I’m eating a fizzy lollipop.

That's not going too bad. It's been forever since I've eaten a lollipop at all. It might have been some more forever before I'd eaten another, but I think I was intrigued by the fizzy aspect. It's more tingly than anything... I'm not like, foaming at the mouth on the keyboard right now or anything (though that might be a bit more entertaining).

I caught my sweater on fire the other night trying to light some cone incense (THANK YOU very much, JANET). Luckily Shaun put me out. Then we both promptly cracked the fuck up. I mean - how does that even happen? I wasn't like trying to light it WITH my sweater or anything dumbass like that. I don't know. I just saw a flame travel up my arm and that's about when I started to be all, "WhatthefuckI'monfire!?!?" and then Shaun saved my life. So I guess I'm lucky. He stopped it at my shoulder. If it had gotten to my hair that could have really been bad. I hear that shit burns pretty good.

Anyway, to all of my friends waiting for me to get off my ass and reply to your messages:  I promise that I will soon. The last few weeks for me have consisted of going to work, sleeping, hanging out with my besties, sleeping, having the occasional [planned, for the record] fire, sleeping, watching movies, sleeping, playing games, sleeping, and living off pizza and cereal. Oh, and it is THE LIFE.

It feels so nice to just slow down and chill. There was a time last year when I was always running... being torn this way and that. Working 3 jobs, taking care of Shadow and the fur kids, driving wayyy too much, volunteering with the animal shelter EVERY WEEKEND... it was fucking ridiculous all that I was trying to do and eventually I got tired. A lot has changed for me in the last few months and I'm grateful for it. I feel like I'm finally settling in and calming down and finding my own rhythm - and it is good.

Well, I'm off to take a shower. Despite not sleeping much last night I had a wave of energy that I put to some good use cleaning and re-arranging (yet again) the pets' room. So, I'm quite funky and need to handle that ASAP. I just wanted to sit and wind down for a few and I figured I could stop being anti-internet-social and say hello. I hope '09 is turning out to be fabulous for y'all... but even if it's not, remember that every day is a new day. It doesn't have to be an entirely sucky year. ❤

Me and my psoriasis face.

Who Killed Amanda Palmer?

Sunday was the Amanda Palmer show in Atlanta. I went there with Shaun. He let me tag along. It was pretty great. First of all - I didn't drive and we didn't get lost. Those two things will make any trip AMAZING for me. (Not that driving and getting lost is always a bad thing, but sometimes it gets old).

We had some time to kill before the show and hung out in L5P for a while. We made a friend... this old guy just started talking to us and he was nice but he talked a lot so he didn't know that I liked tarantulas, too, (like him) but whatever. I know his name is Jeff with a "G" and that he wants us to move there to be closer to him and that he will choke you out if you piss him off. Also, he bought us lunch so HELLZ YES for free food.

Then we went to the place and there were people already out there so we stayed out there, too. For some hours in the cold. Luckily for me Shaun is like a heater and he let me stand next to him so that I didn't turn blue and die of cold. Also, we made bodies on the ground. See?? I'm the little one and Shaun looks like bigfoot. Heee.

Also, the really cute merch girl came out and wanted to hug me. I so let her. THEN this guy went and got his guitar and played some songs. He was pretty good, too. I sang along to one, QUIETLY, because no one should be subjected to that. For really realz. Also... because I am terribly shy. But whatever.

Anyway, we finally got to go in and warm up some and that was nice. The opening bands were good. I REALLY, SUPER like Vermillion Lies. The Builders and the Butchers were good, too. My pictures are kind of crappy so you get what you get. Here they are:

I'm short and this man kept leaning in front of me. This was ALMOST a damn good picture.

I think at this point in the show they were doing a cover of Rhianna's "Under my Umbrella" song which was so out of left field. I LOVED IT. They turned it up loud and it made me wiggle a little bit. Ha. I'm so extremely shy... I should really get over that. Btw... the people in the picture are from the Danger Ensemble... they go around and do stuff.

Also I just realized that I do not have a picture of the skinny guy with the violin up here... so you should probably just go get snoopy on Shaun's flickr if you want to see more. Anyway, the two girls that are not Amanda Palmer are the girls from Vermillion Lies... you can't see it from here, but the left one has a totally hot mustache on her face.

