TWIP: Animals (cats, dog, fish, me) and not much else
Two weeks in photos: a feast, LA’s, work stuff, mostly Kansas City (lots of selfies!)
You are the queen of many faces; how you can move me with just one glance
Today is a day of possibly going to the zoo! My father suggested we go to a restaurant tonight to celebrate my graduation, but in pondering where I would like to go my thoughts kept moving to Denver restaurants… and if one is going to Denver, WHAT ABOUT THE ZOO. (Or the aquarium; I love the aquarium in Denver too.) Of course that means giving up the choice of restaurant, since there is a place up there my mom adores that we have to go to if we go to Denver at all… BUT THE ZOO. In a few hours we may do this thing.
EDIT:
(The zebras were all clustered over in one corner of their area, and this was the best angle I could get.)
(I look like I’m meditating or something XD)
(I had never seen a peacock in person doing this, and it was so interesting how he rattled his tail and how the females were deliberately and ostentatiously ignoring him.)
(“Crocodile a gift of Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado,” says the sign. Other contributors to the zoo get their names on benches and stuff. Badass Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado gets a GAY CROCODILE.)
And I am, in fact, graduated. I turned in all my final paperwork and signed everything on Thursday. It is a lovely thing to be finished and to have an associate degree. Interestingly, my sister finished her school at almost exactly the same time, only hers is a bachelor’s. She has far more patience for school than I do. Ugh. School.
My interview on Friday felt like it went pretty well too. They’re very laid-back there, and thus it’s difficult to judge how the interview went by the usual standards of how an interview goes. But I got a much more detailed tour of the place, including what’s in which cupboard and such, and that’s pretty hopeful, I think.
An attractive lesbian, whom I had not seen before on my previous tour, works there. She was quite friendly and winning. That certainly didn’t lessen my desire to work there. Damn how straight I look right now.
An event of interest took place during the interview that I report in part because it seems like a promising thing and in part because it amused me. During my tour, the gal that was showing me around got stuck in the lab for a minute because someone asked her to put in an order for something. At this time, two of the doctors came in with a slide. Looking at it under the microscope, one of them says, “I think it’s a louse. Look at it; do you think it’s a louse?” The other doctor looks and says uncertainly that it’s probably a louse. “You guys can look at this and see if you think it’s a louse,” says the first doctor as they both go to look it up in a book of Things One Might See On A Microscope In A Vet Clinic.
I glance into the microscope as well, and immediately recognize the little guy (who is totally not dead and still waving his legs around, by the way). Say I, “That’s anoplura, the sucking louse.” And just then, they find him in the book, and confirm what I have just said. “Wow,” one of the doctors remarks, “she knew that right away.”
So possibly I impressed a couple of doctors because they happened to be looking at one of the things I can 100% positively identify. There are about thirty billion trillion things that might appear under a microscope, and it was pure luck that this was one I remembered. Maybe that luck will win me a job! Who knows? I will find out sometime this week.
Lately I’ve been having a lovely time sleeping in. I’ve been slowly getting a few other things on my to-do list done, too. However, if I get hired at this place that interviewed me and my free time is over, I won’t complain.
Cantata went well. I was especially impressed with the women’s unison last night. Sometimes during rehearsal, our attempts at unison make me wince, but last night I thought we sounded pretty good. The soloists managed not to embarrass us, which is really all you can ask of a volunteer choir. Yesterday I had the most amazing headache, and some of the high notes did not help, but I survived.
Now to talk about some dreams.
I often have dreams wherein I find a nerdstore full of merchandising and manga and CD’s and stuff. Usually, a lot of time spent in the store eventually tells me that there’s nothing there I’m interested in, and it’s very disappointing. This dream was a little different.
