Sauna Season

I mentioned in my last post here that this is the time of year that apparently at least some Omaha people refer to as "sauna season." They call it that because stepping outside feels like you're walking into a sauna. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think that as well -- the humidity here is terrible, or at least it has been this past week. In Kansas, I never had to deal with humidity that much in the summers. Yes, the summer did reach 110-115 sometimes, but it was a dry heat for the most part -- and after it gets above 100, it's too hot to notice it getting any hotter anyhow.

Here? Hell, it's only been in the high 80s this week, and anytime I've been outside I've felt like I'm going to drown while breathing. I remember the heat in Omaha last summer too, on my visits up here to Daisy's parents' place, but it'll effect me much more now -- if I want to smoke, I do it outside on the balcony and nowhere else. I will say, though, that as far as I could see on the lease yesterday when I (finally) signed it, there's nothing in the lease that says you can't smoke in the building. I'm not going to, of course -- I actually like having white walls and not having my clothing and cats smell like smoke all the time -- I just found it interesting. My overall point is that whether I want to or not, wherever I end up working and no matter what I end up doing, I'm going to be outside a lot, both in the cold winters and the hot summers.

Since moving up here (I've lived here now, officially, for a week) my allergies are different than they were in Kansas. Yes, I still have allergies, though I think being out of my dust-and-smoke-filled house in Newton has helped them out quite a bit. The weather patterns here, however, are very different than those of Kansas. It reminds me of when I moved to Kansas from Missouri, and the adjustment time I needed then. Moving up here basically hit the reset button on my allergies, and now they have to recalibrate themselves. The off-and-on rain and storms we've had nearly every day since moving in hasn't helped that a lot, either, as each time a new front moves through, it wrecks my sinuses anew.

As for everything else?

I'm having an incredibly hard time sleeping. As in, at all. It's been many years since I've lived in a building with other people around me. And other people -- especially their children -- make noise. At all hours of the day and night. It's not that they have yelling matches or blast music, no. It's just noise in general -- people walking back and forth above us, people walking up and down the halls, people opening and closing doors, running water, going up and down the stairs. It freaks out the cats as well, especially as they're not used to hearing anyone but me. They're getting used to it, though, and are paying it no mind more and more by the day -- but me? People walking above us or entering the hallway from the big metal door situated in the building directly behind our bed will wake me up. Once it gets light outside in the mornings, as our bedroom window faces east toward the rising sun, I wake up because even with the blinds down and shut tightly, it's still too bright.

Once I'm awake, I'm awake. I can't do anything about it. I've been averaging about three or four hours of sleep -- at the most -- every night since moving in here. Last night I slept for about two hours before Daisy came home, at 4AM, from finishing packing/cleaning her room at her parents' house, and the noise woke me up. As you may recall, Daisy works night shifts. 4AM is her afternoon. The same is not true for me. I've been continually exhausted, my back has been screaming at me (because unless I get real, comfortable, and restful sleep, it will just continually hurt) and I'm completely burnt-out. I have no energy left for most tasks, not even with the amount of coffee I've been drinking just to keep myself upright. Daisy, because she's been packing and cleaning out her old room, was awake for almost two days straight -- she slept a little while yesterday morning before we went over to the clubhouse so I could sign the lease and other paperwork for this place -- but she is now able to sleep.


This afternoon, we went to get the marriage license (after she and I both slept, of course) and I found out that Parker can't make it to the wedding. At all. As Parker was the financing and transportation for basically the entire bachelor party, this threw basically everything we'd planned into upheaval. Parker doesn't drink, so he was going to be the designated driver for all of us. Parker was also basically in charge of taking care of the organization of and the paying for things, as he'd alluded to the fact that the "bachelor party" was basically his contribution to the wedding, the wedding gift, etc etc.

He has his reasons, of course, and I understand and accept them, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not somewhat bitter and a little angry, frustrated, and disappointed. On short notice it's not exactly the easiest thing in the world to reconcile for, or make alternate plans for. I have no money to plan and finance the night out with the members of my groom's party who will be here; I'd planned for that to be taken care of, and to help out if necessary where necessary, but after the move I am basically broke until I get a job or until wedding money starts pouring in -- if it does. All of the cash I have to my name now is already spoken for when it comes to bills I will have to pay, bills that will come in from my last month of living in Newton. I paid the electric bill and $300 of my Discover bill yesterday (the latter taking me almost back to where I was before we rented the truck and moved up here), and I've still got the last water bill and my Citi Card bill which will come in soon as well, not to mention the new cable bill which arrived in the mail here today. So, while Daisy and I sort out all of our finances for utilities and wedding costs, both of us are basically broke.

On the plus side, we got on automatic payments at a fixed rate for the electric bill, which waives the huge "turn the lights on" deposit, and we've already paid the rent for June (we did that yesterday when I signed the lease).

People are slowly filtering into town for the wedding; one of Daisy's cousins is already here, and Rae arrives tonight. She's probably in town now as I type this, actually. My parents are already halfway here, having stopped in Illinois for the night. Everyone else arrives either tomorrow during the day/evening or on Friday. April and her husband are doing an in-and-out sort of affair, only being here basically for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself, and Jane gets here sometime on Friday. For the most part, everything is coming together. It's just a lot of work and a lot of hectic stuff to do all at once.