I had a great birthday! I'm a happy person.

Scott came to visit us Friday night and we got ramen, and there was some rock-banding. Then on Saturday we went to Brooklyn to help some friends move into a new apartment. Holy crap, was it a nice apartment. I makes me really want to move into a bigger place. They also lived on the 5th floor, and there was no elevator. Still, I was able to carry stuff up and down those stairs like, 15 times or more without having to quit. It's amazing how much my body has changed! I used to be bushed after climbing five flights just -one- time. It is such a good feeling to be able to do something you never could before. A bunch of our friends were there, but we arrived first to help. Another good feeling - not being late to stuff.

After moving, we went to see Ponyo (which was an incredibly cute movie), and after that we went to an izakaya for dinner/karaoke. I'd never gone to do karaoke before, mostly because I was too nervous/cynical about it. Turns out it's a lot of fun. Though I was nerve-wracked and my voice cracked all through my own song, it was still pretty fun. Everyone else was very loose about it. We should've taken more pictures, but we got some good ones. And there was food, so I had curry rice and takoyaki, my two favorite izakaya fares. And I drank some. In fact I drank more than I ever really have before, because I knew I might not sing otherwise. >.> It wasn't much, because I know I'm a huge lightweight and I don't want to experience being drunk. I just got to the point where my face was red, my legs were weird and everything was a LOT funnier than usual. But yeah, it was such a good time.

On Sunday, my actual birthday, Scott said bye and drove back to Virginia. Thank you for visiting us, Scott! It was fun. We went out to LI to visit Mom and my family. Mom seems to be doing a little bit better, but she's still not herself. I still got to have some good time with her and my sister though. Jonathan spent most of the day in his room like usual. Elise and Natalie made me pancakes, since I'd asked them for that for my b-day, and we all ate them outside. I got calls from Sandra, Lisa, Adam, and my dad, and I got lots of Facebook messages too. I felt so loved. :D Mom told me that she and dad are banding together to get me a new laptop, which is incredible. I'll finally have a working computer at home again. T-T Natalie said she's gonna get me a bookshelf, which I've been wanting for a long time as well. She's so sweet.

At night, we went to the international buffet to get fat eat ourselves sick have dinner. Then there was cake a while later. I was kidding when I told mom to put 26 candles on, but she did it anyway. AND I BLEW THEM ALL OUT IN ONE GO WITH MY MIGHTY POWERS, JUST LIKE EVERY YEAR. Late at night we watched TV together. I was driven in to work this morning.

26 turned out to be a really awesome birthday. I have great friends and a great family, and a great fiancee. I'm so lucky. Summer's not over yet, we are FINALLY getting a heatwave instead of a coldfront, and life just feels good. Even Monday didn't really get me down. How about that?!

So me and Natalie couldn’t afford CTcon this year after Otakon sucked us dry, even though we really wanted to go. But we still wound up having a really good time this weekend.

We spent all of Friday night cooking sweets and getting fat. Saturday, we went to Central Park to scope out all of the best places to get married. We are seriously considering the park, since it only costs $25 to get a permit and use a certain spot for a wedding. Someone was even setting up a wedding when we stopped to look at the Cop Cot, lol.

I think we liked the Shakespeare Garden the best. It’s really pretty and should have some decent room, plus it’s right next to Belvedere Castle. The biggest problem I saw with it was that it’s paved with large cobblestones. This makes me worry about women wearing heels. Also, there is very little in the way of sitting room, so guests would have to stand through the ceremony. We’d keep it short, but I don’t want to be inconsiderate. Also, it’s a no-go if it rains. We could always default to the terrace at the end of the Mall or the Cop Cot if it rains, since those each have a roof.

We are starting to look at July/August as a realistic date. Saving for this is going to be very difficult, even at a low/practical budget because the both of us are paid so little. So give me opinions. Would it be horrible and cruel to have an outdoor ceremony in a tree-shaded area of the park on a July/August morning? Are big cobblestones a huge problem for guests in formal attire? Would making guests stand through a short ceremony in the summer also be too inconsiderate? Wedding people (or normal people), let me know.

( Lots of Fluff )

But yeah, maybe some pics will be up soon-ish. :)

We’ve been back from Otakon for a couple days now. I’m battling post-vacation depression, so I figure I’ll go ahead and write about my good times.

