MEGHAN!!!!!!
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Michelle Branch: You Get Me
Topic: Friends
Work was unexciting, just like the rest of the week. We did get a free lunch from our boss though. And Leigh and I finally found a way to entertain ourselves...an hour before we got off. So we walked back to our place and then we went to pick up Meghan.

It was so good to see Meghan again! She practically knockd me over with a hug of giddiness. She was so happy to have friends around and I was happy to have her around, even if it was just for a night. I didn't quite realize how little I've been hanging out with girl friends until tonight (which isn't to say that my guy friends aren't great because they totally are). She also cut her hair which looks really nice on her. Also makes her look older. So yes, Leigh and I picked her up and we went to Leigh's (and Matt's and Travis'). We hung out there for a bit since 3 of us had a late lunch. Then, since there were 5 of us, we hoped in Travis' car and went to Applebee's. Four of us order alcohol with Travis getting the strongest with a Long Island Ice Tea (Meghan had a Bahama Mamba and Matt and I had Mud Slides). Meghan got very giddy very fast as she didn't have much to eat all day. So we had our dinner and talked. Well actually I only ate about half of mine as I really wasn't that hungry from the big lunch (this comes up again, thus the mention).

During dinner, Hero came up. Meghan was suggesting it, saying it was a very good movie. Matt suggesting getting it for tonight. So we finished up our dinner and headed back to The Guys' House. Travis, Meghan, Matt and I then walked down the street to Insomniac Video to get the movie. Unfortunately, they didn't have it so we hopped in the car again and went to Best Buy where Matt bought the movie. Back to The Guys' House and movie watching ensued. The movie was pretty good. The fight scenes were pretty awesome.

Alas, it became time to go. Meghan was getting sleepy and afterall she has a wedding to attend tomorrow. She did say that if the wedding ended early (it starts at 1pm), she would give any of us that were left a call and we'd do something.

After dropping Meghan off, I decided to stop by Albertson's and drop my film off. I saw a woman sitting outside on the ground near the Hunger bin (exact organization name slips my name). When I came out she asked for any spared change. Instead I offered her my leftover dinner. I hope she wasn't insulted that I was offering her leftovers. But she did seem happy to have the food. I saw her eating a fry as I left. I wish I did things like that more often.

Overall, one of the most enjoyable evenings I've had in a long time.

The Cleaning Saga: Parts VIII and IX-Stairs/Upstairs Hall and Upstairs Bathroom Floor
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: Ladies by Sarai
Topic: Apartment
The final necessary cleaning tonight was very easy and very quick. First I vacuumed the stairs. The middle stairs were a bit challenging because I had to hold the actual vacuum on a stair below me with a foot while using the hose to actually vacuum. When I got to the hall, I had to move all the stuff that was on the floor in the bathroom that I took out last night to sweep back into the bathroom so I could vacuum the hall. Then I moved the stuff back into the hall so I could vacuum the bathroom quickly.

Then I actually cleaned the bathroom floor. Really not that bad. Mostly because we don't walk over that as much as the kitchen floor. Plus the cleaning I gave it a few weeks ago helped too.

So with the exception of the shower walls/door, I have given the common areas of this apartment a thorough cleaning. I think the clean apartment will be my Holiday present to my roommates. All that remains, Part X, is remedial cleaning in the kitchen before I leave. Talk about a sense of personal accomplishment =)

The Cleaning Saga: Part VII-The Shower
Now Playing: Finger 11: Broken Words
Topic: Apartment
*Psycho music* hahaha, just kidding. I wasn't even in the shower really.

That would be because I keep forgetting that I really need to do the walls first. Fortunately, they weren't too bad but I didn't pay them much heed since I was distracted. I did give the shower floor a good scrub once through. I also popped the drain and threw away the hair and who knows what else that was attached to it. At least it wasn't as bad as the first time I did that; when I was still letting my hair go down there too. After that I swept the bathroom floor. I'll be doing the floor tomorrow night and also vacuuming the stairs and the upstairs hall (I originally forgot about that). Hopefully I won't be pigging out again and actually start before 10pm.

