zabathan
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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "zabathan" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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06:27 am
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Rats!
Well, it's been awhile since I've updated, because not much has changed that was noteworthy. But now I have mind-numbing, earth-shattering news... It all starts a couple of weeks ago when I had to euthanize my pet rats Manic and Coke. They both had large tumors, and, like Nymph before them, were forced to go the way of the dodo. Anyway, I ended up buying 2 new rats, both albinos, and both, as usual, female. I named them Mia (as in M.I.A., Missing in Action because on the way home from the pet store she escaped in the car and we had a hell of a time getting her again) and Seras. I got them from Pet Advantage this time. (Manic and Coke came from Noah's Ark and Nymph came from PetSmart.) I've had them now for probably a couple of weeks. They're both still scared of me if I make sudden movements in their direction, but for the most part they're fine. They'll take treats from my hand and stuff at this point. So anyway, when I woke up this past afternoon (I work nights remember), Jenn came in for reasons unknown to tell me about getting her computer fixed (another story entirely) and when she went to leave again she stopped at the door and said "Oh, my God." After some unimportant dialog as the nature of her remark, I got up, and looked in the rat cage where she was pointing, and I beheld the subject of this mind-numbing, earth-shattering news. There, in the corner, squeezed between the house and the glass, was Seras, looking fairly worn out, along with 9 pinkish-purplish-reddish bald things about an inch and a half long that I can only assume are baby rats. (I know, it's not really mind-numbing or earth-shattering, but I know my mind felt pretty numb as I tried to figure out what to do with 9 unexpected rats.) Apparently Seras must have been pregnant when I bought her, they were housing males and females together after all, I hate when they do that. So anyway, now I've got more rats than I know what to do with. At the moment caring for them is easy, I just let Seras handle it. But in a couple of months I'm going to have an indeterminate number of fully aware rats (I say indeterminate because who knows how many will survive, probably all though) that will need attention. I mean they'll need attention before that but I don't really want to take them away from their mother before that. It goes without saying that if there's a couple I can't find homes for I'll just keep them, but I'd much rather give them to some of my good friends (if any of them still read this journal and get this message) who I'm sure would make spectacular owners. Anyway, sorry to make this so long winded, I'm at the end of the last shift of my four 12-hour work nights in a row and I'm tired and rambling. So if you find yourself thinking you might like a rat or 2 (I think they go better in pairs) then let me know and we'll try to work something out. At the very least everyone should see them, I didn't know it was possible for something to be so ugly yet so cute at the same time. So anyway, Cheerio!
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: The Killers - When You Were Young
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04:58 am
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life
It appears that I haven't updated my journal since I had tonsillitis. (For those who don't know, the shitty feeling I was referring to in my last entry turned out to be tonsillitis with a fever of 103F. It wasn't fun. But that's well over now, so I won't talk about it.
Right at about that same time, Jenn and Olivia finally met. They appeared to like each other, they both told me they liked the other, and since I have absolute confidence that neither one would lie to me, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that they actually did like each other. This makes me happy. Things go so much easier when the people who are close to me like each other. It means I don't have to play the stupid keeping-people-separated game. As an added bonus to Jenn and Olivia meeting, I also got to meet Olivia's boyfriend Tom. He seems like a good guy. (I suppose he'd have to be, I'm probably the worst guy she's dated and not to sound conceited or anything but I'm not that bad.) Anyway, so that all went well. We couldn't spend as much time together as I'd have liked, I was still sick, but we had lunch and hung out for a little bit and had fun.
Jenn and I are all moved into the new apartment now. The living room isn't quite unpacked yet, and there's still some stuff we need to figure out what to do with and where to put, but by and large we're all done. Oddly I haven't seen Amber and Richie that much since moving in with them, but that's mainly because they work when I sleep and vice versa, and last tuesday when we all could have hung out I went home to go fishing instead. But it's been good so far.
