The Good and The Bad

Note: There will be no sugar coating in this lj. Viewer discretion is HIGHLY advised.

So here I am getting super pissed off again at the roommates when I had almost gotten over it thanks to a good night last night out of this place and hanging with other people, well I guess I have to find a way to vent and this is the only way. And fuck being PC anymore and fuck clicking the stupid button to hide this from anyone's eyes because damn it I am tired of botteling my anger up to save people from getting hurt. No more being nice to protect people from what I think of them, its time they heard it. And you can judge me however you want and think I am just a mean hearted bastard, but I don't care anymore- this is what I think and as far as I am concerned there is at least a fair bit of truth and reality to these views.

So explaining is probably in order for those far away and those I haven't discussed with yet (which is probably everyone I am friends with on here).

The rage all started, or at least became evident to me, on Thursday morning. I woke up sometime around 11am and started getting ready to bike to school like normal. It takes me about an hour and a half to eat, shower, and get things ready. I walk into the kitchen to make breakfast and see that there are a ton of dishes in the sink and look in the dishwasher to see it too is completely full and not clean. The dishwasher had been full and dirty at least a day, probably could have been run even a day before that- but it wasn't.

Context: With virtually 95% certainty I can say that since moving in here I have run and emptied the dishwasher all but a handfull of times. Some of those times Scott helped me empty it and put stuff away, but I was the one to remember it had to get done.
Further context: Since we live a good distance from school now and I knew that counting on rides from others every day was not going to work I got a bike this summer and have been riding it to and from school for about half the time so far. The only real day I expect a ride is on Wednesdays when I ride with Sam to school to teach an 8am lab, and then home from class normally with Sam again. Now I am not the first to wake up for the day, that goes to Sam for her trek to work most days, but when I do get up I get ready and leave ASAP ride to school and normally ride back here. In the past I normally got back around dinner time (like 7pm), but lately due to classes, clubs, work, observing I haven't been getting back till ast least 9/10pm.

Back to the dishwasher... So believing that all things created equal and that probability should eventually normalize all things, at some point in time other people should start realizing the dishes need to be cleaned and actually do it before I do. Unfortunately I have learned that seems to be to idealistic an expectation. Why were the dishes not done Tuesday night? I made dinner with the help of Sam and honestly it probably wasn't full yet. Why were the dishes still dirty after Wednesday night? Probably because I didn't get home till 10pm and had to take a shower cause it was really humid out that night and I was up since 8am and really REALLY tired. Now Thursday morning it really wasn't an issue yet, but I was going to keep it in mind all day for when I got back home to check if it was still full. Why did I not start it myself in the morning? Because I had to shower and I was not about to have the dishwasher maybe use up my hot shower water, and I was under the impression Scott was still asleep- more on that later. Finally, I didn't turn it on as I left because I was brought up to believe no major appliance should ever be running when you leave the house, its simply a lot safer.

Now more on Scott still sleeping Thursday morning. Since I bike to school for the most part, it gets very tiring doing it day after day so of course I look for any way possible to lessen the burden. Normally this means either riding with Scott to school with my bike in his car so I can ride back at night or riding the bike in the morning and coming back with Scott at night. The 1st one is prefered since its hotter during the day and our classes at night don't always match up. When I woke up Thursday I assumed Scott was still asleep since his door was closed and I heard nothing, so I started getting ready as normal. After showering I heard he was typing and remembered he had to go to school before our class at night because he had to pick up quizes or something. So I decided to spend more time here and eat a decent breakfast before I left thinking maybe Scott would get out of his room soon to get ready himself. Annnd NO.

Now this is after noon and I ended up leaving at like 12:45 tired of waiting. It only takes me 15 minutes to ride from here to school once I get on my bike downstairs. It is consistent, every day I look at my phone when I leave and look at the clock when I get to Rm 228- every day its 15 minutes. I get to school, get up to 228 all sweaty like always, go fill my water bottle, come back and sit down. I was not there more than 10 MINUTES and guess who comes walking in the door- Scott...You cannot even imagine how extremely, insanely pissed off I was when I saw that. So recap: less than 30 minutes after I left the apartment Scott made it to school. In the car it takes at most 10 minutes to get to school from our place; he stopped by the math dept. to get the quizes so I will add another 5 minutes, he takes about 5 minutes to shower every day. So ~30 - ~20 = about 10 minutes AFTER I LEFT Scott got out of his room to get ready to leave. Coincidence? Of course I THINK NOT! After hearing he was awake I waited around probably 20 minutes eating and finishing getting ready. In that time he didn't open his door once, not to go to the bathroom, not to get a drink of anything, nothing. Then less than 10 minutes after I leave he does everything he has to do before leaving for school? This on top of not waking up till around noon.

