Meanwhile, back in the jungle. . .

I was going to make a post about something completely different, but then I heard about the government shutting down.

How did I not hear about this until now? I mean, seriously? I was looking through my Facebook feed and saw that in case of a government shut down, the high school I went to school at would still operate under normal hours. I was all like, wow, that is an odd thing to say. . . So I did a little research and found out that I guess some important things are happening back east.

Meanwhile, I was spending my day cleaning. This is actually the first day in over two weeks that I went to school and did nothing else. I just stayed home (or at least stayed at my current residence) and cleaned up everything. Oddly enough, there was someone who came by a few days ago as was supposed to have cleaned everything, but I really don't thing they did that great of a job. That, or two people make a huge mess over a weekend, which is possible, but unlikely. 

I was actually fairly relaxed. I have a lot of work this week, but otherwise I'm enjoying the time I've got. I event spent some time exploring the thought of being a cat psychologist with my editor. I think it would be fun, well, kind of. . . 

The days are certainly starting to get cooler, and the trees are starting to show their yellows. Meanwhile, I pulled out some frozen dough from the freezer to bake for dinner, and I though to myself, "yeah, I'm ready for winter." Now, why on earth would I think that about frozen dough? Well, the ice crystals on them reminded me of snow glistening in the lights of winter. Yeah it's a bit of a stretch but that's all I got, ok?

Ok, my back hurts and I'm sleepy. Go away. I sleep now.

Little dog. 

One hell of a night

I

Am

So

Frikkin

Tired,

Like, omg. 

After I finished my post last night, I spent an hour or so watching my programs, waiting to go back to work. I chugged quite a bit of coffee in hopes that I would be able to stay up all night, and it worked. The graveyard shift at this old folks home wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was able to figure most things out on my own, especially since there was only one other caretaker working. There was a point where she went on break and I was responsible for everyone in the building. It was kind of scary, but mostly because IT WAS STILL ONLY MY FIRST GODDAMN SHIFT BY MYSELF!!! This came to bite me in the butt real bad around 5am, right as some of the residents were waking up. I was supposed to be doing two jobs at once and I got overwhelmed very quickly. 

Even after the rest of the morning crew came in, I was still in over my head. I only had 5 people that I was responsive for taking care of, but unfortunately they all were fairly high maintenance. One lady was having intestinal troubles and was in a lot of pain. She was nervous about me being new, but I think after spending so much time with her, she might be ok with me. We'll see. 

I do really enjoy working at this place, I feel really appreciated and helpful, even when I'm not sure what I'm doing. After the horrors of the morning shift, I asked to be trained in the mornings just so that doesn't happen again. Also, since the graveyard shift wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I might open up my availability for it. Besides, I have quite a bit more free time during the graveyard shift. Maybe I could bring some homework. .  . 

Well, I'm exhausted and I've only napped for about 2 hours or so. I'm going to go drown in a bubble bath.

Behold. As my editor does his homework and my sister's dog does. . . What ever she is doing.

Also, this hallway is beautiful during the day when the sun is shining in, but during night, its scary as hell.

Seriously, I'm so afraid of looking out the windows and seeing something staring at me. Not cool bro.

This is one of the posters on the walls at work. I love the detail and style of it.

So I tried copying it. I only got this far with the drawing. I kept having to stop and actually, you know, do my job. 

All in pen, too!!! 

 

Night, night, its time for bye byes.

"It's been a great day, thanks a heap! 

Now it's time for everyone to go to sleep."

Except me, apparently.

So, here's what just happened. Right after dinner, as I am escorting some residents back to their rooms, I overheard the lead care manager saying that one of the people who works the overnight shift (one of two, maybe three, I forget which), can't come to work tonight. I, being the versatile person, took the initiative to offer my services overnight. 

Now, today was my FIRST day all by my self, and as far as everyone was telling me, I was doing ok. Nothing had caught on fire, which I guess is good thing. Anyway, since I had planned on staying the night at my apartment tonight, which is literally a block away from my work, and since I had to return to work at 5am, I thought, "I might as well see if I can pull a 24 hour shift, I mean, it's not illegal to do something like that, right?" Well, it kinda is. So, they told me that I couldn't work all the way from 2pm this afternoon to 1pm tomorrow afternoon, so, I said "ok."

I still offered my service if they needed anything, and I guess I got what I asked for.

Around 8:45, while I was helping someone prepare himself for bed, I got a call from the LCM (lead care manager) asking me if I wanted to leave as soon as I was finished with my task, and return after midnight. I mean, who needs sleep anyway, right? So I said yes, I'll do it! 