In it, my siblings and I had all, apparently, been adopted at a young age (though if we were all children of the same biological parents, I must have been at least 10 when the adoption took place, since that was my age when my brother was born; the dream seemed to gloss over this detail), but none of us had ever known our biological parents. They had died, and we were looking through their house at all the stuff they’d left behind, and what should we discover in the basement but half a world’s worth of nerdy stuff *__*
There were shelves and shelves and shelves of audiobooks, and while I was looking through them seeing which ones I wanted, I noticed a corner dedicated to Rurouni Kenshin stuff. The only things I remember clearly were some stamps (like this sort of stamp, not the kind you put on letters) and some doujinshi. Of one doujinshi title, which was about Sayo and therefore not terribly interesting, there were about eight copies.
This seems like a really insensitive dream XD “Oh, our biological parents have died? I GET ALL THE AUDIOBOOKS.” But I do sometimes dream about discovering a cache of RK merchandising that I’m allowed to have. At some point during my internship, brother and I escaped some bad situation by getting into a spaceship and flying to an alien planet. The aliens welcomed us with this ritual they had where we crawled around these circular shelves high above a room, and on the shelves I discovered a bunch of Kenshin stuff that slowed me up quite a bit.
Another type of dream I have sometimes is one in which I’m dating a dude. It’s always very awkward and uncomfortable, especially if he’s one of the actual guys I dated in real life before I realized I’m gay. The one exception to this is Saitou; if Saitou’s in my dream, I have no issue whatsoever with the fact that he’s male. Usually I’m head-over-heels in love with him, and he either doesn’t recognize my feelings or pretends not to (either just to mess with me or because he’s not interested). Sometimes we’re even pretty good friends (or partners in some badass pursuit), and he still doesn’t appear to notice what I want. On very rare occasions, we actually hook up.
The other night, I had such a dream. Saitou was a policeman or security guard (go figure) and wore as part of his uniform a checkered hat that should have looked very silly but, because it was a dream, only made him more handsome. And he was a fan of musicals, but he’d seen many more than I had, so my attempts to bond with him over this were something of a failure. Too bad for me.
A little dragon would be like my salamander cat
We had a lovely Christmas; we ate lots of delicious food (and I had my annual celery), and we played fun games. Telestrations is pretty well the best game ever invented. It was all vera nice. Then the next day I got the second shot of my rabies series and am $290 poorer. Lesta and I went to see Les Misérables, which was OK.
Then yesterday we all went up to Denver and visited the aquarium and the zoo. I got to see the myrms again *_____* There were only two this time, but they’ve improved their fins. So amazing and awesome and wonderful. And the zoolights were pretty fun, as always. ALSO WE ATE ALLIGATOR ZOMFG.
Today we had lunch at Tucanos (*___* meeeaaat) and then saw Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away. I think it’s safe to say that once a year is about as frequently as my attention span can handle Cirque du Soleil. In the middle of the movie, fire alarms appeared, so we all had to go outside and freeze for a few minutes. That won us free tickets for the next movie we see at that theater, which is funny since we were using a gift card my grandparents sent us in the first place.
Tomorrow I have an appointment to get a new tattoo, which should be super awesome cool. And I need to get started on all the crap I have to get done over this break. But for the moment I kinda feel like playing WoW. Onward!
Koko de owaru hazu ga nai no ni
It’s taken to raining fairly regularly over the last few days, and our fire is almost completely contained. Good jobon those firefighters. The other day, for that Fourth, we were planning on going to a fundraiser concert thing that was being held out at the World Arena for fire victims and whatnot, but the tickets were all gone.
So instead we went to Denver to go to the zoo. These two activities being quite similar, you see. Somehow we always go out there and eat first and then go to the zoo, and between the languid car-ride up there, eating first, and the usual warmth of the weather on such days, I’m always drowsy and kinda blah at the zoo. Which is sad, because I love the zoo. Anyway, I took exactly two pictures there, and if you look closely at them you will see the brilliant appropriateness of combination that my gigantic brain came up with for picture-taking times. YEAH.
Denver, productivity
Denver was gramd srab, and we spent a satisfying amount of time there despite my bitching XD Hard Rock Cafe was even cooler than I expected, and Lacuna Coil is going to be there tomorrow *__* I got a sweatshirt there because everything was cooler than I expected (half the sweatshirts I own were bought for this reason), but it was OK not only because I was already planning on buying a shirt there (I think you’re required to by law) but also because it’s the Greatest Sweatshirt Ever.