A few days ago I went to the pet store with Jenn and we bought Bettas. We each got one. I have had Bettas in the past, and they always die. Any fish I've ever had in fact have died. Also, I've never had a pet in general that died of natural causes (unless getting hit by a car counts as natural causes). My first cat died from the aforementioned car, I had a dog that we had to give away when we moved to Vermont (while it might have died of old age or something I'll never know, and since it wasn't in my possession when it died it doesn't count anyway). We had another dog a few years ago, and it died of causes unknown (but probably from getting mauled by another dog... that's no joke, seriously, mauled by another dog). And then there was Nymph, my first rat, I had to kill her myself because her tumor was almost as big as she was. I guess that completes the list of dead pets that never lived full and happy lives. (They may have been happy, but they were definitely not full.) There is still of course the cat Paws (or as I like to call him, "Cat"), he might still die of old age, he is getting pretty old after all, but he still lives with my dad and thus I haven't had much chance to kill him lately. And I still have Manic and Coke, but Manic has a tumor that's starting to rival Nymph's, so I have little doubt that she'll meet the same fate. Recently I've noticed that Coke has a small tumor too, so she may end prematurely as well, we'll have to see. All in all, not a good track record. So anyway, this brings me back to the story of the Betta. We bought them and brought them home Tuesday night. We put them in the bowl/vase things that Jenn had her last bettas in, and left them on our computer desks. Stuff happened that was totally unrelated to the fish, yada yada, and we went to bed. Next day Jenn's at work, I bike downtown to see her on her lunch break. This was a night I had to work, so in keeping with my schedule I didn't get up until at least 11. Anyway, when I went back to the apartment I was cleaning our room a bit and among other took a poster we hadn't hung yet and went to put it in the computer room. When I went to set my thumbtacks down on my desk however, I found water everywhere, the vase/bowl thing tipped over, and no fish. Well of course it didn't take much to figure out what had happened, Amber and Richie's cat Domino must have knocked over the bowl. Of course I looked around and eventually found the fish on the floor under my desk, very dry, and very dead. I hadn't even had the thing for a day. It probably got knocked over during the night, which means it probably didn't even live in my possession for 12 hours. I looked, and the average life expectancy for a betta is about 2 years. I was able to keep mine alive for about 12 hours.
In case you haven't noticed by now I'm slightly more traumatized by this chain of events than one would think I should be. After all, I go fishing all the time. I eat the bloody things. I gut them. Sometimes (although rarely) they're still moving slightly when I do it. (Don't worry, the head gets cut off first, they don't feel much.) My point is I do seemingly horrible things to fish, so why would this one tiny betta make me feel so terrible when it dies? It's not like I'd had it for years or anything. And the answer is I really don't know. I find it slightly strange that I am able to do all these things, and in the summer I'll pick up dead fish on the beach and throw them into the woods to keep the stupid kids from playing with them, but when I saw the betta on the floor I found the idea of picking it up repulsive. I did pick it up and throw it away, but nevertheless...
Anyway, by now you're probably wishing I'd shut up about the stupid fish. I only have this to add... Jenn thinks I should get another one. In the end I probably will, but I can't help thinking that to do so is to condemn some poor creature to a fast, meaningless death. At least when I catch and gut a fish, it's not meaningless, it's food. It's being sacrificed to feed me (or whoever else I may be cooking for). Not so for the betta. Not only did it get killed by the cat, but the cat didn't even eat it. Which means it basically died of exposure. (Not from suffocation, apparently bettas have an organ that allows them, or rather, requires them, to take oxygen directly from the air. If you completely close them off, they'll suffocate from lack of oxygen, even in the water. But they have to stay wet, otherwise they die.) Nasty way to die. Drying to death. So should I get another one? What if the same thing happens? What if I have some kind of anti-pet aura? I need input here, am I doing something wrong? Help me!
So enough about the fish. It's 6:30am on a Saturday morning and at 7 I get to go home and get 4 days off because it's one of those weeks, and I can't wait to go home. I really don't want to be here right now. Talking about the fish put me in a melancholy mood, which I'll probably be able to sleep off. This afternoon I get to watch Jon Lester's major league debut, so I'm excited about that. (He's a left-handed pitching prospect who's hype is wicked so now I get to see what all the fuss is about, hope he's good.)
I'm going to stop writing now. If anyone actually read this far then congratulations.
Current Location: Work, suckers!!!
