Blather, rinse, repeat

Work has been suuuuuperrrrr sllloooooowwwww. I only had five appointments last week, and this week so far only five again. It better start picking up!

While most of my time has been wiled away on the new Zelda. I'm not even very far along into it, either. Like with most things I like, I try to slow down and make it last. (Which is why I'm still not caught up with Dr. Who even though I started watching it over the summer, and am taking it really slow with Torchwood. How often do I watch a tv show? Not often, so when I do, I need to make it last.)

I've been writing, reading (the new King actually,) and yeah that's about it. Haku got his staples out today. It's two weeks since his surgery. He won't be able to walk for another six so I'm still carrying his ass around everywhere. Good exercise I guess, but so not good for my back. I need a massage in the worst way. I'm due for one, too, as part of a trade.

I also don't want anyone to think that I've been cocooned all in my house here, unaware of what's going on in the world. For most of my political/sociological/feminist stuff, I'm using my Tumblr now. Although it's not just for that stuff; it's also for fun.

You should know I'm super tired right now and not making any kind of sense at all.

It's been pretty cold out. I've been listening to Seth MacFarlane's CD. It's too quiet without Belle. My goldfish, The Doctor, it getting big. I accidentally texted The Gold Dragon that we would definitely get together after the holocaust, and if he's studying, I wish him good lick. Today is my best friend's birthday and I can't wait to see her and give her prezzies. I watched The Christmas Invasion (Dr. Who) while writing out my first cards in 3 years. I want a Zelda tattoo, because it's about time. I feel like I'm close to getting an agent. I know I said that last year, too, but this year it feels closer. My Mom asked me if I could see my cousins' holiday lights from my yard; I told her I could see them from space. I did most of my Xmas shopping on Etsy. I read a novel about Torchwood and it was SO BAD. I love the Kindle because you can write notes in it when you find typos. I spent the last two days watching the ridiculous movie for King's Bag Of Bones. Why the hell are the mini-series' (or whatever they are called, not sure when it's only 2 episodes) usually so damn bad? I miss the Tenth Doctor. The world is changing and I'm changing with it. We live in interesting times.

Etc.

I need to document that the stiff, barbed, dead body of my catfish Dexter just stabbed me in the hand. Blood everywhere. Dexter was fine last night when I turned his light off. Catfish are bottom-feeders so I have no idea why or even how he got out of the tank.

Now I've got one fish left in my 20 gallon tank, which is Quatre, my gold angelfish. She's actually the second fish I got, too, so she's pretty old. The newer ones have all died.

I don't know why I have such bad luck with fish. I take care really good care of them! I clean the tanks every week, feed them but don't *over*feed them. I use frozen, un-dyed food w/out additives ffs. None of this flake crap. I use filtered water and put in all the right scale-protective stuff. I check the water stats constantly, temps are perfect, and I don't mix incompatible species. Yet they all die in such weird, horrific ways.

Oh, so you're probably wondering how we fared in hurricane Irene. Ehhhh. We seriously dodged a bullet. Didn't even lose power. Well, it flickered on and off for a few times, but nothing major. Meanwhile, it's, what, five days later and most everyone east of us, and some west, are still without power. My job shut down for the week, so no paycheck. :(

The pool is up! But it's like 70 degrees here anymore. So that's lame.

Tomorrow is (FINALLY) my dr. appointment for my exploding ovary. Boy, am I ever going to explain, quite tersely, how they brushed me off two months ago. Anyway, that's never a fun day, is it?

Let's see, what else. Oh, I am totally loving Dr. Who. I loved the 9th doctor, and I love 10. I only just finished season 2, Doomsday. NIAGRA FALLS COMING FROM MY FACE. It was so sad. But I like to cry at movies and shows that I'm into, and video games. (I still get teary whenever I watch Aeris die.) So now I'm going onto season 3 when I get the DVD. Supposedly there's an episode in that one called Blink, so terrifying that when you watch it, you die with a load in your pants. Actually I watched the trailer last night, and that gave me nightmares. Can't wait for that one. ^_^

Umm, my hand is getting swollen now where my dead fish stung me. Eww. That is so goddamn awful.

Aaaaaand September! WTF, how did that even happen?

My gourami Eames most definitely ate my angelfish Trowa. Eames was dead in the tank this morning, bloated with black scales that he couldn't get rid of. I am so horrified.

Work was slow today; I only had two appointments. But both people were awesomely nice, run to work with, and tips were good.

Beaches are closed. EIGHTEEN FOOT SHARKS, WTF. Thresher sharks, wtf even are those? If I saw something like that coming toward me in the water, I would chew my own veins out. Also, the sgt. in this article is my cousin. :)

This the only bird I've got so far:


A sparrow, ridiculously yet shamelessly named Jack.