At a store at the mall I found a really pretty ring. Generally I don’t wear rings, but this one was soOoOoOo pretty I got it anyway. It kinda looks like a spider, so I decided it’s my Spider Sigil and gives me power over spiders.
We went to the aquarium, which, as everyone knows, I loooooooove. I saw things even more awesome than usual, SUCH AS a duck that kept spastically diving down and attacking the fishies beneath. ALSO, did you know that tigers like whipped cream????? The girl put the tigers away and went all through their enclosure spraying whipped cream in places; then she went away and put them back in, and they ran around frantically just like kids on an Easter egg hunt finding and licking up all the whipped cream. It was so unexpected and SO cute. Oh, did I mention we have tigers in our aquarium for some reason? Yeah. Some kids next to me were all like, “That one’s a girl and that one’s a boy. And that other one’s a girl too.” And I was like, uh, giant tiger balls swinging around on all three of them…
Then last night I dreamed that eighteen people commented on that picture I drew yesterday XD
Today I got my HR pages laid out wis dialogue, but had only started putting color in when Tokio came and stretched out across my tablet the way she’s been doing lately so I could not continue drawing. I worked on my latest new Saitou/Sano story instead (the enthusiastic one) and leveled Brynariath 3 times. Have I mentioned Bryn? She’s my new night elf hunter. She’s so hot. She has one spider.
Now I must go to bed since I work at 5 in the morning.
Tired post
Mostle went away this morning. I am sad that she is gone, but I feel like I’ve been on vacation for two weeks and it will be good to get back to work.
We did lots of stuff, though not enough stuff. We went to the zoo. There are baby snow leopards at the zoo, and they are the cutest things in all the history of all existence (just don’t tell Tokio I said so).
Last night we had my birthday celebratory event. We eated chiply dip and watched Omohide Poroporo, which my mom didn’t hate. Also cakie.
Today sucked at work, but that’s OK. Well, actually, it wasn’t too bad of a day except for getting chewed out by the stupid store manager. I am soOoOo tired now. I am home early, and that is good. I will maybe try to be productive, maybe just play Trial By Fire.
Speaking of TBF. Not nearly as pretentious as previous items. And the streets are fucking gorgeous.
I thought I had a lot more to say, but I guess I don’t.
Stuff
Yesterday we went to the aquarium in Denver. We were going to go to the zoo also, but managed to get there twenty minutes after they’d stopped admitting people (even though they didn’t officially close for two more hours). I like the aquarium better than the zoo, but that was sad because the zoo is also made of awesome. But at the aquarium we saw jellies and sharks and jellies and tyrtles and jellies and eels and jellies and one freaking awesome octopus and jellies and all the things I love. I yuff the aquarium telve million. I got an awesome keychain from the crap shop that flashes my middle name (they had two racks for my first name, but both were empty) over and over and over WITH SOLAR POWER. So cool.
I’ve been staying at my parents’ house for a week now; at first it was for Easter and to see Mostle (and grandma and uncle), but now it’s for Spring Break and to watch item wis Lester. We finished Cowboy Bebop (which I think made him cry) and have started Firefly. Cat is here wis me, of course, and she has catched one large mouse. Good jobon her to be so clever and crafty.
Today my mom and dad and Lester are going away somewhere for an overnight vacation-like something. I can’t go wis them because I have to “work.” Considering my job tends to send me home after 1.5 hours (because I suck at it so bad), this is highly irritating. If it were up to me, I’d just call off and go wis them… but they won’t take me under those circumstances. Gotta get that $15, you know? It’s quite depressing.
