Categories
off topic open thread

Open Thread for Personal Stuff: April 2014 Edition

It's either a hug, or attempted murder. With cats, it's hard to tell.
It’s either a hug, or attempted murder. With cats, it’s hard to tell.

An open thread for personal stuff, continuing from here.

As usual for these threads: no trolls, no arguments.

210 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Ally S
10 years ago

Does anyone have any decent remedies for cold chills? I have really miserable cold chills right now due to some kind of flu-like sickness. I just took a hot shower and I still feel like I’m freezing. (I dried myself thoroughly as well, so I doubt it’s a consequence of being exposed to relatively colder air outside of the shower area.) All I know about my sickness is that it’s gotten much, much worse because of allergies, and I felt so fatigued and ill this morning that I couldn’t even help my step-dad and my brother plant trees. I also had a bad bloody nose this morning and and I couldn’t stop coughing last night. I can take care of my cough and my congestion easily, but cold chills are always hard for me to get rid of. I would be more tolerant of these chills if it weren’t for the memory of having severe cold chills during my case of bronchitis at age 15. (I almost felt like I was going to pass out.)

I’m asking here because this place has great suggestions for remedies in general. Any help or other forms of support would be appreciated.

cloudiah
10 years ago

Ally, I have you taken your temperature? I think chills usually come into play when your body temperature is elevated above 98.6F (or even more over 100.4). If you can tolerate aspirin or acetaminophen, that might help a bit. Even just putting a cool washcloth on your forehead is something I’ve found effective.

cloudiah
10 years ago

Oops, or warm washcloth. Got that backwards.

katz
10 years ago

I’m sorry you are feeling gross. The bugs are going around in May this year, for some reason.

neuroticbeagle
10 years ago

@emilygoddess

Is that the same case where the dumbass judge decided to sentence the offender to 150 hours of community service in a rape crisis center and the center said FUCK NO- he can do his service elsewhere?

grumpycatisagirl
10 years ago

OMG. I just read some of the reports about that judge. She thought sentencing him to community service at a rape crisis center was a good idea?

And the girl and the girl’s mother say she was never even pregnant. Not that should even be relevant. At all.

WTF are they getting judges from these days?

kittehserf
10 years ago

Well, I’m back from a great week in Chicago and LA, arrived today. But what a charming surprise to come home to – our damnable estate agents are doing their six-monthly inspection (aka “complete waste of time in which they say things like ‘that windowsill is dusty’ and don’t do anything about outstanding maintenance issues”) TOMORROW. Mum’s not up to the sort of cleaning we need to do before these things, so guess what I’ve been doing this afternoon and will be doing this evening?

I guess it’s one way of dealing with jet-lag.

Ally S
10 years ago

@cloudiah

Thanks, I’ll consider your suggestions next time I get cold chills. I just woke up from a night of constant tossing, turning, sniffling and coughing, but the end result I guess is that I no longer have cold chills (although for some reason I must have been chattering a lot last night because my entire jaw is sore). If I were allowed some rest and I didn’t carelessly consume so much dairy, my sickness would have abated much sooner. I almost completely avoided dairy yesterday, so my congestion is starting to go away, and I also have this humidifier in my room, which has been helping as well.

Rant:

I still feel extremely fatigued because over the past week or so I’ve been planting trees almost every day – about 110 total by the time I’m done. It’s difficult because the soil here is dry and clumpy, leaving the trees vulnerable to gaping holes in their bowls upon being watered. Anyone who’s planted trees before knows what I’m talking about. We also have to amend the holes with fertilizer, which for some reason makes my allergies go haywire.

Before all of this we had to use an auger to drill about 230 holes into the ground – and I’ve got to say, it’s fucking exhausting even when just moving the machine around. My body was completely drained of its energy after doing all of the drilling with my brother, but then the next day – with barely any sleep – we had to start planting trees. And with every subsequent day I’ve been getting a similar lack of rest, which is accumulating very easily.

On top of all of this labor, my brother likes to keep the window open all night, letting in all of the cold air. If I were sleeping on a bed, I wouldn’t mind as much, but I sleep on a small tent mattress that is about 2 inches thick and resting on linoleum tiles. So my sleeping area becomes nearly frigid after around midnight. Needless to say, that kind of sleeping arrangement makes my cold much worse. Last night, though, he was at least nice enough to not put the fan at the open window.

I’ve been wanting to sleep on the couch instead since the temperature down there is generally much milder, but my step-dad doesn’t want me to sleep there for literally no reason other than “It annoys me to see people sleeping on the couch in the early morning.” So until my brother leaves, I’m stuck with this terrible mattress.

/end of rant

kittehserf
10 years ago

Because it’s likely to get lost in the Domestic Violence thread, I’m posting the link here: LBT’s portrait of Louis!

http://lb-lee.deviantart.com/art/Louis-for-Kittehs-452724921

LBT
LBT
10 years ago

At this point, I almost feel like I should start claiming I’m the staff artist for Mammotheers or something! *laughs*

kittehserf
10 years ago

You and katz, definitely! 😀

Ally S
10 years ago

Last night, I wasn’t sure if my step-dad needed any help outside in the field, so I didn’t set an alarm. (Minor mistake, but my mom usually wakes me up pretty early regardless of alarms so it wasn’t a big deal, I think.)

At around 9 my mom woke me up and asked me to get ready to help out out (drink some coffee, change clothes, etc.) and right then I heard my step-dad yell “I CAN’T WORK WITH SOMEONE WHO’S ASLEEP”. I was awake and ready within 2 minutes (since I didn’t need any coffee) and then he started yelling about how lazy I am, how I’ve made so many “excuses” “every time” he asks me to work with him (like being extremely sick and fatigued), etc. He was yelling and swearing and anything. And a little before that he compared me to my little brother to express how uncooperative and unhelpful he thinks I am.

