Introverts, how is your day?

[Pseudonym]

Tee hee hee, got a customer with the surname 'Pook.' 

 

I agree it would be boring to have sunshine all the time, but it would help lift my spirits. Living here I sometimes I feel like a don't see the sun for weeks at a time. Which is probably why I look like one of those pale things that live in the depths of a cave. 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

 

 

That's how I felt when I lived north of Rochester NY, near Lake Ontario.  Rain, rain, rain, rain....

 

(At least we got a break in the winter, when it was snow, snow, snow, snow....)

 

 

 

Did you draw that or borrow it?

[J.P.]

I don't remember how sun looks like. Since November it's not really getting bright, even at noon.

[Artemis]

Aw, they had an arctic exhibit with arctic foxes at the zoo last weekend, and I didn’t know. I could’ve done that for my birthday thing! I’ve always wanted to see arctic foxes.

[Van Buren Supernova]

I hate it when I'm too busy to come here and miss.. eh.. weather talk? Good god you guys are bored! (As if I have something better..)

 

Zoo exhibit always last longer or at least a month or two, you can still visit it, oh, you mentioned you want to do that exactly on your birthday.

 

I kind of dislike birthday, I hate the attention. At least a colleague who always brought cake and forced me to take picture is no longer working here, and I won't miss that. Not that I'm ungrateful for her kindness, it's just awkward for me, I even took leave to avoid that.

Back in my high school, people brought stuff for the class. Chocolate, or whatever and distribute them. I remember that I felt pressured to do the same and there was no escaping since the date was known. Hopefully I have a peaceful one this year, actually we forgot about our birthdays that we have trips to meet before and after, but not on the birthday dates.

 

I have worst birthday story, but I don't mind if it becomes the worst ever because it's not that bad.

So when I just moved to stay abroad alone, it was two weeks away from my birthday. The week or couple of days before I just found out that the place (a simple studio) was rat infested-sort of. Means rats had ways to go in although they didn't actually stay there. There was a gap big enough in between the sliding door. So we rectified it with wiremesh along the gap, threw crushed moth balls on the small yard behind where they came from (I read that it repeals rats), and it seemed like succesful effort. Until I went home that day from work and found rat droppings on my freaking pillow. I went berserk, took off the sheet, cleaned the whole place vigorously while looking for the culprit.

None, and the wire mesh remained intact. I added floor mat on the top part to completely seal the curved barrier (it was bent outward and impenetrable but the top part might be the weak point) So I suspected the sneaky pest ran in while I opened the door to go to work and had ran out while I was back the same way. I was satisfied and started to have dinner that I brought back. However, something didn't feel right.

 

You see, all I had was a bed, a closed cupboard and a dresser, with a stool.

I checked the stool while I cleaned the whole place but it was a heavy stool so the movement was slow and noisy when I dragged it to the side for mopping. Suddenly I was suspicious and slowly approached and yanked the stool out.

 

And there it was, a ratatouile was standing there, frightened, looked at me with surprised. I was holding a broom but couldn't bring myself to whack on it, so I attempted to chase-direct it to the front door (that I had left open for this purpose). But that sneaky guys ran everywhere and then it climbed to the top part of the wire mesh and found out its way in had been blocked. This guy was smaller that's why it was able to come in. So it was just hanging there, on top of sliding door for dear life, with face and body inside the mat and tail hanging out since it couldn't wingle itself further. It couldn't go out, it wouldn't come down and I wouldn't go near with its position above me.

 

Anyway it was near midnight, I was exhausted, and there was no way I was going to sleep with my bed just next to that door. There was no other room to go except very small kitchen that only had room for standing and toilet.

So I packed my newly changed bed sheet and everything else I had in the cupboard, grabbed my bag, called the cab and checked into hotel. Lucky I knew a nice enough affordable clean decent hotel and had a bit of cash. So when the day changed to my birthday I was holding a broom chasing a rat. But I did get myself a cake the next night although I ended up stranded in alternate temporary accomodation for another two weeks until they found me a new place.

 

 

Oh now I have to do that thing called work again!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh, are we doing worst-birthday stories?  OK, I got one.  Not as funny as yours, though.

 

This was back when computer hard disks were big, somewhat larger than a full-sized phonograph record (if anybody remembers those), and made of heavy metal with a magnetizable coating.  The removable ones were enclosed in heavy plastic cartridges.

 

I was carrying two of these monstrosities and my boss wanted to take one of them.  Problem was, he wanted the top one but I thought he wanted the bottom one, and in the confusion we dropped one.  It fell narrow side down, directly on my toe.  And I was wearing sandals.

