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.

Adventures in Packing

Moving is hard.

You start off with the best intentions. "Everything is going to be packed properly! The kitchen stuff will all be together, the bathroom stuff, the bedroom stuff, the clothes, and the books will all be packed separately from each other," you say. Then you try to pack. First, you have a tote (or box, but in my case it's a tote) with all "memory box" type stuff. Then you have another tote with only books. But there's a little bit of extra room in the top and you don't want your books sliding around all over the place.

So you put a random dish towel on top to shore things up a little.

It all goes downhill from there. You start putting dinosaur tater tot toys in water pitchers and filling pasta pots with cosmetics, putting art supplies in the tote with the hangers, a single hanger in the tote with all the towels and breakable kitchen stuff. The purses and shoes are together, but they have a blanket in with them. At first, it still makes sense. Most everything is still organized. Then you start finding things around the house that you meant to pack but forgot about in your frenzy, and by the time you get to the last tote, this is what you have left to pack:

• A wedding planning binder (from 2 years ago that your best friend gave you after her wedding so you could plan yours that never materialized)
• A giant CD book
• A snake pen
• A wall night light
• A Christmas garland
• A plastic brandy glass the size of your head
• A pretty basket you keep bathroom stuff in
• Two hot pink file trays
• An accordian file
• Two photo albums
• A yearbook
• A catalog
• A half-done painting
• Various other artwork on paper
• A metal recipe box
• An enormous bathrobe
• A throw pillow inside piece for a pillow you never made

And of course, it doesn't all fit. You stuff things inside of each other, rearrange, take stuff out and put it back. You seriously consider attempting to concuss yourself with the brandy glass. Your back hurts and you just want this to be over with already. Finally, you give up, ditch the CD book, the pen, the metal box, the bathrobe, a photo album, and the wedding planning book, shove the garland in the brandy glass, and suddenly the tote closes. Then you dump all the extra into a laundry basket and put it on top of the giant stack of totes so you don't have to look at it anymore and run away.

This is why moving is hard.

Procrastination is Bad, But Links are Good!

I've been procrastinating lately about writing anything because I'm, well, lazy.  However, I'm almost done completely redoing my entire iTunes library, which includes correcting files and deleting bad ones and removing the ones that I only deleted out of the library and not off the hard drive.  (I had almost 10gb of extra material and am now down to probably less than a gig of stuff I don't want.)

This post is going to be primarily a links post - I'll write a real post about life in a little bit, and post some photos, because yay photos.  But now, here are links I've been gathering since September 5th.

Links Round-Up

I complained about Pepperberry earlier this week in this post, but while I was writing that post (and looking at all the links that I used when I wrote it), I came across an article that pointed out that when Pepperberry was launched, they sized all of their stuff down just enough that the Super Curvy size now fits like a Really Curvy, which presumably means that no one above an F or G cup will be able to shop at Pepperberry now unless they want to buy overpriced clothes that are in a size that is too large everywhere else.  If I'm going to be forced to buy something that doesn't fit me well, I may as well just get it from Wal-Mart for five bucks instead of thirty at Pepperberry.  So disappointed - I was really looking forward to buying some clothes from them after I get a job and lose about 10 inches.

Square Enix is doing a remake of Final Fantasy X, which is only my most favorite video game ever.  I'm hoping and praying that the battle system goes unchanged, since I'll probably be unable to play it if it does change.  (I'm hilariously bad at real-time battle and most other turn-based systems are too quick for me to keep up with because I'm a rather methodical player.)  But oh god oh god the graphicsgasm I shall have!  Can't wait, can't wait!  (I think they're just making it prettier for the PS3 so it can be in HD, but maybe there'll be new content, too.)

Vladimir Putin is pretty much the coolest leader of a country ever.  Dude.  Seriously, go look at these photos.

For the last several years, I've noticed that teachers are getting blamed more and more for things that are actually the fault of the parents and students.  It's definitely not a profession I intend to go into anymore (I used to want to be a teacher when I was a kid), mostly because there's too much stress and bullshit for the low pay teachers receive.  Until teachers are valued for the vital keystone to our world's future that they are, we are going to have nothing but the people who chose teaching because it was easier to become a teacher than it would have been to go into the profession they really wanted.  I found an article written by a teacher that tells parents what teachers really would like to say, if they weren't terrified of going to jail, being sued, or otherwise losing their livelihood.

Scientists studied a group of 60 four year olds taking mental function tests, and found that watching nine minutes of Spongebob Squarepants right before taking the test caused them to do measurably worse than the children who watched nine minutes of Caillou or drew pictures for nine minutes.  All right then.

Well, now I don't want to live in England anymore.  What the hell kind of country rations tests designed to detect cancer early?!

In the rainforests in the Indian state of Meghalaya, there are living bridges.  Made of tree roots.  And they are pretty.

Cool!

I really like Obama, and I think most of the country is being a little impatient with him - how is he supposed to fix everything George Bush broke in just four years, when Bush had eight to break it all?  (Not that it was just Bush, since it was also the entire Congress being rich, pampered assholes.)  Anyway, I really liked seeing him be angry with Congress, and I hope that this does something, whether it lights a fire under Congress's collective ass or just gets Obama elected for a second term so that he can finish what he started.  I feel proud of him, and I really hope that jobs bill gets passed, because maybe that will finally help me find a job.  (Of course, then everyone reading this will probably never hear from me again... :P)

This is just horrifying.

NPR made a chart that shows where the Republican contenders stand on climate change and evolution.  This is like a week old, but still relevant if you haven't seen it.

