port, and i sat and watched the sun go down a bit before heading to the grocery store to pick up some veggies.

a goofy and nerdy thing to note: riding your bike to the grocery store and doing your shopping is super fun. i don't know why, but it feels a million times more productive than just driving down there. i have a bike rack thingie, and it's great for getting stuff around without wearing a backpack, but it only holds so much. i don't think i could balance a case of beer back there safely.

i'm tired and happy now, having made a delicious stir fry when i got home. i have a little cup of rice pudding to enjoy as well, and i think i might need to go dive into that. it was a good day. i love my bike.

i'm dying!

not really, but the pressure in my head is indescribable. what's worse is you can't get decent over the counter pharmaceuticals anymore, thanks to meth heads. what i want is real, honest-to-goodness sudafed. and i want a lot of it.

watched the most recent version of day of the dead tonight. a few thoughts: one, mena suvari? really? can she not get any other work or does she love the zombie oeuvre so much she had to be a part of it? two: running zombies are super scary. shambling ones are scary and sneaky, but running and jumping and fast zombies i don't like. however, the fact that they run like 'tards is amusing. three: i'm glad they still make zombie movies, and will gladly watch any they make, however, i don't think this one was as good as the original. true, they were very different, but then why remake it? why not just make another new zombie movie? and four: i kind of want to have a little boy and name him romero. is that too mean? i mean, it's better than my plan to name a baby "hobo" and then we can call him "bo." or "hobart," and we can call him "bart." if i name a boy romero we can call him romy. how cool would a twelve year old boy named after george a. romero be?! this is maybe why my sister thinks i shouldn't actually be allowed to breed.

this is what i got accomplished

inside terrarium, originally uploaded by pinprick.

i built a terrarium! i saw it on a blog and it looked awesome, so had to make one. i'd almost forgotten how satisfying it is to make something. i also bought a def leppard and motley crue shirt, cleaned the crap out my car, and cultivated a wicked headache. mostly good times. you know, except for the headache part.

things i hope to accomplish today

1. get a cute picture frame for an equally cute photo of my maggie macaroni.
2. buy a small amount of potting soil.
   
3. should i really invest in plants when i don't know where i'm going to be living past next month?
4. pay my credit card.
5. wander around a thrift store, hoping to find old buttons.
6. wander around a craft store.
7. see how big i can make my hair (dude, in two weeks it has grown and i woke up this morning with a weird, straight afro thing going on. kind of exciting.).
8. go look at that damn gym that has the cheap sign-up fee and no contract. i won't like it, but i will lose twenty pounds, dammit.
9. drink more coffee.
10. laundry? maybe that can wait for tomorrow.
11. clean out my car. it's gross in there, full of miscellany and trash and napkins.
    

less bitter?

maybe. i got some yelling out of my system this morning and that felt great. although afterward i was all tense and spastic, and ended up at work an hour early. nothing says "early morning fight with the now-totally-official-ex" like showing up that early. i hid out in my car, reading the book i was smart enough to grab and having a cup of coffee. good times.

work was actually a good idea today. something about pretending to be happy and personable all day kind of rubbed off on me, and now that i'm home waiting for more backlash and fighting and trying to figure out who sleeps where and blah blah blah i actually feel okay. not thrilled, but tired of fighting and crying and feeling like an ugly old hag*. i can't do much of anything at this point that isn't just damage control, and it's unavoidable. at the end of my shift i thought about coming home, packing, and then going straight to my folks, but one way or another i'm going to have to deal with all this.

i know shutting the comments off on the last few posts is kind of a dick move, but while i need to get this all off my chest, think it through and write it out, i'm not sure i can handle a lot of actual discussion about it. plus, if any of you said something nice i might end up crying all over my keyboard (which, by the way, would be an AWESOME country song). now that everyone at work knows (and i mean everyone; people i hardly know are offering condolences and advice!), that's all they want to talk about and i think i've had enough talk therapy for a while. some of them mean it nicely and are genuinely concerned, and some are vultures about it. to those in the latter camp i just smile and say "i don't want to talk about it." at the end of the day i still talk about it more than i want to, and it's nice to know that people care but it makes me sad to have to keep thinking about it.