It's hot hot hot and I can't wait for it to get hotter.

So far I've got five and possibly six students lined up for my dance class. Got to get those flyers out! Next week, I won't forget them.

Movies tomorrow? HOPEFULLY.

So much to babble about, but I'll try to keep it short-ish.

Here's my exciting thing: I got a Hula show on the 19th, which, WOW, it's been over a year since I did an actual show. The last one was right after I lost Dad and it was miserable. I mean, the show was pretty good itself but the experience was hard, trying to smile through the whole thing, trying to be cheerful and Aloha etc. This one is going to be so much better. It's a holiday show. I haven't done a holiday performance in, what, like eight years? No one wants Hula in the winter, that's why. Or if they do, they don't ask this far-east gal to come and perform. So, I get to do Hawaiian Santa, White Christmas, Little Drummer Boy (I try to keep holidays secular, but LDB is legit one of my favorite songs ever and I really love the Hula; it's mad difficult unless you know it well enough and have strong thighs, no joke,) and then I think I'll do some poi balls, and a Tahitian set.

And guess what? I'm doing La Toere. Come hell or high water or an extra five pounds or lack of practice. Actually, I really should practice that one. AND. I think that for the first time ever I'm going to do Tahiti, Tahiti, the pop song version. There's going to be a ton of kids there and I think they'll really love that one.

So that's the deal with that.

That aside, I utterly fail at the holidays this year. I really, seriously did try. I didn't want a tree,and I had to sit and think for a long time about why I didn't want one yet. I usually love getting a tree. And I think it's because Dad used to help me move my chair out of the way (or if he wasn't around to do it, I'd move it and when I'd tell him I'd gotten a tree he'd go, "Did you move that chair by yourself? You should have waited for me to do it!") which maybe is a really vague reason, but I couldn't help the association. That, and every single year I've always used Shinigami to go and get my tree. Even after Shinigami more or less quit on me, and I started driving around little red Ronin, I would still rev up Shinigami and take him out for a holiday spin to get my tree. Shinigami is still in the driveway. Last year someone asked me if I was ready to sell and I immediately busted out in irrational tears. I should sell, I know I should, I need to. Someone can fix up that beautiful car and drive it around like it should be driven. It's just, UGH, I have issues.

So! I decided I'd do my own stupid holiday thing, switch it up a little, do something new, right? So instead of a tree and a ton of lights, I figured I would get some of those big-ass pine things that people wind around their porches and I'd put it up all over my house. This way I'd get the nice tree-smell without all the admittedly irrational emotional nonsense. This was a huge effing mistake.

( This is about the stupidest looking thing ever. )

You can't just stick them up all over the place, I guess. I had to cut it into three parts. Decoration fail.

Then I also thought it would be high-freaking-larious if I got two of those stupid balls and hung them side by side, right? Just for a laugh. The ones I found were like millennia old and the boxes were all beaten up. I tried them at the store and the guy even gave me a discount because they were so old. So I ( made my little holiday gag: )

And thought 'Oh, LOL, I am so funnee!" and then the right ball flickered out and has stayed that way. Damn it. I only have one ball for Yule now. Woe.

I remember what else I wanted to rave about. Kung Fu (who is surprised?) In the last few weeks we've been doing staff drills indoors; I mentioned it a few posts ago. On Tuesday (today is Thursday) we did even more two-person drills that were yet cooler than the last. And before that, we did line basics without staff.

Let me talk for a second about the line basics we did. First of all, we did them for about an hour, even going straight through warmup time without quitting. Which, fabulous. You get to that part where you stop feeling things like "ow, pain" and "boy my legs are tired." You just zone right on up out - please understand by my use of many prepositions how meaningful this is. Not only that, but the drills we were doing looked so effing cool, I may have to record it tonight. I always say it's so that we can remember what we were doing and practice them at home but honestly, it's because it looks cool. I can't even lie.

Well, it likely doesn't look as cool when I do them, because I am long-limbed and flaily and I fully realize that I don't have the right amount of control over the reach of my arms. I can actually feel it when I'm getting flaily, and invariably Sifu will come over to me saying something like "hey hey hey hey, Lotus-flower-blossom-san, what exactly are you doing?" I get way too enthusiastic, haha. So then I have to stop, reset my stance, and actually put some thought into it.

It's great, because we do right and left side, and the thing about Kung Fu is that it's so ambidextrous, you have to sync your right and left sides so that they're doing two opposite things, while your legs are pretty much doing yet another thing. You can kind of feel your brain seaming in the middle. It's neat.

