Category Archives: Gripin’

Bitchy McDreadlocks

Posted on by
1

I just had the nicest conversation with a neighbor. Anyone who thinks civility and good manners are dead should meet my neighbor – who’s name I can only assume is Bitchy McDreadlocks – to be proved…… well……. totally and completely right.

I got home from work today a little after 5. Soon after, Emily and I noticed there was a dog locked in a car in the driveway next door. Howling. Intermittantly but persistantly. It howled for 4 more hours. We debated what to do. I went on a little recon mission and determined whose dog it wasn’t and that the doorbell for the owner was going unanswered.  So we debated some more and Emily finally decided to place a call in to our friendly neighborhood police force.

Like it couldn’t have been scheduled any better, as soon as she hung up, the owner (Bitchy McDreadlocks) came out to check on the dog; to walk and water it…….. and lock it right back in the car.

So I went out there.

Turns out I’m a huuuuge dick for daring to question her dog-rearing capabilities. Her friend got in a car accident, has a fucked up leg, is crashing on her couch, their dogs don’t get along, and have I no sympathy at all?

In truth, my side of the conversation was conducted in a calm, rational, polite-but-serious manner. Hers was conducted ina high pitched, flustered voice over her shoulder as she walked away from me. Of course, being me, I did sort of come a little unglued at the end. No yelling (as may have happened in the past) but as she mounted her stoop and muttered various curses under her breath, I let loose with a heavily sarcastic “Well it was sure reeeal nice talking with you.”

When we saw her out there with the dog (but before I talked to her) we gave her the benefit of the doubt and cancelled the call in to the police.

But now?

The dog’s still out there and the dog’s still howling and if it’s still howling when it’s time for bed, the cops are getting another call.

You’re god damn right they are.

I mean, she told me that I was crazy for asserting that a locked car was not an ideal place for a dog to spend the night.

In which I bitch about work and geek out over architecture…

Posted on by
2

I got kicked out of my office today. The reason: I had stayed to the unconscionably late hour of 5pm. Yes, I do work for the government.

This has never happened to me before. To be honest, my illustrious 9 year professional career can’t be totally characterized by diligence and initiative. But, of the times I’ve shown such positive traits (like, well, now) I’ve never had them countered with cross armed intransigence. You need me to leave because you need to lock the door? Rotate the knob ninety degrees and firmly pull shut; I think I can handle that – thanks.

Ok, yeah, the above comes across as whiny and petulant. That’s because it is whiny and petulant. I’m grateful to have an internship and I like the people I work with and think it will both be rewarding and look good on a resume. But still. I’m not good at acting like an intern. I’m thirty fucking one years old for the love of god. I know how to act in an office setting. I am a professional. And for the first time since entering grad school, I feel like a college student. And not in a good way.

The internship is a great opportunity and the overall goals are totally worthwhile and the people I’m surrounded by are as intelligent and professional as they are friendly. I just feel confined. And I don’t like it that much.

But talk to me again in a few days. Who knows, it all may be better. That’s the way my life rolls.

————————————-

In other news, nice try to both Jenn and Pete, but you are both sadly wrong. Although, two things….

Jenn, the library wasn’t a bad guess. It was designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, & White and is considered a great example of Renaissance-inspired design. And Pete, I didn’t even make the connection between the reflected building and the Bromo Seltzer Tower, but you’re totally right. It does look like it. An interesting side note is that the tower was a later addition to Boston’s Customs House that was built in the 1830’s-1840’s. The designer of the Customs House was a guy named Ammi. B. Young who also just happened to design Wheeler House, the home of UVM’s Historic Preservation Program.

No, my favorite building can be see to the left of the large glass tower. (is that the Hancock Building?) Trinity Church, designed by larger than life, debatably crazy, and my favorite architect – Henry Hobson Richardson. Nuance is a challenging word to throw around when talking about Richardson’s designs, but I will anyway because I’m pretentious. Trinity lacks some of the nuance of Richardson’s later designs, but it’s an unapologetic lacking. Trinity is massive, it is textured, and it is decorative. It is both fanciful and real at the same time. Richardson’s influence was such that he is considered the developer of the first true american architectural style – Richardsonian Romanesque. Instead of an adaptation of european styles, Richardsonian Romanesque was exported from the states and influenced tastes and designs in europe.

Anyway, I like the guy, I like the church, and I got to take a tour and see it from the observation deck of the Prudential Building. Lucky me.

Now it’s time for dinner where the pasta sauce will substitute soy crumbles for ground beef.

Lucky me? To be determined.

My foot hurts, can I go to the nurse?

Posted on by
1

Owwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!

Ow ow ow owwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m having something of a foot issue.

Yesterday I woke up and felt like someone had snuck in to the bedroom overnight and repeatedly banged on the ball of my right foot with a hammer while I slept. Incredibly painful to put too much pressure on my foot. Somehow I managed to hobble my way aropund campus yesterday and hoped that after a god night’s sleep, I’d be on the mend this morning.

Nope.

Hurts just as much if not more.

WebMD tells me I may have: a bunion, a pinched nerve, something involving metatarsals or whateverthehell, osteoarthritis, diabetes, or perhaps nothing at all. Thanks, WebMD. My money’s on a pinched nerve. I get them sometimes in my neck and this feels a little similar.

More than that, it’s a gigantic pain in the ass. (well, not literally.) It’s damn hard to get around when your feet hurt and I’m slow too. Grandma slow.

I really hope this starts to get better soon. I hate going to the doctor’s.

So, I’m trying to take it easy on my foot today. No getting crammed in to a shoe, and I’ keeping it as propped up as possible.

This sucks.