how do you live so happily while i am sad and broken down?

This week I'm staying at The Stanley Hotel this week, which is the hotel which inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. It is kinda creepy.

And uh.

Okay, so I was just practicing my drums and I swear about halfway through, my metronome got turned away from me. I think perhaps the ghosts do not appreciate my mad skillz.

So after a fever-tossed night, in which my temperature rose to 101 and my cough moved into my lungs, I finally gave up and called in to work - which means not that I took a sick day today, but rather that I got to fly from Louisiana to Houston to Atlanta with a fever and chills. Fun times! But I'm home now, and the Tylenol seems to be keeping the fever in check. The cough is still annoying though. I am praying for a miraculous recovery tomorrow so that I can still visit my brother and his wife over the weekend.

I just realized last night that I haven't updated since December 10th. Which is silly, because I read my flist just about every day, so it's not like I haven't been around.

Let's see. I went to Vancouver last week, which was pretty dull because I didn't do anything except go to the mall across the street from my hotel and take a completely pointless walk to see a building that's being built for the Olympics. It looked like a building. It was very exciting. Oh, and I also saw a sign for a "Thrift Shop and Mental Health Library" which I thought was an odd combo.

Then on Friday the 21st I flew home from Vancouver via Chicago, which meant delay, delay, delay. I knew when I booked it that it wouldn't be fun, but the fare was $800 cheaper so I didn't have much choice. What was supposed to be a 12 hour travel day (bad enough) turned into a nearly 19 hour one, and I didn't get home til 3am Saturday morning. I had to be back at the airport by 2pm, so that was a short time at home. Luckily, I'd set everything out so all I had to do was swap stuff out.

I took two suitcases home, and unfortunately Delta decided to hang on to the one that had all my Christmas presents, which I thought was rather sucky of them. They didn't get it to Fayetteville til Sunday at like, 2pm, which was not good because we were having our Christmas that day in Springfield, which is almost 3 hours away. My sister's friend/wannabe-boyfriend/whatever was kind enough to go get and drive it all the way up, so that I'd have the gifts in time, so Christmas was saved at the last minute!

So that's pretty much what I've been up to! Now it's just hanging out with the family for a few more days. I'm putting up some of our bowling pictures over on my facebook, so if you need a good laugh, they're here. We accidentally went to a Christian bowling alley, which I was unaware was an option.

Busy weekend! Flew in from Niagara on Friday, with just enough time to get ready for my friend Hazel's Christmas party. It was fun, met a couple of new people, drank way too much wine and forgot that even the smallest amount of champagne always gives me a headache.

Saturday, I got to have lunch and spend the afternoon with Scott. With his new job and my travel schedule, I haven't gotten to see much of him lately. I still think of him as my roommate, even though we don't live together. I guess he's just my Scott now :D We met up with some of his boyfriend Jon's friends for dinner, before heading off to watch Jon perform in the Atlanta Gay Men's Chorus Christmas special. It was fun - they did a lot of international songs, so lots of stuff I'd never heard before.

And most of today was spent cleaning my house, getting ready to fly out for this week, finishing up holiday-related tasks, etc. I left the house with every intention of having a late lunch and then heading to the airport, only to realize that I didn't have a coat with me. Two weeks in a row that I've forgotten, and I keep getting farther from the house before I realize it. Last week, I was just down the street, this time I was miles away. So had to head back to grab that.

Okay, and thus ends this boring entry! I nearly erased it, because I was boring myself, but I haven't updated in a while, so you're getting it anyway. Um. Go listen to My Chemical Romance on YouTube - watch all their videos (Helena, I'm Not Okay, Ghost of You, Welcome to the Black Parade, I Don't Love You, Famous Last Words, Teenagers) and then listen to Mama incessantly, and you'll have a clearer vision of what I'm doing with my time lately because that's all I'm doing with my time lately. Wot? They are pretty, and they make violently emo music.

HOME.

yayayayayay!

The flight was a bit rough, but hey, it's over now. I met Scott at the airport for a quick drink and catch-up, as he was headed out to France today. Our flights just happened to coincide, mine getting in, his going out. Now I'm home and fed, and looking around the million things I need to do round the house. Laundry and cleaning, here I come!

My default setting for the last month, I swear. But last night I got actual sleep! Well, except for the part where I woke up to the sound of two men talking in Dutch (I think) in the hallway and couldn't figure out where the hell I was. That was disconcerting. But otherwise, sleep=good. Just not enough of it. But even that is a good thing, because that's me being back to normal. I have missed my inner 'omg-why-i-gotta-get-up' self, this morning person thing scares me.

Anyway, so... the weekend! I won't go into detail about everything we did, but a couple of things:

- We took the tour of the Anne Frank house, which was very interesting to see. It all was very distant to me, sort of like intellectually I knew this was where they lived, but then we had to step up through the doorway behind the bookcase that led to their apartment, and that's what made it real to me. I had to put my hand on the doorstop and pull myself up, and I realized this was their life, every evening for two years, living behind this door.

- The red light district, I found not as shocking as I'd thought it would be. It was smaller than I'd thought, and as always with most things associated with the sex trade, it just made me feel a bit sad.

-No, I didn't get high. I really intended to have a brownie, since I don't smoke. But the coffeehouses were all dank and smoky looking, or too crowded, or just smelled to high heaven of pot which I don't really enjoy as a smell. Yes, I know, I'm a giant stick in the mud.

But on to the important stuff: Pictures are here.

And finally, happy birthday to shrinetolust, and happy belated birthday to sumbitch!

Ok, so I'm sitting here waiting for the one person I'm meant to train this afternoon to show up. It's been an hour, and while I kind of feel guilty about sitting here doing nothing, at the same time, she has a schedule. I told them at the start, I don't track people down. And they've only got 2 hours til I have to leave. Ah well, I'm where I'm supposed to be.

