Territory, Warm Mochi, and Shit!

Don't fuck with my friends!

Mostly people, if they are paying attention, can pick up that I am territorial. I'm territorial of my space, sometimes my time, and most certainly of my family and loved ones. I can be territorial of my friends too, but mostly, I'm super protective and that's not something I share often, because as Fiona remarked once, I can get really intense. Of course, I don't think Fiona has ever had someone get really fucking angry over how certain people in her life treat her. 

So, while I have been helping Rachel with her kettle corn stand at the farmer's markets, I've done a lot of people watching. People are so fucking snooty and rude. Yesterday some woman gave Rachel a dirty look and she said something to me about it. I was in the middle of eating my lunch of mushroom, carrots, the apple cinnamon oatmeal cup thing I made, and one Mochi. Mochi is a Japanese sweet treat made of rice flower and sweet red bead curd in the middle. Since it was warm out, so too was the Mochi. Anyway, I asked Rachel if she wanted me to go throw my Mochi at the woman. I told her I couldn't guarantee that I'd actually hit her, but I'd give it my best shot. She thought that was funny. But I was hot, tired, aching, and had run through most of my "nice, pleasant, polite, sweetness" that I generally endeavor to operate on. Point of fact, put me out in summer heat, in mostly direct, bright sunlight, lots of noise, screaming/ whining children, and barking dogs, then add rude people into that, and I start getting cranky. Mostly it's the heat and sunlight. I hate being hot and I have a sensitivity to light plus the stupid sun allergy and no that's not me simply being Goth and Vampire centric. That's me being cranky and pissed that someone was giving my friend a dirty look.

I had another moment of that today while I was covering another farmer's market for Rachel. She had something she had to do today so she prepopped or me last night and dropped me and the stuff off today. Well, an old man was bitching and actually said he was going to have to get after Rachel for there being burnt kernels of kettle corn in every bag he picked up. Okay, no. The kernels weren't burnt. They were barely brown and if he really had a problem with it, I would have happily handed his money back to him. It wasn't really what he said, it was how he said it. But since this is Rachel's business, I plastered a smile on my face and mentally punched him. 

As the afternoon wore on, I ended up taking out the notebook in my purse and started working on scenarios in which I worked the snoots into a story idea in which they met a grisly end or unfavorable fate. It was a great way to vent my frustration and pass the time. The market was slow. Really slow. Slow enough that I was able to read 30 pages in novel, people watch, and write short bits.

The really shit parts of my day consisted of listening to my Dad vent about my Mom and knowing exactly how he feels and at the same time knowing that on some level my Mom can't help some of it. Still, when you are there, dealing with it, it gets very overwhelming.  Then I got a letter in the mail about my student loans informing me that I have to pay a portion or all of the interest by July 31st and I just got them deffered because I can't pay them at the moment. I haven't had a chance to read the letter in detail, I just skimmed through it. And I got a big packet from them too, which makes me nervous. I am still having pains in my stomach around the surgery incisions. Surely I should be completely healed up in that department by now.

On a happier note I got to cuddle with Thorin for quite a while this morning. He was by the door when I got home too.  Tomorrow I am going to do some stuff for me while I recuperate from the last two days. I was thinking about setting up on the sofa to watch anime and cuddle with the cats. I thought about keeping the curtains closed and turning the air conditioner down to about 65 so I could curl up with a soft blanket and pillows too. I have Green Tea ice cream and Sangria sorbet for treats if I want something sweet. Oh and I made bread the other night, so I can make grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch! 

All natural Ant death, gardening, sun burn, and Unafraid High School Hannah Came out to Play

Amanda and I have been working on getting the house cleaned, it's not like it was a total disaster, but it needed the usual picking up, sweeping, mopping, that sort of thing. I started in the kitchen yesterday since from friends were bringing over their old kitchen table for us. Our other table had a glass top which was great, except Narcisa used it as a landing platform from her cat tree, and I was afraid that one day she's go through it. So they hauled off our old table and gave us their previous kitchen table along with another small table to put on our patio. Well, Amanda moved Narcisa's food two feet closer to the wall with the window on it and by the time we came home from doing the majority of our grocery shopping (around midnight) I noticed several unwelcome trespassers. Little black ants were crawling all over Narcs'a food dish, all over the bottom of the cat tree where the dish was sitting and were taking their loot to the wall. 

