333: the easy silence

if i had been thinking i could have made each NaBloPoMo post labeled with a song title. whatever's in my head, or i could have done all dixie chicks or trisha or pearl jam or something. whatever.

this is my three hundred and thirty third post on this blog. i have been posting on my anonymous blog for ... like 8 years. i don't even know how many posts i have there, and if you counted the stuff i did in high school, which i coded and hosted myself on tripod. well i'm quite the prolific writer, although most of it isn't worth reading!

chronicle of my morning - phantom itching on my fingers, so SO SO scared that i had brought bugs into Frank's apartment (last night was our last night there). but i'm praying that it was just remnant bites and reactions.

went to the dermatologist - carrying my 15 pound computer bag (maybe not that heavy but feels like it). he said to use 100% DEET bugspray to keep them from biting me. so that's one thing. i'm also going to do a last round of prednisone, which will stop any last reactions...or something.

he told me to buy the spray at a sporting goods store at 19th and Broadway (the derm is at 15th btwn 1st and 2nd Aves, about a 15 min walk from our building). So I walked to 19th and Broadway - the store is actually at 18th & B'way. It's 9:30 and the store doesn't open until 10. But there's a starbucks so I go get a coffee and set up my laptop to get morning email.

Wireless internet works for about 3 minutes, then nothing. My wireless card disappears and I can't access the network at all. UGH. So now I'm lugging around a 15 pound brick (although to be fair I could still work on PowerPoint or offline tasks, of which there are plenty).

By this time it was almost 10 and there was LINE to get into the sporting good store. I waited to get in, found the DEET spray and bought three different bottles of three different kinds. In addition to our double sided tape and comet moat around the air mattress I shouldn't be getting any more bites even if the extermination didn't fully kill all the bugs (and if it didn't we'll just make them come back!)... So I'm feeling pretty good. AND I'm going to stay away from bed-bugger.com and the Yahoo! "support" group that just makes me feel like there's NO HOPE whatsoever. Maybe I can keep this good feeling going.

After the DEET purchase I walk all the way down B'way/University to 4th Ave (so 14 blocks, give or take) to Faye's on the Square to try to get hard wired access (it's the university network, and Shawn has registered my computer). Of COURSE all the students are taking up the spaces (most without laptops, just blocking the outlets and internet jacks), so I'm forced to seek refuge in Shawn's office for access. That's where I am now, but we're about to get lunch and then I'll go to either Starbucks (Shawn fixed my wireless card - some update he had installed caused it to screw up - isn't he a DOLL?!) or the university library if I can connect directly into their system... SUCKS being a refugee, but it's only temporary.

Keeping my chin up as best I can. More later. Today may be a two-poster day.

~M.