And here we are. I'm here at my sister's place (since I don't have time to dig through all the boxes and find my Internet modem), waiting to walk back up the road and get back to work. They're letting me have at least 3 hours to rest or re-energize myself, which is good, since I probably won't get home until after lunch tomorrow. I don't know how I am going to keep myself awake. This is going to be a rough night, especially since I am already feeling sleepy.

Maybe if I have some free time, I'll bring my homework, or maybe write another post. Depending on how much I need to do. . . 

Well, wish me luck again. . . It is going to be a long, long night. 

i have failed you all

Wow, that just happened, didn't it. I missed my first post. Oops. I know I came really close to it a few times, and my "quota filling" posts probably count against me too. . .

oh well, I mean, I wasn't even that busy yesterday, especially not as much as I thought I would be. I had to go in to work for more computer training, and that was supposed to be from 10 to 6 or so, but it only took me an hour to finish the last two modules. I was mad because I actually prepared to sit there the whole day, I brought a little shawl because it was cold in there last time, as well as mu own tea and mug! I was all prepared to stay for 8 hours and finish all my training, when I honestly could have stayed an extra hour the other day and finish the whole thing!!!

It was such a waste of time, so I went back to my apartment with the plan to find and turn in my old uniform stuff from my last job, but there were people in my home, cleaning and packing some more stuff so they could rip out the counters soon. That's good at least.

sooooooo, I went over and woke up my sister offering to take her to see her pets. That took an extra hour, trying to get her up and her telling me to wait and go play her Xbox. So I did.

and what did I do for the rest of the evening? Play Xbox at my god mother's house. Yeah, so I completely forgot to write this post last night, though I thought about it a lot, I just never actually did it.

Oddly enough, I dreamt about writing a post in my sleep last night. I didn't think about it until I was in the shower, which is where I just wad before I started writing this.

so, here we are. I'm dumb, and I forgot. What else do you want from me?

I don't know if I'll be able to make a coherent post tonight, I'm about to leave and meet my tutor for breakfast (and homework), then I have to work 2 to 10, and then, I'm going back to my apartment to sleep, since my work wants me to be there at 5 in the morning, and I absolutely cannot function at that time of day. Seriously, it hurts me, my stomach throws a fit, and it has ever since I was managing at a certain royal burger restaurant. 5am is nooooo good. 6 is just as bad. 7 is still pushing your luck.

well, wish me luck for today....

Limbo

Today, I experienced true pain, true boredom. 

I had to do online training for my new job.

Online training, like, the most bland and uninteresting way to teach someone about their new job.

The programming was so poorly designed at out of date it made me want to cry.

And I had to sit and endure it for six hours. I waned to scream I was so bored.

Ok, so if you haven't noticed, I've got kind of a short attention span. So, now that I've filled my quota for the day, (woohoo), I'm off to do more interesting things!!!

This was the lady who was my instructional guide. The computer didn't have any sound and yet, she still had to say every word out loud. Luckily, there was a skip option.

I said to my reflection, let's get out of this place

I'm quite happy with everything at the moment.

Today was my third day of training, and I was supposed to pretty much do everything I had seen up until that point. I was really nervous, but everything turned out fine!

 

I'm not a very touchy feely person, and this job really requires me to be. I was afraid that it would take me longer to get used to it, but I wasn't shy about things at all! Yay me!

In other news, its been two weeks since my home was flooded, and I'm still feeling weird about the whole thing. We still haven't finished moving everything out, and we need to, but our normal lives don't really allow us enough time to do. . . Anything. Damn shame. 

I'm really hoping that I have tomorrow off, just so I can complete everything I need to this week, including my math homework. No promises though...

Ok, back to new Vegas. Bye,

The cat is out of the bag

Alright, it's time that I admit this. . . 

So, I'm one of those people who hold themselves strongly to the advice they give other people. In this instance, I'm one who always says "be sure to secure a new job before you leave the old one," with the exception being if you have to move or something like that. Well, I hate when I end up being hypocritical, but here we are.

At the beginning of the month, I left my job at the Italian restaurant where I worked. I hadn't planned on it, but it was time and I made a sudden and somewhat stupid decision. So, I left. If I had known the kind of chaos that would hit us the following weeks, I might have stayed. But at the same time, if I had to work during the disaster, well, I probably would explode. 

I'm going to miss it, but I'm happy now.

I didn't want to announce that I left until I found a new job, and now I have. Actually, I found the job about two weeks ago, got the job the day that the flooding hit, and have worked two shifts of it. I work at an assisted living home, which is only a block away from my house (now, if only my home was actually livable). So far, I like it. I've seen far too many old people butts, and I know I will only see more. I'm still in training, so, I'm still really nervous about messing something up, because this time people's lives are actually on the line! 

I'm only a little scared.

But, in order for anything I say after this point to make sense, I need to release this little bit of information.

Don't judge me.