So yeah, from Hula to Kung Fu, as usual.

And school. I guess I won't be writing much about that anymore, and I can probably retire my "school" tag. Not get rid of it, but I won't have to use it. Tomorrow is my last day, five clinic hours and then I'm pau. I also get my path paper back, and I'm kind of sweating that. I know I didn't fail, but I don't just want a good grade. I totally suck like that. I want the freaking A. I worked really hard on that paper. More than that, though, I don't want to let my supervisor down. I'll be bummed if I get a B or something. I realize I sound like a child but, well, I cop to that, too.

My last class was yesterday. It was a lousy hour and a half, and then about fifteen minutes of me running around registrar etc. trying to get them to fix up my missing paperwork, HELLO. I paid the extra cash for it five weeks ago (the first aid cert. cards that they misspelled, remember?) and I never heard back from them if they came in. I called, left messages etc. Then yesterday I went up there and was like, "WTF, no one ever called me back. Hope you guys realize I can't graduate without these cards, and today is my last day, why has no one returned my calls?" And she goes, "Oh, that. I do remember you paying, yeah. Umm. The guy who was doing that got fired."

OH, COOL. AND NO ONE TOOK OVER FOR HIM. THANKS GUYS.

I can't even tell you how ready I was to punch the entire effing school right in the ass. Long story short (too late,) I had to go the hell home, fax in my misspelled cards so that they can send them along with a certified letter (that they will write) saying how it's their own stupid fault and that the NYS boards pretty much have to accept them.

So that's my last experience with this idiotic school, way to send-off with a bang.

I'm fairly sure there was something else I wanted to catch up on but I can't think of it right now, which is probably just as well.

So, here, ( look at some pictures of my fish!  )

Those are just the ones in my ten-gallon tank. I'll have to upload some of the ones of my other guys in the 20, one of these times.

Well, I'd better gear up to think about getting out of the chair and feeding the dogs, and then myself, and then going into the stygian, freezing night to Kung Fu.

After tomorrow I don't have to see that stupid college for a really, really long time; not until I have to go back for continuing ed. Which I'm sure they will also screw up, but at least it will be a short term thing. Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow!

So, things are just kind of plodding along as usual, not that it's necessarily a bad thing.

Well, you know, I shouldn't exactly say that, even. There are some fantabulous things going on.

Joseph Gordon Levitt recommended my short film clip. Now, he's begun a collaboration on his website and I decided to join it, and I have an idea that I love so much it's keeping me awake at night. I want it to work so badly I'm practically peeing every moment.

And then, in school, there's this guy I thought was kind of attractive, and I creepy-stared at him enough so that he finally called me. A HOT GUY APPROACHES. JULES USES CREEPY STARING. IT'S SUPER EFFECTIVE. Actually, he tried to text me but texted my landline instead (which made my phone do a Dramatic Reading of his "LOL" that I will save just for hilarity's sake.) I might try to get to know him but honestly? Yeah, I'm not getting burned again. No way, no day oh my brothers and only friends. Still, he seems nice. I hope he will stay nice and can merit a really cool code name. I'd have to think of a good one. You can hardly beat "Chocolate" for a cute-guy name, though sadly that one is ruined forever.

So, those are some essssiting things that have happened, right? Or maybe my life is fantastically boring and I get a thrill off the littlest things. :D

I do get a thrill off the littlest things, though! Got my outdoors Halloween decorations up, but hurray on that. But it rained bitches and hos today so the wires all shorted out. Blast. Still. Halloween. ^_^

Umm, I made an Inception fanvid. What, don't even judge me.

I bought some new fishes! I'm not going to put up pics until they live long enough to be off the critical list. My heart is still broken for Leon and Kyarotto. Maybe I'll get another betta, but I'll have to know for sure that it's The One.

Umm, Friday I was so late for clinic that I missed my first appointment. I left in plenty of time, but the road to the school flooded and I think that a hitch-hiker got injured by a car on the turnpike. I called the clinic from my car, hysterical, all "OMG I am so sorry to be late for clinic, I am so awful!" and my supervisor is the nicest, most mellow guy in the world. He was all, "Yeah, there was an accident, nothing you can do about it. Just get here when you get here." I saw all the flares in the road and I was thinking, Sure I'm super late for clinic and this blows and I'm totally losing my zen, but obviously someone is having a much worse day than I am." It didn't make me feel better though.

I thought for sure I was going to have to make up a treatment, but instead there was time for me to get a treatment – which I get credit for if I do an evaluation. ^_^ I felt as if I'd gotten rewarded for being late.

