Kettle Corn and book annoyances

Pretty much my expression last night.

So I helped my friend with her Kettle Corn stand at the farmer's market the other day. It went well for the most part. The set up and tear down takes 45 minutes each and I am just not able to do that yet. I tried, I really did, but I felt like such an ass hat for having to sit down every couple of minutes. It still makes me angry. But for the rest of it, I did okay. I got to sit and sell her kettle corn, up sell her punch cards, and I reminded her to go take a picture to post on Instagram and Facebook saying where she was to help bring herself business. 

That's the good news. The bad news is that I was exhausted by the time I got home and suspect a little heat exhaustion to be part of that. I didn't even try to sleep in bed, just stayed on the sofa. Yesterday was spent on the sofa for most of the day as well. I was tired and slept off and on through the day. I think my body needed time to recover not only physically but also because my allergies were aggravated and I was in the heat all day the day before. I do not do well in the heat and having a kettle heating the area behind you doesn't help that much.

While I was camped on the sofa yesterday evening, I decided to finish Into the Fire by Jeaniene Frost, the last in her Night Prince series. I love this series and i did enjoy the end but I was a little annoyed with the end. While I had put the book down for a week or two because I wanted to prolong the ride- I didn't remember the main character explaining so much before. That pretty much ticked me off. I was like "I know, Leila, they just said that," or "I got it, you don't have to tell me,". It was weird and I did not like the stuff with Marty. Then again, I never really liked Marty, he was annoying to me, but with that said, I did like his relationship to Leila. I think Frost could write another novel with Leila and Vlad, there are some things that were left open and unresolved, things I want to know more about.

After finishing Into the Fire, I picked up Princess Dracula by John Patrick Kennedy. This is a self published novel I found on Amazon. The risk you run with self published novels is that a lot of times they aren't edited or edited very well. I've only read three chapters and have found several typos and some grammatical errors. The pace feels a little bit rushed but I have reminded myself that it is only a 200 page novel. So far the story is interesting and I am curious to see where it goes.  

What the hell?! At least that ended well.

Well, Friday sucked. I awoke around 8 am in such pain that my clothing hurt my skin, having the cat brush against my legs made me want to cry, and part of me wanted to rip my fingernails off because even those hurt. By 11am, I wanted to vomit, and a friend suggested that I eat something. So I made a small one person batch of pasta and sat down with the heating pad to watch Inuyasha (since I am trying to finish that up). Well, I ended up asleep after I ate and I slept until a little after 4 pm and not only did I wake up still in pain, it was a little worse than before. 

I am trying an experiment. I don't know if it will pan out, but I've always heard people complain about how their bones ache if a storm is coming. Well, I am logging the barometric pressure in my area and how much I hurt if there is any correlation. I'm not sure what I am going to do with that information, but for shits and giggles, I thought it would be interesting. 

This weekend is Beltane- well all the pagan groups in my area are celebrating it. Amanda and I are not going out to Medical Lake to celebrate with all the pagan groups. Amanda has to work. We are, however, going to a friend's house to an 'after party' per se. It is invite only so we can't really talk about it with other people- at least not with some of the people. It's not our house and I'm not going to invite them out when I know full well that the hosts don't particularly like some of those people. 

On top of that Amanda took a couple of days of vacation time because she needs it and we haven't had a lot of time to ourselves lately. Well, we just sent E. back to Boston after having her for a week and wanted some time to ourselves but Fiona wanted to come for Beltane. We told we would take her to the thing we were going to but that she would have to stay with someone else while she is here. (she lives out of town) Well she asked if another friend of ours would let her stay with her. I said I don't know you'd have to ask her. Then she wanted to know if another friend would let her and I reminded her that that friend is dealing with some stuff and that it probably wasn't a good idea. The person she is going to stay with for at least a couple of days is having a couple temporarily move in with her until they can get into an apartment. So of course Fiona wanted to know if she could stay with us despite us already telling her no in the first place. When I told her we were going out of town she wanted to know if we needed a cat sitter. I told her we wouldn't be gone that long. And then, of course, I didn't hear anything else out of her. I'm just kind of like, you know, sometimes you're not going to get to come stay with us whenever you want. Sometimes people will have shit going on and they won't be able to put you up for however long you decide to hang around. I know that sounds mean, but we all have lives and they don't revolve around her. 