Evidence #1 for: Scott you are a fat, lazy jackass.

Back to Rm 228. Thursday afternoons have become the day when everyone madly finishes writting up their EM Theory homework to be handed in during out 5pm class. I also have to oversee the instruction of Optics lab on Tuesdays and Thursdays- I say oversee instead of teaching cause really I am just there if they have issues. Now after Scott showing up and my being absolutely livid I was just going to focus on my EM and not talk at all. Then Scott had to go and open his big fat mouth. Him and Bryant started talking about the homework. Scott said: Oh I finished it all early this morning cause I woke up and couldn't get to sleep [AGAIN] , it wasn't too bad it was actually pretty easy. Or something close to those lines. Bryant said something like one of them wasn't bad but the others were pretty hard. Scott then had to push his point [AGAIN]: well most of it we did in class and the other stuff was really easy. Course no one was going to waste breath trying to burst Scott's bubble so it was just left, but really REALLY?!?! You are seriously going to sit there and claim that the EM homework was not that bad or even dare say its easy??? Everyone knows full well the solutions to ever single problem are on the internet free for everyone to see, solutions that give you the basic answer and you just have to figure out a few lines in between and if the numbers are right. You are really going to claim it was easy when you have that to work with? GARBAGE. Even if it was easy, you can't say it was since those solutions are there to be used. No one is going to believe you are better than they are by saying it was "easy" when they know you could just look up the answers.

Evidence #2 for: Scott you are an arrogant, egotistical jackass.

After that episode I was not about to stay in 228 with Scott sitting next to me so I hurridly grabbed all the stuff I needed and went to do all my work in the Optics lab while the seniors were doing labs all around me. The questions and looks I got from them: "Don what you working on?" [EM homework due today] "Don why are you doing it in here?" [I am in here staying away from my roommate who is in 228 whom I am angry at right now] "Don who is your roommate?" [Scott]. Several undergrads looked and made faces of understanding. There were no more questions about nonlab stuff after that. Even the undergrads know Scott has serious issues.

Evidence #3 for: Scott you are an arrogant, egotistical jackass.

On to class Thursday night. We have EM Theory at 5pm, that is all I have; Scott has that and then Planetary Interiors at 6:30pm. Now remember, Scott was present on campus and he did have the homework supposedly done. We all show up for EM- no Scott. Where is Scott?...no one knows. He apparently vanished at some point before 5pm and no one knew where he went. I have no idea what reason he could have possibly had for not making it to class this time since he was already there, and when I got home at night he seemed fine. Yet again, everyone has figured out to not expect Scott to show up for class simply from their 1st hand experiences.

Partial Evidence #4 for: Scott you are an arrogant, egotistical jackass.

( Aside on Dr. Oluseyi:Collapse )

Thursday night after the botched observing I start my bike ride home since it stopped raining pretty quickly. However, by the time I got to Babcock and Florida Ave it started to rain again. I decided to stop by Mike's place to see if I could find shelter there till the rain stopped again. Luckily Mike and Jen were there and they let me stay. Mike copied my EM notes since he missed class and we played Brain Academy on the Wii.

Thank you Mike and Jen for some sanity.

Now I finally get home on Thursday night. Needless to say after such a terrible day I was not in the mood for anything else. I get home and there is a phone book on the ground in front of our door. It was there in the morning when I left, but since I had my bike with me I was not going to go walking back in just to put away a phone book, I figured someone with less full hands could do it later. Again, clearly I expect too much. Since I knew it was there all day and it was right in front of the door bot Sam and Scott must have had to physically think "Oh phonebook, lets not pick it up and leave it here." Not a good way to come home at night after a terrible day, seeing more evidence of your roommate's total and complete laziness and lack of care. Again, since I had my bike with me, was tired, and angry I was not bringing it in.

Evidence #5 for: Scott you are a fat, lazy bastard.
Evidence #6 for: Sam you are a fat lazy, bitch.

I get inside. Like always I go throw my backpack and helmet in my room, then go take my bike on the balcony. Unlike always (but what I am getting more accustomed to with these roommate as days go by) it was dark, Sam was in her room door closed, Scott in his room door closed. I hear Sam yell through the door "hii" but I don't answer since I had a crucial test before I started talking to anyone about my day and how I felt.

