Thursday, August 25, 2011

Bon Vivage

I think I made that word combination up? But it works.

Hello and goodbye, lovers!  Today, finally, I leave for my grand UK adventure.  Yes, it's rainy here, but the hurricane hasn't hit yet so I should be OK for my 11 pm departure.  I'm sad that Hike can't join me, but I'm still very much looking forward to some fun high-school-friend times, some party times, and some quiet, relaxing alone times on the Scottish moors.  I just wish it were already time to go!  I'm even excited for the airplane and the airplane food (it's so organized, and it's a surprise!) and my new travel pillow and landing in London and navigating my way to Britch's neighborhood.

So right, I land tomorrow at 11 am in London, the Hen Party is tomorrow night, Saturday night we may do a movie night, Sunday we take the train north to Glasgow, Scotland and stay in a hotel, we move to the castle grounds on Monday (I'm staying in a lodge with my two other best high school friends, who are married to each other), Tuesday night is the rehearsal dinner, Wednesday is the wedding, and then Thursday I can recover and Friday morning I take the train to Edinburgh to catch my flight home through Amsterdam.  Whew!  It sounds busy but also has some down time, which I'm very pleased with.

Bug-wise, things seem good at home.  I'm mostly unpacked, we've gone a week since the new company sprayed, and we haven't had any issue yet.  I did find one long-dead bb in the bottom of a shoe that had the heel cap missing (a sandal!) so that freaked me out because it was in my closet on the floor, and that was the first I'd found in the closet area, but nothing else has shown up.  I also sprinkled Diatomaceous Earth around the corners and floorboards and everywhere last night, so I feel extra defended.

Now I can just run away and not worry about my apartment for a week!  And poor Hike has his first class on Saturday morning, ugh, but it'll be good for him to get the MBA started so he can stop being so anxious, not knowing what to expect.  And it'll be fall and then winter before you know it, and I love those seasons, and we already bought our Xmas tickets (I'll go home from Xmas to New Year's, he'll come for New Year's) and I'm just very much in love.  I hope that Hurricane Irene doesn't sweep him away while I'm gone, and without a phone!  It's back to the 2000s with calling cards for me!

Anyway, enjoy your distaster weekend, friends, and I'll fill you in when I return.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Much Like the Economy...

My mental state is very in flux.  So on Tuesday, my roommate gets bites -- 7 of them, to be precise.  They appear to be bed bug bites.  She has started washing/cleaning thoroughly, but is busy at her job and only last night called the crappy exterminator we've had, who can't come until Friday or Saturday.  So I asked her to call more today, but she's decidedly less urgent about this than I am.  I'm just very worried they'll re-spread to my room/side of the apartment, and while it's been safe so far, I don't want to tempt anything!  And also, what if I have to wash all of my belongings again?  I will, but goddamn, this is awful.  And it's worse because so far no exterminator is scheduled and that drives me batty.  (Roommate said to me "I'm not as freaked out about this as you are."  THAT IS NOT OK.  YOU SHOULD BE FREAKED OUT.)  Obviously they somehow migrated to her end of the apartment, though it's been a month since I discovered them in my room, and it's all so confusing.  Plus, she had a ton of bites at one time, but why did it just suddenly happen?  Her room was sprayed twice of the three times that mine was, and while she didn't wash/bag all of her things, shouldn't the sprays have killed any eggies that were around?  Obviously they were hiding, but it feels like a neverending problem and I'm having some rough moments (and some optimistic moments, too.)  I just hope she has called another exterminator by now.  I'm going to harass her.

Otherwise, today is a beautiful day, I'm planning on sleeping at Hike's tonight in order to be less tempting to any bugs in my apartment (though so far, so good), and I made some Saturday "drunch" plans with my neighborhood girls, plus Hike already made plans for our Saturday night, which you know I love.  We'll do dinner and a movie in Astoria (seeing Captain America), but it's nice to have an actual date planned, you know?  And I THINK/HOPE I can Skype with Britch tonight.  I haven't talked to her in SO LONG and I leave in like two weeks to see her in England (hopefully the riots will be over) and I can't wait!  The idea of running away for a week is very appealing, too, though I will miss Hike dreadfully.

OH, we planned our winter holidays yesterday.  It began because he was looking at his vacation schedule for work, which he has to use by the end of the year, and he's trying to take time off when he can maximize it for completing schoolwork.  I asked if he was going to come home with me for New Year's again, and so he looked into it and planned the long weekend for when he'll come to meet me there (after Christmas).  I was a bit whiney about it, in the "I would have hoped you'd think of that yourself, since for our relationship to move forward, don't you need to spend some more time with my parents?" way, by which I meant "You'll want to ask my dad for permission to marry me ASAP, right???"  But it was fine, once I mentioned it (and he was like "Oh yes, I want to do that, I just wasn't thinking about it and you hadn't told me your plans to go home, either...") he got right into the planning and looking up airfare, so I calmed down.  Plus, then the BB World War II news hit, so I was distracted.

