Blather, rinse, repeat

God, end of year memes! You'd think I'd've been back on LJ before now, but you know. Callum takes a nap, I write. (Or, let's be real: sometimes just go on Tumblr. It's so low-effort.) But this year I gotta do the memes. It's been a big year. So, thanks for reminding me, spatterdash !




1 -What did you do in 2015 that you’d never done before?

THE BIG ONE! I signed with a literary agent. :) I mean yeah, that's the one thing I've always been on about in these year-end memes, right? And this year, I did! And it's been crazy fun.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I tend not to make them, IDK. It's like I always say: If I want to make a change, I'll do it when I feel like, not in January.


3 Did anyone close to you give birth?

My cousin did, although, it kills me to say it, we're not close anymore. We were the absolute best of friends. Then she moved away and she's not on FB too often, and we hardly ever talk. No one in her family even knew she was pregnant until the baby was already born. So, that makes me sad, that we are so distant now that I didn't even know she had another baby on the way.

My ex-boss also had her second child.

4- Did anyone close to you die?

My ex-boss lost her Mom suddenly a few months ago. I didn't know her Mom, but it was shocking. I'm always hesitant to answer this question, because this anxious part of me feels like it's a curse if I say “no.” I used to always say “no,” and then my Gran and Dad died so suddenly within a few months of each other. I know this has ZERO to do with reality and cause and effect, but honestly, that kind of stuff messes me up.


5- What countries did you visit?

I wish.


6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?

I super lacked money in 2015. It's so cheesy to say something like this, but in almost every other way, I don't feel like I lack much. I have a beautiful family, home, a job I enjoy, and a literary agent! But my job has been really slow. We got sold and bought twice, and almost went under. This year, I'd just really like to make some money. And whether that's from just having more clients, or getting to teach some classes where I work, or a book deal? (Although, I understand that debut authors don't really get much in the way of an advance, so I'm not expecting that!) I'd just really love to have enough money to not worry, and to get a few rad things.


7. What date from 2015 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Two of them. July 2nd, the day I got my first offer from an agent. And July 14th, the day I got a second offer, from the agent I ultimately signed with. July was HUGE for me.


8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

See above! And not only that, but writing a whole new novel, too. I mean, I've had all these Blueshift novels for years, with prequels and sequels and side-stories and such that I always wrote and wrote and wrote, but never really did anything with. And then SCADS of fanfics, too. But then I went for it and wrote something completely different. As I was writing it, spatterdash was writing her new novel, too, and we traded critiques, sometimes even a few times a week. The experience was amazing. She kept me motivated, and I also got to read her WIP – which was so good, it made me want to be a better writer.


9. What was your biggest failure?

I didn't work out. Or dance, or really move, like, at all. I've gotten really weak and out of shape, and I'm super disappointed in myself for that.

10- Did you suffer illness or injury?

I had such a bad sinus infection or something over late summer and fall that I thought I had a brain tumor and ran off to the doctor. And my TNJ dysfunction got really bad, like so so bad there were a few weeks when I couldn't move my jaw more than a few inches. Then last week, I got COXSACKIE of all damn things and had such a swollen lymph node in my neck that it was plain gross. And these seem minor and they are, but anxiety ramps everything up to eleven.
What was the best thing you bought?

I have to say the trip to Disney. Aside from books and some work clothes, I didn't buy anything else.


12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

A great many of my family members. And some of the people I worked with this year, for really just hanging in there, trying to make our place beautiful and functional again.


13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Conservatives. And a family member, but I don't want to discuss that.

14- Where did most of your money go?

Bills, really. Paying off that vacation. And honestly, just groceries. How boring.*


15- What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Signing with my agent! And writing; boy, I got super excited about writing again. Like, really fired up in ways I hadn't been in years. That critique exchange was like a stick of dynamite to the ass.

And the Kenshin movies, oh my god. I haven't fangirled that hard in years, it was beautiful. And the new X Files coming out.

And Star Wars! Which I haven't seen yet.


16- What song will always remind you of 2015?

Uptown Funk, GOD it was everywhere, and my son loves it. And also, Take Me To Church. That sucker made me write an entire character.