So lately I have developed this obsession wis Michael Jackson. It kinda sprang up out of nowhere and took over my musical life. Coincidentally and conveniently, my uncle had all sorts of MJ musics on his laptop and made a copy for me whilst he was here. This was terribly exciting; now I have plenty to listen to whilst I attempt to be productive. That’s what I’m going to do after this entry. If I don’t just sit around being depressed. Period hormones + abandoned by family = sad.
OK, now I seem to have no more to say.
Vacation follow-up part two – zoo and lakehouses
So then we went to the zoo. It was the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, which is like any other zoo and not nearly as good as Denver except that IT HAS SHARKS. OH SHARKS. Oh shark oh shark are you grey wis grey belly or… never mind. Anyway, it’s a very badly-laid-out zoo. It is very difficult to navigate, and some exhibits just cannot be found. It took me three tries to find the sharks.
He looks like he’s praying to the tiger XD
There was this tiger that was staring so fixedly at this little kid that the kid’s parents were unnerved and took the kid elsewhere. It was funny. It was this resigned look that said, If I weren’t trapped in an enclosure, you would be delicious, but as it is….. There were supposedly polar bears, but I couldn’t find them. There were otters that were not playing at all but just lying around on their backs sneeping because of it being so hot.
There was also a non-flying mud-bison of some sort wis which I had a long conversation. Normally I don’t take peectures of zoo animals or popular landmarks unless there is a family member in the shot as well (because what’t the point of taking a picture one can find a better version of on the internet?), so I’m not sure where these monks came from.
I took quite a lot of fish pictures that did not turn out. You know… too dark in the room to see your human subject wisout a flash, but a flash makes teh glare on the glass. I knew this would happen, but I took them anyway. Especially the shark ones, and Danny making a face at the fish that he decided was the Dopefish from Goodbye, Galaxy. It did kinda look like the Dopefish.
After the zoo we driv to Mason Lake, listening to mas Mummy Case on the way. It is made of love to go back and encounter early Sethos. Unrelatedly, all the McDonald’s in Washington seem to have hand-packed ice cream available in waffle cones. WHAT.
Random people wis me and my shark and our glowing eyes of doom
Some of the sharks were lying around and never moved; it was too hot even for them
The lake is pretty cool. According to some website, its size in acres is 996 and its maximum depth is 90 feet. Though I definitely didn’t canoe anywhere near any 90-foot-deep area because THAT IS SCARY ON ME. But it is a prettiful lake, and the water is warm in summer and nicely swimmable.
Our previous family reunion (have I mentioned that this is my dad’s side of the family?) was also held at this lake six or seven years back. The houses belong to my great-uncle Richard (it is so appropriate that his name is Rich), though he only had the one last time. There were also fewer people there last time and it wasn’t as fun. M and I spent most of it playing pool, actually.
My closet
The bar behind which is…
This time around, Richard just casually bought the property next door so we’d have more room for reuniting O_o These are vacation houses, BTW… he’s got, like, a jillion-dollar mansion in town, too. Apparently he got in on the ground floor of Amazon.com, and is now wealthier than the rest of the family put together. Lucky for us :D
They are awesome and adorable houses. The second one is particularly awesome because it has the coolest staircase ever made. You approach the bar in the living room NEVER REALIZING that behind it is A SECRET STAIRCASE that has bits of floor that can come down over it to hide it or go up against the wall to reveal it. Then you go down the stairs to the basement and realize HOW AWESOME THE STAIRS ARE. I had to take peectures of all this just because it’s so freaking cool. I nearly died looking at those stairs. So much cool.
SECRET STAIRCASE… SECRET STAIRCASE… AND DIIIIIEEEEE
See how freaking awesome it is??? It’s, like, the hanging staircase of LOVE
Of course even wis two houses, sleeping space was scarce. My mom and dad slept in the room wis the heater. I slept in a closet that was barely big enough for the cot, and it was freaking awesome. Not as awesome as the stairs, of course, but awesome.
There was a pool table right outside the closet, so every morning I would come out to find small cousins “playing pool.” I forgot to get a peecture of the awesome shower, but it was awesome. Except when I hit my foot really hard and thought I’d broken my toe. In actuality it didn’t even bruise, but it sure hurt like hell.
