Thanks to my doctor's office for that lovely piece of direction; I don't think I could have summed up my current health status better.


FU means follow-up in doctor parlance, but it took even me a little while to remember that.

Along with the rest of the known world, my New Year's resolutions tend to fail right around the end of January on a good year, but this year I've been slowly getting more organized about various things, so it seems natural to try and see if I can keep up this organization in the new year.

Therefore, I give you my list of resolutions for 2009:
     -keep very good track of all my money in Quicken FOR THE WHOLE YEAR
          -after 6 months, make a budget and stick to it
     -send a letter to Ben every Thursday (beginning on the 2nd, since there's no mail on the 1st...now there's an auspicious start!)
     -go an entire year with no library fines
     -keep in better touch with my girls
     -get back to school and the degree that I love

Wow, how sadly stereotypical of me. Just because it's cliche doesn't mean they're not good goals!


In totally unrelated news, I am madly in love with David Tennant, his acting skills, and his adorable facial expressions. (Yes Ro, I finally got a hold of Season 3 and ajhflakjdfjjkafanbsvbfvabxmbkl;';kfgljklikjajkfgahllkeADHAGIAIAFJADF A.MA.ZING!!!!!!!)

The doctor put me on a 'challenge diet' in order to see if I'm sensitive to any foodstuffs. This requires me basically rebooting my system, then adding in foods one at a time to see if I react. So yesterday I began the 'reboot' part of the process.

My Diet For the Next 2-4 Weeks

I can't eat any of the following:
-dairy
-red meat
-pork
-eggs
-wheat
-soy
-potatoes
-tomatoes
-citrus fruits
-sugar (*sigh*)
-artificial sweeteners
-couscous
-peanuts
-eggplant
-shellfish
-barley
-oats
-corn

I can eat sparingly:
-white rice
-chicken
-turkey

I can eat as much as I want:
-fishes (salmon, tuna, trout, etc.)
-vegetables (except as listed above)
-legumes (except as listed above)
-berries (i.e. non-citrus kinds of fruits)
-brown rice
-nuts
-pickles
-olive oil and vineagar for salad dressing
-stezia (a plant sweetener)

I also have 'medical food' that the doctor gave me which is a powder that you dissolve into water twice daily so you don't die of nutrient deficiencies while on said diet. The medical part is certain; the food part is debatable.


...I'm starving

I need to be more like Nikki. But then, who doesn't?

Please direct all love and admiration for my new icon to cynicalism, for she is awesome and doth understand the true nature of the linguist.

I got a headache on the way to church today and had to leave partway through Sacrament meeting. Someday I will go to all of church for more than one week at a time. Poor Ryan must think I've abandoned him.

This week has been fun, if really busy. Monday we got to talk to Ben on his way to Thailand, where he will be for the next 1 year and 9 months for his mission. It was so nice to hear his voice, and he sounded so excited. Tuesday Mom and I went visiting teaching. Wednesday, I was supposed to go to Institute Choir and visiting teaching, but I got sick and stayed home instead. Thursday was my visiting teacher coming over, then the ward Trunk or Treat party at which I held a baby for a long time and played colors with one of my former students. And I dressed up as black-eyed peas (gave myself a black eye with my sister's old eyeshadows, then put letter 'p' stickers all over my shirt and voila!).

break to take a breath

Moving on!
Friday was mostly preparing for Saturday. Saturday we had a Thanksgiving dinner with our friend who is deploying to Iraq this week for the third time. He made most of the food; we contributed the kitchen and a couple pies and some rolls. While the turkey was cooking, we played an epic game of Phase 10 that lasted literally hours. The Clarks came over later and we had a great Thanksgiving together. The weirdest part was that a) it felt like it ought to be Thursday and not Saturday and b) we weren't going to buy a Christmas tree the day after. And then today was today.

I don't know how I make it sound like I'm not laying around all the time, because that is totally what I do.

I LOVE Fall daylight savings.

I may also actually be trying to do Nano. I'll let you know how that goes...

Here is the long-awaited post where I try and explain these terms that I toss around so freely. I will do my best to have this make sense, but remember, I've grown up with this terminology, so my definitions may make perfect sense to me, and perfect nonsense to everyone else. Please ask if you have a question; I never get offended by honest inquiry and would much rather have the chance to explain than have you confused. Why am I writing this as if someone I don't know will read it? Oh well, read and enjoy.