I have made it no secret in the past that I at best look upon Michele Bachmann with disdain, and at worst make fun of her mercilessly. And, of course, there's the recent bit about her in the news that, unless you live under a rock, you know about - the Republican debate where Michele Bachmann yelled at Rick Perry for trying to push through legislation forcing girls to get the HPV vaccination as the Governor of Texas.  I think it's hilarious that the American Academy of Pediatrics debunked everything she said about how the HPV vaccine can cause mental retardation.  It's even funnier that she tried to defend this, saying that she's not a doctor.  Because when you're a public figure, it's totally okay to make completely fallacious statements about something just because you don't agree with its use.

I decided after the whole Toyota fiasco a few years ago that I was never going to buy a Toyota that was made after the 1990s, and after seeing what their idea of an ad campaign is, I don't ever want to own a Toyota ever.  Ever ever ever.  What the fucking fuckety fuck, Toyota?!

I found this video hilarious.  Beware, you may find it mentally raping.  S did.  (This is all C's fault, he sent it to me!)  Also, I really want to find the song that plays during the video, because it's really, really catchy.  And I want it.

I was sent this recently, because apparently this is what I should be giving to my boyfriends.  Ha.

I read Crazy Things Parents Say a lot, and I saw this the other day and thought it was really cute.

A murder suspect was called for jury duty... in his own trial.

Can't tell if trolling or legitimate...  Seriously, I can't tell if this is a joke or if it's an article that was really written in the 90's by some old curmudgeon who didn't trust that new-fangled World Wide Web thing.

This morning, J was reading some statistics to S and me about Fox News viewers.  Since we're a household of people who think people who legitimately go to Fox News for their news and political information are stupid, this was just more evidence of the kind of shit this country is going to.  I asked him for the link, intending to post it here and freak out about how the whole country is just going to implode, and noticed that he hadn't really paid attention to the website, which is actually a satire website, like The Onion.  Yep, that's right, it was a huge joke, and more hilarious for that.

Winter Clothes, Laundry Success, and Rediscovering Music

I often completely forget about the existence of some songs.  I will hear a song, love it, and then years later be reminded of it (usually because of a Wikipedia trawl), and be horrified that I don't have it on my iPod.  I rediscovered Gone Till November by Wyclef Jean last night while I was reading Wikipedia articles about the previous MTV Video Music Awards shows, from back when they had a huge selection of categories and were actually about music.  Anyway, Gone Till November won an award in 1998, and I remember seeing the music video on MTV, because it was right around the time I started watching MTV.  (That makes me old, the fact that I can remember when MTV and VH1 had actual music videos broadcasting in the daytime.)  But I loved that song, and I forgot all about it, so I am very happy to have rediscovered it.  Now once I get all the music off the other computer and reorganize on this computer (J is pretty sure it's the motherboard that's gone bad, but he didn't even check to see if the power button is broken or not, so it could be that, too), I will have the ability to see what I do and don't have, and make sure I haven't already gotten it and just forgotten about it.  Because that would be annoying, and I tend to do that rather often.

Anyway, I finished the laundry today.  My shirt also arrived, which I'm very excited about, and it's now washed and dried and sitting in my dresser waiting for me to wear it.  S and I are picking up the bras tomorrow sometime, after we go to the library to print the email confirmation to prove that I am in fact the person who bought the damn things, and then there will (hopefully) be new bras!  Woo!  Also, folding sheets is awful and I do not recommend it to anyone who wants to keep their sanity.  But there's only one load of dirty clothing right now, and I need to wash the comforters, and that is it.  Everything else is clean.  I can't say put away because Girl Child won't let me put her clothes away for her and all she does is stuff them in a random part of her dresser and then wonder why nothing fits.  All the rest of the clothes are put away, though, except for a few of S's because the dresser simply doesn't have the capacity for more.  And the closet is so full I couldn't fit another thing in there if I was Hagrid.  I'm feeling pretty good about the state of the laundry, though - it's whittled down to a point where I'll only need to do about a load a day, probably.

I actually had a disagreement with Girl Child about that.  She doesn't see why I should want the laundry to be completely done.  Because she doesn't care, and she doesn't think it matters.  Sometimes I really just want to grab her and shake her - but I'll just fantasize about shoving a banana up her nose instead.  (No worries, no crabby hormonal teenagers were harmed in the making of this blog.)  Besides, the banana threat worked fairly well as a laugh-inducer earlier, even if she didn't bother doing any of the things I asked her to do until I nagged her about it.  I would fall over in a dead faint if I discover tomorrow that she actually bothered to put her sheets on her bed like I told her to.  I'm really frustrated with her right now, can you tell?

I spent this morning baby-sitting the Toddler because S didn't get to sleep until after 4:00 this morning and he woke up at 5:30, so at 8:00, she decided to get me up and ask me to take care of him until later.  She got another three hours of sleep, which I guess is something.  Unfortunately, there was so little coffee left in the house that what I ended up making was like weak tea.  It was very sad.  J was up until about 6:00 this evening (so almost 24 hours), so I had a little back-up when I was alone with the Toddler, and the day was generally a good one.  Dealing with Girl Child was frustrating, the Toddler was both a giant butthead and really sweet, J was mostly playing on his computer and quiet, and S was S.  The highlight of my day was playing Final Fantasy X.  I'm finally ready to admit that I'm a little over-leveled - I killed Seymour in the battle on Gagazet so quickly that I barely got everyone in on the AP for the battle.

