chimesblog

So here I am on a normal hermiting Saturday afternoon. Elbow deep in crafting. Getting ready to put it all away and go work out.

I’ve been making shrink jewelry all day and I went outside to spray acrylic coating on the pieces to seal them.  For all who don’t know, I have a huge porch that’s enclosed with 8-10 ft. walls.  I chose this apartment for that reason because I was concerned about my safety living alone (I used to get stalkers — but that’s a really long and scary story).

ANYWHO, who would have thought that I would get stuck outside on the hottest day of the year?  Go figure.

The big sliding door’s lock latched apparently when I shut it. Normally I would have just kept the screen door open, but I was spraying fume-y stuff and — oh — by the way — my screen door has been broken since I moved in. So that wasn’t an option anyway.

I finished spraying. Turned around. Pulled on the door. What the HELL?  Locked.

Poop.

Okay, wellll I seem to remember one of my windows not wanting to shut all the way (which I noticed earlier today because it annoyed me that I was running the air with the window cracked).  So, Ms. MacGuyver took the grill cleaning utensil brush and pried the window open a bit more.  But then the window slammed all the way shut when I took out the utensil to put a tree branch in it to hold it open to pull with my body weight.

CRAP.

So, what is my next option?  Well, just in case, I try the door again. Not so much.

So I have this little tree in my porch that I have always been afraid that some robber/stalker/burglar/rapist was going to climb down and get me (yea, paranoid much??). Well, thank GOD for the tree because that’s what saved me.

There isn’t any branches low enough to where I could climb up from the bottom of the tree, so I grabbed my bike that was parked on my porch and used that to boost me high enough to where I could start climbing.  All the while, all I could think about was OH MY GOD I’M IN MY PJS AND IT’S 3 PM AND I’M GROSS I HOPE NOBODY SEES ME CLIMBING THIS TREE!!!

So I get high enough to where I can see over the walls.  At this point I’m trying to figure out how to get over the wall and grab onto the light pole (which was how I suspected burglars/rapists/robbers/stalkers could get to the tree) and slide down.  I was looking around a bit for more options and I noticed a guy in the parking lot walking towards my door (my apartment is next to the entrance).

AND, not to mention, this guy is the ONE neighbor I ever talked to here and he’s saved my ass once before already (not as dire last time — couldn’t get the door open because the lock on the door was broken (yay).

Okay, so here I am. In the tree. In my jammies.  Hollering out this kid’s name.

He sees me. HALLELUJAH.  ”So… this might look a little weird, but my sliding door locked and I’m stuck out here. Can you call the property management?”

SURE!

Yes.  Most random, awesome thing ever.

This kid is my hero.  I’m seriously bringing him cookies later. He tossed me water over the wall and everything.

So I sat and waited about a half hour for the maintenance guy to let me in my apartment (ridiculous) — and yes, the kid I knew could have let me in himself had my door to the apartment not been locked.

Anyway, that was pretty intense. It is ridiculously hot out (heat index of 106°) and if I hadn’t caught my neighbor, I’d probably still be sitting out there or have 2 broken legs from climbing over a wall and jumping down.

Share on Facebook

I recently started sewing again (my machine had been broken for a year or so) and I’ve been making some bags. I’ve been trying to make a bag based on this tutorial. So far, I’ve been unsuccessful because I have such a hard time sewing the fabric on the handles and getting it to stay.  This is what I came up with for my mom for mother’s day:

inside of bag (with pockets)

close up of stitching on handles.  You can see where the fabric puckered out and didn’t stay put.  Also, I don’t like how I can’t get a clean circle on the handles.

Share on Facebook

FYI I started writing this yesterday afternoon (4/6/09).

So to keep myself busy for 12 minutes on this bike I’m bloggig from my iPod.

Read: yay! A short entry!

So now that i’m well on my way to recovery, I finally made myself go out and buy swimming gear and go for a dip.

Got a pink (what else?) swim cap and goggles and a plain black one piece. I was ready to go.

Problem: how do I put on a swim cap?
Solution: ask a random girl with wet hair in the locker room — she’s a swimmer.

Apparently putting on a swim cap is harder than it looks. She showed me and 15 minutes later I was ready to figure out my goggles.

So 20 minutes later I made it in the pool. And, sadly, I had iPod withdrawl.

And lo and behold, swimming isn’t as easy as I remember. My stroke: breast stroke. Can’t do it. No frog kicking allowed during my rehab. Ok well um what else can I kinda do? Side stroke… Check. Freestyle… Check. Dog paddle? Mega check.

I alternated those few “strokes” for a half hour and went to the deep end to water jog and tread water for a while.

Then I went into the locker room to shower off — the guys’ locker room! Oh boy. Sadly I didn’t realize it right away. Only after I discovered my clothes weren’t where I left them did I realize there were men walking around.

Sooo I bolted. Into the right locker room his time. Shoot. Forgot my towel. Ran back out to get that and reminded the lifeguards that I’m not a swimmer… just a poor injured runner that has no business in the pool.

