prove that you love me and buy the next round

Ugh. I'm getting a cold. Probably due to the weather changing - I get two bad colds a year right around when God turns the thermostat from HUMIDHOT to DRIERCOLD and back again.

On the dating front, I have closed out N and J from my eHarmony list - why keep communication open when I know it's not going to go anywhere? To be nice? Well, I'm done with that approach. I'm going to give eHarmony through the end of the year and that's going to be it.

RatWATCH 2008 continues... The pest man allegedly came by last week while I was out of town (I'm not happy about that) and I suppose he put more bait blocks out, which are gone. He also managed to leave my storage room door open, so what was assuredly rat-free may now be serving as an entombment for the rat. I'm not happy about that, either. I've been taking NyQuil to get coma sleep the past few nights, so I'm not sure if the rat has been keeping up his nightly visits or not.

There is still egg on my car where two bored children with at least one driver's license and a car between them threw two eggs at my car a while ago. I've tried EVERY CLEANSER / SOAP / HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY that I can think to try and I cannot get the egg off. I'm going to have to take it to a paint shop or something and let a professional take care of it. It's just time and money, right?

Money. Don't get me started. I'm down to one shift a week at TCS and the contract work from the law firm has all but dried up lately. Not good, folks. Not good at all. I guess I need to get back on track for re-starting my petsitting/housesitting business. That, or start a website where people can jsut send me money - it's worked for some people...

But I'm still going to try and see a house this week that's. literally, right up the street and (while it's still a bit out of my budget) it's been coming down 5-10K a week for the last few weeks. I feel like buying a house is very pie-in-the-sky right now, given my financial situation. But, what the hell.

every Monday the company calls

My trip to Philadelphia/New Jersey went well - I gained a lot of confidence teaching my class by myself for the first time. And without notes. I got a lot of nice compliments and I feel better heading into two more classes at our largest offices in the next two months. It's amazing how well I set myself up for failure and how surprised I am when things turn out alright in the end.

I managed to come back in one piece despite a HORRIBLE delay in the Philly airport (complete with bad weather and a security scare) and the beginnings of a headcold. Spending Saturday in bed was just what the doctor ordered - and a nice win over LSU didn't hurt, either.

I had a date with N last night. I was already worried about a height difference because I noticed that he listed himself as 5'4" - about an inch/inch-and-a-half shorter than me - but I had to STOOP to hug him goodnight. Call me shallow, but I CANNOT deal with that much of a height difference. And that wasn't the only thing - he seems to live his life in a way to correct mistakes he's made in his past rather than a sense of internal drive. For instance, he attended Valdosta State and regrets not going to a bigger school, so he's taking MBA classes with Georgia State now. That's the reason that he's going to school. He doesn't like his job, but he's staying with it because he can do his job from home two days a week and has Mondays off. It's just a lack of self-motivation for something better, something more fulfilling that bothers me. So, I spent the night wanting to talk to the guy sitting to my other side at the bar than N. And the guy was talking to me - about what I ordered, about the baseball game - intermittently. Some much-older ladies sat down next to him and were overtly flirting with him. When N went to the bathroom, I asked the guy if the women were hitting on him and he said that he guessed so, even though one of the ladies had to be in her 60s - so I reminded him that there really isn't an upper age limit for cougars.

After I BENT OVER to hug my date goodnight and we went to our separate parking lots, I made a call to Biz about wanting to give my number to the other guy, but being way too shy about it. After her pep talk, I stood there in the parking lot realizing that I would regret NOT doing it - and that I really didn't care if anything ever came of it. It was the ACT itself that mattered, the getting out of my comfort zone, the putting myself out there and taking a chance.

So I got out a business card, wrote my cell phone number on the back, walked back into the restaurant and up to the guy, put my hand on his shoulder, handed him my card and said that, if things didn't work out with the cougars, to give me a call.

It felt really good.

just to prove that I knew how, yeah

Went on a date with J last night. We had sushi and talked - we have a lot in common and a lot of differences, which was nice. No immediate spark, but I'm trying not to hold it against anyone that I lack initial chemistry. It's hard, though, because I know what that instant "click" feels like and I am, on some level, holding out for it... A plus was that he didn't talk about how busy he was.

If I can get the details worked out in time, I may have a date with N tonight.

Got an email from I today saying how busy he is because he coaches a football team. You know, I have stuff going on, too. We make time for what we want to make time for, I suppose.

How is it that I feel like I have so much going on but nothing going on at the same time?

I fly out tomorrow morning to the Garden State to perform some training that I am not prepared to do. Ah, procrastination, who would I be without thee? I'm still trying to decide if I have time to try to see my NJ boy that I've been talking to for the past 4-5 years but have never met in person. I'm so pressed for time, but I'm not sure when I'll have the opportunity again...

