cornerofmadness

There are only so many hits you can take in one day. Let me sum them up.

1. Starting at midnight I was getting nauseous. It woke me up at 3 AM. Luckily I didn't get sick and it was over by morning.

2. I drag myself to the BMV with the proper paperwork to get my real ID. No one is there and I'm like whoo hoo, gonna sail right through. And I did until I asked the question 'when can I expect this to be mailed to me?' (hoping 10 days because that's how long I have here) FORTY TWO DAYS. Are you fucking kidding me? As calmly as I can, I ask why wasn't that on the BMV's webpage that it takes almost 6 weeks to get a license? She looks at me puzzled. Why are you upset? You have a passport to get on a plane (as that is my form of ID). Um my driver license expires in a month? If I had known this I'd have shown up in April. Oh you can have this. She hands me a print out of my new id pic. I folded it up in my wallet thinking OMFG

So this means yes I DO have to come back here. This is non-forwardable mail (she even cautioned me, it looks like junk mail be sure to open it). Honestly I'm not that mad about it but it's a long way to go but there are things I want to do in Ohio (like Cosi's star Wars exhibit) and I DO feel better that it wouldn't have mattered if I had gone last week like I thought it might

3. I go to my coffee shop, try something new, Rose Cardamon matcha latte, pricey for very little but this was my reward for not setting the BMV on fire. It was a decent matcha latte. Zero cardamon. Zero rose and seriously how do you mess that up? Rose is a strong flavor and I'm a regular, if you're out of a house made flavor, just tell me that (sometimes they do, depends on the barista) So disappointing

4.Picked up two new mother's day plants (manager special) which is the good news for the day

5. CVS missed seeing one of my scripts (my wellbutrin, let's not forget my mental health pills dudes) now I have to go back tomorrow

6. Come home to get a letter telling me that because my ob/gyn oncologist is not a specialist in abdominal things they denied their request for the CT scan for my hernia because 'it's not in their field' (fuck insurance, seriously. You wanna play? Oh I'll play fuckwads. I can go right to a general surgeon but I'll make sure I get the PCP step in there just so you have to pay out more.)

7 Decide to check on my hotel reservation for the conference. Can I tell you how much I LOATHE these 'reservation call centers' that do groups of hotels? The automated system can't help me because they can't find my phone number (either of them) and I don't have my confirmation number (because my work email's search engine is broken and can't find it which is back in January or maybe even December) If you didn't use our service to make your reservation (I didn't because I went thru the HAPS site to get the conference block discount) you can't use us to find your reservation. Call the hotel.

Well, dumbasses, if the hotel's number came up when I googled the hotel I wouldn't have called your dumb asses. I change up my search and come up with the hotel's phone number (wrote that down) and call them. They can't find my reservation either (cue low key panic). She searches around oh are you at this email? Yes that's me and yes that's my cell phone. The problem was when I filled out HAPS reservation form it changed it from Dr Dana E to Doctor as my first name....the reservation is fine and I'm glad I talked to them because I got to ask where my handicapped backside needed to park (because I KNOW that area of Pittsburgh is shit for parking). You could literally hear her wince. You need to use our valet (because the parking garage is down the street a few blocks which I know) parking for 45$. Sold.

8. Rocket is sick, feverish and naturally tomorrow I can NOT take him to the vet because I have to go make sure I don't have an aneurysm in my skull or a brain tumor or something equally horrible. He was a little improved tonight. I naturally worried he'd get infected post operatively because of his FIV. Might be happening.


Did anything good happen? Maybe. On the second day of the conference (as I already threw my hat into the ring for another one on day one) is another sales pitch lunch with 100$ honorarium. Oh yes let me sign up for this one too. If I get them both, I don't have to worry about lunch at all this conference and I'll make 200$ in Amazon money (what can you do?)

Also at Kroger I found out Farm rich now has a mozzarella stick that has a center of Frank's redhot. This is how I die, yinz.

It's music monday. I'm doing songs from 2020-2025 and running the alphabet. I'm up to F let's hear your recs. Here are mine

[Bad username or unknown identity: F, the letter of this day, lemme tell you]

Actually not a lot of them.




I'm very lukewarm about Miley in general (I'm torn between a woman can do whatever she wants and the oversexualization of her stuff does no woman any good) I do like several of her songs though


And two from Abney Park. They love the story telling song and both of these are that.