( Thursday )
( Friday )
( Saturday )
( Whereupon I was Sexually Harassed )
( Sunday )

I feel a little better now just writing about it. I really hate coming back from a vacation, because the time off always seems so short and regular life seems agonizingly monotonous. I have trouble seeing it all in a positive light. I’m glad for the good time though, completely. I met and hung out with so many awesome people, and I hope to hang out some more. I got a lot of stuff, including stuff that I’d been aiming for. I got to do a great cosplay. And I still have NYAF and my birthday and other good times to look forward to.

Elise has already put up all the pics on her facebook, and I might do the same. I’m a little fatter than I’d like to be in a few pictures, so we’ll see. Can anyone recommend a good photo sharing website?

( Poor Mom )
So, thanks if you read that whole entry. You should all know that I do this after every trip by now. :P And if you were one of the people I saw this past weekend, thanks for being so awesome.

So people want to know why I hate air conditioning. I’m actually kind of surprised that I got more than one person wondering why.

( RAAAAGHERRAAG. )
And that is why I hate AC.

Soooo… I thought this month was going to be busy. Like, ranging from a little busy to just busy. I was wrong. Up till Otakon, it’s going to be INSANE.

We already had the 4th of July, which was so much fun. I got off from work early on Thursday, we spent Friday in Beacon and Saturday at Mom’s house, got to hang out with so many awesome people. And we got to see fireworks on both days, too. This week, we’ve got an anime meetup on Thursday, our anniversary on Friday, and Elise’s party on Saturday. Plus, we need to spend every night working on our cosplay.

But that’s not the best part. Natalie’s family is coming on Saturday night. This was extremely last minute of them, and I am calm and not freaking out. Her dad is staying home thank God, but her mom and all her sisters will be in NYC from July 11th till the 15th…. which is the freaking day before we leave for Otakon. I had this little schedule all written out of how we were going to prepare and Natalie’s family is all HELLO I AM A WRENCH IN YOUR PLANS, ONE THAT MAKES YOUR TUMMY TWIST LIKE A DISHRAG. For the time I’m not at work, I’m going to be helping Natalie play NYC tourguide and trying to show her mom that I am a decent and functional person and not the raving, kitten-eating loser she imagines me to be for some reason.

No seriously it’s not that bad. Right.

I haven’t seen any of them in years, her mother does not know we are engaged (this is intentional), and there’s a lot of accusation and animosity and talking behind my back that I need to have knowledge of while trying to play nice. That doesn’t mean I can’t play nice, it just means that I don’t think I’ll enjoy it. And holy crap I’m afraid I am going to be completely stressed out right up until the stressful task of getting all four of us on the Otakon bus, after which I can finally chill for 5 hours.

Thank God that they’re not coming before our anniversary. I’d better enjoy the time where the two of us can act like an engaged couple while I can. Natalie is very happy that they’re coming and really wants me to take this opportunity to show how cool I am, so I’m glad that this is happening for her sake. At the same time, couldn’t you guys have waited till the end of the month?! Really.

Since we were lent Revolutionary Girl Utena recently, Natalie has completely fallen in love with the show. I am also loving it much; we’re on our second time watching it before we need to return it. I wonder how as fans of ambiguous girls’ love or of anime in general we managed to pass over the series for as long as we did, but on the other hand I’m glad we’re watching it now. And oh yeah, it’s Kagami’s birthday today. Tsukasa’s too. And Tanabata. That’s it for the dork update.

I have a lot to brace myself for but a lot to look forward to. This is part of the reason why I love summer. On that note though, I’ve really been meaning to rant about air conditioning (I HATE AIR CONDITIONING), but that can wait. Hopefully the payoff for having to deal with the stress of Natalie’s family will be a totally awesome Otakon.

At least things don’t suck. And, I’m getting taken out tonight. I’m almost always the one doing the taking out, so yay. <3

A small trail of stupidity on deviantart (surprise surprise) led me to the profile of a Lucky Star fan who was very obviously a young teen the other day. She had your typical “I’m an internet spaz lol look at me” personality, quotes from the dub on her profile, and iconspam of Konata. You could easily tell that the love for the show came from “OMG KONATA IS JUST LIKE ME CUZ I LIKE ANIMU AND HAET HOMEWORK LOL”, that probably 90% of the show’s anime-related jokes likely ironically flew over her head, and that she thought this was a show for girls who like anime and the truth would put a disillusioned fracture in her delicate anime bubble.

