So I’ve been yearning to shop. You laugh, but it’s true - I’m a shopping addict. I /love/ to buy stuff. Materialism, I’m your girl. I just love things. Some people don’t, but I do. I mean, I’m not one of those people who think you can buy love or happiness, but frankly, having things /does/ make me happy. Not as happy as, say, having friends, but pretty darned happy, nonetheless. I’m terrible, I know.

Anyway, terrible old me signed up for a spell of the month club thing at Spellbound Secrets. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. So I finally did. We’ll see how it is, and if it’s not worth my $25, I’ll cancel.

Then I went on and was gonna order $50 of stuff from Terry’s Village. Like a beautiful chocolate easter egg wreath. Not real chocolate easter eggs, but just painted ones to look like it. Pretty, anyway. I need. Really.

But I got smart, and put it off for a while, and decided to go ahead and order something I’ve been wanting even longer. Essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs. Because I’m finally gonna take the plunge into green cleaning. I got 3 to start with (smart move, since I may not like it at all) - eucalyptus, lavender, and sweet orange. I figure that’s good to start with. I want tea tree oil, but actually, I’d like to smell it, first. I hear it’s… strongly medicinal, and I may not like it. Don’t wanna spend $11 an ounce on something I won’t like to use. Where I’m gonna smell this, I don’t know…. Or maybe I’ll just order it when I’m feeling braver.

In any case, I’m collecting homemade cleaning supply recipes… and other recipes / ideas for using these oils. I got an ounce of each. Plus some honeybush tea, because I want some, and a teaball spoon dealie, because I’ll need it, having only used tea bags before. And some droppers and stuff to use with the oils. Whee.

So that’s the big news in my life. Mom thinks I’m crazy, I think. I find it kinda irritating, though, that she doesn’t /say/ anything, except ‘huh’, or laughs, at half the things I say or do. It’s like what I’m talking about is so far out there she just can’t think of a thing to say, or perhaps she can, but is just going on the “if I don’t acknowledge it, it’s not really happening” theory. I don’t know. Same with my religion. She knows… but she doesn’t know anything about it, and never mentions it, except to say that I shouldn’t mention it to my grandmother.

Sigh. I’m just glad I have friends to talk to.

I feel like meming some more. Just because. Hey, I /like/ answering questions, okay?

From Tuesday Twosome:

1. Do you have a collection of anything? If so, of what?A collection? Try zillions. Of everything. Most notable, I guess, would be my collection of Precious Moments’ Sugar Town. I have nearly the entire town, minus a few small pieces. It goes on display at Christmastime. Also, I have a stamp collection, sticker collection, and dozens of more random little weird ‘collections’. I have a huge collection of miscellaneous /stuff/. Pack rat? Me? Naw…A collection? Try zillions. Of everything. Most notable, I guess, would be my collection of Precious Moments’ Sugar Town. I have nearly the entire town, minus a few small pieces. It goes on display at Christmastime. Also, I have a stamp collection, sticker collection, and dozens of more random little weird ‘collections’. I have a huge collection of miscellaneous /stuff/. Pack rat? Me? Naw… A collection? Try zillions. Of everything. Most notable, I guess, would be my collection of Precious Moments’ Sugar Town. I have nearly the entire town, minus a few small pieces. It goes on display at Christmastime. Also, I have a stamp collection, sticker collection, and dozens of more random little weird ‘collections’. I have a huge collection of miscellaneous /stuff/. Pack rat? Me? Naw…2. What is your favourite book? How many times have you read it?I guess I don’t have a set favorite book these days. I like a lot of books, for a lot of different reasons. I have favorite romance novels, favorite serious novels, favorite non-fiction books, favorite fantasy, favorite this, favorite that. The ones that make the top of my list are:I guess I don’t have a set favorite book these days. I like a lot of books, for a lot of different reasons. I have favorite romance novels, favorite serious novels, favorite non-fiction books, favorite fantasy, favorite this, favorite that. The ones that make the top of my list are:I guess I don’t have a set favorite book these days. I like a lot of books, for a lot of different reasons. I have favorite romance novels, favorite serious novels, favorite non-fiction books, favorite fantasy, favorite this, favorite that. The ones that make the top of my list are:*The entire Anita Blake series, by Laurell K. Minus a book or two. Like Bloody Blones.

I guess I don’t have a set favorite book these days. I like a lot of books, for a lot of different reasons. I have favorite romance novels, favorite serious novels, favorite non-fiction books, favorite fantasy, favorite this, favorite that. The ones that make the top of my list are:*The entire Anita Blake series, by Laurell K. Minus a book or two. Like Bloody Blones.*Anthem, by Ayn Rand - provacative, beautiful, short, and to the point.

