Eru's Journal

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Funnel clouds.
Right outside my apartment.

Woo. Lawks.

I'd better get out the red shoes; I might need 'em. Of course, Piper will make a lousy Toto... He could always EAT the Witch of the West.
And mew sadly at her when she didn't deliver herself immediately unto his food bowl.

Current Mood: slightly concerned re: weather

Clean passport.
This week has been so busy it doesn't seem real.

I've got a hell of a lot of pictures to unload from the camera, plus some batteries to replace.

Was in a fashion show this week!

Wish I had not already volunteered to test computer program regression on April 25th; there will be a Cary funday that Saturday with the NCRF. Sadness. Still, work is important and I'm glad I have a job that pays the bills.

I want to get out and meet some people! See a movie and talk about it afterwards over food. Will likely end up staying home and cleaning things so that my sanity will be assuaged for the rest of next week.

Current Mood: chipper

What a beautiful day.
Easter is an excellent time for new beginnings, so I've been changing around the bedframes today.

Backstory: I bought a gorgeous brass four-poster bed off of craigslist in November, but I haven't yet purchased a full-size mattress to go in it for many reasons: A) No way that's fitting on my itty bitty car, B) Eeek expensive unless there's a really good sale at a place that also offers delivery, and C) I was in such a hurry to enjoy my bedframe that I built it up around the twin bed that I've had for a zillion years and the twin mattress was trapped where the full-size ought to go.

So today I moved the mattress and box spring over, pulled the bed lifts from the twin frame and transferred them to the four-poster frame (That was an interesting experience, by the way. I felt pretty damn macho afterwards, especially since I was performing all of this manual labor in a pretty little cotton sundress with scalloped embroidery across the top.), tightened all the screws, and carted the twin bed frame into my handy-dandy walk-in closet, where the frame is now acting as a supplementary hanging rack. HaHA! Everything can be used, even if it's in storage.

The original plan was to move the whole twin bed into the second bedroom of my apartment and set it up as an art/guest room permanently instead of just an art room with a queen size air mattress when necessary (I LOVE GUESTS, BY THE WAY. Take note, friendslist!). I might still fall back on that idea, but with my current interest in sewing, there's an ironing board and a clothes rack taking up the space where the twin bed would go. Plus, a bed in there would just be bulky with the current arrangement of art supplies/cloth pieces. More shelves would be a boon, so that's a thought for the future.

In any case, the twin mattress and box-spring themselves will be stored underneath my lovely tall bed on the bed lifts. Haven't bought the full-size mattress yet, but there's a sale I've been eyeing...

Yes, the battle to create a non-college-dorm apartment continues.

Current Mood: chipper

Pollen. Even I am affected.
Icon says it all, really.

My cat is the cuddliest little fluffbucket in the world, and if that description disgusts you with its nauseating feeling of "Oo's a good boy den?" then you haven't met my little fluffbucket. You also haven't experienced the joys of Fluffbucket's 4am requests for food, some including claws. Must clip them soon.

Molested the bird with a new toy today (and by "molested" I mean, "hooked the colorful wooden balls and bell in an unused corner"), and he has predictably chosen to roost in the section of cage that is farthest away from said toy. Fortunately he's hanging out near the food so he has something to do while he shuns the interloper.

Both of my babies are going to get fat. Or they would if I didn't cautiously portion out the healthiest food I can find for them.

I have no idea what I'm going to do this weekend. One thought would be to get my camera back; the State Senior fashion show is next week and I want pictures. However, my camera might be in Wilmington. Hm.

Have decided that I'd rather have a posse of sassy and loyal friends than a typical "dating relationship" any day. Call me immature, but I'm way more comfortable with guy and girl friends laughing out as a group than a 1-on-1 meeting over coffee with that "date" tension coursing through the air. Ugh. For one, I don't like coffee. For two... Dating doesn't interest me right now. It never really has, save as something that other people do. I take it too seriously, or else take it too lightly when the other guy is serious.

And although my mother deserves grandchildren like burning, I'm not currently inclined in that direction seeing as I still deserve some playtime to myself after being so serious for so long.