Then as I was doing writeups I heard said supervisor talking to another student about the merits of gaming. Now you have to imagine, this is not the kind of guy you'd picture being a hard-core gamer. He's very zen, so rational and authoritative but in a sort of gentle way. Then he went on to say that he was such a geek, he'd gotten caught by a former student at the RenFest upstate, in full viking costume.

That's when I cut into the conversation to say that I'd gone to the RenFest in costume, too. I told him I'd cosplayed Raistlin Majere - fully expecting him to say, "Who's that?" Instead he said, "RAISTLIN, OMG, BEST CHARACTER EVER WRITTEN." So we did across-the-room high fives over Raistlin and then he was like, "But...you're a girl." I told him, Yes, but, think about Raistlin. He did, for a few seconds and then said, "You know what, you're right. It takes a girl to cosplay Raistlin."

Then we geeked out over Dragonlance and Resident Evil.

It was fly.

I know you're not bored of seeing pictures of my dogs by Halloween decorations. You can't even lie to me; I can feel it coming through in waves through my computer screen.

( You want to look at my photograhs. )

This entry is so rambly and disjointed that even I'm annoyed with myself. God! I'm just all, GAH, I want to make this commercial and I have to wait until I have everyone in one place. Meanwhile I have the whole thing scripted in my head and can't quit patting myself on the back over how funny I think it's going to be. It's a total sleep-vampire.

Well, honestly, I can't even read myself anymore, so I'm going to shut up now. ^_^

ETA I took my plants in for the season today. Is it sad that I have a "plants" tag?

I'm so happy to be going to see Inception tonight with My Wonderful Glassworker Friend. She's going to bring me a green tea Smoothie Of Immortality from her food processor. Can't wait to try. However, I'll also be shoveling gobs of ice cream down my maw during the film, as is my tradition. (I've tried, by the way, this Arctic Zero ice cream stuff, which claims to have 128 calories PER PINT and no artificial sweeteners. Which, I'm not sure that's on the up and up. Maybe you grow a second head a few years down the road. Still, didn't taste too bad.)

Anyway, so finally I'll be seeing Inception which everyone swears to me is so far up my alley I can practically taste it. I'm excited. And we're going late, so hopefully it won't be too crowded, and maybe most of the people there will be going to watch Twatlight Part One Thousand, Revenge Of The Sparkledouche or some crap thing like that.

I'm sure that tomorrow I'll post a raving review of Inception. I go into this cautiously, though. I know how I get when I want to love something. :)

In other news, my foot continues to act up. Some mornings I can hardly put weight on it without stretching it first. I DO NOT want to give up running. I'm just starting to get good at doing a mile a day and I don't want to quit. I've been out of Kung Fu for a whole day, and will probably not go tomorrow either, which, DOOM. I hate missing my beloved Kung Fu.

So, I drugged Haku last night in hopes of him having a seizure-free night, and he did. Still, I'm worried. I know it means the phenobarb is losing its effectiveness and I'll have to switch meds. I just hoped it would last longer than this. But who knows! Maybe I'm being too pessimistic and this will be an isolated incident.

Umm. It's very hard for me to be anything but cynical after the year my family has had. My optimism borders on naivete, stupidity even.

And so, my pool is destroyed, (still no news from the neighbors on how hard they are going to ride us for their cellar, and we can't make any claims till then,) and my water filter leaks like a bastard and now my Mom's dishwasher backed up and flooded. I'm not a moron and I recognize the elements when I see them. O_o WTF, water? Honestly.

And last night, my lovely little suckerfish Ruto died. I realized last week that she didn't seem to be thriving, and was kind of listless, just swimming around and not really sticking to anything. But, how do you treat a suckerfish? I checked the water and all the levels were fine.

Also, yesterday was a tough day for me, in terms of missing Dad and Grandma.

BUT. I remain stupidly enamored of this dumb life. I can't help it. I can't stay miserable. Something comes along to make me giddy. I guess that's crazy.

I got a lot of critiquing done yesterday, and a lot of revising of Qualia done today. Some days, I can't help but think that Qualia's gonna make it. That someone will love it as much as I love my favorites. I can't shake that feeling. Ridiculous faith. OTOH I also feel like I'll win the lottery. Haha.

It's as hot as Satan's asscrack today and I spent some time outdoors just breathing in the sweet humidity. Mmmmm. Sun, moon, stars, rain. Yadda yadda.

Today was so pretty, I took some photos. Prepare!

Actually, this one is from last week. ( My sword (in its case) and staff outside of the kwoon. )

( Some of my house spiders. )

( Havok's mug in the camera )

( My two Ninja Wizards playing and running together. )
Dogs so do not take things personally. They just bounce back. After the year they've had (their THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF VET BILLS,) all they wanna do is get back to playing. I appreciate that.