( CLIMAXCollapse )

( FridayCollapse )

( SaturdayCollapse )

So that is everything that has happend the last 3 days and all the reasons for why I am in such a bad mood right now and so pissy.

Further evidence from the whole time since I have moved in with them.

Even though there are 3 of us living here only one of us ever seems to cook often and is consistently dependable to cook when they say they are going to cook. Of course that would be me too! I will give Scott miniscule credit here since there were a few weeks back when he was doing his share of cooking, but not recently. My main issue here with Scott is that for the past week plus he has kept saying "oh I should make that sauce, I should make that tomato sauce" has he- NO!!! What is the point of continually saying it if you are not going to deliver?!?! *Note: There will be no contradicting of this because Scott might have been "sick" which is a whole different arguement to be had. Just leave it that if he was home for an entire week doing nothing but sitting around here waiting for computer stuff to be delivered he should have been able to do something responsible for the greater good of the apartment.

Evidence #11 for: Scott you are an irresponsible jackass.

The same if worse can be said for Sam. Although when she is not here of course I do not expect her to cook, but when she is here she should at least do it once a week. BUT I GUESS I EXPECT TOO MUCH!!! Sure she helps out once in a while when I cook something, but I think that is more because we just got home and she wants to interact rather than out of some kind of responsibility. The last time she cooked something herself was this soup she made which was more for herself than everyone since Scott wasn't eating it and I asked to eat it thinking it wasn't meant as a dinner. I can't even remember what the last thing she made before that was.

Evidence #12 for: Sam you are an irresponsible jackass.

Even MORE evidence for this point alone has been brought to light these last few days. The last time we all ate dinner cook in our apartment was Tuesday night. Wednesday I got back late and had leftovers, they had something for dinner but it certainly wasn't cooked here. Thursday night I came back really late and they again certainly didn't cook dinner here cause Sam got home late from school much later than Scott. Friday I didn't eat here and from Scott's facebook I can see at least he had sushi, again not made here. So it can be readily seen that unless I am here making dinner there is a very VERY small chance of either of them making dinner for just the two of them. Instead they will elect to go out and eat some where for significantly more $$$ and significantly less work.

Evidence #13 for: Sam and Scott you are both irresponsible jackasses.

Then there is the litter box. The epic battle between Sam and Scott over who's turn is it to empty it this time. This is by far the most reccuring, most annoying, most disgusting, most irresponsible thing both of them do that pisses me off. I made it clear to them when we moved in that since I have no ownership over either cat that no matter how much I love them I will not clean their litter box. So it is up to both of them to keep it clean and sanitary. Given how much both the cats go to the bathroom, especially when it is clean, I say it should be cleaned at least once a week if not every five days. BUT I GUESS I EXPECT TOO MUCH!!! No, instead it always gets pushed off till it is way too obvious that it must be cleaned due to the over powering smell of it when you walk in the door. EVEN THEN it normally doesn't get done because once we can all smell it then the dance of "who's turn is it now" ensues. This normally takes a few more days by which time the apartment feels like a sespool.

MAJOR Evidence #14 for: Sam and Scott you are both irresponsible jackasses.

In conclusion:
It has become clear to me over the past week that there are some major themes within this apartment and for the people living within it.

1) I apparently expect too much when it comes to just basic stuff. So to avoid this in the future I will no longer expect anything. I will just assume that both my roommates will never contribute anything to the greater good of the living situation and that I must only depend on myself for everything.
2) I have serious issues with the integrity of both Sam and Scott's characters as they pertain to my living situation and friendship with each of them. I have been friends with them for quite a long time, but if these things keep happening the friendships are going to be seriously burdened and their long term survival put in severe distress.
3) From now on if someone pisses me off there will be no more holding back. I will turn into every other angry person on this planet and just look like an ass cause I am yelling at people in public. No more feeling its good to hold it in and not make clear to people what their problems are because as far as I am concerned now they need to be told them and maybe they need to feel terrible because of them otherwise they will never get rid of them.

No excuses. Harsh words were said in this lj, and all of them were meant.

*End largest rant of my life.

Glad I actually accepted a group invite out to a bar tonight. Went out with Colin, Jen, and Brian to Main Street Pub and then later went over to Megs. Main Street apparently has a free drinks hour from 9-10pm on Thursdays. Was the first time I had been there, it was ok. I liked the atmosphere, and the outside part was really nice, but there was totally a shortage of chairs...When we got to Megs we got ourselves a table (with chairs) and it was much better times. Lots of laughing was made at Brian's expense so I feel now I should apologize if he felt too hurt.

Heck, I even got a date by the end of the night!
*Oh what was that now?...pretend you never heard that.........

