flunky detritus

04-26-00

I'm offended.

Ugh. I waited until 9:00, and then I just decided I couldn't wait any longer. I called and got the veterinary flunky on duty, and he popped back to check on Bloo.

Maybe I shouldn't quote him without asking permission, but the block link will have to suffice, since I can't exactly ask a guy for permission to diss him on my page. Not like he'd ever come to this site, anyway.

Maybe that veterinary flunky is a struggling student. Maybe he doesn't deserve the shit you secretly give him in your very public, very-often-read online journal.

Maybe I'm not as upset as I sound. I've had a good two days. I'm cheery! I'm cool! I'm cuckoo for Coco Puffs. And all that.

After work today, at my busy veterinary flunky job, I drove by an out-of-the-way apartment complex and did a walkthrough. A very nice man tried to con me into renting there by telling me to "trust my gut feelings" and not "live anywhere that doesn't feel right." He's like the Progressive Insurance Co. of apartment leasers. You know—"We'll tell you if other companies' rates are lower than ours, so use us because we're so honest!" It was a nice place, though, and they take $25 off the rent because we're military.

Then I came home and found out what we'd pay for breaking our lease with the current apartment complex. Let me just say we won't be moving until the lease is up next February.

I don't know what possessed me to start looking at other places, anyway. In the three days that John's been gone I've been doing a lot of sifting, organizing and decorating in this place. Why would I want to go and move right away? I've sorted out the desk and file cabinets, cleaned off a few flat surfaces that were covered with clutter, and hung stuff all over the walls. If I move, I have to start over. (But there'd be so much more space....)

(And so much less money....)

My style of decorating tends toward clutter. John and I have a zillion books, all sizes from pulp paperbacks to textbooks to oversized musical scores. All those books, in all different colors, make the room look brighter and busier. Then there's the 500 or so CD's, and the electronics. Two laden music stands are dormant in the dining room.

Now we start the decorating: big squatty candles rest (and drip) on just about every surface. Stuffed animals are squeezed into nooks and corners. Homemade afghans (Grandma Jones) and quilts (Mom and me) drape over the backs of couches and chairs. And there's...stuff...on everything. Little baskets and tin boxes and tiny glass salt dishes, many containing "surprises" like polished stones, foreign coins, or bits of jewelry. There's a growing collection of ceramic Pooh paraphernalia, and two extra-cool Pooh lunchboxes. Coffee mugs filled with musician detritus—valve oil, ear plugs and mic clips—rest on the desk and the counter by the kitchen.

There's even bitty stuff on the walls—I have a shadowbox with about 50 little spaces, and each one is filled with a ceramic cat, a pretty stone, or some other tiny useless thing. I have a wire coathook/shelf with stuffed animals perched on top. Two quilted wallhangings and a Widmer beer sign adorn the walls in the living room. And all over, tiny bits of stuff hang from nails. Calendars, pictures, suncatchers, baseball caps, mardi gras beads, kitchen utensils (in the kitchen, of course,) mail file slots. When I can't find a shelf to put something on, or a drawer to put it in, I look for a way to hang it up on the wall.

This week, I found my box of suncatchers (from last winter when I was bored in Lansing) and started hanging them around the house. John's going to crap in his pants when he gets home on Saturday and sees how feminine this place is. He did live here for four months before I arrived, so if he wanted to decorate it his way, he shoulda done it already.

So our house is cluttery. It's also very cosy, what with the cat hair on everything. And the laundry baskets in the middle of the living room floor. The whole place smells of garlic and tomatoes, too, because the secret-secret spagetti sauce is simmering its way to day three. I ate past for lunch and dinner today. Tomorrow I might take a day off the all-pasta diet and eat some, I don't know, rice or something.