Even more surprise snow (boy these people are so wrong) that brought a 2 hour delay (this is why I start at 10 AM spring semester)

We got a call from hospice. My uncle is entering the confused stage and they wanted someone to come be with him because it's probably not going to be much longer. Unfortunately everyone but my brother has covid and can't go. (they do not want me to come back. There is not going to be a funeral, probably a celebration of life this summer) Again as terrible as it might sound, I do hope it IS only a few more days. His quality of life is gone. I hate thinking of anyone lingering in a bed, not even control of bowels and bladder. This is not life. My brother has a much stronger belief in an afterlife than I do (I struggle with the concept of paradise but I'm glad at least one of us does not) so I think we're all in the process of letting go.

This is hard. And for me just the beginning when you think about the fact that most of my family is older than me and most of them 75 +

In better news I got my toilet and new floor. YAY. And it's a HIGH toilet, double yay. My old one I swear was 2 inches off the damn floor and everyone struggled to get up from it. This one you barely need to squat. I'm in love with that. The floor is that fake wood stuff that's become popular. It looks great BUT it's much darker.

Then the guy texts and said I didn't realize there was no base trim so I didn't bring that. I'll have to come back. You didn't know? I stood there one day one and pointed it out loudly.


they moved my monthly writers' sprint meet up to Discord. I didn't know this because someone didn't read the newsletter (whistles innocently) until about a half hour before it started. I've been trying to get back into my old discord for almost 2 years. No dice. No password I've ever used works. It will not email or text when you tell it to so I made a new one. I had totally forgotten how to do sprints when I used to do them ALL the time. I am not pleased to have discord back but I will admit it is good for this and we had a great turn out. I wrote a lot.

unlike yesterday, I'm completely symptomatic with the chest pressure that I am still sure is that hiatal hernia. Why couldn't have it done this yesterday? My leg was very symptomatic today too.

I was worried that I'd get a clean up the excess nonsense in your place or get out notice but I'm 100% sure they weren't even IN my apartment today but that's because they were fixing that leak. I'll be honest I was afraid to sleep in my bed last night because the water was flowing so hard (and I was a bit afraid I'd be down there with it because there is 20 years of various water damage to the wood and the ground under it). I nearly slept on the couch because the living room is sturdier and quieter. I didn't though.

It is fixed so I texted to ask when do they think they'll be back for the toilet. The landlord thought that was already done. Side eyes everyone.

I didn't get into the Chuck Palahniuk anthology but that's okay. I didn't expect to but I had to try. I am also lucky because a friend of mine winged another anthology with the exact same theme so I'm sending this in for that.

Also here's me with tears welling up because Cyndi Lauper is going on her farewell tour. I can't tell you how much I loved her in college, how much I kinda wanted to be her (would have helped if I could sing) I should check to see if she's coming anywhere near me. It would be worth the ticket price....seems to be not in America and a lot of the money of the tour is going to girls just want to have FUNdamental rights

So yesterday I spent the day cleaning. And cleaning. And then I found where the mouse was hiding all the cat food it stole...behind my pantry bins. ARGH. I haven't caught him. Rocket hasn't caught him. I haven't heard or seen him in a while but yeah all the food was lined up along the wall. So. Gross.

The landlord was coming today to fix the toilet. I had to get up at 800AM for this and my brain does NOT like if I have to wake up earlier than usual (I work at ten so I get up around 20 after 8) so for that twenty minutes difference (and I'm usually up at 8 before the alarm) my brain keeps me up half the night going, what if you oversleep. Are you KIDDING me? It's 20 frakking minutes chill.

I'm up. I'm waiting. and waiting and I see them in the parking lot doing a hot water tank replacement then they leave. I text them wtf? They don't respond but they come back 20 minutes later and he has gotten my text about how the former landlord never finished the bathroom (my floor is all peeled up as a result) and i think the floorboards are wet and it's leaking into the crawl space because the sump pump keeps coming on. He asks how old is that toilet. I've been here 20 years this august and it was there 1 year longer (as I moved in 1 year after these were built)

Long story short, they are coming back tomorrow or wednesday when I'm NOT here. I'm not keen about this but however he makes sense. They probably going to pull up the flooring and replace the toilet. this is going to take hours and there will be no other bathroom available.

