Blather, rinse, repeat

Wow so here I was going to revitalize my LJ, and really keep on top of updating it, and then I just let it sit for another few months. Sorry about that.

Anyway so yeah. Signed with the agent I really liked, waited for the revision suggestions to come in, and then got right to work. She sent them right before we went to Florida, but I got a good chunk done before, and finished up the rest the week after we got home. The week I came home, my agent moved from Sterling Lord Literistic to Donald Maass. I think that's pretty great, actually. Well, both are great, and like I told her on the phone, I was looking for an agent more than an agency.

I tried to send my revisions four times over the last week, but my email is for some reason effed up, and I had to drop box them to her yesterday. So now she has the revised version, and for some reason I'm sweating that more than when she read the manuscript for the first time. Because, what if I made it worse? What if I did the revisions and she reads them, and they're essentially first drafts of new chapters? (Well, not chapters, but a section here and there.)

So nervewracking.

But yeah, in the meantime, we did go to Florida, too: Me, my Mom, Callum and Meghan. We stayed at Port Orleans and we didn't rush anywhere or have to do anything specific and it was super nice like that. I mean we did have some fast passes, and it does limit you to which park you're going to be at any given day. I do sort of miss the times when you could be like, “Ehh, let's go to Epcot today instead,” but if you do that now, you miss your, like, ONE CHANCE to ride that ride you want to get on.

Callum went on his first rollercoaster! It was Barnstormer and he LOVED it. Laughed the entire way through, starting from when it begins its climb to the first drop. But then again, he loved the stupid airplane, too. Giggled and shouted “WEEEEE!” through the ascension. He kept looking at me and saying, “CAM-CAM!” Like, “Look, it's ME, Cam-cam, going way up in the sky!” In fact, a few weeks ago he even told me, “Cam-cam gonna go to work.”

“Work?” I said. “You have a job now?”

“Yey-uhh. In a few months.”

“I see. And what are you going to do at your work?”

“Cam-cam going to drive the airplane.”

Not even two and a half and he wants to be a pilot. He woke up this morning and said to me, first thing, “Cam-cam on the airplane. Way high up up up in the sky!” Which I guess means that he's still dreaming about it. So weird, toddler brains.

But yeah, he went on Barnstormer and he loved it. He loved all the rides, even the Haunted Mansion, and the parade, (“Woooow Mommy-and-Grammom-and-Momo, wook at DIS!”) but was less than thrilled with the characters. Which, I'm not too wild about those, either.

It also rained and stormed every day. In fact we got stuck in tropical Storm Erika's path, and our landing when we came in was delayed for like 3 hours. We had to circle Orlando forever before they decided to land us in Tampa, and then take off again to go to Orlando. That was the beginning of The Trip Of Wait, because every single day another thing went wrong where we got held up doing this or that. They even had us in the wrong hotel room when we got there. :/

But even with all of that, it was still such an excellent trip. So now we're actually thinking about going in on a Disney Vacation Club kind of dealie thing. You pay monthly for 5-10 years, and you get allotted a certain amount of points per year, and you can use them to stay in the villas. You also get discounts on annual tickets and dining. Getting it via resale saves thousands of dollars. And like, I know, those thousands of dollars we'd still be spending could be going in the bank, but honestly, now that I have a kid, I can't see just saying “Well, we're not going to Disneyworld anymore.” We're all pretty much going to keep going. Like, Meghan is 23 and Spencer is 26 and they've been going since they were 2, and they're also not going to stop. Same with Chrissie and Timmy and the kids. And every few years, you save up enough points to use a big villa where the entire family can stay; sleeps up to 12 or something. IDK, I'm thinking about it.

Well, tomorrow is Autumn, and I have to say, it's been such a beautiful summer that I'm anxious thinking that something has got to go wrong. (Well, to be fair, Sano and Haku got mad sick from their food, starting the day before we left for Disney. Tons of meds later and they are both fine, though the food wrecked their delicate intestines so much that they are on Tylan powder for life now.) I mean yes, something always goes wrong and nothing is ever perfect, but sometimes it feels so perfect that I'm like, What's going to happen to balance this out? Every week this summer we went to the ocean. I have this awesome little kid and an awesome literary agent and a job I enjoy. Isn't that just too much good?

