lazy_as_a_cat

So, um yeah, first year or Grad school done. I suddenly have all this free time again since I’m not taking any summer classes, so I actually wrote a fanfic. It’s actually the first time I’ve ever written fanfic, as opposed to, um, fan doodles, I suppose... It’s BBC Sherlock, surprising no one.

Written for a kinkmeme prompt which asked for a modern adaptation of a canon story, with the addition of John being kidnapped, in keeping with the pattern the first three episodes have established.

( Read more... )

I had my first classes last weekend. I'm signed up for three right now, meeting on Saturday and Sunday; Intro to Library Science, Intro to Research, and Basic Web Design. Actually, research and I have already been introduced, and I did learn basic HTML a few years ago, so I'm not too worried about any of these classes, and my professors seem very approachable. I do have to come up with a good idea for a website; one that I can work on for a semester without getting board; I'm thinking I may do it on cakes; recipes, pictures of cakes I've made, that kind of thing; everyone loves cakes.

I found a part time job, which is good, because it means I can take care of my expenses without taking out more student loans. Bonus: the job is at a craft store and get 25% off all arts and craft supplies. (I am going to knit the longest scarf ever!)

The nanny job is going well too; it's pretty much just a matter of getting up at 6 am every weekday and getting my little cookie monster ready for school, so it really does leave a lot of extra time for school, work, and/or naps.

And, since I've been back on Long Island, I was able to go see Maggie compete in her first Roller Derby tournament, which was awesome! It really made me wish I knew how to roller skate! And it was extra good because Maria, Dee, and Arline where there too. And I was able to get together with Rachael, Kevin, and Maurice that weekend too; it was a weekend packed with happy. ^-^

I went to write this on facebook, and realized that I actually have more to say then will fit in a status update, which hasn't happened in a while. (I fear I have been most in-eloquent, as of late.)

I drove back to Long Island on Friday, and I'm all unpacked and set up now. It's only been a year, but it still feels unaccountably strange to be back. The only thing that's different is my young charge; she's not even a toddler anymore, but a little kindergartner. Oh, she's so cute, she's like a Powerpuff Girl now! There are so many more books that I can read her now, and I can take her to the zoo, and I'll teach her how to braid hair!

That being said, Long Island is still Long Island; it's one real redeeming feature being it's relative closeness to The City. Ah, "Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation." (Ma métropole, je t'aime... ) I'm hoping that I'll be able to make it there once in a while, after classes on Sat and Sun, but I'll have to do it on a shoe string (my budget is a blighted landscape, bleak and unforgiving....)

I gave my current job notice today; my last day will be August 11th, and then I'll spend a few days at my dad's in NJ before moving back to Long Island. Then I'll have a few weekends free before classes start the second weekend of September, and then I'll be either working or going to school everyday, though I should be able to make it into NYC sometimes on Saturday evenings.

I went to see the cats without Alyssa yesterday, but afterward she was able to come for a sleep-over. She brought her copy of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which I had been meaning to see eventually. It was better then I was expecting; the heavy CG didn't bury the actors as much as I assumed it would, and it looked better in motion then the still images I'd seen. Ok, fine, I just like to see Johnny Depp in fancy hats! It makes him so happy...

When we got up today, we met Sarah for brunch, at Percy's, which is a good restaurant because it has good coffee, is decorated entirely in plaid, and is willing to serve me mushrooms and smoked fish for breakfast. Afterward, we went back to Sarah's house and I met her hedgepig, Sylphiel. I didn't know hedgies made noise, but it turns out they do; they huff when they get angry! Awwwww.....

I have not made the most of the last year, here on Cap Code, I know that, but I am trying to make up for it a little bit now that I feel up to it. My decisions to leave my job last Summer to find one in NYC ended up being so disastrous that now I'm pleased simply by the prospect of going back to the same position I declined. Well, no, that's not really true; I am all registered for grad school now too, so I can at least tell myself that there has been some positive change. (I keep trying to figure out if there has been some kind of lesson here....but other then “stay put, don't take chances” which is a lesson I'm trying very hard not to learn, I've got zip.) I should be back on Long Island around mid August, and then my weekends will be all dedicated to classes starting in September.

Inspired by a skit by the Mostly Water Theater company. I've been trying to expand on it a little and would appreciate any suggestions. ^-^

-Tinny Dogs (1 drink for each dog)

-Insufficient dowry (1 drink)
-Wealthy Heiress (2 drinks)

-Marriage proposal (1 drink)
-proposal is rejected (2 drinks)

-Loss of composure : character cries or displays emotions they have attempted to hide (1 drink)
-Character remains composed in the face of upsetting news (2 drinks)

-Important information is received through gossip (1 drink)
-Important information is received through a letter (2 drinks)

-hypochondria (1 drink)
-genuine illness (2 drinks)

-Bragging about a carriage (1 drink)
-Spontaneous Equestrianism (2 drinks)

Make everyone else drink:

-Womanly skill : Be the first to point out a womanly skill (Piano playing, embroidery, drawing, etc.) and everyone else must drink every time it occurs.

