The Dangerous Existence of Madame Lee

1.) All hail X-chan, who has just received a promotion! She left a Geologist I; she is now an Engineer I. In order to obtain this, she had to overcome many obstacles, including The Ex-Boss Who Only Likes Blondes, The Ex-Boss Who Expected Her To Read His Mind Instead Of Giving Her Directions Even Vague Ones, and Our Lady Of The Perpetual Camel Toe, a.k.a. The Girl Who Is Openly A Furry And Tells Unfunny Cat Stories With No Point. (X-chan says she thinks she's fallen out of this girl's favor.)

2.) I got to watch about half of The Seven Samurai tonight (I didn't finish because I needed the computer and the lolmom came in to tell me she was done with it), and I've discovered that I can't watch samurai movies without an interior running monologue. More commentary when I've actually finished watching the other half. (Yes, I have in fact seen The Seven Samurai before. I'm not a total barbarian. That said, it's been a while, so.)
2a.) OMG WANT TO START GAME SO BADLY. What's stopping me? My total lack of any kind of research or workable concept at this point. Because I'm about realizing my exquisite early Tokugawa vision, bby.

3.) We had grilled chicken with a nice grape-based glaze and biscuits and a green-bean and tomato salad last night. :9 I think the lolmom ate the leftover biscuits. Dammit. I only got like three biscuits. The recipe makes twelve.

4.) Heard about earthquakes. Hope to God H is okay. Am entirely capable of living without him if necessary, but don't really find prospect appealing for some reason.

Off into the wild blue yonder now.

(Warning: May not actually contain excitement or adventure.)

( Long post is long. )

Also, a minor rant:

( My Fandom, Let Me Show You It )

Also also, ♥ for forgottensanity, because she didn't say I couldn't give her a heart. Callice has expressed a desire to be sent to Denmark, there to sit on Cat's lap and purr.

H wrote. I'd better get cracking.

First, a happy belated to uigenna (I'd write j00 a birfday haiku or something, but I was never good at that and the peanut gallery is on strike). Also, since it is now the 3rd, happy birthday to ebony_queen as well. :D

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we had word that my Great-Aunt Magdalene (maternal grandfather's older sister) died at 103 in North Carolina a day or two ago. We're not sure yet what the funeral arrangements are going to be; she had expressed a desire to be buried in Fort Wayne, but her children and grand children are all in NC. It seems strange to think that, of the 13 children my great-grandparents managed, only one is still alive.

augustuscaesar got me hooked on Goodreads, and richly deserves A SPANKING for this. I am now obsessively categorizing everything I have ever read in my life. Feel free to friend me there, if any of you happen to have one. Seriously, it is addictive; my tiny OCD brain has happily produced various concatenations of shelves. It will not come as a surprise to learn that there are shelves entirely devoted to samurai and classics.

Speaking of samurai, Stuff You Wanted lives up to its name by, indeed, carrying probably every chanbara flick I have ever wanted and possibly also some I didn't know existed, with English subtitles and Region 1 format. I keep caressing it longingly with my burning, myopic eyes, only to sternly remind myself, "CANNOT HAS. NOT URS."

Only tangentially related to samurai, I really need to finish my letter to H.

I'm not sure what it is about me and numbered lists, but okay.

( Cut for your pleasure )

1.) I think LJ is on the fritz again, because it says my last update was 7 days ago. Actually, it was 11. Or thereabouts.

2.) My appearances will likely be sporadic for some time to come because I have a lot of things to do in preparation for the upcoming move, which God willing will be at the beginning of March or so. However, there will be posts in which I attempt to fob off crap that I don't want or can't take with me onto other people.

3.) H is back from Kobe. HURRAH. He has still not succeeded in his attempt to quit smoking, but the year is young and he has managed to cut back, so also HURRAH. All the same, I expect I'll have to pick up an ashtray when he's here in the fall.
OH HOLY CRAP H IS GOING TO BE HERE.
3a.) I wish I were still smoking, because it was a lot easier to keep my weight under control back then. Of course, it could have had to do with the fact that I was in college and walking all over campus (even when I had a car and an apartment), and it could also have had to do with the fact that I pretty much lived on coffee. On the other hand, at least my weight is remaining stable, but that doesn't mean I want to be this number for the rest of my life.