The Cleaning Saga: Part VI-Kitchen Floor
Now Playing: Law & Order (SVU) on TV while I was cleaning
Topic: Apartment
I actually had to go look up what part I'm on. How sad. Anyway, on to the floor.

Originally, I was going to get the mop and bucket, mop in first with a bit of soap and then go over it with cleaner and paper towels. I decided to nix the mop. I figured it wouldn't really help much anyway. As usual, the floor was very dirty. It's been like that all the times I've cleaned it ever. I have it at least respectable looking now. But you can totally tell where we stand the most. Because where we don't stand is visibly cleaner and has no chips. That was one thing I did notice in the floor, there seem to be a lot more chips in it. In a way, I can't wait when I do a final checkout next August or December and explain away all damages as 3 years of wear and tear. Well, except for my attempt to clean the couch stain assuming they turn it over.

The Cleaning Saga: Part V-Upstairs Toilet
Now Playing: something from my jazz class...why do I still have these?
Topic: Apartment
I changed my mine about doing it tonight. I figured after the fiasco that happened a few weeks ago, the toilet wouldn't be that bad and it wasn't. So now I'll start on the floors tomorrow. That will probably continue over until Wednesday night anyway.

The Cleaning Sage: Part IV-Upstairs Bathroom (My Half)
Now Playing: I can't wait to be king" from the iPod and from my lips
Topic: Apartment
I thought this would be a simple task. Just wipe everything down, sprinkle a little of Comet over the sink, rub and done.

Nope. It appears that my sink is now officially stained. And now it's starting to feel wierd from all the generic Comet I've put on it. Fortunately, the counter area wiped down easily enough. There is this ring on the counter but it's on Julie's side so I don't really care right now. The little shelf and the mirror didn't put up a fight.

I'll save Part V-Upstairs Toilet for tomorrow night. Hopefully, I'll be doing the kitchen and bathroom floors Wednesday night, and the shower Thursday night. That would work out perfectly. Thus by Murphy's law, that ain't happening.

I will say that my favorite part of all this cleaning is my iPod in my pocket and me singing along (loudly). Goodness knows I wouldn't be able to do this if my roommates were here. I'm kind of liking living without them. Yeah, there's the lonliness; but honestly, how often do I talk to them when they are here? I mean, so far this week has been kind of the same except now there's no presence of them. Like I said, it's kind of nice.

Anyway, time to check on the sink. I was letting it soak in soap (attempting rather) as a "finishing touch."

The Cleaning Saga: Part II-Refridgerator/Freezer and More Kitchen
Now Playing: The Wizard and I/Dreams
Topic: Apartment
Armed with more all purpose cleaner and more Comet, I went back to tackling the kitchen.

First was the freezer. I threw out the popsicles that thawed and then refroze after the freezer was accidentally left open all day a week or so ago because it didn't close properly because there was so much crap in there. I also threw out some nastly unidentifiable shit, some of my old frozen veggies that I forgot about, and a pot pie that had been in there forever. I made a little list on the white board asking who everything belonged to as a reminder that they have it. As for actually dirt and stuff, the freezer wasn't too bad.

The fridge, on the other hand, is a completely different story. It was gross. We have two grate shelves and one solid shelf on the botton. That botton one was disgusting. I have no idea what fell on it that made it so bad. But the really hard thing to clean was some crap underneath the drawers. It took some elbow grease to clean that. I found two things of salsa and two things of barbaque sauce so I combined those. I tried to combine our two ketchups (that one is my fault) but it didn't all quite fit.

Then I finished off Kathryn's dishes so I clean the sink. Those forks, knives and spoons were gross. All the food was stuck on, and there was also so food on the bottom of the sink stuck on too. As I type, that side of the sink is sitting in hot water to finish cleanising/sanitizing it.

