Showing posts with label Failure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Failure. Show all posts

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Murphy

It is 1am and I am awake trying to clean up the damage Typhoon Muifa has done to my home. Around 10:30 last night I noticed water seeping into my home. A LOT of water.


I was able to keep the water somewhat contained with the help of literally every towel I own, and puppy pads. I knew we would be stuck in the house for a while with the typhoon, so I got a bag of them to keep my floors clean since I didn't want my dog to become a kite in that weather. She went almost a full 24 hours without even going to the bathroom at all though before I ended up braving the storm so she could relieve herself since she just did not want anything to do with those puppy pads. It's nice that they didn't go to waste.


The next 48 hours...the worst 48 hours of my life...played out on facebook as slowly, but surely everything that could go wrong did:



aww man, my house is flooding!!
Friday at 10:21pm · Privacy: ·  · 


omg I want to cry. the flooding is getting soooooo bad
Friday at 11:10pm · Privacy: ·  · 

I've been confined to my house for over 24 hours. My posts may start to get a little loopy.
Yesterday at 1:09am · Privacy: ·  · 

So much water in my house right now. So. Much. Water. Going as fast as I can soaking up water with my little carpet shampooer, but as soon as I empty the tank the floor is soaked again. Staying up all night to make sure 'Brian Raney's computer doesn't get any water damage. Thank goodness I rearranged the living room earlier so the tv and game systems aren't soaked!
23 hours ago · Privacy: ·  · 

Because someday I will need a laugh #reasonsthebiggeststormeveriso​ccuringrightnowwhileiamalonewi​thnoonetohelpmopupthefloodedca​rpet
23 hours ago · Privacy: ·  · 

Great, now my ceiling is leaking?!
21 hours ago · Privacy: ·  · 

‎41 inches of rain, and I'm pretty sure all of that is in my living room
12 hours ago · Privacy: ·  · 

A/C not working :(
12 hours ago · Privacy: ·  · 

Think I got my floors about as dry as I am going to get them. Carpet is bubbling like the ceiling :( My a/c is definitely not working right now. Stuck at 76 degrees in here.
10 hours ago · Privacy: ·  · 

It is 80 degrees in my house right now. Why is this happening???
about an hour ago · Privacy: ·  · 
Yes, on top of water damage to my house the air conditioner just decided to stop working. It is currently 80 degrees in my house. A very humid 80 degrees. There is moisture everywhere. My books and papers are all rippling. My blinds are starting to bend up at the bottom. My floors and walls are drenched. And the best part of all: I can do absolutely nothing about any of this right now! Maintenance is currently only putting in work orders for emergencies, and apparently this does not qualify for emergency status. It's like the middle class dilema- You don't make enough to afford the things you need, but you make too much to qualify for any type of assistance. My house was damaged, just not enough to get any help for another 2 days. And by then I'm sure there will be mold everywhere.

I am so happy Brian will finally be home soon.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Baby Raney #3

Some of you may recall my letter to dear old Aunt Flo from a while back, and I must have upset her back then. My how she can hold a grudge, because she won't be showing up anymore (for at least the next 35 weeks anyway). I was really not ready to announce it to the world yet. REALLY not ready. But Brian is pretty excited about it, so he told the world. And now everyone will know. Might as well write about it.

This was a huge shock/surprise, and I'm a little embarrassed to be completely honest. Feeling a little dumb as well. Can someone please tell me how I passed Anatomy & Physiology with an A last semester, when I don't even know that you get pregnant the week after your period and not the week before? I had forgotten to put in my nuvaring, and Brian just happened to come home on what I later found out was my most fertile day of the month. I thought "no biggie, just had my period. We are good to go!" Then 2 weeks and 4 days of waiting for "Flo" my boobs started to get a little perkier, my legs started cramping, and I started to feel the groin pain from the end of the last pregnancy. I thought I better test.

I had a test from the last time, and it must have just been too old because the digital hourglass flashed for about 2 minutes and then the test just turned off. I thought I was just being paranoid anyway, so instead of running to the shoppette, I went about my bid-ness and eventually went to bed telling myself to stop worrying/googling pregnancy symptoms on my iphone (I have found no matter how many times you get pregnant, you will still end up googling everything about pregnancy until the day your child is born).

The next day I went and bought another box with 2 tests, and thought about buying tampons too just in case but they didn't have the ones I wanted. So I checked out with the box of tests and a carton of milk. I took the first test as soon as I got home. Another error. These tests hate me, and I'm out of pee. So I waited a few hours, assumed I couldn't really even be pregnant since I wasn't running to the bathroom every 5 minutes, took the test anyway, hung around for a while expecting another error message or "Not Pregnant" to show up in the results window, picked up the test when I noticed the hour glass stopped flashing, and dropped it immediately as I hit my hand to my chest and gasped. Then I just kept saying "oh man" over and over and over and over. I picked up the test and read it again. I looked at that test at least 5 times to make sure I was reading it right, then I rubbed my eyes and read it again. I looked as close as I could for the faintest appearance of the word "Not" But there it was, clear as day: "Pregnant" in digital copy. Later I took a test at the hospital just to be sure, and they confirmed it. I even half expected them to tell me the result was negative. I had really thought I was just being paranoid. This was quite unexpected.