4.) Most of my entertainment for the past couple of weeks has revolved around movies; we went to see Atonement on Saturday (I liked it, and it played with perception in some interesting ways, but it was rather a downer). Also, jurhael, if you haven't seen Notes on a Scandal yet, you should really try to get ahold of it; one of the themes has to do with a kind of narcissism.

5.) Also I finished The Warlord by Malcolm Bosse (a relic of my father's). I was pleasantly surprised, as I had expected it to be stupendous crap, but it was actually quite good.

6.) Went up to Bloomington last week to look at an apartment. I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to get a 1-bedroom, because it's easier for me to think in terms of what I can afford/what I'm likely to get rather than in terms of what I want. (I suppose someday I will be able to afford a 2-bedroom. Alas.) In terms of location and what the landlord pays, it's perfectly okay; in terms of space, I could make it work, but it would be a stretch, and I'd have to leave my upstairs table at home. I might apply for it anyway, after I've looked at some other places, though I need to clarify their pet policy first (leasing agent said the cat would be okay; application says no pets).

(I already looked at apartments where I used to live. There's a lovely 2-bedroom available, but I have severe misgivings about throwing money down on it when I don't know that I can afford it. Unlike the last time I did this, I have a car and credit cards now.)

Was indescribably sad to leave.
6a.) Maybe because I've already told H about all this, and because to me it's old news, I just feel kind of brusque and short about rehashing it here. But I figure at least 2.5 of you might like to know how it's all turning out.

7.) Happy birthday, imperfectkatoru! Also a happy belated birthday to queen_lily_rose.

So, the Christmas haul:

( Under a cut, so you don't have to endure my blatant materialism )

Callice received a new catnip toy, which she played with for all of five minutes before she decided that it would be more fun to go gnaw on the curly ribbon on the packages. We wound up tying curly ribbon to the catnip toy (which entailed touching cat slobber), and she was mellow for all of twenty minutes. Seriously, I do not understand why some people sentimentalize their cats.

Happy holidays, you lot. ♥

JOB update: Sapping will to live, as usual. Hopefully this will just be temporary. I have an interview in Bloomington tomorrow, and while I'm trying not to pin all my hopes on it (the more so since it would create some not-altogether-desirable stress), it's nice to be potentially wanted.

MOOD update: Not getting any better, sad to say. Probably won't be better for some time to come. H, augustuscaesar, and m0mmy are, between the three of them, helping to salvage what little remains of my sanity. ♥ Also, the holidays are just around the corner, and blah blah blah angst blah blah blah backstory blah blah blah tedious drama the upshot of which is that I hate Christmas, which you probably already knew, so between all that I probably won't be worth much until January. I'll try not to snap at anyone but I may be bitchy. There may be entire entries dedicated to waaaaaaaangst. (Like this one, for instance).

RELIGION update: Flipped through a book of m0mmy's called Faith Rediscovered by Lawrence S. Cunningham, was rather uncomfortably shown myself, have been fiddling around with the faith of my mothers in my head. The short list:

( My Religious Wangst, Let Me Show You It )

In conclusion, WANKYWANKYWANKWANK.

Going to bed now. I have too much to do before Thanksgiving and not enough time to do it in.

Will answer comments, and hopefully forgottensanity's e-mail, and do some other stuff later, but for now, because anjala is probably wondering whether she needs to come destroy the pods so that Real Lee can come back, and a number of the rest of you may also be wondering this but be disinclined to voice it, yes, I really did make the past couple of posts. I intended to disable comments but forgot (a phrase which sums up so much of my life), so commenting stands.

Yes, it was me, and not Evil Pod Lee. I would like to reassure everybody that I'm okay, but I'm not sure yet whether I'm okay because I don't think the little drama has played out its scene fully yet, and I don't want to say anything until I know something for sure.

Also, the past couple of weeks have been really horrific.

Also also, I promise to update about my FASCINATING venture to Bloomington last weekend (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the Student Pits), but I have work to get out right now.

Five more days until Chautauqua Weekend. We're going to Madison. SQUEE!

Callice had her shots on Saturday, which she bravely dealt with by heroically hunkering in the back of the Kitty Taxi, averting her eyes, and going limp. She's a much easier patient than Lotus ever was. (Lotus had to be tranquilized to even get her near the Kitty Taxi.) I was forgiven for the indignities perpetrated upon her after about forty-five minutes elapsed.