Life of Luxury

Life, at the moment, is really good. Despite everything that's going on, our lifestyle has greatly improved, at least while we house sit. I don't want to say that I could get used to all this, but I totally could.

I'm glad that we were so fortunate to be able to find refuge in a place like this, even its its only temporary. But for now, I'm going to enjoy the little moment I can here. Starting with relaxing by playing video games. 

Ah, luxury.

You can't stop now, its already begun.

I felt an odd sensation today, while I was eating breakfast. I had returned to my home to pick up a few things before I started today's adventures, when I noticed something. . . 

This. . . was not my house.

Ok, so, it WAS my house, but I didn't live there anymore. All the things that made our home ours were gone. Our furniture, our belongings, the art on the walls, even the smell of home, it was all gone. I think I mentioned before that as a military brat, I've had the experience of constantly moving every couple of years, so this sensation was something that I had felt before, and I knew how to deal with it. Knew. Past tense. It feels different this time. Because even though we've already moved out, we're going to be moving back. . . 

I've visited old homes of mine, and its always an interesting experience. So, explain this to me; the idea came up for us to move into my sister's place as soon as its finished, and possibly just stay in that apartment permanently. She would move off to do bigger and better things with her life, and we would let our lives return to normal. Our apartments are identical, only mirrored. There really isn't going to be that much of a difference, especially after the remodels are finished. But the idea of staying in what would formerly be my sister's home made me feel weird, and I don't know if I would ever be able to consider it a home.

Even now, the place I have lived in for the past two years will no longer be the same. The bright and colorful walls will be replaced with something a little more tame. My obnoxious countertops will be replaced with who knows what, (really, anything would be better than what it was). The floors will all be the same. There will be new designs everywhere, and though its a good thing, I'm a sucker for nostalgia. 

About 9 years ago when we were moving from North Dakota to the California desert, we had to make sure our home was the way it was when we got it. I had light green and blue sponge painted walls, and I loved them. I remember when we had to paint over them to plain white, and I still stayed in that room for a while. I felt like my creativity was destroyed because my environment was different. I felt the same when my odd deep sea foam green walls were replaced with a muddy yellow when we were leaving New Mexico. Don't ask me why I felt this, I'm tired.

It really was all I had for today. This mopey feeling of emptiness, no longer seeing home as home. Having to start all over just to go back and pretend it never happened. 

I don't know, it was profound at the time.

As I sat there

In my empty home

Staring at the destroyed walls

Alone

Mandatory Fun

I don't like math.
I don't like math
I don't like math
I don't like math
I don't like math
I don't like math
I don't like math
I don't like math
I don't like math

I really don't like math.

this week has been so exhausting, and I still have a lot of work to do. My house is still unlivable, and we still have things we need to move out of it.

our goal for the next few weeks us finding a temporary home for me, my sister, my editor, and our 738294717205726494629376654 pets. This is going to be fairly difficult, for numerous reasons, mostly because no one wants to sign on a lease for 3 to 6 months.

and our extreme number of pets.

I'm worn out from trying to do my homework last minute, and i have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.

I'm ready for my life to go back to normal.

I still didn't get to do what i meant to. . .

This is going to be kind of ugly, typing on the desktop, which is on the floor of my godmother's office, where i just set up my fish tank. I'm glad i was able to get the fish out of the house, especially if it is about to become a construction zone. . .

We were packing all our books and relocating them to the garage. Our house is so empty now. . . but, once this is all over, we are going to be living in a fabulous place!

ok, so, this was fun. . . About an hour after I dropped my editor off at work, he gave me a call, asking me to bring him to the hospital. He later explained to me that while he was rearranging some tables, a bungee cord was over stretched and snapped, launching it into his fingers. So, he fractured his index and middle finger, on his right hand, meaning he is currently unable to lift. . . anything. Good job. (imnotreallyupset, imjustgivinghimahardtime). Having had to spend the evening in the ER, we were absolutely exhausted. its a shame we still had so much work to do.

and still do.

but, i'm tired, so, leave me alone. ok?

oh crap

I got so caught up in everything that I forgot to make a post for today.

remind me to do a real one tomorrow. Bed now.

In the animal pen

Every night for the past week, I have been crammed into a small room with at least 7 animals. I am grateful for the roof over our head which is not our own, but I absolutely cannot wait to at least have my own bed and space to exist in. Between my sister's overly needy dog (who is currently begging for my attention to let her on the bed), and her absolutely insane cat who has done nothing but continuously try to escape captivity, I have my hands full. I can't sleep without either of them glued to my side! Soon, I will be able to return these little monsters to their mother, and then SHE can deal with them. (Though, I have no problem keeping her perfect little grey kitty, who's biggest problem is not being able to eat all of her treats at once). 

