Nerdy Book-Loving Girl

It's been awhile.  I'm completely exhausted.  I'm moving again at the end of May.  I have a job, I don't remember if I've mentioned that.

Honestly, I kind of don't care about playing catch-up right now.  Probably because I've had 3 hours of sleep and I work 1-10 tonight.

I'm alive, I gave up on The Scarlet Letter and Mrs. Dalloway and whatever the hell else I was trying to read.  I'm currently reading Lord of the Rings, and it's actually really good.  There's a few parts that you really have to be awake for or they sort of slip by you and you have no idea what you just read because you mostly stared at it and turned the page, but other than that, it's excellent.  I keep running across words I don't know that Tolkein didn't make up, and I don't have a dictionary and I'm usually at work when this happens, so I may never expand my vocabulary at this rate.  In any case, I'm almost done with Two Towers and am making my way steadily to The Return of the King.  It's a one-volume book I got out of the library, since I was having issues finding Two Towers when I started getting close to being done with Fellowship, and so I switched to the one-volume set, and hope I didn't miss anything.

So, I'm supposed to go with MB to her friend's house today to do laundry while she dog-sits, and we're supposed to leave in about 5 minutes and she hasn't even taken a shower yet, so we might not be going.  Hopefully the dogs don't poop inside or anything if she's late.

Edit approximately 30 seconds after I clicked publish: MB is now in the shower, hahaha, so apparently my thoughts were a catalyst or something for her.  Heeh.

Anyway, my birthday was yesterday and now I'm 25.  I'm going to go get coffee and hope that I get to take a nap before work.

The Slob Who Reads a Lot

I am alive.  (Obviously.)  I am in Emporia.  I am about to go to bed.  Apparently, the best I can do is declarative statements at the moment.  I have a library card, a job (which I haven't attended orientation for, which makes me nervous), and I have other big news that I hope I'll remember to post about later.  It deserves its own post, both so I can shit my pants over it and squee incessantly.  I am currently reading (or rereading): Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve, and The Stand (expanded edition) by Stephen King.  I've already read Angels & Demons, but I haven't seen the movie yet, so I wanted a refresher on how disappointed I'm going to be.  I read 9 pages of Pride & Prejudice before I gave up a few days ago, further cementing my need to just own the book so I can read it like I read 1984 - pick it up every few months and read a chapter or two.  Of course, I haven't touched 1984 since 2006, but it worked for The Hobbit - it took 6 months to read, but damned if I didn't do it.

Things are looking up.  I'm terrified.  I'm on the edge of some (more) huge changes.  I don't know how I feel about this and how many I'm ready to accept, but I'm working toward something different.  I don't know if it's better, but it's different.

I miss everyone like crazy. 

My belongings are everywhere because I never pick anything up.  I have two binders, a blanket, two canvas bags, a bathrobe, various purse innards, a newspaper, a notepad, a sweater, and mail on the floor near my feet right now.  Oh, and four library books, and that doesn't even count the books I seem to have misplaced.  (I was attempting to read Mrs. Dalloway again.  I got as far as I did last time.  I just can't seem to follow it.  It's somewhere around here.)

Things I seem to be good at accumulating, now that all my stuff is in one place:

• Pens with varying levels of ink.
• Odd batteries.
• Shoes.
• Books.
• Purses.

I am odd.  I am tired.  Good night.

Music Explosion

Last night I decided I was fed up with my music being so disorganized and began the endeavor of getting it sorted out and deleting stuff I meant to delete months ago.  Like my Enya stuff, which was a mess - I had six copies of the same song in some instances.  I've deleted about 1,000 songs since yesterday evening, when I started, and I've added probably about 150 or so so far, but I'm also still deleting.  Exciting stuff.  When I started, I had almost 4,000 songs, and I'm down to just under 3,000 now, ranging over the entire musical spectrum.  I'm fairly sure I don't have a single unrepresented genre.  Well, I was, but S asked me if I had any punk or Goth music, and I'm not sure I have any big band (because, dude, 3,000 songs), but I've got at least a small sampling of almost everything.  Obviously.

I've got access to my files from the other hard drive again, and I'm taking great advantage of this by getting everything off of it as soon as possible.