 

It was my birthday, so my husband took me to dinner at our favorite restaurant.  I put my injured foot up on a spare chair to alleviate the throbbing, but even so it hurt like the dickens.  I wasn't really enjoying the meal, and ended up leaving early.  Some time later (a few weeks?) the toenail fell off, and then it took years to grow back.  But I guess you could say that I got a new toenail for my birthday.  Whee. 

 

 

[Pseudonym]

I've had my toenail fall off a few times but it always grew back fine, didn't take that long. Worst one was when a beer can fell out of a high fridge and the sticky out bit at the top landed edge down across my big toe on my bare foot. Blood everywhere, toenail came off a couple of days later. 

[Artemis]

Zoo exhibit always last longer or at least a month or two, you can still visit it,

 

Not this one, it was one weekend only.

 

 

[Artemis]

I've had a lot of depressing birthdays, but I can't recall anything really bad  happening on a birthday.

 

My worst birthday memory is probably my 15th or 16th, can't remember which.  My parents were divorced and I had been spending a couple days at my dad's.  He brought me back home to my mom's the night before my birthday, and when I showed up, my mom seemed angry and upset.  She said that she wasn't expecting me until the next day, and she had been planning a surprise party for me.  But since I arrived early, the surprise was "ruined", and the party therefore was cancelled.  She gave me the list of my classmates she said she had invited and told me I had to call them and let them know the party was cancelled.  It was too late to call them that night, so that's what I got to do on my birthday.  Worse, the people she had invited weren't even my friends (not that that was her fault; I didn't really have any).  The whole thing was just depressing and a little humiliating.

 

To this day I'm really not sure there ever was going to be a party.  When I asked my dad why he dropped me off early, he said he didn't know he wasn't supposed to because he hadn't known anything about it.  The people I called didn't seem to either, they just seemed confused.  My mom hadn't made any preparations, from what I could tell: She hadn't cleaned the house, bought any food, or put up any decorations.  So I don't really know what was going on there.  But in any case, I felt a bit crappy.

 

My 21st was another one of the worst.  No one remembered (which isn't unusual, but normally I'd at least get a message from my dad), and I was reduced to tears.  I had an online friend who said he would spend the evening with me after work, but I ended up having to work a little late.  When I got home and called him, he told me he'd had the opportunity to go out on a date with this girl he really liked, but he'd turned her down because he'd promised to spend time with me; and then I ended up working late anyway, so he wasted the night when he could have gone on the date.  He yelled at me for ruining his chances with her, and basically his life, and said a lot of hurtful things about how hard it was to be my friend and so on, and hung up on me.  (He turned out to be a horrible friend anyway, but at the time he was the only person I had to talk to, and what he said held weight.)

 

My 25th was a bad one too.  My brother broke up with his long-term girlfriend that day, and my mom had really liked her.  So I spent the entire day helping my brother move and listening to my mother cry on the phone.

 

Oh gosh, I'd better stop thinking about this because now all my bad birthday memories are resurfacing, lol.

 

 

[Pseudonym]

You have had the misfortune of knowing a hell of a lot of incredibly shitty people.

[Artemis]

Can't argue with that. 

 

 

[T.o.b.y]

I can't remember most of my birthdays. They were never a particularly big deal. When I was really young, my father used to set a little table like for a tea party and put my stuffed animals in the chairs.

I guess it was rather pathetic - his little daughter had no friends and so her only guests were her plushies - but I never saw it that way. I hated parties, especially children's birthday parties, and I was perfectly happy celebrating with my parents and toys. Besides, I did always have one or two real friends, they just weren't available because my birthday is during the holiday season and either we weren't at home or they weren't or both.

 

Can't remember any really bad ones. Fortunately. I probably deleted them.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I've had my toenail fall off a few times but it always grew back fine, didn't take that long. Worst one was when a beer can fell out of a high fridge and the sticky out bit at the top landed edge down across my big toe on my bare foot....

 

Yup, that seems to be what does it -- all the impact concentrated in one small area.  If that disk cartridge had landed flat side down instead of edge down, I'd have had nothing worse than a bruise -- unless of course it had gone a bit sideways into my shin.

[Van Buren Supernova]

:blanket: with the toe nails!!

@Carol I was afraid to read that 'you put your foot in spare chair', thinking it would lead to someone accidentally injured it more.

And Pseud, happened multiple times and grew back in no time? Wha.. are you Deadpool?

(I always fancy throwing annoying people my severed wrist with stiff middle finger and scar them for life after watching Deadpool)

 

I once had a rusty nail ripped open the front of my trekking shoes, right where the toes are, but magically my toes were fine, not sure how. It was an one and half inch V shape hole, and I'm still wearing that shoes.

 

Anyway, hehe.. when you guys.. eh..reactivated your toe.. did you say wiggle your big toe. :p Showing my age, alright, alright, nevermind.