While I was folding the laundry this afternoon, the Toddler hung out with me.  I stuck him in the crib while I was playing music and managed to get a decent amount done until he decided he wanted to go back to the living room.  It was actually a pretty cool way to fold the laundry, too.  I sang to him and he'd either "sing" or start to dance, and then he'd throw one of his stuffed animals at me and start screaming for no apparent reason.  He's adorable.

I just heard a weird noise.  It sounded like air rapidly leaking from an air mattress, and I was a bit startled, as it started very suddenly, so I began looking all around the living room for the sound, only to discover it was S, with her cheeks puffed out, blowing out air through her mouth.  I told her that I was very startled by the noise and had thought it was a giant balloon or air mattress I'd somehow not noticed in the living room leaking air, which she thought was very funny.  Then I said, "Oh, you're just leaking again," and she said, "Occasionally I just plug the hole with something.. You know, food, drink, cock, whatever."

Yeah, that's what it's like to live here.

Anyway, I had more stuff to write about.  Oh, yes.  This evening, I went through the stuff I have stored in totes downstairs (this is what my life boils down to - totes) so I could get all my winter clothes sorted out and ready for when it gets cold.  Not that I really need them - if I wear a long-sleeved shirt, I only need a light sweater when it's 30 degrees outside.  I barely wore my coat at all.  Not that it fits anymore - my chest has gotten too big to button it, and it was the biggest size Kohl's had in that style, and was the first girly coat I've ever owned.  I'm a little disappointed, but maybe I'll shrink a little once I lose some weight.  Anyway, I got my small supply of winter clothes out and took the clothes that I never, ever wear downstairs to keep down there.  They're all clothes that will count as work clothes if I ever manage to get a job, so they'll have to come back up once that happens, unless I have a uniform or something, but for now, they're fine downstairs.  Especially since most of them barely make it over my stupid boobs right now.  (Hence, new bra.)

Anyway, the hat I made last summer (I made a whole set for myself - scarf, hat, and two sets of arm warmers) finally looks good on me now that my hair has grown out - it looked really stupid last year.  Which reminds me, I need to get my ass in gear on the hat I'm making for S so she can wear it with the scarf I made for her last year.  Hopefully I'll be able to make Girl Child's Ravenclaw scarf soon, too - she'll like having that.

My hair is sort of long enough to braid.  It's not a braid I'd ever wear out of the house, because it's all stubby and it'd fall apart in three seconds if I was moving around at all, but it's good for just sitting here.

Anyway, I'm really tired, and there isn't really a whole lot else to say.

Laundry and Linkage

Today's been an okay kind of day.  I spent a good bit of time just sitting around, being tired.  J stayed up really, really late, so he was around for awhile.

I reorganized Girl Child's entire dresser today so everything will fit better, and I think I'm going to have to start putting her clothes away for her so things stay organized.  I don't think she'll particularly mind, except if she wants a specific shirt.  She and S are actually planning on going through her clothes this weekend and sorting out what doesn't fit and what she hates, so it will definitely be easier for her to get to her clothes after that.

I also lost my mind and decided to sort the laundry that still needs to be washed - I've caught up enough that there aren't a million loads of it anymore, so I'm finally able to wash the loads by type and color, and I've only got about eight or nine loads downstairs now.  Of course, the household generates almost a load of laundry a day, so that won't last long, but I feel pretty accomplished about what I have done so far.

I've started biting my nails again, and I'm not very happy about that.  I was doing great for awhile, and I'm not sure what happened.  Hopefully I'll be able to stop again soon.

E talked me into creating a PayPal account today, and then sent me $25 as a "very very late birthday present".  She's really wonderful, I love her to death.  She's finally starting to work on getting divorced, too.  God, I wish she'd just told me before the wedding, because it would have been so much easier on them both, not having all this time to tear each other apart.  I guess I can't really focus on that regret, and neither can she.  I worry about her, though.  I can't imagine how poisonous her current home environment must be, and I really wish she'd just hurry up and move out.

Anyway, there's not really anything else to say.  Girl Child is currently doing the dishes, and once she's done, I'll be able to start the load of laundry that's in the washing machine, I have a small load of jeans to fold, and I'm really tempted to go on the hunt for more dirty laundry.  My life really does currently revolve around laundry, but at least if I maintain the system that I've set up downstairs, I'll suffer a lot less irritation, and probably be able to find clothing regardless of whether it's been folded yet or not.

So, on a less boring note, I have links to post about.  I've been gathering them for two days.

Link Round-Up

Some idiot thinks that carrying babies facing forward or in forward facing strollers will damage their brains or frighten them more than necessary, saying that parents unnecessarily traumatize their infants every day.  I can't believe this for a second, because every baby I've known has preferred to be facing forward, regardless of whether I was the one holding him or if it was his mother.  (Every single baby I've ever taken care of has been a boy - my current count of children I've baby-sat is up to six, every single one of them were boys who were in diapers at the time.  Half of them still are in diapers, actually.)  Anyway, I've never seen a baby who was fearful about being in a forward facing stroller or being in a carrier facing forward, or even just being held that way.  They want to take the world in, and they're more likely to be bored and bitchy if they can't see what's going on around them.

I found this article and the accompanying slideshow thought-provoking, a little heartbreaking, a little disgusting, and interesting.  I've got very mixed feelings about the whole thing, some of which are just too big for me to form into words.

Apparently Tyra Banks felt the need to write a book.  I attempted to read the first chapter, but it's so awful that I didn't make it past the first few paragraphs.  Not even Twilight was this bad, and I thought the single chapter I read of the first Twilight novel was terrible.  (I only read it so I could tell people that I had in fact attempted to read it if they challenged my criticism of the book, because I thought the concept sounded stupid right from the beginning.)

