#but then my dogs will wake me up at 6am again so yay 3 hours of sleep

[basslinegrave]

im feeling so antsy i have like nothing that i specifically Have to do like yes i have to work on a fursuit but im missing something for it so i would have to wait either way so its ok to slow down on it (i at least sewed some parts today) and i got enough money for rent and all so i dont need to rush it so idk if its that but i also have a dentist appointment next week which might be the cause of me being so nervous because i Hate it there and i hate how its now gonna ruin my weekend cause im just gonna be thinking about it

[alliebruns-blog]

Mega Blog 4000 - London Marathon, Bad Cow Double, Dorchester Marathon, The Ox Epic and 100 miles across the South Downs Way.

Well I’m doing really well at this blogging malarky aren’t I? I haven’t posted in AGES mainly because i have been too busy doing all the actual running. So grab yourself a beer because this is a LONG one. 

My race diary for this year is what some people might call ‘busy’. At the moment I have 27 marathons and ultras booked, but me being a suggestible fool, means this number will only go up. April saw me complete my 5th London Marathon on what was possibly the hottest day of the year ever, plus a little trip to Dorset for the Bad Cow Frolic. Two very different races done in very different ways. 

London is my favourite road marathon - it’s home turf and you cannot beat the crowd and the atmosphere along the route. This year I was running solo - in past years I have had a number of first timers running with me, so it’s rarely actually “my” race, but this year I was running alone and so had high hopes of qualifying for Boston, with a sub 3.40. However, that most definitely was NOT to be. It was brutally hot as you all know, so I decided to be sensible and rein it in a bit. Watching people throwing up and falling by the road from mile 10 onwards was proof that I had made the right decision. Weirdly I found the crowds to be a little overwhelming this year. I have spent so much time running on trails that I am now more used to peace and quiet so having thousands of people cheering was lovely but kind of strangely uncomfortable. 

Here’s a picture of me NOT in running kit. 

The heat meant that I was running without a base layer for the first time in 2018, and around mile 16, I realised that the tops of my flappy little arms were chaffing on my vest, and they were stingy. I wasn’t running with my pack, so I legged it over to St Johns ambulance and asked them if they had any vaseline. They had just run out but offered me some baby oil instead. Sexy scenes follow - I am throw it all over myself, basically basting Bailey up to get mega sunburnt for the rest of the day. I finished in 3.59.40 - classic sub 4 attempt done. Was still pretty pleased - I hadn't broken myself and I felt fine - which was good because the following week saw me trotting up to Dorset for White Star Running’s Bad Cow double. 

Hot metal on London marathon day 

Bad Cow is based in Burnbake - a beautiful part of the Dorset countryside. The event is run over two days - day one is the 12 hour frolic - as many laps of the 4.5 mile course as you can do in 12 hours and day 2 is the marathon. I was entered for both and was aiming for a marathon a day. There were a lot of Do-Badders signed up for this one, so we all camped together for maximum LOLS. It’s also dog friendly, which meant that we had a total of 3 dogs to help us round the course - BONUS. 

Bad Cow Squad - Me, George, Susi, Julius and Toby

Now the thing about having a load of Do-Badders camping together is it is NOT A GOOD IDEA. We like a drink and a chat and managed to control ourselves on the first night - a few beers, nothing extraordinary and a decent bit of sleep meant getting up the next morning wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened. To be quite honest, I was exhausted from Arran and London in the previous 3 weeks plus work had been a nightmare the week before so I decided to trot this one out with my pals and the dogs and trot it out I did. We were taking it in turns to run with dogs, look after kids and drink beers, so all in I managed about 30 miles for the day whilst having the best time ever. That night it all went pear shaped. We stayed up til about 4am yapping and drinking beer and playing with our new fire pit, which would have been fine, had we not had to get up for the Marathon at 6am. No chance of sleeping in when the race director drives up to your tent at 5am, puts a huge speaker outside and starts blasting Cotton Eye Joe at 100DB into the tent. Thanks for that Andy. The funny thing is, I still didn’t wake up. 

It shames me to say it but this was the first race that I have ever DNS’d. I was knackered, hungover and sleep deprived - all my own fault and I will make it up at East Farm in August, but I just couldn’t run it. The best thing is that I still had my number on my leg so looking at the results, I actually did it in 4 hours. Because I went too close to the mat when shouting at someone to do press ups. Classic Do-Baddery. 

Having a nice time with Toby at Bad Cow BEFORE the booze started

Next up was The Ox Epic at the start of May. Now I bloody love The Ox - I ran and won the 50 last year, so this was a key race for me - I wanted to defend my title, like the competitive tit that I am. 

I was signed up to do all 4 races - The Dark Ox on Friday night (6 miles), The Ox Ultra on Saturday (50 miles), the light Ox on Sunday (6 miles) and the Ox Half on Sunday (13 miles). Completing all the races means that you get The Ox Epic medal and are inducted into the WSR hall of fame for being a bad ass. My plan was to take it easy on the dark, smash the ultra and take it easy on the light and half. I had no intention of winning the Epic, I just wanted to win the ultra.  And then disaster struck. 

A close friend of mine went missing on the Wednesday before the race, and we were desperately worried about him. On the Friday morning it was announced that he had been found dead and my whole world collapsed. I was numb and I was overwhelmed with grief. From the minute I found out I was taken care of with Susi and Julius coming to find me to make sure I was OK. I didn’t know what I was doing from one second to the next and started questioning if I should even be running. I was fine one minute, and in floods of tears the next. I didn’t know, but from the minute they turned up, I was under the care of my running buddies - constantly being watched and monitored. 