10 minutes later I put soap on my hands and...there's no water. OMFG WHY I call the county water. they don't know. I go out to the car to go to work and see the landlord's people are working in the waterways of this place. Okay you were in my house like just a second ago why wouldn't you say hey we're shutting off the water for a bit to do work.

I spoke to a coworker with a dexcom and hers doesn't bug her. I said mine won't last 10 days, be surprised if it'll last tonight (only 6 days) sure enough my bra strap hit it when I was taking it off and it popped off. FFS.

I came home and I got a book. I don't remember putting in for this one at Goodreads as it's an anthology and I don't usually go for those. Maybe? weird. there was no paperwork in there other than william morris publishing. Okay then

Something new for music monday. When I asked for new themes, cmk418 suggested songs with animals in the titles. I liked that one so let's start with Dogs.

( Bow wow )

It started a couple days ago when mom found my pink and white striped socks hidden under my bed back home. I must have dropped them doing laundry.

Then mom called and said I found that tiny glass jar you got at Christmas and I was so happy. You see, when I came down last thursday, I moved stuff from the car with my wagon and on a return trip to the car I saw a small jewelry box upside down in the snow. It was the one that contained that glass jar. silvrethorn had gathered bits of the holy/cool sites they saw in Scotland and put them in that jar. I was heartbroken. I couldn't see where in the snow it sank (no holes) I thought it must have rolled into a drift and I'd never recover it until the melt and it would be too late for something that delicate. So yes it had fallen out of the bag but it was under my closet door back home.

Then my SiL emails me with a picture. Is THIS the charm you lost last summer? Yes it was! I had lost my Hunter/Willow charm when I was housesitting for them in June. I thought it had fallen off in Leonardo's coffee shop. I'd even gone back to look for it there but instead it had fallen into my brother's recliner.

Today was annoying AF but it had a bright lining I'll deal with that last. I have to get that two in 1 washer. It's getting too hard to walk my laundry to the laundromat in the ice. I also nearly fell on the lake of ice in front of the dumpster (betting I'm canceling on monday)

I had received an email from Express Scripts (the online pharmacy Med Mutual insists I use) you must approve the charge because it's over 500$ but when you follow the link my only option was to cancel the med. Blood boiling, I try their chat (because I like to keep record of the idiocy I'm told during these things) but after a half hour it told me to go away and try again another day. Okay then. I call instead. The person who answered is obviously doing this out of their house and she puts me on hold and then eventually it hangs up.

I'm now ripping and I call again a little later. I get a much more helpful woman (not answering from home I don't think) The problem isn't the cost. It's because it's a 30 day RX instead of a 90 day and they can't be sure my insurance will okay that. Now I go off (but remain calm on the phone. It's not her fault) excuse me, but that 30 day supply was just fucking fine in December (when my insurance would have basically paid two months if I had gotten the 90 day supply that otherwise wouldn't be cover). I was forced to get that 90 day one if you recall but then they filled the 30 day.

I said how can it be good one month when they have to pay but when I have to pay must I get the 90 day supply? If I have to do that I won't be getting it because it's 1800$. Once I said that shockingly I was allowed to get 30 days (let's see if it happens)

By the time I fought all through this, it was late before I put together my computer. The monitor was harder than I thought. Had to find my Phillips screwdriver but it's together. It works. I need to download Microsoft office from work (I get work deals i.e. free) but microsoft insisted I didn't know my password but got it fixed. Then my social media doesn't think I know my password and I'm sitting there with my laptop copying the password and it goes 'you changed that a year ago.' oh no I fucking didn't. screw this I'll deal with it tomorrow.

Put out those mouse traps. One doesn't work. Like at all. You can barely get it to set and the moment it touches a surface it goes off. Where is that Walmart receipt?




But that bright lining? Check the next post! I decided not to put it in the whining post

it's been a day. My uncle has been rehospitalized after falling at home. Mostly he's been noncompliant and has fallen multiple times and now has so much fluid around his brain he needs to have it tapped. Not even sure he'll survive that. His home is two stories with the main house up and the apartment below with a will-kill-you-if-you're-not=careful staircase in between. He keeps going up and down in spite of being on a walker and it's like OMFG why?