Thursday night we had the 4 new physics grad students over for a get together at our place. It was fun; we played Settlers, then a game of giant 8 player Settlers, then some Sexy Slang, and finally a game of hybrid Cranium and Sexy Slang. They ended up staying over till like 2am when we finally decided we should all go to sleep since most of us had a GSA meeting Friday at 11am.

So I set my alarm for 9:30am and went to bed. Well Dax had other plans and kept on jumping onto my desk and going into the window making all sorts of noise. Then at 7am she somehow knocked on of my plants off the desk and it was slowing falling behind my printer. As soon as that horrendously loud noise started she had run to the outer side of my door and just looked in like "it wasn't me." Well as soon as I fixed her mess I promptly scolded her like no other and locked her out of my room. So I slept horribly.

Then my alarm goes off I go over and turn it off only to go back to my bed and fall asleep in the best sleep I had all night. When I wake back up I see it is 10:58am...FUCK. I knew I would be totally late and took seriously a less than a minute shower then hurridly grabbed my stuff and left. Scott told me later he knew I was in a hurry cause I was so loud.

My bike ride to school was perfectly fine, but once I got to campus all hell happened. I turned off Babcock into the entrance by South Village and took the turn too wide instantly realizing I was doomed. The road there has no nice slopping shoulder and instead has a two inch drop off into grass. Well my bike wheels road that edge until a tree branch was in my way and over me and the bike went. Since I was in a hurry I was going fairly fast and when I came off the bike I landed on my right side and skidded. Landed on my palms and my right knee, but instantly jumped back onto my feet and started going in circles feeling the pain. Looked at my right hand and there was a nasty bloody scrape, left had was scratched but fine, some scrathed knucles, and my right knee was aching. Before I even looked at my own injuries though I looked the bike over and there was no damage other than a scuffed up handle bar. Since I was so close to the physics building I just rode my bike there knowing I could get help once I got there.

Well by the time I got there I was out of breath, sweating like never before in my life, and having a hard time keeping focus. I figured I was probably going into shock and needed to sit down and get some water fast. I just ditched my bike in the hallway and went to the physics office. Once there I tossed off my helmet and backpack and told Elaine that I needed bandaides and water. This was a terrible idea because Elaine knows only one speed, super slow, but I thought maybe in an emergency she could move faster. No, she took forever finding bandaides and I didn't even wait for them and said to her hurridly that I was going to be in physics lab 1. I wanted to avoid that since I knew everyone else was in there in the meeting and I didn't want to inturupt and make everyone nervous and worried.

So by this time I was feeling barely able to stand and I came stumbling in via the lab 2 door. I couldn't even really tell who was who and somehow managed to pick out who was Mr. Gering. I went right up next to him and interupted him mid sentence and said I needed bandaids and water fast. It took him like 5 seconds and then he was like "Don you don't look so good you're really pale" and he ran off to find bandaids. I went to the side and sat on the floor next to the cabinets and Mike brought me over his bottle of water. I think the only other person who came over to size up the situation was Himale (not sure) and he asked what happened.

Gering was back with the bandaids and by that time I was able to take care of myself and I cleaned the scrape and stitched it up. They continued with the meeting while I rested on the side. At least I knew going in there that I would get help. I knew Mr. Gering was a Boy Scout master and he would know what to do, and that Mike was a Boy Scout too.

After that I got caught up on the meeting and really the only pain I was in was the stinging from my right hand being all scratched up. Next, I walked to the Health Center to see if someone could look at my knee. The receptionist said the doctor wasn't in, that she was at a meeting and wouldn't be back for a while...Now if your job is to be on campus to help students why are you in a stupid meeting?!?!?! The receptionist asked what happened, sat me down, and with her small knowledge on medical stuff said if I could still move/bend/walk on it that it was nothing serious but that I should go home and elevate it and ice it. She gave me a bunch of bandaids for my hand and a ton of ibuprofin. I don't know where everyone went after the meeting, so I went to Clemente and got a smoothie. After that for some reason I walked all the way over to the Rat, tried emailing Scott but for some reason the email thing was fucked up.

By this time I started noticing my knee was hurting pretty bad so I got a security guy to drive me back to the physics building. I managed to get to Dr. O's office, I was supposed to meet with him but he wasn't there yet. Luckily right there I ran into Scott and he was able to take me home. It was terrible going back up the stairs to the apartment and once inside I just dropped on the couch and iced my leg while watching tv the rest of the day.