Anyway, the weather here is wonderful and cold and perfect.  It feels delicious and like cocoa and crunchy leaves and long sleeves.  Favorite time of year ever.

I've been working on a crochet project that my ex-fiance sent me (I left it in England with him because I thought we were getting married), it's actually the first granny square I ever made, which I made with a bunch of random scrap yarn I had, and I'm going to give it to S when I'm done, because she really likes the colors.  I'll post a picture tomorrow after I get the chance to take a picture of it.  This means when I'm working on it and the Toddler is in bed.

I'm about to go out and drop off a job application, and half the reason I'm so stinking excited about it is because I get to wear a long-sleeved shirt for once!  Okay, getting dressed and leaving now, so posting.  The Toddler is very displeased that we are not leaving immediately.

Power Outage, Storm Damage, and a Link Round-Up

I was going to write a second blog post last night before going to bed. There was going to be a link round-up and I was going to post some updated pictures of the doggies, because doggies are awesome. But, the weather decided that wasn't happening. We had some serious storms last night (one of my links is about that), and we lost power a little before midnight last night. It didn't come back on until about 6:30 this morning, so I'm just happy that Firefox saved my tabs, because I hadn't bookmarked my links or anything yet.

Anyway, about the storm - it was really cool to watch it come in before we realized how bad it was going to get. Both kids were in bed and I'd just finished up my evening session of Final Fantasy X (this is something like my sixth time playing that game, but will only be the third time I've actually finished it, if I do), and S suddenly said that a huge storm was coming in with straight-line winds and possibly hail. Of course, because we're weather people, we went outside to watch it come in. It was actually really awesome, there was a lot of cloud-to-cloud lightning in the storm, and I could see its progression by where the lightning was in relation to me - it started out only being north of us, and within five minutes was directly over us, and the wind went from almost completely calm to about 20 miles per hour, and it was just starting to rain a little bit when we suddenly had a huge 60 mile per hour gust. The wind was groaning; I was absolutely terrified that there was a tornado and that the sirens weren't going off like they're supposed to, but S told me that it was because of the way the wind was blowing through something. We had to run for the door to get back inside because we were getting a lot of debris, and we both got some small bits in our eyes.

A few minutes after we came in, the power went out momentarily before going out completely a couple minutes later. I started spazzing out because power outages freak me out (the only reason I was freaked by the storm was because I was terrified a tree was going to fall on the house), but S totally kept her head and just went and started lighting the million candles we have around the house, which gave us enough illumination to see. I imagine that's what it looked like in here when the original owners of this house lived here, back when it was a farm in the middle of nowhere and there wasn't electricity.

Of course, no event can happen without the dogs going completely nuts at some point, and they decided they were in love with my flashlight and chased me all over the house. They were really excited the whole time and both really wanted to go outside, but I wouldn't let them because I like having alive doggies.

While the power was out, S stepped outside to see why there were so many emergency vehicles around and to see if it was just our house that was out or if it was the whole block (it was), and I stepped out to see if I could see anything else and whether the dead tree branch in the front yard was still up or not, but my trip outside was abruptly aborted when a giant flash of lightning exploded right above me (it felt like it was, anyway), and then there was this massive clap of thunder immediately afterward while I was frantically scrambling with the door to get inside. I spent about half a second feeling sure I was about to die.

When S went to bed, I had to leave a few of the candles in the living room burning because I'm so afraid of power outages. I think it's because the house is too quiet and dark and I have a vivid imagination. Somehow, I managed to fall asleep, only to be woken by J coming home from work around 6:30, which was immediately followed by the power coming back on. I managed to stay mostly asleep until probably about 8:00, though, so I definitely got enough sleep to function, which was nice.

Anyway, S and I went to QuikTrip this morning, and on the way there, we'd seen a little bit of storm damage, so decided to drive around the neighborhood before going home and discovered houses that barely escaped being crushed by trees and one street was so blocked off by fallen trees that we had to turn around and go a different way, which led us past the neighborhood elementary school, which is right next to a little park. That park was seriously torn up. A giant walnut tree directly next to the playground had completely broken and landed in the middle of the playground equipment, breaking the only bench.