Meanwhile, I haven't packed. I haven't even started. In fact, I haven't finished my laundry. I hate packing, because it gets my anxiety started about the flight. I need hypnosis.

I'm rambling.

Maybe it's work avoidance...

thank you, disillusionment

OH, how could I forget what happened a few nights ago???

So, I'm in bed Monday night trying to get to sleep. And Baer makes a weird sound that only means, "HEY, ROONEY & SADIE, GET IN HERE BECAUSE THERE IS THE COOLEST THING AND YOU HAVE TO SEE IT," which results in Sadie jumping up immediately from a dead sleep and running to the living room. Which means I better go check it out or it could be a poisonous bug or snake or something.

I get up, without my glasses, and find Sadie and Bear GLUED to the window that looks onto the patio/porch (call it what you want - it's on the third floor and it's covered). They are staring at what appears to be a leaf caught at the porch railing. It's the same size and shape of a leaf from my money tree (HA!) and I think that maybe the wind is moving it around - but there's no wind. So I am confused.

I sit down and try to pet Sadie, but she's having none of it and goes to the door to look at what I still believe is a leaf. So I get my glasses. Still looks like a leaf. I decide to turn on the light and settle the whole thing and it was a

RAT.

AN HONEST-TO-GOD 6-INCH BROWN RAT JUST SITTING THERE CHILLING ON MY PORCH ON THE THIRD FLOOR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.

A RAT THAT DOES NOT MOVE WHEN I BANG ON THE WINDOW. A RAT THAT BARELY ACKNOWLEDGES ME WHEN I BEAT ON THE SASH. I had to practically bust the window to scare the thing away.

I know he was looking for food, and I know he was looking through the discarded birdseed, of which there wasn't much at all, but I'm on the THIRD FLOOR for goodness' sake.

I have to admit here that I did have some inking that something was amiss. I cleaned my porch really well right before my parents came up last Thursday, including cleaning up all of the birdseed under the feeder that is now packed up. Saturday morning, the rug that I have to prevent seed from skittering everywhere when it falls was slightly askew, like the wind had knocked a corner up. So I straightened it. Sunday morning, a corner of the rug was hanging off of the ledge. So I straightened it. All this time, I hadn't seen any birds - in fact, I'd not seen any birds at the feeder for more than a week.

And then the RAT showed up. And the next day, I emptied the feeder, packed it away, threw away the rug and plastic liners that I had been using to contain the mess to one area, and swept and scrubbed the porch. And I reported the rat to my leasing office.

I had to leave messages, but the next morning I called and spoke to someone:
me: Hi, I'm SD from apartment (third floor) and I left messages about finding a rat on my porch.
guy: [pause] Was it dead?
me: No, as a matter of fact, it was very much alive.
guy: I'm going to have to put you on hold for a minute.
[hold]
guy: What apartment did you say you were in?
me: (third floor).
guy: And you say it was a rat?
me: It was a RAT.
guy: You're sure it was a rat?
me: I'm fairly good at recognizing different animals and I can say with utmost certainty that it was a RAT.
guy: ...hold on a minute.
[hold]
guy: Ma'am? We're going to have pest control come by your apartment on Friday.
me: I hope you're also going to take a look at the courtyard underneath, because where there is one rat, there are many.
guy: Yes, Ma'am.

Idiot.

come pick me up, take me out

Wow. I knew that it had been a long time since I posted, but I didn't realize it had been THAT long. Oops. Let's see... updates:

Love life (HA!): Went on a coffee date with A. We ended up talking for 3 hours. No sparkage, but we have a lot in common and I'd be interested in seeing him again. However, he sounds too busy (of his own choosing - tennis, mainly) right now to do anything. Fine. So, then there's the story of B. He had my number and email for more than a week. I finally broke my rule of not contacting the boy first and emailed him. He was supposed to call last Thursday. He didn't. And Monday morning, he had closed our match because he has "too much going on in his life right now." What is that?? I, like a lot of single people, try to fill in the empty slots where I want to - volunteer for this, go out to dinner here, make plans then... but I can still make time for what I think are priorities - and a relationship could be made a priority. Whatever. Clearly, these aren't the right people for me because they don't appreciate how awesome I am.

Animals: Rooney is almost back to 100% - I think he's dealing with allergy problems. But now Baer has his eye infection. Looks like I'll be making a vet appointment for him if it doesn't improve.

Finances: UGH. My hours were cut back significantly at TCS and my checkbook is feeling it. My third job has put me on hold - despite all of my prodding. UGH, indeed.

And that pretty much gets me caught up. Sad, but true.