As this post gets longer and longer, I realize that there's going to be a massive amount of lj cuts. I hope this all fits on one entry!

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church. This is often abbreviated LDS since, let's face it, the full title is a bit cumbersome. The nickname of Mormons comes from the fact that we have an additional book of scripture called The Book of Mormon, a book that details Christ's dealings with his people here in the Americas, that we use as a companion to the Bible.

( Church general leadership )

( Ward leadership and how we spend our time every Sunday )

( Stake leadership )

( An explanation of the Priesthood )

( How callings work in the Church )

( Special Sunday meetings and other meetings )

( Other [read: better] resources )

Wow, I had no idea that this would get so long. Thanks for sticking with me, and I'll try and get this finished ASAP!

Now, the big question, do I sticky this to the top of my journal for easy reference or not?

Oh yeah, because I essentially update in anamuan's comment threads. Right.

Grammy gave me a sweater that used to be Nana's last night. It's really beautiful and light and, most surprisingly, it fits! This really messes with my conception of the universe (my great-grandmother and I were not even close to the same size), but oh well. I will take silk sweaters anyday and certainly not look that gift horse in the mouth. In some ways the best part is that it smells like a combination of Nana's house and Grammy's perfume. I don't want to take it off just because of all the memories it invokes. Dear, dear Nana.

God also apparently uses the British spelling system. Who knew? (besides the Brits who will no doubt let me know in no uncertain terms that they had always known their spelling had divine blessings)

Joie came home today. In "related by way of irony" news, it got really really cold and snowy and icy just in time for our heat-loving little girl to get back. But she made it home safe and sound, and we didn't have to launch a rescue mission a la Houston last fall, so all is good in the world.

I also have discovered a rather amazing talent for predicting weather changes. Thursday (when all was still quite warm and dry) my knee began to hurt for no apparent reason. Friday I woke up feeling vaguely like I had been put on the rack all night, so I came upstairs and saw that the weather had done a major change, and suddenly, life made sense again. Unfortunately, I'm now kind of broken. Every which way I turn or bend, I crack like bubble wrap. But if I stay seated in one place for too long, my joints freeze up and hurt even more when I move. And tylenol only takes the edge off. So, to sum up: moving hurts, not moving hurts, and there's not much of anything I can do about it. My gosh, the excitement just never ends.

I really need to make that Mormon to English post, because I keep not writing about stuff because it'll take too long to get to the real point. But I'll try. Bear with me, please.

Tomorrow is Stake Conference (a bi-annual meeting of certain congregations within a designated geographic area), and I was asked to accompany for the Stake Youth Choir (12-18-year-olds in the Stake) which will be singing tomorrow. Fine, sure, no problem. Until I manage to have an arthritic attack the weekend I'm supposed to be playing. Actually, I should probably be grateful that my hands don't actually shrivel up or anything like other forms of arthritis that I've seen. I have near-full mobility, I just have pain to go with it. So, I'll still be able to play, just sorely. Actually, at the moment what peeves me most is the fact that I have to be down at the Stake Center at 8:00 AM for a 10:00 AM meeting. We're having practice beforehand. And then, I get to stay through both sessions (there are two basically identical sessions of Stake Conference because there are just too many people to fit into one chapel all at once) because we're singing at both. So I'll be at the Stake Center from 8 AM to 4 PM. Thank heaven they're feeding us in the middle, otherwise I might have had to cry. And then at 6:30 PM, we have Ward Choir, for which I'm also the accompanist. I have got to learn to stop saying yes when people ask me to do things.

But, all is not doom and gloom. Ben called earlier today to do some elfing, and it was so much fun. Christmas is so much fun around here. I have presents bought for anamuan, stillesprite, and Tego-chan, so now I just need to get it all wrapped and in the mail. Along with the gingersnaps I owe people. Would everybody hate me if the gingersnaps came during a season when I don't have to pay ridiculous fees in order to get them there before they go stale?

And now I go to sleep for my 6 AM wake up call. Blech.