AND... I kind of met Amanda Palmer. A girl took this picture... I don't think I was ready. I'm never ready for pictures. 😂 But here it is anyway. She was totally on my boobs. OH YEAH.

Anyway it was fun. The show was awesome. I got the ink pen that fell out of one of the Danger Ensemble girl's mouths. Hey! Look at Shaun's blog. His has less words, more pictures. And videos!

October

 

hitting hard times :(

So I've done the unthinkable: re-homed a few of my pets. The last ferret I took in has gone to stay with my step-sister. He seems happier there. He lived alone before he came to me and I don't think living with Static and Stella was his cup of tea. So now he has free run of the house quite often and it seems to be working out for everyone. Honey and Milkshake now live with a dear friend. I just never got as attached to them as I did Hairy and Minuit. I think it was too soon... I was trying to help Minuit out by getting her a housemate, but then she died leaving the new rat alone so I ended up buying a newer rat to keep the new rat company. If I'd known Minuit was gonna die anyway I wouldn't have bought the first one to begin with. So that was just a thing I did that didn't work out as I'd hoped...

Anyway, I also sent my gliders to live elsewhere. There was some weirdness going on with them that I could just no longer deal with. A rat, a mouse, the last hermit crab, and the hamster have died. The last time I tried to post a memorial PhotoBucket was being a dick and I never came back to it. I guess I have some catching up to do.

I still have more of a houseful than I need, but I have a hard time parting ways with my kids. Speaking of fur kids something is wrong with Scooter and I hope, Hope, HOPE it works itself out SOON because I certainly do not have the money to take him to the vet. He's had diarrhea and been vomiting for like a week and I've done everything I know of to fix him. I haven't switched foods on him, I've given him dewormer (just in case), I've made sure there's nothing un-foody around that he could be getting into. I just don't know what else could be going on. I treated them all for fleas with CHEMICALS! - which I'm normally opposed to doing, but nothing else is working. The fleas are MONSTEROUS this year. 😟 I wonder if that could have jacked him up.

Speaking of diarrhea - Scooter's just been going where ever he goes. For the most part he's done pretty well considering that there's no one home to let him out mid-day anymore, but now that he's sick all bets are off. And he likes to do his business in the big room where the floor is concrete or cement or whatever. Which you know - is porous. It's like trying to mop up wet poo from a sidewalk or something - it just doesn't work. So my house smells like sickly shit right now and it pretty much grosses me out. I actually feel a little nauseated because of it. But I have not found a way to get it completely up - most of what I do seems to just... rub it in. Mayhaps that's something I can work on in a bit. Suggestions?

So it was brought to my attention...

that I haven't blogged in a while. That's pretty true. So here I am.

I've been stressed out lately which is just what I do sometimes - and WOW - has my skin shown it. It's like "Whoa, what happened to your FACE, man?" For serious. I've never been of the train of thought that looks were everything, but when I start looking like this it makes me want to hide under a rock. I look sickly. Like, with some chicken pox or measles or some shit. Boo. And just add to that my hair. Yep, I'm letting my hairs grow back and they are at that funny, awkward, "Haha, you can't do shit with me" stage. I either wear a hat or just have to let them stick out all over my head. It's great. Also, I'm graying, but I'm kind of excited about that.

Well, despite all of that crap I'm ok. I'm always ok. ... I'm just going to be ok.  Worst comes to worst I can get a roommate. I don't really want to as I'm enjoying having the house to myself, but I could if I really needed to. I sort of have other plans in the works for the almost clean and empty room I'm working on, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if someone else had to move into it. I guess it's good to have something to fall back on.

So I'm being a little strange lately... to myself, anyway. Maybe no one else would notice. But I ate a hamburger last night, quite intentionally. And a hot dog earlier in the week. And I haven't obsessively cut my nails every other day this week. I've been painting them daily to keep me from cutting them (which painting them is something I literally have not done in YEARS). And I shaved my legs, once, just because. And I'm growing my hairs. And I took out my giant earrings to shower, but I'm not putting them back right now. ... I think I'm just feeling somewhat experimental... like - just making sure I still know myself. Or what I like or not. Or maybe I'm bored. I really don't know. The best answer I have is that I feel like doing these things (damn the reason) and so I do them. It's kind of neat.

