Utils in Bat Country

Yay youtube

Was originally typing out all my Friday frustrations, am just flattened by this week even though nothing majorly bad has happened but meh.  [How many days will I deal with this headache before I go to the doctor for a concussion?] Onward from complaining, onto things that make me happy.

Parenthood funny moments.  Man, I love this show. Favorite part is the Thanksgiving dancing scene around 7:30.

 

Little Mermaid 2.  Terrible and yet I still have all the songs memorized from when I used to own the VHS.  For a moment, all of me, is alive and at home in the sea...   Man, it'd be awesome to be a mermaid.  Sharks aside, clearly.

 

Why I love Anthropologie blogs

I don't remember when I started reading Anthro blogs.  I imagine I was searching for an item or a review of an item and stumbled upon Roxy's site and the trade market.  And over the last couple of years, I've begun following a fair amount of Anthro related blogs and been able to participate in the community.

I was scrolling through my reader one day and saw Anthropologiesque's post and loved the shoes she was wearing.  And, since she linked to them and it just so happened to be when friends and family was happening, I was able to get them for less than $60.  And, very cooly, she first spotted them on another Anthro blogger. I shop a lot but I would never have found these on my own.  Now, however, I have the most perfect shoes for my cousin's wedding next weekend. They have stars! 

Grazie mille, Anthro blogs!

I don't hate the new FB

I'm still baffled by it and not bothered enough (yet) to go hunting for the series of clicks and screens I need to revert it back to the way it was but one thing has made me glad it changed.

Because I was able to see what my friends were doing, I saw when a friend commented on something one of my former professors posted.  I'm not friends with any of my teachers but this particular professor was the reason I went into Economics and I've always been grateful to him.

So, even though I thought it was a bit weird, I sent him a fb message and just said thanks for the class, I really enjoyed it, now I have my MA, woo and whatnot.  Haven't heard back, not really expecting to but am hoping he at least read it and knows that one former student thanks him.

Injury!

Injury! On the way to Anthropologie!

Am a poet! Who is an idiot.

On Saturday, when I went with K and M to Anthro, we parked in the garage and made our way out to the street.  There was a city fair going on and so the streets were overflowing with people so we were weaving in and out when all of a sudden I felt a thud on my head.  Reach up trying to figure out what had happened, felt foam and as I turned the thud continued on my shoulder.  Looked over and realized that we were crossing by the other garage entrance and I had been thwacked in the head by the arm as it came down after a car had exited.

Oh yes, my genius, let me show it to you.  I got beaned in the head by the barrier at the parking garage.

It didn't hurt too badly at the time and our Anthro trip met with much success and enjoyment but after awhile my head had progressed from having a dull ache to full on throbbing, dizzying, continuous pain. Great. I never felt tired and M was driving so I wasn't worried about a concussion and got some coffee hoping the caffeine would help till we got back to the apartments.  Nearly moaned aloud when we ran into traffic 20 minutes out but made it back to the apartment and downed some extra strength tylenol.

Only I could manage this.

One Anthro Dress, Two Utils

Thanks to my absolute devotion to Anthro, plus my need to wait for sale on most everything, coupled with living an hour from the nearest store and thus only going every few months means that when I do go, I try on pretty much everything, take pictures, and review come purchase time.

As noted, every year at this one particular shoot, Tass and I head to this fancy pants shopping center in Columbus and I get down to the serious business of Anthro shopping and she laughs at some of the more ridiculous sweater offerings.  And she always ends up trying a couple things on, mainly for spite sport, and usually there's one thing out of the bunch that we all ooh and aah over and she reluctantly admits to loving liking.

And this year, randomly, we both tried on the same dress. I tried it on while down in Houston for my 24 hr birthday trip and A/M gave it to Tass while I was eyeing myself in the layered column dress (go on sale already, dammit, I cannot justify you at full price).

Util the first

Util the second

I think we both look adorable. 

Should we ever send out Util Christmas cards, we can add coordinating scarves to our matching sweater dress and frolic with the animals in a snow covered field.

