After falling asleep shortly after reading the Presidentrix's hilarious zoo and bus driving entry, I had a really awesome/funny dream.
I was a tour guide at a new OTT attraction- a Victorian mansion/animal reserve. I was the safari guide that took people out to see the animals. Except the animals were really fun ones- like anteaters and sloths and capybaras and pandas and monkeys. And I took my group around and we got chased by a group of monkeys in jail stripes that were flinging poop at us. I called in on the radio and Dave (my boss) told me to try and give the monkeys a pickle to make them stop (pickle is code for resolve a guest service issue by offering them something nice- like a free jail tour or a ride somewhere). I tried telling him that the monkeys didn't want a pickle, but he insisted everything could be solved with a pickle.
So I ended up getting my group off the trolley and leading them through the jungle in an effort to lose the monkeys. Then my dream shifted and I was back at the main part of the animal reserve and i was setting up the capybara rides. I had to fashion a saddle and I was measuring the capybara and it was playing fetch with me. Then I led it into a ring and gave capybara rides to a bunch of toddlers. One of which dug his spurs into the capybara and rode off into the park. I had to jump on another capybara and give chase. It was like a cross between pogo stick and horse ride. Very bouncy, but somehow smooth. It was so much fun. And then I woke up. 
Here's a link to a capybara fansite that I found: http://www.rebsig.com/capybara/

I've spent the past month in a blur of heat and jail tours and more heat and driving trolleys and did I mention heat? I feel like I've been working incredibly hard and ought to have something to show for it, other than my ridiculous costume tan (much worse than a farmer's).
I have had a lot of fun with my tourists and had some rather embarrassing moments too. I've made friends with my coworkers and really settled in at OTT. I reached a point sometime last week where I was just suddenly done. I was giving a jail tour and I thought- I want to scream. Saying this script again is like nails on chalkboard. I can only handle so much repetition and I've hit my limit. Now I just have to figure out how to keep doing the darn tours until I can find something else. So that's my summer in a nutshell. Jail- Heat- Costumes- TV watching- More Jail.
Here are a few of my favorite new obsessions:
The Time Traveller's Wife- Unless they royally screw it up in the last chapter, this is my favorite book in recent months. I am really enjoying the love story and the characters. I will say that my main beef with this is that the writer uses really awful vocabulary when describing sex scenes. It makes it very harsh which is jarring in an otherwise great book.
True Blood- I really like this show, although I feel a bit guilty about it. It's so interesting. I definitely like the books better. I guess I feel guilty because I know my mom would disapprove. It's so violent and disturbing sometimes. But in between it's really funny and engaging.
The Big Bang Theory- One of the funniest shows and my biggest obsession of the summer. I've gone down the rabbit hole on this one and taken to reading fan fiction on sheldon_penny here on LJ. I completely love all the characters. i went to school with guys like these. I sort of am guys like these at times. And I LOVE the chemistry between Sheldon and Penny (although apparently most of that is in Season 2. My friend started watching season 1 and thought I was nuts). Nerds, Asparagus, Battlestar Galactica.... What more could you want?
Fatshionista- Emily told me to look at this group a while ago and I kept forgetting to. After a completely humilating shopping excursion where it took my mom and I 4 hours to find a pair of pants that actually fit me, I decided to look them up. It was frustrating to feel so huge. I am really enjoying seeing all the pictures of the outfits and getting ideas on where to shop and just seeing that there's so many women in the same boat as me and they look so beautiful. It's encouraging me to think about trying to renovate my look and to appreciate myself as I am instead of waiting around hoping that I'll look like I used to in college and then my life will turn around.
Design Star- I really enjoy seeing what creative things this group will come up with next. There are some really interesting designers on here this season. My two favorites are Antonio and Dan. Antonio is this tattooed, hairy Italian guy who is a scenic designer. I love seeing a theater person trying to deal with all these designer people. While Jason is fluttering his hands and going on about how he can't get his princess room done on time, Antonio has already built the set for the kid's room and is done with time to spare. Yay for the training of Hell Week.
My other favorite is Dan. I want to Huggle him every time I see him. He's so adorable and very creative and a really good team player.
500 Days of Summer-  I finally saw this this weekend and I love it. It's not at ALL what I thought it was going to be. It is definitely very funny in parts, but it's not a comedy. It's better to think of it as Garden State more than Little Miss Sunshine. Also, Summer is the girl, not the season. And it's not a love story. It's very well done and I really liked the way the story progressed. My expectations were completely off, but I really liked it. It's not a Garden State sort of afterglow where I feel like I learned something huge about life, but it is really good and thought provoking.
I have a double shift tomorrow and am super tired (have been working straight since thursday) I'll write more later,

Argh. I can't figure out how to post an image to The Presidentrix's page, so here it is. My really pathetic attempt at making a Birthday icon for her! And also the full scan of the page in case anyone else wants to try making things.