 *Watership Down, by someone I can’t remember. Also beautiful and adventurous and wonderful. Need to reread.

*The Child Queen - my most memorable foray into fantasy. I’ve read this book a zillion times, and never get tired of it.

3. Do you usually prefer books or movies?

Books, definately. Movies are fun, but books are better. Well, depends. Some things you can do better in movies than books. Okay, I repent. Maybe not better… but differently. Like action scenes and car chases. I mean, some things are just better visually.

4. Do you tend to believe immediately what people tell you or are you cautious?

Considering people tell me a lot of crap… I’m rather cautious. And I research everything. I’m insatiable, utterly addicted to knowledge.

5. Where do you get your news information (TV, newspaper, internet) and why?

Internet. Why? Hate TV, newspapers are a day late at least, and you only get what’s relevant to the editor. The internet has dozens of sources, and opinions, and you can find out everything you want to know quick - you’re not trapped into whatever version your local tv station or newspaper editor has deemed worthy of including. You’re not stuck with just one viewpoint. And when you’re tired of hearing about a subject, you can just click to the next story, instead of hanging around waiting for the journalists and their oh so special guests (gag me) to finish up their useless interviews on TV before the next story comes up.

So for those who don’t know already… Saturday was a bizarre circus-like mixture of hell and hilarity, if that’s even a word. Let’s just say… my friend, A, who was staying over for the weekend, got smashingly drunk, completely made an ass of herself in ways a good friend like me should not repeat on public blogs, vomited /all over/ my bathroom, and provided me with hours of fuming laughter. Hours? No, I’m wrong - /years/. Nevertheless, once the initial horror slash insanity slash furious rage at having to clean up her vomited mess passed, I was well on my way to laughing about the entire incident, while she sat quietly reflecting on the utter idiocy of the entire night.

Nonetheless, she insists she had fun. And in some ways, I guess, so did I. Nothing like true friendship there…

But just in case you wonder why I don’t get out and get drunk… the utter loss of self control is pretty much it.

I have company at my house for the next three days. All right, I lie. I have a single guest. And she’s hardly that - it’s my friend A., who’s just using my apartment as an escape because she and the grandmother she lives with can’t get along for the three entire days they have off work at the same time. So she’s staying here - first time she’s spent the night in a long time. Like… over a year. Wow. Too bad I have to work at midnight, or we could do a pajama party.

A pajama party… that sounds like a lot of fun, actually. Just popcorn, pjs, some random girly stuff, chit chat, music, maybe a movie… The only problem with this? I only have one friend here. *laugh* But oh well. A party for two is better than just a party for… me. Right?

Picked this up from randomness since it seems to be fitting with what the weather’s doing out here!

Remember when you were a kid and you wanted it to snow tons so you could stay home from school and play in the snow?

I lived on the Montanan plains when I was a kid, and while it would indeed snow tons and tons every year… I can only recall one snowday, and that was in the first grade. No, we had to play in the snow at school, or after school, because snow days simply didn’t exist here. However, the bus kids (those coming in from farms on the school busses, that is - those who lived in town, like me, didn’t ride busses) got to skip school or come in late a couple times a year because conditions were too dangerous for the busses to be out with a lot of kids. But they only cancelled school for everyone once. Pity.

How do you feel about snowdays now as an adult?
What do you do when you are snowed in?

Snowed in. Harhar. I’d love a snow day. I’d sit around and enjoy the warm house, make hot chocolate… But I’m never going to get a snow day, so poo on that. Especially since I live a block and a half away from work, and I work for the sheriff’s office. Inclement weather is no excuse!

Speaking of snow… it’s snowed here tonight, probably not even half an inch. Doesn’t snow here much anymore. Drought. But we’re supposed to get more snow - and much colder weather (10-20 below zero) through the week. Not so yay. We’ve been having great, warm weather - more like spring weather. It was eerie. And now we’re back to the freezing February cold. Ah well. Gives me a chance to use my new boots!

I felt like muttering.

1. Unorthodox::sneakers (i dunno why)
2. Skate::board
3. Hold on::tight!
4. Europe::travel
5. Reminder::string
6. Gold::bars
7. Calcium::pills
8. Rated R::Speed
9. Saturday night::nothing
10. Tell::me now!

Time to meme-away. Why? Why not?

FOUR FOR FRIDAY

Q1 - Overcome: Name one physical challenge you’d like to accomplish before you die?

Physical challenge? Being in shape enough to be able to complete an hour-long workout without stopping 15 minutes through. Harhar.

Q2 - Fuel: Twenty (20) years from now, what do you think you’ll be using to fuel your car: Gasoline, Hydrogen, Ethanol, Biodiesel, a Hybrid System, or something else entirely?