Next weekend, the hunt for the Son of Bachelor Pad begins. I hope I can find a decent place that has everything I want and won't cost too much. The realization that I'm going to have to replace most of my furniture is pretty sobering; hopefully, I'll at least have something decent for H to crash on when he's here next year (or possibly in '09).

I was going to make corn muffins with cheese and green onions for dinner tonight, but I forgot that t3h m0mmy used all the sour cream making a coffee cake for the parents' meeting on Sunday morning. (The wheel in the sky keeps on turning, and so does the Confirmation-go-round.) Needless to say, I discovered this only AFTER I returned home from the store. Using the gifts of the Spirit or whatever one receives during Confirmation, m0mmy immediately felt bad, despite repeated entreaties not to.

It's pretty sad when one feels that the high point of one's day was lunch. I had a turkey sandwich with tomatoes and lettuce and chipotle mayo on tomato bread at Adrienne's in Jeffersonville, one of my favorite lunch spots, and it was tasty. :9

The second installment of t3h n0v3l omg will go out on Sunday to those masochists persons who have indicated a desire to read it. If you, too, long for the sweet relief that rapidly sporking your eyes out at top speed will bring--IT'S NOT TOO LATE! Just leave a comment, and you too will receive some eye-charring crap in your e-mailbox on an infrequent basis. :D

I haven't made a public entry in a couple of weeks. Holy crap.

Anyway: I had an interview with a title company in Bloomington on Tuesday, and I was supposed to hear from them by Friday if they decided to hire me. I didn't. I suppose theoretically it might have taken them longer to make a decision than they expected, but I'm really not holding my breath. Disappointing, but I'll live. Eventually, someone's going to have to give up and hire me.

I have decided, greatly against my will, to start confining Callice during the day. She's peed on my bed. There doesn't seem any effective way to make her stop (we've already established that there's nothing physically wrong with her), and I can't afford to take off work for a couple of weeks just to teach her that the only place she can pee and not be punished for it is the litterbox. In addition to which, I really can't do anything when I'm not here, other than close off rooms; she wasn't a pet before she came home with me, so she doesn't understand about doors. I don't want her to associate my leaving with abandonment and punishment, but I really don't see where I have a choice, because it's either this or get rid of her. The shelters in my area are all no-kill shelters, so it wouldn't be a death sentence, but I think that's a stupid reason to get rid of an animal, and she can't understand why I'd be taking her back. And when I move out, she's going to have to live in the bathroom all day. I hate to do it, and I think it's cruel and unnecessary, but she cannot run free and urinate wherever the hell she feels like it, the more so given that anyplace I'd be living would necessarily allow pets, and I can't know who lived in the apartment before me or whether they had animals. Even though apartments are cleaned, she can smell things I don't.

You know, I really do not understand why people sentimentalize their cats. Callice does not love me in any human sense, or in the sense that people mean when they say "love", and I know this, and it does not bother me. She loves living in a house instead of in a box. She loves having food and water served on a regular basis, and she loves flopping in front of the fan or on the bathroom tiles on a hot day. She loves curling up in the mitten box to sleep, and she loves pets and not being spanked (which is why she pees when I can't see her, because she knows she WILL get spanked if I catch her at it). But she wouldn't give a shit if I dropped dead. She'd notice that I was engaging in some sort of unacceptable tomfoolery wherein I hid and refused to come out, but eventually, she'd get used to my not being there, and I doubt she'd care as long as her present standard of living continued.

Anyway, that train of thought aside, yesterday was fabulous. My birthday's on Wednesday, so we got all the stuff-we-can't-do-on-work-nights out of the way yesterday; we saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which was a damn good ending to the trilogy (though they left the possibility of another film open at the end). The opening scenes in particular sent chills up my spine (always a good omen). Also ate at Iwataya. Mmm, raw fish. ♥ But hey, raw fish is just what I want most of the time. (Mom poked at the tsukemono with her chopsticks and asked what they were; I tried not to let my own bias against tsukemono, based on a tale of H's misspent youth, influence me, but it was hard).

The Herald-Times was a goldmine this weekend. Huzzah.