Ok. So I completely owe LJ a normal post. But the most horrible thing just happened. I walked downstairs to find my mom and dad (mom being generally opposed to all things sci fi) watching the Last episode of Battlestar Galactica!!!!!
THey have NEVER watched the show at all. And now they're completely and utterly ruining it. I was really hoping my dad would watch the show and get into it with me (or at least, watch the dvds). But I can't believe that they're watching the end without knowing the characters or all the subplots and storylines that are crucial to understanding it. I mean- WHO DOES THAT???? I swear, I really do think I was switched at birth sometimes. Except for how my brother and I are so much alike. Ugh. I was so upset, I ran back upstairs without getting the ice cream that had been my original intent for going down there to begin with. I mean it's like reading the last sentence in a book and making up your mind about it from that. Especially because the last episode was so painful and gutwrenching and how could you even begin to understand that when you don't know my people? ARGH. If they hassle me about watching the show after this, I'm not standing for it. ARGH. Just ARGH.

 I can't believe it's been 7 weeks since I posted. I'm probably going to over post now, but I've got catching up to do.
I've been working for a while now at Old Town Trolleys in St. Augustine. Which is where I worked straight out of college. I had to relearn my jail script and I learned how to drive trolleys and now I drive the ghost bus at night.
It was terrifying learning how to drive those trolleys. Three big cars attached to each other and the back one would always sway from side to side as you drove down the road. My trainer Savannah was a horrible trainer. She had four of us to train though, and she's from the be a bitch to manage school of thought . She would explain something once and expect you to do it and then snap at you if you had to ask clarifying questions. She also hovered over your shoulder and constantly asked you questions while you were driving. She stressed me out so much and the whole  process felt a LOT like math class. Ugh. I did however discover the secret to dealing with her (half a xanax before I went out on the road) and I passed my CDL and am doing fine driving now. And we've become friends now that we're not in the trainer/trainee situation.

Also I've been giving loads of tours through the old jail and have even dressed up as a prisoner a few times. It's so fun to have kids on my tours. I really get them involved. I got to take a group of 3-6 year olds through the jail last week. It was hilarious. All the other tour guides were scared of the little kids. I got them in there and told them the most bare bones stories that I could and then got them involved acting out going into the jail and making the food and whatever else I could think of. They were absolutely adorable and tiny and one of them even held my hand when she got scared. However- trying to explain the gallows to a bunch of toddlers? AWKWARD. I tried to brush over it, but they got really interested in it and one little guy wanted to know whether the blood spurted everywhere. After he asked that question, another little guy raised his hand and informed me he had a Transformer.  I love kids.

Also last week- had a double shift with 2 meetings in between which meant that I was going from 8 am to midnight with only a 40 minute break at 7:30. My big plan was to eat my second half of my footlong for dinner during my first meeting. Only I got so into the conversation (we're planning out the script for the ghost tour in the jail) that I didn't eat. So by the time I went to my second meeting, I was getting dizzy and cranky. Oh- and I had managed to sprain my ankle the day before, so I was hobbling around in awful pain and trying to get my foot up with ice whenever I could sit down.  I hobbled into meeting # 2 late cuz I stopped to get ice and someone got up and gave me their chair. But it was SO quiet in there and no one else was eating, that I couldn't unwrap my sandwich and eat it there. So I sit through the second meeting and I was really ready to chew my own arm off when the meeting FINALLY ended. Oh yeah- and I need to mention that both meetings had Ed and Dave in them (the general manager and director of operations). So I'm ready to bolt out the door and eat my sandwich when Savannah says- Elizabeth, I need you to stay after the meeting.
And before I can stop myself I wail, Loudly, "But I need my Fooooooooood!!!!". And Ed busted out laughing and told me that I wasn't allowed to ever eat and laughed evilly. I responded by shoving my sandwich down as fast as I could and then going over to Savannah. All in all, not my finest moment. But pretty hilarious all the same at the time.

On Friday I finished rereading The Importance of Being Earnest.
Today I was asked out on a date to "go get a cup of tea together" by a man named Ernest.

I am going to reread Pride and Prejudice Post-haste.