From the left, my Rio, then my sister's cats Ralphie and Stone, who is snuggled on the blankets.

I feel bad, because I don't think I have been able to properly take care of my own babies, who are just as needy. I want to spend more time paying attention to them, but these overly needy animals demand all my attention. I guess I ought to be grateful that they are all getting along (for the most part). All I really want is a good nights sleep.

Bread and Butter

Seriously, if I could eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be bread and butter. Like, sourdough and real butter, not that fake crap. 

In other news. . . Well, I don't have anything to report. We are still in the process of cleaning out our homes and trying to progress with getting repairs done. . .

School is reminding me that it still exists, and I have to get back to the ol grind tomorrow,

My Japanese textbook is still soaking, and I don't think I can get this assignment done. I'm not good at listening exercises. And I don't even want to talk about math right now.

My mother made this awesome dinner that I might share the recipe, if she doesn't do it first. My uncle is currently is asleep on the couch, he had a rough ride into town. My sister is also back in town, so that means that I don't have to have her dog kicking me while I sleep all night!!! Yay!!!

Alright, what else do you want from me? I'm tired. Thanks to my sister's dog and obscurely needy cat, I did not sleep at all last night. I'm exhausted. 

It's bedtime, right?

Thanks to this lovely disaster, my productivity has come screeching to a halt. Its like its summer again and all I want to do is. . . nothing.

I'm not ready for the world to go back to normal, but at the same time I am.

good news is, all the flooring in house will replaced. Bad news is, we probably won't be able to live in it for a few months. Owch.

as much as I need to finish my homework assignments, I really need someone to do them with me, that way I actually learn how to do them. Wish me luck!

in the meantime, I'm going to try and focus on homework, then immediately get distracted by my editor loosing his shit at funny posts on the other internet.

I'm so happy he has been with me for this whole ordeal, I don't think I could have gotten through it without him.

For What Its Worth

you're going to have to forgive me, I'm typing on an actual computer, which means that my spelling and typing are going to get ugly, fast.

Another day flew by, and this time the feeling of helplessness set in. There really wasn't that much we could do for the house today. The carpets were ripped out, which is great for letting the house get dry, but they might not be replaced for another month or so. this is going to be a rough month. I talked to one of the people on the crew, and asked them if we could choose to get something besides carpets. They gave me a hopeful answer, so lets keep our fingers crossed.

IF we can choose what happens to our homes, I would prefer all the flooring (including the rather nice tile we have) to be replaced with other tile or something like that. If that means that they would cover the cost of the materials (or some of it), I would be happy to provide the labor to take out and replace the floor. I would also be happy to buy some rugs to cover us some of the other areas.

ALSO, if it is possible, I would love to take a hand saw to our ugly wood counter tops, and shave off the faux-bar top that is currently there. That would add SO much more space for my living room, even if it means loosing some counter space, but it is a sacrifice i am willing to make.

well, im tired. and i need to eat before i have any more of this wine. . . DINNER! hurry up and be cooked!!!!

k bye.

FLOOD WATCH: Revenge of Poseidon

Today was a lesson in futility.

We spent the day soaking up more of the water for our carpets, for what little good that did. Our HOA changed its insurance policy or something like that. So, early tomorrow morning they are going to have people to come in and rip out all our carpets. They also should be covering all the replacement costs, but I don't quite know. . . 

It's been one of those weeks that all we can do is make bad puns about our situation. Ah well. When it rains, it pours. *bad-dum tss*

Weather wise, we lucked out again tonight, I don't know how the rest if the weekend is going to go, but I'm hopeful. After this whole thing is over, I'm going to enjoy seeing clear skies again. I'm not going to start being afraid of storms because of this, just a little more cautious. I'm always going to not like big, fast water, but I've always been that way. However, I'm going to adopt a standard from the restaurant business. . . Evening at least 6in off the floor. Yeah, that will work.

There is still a lot of work to do, but for now, I'm going to enjoy what I've got. 

My sister's dog, who has been ridiculously needy. 

A picture of my boi from this morning. I made him a cave out of pillows. That was where he had slept all night.

A drop of hope

Good news is hard to come by during these times. I am very fortunate that the damage to my house didn't exceed minor flooding. My editor and I returned to our home this morning, and much to our surprise and relief, nothing had changed. There was no more apparent damage to my home, or my sisters. My editor and I started our cleanup effort, which made a huge difference in our moral. If the weather is as merciful as it was today, I'll be able to save my home. 

We started by rearranging the panic clutter so that when we have to put it back, it won't take a lot of effort. If it does flood again, everything is in a much better place that it was previously. Our crappy old steam cleaner gave us a lot of hope, as it sucked and sucked and sucked water from our carpets. We didn't get all of it, and we could have stayed longer to finish, but my editor and I were exhausted and daylight was running out. 