I don't normally post stuff like this, because it's more mundane than some of the other stuff I post, but the fact that Rupert Grint basically impersonates Kenny when he goes out in public to avoid all the publicity and attempt to live a normal life amuses me greatly.  That and the fact that he is lovely, lovely eye candy.

I love this short little story about the antics that went on during the development of Windows 95.  It's really kind of cute.

I stumbled upon the story of a neglected little girl while reading Fark a few days ago, and did some further research on her to find the original article about her.  It's one of the most tragic, heartbreaking, and horrific cases of neglect I've ever seen.  My heart aches for this little girl, and I hope the new family she has are able to do right by her.

And last, a ridiculous person who hates cursing.

Switcheroos and Baking Soda

I am so lazy! I've been having a hard time finding the desire to write anything. Really, all I'd like to do at the moment is a whole fat lot of nothing. Or sleep. My dark circles have bags. Even when I get enough sleep, I look exhausted.

I haven't done anything more with that essay about abortion that I talked about - I've been busy ignoring it in favor of things that require much less brainpower. In fact, I'm pretty sure that my brain has just completely deteriorated to a point where I'll never be able to think deeply again. That's kind of a scary thought, so maybe now I need to work on that essay and post it.

I'm listening to my favorite song by M at the moment, which is making it hard to sit and type everything out because it's so beautiful that I want to sit with my eyes closed and just listen to it.

Last night, I switched from my poor Frankenstein of a computer (which I never posted any photos of) to S's old XPS that used to be J's a few years ago. S inherited M's XPS (they're actually almost the exact same computer, except M's old computer has a better processor and RAM but a smaller hard drive than the other XPS), so I get a computer that I can actually keep most of my crap on, but now I can't play the Sims, unless I turn this one off and put it somewhere safe and hook the other one up with its eight thousand cables, because the optical drive on this one is broken from J dropping it so much. However, this computer has a much better, and less broken, keyboard. It's also faster, has Windows 7 instead of XP, and it's prettier. Not to mention, I could theoretically take it places with me that allow me to use the electricity, since the battery does not work at all. And I can close it if I need to, which is nice and something I've definitely missed. Anyway, I was intending on formatting this computer before using it, but then discovered that because the optical drive only works sporadically, it can't reinstall Windows (or run the Sims, since you need the disc to play if you don't want to play pirated copies), so what I've done instead is delete all of S's old files, reconfigure all of her settings and basically change absolutely everything to suit me. It's almost like having it be mine, except that it says Users>S-- instead of Users>L--, which just bothers the hell out of me, but honestly, if that's all I've got to complain about, I'll take what I can get.

Anyway, so lots of excitement surrounding the transference of computers - I'm keeping the Frankenstein as a way to play the Sims until I manage to acquire one with a functioning optical drive and other good parts, and this also means transferring my music library over - that's almost 18 gigs of music! And I have to completely resort it and delete all the stuff that I only deleted out of iTunes last time, because it's all back now since I never deleted the source files. (Over 1,000 songs, actually, that I'm going to have to go and find and delete. Oh joy.) Then I have to readd my audiobooks and fix all of them as well, probably, knowing my luck. Maybe it'll let me fix the chapter titles so they don't suck anymore, though, because a lack of formatting makes my head want to explode. And I need to find a better copy of Order of the Phoenix, as the one I've got is missing the end of the chapter The Woes of Mrs. Weasley.

Well, that's probably enough bitching about how disorganized I am and how much work I'm going to have to do in iTunes before I can even attempt to sync my iPod, so in other news, S and I are going to be trying out this "No 'Poo" thing that I found on a blog, which sounds completely awesome - basically, we won't be using store-bought shampoo or conditioner on our hair anymore, but a mixture of baking soda and water (and after J gets paid, we'll also be adding essential oils to give it a scent) for shampoo every few days and apple cider vinegar with water for conditioner, though just on the ends at first. Funnily enough, I found this not by searching for ways to stop using shampoo, but to find ways to make my hair healthier with food items, out of a combination of curiousity and frustration at how pathetic and weird my hair is. And because I just joined a long hair forum, hoping for some information that I might find helpful in growing my hair out. Anyway, I found this blog after a bit of googling, and it sounds like an absolutely terrific idea, especially after I got a load of her before and after pictures - her before picture had her hair looking dry and weird and poofy with this weird wave, and in the after picture, her hair was tame and soft and silky-looking, and it had darkened, too, to a shade of brown that she apparently was in love with.

Anyway, I've devised a schedule of how often I'm going to use the baking soda mixture on my hair, and I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to use the ACV every time I wash my hair or every other time. The way I've drawn up the schedule looks as if I'll be washing my hair on Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, Monday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, and then back to Saturday again, in a nice little cycle, so there'll be two days between each washing. I don't know if I'm going to need to move them closer or not - you're supposed to just rinse your hair with warm water in the shower on the days you don't wash it. It's going to be an interesting first week, though - the first 10 days or so apparently involve some truly horrific hair days while the scalp stops being all weird and re-regulates the natural oil production, which is basically the purpose of this experiment. I'm going to give it about a month and see how I like it by the end of August, and if it ends up looking okay, that's just how I'm going to wash my hair from now on. Hopefully, I'll never need to use a styling product again.