Aaaaaah..... I finally finished Jane Eyre. And it was FANTASTIC!!!! Oh, they took plenty of creative license, but I didn't mind. Well maybe a bit at the very end. Somehow Mr. Rochester and Jane making out in a field is not precisely how I imagined the end. But other then that- I loved how Toby Stephens made Mr. Rochester so loveable. I mean I've always felt compassion and the sort of urge to fix a broken man towards Rochester. But I always wondered whether he really was any good for Jane. I mean sure, she was good for him- but was it reciprocated? I really loved the way they had such a close  friendship and they had such amazing chemistry. I was fascinated and a little embarrassed at the way they talked. The scene where he was giving her her wages was so adorable. I actually felt a little sorry for Blanche Ingram. Incidentally- does that actress ever play anyone but a snobby rich lady that doesn't get the man? I really liked St. John (I had NO idea that his name was pronounced Sin-Jin. I've been reading that wrong for years. And it sounds so WEIRD) Anyway- the romance in the movie was so fantastic. Ruth Wilson did such a good job of portraying Jane as a woman who's had a crap life but is still an interesting, imaginative person who isn't too caught up in herself. I think sometimes Jane Eyre is portrayed as kind of whiny or so downtrodden as to have no personality left. I really liked the Jane Eyre that came out in the 90s though. I think William Hurt was Rochester? I remember seeing it in the theatres. But I think Toby Stephens may have spoiled all Rochesters just as surely as Colin Firth spoiled all Darcys.
Incidentally, I agree with The Presidentrix that Toby Stephens and Damien Lewis look alike. I think T.S. would make a great red head. I've been trying to think of a good period piece they could both be in. I'd love to see them playing brothers or close friends. I think they'd play well off of each other.
Anyway, enough mooning about. I must have more British Period Piece Dramas. They are such a perfect antidote to the can't find a sustainable job- have no clue (or too many ideas to pick one) what to do about my future- blues.
What other period pieces can I try? I've watched all the Austens of course. I saw Wives and Daughters, North and South, Bleak House, and Merlin. Any suggestions?
In other news, I will not be buying this painting from The Story People (I love this artist) Because I simply Do Not Believe it to be True. : )
Also, why haven't they made any Georgette Heyer books into movies?? She's a great writer, her books are exciting and funny and great period romance. I would love to see Frederica or Sprig Muslin or even Sylvester in film form.

So this was a bit harder to make than I thought. But it didn't turn out too horrible. I wish I could have figured out how to make the red less blotchy, but I had to fill it in a bit. Anyway, I think I'll try something a bit easier next.

I really wanted a spring hat, but considering that it's in the 90s here now and I want to die of heatstroke driving around in my cruiser with no a/c, I think I might have missed my spring moment :)

I haven't posted for so long or even read everyone's journals for a while. i feel so far behind in the world. I need to post a bunch of different things, I suppose, since SOOO much has happened.
Instead, I think I will write some of the highlights and come back later to elaborate on some of the funnier stories.
I found myself at a party with a bunch of my old Indian friends from Bank of America. I miss them so much. We always had fun planning our parties and eating lunch together and swapping weird cultural stories. I thought I was going to a party celebrating Jaya and Satish opening a new business. In actuality, it was a party to recruit people into their new business which turned out to be Amway. Cleverly disguised as some company called Quixtar. Anyway, we were given energy drinks and then required to sit still for 2 hours while a guy from Detroit demonstrated the products and  insisted on calling me Jennifer and making references to Americans here and there while looking around the room as if I wasn't the ONLY American present ( Some Americans have very bad diets and need to eat more vitamins, etc). Then everyone lined up and we had to stick our heads in this blue light machine while the guy from Detroit's wife looked at us through binoculars and shouted out to the room everything wrong with our skin. I was keen to avoid the experience, but since all the guys did it first and I felt peer pressured. So that's how I found myself kneeling in the living room with my butt hanging out of a black curtain while I looked in the machine and the lady yelled out Baggy Eyes! Dry Skin! Patches of Oily Skin!  Oh well. At least she didn't shout Blackheads!! Like she did for poor Karthik.
In other news, I was fired from that doctor's office right before I headed out of town to Chicago for my friend's wedding and some much needed fun and relaxation.  Everyone was telling me I should come back up. I love being up there with all my old friends. But then tonight I was home and Missy and a bunch of my friends here came over with balloons and cupcakes and completely suprised me for my birthday. I could go anywhere. I don't even know where to look for work. I guess I'll spread the net wide and see what happens.
In other other news, I think I might have made my first icon on photoshop. I need to try The Presidentrix's tips a bit better next time. i actually wasn't able to get online when I was working on this, so it;'s pretty rudimentary. But I don't think it turned out too bad. Anyway, in honor of the dear friend who got me into LJ and taught me how to make icons, I present:



anyway, I wanted it to be more glowy and rainy, but I think it turned out fairly close to what I imagined.

