one of our heads is destined for tinfoil

At 8 o'clock I left to pick up Khrissi the Cat from her Big Girl surgery to drive her back to her dad. I've never met a cat who made *no sound at all ever* going to and from the clinic. Maybe she's deaf?

Then I was dropping off spay/neuter transport fliers at my old job, hoping to spread the word. I chatted a bit with everyone and was made very aware of the dangers of false nostalgia as I really really missed the place and everyone who worked there. I still miss them.

Next I go to other town over to get trained on a Meals on Wheels route. My trainer is a great lady. She was kind, and funny, and likes to listen to Christian talk radio at sounds of 11, and asked if my husband and I had any children. Did I mention she was funny?

Then I go to work and magically find almost every book I was asked to look for. Ever had that feeling you've seen a book on the shelf with your mind's eye even when the rest of you hasn't been able to locate it, so you keep checking the shelf, and around it, and viola! I even found a missing Spanish video for kids that was put in the wrong VHS box. I should play the lottery.

But the coolest, the bestest thing ever, was a 15-minute phone interview with Lois Gibbs for an article I'm writing. For me it was like being able to talk to Lincoln, or God, or Sarah Waters, or Joyce Carol Oates, or maybe all 4 in a hastily-conceived genetic experiment in Roger Corman's lab. I did my best to keep it together and to do all the fangirl squeeing on the phone to Vali. *pant pant*

It was like, for 13 hours, I got to live the life of a politician or something. I even got to provide aid and comfort (in the form of tissues to mop up copious tears and snot) to a toddler who decided to take a flying leap out of his chair and land on his head. Poor kid, his head was already ginormous and this won't help.

I think it's as good a time as any to say I'm going to take a wee break from the online journaling for a while. I'm not sad, or disappearing --hardly, on Twitter you can't get me to shut up-- it's just that I've got a lot of stuff that I'm thinking about and doing, and right now because I'm busy I don't usually comment on people's entries and I'm not really involved in that way, so hen I do summon the courage write it sounds like I'm grandstanding. It embarrasses me, but this is really how I'm muddling along day to day.

So I'll be around in the comments, but I'm officially giving myself a vacation from something I feel I "should" do. That way I'll enjoy it more when or if I come back to it.

...went to the nurse practitioner about an infected cat bite. (After violetisblue yelled at me to go to the damn doctor's already. Write to her and tell her how mean she is to me.) Not our cat, but an incredible simulation. I was trying to brush this ginorous bit of matted fur out of her back and for a while she gamely tolerated it, but after a few minutes it really started to hurt her and she started to bite and claw, then she chomped me good when I had to give up and put her back in her cage. Skip to the end, I'm on antibiotics, the shelter brought out their professional groomer volunteer to take a whack at her, and violetisblue has instituted a 72-hour rule about cuts, bites, and scratches. Again, the horrible treatment, I protest. I think Harriet will be a wonderful pet once this mat is no longer giving her any grief.

...my computer stopped working. We're not sure if it's the motherboard or a backlight or fairy dust, but you all missed a really immature hissy fit. Tech support gave me a couple of things to try tonight to see if I can awaken the sleeping giant. Until then? I'm not even distraught (most of my really important stuff is in journals, LJ scrapbook or Google docs), just miffed. My stuff!

...watched our newly acquired Little Mosque on the Prairie DVD. It's so gosh-darn earnest! Baber and Fatima rock our socks. What does it say about violetisblue and me and our favorite characters are the hard-core Muslims? We're just squiffy about characters with the courage of their convictions. And I think it was good of the creators to take the bold step of not showing Amaar get rendered into oblivion when he makes the mistake of saying something dodgy-not-really at the airport. I think the emotion I'm trying to describe is "wistful false nostalgia."

Last Friday I threw a dinner party at our house. I do this every solar eclipse or so, and each time I’m reminded of why I shouldn’t do it again. And then time passes and I forget and the whole vicious cycle repeats itself. Not to get into all the reasons why the evening was Fail (I’m a nervous and anxious person by nature and I worry so much that people aren’t having a good time that I torpedo the whole evening), but here goes: I don’t understand my heterosexual women friends on a fundamental level. Sure, write fanfic about them, pay them to cut your lawn, whatever, but men seem like a lot of work for not a lot of return. Or as the Hobgoblins MSTing line goes– “If you just let go they’ll fall over.”

And then to top it off I got some poison ivy on myself that night and rubbed it all over Vali, who always suffers more than I do with the urushiol than I do. In spite of all this she hasn’t asked for a divorce. Last night I made her favorite snack (spicy sweet potato and spinach knish) in an attempt at making amends.

A long while back violetisblue asked me Five Questions.

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Yesterday after work I went on a longer than normal bike ride in search of a bike trail I hadn't used before. It was glorious-- I spied lots of brightly colored critters, a black tomcat who looked like he could mess me up, and a pizza joint. I could be like Bill Clinton, biking to restaurants! (Vali frowns on this scheme.) Then I stopped off at the health food store and tried a carrot, apple, beet and ginger juice drink. Which is a lot tastier than it sounds. It restored my spirits quite a lot. And I finally finished the Hot Fuzz moodtheme I've been tinkering on, hopefully that all works.

violetisblue had an early doctor's appointment, so I'm up. Lucky you!