But yeah, Autumn, though. Every year I'm always so sad when summer ends, but then I love Autumn, too. It's really just winter I can't deal with. Well, really just January and February, and that's only because we've gotten killed the last three years, with blizzards upon blizzards. I can't even deal with that. And having to stay in the house at night instead of going on a long walk and then sitting on the deck, enjoying the last rays of sun until 8 PM. God, winter is so hard! Ugh.

Here are some things I:m looking forward to:

Getting the next round of revisions done and going on submission. Rad.

Teaching some Hula classes at work. In Florida, I spent some time with Auntie Kau'i and she was like, “Are you dancing and teaching?” I told her it had been a while and she said, “You have to get back to it. Start over and don't stop again.” And I really, really want to, but it's so hard to find a space where you can just get a group of people together and dance. Now I have that opportunity at work and I can't wait to start.

Halloween, naturally. And the holiday season after that. I'm one of those fools who really loves the stupid holidays. All the lights and music and crap. I can't get enough of that.

Umm, and new TV shows. Isn't that awful and so dull of me? But I really like Sleepy Hollow.

And after that, next Spring, LOL. Winter is just long, dark, boring, depressing and pointless. And frigging cold and frustrating and icy.

Hmm, I don't want to speculate on anything else. In 2008 I cheerfully wrote in my LJ, “I wonder what will happen this year, and how much will be different next year!” And in 2009 my Gran and my Dad both died. Which I know has nothing to do with how I effing phrased things for pete's sake but anxiety is a bitchass!

Well, now I've still got about 45 minutes left of Callum's nap, so I'm going to sit down and read the new version of [Bad username or site: ”spatterdash” @ livejournal.com] 's wonderful novel.

And then wake Callum, take the dogs out, and IDK, go out for pizza. Maybe a walk later with Callum, Mom, Momo, Chrissie and her boys. (Oh wait no, I tell a lie, Momo gets home late tonight. Walk tomorrow then, when she's off from school.) And perhaps a bar of ice cream later.

This summer has been one of the best ever, and I'm going to miss it. Here's to an Autumn that's just as rad.

20 weeks (but 4 1/2 months going by the date) today! 26" and 14 pounds. 75% height and 25% weight- tall and lanky.  

Callum is obsessed with his hands, can get his feet into his mouth, loves to sing, loves Mickey Mouse, loves books and being read to, laughs a lot, can sit pretty well with some low back support, and enjoys patting his dogs. Still can't roll over, and not sleeping through the night. (He wakes up between 5-6 for a feeding, and then around 7:30 or 8. We get up at 8:30.) Won't nap unless he's held.

In two weeks he has to go for x rays to check for hip dysplasia because his hips are very flexible and the doc thought that was unusual. (Might be why he's so late to roll over? Actually, he did it once or twice last month and then never again.)

But other than that, we're moving right along!

I took more hours at work starting last week. Work is the same as always – another new receptionist (we get lots of temps,) and some nice clients. Actually, I took a day off in 2 or so weeks so I can gat a massage for my birthday. Something to look forward to.

It has been hot as balls here. Yesterday it was 80, wtf. I am so mad at the stupid weather.

Today, our government is still shut down, and someone was apparently trying to shoot up Capitol Hill. This country has gone completely balls-up.

I miss reading, writing, and cooking. I miss Kung Fu like crazy. I know these are temporary "I miss"es and one day I'll get them back. I am still, thankfully, making stuff for HitRECord, and still querying when I get the chance.

Oh, and I'm going to see Taking Back Sunday next month. :DDDDD Huge yay.

For Halloween, I'm going to be Morticia Addams and Callum is going to be Pubert. Very fitting, yes? We'll probably just answer the door, but it beats last Halloween when the roads were still flooded, there was no electricity and there were power lines all over the place, and I was sick as hell. Last year I was trying to imagine what this year would be like. I can hardly fathom that it is here, complete with that shiny little face you see up there.