( My pink dinnerplate hibiscus. )
I have a red one, too, but it's not as bloomy as this one.

( Plumeria in the morning, and then in the afternoon. )

( My hair + humidity =... )
FWHOOSH.

I love summer on this island. Well, I love the island, really. :) Hate the tourists and the rude people who make the road hellish, and all the damn loudass summer people yelling all the time.

It's not the heat, it's the stupidity.

The rest of the summer? *fingers crossed*

I was supposed to dance today. I had my costume and music all ready, even hand-made a new hip hei (it kind of sucks though,) and was good to go. But the time and place got all screwed up, and I never found out where I was supposed to meet the group, and the roads were closed. I was going to do one Tahitian, yeah, a two and a half minute dance, and yeah I would have driven the 40 or so miles out there just for two minutes of dancing. But it wasn't to be. I got up at 8 AM on a day off (no work this weekend) for absolutely zip.

Well, not really. I got a lot done this morning, cleaned, vacuumed, did some laundry, and studied for three hours for the path2 midterm. If I don't ace that bitch, something is wrong.

Umm, yesterday I tried to replace my water filters but one of them is broken. I need to change / refill my fish tank water and I can't. I get so worried when I can't change the water. The company is really awesome though, and they are sending me a free replacement. Still, my fish!

My fish must think I'm out of my mind. A few times a week I'll have a half a glass of red wine at Mom's while we watch Family Guy, then go to my place and feed my fish, and to Gran's to let Belle out and feed my other fish which are in that room.

Me: "FISHIES! Wiggle-swim fishies, time for foods! HI LEON! You are so magnificent! Fishie fish fish! You guys are the FISHIEST fish ever! Kiss, kiss!"

Fish: "Is that lip balm stuck to our tank? Oh my god. She had wine again."

Last night I tried this new ice cream called Arctic Zero. It's got 128 calories for the entire pint and it doesn't have any HFCS or any aspartame junk. Instead it uses this "Whey Low" stuff which, I have no idea what that is or how it works. The web site gives you some junk about how these three kinds of sugar interfere with each other so you can't digest it and OH MY GOD EPIPHANY THIS EXPLAINS THE DREAM I HAD. Duh.

Last night I had one of those crack dreams again where I make the person in trouble stand aside so that that I can handle it. Last night it was Dr. House. In the dream, he had found a way to get high without vicodin. It turned out that there was a chemical in spinach that he couldn't assimilate, and the resulting reaction made it so that it could pass the blood-brain barrier and act like marijuana. Dude, I know, I know. What the hell. So he was eating all this spinach and Wilson was curious and concerned, wondering what was with the spinach obsession. Then Wilson's girlfriend (I can't remember her name, but it's the same one from the actual show,) started googling it. House of course didn't care and kept getting spinach-high, until he ate too much and fell down beside his bed. I remember everything was sort of smoky and wavy. I pretty much figured he was going to die if he didn't do something, so I made him leave and took over, as I always do in dreams like these. I made him walk up to the roof of their apartment building, where Wilson and his girlfriend were on a swing-set. The girlfriend was swinging really high, to the edge of the building. Then she decided to stand up on the swing. I / House thought that was dangerous – we were pretty sure she was going to pitch over the ledge. I wanted to do something about it, but House didn't. Fortunately I was in control, so I decided to tell Wilson. However, he was playing in a ball pit. I thought, "Maybe this is why he's on spinach," and then I woke up.

Right! So I tried this Arctic Zero stuff and it did not make me high, and hopefully it didn't pass the blood-brain barrier and I didn't explode or grow an extra limb or anything like that. But I'm still not sold on the idea. Things like this that sound too good to be true usually are. Seriously, 3 kinds of sugar canceling each other out? Doesn't that sound like one of those diet-jokes? "Oh yeah, hur hur, if you eat two cupcakes they cancel each other out!" It didn't taste too bad though.

And Mom and I watched Revenge Of The Sith. I forgot how terrible / awesome that movie was. One of those things where, when it's bad it's abysmal ("UR BEAUTIFUL CUZ I LOVE U!!!" "OMG NO U!") and when it's good it's fantastic (Hello there! It's quite possible that he's the most beautiful man on earth.) This was my favorite scene. I thought it was brilliant. Two Jedi – or rather, a Jedi and a Sith, with flashy lightsabers and the Force and fancy moves and whatnot, and they get so fired up that to hell with the lightsabers, I'm just gonna choke a bitch with my bare hands because that's how much I hate/love/hate you! My other best part is when Obi-wan finds general Grievous (of all the things I'm writing and raving about now, yeah, writing that name makes me feel retarded,) and hundreds of enemy soldiers everywhere, and he thinks about it for a minute. "Hmm, this could be tricky, I'm massively outnumbered. What should I do?" And then he jumps down into the center of them like "Hey what's up, kicking everyone's ass now!"

