Soothing My Savage Beast

Added frustrations (taking the most circuitous route around town to get two errands run, two trips through the credit union's drive up window, no milk at the store) but a funny-ass observation while eating lunch, a nap, a nasty swipe at me via a text from someone I told I was badly in need of a friend today and would she be a friend to me (guess not, given the claws she ripped at me with), too many cigarettes and a long rain shower all somehow brought me back to center after my earlier post.

What a way to try to achieve a dream.

After seeking solace in as many forms of it as I could muster the energy, or interest in, I finally allowed a steaming cup of hot chocolate and an act of defiance to salvage the day for me. Granted, it took until the final hours of the day for it to all coalesce, but I did it. Without any help from any 'friend'.

My act of defiance was (besides being overstated): I took a bath in my brand new, never-been-used champagne bubble bathtub. I may not have moved into the house today, but I will tomorrow. That decision seems more defiant than taking a bath somehow.

I hate having a meltdown, but sometimes I just have to admit defeat and give in to one. Today was the day for it. And, while I'm OK with having let go of moving in today, I'm thinking I should've just gone ahead and done it since the rain started about 6 hours ago. And the winds, though they dropped off after only a couple of hours. Me and TTC in a long, soaking rain. How can I even THINK of experiencing 'weather' anywhere except in my dearly loved Tin Can? Phhhhuuucccckkk!

OK, so this is the price I pay for having a meltdown. It could be worse; the winds could still be kicking up.

The meltdown came from stewing over the installation of my two bathroom vanities. The guest bath's vanity (ain't that a hell of a concept?) was constructed and unable to be used in the guest bathroom due to oversights by the cabinet guys (like they forgot to allow room for a toilet.) Their idea was to use it as towel storage. Not for $360 am I going to do that! I had to pick up a pedestal sink last night after work to replace the custom vanity (which I have since cancelled and demanded a full refund.) I HATE pedestal sinks, by the way, too.

While that was festering, when I came home after hours of ordering lighting fixtures, getting the correct faucet handles (finally!) for the tub, and shopping at Lowe's, I see that the other custom vanity for the Master Bathroom had not been installed properly.

By not properly I mean that they hadn't completed the install (it needed some scribing and shimming done to allow it to fit in the Rex-i-fied {crooked} corner.) Their idea of anchoring the vanity to the wall included a 2 inch gap between the vanity back and the crooked wall with 2.5 inch screws broken off, drilled and redrilled and/or barely reaching the stucco wall, where big 1 inch-plus chunks of stucco had been popped out since that's not how you connect anything to a stucco wall and they kept repeating their mistake about a half dozen times, and using a level seems alien to the cabinet boys. This is not what I'm paying for.

So, my wall's messed up, the vanity isn't level, it's not scribed to fit (as promised), it's also not anchored and I'm supposed to be ok with this!?

Ah HELL no!

I called and ripped Randy a whole new orifice in a bodily location that he doesn't even know exists. I told him to fix it, credit me on the second vanity, do it by Monday and don't call me back with any fuckin' updates or I'd cancel the whole kitchen cabinet order, AND be fully refunded, their policy be damned.

What really torqued me is the eternal question I faced at CopyMax: If you have time to re-do a messed up order, why don't you have time to run the job right the first time? I remedied my work at CMAX so I didn't have to hear that logic anymore, but I'm trying to move into my house and not a frikkin' soul can do enough work, despite all the promises on their part and prompt payment of monies on my part, to meet one gawd-damned deadline! Never mind doing the job right the first time! Sure, they're going to make it right, it'll just take a week or so. HELLO!! I DON'T HAVE THE TIME ANYMORE!

The plumber is getting blasted next. He HAD to have the big chunk o'change two weeks ago to get the boiler and water heater right then so it could be installed and I could have hot water once I moved in. No frikkin' boiler yet, and the plumber was up here twice this week.

The electrician is REALLY going to get it from me--there's light switches that connect to nothing and lights that can only be shut off at the main panel. And there's no surround sound installed, like I reminded him of SIX times; the lighting in the house is nowhere near what the plans called for, so I have to get creative to accommodate for that.

Feeling my pain, y'all? And you all know I can bitch endlessly when I do finally decide to start bitching. And most of you have seen me mad; I KNOW you're glad you're nowhere near the state of NM right now. You each know that I'll calm down, too. And I have. But I'm still in an orifice-tearing mood.

Manana will find me at the storage facility getting out the three possessions I need: bed, washer and dryer. My friends Kenda and Sheila have offered to help me. As have Bea, Nancy and a handful more from work.

We'll get there. I'll get there. I DO have the best friends in the world, and I know which ones of you are seeing me through this, and which one didn't.