Later today, after J went to bed, S and I took the Toddler out to that park to get a look at all the damage. Clean-up crews had already done some work moving the branches out of there in the two hours since we'd seen it last, and while I was impressed with the speed and efficiency that they were showing, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to come earlier to get pictures of the damage before it was touched. It was pretty impressive. I saw at least three uprooted trees, lots of torn up limbs, and just general debris. S and I are pretty sure that there was an undetected F1 or F2 tornado last night, judging by all the damage. I took many pictures. The Toddler got really excited on the playground equipment (it was safe to play on, miraculously) and decided his face was an excellent tool for descending stairs, which is also known as sliding down metal stairs with your face. That kid is seriously resilient: he didn't even cry; he was just really startled to find himself upside down on the stairs.

Anyway, we decided to leave the park when the crew that was removing all the trees came back from what I assume was their lunch break, and drove past a pretty impressive downed tree across a yard. It had missed the house by only a few feet. After I picked my book up from the library, which I've been waiting to read for six months, we drove by it again so we could get some pictures. It was truly epic. I know getting it out of there will be a bitch, but those people are incredibly lucky that their house is still standing.

After we got home, I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood to chronicle some of the damage. I found two possible culprits for our power outage in this area last night - a huge tree on the main road we live on, about a block away from us, had fallen and hit the power pole, which is now leaning awkwardly over the street, and the lines are all screwed up. There was also a couple of awesome evergreen trees I always liked that were covered in thick vines on a side street, which broke and hit the lines there, too.

Storm Damage Photos

(Click to enlarge)
 

This was the tree in the park next to the playground.

These people got very lucky.

This was the tree that took out our power last night.

I really liked these trees and am sad about how damaged they are now.

Okay, so now that I've dithered on for pages about the storm and the resulting damage, let's move on. I've been talking to E today, at least when I've been home, and she's decided that we must go on a vacation somewhere together. The lunatic wants to go to Europe, somewhere like Italy or France, where neither of us speak a word (or at least a complete sentence) of the native language, or somewhere ridiculously expensive like Australia. I suggested Iceland as a joke, and then Canada, because if we went to Victoria, we could also visit Seattle, which I don't think she's ever seen. She shot both down, so I suggested Alaska. She surprised me and greeted that idea with some enthusiasm. Of course, we'd have to go shopping to get supplies like hiking boots, so it'll have to be after I get a job, and oh god, I'd need about three extra memory cards and a whole case of damn batteries for my stupid camera. This is going to be awhile off, anyway, due to the me not having a job thing. But she's planning on coming back for a visit soon so we can truly hang out and spend some time together, instead of the short, fleeting visits we've been having for the last few years.

I tried to get in contact with the driver's license bureau again today, and once again, I was hung up on because they have no hold system. I'm so sick of that crap. I just want to know if I'm ever getting unsuspended or not, because I'd really like to get a driver's license so I can try to fix everything else. Seriously.

So, that's about all I have to say.


Links Round-Up 

Apparently, Missouri got the worst of the storm last night, so I'm feeling very lucky to be living on this side of the state line, especially since we got our power back so quickly compared to the poor people on the Missouri side, some of which are still without power.

I doubt that this will ever actually work, unless some truly motivated, good-hearted people are very involved in the process, but it's a pretty cool idea.

Pottermore is now in full beta, due to be open to the public sometime in October.  This article makes me wish desperately that I'd gotten into the beta.  I'm very impatient to see what all the content will be like.  Also, I'll never be bored again.

Anderson Cooper completely loses it on live television and giggles like a girl.  Hilarious.

Animals with their heads stuck in things.  Because.  Just because.

Some of these things were some of my favorite things to eat when I was younger, and I'm very sad that they're gone.  Seriously, bring Surge back, Coca-Cola!

(Also, this post had a ridiculous amount of technical difficulties!)

Laundry, Tattoos, Video Games, and Politics

So, this is kind of a boring post until after the links round up, so if you don't care about my daily life or what tattoos I want, just skip to that part.

