Tuesday, May 12, 2009

ABOUT A MONTH TO GO...

I'm not gonna get into details this time, but suffice to say, Best Friend and I got into yet another big fight over something ridiculous -- did you ever notice that in your life? The less important something is, the more vehemently and savagely it will be fought for/over? Then again, maybe it's symmetrical: Civilized warfare for/over important issues/themes and Savagery for petty issues. I dunno.

      Regardless, the end result was me spending last Friday morning moving my computer into my already small room. Much to my chagrin, the phone jack in my room is not connected to anything so the easy wiring job became unnecessarily complicated to get the telephone wire into my room. Probably for the first time in my life I wish I had a laptop...maybe the next upgrade -- do they make A/C adaptor male plugs that securely fit into the female plug of the laptop? Best Friend's one just keeps slipping out with only the slightest touch [insert slutty computer joke here].

      My room is essentially a slider puzzle now. In order to do anything, something else must be moved out of the way. The arrangement I'm sure could've been made more optimal, but wha'e'er, I just need out of her sight to get some peace and if I can only achieve that peace by holing myself up in my room and effectively ceding 80% of the apartment to her for a month, then so be it.

      Roommate and I made the final arrangements securing the new apartment yesterday and it should come as no surprise that problems are attached, hopefully all minor. I can't help but think we should've taken the other 2BR apartment we saw together than the one we actually got. The first thing I noticed is that while all the keys I was given fit in the locks, none of them are actually capable of locking/unlocking the door so new keys will have to be made lickety-split (yes, I wrote that). The mailbox keys, however, do work swimmingly [yes, I wrote that too]. I swear I smelt urine in the stairwell which may not be surprising since the apartment is open...what's to stop (hopefully) an animal from making a pitstop. The closet door in the large bedroom still does not open...it's really stuck good despite the fact that Roommate pointed this out when he first saw it...I hope this isn't a sign of what is to come.

      I'm gonna go back later today to make accurate measurements, take pictures, test the appliances/outlets/faucets, locate outlets/radiators and other fixtures, check for insect/rodent infestation, check the carpets/fixtures to make sure they're secure and undamaged, find out who our the cable provider is and parking regulations for same, etc. Despite all this, I feel like I'm gonna like this place. The liaison to the landlord is very laid-back...almost too laid-back like she's a con artist who's not actually employed by our Landlord (oh yeah, and completely batty) =]. The lease explicitly forbids putting an air-conditioner in the window, but they clearly don't care which I like [hell, the liaison's office has one!]. The only potential real problem I can foresee is our neighbors. I can only hope that we're not surrounded by dickheads who will complain at the slightest noise...especially when I stay awake all night when I'm home. I felt quite a lot of relief my first night in my current apartment hearing the downstairs neighbor blasting the TV at 3 a.m. I can only hope for a repeat of that and that seems likely as our little block has a lot of tweens/teenaged kids in it. =]

      I've gotta free up some space in my current room stat so as soon as Roommate starts moving in, I'll have to ferry some of my smaller clutter over. I look forward to a more peaceable and uplifting existence and even a renewed lease...I hate moving this much. I think I'm up to ten times now :-/

      Best Friend and I will definitely need to take a break from each other. We're going to my cousin's wedding this Saturday so I've been keeping this intention from her. I don't intend to break all contact...just casual contact. I will still be there for emergencies such as if she gets hospitalized or one her (grand)parents should die, but the quotidian stuff I intend to relegate to e-mail/AIM/MySpace until such a time as I wish to include her again in my life more typically.

      And finally, I'm fucking tired of ants! Holy shit how many have been crawling in lately! I've got bait stations everywhere and am now in this uneasy situation whereby I'm no longer killing the ants on sight because I want them to discover the other form of death I've provided them. I can't tell if it's working yet...it's been two days and the package says to wait at least three to begin noticing results. I'm starting to think this poison Fipronil works a bit too well as I've been finding dead ants in the bathtub. If they're not making it back to their nests to tell the others about this tasty treat they've found, how am I gonna kill the queen? Ugh...I'll just have to see what happens as the week progresses. These ants remind me of the only thing I genuinely hate about apartment-living: your apartment is only as clean as its dirtiest tenant. Stupid insects...why must you be so vital to the food chain?!!