Besides, we've had a revolving door of company and we would like to be able to have a date night or I don't know, fuck, without having to work around the whims of company. 

I finished the 3rd book in the Night Prince Novels, Bound by Flames by Jeaniene Frost. OMGs! That book was an intense read. I cried in places, freaked out, wanted to jump in the book and tear a character apart, but it ended on a really great note and I'm looking forward to where the 4th and final book goes. Except, I'm not because then it will be over and they are vampires so shouldn't that mean that since they live forever, that their story should as well? If you ever get the chance, I seriously recommend Jeaniene Frost's novels- at least the Night Huntress and Night Prince novels (I haven't read the others yet). I've really enjoyed them and think her Vlad is the best Vlad I have read thus far. Plus, fire pretty! 

On my own writing front, I've not written anything since I finished my story. I wanted to start editing it within the next couple of days but Amanda thinks that I should at least wait two weeks. She says I am still in love with the story and characters and every word and I need to be able to cut things that need to be cut without having issues. I think I will still have issues, but that's just me. So in lieu of that, I've been looking up some stuff on pinterest to help build characters- or help me discover a little more about them. It;s just so difficult because I feel pulled in a couple different directions by different stories. It is strange and leaves me hesitating to go one way or another because what if I lose the line? Writer problems. 

Oh, I had a first world problem the other night. I was laying in bed talking to Amanda about wanting to ride a bike again. Only, I was concerned about how I was ever going to ride a bike and maintain my graveyard tan. There are two reasons for this. 1. I like being pale. 2. I am allergic to the sun, no seriously, if I burn, I breakout in hives and I've gotten sun burnt within 15 minutes it is insane, but my mother and my cousin Shi-Chan are the same way. Amanda laughed at me. But you know, I could easily fix that by just riding a bike at night. It's not like I would ever go very far anyway... but then I remembered that I don't have a bike and at the moment, I'm not sure my back would allow me to ride one. Things to work toward!  

 Well, since I have to keep awake to take Amanda to work in an hour and a half, I'm going to go watch an episode or two of Inuyasha.

The casual stroke, books, writing, and sobbing

Sometimes when I have trouble writing I turn to pinterest for inspiration. I happened upon this little gem which had me in a small giggle fit. No, that is not anything that Roy Mustang has said in Fullmetal Alchemist, someone over on Tumblr (that gross place I refuse to visit) made a ton of these little "texts" from Fullmetal alchemist. Some are meh, but some are really funny. 

I decided to reread books 1 & 2 of the Night Prince Series Jeaniene Frost wrote so everything would be fresh in my mind for books 3 & 4. Well, it took me a couple of days to read through book 1 simply because I was trying to write and was doing other things. Book 2 I plowed through in practically one day and I immediately started books 3, which I read half of yesterday afternoon. OH. MY. GODS! I literally could not stop reading until I felt the two main characters were in a good place. So much bad shit happened! It was so intense and heart breaking. I sobbed my eyes out in a couple of places. My skin crawled in others and now, I'm right along with the characters seeking revenge! 

But, I refuse to pick up the book despite it being mere inches from my fingertips, until I have written a good deal today. I got out a page or two last night but since we are having company fly in from Boston tonight, I want to get as much done as possible. As it stands my Oc's brother is being a total creeper and my Oc thinks she's losing it. 

Speaking of the brother- who is Zolf- that reminds me. Christine, since I am refusing to allow myself the distraction of facebook today, I saw your message about writing. Sometimes when I get stuck, I have to go write something else or write some bullshit nothing few pages just to get my brain working. If that doesn't work, then I force myself through it, no matter how frustrating or how long it takes me. I've basically been crawling through the last 15 pages all week.

I've cried for other reasons aside from book drama. The depression monster and I think that's about all I need to say about that for the moment. 

