Tis the Season...Sorta

Christmas movies watched this weekend:

Friday

• The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
• Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

Saturday

• Holiday Affair (1949)
• Recipe for a Perfect Christmas (2005 TV)

Sunday

• A Dog Named Christmas (2009 TV)
• Holiday in Handcuffs (2008 TV)

Annnnnddd.... I recorded others, which I'll watch on days when there's no holiday movie or special I care to watch.

Friday and Saturday, I kinda just half watched the movies while trying to keep up with reading the new posts at an RP forum of mine. I'm not sure why, but while I can read a book for hours, it takes me forever to read text on the computer. I hate holding my RP partners up, but what can ya do. Between all the reading and movie watching and attempting to do Christmas cards, I didn't have the creative energy to write a post myself. Ah well...

Spent Sunday with Dad, so those movies were watched at his place while drinking some eggnog (the non-alchol kind :P ). Handcuffs I'd seen before, but it's still funny to watch. The Dog Named Christmas was a good movie that touches the heart and brought a smile to my face. The rain was nice enough to wait til Dad and I finished all of our stops through out the day. Which is good, I didn't want to have to wear my noisy rain jacket.

On the way home, we passed quite a few houses with Christmas lights. Dad said, closer to Christmas, we can take scenic routes to find more festive neighborhoods. :D I can't wait. Even this very street, which had few homes lit up last year, has quite a few lit up this year. It's nice to see.

Sunday was a good day. Had a good breakfast at a charming little restaurant. Ran some errands and goofed around. Watched those two movies. More errands, which included a hilarious moment at the gas station (see, Dad, I'm not telling.... Well not blogging it anyway. Told Mom. :P). Then came home. So yesterday was a good day. :) Thank you, Daddy!

After Dad left, Mom told me Nana asked if I was putting up Christmas lights. I guess she told Mom that maybe I should decorate a little. I'm not real sure why, whether it's because she wants to see it or because she thinks I/Mom/we need it. So Mom told me and said she was leaving it up to me. So I dunno. I wanted to for me. For me it's extra sad without my inner Christmas elf locked in. Ah! Possibly the reason why I couldn't fill out cards on Saturday.

Anywho, dishes to wash and a nap to take.

When Christmas Comes to Town....

I watched (well mostly watched) The Polar Express (2004) today. It's a beautiful little movie for being a cartoon. The elves are a bit on the creepy side though. Seriously.. When one of the elves is trying to get one of the kids to give back the present so they can put it in the big bag of presents, he says, "trust me" in a very creepy, might be a pedo, kind of way.

Thanks to it getting darker so early, even with driving around for quickie errands, I get to see more and more Christmas lights. Some good.. Some bad... but almost all of the houses lit up put a smile on my face.

I started thinking about the silly holiday newspapers I made a couple years ago. They were fun to make, and I'm debating on making a few issues again. :P We'll see....

Bumbles Bounce!

Tonight's holiday movie: Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964 TV). Gotta love the classics. :)

Yukon Cornelius: This fog's as thick as peanut butter!
Hermey: You mean pea soup.
Yukon Cornelius: You eat what you like, and I'll eat what I like!

Anywho.. I was gonna put up a pic of the squirrel from yesterday's Target Tuesday adventure, but it was too dark and the cell phone camera didn't take a good enough pic. Ah well. The lil bugger was cute too. Brave lil bugger. It was sitting in the middle of the alley we were trying to drive down. Dad was driving slow so as not to spook it, but the bugger was watching us rolling towards him. :P Next time, I'll bring my actual digital camera.

Last night's movie was cute. Two families, now blended through the parents marriage, were both struggling to find a way to celebrate Christmas, each one having very different traditions they didn't want to let go of. I suppose we were lucky. We never really had that problem. I mean, yeah, at one point both my parents remarried, but our Christmases didn't change that much. But then I don't recall ever having set-in-stone traditions. Well, other than Mom exhausting herself for three days to bake her special variety of holiday cookies, enough to feed an army! I kinda miss that, but I SO don't miss the kitchen clean up. Mom and Josh baked.... I was left to clean since I tended to burn or screw up the recipes. :P Yeah, the only thing I ever made successfully during the holidays was fudge. Three or four ingredients mixed in one bowl and cooled in the fridge....not exactly rocket science. :P Although there was that one year I made truffles for no reason. Nummy...

Santa?

Last night, I had a number of odd dreams. The last ones were the typical strange and cool dreams I always have. (I love my Doctor Who dreams. :) ) But those weren't the ones that stood out the most this time.

I don't think I ever believed in Santa Claus, not even as a child. When I was young, my parents took us to church and so we weren't raised to believe in him. I like him well enough in Christmas movies, but then I also like movies with superheroes and elves and unicorns. So having a dream with him in it was a bit weird.

I dreamt Santa showed up at my house for a visit, dressed in normal clothes. I think he asked about the lack of decorations or maybe just noticed it, because when he returned, he had a bundle of Christmas lights. Santa, himself, proceded to put up the lights! He asked if I had any more hooks and I started going through the Christmas boxes.

At some point Mrs. Clause and Mom were there, Mrs. Claus beaming over her husband's work and Mom unsure whether she wanted this or not. Soon enough we were all taking part in the decorating.

Sadly, I woke before we went outside to see the lights, but from what I could see through the door, they looked amazing.

I'm not sure why Santa and Mrs. Claus were there. I know I was thinking about Christmas lights and wanting to see some nice displays. I myself haven't bothered to do nice light hanging in ages (they always fall or I give up). And I probably had decorating on my mind because I usually start on the first week of December if not the 1st. But Sants? Um, okay? It was a nice dream anyway.

I've decided I'm going to watch at least one Christmas movie or special everyday. I have several on DVD, VHS, and recorded tapes already. And there's always plenty to choose from on TV all month long. Today I'm going to record Our First Christmas (2008 TV), since it's on soon and I will be out on my usual Target Tuesday adventure! :)

On a completely unrelated note, I've lost a total of eight pounds since that first weekend I got sick. Not bad considering I wasn't trying. It's the amazing Cold and Flu diet, yay. :P

They Make Me Smile

I love old movies. I used to watch AMC (American Movie Classics cable channel) and TCM (Turner Classic Movies cable channel) whenever there was nothing on TV. And now and then, I would end up watching these wonderful gems, like Bachelor Mother (1939) or Bringing Up Baby (1938). They're just so cute and fun to watch.

I was checking the TV guide for any Christmas movies that might be on and it looks like The Shop Around the Corner (1940) is on tonight. :) I saw the Judy Garland musical remake first.. Well actually I saw the Tom Hanks' You've Got Mail first. But I like Jimmy Stewart in the Shop better. :)

Anywho, before I go on and on about other old movies I like, I'm going to finish watching Bachelor Mother on YouTube. :P

Trekkin....

Mom and I watched the new Star Trek movie tonight. I saw it with Dad last weekend, but I wanted to see it again. :D As you may have guessed, I really enjoyed it. I was SO sad when I thought the franchise might be dead....stupid Enterprise series... And after looking something up on IMDb, it looks like there may be a sequel in the works too! YAY! Whether they keep making a bunch of films on the one crew or branch out, I care not. So long as they just keep making Trek films and or shows, I'll be a happy camper.

Man, I remember watching the original series as a little kid. I can't actually watch it now. It's just too weird to watch the funny acting in those horrible sets. :P But at like 10 I was hooked on the Next Gen. series. Some of their earlier episodes are funny to watch too. :P After seeing all the improvements that film and TV's made it's just silly to see the old old school stuff. Hehe... Doesn't mean I wouldn't want to collect it all some day. Voyager is still my favorite series.

After seeing the new movie, I think I'll have myself a Trek marathon. I've never seen ALL the Trek movies. Shocking, I know. But now that I own 'em, I will have to watch them. :) And I do have chunks of the Next Gen. series on tapes back when the only way to collect TV series' was through Columbia House. And I have seasons 1 and 2 of Voyager. So yeah. I could have myself a really good week long marathon, if I wanted. Maybe I'll save it for Mom's next four day weekend. Help distract her from the holiday.

I love this song.... :P This isn't the official video but the other ones I didn't care for as much... So enjoy the giggle. :D

Tra la

I woke up REALLY early this morning.. 430am.... Okay, I slept for 12 hours before that due to not sleeping for two nights (days) in a row. Well no, I did have a 2-3 hour nap on Wednesday. And then I finally crashed at like 330-4pm yesterday, after Mom told me for the third or fourth time to go to bed. :P

It's weird that I woke up right at 430 though. That's the time I needed to be up if I wanted to call Dad for his wake up call. I didn't even set an alarm for it. :) I had lots of weird dreams. Dreams I wished I'd remembered to write down. I think alot of my dreams would make cool stories if I'd only remember to write them down. Ah well.