Susi drove me onto the site on Friday - we were all camping together again and the boys put the tent up. I sat there staring at nothing. I was going to run. I couldn’t think of anything else to do rather than run. I got my number on and followed them all to the start at 9.30pm. I had the wrong number on, I had to go back to the tent and get my proper number. I was such a state. Lee and Susi ran with me - it took us 1.20 to get round a 6 mile course in the dark, but get round I did. I realised that this weekend wasn’t about winning, It was about finding sanctuary through running and just getting round would be good enough. 

No. No I didn’t. 

After a couple of beers and some crying (yay), we went to bed ready for the 50 mile race on Saturday. The Ox is a looped course that runs across the Rushmore estate. Each loop is around 6 and a bit miles, so 8 laps gives you 50 miles. I am NOT a fan of loops but strangely The Ox doesn’t bother me at all - the route is very beautiful (apart from the long drove of death) and there are hills so walking breaks are made easy. I ran with Julius for the whole day. He was brilliant. Chatting to me when I needed to be chatted to and letting me be silent when I needed to, he fed me, made sure I drank water and kept an eye on me the whole time. We gave parts of the course nicknames to make it more bearable Crisp Mountain (the hill that you can eat crisps walking up - later renamed to Peanut Mountain when we ran out of crisps) the Forest of Joy, The Droves of Death, the Hills of Despair, Lamb Kingdom  - I think most of the other people thought that we were mental, but it works for us. We came in for the 50 at around 10 hours 30 mins - over an hour slower than my 2017 time and certainly not a win for me, but again I had got round. My demons had not defeated me and I actually felt better than I had all week. Then came the news that changed the weekend for me. I was told that in the overall results from the two races, I was second lady - with only 1 minute and 14 seconds between me and the current front runner. THANKS ANDY. In a way I wish I hadn’t found out, but now the game was most certainly on. I was going to try and win it. 

Sunday morning came - game face was on, and we set out for the start of the 6 mile Light Ox. My pals were trying to find out where the first lady was, I kind of didn’t want to know. Having looked at the results, it was clear she was a fast shorter distance runner - something I am not. I had to really make the effort on this. I started at the front and shot (well, shot for me) round the course with Julius - coming in at just over an hour and five mins. The first lady had not come in yet. The minutes ticked by, 5, 10, 15 - my lead was going up and up, and then about 30 minutes after me she came in, hobbling, and that was the end of her racing weekend. The ultra had broken her and she wasn’t going to take on the half. I was in the lead. 

Now for the final slog - The Ox Half - it had got quite hot and I was physically and mentally exhausted. Plus I had added pressure on me (that I was totally putting on myself) to bring home the Ashtray Trophy of joy. I did NOT enjoy the half. My tiredness meant my brain was doing what Lee calls Vordermaths - numbers and times and numbers and times going over and over that make NO sense, and I was completely terrified that the second lady was somehow going to make up her 40 minute time difference over the half and beat me. That was never going to happen on the half course which was SO hilly and hot. I came in at around 2 and a half hours and took the win for the ladies. I was overwhelmed, exhausted and completely thrilled to be the first lady winner of The Ox Epic. 75 (ish) miles in 3 days on what could have been one of the worst weekends of my life. It taught me that the love and care of the ultra running community knows no bounds. I also just want to do a little shoutout to the 2nd and 3rd ladies - Kirsty and Debbie who were just brilliant, wonderful humans - it was Debbie’s first ultra and she smashed it. Good work team! 

YAS QWEEENS! L-R Debbie, Moi, Kirsty. Fucking badass women. 

The spoils of The Ox Epic.

A couple of much needed weekends off and it was back to Dorset again for ANOTHER WSR event - their only road race event in the form of Dorchester marathon. This is a very different type of run to the ones I am used to - there are a LOT of people and it’s entirely run on the road - it’s sold in as Britains’ prettiest road race and turns out that is actually true - it’s beautiful. 

We arrive at 8 in the morning in the worst rain ever, Thunder, lightning, rain, humidity - all the good ones. It’s raining so much that we are doing 30 mph on the dual carriageway. I am NOT looking forward to this. We park the car and walk towards the start and it’s stopped raining. Usual pants with the usual suspect at the start - I LOVE the White Star Runners so much. The race director is in a cherry picker, which rises towards the sky and, no shit, as it does the clouds part and it’s brilliant sunshine. Now I’m not saying Andy is a God, buuuut….. Oh and guess who is not wearing suntan lotion? (Clue - it’s me) 

Yeah, this is better than London

Sweaty medal picture

The atmosphere is slightly different at this race - usually you get all the LOLS at the start but there are some really tasty runners here - aiming for PB’s and aiming to win. I ran most of the race alone which was fine, and spent a great deal of time petting lambs and goats as per usual. I bumped into a few people I knew and some who I didn’t and had some great chats. The route is relatively flat with a few big old hills, and the heat made it difficult. This was never going to be a sub 4 for me - I had SDW100 to deal with in 2 weeks and didn’t want ANYTHING to go wrong for that. I reckon I’ll be back for a better crack at it next year - as far as road races go it is one of the best in the country - would defo recommend it. Fast forward 2 weeks and we are looking down the barrel of the South Downs Way 100. 

Looking fresh at the 6am start of the SDW 100

This is only my second attempt at 100 miles on one day. I have done a lot of multi day ultras - I really like them! But only one 100 miler in a day (Autumn 100 back in 2017). This is another one of my key races for 2018, and I was hoping to be able to beat my previous record of 23 hours and 38 mins. One thing I hadn’t taken into consideration was how different SDW100 is from A100. 