I'm really excited about this! I've read one account of someone's hair falling out in clumps, but 90% of them say that after the natural oils of the scalp regulated, they were so happy with it that they'd never go back. Also, some people discovered that they had curly hair, or straight hair, or another entirely different hair type than they previously thought, and it cuts out frizz almost completely. Also, if this works and we keep at it, we're going to save SO much money in the long run - we use a lot of shampoo and conditioner right now, and it'll be nice to only have to buy a box of nice, cheap baking soda instead of shampoo and conditioner for every person in the house, if J and Girl Child switch to it as well. Actually, I'm doubtful that Girl Child will make the switch, since it's so close to the start of the school year, but J probably will, if it does good things for our hair. I'm hoping M will make the switch, too, from what I've read, it does amazing things for people with very curly hair, and I think he'd be very happy.

Today, we went on errands involving the Kansas Department of Revenue - specifically getting the car registered and going to get Girl Child her first state ID and to get my instruction permit so I can work on driving and get my license. Unfortunately, I'm listed as having suspended driving privileges, so I couldn't get my permit today, or take the test, or do anything but be hung up on by customer service in Topeka. So I'm calling tomorrow morning, after I call the other relevant places to get more information on why this happened. Hopefully, it'll be quickly resolved with little effort on my part and I'll get my permit on Tuesday or something. If I'm lucky and it doesn't turn out that my driving privileges are suspended for life or something ridiculous.

In D&D news, we're starting another new game what W is going to run, and I'm going to try out being a rogue.  Basically, I'm a fancy beat-stick, but it's still a slight departure from the norm, and since I'm not all that good at the roleplay aspect as of yet, that's the best I can do right now.  I decided to name my new rogue Zoe, and S told me that I'd damn well better live up to the name and be a Big Damn Hero.  It should be interesting with W running - I've never actually played a game with him running, because LW was born right as he was about to start running the last game that I was going to participate with him as DM, and we basically had to give that campaign up after one session.  So, yeah, I'm a little nervous, as from what S has said, W's games are usually something that turns into a Lovecraftian horror.  Anyway, because J's work schedule is changing, we're moving game from Saturdays to Mondays, which is handy, because that is the day I'll be watching LW every week, so we'll be able to get started sooner since they won't have to drive all the way out to Raytown to pick him up before even getting here.

I applied for a job with the county a day or two ago, I can't remember for what position right now (it's in my email, so it's not like I'll be totally clueless if they actually called me), and I'm intending on applying to be an election worker, so maybe that'll help me get a normal job.  The permit thing is going to cause me problems, though, but maybe not too many.

I don't really have anything further to add, so I'm going to go and be very frustrated with iTunes now.

Also, thanks to The Bloggess, I now want a scary metal chicken sculpture.

Epic Laundry Day

Girl Child is wonderful.  I’ve spent a huge portion of today folding all the clean laundry (seven baskets or so and a very large hamper), while S hung up all of the hanging stuff and sorted out what she’s going to deal with tomorrow, and after I folded all of Girl Child’s clean clothes for her, I asked her to please put it all away in her dresser (as I need the basket, there’s a similar proportion of dirty laundry that needs to be taken down).  She did it without arguing, gave me the basket, and offered to assist me in collecting all the dirty laundry and getting it into baskets to take downstairs.  I love it when she’s wonderful.

I feel really accomplished after getting all that done - everyone now has clean clothes that they can find!  We even reorganized the system we had for the Toddler’s clothes and bedding, and we’ve already collected a bunch of clothes for donations out of the clean laundry.  Well, there’s still the socks, but there’s always the socks.  I don’t think we’ll ever find all the socks.

Anyway, that’s pretty much what happened today.  I’ve started another Sharpie drawing, partly in anticipation of when we rearrange bedrooms so I can cover the walls with art.  Also because I really like being creative with Sharpies.  I miss the construction paper art I used to do, but there’s no space to do that here, at least right now.  Maybe after J installs the dishwasher so there’s more room in the living room.

---

Girl Child ended up not helping get the laundry collected - the Toddler helped me instead.  I’m exhausted.  There are five regular baskets, two large laundry bags, two small laundry baskets, and the huge hamper full of laundry.  I also managed to vacuum the hallway, and now the Toddler is in bed.




Actually, hanging out with the Toddler was a lot of fun, actually - I was folding a last load of clothing and singing to him and playing with him and generally having a blast with him.  Then I spent 45 minutes with him, putting all the dirty laundry in the newly emptied baskets, which was both frustrating and hilarious.

Woo hoo, laundry.

Anyway, I’ve got a lot more to do tonight before I get the chance to relax and die a little before I go pass out.

Nothing to See Here

Sorry sorry sorry.

I meant to post periodically this week, but I am full of fail and keep putting it off or finding something else to do.  I don't really remember what happened in the last week, nothing special.  I have been acquiring a lot of obscure, badly made disaster movies made by people who don't understand science, which S and I have been watching with relish.  Why do the made-for-TV ones always have horrible effects at the beginning?

Nothing of note has been happening lately.  Just the usual boring stuff.  The only excitement lately has been with Girl Child, who went to a water park with her best friend and got a sunburn over most of her body, resulting in sunsickness, so we've all been taking care of her (mostly S and J, but I've been helping her out when necessary).  Poor kid is miserable, I hope she gets better soon.  We even had to end our D&D session early on Saturday night because she fainted, it was scary.  She's doing a lot better now, though.

My sleep schedule has been screwed lately.  However, I figured out how to sleep much more deeply and not be woken up randomly for no reason - Benadryl.  I was having some issues with being allergic to something last night, so I took three, and I ended up sleeping hard until 10:00 this morning.  I actually feel rested for once, unlike yesterday, when I slept for 10 hours and still felt like poop.  I got about eight hours last night (it took forever for me to fall asleep until I took the Benadryl), and I feel like something approaching normal.

