Oh New York. New York is kicking my ass.

There have been some good things, don't get me wrong. lilostitch and n0thingman were in town this past weekend, and we spend the Fourth just generally roaming about. Also, I've been able to hang out with aaronbenedict repeatedly, whether running errands or having a lovely lunch in Manhattan. And I got an random phone call from kenselig, who saw one of my gowalla updates and wondered if I was nearby.

And then last night ...

I should backtrack and say that, while the day I arrived was 77° and lovely, the last few days have been like an oven. 96°. 98°. The high I saw this afternoon was 102°.

My cats were less than happy to begin with, what with having their lives uprooted and all, but last night was downright brutal. The sun came down and the cats came out ... panting, lethargic, and not being agreeable to me putting water on them or offering them cooling packs to snuggle up with. So off to the emergency vet we went.

Two minutes after we walked into the arctic, air conditioned lobby, they were fine. They sent us into an exam room, where we waited and waited. And while we waited and waited, I cried and cried.

My friend Alice called. She said the same thing to me that aaronbenedict had essentially said earlier in the day: that she moved here a long time ago from a much smaller city, that she was really scared and overwhelmed at first, but that eventually she got the hang of it.

They left us sit in the exam room until 11:30 pm, and while the (young, cute, Jewish) doctor was apologetic, I told him that really it was fine -- the longer the boys could stay in the air conditioning, the better.

We left at around 12:30 am. I was truly alarmed at how fucking HOT it was outside at midnight. That's just not right.

So bright and early this morning, I went to buy an air conditioner. It was a comedy of errors, to say the least. The one that aaronbenedict had reserved for me wasn't reserved at all, but their computer still said they had 5 in stock only -- whoops -- no they didn't. So I got a different one and paid some dude named Ricky to deliver it. Long story short: I can't use it in the tiny room I wanted to use it in, so I have it in the giant room, where it's less than effective, to say the least. I've moved the cats in here though, since, at 93°, it is by far the coolest room in the apartment.

When I was finally able to relax enough to take a bath, I missed a number of calls, including two from sillylilboi. He was calling to tell me that my grandmother died this morning.

The funeral is on Thursday, in Pittsburgh. I don't think I'm going to go, mainly because I'm too scared to leave the cats unsupervised in this heat.

To say I'm freaking out would be a serious understatement.

tl;dr: My life asploded and now it's set on simmer.