Been so tired.
Faire was lovely and wonderful, but it's over now and back to productive real life. I've been exhausted with the changeover, yet somehow manage to stay awake until 12:30ish... Only to rise (or stagger towards the alarm clock and grumble) at 6:30am. Feet hurt, haven't had the energy to fully unpack my car, got bruises from carrying the bigass basket around everywhere as well as the large multicolored one on my wrist from an archery snafu, and I CAN BARELY WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR. :DDDD

As it is, mental preparations for Fairy Fest are helping me get through my day. Whee, what shall I be, and can I make it with stuff I already have?

I've also made the mistake of falling back on caffeine as a crutch to keep me going during the workday. Not a good idea, as it kept me up last night and will probably keep me up tonight, too. Note to self: get prepared to sleep now and drink some warm milk.

Love, love, love to all the Rennies who made this year a resounding success. Huzzah!

Also,

bwinter gave me highly attractive Wien actors excitedly performing the Time Warp on DVD. It's utter magic.

Two of my Rennmates intend to eventually play Elizabeth Bathory and her husband, and as such, are on the beginner's path to learning Hungarian. I immediately gave them video links to Vampirok Balja and dared them to sing the finale song at Faire.

They were VERY pleased with the prospect. :D

Current Mood: calm

The Cat in the Lap.
Is worth two in the bushes. Or something else clever and logical.

Tanz arrived yesterday! Along with two other delicious, delectable bits of German-ness! It was like a clown car: the DVD's kept coming out of the international protective sleeve. My goodness,

bwinter! Also, putting Tanz der Vampire in the red disk sleeve... Appropriate and appreciated.

Even the stamps are lovely; what's the name of the pictured tower? Is it a church spire? I'm guessing that the turreted building with the green roof once served as a palace or similarly suited civic building.

Aside from work annoyances, today has been a pretty darn pleasant day. The maintenance men fixed my cold water tap yesterday (taking a shower with only hot water is an adventure, I tell you), and hopefully the weather will dry out enough this weekend so that they can see to the leaky roof and touch up the water stain in my bedroom.
Bought two specialty kites for Faire tomorrow. Hopefully the breeze will be strong enough to get them off the ground and send them soaring up high where they can flap meaningfully at each other.
Also have two pieces of Armstrong-looking tartan flannel to wear tomorrow. INVINCTUS MANEO.

Also took part in a fitting for the State student's Spring Collection. I get to wear a sundress this time, and we're walking over a pond!

Bit of Random: I teased my hair last night and put it up into a Gay Nineties/Gibson Girl bouffant (Whims are fun if you have enough hairspray.). As expected, my strong-jawed face looks much better with a pouf of hair to balance it. A giant pouf.

Faire.
Today I saw a fully armored war ferret poo in the grass.

This was only 15 minutes after opening.

Then the fairies made a giant kite out of a blanket and two sticks, and what with the weather and all, nearly blew away thanks to said kite.

Renfaire is awesome.

Next week I'm going to shove an arrow in my bodice and pretend to be dead on a hilly tussock.

Current Mood: elated!

Okay, LJ.
You are doing strange and random things in a definitely NONCUTE way. Stop it.

The sister and the mother will be arriving in Raleigh for one or more weekends of Faire, but I do not know which. Dad's birthday is on the 27th, must remember to call him before drowning in the pre-Faire hooplah. Am tempted to go camping with everyone else since call is at 8:00am, it's a 40-minute drive from the site to home, and I've always been one for Camping Happy Fun Time, especially when the campsite has bathroom facilities with hot water showers and people will have laptops I can play Elisabeth on.

Yes. I will spread the sickness to everyone I can touch. :)

If the weather turns out to be as English and wet as the forecast threatens, we likely won't have many patrons on the first day and will spend most of it ENTERTAINING OURSELVES.

This mostly consists of an endless stream of Monty Python and Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy jokes with a healthy helping of Princess Bride, Star Wars, and whatever the hell else thrown in. I ought to make a piecemeal leather book cover to hide my Terry Pratchett novels in- there is a nearly 18-year-old girl on cast who has read Twilight but /not/ Pratchett, and she's far too intelligent for such a fate. I'm bringing Maskerade and Wyrd Sisters; that should do the trick.