Ok. That's it for tonight. I was going to try and get to bed before my actual birthday, but I guess it's official. In a few short hours I will be irrevocably 29. And let me just say that while 28 was the first time I actually felt older, this one is really getting to me. I think it's more the- I'm turning 29 and am unemployed, unmarried, single, and about to be moving back in with my parents. Which is SO not how I imagined my late 20s to be like as a teenager. Or even early 20ser. Argh. I would have had a pity party today, but I still have yet to make my pity party hat which the presidentrix and I designed. Maybe that can be my birthday project! :)

Disclaimer: I should start out by saying that while I am not perhaps the most ethical of all people (I used to download free music and I watch tv online sometimes on bootleg sites. Gotta have my Merlin and True Blood!) but I'm usually honest unless it's funnier or more interesting to lie. However, I am fairly straitlaced when it comes to things like actually stealing or cheating or hurting people, etc. etc. So when i found myself sneaking into Disney last week, I was pretty suprised at myself. Moral implications aside, it was SO exhilirating! And TERRIFYING!

It all started when Hava (one of my BFFs from college) called to say she was going to be at Disney on Tuesday with her inlaws and her husband and daughter (who is a year old I hadn't met yet). I decided to drive down and visit her after my doctor's appointment. When I got there, her mother in law had decided that they weren't going to leave the park (our original plan was to have dinner outside) and I needed to get in. I asked the info booth about letting me in at a discount and explained the whole situation. They told me I was out of luck. When her mother in law came out, she said that I had to come into the park and she would take care of it. The next thing I know, she is getting the info booth to reprint two tickets for her saying she lost them and the other people in her group were on space mountain. Then we went straight into Burn Notice Mode. I imagined Michael's voice in my head guiding me.
The important thing when sneaking into a major amusement park is to have a reasonable story for why you need to get in. It helps if you have legitimately ticketed friends around you.
I swipe my ticket and of course, my fingerprint doesn't match. The ticket guy is a young man from Ohio. Ruddy cheeked and dressed in a candy striped suit. He smiles and tells me to try it again. I do, to no avail.
After the third time, I figure I'd better say something. Try Flirting to distract the mark, says the Michael in my head.
Oh ho ho, sez I, I had this same problem when I was at Epcot the other day (actually at Christmas time, and it was true that it didn't work then). He keeps making me swipe my ticket and put my finger on the slot
Maybe you used a different finger? he says
I smile a dumb blonde smile up at him and say, Oh, I always use my pointy finger (which I hold up and look at innocently) I'm so afraid I will forget what finger I used and then I'll hold up the whole line trying out fingers.
I look back at the line forming behind me and laugh and shrug.
He seems to be buying it. We keep swiping ticket and fingerprint.
Goodness, I don't know why my fingerprint isn't taking. Maybe if my new job doesn't work out I should try out a career as a criminal since my fingerprints are apparently unreadable. I say and (with a shout out to Fi) bat my eyelashes and smile at him.
He laughs.
Then the mother in law steps in (finally) and says, You know, maybe it isn't matching up right because we had top reprint our tickets. My husband has all our tickets and he's on space mountain, so they had to reprint us tickets. I've got the receipt!
He made me scan my ticket and fingerprint a few more times and I said, I'm so sorry I'm taking up so much of your time! I don't know what to do!
and he said, just go ahead and let me in.
Hava's ticket didn't work, so we're pretty sure that I ended up with hers. Once we were in the park we walked around and took Leena on the Pooh ride and watched the light parade and it was sooo good to see Hava and Brandon and meet Leena for the first time. In about 2 hours, the family was ready to head home, so Hava and I parted ways and I headed home. It was well worth the trip to see Hava. However, I was a little bit worried that I might be banned from Disney. That would have been tragic

I finally splurged and got a laptop for uber cheap off of ebay. A Mac. I've been wanting one for ages and I got in in my head that I would write more and it would be good to have for travelling and such. Anyway, I think I am transitioning ok. However, I am so confused by the way things appear online in some cases. For example, livejournal looks different. It asks for the date of my post and it doesn't show me an option for livejournal cut or any of the other ones I'm used to seeing except for Embed media and insert image.
Any advice for the mac newbie? Also, I now have photoshop and illustrator and such on this computer. Any idea where I can go for some basic tutorials? I want to make icons!! And other projects too, of course.
Anyway, I think I'll like this, but it's a bit more of an adjustment than I thought it would be. It took me forever to figure out how to save pictures and icons. Also copying and pasting confused me for a bit. I was so excited when I figured it out though!
Ok. I'm catching up on Flight of the Conchords S.2 and here's the quote for the day- Dave: Are you real, Bret?
Bret: Yes, I'm real. Dave: Then why did you tell me you're from Never Never Land? Bret: New Zealand, Dave.

