well, it's another Friday night and life around casa de candoor seems it revolves around Precious again... she's been hovering around me since I woke up (to the sounds of car crashes and police chases blaring on TV)... she's staring at me now hoping I decide to drive her somewhere, but she is not sure where... and she has no way home, which means she'll be stranded and want me to pick her up... she isnt getting me to take her anywhere unless I know exactly where she's going, who she's with, what she intends to do there, and when and how she is getting home... is this the copy from a parenting commercial?... ah, but fair questions, I think, since she would not be doing whatever it is she wanted to do tonight unless I took her there, wherever there might be...

people often forget that we could die at any moment and the last time we might get to see or say anything to someone might be the next time we part... I think about that... in fact, it's a thought I am comfortable keeping at some level of consciousness most of the time, which keeps me grounded in the moment (believe it or not) and appreciative of the sharing that happens and usually remembering to hug and smile and say what I might say to someone if it was the last time I was ever going to see them...

what's that song?... something about a saxophone... Miss Saigon... you know, like it's the last night of the world... or something like that...

ah, but there's Precious sitting directly across from me and staring at me... if only I could find a romantic relationship with someone who gave me as much attention as she does, but then, her dad is asleep most of the time she is home and I am usually awake because I sleep when she is at school...

so I drove out to drop her off at some carnival where she's meeting friends and stopped on the way home to pick up some food (and a couple of ice creams for them... I really can not afford my giving nature, but it's just money, aye?)...

now I have pizza in the oven and it'll be ready in a few minutes and as if on cue (or is that queue), Raspy just woke up and comes out of his room farting... so I light a few candles since fart flavored air and pepperoni pizza are not very appealing to me...

he has flu symptoms again... he seems to get sick a lot... maybe because he works in freezing temperatures for long hours and gets very little sleep... or because he never exercises and does not eat anywhere near a healthy diet... or maybe it's the caffeine...

open plan architecture is great to give the maximum feel to a space, but it's definitely not at all good for privacy, or for living with someone who farts a lot... he'd be a lot easier to feel sympathy for and nurture if he didn't fart in the living room so much...

the candles are some sort of berry, some sort of vanilla, and some sort of other flavor... I like food scents with dinner... I have not burned incense in a long time, but got back into candles during the hurricanes last year... they were good for something I guess...

well, I hope he feels better... he's off to work after drinking more of the Theraflu stuff I bought him a few weeks ago when he was last sick with flu symptoms and Diet P, of course, and ordering a pizza or sub from (where else) Donato's... meanwhile, I guess Precious is on her own for food again... I am not responsible, right... she'd get along just fine if I wasn't here, right... but I am here...

now that we're alone, let's catch up on this week (since it's my night off)... I worked... what else... was it last weekend we moved in or the weekend before?... and we went to see Phantom of the Opera somewhere in the past week or two... absotively posolutely fantastic... and then there was Thursday... at least I think it was Thursday...

I wake up to head out to work Wednesday night and Rasputin tells me that there will be a construction crew in here at 8am the next morning tearing up the kitchen ceiling to repair a sagging beam... they should be done in two hours... ok, I'll eat around 10ish... never mind it's in the middle of our work week and we both work nights... never mind that we agreed to stay four months in a building where they tore up every apartment and banged on our heads and walls almost every day... never mind that the promise was we'd move into a newly refinished apartment with all new everything because most of the apartments were being gutted and redone from tile to cabinets and everything else...

so I rush home from work so I can be there at 8am and they show up somewhere around 10am and get started around 10:30am (yes, don't use the kitchen to cook dinner or anything so we don't inconvenience the construction crew)... they start covering everything and turning the apartment into a construction zone... along about 11:30am, Rasputin goes out for food and I stay here because I am not letting a bunch of guys wander around the apartment without someone here to keep them from making a mess... the crew goes out on a break and I call the office to find out who is in charge so we can organize whatever it is they are supposed to be doing (from 8am to 10am, remember)...

the office idiot (seriously, he is an idiot, but he's just paid to be a lacky so I suppose that's ok) has no idea and nobody else is around... I leave word that I want to talk to the manager/owner's rep as soon as she can be reached... a little while later she calls and offers to cancel our lease if we want to move... so much for offering a solution, though we are considering that offer... the trouble with that is we'd have to do the move ourselves and find another place and Raspy does not want to move into another apartment and he procrastinates so much that we'd probably not go looking for another place this month... among other things...

we (the owner rep and I) agreed that the maintenance supervisor and construction forman will be here at the apartment asap... and they showed up a little while later to explain what the construction crew was doing and apologized for running way past the promised 10am finish time and walked through the apartment with me... the maintenance supervisor (who is the owner rep's husband) agreed that they've had prolems with the construction crews work and many complaints and today was the first time he'd seen the full page list of unacceptible-upon-move-in stuff and he appeared to agree that the apartment should have been in much better shape before they rushed us in here... he admitted that they were still working on the place (in a rush) the night before we were to move in) and some things were just ignored...

apologies again...

ultimately, twelve guys were roaming around the place for a few hours patching and painting and trading out broken screens and caulking drafty windows and fixings various things... and they gave us a brand new ceiling fan with lights for the living room... and we emphasized that all the scratches and dents (front door, fridge door and all appliances, and walls and cabinets and various other places) were here upon move in and we should not be charged for anything when we move out...

I feel for the management, especially for the maintenance supervisor, because there was so much damage after the hurricanes and because the insurance companies are trying to get out of paying for anything they can possibly get out of paying for, so rebuilding a luxury apartment community is out of the question on a budget that the insurance company provides... so ultimately this place, fantastic location and formerly beautiful grounds and apartments and amenities, is slipping out of the upper eschelon of apartment communities and slipping into the overpriced, formerly high-end places that are gradually falling into ruin... oh well...

knock knock...

it's Precious, she forgot her key... isn't she lucky I did not slip into coma-like sleep (working nights only enhances my inherent ability to sleep through just about anything if I want to sleep)...

and on that note, here's to better weeks and more comfort and maybe some peace and quiet... fat chance with the tennis court just below our bedroom windows... I mean, if we've got to have noise right outside our windows, why not the pool... in the end, I've done this to myself by sleep walking through life and letting others make decisions for me... it could be much worse, but then, it could be better...

. o O ( NOTES ARE THE NEW HAPPY PILL ) O o .
(just let me know you were here)