Every piece of bread in this house has to be kept in the cabinets so Piper can't get at it. I love him to pieces and he's very intelligent where discovering food is concerned, but once he finds it, he only gnaws about 1/3 of the bread away and slobbers all over the rest. Then when I come home and discover his forgotten meal dragged across the floor in plain sight, he cries and yips like he's starving.

My little purrbutt is full of lies.

We drink your blood and then we eat your soul!
Weekend was spent being busy!

In between Renaissance Happy Fun time, I took the cat to the vet for a follow-up check up- he's received a clean bill of health, by the way- finished up a few little bits of the Faire garb before the St. Patrick's Day parade (and then walked in it, right behind the Tae Kwon Do kids and the multitudes of Irish dancing groups!), and spent most of Sunday up at the site, scampering around and rolling in the sandpits. Ate out a lot with everybody, too, got to know my fellow actors better. Talked to Mom finally last night, whee!

FAIRE IS THIS WEEKEND YOU GUYS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Today after work (We are STILL in a backlog.) I fetched pretty pictures and paid my taxes.

The finale to Tanz der Vampire fairly bursts with exuberance; it desperately needs to become a staple at parties, especially costume parties. :D How awesome would it be to have wildly differing groups of costumed people (from biker gangs to Marie Antoinette ladies to 50's preppies to Greek gods to Sailor Scouts) slap on fangs at midnight and showcase their own clique-y dances in turn?

Must not forget to bring garb to Sewing class tomorrow.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Tanz der Vampire!

This is the most time I've spent on LiveJournal in the past 18 months.
And Piper promptly puts his furry butt in my face and tries to bite my hands as I type. Thank you, honey.

Remind me not to chortle with a slight taste of revenge when it's time to take you to the vet tomorrow for your follow-up at 8:30am. Sadly, for me that is sleeping late.

Tomorrow is the parade! Woo!

Skirt v2.0 is still slightly undone, but I can just tie it on with a bit of string. Now for a more important question: food?

Current Mood: calm

Why do you people have to present amusing things at 12:05am?
I'm supposed to be awake and moving in less than 6 hours, which means that in-between now and then should be a period of dulcet unconsciousness, by which my body will regenerate its depleted power sources and thus be ready for more overtime tomorrow.

Truly, this idea I had to work from 7:30am to 7:00pm is good only to a certain point. I might be too pooped to party after the parade on Saturday.

Today I got out of work just as the rains came, and beside me, ready to turn left at the same intersection where I always turn left, was a truck dragging a--I kid you not--giant spool behind it. He took the turn too wide and nearly whacked me with his giant spool. D: Then somehow he got in front of me in the vaporous rain and took the same off-ramp towards the Interstate, slowing down towards the highway instead of speeding up.

Odd.

Nonetheless, getting out of this backlog is really important to me, and not just because having 3 times the normal workload hanging over one's head is unnerving: since we authorize/deny health information, getting the job done impacts other people's lives. And since the particular contract is Medicaid oriented... I see no point in making people with few other options for help wait to find out if their services are authorized or not just because the person completing the phone calls only works for 8 hours. Whether auth'd or not, at least they will know. (If denied, they can start getting ready for an appeal a little earlier.)

The most frustrating thing is when the provider has no operable voice mail and it's impossible to find an appropriate person to take a message. If the low-rung data entry personnel can't reach you, what about your clients? It's a difficult situation all around.

But particularly my thoughts rest with the family and friends of a lovely actress who has taken the next, mysterious step in human existence. I wish them comfort.

Current Mood: sleepy

What to do...
Just got back from German class.

I SHOULD really a) eat something and prepare for bed because work is in a ginormous backlog of horror and ick and they need us to work overtime to get rid of it all, b) finish sewing that second skirt I made so that it's ready to wear for the parade this Saturday, c) do crafty things with feathers and arrow bolts because darn it, I need props too, d) do some basic cleaning before 10:00pm and then partake of Choice A.

What I'm probably going to do?

Look up the YouTube vid my German classmate told me about featuring Mate Kamaras in Tanz der Vampire playing the gay vampire son.

So predictable.