Hotel Art

You know how at most hotels, the art is some landscape painting in an "ornate" frame depicting either Spring or Fall, depending on the colors in the room bedspreads?

Well, at the Perry Hotel in Petoskey, the art is so seemingly random and bizarrely awesome, that I kind of have it mentally bookmarked as my inspiration should I ever be so bourgeois as to have an art collection not consisting [solely] of framed calendar pictures.

While wandering the halls, I came upon this

I don't know why but I kind of love him. Maybe because that's how I look most Monday mornings?  The grim resignation over the bird on his head echoing my expression when the cats pull at my hair at 3am?

Then, on another floor, rounded a corner and saw this grand dame.

Someone fell off her ship, methinks.

When I have my future secret passageway, I think she'll be perfect to conceal the entry.

She's siiiiick

Yesterday, when I was getting ready to leave for work, Tilly coughed.  I stopped with my shirt halfway over my head twisting around trying to figure out if she was eating something or had just inhaled a dust bunny from underneath the sock drawer.  She didn't continue so off I went to work, la dee da.

Got home and D informs me that she's sick and has been coughing and gagging and hacking most of the day.  Well, hell.  Pull up the symptoms of kennel cough and sure enough, she's doing all those things.  Touch base with my neighbors and they both say that yep, their dogs have it too and our on meds.

Call the vet, leave a message asking if they'll just give me a prescription since I bet they don't want me bringing my highly contagious hacking dog in and turn the shower on and sit with Tilly in the bathroom hoping the steam helps her lungs.

She slept ok last night, I heard her have a fit around 430 and when I woke up this morning I found her like this

Poor puppy.  The vet calls me back and says that not only can they not give me a prescription without seeing her, they don't have any openings till Monday.  I ask whether or not it's advisable to wait that long and she says 'not really, the recommendation is to get her seen today.'  How exactly would you like me to do that oh unhelpful person?  I get the number of the clinic they recommend and am able to get her in there.  Of course, it's heading into downtown and the girl on the phone tells me they have a 'tiny' parking lot so I'm near hyperventilating about the parking but force myself to suck it up.  Manage to find it and park without problem and as soon as we got to the door TS started pulling and not wanting to go in.  And since any pressure on her throat from the leash starts a coughing fit, she was basically spasming after a few seconds.  I lug her in, probably flashing the office my undies, thanks pants that I forgot were super low rise till I bent over, and we sit to wait.  TS is freaking out and hides under my chair and shoves her head in between my feet.

We get called back and while we're waiting for the vet she hacks something up on the floor.  As this is a key symptom and she'd been doing it all night, I grabbed some paper towels to clean it up but figured I'd wait till the vet walks in so I can be all oh, look what she just did, I'm cleaning it up right now but now you can examine it.  Tilly is uncharacteristically pressed up against my legs giving me the eyes of can we pleeeease leave here, I promise to be good, please?  Vet comes in, takes one look at the floor and says, yep, 5th case I've seen so far, there's an epidemic in the city.

Oh, well, good to know I guess that it's not just my dog.  Bad in the sense that this seems to basically be like Contagion for the canine set?

No pneumonia, ears are good, hooray!  Lots of inflammation and general misery, sad.  She gets a course of antibiotics, some cough suppressants, and I agree to get a harness before walking her again.  He tells me their protocol for dealing with contagious dogs and how he's going to change his scrubs after seeing her and they'll decontaminate the room and take us out the back door to avoid other dogs, the whole bit.  They kept her in the room while I went up front to pay and poor baby, I could hear her whimpering all, but why did you leave me in here, come back.  $87.50 and 2 pill bottles later, we get back to the car and head to the apartment.  Give her the first dose of pills in a nice peanut butter/potato chip sandwich and sneek out while she was drinking water to go back to work.

Vet said she should be feeling much better by Monday and I can exercise her but that she's contagious for at least two weeks.

How exactly am I going to manage that in the complex?

