The Dangerous Existence of Madame Lee

+ I don't even know how I'm going to manage this weekend. I have arranged to change the oil in my car and have the power steering flushed (my car needs an awful lot of work, but this is the last of the "expensive" repairs. Well, until it's time to replace the tires in another few thousand miles, anyway). Also, it is likely that I will have to work again.

+ X-chan and I were talking about wisdom tooth removal (...in a couple of weeks, zomg how did this happen), and she was surprised that I'm not going to be put under. I said people die under that shit. X-chan said people die under nitrous, too. X-chan is a notorious hypochondriac and I shouldn't have listened to her, but due to having never had any kind of surgery, I freaked right out and hopped on Google. Most of the people who have died as a result of nitrous? Were stupid idiots who were ABUSING IT. I'm sorry, but if you open a can of pure nitrous in a small, enclosed space and start huffing away, you're pretty much asking for it. At least the dentist mixes it with oxygen first so you can breathe! (Also, I don't have contraindications--i.e., I don't smoke, I don't have long-term respiratory problems other than seasonal allergies, and I breathe through my nose unless I've been exercising or am in the throes of said allergies.)

+ I have lost about 6-7 pounds total in the past 3 weeks and now my smaller jeans are starting to be loose, which is just ridiculous. I am, of course, a notorious cheapskate who will not get smaller pants until she's out of viable options, so there we have it.

+ Guess who has Cosi fan tutte tix at the will-call window in Bloomington? MEMEMEMEMEMEME~

+ If any of you remember the heartwarming kitten story, there's a heartwarming update! Lolmom gave Rob and Lisa (the terribly sweet people who had the nursing cat) a call, only to initially get their eight- or nine-year-old daughter. Cue the following:
Lolmom: lol hi. i r teh lady who brot teh kitten? :D
Eight-year-old daughter: OMG MY KITTEN!!!!!!!111!!1!kitten!!!! :DDDDD

Well, at that point we knew the kitten wasn't coming back to live with us. I mean, there's no way you can take a kitten from an eight-year-old without ensuring a special place in Hell when you die. In conversation with Lisa, it was revealed that the momcat was something of an indifferent foster mother; she would occasionally get tired of nursing before the kitten was done, so they started supplementing with formula. The little girl would give the kitten its bottle and started calling it her baby, and although they hadn't been planning to get another cat, there really wasn't much choice once she became attached. Lisa said the kitten has a good personality and gets along with everyone (including the dog and the other two cats). The main thing is that it will have a loving home, so I'm not upset that it's not with us.

And that's all I've got, d00d.

So Camille had threatened to drag me to the New Age shop in Evansville. The original game plan was this: Camille would go pay her car insurance. I'd meet her in the Depress-O-Mall parking lot. Then we'd go to the New Age store in downtown Evansville.

What actually happened was this: Camille went and paid her car insurance. Then she called to ask if I'd like to grab a bite to eat, and I said sure, whatever she wanted to get was fine, as there isn't much I won't at least try. We visited the Super Buffet on Burkhardt, and Cecil (Camille's fiancé) was in tow; I'd only met Cecil once or twice before, and I'm always trepidated when people bring their significant others, but he's a good guy and it was nice to get to know him a little better. (Camille said she was worried that I'd feel like a third wheel, but it wasn't like that at all.) We got to sit right under the widescreen TV and watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, had fun making up our own dialogue (since we couldn't hear the actual dialogue), and mocked the D&D nerds at the next table. Camille also had a run-in with the chocolate fountain.

We went downtown to Earth Comforts, which for a tiny little shop (that I'd probably passed a bazillion times, given that I worked downtown for yonks and continue to play downtown; it's right next to the main Rape Me Up The Ass Bank building) contains a lot of stuff. It isn't a conventional New Age shop--most of their inventory is locally made and/or handmade, so it's not the usual Llewellyn texts and whatnot. I hadn't been going to buy anything, but wound up dropping $20 on candles and incense, since 2010 seems to be the year of Having A Little Faith so far and I kind of miss my pagan roots. ALSO: they have a fuckton of tea, which you can buy by the ounce, so I bought four ounces of ambrosia tea. I am excited, and will definitely need to pay them a repeat visit.

Camille and I were turning over packets of herbs; I mentioned my childhood/preadolescent obsession with herbs, which has faded but which I think I'd like to revive, and then this segued into a discussion of Camille's encyclopedia of magical uses of herbs and how she'd left it at home.

Camille: Did you want to go to Borders? :D
l33: Well, I wasn't planning on it, but we can. (I was driving, since Camille's car has no working heat.)

Cecil had another obligation, so we parted ways at the New Age shop, but Camille and I headed over to Borders, where I proceeded to go nuts with the rest of my Christmas money (MOST OF THE STUFF I BOUGHT WAS ON THE SALE TABLE. THAT MAKES IT OKAY); I checked out with my bargain notebooks and so on, we sat down for coffee and flipped through tattoo magazines (one of Camille's obsessions), and then I got up to buy archaeology magazines and a bargain book of old maps because old maps are awesome and I totally don't feel any Terra Incognita resurrection coming on why do you ask. (forgottensanity: Yes, I know I owe you e-mail. I will get to that. But first I must sleep.)

Sometimes the best days don't go according to plan. I got almost nothing else on my list accomplished, but it was a good day nonetheless, and I don't feel any self-loathing about it, which is even better and less characteristic of me. Damn braces; bless relaxes.

I'm thinking about revamping my bio entry to include such hot-button issues as my atrocious taste in music and omg I love samurai and so on, but I haven't actually gotten to it yet.

Everything that could go wrong last week did (the short summary: I broke the showerhead on Monday; I tried to make candy and wound up burning the almond bark and had to get more; I ran all over God's green acre and have no money and then on top of that I did not get my paycheck on Friday and so I couldn't get my car out of the shop because without that money I can't pay for the deductible). But it's the weekend now, and X-chan has just arrived from Parts Unknown and is currently sleeping off her jet lag, and none of the other shit matters anymore.

H sent me flowers, which arrived today quite unexpectedly (I had already gone to the post office to pick up the other things he sent me, which I had to sign for, and am now richer by 2000 yen).

Nobody, in all my life, has ever, ever sent me flowers before.

I love flowers.

It is harder than you might think to find the words to tell someone that he is, easily, the most wonderful person you have ever met in your entire life, especially when your standard expressions of love/affection tend to sound like, "Yo, dethorats! I'm going to skewer you alive and then put fire ants up your nose!" or "Goddammit, imperfectkatoru, I'm going to kick your ass." I've spent almost four hours trying to figure it out, which isn't working, and I think the thing to do may be to come out and say it.

In conclusion, YAY.