17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder?  The same, I think. I'm a happy person in general; I tend to even out.

ii. thinner or fatter?  About ten pounds fatter. :/

iii. richer or poorer?  SO MUCH POORER.


18- What do you wish you’d done more of?

Exercise. And LJ.




19- What do you wish you’d done less of?

Stressing about dumb things.



20. How will you be spending Christmas/New Years?

Christmas proper: First opening gifts with Callum and my Mom, then having dinner at my cousin Chrissie's house with her fam, and doing some Xmas over there. The day after that, seeing OTHER cousins Spence and Meg, also at Chrissie's house. And then Third Christmas, with all the cousins and my Mom and my high-school pal, since everyone is off work that day. New years? Nothing. Ehh.

And then after New Years, honestly, I just huddle down and wait for Spring.


Anyway, here's another one!

1- Will you be looking for a new job in 2016?


I hope not? I like my job and I really want us to be successful and stay afloat. I'll be teaching some classes, though.




2- Will you be looking for a new relationship?

Nah. Ain't nobody got time etc.



3- What will you do differently in 2016?

Dance more, I hope. Eat less, I also hope. Stress over stupid things less, if I can. Get a therapist? Definitely find a dentist.




4- What will you not be doing in 2016?

Tom Hardy, IDK. Sadly.


5- Any trips planned?

None planned, but I will probably stupidly go to Disney again.


6- What’s on your calendar?

Like, picture-wise? I always get the Llewellyn calendar, the zodiac one. I'm still really superstitious about doing important things during the void-of-course moon.


7- What can’t you wait for?

I can't wait for my book to go out on submission! But, minor things: I can't wait for X Files. I can't wait to see Star Wars. I can't wait for stupid SPRING to get here.

But in other ways, I don't want time to go too fast. Now that I have a kid, it's always a little weird saying, “I can't wait for this and that!” Because every day Callum is a little bigger, a little smarter, a little more grown up, and it's just going too fast. Getting bigger shoes for him just kills me.



8- What would you like to see happen differently?

In the world? I'd love to see people being less dickish and violent. I'd love to see some sane gun control in the world. I'd love for there to be less (or—gasp!--NO MASS SHOOTINGS!) But I think those are crazy fantasies.



9 - What about yourself will you be changing?

Hopefully I'll lose the weight and some of the stress.



10 - What happened in 2015 that you didn’t think would ever happen?

IDK, nothing, I think. I sort of always had faith that I would get an agent I loved. It's the world. Anything can happen.



11- Will you dress differently this year than you did in 2015?

Sort of? At work, we all wear black now. In the last few years, I was getting back into my colorful, swirly skirts and froofy shirts and that kind of thing. But now we wear black and that's also fine. I can't afford new clothes tbh.


12- Do you expect 2016 to be a good year for you?

It's really hard to expect anything. In some ways yes, in other ways no.


13- How much did you change from this time last year till now?

Not much, I don't think.



14- Wish for 2016?


My wish is always that no one I care for will get sick, or will die, or will be in any pain. But I'm always afraid to straight up wish for that kind of thing; it seems like asking too much.

My wish for the world is just less violence, you know? Less guns, less shouting and bloviating, less right wing conservative nonsense. I wish for a Democratic president. I don't even really f'ing care which one. I get so nervous in presidential election years.

My low-key, realistic (?) wish is to get a nice book deal. But I'm not sure how realistic that is, because we're not even done with edits yet, and I know this submission stuff can go on for ages. So while I do wish for that, I won't be sitting here holding my breath!



* ETA: Where did most of your money go? Actually, most of my money, not even kidding, went to Haku's vet bills. We're talking, like, a thousand a month sometimes, nothing left over for food - those kinds of bills. His seizures got really bad this year, and we made lots of vet visits and did lots of bloodwork and new meds. Haku is my baby, what can you do?

HUGELY graphic heavy, okay!



This is gonna be a story in photos. :)

( The holiday season )


And that's the story, in pictures, of this holiday season!

So it's obviously been a really crappy week in terms of the big picture. The whole Sandy Hook thing went down Friday which is pretty devastating and unthinkable. Most of that I've dealt with on my Tumblr. That's where I keep most of my non-personal, great-big-world, social issue stuff. (And my fandom stuff too, really.)

