Well, it’s been awhile. I just got wi-fi about 15 minutes ago after three months of back-and-forth with AT&T about it. The apartment complex tells all residents they can choose either Spectrum or AT&T. We chose AT&T back in April, only to be told that they hadn’t insulated their cables, and had instead stapled them directly to 2x4s. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, ours was severed during construction, and we were told we would have to go with Spectrum.
I called Spectrum, but their prices were ass, and the guy on the phone was not throwing enticing deals my way. Irritated, I could only think things like, ‘Why do we have to pay more for someone else’s mistake?’ and ‘Why doesn’t anyone want to do things the right way?’ I decided to triple down, insist AT&T throw in some consolation prizes, and pointed out that they were essentially saying that no one in this unit would ever get to have AT&T, despite this being offered as a selling point for the apartment. AT&T proceded to slapfight with the apartment for a few weeks, as they apparently argued over whose fault it was and whose responsibility it was to fix it.
After reaching no satisfactory conclusion and much, much prompting, they finally just did the damn thing today. They had to go into the unit below ours to cut into the ceiling, and kept saying this intrusiveness is why they didn’t want to do it sooner. But no one lived in that unit back in April, which was when we actually wanted it fixed. Absurd! Maybe if you just fixed your fuck-ups, or better yet, did things properly the first time around, we wouldn’t be here. The least you can do is not guilt trip me about it. It won’t work!
Oh, well. I’m just glad we have it now. Welcome home, Silence of the LAN. Just ate a celebratory nectarine and poured a glass of bourbon. Over the last few weeks, I have gone to the club house/communal room in the apartment office, which is actually very nice. It’s always stocked with snacks and beverages, it has a Keurig with assorted pods, has very comfortable and varied seating arrangemenents, games, a little diffuser that spits out some lovely aroma every 30 minutes, and nice ambience. Better still, literally no one ever goes there. The only downside is that it’s only open from 10-5 on Monday - Saturday. On Sundays, I would sometimes sneak into the 24 hour gym if I really needed wi-fi. The front desk lady took a liking to me, and also seemed to feel very bad about my circumstances. She would sometimes allow me to stay longer, and we usually made small talk at closing time. She says she hopes I’ll still visit sometimes even after the wi-fi situation is addressed. I want to say I will, but…we’ll see.
Less thrillingly, I was just using the wi-fi to get in job applications. I had to make a PDF portfolio recently, and that was pretty stressful, especially because my Adobe applications realized they were pirated and started yelling at me. I cast outbound Firewall rule and all was well, but it wasn’t fun to deal with on a time crunch! I also am not a fan of how fucking long it takes for them to get back to you. Do you want me or not. I can’t remember it always being this annoying? Maybe I just used to have other things to fill the space with.
Let’s see, in other news…oh, my grandparents really did drive up here with a ridiculously huge moving truck in tow. My beautiful neutral greens Japandi vision = dead. Living room pic for proof.
My grandmother was also dropping less-than-subtle hints that she’s ready for me to get a husband. Many objects she left were announced to be “for my husband” (not me, I guess?), such as a giant custom clock she had made in Europe for my reclusive uncle who never married, a dish set of (admittedly very nice) Seokchon Loko porcelain, some Swarovski crystals, and Korean comforter sets. It might be for the best she’s going to South Korea, because I think if she were to discover my attraction to women, she’d throw herself off my balcony. Last time I made a passing joke about liking women back in 2016, she fell to the ground, clutched at her chest where her heart is, and said she was having demonic visions. Sorry, Grandma.
That said, she does care a lot about me. She always has. It was interesting seeing her. I know it’ll be one of the last times I’ll get to see her. She kept insisting I move to Korea, too. Said Americans who learn Korean can get good jobs. I think I really will miss her. The reality of it hasn’t hit yet. She left a ridiculous amount of homemade gochujang made with peppers from her garden (the best gochujang on earth, objectively), a huge jug of homemade bean paste, and four different types of kimchi, including a bagged jar of sour kimchi for stews. She also brought me a big bag of put-gochu (my favorite since I was literally three years old) from her garden and a giant bin of individually shrink-wrapped rice cakes to freeze and reheat when I want a snack (they’re very good).
I’ve always been impressed with how good she is at making things. I think I’ve never noticed before that she’s very meticulous. Many of the things she makes herself, she does to be frugal, or because she thinks she can do it better and cheaper. She’s a good problem solver, and does clever things like hand-sewing leather pillowcases to prevent moisture from cloying to pillows. I couldn’t help but think that maybe I got some of that mentality from her, and that it’s a trait surely worth being proud of. I also thought it was interesting that she takes such good care of her material objects. She kept telling me it isn’t worth buying something if you don’t like it enough to take care of it. This is a trait I generally do not have, as I sort of hate owning things. Too much effort for a girl who moves all the damn time…!