*it's been a while since i felt like such a loser. like i never thought i was the prettiest or foxiest girl i knew, but i never felt so small and gross. i know it's irrational and it will pass, but this sort of situation isn't really a friend to the old self esteem.

what the f?

yesterday i guess the fisherman decided to play the denail game; taking me out to breakfast, buying me flowers, wanting to talk. truth be told, i was confused but it was also kind of a nice day. i mean, in a weird and fucked up way, we are in this together and making it nice rather than nasty seems reasonable and commendable. right? fuck. i don't know. he calls me last night from work and is all chit-chatty and wanting to talk about his day, then he calls later when he's off work saying he's going out for a few hours with his friends. okay. i have to work today, i stayed home.

he never came home. why call and tell me you're going to be out for a few hours and then NOT COME HOME AT ALL? did i miss the memo? is this really how you act when you're trying to work shit out with your girlfriend? fuckity fuck fuck. is he just trying to see how much he can humiliate me before i cry in front of him?

i'm angry, feel like a chump, and also a little worried that maybe he got into some trouble last night. in short, i am a mess. remind me of all this when i'm crying about how my cats don't understand me, because then i'll remember the alternative.

like a bandaid, rip it off!

um, so i'm single again. of course, still living with my boyfriend, but not as his girlfriend. i guess when it rains it pours, even if it is raining shit. a girl at work uses yahoo personals, and the fisherman's profile came up as one of her matches the other day. sweet. she told everyone at work, including me, which led to one very sad, very long, very humiliating day of work. his response to it was, "i'm sorry your friends found it." not, "i'm sorry i did it," or even "i'm sorry i hurt your feelings by internet shopping for a new girl," but "sorry your friends found it, suckah!"

i can't prove that he did anything on the side, or even think he engaged in any real-world extracurricular activities, but i don't want to wait for that to happen. we've had some issues, like most couples do, but i was sort of waiting for them to smooth out. let's face it, we are at a point in our relationship when things maybe aren't super fun and exciting, otherwise known as "real life" and while the honeymoon bloom might be off the rose, i don't think that means we're doing badly. or were, i guess. for him, it was a reason for major freaking out. or it could have been an excuse to start a fight. who knows.

in the end, i still think he's a good man who tried hard, but it wasn't (isn't) enough. i'm sad, honestly, it's just that with all other crap going on i'm a bit cried out. i think that makes him feel like i'm a cold-stone bitch, but i'm tired of thinking of him constantly. the one thing he never understood is how i wasn't looking to make him the center of my life. i love him, but i don't expect him to fulfill all my emotional needs, and i don't think couples joined at the hip are particularly healthy. i need too much of my own space, even if that space is mainly in my head, for his comfort. in that regards i failed miserably as a girlfriend. however, i do get more points for effort since i never posted an on-line personal ad. enough said.

twitter?

i followed lis onto twitter, and i love it. i bet if i had a cell phone i would love it even more. i am in no way a trend setter or coolio, but DAMN. please join so i can follow you. thanks!

we survived

pink meds, originally uploaded by pinprick.

just barely, but we did. maggie went back to preschool today, mom spent the day in bed dying, and pop went home. for everyone but mom it was a good day. poor mom! she wouldn't let me take care of her much, she didn't want me to catch whatever it is they all have. tonight she has to sleep in the sewing room to make sure she doesn't re-infect pop. i wish i could have been more help for her.

dad is feeling better, although the main reason they sent him home is lack of beds. i have to admit, not to brag too much, that pop had the most visitors of anyone in the CCU. i think if they had to send someone home, it was him just 'cause they know how fawned over he is. my pop isn't always the charmingest of guys, but he is loved. as irritated as he might make us, he is ours and we are protective. i think he never spent more than a few hours alone at the hospital, and the nurses were pretty much totally in love with him. even skinny he is a handsome man.

the fisherman and i rode our bikes to a local thai place tonight for dinner, which was fun. i feel less bad about eating out if i ride around to get there. i would have talked him into a long ride after if i'd had my gloves with me; it was sunny but cold and i wanted to be home. we watched the mist when we got back and i had a few glasses of box wine, meaning i am now scared and spooked and a leetle tipsy.