( Little Rant about Mild Homophobia goes here )I guess this is just another reason why I stay away from DA now. Creepy as they are, I think I’d prefer the company of the moe-moe fanboys you find on the forums. At least they understand the show, and understand that the yuri in Lucky Star isn’t even a delusion of the fanbase.

Don’t mind the rant. In other news, I love my fiancée with all of my heart and I always will. She and I have felt even closer lately.

I think I am getting myself back on track. At least a little.

We went to Mocca this weekend, and before that we went to a meetup at a bar for female comic artists. I spent the weekend pretty surrounded by arts and artists, all working doing the thing that they love, that I used to love, that I want to love again and that I want to love doing for a living. I met a few people who'd graduated from SVA's animation dept., like I had. They had all run into the same trouble of being ill-prepared and burned out, but they had overcome it and gone for comics instead of animation. I hadn't overcome. Was there shame? Yeah, more than an ounce. But I needed it. I kept a strong face and talked with them despite it. And I drew. I drew pretty well. I think if I keep it up, I can start building my art again.

I've played with the idea of a webcomic for years now. I think it would be really helpful for me to go for it. Something simple will have to do for now. I realize that not everyone will go for my happy talking animals, and such a thing might attract the ::ahem:: wrong crowd, but there are anthro comics out there like Ozzie and Millie or Lackadaisy that have a universal appeal, beyond just "furries". I believe I'm capable of that. Also, I love drawing my cartoon animals, and this will be about doing what I love.

Also, the commissions that you guys have given me will be good for forcing me to do artwork toward a deadline and for the money. Here they are in order received, so you guys will know where we stand:

Fernchu: Scuplture commission, design approved and wireframe is being constructed

MJP: Poster, still waiting on an email with detail info.

clown_donkey: K-On! pic, still waiting on info/details.

Other stuff: I put a hold on frivilous spending and put all extra $$ into my savings. The money I've saved up already has re-granted me the confidence that I can still go to Otakon, though it won't be as easy. This also gives me the confidence to save for other things in the future, like a new laptop to replace poor Shiny.

My Japanese Coach for the DS has been gradually teaching me beginner's Japanese. This is a slow start, but it's the realization of another of my dreams. Once I'm through with it (which will be a while from now), I'm going to start looking at classes. I will learn it.

I now have a ton of stuff to look forward to; a lack of which had been feeding my fragile slip into depression. I've made two new friends over the weekend and I WILL keep in touch with them. Natalie and I were invited to Beacon this coming weekend, we're going to see Brooke and Jen the following weekend, Otakon is coming next month and so is a party my sister is throwing for fun. I'm also excited by drawing and by learning Japanese.

I also want to make myself a new Deviantart and maybe a blog elsewhere, and I want to start a website for my art in the future.

I know myself, and I know that I can become complacent and slip out of this good pace just as easily as I slipped into it. Part of my reason for posting this is so that all of my friends can see, and so that I'll hopefully feel too ashamed to batter myself back down to complacency again.

Here's hoping. I've got faith.

If I am slapped with one more financial problem I am going to seriously break down. I'm losing money left and right; this might as well be the last straw.

I'm getting no state tax refund. Even though my accountant AND turbotax both told me I was getting one of over $500, NY State took the liberty of recalculating my taxes, telling me that somehow I'd neglected BOTH through the accountant AND with turbotax's calculator to mention that I was an NYC resident, so now I'm getting nothing and I owe them $70.

That was my Otakon fund.

I should have had a backup plan, but now all I can do is save, beg my father for early birthday money, and sell stuff. As of now I only have $200 saved and that is not enough. That goes on top of a bunch of other financial issues that I don't even want to get into now.

I am never going to not be poor. I just keep making less and having to pay more. I can't do this. I can't do this. That was my only real vacation for the year, I can't give it up. I'm freaking out and I don't know what to do.

Hey, I can draw. If anyone on my flist wants to commission me to draw anything, ANYTHING at all though I'd prefer something not porn for $20, please let me know.

As of now I am extremely, despairingly desperate.

So I failed royally this morning. I forgot that my metrocard was empty while waiting at the bus stop. I called Natalie and told her, and she came rushing out to let me borrow hers before the bus arrived. I apologized to her over and over again and she was very nice.

