Under Sea Garden

The haiku meme was posted again. And yes we had too much fun with it.

All of my Girl's have been bolded (except the cut tag, which is mine) and the others are, well, mine. Dude, we talk about some random stuff on our journals. HEH.

(You can make your own haiku's here.)

( have been flickerings stray desires nights she turned to karot and said )

We have achieved SOFA.

For anyone coming to visit in the near future, you better be just as excited as Karot and I are 'cause holy crap it's like a brand new world in our living room. I almost feel like we should name it or something. "Squishy" maybe, or "Mr. Snuggles."

Or possibly "Mr. Squishy."

. . .


Mr. Squishy, I think I love you. <3


For those of you who actually care, we went to Ikea on Saturday with the help of my dad and chose the lovely and squishy (woo!) Ektorp in the dark blue. There was a bit of drama getting him up the stairs with me having a sprained-ish wrist and the apartment having an awkward stair arrangement, but we made it. Dad was given an ice cold coke for his troubles and then Karot and I got ourselves pizza for lunch. It was good pizza. Mr. Squishy himself was actually very easy to put together and if he's very good and we end up with a little more disposable income we may get him a second outfit. Or possibly decorative throw pillows. We shall have see.

karotsamused here.

Starting in about an hour and eleven minutes, Rune and I will be gone. Gawn. Up in the snow, where hopefully our colds won't kill us and I might even get a day of skiing in.

I know neither of us are huge presences on the Interweb, but this is a notice on account of we're gonna be gone.

There might even be pictures when we get back on Jan 4.

:D

Everyone have a happy new year.

And, Rana? We wanna get together with yoooou. Can we play later? <3

It all started when my mom told me I could buy a new sweatshirt, as long as it had my college logo on it.

You see, when my dad had taken my brother and me on various trips to see colleges, we'd purchased myriad sweatshirts from all of the institutions...except the ones we eventually chose to attend.

By the by, this is karotsamused.

When my job at the Bookstore at my Hallowed Place of Learning brought me in contact with some sweatshirt styles other than the College Lettered Sweatshirt in Blue And Gold, I found myself a bit covetous of others' purchases. Thus, when I asked if I might purchase a sweatshirt for myself, my mother agreed on the grounds that it was in fact from my place of work.

This week, we're having a 40% off sale. On items that were, last week, 20% off. So that's 40% off things that were already priced at 80%. The hell is that math? 46% percent off or so? I have no calculator. Blargh.

But anyway, I got a sweatshirt. At my Bookstore. For $19.77. NINETEEN. FREAKIN. SEVENTY-SEVEN.
At Bookstore prices, that's a crappy t-shirt.

...

I love this sweatshirt. It is black, and the hood is big enough, and the logo is not stupid. I bought it yesterday, and after I got off work and had a shower, I decided to wear it to Rune's Family Holiday Dinner last night.

...Now, Rune has a big family. One that has to gather in separate locations at separate times, half because it would be impossible to gather that many people in one place, and half because the two sides would make that one place explode.

So we met at the Gma's, for the Gma's Side Of The Family sort of thing, and the house, normally pretty cozy with five people, was... packed.

Pack. Ed.

There was the Gma, and Rune's parents, and all of Rune's aunts and uncle and their spouses, and their offspring, and their offspring's spouses and offspring. And then the Friends, which consisted of me and this one guy who held the camcorder a lot.

There were two itty bitty half-Japanese babies, and their very Japanese mama (adorably trying to correct her Very White father-in-law's mispronunciation of her name - "Yu - KI - ko." "No. YU - ki - ko." "Yu - KI - ko. Right? I don't hear what's different!")

There were also ... well. They were all about my age, I guess, or a little older, but since one of them asked Rune her age, they probably assumed I was older. But four barely-legal boys, all about six feet huge, and broad as doorways. (Rune says the eldest is about twenty-five. Ha-ha.)

They were all rather sweet, in their weird Barely-Legal Boy way, and apparently I was unconsciously on my game.