After talking to Dad for a bit, I got up and did the usual morning routine. Then I got all productive. It was too early to hop in the shower (cuz then I'd come out to the cold and I'm still getting over being sick and I didn't wanna risk it. :P). So instead, I cleaned the kitchen. Fed the kids. Filled water bottles for the freezer. Cleaned the bathroom. Tidied the living room and put away stuff. Cleaned the dining table. Folded laundry.

I took a break after all that... Got online. Mom was still asleep, so I didn't want to mess up the bathroom til she got a chance to see it clean. Did my usual net stuff while talking to Steven for a couple hours. :P

Then finally took a shower and got productive again. Folded the stuff from the dryer. Started more laundry. Changed the sheets on my bed. Tidied up my room, including some minor dusting. Put away stuff in my room, cuz like I had tapes ALL over the place. Then I FINALLY stopped being lazy about making myself some food.

Yep, yep, yep.. Been a productive day. Earlier I was thinking. This all was what I'd call half-assed cleaning compared to what I usually do before decorating for Christmas. And the lazy part of me was pushing me off the indecisive fence I'm on about it. But after the lil convo I just had with Mom, the decisions been made for me. I won't be decorating this year. Le sigh.

Soooo.... I'm going to see if I can't send some Christmas cards. I'm not going to go all crazy and send them to every aunt, uncle, and cousin I have an address for...just the people I talk to or I'm thinking about. I'll be stealing from the stamp fund, but oh well.

I wish I had the extra to get people gifts. Not everyone. I've never been that crazy. But you know those closest to you. As is, the only one to get a gift of any kind is my friend up north. And that's only because I bought my two best friends a non-occassion gift and then I didn't get a chance to see her when she visited this past summer.

Yesterday was just another day for us. Nana apparently made Pecan Pies even though she wasn't going to do anything for Thanksgiving. I guess since my Unclde David and fam. were supposed to come up and visit yesterday, she felt she HAD to make them. She made one for them and one for us, but Mom was too sleepy to go pick it up. And Nana was too bummed that David cancelled or postponed the visit til today so she ddn't want to drop it off. If my uncle DID make it to her house today, I imagine she'll have him drop it off for her on his way home. As it's almost 330pm and it's a 2 hour drive for him to go home, I figure we'll find out if he came soon enough.

Mmmmm.... This started out positive... Maybe I should have talked to Mom AFTER I finished blogging.... Ah well...

Smile! You'll live longer...

The movie worked. Brought a smile to my face and I can feel a hint of the old holiday elf wanting out. One of my fave Christmas movies is on tonight, I may watch it. The Christmas List. And I am probably gonna change my ringtone to the holiday one I got last year. Still debating on actually decorating, but we'll see.

Dad came over for dinner tonight. He brought pizza.... Mmmmmmmm.... I'd been DYING for pizza for ages and it was delish! Don't tell anyone, but he's napping on my bed right now. Poor Daddy. :) I'd take a pic, but for some reason people don't like it when ya snap photos of them sleeping. :P I hope the nap does him good. And my bed is much comfier than his...well I'd imagine as mine's newer.

I stayed up all night, no surprise. But most of the night I was busy moving my blogs. I finished. All the blogs I wrote and kept at Myspace have now found their new home here on Blogger. Had to move them manually, as neither Myspace or Blogger had a cooperative export/import option. But I'm happy now. I can close my Myspace account now.

And now.... for another slice of pizza and my Christmas movie. :D

Holiday Ho-hums

So, Thursday is Thanksgiving Day and officially kicks off the whole holiday season. As with last year, we will not be doing any family gathering/celebrating. Mom wasn't into it last year. Well she hasn't been into it since Tata's passing. She REALLY isn't into it this year, with my brother's passing. I dunno.. I'm fine with the not doing anything special for Thanksgiving. It's been ages since the day was anything more than just the obligatory family visiting with so-so Thanksgiving food. Don't get me wrong, there's still a great deal I am thankful for....just not enough to put me in a mood to care about Turkey Day.

Thanksgiving is one thing. But I'm on the fence about Christmas. It has always been my favorite time of year. The happy holiday movies. The cheery holiday songs. The decorations. Festive transformation of Disneyland. The general holiday spirit. While I decorated for me and recorded every Christmas movie that aired on TV mostly for me... I just dunno whether or not I feel up to it or not this year. I mean I know the lazy side of me is trying to say, don't decorate. But beyond that.... I know Mom and Dad won't be in the holiday mood and I understand cuz part of me isn't... But part of me wants to be. I just don't want to decorate or do something to get caught up in the spirit of the holidays and maybe make them sad cuz they aren't and/or can't be.

Being sick may have spoiled my chances at getting my Christmas Disneyland visit. Had to cancel on that due the stupid cold. >.< And my poor Issi is so busy from now until the holidays, so even if she wanted to she may not have the time. And even if she wanted to and had the time, I'd hate to steal what may be one rare moment for her to breathe and relax. Nana's been dying to go for years. She keeps bringing up that we (Mom and I) and Uncle David and fam. all go with her to Dis. But Uncle David's not rich, his kids are still on the too young side (or at least one or two of three of them), and Mom doesn't even want to go. I told Mom maybe I'd suggest to Nana that just she and I go. Not overly ideal for me, as the chances are she'll drive me a little nutty. :P But Nana would proabably love it; and if this past year has taught me anything, it is to cherish the time with family while they're still here.

Alright... I think I'm going to watch a Christmas movie. It was on TV last weekend or so but I missed it. Luckily, I was able to get it from Dad's Rental Shop. It sounded good considering the mood I was in about the holidays.....

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2008) (TV)
From Amazon.com's Product Details (since Yahoo! TV Listings cuts off the description):

Five-time Emmy nominee and Golden Globe winner Henry Winkler stars in The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, the story of what happens when you open your heart to the power of Christmas. Disenchanted single mom Jennifer Cullen (Brooke Burns) is a Scroogette when it comes to anything Christmas. In fact, even her six-year-old son, Brian, is having trouble believing in Santa Claus. But when her Uncle Ralph (Henry Winkler) visits and brings a fellow passenger from his flight named Morgan Derby (Warren Christie), Jennifer s dubious heart awakens to the possibility that perhaps Christmas really does hold miracles. It s uplifting and laugh-packed and a story that will inspire the whole family to believe.

Breath of Fresh Air

Yep, I finally made it out for fresh air. After spending the whole day and night out of bed yesterday, I got to leave the house today (er yesterday as it's tomorrow now)! Okay so it was only to run a few errands and I had to whisper most of the time, but still! Dad took me out for our usual fun and games while running errands. :D And since I made it that far, I'm going to play again tomorrow (er today).

Got some cough drops to hopefully keep the lingering coughing fits to a minimum. I was desperate before and looked up home/natural remedies... People are SO weird. One said to cut a lemon in half, put salt and pepper in/on it, and then hold in your mouth til the coughing is suppressed... o.0 What???? I'm hoping I read it wrong. It was late at night. If not... How the hell did someone come up with that one! I like licking salted lemons.. and I'll even stick a wedge in my mouth (minus the rine), but half??? all in my mouth??? Uhh... So yay for cough drops. :D

K.. I have a RP post to finish, a few dishes to wash, litter to tidy, and my butt to get in bed! Okay, so I woulda finished all this had I not been distracted by a movie. :P

Being Sick Sucks

Last Friday, I woke up feeling fine. Dad came over. We all had some yummy KFC. Got on the comp. to check e-mail later on. Started to feel pressure in my ears. My left ear often feels like I'm going up to higher altitudes, so I dismissed it. Made plans to go to Disneyland all last minute like for the next day. Went to watch a movie with Mom. I had a headache along with that pressure in my head by the end of the movie. Did some more come stuff on the computer. Combined with what I thought were change-of-season-allergy symptoms and the headache, I realised I was sick.

While Mom had said to make sure to bundle up for Dis, I knew I couldn't risk getting Issi sick. I cancelled. :( Turned out to be a good thing... The headache was there all day. I felt completely drained and generally crappy. As I was sick, I couldn't go hang with Dad on Sunday either. :( I tell ya, this cold/flu thing may have been overdue (I usually get one a year and I haven't for a couple years), but man did it have the worst timing. No Dis with Issi. No Dad Sunday which may or may not have included a movie like at a theatre. Not to mention the errands that needed running. Mom too was a little sick. So she had to cancel a needed dental appointment. And no Target Tusday....