How the hell did I get onto Star Wars? Jesus. No more crack for me. At least not this late at night.

Aaaanyway. Yeah, today. So I cleaned and studied and blah blah. And got lots of critiquing done for various writing workshops, but did absolutely no work on my own writing. :/ Ehh. Soon.

But not tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm going out with Lady Chrysanthemum to see Kung Fu Karate Kid. I hope it doesn't piss me off. I want to like it. I love Jackie Chan. Yes. He can be trusted to keep Kung Fu sacred. :) It's nice of her to have kept me in mind for tomorrow. She's quite lovely.

The Gold Dragon called me today and we talked for a long time. He wanted to see how everything is going ("Just calling to see, you know, how you guys are...But I guess you don't want to talk about..." No, I don't. But it was a kind gesture to call.) He misses class, and I miss him, and we're trying to figure out a day to go to China Town. But maybe a few of us this time. Me, Dragon and Snarklit, maybe Chrysanthemum and we'll ask Jedi Ronin, too. But in the end, bet you anything it'll just be the three of us. Which is also fine. He's such a good dude, this Dragon. Class is not the same without him.

Tomorrow I'm sleeping till 10 AM, cleaning the birds, going to the movies, and then, with whatever time I have left during the day, maybe writing/revising, or some more studying. Definitely some jogging and some dancing. Oh, jogging's going really well since I got those superfly sneakers. Mostly I'm going to ignore tomorrow until it's done. :)

And if not, I always have these silly fannish thoughts to occupy my mind. God, it's weird inside my head.

ETA: Gacked from William Gibson (God I love saying that,) Seizure-inducing photographs of Meiji Japan. These kind of rule, if you can handle the eye-strain.

I keep having this one dream that I'm in Disneyworld with Dad, and the same thing happens each time. He comes walking up to me, looks around Disneyworld and says, "They changed it. I don't know if I"m gonna like it, but let's see." Then we'll go on a ride and it's all different and weird. Last night, it was supposed to be Epcot Center. Also, Mom was there, Gran, and a bunch of my cousins (pretty much all of them who have ever gone on a trip with me.) We got on this new ride that was supposed to be a space journey or something. But one of the workers insisted that I wasn't who I said I was and kept asking me for ID. All I had was my library card and eventually she took it.

I'm pretty sure that Dad in these dreams is my own subconscious going, "Someday I'll go back to Florida, but it'll be different and I don't know if I'll like it."

Then I had my other recurring dream: the "Someone else is in trouble and I'd better take care of this for them." Last night it was Benecio Del Toro (because I watched Wolfman with Mom last night.) It was similar to the movie, only this time I had to stop all these bad things from happening to him. So I "jumped in" like I always do, and start dodging bullets, running, leaping, hiding behind pillars and such. Because, I'm really cool like that.

Anyway, so last night while watching Wolfman, Mom and I were eating ice cream and more or less MSTing the entire movie. At one point I meant to say something about, "Shooting at this werewolf on the rooftops of London" and instead I said wolftops of London. About five minutes later, my Mom accidentally said "wolftops" too and then we were just LOLing all over the place. Sometimes it's the most dumbass things that get me going. Well, most times.

Work today was pretty decent. My supervisor came in for a scheduled "coaching session" and to see how I was doing in my store etc. It went really well. People were really interested in what I had to say today, I sold a lot, and then Supervisor bought me lunch and said that I was doing really well and she didn't really have anything to add. We talked a while; she is very pleasant. And I got some cool t shirts, too.

Clinic is also pretty decent. Thursday I had some really good patients and a few repeat ones. I also did an extra treatment, because I had gone upstairs to be a standby (to get a treatment,) but someone had called in sick and this patient had driven all the way out there and had no one to treat her. So I said, Well, I'm already in my whites and I've got nothing else to do, so. I got credit for it too. Afterwards, I got a new patient who was iffy on the Amma treatment but said she'd give it a shot. So I did the whole treatment and afterwards she was very pleased. She actually said I was the best practitioner she'd ever met, and she booked me for the rest of the term! WHOA! My next patient was equally enthusiastic, and my final one of the night is my high-profile one. She told me that she would be willing to be my pathology patient next term. Which, I hope that works out because those can be hard to find. At the end of the day, I was writing up all my charts, when the receptionist came in and told me, "Everyone who walked out of here today said you were fantastic." I was like WOOT and the best part was that my two clinic supervisors were standing right there. Whew!