I've been cleaning my room in preparation for Grammy's arrival. And not just the regular cleaning, oh no. I decided that it was about time to do a purge of my closet, my desk, everything. I don't think that I've actually spent the time to do this since...I moved into this room. And I do believe I've discovered why. I started this process about 3 weeks ago, and I'm still not done. It's actually kind of like playing with one of those goofy plastic puzzles that have a picture split into different blocks, and there's only one empty space that you can move a block into in order to rearrange the picture. I only have so much space in this room, and somehow I have to discover exactly what I've been keeping in my closet all these years, then get it back in while still keeping a little floor space open for me to manouvre in. Actually, it's probably a good thing I did this now. I think my closet was about to hit critical mass and collapse in on itself to make a black hole. And the gorgeous irony of this whole thing is that as soon as I finish, I'll be moving into Moose's room so Grammy can have this one. Good times, good times.

Though tonight we finally took apart the desk that I don't want, so I can no longer have 2 desks lurking in my room. For about 5 minutes I had more than 1 square foot of clean carpet, then it was appropriated for organizational piles.

A sampling of my (re)discoveries (for better or for worse):
-awesome bright pens
-every academic award I've ever won from kindergarten through high school; it's ridiculous (no wonder I had no friends!)
-the last letter I sent my great-grandmother before she died (my grandmother sent it to me)
-music I sang in 9th grade and apparently never gave back to the high school...oops
-many of my writings throughout the years, and they're still embarrassing in their utter terribleness, but I feel obligated to keep them around anyway for that mythical day when I rise above those dismal origins and actually write something good
-more dead spiders and exoskeletons and cobwebs than I even care to think about
-unopened junk mail from 2004
-the portfolio in which my mom kept all of the art I did in elementary school (in which we discover that I displayed a remarkable lack of talent in the visual arts from a very, very early age)
-about 7 half-finished letters...I am ashamed, but not surprised
-our local newspaper from the week of September 11th, 2001
-a can of something that checks if your smoke detector works
-plaster casts of the soles of my feet that my shoe inserts were made off of
-my lambskin animals that died my first year of college, but I will never, ever throw away

I'm such a pack rat, but I blame my parents. They're genealogists, so they've instilled in me a deep and abiding guilt over throwing away anything that might possibly be of interest to someone trying to do family history in the future. Oh well, if nothing else, my descendants will know that I was a spectacularly average person.

In the last 21 hours, I have been on the phone with my sister for 4 hours and 45 minutes. Then we just chatted for about 20 minutes via IM. Oh to be the big sister now that finals are here.

*headdesk*

...to Kiev!

I had lots of happy things to say about Thanksgiving and the wonderful time I had with my family, but it's kind of getting late, and these coherent sentence things seem to be kind of on the fritz. Maybe I'll post it sometime in the near future. Shut up anamuan! It could happen!

I went out to dinner tonight with a lady from my church (my visiting teacher for those of you familiar with Mormonese). It was quite fun, though, as often happens, I managed to do a lot of talking, and consequently she finished eating long before I did. But it was delicious Chinese food.

I snagged a meme from anime_heart, whom I don't know, but was on anamuan's f-list. Social networking at its finest!
( Because this wasn't random enough, the 50 random questions meme! )

When Moose and I chat from my room to the living room:

