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! 

Good bye Graveyard tan, Butt Burn, Moana, and Apartment Management.

It is official, my Graveyard tan is being destroyed. I've burned, I've broken out in hives, and I've burned again. Today, I am letting myself lament it's passing while I struggle to get the day going. I couldn't sleep last night, at least, not until after 2 am, and this morning, I had the worst time waking up and stay awake. There is still a strong pull for me to go lay down on the sofa with the heating pad and a blanket and do just that. But I have so much to do, that it is just not possible. 

Yesterday's work at the Kettle corn stand was not what I wanted it to be. I have to keep reminding myself that I am neither a super human nor can do the things I used to. If I am completely honest, I force myself through the day. Helping Rachel set up takes so much out of me and I can't even do half of what she does. It's not even that hard. Tear down is so much worse because by the time we tear down, I've sat in the heat all day, all ready helped her set up as much as I was able, walked to and from the bathroom, and helped bag some kettle corn. It really is pathetic and so frustrating. By the time I got home last night, I was so tried and in so much pain. To clarify, I am venting about my frustration with my body, not the work, the work is fine. 

Last night Amanda wanted to do something nice for me. She rubbed my feet and my legs with lotion while we were in bed and it felt so freaking good. She also discovered a small blister on my butt. I told her a person moves really fast when they sit down on a molten, sugar coated popcorn kernel. One flew out of Rachel's kettle and into my chair and I happened to sit on it. I laughed at the time. 

Moana was awesome! We recently watched it and Amanda and I loved it. The music is good, the story is wonderful, and I love the character growth. Seriously, go watch it if you haven't. 

So, we are having quite the little problem with our apartment managers right now. They scheduled a meeting to which both Amanda and I had to be present last month, but Amanda couldn't make it because she works a full time job. We were NEVER given a secondary scheduled meeting time and got a notice on our front door stating we missed the 2nd meeting and if we miss the next one, it is ground to terminate our lease and we will have to find somewhere else to live. Oh fuck no! I'm going to be having a little chat with the manager either tomorrow or Friday, because that's bull shit, period.  

  

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.  

Feeling a little better, Lavender fest, shopping, and almost did something

Today I went out to the U Pick Lavender Festival with my friends Chris and Judy. Our set of twins who are friends finally had time off together and came up to visit, but they and Amanda went to Silverwood, since it's likely to be the only time they are able to this summer. Back to the Lavender Festival. There were a couple of vendors among which was my friend Rachel and her Black Fire Kettle Corn stand. 

I didn't buy anything from the other vendors, but I did buy from the farm itself. 

That's my bundle of lavender and I would have picked more but my back and my allergies were really giving me hell today. Yes, despite my allergy pill, there was something out there that my body doesn't like. Anyway, I noticed, after I got home, that the wax melt package had 2 labels so I tried to peel the first one off. No success and now the package looks silly. It sure smells good though. 

One more set of pictures from the farm. 

After I dropped Chris and Judy off at their respective homes, I decided to do some leisurely shopping. I needed to pick up an audio cable for the TV, but other than that, didn't really have anything that I was looking for in particular. I went to Big Lots and picked up some olive oil. You can get big bottles of for much less than you would at the grocery store. I also picked up Swedish Ginger Snaps because why not? I thought they would go nicely with tea. 

I stopped at Ross but didn't find anything of real interest, but I did find some things at Home Goods. I've wanted to check Home Goods out since it opened, so I thought why not? I found a set of 4 steak knives, which we needed, for $5, a decorative sea shell bowl/plate for my bathroom counter for $10, and then I found these...

I thought they would be good in lemonade and other things, plus they just looked fun! 

Okay, all of that aside and on to the more serious stuff. I almost stopped by SCRAPS today to adopt a cat. I was driving by on my way to a fast food joint called Zips (won't be eating there for awhile, my corn dog was half frozen and my fried mushrooms weren't that great either). You could say I was partially inspired/ influenced by a friend, who recently adopted an adorable kitty and showed me the picture of her last night. But what kind of startled me was how much I really wanted to do it, I almost cried as I told myself "no" and to "keep driving". Of course I had previously seen a sign in front of Petco today that advertised cat adoptions from Partners for Pets and almost went in to look at those kitties too. 

On to my emotional heave and dump from the other day. I am feeling a little better. I think that is partially because I did finally get a shower- talk about that in a minute, because we have company, and because I've forced myself out of the house to do some things I really wanted to do. I also got my kitchen 80% clean and did some cooking. After it is 100% clean, I get to rearrange the cabinets from the mess my friend Rachel made of them when she was helping. I am thankful for the help, but that's not where my stuff goes, lol. I'm not really complaining, she was making us dinner one night. 

Shower. I turned on the bathroom fan, pulled in the fan from the bedroom ad turned that on, and still had some trouble. However, I didn't panic nearly as badly as I have in the past. When I got into the bedroom and sat on the bed, I was having trouble breathing so Amanda had me try her inhaler. I've had an inhaler before, the same prescription in fact, so I was okay with trying it. WOW, that helped a lot! So, we are wondering if I am having humidity induced asthma and if that's the the root of my problem. Could be.

Well, Amanda and the twins are going to be back from Silverwood any minute, so I need to get into the kitchen and start making dinner. Then maybe we will watch Pride & Prejudice and Zombies.