Also, that day I got 102 on one of my tests, and 97 on a pop quiz. I felt very relieved, as I'd been stressing over having gotten an 83 on the last test. 83. WTF.

Yesterday (Friday) was so mellow. I went grocery shopping, cleaned the fish tanks, went jogging, practiced some Hula, did a few critiques, and used this organic bug spray to try to kill the infestation of hibiscus sawfly that has wrecked both my dinnerplate hibiscus plants. They used to wait until August to start killing them; now the leaves are like lace before they even get a chance to open. I went nuts out there spraying the plants, pulling the dead, chewed up leaves off, and slapping down the larvae wherever I found them. It was disgusting.

This is what they do to the leaves:
( lace leaf )

And this is one of the bastard larvae:
( BASTARD. )

I came inside, washed all up, and sat down at the computer. I kept feeling this itching, prickling sensation on my wrist and I put it out of my mind, figuring that of course I was going to have that grossed out, prickling feeling for the rest of the day. Then it started to burn, and I looked down and found one of the larvae bastards on my wrist.

( THEY BITE. )

I hate them forever and ever and I want them all to die.

Speaking of gross, slithery, parasitic things, here's another little story from work today.

So, I'm just packing up to leave, and I stop to pet this nervous little dog in a shopping cart. The woman says to me, "Be careful, she bites." I tell her, That's all right; I like nervous little dogs and I usually get along with them. The dog let me pet it, and the lady says, "Didn't you used to work at The Bad Place?" I tell her that I did and she says, "You used to take care of my (so and so's) (aggressive exotic pet)!" Oh, I remember (aggressive exotic pet!), and I remember so-and-so! She informs me that said exotic pet has died and I express my sympathy.

She then asks why she hasn't seen me around and I tell her, "That didn't end well, unfortunately."

And she asks, "Was it because of Dr. Dickwhistle?" Why yes, in fact it was. "I thought so," she says. "I just don't like him. He rubs me the wrong way. His personality is just...weird. And I don't think he's a good vet."

'He's not, in my opinion," I tell her.

She goes on to tell me—get this-- "He misdiagnosed my dog. He said it was arthritis and..."

"And it was bone cancer," I finish for her. She confirms. "He did the same thing to my dog," I tell her. "My dog was gone a month later, because he kept sending her home with aspirin. And," I go on, "he made another mistake with my other dog, one that cost me about $15K."

"Ridiculous," she says, "I can't stand him. He can't look you in the eye. He's just no good."

"I agree," I tell her. "They do have some good vets there—Dr. Such-And-Such is one of them—but as for him, I wouldn't spit on him if he were on fire." (And, among friends I usually add, "But I might if he wasn't.")

So! We had a little bonding session over the general ickiness and failings of Dr. Dickwhistle. I always feel terrible when people tell me their stories of him. But also a little gratified, in a weird way. Like, yeah, I'm not the only one who sees this.

Blah-de-blah, that was my exciting week, sorta. For now, please enjoy some of the usual pics of my dogs, my fish and my gardens and junk.

( PICSPAM )

And now for some fish!
( FISH! )

Hee. Fish. Awesome.

Well, now I'm gonna take the dogs out and maybe put dinner on for me and Mom. She's borrowed a copy of a certain really mad awesome film, so we'll be watching that tonight. Yeah boyeeeeeee.

Hmmm, not all too much to report, same old same old. The weather is nice and warm, flowers are blooming but honestly it's a little boring sometimes; it feels sometimes like there's nothing really fabulous to look forward to. You know, no visits or trips or anything. My Wonderful Glassworker Friend visits but she's the only one. I do tend to think once in a while that people are afraid to visit; like it's going to be a house of mourning or something. Which it isn't. Just a little boring. :) I'm still peeved that I started to really like that one guy and he had to go away for the summer. MAI POINA.

But, it's easy to start to feel sorry for oneself! So best not to do that.

Actually, yesterday my fave aunt sent me a message just to say "Hi, you're awesome, have confidence in yourself and be happy." It's not the kind of thing you hear often and it really made my day.

I've got 3 birds: two starlings and a grackle. They're really sweet and fun. Getting another one tomorrow, I think, though I don't yet know what kind. A robin would be nice. A nice, fat, noisy, healthy baby robin.

Say, Sano's been freaking out for about an hour, trying to hide in the bathroom and trying to crawl under my chair and stuff and I'm like, "WTF is wrong with you, go in your bed!" And I just found out we're having massive thunderstorms pretty soon and it's been thundering like crazy just east of here. I should trust him!