Then the bus -didn't- arrive. If it's not at my stop by 8:35, I always head for the express stop so that I can catch the next express bus (the stop by my apartment is a local stop and we get passed all the time). Natalie walked with me for a block, still in her PJs. When we got to the end of the block she told me to jog the rest of the way in case the bus showed up and I had to outrun it to the express stop. No need to tell me, I've had that thing race past my helplessly flailing self in mid-jog on too many occasions.

Sure enough, I was only halfway there when I heard one roaring in the distance. Natalie called me to tell me it was coming, but I couldn't stay on the phone with her because I was making a mad dash. "I'm screwed!" was about all I got in before I told her I'd have to call her back.

It seemed like a miracle that I made it. Even when running as fast as I can, the bus usually gains quickly and beats me to the express stop. But this morning I made it, and I was catching my breath as it pulled up. I was calling Natalie to tell her I'd made it when the bus doors opened, and Natalie stepped off of the bus herself. I didn't have much time beyond being totally surprised and her giving me a hug and telling me to have a nice day before I got on and the bus drove off.

She called me a minute later. The bus was a local bus, so it had stopped at our stop. Natalie had gotten on, pretended she couldn't find her wallet, and stalled the driver long enough to give me time to get to the next stop. Then she got off and went home. She is so sweet and I love her so much. It made me feel so good that she would do something like that just to make sure I get to work on time. Thanks to her, I had a great morning.

Of course, she was pretty quick to boast about how awesome she was while I praised her. Oh well, whatever works. :)

My bus route still sucks ass, but my fiancee is wonderful.

So DC trip pics are on my Facebook. I'm pretty sure that almost everyone here has access to it, and if you want access then let me know. It was easier to upload them there than on photobucket.

Thanks to you guys who commented on my whiny journal entry earlier this week or who showed up on IM to try and cheer me up. <3 You guys gave some good advice, and I will take it.

Wedding planning has been stepped up a notch (so has my exercising, ouch). We're actually reviewing our options, but we don't have a date set yet. Affording it is going to be a bitch, and I know I can't rely on my father or her family to help us pay for anything.

Still, those of you that know me IRL or are close enough with me online that I might invite you anyway, expect me to IM you every now and then and ask you random questions about your opinion on things we're considering for this-and-that wedding/reception stuff.

Each Monday feels more and more unbearble. I know this isn't a good sign. Every Sunday night I find myself thinking over and over, "I don't want to go to work tomorrow". I still don't have a bad job, despite some of the idiotic changes my bosses have implemented lately and despite having to work harder and get paid less (tax issues). But this is still NOT what I want to do. I am becoming increasingly dissatisfied.

I need to draw more. I need to want to draw more.

I find myself wishing I could get away. I love my time off so much, but it never feels like enough. Even the small vacations I've taken have never lasted more than just barely over a weekend. I keep thinking that I'll return from them refreshed, but they just make me wish that they could've lasted longer. I have an urge to travel, which comes along rarely for me since I'm happy in NY.

I know the obvious answer is that I need to get a job doing what I love. That isn't so simple, and it'll take a lot of small steps. But I also really feel like I need some kind of serious break or I'll burn out. I'm so jealous of the strangely large fraction of people I know who are going to Disneyworld this year.

I wanna go somewhere on a train or a bus. I remember how exciting the bus trip to Otakon was last year, or the one this year to DC and seeing Brooke and Jen. I remember that the train ride to Beacon and the road trip to Lisa's wedding was awesome, and staying someplace new and different and getting to celebrate for her was just as awesome. I'm yearning for that again. I still have over 10 days of vacation time I can take. I know Otakon is coming, but again, that's only a weekend. There's also the issue of money. I'm waiting for my tax return, but at the moment I don't have much.

I don't mean to ramble. This is just a little sucky. I'm looking for advice from my friends here. What should I do to make myself happy? Can anyone offer any wisdom?

Me (7:34:37 PM): The Maine governor indicated that the people could vote away the right though.
Me (7:34:51 PM): But progress is progress at this point.
Me (7:35:05 PM): Winning rights comes from a string of losses
Elise (7:36:25 PM): omg
Elise (7:36:29 PM): I thought you wrote "string of cheeses"
Elise (7:36:42 PM): But yeah, stay positive! O:

It's good to have someone like this in your life now and then.