(originally posted to That Other Journal on May 12, 2009)

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

BRAKIRI SPACE

It turns out that my Best Friend and me have come to the same conclusion separately. The day after Roommate stopped by for him and me to discuss in secret our plan to move in together, Best Friend mentions to me that she has been looking at condos/apartments in areas closer to where she works. That was a relief!

I was worried (in an admittedly paranoid way) that Best Friend would not take the news that I would eventually have to tell her well. In her anger, she has threatened to break my things (not that she ever has), so I was seriously considering a secret, sudden move-out about a month before my lease had terminated. That is to say, while she was at work, I would abscond with all my possessions and those things which I had paid for (whether I needed them or not) leaving only a note. I really, really did not want to do something like that, but considering how poorly she's taken breakups with boyfriends in her past, I felt it necessary to imagine worst-case scenarios rather than take the far more reasonable approach of assuming her to be a rational human being. I am such a paranoid douchebag at times (this, however, does not mean that the fantasy of doing this didn't feel awesome) =]

Very thankfully, it will not come to that. Roommate has found an apartment. What we need to do now is set up an appointment so we can pay exorbitant fees, get our credit checked, and sign the lease papers. It's just down the road in another part of this multi-owner, massive complex. I'm marginally closer to work, the rent is less than what I'm paying now, and it includes heat and hot water. Mom showed me some additional apartments that I didn't know about considerably closer to work than I am now. I'll have to call on them anyway as they're all advertising available apartments, but not being specific about it. I'm sure this place is similar to what I've got now. We've got some discussing to do, but I'm looking forward to it overall.

I am truly glad to be able to move openly now. While I enjoy moving in secret, I don't enjoy doing so at another's expense and no matter what I've said in this forum, Best Friend is my best friend and I love her dearly. The fact that I've even considered doing something so dastardly to her makes me question more so what's wrong with me rather than with her. I'm not proud of those thoughts. :-/

I just hope they're willing to wait until at least June to let us start a new lease. I wouldn't want things to fall apart at the last minute forcing both Roommate and me to scramble for separate apartments.

Also, it looks like Roommate will be able to claim two more notches in my social advancement. I'll likely get a cellphone after all this time (even though the land line has proven cheaper than Best Friend's plan) and should have enough spare cash each month to (maybe) finally license up and join the driving world. The latter will have to wait until I have an idea of what it'll cost to live there. I don't want to have to get a second job if I don't have to...it'd kill what's left of my soul =]

(originally posted to That Other Journal on April 15, 2009)

Monday, March 30, 2009

STUPID LIBRA IV

Wow...a bit angry in that last entry! This is one of the dangers of writing things down. :-)

I just wanna let you all know that I'm better now. I've calmed down. I've since talked to my Best Friend and again, like we always do, we've made up and made our conciliatory gestures. Hell, I've even got some space in that closet now -- now I can stow my winter blanket and a few other things that have been simply getting in the way in my room.

When I get mad, I get really mad...which is why I try not to get to that point. Best Friend and I tend to yell at each other quite a bit. However, it's not unproductive even if at first it comes across as such. Through all the loudness, we're both actually listening. We're similar in that neither of us want to concede when we're both hot. It's most frustrating, but cooler heads ultimately and always prevail with us...even if it takes a day or two. We both know what we did wrong and apologize for it and move on from it. That's what we do. Our fights are not our proudest moments, but we do get ultimately closer as a result. No matter what I say about Best Friend here, I love her and I have for a very long time. We're not going anywhere. We'll continue to learn how to work together and how to live together and neither of us will ever abandon the other. That's how it is and how it will continue to be.