I had such a weird dream last night- or I guess series of dreams. I woke up laughing.
First I was in a toy store looking for a lego set and they had a whole series of Nazi Germany Lego sets. You could assemble a town and you could even put together different building sets to make a concentration camp. The two I was looking at to possibly buy were a house and a factory (with working gas chamber inside). The house had a secret room for "Jew Hiding Action". The front of the box showed a kid putting the "Jew" lego people into a little room.  The house came with "Two German Pigs (literally pig lego creatures with swastika arm bands and little caps like the German soldiers wore) and 5 Jews ( little lego people with raggedy clothes, dark hair and large noses). So apparently my subconscious is terribly stereotypically racist at times.  I was trying to figure out which set the kid I was shopping for would like best and the next I remember I'm at an outdoor water park/beach type place. I'm floating down the Lazy River with a friend on a big raft and there's a really cute guy a couple rafts ahead of us on the river reading Flannery O'Connor (Perhaps A Good Man is Hard to Find) and wearing Batman swim trunks. My friend and I decide he would probably be just the sort of guy I would like and were trying to figure out how I could trick him into meeting me and of course, falling in love with me, getting married, etc...
While we're discussing strategies, some big guy on the beach sticks out a pole or something and makes the guy's raft stop. The mean guy steals the cute guy's book and starts making fun of him. A crowd starts gathering and they're tossing his book around and being jerks. I paddle over and jump off the raft, hopping mad, and grab the book back and completely tell the bully off. I don't remember what I said exactly, but it was the sort of thing you always wish you could do in real life- where my words are really sharp and I completely humiliate the bully and he ends up crying and apologizing. I gave the book back to the cute guy and said something about anyone in batman swim trunks is someone i'd like to get to know and he said something about anyone that can tear down a bully referencing literature and monty python is someone he'd like to know, so we floated on down the river chatting.
Then I was in a huge house with multiple rooms opening into other rooms. I was at the same time there with my family and it was our new house and there with some friends after a party and not quite sure how we ended up there or who's house it was.
My room was really pretty, it had a whole wall of windows looking out onto the countryside and mirrors on the other wall, so you kind of felt like you were in a huge bed in the middle of rolling fields. I went wandering around and I found a garage that had been converted into a studio for my mom's usborne books and art projects. It still had old neon signs on the wall and as I looked at them, I realized that the house either still was or used to be a hiding place for the rebels and we were in immediate danger. I went and hid in the closet. (I didn't even look for my family. My awake self is rather ashamed of my subconscious self for this). I heard footsteps coming and a group of men came in searching. They were in raggedy uniforms that were sort of like colonial BSG uniforms. They rounded up everyone, but I was able to hide. The put everyone in the garage (which was kind of like a warehouse room) and the soldiers surrounded them. The leader said that they didn't tolerate rebels and they knew that there were rebels in this house. In order to separate the rebel faction from the patriots, the leader held up a huge sausage shaped cheese. He said "A True Patriot knows the answer to one question. "What's my Cheese?" and then he took a big bite of the cheese. About 1/2 the room gasped and the soldiers promptly shot everyone who didn't react. Apparently the cheese was a poisonous sort. Or one that True Patriots Never Ate and Only used for cooking or something. The soldiers left and I saw all the bodies laying there with blood running everywhere and I just started laughing hysterically. In my dream I was laughing silently so they wouldn't find me, but I woke myself up chuckling.
The weird thing is, that as I was waking up, I was happy. I felt like I'd had such a funny, relatively nice dream for a change and it was sad that it was time to wake up. But when I look at what I actually dreamed, it is funny, but it's not a nice funny really. I hope this doesn't mean that my subconscious is turning into a psychopath that finds massacre hilarious! :)

In other news- I absolutely loved the latest episode of 30 Rock. Liz Lemon is my soul sister. I have never had the sheer guts/craziness to fake a welcome to the neighborhood party, but I have definitely hosted parties just to get a certain fellow to come. I think the new guy sounds really  great for her if she can calm down. The fact that he's going to go on a date with her after she accidentally rufied him gives him major points in my book. Also- Jack Donaghy as a Telenovela Villain. I don't know how they keep coming up with such genius stuff. But that was HILARIOUS. 