Tuesday was REAL fun.... Fever chills... I can't remember the last time I had a fever so bad that it actually caused me to shiver under mounds of blankets. Didn't have a thermameter to check my temp. though (may have lost in in the last move or two). But we know it was high. It was barely going down by Wednesday when Dad brought over a new thermameter. 100.3° F.... Dad thankfully went and did some shopping for me... Sick person supplies: soups, juices, more meds, crackers, and fruit. And some things we were running out of too.

Anywho.... It's Friday night now (or Saturday EARLY morning technically). Fever's been gone for a couple days. Ever present headache's been gone for most of a couple days. Still coughing, though not as much. The coughing fits are shorter and fewer. And I'm not as tired. Wouldn't go running around yet, but I can, y'know, sit up for more than a few hours at a stretch. Which is great. After a week of mostly sleeping off Nyquil comas, I am SO sick of my room. Hence me being out here writing this way too long blog about my lovely week.... :P

Now that I got that out of my system on to other net related activities... My Utopia province is in dire need of tending. My role play forum in sore need of attention. And as I have no voice, I may as well enjoy all the net talking I can get away with before my next Nyquil dose.

It's a small world....

Okay, so everytime I go out and about with my Dad, he almost always runs into someone he knows. Through his job, he meets alot of people. You're bound to run into people now and then.... Heck, even the cashier at Target today recognized us. Noticed that he buys alot of moves. :P Well okay, when ya go to a store every week and buy movies, I guess people notice. :P

But I guess running into people he actually knows isn't enough... We were driving to Target and he thought he recognized someone in the car next to us. :P It wasn't, but still... I thought it was funny... "I've seen you somewhere... Have you been to the planet Earth?" :P

LOVE YOU DADDY!

Obsessions... Or Addictions....?

Okay... So I'm addicted to Sudoku... First week I got the books, I did like 26 puzzles in one week. Granted they were mostly one star puzzles and a couple two star puzzles, but still. I took a week off, just so I didn't go through them so fast. Not sure that was a smart move. I lost my stride or something. First one I did this week took several hours and I believe that included starting over once. Second one... Oy.... MUCH longer.

It's just a two star. Shouldn't be that difficult, right? But for some reason, I kept making the same mistakes over and over and over. I got to a mostly done point before realizing the same error each time. I had to erase the whole thing three times before I finally decided to try something else. To prevent wearing the page so thin the puzzle on the other side disappeared as well as my pencil marks, I drew a grid on a piece of scratch paper and filled it in with permanent marker to match the one in the book. Poor man's photo copy. :P Anyway. The paper was stronger so IF I had to erase a million more times it could take it. :P I finally had to resort to finding the error using the answer key... Le sigh. Up til last night, I'd never even needed the answer key. Still not sure why I kept making the same error. Hopefullly I'll fair better next puzzle. But just in case, I made grid templates to print for practicing or long trial and error sessions.

Also, I've started up playing an old game of mine. Utopia. Yeah, I was pretty addicted to it. Server downtimes made us all nuts. And it seems the game's been taken over by another company or something and they moved the game over to a beta server or something (I don't follow the tech lingo well). Anyway... The age just restarted and we've spent more of it with downed server time and major laggage than actually playing. Sucks, cuz we're supposed to be managing our provinces and getting ready for Out of Protection normal game play and all of us are freaking out. Yeah, I've realized my old addiction is just as strong now. I find I check to see if the game is up once or twice a night at least.

I am closing the door of another old addiction. Myspace. I already stripped the page of most of the content and friends. As soon as I finish moving the old blog posts to this blog, then I will be deleting that account. Lots of work though. I think I still have another 50 blog posts to go, and I have to move 'em manually cuz Blogger and Myspace didn't want to play nice for me. Ah well, it was fun seeing some of the old stuff I put up. Like a bunch of pics of an itty bitty Pixie... Shame she grew up. Well most of her. We're still waiting on that head to catch up to her body. :P

Okay... I'm sleepy... NAP TIME! Toodles Doodles!

Booo...

My flowers have bloomed so lovely. And did I mention they smell so good? I've discovered that Yellow and White roses smell the best. And I think I did a smidge better at arranging the flowers. Okay, so I'm still not Martha Stewart, but Mom said I did okay. And there were fewere holes on the other side. :P

I took the loose petals off.. Actually instructions told me to take the outer ones off when I got them, but I didn't. So I took the loose petals off and they looked so purdy and still healthy, so I wrapped 'em in a veil scarf thing I had from who knows where. Made a lil sack and tied 'em off. It smells pretty and I tucked it in a drawer. Well I hated to toss away the pretty petals!

So far, I've kept the furry babies from getting at the flowers. And boy, has Oreo tried! Pixie wanted one of my loose petals, but I didn't want her chewing on it...y'know in case it was bad for them? Can't be too careful when it comes to my babies.

Anyway, I took these pics yesterday after I changed their water. :)

Since I had my camera out I thought 'I'll take pics of my babies', but of course neither one was doing anything particularly cute. Well, kinda cute. They were both in the same poses. Like always. They're almost always in the same position even in separate rooms. It's kinda funny.

Pixie on the edge of Mom's bed....

Oreo on the edge of my bed...

They're still cute. :P Even if they are oddly pyschicly linked to sit/lay the same way ALL the time. :P

Dad came over for dinner. He brought some deliscious Greek Sub sandwiches. Numnumnum.... After dindin, he tried to explain how football works. I don't think I'll ever follow it. WAY too much to follow. I'm used to the simplicity in baseball, and even that I don't follow. :P If I'm not playing the sport or emotionally invested in the players in the sport (ie...actors in a movie), I'm not hugely interested in watching sports. They're like ants on a field most times. Or like Gum-ball-ism, they're just tiny toys in those gumball machines. Too small to keep track of.

We actually saw kids out Trick or  Treating tonight! Yep, as Dad was leaving, there were a bunch of kids that knocked on our neighbor's door. They seemed to know, we weren't handing anything out even though our light was on. Smart kids. ;) I don't even have candy for ME, like I'd give them anything. :P I neglected to look at their costumes, bummer....

Ah, well.. The only Trick or Treater I care about this year is short and plushy and cute as can be! :D

Kitties, and Movies, and Flowers... oh my!

Some time last week, Felix, one of the stray cats we feed, didn't show up for dinner. He's missed a meal or two over the past year, but he shows up the next day for breakfast. We of course still worried about her (Mom thinks it's a she, we've never checked cuz we can't get close enough). Still no sign of her. Poor thing. When we moved here a year ago and started feeding her, we didn't think she'd last through the winter. I hope she died peacefully. And at least we fed her and talked to her. She pretty much lived on our lil yard and steps. Poor Tundra, the other stray, will be lonely now. So we talk to him more, and I even go out and play with him (with a string so I don't touch him and catch anything >.< ).

Spent Sunday at my Dad's again. :) We watched FOUR movies. That's a bit of a record for us. :P Okay so three of them were shortish animated movies. :P But it was a fun relaxing day. :) We watched Race to Witch Mountain, the Reef, Hercules, and Little Spirit. Yep, we watched the first Christmas movie of the year. :P Okay, so we're a little early. Just a smidge. :P I can still hear the Disney songs from Hercules in my head. :P "Who put the glad in gladiator....." :P And Race--- was a cute and funny movie too! :D

I brought home a couple of Dad's old shelves and unpacked three more boxes! Almost a year since we moved in, and we are almost done unpacking. Just two more boxes of books and one box of VHS tapes (episodes of Star Trek TNG and Voyager). I set them up in Mom's room. They look so nice and purdy. Dad says there's two more of the shelving units that we can use, so I'll put another one in Mom's room to empty one more box of books and the other I'll use for the DVDs as those shelves are full now and the collection is still growing. I'll take pics when all is set up. :) But it is sooooo cool to have the books in shelves instead of in boxes. They've been in boxes for YEARS. And of course the book collection for both Mom and I kept growing each move too. :P Yeah.... We're a family of readers... Always buying more and more books even when we have enough to last us at least a decade at home. :P

Soooo... Today (er, yesterday.... as it's now way after midnight)... I wake up, and Mom says there's a box outside. Well I can't go out til I shower, and she thinks it's just her stadium chair, a prize from work, so there was no rush right? I get ready, as I'm gonna go hang with Dad for "Target Tuesday" and then finally go outside. Not a chair.... I read the box. "Proflowers" But part of me ignored that and I went to read the label as I picked it up.. It was for ME! :D Yep, I stood there in a bit of happy confusion as it didn't say who from til I opened it. My wonderfully sweet best friend sent me flowers!