I talked to E via texting last night and I may be getting the rest of my stuff back from her dad's storage soonish, depending on what S and J say about it after we rearrange bedrooms.

I sorted some of my files that are on J's computer (because my external broke and I don't have room on this computer) and deleted a lot - almost 2,000 files.  I have more work to do, but things are a bit more organized than they were, even though there's a folder that decided to be broken on there that I can't delete.  I hate that; not being able to do whatever I want with my files drives me nuts.  If I want to delete it, just fucking let me, Windows!  I deleted almost all of the pictures of the ex that I had on there, I'm finally at the point where it's not heartwrenching for me to go through them and delete the ones I don't care about.  I don't want to delete everything, there's no point erasing the memories, but I don't need his baby pictures, for instance.  And things were good in the beginning, before it all fell apart.  Most of the files on there are actually Sims-related - I have about 35,000 individual files in my folder, and most of them pertain to custom content for Sims 2.  I do love custom content, as long as it doesn't break the game.  (Which is why I stopped using Inteenimater - it will sometimes cause fatal errors in the game and force you to uninstall it and thus lose the entire save file and all the work involved.)

S and I were trying to watch Category 6: Day of Destruction (having watched 10.5 and 10.5: Apocalypse over the last few days), but the Toddler is being a butt and stealing stuff from Girl Child's spot in her chair and generally being a normal toddler.  All toddlers are obnoxious.  It's a fact of life.  So no, I'm not mad, he's just being what he is, and it wouldn't be fair to him to be mad at him for that.  Yeah, it's irritating, but he'll outgrow it eventually.  I'll be really happy when he gets out of the grabbing everything stage, though.  And the screaming louder than the TV thing so we can't watch stuff thing.  Heh.  Really, though, I love him and I don't mind much, because it's so cool to watch him grow up and develop and learn and stuff.

Anyway, I don't have anything special to say, nothing interesting is going on, as I've said.

Another Good Day

Today, I spent a good six hours working on a crochet block for the pillow cover things I'm making for the throw pillows that will match my afghan, only to discover that the pattern is completely fucked and that I can't use it.  After I was almost done.  Because that's when I discovered that the pattern was fucked no matter what I do.  So I gave it to the Toddler.

S and I are going to start baby-sitting LW a couple days a week soon, so that should be interesting.  We're baby-sitting him tomorrow for a bit while A has a job interview.  I hope she gets it, I think she misses working.

Tomorrow, I will hopefully work on the laundry while S folds what is already clean.  So. Much. Laundry.  I'm not sure when we're going to get that done, but hopefully it'll happen.

Today was a really good day, though.  S, M, Girl Child, and I watched the extended version of the first Lord of the Rings movie, and didn't finish until about 15 minutes ago.  Girl Child hadn't seen it all the way through yet, and it made her cry.  D'aww. 

W and A came to visit around 7:00 this evening and hung out for a little bit, which was nice.  Then the Toddler went to bed and S and M went out for dinner while Girl Child and I hung out and played music while I did some work partially constructing the afghan.

Most of the day was just regular stuff, same as always.

I'd write more, but I'm so tired my brain is no longer functioning.  I forgot to eat any actual food all day, though, which was kind of stupid of me.

I would go lay down now, but the Toddler is having one of his periods of wakefulness.

I have fantastic ideas for stories to write, but none of them come to me in words, just flashes of images.  They're all horror.  I think I read too much Stephen King while I was in high school.  It's permanently addled my brain.

I'm going to need to go to sleep soon if I want to resemble anything close to alive tomorrow.

Laundry, Plans for the Week, and An Obsession with Chocolate

I really shouldn't try to write blog posts when I'm tired.  That's really why I haven't been posting lately - I've been tired for the whole week.  It's been kind of awful.  Anyway, I was looking over last night's post, and found lots of really weird bits where the words in the sentences didn't make sense.

I was so desperate for chocolate earlier that I mixed together some baking cocoa, sugar, a bit of butter, a bit of milk, vanilla extract, and a little cinnamon together to create a concoction that was sort of a cross between chocolate syrup and liquefied candy bar, which was more what I was going for.  I'm not sure what I'd need to do to improve this, but I was impressed with myself for my first attempt.  It was so rich, though, that I had to add more milk to it so I could ingest it and get some form of chocolate.  Oh my god chocolate, how I love you.  I'd love you more if I could type properly, but between the keyboard slowly dying and my dyslexic fingers, I'm screwed on that one.

After the Toddler and S wake up (they are napping), we are going to the store.  I have forgotten what we're buying, but I hope it's chocolatey.  Because everything seriously needs to be made out of chocolate right now.  I want to live in a chocolate house and just take great big bites out of the walls.

I am not normal.

The Girl Child has yet to return home from her visit with her best friend, who is in town visiting her dad for the summer.  (Girl Child's best friend currently lives in New Mexico with her mother and only sees her father during school breaks.)  Don't worry, I'll think of an abbreviation for the girl sometime soon - I'll need to, as she'll be around a lot, hanging out with Girl Child.

E is coming into town this Thursday.  We're going to go out for an activity of some sort that will surely involve eating food, and then she'll drop me back at home and continue on to her dad's house.  She comes back to Kansas every summer for Royal Family Kids Camp, which is a summer camp for abused and neglected children, and the last couple of times, she's managed to stop by to visit me for at least a little bit, either going to her dad's or on the way back to Nashville.  I can't wait to see her, though I imagine she'll be horrorstruck by how fat I've gotten just since last year.  At least this time my hair isn't all falling out from hair dye, too.