I was really short on funds and needed new glasses so I decided to try www.zennioptical.com and see if it really was too good to be true or if I could get a decent pair of glasses for cheap. I ordered my new glasses on January 4th. I got them today. So it took 2 days short of a whole month to get them. It says on the website it takes 10-15 days. I have a pretty strong subscription, so I expected it might take longer, since the website mentioned strong prescriptions could add a few days to the wait time. I tried to call them after the 10 days had passed and the first time I called, I got through to someone. They said my order was still being made. I tried to call back the next week and I haven't been able to reach a real person. At one point the number stopped working altogether. I was getting pretty worried that I had been a victim of an internet scam and was going to be out my $56 for two pairs of glasses and shipping.
Today they finally arrived! They came in a mysterious lumpy package with a Hong Kong return address and all Chinese characters except for Hong Kong and my address.
( They came in a mysterious lumpy package with a Hong Kong return address and all Chinese characters except for Hong Kong and my address. )I think my verdict for now is- this is a really great way to get some cute, cheap, spare pairs of glasses. I am definitely going to go in to the doctor before too long and get a properly fitted pair.
( here i am in my new glasses )

I knew that I loved Battlestar Galactica, and that it was well written and had excellent cinematography and music and acting, etc... But I still managed to forget just how fantastic it is. I've been rewatching episodes from the first and second season. I had originally had the completely crazy thought that I could rewatch everything before the new one comes out tomorrow so that I could be in the spirit of things and be all caught up. Sadly, I have to go to work every day, so that didn't exactly work out.
I love the relationships between the characters. I love the character development. Everything is so well done. I find myself noticing new things and new people now that I am not quite so desperate to see what happens to Lee and Kara next. I'm getting a better sense of how well executed the show is as a whole. I wish I could remember what was going on this past season. I read the summaries and I know that I was really disappointed in the show. I felt like they had forgotten the core values that made it so great. I wasn't sure at the end if there was any way they could pull off a satisfactory ending. I was really disappointed when earth turned out to be a wasteland. That's been done SO many times before.
( My BSG wishlist... Oh please Ron Moore! Make my wish come true! )
( The Ultimate Sci Fi Series!  )Needless to say, this kept me really amused until I finally fell asleep. Considering how strange my dreams have been of late, I thought I might have a chance of dreaming of this fantastic meeting of the fandoms. But no such luck. Instead my dreams contained: me being stuck in the backseat of a mini van driven by children who couldn't see over the dashboard and were going the wrong direction on 295. Me hiding in the closet in a school while someone searched up and down the halls and classrooms for me counting very slowly and insisting they were going to kill me when they found me. Weirdly, I didn't consider this a nightmare. In my dream, I called my friend and explained what was happening and when they expressed alarm at my impending demise, I said, It's just one of Those days...  Then I ended up in a classroom with a bunch of friends eating popcorn and watching Wall-E (who was more like a garbage hurling ninja and less like a recyling robot). So not too bad an end to a day.
Here's hoping tonight brings better dreams.

For starters, making a New year's resolution is generally a bad idea for me. Since I inevitably don't achieve my bajillion pound weight loss goal, don't make it into outer space and don't end up negotiating world piece. Ok, maybe those were never my specific goals. But I do tend to aim for extremely high goals that only leave me feeling inadequate. So this year I decided to be simple: Know God better, Learn to live healthy, Act, don't just think and talk about action.
   It is the latter one that's getting me into trouble right now. I'm much better at talking about things I would like to do and theorizing about what is good and noble, etc. etc. For example, I thoroughly believe that animals should be taken care of and I think that no kill shelters are a great thing. I think that people that take in animals off the street are great and I admire them for their generosity. In theory, I want to be that sort of person too.
All that to say: there are a pair of stray kittens living in our office complex. I had never seen them before last week. They are probably at least 2 months old, they are not super tiny. They are still very young though and seemed tiny compared to Wren. I saw them one night and then the next day they were still there. One of them is so friendly. He (or she. not really sure, since it's all furry down there and it seems rude to look too closely) came right up to me and started snuggling. I picked him up and petted him and he purred like crazy and tried to climb up on my shoulder just like Wren used to. The other one was too shy to come out of the bushes.
I thought about them all weekend and it was just killing me knowing that they were out there in the cold and rain (admittedly, it's Florida cold, not regular winter but still) I came in on Monday determined that if they were still there, I would Do Something About It.
    They were still here. I looked up shelters online and called around. I talked to the Humane society and all in all was very disappointed at the lack of resources for someone that wants to help cats get off the streets, but can't keep them. All the shelters I talked to were full. I was told to call Animal Control and they would take them. But the animal control is a kill shelter. I emailed several shelters to see if they would take them in and no one has gotten back to me. When I call, it's busy or full.  This afternoon the temperature was dropping, so I went out to try and catch the cats with my fellow secretary and friend, Clarrissa. She helped me find them, but again we could only get one of them out of the bushes. The little guy is so cute. He is very hard to resist. All cuddly and purring and trying to climb inside my jacket. The security lady came out and said that a woman in building 400 feeds the cats at the complex and has put up shelters for them. So they aren't alone or uncared for. Supposedly she also takes them to get spayed and neutered and such. Other people that were out there smoking joined in the conversation. Apparently a lot of people have wanted to take the kittens home, but no one has yet. I told her I would take them and keep them inside and fed until we could find a home for them.
   I got a call from my mom this afternoon and the whole preschool staff has been talking about my "kitten dilemma" and they agreed that if I could catch the kitties, they would help find a home. One of the ladies said she would take them up and sit outside of the grocery store if we can't find a home by asking around. My mom said to bring them by the school, but that it would be hard to find a home for them, since they're not tiny babies. So after work today I am going back out to try and catch the cats. Hopefully I can entice them with the cat food i brought. Tuna would work better, but I don't have any on hand. I'm kind of annoyed that no one else has taken them home yet. You'd think these families with lots of room would be willing to help. I'm going to have to keep them shut up in my bathroom until I can make sure they're deflead and tested for all the diseases. Wren could get Aids or worms or fleas or respiratory diseases just from coming in contact with them. Which stresses me out a lot. But at this point, i've waited a while and no one else has seemed to want to take responsibility for them. I personally wouldn't mind keeping the really friendly one. I think Wren would like a companion. But it seems like it would be wrong to separate them. Anyway, I will update once I make my final attempt at capture.