My mother is going to fly into town on Monday to assess the damage, and her friend is letting us borrow an industrial shop vac, which will be a huge help tomorrow. I'm just hoping that everything will dry up enough so I can move furniture, and clean the other areas.

Also, my fish are ok. So that is good.

Nothing much else to report here, so I'm going to bed. 

Victims of the Flood

What started out as an easy and relaxing night last night quickly turned into a disaster. The rain that had been hovering above had poured down onto our town, and well, most of its completely flooded.

Right now, I'm emotionally drained. I've had to be in this mode of absolute seriousness, cold and brutal feelings and decisions. So much has happened since I left you all last night, my whole world has changed. 

So, where did I leave off. . . Remember how last night I told you about the severe rain and how it started to flood my porch? Within an hour after, the rain had starting falling so heavy that it made a waterfall on the side of my home, right in front of the door. I had just gone over to my sisters apartment to tell her dinner was almost ready when it happened. When I returned to my home, I immediately saw the water pouring down my door. I raced in to get my phone, so I could take pictures of the damage. Once I got enough, I ran back to my sisters to tell her what was going on. My house had begun to flood.

Our friend who had came over to help me with math had taken apart my desktop and got it off the floor as soon as he saw the water creep in. We thought it wouldn't get in too far, but it just kept rushing through the door. We went into panic preservation mode. All the books, electronics, and other important things had to get off the floor, now! There were five rows of books shelves, each with their bottom shelf filled with books. My editor and I have a lot of books, and they are all important to us, well, the same could be said about all of our things. We managed to get all the bottom shelves clear, however some books got a little damage on them. We cleared the floors of any important items and spread them to wherever they would be safe. Our bed is covered in books, and I hope they will be safe. 

All in all, our home only had about a one to two inches of water in it. We managed to keep it away from the bedrooms as much as we could, however my bedroom still got quite a bit of water all over the carpets. I found a drain next to our hot water heater, which might have saved my home. I cleared any junk out of the way of the drain and it sucked all of the water away. I was able to push water from other places of the house to the drain, hopefully saving it. However the carpets are pretty much destroyed, I don't know if I can save them, and letting them sit for a few days soaking wet while the rain clears isn't going to be good for them. 

During the heaver parts of the storm, the creek that flows behind our row of apartments completely overflowed and rushed into the complex two buildings down. The basements were completely destroyed. My sister and her roommate were trying to help those people as much as they could before  the buildings were completely flooded. My sister said that she saw one lady who she was helping, she had two dogs and right after she got one out of the house, a door was busted through from the water, and crushed her other dog. I have great sympathy for her, and wherever she is now, I hope she's doing ok. Hearing that broke my heart. The rest of the people who lived in those homes, well, most of everything was destroyed in the flood. There really isn't much else anyone can do at this point.

Over the next few hours, we spent our time packing. "What is important to me, what do I need to bring" was all that was going through our minds. We didn't have much time, and we needed to collect everything that was important to us. Besides our essentials, we needed to get everything for our cats to be able to survive. Littler box, food, food bowls, and the cats themselves. We needed to be ready to throw them in my car, and we did as soon as the evacuation order hit. A fireman knocked on our door around 4am, saying we needed to get out ASAP. He told us that an assisted living home across the street was taking in refugees. So, my editor, my sister, our friend, my sister's roommate, and myself crammed all of our animals in our cars and fled to safety. I had sent our roommate out with his cat an hour before, so that he could get to safety.

The people at the building we all stayed at were kind enough to offer one private room for all thirteen of us (7 cats, 1 dog, and 5 people). It took us a while to all settle in, mostly from us joking about the absolute shit storm we just witnessed. There may also have might have been talk about eating people. But we all managed to fall into some kind of sleep by 5:30, right when a nurse came by to tell us that they were bussing people out to a better place and we needed to leave before 9am. It was a really rough morning. We had to reload our herds into our vehicles. My sister's roommate had left us at this point to stay with a friend of hers, and she took her cat with her. My sister went back to see what kind of damage we faced. Wile we brought our friend back to his apartment by the college to see if there was any damage. All he had was a backed up toilet. 

We made our way back to our apartment complex, and to our surprise, nothing else got damaged! My sister was the luckiest of all of us, since her house was completely unharmed. We threw all the animals in her home and tried to compose ourselves. Our roommate had left his shelter early and headed back to our home, and was sleeping when we got there. We had cut the power for our apartment just incase, and I am concerned about my fish, but I think they will be ok as long as I can get back to them to feed them. My sister was supposed to fly out this afternoon for a concert, and as much as she didn't want to leave, she couldn't let the money go to waste. I dropped her off at the bus station, as well as dropping off our friend back at his home. He contacted his parents and is going to be saying with them until all this gets cleared up. 