mycroftnext: do I know you?
Moose: Maybe... Maybe at rice paddy in Hong Kong?
mycroftnext: I'm thinking tango in fur coats...Siberia last April
Moose: No, not ringing a bell... Did you have a silver and red candle at the Vatican two years ago?
mycroftnext: oh no, I did that five years ago
have you ever run with the bulls in Pamplona?
I seem to recall a shirt of pink hibiscuses (hibisci?)
Moose: No, only in my youth. Perhaps it was San Francisco. Were there flowers in your hair?
mycroftnext: I once ran down Lombard Street in a cape with ribbons in my hair...
Moose: Possible... I once flew to Japan in a Sopwith Camel. Who knows:?
mycroftnext: Puzzling to be sure
Wait, a red Sopwith Camel?
Moose: Yes, with candy painted stripes on the fuselage...
mycroftnext: That's it!!! I was the sushi chef at the little cafe near the airfield!
Moose: Wait, you were the girl sitting with the dog that had on goggles and a goofy looking nose?
mycroftnext: They were sungoggles and he hurt his nose in a car accident saving someone else's life, thank you very much
Moose: Of course. And he also single-handedly took off Dudley Dooright's legs while he was on his horse, eh?
mycroftnext: Please, that's disgusting!
...it was actually a clown car, and he ended up getting stepped on by an elephant, but we don't like to talk about it much
Moose: Oh. I see. I don't like the way this conversation is heading. Do you golf?
mycroftnext: only during rainstorms
otherwise, it's boring
Moose: It's true. It adds a touch of sport to the game..
mycroftnext: too true
it also gives me the chance to show off my large metallic headgear
which doesn't get nearly enough use
Moose: Shame.. Have you tried jousting in three feet of snow? It also requires large metallic head gear.
mycroftnext: Ah, that brings back memories. I used to do that with my parents in the Swiss Alps, but I always wanted to try it on another mountain
Moose: Was the aforementioned headgear a gift for graduation?
mycroftnext: More of a collection taken over the years, but I do believe I once received a metal pith helmet after I graduated from a Mongol shepherding academy
Moose: That sounds fascinating. It might be as fabulous as the time when I received the Pope's robes and hat after interning at the Banana Cloning Facility next door to his Apartment...
mycroftnext: Which hat? I always did love the purple one with the bowling pin on top, but he so rarely wore it.
Moose: Actually, it was the one with his collection of pet rocks and assorted jelly beans glued to it. I rather fancied that one, too.
He was deciding between that one and the one that says " \
sorry. "A didjeridoo saved my life"
That one.
mycroftnext: I have a shirt with those exact words on it! With a didgeridoo elegantly strapped on the back.
Moose: No way! I have the same one, which is why the Pope chose the other hat! Except my mother told me only to wear it in an emergency.
mycroftnext: it does have some powerful medicinal attributes; I wore it while bushwhacking with the Tsutsumu tribe in Tanganyika, and we used it to heal a snakebite, cross river rapids, and aid the mating rituals of the rare Jujingambwe parrot
Moose: Interesting. I find that a can of pickled wahooni's can do the same job, plus it can clear up a mild radiation case in the Dzeckowambes.
mycroftnext: is that what you use for radiation? I've only ever used the wholly effective, but slightly poisonous combination of calamine lotion, squid ink, and the hair of a bat
Moose: You know, that's what the Scottish swear by, but I've found to to be slightly more pungent than the combination of Hydrochloric acid, small duck feathers, and a large amount of holy water. Of course, my mother told me that adding a little windex made it more effective, but only after it stops hissing.
mycroftnext: I had heard of that, but be didn't have a priest handy, and we were sinfully short on holy water, so I had to go back to my scottish roots
Moose: Ah. Try the Vietnamese cheese farms. They never have a shortage.
mycroftnext: which by the way, scottish roots also make a lovely tea which can also double as windshield wiper fluid
Moose: I've heard that. They also clean mold out of Persian carpets.
mycroftnext: of course!
and I love the smell of the cheese farms on a summer afternoon, the smell of ripening Gouda filling the air
I have a bit of that eau de toilette in my carry-on case next to the elixir of kelp and silicon
Moose: So true. I was unfortunately the the recipient of a flaming Camembert while at the cheese farms, so that unpleasant experience has kept me away ever since.
mycroftnext: pity...do your tastes now lean towards the exotic fruit factories of Peloponnesia?
Moose: Actually, I tend to be more favorable towards the respectabloe but somewhat secret Eskimo Cactus Pies of South Africa.
mycroftnext: oh, I once witnessed that ceremony
were you the large one with the exceptionally blue beard and the painted stars on your toenails?
Moose: Ah! Look at the time. If I don't perform the ritual of the dancing and singing swamp rat of Winnebago within the hour, my lawn will fall into a black hole again. How tedious.
and yes, I was.
So now I need to say farewell.
And I hope to see you at the next meeting of left-handed psycologists, where we discuss why a duckbilled-platypus.
mycroftnext: Dear heavens! I too must away to my secret library where I will discover the secrets of the stars and simultaneously find the best parking spaces at every “Guns and Peace” signs store in the world
Moose: I see. well, Goodbye, and may your cows always have clear arteries.
mycroftnext: happy fortunes to you oh great warthog overlord of the Southern Northern Malhumpta
Moose: Ah, so you now know who I am.. My secret is out. You must swear that you have never known me unless Rutherford the squatting lemur is mentioned.
And if he is, then just tell the truth
mycroftnext: to which I shall respond "Marvin the Sea Bass shall praise thy children's pinky toes"
Moose: Exactly. Now goodye.
mycroftnext: adieu

It started out so well.