So it's kinda hard to get that incident out of one's head long enough to focus on one's own life. But I am fortunate in that I can just go to bed sad and angry, whereas those families will probably never sleep again.

The holiday season carries on. I finished my gift shopping relatively early, and am just waiting on two more gifts which haven't arrived yet. My tree has already stopped sucking up water but it looks and smells really nice. Jo-chan is here 4 days out of the week and my Mom's got her tree up and even some lights.

Tomorrow is my anatomy scan ultrasound, so of course I'm a little nervous. It's to make sure Puglsey has all his parts and nothing looks unusual. Of course, at times like this, one wonders what kind of world one is putting children into. How do you know they'll ever be safe, when you can't even send them to school anymore? And then there's the worry about, how do you know you're not going to raise the next mass murderer? I know that good parenting and noticing signs and things like that has a lot to do with it, but events like this make it seem like it can so easily go wrong.

But of course, that kind of thing doesn't show up on ultrasound.

I had some good news about Haku. I was talking to Wizard Vet (or Genius Vet, whichever) about adding a new med, because the seizures are piling up again. We talked about Zonegran and that seemed like a good thing to try. Stress: try, because it's a hit or miss thing. The first thing to do was test his bloods to make sure that he's still in good shape. His liver values are slightly high (at 218 – last year they were 178,) but Wizard Vet said that's actually a really good value for a dog who's been on pheno for so long. She said usually they're in the thousands. That's because I keep him on mega doses of Milk Thistle every day. His chloride was MAD high, and that's a kidney value. Normal is 125 and his is 147. It doesn't sound like a big jump, but it's a small window. However, she said that's from the KBr, and if the Zonegran works, we can reduce the KBr.

Zonegran is CRAZY expensive. Like, $500 for a hundred pills, and he gets two a day. Fortunately, ZONICIMIDE is only $30 and is the exact same thing, and the pharmacy in town can fill it. What a huge load off my mind, let me tell you.

Guess I'll have more to post about tomorrow. Or at least, when I feel like posting what goes on tomorrow. :)

So this, then, was the holiday season of '11. I quite liked it. I got a tree for the first time in three years, and it was a good tree, not too tall or short. In fact it's still up – gotta take it down Sunday, really, along with the rest of the decorations. I hate that.

I got to spend time with people I see all the time and still want to see more, and also with people I haven't seen with in a while.

The 22nd, a Thursday, was our Kung Fu party. We haven't done one of these in a few years, either. It was swell to get back into that. We went to the grill around the corner from our school, after class. When we all came in wearing our uniforms, the waitstaff got goggly-eyed. One of the servers said, "Are you all Shaolin people?" We're not, but that's what people tend to think. She laughingly asked us not to break anything, and said she loved our "Gi uniforms." Or Ghi or whatever the Karate ones are called. "Wear the Gi with pride," she said. No one corrected her.

The food was delish, the laugher was sincere (because the jokes were funny,) and the dessert was shared. At the end, The Empress and I took our traditional Bad Angle Photo, which we do every time we all go out together.

( Kung Fu party pics. )

On Friday the 23rd, I got to hang with my two best friends from high school. (Tangent: I did have two more friends in high school, and one of them I still hear from sporadically, and the other, I don't know what became of him. His name was Jimmy; He was teenytiny, played guitar, and we used to go out to lunch every day and do stupid things like photocopy our body parts, loiter around the candy stores, break bottles against the wall of Pergament, set fire to leaves, and generally act the fool – but we never got caught.)

ANYway, these two friends I still keep in regular contact with, after, what, 23 years now? Durga moved to Washington (we lived in Seattle as roomies briefly in the 90s, and she loved the state and eventually went back,) and Drex lives close enough that we still get together now and then, mostly for video games. So, Durga had come up for the holidays to spend time with her Mom, and she came by here for a few hours. I invited Drex along, and we had the old gang back together. Drex brought over a 30 gallon fish tank he has no more use for. We went to my Mom's, had pizza, and laughed until we cried. Holy crap, Drex can really tell a story and get everyone larfing all the larfs.