To top off my bad day yesterday, I volunteered to get the veggies for Roommate so she could go buy a steamer and a box spring cover, etc., and on my walk down Crescent, I passed Mex.  I mean, I am always afraid of going that way because of that reason, and wouldn't you know, I get myself calmed down and am walking and there he is.  Looking either already drunk or hungover, and making a really sullen face and not looking at me, so we passed like ships in the night.  I think I rolled my eyes (like, of course I have to see you today) but he didn't acknowledge me, though he would have surely seen me.  It's fine, I don't want to talk to him, but it's so strange to know someone intimately for two years (or at least know part of them) and then totally not acknowledge them on the street.  I'M SO MUCH BETTER OFF.

And finally, in good news, I got my bracelet from Hike repaired and back yesterday by a great jeweler on 47th -- he only charged me $20, he fixed the broken place and another spot that looked weak, and he cleaned it, in 24 hours!  Amazing.  So now I get to admire it on my wrist again and think of him, aww.  Ok, back to being bored at work.  Enjoy the blue skies!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Ketchup

Hola amigos!  Ha ha, just kidding, I hate Spanish.

Well, life goes on.  I'm surviving life post-apocolyptic bug problem, and it's getting a bit better every day.  Unfortunately last night my downstairs neighbors found two alive bed bugs in their living room, which is below my bedroom.  They hadn't had any bites or any in the bed, so we're hoping it's just a few stragglers that escaped from my poison-filled walls.  They had the exterminator come this morning, and he's coming twice more, though he doesn't think he needs to do my apartment again.  I'm thinking of buying this Diatomaceous Earth stuff and shoring up the walls of my room to prevent re-entry.  Why not?  And I haven't had any more problems, thank goodness.  My bed is an island fortress (so far.)

So this past weekend was a nice one.  Friday Hike and I just chilled at his place, beat that video game we'd been playing, and hung out.  Saturday morning he headed out to Atlantic City for another boys' party for his friend's 30th birthday.  I want him to go and have fun and have man time, but I do get slightly worried about, I don't know, STRIPPERZ and hoes and stuff.  But I trust him very much, so I try to banish those thoughts.  (I was just reflecting on that this weekend -- how far I've come from a year ago as far as trusting a man.  I really found the right one after the last fiasco.)  So I kept the car and off they went, and I spent the rest of my Saturday cleaning, doing laundry, and baking some sugar-free cookies for his Grandma's 92nd birthday party on Sunday.  (She's diabetic.)  I enjoyed myself very much!  Oh, and I walked up to Steinway to buy her a brooch from one of those costume jewelry stores, and wrapped it all up pretty and signed the card from us.  I felt very wifely. 

Sunday (after texting with Mom and calls with his sister-in-law), I drove to Flushing to pick up Grandma and then we headed out to Huntington to his mom's house.  I helped with some food prep and hung out with the family friends and a girl cousin I'd not met before who was very friendly, and I did his laundry in the basement (I didn't mind because it gave me an escape every once in awhile) and then the boys (he and his brother) finally arrived at about 4 pm, and we ate steaks and chicken and salad and all sorts of good stuff.  Then when it was time for dessert, we had a million things -- peach pie, blueberry tart, my cookies (they were a hit!  The biscotti was very good, if I say so myself.), ice cream cake, this grape/walnut/cream cheese concoction, etc.  I ate so much that I got a tummy ache, but it was all delicious and I was happy to have Hike back.  He looked so cute and was being very sweet, so I felt appreciated for what I'd done to help celebrate.  (He said he met me at the perfect time, which was a new one, and made me feel great.)

So I drove us home, since he was worn out and I love driving, and that was about it for the weekend!  This week I still have some errand-y things to accomplish, such as getting my Christmas present bracelet fixed (finally), bringing home the rug I ordered for my room, buying some slimming underwear for my bridesmaid dress, etc.  Tomorrow we're seeing our free Tuesday movie, and this one will be Cowboys & Aliens, so it should be fun.  I leave in two weeks and three days for London/Scotland, so I should start thinking about packing and planning for that, too!  I am getting very excited, though I plan on traveling with lots of garbage bags to stay as bug-free as possible. 

One good side effect of this stress is that I've lost some weight.  I have no idea how much, since I threw out the scale, but my clothes are fitting better, so that feels good.  It's probably partially due to my smoking again (I don't know how to handle stress without it yet), but I'll take what I can get.  In a week or so, or maybe right after my trip, I'll re-quit.  (I know a few of my friends will be smoking there, so maybe that's too tough to stop beforehand.) 

It's been a fun/crazy/fast summer, and it feels like it's starting to wrap up, but I did get in a good visit with Schmauren last weekend at the beer garden in Astoria, plus a nice trip to Vermont and I'll be international before it's over.  I'm also feeling very happy about my relationship, so I'm excited to see how that grows in the fall and winter, and plus, you know how much I love autumn and the winter holidays!