Dis(turbed) Harmony

I know I said I'd come back and tell you about Butterfly guy coming over to the apartment but then I went and saw him on Sunday and things took a wild turn from oddly bemusing to flat out creepy as all fuck get out run away run away and so I can't really talk about anything that happened prior to that without feeling the need to shower and I'd like to avoid any Silence of the Lambs skin suit type scenarios so, yeah, moving on.

Except not! Because I still have to email him and get across my point of never wanting to communicate ever again.

A, if you're reading, it was SO MUCH WORSE than anything we came up with at the shoot.

[For the record, I know I'm being wildly dramatic here and THANK GOD nothing happened where I felt for my physical safety (he didn't attack me or anything) but there is definitely something very, very wrong and when I summed up events to both my charming co-author and my extraordinarily level headed co-worker, they both immediately said yeah, you need to not see him again, ever.]

But, like a good getting back on the horse type person, I have another date tentatively scheduled with G, he who I can come up with no nickname for, and who is boringly normal (No! There is no normal! They are all crazy! Aaaaaagh!!!!!) and another guy that I'm supposed to email to set up something with.  Clearly, neither is really blowing my skirt up. I hadn't checked my matches in a few days so I went through a couple dozen last night and sent out questions to 5 people.  Way to go, me.  Except! Two of them archived me.  And after all the crap of Sunday, it's really pissing me off.  I'm aware that I'm a bit left of center when it comes to sanity but I am nowhere near the level of crazy that seems to be coming my way via this stupid EH business.  I'm normal(ish) and most people find me amusing and charming and is it really too much to ask for a date with someone else who is normal(ish) and who I find amusing and charming?  Apparently, it is.

Over. It.

Clean clean clean

So after Butterfly guy came to the apartment last week (oh just wait, I'll be sure to fill you in) and given what he told me about the cleanliness at HIS place, was appropriately horrified by the normal to slightly below average level of cleanliness at MY place, I decided to take advantage of D having Tilly up at his parents and clean.  Clean all the things, such as it were.

Only once I got going it turned more into a clean OUT all the things project.

It blends in but that's a gigantic black trash bag in the far corner by the deck door with various boxes piled up alongside it.

Like the person I am who cares far less about cleaning things than I do about fun, am spending this weekend hanging out with Tass at our annual shoot/shop/she mocks me while I eat Chick Fil A and then I retaliate by making her listen to Christmas music extravaganza.  Though I am supposed to go to Butterfly guy's apartment on my way back Sunday so depending on just how cleaned with a toothbrush every surface is will determine in what way I spend my Sunday night.

[I told him I'd be coming from camping so would be somewhat grimy and he very nicely (though how altruistic remains to be seen) offered up his shower when I get there and said he has shampoo and bar soap.  Dude.  CONDITIONER.]

Fall Shopping

Fall is always my bad time for shopping.  I'm relatively good most of the year, summer things start to go on sale and I buy a few things and then the fall collections come out and my savings account flees itself joyfully at wine hued sweaters lined with fleece.

I actually don't care all that much for the Missoni Mayhem going on at Target.  If I happen to see some things next time I'm at the store, I'll consider them but my morning was spent clicking add to cart over at Anthro's site thanks to the lovely markdowns this morning.  Verdant dress! Fanfare platforms! One drawer pull at full price for $8 to get free shipping!  Yay sale!  I had actually planned on passing on the verdant slip dress till I saw on Pinterest how someone had styled it for fall.  And as I just so happen to have a rust colored cardigan in my closet already... I simply had to!  And I had to pounce after the thing finally went on sale, sheesh, it's been around 8 months or something crazy like that.

I must stand strong though and not cave on these.  They are far too expensive for something so trendy.  I've looked on Piperlime and ModCloth and Macys for suitable substitutes and I'm just not finding anything.  But there will be no caving! Even at half off, that's still a pretty penny for something I may only wear half a dozen times. 

C'mon Urban Outfitters, can't you make something similar in the $40 range?