I had to work early the next day, and the mini-party ended around 1:30 AM. Before they left, we took pictures in front of my tree, re-creating the Nativity. ^_^

( Xmas eve eve )

I worked on Christmas Eve. One person tipped me double, another didn't tip me at all. I guess it evened out.

On actual Christmas, Mom and I took turns visiting Boychild's Mama/Boychild/Mom's side of the family at their house across the street. (Boychild's Daddy was working a double.) CeceAnn was there with her three kiddies, and also my Aunt, the one who was in the car accident this past year and lost her leg. It was good to see her smiling and looking well. I went over there while my Mom watched Haku, and then I took Haku back to mine and my Mom went for her visit. She brought over Grampa's shirt to give to my aunt.

Boychild's Mama baked up a storm, which I am still eating, actually. The adults played with the kids' toys, and for the third time in one week, I laughed until I cried.

( Crimbo 1.0 )

And this is where I laughed myself dehydrated: here's Mimi having a helluva time trying to say "Ghostbuster."



Then Xmas night, That Guy I'm Seeing came by in his new (well not new-new) truck. We had some egg nog and I gave him this gold paper crane I had made, with a tag that said, "drive safely" in Kanji. Except the paper crane looked really dorky and he thought it was a pterodactyl so we decided it would be a lucky, golden pteranodon instead.

I worked on the 26th and 27th. To all my clients and co-workers, Christmas was over, but I still had one more gathering. SB, Jo-chan, UD (their Dad, my Uncle,) and Boychild's Mama with Boychild all went to my Mom's for belated Xmas dinner.

There weren't a helluva lot of gifts going around, but what there was, was awesome. Pajamas, socks, handwarmers, things like that. Some people don't even get those, you know. I had given SB and Jo-chan their gifts already, last month. It was Skyward Sword, and who wants to wait for that? I had also pre-ordered them ages ago, and got one for Boychild, too. When I gave him his Skyward Sword game, he danced around the room singing, "OH YEAH! OH YEAH! I GOT IT! I GOT IT!" I just missed recording that; it was awesome and totally worth the wait.

Boychild had gotten, from his parents, a replica Master Sword and Hylian Shield, which everyone had to take turns playing with, especially my Uncle. He's pretty much as big a gamer as I am, maybe even bigger.

One other important thing that happened was this: For a long time, my Mom has been trying to get Dad's music/interviews/rehearsals/ramblings from reel-to-reel onto CD. The reels are ancient, and so are the players, and she had no way to convert them. SB is majoring in music and he's got this incredible wealth of technological knowledge, and resources too. So SB and my Mom spent hours in my Dad's music room, not only figuring out the RTR (and a few of us sporadically came and went to help out – I actually remembered how to set up the RTR! WTH!) but mostly it was SB and my Mom, talking about my Dad (his uncle) and this and that. He's a really good boy who was extremely close to his uncle and I think this was a nice thing for both of them. I love that he gets to help preserve—really save—my Dad's music and history. But, that was only the preliminary "this is what you need to accomplish this, and this is how it works" thing, so he'll be back to actually upload them one of these days.

Also, I got Jo-chan what I thought was a really fly gift, and she was totally pleased with it. A few weeks before, we were hanging around talking about which type of character we would be in the world of Legend of Zelda. We all agreed she'd be a Kokiri. She wondered if anyone had ever made or sold the "Kokiri Emerald" from Ocarina of Time. I was so dang thrilled to find one for her on Etsy. So that was really awesome, too. And my Mom get her an Adiposian from Dr. Who, because the three of us watch that show together.

Boychild, for the first time ever, picked out the gifts he wanted to give to everyone, from the store and from his pre-school sale. For me, pink pajamas and awesome socks, along with a Santa Clause ring. For my Mom, pajamas (I forgot which color!) and black socks, and a keyblade charm from Kingdom Hearts. For Jo-chan, pajamas with kitties on them and something else which I forgot. For SB, Ninja Turtle pajamas. How he knew that SB is the biggest Ninja Turtles fan ever and has been since the womb, practically, I will never guess.

Pics!

( Crimbo 2.0 )

And that was that. Now it's Friday, and I have work tomorrow, New Years Eve. But that's cool, I don't do NYE anyway; it's not my thing. I don't ring in the new year or anything. In fact, I'll either be watching Torchwood or Dexter, or I'll be in bed reading the new King book. I'm about a quarter of the way through.