The shock is still there, and I don't think my mind has really accepted it yet. Three kids is a lot to dwell on. And the more I dwell on it, the more I get this hunch that it's twins. I'm really really really hoping THAT is just me being paranoid.

I wasn't ready to announce it because I didn't really want people to say anything negative to or about it. I wasn't ready for the obvious and inevitable "you know how that happens, right?" comments. I wasn't even ready to hear "congratulations" yet. I'm still processing it. It's unplanned, and just under 5 weeks in, and there is always the big possibility of miscarriage this early. So you won't see anything about it on my facebook status, at least not for a while. The 5 people that read my blog can get an inside look at how I'm feeling. And I'll get excited enough to post on the bump blog every now and then I'm sure, although not nearly as often as before considering I'm already extremely busy with 2 kids and the photo business. Which reminds me, I will have to figure out a way to incorporate the new kid's (or kids') name(s) in the business. Maybe a special photo package or promotion.

ps: After all this I'd still use nuvaring. I know everyone with an unplanned pregnancy was on it, but this was totally my bad. I loved it as a birth control option.

Friday, March 19, 2010

all aboard the coupon train

I think I do coupons all wrong. I'm part of a coupon train with some friends, and after my first shopping trip I decided I am horrible at using them. I saved a total of around $17, which would have been great, except for the fact that I never buy any of the stuff I used a coupon for. For example, I saved $1 on two boxes of granola bars. They both cost close to $3. So for the $1 I saved, I spent about $5 that I normally wouldn't have. I saved 75 cents on a $5 box of frozen pizza. I never buy frozen pizza either. I save so much more money when I don't use coupons!

There were also things that I do buy, but using the coupon for them didn't necessarily save me any money. For example, I needed peanut butter. The brand of peanut butter that the coupon was for was more expensive than the brands I usually buy. And the peanut butter is awful, so I feel like it was an even bigger waste.

I think I might give up on coupons :(

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Mop>Swiffer

If I were a cleaning product, I imagine I would be some form of Swiffer. I mean well and have all the best of intentions, but I just seem to fall short. And this is what I contemplated during my cleaning extravaganza today, after purchasing a mop because Swiffer just doesn't cut it.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Boys Will Be...

I have a kitten and a two year old. I thought it was a well known fact that kittens and two year olds are, by nature, curious creatures. I must be wrong.

You see, when you leave a soda can on the table (and the computer desk, and the counter, and anywhere else but the recycle box which has been conveniently located in hopes that soda cans might make it to their proper resting place) the kitten is likely to knock it over. And the two year old, upon finding a half full can of soda, is likely to attempt to drink the soda from the can. Although she is sometimes a skilled out-of-the-can drinker, more often than not she will spill it all over herself and the carpet and whatever electronics happen to be lying around on the floor (because of course, if you can't take a soda can to the recycle box, why would you pick up your headphones off the ground and place them on the desk you are already sitting at?)

And as for the Oatmeal Cream Pies being left out in the open, well now you are just trying to make my life more difficult. The two year old has a sweet tooth and a temper. She will attempt to eat the whole box of Oatmeal Cream Pies. And when I attempt to put an end to her sugar-overdose, a sugar-high-induced tantrum takes place. A tantrum which might never have occurred had she never seen the box of Oatmeal Cream Pies or had half a can of Mountain Dew.

Friday, October 17, 2008

The Discrimination of Guinness

For years now I have been planning on claiming a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for most elbow licks in 1 minute. I figured it would be a fairly simple gain since licking your elbow is supposed to be impossible (although I do know one person other than me who can do it as well). So I logged onto the website to find out how. I was imagining simple fame. I decided, even if I never go back to school and graduate with multiple degrees in law and medicine my family can still be proud of me. I might never cure cancer, but I could set a world record.

I went through all the trouble of filling out my information (wondered if the site was legit as there were many words misspelled, then realized Guinness is based in London and figured they must spell more words than "colour" different) and verified my email address to register with the site.

The next step was to a page asking "is it a record?" where I would decide that my proposed record was based on the fact that I "possess a unique talent or are the only person to be able to do something." Upon clicking that link, I was brought to this:

All our world records are based on a quantifiable element, such as speed, length, monetary value, etc. However, uniqueness is not something that can be quantified and for this reason having a unique talent is not in itself a record. However, if your talent is interesting or exciting and can be easily quantified in some way, we may consider it for recognition in a new world record category.

Similarly, the fact that you are the only person to do something, or to have done something, is not a record in itself. A record is, by definition, an achievement that can be exceeded or broken. However, if you are the only person who is able to do something it is impossible for someone else to challenge (i.e. break) your achievement.


Examples of proposals we do not accept:
Elbow licking
Staring at the sun
Double jointed fingers


Wouldn't that be the case? So now I will never cure cancer, and I will never set a world record recognized by Guinness for most elbow licks. I'm a big fat failure.