The full moon must be coming soon
There I was, standing in the gas station attendant lobby, surrounded by slushies and candies and tiny little travel-sized portions of Pepto Bismol, when it occurred to me that everyone in there was staring at me. For what reason, I couldn’t be sure. After all, it couldn’t have been my disheveled hair that I thrown back in a bun and was oozing grease like fry at McDonald’s because I had been sweating all night as a result of a fever (and a large hot dog sleeping next to me). No, it also couldn’t have been the fact that I was wearing an oversized T-shirt, the one I have been sleeping in the past couple of nights, and a pair of disheveled jeans coated in Dog Park mud, and a disgusting falling apart set of those Adidas swim sandals. I’m pretty sure it couldn’t have been the fact that I was gesticulating wildly to the attendant either, telling her my whole long ordeal of how this day is shaping up horribly (and I had only been up for an hour and a half) or the fact that every five seconds I was running back to my car for something or other, cursing my ineptitude and cooing at poor Beau in the back seat.
Pretty much I woke up this morning right at 6, hustled Beau in to the car and drove very carefully over to Meredith’s. I picked up Sabine (Meredith is currently away on Family Emergency) and hauled her in to the car, making me infinitely happy that Beau is past all the stages of fright, poor leash walking skills and inability to pee on command that plague Sabine at the moment. We snuck out past the super and drove to the dog park where we walked around, did our doggy business, got hosed off and then shuffled back into the back seat of my car. Upon depositing Sabine back in her kennel in Meredith’s apartment, I looked down at the dashboard of my car and saw that I had gone 295 miles on this tank of gas. 300 miles is about as far as my car will go. And Meredith lives 4 miles from me.
So Beau and I cautiously swing by the gas station. I pull in, swipe my card, select my choice of fuels and press the handle when told to.
Nothing happens.
So I cancel that transaction and try again. Nothing happens a second time. So I move my car to a different pump and try once more. “SEE ATTENDANT” scrolls across the little screen. At this point I am trying to avoid all human contact because I have been sweating like crazy from running around in the dog park and wrestling with Sabine. I go in to see the attendant, a crazed looking little Asian man, and ask him what’s up.
“You try too many transaction,” he says. I explain that his pumps are not working and so I kept trying because I have no gas and I need gas. “Too bad,” he growls.
So I go across the street. Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers. I definitely try again at the pump and my card is subsequently denied again. But this time when I talk to the attendant, a very lovely, very wonderful woman, she clears my card and lets me buy some gas. And that is where everyone was staring at me. I was having a rough morning and she understood! She was kind and helpful! AMAZING. There might just be some humanity left in this world afterall. And I know she is a corporate employee, but hell, even though the gas on that side of the street is always 2 cents more expensive than the place with the angsty attendant, I’m soooo gonna buy gas from them from now on. That’s what you get for being a jerk, jerk!
I’m going crazy… the full moon must be rising soon.
old stuff | Comment (0)Drowning in my possesions… ACK!
I own WAY too much stuff. I’m serious. I have a 680 sq. ft. apartment and I have enough stuff in this thing to give every person in China something. The house closes on Friday (I’m hoping to get some pictures) - we knew it was getting closer because they put grass in the back (except over the giant mudhole… morons) and now the front door is locked for good (which sucks because I can’t sneak in anymore). The final walk through was on Friday, just some minor blemishes left to fix, and then that’s it. It’s Meredith’s house and I get to start renting from them.
So I began to pack up my apartment. I packed up all my DVDs and my VCR and my coffee table books and cookbooks and magazines. I packed up the stuffed animals and moved the plants to the porch. I took everything that was hanging on the walls off and touched up the holes with paint. It took me almost 2 hours to do all this… and I still have to pack up my bedroom (not so bad) and my bathroom (not a problem) and my kitchen (oh god what a nightmare). I don’t remember having all these things when I moved in! And that was less than a year ago! Seriously, last year at this time I was boarding a plane to Costa Rica for the best 10-week adventure of my life.
Stress levels are really high right now - well, maybe I’m not really that stressed - but I know that Meredith is. I imagine there are going to be a few inevitable hiccups in this whole processes, but I also don’t think the whole thing is going to go to crap in the last final hours. As of this time next week, I will have (probably) spent my first night in the new house. Hopefully Beau takes it well and doesn’t just freak out for the rest of his life.
I’m excited!
old stuff | Comment (0)I want to trade places
I’ve been meaning to write for a while, wanting to say something poignant about my Great Uncle Matthew, what an influence he’s been on me even though I’ve only met him in person one time. But I haven’t been able to find the words, haven’t been able to piece together anything that really… sums up how much his death has affected me, even if I’m not showing it outwardly.
I guess right now with all this stress and sadness, I can say that I’d just love to trade places with Beau - even if just for tonight.