Sooo. *bored*

Well, that was unexpected. I think I'm actually impressed with Lindsey Lohan.

The in-flight movie today was Georgia Rule, which I completely dismissed when it came out, other than being slightly puzzled that Felicity Huffman was in it. I remember thinking that I like her, and wondering why she'd be in what looked to be such a trite piece of crap. What I thought was a re-hash of the whole 'teenage rebellion-nobody understands me but my fiesty old grandma who will help me make something of my life' was actually a 'hey, my asshole stepfather molested me for years and my drunk mom never noticed, and now I lie about everything and maybe I'm lying about this too and maybe I'm not.' I don't know if it was the effect of being at 35,000 feet or the subject matter but it had me in tears, and not the subtle, dignified single tear, but the omg-hold back the sobs type tears. Interesting. I'm not saying it's the best movie ever made by any means, but it was not what I thought it would be, and someone ought to rip whoever marketed that film a new one because they so missed the point.

In other news, I did yoga last night, for the first time in at least six months, and every single muscle from my waist down hurts, and a few of the ones above it. You'd think I'd remember this, but no. Every. Single. Time. Yoga is deceptive, it sneaks up on you, and suddenly you realize you've hurt yourself by BREATHING.

Also, last night I had insomnia - didn't fall asleep til close to 5 am, and then had to be up at 9. Forgot that the pest control guy was coming this morning, and stared at him incomprehensibly until he said 'Is that your house alarm beeping?' and then ran to disarm it before it went off and deafened us. Not my most shining moment. I didn't do a whole lot this weekend - mostly worked on my scrapbook and watched episodes of Supernatural, but it was a good weekend. Hope yours was too!

*I've flown over 45,000 miles this year, but only taken 11 trips.
*I'm torn over the last Harry Potter movie. I am only on the third book of the series, I like reading them after the movies come out. Weird, I know. I'm spoiled through Book 6, and I've never cared before but now I find myself not wanting to know how it ends til the last movie comes out. Which means I'd have to go at least two more years never reading anything about Harry Potter on the internet ever again. Odds of this happening: 1 in 1 billion.
*I'm working on my ipod playlists - I'm into the W's! 2069 songs down, a few hundred more to go. Plus all the new albums I've bought since the beginning of the year. Yeah, it's never going to be finished. But hopefully I can work on it while I'm home between now and September.
*I also want to work on my scrapbooks for a while - and take a break on doing things around the house. We'll see! :D
*I wish my sister would move to Atlanta, but she probably won't.
*The shelf that I was so proud of hanging in my coat closet? Fell down last weekend when I put actual coats on it. I used drywall screws and everything. Am giving up and getting my dad to fix it next week.
*I'm going on another pub crawl this weekend - this time namaste_atlanta's coming with me! Goals for the evening: have fun, meet new people, don't miss the last train back to Decatur this time.

Only not. I'm headed back to Vegas, for the week.

The weekend seemed really long to me, I'm not sure why. I went to the movies on Friday night, I think it threw me off. That's usually a Saturday night thing for me. So Saturday seemed like Sunday, which made Sunday feel like an extra day. Oh, well, better too long than too short!

I have replaced my dead cell phone with a cheapo pay-as-you-go phone, just with my old SIM card - a suggestion from the guy at the Cingular store, which was nice of him to do instead of trying to sell me a $300 phone. I qualify to upgrade my phone at the end of October, so this is just a temporary measure til then.

On Saturday, I tried to hang my coats in on the new shelf in my coat closet downstairs, only to have the shelf collapse. I give up! I'll have my dad look at it when he comes down week after next - that and the light in the kitchen that doesn't work anymore. Also, I may or may not have a critter in my attic - will have to call the exterminator this week and see what they charge to come check. Ah, the joys of homeownership! *chants equity-saving on taxes-not throwing my money down the drain to a landlord mantra to self*

My surgery is less than three weeks away - I'm a little nervous, but looking forward to getting my hearing back to normal! The 'rents are coming for that, and my sister too. I'm going to try very hard not to be bitchy - I don't do sick well and sometimes I take it out on the people around me more than I should.

I think I'm going to quit Netflix this week - I've had the same movies out since the end of May. Obviously not watching them, so why should I pay for it? I think instead I'm going to put that money toward re-joining Weight Watchers. I want to be sure to watch my diet during the recovery time for my surgery, since I can't work out. Not that I've been working out lately anyway, oops! But I want to start back, and just generally start taking better care of myself again.

Things to do this week:

• Call pest control about possible squirrel infestation


• Call lawn service re them being dicks/getting them to mow my yard again so I don't look like the trashy neighbor and affect the ability of the nice couple flipping the house next door to sell said house.


• Look for new lawn service


• Watch Netflix movies and mail them in


• Cancel Netflix service


• Pay bills


• Finish solo writing piece for The Est


• Update House Project List with: Getting quote for the roof/soffit replacement, getting quote for gutter covers, getting quote for eventual replacement of main plumbing pipe (for next year), determine cost of painting living room, paint living room, caulk under back door, finish painting crawl space door, get quote for removing sheds from back yard


• Don't spend any more money on decorating the house this week.


• Check prices for rentals on the Outer Banks for next year's possible vacation


• Email thescreamregime about the pub crawl (Todd, if you're reading this, I'm going to email you *g*)


• Email my nephew about birthdays


• Email roofing company about quote for whatever it takes to make my roof/attic impenetrable.


• Look up correct spelling for 'impenetrable' as that does not look right.
ETA: I was right, who knew!

• Lay off the free wine in first class.