I have been having horrible nightmares for the past 3 weeks or so. Some nights I just wake up feeling scared, but I can't remember what happened. But mostly I remember the nightmares. Last night I finally had non-nightmare dreams. It was so nice and I felt much more rested. Anyway, one of the dreams was pretty funny, although I'm not really sure where it came from. I've been watching a lot of Stargate Atlantis. Which I will talk about more in a few minutes. Anyway, the dream went a bit like this:

 

( Peter Skaarsgard's got nothing on this guy )

 (Which sounds kind of dirty now that I write it, but at the time seemed to imply he was the grown up version of some superhero or sidekick)

In other musings, I have been watching massive quantities of Stargate Atlantis. At first I was mostly just bored and found the show slightly less boring than staring at walls. ( Stargate Atlantis: It pays off in the end )

More reviews will follow.

One of my good friends Jency is going back to India on Saturday morning. I've been asking her over for dinner for months, but we could never seem to get it together. She stopped by this evening with Aravind and they visited for  a bit. I found out that they were both terrified of cats. I knew that Jency was afraid of dogs due to a previous encounter. Apparently in India there are gangs of street dogs that roam around attacking people. But I wasn't expecting them to be scared of Wren. Aravind insisted that he wasn't scared, he just didn't like them. But I saw him flinch when she came around the corner :) They were very suprised that I had such a large place all for myself. I explained that I had been living with my family before and that I preferred to live with roommates, but hadn't been able to find any since my plan to live with my brother and his friends fell through. Aravind explained that in India, unless you have to leave for a job, you stay with your family. And when a woman gets married she goes to live with her husband and his family. I think you must be so close knit living in close quarters like that. It is so different. I find it a fascinating idea to live all generations together. I know many cultures do things that way. It was kind of nice when I was living at home that my Indian friends were the only ones who didn't assume something was wrong  because I was living with family. Anyway, we had a nice chat. I was embarrassed by how much stuff I have. They were impressed with my book collection. Aravind asked what I did in the evenings when I wasn't at work. I hate answering questions like that, because I sound so boring. I told him I prepare dinner and then I watch tv or read or talk on the phone to friends and I go to church a few times a week. I said I was a pretty quiet person. I wanted to ask what he did at home, but Jency must have sensed I felt awkward because she switched the subject. I'm really going to miss her. I knew she wasn't staying for long, but it was so nice to have another friend to eat lunch with and someone to sit with at church on Sundays. There was so much more I wanted to learn from her and things we talked about doing together. I hope I can visit her in India sometime.
After she left, I watched 30 Rock.
I nearly peed my pants laughing. I love Liz Lemon. I think the biological clock thing is hilarious. While I haven't gone so far as to gather a purse full of baby shoes, I have noticed that without even really thinking about it, I notice babies a lot more these days. Also, I tend to talk to moms and babies when out. I even horrified myself by offering to hold some random baby at the office during the Fall Festival. Tina Fey is hilarious. Also, I've always thought Peter Dinklage was rather handsome and funny. I liked his character. Tracy is completely ridiculous as usual. And is it just me, or did Selma Hayek's boobs look Enormous in this episode? I don't usually notice that sort of a thing, but it was very odd.
In other news, I am reading a FANTASTIC book. It's called The Magicians and Mrs. Quent. I'm only about 150 pages in, so it might turn to utter rubbish yet, but so far, it's great. It reminds me a lot of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in that it combines a story of society and manners with magic. The author borrows pretty heavily from Pride and Prejudice and gothic novel structure, but it's really well written.
Ok. I am determined to make it into bed and (hopefully) asleep at a decent hour tonight. I have been such a zombie this whole week at work.