Edit: AND I'VE FOUND IT OH GOD.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: TRUE LOVE I SWEAR

Slowly getting better about this posting thing...
Subjected carpool buddy to German musical today. He liked it. :D

It's also extremely possible that he got the new job in Ohio that he wanted, so possibly no more carpool buddy for me. Sadness. It's nice to have someone to chat with when en route to work, particularly if they share the same interest in zombies and Star Wars that you do.

It confounds me how my feet can hurt after a day of sitting down at a desk, yet somehow they manage to do so. Perhaps I ought to take up walking so that they don't forget what it's like to bear my scanty weight- OH YES, I'll be walking a LOT during the next three weekends:

Saturday M. 21st- St. Patrick's Day Parade (late because of weather)
Sunday M. 22nd- Rehearsal at Faire site
Saturday M. 28th- FAIRE
Sunday M. 29th- FAIRE
Saturday A. 4th- FAIRE, Tartan Day! Come be Scottish. :D
Sunday A. 5th- FAIRE, Last Day!

Which reminds me, I have 2 comp tickets, and they're going to the highest bidder. Art, fanfic, and certain kinds of sexual favors will be accepted. :)

I'm told the Tortuga Twins (which set, I don't know) and Zilch the Torysteller will be there; volunteers also have the opportunity to buy tickets at a discount (Hello, family members!). These tickets are waaaaay cheaper than Charlotte's, too, so if people without inside connections want to come, please do!

It will give something for our town fool to do. You can't miss him- he's the big dude with all the bells.

Le site: http://www.ncrenfaire.com/index.html

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: computer operating noise

The German, it has taken over my brain.
I've spent most of this weekend listening to the soundtrack of a musical sung in a language that I barely comprehend, being only up to chapter 17 in the beginner's book, and I am loving it. It's hard to sing along, but one can try!

It also occurred to me that in the 3-CD disk changer I now have: the 2001 Essen recording of Elisabeth, the Romeo+Juliet soundtrack, and the second CD of the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. I sense a common theme. Perhaps multiple common themes. This grouping was not intentional.

"Shall I believe that insubstantial Death is amorous and keeps thee here in dark to be his paramour?"

Yes, that would be so.

In other news, yesterday was supposed to be the Raleigh St. Patrick's Day parade, however it was delayed until this coming Saturday (March 21st) due to the fine English weather we've been having (Soggy and chill). If anyone in the Triangle area wishes to experience a FREE exhibition of North Carolina Renaissance Faire costumes before the fair itself, head down to downtown Raleigh this weekend!
I'm told we'll end in in Tir Na Nog, our Irish pub sponsor, and we'll all be in character and brougue-ing up a storm. I'll be hanging out with the Irish princess and the bagpiper if anyone wants to find me. :)

Piper is recovering nicely from his dental experience; the grey puffball is conked out on my lap currently, as comfortable and warm as could be... And I will have to move him in a little while so I can make it to NCRF practice. There will be fur all over my skirt when I do.

Time to go!

Current Mood: working
Current Music: "Young Hearts Run Free"

But none did like Elizabeth!
One of the ladies from my German class let me borrow the Essen cast recording and the 2005 Vienna revival DVD of Elizabeth, something that

bwinter wrote eloquently and excitedly about in addition to Tanz Der Vampire, thus piquing my curiosity to the point where I didn't forget the titles and thus knew what my classmate was talking about-- Enough to say, "Hey, I'd like to see that..." And for her to say, "Do you want the DVD or the CD? Or both? :D"

THANK YOU SO MUCH,

bwinter.

If at all possible, I will find Tanz Der Vampire next!

And one day... Oh, one day... To see the productions in person would be even more powerful than the DVD.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: "The Last Dance"

Ich spreche Deutch.
Well, it looks like those German classes are going to come in handy in a way I'd never previously contemplated; the old sewing machine that Mom gave me (and which has been carted around ever since college) is a Pfaff Hobby 342. A German company!

Most of the English sites I've seen have moved on to 1140 and up, but there's still plenty of German forums discussing the 342, as it's apparently a hardy little machine that can still work well as long as it's kept up and German families won't replace what isn't kaput.