For a start SDW had 12,700ft of elevation across the course - that’s like climbing Snowdon 3 times. It runs from Winchester to Eastbourne through the beautiful South Downs National Park. It hadn’t rained for a while and the ground was super hard packed chalk with rocks sticking out of it for most of the way - looking back on it, I should have thought about this and worn road shoes - but I didn’t do that because I am an idiot.  I had already recce’d half the route with some of the Do Badders a few months earlier - it was the last 50 we had run which was brilliant as this was the part I would be covering in the dark. 

Making friends on the SDW100

I was extremely lucky to have 2 great pacers for this race. First up from mile 50, Lorna Spayne - a Do Badder and very tasty marathon runner - my WSR nemesis (always beating me dammit) and very good friend what I made through the internet. Lorna is a very experienced runner, and completed her first 50 on the SDW back in May, so was perfectly placed to help pace and crew me. She is the single most organised person I have ever met in my life. She is kind, patient and fiercely protective of her runner. She crewed me from early on in the race - making sure I had all the delicious food, ice, Calippos (yes really) from very early on, and then joining me at mile 51 to run 30 miles in the middle of the night to drop me off with Lee. You all remember Lee right? Lee who force fed me sandwiches on the A100. Lee who has given me PTSD every time I hear Your The Voice by John Farnham? Yeah - that Lee.  Lee was pacing me from mile 83 to the end. A highly inexperienced ultra runner (not my words) Lee knows exactly what he is doing when it comes to pace and hills - and that is exactly what I needed for the death march. 

We started the race at 6am. I bumped into a lot of Do Badders at the start which was great - nice you know you have someone to shout FUCK YOU BUDDY at on the way round. I started the race with Tania who I know through WSR and her friend Melanie. It was Tania’s first 100 and I was SO excited for her - the first 10 miles flew but chatting about running and stuff and running and stuff.  I knew that we were running to fast - doing around 9.30 min miles when I should have been doing 11. I decided at about 20 miles to pull back and let Tania go on - I couldn’t keep this pace and expect not to start breaking and it was already getting hot. It was very challenging underfoot too - the ground rock solid and a number of splendid long slow ascents. My favourite (Fuck you long, slow ascents). At around mile 25 there is the glorious Lorna and she has got ice cubes and ice lollies and I think I love her. She fills my bottles, gets my rubbish out of my bag, refills the sandwich supplies, checks me over, gives me life and off I trot. There were a lot of VERY jealous people when they saw me fishing my Calipo out of my sports bra. 

L-R: Melanie, myself and Tania off to a flying start. 

This is my “quick photographer run” face. Mel obvs finds it hilarious. 

It was at this point I reached the dead zone. Miles 35-40 were a real challenge - I was on my own and was bored. I wasn’t at half way and I was nowhere near the end. I could feel myself starting to mentally go. Then, as if by magic, Melanie is there behind me. I am SO happy to have a running pal. We trot along laughing at stupid things, hating on cyclists, and encouraging each other for 10 miles until we reach the halfway point. I now know that I am on my way to meet Lorna and my race will get better. I reach 50 mile 45 mins short of my target - it’s hotter and hillier than I thought - but I know if I want to go sub 24 then I need to put some effort in to the 50-80 mile leg.

Lorna is a dream. She chats away to me and makes me run when I don’t want to. She asks me stupid questions and distracts me from the task in hand, asking me if I have drunk enough and eaten enough and generally pushing me on. About 10 miles into this leg another Do badder emerges in the shape of Professor Russell Banks who has bough me a can of beer. NOMS! We run along with Mike - yet ANOTHER Do Badder that we have collected en route, and drink some beer and laugh at stupid stuff. It’s at this point I bump into Tania again - she’s suffering a bit so we scoop her up and run a good few miles with her in tow, leaving her at an aid station to drink coffee. I hope that she will be OK but I have to make up my time. 

Hydrating like a proper athlete around mile 55 (L-R Mike, Me, Russell)

A Fuckwittery of Do-Badders (L-R Russell, Me, Lorna, Mike)

Lorna and I trot through the afternoon and into the evening. Head torches come on, and we are running through the darkness to the 83 mile point where I will meet Lee. At some point on this leg, I lose my sense of humour completely, but she deals with it, allowing me space to eat my Peppa Pig pasta and clean my teeth and shout  “a new fucking body” when the marshalls ask if I need anything. It would have been a much sadder race without Lorna and I am so grateful for everything she did for me. Everything is hurting, but I am so close to the end now.  

Lorna disappears into the night....

At mile 83 we pull into the aid station and there is Lee. Boring the shit out of everyone with his Monarchs Way tales. I grab water and some snacks and give Lorna a hug - 16 miles to go and me and Lee set off up yet ANOTHER hill. 

Tea with Lee. 91 miles in. 

Lee’s brilliant as always and we chat about stuff, walk up hills, he lends me his cheat sticks and I start talking to him about times. He thinks I can beat my A100 time - I am not so sure. I have been eating really well on this race and it shows. I am hurting all over and my body feels bruised, but I still have petrol in the tank and I run the downs and walk the ups and we listen to Queen and debate what their best song is for about 2 hours (It’s The Show Must Go On BTW). 

Day starts to break at about 4am. The beauty of the Downs around this time - when the moon and sun are out at the same time - is astonishing. When day breaks on a 100 mile race, you know it’s over and you know you can do it. It spurred me on and I felt like I was only getting stronger. We stop for a coffee at the aid station at mile 91 and Lee is treated like royalty. I am left to wait in the wings for my coffee and water - the marshals are very apologetic when they realise he is my pacer and I am running the race. Fucking Lee, man. 