They're so prettiful too! They're actually prettier now even after this pic was taken. I'll probably take another later today with better lighting. And they smell sooo sweet too. I love ProFlowers. They really send them with great care and last longer too. So far the babies haven't attacked them. Yay. And I keep them safe out of reach when we're sleeping. Anyway, it was a totally happy surprise today. I seriously had to stop myself from crying.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. It's SO winday lately. Palm branches were all over the ground! And the power flickered a few times here at home and once as we were leaving Target. So if you don't hear from me... See if there's a new chapter in the Oz history books. :P

Sunday... That's my fun day.....

Sunday was Fun-tastic! :)

8:45 a.m. - Woke up 10 minutes late. Gasp! I totally blame the bizarre dream I had. I called Dad to let him know I was up (y'know, so he knew that I wasn't sleeping through my alarms and still gonna be in a coma when he came to get me. :P). Due to rushing around to make up the time, Mom and cats leaving little mess to clean up, and Dad running behind, it seemed like I was ready WAY early. Twas good. Had time to catch my breath and enjoy the morning fresh air. :)

10-10:30 a.m. - Dad picks me up and we head to find a place to eat. After passing up on a couple really busy places, we ended up at Huff's(?). Maybe the remodelling scared other customers away, cuz we were able to be seated almost right away.

11:03 a.m. - Glanced at my watch, while looking at the menu. We ordered and I swear, the food arrived like five later! The service was super friendly and FAST! Enjoyed a nice lil breakfast while watching the waitress laugh with the other customers. Soon as we finished, they whisked our plates away. I think the employees have super speed or something. I mean the check practically blew off the table after the waitress left it!

11:40 a.m. - Head out to the car when we see a Dallar Tree. (Did I mention the restaurante service was fast? :P ) Dallar Tree... 99cent stores... These places are DANGEROUS. :P Once I recall Mom and I going in one for a few bucks worth of candy and coming out with 50 bucks worth of stuff! It was ALOT of stuff... but still! We went in looking for one thing...came out with 42? 44? somethings. Te he?

1:ish p.m. - We made it to the store we actually intended. :P Barnes & Nobles. I LOVE bookstores. I could probably spend the entire day in one. We went to check out bookmarks, and I ended up seeing a purdy journal. I swear I could have ten unused journals and still go "ooo" to a pretty one I see. Anyway.. I grabbed it and figured if we saw a couple of inexpensive books (cuz them darn bookstores are always so expensive) I would snag the journal as it had a buy two get this half off deal... There were some, but eh.. Didn't feel like grabbing them. Nothing I HAD to have, y'know? Besides, the journal would have just collected dust before I used it. :P

2:ish p.m. - We went to Borders! Yay! More bookstore! (Did I mention I LOVE bookstores? :P ) This time we found the desired bookmarks. Very cute and purdy ones with tassles and bobbles. I like bookmarks with tassles and bobbles. :D We also snaged a couple of surprisingly inexpensive DVDs... at Borders of all places! Total shocker. Oh, almost fell on my butt after an elevator ride. Weird cuz my balance doesn't usually get thrown by elevators. But sure enough walked around a display case and had to steady myself.

?ish p.m. - Stopped at Wal-mart to grab some coffee for my Mom and to check for a DVD. They didn't have the one Dad wanted. I keep telling him to just order it online. :P The place was a mad house! I don't think I've ever seen it that busy so far away from Christmas! Dad found other goodies though. :) As it was almost five and we were hungry again, we stopped at the McD's in the store. And would you believe it, Dad STOLE someone's napkins! :o LOL! Well as usual, McD didn't give us any, and to be fair the table looked abandoned. But I saw the drinks were still full. I wonder if the theft was reported. :P I laughed the entire way out of the store.

5ish p.m. - We finally made it to my Dad's house. :P 5pm is often the time we leave his house to make those last minute stops or quickie store runs. :P Anywho, we watched the Proposal while we ate our burgers and chocolate shakes. Mmmmmm.... Good food, good movie, deliscious shake, and great company... :) All in all a wonderful way to end the fun filled day.

7:30 p.m. - Dad brought me home and helped me bring in my loot, which included (among other things) my very own Sudoku puzzle books. Those lil buggers are addictive! I did three of them later that night already.

It was a busy and fun day. :) Thank you, Daddy!

Just Like a Ride at Disneyland!

So, last weekend I actually had a full social life! Crazy right? Saturday, I spent the day  with Issicicle and her mom at..... DISNEYLAND! :D And Sunday I spent the day at my Dad's house. :)

The adventure began with Issi picking me up and us gabbing the whole way to her place, like always :D, and calls from her mom every five or ten minutes, :P. We ended up going to get her a flu shot. And holy cow man! Talk about an assembly line! Three saturdays in a row the hospital does the whole flu shot thing. You stay in your car, weaving in and out throughout the parking lot in a huge line of cars. They stop to ask questions and give ya info on the shots and then finally give ya the shot while you're still in the car... Twas the first ride of the day. :P Instead of a lollipop for the shot victim we all went to Dis after. :P

It's Halloween at Disneyland. Which usually just means the Haunted Mansion is decorated in the Nightmare Before Christmas look and Disney beanies in Halloween costumes and some Halloween decorations here and there. Year before last, Issi and I took a pic in front of a giant Mickey Jack-o-Lantern.

THIS year... They went all out! (Okay, maybe they did more in past years and I just forgot. :P ) ANYWHO.... There were some awesome Halloween fireworks with a light show and Disney Halloweeny music. :D AND and... Space Mountain was transformed to be all scary and stuff... Good Halloweeny music on the ride with ghosties and monsters trying to grab at ya. :P And it was REALLY FAST! Yep it was a blast!

We only went on the one ride, but that was SO worth it all by itself. While we were on the ride, her mom was saving seats for us to watch the fireworks. And oh boy! It was a good thing too, cuz they get PACKED come parade and firework time. We sat there for hours, playing cards, playing with our cell phones, and freezing cuz neither one of us dressed warm enough for the first cold weather of the season. :P Silly Cali girls...

Got me the cutest lil Mickey dressed in purple and carrying a lil Trick or Treating bat thing bag. No, he didn't have fangs, but he did come with a cape and a hat. He's adorable and I must remember to take a pic of him later. Picked up some cherry balls too.. Num num num.... They're all but gone already. Mom LOVES them. I'm not allowed to leave Dis without them. Next time she intends to send me with enough moola to get a dozen bags. :P Anywho, we ended the night with a nice lil late night dindin and then the ride home where I fell asleep as usual. :P

SUNDAY, Dad and I picked up some ingredients to make some food at his place. He cooked some nummy eggs and weinnies while I solved my first Sudoku puzzle! :D It was fun. We ate and watched a couple movies. :) It was a nice chillaxxin' Sunday. :D I love these lil Sundays. I've caught myself automatically expecting them now. Tehe?

Anywho... Off to eat left over KFC... num num num.....

Oh yay...

Yesterday we found a lil bunch of ants marching aimlessly in the hallway... Okay.. It rained.. Maybe they retreated into the house... Not a hord of em or anything.. Killed them... Found some more in the kitchen.. Lost soldiers? Not alot.. Killed them....

It's 4am.. I go into the kitchen to clean a few dishes from last night before going to bed (yeah I know I go to bed too late).... There's ants all over the fracking kitchen.... >.< I am soooooo irritated and upset and frustrated I want to cry and scream all at the same time...  I DO not want to do this again... I do NOT want to do this again....

Off I go... before Mom wakes up and finds them.... :(

^_^

I've been spending more and more time at my Dad's house. Like practicaly every sunday now for the past two or three months? Anywho.. We grab a quick breakfast, or go sit in a restaurant, or eat at his place. Then we watch movies and just sleslax. Okay, sometimes.. okay most times, we run errands before or after for Mom. But errands with Dad are never just boring errands. Hehe...

Last weekend, Dad came back out to the living room and I was reading or something, and he said something like he was sorry it was boring???? Today, Mom, who usually encourages me to go play with Dad (not that I need encouragement there. :P ), suggested I spend the day with Dad at least once every weekend, but then quickly asked "or is that too much?"

Who are these people? And why don't they know me? I guess they forget who they raised.... I'm the girl who likes just hanging with family and friends. I'm also the girl who is easily amused... Give me a good book or a nice lil show to watch and I'm set. :) I am happy to just sit and watch TV or read next to Mom or Dad any day of the week. :)

Small Blessings

Even at the worst of times, I am ever grateful for the small blessings. A beautiful sunset/sunrise. A cool day. A laugh shared with family or friends. A simple but satisfying meal. A successful market shopping trip. Affection from my furry babies. Happy memories popping into my head. Anything and everything.

