Hail, hail the gang's all here.

Last night was the last night the whole gang could get together before Autumn* and her boytoy move to New York. And I only cried at the very end. We had a really good night! So I brought pictures for show and tell:

Disturbing.

Oh, and I learned the most disturbing phrase today: Muffin Top.

And oh, how fitting it is. Oi and vey.

feeling faint

So the bloodmobile made its rounds today and I gave blood. I actually was quite fine, but probably because they actually followed my instructions: Right arm, blood pressure cuff. No exceptions. I know you feel the vein and are confident you will only have to stick me once, but let me tell you -- if you have to stick me more than once I feel obligated to return the favor.
But anyhow, my arm hurt a little but I'm fine now. I was just typing a little slower for the last hour and a half of work. And that's fine because who wants to work, truely?
ShellBell and Mr. Monkey and I are going to dinner tonight and then to see Autumn* one last time before she and her boyfriend leave for New York. I'm going to try not to think about it because I'll cry and there will be plenty of time for crying when I help them pack the truck on Thursday! I'm bringing my camera so maybe I'll bless you with some pictures :)

The sky is falling.

So I'm sitting in my living room enjoying the sound of the monsoon on the roof (it seems to reverberate in this place) beginning a new book when I start hearing this noise. It sounds mildly like what's going on outside, but is most definitely inside. Tap tap tap -- it's like wet clothes dripping on cement. And then I see it. A leak in my roof. Dripping on my reading chair. Evidently I should have something slightly more appropriate for the weather in my living room.

The Interview

My friend VegasGustan (I'm being lazy but his links are the ones over there on the right called "Home But Far From It" and "Song Repository") interviewed me, and here are my answers to his brilliant questions:
1. If you could rewrite the ending to one book how would you change it?
I would end Chuck Palahnuik's Invisible Monsters after the person who shot the model in the mouth confesses to the shooting. Because after that is just mindless backstory on why it was done, and who really cares? The reasoning takes away from the shock the reader would have felt. What I would have thought about the reasoning would have been far more complex and interesting than the "true reasons." Writers are so scared of leaving questions in the readers' minds, when a responsible reader would fill those answers in with his/her own answers rather than waiting for it to be spelled out for them. And I don't think that writers should leave things open that you can't make your own hypotheses without stretching too much, because that's not responsible either. A writer should lead you to the water and expect you to drink, not force you. Wow, and now we're all asses. :) And I'll step down from my soapbox. (For all the Palahnuik fans out there, I do really love his writing and his storylines. Invisible Monsters was the only one so far that I've read and been irritated by the ending.)
Oh, another one I'd change is anything by James Paterson. But then I'd change the end by burning a hole through it. But you already knew that, didn't you? :)
2. Do you hold any regrets so far that you would care to share with the class?
I really try not to regret things. I do things I should regret, but I've always been big on not regretting, because really what purpose does it serve? I think if there's something that does come to mind it's that I regret stealing from my mother when I was a teenager. I think it's something all teenagers did, but I've really tried to make up for it as an adult by helping her out with money whenever possible. She doesn't often take it, but I still try to force it on her. I didn't realize how little she really had back then.
3. If you could have taken anything to show-and-tell back in the day what would have it been?
I'd like to carry around the little boy I punched in kindergarten while the lights were out and we were getting ready to watch a movie. He was always teasing me and I could never get him back, so one day right before a movie I went up behind him and slugged him in the back. That way I could show-and-tell I really can stick up for myself!
4. You wake up in a future where you are now considered a complete savage and cavewoman-like, how do you try to fit in?
I go to work, because you're always required to be somewhat of a savage. If I'm completely a savage maybe I'll be even better. My problem with my job is that I think I have too much empathy. Maybe this kind of change would do me good.
5. (James Lipton Moment) What turns you off?
People who pretend they're more intellegent than they are, or feign intellect by enunciating every word so it sounds deliberate and therefore more stable and important than everyone else's speaking. And when people talk over you. And bad breath, that really turns me off.

The Rules

1. Leave me a comment saying 'interview me please'
2. I will respond by asking you five questions on your blog (not the same questions you see here)
3. Update your blog/site with the answers to the questions
4. Include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, ask them five questions

spendin' moolah.

I finally made my reservations on Orbitz for Punta Gorda in a week and a half, and so of course there's a tropical depression south of here. They say it's going toward the Bahamas, so maybe we'll be safe. I don't want to waste my money. And I want to have fun, of course! It's the Survivor geocacher's event for the anniversary of Hurricane Charley. Let's go crazy!
Okay, I'm tired and am slightly nuts.
And I forgot today was Tuesday.
I go now.

Doing Minimal Black for a bit.

I haven't been posting because I've been so mad at the template for doing that damn scrolly thing. I know I said it wouldn't bother me. So I lied. I've tweaked everything I know how to tweak, and I wrote an email to the template maker but she'he hadn't gotten back to me yet and I was still annoyed by it. I tried reloading the same template but I came up with the same problems. So I switched back to the most bearable of the blogger templates, and I'm now on the hunt for a bigger better template. Something with books, please.
It's been a whole half a month since my last post! I've been keeping up with most of your posts, even though I couldn't bear to post myself, so I find myself fairly caught up.
It's been raining since I went to bed last night. I woke up having a terrible dream and went back to finish it -- it makes me groggier to wake up to a half-finished bad dream than to finish it out. In the dream I was at some minor celebrity's house and some other people were there too and for some reason I passed out and when I came to I realized that someone had set fire under my bed, which I put out with my hand -- ouch! Then I realized the people that had been at the celeb's house were raiding her warehouse, so I was trying to find out who of my friends were involved with this, and I got caught at the warehouse by someone who didn't know me, but she just told me to leave and then I was hiding at this woman's house and a car (of the people from the warehouse) came by and hit her little baby. And the baby died while I was trying to catch the people who did it.
So really I'd say that so much has happened, but really not much has happened since I took a sabbatical. Christen, Other April and I went to Islands of Adventure on Saturday, which was a lot of fun. I hadn't been there in many years, Christen had never been there, and OA is always up for a theme park!
We also ate at Jungle Jim's so C and I could have the Peanutbutter Bet hamburger (1/2 lb hamburger, peanut butter, mayo (which of course I leave off) cheese, bacon, lettuce tomato and pickle).
It's the best burger anywhere, I do declare. We go there everytime we go to Orlando, which lately isn't much, but for a span of 7 months or so we went every other weekend.
OA and I slept all the way home, and I went to bed at 9:30 and woke up at 9:30, and went to a bridal show with ShellBell again. This one didn't tire me out as much as the last one, and we went shopping afterward since it was the last day of the tax-free thing. To tell you the truth, we just went shopping to go shopping. It just so happened that it was still during the tax-free thing.
I'm now falling asleep again. Suz and I have decided to start carpooling (a logical idea, although we've been working there for going on 6 months and haven't really given it a thought until I needed a ride for two days last week. Now we're going to try. Let's hope I don't fall asleep in the car today (no, I'm not driving).
So sorry this post hasn't been particularly interesting or witty -- it's hard for me to get back into the swing of things once I've been gone for so long. It'll get better, I promise people!