Having a moment as the sun comes up and moon goes down. Thanks for the photo Lee!

We leave the aid station and trot out the next 9 miles. It starts to become a reality that I can PB this. I can do it in a faster time than A100. I start to get faster. I feel brilliant. Lee is complaining a lot about the hills. I tell him to shut the fuck up. We keep going and eventually come off the hills and down onto the road towards the finish. The road seems to go on forever, but I want to run not walk. 

23 hours and 20 mins in the end is on sight. One loop round the athletics track,  and I am done. 23 hours, 28 minutes. 9 mins off my previous time with about 7,000ft more elevation. 

BOOM. 

I am presented with my buckle, I get the beer out of my bag and at 5 am have a delicious beer and a hot dog. I am exhausted and elated. Second time round is not easy, but it’s easier. Thank you to Lee and Lorna for everything they did for me. I won’t ever forget it. Shout out to Melanie who finished in 25 hours - this photo says it all.....

So, what’s next? Well I am back with my Rat Race pals doing The Wall this weekend - just 69 miles along Hadrians Wall , followed by a pretty exciting recce in Snowdon. I will also be attempting to not leave my blog so long. If you’ve got to this bit you’re a stronger person than most - ultra reading. 

[assortedmoneydiaries]

a week in NYC on a $80,000 salary

Day One

5am: I wake up, snooze for 10 minutes, and do my morning face routine: rose toner, bronze eyeshadow, eyeliner, eyebrows. I make a fried egg over easy (a dozen for $1) and drink some peanut milk (homemade with peanuts, water, and sugar). 

6:45am: I get to my monitoring appointment for my egg freezing process, and I get bloodwork and an ultrasound within 20 minutes. I pay for lupron, a trigger medication for the egg retrieval process scheduled for this weekend. I’m getting my egg freezing reimbursed, but for now I’m paying this out of pocket. $85. 

7:50am: I get to work - it’s a Sunday, but I have a 12 hour shift ahead of me. I immediately get a sign-out about a patient with a weapon in his rectum, so this day is already wild. 

12:00pm: The day hasn’t been too bad, actually; I microwave my pre-packed lunch - white rice with eggplant, chicken, and thai basil. I briefly entertain buying a drink from the vending machine, but it passes. 

6:00pm: After a day of answering pages and browsing furniture, it’s dinner time! I microwave my pre-packed dinner - pesto chicken bread pudding that I made with my brother’s leftover sourdough bread. Back to work. 

8:00pm: Time to go home! The night ended with a patient who caught a goose in Central Park with a fishing net and decapitated it. The police confiscated the knife and the goose. 

10:00pm: Because it’s the weekend, my normal one hour commute becomes two hours. I talk to my prospective roommate about our housing plans, inject myself with follistim and clomiphene for the egg freezing, and pass out. 

Daily total: $85 (to be reimbursed). 

Day Two

6am: Same routine, but an hour later! Wash my face, get dressed, and an egg and peanut milk. Not having to think about breakfast makes my life easier when I’m already so groggy. 

8am: I’m still on the subway, but we have virtual morning lectures from 8am-9am, so I just join on my phone. I get to the hospital at 8:10 and continue the lecture on wifi. I drop off the black sesame milk buns that I made over the weekend in the residents’ lounge. 

9am: We have morning rounds for 30 minutes, and I go see my patients and write their notes. One of my patients is someone I saw in the ED yesterday, and she’s very sweet now that she’s no longer intoxicated. 

12pm: Lunch time! I microwave my pre-packed lunch, same as yesterday, and chill with the other residents for an hour. 

3pm: I count down to 3pm for the donut drop from Kora; within 3 minutes, the donuts are sold out. Thankfully, I made it - 2 sets of the Sari-Sari (leche flan, ube, churron, halo-halo, and keso). All set for pick-up on Friday. :) $65. 

4pm: I get out of work, and go home to chill, work on the apartment rental application, and work out. 

7:30pm: Dinner with my mom eating leftovers, and then Stone Age (a free online board game with friends). 

10pm: Follistim and clomiphene again, and off to bed. 

Daily total: $65 (hopefully will be reimbursed for $56 since I’m sharing with 6 other people) 

Day Three

5am: I have to go for monitoring again today, so I wake up early ... and do the same routine, except with hot HK milk tea instead of peanut milk to warm me up. 

7am: It’s 50 degrees outside, and I decide to cancel my dinner plans (outdoor dining with a friend) because I’m not dressed appropriately for the weather. I go in for monitoring and it turns out I need to take a medication as soon as I get home from work, so I have an even better excuse to cancel.  

10am: I discharge two patients, one of whom is my age and is one of the nicest patients I’ve ever had. I have medical students now, so I bring them along to see my patients. 

12pm: Lunch time - I microwave my pesto chicken bread pudding that I brought from home. I was hoping to snack on a black sesame milk bun, but they’re all gone. :(

5pm: I go home instead of going to dinner, but it turns out that I don’t have the medication after all. I contact the ob/gyn, but it’s not available at any pharmacies; I’ll just pick it up from the clinic tomorrow (for free). 

7:30pm: I eat leftovers again for dinner (peking duck and steamed dumplings). The rest of the night is pretty low-key; lazing in bed and scrolling through social media. I get myself to do a few squats, but I feel so meh that I don’t really end up doing much and call it a night. 

