2002-09-08 - 9:00 p.m.

Now playing: Something off the Josh Groban album that Betty from Words-L sent me. I still think his name sounds like a microbicide. This is okay enough music...but it's ...I don't know, vague or something. Too overproduced maybe? I dunno.

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Yesterday I had a great time with Andrea, Paul, and Karen. We went for sushi at Li's (Andrea had Chinese food). It was, as usual, excellent. SO GOOD. We were hogs. I had a shrimp tempura roll which was just outstanding. I could have eaten a lot more, but I restrained myself - don't want a carb overload on the rice.

Paul agreed that the sushi was excellent, which made me happy. I'm such a validation-craver.

After sushi, we went for ice cream at J.B.'s Ice Cream Factory in East Longmeadow. The ice cream there is as good as the sushi is at Li's Brothers. I had a small dish of peppermint stick - and it was amazingly wonderful. I used to take food like that for granted. No longer! I treasured it.

Then we returned to my house and watched Office Space, which Paul and Andrea had never seen, and also which Karen and I can quote verbatim. :D I hope they liked it. I'd forgotten that it seems like a long-ass movie.

A good time was had by all. I hope we can get together more often. Andrea's only been here once before, and that was for the little Thornhill release party I had back in...whatever year that was.

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Today, however, was a suck-ass day.

*/* Part the First

I planned to wash my bedclothes, including the pain-in-the-ass mattress pad, at Granny's now that her washer was fixed. I get there, start the first of two loads, and go upstairs. Shit, the door at the top of the stairs is locked. Call Mom, who of course doesn't answer her phone [GOD THAT DRIVES ME NUTS!]. Call Auntie Val. "Your Mom has the key and was supposed to give you a copy!" Uhhhhh...okay then!

Fortunately when I figured out what all the keys went to the other week, I didn't lock the screen door on the front door, because I couldn't figure out how. So, I tromped through the front yard, getting some wicked cuts in the process, and used my copy of the front door key to open the front door. Phew! I ate my breakfast and all was well.

I went downstairs to change my laundry, and discover the machine is still on the wash cycle - like 45 minutes after I started. The counter had incremented from 14 minutes to 10 minutes, and then stopped. What's more, there were rust stains all over my mattress pad, and a wicked gross chemical smell. So, I dumped in more detergent and restarted the load.

After a while, I came downstairs, and the washer was still on the wash cycle, the rust stains still being there. I thought, "Fuck it!" and decided to do the rest of the load and the next load at Mom's house, as I knew she was taking Granny out. So I set the washer to drain and spin, and went upstairs to close the windows and button everything up. Of course, when I got back downstairs, the washer was still trying to drain, I think, and the motor burned out. There was an acrid electrical-burn smell. Fuck. I gathered up my wash and left.

Coming down the mountain, Mom and Granny passed right in front of me as I was stopped to turn left. So I honked, and wonder of wonders, Mom heard. We pulled off into Rice's Fruit Farm, and without Granny seeing me, went into the store. I told Mom what happened, and she bought peaches, and I went to her house.

I put some bleach in the washer, and my mattress pad came out fine. I'm happy I had brought food for lunch with me. I ate lunch, and then I went to get copies made of the key for the cellar doorway at Granny's. Faugh. Rocky's doesn't carry the right size of key blanks - I guess these 40-year-old doorknobs aren't that common. Fine. So I drive over to Brightwood Hardware in Longmeadow. They have everything. Surely they'll have the right blank.

They probably do. I don't know. They're closed on Sundays.

PISSER!

So I drive back to Mom's. Wrote my friend Rob a nice long letter - my hand cramped - I'm not used to writing that much! Finished my laundry, and got home around 4:30.

*/* Part the Second

Yesterday I'd noticed that the right set of legs of my wardrobe and the chair legs of the chair next to it were turning a dark color. I investigated today. They were *wet*. Fuck! The rug isn't wet - but it didn't feel 100% dry, either. So water must be seeping up through the concrete or something. What a fucking pain in the ass. I wrote a letter to my landlord asking them to come check it out, and to provide me with something to rest the furniture on to prevent further damage. Also, learning from Chrissy's experiences, I asked that if they don't have to replace the carpet, to please test for mold and fungus.

At least I have a mattress-flipped and freshly-made bed to sleep in.

So, I had a pretty crappy day. At least dinner was decent - steak and broccoli.