It's been a good few weeks in the blessings department. My little banking booboo (human error) was happily resolved. Thank you God. Words from a medium or whatever have helped Mom try to let go some of her anger and guilt and as a result, Mom was able to join Dad and I for little family dinners again. Thank you God. I survived the six month mark without being too sad because I was enjoying the day with my Dad. Thank you God. A situation with the landlords that could have turned ugly was resolved and we will be staying put. Thank you God.

I don't read His word like I should. I can't remember the last time I went to church. While I talk to God often, I don't always pray, well not the traditional way I guess. But thanks to God's goodness, He continues to bless my life each and everyday and I continue to feel His prescence. Lord, thank You for Your many blessings and for the people in my life who You use to make those blessings.

Where's the Volume Control?

You know those families on TV where everyone yells rather than walk over to each other and just talk? I think I live next to one of those families... Or maybe more than one of those families. Mom and Dad are ALWAYS yelling at each other for every little thing.... Mom yells at kid for breaking something or messing with something... Kid yells back his "I didn't do anything!"s.... And they must be part of a species of yellers, cuz all there friends talk loud too. I get sporting events where all the guys "Yeah!" for each lil victory. I get the drunken hubby/boyfriends yelling to be let in. Don't like it, but I get it. But now chickadee's girl friend came over and the two of them were having a conversation as if they were talking over a crowd rather than in a quiet neighborhood within feet of each other. But then these chuckleheads also like to have fights in the middle of the streets, with one end in the car and the other in the apartment. Where is the mute button?

Poor Baby Teenager

I watched a special about a teenager stuck in the body of a toddler. For most of her 16 years, this girl has not grown beyond that of a two year old. Mentally, she's stuck at nine months old. I can't even imagine what that family has been through. For the special, of course, everyone put on their smiles. "She's so loving." "She's a miracle baby." The father even went as far as to say that "if someone had a pill to 'fix' her" he would tell them "one, she's not broken, and two, no thanks." That she was fine as she is. Yeah, right!

While mom, dad, two older sisters, one younger sister, and grandparents may all love the girl, I can't imagine anyone not wanting to see her grow up. As it stands right now, she will forever need someone to care for her. She can't talk, can't walk, and can't even eat normally. She is as the show called her, a child frozen in time. She is blessed with what looked like a large and loving family. So there's a saving grace, seeing as how mom and dad can't live forever. No one even knows how long she will live, since her genes don't age.

Seriously.... I can't even imagine being in any one of their shoes. I mean mentally slow developed individuals get frustrated over time. And here's a permanantly nine month year old mental status? I'm not saying that all families with disabled individuals would want their family members "fixed", but this poor kid will always be completely dependant and never able to fully express herself. Sure she may never know the difference, but I can't believe her father wouldn't want more for her. I mean c'mon, even the mother goes out of her way NOT to dress the girl in baby looking clothes. She's 16 and the mother tries to dress her like a big girl.

I don't know. It's kinda sad. I mean lots of mentally slow people go on to live semi-independant lives. And physically disabled individuals overcome challenges everyday. But this girl's got the worst of both worlds, essentially. I know she'll be loved. But no one wants to be a baby all their lives. And no sane parent wants their child to be a baby forever. I dunno.. I'm babbling. I think the dad should have said yes, he would have taken the pills to help his kid. Doesn't make him a bad guy to want more for her. If he was worried he'd look like a jerk, he could have said, "she's not broken, but yeah for her sake..."

On the other hand.. God has certainly tested their patience. And from the looks of things, that family has passed. Good for them. And they've been blessed with loving and supportive daughters and extended family and even granted aid for the girl's medical needs.

Pre Dawn Tears and New Fears

It seems I have a new routine. I'm not sure how it got started, but I wish it would stop. For the past week or two, my usual routine of stay up late stalling to clean the kitchen or killing time online til almost dawn has changed. Oh, I still stay up late, but now... now in that really quiet couple of hours before dawn, I cry.

I'm not sure what triggered it. One too many sad conversations or thoughts. I know one day when I first pulled out a CD Josh made, it made me sad when I was playing it. Maybe that was the trigger for that day. But now. Before I do the dishes, after... when I'm trying to fall asleep.... At some point, the slightest sad thing will set me off. I was watching a movie last night, and a kinda sad seen set me off. It was sad enough for a tear or two, no more, under normal circumstances.

I don't know... I try not to cry in front of Mom. Maybe holding back too much for the past few months is trying to break free? I still keep silent, even though she's asleep. Even though I wish I could scream out, I keep silent.

I wish it would stop. It's made for rather depressing couple of weeks. I put up the front when talking to everyone. I don't want to sound like a broken record or bum anyone else out. Funny, considering I encourage everyone else to talk to me so they're not trapped with their thoughts or emotions alone.

On the scary side of things, a minor scare.... I fracked up my banking by paying a bill I only thought I had money for... That's gonna be fun to replace the funds before auto withdrawal payments bounce. >.< Honestly, as careful as I am with banking, I don't know HOW I let that happen.

On a serious side... It's a little scary to hear both your parents talking similarly on being afraid they won't wake up from their sleep and on some level it seems both wouldn't care if they didn't wake up. I know I'm 29 and should be self-sufficient. But whether I am or not I am not ready to lose either one of my parents. Not now. Not yet. I know they're both hurting, but it is still scary to hear however small a degree that they might not mind not waking up one morning. I mean before we heard the autopsy report, we all thought Josh had just given up and his body simply complied. Dear Lord, please help my have the strength to carry on.....

To Call or Not To Call

I was cleaning out my cell phone's Recent Call logs...and I came across the number I've been saving there for months. I set it aside with intention of calling back. But here we are, four and a half months later, and I still haven't called Charice back.

The night she called, I remember thinking I didn't feel like talking to her. We'd been out to the movies, come back and visited here at the house, and it was a good day that I just didn't want to ruin with a phone call. Yeah, calls and visits with Charice can go either way. We were best friends in junior high, but we grew so far apart in the following years. The out of the blue calls or visits are on the weird side now. Sometimes it's great to catch up, other times it's like ugh...can we say goodbye now.

I didn't recognize the number when it came in, but she left a message on voicemail. So I told myself I'd call back the next day or in a few days..... The next day, she was the last thing on my mind.

Now after four months, I don't even know if I should bother. I mean how's that conversation going to go? "Sorry I didn't call you back. But the day after you called, my brother died." Yeah, there's a fun conversation. But at the same time, I feel bad for not calling. I mean friends come and go in those school years. But no matter how far apart we grew, she'd still call now and then.

Last time I saw her, I just happened to run into her at a bus stop. What are the chances, right? She was going into rehab. I can't even remember where her son was or who he was staying with. It was like the month of or before our first move. So at least she knows I don't live in Anaheim anymore.

Guess I should call her back. She keeps in touch however sparingly for a reason. And I suppose it'll be nice to talk to the girl who saved me from loneliness 7th grade. Plus, who else can I reminisce with about playing Barbies. :P

And then what happened?

Sooo... I'm terrible at keeping people posted. For those who were worried, the silence from my mother actually broke like hour or two after that last post. And within a day or so, she was back to her normal-ish self.

I got a much needed break from the house. Nothing energizes me like Disneyland does. Chrissi kidnapped me for two whole days. Okay a day and a half. We spent the evening at Dis. It's funny. We mostly just walked. I mean we tried to get on Space Mountain, but as usual, when our forces are combined, stuff breaks down. Waited in that line only to leave it half way through it. Ah, well. We walked and talked. It was just a nice night. Packed as it was, it was still just sooo nice to walk around there. And we did get on a ride. Okay, so we had to wait til they repaired it or whatever, curse our combined forces. :P But we waited it out, cuz it was almost closing time and it was our last chance to get on a ride.

Spent the night at her place. Movies, bookstore, OC Fair.... Good food, good fun... Hehe... I expected to bring back the sour cherry balls from Dis, but I brought back a book and yummy fruit from the fair, and some earrings, and a huge empty cup. Why on earth did I drink so much lemonade? :P I got home just under midnight. All and all an awesome weekend! So, Issi, in case I didn't say it enough then, THANK YOU!

We, Mom and I, have made the freakish discovery that Pixie, my two year old kitty is actually heavier than Oreo, my big eleven year old! I mean it's true, it is getting harder to tell them apart. But side by side, Pixie still looks smaller than Oreo, especially in the head. :P One day her head will catch up to her body, I hope.... But dude, I pick her up and she feels soooooo much heavier than Oreo! He's just fluffy? Okay, okay, the theory is, she's got more muscle than Oreo. She does do alot more running around than he does. And oy, will this shedding never end! If this keeps up, pretty soon, Mom and I will be coughing up furballs. Yuck.