Daily total: $0 

Day Four 

5am: It’s getting pretty tiring waking up early for these appointments - can’t wait for them to be over! The follicles are growing nicely :) I pick up the medication and make sure I don’t lose it this time. 

10am: I discharge another patient, who is legit one of the most motivated patients I’ve ever met; he called his pharmacy to make sure that his medications would get sent properly. 

12pm: I remembered that I had some leftover beef rendang from dinner last week, so I microwave that for lunch. I also take the medication ... vaginally, and I lie down on the couch for 10 minutes awkwardly while my co-residents come in and out of the lounge. 

5pm: I catch up with a friend through FaceTime, and we talk for 2 hours about self-quarantining, socializing, therapy, and being tired introverts. 

7pm: Duke is hosting a free private screening of Miss Juneteenth with a panel of speakers (including the film director and producer), so I watch it while eating dinner with some college friends. I didn’t immediately love the movie, but the panel definitely made me appreciate it a lot more. 

10pm: Medications again, and off to bed because I have ANOTHER early appointment tomorrow. Oof. 

Daily total: $0

Day Five

5am: I press snooze and I basically get out of bed at 5:30 and leave at 5:50. I’m coughing a bit this morning, and I’m 99% sure I don’t have covid, but I don’t know for sure. 

9:30am: I talk to my attending and program coordinator about my very mild symptoms - slightly running nose, dry cough - and they recommend that I just get tested downstairs. It’s very efficient; I sign up for a patient portal, and I get bloodwork and the nasopharyngeal swab for the PCR. I really do not want to get swabbed again unless I have to; it does not feel good. 

12pm: Microwaved lunch again - rice with tofu and beef, which my mom made last night. 

2pm: I’m negative for antibodies! 

5pm: I take a quick trip to Chinatown to grab some snacks - drinks at Bambu for two, which I have 20% off for ($14) and a set of 6 cheese tarts from Pink Lady ($16). $30. 

6pm: My fertility doctor calls me and tells me that we have to reschedule my egg retrieval until I get my covid result back. :( 

7pm: I meet up with two friends for dinner at a Korean-Uzbek restaurant near my house; it turns out that they do outdoor dining! We were originally planning on doing takeout and eating in my backyard, but this works, too. We get lagman (a hot Uzbek beef noodle soup), kuksi soup (a cold Korean noodle soup reminiscent of naemgyung), 4 pieces of manty (Uzbek beef-lamb dumplings served with sour cream), and a Korean beef bun. $17

9pm: We go back to the teahouse in my backyard, and eat cheese tarts and finish our drinks. We lose track of time talking about furniture styles, dating, splurges, and money diaries. I regretfully have to end the night at 10:30pm because it’s time for my medications, and I have to go to sleep. 

Daily total: $47

Day Six

6am: I didn’t have to go in this morning, whew! We also don’t have lecture this morning, so I had a leisurely morning reviewing my patient charts. 

9:30am: Negative covid test, yay!!! Egg retrieval is on for Sunday. 

12pm: Microwaved rice with eggplant, chicken, and thai basil again. I still have 2+ weeks worth of this and the pesto chicken bread pudding at home; I really should freeze it. 

2pm: I try to talk to my new admission, but apparently he refuses to talk for the first three days every admission. So ... just chilling. 

5pm: I go to my bank to get certified checks, but it turns out they’re $12 each and money orders are only $1 at the post office ... so I go to the post office. I get two checks for $1200 and $750 and pay $4.75 in fees. They’re supposed to be reimbursed, but I have to pay the application fee for my rental building up front. $1954.75

6:30pm: I give one donut to my brother and I sell one to someone else, so I get some money back! 

7pm: I meet up with friends for dinner at Tradisyon, where we split a bunch of entrees among 5 people: squid, lechon, sisig, mackerel, and kare kare. Everything was delicious :) We shared the donuts, but they were actually really dense, so we only ate 5. Idk what I’m doing with the 3 leftover donuts :x $15. 

10pm: We continue hanging out but it gets too cold and I need to inject myself at 10:15pm, so we end up going to someone’s studio apartment nearby :O First time hanging out indoors for some of us! 

Daily total: $1969.75 ($1950 to be reimbursed)

Day Seven

8am: I go in for final bloodwork, and I pay for the egg retrieval procedure for tomorrow - oof. I’ve never had to spend so much at one time, and I was mortified when my credit card was declined. We put half on my credit card and half on my debit card. $3250. 

9am: I hang out at Chris’ apartment because I need to wait until 10:15am for my second injection, and I may or may not need to have the procedure today if my bloodwork comes back indicating that I may be ovulating. We chill and wait for Daniella to arrive. 

11am: We decide that it’s way too cold outside to go biking in Central Park or eat out, and we ultimately decide on spicy hunan food from the restaurant right next door to Chris’ apartment. We order a LOT of food - mapo tofu, eggplant with green beans, chongqing chicken, hot and sour soup, beef noodle soup - and eat at his kitchen counter. I drink some of Chris’ tea with his maple oat milk from Trader Joe’s. $24. 

2pm: After a lot of conversations while chilling on Chris’ couch (and a 15 minute nap), we decide to go for a short walk outside so that we can feel slightly productive on our free day together. We check out some cool recycled trash sculptures of dogs that are ... kinda ugly. 

3pm: I go home and spend the rest of the day freecycling (posting stuff I don’t want anymore for other people to pick up from my house) and chilling. 

8pm: It’s Saturday night, which means my dad makes sushi for us. It’s a decadent, delicious, and free meal for me :) 

9pm: I go to bed early for my procedure tomorrow! 