So Tonight I watched the premiere of the second season of Flight og the Conchords here: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c48f423bdf/season-2-online-premiere-flight-of-the-conchords-from-flight-of-the-conchords
I don't want to spoil anything, so I will just point out my top  moments. 1. Bret and Jermaine Dolls! I wants one 2. Bret's pants. 3. Finally a fantastic song about Rejection that makes me laugh and want to weepily sing along "Like a cake shop without cakes" (or a pie shop without pie?? I miss my pie maker. :(  ) 4. Higgling. I want to do it behind the scenes too. It sounds like fun. 5. Why'd you even come if you weren't going to light a fire?
All in all, it was pretty funny. It felt a bit flatter than last year, but that may be because the music was mellower. Also they were always very understated humor. Maybe if I watched a few in a row I would get back into the rhythm.


Other News: I have to decide by Friday if I'm going to stage manage a show at Theatre Jax this spring. It would be a month and a half of rehearsals and a month long run. Also, it doesn't pay any money at all. I think this may be the first time ever that I'm seriously considering turning down a gig. I really want to get a part time job and save up money for Scotland. This would make that not possible until at least April. It's a great play- Wait Until Dark. Audrey Hepburn was in the filmed version. About a blind girl who tries to elude robbers in her apartment. However a community theatre performance is kind of hit or miss. I miss doing theatre so much it hurts sometimes. I just wish I could get paid for it. It's so hard to go back to spending all that time for free when I used to get paid for it. I don't want my resume to get too far behind though. I don't want to get rusty. Argh. I hate making biggish decisions. Make that decisions in general. I like small ones like what to watch on tv. But I'm so tired these days, I have trouble deciding what to cook for dinner, much less whether or not to try and work a second job and volunteer at theatre.

Other Other news: I found this really awesome website. http://www.couchsurfing.com/
It's basically like a facebook of sorts with the goal of connecting people and helping them to make new friends and find a place to stay when travelling. I read the material and it just made me think so much of how my family used to travel around Europe and across the states and we'd stay with folks from churches that people knew of or friends of friends or our actual friends. We hardly ever stayed in a hotel because we were too poor. This website and movement seems like a really cool way to make friends and get the insider scoop on different cities and cultures around the world. I really want to try this out when I go to Scotland this summer. It feels like it would be safer to try then, since there will be three of us travelling together. It seems like if we did end up at the home of a psycho killer, or a pervert  the three of us could take them out. Or leave. Of course, if we do try it, we will be telling our families we're staying with friends. But if it really is safe and friendly like it seems, it would be a nice way to travel and get to experience the real culture when you're on your own or in smaller groups.
Anyway, I signed up. I think it would be so much fun to host people from other countries.  I guess when you grow up hosting people from around the world at your house most weeks, something like this seems like a natural conclusion.
Ok. Must get to bed. I dosed myself up with Nyquil in an attempt to make me fall asleep sooner and thus be more awake tomorrow. I think that Nyquil=FAIL tonight. I hate trying to adjust back to work schedule after vacation. Blah.

I went to Bethlehem tonight which is my favorite Christmas activity down here. This church out by the beach builds a village in the woods and they have everyone dressed up and running the town and you can walk through it. There's a market place and an inn and Roman centurions and a synagogue and all kinds of animals that you can pet. My brother and two other friends went with me. Andrew tried to trade me for 5 shekels. I tried to sell him to a Roman guard in lieu of paying my taxes. So I think we ended up even. I got to pet 2 baby sheep, a calf that was sooo tiny and sweet, a donkey, a camel, a zebu ( http://www.zootorah.com/essays/zebu.jpg) and a baby alpaca. The alpaca was my favorite. It was so cute. It came right up and kind of nuzzled the fence. His fur was so incredibly soft. Much softer than my cat's fur. I really want one now to cuddle with. The zebu was pretty cool too. He looked like a yak, camel and cow mixed together. I got to see "baby Jesus" too. I was disapointed this year because they made a big deal out of the actual manger scene and had a line you had to wait in to see him. My favorite year, I was walking through the market place and everyone had gathered around to hear one of the guards or something and I went around a corner and he was just there. I almost walked right past him. It really made me get the humble nature of the nativity in a way that I hadn't before. Even though I was raised hearing about the lowly manger. It was kind of magical. Stumbling upon that smelly hay filled forgotten corner.
They didn't have a bison this year. I was kind of disappointed. Although maybe they aren't allowed to anymore. One year he got loose and went trampling through all the rich people's back yards until animal control caught him. There's a picture of a baby alpaca. SOOOO soft and cuddly. I wonder if you can have an alpaca farm of one. If only I could convince my landlord it was just a really big cat...