Current Mood:  melancholy
Current Music: Alice in Chains - No Excuses
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08:32 pm
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stuff
I'm at work. I feel like shit (lightheaded to the point of what feels like near-fainting, headache, sore throat, stiff back, neck, shoulders,legs, you name a part of my body, that has bones in it, it's probably stiff, loss of strength). I'm worred I'm going to drop a box of like $250,000 wafers (ok, maybe closer to $50,000, I'm honestly not sure, but damned expensive anyway), or even better, faint while carrying a box hit my head on the tile as I pass out, have the box pop open and the wafers break and land on top of me, the slit my jugular. It'll be sweet. I won't have any headaches anymore ever. I'm thinking of going home early. I did it yesterday, and I feel no better today. The trouble is I have no sick time and so if I go home I don't get paid for it.
On a happier note I got a new cell phone, finally. It's infinitely more comfortable against my head, looks more stylish, people can hear me now, it has a camera, and I can even use GPS (instant downloadable maps, never be lost again, sort of thing. Of course, that costs extra. $10 a month, but since I'd hardly be using it, I opted to instead go with paying $2.50 per day when I need it. Cheaper overall. Of course I had to fight Verizon for it. Long story short, they told me I hadn't had my phone long enough. (First they told me I'd had it only a year, then tech support said I'd had it for a year and a half. So not only Couldn't I upgrade, but I also wasn't under warranty anymore.) I explained to them that that was the only phone I'd ever had, and if I'd only gotten it in December of 2004 (like they said) then it meant I didn't have a phone for 4 months while I was living at the apartment on College Street. After figuring some stuff out with the tech support guy (who was very nice by the way) he eventually decided that I was in fact eligible to upgrade. So I won. Go me.
Then a couple of nights ago while I was at work (before I started feeling like shit) Jenn's ex-fiance called (well the conversation started online actually) and after they talked about mundane stuff for a little while he came to the conclusion that he made the biggest mistake of his life, was crying on the phone, the works. So then Jenn blamed herself for "bursting his little bubble around himself" or whatever. Of course she didn't, the thing that he thinks he screwed up on (as in the reason he sent her home) is exactly the thing that she warned him against doing, he said he wasn't doing it for that reason, and now he's wondering how he screwed up so bad. I keep telling Jenn it's not her fault, it's not as if she didn't warn him, and logically she knows I'm right, but she still feels bad about it. I apologize to whoever may be reading this if my writing isn't very coherent; my thinking isn't very coherent at the moment either, and I'm making typos every 2 seconds. Sorry, just making excuses for myself.
Unfortunately we haven't heard from the Siamese Cat lady yet. If she doesn't call us this weekend then I'm going to call her and see if she forgot about us or what's going on. Oh, speaking of cats, we got the apartment we were waiting to hear about. I'm not sure of the address offhand, but it's on the corner of Walnut and Oak in the Old North End. It's not a bad looking neighborhood, considering it's in the Old North End. So I'll be moving there at the end of May. Crap I forgot to tell my Dad again when I talked to him today. That's twice now. Oh well, I'll get him next time. Well, with that I guess I'd better go. I'll try not to die.
Current Location: Work
Current Mood:  sick
Current Music: "Steady As She Goes" (don't know the artist)
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06:24 am
[Link] | I'm at work, which means I'm bored. The plus side is that I usually get to email people while at work, sometimes people I haven't talked to in awhile. Other than often being bored, work's been going fine. It feels good having money again. For a while I was starting to think I was going to have to sell a kidney (after all, do I really need two?) Fortunately I'm now back to where nothing so drastic should be required.
My lease runs out at the end of May, and then I'll be moving in with Jenn, her roommate from college (Amber), and Amber's boyfriend (Richie). Amber and Richie are really cool, I think we'll get along fine as roommates. Actually Amber reminds me of Kat Nastri in a lot of ways. They're very different in some ways, but just similar enough... We put a deposit down on a place in the Old North End. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "oh God, not the Old North End, why don't you just ask us to shoot you now" but I saw the neighborhood and it looks alright. We're just waiting for credit checks. Unfortunately they can't do that until they get a signature from Amber's father because she apparently doesn't have 2 years of renting history so she needs a co-signer. So it's taking a little bit. I just want to get it done with so I can say definitely where I'm going to be living starting in June. I feel like it's getting a little close to the wire. Plus I hate saying "I think we'll be [insert place here]."
