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A big step forward in responsibility...
2 years ago
General
I haven't brought it up here yet, but all of last week and early this week, me and my brother were able to prove ourselves even more responsible and adult than before, in practice for when we eventually get our own place. You see, our parents went on a Norwegian Cruise to Alaska with a couple of their friends, and they were gone for a whopping ten days! That's the longest me and my brother have been home without them, and so this really gave us an excellent opportunity to practice living on our own together. And we managed to succeed, making our parents very proud.
First off, Friday September 8th, our parents left very later into the night and early morning at 3 AM, to go with said friends to Logan Airport and fly to Seattle, Washington, where they would board their ship the next day. So when my brother and I woke up that morning, our parents had already left, so it was just us in having breakfast and leaving for work. (Autumn began that Wednesday, meaning my brother is working at the local high school as a paraprofessional, and I'm still getting in a good amount of work at that electronics recycling/reselling company.) In advance, our parents left us simple notes on how we should feed the family dog and give her her proper medicine at the right times, how to run the dishwasher, and the phone numbers to contact a couple of our aunts just in case of an emergency. Me and my brother even compiled a little meal schedule so we'd know what to prepare for dinner on certain days they were out; we'd go shopping and pick up stuff like dry spaghetti, chicken pot pies, chicken cutlets, frozen vegetables, and other stuff we've learned to cook so far.
I did feel a lot more adult, coming home from work when it was just me and my brother. But in some ways, it was also a little more work compared to when our parents are around. At night before going to bed, we'd make sure all the doors are locked, the lights out through most of the house, the front porch light on, and the fans or air conditioners off if applicable. The dishwasher we only had to run maybe four times during that ten-day period, as since it was just us, the dirty dishes took longer to fill the dishwasher compared to when the whole family is home each evening. On the night before trash collection day that week, I only had to empty out a few of the trash recepticles in the house (the kitchen, the main bathroom, and me and my brother's bedrooms), and all of it amounted to be enough to fit in our black city trash barrel; no need to use a city trash bag for extra rubbish! Though I suspect that once my brother and I have our own apartment, it will be slightly easier to do all that compared to our parents' house.
And of course, there was caring for our dog, but that wasn't so hard; on Wednesday the 13th, since I didn't have work that day (more on that in a bit), I took her with me to Dunkies so I can have my iced coffee and we can split a plain donut! (They were out of plain Munchkin donut holes like they usually give dogs.) She enjoyed that.
Now for the reason why I had that Wednesday off. Since late July, the keyboard on my M1 MacBook Air began acting funny, with a few keys requiring they be pressed a bunch of times to register a keystroke. At one point I even tried to clean one of the keys myself, but that just made it worse, with one key now often causing false positives! For some time, I could get by using the MacBook Air in clamshell/desktop mode, but that pretty much defeated the purpose of it being a laptop! Plus, it could be risky for the battery. It would be nice to work with the big screen, though. For a while I also got by with using a small Apple Magic Keyboard hooked up via Bluetooth and the Karabiner-Elements open-source utility that disables the built-in keyboard when an external one is in use.
This month I set up an appointment with the Apple Store at the South Shore Plaza mall in Braintree for that Wednesday morning, and I went there and had it dropped off. Initially they warned me it could come to around $450 and estimated it'd be ready by Monday. During the time it was being repaired I managed to also get by with my older Mac laptops, even using my 2012 unibody 13" MacBook Pro as a bit of a fun throwback at one point! Ultimately, the MacBook Air was ready for pickup only three days later, on Saturday the 16th! AND it only came to $362, with tax! So I was pretty pleased with how it came out.
But now I am still in a bit of a financial pickle, with this MacBook repair. Since I'm going to Furpocalypse in late October, and the hotel stay will be close to $700... but right now I'm more than halfway up to the intended goal on my GoFundMe fundraiser I set up for my fellow online followers to help me. If you want to donate a bit (you can even donate more than once), it'd be greatly appreciated. Every little bit helps!
https://gofund.me/53d3af6a
And there you have it! Despite the financial issue right now, me and my brother took a big step forward in getting a taste of independence and full adulthood. And when our parents returned from their vacation, they were so pleased by our job well done, and were also pleasantly surprised by the cake my brother got for us to celebrate their return!