i go back to work tomorrow, then on friday i take the post office worker test. if i could get a job at the post office i would scream with delight. right now i'm just aiming at something at another store, with another company, but a government job would be awesome. those kids have great benefits.

p.s. the mist was AWESOME. easily my favorite scary movie this year. creepy and suspenseful and sad, with a heavy dose of human frailty along with scary monsters. the best monsters are ones in our head, and stephen king and the director knows that.

i am going a little crazy

me in VP, originally uploaded by pinprick.

it's hard to see pop in the hospital. i hated radiation therapy, but this i hate a million times more. for one thing, when did he get so damn skinny? he's got the twiggiest arms. he's also crazy pale, which is quite a feat considering how brown he is. i just saw him a few weeks ago (if even that long) at easter, and thought he looked pretty good. still thinner than i like but healthy and getting better. his hospital gown is massive, he just swims in it, and he's full of tubes and needles which is disquieting. i know he hates it in there too, which makes it worse. he's hooked up to a million different monitors, and i've noticed every time i visit someone comes in to check up on him every half hour. i suppose they call it "critical care" for a reason, but man. it's tough to see. when i'm with him i feel okay; we watch tv, i knit, he tells random stories and we chit chat, but the second i leave i have to try really hard not to burst into tears.

this was all brought on by the flu, but what i found out after i got here was that he was feeling so shitty he actually decided to go the emergency room. dad has to feel seriously, painfully bad for that to happen. when he got in and they checked his blood pressure it was only 60 (!) and the nurse was all, "you walked in?!" so they admitted him immediately, found that not only was his blood pressure dangerously low but he was also dehydrated and had a serious lung infection. the good news is his blood pressure is up enough to take him off the meds, he's full of fluids so they removed his IV, but his lungs are still bad so he's in the CCU (critical care unit) until at least tomorrow, and then they might move him into the general population.

mom's stressed out about all of this, but so sick she can't really hang out at the hospital. they're worried about her re-infecting dad, plus she kind of needs to get some sleep and drink fluids herself. my sister was on vacation until today, and to be perfectly frank she came home and pissed me off within five seconds of walking in the door. the mood in the house is tense, to say the least. instead of thanking me for, you know, watching her sick kid, she started bitching about how the house was a mess. it was, i don't deny it, but i also don't have a lot of experience with taking care of feverish two-year-olds, and was too busy making sure the baby was okay to really think of vacuuming. plus, we spent a ton of time in the living room playing so no wonder it was a bit messy. in a way i just feel totally used, and annoyed that i'm so irritated with her. i did come home to take care of mom and baby, and to see pop and keep him company, not to further some campaign to make myself into the "good kid"--i'm just doing what needs to be done and trying to help out, so i shouldn't feel like i need some sort of recognition for doing what feels like the right thing to do. i just don't want to get nitpicked for how i do it is all.

shit man, if i could get a little drunk right now i would. sorry for the bitching.

ugh, ugh, uuuugh

maggie pretty, originally uploaded by pinprick.

when maggie is sick she pretty much stops talking and grunts and points instead. it's delightful. and i mean that in the most sarcastic way ever. she's got the flu and an ear infection, making her one unhappy and demanding baby.

mom's also got whatever it is she brought home, and yesterday afternoon she handed me baby and went to bed, only to wake up this morning. i spent the first part of the afternoon with dad at the hospital, where he was in a pretty chipper mood considering he felt like shit and couldn't sleep. he's actually sort of funny when sleep-deprived, but as much as he loves me he wanted mom. the thing about being mom is that she's the only one we want when we are sick, making it hard to be her some days. maggie is okay with my undivided attention, though, because she's still young. if her mom doesn't get home soon i'm going to be irritated, though, because i don't know how much more grunting i can stand. oh god, the GRUNTING. the cuddly part of her being sick is sort of cute, but i wish she'd stop making that awful monster noise.

this might make me sterile. i'm here for another two days, until everyone is back on their feet and the grunting stops.