Daily total: $3274 ($3250 to be reimbursed)

Weekly total: $5440.75 ($5317.88 to be reimbursed, so actually $122.87). 

[youmightaswell]

Die!

Lord of the Flies vs. Lord of the Fliers

 I have often said that domestic air travel is like Lord of the Flies. But never have I felt that reinforced so much as on my last trip home from Vegas.

My flight was at 12pm so I arrived at McCarren at 8:45am only to be told the flight had been delayed an hour due to weather conditions. I settled in for my 1pm departure figuring I’d catch up on reading and podcasts. 

By 12:15pm the gate crew had arrived and announced that the flight was further delayed to 3pm. A collective sigh of annoyance rang out through the Gate D34 area. 

By 3:45pm we were seated on an overly hot plane and ready to roll. Or not. Another 30 minutes and the very loquacious pilot -- he said he had been in Vegas for nine days and need to get home NOW, assuring us that no matter what he would not time out -- told us there was a mechanical error and we needed to wait for mechanics to board. Over the next few minutes he explained it was not anything that would impact the safely of the plane, but rather just a signal that he needed to override. 

The plane was so hot all I kept thinking of is that I was going to die, like a dog left in a parked car while it’s owner runs into Burger King. 

He then announced it was fixed (yay!) but that sadly two of his flight crew stewardesses had now timed out and needed to leave. This meant we needed to deplane and they’d have to find stewardesses to replace the originals.

At the gate we were told that they were flying in two new ones who would arrive at 5:30pm. Groans. 

They realized that getting on the plane, getting off the plane and waiting was not the type of bizarro aerobics anyone wanted to do so they send over Quiznos sandwiches, chips and water. (Think: the pig eaten on the beach in Lord...)

We collectively chowed down on our food oblivious to what horror was about to befall us next. Watching the clock tick, counting off minutes until we could board at 5:45pm I tried to calm myself. Boarding time would be soon enough. Relax, breathe...

And then we all got a text from Delta at the same time  with a notice the gate agents had not yet gotten: The flight was now delayed till 10:45pm. But how could that be? The stewardesses were confirmed to be arriving at 5:30pm from Los Angeles, the plane was fixed, weather was no longer a concern, the pilot assured us he was flying this plane back to NYC because he, too, needed to get there. 

Turns out the next announcement was that the pilot had indeed timed out. Or rather he would at 6pm. It was already 5:20pm. How had they not thought of this? Why had they not let us board and sit on the plane so the minute the attendants arrived at 5:30 we could be on our way and avoid the 6pm cut off? 

Everyone started screaming at this point. Many people had already missed once a day connections and had to take taxi and hotel vouchers to try this mess the following day. But the remaining 120 passengers or so were stuck in Limbo. 

And we were told our luggage would stay on the original plane, so even if we tried to get another flight on a different carrier that might leave earlier, we would still have to go back to JFK the following day for luggage and anyone who was still trying to make a connection would not have their luggage re-routed. 

Obviously if the plane was delayed to 10:45pm the original two stewardesses would then time out and this would be a neverending process. 

People lined up to scream. No one knew what was happening. There was utter chaos. Even Quiznos sandwiches wouldn’t fix this debacle. 

Finally the flight manager, Marilyn, came out -- a sassy black women with a can-do attitude -- and announced she is a New Yorker and she gets shit done. That if we could very quickly board in 10 minutes and be ready on that plane at 5:45 we could take off before the pilot timed out. One stewardess was going proceed boarding by Zone number in an orderly fashion but that would take far longer than 10 minutes. So Marilyn let people board quickly regardless of Zone. No time to worry about seat assignments, overhead luggage or anything else. Just get on that fucking plane. 

By 5:45pm we were seated, belts locked, the two LA stewardesses were all ready and the plane doors closed. We all breathed a sigh of relief. 

And then... then we sat. And sat. And sat. 

WTF? What was the issue NOW? 

Turns out the pilot didn’t get his paperwork approved in time. Ah, the paperwork! Somehow paper is always the real killer. Think Seinfleld and the envelopes. Twice.

So at 7:15pm we had to deplane again. And now we were told the plane is out of service. So our options were to stay overnight at the airport hotel and try to get on a morning plane although the 6am and 10am were all sold out, or try to get on the 11pm to JFK just a few gates away but the caveat was there were only 5 seats, one of which was in First Class.

Don’t know how I did it because I had been seated in the back of the plane but I ended up first at the gate line. I told the agent that I wanted the 11pm to JFK. She said, “Well we’ll see if there are any seats left.” No sense of urgency whatsoever. I, however, had already pulled up the seating chart and knew what seats were available. I told her she would be giving me seat 2C. She said she didn’t think she could give away a first class seat to a coach ticket holder. Fuck that shit! I was like well I’m not leaving this line until I have it and there are about 119 people behind me that also want to kill you. She was like well with that attitude I may not help you. WTF? 

Needless to say this is where I went from being a starring member of Lord of the Flies and instead turned into Lord of the Fliers. 

I ran away to the new gate with my first class ticket before there could be any changes. No backsies is not a phrase Delta understands. 

Anyway I sat alone at the new gate with about 3.5 hours to spare. My ears hurt too much to read and I was too anxious to listen to my true crime podcast. I knew that I was in panic mode and about a step away from exploding and starring in a true crime podcast myself.