I snagged my towel, went into the LADIES locker room, showered off and started changing. The naked older lady next to me started talking to me (or maybe I started talking to her? I don’t know). We had a convo while we changed (and yes, I got naked in the locker room).  THEN I realized my underwear were missing. Which wouldn’t be a big deal except I JUST CAME FROM WORK!  

Frantically, I dumped my bag fearing that my underwear were somewhere on the 3rd floor of Old Main … or even worse … on the 2nd floor (that’s where the president’s office is!).  

FOUND ‘em!  That was kinda scary.

Anyway, after a very interesting experience… I went off and started biking. Wet hair and all.

Swimming=fun, but awkward … my body=tired.  This morning I felt like I ran 10 miles…except without the “my appendages are going to break off at any moment” feeling.

yay.  Hoping to swim tomorrow. I dunno tho.  I stayed home from work today because I felt reallly…. off.  I guess. I felt like crap when I woke up and continued to feel like crap all day. So here I am. in sweatpants. 6 PM and no shower today. I rule.

Share on Facebook

I had a really long week this week for some reason. Stupid mistake after stupid mistake…definitely a BLONDE week.

Wednesday I managed to send an invitation to the printer without designing the envelope that goes with it. I get a call from the vendor asking, “Um, is there an envelope to go with this invitation?”  Why yes there is… or at least there will be in 10 minutes.

Thursday I made a major major major dumbass mistake. I thought my phone was stolen off my desk. I lost my phone somewhere between work and home. It wasn’t going straight to voicemail when other people called it, so I knew it was safe somewhere NOT in a puddle.

I had Kasey call my phone continuously for about an hour to see if it was on my desk (which it wasn’t because I couldn’t hear it) or at home (which it also wasn’t because I couldn’t hear it).

So, since I was 95% sure that I left my phone on my desk at work, I assumed somebody stole it and called US Cellular and had them shut it off to prevent any charges from somebody texting/calling.

I also posted one of those “OMG I LOST MY PHONE B/C I’M A COMPLETE DUMBASS AND I NEED UR NUMBERS!!!!!111!!!!!!11eleventyoneoneone!!!!11″ notes on Facebook.  That’s how sure I was that I lost my phone.

Ironically, I was planning to buy a new phone anyway on Friday, as I mentioned before.

So I was working on Friday when I got up to go get something and glanced back at my desk. LO AND BEHOLD my phone was actually ON MY DESK where I left it… just not in the spot I usually have it…and on silent.  I usually keep it on vibrate because I know I lose it if it is on silent, but I may have accidentally put it on silent at some point.

Anyway, here it is. VERY strategically covered with stuff.

image courtesy of Amber's iPhone

So when I found my phone, I realized that it was still shut off and I couldn’t use it. I called US Cellular to get it turned back on, but they wouldn’t let me b/c Kasey and I share an acct and I’m not authorized. (but they let me shut it off…?)  Either way. I had to borrow a co-worker’s phone and text him to make him call them and have it reactivated. I had to put in our latest inside joke so he would know it was me asking about that and not some random person who was with whoever “stole” my phone.

Anyway, phone got turned back on. An hour or two later, I went and got my new phone.  I ended up with the LG UX260 (white)…the one with the keyboard on the side.  I had thought about getting a smart phone but I figured I’ll be getting an iPod touch and I’d rather not pay the extra for the data plan…and I don’t want to become so dependent upon my blackberry that I’m a complete zombie all the time either.

Anyway, I like the new phone. And no, I haven’t lost it yet.

BUT funny story.  Last night I got so mad at the new phone that I said, “That’s it. I’m taking this back tomorrow!” We were going to sleep and I heard it vibrate. I thought it was weird because I had it on silent. Just to make sure, I went in and shut off the reminder.  Two minutes later I heard it vibrate again. I did something else I thought would help.  Two minutes later I heard it vibrate AGAIN.  I was so mad at that point that I shut it off (and that’s when I grumbled about returning it). TWO MINUTES LATER I heard it vibrate.  “WHAT THE FUCK?! I SHUT YOU OFF!!”  Oh wait. I still have my old phone.  I got up and looked and sure enough it was my old phone vibrating across the room. Apparently it got some of the text messages I got after I switched phones.

#EPIC FAIL

Share on Facebook

I spent all day long working on this flash project for work and I realized about 95% into it that it wasn’t going to work because the file size is going to be way too massive.

Anyway, I’ll get to redo it tomorrow. Hopefully now that I know exactly how it’s going to go together, it might work out.  I’ll have to make all the picture files small before I put them into it.  I might try to get rid of all the drop shadows as well.

Yeah. I’m out. What a pain in the ass that was.

Share on Facebook

My friend Steph suggested that I use the last.fm widget that I used to use on blogspot…but it won’t let me do it.  I must be missing something, but I really was just going to check my e-bay auctions (which I was sooo sure I lost) and run back downstairs for some metalacolypse and knitting (what a combo).

I’ll google the problem tomorrow.

Share on Facebook