Much like my family, actually... Every time I open a "Green Behavior" book and look at the things I can change about my lifestyle/spending habits, it's an experience of, "But we already do that!" Buy in bulk, grow your own food, reuse old rags as washcloths instead of paper towels (Mom still has some of our old cloth diapers for scrub rags), pass on clothes to younger family members or donate them to Goodwill, etc. Thus why the old Pfaff Hobby 342 is now sitting in my living room instead of in a landfill somewhere. Why waste what works? I think even Mom's current sewing machine is circa late 1980's, and she just took it to have it cleaned a few weeks ago.

This sewing-centered post brought to you by the North Carolina Renaissance Fair. This SUNDAY is our dress rehearsal, and NEXT SATURDAY is the Raleigh St. Patrick's Day parade, which is free to the public and we will be walking in it, so all the various bits and pieces of the costume had better be ready.

Yesterday, my cat Piper had periodontal surgery. Six of his rear teeth went bye-bye, tidy little sutures bracing the wounds closed. He is now sacked out on my lap like a furry water bottle lump. This does not surprise me as he was scampering all over the place last night in search of food.

I did mention that he'd had mouth surgery yesterday, yes?

I love my big dumb cat.

Current Mood: happy

Kitty love.
This morning, I woke up in a cloud of comforter with a purring silky weight pinioning my legs in place. Perhaps this could be like every morning, but today his little ears flicked at my foot.

He has not woken up.

I wonder if I did the right thing in putting the thyme, lemon balm, and chives all in the same pot (Lemon balm has an aggressive tendency, but the chives and thyme currently outnumber it.). It's taken them about a week to adjust, and certain sections of the thyme don't look as green as they could.

I just checked the lettuce (I finally, finally found a mesclun mix- at Big Lots, no less!), and those shoots are coming up well. Common knowledge would have me plant another round in about three weeks to ensure a steady harvest; I hope I gave the plants enough space, otherwise I'll be transplanting them to the pot where I jokingly buried the potato... Which has sent up a number of leafy shoots itself.

No news on the lavender yet. I'm looking forward to spring, however; maybe this year there will be flowers beyond the lovely white blooms the basil has put out.

Current Mood: relaxed

"I think that midget stripper gave me herpes."
...Best outtake line ever.

Life has been busy in the Eru domicile with incidents of a medical nature. Not only have I the breadwinner been to three different doctors in as many weeks, but Piper the cat will be going in to the vet for periodontal surgery this Friday after the results of today's yearly checkup. Surgery on my baby, oh dear.

Add to that a heinous backlog of cases at work (thus requests for overtime), a new database system chock full of bugs, PLUS a new boss, and I've occasionally been so tired by the time I get home that I want to curl up and cry. Which is stupidly depressing.

The sewing classes and NCRF practices, on the other hand, are wonderful beyond words. It's so refreshing to spend time with people who are bubbly and happy, eager to continue with the task of building characters and keeping all the fun within a family-friendly historical context.

Somehow it happened that my character, Margaret Fawkes, has developed into a hapless do-gooder.

( Read more... )

Current Music: Piper wheeze.

The icons need some serious cleaning.
Maybe I should start an icon cage fight?

But anyway, I started off the Year of the Ox on Sunday (the day before the New Year change) by giving my apartment a thorough cleaning, or at least as much of one as I could given various and sundry delays due to car battery, NCRF practice, etc. Sweeping, cleaning out old papers, vacuuming, doing laundry, moving the painted chairs to where they need to be (i.e., kitchen.).

Then I ordered Chinese food because you're supposed to have a surplus later (the actual meal would have been fish for the homophone-play with "surplus", but I got shrimp and chicken as a compromise-- dragon and phoenix!), and I've pretty much been subsisting on that all week. I also wore new shoes on New Year's Day to symbolize a fresh start.

Today a coworker gave me a bunch of oranges, which is incidentally another traditional Chinese New Year food, as SHE had a surplus of those at her home. I love oranges. The New Year's mojo must be working. Anybody in my area want some oranges?

I still have a lot of cleaning to do before this place will look tidy enough for guests, but it's much further along than it was before. I want to recycle and re-use as many items as possible to make the atmosphere cute. Recently I've gotten into the habit of saving the "warm-up" water from my shower in the mornings to refill the toilet tank after flushing. It's not as cumbersome a task as I'd thought it'd be, plus I'd had no idea that I'd been wasting that much water before. The only lights I use have been replaced by CFLs and/or LED Christmas lights, and it's really made a difference in the energy this place consumes. Wearing a sweater when I get home also helps.

