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Saturday, December 8th, 2007

Part I

OK, so, first up…Everybody having a good holiday season so far? My friend and co-worker, Megan Reed, said to me at the Love-FM/Mix/Drive holiday party last week, “I read your blog, you know!” Well, thanks, Meg. But I had to sheepishly look at her and say, “heh heh…then you know I haven’t written a new entry in a while.”

For, like, three months. Sorry about that.

Hm…so what have I been doing…

Number 1 would be… filling in for another friend and co-worker, our evening jock, Mark Sullivan. He’s been in and out of the hospital, as most of you know, so I did quite a few evening shifts, on and off, over the last few months. It can be tough to balance daytime freelance and other activities and filling in during the evenings, even if it’s a job you love. I still haven’t been able to visit him in the hospital…because, well, I was filling in for him a lot.

We speak periodically, and did just this week. He’s had “up” days and “down” days, but is hanging in there. Thanks to all the listeners whose calls I happen to field, no matter what shift I’m on, asking about him and passing along well-wishes. We want him to get better, too!

Then, there was all the computer trouble I had this year, culminating in a dying old laptop, researching a new one, returning the new one because it sucked, and getting a NEW new one earlier this Fall. It’s mostly cool but has Vista on it. I am not a fan. So there are still what I consider to be imperfect things about it. I should bring it in for servicing on the totally-unnecessary- but-built-in-and-kinda-cool webcam that works only when it wants to, among other questions I have.

But I can’t bring myself to part with it, because having a computer is like having a phone, these days. American Express says “Don’t leave home without it.” Where my laptop is concerned, it’s “Don’t leave home with it.” With an erratic work schedule, it’s my link to the outside world, sometimes. I am perhaps a little irrationally attached, but whatever. This issue has been time-consuming in one form or another since the Spring. I’m taking a break and will maybe take it in later.

Oh, and just last week, for the first time in my adult life, including having lived in a total of six different apartments or homes around the country, two of which have been in the city of Chicago, I discovered a furry, four-legged creature that got in through a hole in the wall behind the oven. Kind of a big one, methinks (the creature, not the oven), but it came in the middle of the night, so I’m still not sure what I saw in the dark, to this day. Yecch.

I think it’s all fine now, but I’m on the apartment management lording over Greene Manor to take appropriate measures. And I still have some makeshift motion detectors scattered around my apartment–in the form of the cardboard box from the laptop, newspapers, baby powder on the floor to check for tracks per an actual zoologist (yes, really) whom I happened to meet by chance shortly after the invasion–and poison, of course, so I can see what’s up when I get home after work or being out . So far, nothing has been touched, so it would seem everything’s been sealed up properly.

I still tiptoe into the kitchen and freeze every time I hear the slightest noise in my already creaky, clangy (but cute and clean, in case you were wondering), settling apartment: Lean in, hold breath, balance one arm on either side, pose in silence. Only eyeballs moving…to one side, then the other, like some paranoid nutball out of a movie scene where said nutball is trying to outsmart invading rodents. (Oh-my-gawd. I’ve been a cliche for a week in my own home. I’m like…Rick Moranis or something, now. Yay.) But I think I’m leaning toward believing everything is ok. Then again, ya can’t get too comfortable, can ya? Reinforcements have been put in place, yet you never know. The zoologist said he’s seen mice chew through cinder blocks, and this was just drywall. (*cringe*)

There’s actually much more to this little adventure, but my initial introduction to the varmint was so mortifyingly freakish, and as you might know, I’m anxiety-prone as it is. Gah. I just can’t talk about it yet. So I’ll need more time to describe it to you later.

So, you see, I’ve been busy handling all manner of things.

But, I was inspired to write today mainly because I was reading an article remembering John Lennon on the 27th anniversary of his death, this weekend.