I don't do bugs. Period. I tell Amanda that if she wants to save them, then she had better take care of them otherwise I will kill them. This is my house, not theirs. Well, as it happens, Amanda doesn't like ants either so we looked up natural ways to get rid of them. I found a recipe that calls for peppermint oil, vinegar, and water. They don't like it very much. But as it turns out peppermint really isn't good for cats. So I had to look for other alternatives. Apparently baking soda kills them. So I put down a layer of baking soda to get rid of the ones already in the house. When that issue is taken care of, I will put down something else as a barrier so they don't get the idea that they can just come back. I am also going to have the apartment managers spray outside the house. I don't normally like pesticides, but like I said, I do not do bugs.

We did some gardening today. We don't have the bell pepper and tomato seeds planted yet, but we'll do that soon. So far we have parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme planted. There's catnip, marigolds, bachelor buttons, pansies, and Chinese forget me nots. Amanda is putting up the holders for more sage and some lavender as I write this. I don't know whether or not she will put the lights up today or not, we are both pretty tired and sun burnt. I haven't been out as long as she has in the sun, but I did get a little burnt. It really didn't take too long either. Actually it almost seemed like the moment I stepped outside today the sun had it in for me. The good news is that I didn't break out in hives. I am itchy, but I am okay so far. I would actually like to speak with a dermatologist about this problem. Then I can send the information, if there is any, back to my Mom and my cousin Shi-Chan. 

That said last night was a bitch! 

WinCo is generally our first stop- we grocery store hop, it's like bar hopping only less fun. Amanda and I were both hurting, my back and one of her feet, by the time we were done. We didn't really have spoons when we went into the store, and certainly didn't but maybe one if that when it was checkout time. So we get in line and the line moves and some ass-hat slips in and cuts me off. The old Hannah, the Hannah who wasn't afraid to chew out wannbe gangsters in high school because she could see their underwear in the hall way, came out to play. I said "Seriously?!" loud enough for him to hear and then called him a fucking asshole. Before he could say anything, another checker opened up and called us down. So even with Amanda leaving her wallet in the car and me having to go fetch it, we got out of there before he did. (When I told my Mom about it, she said she always thought I was a cool kid. In other words, my Mom wants me to stop taking so much shit and growl at people more.)

We went to Ross next, to get a hanging shoe holder to start our herb garden with. And then we went to Walmart. Walmart didn't take too long, thankfully. We went to the gardening section and picked up some small planters, seeds, and potting soil. I found a pretty scarf with red embroidery roughly similar to what I have had an idea for, for a long time. I basically want to make a gauzy white shirt with red embroidery like Kate Beckensale's in Van Helsing. I will have to post a pic of the scarf later. 

  

But best yet, we when we went to check out, we had all these seeds and in the gardening center they had flyers posted saying that all seeds were 50% off. So they had to honor it. Of course we were at the self checkout and someone had to come help. I guess that 50% off wasn't in the system yet s they had to key everything in manually. The manager ended up just tossing 5 or 6 seed packets into our bag and telling us to continue. I was a bit surprised but I certainly wasn't going to complain considering that Amanda has left about 20 dollars worth of groceries there by accident and because she couldn't find the receipts they wouldn't give the stuff to her. So that as cool.

By the time we got home, we ate dinner, put groceries away, and then crashed on the sofa- well after we sprayed the ants. I had planned to cut up the veggies to do some meal prep for the week but I was in so much pain and my back was seizing up that I just said screw it. It looks like we might be just making dinner tonight and doing the same. We are beat!