Reading
Not too much as of late. I finished Fingersmith by Sarah Waters right before vacation a couple of weeks ago and it popped the top off my little peanut head quite nicely. Seriously, it's an amazing book, one of those where you think you're reading one thing, and it's nothing like that at all, and the reversals and deviousness keep piling up and piling up and oh man. I incoherently loved it.

Have been slogging through The Museum of Dr. Moses by Joyce Carol Oates and cannot get into these ten short stories. Saturday I started one called "Feral" and just lost it ala Tom Servo in the Gamera films: you take everything good and you rip my heart out! *glub glub* Will take it back unfinished.

And I picked up a copy of "Westcountry Mysteries" off Ebay last week. The first true thrilling tale is called "The Beast of Exmoor." It couldn't *possibly* be a wild cat who was killing sheep because the wildlife pickings were particularly thin one year, oh noes! It were a mysterious raging hellbeast! Good times.


Watching
The Sarah Jane Adventures. Couple of things: 1. I love it, 2. When did Sarah Jane get hot? I always thought she was pretty before but never rang any bells and now it's all NOM NOM NOM all the time, and 3. Crotchwoot wishes it had a tenth of the dignity these kids get to have. We watched Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane last night. violetisblue thinks it's a good cross between It's a Wonderful Life and Hellraiser, which is just about perfect.

Last week's Doctor Who wasn't as bad as the trailer made it look, but that would've been pretty hard to do as it made me feel like an un-MSTed Hobgoblins episode. It ultimately get a thumbs-down from me because the civilization that has been screwing up for umpteen berdillion centuries before the Doctor and his gang come along and solve everything in 13 minutes? How many of these episodes does a gal need exactly? But has little bits in it that were fantastic, and most of them had to do with Doctor-Donna. Doctor-Donna makes me squee. It makes me want to put on the tinfoil hat and basically never take it off. It's not anything they did specifically in this ep that did it, it's more of an overall feeling of "See that Donna over thar? She are Teh Boss of Me." Oh merciful heavens yes. She tells him to jump and he says how high. NOM NOM NOM NNNOOMRRRRGHHHHHH.

Please let me change the subject before I lose the remaining shreds of my dignity.

Gardening
I planted some asparagus crowns this weekend. The instructions said they don't like cold damp soils, so naturally the day after I planted them we had 30 mph winds and about an inch of rain. Still, here's hoping. The garden is amazing, actually-- mostly what I'm doing is weeding, composting, and trying to stay out of the way while it does its thing. Yesterday when I Freecycling one of my young maple trees my neighbor runs out and says, "I hope you don't mind, I have a lilac bush that's under a tree and it doesn't get enough shade. Would you mind taking it off my hands? And I was like, um, well, see the thing is OF COURSE I'LL TAKE IT OMG. She's such a nice lady. This weekend am going to stimulate the economy by getting a couple more bleeding heart plants for the front bed.


Fan Stuff
A lot of that lately. I finished all my crafty stuff for Mediawest: Flying Spaghetti Monsters and some Harry Potter themed knitted stuff. The latter I'm going to try and sell at the art auction. Considering no one has more than two nickels to rub together I *probably* could've picked a better year to start doing this, but fuck it.

Am finished choosing pictures for a Hot Fuzz moodtheme and am only waiting on someone who promised me a .gif of Nicholas Angel jumping over fences for "bouncy" and "hyper". Anyone else know how to make an animated .gif? *paces paces*

Am also almost but not quite finished as well with the first draft of a Hot Fuzz story written with annlarimer. It's about swans. Last night I cracked the 7000 word mark, 'crack' being the action word in this sentence.

Pepsi Points
65, w00t! Am thinking either the 2GB thumb drive, but I think I should be good and get Mom a digital keychain for when I go visit.

Pepsi Loot so far
Meerkat Manor Vol. 2
The French Chef Box Set Vol. 1
Casino Royale
Noise Cancellation Headphones
Witch Hunter Robin anime box set

Yes, I am a pig.

I just got this with my points.

Best. promotion. ever. I've resorted to asking caffeine-addicted co-workers for their caps because I'm not proud.

Sinuses are better today, thank you. I'm taking the nighttime stuff which makes me pleasantly dopey. I can hear the sinuses knocking but they can't come in, neener neener.

I got my Hot Fuzz zine yesterday. I liked it! A swear box crossword, a Nicholas Angel paper doll, silly adverts appropriately misspelled, and people doing it with plants. Good stuff. I don't know why on Earth it cost $5 to ship; Cafepress must need a new pair of shoes.

Not much has happened, really. The usual job stress, I yelled at a co-worker yesterday and then spent the rest of the day beating myself up over it. I hate it when I lose my temper, it says to the world you're out of control and a big giant baby. Bleah. And yet I feel like I had a right to be legitimately angry. Hmm.

I paid off my car this week, got the title and everything. (knocks furiously on wood)

Been sort of feeling a little like I'm under the gun on time. So many things I want to do, all competing for attention, but nothing really grabbing me if i you know what I mean.