In the meantime in somewhat better news we went to visit my favorite older gen cousin who (sigh) has been put in senior living because she has the beginnings of dementia and is a fall risk (she put herself there willingly unlike my uncle who is refusing to go to one)

It was a very nice visit. A puppy tried to eat my necklace and a resident wouldn't stop hugging me (He's a 66 y.o. with down syndrome among other things, barely verbal) My cousin warned me he loves hugging and so he did. A lot. Me, mom, dad, my cousin.

And then it was a nightmare are the pharmacy when my insurance did it again, refused to cover a med they have been covering all year. It doesn't work that well (Januvia) and was 550$. I'm like keep it. I'm not even going to bother with switching it. I'll talk to my endocrinologist and just have her d/c it for me. And somehow I'm out of toujego refills

This will be the OMFG of today because most of this day sucked.

2:00 AM - just ready to go to bed when I hear something that sounds like it's on the roof in my closet/the attic. Never find it.

5:00 AM - my aunt calls. We think my uncle (with the brain cancer) must be dying because we all wake up to the phone telling us they're calling but by the time anyone picks up it's gone to message and she's calling to tell mom happy birthday. (This is the aunt who swears there is nothing wrong with her and refuses all help and her kids SHOULD be putting her in a home because she has dementia but they refuse to admit it)

8:00 AM we all give up on going back to sleep

9:00 AM a cousin calls to tell us her sister's husband was just diagnosed with lymphoma.

1 pm my aunt calls back this time it IS my uncle. He refused to go into hospice but he's also refusing to do anything to help himself and he's getting weaker (he's trying to watch his diet...for what?) Dad goes down, sees he's not as bad as my aunt was making out. Comes back up and gets me and a walker (because the home sent him home with just a cane and he's getting too weak for that) I show him how to a) stand up when you're too weak to raise straight up (i.e. me half the time) b) use the walker. By the time we left he was up and in the kitchen. Also told him if he didn't stay in the house on the first floor (no garage, no outside, no going to the basement, no going to the apartment) I'd be back to kick his ass. He WILL fall if he tries.

Also Aunt claims she never called at 5 AM.

An hour later my brother and his wife arrive for dinner. Things got better then...

Yelp getting there just as the con opened worked. Of course I pulled into the furthest parking lot attached to the convention center (was I walking from home? Felt like it) but I crossed the con and got registered instantly and was then shunted into a line to...I had no idea (exhibition hall as it turned out so 45 minutes of standing there as my back is absolutely wrecking me.

This is literally the biggest exhibition room I've ever been in. Don't get me wrong I've been here before with Ohayacon before they went insane (illegal and mostly shut down) but they never had THIS much of it opened. I'm in heaven. While I was standing in line I alternated reading with calling Mom. 'Don't you spend money like it's monopoly money!' MooooooooM I'm nearly 60 years old. If I want to spend like a drunken sailor I will.

And I did. Holy crap. Do I need more Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel pins and keychains? Fuck no. Do I have them? Damn right. Do I have walls for more art? Fuck No. Did I buy wall art, tell me how was I supposed to pass up a 3-D art piece that is Cherri/Angel/Pentious in one view, Husk/Niffty/Alastor in another AND Charlie/Lucifer/vaggie in a third?

Bought fudge. They're from Pittsburgh. Now we're going there to get more fudge. I met up with my BFF from college and her child who was the one who wanted to come so bad. They dressed as Mimsy and Angel Dust. (I was Edalyn Clawthorne in her PJS)

That brings me to something I've noticed in the last year. It's only been a year since The Owl House has gone off air (well year and a half) and it's GONE from the dealers rooms. Now part of that is probably fear of Disney hunting them down and punishing them but I've noticed now more than ever fandoms fade FAST. Since Hazbin and Helluva Boss are hot there is stuff everyone. Very little anime was represented. pokemon was. Odd.

