Many many many things
This has been a pretty eventful week but, sadly, I did not write about these things when they happened, so now that I've put it off I have to do it all at once! Gah!
This Tuesday I had dinner with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
drakonous. We went to Ernesto's 1521 Cafe on Spruce Street - the first time in a while I've been to a "nice" restaurant with someone who wasn't related to me. In spite of some misadventures with cab fare and the fact that I didn't get home until 2am (we basically did a lot of catching up and hashing out, you see), it was quite fun, and as is always the case when I have a long conversation with drakonous, I actually learned stuff. There aren't a lot of people you can say that about - or, at least, not many that I know.
I also went to Knitting Circle for the first time in a while on Wednesday. I hadn't been going because of a bad case of acne (or, really, the results of me scratching at it), but I realized that hey, since they know me, they wouldn't really care, they'd just be glad to see me. And I'm glad I went, because everyone was relating amusing cat anecdotes.
Speaking of cats, I finally got the paperwork that will let me get Roo spayed at a reduced price, and she's going to The Cat Doctor on Monday. Unfortunately, I will have to schlep halfway across the city to get her there. Fortunately, I have a carrier for her now, even if it's a crappy one, so I can take her on SEPTA.
Thursday (yesterday) was pretty interesting. Since the weather was nice and I wanted an excuse to be out in it, I biked to the Superfresh on South Street to stock up on some essentials (peanut butter, hot cocoa mix, pudding, tea, etc.). When I got back I found Suzanne talking to the woman who lives downstairs, who was wearing her bathrobe and had a load of laundry under her arm.[1] She had left her apartment to do the washing and when she came back the door seemed to have locked behind her, which the doors in our building don't do. Suzanne had called the landlord for her and he said he'd try to get a contractor to come in, but it was already 6:30 by then so they were likely to be off. Suzanne had some stuff to do so I stayed in the front hallway and kept Alexis[2] company. We'd seen each other a few times but never really talked. After a while I brought Roo down to meet her. Alexis also has a cat, named Boo (!), who was very upset at Alexis being right outside and not coming in. The poor cat was meowing like crazy most of the time while we were waiting. I found out that Alexis crochets, she came here from Hawaii and, although she thinks Philadelphia is cool, she recently came to the realization (after living here for 4 years), that most native Philadelphians are rather unfriendly (to put it mildly) - a fact that can be attested to by Suzanne.
After waiting for two hours without a call from the landlord or anyone showing up, I decided to take Alexis upstairs and give her my cellphone and our phone book so she could call a locksmith. I also gave her some tea, and it turns out that she's sort of a tea connoisseur herself. We managed to find a close-by locksmith company that offered emergency service, and a guy came over to fix the door. He discovered that the lock was defective and had just chosen today to break, so the door was jammed. This was partly due to the fact that the hinges were not screwed in properly. It took him a while to get the door open, but at least it was progress. He then replaced the lock[3], which was easy since the kind we use in the building is pretty common. He also put on a new doorplate. The price he charged was pretty reasonable, although not cheap. Fortunately, I think the landlord may reimburse Alexis for it.
When that was all done, Alexis and I decided that we should try to introduce our cats to one another. I took Roo out into the hallway, and Alexis brought out Boo, her big fat silver tabby. Roo was actually well-behaved, but Boo, unlike Roo, had never been big on going out into the hallway and so she was uncomfortable. Although she'd been smelling and hearing Roo on the other side of Alexis's door for some time, she was pissy and hissed at Roo. Oh, well. At least Alexis and I got along very well. I invited her out to dinner on Sunday.
Today was nice enough to let me wear my sandals for the first time in months, which I'm quite happy about. I am less happy about the e-mail conversation I had with my mother. I told her I wanted to go for a library science degree, and she seemed to assume I hadn't thought it through at all (in terms of pay, job security, flexibility, benefits, stuff like that). She had given me a list of questions I should ask myself about it. So I sent her back the answers (because yes, I have been doing research) and told her that I don't appreciate it when she assumes I can't think through major decisions without her managing me. She might get really pissed, but I'm very far out of yelling range, and I do have a point.
Wow, that was a long post. I wonder if anyone will actually read it, or if the world will yet again fail to appreciate my literary talents.
[1] A little background - there used to be two guys downstairs, Mike and Rory, but Rory moved out a few months ago and the woman, named Alexis, moved in. She isn't Mike's girlfriend - in fact, she finds him kind of difficult to live with (because of, for instance, his habit of getting really drunk on weekends). Good thing he works nights, so she doesn't have to see much of him.
[2] I thought I'd heard her name before so I felt embarassed about asking. This happens to me a lot. I didn't ask her until we'd been talking for an hour or so, but fortunately, she was in the same situation, so it turned out all right.
[3] Meanwhile telling us amusing anecdotes about some of the jobs he's been called out on, like the time the police called him to open a door because this married couple had decided to "have a little fun" on their second-floor deck and locked themselves out. When he arrived and managed to open the sliding door to their deck, they were both stark naked and very embarassed.