I went crazy sorting the laundry last night and organized it by type. Girl Child and I now share a hamper for what she doesn't wash herself and all my stuff, the Toddler has his own hamper for his clothes and sheets and stuff, and J and S each have their own basket because a lot of their stuff dirty right now. I'd intended to combine it, but that was impossible. Today, I have washed all the towels in the house and all of the Toddler's clothes, and am currently working on a mixed load of sheets and other random household stuff, plus one of M's towels that S borrowed last night because we were out of towels. I'm such a slacker. I also folded a ton of laundry yesterday evening between the time J got up and the Toddler went to bed, so I also got to have loud music and lots of really loud singing. This coincided with Girl Child doing some dishes, so there was also presumably singing coming from the kitchen, so I can only imagine what the living room sounded like for J and S. Haha.

I just switched out the plastic drawer bin that has been the Toddler's toybox for the last several months for two of my totes that had all my yarn and crocheting supplies in them - now my yarn is in the drawers (the only thing that didn't fit was the pillows I still haven't made covers for) and his toys are in one bin, and he's currently in the other bin. It'll have his stuffed animals in it later, once he goes to bed.

I finally returned one of my library books today, and discovered that I can't use the self-check or place holds online anymore because of my fines. Fail. But I can still check stuff out, so long as I don't accrue fines, so I'm going to check to see if the hold on the Nora Roberts book I've been wanting to read is still intact, because I would be very upset if I lost my place in line. It'd be my own fault, though. (I just checked - I still have my position, and I'm in 17th place, so my hold should become available in a week or two, yay!)

I've been working on a list of things the Toddler is really quirky about lately. He can't stand having a door be open, for instance. If he finds a door that is open, he must close it. This is most unfortunate when it's the bathroom door when the doorknob has fallen out of it, because this makes the person using the bathroom unable to get out of it without assistance if they happen to forget to take the knob in with them.  (Me.)  He also has a compulsive need to close any drawers that he finds open, but he also needs to open my dresser and "rearrange" my clothing. This usually means that my clean clothes get put in the dirty laundry sometimes, or he'll randomly put dirty clothes in my dresser. Sometimes it kind of sucks to have my dresser in the hallway, but at least I have it at all. He also can't stand it when S's computer goes to a screensaver - he'll run over and move the mouse or hit keys until it stops. He also hates it when the laptops are partially open. He'll either try to open it (potentially flipping it off the TV tray), or he'll slam it closed. He's also taken to demanding that the baby monitor be turned off if he sees that it's on when he's not in bed, and demanding that it be turned on when he's about to go to bed.

Now, some of these behaviors can get really irritating sometimes, but mostly they're just rather hilarious, and they're interesting personality quirks that make me wonder what he'll be like when he's older. I love that kid.

Recently, I made a list of all the tattoos I want for a Facebook meme that I still haven't done - it turns out that I actually want quite a bit more tattoos than I thought I did! I designed a celestial symbol about two years ago that I want on my left arm, and I'm going to put a Jecht symbol right above it (Final Fantasy X and X-2). On my right arm, I'm going to get those Chinese symbols done that S reproduced for me, in right about that spot. On my back, at the base of my neck, I'm getting the sign of the Deathly Hallows, and below that, I'm getting the Royal Crest from the Legend of Zelda games. I'm getting an owl right above my right ankle, and S designed a viney thing for me a few months ago, but I'm not sure where I want it yet. I'm also thinking about getting a penguin to match my owl for my other leg, possibly some stars on my right foot, and maybe an ankh somewhere. Wow, tattoo-tastic!

I like making lists.

Today's been pretty decent. Girl Child left for her great-grandmother's this morning, even though the poor thing is getting her wisdom teeth in and is in a ridiculous amount of pain. I think she's pretty excited about it, though. Maybe. I got her to put her clothes away for me before she left, which makes me happy, because now I'm not going to be without a basket until she comes home. I also worked on her file for Final Fantasy X because she never activated the Celestial Mirror and was all the way to Yunalesca and was unable to defeat her. I've also gotten everyone but Kimahri in overdrive mode (I never, ever use Kimahri unless I'm being forced to), and leveled everyone up a little bit - I may run around a bit more for her later so Lulu will have Flare, because it's nice to be able to do non-elemental damage! The Toddler's been exceptionally obnoxious today, partly because his nap consisted of sleeping on me for about twenty minutes.