See, as soon as I walked in, I think there was the radar ping. Girl-That-Isn't-Family does a lot to make me attractive. XD

I realized I was getting hit on about the time the youngest one told me he was a writer. And that he was getting ready to write his second Album, and was in the process of recording for the first.

Which is no big deal, especially in this area, since the music scene here right now is exploding. But when I brought up a friend of mine, actually a very talented white hip-hop artist, who had recorded his albums and was in the marketing stage, and was finding the most challenging thing was being articulate about his work and making sure he was putting it out in the right places, I got this response:

"Well, marketing isn't hard if you're good."

...I think you really needed to be able to hear it. And see the little face of "Aw, man, she knows -other- guys?"

Boys. He started laying it on a little thick in the middle, and by the end, played Family Man (although this was rather genuine and in a lot of ways he was sweet. I enjoyed his company). He was funny in the Multigenerational Photo they all took - excluding, of course, me and Camcorder Guy (who took the picture).

But after The Boy left, I turned to Rune's Gma and this exchange followed:

Me: *wry* You know, I think he found me attractive.
Gma: Well, dear, I don't see why he wouldn't have.
Me: -! What do you know? You're blind!
Gma: *laughs*

On the way home, Rune confessed she wanted to growl at him. I confessed I sat with my ring showing in a very shiny fashion after the hip-hop bit of the conversation.

Heh. I got hit on at the family dinner.

...HEH.

Me: *reading lj*
Karot: *realizes she's scraped her leg open when she hit it with the car door earlier*
Me: DDD:
Karot: Yeah. I was like, "Why is my leg itchy? Oh. Decay."

karotsamused here.

So.

The apartment, ne, Cozy Home, is a wonderful warm place with only one limitation.
It seems we blow a fuse if we run the toaster oven and microwave at the same time, and the fridge happens to kick on.

We did it for the first time last week, when one of our landlords was close by to flip the fuse for us, and leave us completely confused as to how he made the lights come back. But we were joyful.

Tonight, the error was repeated, by my beautiful little Mexican.

I, being intrepid and more fully clothed, called the landlord and was told that the folks that run the liquor store downstairs have a key to the big cage what holds the fuse boxes.
So I trekked downstairs, explained the situation, was laughed with at with by the proprietors, and given a key.

Upon entering said cage what holds the fuse boxes, I found that there were. Um. Lots of them. Also water meters. So I called Rune and made her put on pants and bring me a flashlight.

We toodled around for a bit, trying to figure things out, then gave up and called the landlord again.

I think we really freaked her out.

Run decided it was a good idea to just start pulling levers. Especially the big, rusted one that didn't look like it had been pulled ever.

"My thought process was: If you pull the lever, the box will open!"

Once it got pulled? The light in the stairwell went out. ... Ah.

Cue Handsome Neighbor A. He lives in apartment number two, and was the only other person around to notice that all. The power. For the entire. Floor. Went. Out.

This is about the time where I am laughing madly and explaining exactly what's going on to the landlady.
I had a feeling Rune shouldn't have pulled that switch. Once we flipped it back up, the lights came back on. Yay!

By this time the landlord was resigned and in hysterics all at once. The language barrier is occasionally quite interesting in our neck of the woods.

But uh. I assured her everything was fine, and she heard other people laughing, and we haven't gotten any more frantic phone calls. :D

I returned the key to the liquor store guys, Handsome Neighbor A laughed good-naturedly and assured us he'd done it a bijillion times, and we all went upstairs.

The lights in the Cozy Home? Still out.

Cue me running back down to The Cage and jimmying it open (on account of it didn't really close in the first place :B ) and flipping the fuse.

A few times.
Ah.

About then Hansome Neighbor A, being the good man that he is, came down to make sure the cage had locked.

