Podworld News

So a bit over two years ago, I moved into the Mill. Lara Croft opened the same weekend. I'm moving this weekend. The second Lara Croft movie opens then. Hmmn. Weird how these things happen...

Well, the truly good is that the new place is indeed coming along nicely. Yeah, there are imperfections, and yeah, there are areas that I could maybe fix, but overall, it's looking really, really good. Last weekend my uncle showed up with powertools and stuff and put in a new floor. It was really impressive to watch. And I do mean watch. I mean, I tried to help, but there was very little for me to do. He's just good at what he does. So there's some finishing touches left to be done, but it looks absolutely fantabulous! (though I do need to wash it, so it'll look even more fantabulous shortly) He was right though, littlefrogling and I would never have been able to do this on our own, even if we'd rented power tools. We would've gotten to the exceptionally complicated multi-angles door area and stopped, cried, then committed ritual suicide. Okay, *maybe* that's an exaggeration, but seriously, my uncle worked his ass off putting this floor in, and all credit goes to him.

The painting is mostly done, and the colors work pretty well together. I still have some minor doubts about the brightness of the kitchen, but, well, for anyone who saw it before it was destroyed by me, you know how it was kind of dim in the apartment? Not so anymore. You might need sunglasses to look in the kitchen, actually. Even in the partially completed stage everything looks good. I still haven't worked out the furniture arrangement, but all in good time.

So this weekend... painting & putting in the quarter rounds around the floor. Packing. Moving kitchen stuff, probably. And there are more worker bees being tapped for their usefulness. Yeah baby! I love my friends, I really do. And not just because they're beautiful. If I get enough done, maybe I'll even be able to catch a movie. Yeah!!!

The buildings that I work in are respectively, 16 and 66 floors high. There are a lot of elevators, and I've used them all. I get the "going up/down?" question a lot. And yet, I get an odd urge to laugh whenever someone says "going down?" to me (especially when they're attractive business attired guys, as just happened). I think it was the video for 'love in an elevator' by aerosmith that did this to me...

So for about a year and a half I've had some sort of weird skin condition, where my skin is more sensitive and often gets welts or hives. I kept intending to go to a doctor, but didn't quite get around to it. So then I'd come across a pamphlet in the doctor's office at my work describing the very thing that it seemed I had. Dermatographia! (is this literally translated as "skin-writing"? I think it is.) Anyway, astrophysicat and I both read it and decided it was definitely that. And given that there is no real solution, I ignored it and just took benadryl if it really annoyed me.

So then recently, in a fit of being more responsible about my health and well-being I scheduled all kinds of stuff, appointments left and right. Dentist, physical, dermatologist, root canal. Get it all done. (oops, forgot to schedule something else. My bad, I'll do it soon) So I went yesterday to the dermatologist. Walked in, described it, she wrote something on me with a capped pen, waiting a few seconds, then said, "You have dermatographia. It's pretty rare. Only 5% of people have that. Here, this drug will work better than benadryl." And so lo, we were right in our self-diagnosis. Woo!

But so then I thought about it. I'm one of 5% of people who have this. I'm also AB-, which apparently is less than 1% of the population. Am I a statistical freak of nature? I think I might be.

I called my parents later (to talk about new housing stuff, not this) and the freak of nature thing came up. My aunt gets on the phone and tells me that there are several odd statistically improbable things that run in our family too (that, oddly, doesn't include dermatographia, go figure). Family of freaks, I'm telling you. Heh.

So... so yeah. Not even sure where to start. This weekend was barely organized chaos. Actually, that's not true. It *was* organized. It's just that there are only so many hours in the day and so much energy to go around. I'm so tired!!!

Yeah... so teapot_farm visited, and it was truly fantabulous to have her here. I kind of wish I'd planned better so I could've hung out with her more, but timing, as they say, is everything, and mine has suuuuucked lately. But I did get to share several meals with her. And no one died after eating my cooking, so all in all it was good. Heh. So she leaves today, back to the UK. Eventually I'll get back there, oh yeah. I forced her to get up unspeakably early today and accompany me into the city, where she is now wandering around. It was fun seeing her again, it'd been way too long. And she was happy to see me too, even after I cruelly left her to fate at Newark Airport for an hour (um, wrong terminal, doh!) and was disoriented by the fact that I wasn't wearing jeans and have much, much shorter hair now (which I kind of neglected to mention).

astrophysicat has abandoned me in search of a career and future happiness, taking most, if not all, of her possessions with her. Since I was busy, I haven't had to resort to talking to my stuffed animals yet. It'll happen soon enough though, I'm sure. I talk too much anyway... which I'm sure she'd agree with. She also left a cd in the stereo that I know she'll be missing. Ah well, I'll get it to her. It's funny how it looks like you have way more stuff when it's packed in a truck. I wasn't as useful to her as I'd've liked to be because I had to go off and do stuff in my new place, but then again, I probably would've just gotten in the way. I'm like that. It's unfortunate, but there it is.

So. There were other people over (and I'm not going to name them all). And there were people elsewhere. Lots of them. And fireworks!!! And many shared meals. The breaking of bread is important. It's symbolic of the giving of life. So sharing it among friends is a good thing. Oh, and then there were workerbees, my loyal minions. This weekend was the first that I could work on the new place. Honestly, by the time we went to see T3 on Saturday night, I felt pretty dismal about the whole thing (and not just because I came down with a lovely cold either). I mean, will this place be habitable? I do have to move in eventually, really. We (being me, littlefrogling & sidruid) ripped out the rugs, hit some snags as to how to dispose of it (which has now been resolved) and that took quite a bit of time, and then at some point yesterday we started painting. It looks good so far now though! Though I'm now thinking that maybe the ceiling really does need paint, and ohmigawd this is such a pain, but everything has to be done by this weekend or the floor can't go in, and oh, the subfloor is definitely some sort of cement, which is a pain.