Honestly, I don't know if today was decent or just boring. It's mostly been laundry, video games, and temper tantrums.  However, last night I discovered I can lift Girl Child over my shoulder and carry her around like I'm a fireman.  She weighs about 130 pounds and is taller than me.  I AM SUPERMAN SUPER WOMAN!!!  Holy crap, I am strong.  I had no idea.  I still can't hold a gallon of milk in my hand very long, or do anything that requires wrist strength because I simply lack the muscles in my wrists, but my back and upper arms are very strong... apparently.  (I discovered this after Girl Child was poking me incessantly, and decided to try to pick her up and carry her across the room and put her somewhere... and I could.)

I have a few links to post, and some of them have sparked outrage for me.


Links Round-Up

Okay, this makes me angry.  Really, really FUCKING angry.  This man is more concerned with making Obama a one-term president than he is in trying to fix some of the royally fucked up problems this country is having.  Seriously, your primary goal is to get Obama out of the White House?  What about raising taxes to get us out of this mess of debt?  What about some true educational reform instead of this No Child Left Behind bullshit?  I don't want fucktards like this running my country.  He doesn't give two flying shits about the debt ceiling or the economy disintegrating before our very eyes, he just wants to get rid of a president that seems like he actually cares and wants to bring some true change so he can just keep his cush, two days a week job doing a bunch of bullshit and generally being a corrupt asshole.

Speaking of Congress being a two day a week job, Congress decided to go on a month-long vacation without doing anything about the FAA's complete lack of funding.  A political writer and blogger wrote a speech he's dying to see Obama give to Congress for their complete lack of responsibility.  I have to say, I quite agree with him, and honestly, I think the whole political system needs a complete overhaul.  Just because it worked 250-ish years ago, does not mean it works now.  I am really unhappy with politicians not caring what the people they're supposed to represent want, because I thought that that was what they were there for, not to pursue their own agenda.  I say we get rid of Congress and all those other corrupt people and just have a lot of voting days where the American public gets to vote on the issues at hand and decide for themselves how they want the country to be.  Seriously.

In other outrage-tastic news, Fox News apparently thinks giving battered women the help they will need to get out of those situations and providing easy access to proper women's healthcare is as frivolous as getting a pedicure.  Really?  Really?!  I am so angry at these people.

I feel so bad for this girl, and cannot believe the school district is standing behind this.  I hope she wins a big fat settlement and goes to an awesome college and becomes their bosses and fires the shit out of them.

I don't know who I feel more sorry for in this case, the little girl who was kidnapped and adopted fraudulently, the couple who adopted her that apparently didn't know she was kidnapped, or her birth mother, who has missed the last five years of her kid's life.  (Also, the girl's adoptive parents are from the North Kansas City area, which was a bit shocking to me, as it came completely unexpectedly.)

And, for a palate cleanser, here are some awesome storm cloud pictures from Canada.

Record-Setting Heat and Body Canvases

I did not get nearly enough sleep last night, and it showed.  I was baby-sitting the Toddler earlier because S had to pick Girl Child up from the relative's house, and the only thing that kept me from falling asleep was writing my last post on paper and sheer force of will.  I was going to go take a nap/sleep until tomorrow after the Toddler woke up from his nap, but by that point, I'd gained a second wind.

I haven't gone outside during the day in about three days or so - it's been too hot.  Today's official high was 109, which was record-shattering.  Seriously, that record is smithereens, shreds, nuked.

I'm never going outside again.  Oh my god.

Today, S and I became human canvases for each other - lots of doodling.  I also had her draw the sign of the Deathly Hallows on my back in about the spot I'm planning on getting it tattooed, and she reproduced the Chinese symbols for Serenity (the Firefly) on my right inner arm, so I can get an idea of how exactly I want them when I get those tattooed on me.  The rest is just a jumble of insanity.  Also, I can't draw an ankh to save my life.  S wrote "Trololololo" on my foot, for instance.  She has it on her arm.  There are leaves, misshapen lips, aliens, insults, derpy faces, and just all sorts of stuff.  My left arm is covered in Harry Potter scars.  S got a lot less of the "artistic" outpouring because I mostly drew on myself, but I wrote "Accio Brain!" on her leg and some stuff backwards and upside down.

At the moment, I'm watching Prisoner of Azkaban, but once I finish this post, I'm going to bed.

This is what S drew on my arm.

... And these are the original symbols.

 *squee*