I thank you for your sympathies when I'm mad, but just know that that's all it is...anger. I will calm down and see the situation more clearly. Please understand that I would never have stayed with her for as long as I have if she were truly as bad as I make her out to be. No news truly is good news and anger is prone to exaggeration. I'm sure you all have your own horror stories :-)

'Til next time.....

(originally posted to That Other Journal on March 30, 2009)

Thursday, March 26, 2009

MY FRIEND MUNTADER

I so wanna write now, but I don't have the time to go into any sort of detail...maybe when I've finally finished what I'm supposed to be doing, I'll elaborate...I should elaborate. Hopefully I'll remember the details by then. Again, my Best Friend's just making me miserable. We were doing good for a while...you'd think by now that I would recognize that our getting along is the anomaly; that her actually having a positive outlook on life is simply unusual. It's just so really frustrating. I've gotta get out of here...I just don't know if I can afford to on my one job alone... I don't wanna have to work two jobs for just me...it would destroy me to work so hard for no one but myself...

We were yelling arguing (shortly after she opened the windows too...excellent timing Best Friend) almost instantly after I told her that if we were to renew the lease that we would be paying an extra $10 each per month. She seemed genuinely surprised that costs go up over time. She later said that she "knows" these things, but sometimes I wonder. She's just like my customers at work...they fight tooth and nail over pennies. She's then railing against our apartment again and how much she hates being here because it's so small. She again mentions that she feels bad that I live in such a tiny room (she shows this sympathy by -- I'm stuck saying "refusing", but it goes beyond that -- refusing to give me the half of the hallway closet that I deserve (I'm paying half the rent after all...we each have a closet in our respective rooms)). I don't even have a shelf in the linen closet nor do I have one in the medicine cabinet behind our bathroom mirror. Somehow I tolerate this. I'm even stowing our fan under my bed instead of in our closet. That's gonna have to change as things I've inherited from Dad can go nowhere except beneath my bed for the time-being. I know this is gonna result in an argument. She uses the argument that she has more things and therefore is entitled to the space instead of renting a storage space for her winter clothes during the summer and vice-versa. I've suggested the storage space only to get a...uh...indignant reaction like the very idea of her paying extra to store her extra things we don't have the space for is somehow absurd. It's never "I must have too many things...maybe I should get rid of some of it", it's "the apartment's too small".

She shows no sense of generosity. The whole time we've been here, she has never once brought home dinner for us and I've taken her out no less than four times since being here (and I'm not counting the first week we were here before we had a table and we had to eat out practically every night. She did pay for one dinner...after I had paid for four). I know it sounds petty; but again, the idea of her treating me to something only gets her to react to the very suggestion as though I am again somehow being absurd.

She often points out that I don't wear fashionable clothes as one of the reasons girls don't find me attractive. I've told her that I wouldn't know what to get and that she could perhaps help me get something only to get her to tell me that she doesn't know how to shop for guys (which I don't get because she should know what would look good on me even she couldn't imagine it...that's what shopping's all about, right?). I remember during one such argument suggesting that we go out together and she help me out by buying me one outfit that she thinks I would look good in, just to test it out. I don't even think I finished my sentence before I got an indignant reply about why should she have to buy me anything. Again, I'm not begging for gifts, but a recognition that I've bought for her (with money I could've easily spent on myself when she didn't have money herself) numerous outfits, shirts, dresses, pants, skirts, and shoes over the years would've been nice. I'm not looking for dollar-for-dollar compensation because I'm not like that...but not even once? Am I so very wrong for wanting to be treated once in a while? When Roommate showed up at my old place with a bag of Dorito's corn chips (the good kind) the week after I had either praised them or complained about how my place of employment no longer offers the house-version of corn chips anymore -- whatever the reason -- When Roommate showed up a week later with a bag of corn chips for me, he showed me more generosity in both thought and dollars than my Best Friend has in probably the last five years combined (and I'm not counting the Bon Buffet dinner she treated me too when we moved here because she openly admitted having felt bad that I was picking up the tab on so many dinners...negates the spirit in my mind).

