Spending the Month Dead

So I apologize for lack of posting here... and lack of answering e-mails... and lack of posting, well, elsewhere I post. I'm spacing out on prescription drugs right now. Nothing too crazy, just a non-narcotic painkiller and an anti-inflammatory. But my co-workers laughed at how totally zoned my eyes looked this morning. Hah. I thought people who were in tons of pain after car accidents were fakers, but it's really thrown me off. Part of it might be that I didn't exactly have the perfect spine to begin with. I have scoliosis, with seven fused vertebrae and stainless steel rods, so not going to the doctor to get checked out was never an option for me. It's really more my neck than my back so far, though. I am swollen across the back of my shoulders. I'm getting headaches at the base of my neck, and I am really limited in how far I can turn my head.

I am getting the paperwork from Allstate tomorrow, and I will have to buy a new car this weekend. I think I will probably lease, however. Right now I'm looking at the Honda Fit. I wasn't even aware it existed till I went to the dealership, but it is itty-bitty and European and gas-efficient. It's sort of grown on me. I would, naturally, be getting the obnoxiously bright blue one.

Sucks to be me. I am going to wallow in a hot shower now.

Depressed

Bad day.

Car is totalled. Still owe $11,000 on car. In the best thing that happened today, discovered I had apparently purchased gap insurance (who remembers these things? But my signature is on the line), so don't have to owe finance company $2K on car. WHICH WOULD BE SO UNFAIR.

With all the money I basically threw away, I guess I might as well have leased.

Need new car for $0 down payment.

Sad. :-(

My caaaaarrrrr!!!

Twiddling My Thumbs

I am just sitting around waiting for the Progressive people to come tow my car away. (Waaahhh, my caaaaaaar!) And for the Allstate people to call and get me a freakin' rental car. Because otherwise, I have a doctor's appointment at 3:30 that I will not be able to get to. It's not far away, I suppose I could walk. But like... ouch. WTF. "Hi, I was injured in a car accident and I am HIKING TO THE DOCTOR!"

I need to go clean out my car. I also need to shower. I bought a new domain name yesterday. You know, just for fun. Because that is what people like me do when they are bored. So it looks like I'll be moving over there soon. I'm not in a hurry yet, though. I want to get it set up and looking nice first. I went as far as putting up two pages and installing a Wordpress theme. Well, about ten Wordpress themes I can't choose between. But I was frustrated by the fact that I have no graphics editor on my Mac, and Mike was playing KOTOR II all day on the desktop. I can't make a new site without graphics. Oh no no no. I also played around with iWeb on the Mac. It made me a semi-cute basic page, but I got pissed at it because it won't let you edit code directly. Also, it converts your images into PNGs, which makes the load time ridiculously long because the file size is ridiculously large. Will have to download onto the other computer, fix, and re-upload.

Meh. Maybe I'll just load up Star Wars: Battlefront and blow stuff up instead.

Ouch, Says My Car

And I say, "Ouch," too.

Only I have the luck to bust out of work early and be on my way to have a celebratory Thanksgiving Break drink at the Bulldog with a co-worker... and then get in a car accident. I was in the Irish Channel, with its web of one way streets and stop signs, when a giant black truck came out from my left and I couldn't brake in time. My left hand hit something, both airbags exploded at me, my front windshield cracked, and my horn was stuck blaring permanently.

All these people came out of the corner bar to see if everyone was OK, and I was very out of it, but the first thoughts that wandered through my head were,
1) Shit, was it my stop sign? It wasn't my stop sign, was it? OH GOOD, it wasn't.
2) At least he crunched in the side of the bumper that was already scratched when some idiot backed into me outside St. Joe's and took off. Which is now going to get fixed for free.

So. I have this red spot of my hand that feels like a rug burn, along with a cut, which must be from the air bag, and a couple of other red spots on my left arm. My right knee must have gotten jammed or something (I had it extended with the brake all the way down to the floor), because it's feeling a little iffy. Not painful, just iffy. Today my neck is sore. My hand swelled up yesterday, but it's gone down. My poor car though... the front bumper, hood, the front panel on the driver's side, the windshield, two air bags, and my seat belt is inexplicably broken.

All in all, it's more of a pain in the butt than anything else, once I got over the initial shock. From the windshield cracking and the air bags going off, and the pain in my hand, I expected to find the whole front end smashed in, but it doesn't look that bad. Neither of us were going over 25, I doubt. I'm not at fault, and the guy had just bought his truck (so it sucked for him too) and has full coverage. Also, he was a pretty chill guy to get hit by, which was helpful since we had to stand and wait for the cops for over an hour. You'd think in the sketchy part of the Irish Channel, we'd have run into one sooner, but it seems they vacated the premises rather than deal with our boring car wreck. We looked in my manual and figured out how to pull out the fuse for the horn, so it finally shut off. He was a waiter, which I'd figured immediately from his outfit and the fact that he'd just gotten off work. Who but waitstaff and teachers is just getting off at 3:00? He had barely any damage to his truck. I just bounced right off. Nice to be large. The lady next door stuck her head out to say that she'd heard the crash but didn't even get up-- there's about one every two days at that intersection.