Soooo, I'm doing things backwards... I like meant to watch Harry Potter 1-5 before going.. But Mom wanted to watch with, and so I waited... and waiting leads to forgetting... So come this past Saturday, Issi, her mom, and I went to see Harry Potter 6. Now 1-3 I've seen like a million times, 3 is my favorite and we always watch them in order. We've seen 4 a few times, cuz we saw it at the theatre, during a successful marathon, and then once before we saw the 5th movie. But 5, well.... I taped it when we got HBO, but er, uh... Yeah, so I only had the vague memory of when we saw it at the theatre. :P I mean it was fine. I had enough of it in my head not to be totally lost. And despite what some critics I saw somewhere said, I liked the movie. :) Lots of fun lil moments and some really cool moments... And now I can't get the visual of the professor knitting out of my head! :P Anyway... Since then, Mom and I have watched a Potter movie a night.. well not EVERY night. We just watched my fave, 3, last night. So we just have 4 and 5 left, and yay, I actually have 5 on DVD now. :D Thank you, Daddy.

Hmm.. Well, I've babbled enough. And I should get my tidying up chores done, so I can finish my current book, so I can take a new book when Mom and I run errands tomorr.... er... today.... And hopefully, today's date won't be yet another montly reminder for Mom.... Hopefully...

And then there was silence....

I don't expect normalcy. Not yet. Especially not this time of month. I don't expect laughter and celebrations. Not unless there's something worth laughing about or celebrating. I don't even expect cheerful moods even 50% of the time. I won't expect it for years to come, I imagine.

But the silence... the silence is almost painful. I know she's not trying to shut me out to be mean. She's hurting and just can't deal. But on those hard days, when she doesn't answer even simple questions or seem to acknowledge speaking of any kind... It's a door slammed in my face. And maybe as a protective mechanism, my first impulse is to be mad at her. To silently curse her for ignoring me.

Not that the anger lasts. Sadness quickly fills it's place. Sad for Mom's sake. Sad for missing my brother. She can't talk about it yet. She can't even talk about him yet. I wish she could. I wish she'd stop dwelling on the why's and the whose-to-blame's. Because while I may choose to cry alone...in silence. The sadness fades away just a little bit when I talk about him with my Dad.

Tomorrow... The next day.... She'll be fine-ish again. She'll be talking to me like normal, well sorta. She'll laugh at the funny things the cats do or the jokes on TV. God, I hope the silence doesn't return every 6th of the month....

Why....

Why do some people even have kids? I'm not even talking about the truly awful people who abuse or neglect their kids. But the lazy parents. The ones who end up with half a dozen kids and don't bother disciplining their kids. Why bother, if you're not going to actually do the work of raising them?

I remember riding home on the bus one day, and this woman had one or two little kids with her. The youngest one kept pulling the cord to request a stop. And the kid would giggle as it dinged. So we stopped at almost every stop for no reason. The woman didn't do anything. Just let the kid climb over her to pull the cord each time. I've never been patient with kids. So even then, I reacted. As I was sitting across from the kid, I gave the kid a hard glare and shook my head, as the brat reached up for the cord. Well that stopped that.

That however was a tame reaction compared to today. I went with my mother to the dentist. As it was busy, I couldn't go back with her to hold her hand, so I sat in the waiting room for hours. Lemme say, listening to screaming brats for hours is soooo much fun. There was a woman with like three or four kids....brats...

I'm terrible with ages, but I'd guess the oldest was a preteen boy. One sister was a year or two younger and then a four or five year old sister. The boy would have reminded me of my brother with all his "I don't wanna be here" attitude, except he was so mean and bratty with his sisters. I mean I get being annoyed when baby sis wants to get his attention. So naturally there's some sibling meanness to get her to stop.

Finally after some musical chairs. Boy is two seats away from lil sis with, baby sis on the other side of lil sis. Well as much as possible, cuz baby sis couldn't sit still and went back and forth on either side of lil sis. Baby sis kept chattering away to lil sis who was being the nice sister and trying to entertain her and keep the peace between baby sis and big bro. And still big bro was doing that yelling whisper growl thing, telling her to shut up. Saying she was drawing too much attention.

Now I can't speak for everyone else. But the chattering was typical four/five year old behavior and while annoying was ignorable. What was not was the boy telling the baby sis who no longer was talking to him to shut up and going as far as pinching the girl.

Well I lost my patience after a couple "ow''s and the boy blaming the baby sis on everyone's stares. The mother did nothing but that silent "behave" stare and threats that mothers do in public. To which he would reply every time "I'm not doing anything." Anyway, I finally snapped. Told the boy to leave her alone already and that people were staring at him.

Yeah, I know. It was stupid. It wasn't my place. Blah blah. I already asked myself why I bothered or at the very least why I didn't try to difuse the situation a different way. Like I could have tried talking to the kid, reminding him, she was just being a normal little girl. But my head wasn't in the right place. Having lost my own sibling two months ago, it was bugging me to see siblings be overly cruel to each other. The mother finally raised her voice to me of course. ~rolls eyes~ If she'd raised her voice to the kid, maybe he'd have listened in the first place. Meh. I forgot what she said to me, something typical when outsiders try to discipline their kids. To which I told her he was picking on the little girl was all. And she like the idiot just said "so." So nice to see she only cares when it suits her. Anyway, we ignored each other the rest of the wait, and she kept better watch on her kids now that the waiting room was watching.

Ugh... Why do lazy people become parents? See, I at least admit my failings. I'd be a terrible parent. Laziness... Impatience... No way I'd screw up a kid by being their mother.

Starting Over

So, I used to do all my blogging on MySpace. But it seems that site, like most these days, just keeps getting more and more bogged down with each new update. Anyway, I lost interest in the site itself a while ago and my computer's memory makes boggy sites more of a pain than anything. So here I am... Starting over on a new blog site. Wish me luck.

For my Brudder....

Alicia's Poem
(Wolrd of Warcraft's version of Mary Frye's "Do Not Weep")

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
across Northrend's bright and shining snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
on Westfall's fields of golden grain.
I am in the morning hush,
of Stranglethorn's jungle, green and lush.
I am in the drums loud and grand,
the thunderous hooves across Nagrand.
I am the stars warmly gleaming,
over Darnassus softly dreaming.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.
___________________

And because it came on my iPod recently, and Josh gave it to me the "song"... Maybe inappropriate, but it made me laugh and think of him:

==============================

Comment(s):

That was so Josh's humor I am really going to miss seeing him at his computer just reading comics and watching those videos I hope that he is finally at peace now.

Posted by Tony the Tazman on April 12, 2009 - Sunday - 11:47 AM

Adventures of Last Week....

I finished my year off with an actual social life! Crazy I know! May not have had any plans for New Year's Eve, but I did have a fun few days before hand. Monday, Sarah and I visited while she was in town.... Tuesday, I finally met Ashley. Two days in a row of socializing!

Sarah and I hung out at my place for a lil bit after the grand tour since it was a first visit to the new place. Then I forced her sick lil butt to walk miles and miles up a hill barefoot... oh no... It was actually less than a mile, but it was a longer trek up the hill than I thought it would be. Anywho... We made it to the park and explored. Visited the playground of my youth.... Got high in front of kids...... on the swings. Took pics... not of the children. That woulda been pervy. Found the place where shopping carts die.... The cat village... Back at home, we played cards, ate pizza, and watched a movie. All and all a fun visit.

Next day I bussed to the restaurante to meet Ashley... And MTA's site lied...to my benefit. The stop was closer than planned. Got there early, which I knew I would, and read til the phone rang. One thing I love about Ashley, practically from the first moment we met, we were able to talk and talk as if we'd always been friends. Okay I confess.... I love Ashley... but even still I'd talked myself out of our first attempt at meeting... Call it social awkwardness making me more nervous at meeting a net friend. Glad I didn't talk myself out of it this time. So we'll have to do that again when she gets back from living in the future.

New Year's Eve I uh... did nothing... Didn't even stay online long. Had planned on doing shops and guilds too... Le whoops... Just didn't feel like it. Stayed in my room watching Christmas movies all night. Slept like an hour and a half til my eyes just popped open... Like poof I was wide awake even though alarm was set for much later. It was cool... I was awake to see the Rose Parade. Then went to Nana's for some menudo.. mmmmmm....