This Tuesday I had dinner with
drakonous. We went to Ernesto's 1521 Cafe on Spruce Street - the first time in a while I've been to a "nice" restaurant with someone who wasn't related to me. In spite of some misadventures with cab fare and the fact that I didn't get home until 2am (we basically did a lot of catching up and hashing out, you see), it was quite fun, and as is always the case when I have a long conversation with drakonous, I actually learned stuff. There aren't a lot of people you can say that about - or, at least, not many that I know.I also went to Knitting Circle for the first time in a while on Wednesday. I hadn't been going because of a bad case of acne (or, really, the results of me scratching at it), but I realized that hey, since they know me, they wouldn't really care, they'd just be glad to see me. And I'm glad I went, because everyone was relating amusing cat anecdotes.
Speaking of cats, I finally got the paperwork that will let me get Roo spayed at a reduced price, and she's going to The Cat Doctor on Monday. Unfortunately, I will have to schlep halfway across the city to get her there. Fortunately, I have a carrier for her now, even if it's a crappy one, so I can take her on SEPTA.
Thursday (yesterday) was pretty interesting. Since the weather was nice and I wanted an excuse to be out in it, I biked to the Superfresh on South Street to stock up on some essentials (peanut butter, hot cocoa mix, pudding, tea, etc.). When I got back I found Suzanne talking to the woman who lives downstairs, who was wearing her bathrobe and had a load of laundry under her arm.[1] She had left her apartment to do the washing and when she came back the door seemed to have locked behind her, which the doors in our building don't do. Suzanne had called the landlord for her and he said he'd try to get a contractor to come in, but it was already 6:30 by then so they were likely to be off. Suzanne had some stuff to do so I stayed in the front hallway and kept Alexis[2] company. We'd seen each other a few times but never really talked. After a while I brought Roo down to meet her. Alexis also has a cat, named Boo (!), who was very upset at Alexis being right outside and not coming in. The poor cat was meowing like crazy most of the time while we were waiting. I found out that Alexis crochets, she came here from Hawaii and, although she thinks Philadelphia is cool, she recently came to the realization (after living here for 4 years), that most native Philadelphians are rather unfriendly (to put it mildly) - a fact that can be attested to by Suzanne.
After waiting for two hours without a call from the landlord or anyone showing up, I decided to take Alexis upstairs and give her my cellphone and our phone book so she could call a locksmith. I also gave her some tea, and it turns out that she's sort of a tea connoisseur herself. We managed to find a close-by locksmith company that offered emergency service, and a guy came over to fix the door. He discovered that the lock was defective and had just chosen today to break, so the door was jammed. This was partly due to the fact that the hinges were not screwed in properly. It took him a while to get the door open, but at least it was progress. He then replaced the lock[3], which was easy since the kind we use in the building is pretty common. He also put on a new doorplate. The price he charged was pretty reasonable, although not cheap. Fortunately, I think the landlord may reimburse Alexis for it.
When that was all done, Alexis and I decided that we should try to introduce our cats to one another. I took Roo out into the hallway, and Alexis brought out Boo, her big fat silver tabby. Roo was actually well-behaved, but Boo, unlike Roo, had never been big on going out into the hallway and so she was uncomfortable. Although she'd been smelling and hearing Roo on the other side of Alexis's door for some time, she was pissy and hissed at Roo. Oh, well. At least Alexis and I got along very well. I invited her out to dinner on Sunday.
Today was nice enough to let me wear my sandals for the first time in months, which I'm quite happy about. I am less happy about the e-mail conversation I had with my mother. I told her I wanted to go for a library science degree, and she seemed to assume I hadn't thought it through at all (in terms of pay, job security, flexibility, benefits, stuff like that). She had given me a list of questions I should ask myself about it. So I sent her back the answers (because yes, I have been doing research) and told her that I don't appreciate it when she assumes I can't think through major decisions without her managing me. She might get really pissed, but I'm very far out of yelling range, and I do have a point.
Wow, that was a long post. I wonder if anyone will actually read it, or if the world will yet again fail to appreciate my literary talents.
[1] A little background - there used to be two guys downstairs, Mike and Rory, but Rory moved out a few months ago and the woman, named Alexis, moved in. She isn't Mike's girlfriend - in fact, she finds him kind of difficult to live with (because of, for instance, his habit of getting really drunk on weekends). Good thing he works nights, so she doesn't have to see much of him.
[2] I thought I'd heard her name before so I felt embarassed about asking. This happens to me a lot. I didn't ask her until we'd been talking for an hour or so, but fortunately, she was in the same situation, so it turned out all right.
[3] Meanwhile telling us amusing anecdotes about some of the jobs he's been called out on, like the time the police called him to open a door because this married couple had decided to "have a little fun" on their second-floor deck and locked themselves out. When he arrived and managed to open the sliding door to their deck, they were both stark naked and very embarassed.