A couple of Saturdays ago Jenn and I went to look at Siamese kittens. I've always wanted a Siamese cat because my Grandparents used to have some and I just thought they were the coolest cats ever, and I still do. Even so, I'd never seen them as kittens before and now I have and they're just soooooo cute and I want one even more. We decided we couldn't get a kitten right then because of moving at the end of May, but the breeder said she was expecting another litter "any day now" and that she'd call us when they were ready to see. So I'm expecting to hear from her sometime this weekend or soon after since she said she keeps them in isolation for a couple of weeks. Then it would be another few weeks before we could actually take one home, so that way we're all moved in and ready to complicate our lives with a cat. Of course Jenn keeps saying "but if we get a cat, and we break up, who gets to keep it?" I keep saying that since she's allergic (by the way it was her idea in the first place) then logically I would pay her back the half that she paid for it and I'd keep it. She doesn't seem to like this idea however. I think it makes the most sense. Also I want the cat. But then, if we don't break up it's not a problem. (Later on, when our relationship is hanging on by a thread and we're almost ready to break up, is "we have to stay together for the cat" a valid statement? Is it the same as staying together for the kids? I guess we'll have to think about that if it comes up.
Oh the other thing is that suddenly my cell phone is having the disturbing tendency to not let the person on the other end hear what I'm saying. I can still hear them perfectly well, but they thing I'm either not talking or we got disconnected. It's really annoying. I've been planning on getting a new phone anyway, so the same Saturday as the cats we went to the Verizon store. I was going to get a new phone no matter what, but then they looked at my plan and told me that as of May 2 I get to save $100 on any new phone I get. So I sucked it up. But I already know what phone I want. And this one's got a camera on it, plus apparently it has a USB connection, so I should be able to load picture onto my computer. The practical upshot of this is that with any luck I'll have a kitten soon and I can put pictures of it in my livejournal so you can all revel in it's glory.
I guess with that I'd better go, the shift's almost over so I get to go home and sleep. Ah, sweet sleep.
Current Location: work
Current Mood: Headache
Current Music: Dean Martin - Ain't That A Kick in the Head
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02:38 am
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Back to the real world
I've been planning on updating for over a week now and just haven't gotten around to it. I started the job at IBM last week. I came in on Monday morning for orientation and stuff and then my regular night shift started Wednesday night. So I've been here for what amounts to almost 2 weeks (since I don't work Sunday Monday or Tuesday. (I say "here" because It's really slow at the moment so I'm totally updating at work.) Incidentally, it feels weird typing with vinyl gloves on. What I do here (when I'm not updating livejournal) is run the robots that polish the chip wafers. It's not actually that bad, the 12 hours don't really feel like 12 hours because I usually stay relatively busy and we also get 2 one hour breaks so really we're only working 10 hours and I take the breaks on the second have of the shift so I end up working 6 hours, taking a break, working another 2 hours, taking a break, and working the last 2 hours and going home. So the last 6 hours go by pretty quickly because of all the breaks. The only thing that sucks is it totally screws with my sleep schedule. For example, I worked Wednesday night and went to sleep Thursday morning, but when Jenn came home for lunch I woke up and didn't feel tired any more so I ended up getting up at 2. Then I went back to work Thursday night, and by 11 I wanted to die. So today I woke up when Jenn came for lunch and then I went back to sleep and ended up sleeping 'till 5, when Jenn came home from work. And so here I am right back at it. I'll have to sleep tomorrow and then go to work again, and then Sunday afternoon we're doing a late lunch with Jenn's parents and then going over to see her extended family because it's her grandmother's birthday (I think that's what she said anyway). I've already met some of the family because I was over there for Christmas Eve, but more people will be there this time and I'm worried that I'm going to be dead tired because I will have worked for 12 hours and then slept for about 5 and it might not be pretty.