My knee seems to be getting better. It is still pretty huge, but I can bend it more than yesterday and it doesn't sting when I am just sitting around anymore. I am hoping it is better by Monday and by some miracle good enough to get to school otherwise it will be a lame first day.

So my last weekend of summer is spent couped up in the apartment with a bum knee and walking around like Tiny Tim with a crutch borrowed from Scott.

Meme stolen from aliquot 

- leave me a comment saying "OMG FABULOUS!",
- I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better kill a few minutes of my life.
- update your journal with the answers to the questions.
- include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

1. Would you rather live a long life and die slowly/painfully, or die young and quickly/painlessly?

Hmm, my tolerance for pain is unknown since I haven't really had to deal with it since I was a small child. However, I suspect I would not enjoy the slow and painful route so I have to go with the die young and quick/painless route. Then again by dying young you give up a lot that could have happened, but then you don't have to live through the whole grey hair then loose hair and wrinkles thing either. Yah, I am gonna go with die young and quick.

2. If you could be on any TV show, what would you pick?

ANY show...Dragon Ball Z for sure! I would get to break virtually every law of physics and be able to fly. If I die there is a good chance someone will bring me back to life, and if they don't there is still a lot to do in the afterlife cause all that happens is I get a halo. There are spaceships so I can travel around a lot. I can be surrounded by hot, strong, muscley men and disappear with them for what seems like months and no one would question it as gay. And even if I turn out to be a bad guy there is still hope because the good guys might learn to love me some day anyways.

3. Bunnies or Kittens?

Bunnies. When cats are young to me they seem to flop around and act all stupid like and it annoys me. When rabbits are young they get their act together pretty quick and can move around all energetic like yet still curl up in little balls and look adorable.

4. Who would you rather find your sex toy collection, your mom or your dad?

Seeming as I KNOW I don't want my mom catching me mastrubating I doubt I would ever want her to see my collection...yet I can hardly consider the thought of my dad seeing it any better. My dad would probably be more disturbed by it though than my mom, I would think at least. So going on that logic I would want my mom to find it. No matter what I would have to put up with at least she might have a better chance of getting over the shock than my dad.

5. What do you think of the new gay grad student dude?

*Not fair...not fair. I am going to plead the 5th on this one.

Meme stolen from aliquot 

- leave me a comment saying "OMG FABULOUS!",
- I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better kill a few minutes of my life.
- update your journal with the answers to the questions.
- include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

*I am going to make yours all song questions, just for that.

1. Whats love got to do with it?

Too open ended, but as far as I know nothing, nothing at all.

2. Who needs sleep?

Babies >> old people >> college students >> everyone else

3. Are you experienced?

In bed?...depends

4. You OK honey?

I believe so.

5. Habe Sie Gehurt Das Deutsche Band?

Rammstein ist ok. Du Hast ist meiner liebling gesang.

Being away from home 3 summers in a row doesn't seem all that bad when I have no reason to think about all the things I am missing. Then again, all it takes is some little thing to make me think about what I am missing and I start regretting not going back to WI at least once over the summer.

Today I saw pictures on facebook that my cousin Alyssa took on their vacation to Milwaukee (mind you they are from Michigan). There were pictures of them at the State Fair, of downtown Milwaukee, of the art museum, of Lake Michigan, of a Great Lakes nautical thingy museum I haven't even had the chance to see yet, and pictures of forests that don't exist in Florida.

It really got me thinking on all the things that I don't get to experience because I am here in Florida, stuff that was around in Milwaukee that I really do miss.

The State Fair is just amazing. There is a ton of stuff to do, you could go for a whole day and have to come back another day because you didn't see it all- that's me not even counting fair ground rides. Looking at all the animal barns and seeing the best farmers have to offer, looking at prize winning giant pumpkins and other veggies, the botanical building filled with prize winning orchids and gladiolas and all sorts of other flowers, perusing all the pitch men and local vendor stations, the giant slide, and the pig races. Oh and who could forget the mouth watering food that is everywhere: baked potatoes from the gods, the most amazing roasted corn I have ever had, funnel cakes, frozen custard in every flavor imaginable, and the all time greatest thing ever: the WI State Fair Cream Puffs. It was a picture of my cousin Josh trying to eat one almost as big as his head that made me squirm in regret of not being there.

I also greatly miss camping up north in Wisconsin, be it with my family or with Boy Scouts. To me it would be impossible to go camping in Florida as a substitute because it wouldn't be able to come anywhere close to the experience of North woods camping. Up there it was warm in the summer, yet a cool breeze all day long and nights were bearably warm enough and a campfire felt perfect. Florida would just be way too hot. The air also had a certain smell to it from all the old pine trees, no big cities near by, and lots of small lakes everywhere. You would probably have to go to Georgia to find any forests close to that.