I spoke to my yesterday morning  and I think the next time I see her I am going to strangle her. Apparently she thinks she had a light stroke and that it was caused by the spikes in her blood pressure from all the uncontrollable limb jumping. Its possible, but what the fuck didn't they tell me sooner? And how the hell are are you just going to causally mention that in a conversation with your kid?! Then follow it up with, "I didn't want to panic and worry you, it's not like you can afford to come home every time something messes up with me."   No, I can't, but for fuck's sake, I at least deserve to know these things. Yes, Aunt Laura is literally dying. Yes, Grandpa is slowly wasting away from Alzhimers and because he won't eat. Yes, Grandma is in bad shape. Yes, Dad's not doing so great either. Yes, you (as in my mom) is a cluster-fuck of health issues and I have more than my share of shit going on too, but damn it, don't keep shit from me. I hate it and it's not fair! I don't keep anything from them. It's so frustrating!

Trying out the new glasses, finally, tired, harassed by the cat.

I'm tired today. I hurt too, but that's pretty typical. I don't want or feel up to doing anything except laying on the sofa as still as possible with my eyes closed, listening to music. I would love to read a book or watch a movie or anime, or tv series for a few hours, but I am tired and know I'd only fall asleep. Also, I tend to feel guilty when I'm not being very productive, especially when the house needs cleaned and I have homework yet to do. I haven't even managed to get dressed, I am so lame. 

Narcsia is not happy with me. I am wearing a t shirt that doesn't have a v neckline or scooped neck line so she can't really lick me like she wants. Yes, my cat likes to lick me- kind of like some cats suck on wool, blankets, and clothing. So she tried to lick and eat my hair, but I wouldn't  let her do that either. So in a rare moment, because she was desperate, I got to hold her for more than five minutes while she licked my arm. *sigh* After that, she insisted on play fighting for a few minutes before scampering off to her cat tree in the kitchen to chase her tail around the post. 

Aside from that, I really need to eat something besides a bite of brownie and drink some water. I've managed to let myself swell up again. One of the "wellness" apps I downloaded to my phone was a water reminder. Lately, I've had the worst time remembering to drink anything. anyway, the app has you put in your weight and then it tells you how much water you should be drinking. I should be drinking 85 fluid ounces a day. So I believe that's four of my big water bottles a day. You can count coffee and tea as part of your water intake, but the amount of water from that is reduced a little. Since I know how much I should be drinking, I decided to remove the app from my phone because it was taking up space. That and I never set the damned reminders up.

Lastly, I'm trying out my new glasses. I waited because I didn't want to deal with a potential headache while trying to write that 20-25 page story for class. So far so good, no headache, but my eyes are watering a little. I figure they will stop when I am used to the new prescription.

Oh wait, there was something else. I am reading the last book in the Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost. I love these books, I love the characters. I swear Bones was partially modeled off of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I have no problems with. But, I happened to pick the book up one day when I was trying to figure out which one was going to be next in the reading order after it- you know because sometimes authors put a teaser for the next book in the back. BIG MISTAKE! I happened to see something that looks like the author leaves the end of the series in a big cliff hanger and that's just not right! Checked online, this is the last book in the Night Huntress series but she has a spin off series called The Night Prince (which I. FUCKING. LOVE!).

Okay the covers suck, but it's Vlad and he's awesome!

 But what baffles me is how the hell is what seems to be happening at the end of this one going to be resolved in the Night Prince series when two if the Night Prince books take place during what's going on in Night Huntress? It's driving me nuts and I wish I could ignore my homework for a couple more days so I could read and figure it out, but no, I have to be responsible, I have to adult and do school and clean my house. In the words of Slyvester the cat from Talking Kitty over on youtube "Faaaaaack!" 

Haunted Humpday 9

It's Haunted Humpday again and this time I am getting to it early and starting off with a recent craft. I actually knocked this one out Monday afternoon. I've wanted a larger tote bag in which I could carry some of my bigger craft projects so I made one. And I fell in love with this vintage witch cameo fabric! So did Narcisa.

Of course I had planned to have at least part of my Halloween costume sewn by now but it just didn't seem to happen today. I am hoping production on that starts tonight at the latest. So in lieu of that I thought I would talk about the book I've finally been able to get back to and the show that's been keeping me company whilst I've been sewing and crocheting. 