My Mom let me borrow her VCR-->DVD recorder, and I put some old Hula dances on DVD. I'm not sure they play on my DVD player yet 'cause I haven't popped them in, but they do not work on my computer. Hahani Mai is coming along – I can't believe it's eleven years since I learned it. Trying to also re-learn: O Pau'o (Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu,) Maunaleo (Keali'i Reichel,) and Hi'ilawe (Chinky Mahoe.) I used to own Hi'ilawe, and Hahani Mai but that was a long time ago. Hi'ilawe did really start to come back to me, actually. It's not too hard.

Ooh, I have a Hula show on the 19th. That is going to be mad fun. There's something awesome to look forward to! I'm even thinking about making my own Tahitian hip hei out of my own plants. I've got an Adam's Needle that would do a great job with this. I get very ambitious during Hula season – whether or not I'll actually do this remains to be seen. :) La Toere! I will make that mine. :)

Oh, now I hear the thunder. Damn, the storm's a-comin. I should go running before it hits. Oh yeah, I got some really fly running shoes yesterday. AND, an entirely too-cute bathing suit. Now, if only the occasion would come to get all dolled up. Maybe I'll take a beach day one of these days, when it's super hot. Just put on my new bathing suit, pack a lunch and something to drink, and hit the beach. Yeah, that's what I should do, once it's really hot. ^_^

Okay well, I'd better get jogging before the lightning and rain follow. Byeeeee.

Oh yeah, and my fish tank finally cleared up. PRAISE BE TO THE GODS OF FISH TANKS. ^_`

Tonight is Jo-chan's last ever high school chorus concert. I remember SB's last one, and it was quite emotional for all the kids involved. Soon after this, she'll be graduating. Gosh. My little curly-headed comet, with a big crush on Eddie Vedder (especially when he was mak-ed - shirtless,) and Greg Kinnear and Joel from MST3k, and that old guy from The "when your bank says no, Champion says yes" commercials. She'd pop up from a nap and go, "SAYS YES!" when that commercial came on.

And now she looks like Gillian Anderson and got accepted into this mad prestigious school. Wow.

Me? Doing pretty well on tests (except last week's med massage one; I don't have the grade back yet but I know I screwed up on that one somehow, damn what do you expect so early in the frigging morning?!) and gearing up for a nice big Hula show on the 19th. I don't know what I'll be performing yet, since it's not with my usual troupe but a sistah troupe out west who invited me to the big bash. I'm thinking I'll probably bust out my usuals. I haven't heard back from C or C, the two ladies I usually dance with. So it'll probably be me going solo. I also decided it was high-time to re-learn Hahani Mai, so I broke that out again. And maybe choreograph "La Toere" from the Tihati "Legend of Kalua" collection. One of my alltime favorite pieces of Tahitian music, I used to call it "the beast" because it's upwards of about 3 minutes long, with mad accents and a super-fast beat. Not for amateurs or those without a really strong 'ami, which thankfully I've always had. And I have the real 'ami: the full, 360 hip circle at a ridiculous speed. I don't just stand there and shimmy. I own that sucker. So I think I can do this. (However, I still can't touch the Orlando girls when it comes to the Tahitian 'ami. They were taught since early childhood by my beautiful Auntie Kau'i, and they do it so well it's mindblowing. Yeah, doubt I'll ever be that good.)

Anyway, so I decided today that I was going to see if I could put together something fun for La Toere, because I've been choreographing it in my head for years. It's nearing 90 degrees today (WTF,) and I haven't danced since last September, which was a very hard show for me. Anyway, wow. I was more winded than after my ten-fifteen minute jog. And that was just for three minutes. I have to get those specific muscles back into shape. Funny, I can do Kung Fu straight up for hours without stopping. Tahitian 'otea—which I used to own—barely three minutes.

Time to get back into it.

Early effing day tomorrow, and long, long, mothereffing long hours. Tests, clinic, traffic. Yay.

Thankfully, off on Friday. Then work on the weekend, then off on Monday. So, hurray. :)

My fish tank is still cloudy. It's been two weeks. I keep getting the water tested and everything looks pretty good, nothing dangerous in there (ammonia is down, nitrates and nitrites are okay, etc.) but I can't see my goddamn fish.

This is pissing me off.

I kind of liked that fast that I did last weekend. Maybe I'll try another one. I've put on about five pounds since last year and I'm not happy with it. And I need to fit into my Hula and Tahitian clothes by next month. So, maybe I'll do that again.

Meanwhile, pizza tonight. :/