I really feel like I'm losing her and yes, that bothers me. And it bothers me even more that she doesn't seem to have any clue that this is so. I've told her that to her face and I don't think it even registered. Have I really wasted almost fourteen years of my life on her? Have I?

I mentioned to Best Friend that based on intelligence from a friend at work, there's a customer (who's a friend to two regular customers and an employee) who likes me. I'm told she's shy and that's why she hasn't been saying anything. I feel all secret-agenty since I'm not "supposed to know this information" telling her to have her friends become a bunch of noodges to get this thing moving along. I'll see where this goes. I'm skeptical, but glad to have some potentially good news. Anyway, I tell this to The Vegan and I get the friend reaction which crudely summarized is, "That's good to hear. I'm happy for you. Good luck!". I tell this to Best Friend, and the reaction is immediately how this negatively impacts her. Something along the lines of, "Great now you'll have a girlfriend and I won't [have a boyfriend]" and since she's young (likely 19...not too thrilled about that honestly, but whatever), she goes on (since she's 29) about how she thinks it disgusting that guys go for girls that young and I shouldn't be -- like I was going for this girl...this is just as much a surprise to me -- and blah, blah, blah, me, me, me. Not once was she happy for me. I would've even accepted the proceed with caution sentiment of "Don't get your hopes up in case this doesn't work out or even happen". That would've been fine, believe me. But no, it's all about Best Friend because...why wouldn't it be. I don't think I've ever been around anyone so negative. She's so corrosive. Sometimes I really do believe that she is incapable of feeling happy for another person because the idea of caring for someone who isn't herself is just...alien. And if I don't talk to her for a while, I get shit about how we never talk, or hang out, or do anything anymore and I just can't get it through her seemingly retarded head that it's her. I've only yelled at a few people in my life. I've yelled at Mom, my Brother, I may have yelled at Dad once but I honestly can't recall because I kind of remember Dad yelling at me once, but for what, I can't remember right now. I've yelled at my Coworker and I, of course, have yelled at Best Friend...many, many, many times. I've had customers piss me the fuck off and I've never yelled at them. I'm surprised, honestly, that I've ever yelled at Coworker...I'm usually better than that. But outside of him and my family (which may be par for the course and therefore discountable), Best Friend's the only person I yell at and regularly too. That can't be good. I don't like raising my voice. I don't like passionate arguments...it's not my style...and yet...constantly with her and only her...

And she'll hit me on occasion. She poured water over my head once. She threw her shoe at me yesterday. I'm tired of her shitting on this apartment. I know it's not perfect, but I can't get it through to her that being within walking distance of my work was a precondition of me moving in with her. Since we moved in, I feel I can take it that she has accepted such an arrangement...or has she? Every time she puts this apartment down for being too expensive (never mind she only pays HALF the rent...good luck finding a 2 BR for $662.50), puts it down for being too small, puts it down for her being unable to entertain guests for the aforementioned reason...I can't help but feel she's expressing resentment for having moved in with me. And she will mention that she could've gotten a bigger apartment for less, but couldn't because of me since I can't drive (and can't afford to without a second job now). So, I yelled at her. I'm tired of hearing this. I told her to just go and get one of these bigger, cheaper apartments. This is over a ten dollar increase in our respective shares of the rent. She denies this, but it was at that point that the yelling and indignancy began, so I feel that this is the case because if it weren't, then why the yelling right after I brought it up? I told her (from the kitchen) that she has two options: She can either just find another bigger, cheaper apartment elsewhere like she claims she can and shut the fuck up or she can stay here with me and pay the extra ten dollars a month and shut the fuck up. There really are no other options. I then hear loud, approaching footfalls and feel a heeled shoe strike me on the back.