I visualized getting on that plane in a big comfy seat with actual blankets and pillows and glorious a/c and snacks, popping a Xanax and peacing the fuck out, arriving into JFK more than 12 hours after I was supposed to land.  I also said a silent prayer my bag would be there but at this point I didn’t even care about never getting my stuff back again. My bag was loaded with sequins and fringe, so maybe what’s worn in Vegas stays in Vegas. 

I began to wonder what happened to all the other passengers. Surely at least four should be at the gate with me, snatching up the remaining seats. I suspected the others were headed to a hotel, but why weren’t those four seats given out -- I still saw them on the Delta.com site. 

About 10pm there was an announcement for my original flight: Flight 2371 -- which we had been told was completely canceled, hence my first class replacement. But the announcement said that all passengers for this flight, they got a new plane and crew and it would be departing at 12am. WTF? This plane came back from the dead? The Revenge of Flight 2371 was not something I wanted to be trapped in. Did this mean my ticket for the new flight was now null and void?

I headed all the way back to my original gate and lo and behold all the passengers were still there. Turns out after the attendant dolled out my first class ticket a manager stepped in and said they would not be paying for hotel, food and taxi vouchers for 119 people nor would they be giving out first class tickets. That everyone in that line now needed to sit and wait and were stuck on the original flight no matter how long it took to get a new plane and crew. 

I’m so happy I was first in line. I had really been officially moved to the 11pm flight, which boarded early, took off without a hitch and I only recall taking my Xanax, closing my weary eyes and waking up in JFK, my luggage the first down the ramp. 

When I turned my phone back on there were a series of texts from Delta about further delays to my original flight. Those poor people were finally in the air but wouldn’t be landing for another three hours. 

As I headed to the taxi line I could only equate it with what the boys at the end of the Lord of the Flies felt when they ran on the beach to the naval officer. Ordeal over. Finally saved. 

Epilogue: The following day, still traumatized from my experience, I got one final message from Delta, acknowledging how brutal the flight issues and subsequent delays had been. In compensation they sent us all 15,000 miles. 

[dianasip]

Have a new puppy!

Hellooooo! So, i’ve been off writing since god knows when….i really lazy and don’t really know what to write, well, i can write a review movie but i just don’t really feel it, although i still watch lots of movie but too lazy too write, because i thought it would be bored…

But here i am back to try to write again with the new topic about my puppy! Yay! Yes, i adopt a new puppy! And she’s a samoyed breed, i just fell in love with samoyed because of their majestic fluffy fur and their calm and gentle nature.

But, are they really calm and nice? Well…yes,but in the certain of age, start from 6 month or 1 years old, but before that, they are just being a healthy little puppy in general, energetic, curious and very active! So, i’ve been research lots of tips and trick to have a samoyed, and i decides to finally adopt one, i thought it was gonna be easy, because my family had a dog too, we had a golden retriever who behave so good and calm in out house, never poop or pee inside our house, always do her business outside and never barking, but, after i got this new puppy in my house, i realize i was wrong, raising a new puppy is hard! Very hard…i think the feel Is the same as dealing with a real human baby…

And…for my little baby here, we named her Ai (i was called her sugar because i think it would be a sweet name for her, but my husband against it and want to named her Ai), she’s very active, roaming around the house, destroying all of our slippers and socks, also poops and pees everywhere! Of course since we haven’t potty train her, and she just 3 months olds! She poops and pees in our carpet, i got really stressed, my calm and fine day start to be very hectic!

And the nightmare also begin in the night, in the first night she’s stay in our house, i know she must be anxious and scared to be left alone, but i have to put her in crate because my bedroom

Is on the 2nd floor, so she have to stay in her crate on the living room, she start whining and crying everytime i left her alone. She start to digging and struggling to open the crate door, and this is when you have to discipline and being firm, do not respond to her whining, just walk away and stay in the other room, she will be barking, crying and whining like crazy just let her be, and if she wont stop, its okay to let her out for couple hours, maybe she wants to pee or poop, but after that try to bring her back to the crate and leave her, i tried to make her comfort in her crate by bringing her fave toy and something to chew on, also my socks that she always bite. 

As for my case, Ai still whining when we get off to bed late on 1AM, she keeps whining and barking for an hours and then my husband started to walk down and put on some tv, she seems okay and calm a bit, so my husband leave the tv on and back to bed, surprisingly, it worked, she did get calm, she sleep safe and sound and start barking, wake me up in the 6AM Even though i still sleepy at the time but i've to get her out, and yes, she's pooping after i got her outside the house and i also find she peed in the crate, but it wasn't a big deal because it's understandable act, as long as she behave well in the crate and she did a good job for our first night. I still very sleepy when i writing this, i cant get back to sleep because i feel uncomfortable to let her alone, i've to always keeping my eyes on her when she's playing outside the crate, i just scared she would be doing something dangerous or plainly just making accidents like poops and pees anywhere she pleased. So, yeah,raising a new puppy is hard, i still learning, like every new dogs owner did! I just hope i cant pass this phase and look her growing up healthy and majestic like any other samoyed!

[poopjaculator]

Rant because I’m pissed off

Scroll past cause this is honestly just some petty bs but I need to get my thoughts out before I explode

ROOMMATE PROBLEMS

Replacing names because duh

So, I live in a house with my boyfriend (we’ll call him Optimus Prime (or OPAF), and 3 others, well call them Kind Human (KH), Rugby Bro (RB) and Cornholio (Cornholio)

We all met a few years back at an old job, I’ve always been super tight with OPAF, RB, and KH. Cornholio and I were cool but the friendship has always been uneasy because Cornholio doesn’t like that KH and I are best friends.