Random Jewish girl moment -

So imagine a young woman, trying not to be late and running down the sidewalk, her breakfast hanging from her mouth. How many anime have started like this?

But in this retard's case, it's a huge piece of hard matzah hanging from her mouth. Because it's Passover. Yeah. Then I get on a bus full of Asians who are all trying not to stare at me and wonder "What the hell is that huge cracker falling apart in her mouth?" And I still got to work EARLY, GO ME.

Other weird things I saw recently -

A guy painting a mailbox. Ever wondered if they paint public mailboxes to keep them looking bright? Turns out they do.

Chickens. Caught in traffic yesterday, I looked out the bus window at the cement plant we were slowly passing, and saw three chickens. Two hens and a rooster. Hanging out on the grass outside the plant, pecking at the ground. No one was with them, no sign that anyone had left them there, nothing keeping them restrained. No on even seemed to notice them. Ghost chickens. I thought this was the city.

Then later, a guy sat near me. He had a rectangle-oval shaped stone in his hand, very nicely polished. It had a carving of a landscape and an old man on it. He stared at it for a very long time, and then.... rubbed it on his face. A lot. Rather intensely at some points. Why?

This is mostly stuff I didn't want to forget I saw. I will still have photos later.

I am going to update soon, I promise. I wanted my next update to have DC pictures on it, which I haven't gotten to upload to photobucket yet, so...yeah, stall. I'm not dead or reclusive or anything. Just perfectionist.

I know that nobody really slams their angry fists onto their keys every day upon seeing no update from me anyway, so it's no big deal.

Money troubles again, arraglskfj. Rent increase in June + additional rent charges we didn't know about till now + MTA fare hike of all-time-fuckery in May + new couch that actually COULDN'T be paid for in increments due to a gross misunderstanding = WHERE IS MY MONEY GOING.

I have more than a week till my next paycheck and I'm already almost broke. ._. We both just got slapped with too many sudden charges all at once. And I was starting to do well again, too. I wonder if I'll -ever- get a decent amount into my savings account. Thank God we already bought our bus tickets to DC and we can still see Brooke and Jen. Not that I'll really be able to spend much of anything there.

Also, my computer's battery and AC adapter decided to declare their ultimate love to each other with a double-suicide last night. Goodbye Shiny, dear faithful Shiny who has computed for me for six years now. ;-; A new battery/adapter will cost a whopping $180 (at least). Needless to say, that is out of the question right now. Natalie says I should just save up for a new laptop instead of saving up to save the life of a 6-year old one instead. I guess she's right, but...bleh. Does anyone know a good deal/pay-per-month plan for a new laptop? Recommendations? Natalie managed to back up all of my files for me this time, so no disasters.

Evie caught the mouse last night. Yes I know that there's more than one mouse, we found one dead under our old couch upon moving it. (I thought I was crazy when I smelled mouse corpse a few months ago.) Anyway, she walked into the living room with the thing squirming in her teeth. What a champ. So Kita, not happy until she's shoved her idiot nose into everything, runs at Evie and slams herself into her. Evie drops the mouse who promptly runs, and Evie gives chase. In the end it got away. I was SO angry at that stupid freaking dog. Part of the reason we even GOT a cat was to get rid of that annoying mouse. Every time Evie spots it and moves in, Kita tromps after her, drools and trips all over everything, and scares it away. I kept saying that if Evie ever got a chance to kill the mouse, Kita would fuck it up. And so it came to be. And so Kita got kenneled for the rest of the night.

I'm trying not to be really stressed out. I arranged for vacation time for the two of us this week for relaxation's sake, and here it is approaching - with both of us nearly broke, me down one computer, and final deadlines making these last few days as strained as possible.

In good news, I lost weight.

You know, ANN asked a while back which anime you consider your "comfort food", that you go back to in order to feel warm and happy and better.

Lucky Star is mine. And things haven't always been at their happiest lately, and it's times like this when I really like going back and watching it and feeling sublime for a few fleeting moments.

Now, I want to be a good girl and support Bandai AND Animecastle, especially in this time of economic hardship. I have faithfully bought 5 of 6 DVDs, and even one LE. In fact, I have done much DVD buying on Bandai's behalf over the years because I enjoy the work that they do with my favorite shows.