She has not apologized for this childish reaction, nor has she ever apologized for striking me or pouring water on me or messing up my desk when I wouldn't give her a stamp (she had over three months to get stamps of her own) among other such reactions and wonders why I hold such resentment for her. She's actually told me that she hates that I get mad at her for things she did in the past...like I can get mad at her for things she hasn't done yet. I may as well...that would be a page out of her book...making up a fact, deciding that it must be true, and then accepting it as true. An example of this is her obsessive attraction to a man named First Angel who dicked her over (both senses). She'll see that he friended some eighteen year old girl and decide that the reason he did so is because he's fucking her. And then in the next sentence she'll say something along the lines of "I can't believe that he's fucking her. What does he see in her?" Remember, this is based on nothing but her supposition. She made it up and then decided it was true. After all, this knowledge came from Best Friend and Best Friend's a reliable witness.

I lost my place...I'm frustrated and mad. I'm trying to remember when Best Friend was last my friend, but I honestly can't give you even an approximate year. And if her behavior during Dad's funeral counts...she actually gave me three whole days of not being her selfish self...and all it cost me was my father. If I only had ten dads who could've all died sequentially...I could've had a whole month of peace. She's a parasite. We must have been symbiotic at one point...but those days have long since past, haven't they?

I guess I did have time :-/

P.S. -- I found twenty dollars at work tonight. The past two times Best Friend and I fought majorly, I've found money at work. Should I take this as the universe itself actually feeling pity for me? :-)

(originally posted to That Other Journal on March 26, 2009)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

WAITING FOR HER COMPUTER TO RECONNECT

40 secrets about yourself:

- - be honest no matter what - -

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A MUSICAL SURVEY: PLEASE TO BE ENJOYING

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on SHUFFLE
3. Press PLAY
4. For the first question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the "NEXT" button twice
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...just type it in man!
7. Tag 10 people, and they have to do it too :)
8. Seriously. Don't cheat!


Tuesday, March 3, 2009

FUN WITH FOOD

I mixed some Chik'n strips and some real chicken into a stir fry I made on Sunday. Aside from not liking how baby corn tastes from the can, it turned out tolerably. The chicken strips were too thick and should've been cut more thinly, but otherwise there were no problems. It's still too messy to prepare...I think I need a wok...or at least a larger pan than the one I'm using. :-)

I found the chicken substitute tolerable. The makers are definitely counting on the eater having not had plain chicken before. The spices used definitely reminded me of a recipe I've had before. They were a bit rubbery for chicken but softer than a beef rib steak...kinda like an over-microwaved chicken nugget in strip form. Aside from cost (about 4x as much as chicken), I had no concerns taste-wise consuming them.

For curious vegans out there, my Best Friend was an unwitting blind taste taster. I asked her of the meal this morning and she told me that she liked the thinner strips (the chik'n) better.

The meal itself, aside from the inclusion of precautionary chicken stir-fry strips, was not vegan. I was annoyed to discover the stir-fry sauce contained both whey and oyster extract (whatever that is). However, there is a brand sold at work which is vegan so that'll be my stir-fry brand henceforth after the final serving of the one I have is gone.

I can use these chik'n strips in future stir-frys and even add them to marinara sauce. So I guess I can assume that a beach-head has been established in what was once 100% Omni territory. Over the meals I tend to make over a two-week period, that would make me -- and Best Friend whether she likes it or not (price you pay for not cooking I suppose :-p) -- about 14% Herbi dinner-wise [and 50% breakfast-wise (up from less than 10%), 95+% lunch-wise (pretty much unchanged), and 75+% snack-wise (up from probably less than 50%) for those of you keeping track].

I don't know how much more I can do, but the successful test run of seasoned soy strips (Chik'n) serves as a go-ahead to attempt the fake beef in the future. Beef will be more difficult to substitute as I do tend to eat it unseasoned as beef is a naturally flavorful meat, but I'll try it once...at least. :-)

One of these days I'll tell Best Friend. But for now, she will remain my vegan guinea pig.

(originally posted to That Other Journal on March 3, 2009 at 7:10 a.m.)