I only got to two panels, Thomas Lennon from Reno 911 (not that I planned on it but my friend was there because they went to the twilight panel (hard pass) and got front row seats and never left because after Thomas was the Hazbin Hotel cast panel which I wanted to go to as well. I was in the back and the Hazbin one was filling up so fast that I said leave me in the back. No doing. She came and dragged me to the front row (BtW Thomas was hysterical) and I'm glad she did. The cast was so much fun. The fans asking questions a wee bit less so. We're pressed for time just ask ONE question, no extraneous stuff. Everyone had extraneous stuff. Everyone is this is my first con thanks to Hazbin. Made me sad I wasn't in line to ask a question. 'hi I'm Dana this is my 38th year at cosplaying at cons....'

still the questions were fun and the cast was fun. Might even be in a picture. Certainly Alex Brightman has my face on his camera (hiya Beetlejuice!). Alex, Blake and Amir were absolutely hysterical and did the bulk of the answering. Lilli Cooper coming in a close second. Sam Haft (the man behind the music) was there, all shaky excited to see if Hazbin wins in the Billboard awards this week.

SO. MUCH. Hazbin cosplay. I'm sorry my Rosie isn't ready but someone (I didn't catch her dang it) cosplayed Susan which is SUCH a bit part but I'm glad someone did her. In many ways she's my spirit animal. Honestly get me a fox (fake) stole and a hat and I could use my eda outfit to play Susan. Here's susan (and the lady in red is Rosie who I want to cosplay)

.3

Someone I talked up everywhere. She crocheted her ENTIRE Fizzarolli outfit. It was stunning. (Pictures tomorrow. I am so very tired)

My friend's kid wanted to do the Hazbin Hotel group photo. We were too early so we did what she wanted: the pro wrestling they had going on. Things you might not know about me, I was crazy for WWF wrestling as a teen. Yes I knew it was fake and today I learned it looks even MORE fake in person. These were C lister wrestlers dressing up as superheroes to fake it out. I got to see Deadpool taking on Syndrome and Wreck It Ralph. Ghost Face and Captain Kirk went mano a mano (Kirk won) and how geeky are we all hearing like two seconds of music with 'Get Over Here!' imposed on it for all of us to scream as one 'SCORPION!' (Mortal Kombat) who duked it out with several others I can't even remember. and lastly there was a battle royale with the women, Rogue, Spidergirl (Gwen) Domino, Poison Ivy and someone with 1930s music and what might be a baseball outfit (Lucy?) that I didn't know. (Ivy won)

We were going to go to the Hazbin singalong but it was PACKED in a hot tiny room and it was now 630 so I said I'm out. good call because soon my knee did give out. If I do this again I'll get the attached hotel so I can go and rest as needed. The only panel I didn't go to that I might have wanted to was George takai's but I've seen him before.

My barista back home was performing music here. Said hello. He's probably wondering who is that old crazy woman.

the only bad note (other than my pain) was I was directed to the wrong elevator to the parking lot (I KNEW I hadn't seen that Starbucks on the way up) Luckily someone knew that I needed to cross the parking garage and bingo there was my car.

Came to the casino, had burnt ends at Brew Brothers. I should have gotten the ala cart sides (but didn't want to pay that for freaking beans or fries) because those burnt ends were basically an appetizer. Sigh. I wanted more but I left, went back to the same slot machine, doubled my money again, went back to Guy's place for an appetizer to top off that tiny meal. Calamari frito miso. Worth every damn penny (I did pass on their 14$ cannoli) they even thinly sliced lemons and deep fried them too and gave me the juiciest charred lemon to squeeze all over that yummy yummy calamari. Mmmm tentacles.

Now I'm in the hotel with my leg and back suing me for divorce. Still all in all a great day.



Advent Joy

Write down something positive that happened today. Ha my ENTIRE post is this

No tea today. I'll drink that tisane tomorrow evening

You couldn't find a place to park in Jackson and my coffee house went from no one but me and a few others to people stacking up three deep along the walls waiting for orders. My parents ran into the same thing outside Pittsburgh to Mom's side of the family early Thanksgiving dinner that I missed and it was excessive in food and people so I can't be too mad I missed it.

On the way home I found Schmidt's Sausage Haus' food truck in Jackson. WOO HOO. It's one of the best restaurants (the main one in Germanvillage in Columbus) gimme that saur kraut and onion smothered frankfurter and a cream puff the size of my fist. That'll be 15$? take my money.


I did get some book shuffling done. What I need more than anything is room for one more bookcase or two in this place and it would look 100% better in here.

And I wrote this for comment_fic today. It's fluffy and hopefully fun.

Title: Another Sun That’s Brighter Still

Summary: Hell has frozen over and Husk and Angel are caught out in it. Husk, however, has plans to get nice, warm and snuggly.

