Things to do in hibernation

Another one of my late-night posts, brought to you by insomnia, the chill throughout the apartment, and the letter H.

Seriously, this place is chilly. And there's extreme cold afoot in this city. 'Tis a chilly time to be alive. We have a heater that runs in the living room and with the new kittens getting used to the place, we have the door shut. This traps all the lovely heat in here, but unfortunately leaves the rest of the apartment in a sort of arctic deep freeze. No, no, that's being dramatic. It's more of a gentle frost.

Either way, it's about 15 degrees out there if not less and that's mighty damn cold for indoors. So I can't bear to leave the living room because it's too pleasant in here. Plus this is where Beatrice and Sprinkles are.

Life with the kittens is lovely. They play and pounce and Sprinkles probably has ADD. We've progressed to being able to hold and cuddle them and in a couple more days we'll introduce them to the rest of the apartment. Hopefully they'll sleep in bed with us after awhile. Nothing beats kitty snuggles in a warm cozy bed.

I haven't been leaving the house much, mostly because of the weather, but I did get out on the coldest day of the year for the Tim Burton exhibition downtown and managed to get filmed from afar by the CBC for a story on the holy frozen shit weather we were having. McPal was there and his stink eye to the camera was captured centre stage. Well done, sir!

I've been doing some online shopping and perusing to find things I want for my wedding. I've found all the decorative items I want, plus beauty things, and potentially a cake. Back in the day I would have had to tromp about the city in the snow, but thanks to the information age I can browse reviews of various vendors and narrow my choices. I've gotten to a point where shopping online has become a science. I've been burned a few times, but with practice I've had that experience less and less.

Actually, I found my kittens on the internet. I love technology.

Life before Google and post laptop coma

There are a few things that can cause major disruption in any grown person's life, and thus prevent them from updating their blog:

1. The death of a loved one
2. The loss of a job
3. A serious illness
4. Knocking one's laptop unconscious.

I experienced number 4 on Wednesday night. It was turned on and sitting happily on my side table before it fell off somehow, hurt itself and then refused to forgive me and has not allowed me to use it since.

The Dude is linking our Macs and running all sorts of programs and such, valiently trying to retrieve my information before what looks like an inevitable reset. I have photos on there and, moreover, videos I want to keep. I have a few of Jerry that I would be heartbroken to lose, as I watch them every few weeks when I miss his little face.

No, I didn't back anything up. That is of course entirely why I'm now facing mass extinction of all my short stories, photos, videos, personal documents and the iCal calendar I rely on to get me through life.

I could cry. Actually I've already shed some tears over what is trapped inside my laptop. I hate starting from scratch. Getting a new computer always kind of bugs me for that reason, and in this case I wouldn't even have the consolation of something faster and shiny.

And something else that gets me is the lack of Google over the past couple days. I mean, I have my work computer handy, but it's alllll the way over here and not conveniently at arm's length every time I have the thought to look something up. What the bejesus did people do before the Internet and Google? And this from someone who has only had Internet access for 11 years and has only lost easy access to it, not all access. Bloody hell, that's pretty spoiled. Not that I plan on changing my perspective on it.

Les Internets

I booked all my travel stuff. I'm a goin' to California for a wedding in a month and a half! Wooo-ee! And due to saving up 90,000 Visa travel points equalling $450, I got a return plane ticket for $115. And then I booked a hotel room for $89 a night, after tax totalling $195 US. I can't believe how affordable this is.

Now, I've been on a message board for about three and a half years. I've been on less and less as fewer of the friends I've made are frequenting it and more are on Facebook. But in the earlier years, it was a lifeline for me. We all shared everything and got to know each other on this amazing personal level, and we argued with each other full force and then laughed about it later. Such is the power of the Internet.

I've met four of these friends in person, one is a Canadian in a neighbouring city, whom I get to see every few months. She's fantastic. Another is a professor in California who I've seen twice along with my fellow Canadian boarder on his academic visits to the city. Another is a good friend I got to meet in California (lots of Californians on this board) September '08 and we got on great and I wished we lived closer. And the last, who I actually met first when he was on a business trip he'd taken to Toronto, is getting married to a woman he met on the boards, and that's whose wedding I'm going to. I'm looking forward to meeting her in person too.

And as though it wasn't awesome enough to see these two get married (the groom is a really great guy and I've heard wonderful stuff about the bride from those who know her in real life), and being able to see my good friend again, I'll also get to meet more people from the boards.

I was 23 when I started meeting all these people. I'm in many ways a different person than I was, in the sort of way people are after a few years of personal growth. This board was in many ways a part of that growth. As I was adjusting to a new life and new apartment, new single status, new and rediscovered friends, I was connecting with these people. They know nearly all my personal secrets and feelings. And being in their company in real life has been a very calming experience because of that.

Most people in my life who know about the boards don't really get it. And I couldn't expect them to, really. They chuckle and shake their heads, possibly thinking I'm a little nuts. Maybe I am and maybe we are. But come May, we can all be nuts together as we celebrate a couple that the boards brought together. Like it or hate it, the Internet changes people's lives.

Sweet Jebus

Moving is ass. It's so ass I could die.

The actual move went okay. We hired El Cheapo movers and they got the job done for almost the same cost as renting a truck + gas +mileage. That part was fine. It took $320 and three hours.

The hell began once we got here. Rogers. Fucking Rogers. Okay, so technician dude comes on time and can't get everything working. He says someone will come by the next day.

The next day arrives with no phone call. No one at Rogers seems to know what's going on. No one comes and I have to miss a day of work. (Read about my job here.)

This morning yet again no one had called me, and no one at Rogers seems to know jack. By now I'm missing a second day of work, and have no information. I'd called about half a dozen times and talked to about 15 different people. The last straw came when the tech guy I spoke to talked down to me, and essentially said he didn't like my tone. I was in tears. All I wanted to do was work, and be done with the whole thing.

So after hanging up with one more empty promise to call me on my cell once he knew something, the Dude and I called Bell and set up a service call. And then as I was on the phone with Rogers for what was going to be the last time, the doorbell rang and a Rogers technician was there to make everything better. We had no idea he was coming. The whole empty promises thing what with the phone calls and such.

And now we have service. The technician was cool and aloof and walked on eggshells around me, seemingly unaware of anything I'd been through with his company other than that I threw a fit over the phone with his boss.

Sweet Jebus. This whole thing has had me chained to my house for two days. I've not left in the event of possibly missing a window to have this crap resolved.

Now I'm sitting on my new couch, on the internet, and waiting for the Dude to come back home with dinner, and a spray to tackle the musty linen cabinet with. About 3.47 minutes after he left minus an umbrella, a torrential rain shower began. Poor soul. It's been a rough few days.