Friday was uneventful... Saturday... That was a busy day. Went furniture shopping for Mom... She finally got her first REAL set of bedroom furniture and I got a new mattress. Nana also took us to a store where we found in expensive but GOOD blankets and sheets and rugs. Had to rush home to clean out the "storage room / Pixie's bedroom" of the boxes that had no homes and the blankets Pixie uses. Lotsa moving stuffs...

All in all, last week was a GOOD week and a GREAT way to end last year and start this one. We both slept on oh so comfy beds. I think I musta slept nine or ten hours. Didn't want to move. Takin' a teasy today... Tomorrow a different kind of adventure.... Like unpacking Mom's stuff (finally), finding homes for the books and movies, and taking down Christmas. Fun fun fun...

I am Thankful

She said, "it's just another day." And while I get why some of my family doesn't want to celebrate Thanksgiving, it is most certainly not just another day to me. I may not care what we eat for the dinner. I may not even be able to tolerate extended family for long. But I do like to observe the day.

Yes, I love holidays. But that's not why. I'm thankful. I'm thankful everyday. Even after a rant or string of complaints, I am still thankful. I wish she could see it. I feel so blessed. We have so much to be thankful for, and I hope my family and friends see that even if they have their reasons for not being cheerful.

I was born legally blind, but God blessed me with sight enough to enjoy the beauty in this world.

I have never been financially rich, but God blessed me with family and friends who love me and whom I love.

I may never live in a mansion, but God has made sure I never spent a night on the streets.

I may not be model thin or overly glamorous, but God made sure I have never gone hungry or hated myself.

I may not get to do all the adventures I want, but God blessed me with an imagination to go anywhere.

I may not have alot of material goods, but God blessed me with soo many beautiful memories.

I may complain now and then, but I know God has truly blessed my life.

So, no... Thursday is not just another day. It is the day of Thanks. I am thankful everyday, but it is this time of year I reflect on it all the more and want to give thanks to my Lord that much more.

Ever since our preparations for the move to our wonderful new place, this song has been in my head... in my heart. I tried to find a video of it, but none of them had the life in it that I hear when I play this song in my head. So hears the lyrics:

I Will Enter His Gates

I will enter His gates with thanksgivings in my heart,

I will enter His courts with praise!

I will say this is the day that the Lord has made,

I will rejoice for He has made me glad.

He has made me glad, oh, He has made me glad.

I will rejoice for He has made me glad.

Arg!

Ever notice how someone can be consistant until you plan on it? For months and months, Mom goes to bed around eight or nine at the latest, sometimes even a couple hours earlier. She'd go to bed and I could watch TV while online or be productive without worrying I'd wake her with the noise. But not this week.... Oh no...

Thursday, since I wasted away the day, I was gonna unpack the last few boxes while watching Grey's Anatomy and ER... I watch em every Thursday since Mom's usually asleep or in bed... But no... She stayed out in the living room... Can't unpack cuz the tissue paper woulda been too noisey. I mean I tried to unpack a little... But ya can only keep tissue paper so quiet... Fine... I stayed up all night unpacking those LAST boxes cuz I had a mission and it was my own fault for wasting the daytime... My fault there...

Friday... Friday night AMC was showing "scary" movies... And I wanted to watch 'em. But it was Friday and Mom stays awake longer then, but that was okay cuz they were gonna replay at a later hour. Told her they started at eight, in case she wanted to watch 'em with me. And while she went "oo" by that time of night she was all pissy with me and we didn't watch. 11:45 rolled around and she was still out there... Falling asleep of course but to frelling stubborn to go to bed. So no movies for me. She finally left after the first movie was half over... By then I was like forget it...

Month ago.. She woulda been in bed and Thursdeay I woulda watched my shows and unpacked... Friday I woulda watched my scary movies... Instead I found myself irritated with her on both nights... Silly of me, I know... But whatev....

Good news though.. Those last boxes WERE unpacked.. Well the last ones possible anyway. :)

Psalm 55:22

I recently received this in an e-mail and felt the need to share it, especially with the holidays just around the corner. I of course editted out the "pass this on to X people", but don't let that stop you from sharing with those who may need to read it or praying for those you care about. - Carisa

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Psalm 55:22

"Friends are God's way of taking care of us."

This was written by a Metro Denver Hospice Physician:

I was driving home from a meeting this evening about 5, stuck in traffic on Colorado Blvd., and the car started to choke and splutter and die - I barely managed to coast, cursing, into a gas station, glad only that I would not be blocking traffic and would have a somewhat warm spot to wait for the tow truck. It wouldn't even turn over. Before I could make the call, I saw a woman walking out of the 'quickie mart ' building, and it looked like she slipped on some ice and fell into a gas pump, so I got out to see if she was okay.

When I got there, it looked more like she had been overcome by sobs than that she had fallen; she was a young woman who looked really haggard with dark circles under her eyes. She dropped something as I helped her up, and I picked it up to give it to her. It was a nickel.

At that moment, everything came into focus for me: the crying woman, the ancient Suburban crammed full of stuff with 3 kids in the back (1 in a car seat), and the gas pump reading $4.95.

I asked her if she was okay and if she needed help, and she just kept saying 'don't want my kids to see me crying,' so we stood on the other side of the pump from her car. She said she was driving to California and that things were very hard for her right now. So I asked, 'And you were praying?' That made her back away from me a little, but I assured her I was not a crazy person and said, 'He heard you, and He sent me.'

I took out my card and swiped it through the card reader on the pump so she could fill up her car completely, and while it was fuelling, walked to the next door McDonald's and bought 2 big bags of food, some gift certificates for more, and a big cup of coffee. She gave the food to the kids in the car, who attacked it like wolves, and we stood by the pump eating fries and talking a little. She told me her name, and that she lived in Kansas City . Her boyfriend left 2 months ago and she had not been able to make ends meet. She knew she wouldn't have money to pay rent Jan 1, and finally in desperation had finally called her parents, with whom she had not spoken in about 5 years. They lived in California and said she could come live with them and try to get on her feet there.

So she packed up everything she owned in the car. She told the kids they were going to California for Christmas, but not that they were going to live there. I gave her my gloves, a little hug and said a quick prayer with her for safety on the road. As I was walking over to my car, she said, 'So, are you like an angel or something?'This definitely made me cry. I said, 'Sweetie, at this time of year angels are really busy, so some times God uses regular people.' It was so incredible to be a part of someone else's miracle. And of course, you guessed it, when I got in my car it started right away and got me home with no problem. I'll put it in the shop tomorrow to check, but I suspect the mechanic won't find anything wrong. Some times the angels fly close enough to you that you can hear the flutter of their wings...

Psalms 55:22 'Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.'
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'Father, I ask You to bless my children, grandchildren, friends, relatives and email buddies reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of your love and power. Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit this very moment. Where there is pain, give them Your peace and mercy. Where there is self doubt, release a renewed confidence through Your grace, In Jesus' precious name. Amen.'
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When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, 'Jesus, could You please get that for me.'

Another Reason to Love Doctor Who...

Mom and were watching Doctor Who the other day and I caught something I missed the first time I'd seen that particular episode. Season 4 opens with an episode called Voyage of the Damned, where this humanoid race are on a flying ship modelled after the most famous Earth ship, the Titanic. On board is a tour guide for when the go "ashore"... He's got a degree on earthonomics. :P Anywho, the ships travelling during Christmas time, so he explains about what the holiday is to the humans.

London is in the country of U-Kay, ruled by King Wensleslas (sp?). The great god of the holiday is Santa who has claws and is married to Mary. At Christmas Great France and Great Germany go to war with Turkey, And as part of the victory they eat the people as a delicacy.... Suffice it to say, his history is a little off. :P

ANYwho... the Doctor was asked what the holiday was REALLY about... He says it's a long story... and that he should know, he "got the last room".... That's like one of the only sci-fi shows I know that makes any mention of the birth of Christ. No it wasn't preachy or spilling out the whole story, but that's not what Doctor Who is about anyway. I don't know... Just the fact that it was mentioned... I mean shoot... According to Trek universe, we were all created (aliens and humans alike) from one being or whatever nonesense they spewed on that one episode of Next Gen... I kinda ignore that episode. And BSG is all about the Greek gods....

I don't expect sci-fi shows to mention God or Christ. It seems like sci-fi is created by people of science beliefs and not faith beliefs... And I guess it makes sense... I mean in high school I wondered if there was Christian geared sci-fi books and someone looked at me like I was on crack. Like I was asking for something contradictory. Turns out there is... so there... :P Plus ONE of these days in the far far future I'm sure... I'll publish sci-fi books with that hint of my Christian faith (cuz I'm by no means an expert in my faith so I'm not about to lead anyone astray with LOTS of stuff....)