First off, Friday September 8th, our parents left very later into the night and early morning at 3 AM, to go with said friends to Logan Airport and fly to Seattle, Washington, where they would board their ship the next day. So when my brother and I woke up that morning, our parents had already left, so it was just us in having breakfast and leaving for work. (Autumn began that Wednesday, meaning my brother is working at the local high school as a paraprofessional, and I'm still getting in a good amount of work at that electronics recycling/reselling company.) In advance, our parents left us simple notes on how we should feed the family dog and give her her proper medicine at the right times, how to run the dishwasher, and the phone numbers to contact a couple of our aunts just in case of an emergency. Me and my brother even compiled a little meal schedule so we'd know what to prepare for dinner on certain days they were out; we'd go shopping and pick up stuff like dry spaghetti, chicken pot pies, chicken cutlets, frozen vegetables, and other stuff we've learned to cook so far.
I did feel a lot more adult, coming home from work when it was just me and my brother. But in some ways, it was also a little more work compared to when our parents are around. At night before going to bed, we'd make sure all the doors are locked, the lights out through most of the house, the front porch light on, and the fans or air conditioners off if applicable. The dishwasher we only had to run maybe four times during that ten-day period, as since it was just us, the dirty dishes took longer to fill the dishwasher compared to when the whole family is home each evening. On the night before trash collection day that week, I only had to empty out a few of the trash recepticles in the house (the kitchen, the main bathroom, and me and my brother's bedrooms), and all of it amounted to be enough to fit in our black city trash barrel; no need to use a city trash bag for extra rubbish! Though I suspect that once my brother and I have our own apartment, it will be slightly easier to do all that compared to our parents' house.
And of course, there was caring for our dog, but that wasn't so hard; on Wednesday the 13th, since I didn't have work that day (more on that in a bit), I took her with me to Dunkies so I can have my iced coffee and we can split a plain donut! (They were out of plain Munchkin donut holes like they usually give dogs.) She enjoyed that.
Now for the reason why I had that Wednesday off. Since late July, the keyboard on my M1 MacBook Air began acting funny, with a few keys requiring they be pressed a bunch of times to register a keystroke. At one point I even tried to clean one of the keys myself, but that just made it worse, with one key now often causing false positives! For some time, I could get by using the MacBook Air in clamshell/desktop mode, but that pretty much defeated the purpose of it being a laptop! Plus, it could be risky for the battery. It would be nice to work with the big screen, though. For a while I also got by with using a small Apple Magic Keyboard hooked up via Bluetooth and the Karabiner-Elements open-source utility that disables the built-in keyboard when an external one is in use.
This month I set up an appointment with the Apple Store at the South Shore Plaza mall in Braintree for that Wednesday morning, and I went there and had it dropped off. Initially they warned me it could come to around $450 and estimated it'd be ready by Monday. During the time it was being repaired I managed to also get by with my older Mac laptops, even using my 2012 unibody 13" MacBook Pro as a bit of a fun throwback at one point! Ultimately, the MacBook Air was ready for pickup only three days later, on Saturday the 16th! AND it only came to $362, with tax! So I was pretty pleased with how it came out.
But now I am still in a bit of a financial pickle, with this MacBook repair. Since I'm going to Furpocalypse in late October, and the hotel stay will be close to $700... but right now I'm more than halfway up to the intended goal on my GoFundMe fundraiser I set up for my fellow online followers to help me. If you want to donate a bit (you can even donate more than once), it'd be greatly appreciated. Every little bit helps!
https://gofund.me/53d3af6a
And there you have it! Despite the financial issue right now, me and my brother took a big step forward in getting a taste of independence and full adulthood. And when our parents returned from their vacation, they were so pleased by our job well done, and were also pleasantly surprised by the cake my brother got for us to celebrate their return!
