RSS Feedthe time that i had 13 days off from work – parts I, II, & III
prologue (22 december):
it was a struggle getting through work on monday. knowing that monday would be followed by 13 days of relaxation was too exciting. there was barely anybody in the office so luckily i was able to get some last minute items done before the holiday break. i was so excited that instead of taking the bus from the train station i decided to walk. as you see in the post below, that was somewhat of a mistake. that having been said, as you will read shortly, i haven’t left the apartment much since i got to walk home in -3 degree weather.
part I (23 december):
this started out my marathon of tv watching by trying to get through. by the end of the day i had like 12 hours of sleep and 12 hours of tv watching under my belt. there wasn’t much left on my tivo to be watched.
part II (24 december):
by this point in my vacation i started to realize that i wasn’t going to be able to keep this up much longer. the tivo was pretty much empty except for a few select programs. i finally moved on to starting to watch seasons 1 and 2 of mad men.
part III (25 december):
not a very exciting christmas. not going back home to see the family kind of ended up sucking, especially with having all of this time available. i’m nearly done with season 2 of mad men and it has gotten crazy good. i’ll be sad when i’m done but luckily only have a few months before season 3 starts.
after mad men is done i’m going to breeze through season 1 of damages and then i think i’ll be done with catching up on all of my television that i’ve been meaning to get through. beginning tomorrow i will also be trying to add other activities to my daily agenda as television watching and napping has gotten old really quickly. next week i hope to stop in at the art institute and see all my favorite impressionist pieces that have finally returned. beyond that i’m not sure what else i am going to do to fill in the time.
the time that i experienced many types of cold
walking from the train this evening i experienced a few different types of cold:
- not too cold. i can handle this.
- okay it’s a bit cold. it’s only five blocks home. i can do this.
- my face is starting to feel numb but i will survive.
- my feet have become numb so they skipped the whole painful cold part.
- the damn sniffles won’t stop.
- my ears are freezing up. i think they might be rock solid.
- it’s official. i’m frozen.
the time that i was forced into exile by a mouse
i’m almost too disgusted to write this but i figure it makes for a semi-interesting story so i will do it anyway …
so about four months ago i discovered possible evidence of a mouse in my kitchen. coming from living in the suburbs practically all of my life, this isn’t something i have become accustomed to. apparently this is commonplace for heavily urban areas as well as rural areas. i set out traps and poison in an attempt to eradicate this creature. with the help of joe, i was even able to get rid of most of the boxes i hadn’t unpacked yet. since i got back from thanksgiving i was almost 100% sure that i had gotten rid of him as i had seen no signs of him being present. this past friday i even went so far as to declare him gone and that i had won the war against him. apparently i was wrong.
early this morning at about 3am joe and i awoke to a scratching noise. at first i thought it was something outside since it was very windy. after a few minutes it became clear that it was something in the wall. freaked out, i examined every inch of my apartment for any sign that a mouse had returned. after finding none, i climbed back into bed only to continue to hear the noise. at this point i was beyond freaked out. this is something i’ve never had to deal with and it grosses me out beyond belief. at this point i turned on the heat which in turn starts the process of water from the boiler flowing through the pipes in the wall down to the floor space heaters. i figured the water noise would scare whatever was in the walls enough to run away. sure enough it stopped.
three hours later … i hear the noise again but this time it’s coming from a different part of the wall. it stops.
two hours later … it’s now about 830am and the scratching noise in the original location starts up again. at this point i’m beyond freaked out and annoyed. there’s no way i was going to fall back asleep so i tell joe to pack everything up and before we knew it we were on the way to his place in indiana.
so here i am. living in exile from my own apartment. i’m sitting in joe’s living room in indiana worried about returning to the scene tomorrow evening. at this point i have determined that what i assume to be a mouse, is trapped in the wall. the fact that i have never heard that noise prior to last night and the fact that it didn’t seem to move locations is strong evidence that i am hopefully correct. my plan is to return home tomorrow evening to peaceful walls. if not then i figure i will stay at joe’s the rest of the week and just commute in to the city every day for work and then i’m off for two weeks so i can figure a solution out during that period of time (all the while staying far away from there).
in even more exciting news … six more days of work and then i’m off for nearly two weeks. i have no idea what i’m going to do during all that time but i’m sure i will come up with something. i suppose my big task for the break will be to finish painting all of my mini-canvases and arrange those on the wall.
that’s all i have for now.
the time that i wanted to be on the amazing race
i have just finished watching the season finale of the amazing race 13. such a good show. i desperately want to be on it. seriously, how fun would it be traveling around the world and seeing all of that?
speaking of other countries … i had the day off on friday (due to agency mandated vaction days in december) and joe and i went to see australia. while it is generally a good story, it really started to drag on after the two hour mark. it seriously could have ended four or five times before it actually ended.
and now i don’t remember what else i had to say.