The carpet and the tile. Just… look at them.
So, like, you lean out from under the stair railing to use it
The second house also has a weird drinking fountain. Well, the drinking fountain itself isn’t weird, just oddly placed. I didn’t notice it for a couple of days, but when I did I had to keep coming back to look at it.
The first house has a very badly-placed dart-board. Every time I walked through the door right next to the dart-board I feared for my life. Also in the first house there were random pachinko machines next to the other pool table. Incidentally, though there are two pool tables, there are only three cues that have tips and actually work. Too many small cousins.
The stairs in the first house are not as awesome as the SECRET STAIRCASE in the second house, but they are still cool because they are in a little tower. The stairs between the garagely downstairs and the upstairs are nice, and then the stairs up to the upper level of the little tower are like a LADDER. SO COOL. Richard has a little office in the top of the little tower. Also once L climbed out the window of the little tower and sat on the roof for a while.
The garagely downstairs of the first house is set up somewhat like a barracks, and many boys slept there. The second house does not have a garagely downstairs, but there are some external garages. In one of these we put handprints on squares to be sewn into a giant quilted surprise for my grandma and grandpa.
Richard has been lucky enough to get a couple of really amazing shots of the lake, both of which are framed on the wall in the first house. I very much wanted to share these pictures wis everyone in the world, but when I asked him he said that he’d taken them wis a non-digital camera and therefore didn’t have copies to give me… and probably couldn’t even find negatives if he had to XD Hopefully someday he will scan them.
Anyway, I decided to try to take peectures of these peectures. One of them turned out only kinda crappy (as you can see); the other was not distinguishable as much of anything. I thought the first one worth sharing, at least, since it does give somewhat of an idea of how awesome the peecture is.
Catch-update
OK, this is the real entry I promised. Let me try to think of all the things I should have told about during all this time where I have not updated my lj. This will probably be pretty long, and there may be minor spoilers as I mention movies, and there is also teh zombage quiz, so I suppose I should cut it
Win, Tokio, jellies, tired, meme
K, on the latest win I received ($1,768,000.00), at the bottom of one of the pages it actually says “THIS IS REAL.” I am so desperately amused.
So lately Tokio has decided that my tablet is her bed. Whenever she thinks I’m not paying enough attention to her (which is most of the time, even if I’m busily scratching her face), she sprawls across it so I cannot use it. This is no problem when I’m not drawing, as I have a mouse hooked up on the left. Then she usually starts attacking my right hand when I comes close to her. If I am drawing, she has to move. It is adorable and… adorable. Sometimes she flops over onto the keyboard. She just did it. “++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++” is what she typed for me. Helpful cat. Then she bit my hand and licked it.
Yesterday I saw my jellies. They were in pink light and they were the best jellies ever. That is why I yuff them. All the jellies love love love love. La la la la la jellies. Anyway, I also seed some sharks; they were not very big, but still pretty exciting. Sharks are so freaking cool. BUT THE BEST THING. OMG. The octopus came right out of his den and posed about just for me!!! I got to see all of him! All the little sucker things on his legs and the shape of him and how he swimmed and everything!! It was magically squee. It was the best ever. I also saw an eel wrapped around a tyrtle like, “THIS IS MY TYRTLE.” And a stingray thingy that was showing off. AND SOME COOL STUFF. It was all awesome. There was a tarantula. It won. AND PIRANHAS. OMG. Why is the aquarium so cool. And my jellies. OK.
Insomnia is going on four days now. Today at work I was so tired that I actually slept through my entire lunch break. If I can’t sleep today, mayhap I shall die and become teh zomb. Mas teh zomb. OK BECAUSE I AM SO TIRED I WILL STOP THIS ENTRY NOW
A very important lj entry
Today at work I was horribly tired on account of having the worst sleep ever yesterday. However, it was a good day nonetheless. One notable item in particular:
As Gregoreee and I were walking out of work, we turned a corner in the hallway and what did we see? This!