Well, house is reasonably well-stocked now. I’m planning to move out for good in a year or so, and then all this furniture will no longer be my problem…then, then my minimalist home living vision will become real. At least, I hope so. I can’t do this anymore. I’m like if a control freak had no control over anything.
On the bright side, all this Korean food has meant I have eaten Korean food every single day for weeks now. I have made yukgaejang, dakbokkeumtang, mayak eggs, kimchi stew, incredible amounts of sigeumchi namul, fancy Shin Ramyun, and tonight will be buldak chicken. Yippee!! I really do like to cook. The only problem is I keep having to freeze stuff because I make way too much for just one person. And now there’s hardly any kimchi left…Guess I’ll have to scope out the local markets for when I get a car (SOON…) But anyways, I love soup. As you can see here. My grandma always made fun of me even when I was young for being like an old lady. I just love soup.
Alright, final piece of news (and sorry for making the most exciting bit the last)…drumroll, please. Nutmeg has been spayed!! We’d already been hoping to get it done, but it felt more imminently necessary because she’d clearly started going into heat, which was causing all sorts of problems with Caramel and also attracting a bunch of ne’er-do-well tomcats. Butterscotch was very distraught by this development, and my mom has complained that she’s constantly spraying him with a water hose to punish him for fighting every strange cat that arrives on our property and peeing everywhere (with malice). She called him a xenophobe, lmao. I say he’s doing a good thing. Keep it up! What the hell is wrong with those cats?! Crema was the worst culprit. Our neighbor told us she’d seen them together many times. I think he should go to jail.
But, anyways, with Nutmeg being so small and likely unprepared for delivery, on top of the extremely grim track record for kittens on our street, I urged my mom to take her, at least. I called around different clinics in the areas to get quotes and worked out the day, and my mom conditioned her to come every day in the morning so it’d be easy to bring her. My father was profoundly unhappy with our conspiracy and thought it was flat-out unethical of us to “violate her reproductive rights,” so my mom simply did it alone. She called me in the car and I could hear Nutmeg meowing her little head off in protest. Reminded me a lot of Gaia. She also hated the car…
At the vet hospital (the one that helped us with Gaia, easily our most positive experience), they said she had fleas, which makes me think all the cats must have fleas…Sigh. But they said that her bloodwork was actually really good (yay!) and that she seemed to be in good health.
My brother has been taking care of her since. None of us really put much thought into what the aftercare would entail, and so we were all a bit taken aback by the prospect of keeping her inside for a whole week to monitor her incision. Especially because she was absolutely furious her first night back. My brother called me at 3AM panicking because she was screeching at the door and demanding to be released. I told him to take her doped up ass back to bed and wait it out.
Sure enough, she has gotten very acclimated to the indoors. It’s officially day nine post-op today, and she basically just follows my brother around wherever he goes and sleeps on his bed. He says that he generally wakes up with her next to him. She also finally learned how to use the litter box after a few…incidents. She doesn’t like it, but I told my mom we could try pine chips or add a bit of dirt on top to see if that’s more acceptable to her.
My brother lets Licorice and Caramel in fromt time to time, but apparently Nutmeg doesn’t like to see Caramel. She still gets along with Coco, though. I’m just a bit surprised she’s functionally become an indoor kitty in that time. I thought it’d be harder. The first few days, Licorice would stare at her through the window. My mom said he was staging a break-out.
At first, I felt bad about not being there because it’s been so much work to take care of her, but now I think it was for the best. My brother has stepped up quite a lot, and he’s bonded with her so much that he doesn’t want to leave without her. My mom, too, is now pretty dead-set on bringing her when they both leave the island. My dad is staunchly opposed and has put his foot down in refusing this request, but my mom seems to be ready to do it anyways.
Really, in my ideal world, we’d bring Licorice, too. I think they’d both acclimate better if they were together. But, it looks like I won’t be able to bring him for at least another year. Ugh. I’m pushing hard for Nutmeg, though, because she seems to be the most likely candidate to bring over. If it ends up just being her, well, I’ll find a way to deal with it. I’ll just have to trust my father will take good care of Coco for the next year until I can move out. Then, no one will be able to stop me from throwing that little guy in a bag and bringing him. I just hope everything will work out.
Here are all the pictures my mother and brother have sent me over the “Nutmeg gets spayed” arc.
And here is a bonus picture of Caramel’s supervised visitation.
Alrighty, now to re-download Genshin. Vel valiantly rolled for Furina in my stead while I was internet-less, even going so far as to play that crazy Abyss to get me primos. And she did, in fact, come home. My laptop still wants to kill itself at least 10 times a day, but it gets a lot more tolerable when I tell myself that I will soon have a job, and buy a new one. Soon, soon…patience, patience…