So why, Bandai, when I could really use a nice pick me up that I've been waiting for for about 2 months, do you cop out on me? It's March 17th. WHERE THE HELL IS LUCKY STAR #6, HUH?! Nearly a year of early releases and now a "Oh sorry, Bandai's been slow in their shipments lately" and a big honking WHO KNOWS about when it'll actually come into the store?! On the LAST disc in the series?? After you cancelled the final LE to save your asses some money, you don't ship the final disc to stores on its schedule release date?! Was that really TOO much to ask, was it??

I mean for god's sake, Natalie and I are already known as "Those Lucky Star girls" because of how often we stop into Animecastle and buy/ask for the discs. That's how dedicated we are and how excitedly I've been looking forward to this last one, but NOOOOOOO, fucking economy this and fucking economy that, just keep waiting while we drag you out in a completely indefinite manner! BUT DON'T DOWNLOAD DOWNLOADING IS BAD IT'S EVIL BUT INCOMPITENCE IS NOT.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHH.

....okay, tsun is over now. I just needed to get that out of my system.

Things have been a little rough. I'm really worried about my Mom. We visited for her birthday this weekend and I found out a whole lot of crap. She's taken my dad to court for almost entirely neglecting his child support payments and thus knowingly breaking the law. He's been skipping out and postponing the court date, and now he's postponing it so that he can get an attorney. He can afford a lawyer, but can my Mom? Dubious. Could that possibly be because he owes her several thousand dollars and she's in a horrible financial situation? But Mr. "I'm so poor I'm gonna tell the court what a poor doctor I am I can't support my so-called family", he's got it covered.

Bastard. It's starting to look like he might get the upper hand and truly leave my Mom screwed. I didn't call him on his birthday this year. I'm so angry at him. I'd been worried that Mom taking so many days off of work for court would cause her to lose her job too, but that's OK because she already lost it. They're letting her go because she's not an RN and they suddenly realize they need an RN and not an LPN. I was so happy when she got this job, and so was she. It was one that gave her decent work and didn't run her into the ground, for ONCE. Like all those other crappy jobs had finally paid her back with something good. But no. No, God doesn't like my Mom when she's happy.

There are other things, some things I can't talk about. Her father just died. Losing this job means losing her health insurance as well. Now if something medical comes up for her she'll probably just let it manifest some more until it's too late to do anything about it.

I heard her saying that she thinks she's a failure if this is where life has put her now. I tried to tell her otherwise. I can't stand this. I pray for things like an idiot, and sometimes it feels like I'm listened to. But when-EVER I pray for my Mom - I don't feel like nobody's listening. I feel like someone is, but he simply says "NO". It's not fair. This sort of thing happens to her so often, and has for so much of her life it really seems like something has it out for her. She's a good person who gets punished over and over again for doing nothing wrong.

I'm incredibly worried about her. I don't know how Elise's tuition is going to be paid, I don't know how she's even going to keep the house if she can't find work. I don't want to see her fall apart. I don't want her to think she's a failure. I don't want her to suffer anymore. But I'm sure that if I pray for that AGAIN, all I'll get is another big fat "NO".

Nothing much to report; Natalie gave me her cold and it pooped out my weekend a bit. Yesterday I was miiiiserable, today I feel much better. :D I have a new (and doubtless temporary) appreciation for being able to inhale without feeling like I have to sneeze out each functional organ in my head.

Anyway, since Valentine's day sucked and life has been sick and drippy lately (but it's getting better), I figured I'd just do the writers' block thing instead.



My cell phone's alarm wakes me up at 6:30. Evie hears it and rushes to our futon, rubs all over me and purrs, and tries to eat my necklace. I get up. Natalie and Kita usually sleep through this process. Me and Evie leave the bedroom and I shut the door behind us to let Natalie and the dog sleep.

I feed Evie over by the window. Then I change into my workout clothes and set up DDR, fill my water bottle, etc. I do work out mode until I hit 30 minutes or 200 calories. It usually evens out. I pick up after myself (and the mat MUST BE FOLDED NEATLY) and go take a shower. Then I brush my hair.

I go back into the bedroom to get dressed after showering and to let Evie use the litterbox. Natalie and Kita usually stay asleep for this part too. Then I go back into the living room and make breakfast (almost always cereal). Sometimes I turn on the computer, usually to check my emails/messages. I don't always get to reply to them since I'm getting ready, but I like to see what I've got. Sometimes I'll look at the news or the weather. If I have free time I'll usually start cleaning.