The towns were small, yet modern enough to remind you of everyday life and they were filled with all those interesting and welcoming little shops for visitors. I remember one city that had lots of little craft shops with corny little things all around, but some gems here and there, and occasionally really old stuff that looked like they had stories to tell. There was a candy shop with tons upon tons of candy: old school candy, pioneer candy, modern grocery store candy, fudge, barrels (and I mean real barrels) full of salt water taffy. All of that candy was cheap as if it were 50 years ago. There was always a huge craft fair every summer down the road that we would go to. In another town there was a pioneer museum with logging stuff that seemed ancient. You could ride an old steam train down a long stretch of track and go to a recreation of an old logger camp.

I miss the Boy Scout camping too. A few weeks ago a friend I still have in my troop said he was planning for next year's summer camp to have a reunion for old members and have them tag along as adult leaders. He asked me for a bunch of names of people and I tracked them down via facebook and friended some I had forgotten about a long time ago. He really wants me to be able to make it next summer for it, but we will see- that could be hard to pull off.

I miss camping in general. Being able to set up a tent in the woods and then just lay around outside all day for a week and soak it all in. There is something about being in the woods that just feels so natural and right and relaxing. Hearing the wind in the trees because there are leaves to rustle. Going to bed and waking up in the morning to the sound of that, or maybe a light rain was just so perfect. Going down to the lake and fishing while watching everything around you and soaking up some sun.

The meteor shower last night also made me miss camping up North because there you could see everything. The nearest town big enough to make a noticable impact on the sky did nothing if there were no clouds. You could go down the beach by the lake, lie down on the sand, and look up to see the Milky Way clear as can be and even if there was no meteor shower see one every couple minutes. Even with the Perseids going on, here in Florida at the beach where it was relatively dark we still only saw ~8 in 2 hours! WI in pretty close to sea level so I attribute Florida's failure to all the moisture and salt in the air.

Melbourne also has nothing to compare to Milwaukee's museum's and zoos and parks and botanical gardens- even though I haven't been to the zoo here yet I doubt it can compete with Milwaukee's.

It just isn't the same. As much as I love the warm weather and the beaches (as little as I get to them) here, it sucks to have to give up all this other good stuff.

Maybe I will have to learn to get over my warm weather/beach love affair after college and move to someplace more reminiscent of WI. I would just hate to live the rest of my life never getting to experience these things again.

Technically next weekend is still part of summer vacation too, but Friday is a lab GSA meeting so I am taking that as the start of "back in school." Also, I am hoping to actually motivate myself to get back into looking at research related stuff this week so I can actually come in the first week of school and be like "umm, ok Dr. O now that the school year has started and your teaching and have to stay around, can we get back on that research again!"

So I bought Warhammer Online a few weeks ago to get by with the immense boredom of being around here and never doing anything. Suffice it to say that I am significantly addicted to it. Not much else to say on that, but I now understand why so many people like these things.

Went out to the pool today and it was really nice. Really warm out there, but nice. Tanned for about two hours. There were a few other people down there. I kept listening in on this convo that two women were having. From what I could tell the one must do some kind of babysitting job because she kept on talking about "oh I do this for her, and that for her, and she needs this and that" but it was obviously not her daughter she was talking about. It was really weird to listen to it all cause it was just such an odd topic. Then somone else started talking about like renting out a house to other people, and this same lady starts talking to him about what to do for it- specifically to make a rule against painting. Now this I found even more confusing because I assume all these people live in the apartments here so why would any of them be talking about renting out homes to people?! Aside from the crazy people talking there was one good thing...obviously it was a cute guy! I have seen him at the pool before, but only when like Scott and I are going to the store. Today was the first day I was at the pool at the same time as him. Didn't talk to him or anything. I just noticed that he is always at the pool alone, and just sits there in a beach chair and tans while he reads.

That is all.

So the other day...(umm it was Thursday now that I remember) when we were all out on the balcony watching the mayhem ensue I noticed that there were things on Scott's parsley.

*The mayhem was the cops out in full force investigating our woods cause there was some armed robber trying to hide out in there. There were lots of cops, a K-9 unit, and a helicopter. Eventually they caught the guy.

A little more backstory is still needed. Scott has had terrible luck with his herd garden collection he has been trying to grow. The only thing that is growing great is the basal and it is gigantic and taking over everything. The rosemary is growing like a slug. The first batch of cilantro he bought was destroyed by some kinda little spider things. He bought another one a few weeks ago, a few days ago it too fell to the unknown spidery pests and wilted away in less than a day.