I’m guessing hydrogen, but I haven’t really researched things enough to be sure. But I’m guessing hydrogen, or a hybrid moving that way. I’d love to buy one of the modern hybrid cards, but unfortunately… I don’t have that kinda money yet. At least I have a fuel-efficient car now, though. But I’m planning for my next one to be a hybrid. Do my ecological good-deed. :)

Q3 - Poking Fun: Cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper last fall, then reprinted in other publications across Europe in recent weeks, have sparked outrage across the Islamic world. From a cartoon image depicting Muhammad wearing a turban crafted into the shape of a bomb with a lit fuse, to another showing the seventh-century prophet standing in heaven telling a line of suicide bombers to stop because “We’ve run out of virgins,” the cartoons hold nothing back in terms of poking fun at Muslims. Do you feel the newspapers in question were justified in publishing these cartoons? If so, would your opinion change if highly offensive cartoons related to some aspect of your own religion were published in your hometown newspaper?

Honestly, I don’t care to poke fun at people’s religions - any of them. Except maybe the scientologists… do they really count anyway? ;-) No, really, I think it’s just not that cool. But then, I recognize that free speech is free speech, and a little political satire isn’t exactly hate-speech. Live and let live - it’s not like Islam is the only religion getting poked fun of here… how many times has the pope been the subject of those political cartoons? Were they justified? I think ‘justified’ is the wrong word. There’s nothing ‘justified’ about it, but I don’t think they should be too harshly reprimanded for it. Taking great offense to a political cartoon is silly. They make fun of every serious issue that pops up.
Q4 - Cell Phones: How many different cell phones have you owned, and what was the reason for switching to the one you’re using now?

This is my third cell phone, and the only reason I have it is because my mother added it onto her family plan so I’d have something to take with me to go out of town. It doesn’t work here in town anyway, so it’s a rather useless hunk of junk.

I found out last night that my childhood best pal’s father died of a completely unexpected heart attack. Gave me a glimpse into the fragility of human life - my own father’s been told numerous times to stop smoking, stop drinking… and he hasn’t yet. He’s been in the hospital twice in the last… six months? A year? Something like that. Congestive heart failure, and his liver’s on its way down the tubes, too. Russ’s death last night was so sudden - no one expected it, he’d even had a clean bill of health from the doctors not long ago. If such a seemingly healthy man could so abruptly pass away, how much more likely would it be for someone like my father, who’s not nearly so healthy, to do the same?

Moving away from such a serious topic… my washing machine took a dive last night while I was washing towels at… oh 2:30am or so. I heard this strange hissing noise and went out to look… and sure enough, something behind the washer was spraying water…. everywhere. I had gobs of water, water racing across the floor and in all directions - and me, I was standing there just freaking out like an idiot. I was being stereotypically… female. Yikes. So I finally got enough of a head on my shoulders to dial my brother, my socks soaked, the bottoms of my jeans beginning to draw up water, and barely managed to convey in my panic that I had a “big emergency”, which didn’t make him too thrilled. He came up though and shut the water off (harhar, easy as pie, if i’d known how…) and gave a laugh at the utter mess and the steamy windows (yes, it was the hot water tube that’d sprung a big leak) and went back to bed… leaving me to run around, still half panicked, because I didn’t have a good way to mop up the mess. I mean, my mop? It’s a Swiffer WetJet. That is definately no good in this sort of situation. And all my towels? You bet, right in the washing machine, filled with hot soapy water. I found three that hadn’t made it into the machine yet, but they were drenched sopping within minutes. Finally, I got the idea to spin out all the water of the machine, giving me semi-not-soaked towels - just damp, to mop up the rest of the water with. Hell. Pure hell.

So after I’d gotten off the phone with mom, telling her this (I was trying to find a mop), Sheila (our bartender) showed up with the money from the bar… and the cops in tow. Night before last, someone had tried to bust into the bar, and nobody’d noticed cause it was on the back door, which is usually barred at night, meaning we don’t use a key from the outside. When she went to lock up, though, she found that her key just… spun happily in the lock without doing a thing. And someone had taken what they thing was a screwdriver and a hammer to the lock. Greaaat. But we don’t think they got into the bar. Good news, because we’ve had enough burglaries there…. *sag*

What a day, what a day. I just hope tonight goes better.

Well, I took this test… and it was fairly accurate, though not entirely. Intriguing, anyway!

My Score

Here’s another test… on my morality. Out of 100 randomly selected people, I will most likely be more liberal than 73 of them. Whee!

Check out my Morality! 73% liberal, 27% conservative

My vocabulary apparently… needs some improvement, so I vow to increase my word power! Yes, I do! I took this absurdly difficult Vocabulary Test - and scored 142 / 200.