Aside from that people... well, mostly A people - has been introducing me to musics that rock my face off. I'm all over it. It's been a while since I've been so into music... most of what I was hearing was just not doing it for me at all. I'd become quite bored with music which is just fucking sad. Speaking of music... very soon (I hope) Shadow will start playing my drum set. He wants to, I want him to, I wanna do it with him... and it will be great fun if nothing else. I just have to get some stuff moved - which is what I was doing before I started blogging and probably what I'll be doing after I finish blogging, too. But yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

Speaking of looking forward to things... there are a few things happening that I'm all about. First of all - it's great weather for camping. I discovered this summer that I really like to do that so I want to do it some more. A LOT. Mayhaps I will just move to the woods for the fall. 😜 Also, there's a show coming up in November that I really want to go to. If I get to it will be my first show of the year. How pathetic, but oh well. From what I've seen this one will probably be awesome enough to make up for all the fun I've missed this year. Needless to say:  I'm excited.

All in all I'm struggling with a few things, but life feels right. Life feels good. Really good, even. I think you never know who your real friends are until you need them and I'm honestly shocked at how many people have just been there for me. I am SO not complaining and I can't really even claim to understand WHY some of the people who are here, are, but I'm grateful. It's the best thing ever. Severiously.

And so... I think that is all.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared...

So... I've put myself into a situation where I'm going to be doing the whole "single parent" thing again. It was quite intentional (and necessary), but nonetheless I'm a little scared. It's been a while since I've been completely on my own.

I remember when I first moved out by myself (well, with Shadow). I was like, "Whoa, how the fuck do people DO this??" But I did it and I was ok. Now, it's kind of like that - but different. Whereas before I had nothing - now I have a lot to lose if I don't get things right. Mostly what I'm referring to, I suppose, is my house. It's not the greatest thing ever, but it's home. Even if I do stay caught up on my bills I don't have much left over for repairs. And believe me - there are a lot of them stacking up.

In March I quit working 3 jobs. I probably shouldn't have done that, but I wasn't being treated very nicely and it was so hard to juggle it all. With school starting back soon and no babysitter on call three jobs wouldn't be an option for me right now if I wanted it to. I'm feeling pretty grateful for that, though, seeing as how time off is a lot more valuable to me when I have good friends to spend it with.

Also, I have two cars. Neither of them are running at the moment. Both of my parents are working to help me with them and I greatly appreciate it. I just wish I had something reliable to drive. I think I've been stranded, like, 5 times this month. It never lasts long, but it scares the shit out of me. It's not so great.

I've been thinking a lot about trying to get child support. I never tried to pursue that in all of Shadow's 8 years, but the more I think about it the more I want to. The main two things that have stopped me were: 1) I didn't want to be sued for joint custody or visitation or whatever, and 2) I knew Shadow's father wouldn't hold a job and would probably end up in jail. So, it's been pointed out to me that 1) He calls and I let him talk to Shadow regardless / he's a felon on house arrest anyway so it's not likely that he would be able to get custody, and 2) If he'd been in jail all this time he probably wouldn't have so many other kids running around right now. (Btw, I'm not shit-talking him - he's a really nice guy. Just in trouble a lot).

I'm still on the fence on this one. Maybe I'm too nice. Maybe I'm reaching a point in my life where I'm tired of being nice and getting walked on. For what it's worth, though, he's had plenty of time (8 years!) to get his shit together and "help us" like he's promised to do since Shadow was born and all he does is get into more trouble. I think I'm just really losing patience with this whole "one day" mentality that's floating around me.

So I'm preparing for things to be kind of tight around here. It breaks my heart to think of it, but I might have to re-home some of my pets. Probably definitely the ferrets because their food is so much more expensive than anyone else's. I'm not all that attached to my girl ratties (even though they're not much trouble) - after Hairy and Minuit passed it just hasn't been the same. I hate to admit it, but I've just not been able to get close to them. I've got a bunch of cages and stuff that I'll probably post up on Craigslist or something... if I don't get them out of my house I know I'll be tempted to fill them again. No harm in removing them and making a few bucks, right?

You know, I have a really awesome job and it's not like I'm broke as fuck... I think I'm just starting to freak out a little because I won't have anyone to fall back on. Just me to blame if shit doesn't go as planned. While I'm really looking forward to the near future - I'm nervous. I haven't been "on my own" in probably pushing 3 years. I guess it's time to buckle down and see if I'm still as resilient as I used to be. I sure as hell hope so.