Edited with anamuan, managing 3 pages in a mere hour and fifteen minutes. World record anyone?

Watched conference, and got new general authorities. Was happy.

Napped between sessions. Was happy. (Except for that part where my brain was awake enough to know that I was trying to get downstairs to watch conference round 2, but I couldn't actually wake my body up. To the point where I was sure I had moved to the end of the waterbed, but I couldn't get my eyes open, so I was trying to pull them open, but I couldn't see. Then I realized I was asleep and sent all the signals to my arms to slap my face or roll or do something to wake the body, thought I had actually done so, but my body hadn't moved. Then I tried to call for Mom to call me so she could wake me, but I couldn't make any sound because body, again, not awake. It was a waaaaaaaaaay weird feeling.)

Watched conference again. Was even more happy.

Was going to work on typing up all my edits for nihongofrancais and start editing for darling anamuan some more, thereby having a lovely evening of grammar, punctuation, and literary abuse.

Instead got depressed and sad causing the whole evening to go like this:
emo, angst, emo, emo, lonely, sad, cry some, head hurt, emo, emo, emo, angst, stomach hurt, emo angst, emo, come upstairs and cuddle with mom for an hour without saying a word, sob, emo, cry, depressed, cry more, angsty angst, think I'm done, come downstairs, burst into tears and wrenching sobs, let mom and dad in room, finally talk, crycrycrycry, no future, angst, emo, emo, emo, lightheaded from crying, angsty emo emo

Then I made ramen to supplement my dinner of chocolate chip cookies.

I feel a little better, but am now exceptionally sleepy.

The End. Bet you wish you were me, huh?

Title: Behind the Scenes (or, The Real Reason Yamapi and Jin Now Live Together)
Author: mycroftnext
Pairing: Pin friendship
Rating: It's me; what do you think the rating is?
Word Count: 3,321 (or, long enough that you need to re-check your definition of "drabble")
Beta: anamuan , who is made of sparkles and Pin and everything win :D
A/N: This was supposed to be a drabble for the boobandboobs prompt "Key," but it...well...exploded, so I decided to not break the comment boxes and instead post it here. This is my first fic and probably would have been unfit for human consumption without the wonderful anamuan , so if there are still mistakes, please know she tried to talk me out of them, and I wouldn't listen.


( Pi woke up to a headache the approximate size of Tokyo and a pounding that was steadily boring holes in his brain... )

Now that I've set up a bank account here in the Springs, I've been spending time trying to get financially organized (as in set up my Quicken accounts, my new auto-spending thingummies for Sallie Mae, all that good stuff). It's so ridiculously disheartening. I put in some paychecks (which is exciting) and then I spend it all, not on fun stuff, but on loan repayments and tithing and all that stuff that I really have to pay. Though I suppose I shouldn't complain too much since I don't have to pay rent at this point. But it is time-consuming and soul-draining, and I'm tired of it, so I will complain, so there! *pouts because I can*

And now I get to figure out what's happening with my paycheck, since I didn't get my timesheet sent in Friday due to being otherwise occupied hacking up a lung. I always love trying to track down people and information first thing Monday morning. Ha, not.

I'm sure that in a few days I'll be really glad I went through all this hassle, but right now, it's merely hassle. I look forward to the time when I can use the amajing cape-wearing emojis, but until then I will stay with my resounding "meh."

PS I really hate all these websites that have convenient sections for everything that they can do for you, but nothing about the stuff they've already done for you. US Bank has miles of info about credit limits and loans, but when I try and find out what PIN they assigned me, nothing. Blank. And when I try and put in a request/question about it, the customer service window doesn't work. *headdesk* *repeatedly*

...it's kind of like "Feels like Teen Spirit" only not.

It's 9:00 PM and I'm totally ready for bed. This is disturbing to my mental conceptions of this period of my life, but my body is going, "I don't care about your stupid delusions. GO! SLEEP!! NOW!!!" My body often wins these sorts of fights.