This past week was a mixed bag. First thing I need to get out of the way is that last night I lost my beautiful white betta, Leon the Magnificent. I couldn't be more bummed. He had looked thin to me, and I called this local fish expert who informed me that either: Leon had too much competition for food (he didn't; he ate tons of food every day,) or he possibly he had fish TB. Which is the same as people TB and just as contagious, and zoonotic. Third option, he was just old. Since it's impossible to know how old a betta is when you get him, I guess it could have been that, too.

But, I loved my beautiful Leon and I really miss him. I wish I could for once get a nice hardy betta. All my other fish are thriving (knock on wood.) I test the water every week and I do weekly water changes. The water is perfect, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Sad sad.

The beginning of the week was actually quite a treasure. My uncle (Dad's brother,) aunt and cousin from upstate came down for a rare visit, and stayed for two days. My cousin is just a few years older than I am and we always have a good time. Plus, my uncle's cheerful ways are a lot like my Dad's, so it was nice to be around that again. We spent the two days—Mom, me, and the three of them—going all over the North Fork to various vinyards and veggie/fruit stands for pumpkins. And I got to pet goats. It's been a long time since I've been around farm animals. I know that sounds rally weird, but it's true; I love to be around different sorts of animals and I have really missed chickens, goats, sheep, turkeys and such. I pet a sheep and goat for a long time and I can still smell goat once in a while. O_O Not sure that's a good thing though.

( TONS OF PICS. )

Haha. ^_^;;

Then we went to Halloween Town (a disappointing store) and I bought a few H-ween decos. That always makes me stupidly happy.

Wednesday night was the "Harvestest Moon," the full moon on the equinox. I missed the actual moonrise over the water by about a half an hour because I fail at military time. :/ meh.

But I went to the beach anyway and snapped a few pics.

( Harvestest moon )

I really like that last one.

Then I saw the movie "Watching The Detectives" and oh, wow, how inane. I mean, I'd hit Cillian Murphy like the fist of an angry god just as hard as the next person and yeah he can turn out a performance and all, and I totally love Lucy Liu, but WOW, it was seriously a waste of nearly two hours. For most of it I was just "COME ON NOW, REALLY?" Seriously, even his prettiness didn't make it worth it - and that's saying a goddamn lot.

However I did finally learn the origin of my new favorite I AM FRUSTRATE .gif:



The .gif is better than the movie.

Oh, do you guys wanna see something else I did?

Well you'd have to go here, because I can't embed it! It got 24 recommends and 9 comments. I was pretty happy!

The rest of the week was much the same as usual: School, Kung Fu, pick Jo-chan up, clinic. And tomorrow is work, and Sunday is work.

Yup, that about covers it!

It is a beautiful fall day today, so I went out parading and looking for awesome cemeteries. I remembered seeing one that looked really promising once while on a detour back from The Bad Place Where I No Longer Have To Be. I couldn't remember which through-road it was on, so I went all over the north road and south road, weaving through the through-roads. (And there are tons of them.)

About the north fork of Long Island: It's basically three different things: Farms, vinyards and cemeteries. All different kinds of farms, like potato, berry, corn, pumpkin etc. Vinyards far and effing wide. Out here, it's known as "Wine Country." There's even a sign welcoming you to "Wine Country." O_o So, it's a beautiful drive, and all the trees are red, yellow, orange and incredible gold. But you know me! I went looking for the cemeteries.

About me: I don't know how many people know this about me, but I am obsessed with statues. I can't even begin to describe to you how drawn to them I am. Big ones, little ones, and all different kinds. I like the old stone ones best, but I like them all. They have expressions that I think many people miss. They are either very eerie, or very moving. I almost expect them to spring to life, or to slowly form a different expression from the one already cast in stone or resin.

I went to two cemeteries today; one an old one, and one relatively new, from around 1900. That's the one that had really awesome statues. So, here are some photographs that I got today.