I feel really hurt by this. I don’t know what to do. Maybe he’ll even decide to kick me out of the house today. Maybe I deserve it.

Lea
Lea
10 years ago

You don’t deserve that, Ally.
He threw a nasty tantrum.
That’s on him.
It’s going to be OK.

Ally S
10 years ago

He also accused me of being too lazy to help him water the plants one day. The only time I ever refused to do watering for him was when there were some problems with the soil and I didn’t know how to water the plants without potentially damaging them. (It’s a lot to explain.) Maybe that was stupid of me, but I have almost zero experience with gardening, so it’s kind of expected. And even so, I did help him water the plants for a little while, and then I told him that he would be better suited for watering the plants and I’d be better suited for planting the trees – and he agreed. Apparently though this is a sign of my laziness, even though working in the sun while being congested, having very little sleep, and suffering from allergies is hardly something I’d do if I wanted to be lazy.

And he also accused me of waking up to help him at 9 AM only “ONE FUCKING TIME”. He either ignores or forgets the fact that for several days I woke up at 8 AM to help him and my brother dig 230 holes into the ground with an auger and plant nearly half that amount of trees (because my brother was planting as well).

I guess he’s right that I should wake up earlier to help him out because he is terrible at planning (he admits that himself). But usually it’s hard for me to get up early in the morning because I frequently am depressed when I wake up. (I suppose it’s not a very good excuse but sometimes it’s hard to get up when you feel like you’re worthless, pathetic, and doomed to a life of misery.) I also get very little sleep these days because my brother makes the room too damn cold and I sleep on the floor, where most of the cold air is. All of those are excuses, of course, but I wish my step-dad would at least think about those things first.

He’s so angry at me that he refused my offer to help him this morning. Even after I got ready as quickly as possible. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to make him happy. I need to get out of here.

Ally S
10 years ago

You don’t deserve that, Ally.
He threw a nasty tantrum.
That’s on him.
It’s going to be OK.

I wish it was going to be okay, but I think I need to get out of here soon now. My friends in the Bay Area are more than willing to let me stay at their place for a little while, and I’ll help pay rent. It hurts too much to be in this house now.

contrapangloss
contrapangloss
10 years ago

Random good news for the thread: I’m officially graduated, with double the B.S.! The last four years have been intense, but I survived.

Now, I have to find a job other than ‘full time student, part time math tutor, part time volunteer fire-rescue, part time high-school program volunteer’. Then, I have to figure out whether or not grad-school is a good idea.

kittehserf
10 years ago

::puts on party hat::

Congratulations, contrapangloss! That’s great news.

I had a little bit of good news this week: I’ve qualified for the carer’s allowance from Centrelink. It’s only $59 a week but every bit of money is welcome right now. Even better, they back-paid several months’ worth, so that’s a happy boost to the bank account.

I’ve also applied for a job – wish me luck.

bluecat
bluecat
10 years ago

Best of luck!

bluecat
bluecat
10 years ago

Well today I turn 54.

I’m as bald as an egg and a bit queasy from Round 3 of chemotherapy (only 3 more to go!) but I’ve been for a morning walk with the beloved, picked up pine cones to use as firelighters, looking at raindrops on irises and wistaria in the park, there’s a cat snoozing on my lap and just now there was a knock at the door and someone delivered a huge box of flowers.

Later today I’m going to spend some time in the 17th century.

kittehserf
10 years ago

Happy birthday, bluecat!

17th century?

::pricks up ears::

Which bit?

emilygoddess
emilygoddess
10 years ago

Congrats, contrapangloss! Does “twice the BS” mean this is your second bachelor’s?

Kittehs, keeping my fingers crossed for you! And for you, bluecat, I’ll cross my toes as well.

contrapangloss
contrapangloss
10 years ago

Happy Birthday, Bluecat! Party hats all around, methinks.

I’m crossing fingers, and hoping for your sucessful treatment, and many, many, days of pine-cone picking-up with your beloved, kitty snuggles, and pretty flowers.

Kittehs, good luck on the job!

Emilygoddess, just about! I actually went the ridiculous route and tried to earn both bachelor’s at once. I was coursewise done with one of them last fall, and finished the second this spring. For easier paperwork, though, we just delayed the applying for graduation to make both of them happen at once.

grumpycatisagirl
10 years ago

So I live on a busy street, and this morning as I was starting to drive to work I saw a cat that had been hit by a car. It looked like he was probably already dead but I pulled over to check it out. He was dead and such a horrible sight. The cat was wearing a collar with a tag with a name and phone number so I pulled out my cell phone to get the number down. Then a woman called out from another parked car that it was her cat; she wanted to save me the trouble of getting the phone number. She was upset and crying, of course. She said the man who hit the cat had called her about ten minutes prior.

So today all I can think about is how I would feel if that had been my cat, who is my best friend, or if I had been the one to hit someone’s cat. I know this happens all the time but it’s just so horrible to me and I feel angry at traffic and cars and roads. My cat is an indoor cat so this wouldn’t happen to us unless he got out by accident but . . . please keep your kitties safe, everyone. I also wanted to do something to help the woman, or send her something later to let her know she’s in my thoughts, but I don’t know how to reach her anymore . . .

Extra kitty hugs when I get home, fore sure.

grumpycatisagirl
10 years ago

Happy birthday, bluecat.

kittehserf
10 years ago

All the hugs, grumpycat. I’ve never forgotten the one cat I’ve seen that had been run over, so I can totally sympathise (maybe even empathise).

My kitties live indoors too. We’re in a dead-end street but some people still don’t slow down till they get to their driveways. I hate cars too.