Now the parsley incident at least has a happier side to it. We were out on the balcony and I saw things on it and thought oh dear not again something else is going to die! Upon closer inspection I saw that there were a bunch of little caterpillars on it. They were the cute looking kind, not the evil hairy ones, so I knew they were some kinda nice butterfly ones. Looking online I saw that they were Black Swallowtails. They eat on parsley, carrot leaves, and other things in the carrot family, as well as Queen Anne's Lace.

Realizing that they would turn into awesome pretty butterflies I took it upon myself to try and raise them. Certainly a much harder task then initially realized. Over night they devoured all they could of the poor little parsley plant, and when I looked at them the next day there were even more of them. Apparently the stupid mother butterfly didn't think it odd to put a bazillion eggs on a tiny plant. Surely they would all perish cause none of them had anything more to eat.

I rode my bike Friday morning to Publics to pick up a batch of parsley to give to them. I read up online and saw that they should eat parsley bought from the store as long as it is fresh. On the way back it rained on me even though it was only like 11am, and figures that was pretty much it for the day. Well I gave them the parsley and a few hours later came back and only a bit of it was gone, they were not really eating it. I put them in a big open box on the balcony to keep track of them and put the parsley in little cups of dirt around the battered remains of the old parsley plant.

Today I go out there and some of the smallest ones were dead probably cause they refused to eat. I gave them more fresh parsley and had to coax a bunch of them to get to the new stems. Only some of them were eating it again, and mosly the bigger ones. I had to go get another thing of fresh parsley today and also bought another live plant that I will put in there tomorrow as a last resort. Funny thing was that at Walmart (where I got the stuff today) on some of their parsley plants they had caterpillars on them too! However, a lame Walmart worker dude came by to bug us thinking we needed help and he saw them and picked them off, stepped on them, and said bad stuff about them. I basically just grabbed a plant and ran away I was so tramatized.

I think as long as the biggest 4-6 of them can finish eating overnight and tomorrow they should be ready to pupate. After that in about 9 days I should be able to get some pics of really awesome butterflies!

*Here's to hoping they don't go on a hunger strike...

So yesterday (Sunday) afternoon there was another huge storm thing that moved through. Lots of lightning again, but this time there was a lot of lightning close to us. I was watching it out the window for most of the time. Then I go back to my room for a while, come back out to the living room and sit on the corner of the couch on the arm where Worf likes to sit when he looks out the window. He didn't like that even though he totally wasn't there and came up and meowed at me. When I look up from petting him I look out the window and see some orange at the base of a tree far back from our apartments....

Me thinks: ....orange, that doesn't belong. Then OMG ITS FLAME, LIGHTNING MUST HAVE STRUCK OUT THERE AND STARTED A FIRE!!!!!!!

I yell for Scott and he comes and looks. At the time it was still pouring like crazy, but near the beginning of all of this is when it was actually the worst and we could actually see flames.

Needless to say I called 911 [for the first time ever]. Used my cell phone and as soon as I clicked send it made a funny little noise I had never heard before which apparently means the GPS locator beacon in the phone was activated. Anyways the lady on the other end was very nice, kind, and helpful; however it took her forever to get our location and address down right. Less than 10 minutes later a fire truck pulls up below us and 2 guys get out in the still pouring rain to try and find it. Like I said it was far back and hard enough to see from the 3rd floor, it was probably impossible to see from the ground in all that rain. One guy got on top of the dumpster to try and see it to no effect. Then they were yelling at us and we tried yelling back, but the rain and the truck noise was too much. Two guys came up to our balcony and we pointed it out to them. By this time of course the fire was almost gone, but there was still smoke and the one dude pointed it out to the other.

*I must confess the firemen were kinda hot...

So since it was hard enough to even spot it, or way the fuck back in the wilderness behind a big fence, or since it was raining crazy like the firemen said they were gonna leave for now but that if later on it got worse or didn't go away to call them back. This all went down at around 6:40pm.

Well I stayed home and watched it on and off basically the whole night, even when Sam and Scott went to Chilis for dinner. I also called my dad and told him about it all and he said if they would have done something as lazy as that back home they would have gotten yelled at. He also told me I had to watch the fire too...but I was already planning that.

Well it got around to 11:00pm and after Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire finished on tv [it was the only thing on I swear] I made another check of it and the fricken thing was still there. The good thing about it being night now was that you could clearly see orange reflecting off the smoke and so it was obviously still burning something even if we couldn't see flame.