-Recognize an actor (must be able to give full name and name one other movie/show they where in)

Yesterday was the best day ever! Alyssa came over and we sat on the deck and drew on each other with henna. Then we did each others hair and nails. Then we went to the Cat shelter to play with the cats ^-^

I was driving Mr. Fakename around and helping him with some errands this morning (Mr. And Mrs. Fakename being the first elderly people I've been assigned to; they needed help around the house because of recent injures, but now they're both doing well and just want am occasional ride somewhere.) and we stopped at the hospital so I could run in and pick up his MRI results.

I go to the front desk, and tell them of my quest, and they send me to radiology. Radiology is deeply, deeply shocked and bemused that I would bother them with something like that, but they are also, apparently, very used to people doing so, and they hand me a photocopied page of directions on how to get to the records department. I begin to follow the directions, and it is dawning on me that this hospital is much larger on the inside then on the outside.

This may be a good point in this narrative to mention that I don't like hospitals. It's because there are way too many doctors in them. Don't misunderstand, I don't have a problem with doctors taken as individuals; probably most of them are perfectly nice people. But when you do get a bad one: OH MY GOD, SCARY! And, statistically, you have to expect that any good sized hospital is going to be the domain of at least one evil!doctor; some sick, twisted freak who has gone to school for several years just to learn how to take people apart. So, when you think about it objectively, vising a hospital is the same thing as being trapped in a maze with an extremely well-read serial killer, something which any rational person would take steps to avoid. Therefore, this is not a phobia, because phobias are irrational; this is a logical conclusion, which I have reached through logic, and science, and also math.

Perhaps, I begin to think, as I turn yet another blind corner, I should have brought a spool of thread which I could unwind in order to find my way back. But no, I realize when I take the elevator up a few stories and still appear to be on the ground floor upon arriving, that would be useless, considering the way that the building is clearly shifting around me. I look back down at my piece of paper, realizing that it is very, very important that I follow these directions exactly; to violate a single taboo could be deadly.

Finally, I arrive at radiology, and tell them I need to pick up Mr. Fakename's MRI results “And who is that?” asks the gatekeeper. “He's the person whose MRI I need to pick up.” For some reason, this satisfies her, and I begin to think that I'm getting the hang of this. She goes off and ascertains that records is in possession of such a document, but she will not give it to me without first answering a riddle seeing this man with her own eyes. This is a perfectly reasonable request; I'm sure there are any number of things that an experienced con-artist could do with an elderly gentleman's MRI results. But I'm not about to drag a WWII veteran with a game leg through the twisted hellscape I've just passed through, and I tell her as much. She points to a door that wasn't there before “That's the Lilly entrance” she tells me “drive around to it and I'll come out with the paperwork.” So I am, by some miracle, able to backtrack to the entrance I came in through and to find my car. I apologize to Mr. Fakename for taking so long, (though it turns out that time passes differently inside the hospital, so it seemed much shorter to him) explain the situation, and we drive around the building looking for the Lilly entrance (Freud would have a field day). There are several entrances, but none marked 'Lilly' and there are no signs anywhere mentioning a place by that name, and I begin to think that I will have to break it to Mr. Fakename that his medical files now reside in a fantastical land which, having left, we will never be able to step foot in again. But before that, we check three different entrances marked simply “visitor”, and at the third one is the records department. “There's no sign outside the building.” I hazard. “No.” says she. ...No...that would be silly....

Thus ends my story: there is no moral, and, on re-reading it, I feel it's a bit anti-climactic. When I publish my memoirs, I'll have to throw in a Minotaur or something along those lines.

Uhnn, tired. Back to being a daywalker again. I tried to short myself on sleep Sunday/Monday night by just taking a nap in the small hours, but ended up sleeping all day and I missed going to the cat shelter with Alyssa, which was like sleeping through Christmas, even if it is a weekly event. So I haven't gone back to sleep so that by tonight I'll be able to get back on track. Yosh! I'm not taking any chances this time, because there isn't anything worse then lying in bed and not being able to get to sleep.

It seems that there's a part of my psyche that has decided, at some point that “can't sleep” = “guilty conscience”, so that after about an hour or so of lying there, it decides that I've done something horrible in the recent past, something so horrible that I've blocked it out completely, and it starts shifting boxes about (metaphorically speaking) trying to find the (metaphorical) dead rat in in the basement (attic?). It unpacks minor incidents in which I was at fault and shows me why they are far more monumental then previously supposed. It brings to light times when I had believed myself wronged, and patiently explains how I deserved each and every one. Mainly it finds things I should have done but missed the chance to, FOREVER. Perhaps this was not the year to give up desserts for Lent....