My editor and I took a little nap until the storm was supposed to kick back up. I managed to take a shower, as futile as it seems during a rainstorm, which made me feel a lot better about, everything. We kept getting more and more flood alerts for the town, so we decided it was time to abandon ship. I had gotten ahold of my godmother that morning and she said we and all our pets were welcome to stay with her. So, we thee our stuff and the cats into our cars and headed for her home. She hasn't had any flooding near her area, and I hope it stays that way. 

So, here we are. Safe and sound at my godmother's house. She cooked us a fabulous meal and offered her two spare rooms to us and our pets. This is going to be an interesting night, with 6 cats and a dog all in this small room again. But, my back hurts and I'm very sleepy. I'll post some of the pictures later. Tomorrow we head back in town to monitor the damage, and possibly clean it up. My mother said she is going to come into town as soon as the storm is gone to help us with all the legal aspects of this whole thing. 

I don't know how to feel about this whole thing. I'm scared and angry and I want to cry, but I feel if I did, it wouldn't make me feel any better. I can't let this whole thing bring my down! 

Well, lets hope for the best.

I'm a Wild and Untamed Thing, I'm a Bee With a Deadly Sting.

"You get a hit and your mind goes ping, 

Your heart will pump and your blood will sing!

So let the party and the song rock on, 

We're gonna shake it til the life has gone!

Rose tints my world keeps me safe from my trouble and pain!"

Sang my sister and I as we drove home, starting the end of the crazy day.

So, the rain has continued non stop since yesterday, and will continue all night. There are flash flood warnings and actual floods everywhere, including the porch areas of the basement apartment where I live. Now, I started my day with the repeating sound of my phone alarm going off in the kitchen, sometime around, oh, before dawn. I waited for it to turn off so I could get back to sleep, because I couldn't be bothered to get out of bed. I jumped out of bed around 9 when I remembered I still had to do my Japanese homework before class. It was fairly easy, and so was class. I got a bit of really good news in the middle of class, which I will tell later. 

I came home and had to take care of a few errands, and there was just enough time to see my editor off before he went to class. I put off doing a math quiz for a little bit, but I did eventually start it. I'm lucky that each quiz has two attempts (because its an online class), I didn't do as well as I hoped, but I had planned on having my tutor help me with the second one attempt. However, this is where the night went crazy.

He had classes until the evening, and I had agreed to pick him up so we could take the quiz in my fancy office space. While I was waiting for him to give me the ok to get him, my sister came over, prancing in the rain with her little dog. She needed me to drive her so she could buy cat food. We spent the thirty minutes or so trying to get her dog to stop attacking the water which was overflowing from the creek that is nearby. By the time she was ready, the rain became more heavy, and it has remained that way for the rest of the night. 

My sister and I were at the grocery store for a little while, just enough time for our friend to say he was ready to be picked up. He lives near the college campus, and since that was where my editor was working, I figured I could see if he could get out early so I could drive him to his car (rather than waiting in the rain for the bus. Don't think to hard about it). Well, this is where things turned bad. Like, horror movie bad.

The rain continued to beat down on the city, I ran into the building where my editor works, leaving my sister and our friend in the car. Everything was going smoothly, until we were about to leave and my car wouldn't start. My guess is, during the time while I was waiting for my editor, the battery in my car decided to stop working. Well, I panicked. Ironically, I had intended to drive my editor to his car so he didn't have to bus to it in the rain, and he had to do it anyway so he could get his truck and jump start our car. While we waited for my editor to return, we made awkward jokes and told non-relevant stories. I kept peeking out the car to see if a cop pulled up behind me, (we were stuck in a handicap spot). 

I was so happy to see my editor pull up when he did, I s afraid he wasn't going to make it back to his car because of flooding. My car jumped right up and we were able to return home safely. On the way, my sister and I sang as loud as we could along with The Floor Show from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (hence the title and quote in the beginning).

BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE!!!

After my friend and I finished going over my quiz, my sister and her roommate popped by to bail out my, then, flooding porch. They unclogged my drain and helped our neighbor push water into our drain (so it wouldn't flood her windows). Actually, right when I started writing this post was when they came by. I offered to pay them with lasagna and bread that I am making for dinner, so I'm expecting them to come by soon.

It's been one hell of a day, and I'm expecting tomorrow to be just as crazy, mostly because of the rain. 

A Day For My Mom

There is a certain type of day, right at the beginning of autumn, where it is cloudy and gloomy and sometimes rainy all day. The leaves have not quite yet started to turn. But the air is crisp and its just cold enough to want to wear a coat or sweater. Today was one of those days.