So. Now I have to spend the first part of my break on the phone with Allstate and Progressive, and possibly at a doctor's appointment. Whoo. They are coming Monday to tow my car away. Poor car.

Well

I am gonna go with, "There's something wrong with me and my body needed a sick day after all," because I just slept for over 11 hours.

I have so far spent my day doing bills and being irritated with the fact that I can't quite hear out of my ears properly.

And no, I do not need a rental car or a list of things to do in Albany, thank you. I already have someone picking me up, and frankly, there's not much to do in Albany. Haha. (Bought plane tickets for Xmas... going to be there Saturday 12/22 through Saturday 12/29, for those of you who care.)

Why Do I Feel So Guilty???

So I called in sick today for the first time in... geez... how long has it been since I even had paid sick days? Anyhow, I have been struggling with a sinus thing since the weekend, and spent the day yesterday with a headache like a vise around my head and just feeling generally shaky. Plus my voice is going. At the end of the day, I made all my copies and left detailed plans on my desk, just in case. The thing about me and colds is I like to merrily pretend they don't exist, and as a result, they just get worse and last longer.

And now, of course, here I am and I feel horribly guilty and can't get back to sleep. This may also be related to the fact that I passed out on the couch at 9:00 PM last night, so I've already had my eight hours. I guess I should probably go back to bed. I wish I wasn't so ingrained with this sense of guilt though. I know it's going to be hard for them to find someone to cover for me, because they're short people. But also I'm used to just soldiering on, going to work anyway, and dragging myself around being miserable all day. But, like, this isn't exactly a job you can do if your voice goes. Part of my guilt is based on next week being Thanksgiving Break. I am off for 9 days starting Saturday, so it is a frustratingly dumb time to have to take a sick day.

I don't know why I am being so obsessive, like, "Maybe they'll question my sickness! Maybe I'll get in trouble! Maybe they'll hate me!" I am certainly the only one on my hall who hasn't taken a day yet, and it's been three months since I started working. Plus I've already gone to work sick several times. I obviously need to get over it. But I have this guilt thing.

My cats are swarming me, and Starbuck is batting at my tissue like she's about to shred it. Silly cats. OK, time to get back in bed and try to make my head work again.

Streetcars!!!

Not quite to our house yet, but running from Napoleon to downtown. :-)

BSG Creator Ron Moore Answers Questions over on the SciFi Boards

And I quote:

QUOTE(sighphi @ Jun 5 2007, 06:31 PM) *
Are you going to explain what the Cylon plan was?

The Cylons have a plan?

OK, not funny. Not even a little.

Pretty Pretty

I got a new toy...

This is my dude. He's pretty hot. But as far as I can tell, everyone in Guild Wars is really, really, really ridiculously good-looking. What I actually wanted was a female Elementalist, but I made one and deleted her after Level 4 because I decided I could not stare at her boobs hanging out the entire game. I just couldn't. This was after I went on the internet and confirmed that all the Elementalist armor looks like that, not just the outfit you start the game with. Then I wanted a Mesmer, because of the clothes, but I hated all the faces, and besides, that type of magic isn't really my thing. Then I wanted a Ranger, because I loved the hairs, only I didn't want a Ranger, because I just played one in Neverwinter Nights. Then I felt like the most hopelessly superficial gamer in the world, and gave up and made this guy. I have played maybe one male character in the history of ever, but at least he has clothes on. Also, he's a hottie, isn't he?

But today I also made this warrior, and I think she looks pretty bad-ass. I don't know if I'm going to get around to playing with her for a while, though. I should also mention that I have NO. CLUE. WHAT. I. AM. DOING in Guild Wars. I am not at all used to having other actual people running around me when I'm gaming, and it sort of weirds me out. Luckily for now I have the option of just ignoring them and running around the countryside by myself.

The 10 Most Terrifyingly Inspirational 80's Songs

Of course, I just love things like this... My particular favorite highlight:

#5.
"Don’t Stop Believing" by Journey

There are two kinds of people in this world: People who love Journey ironically and people who love Journey genuinely. People who love Journey ironically are mostly leather-clad hipsters in second-hand vintage T-shirts, smoking cloves and hanging with strung-out androgynous she-boys outside used record stores. As for people who love Journey genuinely, they do so because of this song. Say what you will about Steve Perry (For example: He looks like Paris Hilton with Down Syndrome) but the man could sing.

"Don’t Stop Believing" is in many ways the ultimate Journey song, packed to the gills with the staples of '80s rock. It includes vague references to singing in bars, drinking, cheap perfume, taking your chances, livin' in the city, romance at midnight, a jaded city boy, a lonely small-town girl, and a mysterious train whose destination, one assumes, is rock 'n' roll.

Oh, so well put. Naturally I fall into the second group.