My cousin Shi-Chan strongly recommended The Originals, a spin off of the Vampire Diaries. She said her Grandma watches it and says it's better than the Vampire Diaries. (Which I thought was just getting good since I got caught up on last season) She knew how much I loved Elijah when he was in the Vampire Diaries and I was starting to have a love hate viewer relationship with Klaus. So, after waiting for it to show up on Netflix, I decided to give it a go. I rather like it! Elijah doesn't disappoint and here I am hoping that Klaus can still be redeemed right along with him.   

I know I have gushed over Jeaniene Frost's books before but I really do love the Night Huntress Series. This is book 5 of the series and I am really enjoying it. I had to take a little break from it while working on homework and also because there are two spin off books that take place between the previous book and this one. 

Other than that, I have been busy working on Halloween goodies. I've created the event page for the Halloween Party we are hosting, put up the invitation, narrowed down what decorations we are taking (we have so few but I am taking nearly all of them which leaves my house a bit bare), and I have created a large playlist of Halloween Music to play at the party. I've also decided on what food we are going to provide. When it was a smaller gathering at our house a few different appetizers were far more manageable, but since we've so graciously been given a different venue, a friend's house, we are doing nachos. It's relatively cheap and simple to do. Apart from that I have a few other little things to do, sewing my costume being the biggest part.

This Saturday the IEPG is having a large Samhain Potluck and Celebration. We are, of course, going and need to take along some food. But I can't, for the life of me decided what I want to take. I was thinking soup since the days are getting cooler but my friend Fiona (who used to be known as Christine B- she's changing her name) is going  to take white chicken chili. I would make a dessert but lots of people bring those and we invariably end up with more desserts than main dishes and side dishes. So I am trying to decide between pot roast, my cranberry apple chicken, or one of the recipes I found on Pinterest.  It's so hard because all of it sounds so good! Especially right now when its 2 am I am hungry and could really go for a snack. Time for some water and for me to hit the hay.

I keep forgetting to do this: Thank you Marfi for hosting this project!!!

Haunted Humpday?

I've decided, because it looks like fun, to join in on Haunted Humpday. I'm still not 100% on all the details but that could just be me over complicating it. So, what is it? It appears to be a blog party type of thing wherein you post crafts, food and recipes, books and media (movies, tv shows, music), and anything else Halloween, spooky, or even maybe paranormal themed on Wednesdays. I learned about it from a blogger friend, Ms Misantropia who links it to Marfi (Insipient Wings), who I believe is hosting this event. 

Between being busy, having the new term of school start up, and not feeling well, I haven't been out to the garage to dig out my Halloween/autumn boxes. I also haven't made any cards or started any crafts although I did think about making a fall quilt or afghan. but since I haven't done any of that, my selections for this week's post will simply be some books and a little bit about the new Paranormal group I have had the privilege of joining.   

Spokane Paranormal Observation Team (S.P.O.T)

The Spokane Paranormal Observation Team aka S.P.O.T started up this year and had it's first official investigation in Spokane's Minniehaha Park. Skoora and I were fortunate enough to have been invited by the group's leader, Scott. We walked through the park, taking pictures, and although there were a lot of little bugs flying through the air, we did manage to get a lot of orbs and Scott and his lovely wife caught a figure the day before when doing their base line readings. Also, Scott became ill when we passed through the two stone pillars that we believe was once a gate. The further we went beyond that, the more sick he felt. When we passed back through, he began to feel better. Do I think the park is haunted? I think so and I would love to go back to gather more findings to prove it. 

Our next investigation is said to be at A Thousand Steps, a location that if I remember correctly, is in one of the Spokane's Cemeteries. 

   

I just finished this book, First Drop of Crimson, by Jeaniene Frost, Monday night. It the 1st book in the spin offs of her Night Huntress novels. It's about a Master Vampire (Spade) who comes to the aid of a human woman. Normally he wouldn't bother with humans (there's a good reason for it), but this one is a friend of some friends of his. The woman in question just wants her problem to go away and to get away from the dark and scary world of vampires, demons, and ghouls. It was a really good book and I really fell in love with the Master Vampire. Part of me feels like I didn't do the book justice in giving you a teaser, but I don't want to spoil too much. Just know there is action, blood, vampires, demons, ghouls, love, sex, am masquerade party, and it's just really good go read it. Now.   