If you've read any of my mother's blog (scenesfromsmithpark.blogspot.com) you'll know that she talks about the weather almost as much as I do. She has always said that the first completely cloudy and rainy day in September has got to be her favorite kind of day, of all time *waves arms around.* I didn't tell her at all today, because I wanted to save it for tonight's post. 

I have to say, but I think her ability to enjoy rainy days like this must be genetic, because me and my sister love them. I might have said this before, but living in the desert for a long time certainly makes you appreciate rain when it happens.

(Sorry I didn't get enough pictures mom, but I did catch a few of moosie when the sun was out for a little bit and there were rainbows).

However, its a crappy pictures. . . But oh well.

Also, I must have turned into a teenage boy, because I cannot stop eating. I don't know why I am so hungry, but I just want to omnomnom! Help me!!!

Right, time to finish up homework and maybe throw myself at more Banjo-Kazooie

Let the Thunder Be the Cause of Your Beating Heart

There I go again, talking about the rain. Well. It's raining. So deal with it.

For as long as I can remember, I have always had a fascination with shines, sparkly, reflective, or shimming kind of things. When I pass a jewelers shop in a mall, I'm always drawn to the dancing lights that are reflecting from the gems. Any kind of crystal or prism that sends out an array of rainbows when sunlight hits it, I love being near. Kind of like this. . . 

I bought this from a kite store the other day, and I am so happy to have got it. During the late afternoon , the slowly setting sun beats down on the west side of my house, causing all the light to shine through (as well as making the temperature go up at least 10 degrees). Now, I have a reason not to shut the curtains. From where it is hanging, this little charm reflects a while collection of rainbows across my walls and floor, which the cats and myself stare at. When it spins, the cats chase after the little lights. 

Rio was the most interested in it today. 

So, aside from my obsession with sparkly things, my day has been lovely. The booming thunderstorm overhead has deterred me from using too many electronics today, however, when I did, Huxley knocked a shelf over, causing the Xbox to shift while I was playing a game, which scratched the disk beyond repair. Luckily, there is a newer and better version of it for fairly cheap. 

Well, I'm off to try and drag my editor out for a quick stroll in the rain. However, he keeps telling me that he has this. . . "Math homework" he needs to do. I am suspicious that such a thing exists.

What I See

Alright, before I forget, I said yesterday that I'd write about my eyesight for tonight's post. So, here it is. . . 

(Also, have some sleeping moose).

As long as I can remember, I have had poor eyesight. As a kid, I was cross-eyed, and I have always worn (or, at least supposed to have worn) glasses. All of elementary school, I wore these enormous glasses, and though I hated them at the time, I'm back to the same style now. . . 

I tried wearing contacts when I was in 8th grade, but I couldn't get used to having to touch my eyeballs. That, and my eyes dried out quickly, especially when we moved to the desert. I tired different styles of glasses, big, small, round, square. . . Nothing really seems to fit my face, so I chose the biggest ones I can because. . . Well. . . F it.

I don't know how or why, but sometime during my high school years, we (me and my family) learned/realized that I had a blind spot in my left eye. Here is a very crude drawing of where the blind spot is. . . 

Now, this explained a whole lot when it comes to my inability to read the lines at the optometrist's office. Luckily, my peripheral vision is damn near perfect, so, I've at least got that. I've always been horrifically dyslexic, and I've never been a huge fan on reading (with the exception being manga, which are more than just lines of text, therefore, easier on my eyes). 

As the years went my and the time I spent I front of some kind of screen increased by. . . a lot. . . my eyes became a lot more sensitive to certain types of light. For example, I hate florescent lighting because it actually hurts to be in for a short period of time. Sometimes it hurts my eyes to go outside even. . . So, my best solution was to get tinted glasses, and I did. I currently wear a pair of (not nearly strong enough) glasses with a fading blue tint on them. They are exactly what I need and I would only change them if I could get the gradient of blue to be a little stronger (and the prescription).

Alright, short summary of why my eyes are bad, check.

Oh, and I just found where I misplaced them, so I can see again *throws confetti* and that is good enough for me.

Bye now

More sleeping moose.

Something-A-Palooza

Surprise guests always are the best, you know? Some good friends of my editor came into town and are staying with us. It's good to see them again so. . . Yeah.

In other news, well, nothing has happened. I made waaaaaaaay to much food for dinner, but at let that means I'll have a lot of leftovers.

The new set up for my house seems to be very successful for having company, so I am very happy about that.

Well, now that I've made another mandatory post, I'm going to get back to the game we are playing. 

Oh! And I can't find my glasses. So, I'm blind and can't go outside. Maybe that's what I'll write about tomorrow, my eyesight troubles. . . 

Hmm....