Oh Piper. I love this cat. He considers my lap to be his personal pillow, yet when my male cousins came visiting this past weekend, he streaked so fast for the back rooms that he whacked my ankle with his head loud enough to make a "CLONK."

He didn't stop.

I'm also re-reading the manga Skip Beat. I started on it at the end of 2007, and the manga-ka's still going strong in Japan, which makes me thrilled. The main character. Is. Hardcore. Plus, unlike some other "Fame! Stardom! Entertainment industry!" shoujo mangas I've picked up, this one actually explores how difficult it can be to discover a character, improvise under pressure, and get your name out there. Kyoko starts out at the absolute bottom, trying like hell just to live and survive, much less serve vengeance upon the rock star/idol who wronged her by becoming even more famous than he is (<--Reason for entering the entertainment world.).

You really can't help but root for Kyoko, even when she's being terrifying with her vengeance ghosts (They STALK people.). Actually, I root for her even harder when she's pissed. XD She's so determined! The parts where she's dressed up as Bo the Chicken are also fabulous, because... You know at her heart that she is a goofy, sweet, caring girl, and her lowly job in a chicken-suit on a variety show puts that into focus even more than the occasional teary-eyed bobble-head drawing does. Not afraid to get down and dirty and anonymous before earning her way to the top. Also: A CHICKEN!

I also love that she's so focused upon her goal ("SHOUTARO. MUST KILL.") that she completely forgets to swoon over the admirable hotties who turn up (Yes, there are hotties. It's a shoujo manga. It's the Law.). Even better, they don't swoon over her, as they are focused upon doing their own jobs. In short, this is a solid character-driven manga and well worth the read.

Find it somewhere and enjoy.

Current Mood: mellow

I've always relied on the kindness of strangers...
Or, in this case, family and carpool buddy.

Oh car battery, at least you chose a less chilly night of a very chilly week to go kaput.

But seriously. The men in my life are awesome. Car pool buddy had /just/ arrived back home from being four hours away for work all week and was about to get himself some well-deserved dinner when I called him for help ("Please come take me home. It's cold!"), and my uncle and cousin drove down from their house in Youngsville (nearly an hour away) to take me back to my car, jump it and get it home, also removing the battery itself to take it to a mechanic in the morning.

But the women in my life? Fail at emergency contact. (Except for the sister. Sort of. She called me back about an hour and a half after I first called her.)

After the car wouldn't cut on, I called Mom first, but her answering machine message had morphed into this garbled static-y thing that freaked me out so much with the thought of "Oh shhii- Radioactive energy has taken OVER MY CAR AND NOW MY PHONE" that I grabbed my purse and other random Important Things and got the hell out, cold and gathering darkness be damned. I had gloves.

To be honest, I wasn't thinking very clearly, but if horrific radioactive bursts HAD heralded the zombie apocalypse, I had a suitably heavy steel candelabra in the trunk and would probably not have perished within twenty minutes. The forty-five plus where I hung around waiting... Maybe not so much. Still, I ran down the list of female relatives and acquaintances on my phone before trying Aunt Cathy (and thus reaching my heroic uncle) and no one picked up. I know Mom never checks her messages and the sister's heavy working hours ARE weekend evenings, but has our familial communication quotient gotten so low that one of us could be dead or dying without the others noticing or calling the police with "What's happened, she was supposed to call me at 7:30!"?

That's certainly an exaggeration-- however. If I did keel over and die on a regular Friday night, or else had some other kind of emergency where I couldn't reach the phone, I'm confident no one would discover the situation until car pool buddy turned up on Monday.

By then I'd be stinky. :(

I'm hoping to rectify this sad hermitage with revels at the Renaissance Fair; surely out of 50-odd people (Some QUITE odd. :D) there will be a few who live nearby and will want to do silly things not necessarily revolving around Fair itself once the happy weekends are done-- though tangential relations are always fun!

The Queen Elizabeth for this group is AMAZING.

Current Mood: chipper