 

Artemis, if it makes you feel better, my family don't remember my birthday as well. My mom does, but it's sometime belated, my dad, no, my siblings, nooooo.

My friends, less and less. I wouldn't even remember mine if I don't have it a day apart with him.

I never had birthday party, the most was cake from colleague. I only had one 'birthday' picture in my childhood where everyone; siblings, cousins even neighbor's kids, took picture with the same cake. The parents just changed the candles to indicate our ages, and half of the cake was made of styrofoam. And I didn't have soft toys, I made one using towel. For me, it didn't matter since it's never a big thing for me growing up, so I didn't miss it or feeling sad about it, or maybe it's also my wish not to care about too many things that I would miss once I don't have it. Nah, I think the first. But I get what you guys mean.

[Pseudonym]

Yup, sorry, no idea what the 'wiggle your big toe' is a reference to. 

 

I think the most painful thing I ever stood on was an upturned plug. My mother stood on a shattered milk bottle once and had all glass in her foot. 

[Van Buren Supernova]

I heard stepping on lego is painful.

My mom stepped on nail that was pointing upright, and blood was flowing like crazy. I still blame myself because I saw the nail earlier and didn't think it would be dangerous not to throw it away.

 

Wiggle your big toes is reference to Kill Bill movie, so it doesn't mean people would understand it too even if they are my age, if they haven't watched the movie. It was quite a well known phrase back then.

 

It's about the main character waking up from a long coma and found herself abandoned. She tries to regain the control of her body and starts with the toe.

[Arcadia]

 

I think the most painful thing I ever stood on was an upturned plug. 

 

Oh, yeah. That hurts all right.

 

I heard stepping on lego is painful.

 

Yes it is.

 

Try stepping on an upright needle some time, that's a charmer. Also cactus spines. You'd think I'd learn to wear shoes.....

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 1/17/2018 at 1:59 AM, Van Buren Supernova said:

.. when you guys.. eh..reactivated your toe.. did you say wiggle your big toe. Showing my age, alright, alright, nevermin

 

On 1/17/2018 at 4:58 AM, Pseudonym said:

Yup, sorry, no idea what the 'wiggle your big toe' is a reference to.

 

Me neither.  Could be a Guatemalan gang sign.  Or maybe an obscene Portuguese gesture.  I'm afraid to ask. 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I had a friend step on the narrow edge of a penny once and had it break skin on the bottom of her foot. Never would have thought that injury possible unless the penny ended up as a flying projectile at a fast enough speed.

[Artemis]

This discussion is making me cringe so much, especially since I am accident-prone, lol. I need to replace my slippers ASAP.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

How about this: last Friday I had a free night at a hotel (rewards points) & a free dinner. I checked into my hotel and decided on a nap as I was tired. Realized not long in that I had a fever to go with what I figured was a cold. Then I get a call from my dad (and later my sister) that my mom was having a severe Alzheimer's related psychosis and lashing out at dad. She ended up in a psych ward until we could find her a nursing home. Fast forward to Monday: johnspec sees his dad and while I'm hanging out at the coffee shop I end up having what turns out to be supraventricular tachycardia and give the EMTs that arrive the fastest heart rate of the year (230 bpm) thus far (will likely hold that record for awhile). It gets calmed down with some med and I end up at the ER (first time in an ambulance and remembered part way to the hospital that I don't do well traveling backwards in a moving vehicle. Shortly before midnight my brother (in town because of mom) picks me up from the hospital after dropping my sister off at my car. My heart rate is still slightly elevated for me but only by 5-15 bpm. Mom's in a care facility at least short term and I saw her today. I hope she gets into the place closer to my home (15 minutes away instead of 30) as it seems to have a better set up that more closely resembles where my aunt in Fargo lives. Was going to see a cousin but she Lao ended up getting sick with respiratory issues. I kind of want this week to be over as well as be done with this cold. I'd also like a consistent heart rate back around 72 bpm.

[T.o.b.y]

Oh dear, Camper, that's an awful lot to be dealing with at once! How are you holding up?

[Doe]

Happy birthday Artemis. Have a nice years... :)

[Pseudonym]

Wow Camper, rough week. Hope next week is better for you!

 

Artemis, make sure your new slippers don't have a moleskin sole. That's what made me fall down the stairs and almost break my leg last year. Stoopid stoopid slippers! 

 

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Oh dear, Camper, that's an awful lot to be dealing with at once! How are you holding up?

Wow Camper, rough week. Hope next week is better for you!

 

 

My parents had been helping with my finances and that ends effectively with the most recent credit card payment (aka when I pay it later today). And to add insult to injury, someone somehow has my cc number even though the card is in my possession and tried to do a sizable purchase in Michigan (depending on where, that is 2 or 4 states & a large lake away).