All that remains for the kitchen is the floor but I'm saving that for absolute second to last (last is the shower). Now I'm going to grab the vaccum and start that. I'm also going to take out some frozen chicken I found and start to thaw that and make my speciality?oven barbaqued chicken

The Cleaning Sage: Part III-The Living Room
Now Playing: Five: When The Lights Go Out
Topic: Apartment
The most difficult part of cleaning the living room was moving the damn couches. They were very heavy.

I moved our loveseat one first. I was very surprised to find Kathryn's little chocolate things under there. Then I looked more closely and saw bite marks and rat poop. I was suddenly not as surprised, just annoyed. Fortunately there wasn't anything under the regular couch. It was just a pain trying to drag it.

And after all that cleaning, I of course pick tonight to actually cook a dinner and bake the last of the pumpkin bread, and in the process dirtying some fo the kitchen again. But I was good and cleaned it up. I did leave the loaf tins soaking though. But as I was putting my chicken in the fridge, I felt so proud because it was so clean and so empty.

For Part IV tomorrow, the start of the bathroom.

The Cleaning Saga: Part I-The Kitchen Counters
Now Playing: Real McCoy: The Sky Is The Limit
Topic: Apartment
I started the cleaning I promised I would do this week. As the title suggests, I started with the kitchen counters. First I had to put away the dishes Kathryn did manage to get to. Then I started the cleaning. Boy did we have some stubborn dirt around the sink. By the time I got to the big counter, I was running out of cleaner. A lot was also used on the stovetop; stupid grease. I still have the sink to do. For some reason I thought Kathryn was still here and that's why there were still dishes in the sink. But after I had been downstairs and hadn't seen or heard her, I tried knocking and then tried opening her door but it was locked, meaning that she left sometime this morning. Also leaving me with her dirty dishes because I do want to clean our sink out. It hasn't been cleaned since the last time I did a major cleaning about a month and a half ago. And those dishes have been sitting in there since then. Anyway, I ran out of cleaner by the time I got to the microwave. So I decided to prepare to do the fridge and then go shower and what not.

Much to my surprise, one of them (Julie I'm pretty sure) cleaned out some of there stuff. As in, I could actually see the shelves the foot sat on. I threw out all the grapes. There was some other things that were expired/would expire over break but they hadn't even been opened yet so I left them. I did throw out all of the grape juice (only had like half a glass gone from it) and the orange juice as they both had "best if used by sept" on them. Once I get more cleaner, the fridge/freezer will be the next thing I tackle.

I almost saw someone get hit by a bus tonight.

I was taking the bus home and this girl wearing a dark grey or black or navy sweatshirt with dark pajama pants was on her bike and pulled along the side of the bus. I saw her because I was on that side of the bus. The driver did not however. The girl turned on to the street by cutting directly in front of the bus. Not nearly wide enough for the driver to see her. This was as the bus started to pull away from curb. The driver didn't see her until she was about 7/8 across the bus. The bus nearly clipped her. I saw the girl look back. I couldn't see her face clearly but I'm pretty sure she gave a look of disbelief, shock and disgust at the bus.

Now while if there was an accident, the bus would be cited as being as at fault. But to me, it is totally the girl's fault and I don't think I would have felt very sorry for her.
1) Wearing dark clothes thus not very visible at night
2) Had no reflective gear whatsoever aside from the pedals (if that) thus not very visible at night
3) Had no light thus probably did not see the bus moving and also thus not very visible
4) Was not wearing a helmet.
5) Did not swing wide when turning but rather cut directly across in front of the bus and out of the field of vision of the driver. (You know those updated school buses that have that arm that swings when letting the kids off that forces them to walk in front of the bus wide so the driver can see them? That's how far she should have gone. Instead she went like an 1/8 of that distance)

Basically she was a stupid biker. I don't understand why people can't at the very least wear a helmet that way if they do get hit because they didn't take the extra saftey measures, at least they stand a better chance of survival. This is why I refused to ride my bike at night. Even if I had the reflective gear and a light, I still fear that drivers would not see me and that I would get hit. So am I being a cold hearted bitch for believing she got what she deserved had there been an accident? Absolutely, but it's also true.