Cornholio is one of those people who just doesn’t get it. Y’know? They are extremely attached to KH and gets jealous (has stated this to me point blank) when they see me and KH hanging out or drinking in the living room or literally just laughing at the others joke. It’s crazy. cornholio has also done petty things like not talk to KH for 3 fucking months, never having discussed what was making him mad and then got upset because when Cornholio wanted to sit down and talk it out, KH didn’t want to (for obvious reasons)

That’s not even the tip of the iceberg, but we’ll be here all day if I keep going like this. So, the whole story condensed is basically “Cornholio always stirs up trouble and then pitches a fit when we call him out for it so as a result we’ve been tiptoeing around his feelies for over a year now.

For the rest of this, I’m just going to talk about what has gone down in the last 2 days.

We’ve been having issues with the thermostat at night, it’ll mysteriously be set WAY below what we all agreed on as a house (72 degrees) and we all wake up as human popsicles. I put a message up on our whiteboard that read “Whoever keeps turning the thermostat down please stop, we agreed on 72 degrees, thank you.” Nothing rude, nothing accusing. That night it got dropped down to 68. Now, mind you, it’s been hella cold at night because March is angry that we considered planting things last month because of the unusual heat (yay global warming!!) Mind you, I know Cornholio has been the culprit a couple of times because I’ve seen him come down and change it when he thinks I’m asleep on the couch. This time, however, Cornholio hasn’t been home all night, so there was no way it was him. OPAF wrote a message on the board the read “fucking seriously??? 68 degrees??” I didn’t think anything of it because everyone is allowed a voice and there was no way Cornholio could take offense because HE. WASN’T. HOME. THAT. NIGHT. Unless he drove 45 minutes just to fuck with the thermostat and leave which I see as unlikely. So, I left it there. I’ve been having a lot of car troubles and I went to Advanced Auto to see if I could fix it and got stuck there for several hours, so the house was left unattended for an unknown amount of time. Anyways, I get home and ALL THE MESSAGES HAVE BEEN ERASED and in there place is huge message in 4-year-old handwriting that reads “Door left unlocked”. This enraged me, how dare you erase my message about the thermostat and just leave that without ANY acknowledgement of the message. I then decided maybe I was being irrational and messaged KH and OPAF to ask, and they were on my side so I felt justified. I decided to take the highground though (Cornholio was upstairs asleep in his room) I erased the entire board and put the original message back up plus “when cornholio came home, the front door was unlocked” and “please do not erase messages without acknowledgement”. A few hours later, OPAF, KH, and myself are chilling in the living room and Cornholio comes down, looks at the board and only erases the part about not erasing without acknowledgement. OPAF speaks up and asks him not to do that, Cornholio then goes into a triad about how he erased it because he’s the last one to read it and that’s acknowledgement enough (which would hold water if he had erased the other 2 messages as well). I point out that RB hasn’t seen it, as he was just then walking in the door. It was a lot more heated than that but Cornholio basically turned and told RB what he had erased, looked at me and said “there”, and stomped upstairs. It was a lot more heated than that and I actually cried. I have tried the hardest out of everyone in this house to cater to and coddle Cornholio, to understand him. But, he keeps throwing this shit in my face. Now, I had already had a long fucking day because of my car and everything else and I just ran outside and broke down crying, I was livid. KH came outside with OPAF and comforted me. Fast-forward to a couple hours later, it was about 6am, I hadn’t gone to bed yet and I was admittedly a little drunk (I was about 6 beers in, oops), Cornholio comes downstairs. I am cuddling our pitbull on the couch because he makes an excellent pillow so long as you don’t mind the wiggles, Cornholio sees us cuddling and proceeds to call the dog to go sleep upstairs with him (which I didn’t mind, the dog sleeps with him almost every night, no big). I started to apologize to Cornholio for being so emotional earlier and try to explain my side of things, I don’t get that far. Cornholio cuts be off and starts attacking me about how the messages on the board made him feel personally attacked (remember the “fucking seriously” message from the night that he wasn’t home? Yeah, he was offended about that. And taking it out on me even though I obviously didn’t write it (OPAF signed it)). I start raising my voice, telling him that I’m stressed out too, and tell him about my car. He breezes over that and says his shitty behavior is okay because “he’s in pain” (he recently spent some time in the hospital because he forgot to drink water), I tell him I’m in pain too (was going to mention the medical issues I’ve been having) but he cuts me off AGAIN and goes “yeah, emotional pain which isn’t important” I was enraged, I swear for the first time in a long time I started seeing red. I yelled at him to get out, he stormed out.

Today, I’m at home because I had to wait for my car to get out of the shop (an uber to work is too damned expensive and I’m quitting in 2 weeks anyways), I’m cuddling on the couch again with Tyson when who do I hear come in? Cornholio. Now, I had 2 options. I could yell at him and really tell him what I thought, or I could give him the silent treatment and give him a taste of his own medicine. I chose the latter, because it’s easier and I’m not calm enough to make my thought cohesive and deal with him not letting me talk. I didn’t even acknowledge the bastard, I could tell he wanted to say something though, cause he stood over me for a good minute and then thought better of it (I would have kept ignoring him though). Then he left, that’s the last interaction that I’ve had with him today.

I get it, a lot of this seems super petty, and it is, but I’m 22, and Cornholio is almost 15 years older than me. If they want to act like a child, I will treat them like a child. Not only is this relationshit with my roommate an abusive one, but he could at least give me a reach around if he’s gonna fuck me over like this. I’ve tried fighting fire with water and flour, it doesn’t work, I’m fighting back with fire now, prepare to burn Cornholio.