Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

I’m going to be 35 on Monday!!! THIRTY-FIVE! That’s just insane. Even though 35 is that point on the graph where fertility steeply declines, I’m still excited about this birthday, as I am about all birthdays. Maybe it’s because I’m an only child.

Unfortunately, what I’d want most for my birthday is the ability to move out of this apartment, but sadly, that can not be. I have signed a one-year lease, so I owe money through the end of August whether I live here or not. This apartment is gorgeous, but here are the problems:

• A very rude downstairs neighbor who plays loud music 90% of the time he is at home (and sadly, his schedule is about the same as mine) and is hostile when I’ve asked him to turn it down.
• A next door neighbor who plays loud music in the mornings (so I can hear it in the bathroom) and gets inappropriately hostile with her young daughter such that I can hear MUCH more than I ever wanted to hear.
• A location next to a dumpster, which is visited in the middle of the night by a HUGE dump truck that makes LOTS of noise. There’s the turning VROOM, VROOM, then the BEEP BEEP BEEP backing up noise, then the picking up the first dumpster noise (BANG, CRASH, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP), then the whole thing again with the second dumpster. This occurs between 1am and 4am 2-3 nights a week.
• The sometimes early morning rantings of the mentally ill and homeless people who are dumpster diving.
• A fine location right under a major flight pattern.
• A VERY close train that HONKS really often at all times of the day and night.
• Just behind the dumpster are two German shepherds who bark at all things that move. They get all the dogs in the neighborhood barking. Last night it went on for two hours before I called the cops.
• Rave Boy and a few other residents smoke on the steps in the courtyard. The noise and smoke come into my sunroom, where I have my computer.
• The radiators are not under my control, and they’ve not been coming on. WHY?

Other than that, it’s about the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived. What do I want for my birthday? I want quiet. Just quiet.

I’m so glad Aaron is coming to visit this weekend. I need some fun and some company.

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So my computer, which I feel really isn’t that old, is apparently old according to all things geek, or is it nerd or dweeb? (Only geeks, nerds, and dweebs know the diff amongst themselves.) I try to use iTunes or Photoshop or Adobe Acrobat, and there is a great slowing down… Tap, tap, tap… lalala… hmmm… Ctrl + Alt + Delete… pause… dum-dee-dum-dum… I was trying to just deal, but to see Aaron attempt to use my computer and get pretty much MORE frustrated than me sealed it. I can’t deny it. I need an upgrade. And so I have Aaron on the case, since he knows hardware and I don’t. We’re looking into a way to keep all my accessories (keyboard, disc drives, monitor, accessories, and just replace the mother board and other stuff I can’t remember the name of right now. So he’s thinking he can get me moving at a reasonable rate for about $350.

OK, so that’s cool, but I’ve accepted it, AND THEN… Grrrrr… So I design a few spreadsheets for all this logging I have to do this year. In the past few days, I have learned that I need to fill out a detailed time log for my graduate program using one format, a different time log for my internship program, a time sheet for the school system, a time sheet for my minor rotation, and a mileage journal for the schools. (It was bad enough I had to go through the entire application process for both my major and minor rotations as if I DIDN’T ALREADY HAVE THE FRAKIN’ JOB!!!!)

OK, anyway, so I go to sync my newly created Excel time sheets with my Sony Clie, and it isn’t working! So I go to upgrade the software I use (Documents to Go), and it upgrades on my desktop, but apparently my PDA isn’t running the correct operating system to run the software. I’m in the 4’s. I need to be in the 5’s. I’m especially annoyed that upgrading the software made the old software go away. Gah! I search all over the Internet and learn that, in fact, "The Palm OS® operating systems require specific CPU and hardware features to operate. Because of this, the newer Palm OS® operating systems are unable to operate on handhelds that lack these required CPU and hardware features." In other words, I’m completely SOL. If I want to be able to use Excel spreadsheets on my Clie (something I’ve been doing for years), I’m going to have to buy a new PDA.

Why do they do this? It’s bad enough I have to pay about a million dollars a month for the two channels I want to watch on TV and another million just to get basic phone service and DSL Lite. It’s price gouging. Why can’t it stop? WHY?!!!

I’m considering buying this. It’s a good price. Although hell, I’ll probably have to get a new case to fit it and a new who-knows-what-else just to make it work the way it should in the first place. Did I mention that at my major rotation I have a cubicle but not computer or phone? I have a stapler. Today, I wrote a report on a Windows 1998 machine with no Internet access. Do these people not understand the manner to which I have become accustomed?! IU has completely spoiled me, and I’m really not interested in going backwards.

So in short, I’m basically looking at $525 just to keep me afloat technologically. It’s like teeth. I count on them to just be there. I should just have stuff that works. I don’t make enough for these upgrades. Three years isn’t long enough for stuff to be old. It just isn’t.

{Stomp, stomp, tantrum, pout, grrrrrrr…}

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