Oh, probably about a quarter of the way through Skyward Sword, too. Two of my cousins finished it in days. Me, I like to stretch it out as long as possible. Like today. Instead of starting the new dungeon, I walked around with the Gust Bellows and blew on all the NPCs I could find. I posted it to Tumblr and somehow it became very popular. (Not as popular as my "Tenth Doctor/IT IS DEFENDED from the pepper spraying cop" Meme that I did, which ended up on the official BBC Tumblr with over 3500 reblogs. But still popular. ^_^ )

And now, onto 2012/Year Of The Dragon. I will keep working, recording, reading and playing, keep writing, keep querying, and I will KEEP ON TRYING TILL I RUN OUT OF CAKE.

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.

Ended up having two holiday gatherings, the first was on the 24th. It was SB, Jo-chan and their Dad, my uncle. I wasn't sure how holiday-ish I was feeling, still. I didn't decorate, get a tree, or even send out any cards. My Mom, though, she dug Gran's old tree out of the shed and set that up. I thought that was a really nice idea and it looked very cute.

Everything is always fun with SB and Jo-chan though, and we spent the first part of it in my Mom's kitchen, cooking and listening to my iPod.

Once my uncle got there, we did prezzies right away. My gift to SB and Jo this year is the tickets to Video Games Live, which we went to last year and which was mindblowing if you're any kind of gamer geek, and we all three of us are. (More on this later.) But, I also got them little prezzies too, just to have something to give. For SB I got a t shirt that he wanted, and for Jo-chan I got a little stuffed lemur with glowy eyes, which Haku tried to steal and chew.

My uncle got me (and Mom) the Family Guy Star Wars set. Hilariously, I got Family Guy Star Wars for my uncle, too. O_o AND. SB and Jo-chan bought me a SHINRA T SHIRT. I about peed my pants.

Then my Mom came out of her room saying, "Well, I didn't wrap this or anything, but..." and plonked down a PS3. That's right, my crazy Mom got me a PS3 for the holiday. WTMFF, I was so happy, but that is INSANE, a PS3, seriously!

The hit of the night (aside from the PS3) was what my uncle got for Jo-chan, which was this adorable little remote control helicopter. All of us actually played with that silly thing all night.

SO FUN. Then we played Akinator, and watched Family Guy "It's A Trap" while eating brownies and ridiculous amounts of ice cream.

Jo-chan introduced us to this beautiful piece of holiday music:

( xmas lulz )

And because I'm twelve, this is the height of hilarity to me.

( Pics! )

That was the first holiday gathering. The second one was on the 26th, and was Boychild's Momma and Poppa, and Boychild, over at my Mom's house also.

I got Boychild the Wii game The Force Unleashed II. My Mom got him a guitar. I got a calander, and tons and tons of warm fuzzy pajamas, socks and slippers, OMG, I love getting stuff like that so much. Oh, for Boychild's parents I got Special Egg Nog and a cute set of Long Island themed martini glasses.

We ate, and ate, and ate some more (Boychild's Momma bakes,) and I showed Boychild how to tune his guitar and how to strum it. He was very attentive to that. After, we played Twilight Princess, and then he totally schooled me in The Force Unleashed II. He insists that he's not a Padawan, but a Jedi. Yet he still favors the Sith, OMG, I'm a little worried. He thinks that Darth Maul is the best. I was like, "Boychild, Darth Maul killed Qui-gon." He was like, "I still like Darth Maul! And then Yogi-Wan killed him!' Because it's not Obi-wan, it's Yogi-Wan. He's a Star Wars/game geek and he's not hardly 4 yet. Score one for the team.

( More pics! )

And, that was that! ^_^ It was actually so much better than I'd dared to imagine.

Today was my first Hula show with my new name given to me by Auntie: 'Ilikeanani (The whole meaning.)

It was also the first show I did since last year, when I did that one right after Dad died. I hardly remember that show at all, TBH. It was miserable and awful and if I hadn't needed the money I wouldn't have done it. I vaguely remember dancing with an ancient, I mean ancient, tiny, adorable kupuna. She was 100+, wore her hair in 'dreads, and I gave her a flower to wear in her hair. That was the only really nice part I can remember. I danced for a bunch of kupuna. I love love love dancing for old people. They remember Hawai'i the way it used to be, and they get it. The understand what the Hula is.