Anyway... It's 230am... I shoulda been in bed an hour ago... Still gotta season the chicken before it spoils (it's defrosted already but been too hot to turn the oven on :P )... Clean up after the kitties.... and get ready for bed...

v--v

Okay... I think it as a sign that I am a little vampire obsessive when I start dreaming about them.... Right?

Both my mother and I are both reading vampire books (me, Betsy, Queen of the Dead series, and her, Black Dagger Brotherhood which I will be reading next)... We're waiting the Twilight to come out in theatres... No, we have not read the books... Heck, I had to keep reminding her it WAS off a book series.... Now she wants to buy them now that SHE discovered there were SEVERAL books to the series... :P I'm like... Finish the books ya got! But I know I'll be dying to read more vampy books too...

Too bad I don't have anymore vampy TV... I heard Moonlight and Blood Ties was cancelled... Blood+ ended... True Blood is of course a premium channel only thing.... Bastards.... Heck I'd settle for reruns of what was that show... Dark Knight? Anywho.. old show... I'd watch my few vampire movies... but how many time can ya watch Interview with a Vampre or the Underworld movies? Plus they lack the feel I get from my books anyway....

Then there's the RPing... I stick to that little grid game mainly for the RPing... :P

Anywho... I musta fallen asleep to a Twilight trailer on TV or something.. cuz my dreams last night were ALL about vampires. Like lotsa mini episodes of a vampy show created in my dreamland. It was awesome.... if freaky. :P Had a very real quality to it... you know, not counting the fact that it was about vampires. Wish I'd written it down while it was fresh in my head.. Ah well.. Maybe tonight. :P

v--v Lotsa love bites for you all! v--v

Updates... Take Two....

Okay soo.... Wednesday the last of our utilities were turned on. Water & Power had been turned .. we moved in cuz landlords were doing some work in here. Telephone and Cable (yes we count it as a utility :P ) was turned on the day after we moved in..... Gas... Oh boy.. No we had to wait near a week for that one. Did you know end of October is a BIG moving period for alot of folks? I didn't. Yep, those appointments filled up fast for the Gas Co. So we had a long wait. No cooking.... No heater... No hot water!

Cold showers suck when it's freezing... Yucky as it sounds, I didn't wash my hair everyday. And the day the lady from the gas co. came, I waited as long as possible hoping they'd come before I HAD to shower. And I was almost in ... okay I WAS in tears when she said she couldn't light the pilot on the water heater cuz the vent tube whatever wasn't connected right. Luckily the land lord came right over and fixed it before she left. So yay for heat and hot water. We cooked that very night... Okay heated up a frozen lasagna dinner in the oven. :P And omg! Hot showers here with the super shower head (which we only had on trickle to reduce the cold water on us before) is absolutely heavenly! I mean it practically massages you!

Okay I'll stop babbling about that, cuz that's not why I started this anyway... Week one of unpacking fun.... Kitchen is all functional finally. :) Laundry room/kitty's room is all set. Linens are all put away... That leaves just the bathroom to figure out to be a fully functional home. With a counter-less sink area and a different storage system than we're used to, I'm just not sure what I want in the bathroom and what I want in the surplus supplies closet. Things would be much easier if Mom didn't have tons of make up and hair crap. :P But then I can't fault her for being your average female. :P So I figure I'll do that tomorrow or Monday.... Probably Monday..

That leaves the decorating stuff left... The purdies that belong in the hutch.. the little table decorations I had... pulling out the knickknacks and finding new homes for them both in the living room and my room... Then trying to figure out where to put ALL our books and movies and oh boy do we have a lot of both!

The personal crap like miscelleneous crap that goes in nightstands and various drawers or various files and paperwork will find their homes in time... I'm not touching her mountain of files and records... :P But I figure the bulk of the unpacking will be over by Friday.

Then the joyous job of calling everyone (bill ppl mostly) and telling them we moved... Blah blah... Speaking of calling people.. My cell phone is like on it's death bed. That is to say it can't charge anymore. I can hear lil bits rattling inside the charger port. Fun stuff... Luckily we still have insurance on that line. So once I get over the hope of a brand new phone I'll probably just call and have them send me a new one of the model I have now. Currently Mom and I both have to charge our batteries using an old cell phone that doesn't work except for charging. But taking the batt out alot and charging that way is slowly killing Mom's batt... So I imagine mine will die too... Ah well...

Soo... Thursday we had a fun mishap...... Emphasis on sarcasm there..... I was doing laundry and I guess the sink got full of towl fuzz or something. I dunno.. I'm used to big laundry rooms where the water doesn't drain out into a sink! Anywho... the fuzz got clogged in the drain... and yay the sink overflowed..... Water all over the floor... and filled the litter box! Well there's a waste of half a box of litter.... And we had no more... so had to run out and buy some... And yay for me.. had to clean out a muddy litter box and muddy floor cuz our retarded cats like to kick litter out of their box... Thoroughly disgusting night. Got bitched at for something not my fault.. but life's too short so I'm not gonna elaborate and get mad all over again...

The only bad thing about living here... :P .... is no dishwasher! :P Okay, just kidding.. I don't mind TOO much unless I wait too long to do them. But dude... we totally need a dish rack or something... cuz right now I'm using ice cube trays to put stuff on just so they can dry! None of our kitchen towels are all that absorbant or I'd dry them and just put them away. Yet another thing to get for our New Home shopping list. :)

Exhausting unpacking... Disgusting litter mess... Cold showers... And weird climbing into bed (cuz my side's against the wall til Mom gets her own set of furniture)... All that said.. I'm still glad we moved. :) I love it here. :) And so do my furry babies!

Updates.....

Where to start.... Well sad news... Tweedledum got hit by a car sometime month before last... Poor lil Dumdum... That was sad for a little while until Tweezers started coming around more.. As if Dum had been keeping Tweezy away...

End of September I got a computer virus. FUN stuff man... No really.... >.< Yeah... Took me ages to save my crap to discs and emails. Then dropped off my poor baby at my Dad's place so my bro could fix it... Wiped it clean... Reformatted... Put on new Norton crap... Lemme tell ya, the week comp was gone, I used mobile web-ness ALOT. Then you know.. You get the comp back and have to put your own crap back on it... Catch up on a week's worth of emails and month's worth of forum posts and stuff from my various net activities. Still playing catch up on those by the way...

Like a week or so after getting the comp back, so began the packing adventure. Yep... Packing for... MOVING! Let me tell ya, I was not as organized this move. I dunno what went wrong or where I dropped the ball.. But much of the packing took place the last week and some still on moving days. It was crazy! And then setting up utilities I guess was later than usual (I can't remember when I started them last two moves). As a result, we are sans gas (stove and hot water) for a few more days...and we've been here since Thurday night already!

Had to hire movers. Note to self: make more male friends.... It was steeper than planned.. but without them I dunno how we woulda done it all without being exhausted ten times worse than we were and with broken backs... Though, we took a couple casualties... Two TV carts broke. Mom's is functional.. Mine was shot. Thank GOD I packed my VCR and DVD player and didn't leave them in the cart... But they seran wrapped everything... made comps and desks they sat on all one movable unit.. no unhooking things or packing needed.. it was great for "unpacking" when we got there.

Ditched the massive fridge we've had for years. To tall and too wide to fit in most places.. Mom was too tired to care. So we left it outside and gave it away. We're using the land lady's fridge for now. We really don't need the huge one anymore anyway...

Moving days, the strays kept coming around for food... but like early on the food got packed up and lost in the shuffle. So all they got was dry food. Tweezy and Tigger figured out they could get food from neighbor on the end. She has a cat and a dog already but she practically adopted Bandit (formerly known as Tweedledee). And she feeds the strays too. So I'm not worried... Did feel bad about Jacob though. Maybe I'll write a letter to the asshat who only sorta owns him now. I know his address after all... That or give SoCal's Humaine Society a jingle.

Thursday we moved most of the stuff... Mom made a few trips solo on Friday while I waited around for cable guy to arrive and finish up... >.< I mean I unloaded for her but still she hefted up ALOT on her own...After we unloaded her second trip's worth, we took off for one last load. Odds and ends that fit really ackwardly. But they DID fit. I cleaned up (vacuum only cuz mopping fluid got packed :P ) and then we took our last hot showers... We like just left the keys in the apartment and left :P

Oh! and we found this four wheel flat bed cart thingie the movers were looking for in the bushes. :P We kept it... Cost of damages. :P

Anywho... We're moved in... Happy... Tired, but happy... Unpacking adventure begins tomorrow while Mom's working. :)