I need to start finding clothes for going to the store and stuff, the Toddler has been asleep for ages, so I'm pretty sure he'll wake up soon.  He may not, though - he woke up at 3:00 and stayed up.  Only after bashing S and me with his head when S was trying to get him to sleep with her in the bed.  I'm not sure what time S got up this morning, because I was asleep and didn't wake up until 9:00 this morning.  I thought J was a fold in the blankets on the other side of the bed and accidentally kicked him, but all he did was roll over and stick his arms out weirdly, so I guess I didn't hurt him.

I'm hoping this week we can take ALL the laundry to the laundromat and just get it all washed at once.  And get Girl Child's room cleaned out so there's room to put all her clothes away so she'll stop stealing all the laundry baskets.

Today I need to find as many of my clothes as possible and wash them; I'm completely out of clothes and I'm really annoyed about it.

Anyway, obviously today isn't the most exciting day ever.  It's hot and muggy and disgusting outside.  I'm going to get dressed the rest of the way and then work on my crocheting some more, though I think I'll temporarily abandon the bag for awhile because I really want to get started on the actual work of getting the afghan all put together and stuff.

Pizza, Silly Songs, and Unemployment

Today wound up being a very full day, all things considered.  S and I ran errands, including a major grocery run, which ended in my hip grinding so badly that I could hardly make it through the store.  I single-handedly brought in all of the groceries because S really just can’t physically do that right now (though she’ll try if I let her), helped her set the Toddler up for lunch, then put away almost all the groceries myself.  What this means is that everything is nice and organized, which I quite like.  S and I seem to be the only people in the house that care if we can find food in the fridge. 

Anyway, after we got back, S got J up for the day, then the Toddler was put down for a nap, and then J went out to get some McDonald’s, and while he was gone, S was trying to make food in the kitchen for herself and managed to knock down a plate, which completely shattered all over the floor.  This would be the second time in 24 hours that something has been knocked down and broken in the kitchen.  The vacuum was necessary this time.  The plate-breakage is really my fault, though, I’m the one that stacked them haphazardly last night.  I had just finished vacuuming the area in the dining room that received a bit of plate shrapnel when Girl Child and J’s grandmother showed up (Girl Child spent the entire weekend with her great-grandmother).  While she was visiting with the family, I fixed S’s food for her so she wouldn’t have to get up again, and wound up collapsing on the couch in exhaustion.  My lunch wound up being a Choco Taco, which, while wonderful, is not really a sufficient lunch.

Just as J was getting ready to head out the door, S’s parents showed up for a visit.  I shall call them SM and SD, because they both have S names, too.  J had to go ahead and leave, and then the visiting commenced, coinciding with Toddler’s nap ending.  He was very adamant about being removed from his crib and jumped and screamed when it took me a moment to get to him.  I actually find his tantrums fairly hilarious, so this doesn’t really bother me, unless he screams directly into my ear.

Anyway, S’s parents ended up staying for dinner, and since we were already planning on having Papa Murphy’s, we just got a bigger size.  They got to see the Toddler after a quick shower, and have some cuddle time with him, and he seems to recognize them as Grandma and Grandpa, which is really cute, and there was a lot of fun this afternoon.  I got to play with the Girl Child some instead of arguing with her, too.  And we did some sort of strange group sing-along involving “The Song That Gets On Everybody’s Nerves” and “The Song That Never Ends” and other hilarity involving this type of thing.  Girl Child and I spoke whale at the tops of our voices.  (See Finding Nemo if you don’t understand.)

Anyway, I’ve spent a good portion of my afternoon and evening sorting some music for iTunes and adding it, and discovering that I have a ridiculous collection of music, and I seem never to run out of things I want to add.  Tomorrow, after I’m done sorting the rest of the unsorted stuff (I have a collection of ambient music and a collection of Randy Newman songs left to go through), I’m going to start going through what I have on iTunes itself to get the playlist parsed down to something a bit more manageable, and with less songs that I don’t really like.

I got an e-mail today from ADT informing me that they are not interested in hiring me.  Yipee.  No one is interested in hiring me.  I am so screwed.  I need a job.  I need a job that pays money and has health benefits, including vision and dental, and something to do with my brain other than surf the internet all day and play with the Toddler.  I’m very frustrated, I have actually made an effort to get a job, but no one will even give me a chance.  I hope we do move after we’re able to take M, maybe a different job market will help, maybe I’ll find a job then.  I mean, I’m not excited at the prospect of having to wait two years to get a job and I hope that I find SOMETHING in the next few months, but I’m starting to think that there really is nothing out there for me.

Anyway, I’m off to bed in a little bit in an effort to not feel like I’ve been beaten to death and reanimated by a sadist when I wake up.

Semi-Consciousness and More Organization

I got to stay in bed until 8:00 this morning, but since the Toddler woke up at 6:30 and J didn’t come to get him until 7:00, when he started actively crying (I was in and out of sleep because he was playing in his crib), and then J woke me up to ask me where the off-brand Special K was at 7:30, I effectively woke up around 6:45, so I didn’t get as much sleep as it seems like I did.  I hope I can take a nap this afternoon after J wakes up so I can play game tonight.  I can’t wait.  I hope W and A show up.