Today I was dancing for keiki, little kids. That's always a little harder because they require different kinds of entertainment. Plus it was a holiday show, so I had to adjust the theme and throw some holiday songs in there. Drummer Boy and Hawaiian Santa (the latter one I taught to them.) I always get a little nervous around kids to begin with.

And I'm jittery before any show. My dumb Garmin sent me down the wrong street and I was almost late, but made it just as everyone was filing in. They gave me a nice dressing room and a really big place to dance. I like dancing on the floor much better than a stage. Hula traditionally doesn't go on a stage; you do it eye-level. You'd have done it on the beach, or plain old on land, originally. So this stage thing is a relatively new development for Hula and Tahitian.

Sorry for the tangent. Anyway, I got there on time and met the guy who was doing the music for me. I already had my playlist all cued up and ready to go; he just had to follow my signals (stop, go, louder, lower,) and we were all set. Actually, he did such a great job with that, that I'd have to say he was the best sound-guy I've ever worked with.

It started off a little slow, with no one in the audience really sure what to do with me etc. Drummer Boy didn't go across as well as I'd thought it would. I think that particular Hula is maybe for a bit more of an intimate setting, less festive. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Then I called the keiki up to teach them Hawaiian Santa, and I was surprised at how much they loved it. They were having a great time. When it was their turn to dance, then the parents all got involved and started becoming a part of the show / audience. It got some reactions, finally.

I also included poi spinning in this show, too. I only ever do that when there are either keiki or kupuna, and when the show is casual. The reason for this is that I suck—abysmally--at spinning poi. I know only two or three good poi-spinning tricks and the rest is really just me hitting myself in the back of the head, the ass, the eye, the boob, everywhere. But if it's an informal show, you can joke about that. So I taught them how to swing poi balls around, I gave them each one (there were so many keiki at this point!) and I spun my two. Actually I didn't do so badly; I was pleasantly surprised that it came back to me. We did this through Hoki Hoki and then I ran off to get changed into my Tahitian 'otea garb.

The keiki lovedlovedloved the Tahitian. I told them they could come up and shout with me (because I do that ridiculously loud Tahitian scream, the "tssyaaaaa!" that gets everyone's ears bleeding,) and because I wasn't using my i'i's I let two of the girls shake have them to dance with. (The i'i's are the 'otea pom-poms, I guess you would call them. They're made out of bark though, like the costume itself.)

So I finally performed La Toere and, holy crap, so much harder to perform than to practice. My fa'arapu (the Tahitian fast hip circles) were PAU by the end of the song. I haven't practiced this dance since the summer and it really showed. All the kids were like "How do you do that!" and I was like, "you need a motor in your hips, haha!" meanwhile I was dying. By the time "Tahiti, Tahiti" came on, I was like, "Wow, we're gonna have to just do this like an 'aparima!" Well, not really. That's one of my favorite songs. I've never performed it before, either. It's so much freaking longer when I'm dancing to it than when I play it in the car, DAMN.

But, if my fa'arapu was starting to die, no one noticed it and everyone had a great time.

I finished up singing and dancing Aloha 'Oe, and then we took a couple of pics and I was out of there in about an hour and fifteen minutes all told. A pretty easy and really fun way to make a hundred bucks. I wish I could do this every Sunday, because I seriously would.

Here are some pics, anyway.

( Hawaiian Santa )

( Keiki spinning poi! )

( After the show )

( That's me, in my dressing room. )

(I have a similar pic of me from years ago, same costume, same angle. The file name just reads "Kapunua" and this one just reads "'Ilikeanani" because in a weird way, I draw a line between 'Ilikeanani and "Jules" the way I did with "Kapunua" and "Jules." Is that strange?)

Well, anyway. This was a really nice way of getting back into Hula. For all that I have these many other interests and lifestyles, this is one that I always hope will be with me forever, and I always rejoice when I'm thrown a chance to be that person again. Sometimes it's a few times a month and sometimes it's just once a year. But I take it any time I can get it. :D

Hau'oli makahiki hou!

