What is that bewitching scent that so greeteth my nostrils?

Icy Hot. I fucked my shoulder up bigtime doing god knows what. Plus the pain is radiating out from the original site and makes everything else ache because i'm holding myself in a goofy way. But truthfully? It's because i'm really really addicted to the menthol smell that permeates everything. I love being a dork. You see me coming down the road in my fugly glasses and camphor odor and people know to Stay Away. I kinda like that. Well, esp i like my glasses because they are so big. They're like little barriers that you can hide behind. I had contact lenses, but they make you feel so naked. People who wear glasses have this defenseless look on their faces that makes you worry that they'll walk into traffic or something. I like hiding behind things and shouting instructions to the troops.

Had a great big pagan gathering this weekend. Do you know what happy young virile pagans like to do on a Saturday night? Really? You sure you want to know the answer?

Okay, if you insist...we eat homemade lasanga and cake and drink spiced cider and work on jigsaw puzzles. It's all so nauseatingly wholesome! It felt so great to try and figure out all the pieces and listen to people talking and contribute but still have something to keep your mind busy. Puzzle pieces make the most satisfying snick sound when they go into place, then i'd tap them a couple of times like ha Ha HA! You have to get up a lot earlier in the day to beat me! And then when you're feeling particularly frustrated by the whole thing you give the double fisted finger salute when you finally get a piece to fit and then you realize it's time to take a small break from the madness and step out for a smoke.

And then i take the whole puzzle as a metaphor for life in that faux philosopher bullshit style of mine, esp when you get frustrated and insist that this piece should go here, so what if it doesn't fit? I can make it fit! See, if i just cram it in like so...

Another thing: never work on a puzzle with a member of Mensa. They want to create systems and organize all the pieces by color, nevermind that all the pieces are all varying shades of green and blue, then they try and further categorize the pieces by the types of swirly patterns and hints of other colors on the pieces, then even further down by the puzzle shapes, then they abandon the whole system in anger and insist over and over that there are pieces missing. Me, proud member of Densa. ;-D I'm addicted now-- i bought my own puzzle yesterday. i'll need cheap entertainment. Of course Sophie will bat all the pieces around and jump on the table where the puzzle is and scatter it, but who cares?

Being with Jody feels like stepping out of time and current events. The TV is up in the attic and doesn't get channels, the computer isn't on all the time, and the radio only plays CDs and tapes. Not that she's ignorant, not at all, but that she has a real gift to turn it off and listen to what's most important. She doesn't let fear take over her life. She processes, and of course worries, but then she moves on.

Hey-- i even made the Fucklist while i was away. Thanks, Knightchik (::high five::) for including both me and Vali in the bunch. I'll have you know that i'm a complete pig when it comes to sex. Just make sure that you get yours before i get mine otherwise i act like a total guy and fall asleep and then wake up with a pillow pressed to my face from a frustrated and angry sweetiepie. So basically i have to be nonselfish so i don't get killed.

The Word of the Day is:

Byzantine

Pronunciation: 'bi-z&n-"tEn, 'bI-, -"tIn; b&-'zan-", bI-'
Function: adjective
Date: 1794
1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of the ancient city of Byzantium
2 : of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a style of architecture developed in the Byzantine Empire especially in the 5th and 6th centuries featuring the dome carried on pendentives over a square and incrustation with marble veneering and with colored mosaics on grounds of gold
3 : of or relating to the churches using a traditional Greek rite and subject to Eastern canon law
4 often not capitalized a : of, relating to, or characterized by a devious and usually surreptitious manner of operation (a Byzantine power struggle) b : intricately involved : LABYRINTHINE (rules of Byzantine complexity)
5 the only way to describe the nutty process Mary has to go through in order to get out of the goddamn Army

Armed with a stack of 27 B-6s, i set off to get this three page form filled with all the places i need to go to so that i can get out. It's wacky! Go to this building, realize you've gone to the wrong one, go to the right one, realize you've gone to the wrong office, and so on. Endure the quizzical and sometimes patronizing looks of the people i'm supposed to get signatures from-- well geez guys, it's not like i get out of the Army every week and know what i need to do...it's kind of like the process i went through when i first got here. I didn't get my separate rations for six months until my NCOIC spotted the error, for example.

Copied my medical and dental records today. Your entire medical history for the last six years...it must've been the hypochondriac in me that paused on a couple of pages. Oh yeah, the time i had jock itch and poison ivy all over my body, wasn't that fun? well, i didn't have both at the same time, and certainly not jock itch all over my body- still, it takes you back, like a time machine...

Shut up, Jack Perkins!

Actually, the whole thing was pretty boring. I'm glad i wasn't creatively ill so that i didn't have to stay up all night copying.

This afternoon on my way to my wonton soup connection a guy leaned out of his window and yelled ala Rob Scheider YOU CAN DO EEEET! YOU CAN DO EEET ALL NITE LONG!!!

I'd like to think that i have this effect on men, but i know different. I think it was the fistful of change i'd shoved into my jeans that looked like, um, not change. He sees s'thing that looks like major schlongage and who wouldn't go nuts?

Frayzer, why was dat guy hollerin' at me like dat? ::giggle::

Lots of bitching, but really, life isn't as bad as i'm making it sound. I didn't have to take the PT test this morning, my shoulder's feeling better, i got a postcard each from Dine and Beatnikside, got mixtapes from Ragdoll, and got a wonderful surprise Harry Potter mix CD from Vali on Friday that had me squealing and slobbering when i first got it. I tell you, when life gets back to "normal" i'm burying myself in writing HP slash and never coming out.