I feel a little bad working nights also because it means Jenn has to sleep alone. That probably sounds a little weird, and she keeps saying essentially that it's time for her to grow up and be more self-sufficient, but up until now I've never had anyone sleeping with me on a consistent basis, as in, every night. Now that I have I've gotten used to it and I don't really want to give it up either. I say I feel bad for her sleeping alone but I think it's definitely easier on me because I sleep during the day and I wake up when she goes on lunch and then when she comes home. I think if it was her working the night shift I wouldn't be too pleased about it; it's nice having someone there.
On another note I don't feel like I see any of my friends anymore, with a few exceptions of course. I see Rachel Smith a lot because she's a mutual friend of Jenn and I (she's actually the one who introduced us originally something like 4 years ago), and I see Andy because we still do pubquiz and stuff like that. But other than that I only see Ben because I live with him, I only see Katy when she's visiting Ben, and I haven't seen most of my other close friends for literally months. I would like to apologize to some of those people and tell them that now that I'm working and know when my days off are I'm going to make more of an effort to see you all. I really do feel bad about it, especially since I specifically told at least one of you that I would not abandon you just because I got a girlfriend. Aside from occasional chats online I feel like I've done just that.
I also feel bad because my work schedule won't allow me to play D&D with the group I usually play with at the time we usually play it. We had been doing it (when we did it at all) on Friday nights because that seemed to work the best for everybody. But now I work every single Friday night, so that's out for me. I'm hoping everyone else has an occasional Saturday night when they're not doing anything. I know that also sounds strange but I play with friends from camp who are a little younger than I am (as in still in high school) so it's not like they're going and getting ridiculously drunk on Saturday nights. But we'll have to wait and see.
This entry is turning out to be a lot longer than I had planned it, but that's ok, sometimes I just need to let it out I guess.
I got an email from Olivia the other day, and I've got to say it was really nice to receive. For once I replied promptly. I'm hoping to get a response soon so we can plan to get together, because it's really been too long since I've seen her. She still has to meet Jenn and I have yet to meet her boyfriend Tom even though I've been over to visit at least twice since they started dating.
I also finally stopped being lazy and emailed my sister; I've had this long email sitting in my inbox for over a month and just haven't bothered to respond. I guess I'm just neglecting everybody. Well this really is getting to be too long now, and I really don't have anything else to say, so I guess that's enough. Hope everyone has a good rest of the night (it's 3:30 am incidentally, I'm working for another 3 1/2 hours and then I get to sleep. Sweet sweet sleep...
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Alice in Chains - Man in the Box
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10:51 am
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good times
Well, since my last entry I got a new job working at IBM being a machine operator. The job pays well, and the hours are good in a way and suck in another way. It basically runs on a 2 week schedule, where one week I work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; and the next week I work Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So out of every 14 days I actually only work 7, so I get a lot of time off. But it's all 12-hour night shifts, 7pm-7am. So while I get a lot of time off, the nights I'm actually working I don't get to see Jenn much because she goes into work at 7am and gets out at 5pm, so that's like an hour and a half or so I actually get to see her. But as I mentioned before I get a lot of time off, so the other 7 days out of every 14 I'll be here and it will be ok. So the week I only work 3 days it'll work out to 36 hours, and the other week will be 48. That's pretty sweet because due to the weird schedule the pay is like $12.54/hr, and I do get overtime, so the 48 hour week I get 8 hours of almost $19/hr. So like I said, the pay is good (which is the only reason I'm willing to put in 12 hour night shifts).
This afternoon Jenn, her friend Amber, and I are going to look at an apartment we're really interested in for next year (the 4 of us when you add Amber's boyfriend Richie are planning on living together next year). It's in an apartment complex that's run by a property management company type thing instead of a private landlord, and supposedly the building is brand-spankin' new (as of 2005) and they're having an open house this afternoon. I'm really excited about it and have been all week. I'm not really sure why considering nobody's moving until this summer, but I'm still excited. I think I like thinking about living with Jenn officially (she stays here almost all the time anyway but she doesn't technically live here). Plus living in a new building would be great; old buildings are cool because they're old but they also suck because things break because, well, they're old. Then tonight we're going to the USABDA dance, which is always a good time. Unfortunately it's supposed to be really really cold so Jenn isn't going to wear a dress, which is too bad because I really like dresses, but it's ok I'll deal ;-). So it'll probably be a pretty good day overall, I'm looking forward to it.