Rating: teen

Author Note - Written for cozy_coffee in comment fic for the prompt Any, any, fuzzy and fluffy socks in winter and for the lyrical titles challenge for the prompt of folk song using the Italian folk song Ole Sole Mio sung here by Luciano Pavarotti & Bryan Adams. You can find the song here. It was also written for the allbingo prompt of slippers.

( story up at the link above or under here )


And here's a fun fandom meme I got from trobadora and shipperslist. Can't promise I'd give you these same 5 shows if you asked me tomorrow. I tried to give you a slice from the last 40 odd years

Rules: pick your five favourite TV shows (in no particular order) and answer the following questions. Don't cheat!
1. Star Trek: The Next Generation
2. The X-Files
3. Prodigal Son
4. Emergency!
5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

( questions and answers under here )

I got through the final file box today but in it was a) my medical licenses b) all my malpractice stuff c) my first teaching job's pay scale paperwork d) the source of my worst few years of life e) the lawsuit over my hand.

a) I'm keeping my licenses because I can't give them up (I mean yes they're expired but I want to keep them)

b) outside of a few pieces just in case, I put the malpractice in the shredder

c) This is why I will ALWAYS be against adjuncts because it's such a horrible exploitive system that benefits no one, not the students, not the adjunct, no one but the budget. I was paid 2950$ for 16 weeks of work (about 4K today) not per month. That was four months worth of money. You're reading it right. In 2004 I was being paid 740$ a month. I would have been homeless or living in a dorm if not for a friend who let me stay. My parents paid for my medical insurance and I was lucky to have that

d) Starting in 2004 I was no longer going back to school post injury and I am now responsible for my medical school loans plus all the new grad school loans. Needless to say no one cared I was making 700$ a month. As bad as student loans are now, they were worse 20 years ago. (You should see what's in the shredder pile for the last few days of ALL the bullshit I used to have to do to get an income based repayment. Now I just have to let them see my IRS filing) Eventually I was sued by one of them which in a way was good. The federal court saw my 700$ income and laughed them out of court. Eventually when I got the job I have now I was hit with a 500/month lien on my income which was doable.

But there was default paperwork coming daily. For each and every loan (over 6 years of schooling) so I would have a half dozen each week (not to mention all the calls on my answering machine) It got to the point I couldn't even open the letters. They all said the same thing anyhow. I wouldn't leave my office because if I came home I'd see them and have more panic attacks. When I was still in WI (making that 700$) I was nearly instituionalized over the severe impact on my mental health. In the first few years here in OH (especially 2004-2007) it was bad. they would call and threaten me, literally threaten me (I mean they DID send the police after me when I was in WI to serve a warrant on me for nonpayment before they sued me)

Finally they came up with the income based repayment plan (which they didn't have in the beginning) they'd threaten me with 'you can only have this for a year or two which was bullshit since 20 years later I still have this).

So finding all this paperwork still opened was HARD today. I had to open them all up so what could go in the recycler went there and what needs to be shredded/burned when in that pile.

e) my lawsuit. If you work with your hands or your back (nurses, looking at you) check your state's worker's comp. I didn't know that WI would only pay 10% of my salary for a hand even though I was a frakking surgeon. No lawyer would take my case because it would pay too little. Finally found a desperate small town one who did. got 2K for my career ending injury. I will never be over this. That grief, that loss doesn't heal.

so yeah it's been a rough day, made even rougher because someone trashed the washing machines here so I had to go to Jackson and use their much more expensive ones. Sigh.

So yeah if you have cute pet pics hit me up.

My only good news is I DID send in a story to an open call. I doubt it will get in (they were pretty clear they wanted things closer to the low end of their word count range but there was no way to get that story down to 3K, it is what it is).

Oh and I asked the library to get Lackadaisy. We'll see what happens

What I Just Finished Reading:

Who Cries from the Lost - C.S. Harris. Love this series. This was good

What I am Currently Reading:

Lies on the Serpent's tongue - sequel to Bittersweet in the Hollow (so very Appalachian and oddly the protagonist in this can tell lies just like in Twisted Shadows only she tastes them) it's an arc

Nightshade by John Saul. The library had a bunch of horror out for the season so I grabbed some




What I Plan to Read Next: more library horror