( These were from the first cemetery, the old one. A sunny grave, a mossy grave, a very old grave, pretty colors, a sad grave, and a broken grave. )
Although actually, all graves are sad, aren't they?

Does anyone know anything about angels? There was a statue of an angel and it was the most fantastic one I've ever seen and I wondered which one he was supposed to be. He carriea a staff with a flower on it in his left hand, and another flower in his right hand which he seems to be dropping.

( He is AWESOME. )
If he had a name, it was rubbed away. Does anyone know which angel that one is supposed to be?

( This one I called the Supercilious Madonna.  )
Because she looks so disdainful, right?

( The naughty, creepy angel. )
She looked so inoccuous--as statues often do--until you get real close.

( Mary demands to know the deal with all these goddamn flowers! )
Some of the Madonna ones, when she's got her hands out like that, look so put-upon sometimes.

( Baby angel reading to a bird in the sun. )

( This statue made me sad. )
Because it's so worn away, not an angle left on it. Doesn't it look soft?

( This was so cool: a rotted statue with an angel over it. )
You could see it used to have a painted face. It's so eerie how it fell over, and the angel one is standing over it now.


( Dead flowers and random vegetables by graves. )
Weird looking, right?

( And this is me: Miss Autumn Cemetery Weirdo '08. )
^_^

ETA: My Mom told me that the statue with the lily might be a saint, so I googled that. It could be St. Anthony, who is often portrayed with a lily. But more likely it is Archangel Gabriel, whose symbol is the lily. I'm so glad because even though I'm nowhere near being Christian, Gabriel is still my favorite Christian myth (probably because Christopher Walken played him,) and the whole time I was taking those photos, I was hoping it was a statue of Gabriel.

Some autumnish pics of my hizzouse, my dogs, and one of MEEEEE.

I love the southern light you only get when Autumn really sets in. It totally highlights all the orange and gold colors you find on this Island during this season. While things are mostly still green here, though, you do still get ( that lovely Southern angle of sun. )

My friends who visit me like to joke that, in late summer and fall, they ( can never find my front door. )

( Sano )

( Trisky )

( And the flying puppy Haku. )

( And here's me, because I felt like it. ) When you have never met someone in person and have only seen pictures of them, you know they can sometimes be deceiving. This is precisely what I look like.

So, today is finally over and I'm so thankful. Trisky had some lumps and bumps removed and all were benign (*knock on wood!*) And she had her teeth cleaned, too. She was SO PISSED, even when she woke up from the anesthesia. I thought I'd go sit with her for a while in the cage, but she kept on trying to push me the hell out of the way so she could get out. Then she just howled and yodeled and generally made a big deal of things. She's at home now and asleep in her bed, but she looks like Frankendog with all her many stitches. Whatever, dude, I'm just glad she's home with me. The boydogs had to check her all over. Haku barked at her when he saw her in the yard tonight. I'm thinking she probably smells different (she's still got blood on her) and also, her collar is off so her sparkly light wasn't on to give him the visual cue of THERE'S TRISKY. It's fun trying to figure out what dogs are thinking.

As for me, I'm sick as, well, a dog. I thought it was allergies and maybe it was at first, but now we're heading into painful sinuses and all over body aching. I'm entirely unpleasant to see and hear.

Yesterday I was trying to make my Dirge of Cerberus music video. But it ends up that the FMV rips I downloaded would only play sound and not graphics, so I had to re-download them from somewhere else and I still don't have all of them. But I thought I had enough and loaded them into Movie Maker. Only Movie Maker now randomly shuts down whenever I advance a frame. It doesn't lock or even really crash; it just disappears off the screen with no warning. I have to save after every change, which I do anyway because WMM is buggy as hell and always has been, but it is awfully hard to make a music video with software that shuts down after every frame and I'm getting frustrated. Not like it's my magnum opus and the world is missing out on this gorgeous piece of art that is my glorios AMV or anything, but I'm sick and stuffy and I just want to make one, is all.