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!

Well, Christmas was everything I thought it would be! Good food, some really loud laughter, video games, and a small person running around eating too much sugar and enjoying all his toys. Celia came around with her three kids and they hung out for a while. Then they left, and, randomly, my aunt's boyfriend showed up for a while. O_O Then Chris came over with The Boychild (Tim was waiting for his Dad to show up at his house,) and then Chris and Boychild left and UD, Betsy, SB and Jo-chan showed up.

My uncle did indeed bring over his Wii and RE4 and oh man, can he ever race through this game. I played it a while too and everyone watched The Killing Of The Ganados. SB and Jo-chan told me their RE4 tagline:

RESIDENT EVIL FOUR - "I can't really see in the dark, sooooo."

That tickled me way more than it should have. Maybe you just have to know the way they phrase these things.

Later in the evening, Chris, Tim and Boychild came by again and we all had desserts.

Everyone was so happy with their gifts. I got my Mom a musical Frank Sinatra ornament statue, not really for Xmas exactly, and she really liked it. And some new headphones, and I gave her my old iPod because I got a new one. (8GB!) For my Dad I got two books: One on the life of Dinah Washington (she was his manager) and another on the greatest boxing stories (he was a professional boxer.) For SB, a DVD of Flea talking about his techniques and philosophies; for Jo-chan the RedXIII / Cait Sith figure and a Phoenix Wright book. I think the gift that went over the best was the one I got for my uncle, which was a Resident Evil calander and the best home-made t shirt I've made yet, with RE4's merchant on the front in black and silver, saying "WHAT ARE YA BUYIN'?" He thought it was really cool.

So yeah! I got a new iPod which I am thoroughly enjoying as well as a few really cool surprises, such as this kitchen tool called "the bullet" which I haven't used yet but is apparently very awesome (I like to cook, so this should be lots of fun,) a "graveyard garden" that my Dad picked out and was signed "To Morticia, from Santa," LOL, TONS of socks which I really love, the best sweater ever, a Cloud Strife keychain (WIN!) and an awesome book about Christopher Walken. O_O That's not to mention the guzheng I got last month! I also got a book on how to learn to play it. ^_^ As well as a bunch of cute little things like a datebook I needed and stuff like that.

My aunt, uncle and two cousins got me the ENTIRE Family Guy DVD set, with a big Stewie head that goes over it. So neat! And my cousins and Boychild bought me these cute Jack Sparrow thingies and also this beautiful Hawaiian watch that goes with my bracelet. They picked it out because it has a second hand and they figured I would need one in school, to take my patient's pulse. See this is something I never would have thought of on my own, and it's perfect.

Now, some KF friends and I are trying to work out when to have our party. We're waiting on The Empress and Gold Dragon to get back to us before setting a date. It had better be soon. I start college on the 6th and the clock is ticking.

Also, I am peeing in my pants.

Oh man, I just remembered a dream I had a few days ago! It's hilarious and so typically a "zOMGzzz SCHOOL!!!!111" dream. To make a very long and detailed dream short, the basics were this: I showed up at college only to find that I was totally lost and couldn't find my classrooms. Eventually I went into the bathroom and all of the toilets backed up. A pipe broke, the sinks all flooded, and I had to change my clothes before going anywhere so I started to get undressed. Then a bunch of teachers walked in and I was, yeah, naked at school. Finally I got dressed but realized I had missed my first two classes and I had no idea what I was supposed to do about that because I was still lost. I went running down the stairs and then an airplane crashed into the school. Finally I got fed up and realized that I had to talk to someone about making up my missed classes (time was spiralling out of control: days had already passed,) and I got in line to talk to someone and when I got there she asked for my registry number. I told her I had my student number but no registry number and I started to get mad. I was like, "I want to file a complaint against the way things are run here!" and she said that I needed to have a complaint number, too. Then I looked around and saw all of these hat stands and people dancing around them and I realized that not only had I missed my first few classes, but I was in entirely the wrong school. This was a hat-making / dancing school. I realized I had no idea where I was or even where I was supposed to be. And that's when my alarm went off.

But, uhh, I'm sure everything will be just fine! ^_^;;