A Very Bad Day, Seconding that Motion

To start little, when I arrived at work this morning--getting there a little early, much less on time, for once--all of my wall hangings were placed on my desk and everything else, like my coffee mug and my picture frames, were scattered. It turned out to be because they had to paint the wall this weekend, which is fine, but for a combative moment I was all ready with my black Sharpie, set to make some subtly sarcastic but blazingly clear DO NOT REMOVE signage.

Getting a little bigger, our air conditioner broke for the third time this weekend, effectively relegating the unit to the a/c graveyard. It has to be replaced. And yes, it's fall and getting cooler really soon in North Carolina, and yes, we could technically put it off, but the thing has to be replaced, and is there ever really a good time? Not only that, but all of the duct work underneath the house has to be replaced as well. This is a project we had just started to save up for, and would be done in good time--far enough in advance so that the baby wouldn't be crawling around, poking its fingers into the broken vents. I'm making our house sound like a real craphole, but I love it, and I don't regret being a homeowner so far. But seriously. Calling around this morning, S finds out that sure, we can go ahead and replace the air conditioning, but in order for it to run right and not crap out after 6 years like this one did, we really have to take care of the duct work, like, now. We're pretty sure it is original duct work, and the house was built in '68. Price tag: $5000. I'm not even going to bother reviewing our student loans, car loans, and mortgage values, because everyone has the same story, a lot much worse. But seriously? How are we supposed to pay for this. We have decided to use the CD I set up a few months ago from the housewarming gift my parents gave us. The CD is approximately the same value as the cost of the duct and a/c work, and was set up specifically so that we would have some money when I take time off to have the baby. The more this money was left untouched, the better shape we would be in, the longer I could take off, etc.

I now want to vomit, just thinking about it. I really, really do. It's all gone.

Also, pretty much most of the people I have talked to this morning are angry at me. Well, they're angry at the company. But still. Except for the email I got from my very good friend mendacious, chiding me for my extended absence in the blogging, emailing, and phone calling world. Hee. I'm teasing you, but I'm still upset about it. I suck lately, and I know it, and I will be better, I promise.

And just while we're in the cataloguing mood, let me just throw in a few other small annoyances that are contributing the cranky rainstorm. Because while I'm typically in a good mood, and lately in a very, very good mood because I no longer work for the horrible, ass-faced company Verizon Wireless, I am decidedly feeling a touch negative at the moment. My fake TiVo, or DVR, has since the hurricane been f-ing up. Maybe that's related to the duct work, too. Ha. Basically, it works fine and records everything I ask it to, but on random shows, the picture will play back fine but the sound is all RRRRRSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. For like the whole show. So it's essentially unwatchable. I missed the entire 2-hour season premiere of America's Next Top Model due to this problem. And granted, they are replaying the second hour on Wednesday, so I at least won't miss the photo shoot part, which is my favorite, but still. I also missed a couple of random episodes of Sex & the City on the WB, and I'm just waiting. What else will f-up? Survivor? Gilmore Girls? My most recent addiction, Nip/Tuck? Don't even mess with me, Time Warner. And the really entertaining part of the whole matter is that when I called customer service, I realized the company must subscribe the same pointless training philosophy as the vile, ass-faced corporation Verizon Wireless. Any time a customer called in with phone issues, we always said, "Have you updated your PRL software with *228?" Then tech would ask them the same question if they had to be transferred to tech. For Time Warder, the equivalent of *228 troubleshooting is apparently, "Have you tried resetting your system by unplugging it for 15 seconds?" Basically, the bottom line is that neither of these companies really knows what it's talking about. But they have a hell of an ad campaign! Suckers.

My baby's kicking, and the weather's nice. Halloween candy is on sale. We found a great painting for the living room this weekend at Art for the Masses.... Which, after the a/c duct work fiasco, we really can't afford.

Growl. But at least I blogged.