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.  

Of Boobs, Tears, and Spiders and Vindaloo

Pardon me while I have what my friend Tsuki calls a "lady boner" over Cate Blanchett playing Hela in the upcoming Thor 3 movie! I've always loved her and she became my Elven Queen in Lord of the Rings. I am so excited to see her in this roll, not because I've read the comics- because I haven't- but because she'll be playing what looks to be a villain. Ehm, she's freaking hot!

Prior to my hysterectomy, I had been trying to adjust to my "new normal" frequently. Now, life has giving me the opportunity to do so yet again with the surgery and the resulting aftermath. This morning, as Amanda was leaving, I broke out into tears because I miss one of our friends dearly. This friend is super busy a good deal of the time and while we both completely understand that and never want to become a source of strain, we've really been feeling her absence. 

Anyway, I figured that crying episode was in part because I was up all night writing. I seemed to get a second and then third wind. My stomach was bothering me from the chicken Vindaloo I'd made for dinner- the spiciness of which was on par with my mother's what I consider hell fire chili. When Amanda says it's spicy, you know you're going to experience it again later. I don't think my stomach has quite recovered. My body aches incessantly. Not the sharp pains or intense make you want to vomit kind of pain. No, this is a dull incessant, not quite bad enough to make you take a full on pain pill, but just enough to constantly drive you nuts. Worse, my breasts have decided to hop on the bandwagon. 

I knew I was in trouble this morning, apart from the crying and aches and pains, when I hallucinated a spider crawling long my arm but didn't feel it. I also had a good deal of trouble moving about. I decided to make some coffee and something to easy for breakfast. I ate, I drank a cup of coffee and this cherry and chia seed juice drink, then sat on the sofa with my feet up. I know drinking a cup of coffee seems counter productive, but sometimes when I am really tired, if I drink a cup, the crash helps me go to sleep easier. 

While I did get to sleep, my bastard cat, Thorin, woke me up 3 1/2 hours later. I thought he was hungry. Nope, Amanda fed the kitties before heading out to work this morning. He wanted attention and insisted I pet him. I wanted to strangle him. Now he's sleeping on the cat tower with Narcisa and all I want to do is get the squirt bottle and spray the hell out of him. I can't go back to sleep because the twins will be here in an hour or so. We are taking them to the bus station tonight so they can go on to Seattle for Sakura Con. I also need to do the dishes so I can cook dinner tonight and pick up the living room a little bit. Because I still haven't been able to lay down to sleep, Amanda has been sleeping on the sofa off and on to be near me. I need to fold our blankets, pull the sheet and pillow off to make room for our guests. I kind of just want to curl up and read or watch tv.

While I promised my parents I would read Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia and it is entertaining, I am crawling through that novel. I don't know what it is. I like it well enough, but I don't know, all the gun specs have me stopping to look them up so I know what the hell the character(s) are talking about. I can't help myself because I do like guns and I find it fascinating. But it slows down the reading and I'm not quite as into it as my parents are. However, it is giving me a genuine look into a kind of how should I put this, dumb, hopeless puppy dog, kind of chasing after some girl, that I haven't read before. Which is helpful for when I decide, if I decide to write a character like that. So I will never say the reading has been a waste of time. 

But I have been wanting to finish out Jeannine Frost's Night Prince series for awhile now. Since it has been a while since I read the first and second book, I decided to reread them so they are fresh in my mind as I move into the third and forth, final book. I know I am going to be so sad when the four books ends. I love this Vlad, he's such an ass but a fun ass! Aside from blatant attraction, I think if he were real, he would be a fun friend to have, a scary one of course- he is dangerous- but fun none the less. 

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!" 

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.