A few night ago I was talking about that lo-cal ice cream called "Skinny Cow" and I referred to myself as a skinny cow, as well. Well, I got on the scale today, and for the first time since I lived in WA, I'm under 140. Which really is a healthy place to be, actually, at my height, which is 5'9". Also my legs are kind of muscular. And I do know a handful of girls who are at least ten pounds lighter than I am and who are healthy, too. Yet, I don't quite like the way my face looks when I'm this thin. My cheeks get drawn in and I look like I'm all nose; well, moreso than usual. Part of the weight loss is the relentless practicing of the sword-form, but also I cut out a lot of junk recently that I didn't need, like NutraGrain bars every few hours. I never knew till recently (when I looked at the label) that those bad boys have 140 calories each. EACH, people. One ice cream sandwich has the same amount, with less fat, AND it tastes better and is more fun to eat. But really, I think I'll stick to this weight or just above it because that looks and feels right to me. Baby Got Back. ^_^

This chair back massager is my best friend. It's hitting all the knots that I get from trying not to sneeze all day.

Anyway, so this fall is shaping up to be pretty hectic, but in a fun way. This weekend is mellow, and then the following week it's the Makaha Sons concert in NYC. I'm excited for that, not only because I LOVE their show and I hope to get to at least say hello to those fabulous men again, but also because Mom, Dad and Meghan are going to it, too. Unfortunately it's the same day as Wong Fei Hung, and I really, REALLY wanted to go to that this year. But I guess I'll have to wait till the December one, if we do join that one again.

October promises to be exciting, like it usually is, and it's really going to pick up towards Halloween. A big birthday party for everyone in the world probably somewhere in the middle of the month (this year, Jeremy is included in this!) Then there's the 30STM concert on the 27th and then the work party at Michelle's house on the 28th. Then, with a great deal of luck and ambition, I will also go and see them on Halloween in Philly.

The following weekend is the Hula seminar in Orlando, and then a week and a half later, it's off to Florida for the family trip which will be over Thanksgiving. And then, POW, Christmas season, maybe a tournament to go to, then the New Year, Chinese New Year, and the long, dark winter.

God, where is it all going?

I'm missing Kung Fu tonight, because I had unexpected guests. Kim and her husband Rick came over to cover the pool this afternoon, and we just got to all yammering during the pool covering. Then, right before they were about to leave, one of the starlings I'd released yesterday got himself stuck un the drainpipe that comes down the side of the house. I kid you not. Rick and I had to shake the damned thing to get him down to the bottom, then I had to stick my hand up there and sort of ease him out.

I'm depressed that the pool is covered. It seems like only two or three weeks ago we were opening it. I told Kim to come over for a swim and she said she didn't have a suit and I told her, "Who said you needed a suit?" and Rick cracked up. We went through that routine again today and that drove it home how quickly the summer had gone by.

I didn't get much sleep last night, not only because of Advent Children and the fact that I was thinking about it long past the time I went to bed, but because of Trisky. About halfway through my watching of the movie, she decided she needed to go outside. She looked like she wanted to puke, so I let her out. Then I called her inside. Then she got obsessed with going in the sunroom and poking around in there, generally causing mayhem. I closed it off with the shoti screen, but she was freaking determined and she kept trying to get past it. She's never acted like that before. Then she started hanging around the door again, so I took her out on the leash. She ate some tall grass, and still didn't throw up. She saw someone walk down the road and she barked at him. So, I take her inside and go back to my movie. Then, not ten minutes later, she's pesting to go out again, looking like she has to puke. I let her out again, and took Sano out, too. ALl Trisky did was walk the circumference of the yard, and then when the guy walked down the street again, she went nuts trying to chase him away, and so did Sano. This was at around midnight, so they must have woken all the neighbors up. After I chased her around the yard and finally made her come in, she still wouldn't sit or lie still. I started to worry that something was up with her. She did this once before, last year. She just wandered around looking fretful. Eventually I decided that maybe if I stopped acting fretful she would, too. Then she went to bed and fell asleep. O_o

Anyway, on the chance that I'm unable to burn AC to a dvd, I'm going to post some screengrabs that I got. They're going to be spoilerific, but I will put up proper warnings.

Hmm.