Eternal Kiss of Darkness, also by Jeaniene Frost is the second book for my Haunted Humpday selection this week. Since it's a library book and almost due to go back, I began reading it yesterday afternoon. So far it's is really interesting. A Mega-Master Vampire is "saved" from ghouls by a human woman who is a private investigator as she happens by a warehouse and hears his screams. Only he didn't really need help and he soon learns that some of his powers don't work on her.   

Well, that's all for this week. Maybe next week I will have something crafty!

Egg Rolls, little scratches, OCD, Lana Del Rey, and books...

 Some time ago I heard "Dark Paradise" by Lana Del Rey, in a Hasting's in Spokane Valley. I fell in love with it and when Skoora and I got home, we looked it up. Since then I've heard "Summertime Sadness" and loved it too. So, I went to Youtube to see if I liked some of Lana Del Rey's other songs. I think my favorites aside from the two aforementioned are "Ride" and "Blue Jeans".  Poor Skoora has had to listen to Lana Del Rey for the last couple of days intermittently. I am very eclectic in my musical tastes but I tend to gravitate toward Darkwave, Gothic, Folkmetal, ect... Skoora is more of Rock and Punk or Glam Rock person. David Bowie is her favorite! But sometimes, we just hear stuff that's different and really strikes a chord.

Narcisa is fitting in quite well. Galen and Ellie are both playing with her and there had even been some tentative grooming between them. However, Narcisa, no matter how cute and lovable she is, is kind of a little bitch. She's managed to push Galen off the kitty tower, is kind of a brat to him every time he's on it, and loves to go for his tail. She also bitches if we pick her up and hold her when she wants to play and make a mess. She's managed to repeatedly knock over two different stacks of Skoora's books. She's also scratched us both up (we will be trimming her little claws tomorrow). Her favorite thing to do is attack our legs and feet when we are in bed. Did I mention that she's pretty much ruined the sheer curtains in the living room? But in doing that she also gets excited and runs head first into the patio door. I'd say it's Karma for my legs and curtains if I wasn't worried about kitten brain damage.

I've been reading a lot lately. It's about the only thing that really distracts me from everything that's bothering me, things I can do nothing about and have to continue to deal with, ect... I am in love with Vlad Tepesh in Jeanine Frost's Night Huntress and Night Prince Series. He's just a fun character.

I am having trouble donating plasma lately and we really need the money from it. Skoora hasn't been getting a lot of hours at work so we are hurting pretty bad again. It seems like every time I have gone to donate the last 3 or 4, maybe even 5 times, there has always bee something they use to turn me away. It's not their fault or even really my fault. I'm anemic, my heart rate is sometimes up too high, or my blood pressure. I think the latter two go hand in hand with the stress in our lives at the moment, but the anemia is really worrying me. I'm even taking Iron supplements.  The nurse on duty told me how to kind of get around the anemia issue, but I don't know if that will work, and if it does, will I get turned away for being too stressed over worrying about that and everything else? And when I go with Skoora and get turned away, I always have to sit in the waiting room to wait on Skoora to finish. The staff always watch me and I can here them talk about me and why I am sitting there. It's quite uncomfortable.

Lastly, because Skoora is making all the motions of getting into bed, I made a huge dinner tonight. I made cream cheese and onion won tons, egg rolls, and chicken chow mein. I used the left over won ton wrappers to make a strawberry tart thing with a yogurt rum sauce (that was surprisingly good). Sometimes I get in the kitchen and just throw shit together and bam, surprisingly delightful food. Skoora calls me her Macguiver chef.

Anyway after we'd eaten far too much, I had an ocd moment and decided I was going to clean the kitchen. Really clean it. Skoora's Dad usually does the after dinner clean up and he doesn't always do what I would do if I didn't feel like crap by the time dinner is finished. I still have to clean the top of the refrigerator, wash down a couple of cabinets, clean the bar, and mop the floor, but everything else has been done. And, subsequently, I feel shit, my back is screaming obscenities at me, and I just don't have the wherewithal to even look at my homework. So, I am going to bed and will deal with the rest of it tomorrow... or rather later today since it's after 1 am now. Oh and one more thing, my Mom's birthday was yesterday. I called her but I really wish she could have been here or that I could have been there to celebrate with her, even though she doesn't really like to celebrate anything...ever... My Mom can be a stick in the mud that was sometimes. So, I make her.