Anyway, I'm swamped at work. Got to run. More painting tonight. Life is so hectic!!!

So back in the interviewing meme, dangerdean asked me things to which I will now provide answers...

1. What qualities do you want in a crazymonkeyloveslave?

This is actually a pretty tough question. Because I'm actually thinking that I want more than that now. Or perhaps I just want crazymonkeylove as opposed to an actual loveslave. But there are lots of important things. There has to be an emotional connection for me. There has to be similar senses of humor. They have to make me laugh, but in a good way. They have to be somewhat empathic (and I don't mean all supernatural-like, I mean, they have to pay attention and react accordingly). They have to prioritize me somewhat. I don't need to be # 1 or 2 or 3 priority in my loveslave's life, but I should be somewhere up there. I'm sure there's other stuff too. But for now, this'll do.

2. So. Neil Finn, huh?

Yessssss. Neil Finn. It's not like I worship the guy or anything. Or not exactly, anyway. It's just that to me, he is the quintessential singer-songwriter. His songs speak to me in a way that nothing else does really. On occassion another song by someone else will, but his music does it pretty much regularly, which is amazing, in my opinion. I don't get tired of listening to him. And there is a huge amount of material to listen to. And in concert... oh. my. god. it was so great!!! So yeah, I'm a fangirl. Hee.

3. I know you aren't originally from there, but in which ways are you, and in which ways are you not, a Jersey girl?

My pace of life is very fast-fast Jersey like, I think. I mean, the Northeast as a whole is pretty fast paced sometimes, but really, Jersey is up there. I'm used to having things open all the time, being really close to whatever I need when I want it. However, I think growing up elsewhere definitely makes how I see things non Jersey girl-like. For instance, I don't think twice about driving 45 minutes to get somewhere I want to go or to visit someone. And this is often not the case with native New Jerseyans. Oh, and I don't have poofy hair, but most Jersey girls don't now anyway. But really, I'm just not as "hip" as pretty much all Jersey girls. I don't know if that really answered anything, oh well.

4. I can think of a Vancouver answer for this, but what are "screaming subway weasels?"

Ah. Well, you see, when you go into the subway, sometimes there's this really high pitched noise. Sometimes it's high pitched enough so that everyone just kind of winces, and other times it's like, supersonic and only dogs and like, people with odd hearing hear it. And both noises are the screaming subway weasels. You hear them well before they attack. That's why some subway stations have no homeless people sleeping in them, they hear the weasels and run. And obviously the weasels have specific haunts, so you always hear them near, say, Chambers St.

5. What feeds your soul?

Music, and color, but mostly music. I'm an addict, I admit. But I've felt such amazing highs and lows listening to music. There are other things... kayaking restores a sense of balance. But listening to music, that's where it's at. I think part of it is that when I was really young I almost went deaf, and knowing that, knowing that I could've lost that, it gives it more weight in my life. And lyrics are poetry that can speak to the soul. So it's life-giving. And then there's that whole "music is the vibration of the universe" thing that I used to go on about. But it's just the truth, music feeds my soul. It is everything.

At the new place I'm moving to, getting the floor replaced has started to become a huge frustrating process. I'm stubborn enough that it's still going to happen, and in a timely fashion, but yeah. Big frustrating thing. However, so far, everything else with acquiring the condo has been going well. Next Tuesday is the day.

Work has been... stressful. It's been worse than this, but it's been better too. I'm hopeful that it will eventually settle down. Though honestly, part of the stress now is entwined with vacation plans, both mine and other people at work, making sure everything runs smoothly and all.

Home has been quiet, what with me being ill last week and astrophysicat being gone. It's a little bit taken apart at the moment, as I get ready to go camping in Cape Cod and the camping equipment is strewn across the living room, plus empty boxes for moving. So if you don't hear from me, that's where I'll be (camping, not moving, just to clarify)... :)

Next week, on the other hand is not going to be quiet at all. It's kind of like the calm before the storm. astrophysicat returns. She packs her worldly belongings. Eventually, she moves, leaving me alone in the Mill with only my stuffed animals to talk to. Plus, we have mad amounts of houseguests. I close on my condo. I enlist the help of others to rip up carpet and paint said condo (and if anyone else wants to do that, you just let me know). Terminator 3 opens (breaktime!!!). All in all, a scary week looms...

No, not my amazon one, though that has some pretty funny stuff on it. My b-day is many moons from now. But all I really want is a t-shirt from www.zorb.com Take note of that. If you buy it for me you will be my favorite person for at least a week, possibly more.

(This message also serves to get more people to go to the Zorb website, which also makes me happy. One day I will go Zorbing and my life will be complete. Thank you)

At this one hibachi place they served Alien Secretions! They didn't call it that, but it was the same exact ingredients! It was all very exciting... that neon green color! That sweet taste! And my, how well it goes with hibachi! Even the parents were impressed.

Interviewing... 'cause, like, why not. Anyway, the most fantabulous otterzero has asked me some thought provoking questions, read on if you feel so inclined...( Read me )