At 8:00 I wake up Natalie and coax her out into the living room. She usually curls up on the couch and goes into this half-sleep state where she looks like she's sleeping, but swears she's awake and fully capable of conversation. (She has a much longer wake up process). Kita usually comes in and curls up on the rug. I talk to Natalie until 8:20, then I throw on my jacket (if it's Winter) and get my work bag, making sure I have everything I need. Often enough Natalie will get up and prepare lunch for me to bring to work. <3 Then we'll say goodbye and I'll go to freeze my ass off at the bus stop.

That's how it goes almost every day. Exciting, isn't it? :D What about you?

This week has been sorta depressing. I won't get into too much. A lot of the people close to me are either a little depressed or very depressed, and I was feeling a little down myself. That sorta thing sucks.

My DS wallet was stolen on the bus on Monday. It held great sentimental value to me and also had a few games that had hours of progress on them... and I lost my chance to get two very rare legit pokeymanz along with one game. :( I spent WAY too long calling every MTA number I could, being treated very rudely by all but one operator, only to finally get through to the bus depot and have someone tell me that it wasn't turned in and that could only mean it was stolen.

Needless to say my faith in the goodness of people has taken another blow.

A very kind friend of mine traded me one of the pokemon I really wanted to my game, though. How nice that was!

Anyway, moving on from that. Here are pictures from New Year's and Reni's show.

( Chinese New Year )

( Here's Reni. :D )

Crazy isn't it?

We had a very fun weekend. Saturday was the day that the city celebrated Chinese New Year, so my area of town was bustling. Main street was shut down for the parade and stuff, which we went to go see in the morning. It was FREEZING, but fun. I got to see a few lion dances, which are by far my favorite thing to watch in these sorts of things. There were also lots of people dressed as cows, and music and a ton of confetti. The feeling in my fingers and toes was gone by the time we decided to leave. x_x

Emily came over to watch it with us. Thanks again Lisa for introducing us! I also invited Elise and Jonathan, who came insanely late and missed the parade. My original plan had been to go see Sandra off in the afternoon, but when my siblings got to our place they brought Mom with them. Mom was going to go upstate to clear things out of her dad's old apartment, but got tired driving Elise and Jonathan over and decided to stay with us. I wanted to stay with Mom and I'm glad I did... she wound up having to drive to the ER later that night. (She's okay though, don't worry).

Anyway, it was OK that they missed the parade because everyone was still there for Natalie to cook Chinese food for everyone. She's such a good cook, I'm lucky to live with her. Everyone really liked her food (which consisted of fried rice, dumplings with homemade sauce, and a very big alteration of an egg foo yong recipe). I pitched in by buying almond cookies. We all had a great time just sitting and talking, and then we watched Kung Fu Panda together. We got belated holiday gifts from Emily. She got us some san-x stickers (yay!) and a mystery box from Kinokuniya. The mystery box contained many things, one of which was a felt eggplant. I never thought I would own a felt eggplant. We also gave her our gift, a figure of Patricia Martin (cuz she's totally an IRL Patty), which she loved.

I worried a lot about Mom through the night, but she turned out to be OK so I was relieved.

Sunday Natalie and I went to a karaoke bar that was hosting Reni, a Japanese cosplay star/singer trying to make an American career by singing Akihabara style in karaoke bars. She won't become famous like that in this country, but she sure had a niche crowd going. She showed up in a very cute maid-ish dress and bunny ears, and sang and danced to a number of anime songs. Her English wasn't too good, but she was still real cute. She was a good singer too. She sang songs like Freckles, Every Heart, and Let Me Be With You. The crowd was pretty tollerable too, except for this one creepy guy whose teeth were going in all directions. I'm pretty sure that 'MOEEEEE' screamed at the top of one's lungs was the only thing in his vocabulary. He was just a little too enthusiastic. He sorta gave off the "I could be a very creepy stalker" vibe.

Anyway we would totally go to see Reni again, and we're going to next month. Anyone else in the area who likes anime stuff, you should also go see. We're also gonna see Sword of the Stranger in theaters this Thursday. I like having things to do. :D

I'm gonna post pictures from the parade and from Reni in my next post.