Yesterday ended up being not so great.  I was so frustrated by the kitchen that there was a lot of shouting about why the pot lids were in the bread box and yelling at Sunshine, who kept coming in and getting in my way and spilling the trash bags.  However, all the mugs are put away properly, as are all the drinking glasses, probably 90% of the spices are on the spice shelf, the dishes are put away correctly, everything that is in the bread box actually belongs in the bread box, and all the pot lids and baking stuff and tupperware are put away.  Also, I organized the food cupboard and put the rest of the food in bags on the floor away.  There’s about a load and a half of dishes just sitting in the sink and on the counters right now, which I also find incredibly frustrating, because what I consider to be a load and a half gets turned into three or four loads for Girl Child, which is why the dishes are still not done.  I’m not sure how she has managed that.  Anyway, if I feel less exhausted later, I’m going to hunt up the good kitchen gloves and work on the dishes, because I’m just sick of this.

Girl Child is at her great-grandmother’s right now, so it’s particularly quiet this morning.  The Toddler is being unusually silent, watching Sprout, and S is so tired all she can do is read.  What a bunch we are.

I wound up hanging out with M for a little bit last night, which was a surprise, because I don’t often spend time with him in an effort to make him be not uncomfortable.  He was getting ready to leave for work and was dismantling a broken clothes rack, so I helped with that and carrying it out to his car.  Also, I turned a box into a hat.  Anyway, he thinks I should play Minecraft, but I’m not sure I’d be very good at it.  I’ll give it a try, but no promises.  What’s funny is that I actually went downstairs to switch over the laundry and work on another of the 8,000 loads that need to be washed, and we got to talking and I forgot about the laundry, and then J and S were home with Steak ‘n Shake, so I just never went back down.

We were going to play S’s epic-level game that she’s running for J and me, but S and I were too tired to play, and I ended up admitting defeat at about 10:30 or so and going to lay down in the bedroom, where I listened to the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix audiobook for awhile and then passed out.

It smells really good outside.  I freaking love spring.

I haven’t been conscious long enough (or had any coffee yet), so I actually have no mood other than being not quite awake yet.  The only reason I sound as coherent as I do is because I’m a better writer than a speaker.  I was going to write something else, but some asshole on a bicycle just swerved in front of a garbage truck, and I have discovered that garbage trucks have very loud horns, especially when they’re directly next to the open window right next to your ear.

Anyway, due to the bracing horn blasts, I’m all kinds of energized (or at least I got a blast of adrenaline), so I may get something done once everything stops hurting.  I need coffee.  I’m going to go, drink coffee, mess around for awhile, and then do some stuff around the house, like cleaning up the living room... or something.

Organization, Dead Birds, and Errands

I really like organizing things.  I just spent about half an hour rearranging everything in the refrigerator, throwing away bad food (that cheese was an interesting color!), and getting all the groceries we bought at the store today put away in some semblance of order.  And I enjoyed doing it.  Well, except for the scary meat.  It was purple.  I'm going to finish organizing the whole kitchen later, figure out what to do about the entire loaf of bread that J crushed with the bag of apples, and get all the dishes and stuff fixed up in the cupboards so they all fit, since Girl Child apparently doesn't care about how things are supposed to go in the cupboards.  Arrgh.  That kind of thing drives me crazy, because I'm very much a person who likes everything to have its place.

I discovered how to get myself into a position where I have the energy to do more than chase the Toddler and screw around online.  Espresso.  I love Starbucks with every fibre of my being.  I may actually get some stuff done today, if my motivation stays up.  Woo!  I'm in a terrific mood.  I got something close to enough sleep, had espresso, and now I'm full of energy and good vibes and all sorts of happy things.  I love how enormous quantities of caffeine fill me with goodwill.  Yay!

I'm having a good hair day for once today.  I feel like I actually look good for once, and it's really nice.  My hair decided to do this really cool flippy thing all on its own; all I did was brush it this morning.  I'm wearing my green dangly earrings and a choker I've had since I was 15 that I got from the Rainforest Cafe that used to be at Oak Park Mall a few years ago.  I can't remember what's there now; everything has changed.  Anyway, sorry, I'm the tangent queen.  So I feel really pretty today, which has been rare the last few months, and it feels really good.

Today we went on a few errands, which was an interesting adventure.  When we first were getting ready to leave the house, I discovered the remains of the cute baby robin that couldn't fly that we saw yesterday (when it was still alive).  The neighbors' cat apparently killed it, disemboweled it, removed its legs and head, and left the body and one leg on our front walk, directly in front of the car.  Yuck.  Poor little bird.  And damn cat.  I don't like cats very much.

S and I discovered that Price Chopper actually has those carts for people who have trouble walking, so S didn't end up having to gimp through the whole store, which was good, because we were there for quite awhile.  The Toddler rode in the cart I pushed so we wouldn't have to spend twice as long trying to get him to go where we wanted to go, which turned out to be a good thing anyway, because it gave us a place to keep the crutches and the heavy food. 

We also stopped at the SRS office so I could hand in the letter saying that I do in fact live here so I can continue receiving food stamps.  I made the lady in front of me at the drop box really uncomfortable because I'd had so much espresso by that point that I was no longer able to stand still, so I was happily dancing from foot to foot while she was finishing up her paperwork.  She glanced back at me and I said, "You're fine, I just can't stand still!"  I'm pretty sure that gave her a giggle.

I'm having a really happy day.  And now the Toddler is in his crib and has stopped screaming like a banshee, so I assume he's asleep, which means I can do a few loads of laundry in relative peace, and work on the kitchen between loads, and maybe even read one of the bazillion books I have checked out of the library.

All in all, today is being a great day so far, even with the dead bird.