So I called 911 again. Same lady answered which sped things up quite nicely since we both remembered everything. I had my camera and Scott his video camera all set up and ready to go on the balcony. However, when the firemen did show up [like 15 minutes later this time] they went down the street to the North of us which also borders this woodsy field where the fire is- but that is like twice as far from it as we are so probably they couldn't see it again...

Sure enough I get a call from a cop asking in a very not friendly pissed off voice: "you say you called about a brush fire near ____ lake and ___ pond?"
I say in a very not friendly voice as well since I didn't like his tone: "Umm, I don't know where that is that is not where I said I was."
After some talking off phone he goes: "You are at Palm Bay Villas, what direction from you is the brush fire?"
Me: "West"
Cop: "Directly West?"
Me: "I guess its more West-SouthWest." Which is awefully accurate and most normal people would never think of using more than the 4 basic directions much less the full
Cop: "Ok, thats all." and hangs up

That was all, we never talked to anyone else the entire night, no one ever showed up. I would have at least thought SOMEONE wouuld stop by to ask ANYTHING of us. From all this I get the feeling that they didn't believe us. Although the initial firemen who came the one guy did see smoke, so someone believes us. In that case they must really think this insignificant and not worthy of effort to stop....

With that said it is now Monday at noon and looking out the balcony you can still see white smoke coming up in short bursts from the spot where the fire is. We had thought it mostly stopped after 1am last night since we couldn't see anything anymore, but clearly it is still alive. This more than 12 hours after it started and after all that rain. It is only going to get drier out as the day goes on, and if this thing actually becomes a bigger brush fire and I have to call again, and this time they have trouble with it cause its bigger........

.......well then I will feel no blame at all. I have done my duty as a good citizen, they are the ones that have failed.

*pictures on facebook later eventually.

So ya, that storm last night pretty much came out of nowhere. Well, I saw a bunch of lightning earlier, but assumed it wasn't really up to anything big. Next thing I know there are huge flashes all over the place, loud rumblings making the blinds quiver, and rain like no other pelting the building. Needless to say Dax disappeared. Looking at the weather I was kinda angered and yet disappointed that the only massive storming at the time was right over Melbourne, although later on the news told us there was even worse stuff North of us earlier in the night.

It was quite the epic storm. I think that is more lightning up close than I have seen in a long long time, certainly the worst I have seen in Florida. The wind and rain was having a fun time out on the balcony too, everything got wet but amazingly none of the plants fell over this time. My window alcove thingy was leaking like no other cause of all the rain hitting my side of the building. I actually had to change out one of the hand towels I have on the window sill because it got soaking wet (figures it is the one nearest my computer that leaks the most)!

So I am definitely using this as motivation to go running down to the office on Monday and telling them that the farce is up and they need to give me a date they will have the leaking fixed by- OR ELSE!!! I am not quite sure what the or else will be, but I am thinking something like figuring out who the appropriate authorities are and telling them this place sucks. Seriously it does not take you over a month to acquire a cherry picker!!! or just go out and buy a big enough ladder to reach the 3rd floor/roof which you will then have forever!!! I mean I could even tell them a place I know has cherry pickers because on Babcock just North of 192 there is that grungy looking place with machinery that has a bunch of cherry pickers sitting around!

In other news Scott and I stopped by GameStop at the mall earlier on Friday because he wanted to look at their used old Gameboy games which were supposedly on like 75% off. Well, they didn't have any around...so much for that. I ended up finally giving in and bought myself an MMORPG. They had Warhammer Online new for 50% off which is basically the price for the first month's activation you get with buying it- so I couuldn't really pass it up. I guess I will get a few weeks to play this uninterrupted before school starts, so I will see how it goes and if I wish to continue or not once school starts.

Final note: A few days ago Dax was all emo angry at me. Why? Because I had to wash the blanket on top of my bed since it was full of her hair because all she does is sleep and roll around on it all day! Of course she was sleeping on it at the time, so I had to shoo her off of it, which basically meant I pulled off the blanket and she just rolled onto the bed. Well right after that she gave me the saddest face ever. For about the next day she refused to come into my room and just stayed on the couch in the living room all emo like. Well it seems like she has totally forgotten that by now since she is back to laying on my bed and pestering me for love.

Although a new thing is that for the last 3 nights she has actually slept with me in the bed at night, like right up along my stomach. Its a little annoying to get to sleep, but I like it. My dog Lucy back home used to lay like that at night sometimes and I guess it reminds me of that.