Patrolling the Mojave almost makes me wish for a Nuclear Winter

I am a sucker for video games where you can create/design your own character. And by this, I mean I found myself playing in the menus of mass effect one again. #noregrets

I have made it part of my play through plans to go through each game differently. Last time, I was the paragon of the galaxy, the perfect do gooder and savoir of humanity.

now, I'm a renegade soldiers, who does whatever it takes to get the job done. But it gets better! In order to justify some of the horrible things this character has to do, I'm going to make him as anti-alien as possible.

and he's a blonde hair blue eyed bastard, as you would expect.

alright, leave me alone. I'm having fun.

I also thought of a decent but somewhat overused story idea. Will write out later. In the meantime, I've got aliens to kill.

And This is Why I am Not a Mechanic

Part of trying to reassemble my game station, is I wanted to attempt to fix my roommate's Wii so that we could use it. 

I followed instructions very closely and successfully took apart and reassembled the Wii. However, I did not fix the problem, so. . . Damnit.

I can't say that I've done enough to write an entire post about, and I don't feel like typing out any life storied I may have. Other than talking about how much I adore my cats, I've got a huge writers block and I don't know what to write.

So, I know I do this a lot, but, see you tomorrow, and lets hope I can think of something more interesting to put.

I really don't like writing posts just to fill a quota. . . 

Rose Red

You may ask me, what have I accomplished today? Well, I managed to go to school. That's a start. I also managed to. . . Um. . . Actually, that's pretty much it. I woke up with severe pain in my lower abdomen that didn't go away for a good two hours. When I got back home from school, I piddled around until my editor came home. We chatted for a bit, and attempted to once again put the living room back together. He made great progress on the kitchen, which helped greatly. I'm going to have to move the Internet modem so I can connect my Xbox. I'm so glad that I don't have anywhere I need to be tomorrow.

(Here's another picture from yesterday. I'm so happy this cat exists. I need her)

I'm starting to hit a low point again, hopefully I'll be out of it soon. But in the meantime. . . I should be happy with the way everything is. My advice is finally being taken and in the end, something will come of it. I still can't help but feel unsettled about the whole thing.

It's what I wanted, Right? 

The only thing that keep ringing in my head is lyric from a Rammstein song. . . 

"Was sie will bekommt sie auch"

Oh, you have NO idea. . .

You Can't Carry it With You if You Want to Survive

Why is it easier to passive aggressively confront things or just ignore it, rather than facing it personally? Why does it cause so much pain and frustration to do the right thing? 

Well, after a lot of, well, everything, we finally confronted our roommate about. . . Everything.

I got really tense after a certain point and got out of control, but within the hour, things calmed down and we were all able to solve things. After talking everything over, we came to an understanding that would eventually end with my roommate going and living on his own. It is for the best that this happens. 

I'm hopeful for the future, and I really want everything to work out.

Alright, my brain is dead, I still need to finis my Japanese homework, and I'm still not finished putting the living room back together.

So. Uh, bye?

Happy moosie

Taking Back the Homeland

My adventures in cleaning/rearranging my living room continued today, and it looks like I am almost done. My fabulous corner desk still doesn't quite fit properly, so we took out the corner piece and combined the two remaining to form a nice little cubicle. My editor is currently using it to finish his homework. He is rather pleased with the new layout, the way we had it before, we tried to close off the living room from the kitchen (they are a continuous room), and now we have an entire wall of bookshelves, and a much more open layout. I'm still trying to figure out how to make the two TVs have a less awkward arrangement, but I might just have to deal with it. More than anything, I'm enjoying having all this extra floor space.

My favorite part about rearranging has to be getting to organize my bookshelves, which are filled with manga. I was able to cram most of my series in them, but there was still a little overflow. Oops.

All that's left to do now is set back up the game consoles, arrange my art station, and. . . Oh. . . The kitchen. . . Lets put that off for now. . . 

Once this is all over, I'm going to sit and play some old Nintendo games, for fun. 

Well, time to get back to work. Ciao~

My girls helping with making sure the shelves are stable.

When it Rains it Pours

And by the title, I mean that when I start cleaning, I have to rearrange the room as well. Always.

In other news, the judges have received the evidence and concluded that soon, we will have two less organic beings residing in our home. It's unfortunate, but we are left with no other choice. So, to celebrate, I'm rearranging my living room. I even bought myself a new desk. Its made of glass and fits in a corner, which is exactly what I wanted.

I've had an excellent weekend so far. Our usual guest for our movie nights came over and we watched the first 5 episodes of Gurren Lagann, and another 4 this morning. Its great to see it again, especially because it's the perfect pick me up. Manly tears were shed.

My editor and I finished the book he had me listen to, and it was incredible. If anyone is interested, its called "The Forge of God."

alright, there is a piña colada calling my name. That's all for now!