Ben just called. This is the first time I've talked to him since last Wednesday when he was dropped off at college. I think in the first 72 hours of being at college, I called home at least one, wrote 2 missives of emails and IMed multiple, multiple times. Voila children, the difference between boys and girls. And he's getting up at 6 AM to go work out with people on his floor. He occasionally disgusts me. But I give it a week. Month absolute max before that goes completely out the window, so I feel like he can indulge in whatever insanity he wants to for now. Ah the blissful ignorance of the first week of school as a freshman.

I have paychecks. Like multiple checks made out to me for certain amounts of money. This is a happy, happy thing given that I have bills to pay. Maybe someday I'll even be able to splurge a little bit. Oh, the possibilities.

For my birthday yesterday, I slept, then I did some cleaning (read: get all of my books off Mom & Dad's bed) then I slept some more, and once Mom and Dad got home, the four of us went out to dinner with Bestefar. It was nice and delicious. We went to a general Asian food kind of place, which sounds like it should be terrible, but it's not. There was Pad Thai, and while it was not Bangkok Bistro Pad Thai, it was an acceptable substitute, thus, I was happy. And then we had Cold Stone afterwards. It was pretty chill, but I'm a pretty chill kind of person, so I'm okay with that. Plus I got to sleep, which is always a beautiful thing.

There is a production of Pygmalion going up on Broadway. *drool drool drool drool drool drool* Oh to be in New York now that Fall is here.

Happy 22nd Birthday to me! Is it pathetic to wish one's own self a happy birthday in one's own blog? Probably, but I find myself not caring in the slightest.

Chatted with the ever-lovely wakikaki today. I chat with my friends and I am reminded anew just how incredible they are. For instance, some highlights of the past week:

mycroftnext: and that one audience that clearly was a few crayons short of a box
anamuan: . there were no crayons in their box.
there were some colorful stains where the tips used to press against the top

mycroftnext: Japanese media confuses me...on the one hand, yeah, completely off-putting kissing, on the other hand Shibata Rie and her psychotic gropingness
those two just don't resolve in my mind
anamuan: differences in target audience?
Shibata Rie, btw, was totally in Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
and i was like !!! IT'S THE GROPE-Y LADY!!
mycroftnext: I believe you
HAHAHAHAHAHA
I hope you yelled that at the top of your lungs wherever you were
anamuan: she was the crazy homeroom teacher and had like, 1 long continuous line that no body listened to in one scene and was never seen again
i did, kinda. and pointed enthusiastically at the tv

mycroftnext: just because our line of reasoning is more of a death spiral...
anamuan: LOVE! that analogy
death spiral. it has such a beautiful morbid ring

mycroftnext: I tried to tell [my sister] that Aiba is kind of clueless and adorable in his cluelessness
whereas Pin are kind of synergistically stupid
anamuan: haha
yes
mycroftnext: of course, I don't even really know the full story, I just glean from here and there that their stupidity has almost taken on an intelligence of its own

mycroftnext: I would make some crack here about communism and death, but that's just a little politically incorrect, so I'll wait on that for now
especially since the Russian lady gave you intarweb
wakikaki: yes, but still...i made that wisecrack in my head already, so it's ok
mycroftnext: oh phew
just so long as we were both thinking it

wakikaki: eww, French structuring. blech!
if it is like French structuring, I'm un-enrolling myself and getting out of here
mycroftnext: good plan
run
hide
make the sign of the cross and banish the devil back to his own turf!
wakikaki: hahaha
while the French see him arrive and say "wot iz 'e doing 'ere? zis is god's land. we shall ignore you and drink ze wine now."
mycroftnext: and they'll offer him a nice vintage, the devil will look at it and go, "what the hey?" and start drinking and eating pastries with some old couple who owns a cafe in Marseilles or something like that
wakikaki: kind of makes him lose the "Prince of Darkness" edginess, doesn't it
?
poor sod. can't resist the French