Current Mood:  hopeful
Current Music: Green Day - She
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10:22 am
[Link] | Last night my girlfriend asked what I was thinking and I told her what was on my mind, which was this... Lately she's been making a slightly uncomfortable amount of comparisons between me and an ex-boyfriend of hers that she never has anything good to say about. The trouble is, she's not the type to not tell me if something I'm doing is bothering her, so she'd tell me if she was unhappy; therefore I'm fairly confident that she's happier than she was with him. Unfortunately when I said it she took it to mean I was hurt and now feels bad which means I feel bad for mentioning something I didn't actually think was that important. *Sigh*. Bang head against wall here.
Current Mood: sad
Current Music: Counting Crows - Colorblind
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03:32 pm
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it's been awhile
Well, it's been a while since I updated, so maybe it's about time. My Christmas was pretty good. I went over to my girlfriend's grandmother's for Christmas Eve, and met some of her family. They were all really great. After that she came to my Dad's house for the night and Christmas Day. It was pretty relaxing, we didn't get up early, and we left that evening. Unfortunately she's sick now (she's actually at the doctor's right now trying to figure out what it is). I've been spending a lot of time with her even while sick, so I'm hoping I don't catch whatever it is. My stomach feels a little strange right now, but I think it might just be because I'm hungry and haven't had a whole lot to eat today. That would be fantastic if I didn't get sick.
So I still don't have a job, but I think that will change soon, I have some prospects. So that's good. I haven't played D&D for awhile, and I miss it. Josh! We need to make plans to play! And Gretchen and Rachel and company, we need to get that going too! Anyway, enough about that.
I watched Serenity yesterday, and even though I've never really watched Firefly (except for the pilot episode that Rachel made me watch) I thought it was really good. I was glad when the guy died (I use "the guy" in case anyone hasn't seen it) that they didn't made it slow and have him say some touching last words or anything; because in real life that doesn't happen most of the time. And it seems like movies do it all the time. When he died, it was quick, and that was how they should have done it. But anyway, it was a pretty good movie, River kicks a lot of ass, it made me happy.
Well, I hope everyone had a good holiday, and I hope everyone has a happy New Year.
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01:19 pm
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laid-off
So yesterday I was told I was laid-off from work. While this isn't bothering in itself; the construction world does tend to lay people off in the winter after all; what upsets me is the complete and utter lack of notification. Brett called into the office to get the phone number for the service technician for one of the pieces of equipment we use, and he was told "oh by the way, it's Joe's last day." If I were to quit, it's generally accepted that I should give two-weeks notice. However, when they lay someone off apparently all they need to do is say "this is your last day" even though they'd clearly known about it for weeks at least. *Sigh* it just pisses me off a little bit. I don't know if I'll be able to collect unemployment while I look for a new job (I went down to talk to them but apparently that sort of thing is all done over the phone now and I haven't called yet). If I can I'll probably be fine, if I can't I might be in some shit. So we'll have to wait and see.
Current Mood:  irritated
Current Music: Stone Temple Pilots - Plush
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08:10 am
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Birthday Thoughts
As of 12:03am this morning I officially became 23. I have to say it doesn't feel that much different than being 22, except that this year it seems like everyone knows it's my birthday, whereas last year almost no one did. It's a weird feeling. My girlfriend's at work until 11, so I have some time to kill before I get her all to myself today. :-)
Last night I went to an awesome Christmas party being thrown by a couple from the USABDA crowd. It was really cool; it was at their new house which is huge, and there was lots of excellent food, and wine, and of course dancing. I had a blast. We got there around 6:30pm, left around 11:30pm, and the party was still more or less going strong. Emily (the hostess) was saying that last year they did it and the last person didn't leave until about 3am the following morning. That's like, a 9 hour party! I can't imagine. I doubt it went that long last night, but nevertheless, it's a long party. But definitely worth it.
Well, I guess I've said about everything I wanted to say, time to go shower and get dressed and all that good stuff. Hope everyone's doing well.
Current Mood: loved
Current Music: The Strokes - Someday
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