mycroftnext: you're ebil
wakikaki: not nearly as ebil as anamuan
just a smidgen
mycroftnext: true, we do have a ways to go before we get to the master
she is our master!ebil!sensei
wakikaki: hahahahaha!
mycroftnext: we may only wish to arrive at her level of greatness
I think we should start addressing her as master!ebil!sensei
wakikaki: actually, we don't even want to wish it, b/c then she will find out about our wishes and punish us
mycroftnext: true
she would smite
wakikaki: i'm totally going to refer to her as master!ebil!sensei from now on
M!E!S

mycroftnext: if I don't "see" you before then, have a great day at school tomorrow!
wakikaki: thank you, love!
mycroftnext: I feel like I should be sending you out with a pink hello kitty lunchbox and pigtails when I say that
wakikaki: what makes you think i won't have pigtails and a hello kitty lunchbox?
mycroftnext: remember, don't talk to strangers and play nice with the other kids
why do you think I said it!?
wakikaki: hahaha!
seriously, though, my brother almost bought me a hello kitty lunchbox before i left the States

God has been ever so good to me.

I'll tell you what I actually did for my birthday later. For now, I think friends like these are gift enough. :D

I made omuraisu tonight. Yeah, I know it's totally kid's food and just a Japanization of western food, but still, it made me feel special. Plus, Moose liked it, thus and hence it was a success. And no, my exposure to this dish totally did not come from Mago Mago Arashi - Kodomo no whatever. Not at all. *is hopeless*

I managed to go from feeling that perhaps I was getting ill to completely sick in about 3 hours. This is not good and my lesson in church tomorrow is going to be hideous.

Realization #1992740 that language owns my soul:
I saw the word for Hitler's secret police which was ridiculously long, and my first thought was "No wonder they were able to take over so much! No one could spit out that word fast enough to warn people they were coming!" No, I'm not obsessed to the point of irreverence. Not at all.

I was going to write more but all the stuffiness in my head has pushed out all the ideas I had. But I did update. Go me.

Jordan's here again. He's been with us for a couple weeks now. It's ok having another brother. It helps that he and Ben are very similar so it's not like I have to get used to an entirely new personality. Plus, they do midnight baking. There is much love to wake up to gingersnaps or snickerdoodles or chocolate chip cookies all ready to be eaten.

Joie leaves in 6 days and counting. Sister Clark wants to throw a joint goodbye party for her and Jordan (who is leaving not this, but next Wednesday). This is how she deals with people leaving; she throws parties. Not that I mind really, because the Clarks are great company, but sometimes I feel bad that they're doing all the food and providing the venue so often. But the party will be at our house on Friday night, so I guess that maybe makes up for it (a little).

Actually, the Clarks taught me how to play cribbage the other night. Now that is a molto fun game. I swear, there are some games that just never ever get old, and I feel like this is destined to be one of them.

The Clarks and us sang in church today. It was a fun "bang and belt" song (as I've heard it described). Lots of high notes and lots of divine providence that I made it through the piano part. Mom said she would play, but then she never had the time to practice, so I ended up playing because I had the advantage of having played it something like 5-6 times previously. With a 9 page song, this is not much of an advantage (because when I say I "played" it, I mean, I ran through it quickly). So, lots of prayers went into our performance today, and it seemed to work out. Clearly the Lord looks out for children, drunks, fools, and accompanists, but I repeat myself.

I love how the cats fight over my windowsill when I have the window open. You can definitely tell who the alpha cat is, because if Merlin gets there first, Misty just bats him off, but if Misty's there first, Merlin climbs on my side table or dresser and hisses ineffectively. And I go and move all breakable objects from the general area.

I had the urge to write the other night, and because I have absolutely no creativity, I decided that my main character was going to be wakikaki. I started writing this little vignette of her life in England, and it got a little out of control, so I'll have to send it to you after your vacation, darling. And I hope I won't use your personality in vain!

Moose just got through his summer reading assignment of The Iliad. Ah, the initiation by fire of having to read about billions of ships and lots of gods and then some mortals. And they fight...a lot. And people die. The Iliad condensed to one sentence and a fragment. School starts tomorrow for him. It's funny how much that date creeps up on us when it only matters for one of the four kids. It must be hard being the youngest sometimes. But he's starting high school, which has the distinct appeal of not being middle school, thus he is excited. I predict it will last a day. Three at most.

I think a bug just flew into my keyboard! Like, under the keys into. How do you do a gnat-ectomy on a laptop?