Me: Hey, wait! I'm still in here!
HNA: What? What are you doing? Is it still out?!
Me: Yeah! D: D: D:
HNA: ... *comes in* *flips switch* *flips it again*
Rune: *on phone* OMG THE LIGHTS ARE ON :D
Me: ... <3
HNA: :D

So we went upstairs again and now are in the process of resetting the clocks.

We love you, Daylight Savings Time.

I have a cold again. Which seems like the only time I post here, but I feel there are a few folks I have been lax in talking to recently and they should know why.


Also, Facebook totally owns me. Wow so fun and weird and fun and random all the people from high school and college that I've found. Though mostly college. Awww, I miss Kenyon.


Let's see, other news since I'm here and coherent for a few minutes in a row...

- Dad got a MacBook today for when school starts at the end of the month (he's going to be 57 on the first of October and this will be his first quarter at UCSD where he'll be getting a BA in English Literatures. I'm kind of stupid proud of him).

- Dad's MacBook came with a free iPod Nano. Which he gave to me. It's blue and named Ben and I <3 both it and my papa for being so sweet to me.

- Karot has been working lots this summer and between us we've managed to have some fun, visit some people close by, and spend some really quality time with both our families.

- Karot's Grandmother died the day after labour day, but everyone is holding up well. We spent time with her parents and it was just nice. Also, I think they don't hate me, so that leaves me thrilled in an entirely selfish way.

- My own Gma turns 93 this upcoming Tuesday, and I'm pretty stoked on that. She's had shingles for the past couple of months, which has been rough, but she's pulling along okay and just as wacky as ever. My parents are spending pretty much all their free time up at her place now, and it's interesting to watch my mother go from indulgent to frustrated to just resigned all in the space of five minutes. She has the patients of a saint, that woman.

- Bear is in Colorado right now and the family all miss her and I've finally, finally come to terms with the fact that my kid sister is the Gold Child. 'Cause she is. But somehow I'm really proud of her for that. I have this life that I'm insanely happy with, and if she can go out into the world and make her music and find that same thing for herself, then I know she'll be okay no matter what.

- We now own seven fish. Seven. This is officially the end of the line because there's just no where else to put another fish. Except for that one spot with the empty bowl on the bookcase. But we're saving that for when we find a little girl fish we just have to take home. For the time being it's staying empty.

- Today I finished reading Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, which was exactly what I needed. Despite the fact that she says over and over all these things I already know about writing and the writing process she does it with such good humour and irreverance that it just hit home. I think I may actually have to go and get some work done sometime soon. Woe is me.

- Karot (who is sitting on the sofa with me and being sympathetic despite my constant whining about how my head is full of snot) would like it noted that just the other day we watched My Neighbors the Yamadas, and loved every minute of it. It's not often that you find movies like this, stories that told for the sheer joy of the moment, with genuine whimsy. That's right, it's whimsical, and perfectly lovely. There's laughter that stems from the truth of family, and other moments that nothing more that happily absurd. There is even one perfect scene of quiet personal tragedy that made me smile because of the truth of it all.

- Karot starts school at the end of the month with my dad, and she's getting geared up for it slowly but surely. It means fewer work hours but more time doing work at home. It also means more time figuring out work schedules and bus routes and all kinds of things. It also means I get to wander around campus and pretend I'm a student. ...I wonder if I'll run into Papa. Heh.

- "High School Musical 2 was a disappointment and Corbin Bleu is still gay." Both of Karot's statements are true, though I would have to add that I did love the bit in the movie where Chad and Ryan traded shirts between scenes. I want to know what went down in the locker room to make that happen.

- Vanessa Hudgens, star of the previously mentioned HSM world, recently made the news because someone leaked naked pictures she took of herself when she was like 15. What makes this amazing was that my dad knew about it.

Scene: *follows a conversation between Karot and myself about Ashley Tisdale and how we <3 her while in the car with dad after work today*
Dad: *driving* Yeah, some Disney girl had naked pictures on the internet--
Me and Karot: Vanessa!
Dad: --They said it was going to ruin her career but I don't buy it. I'd never even her of her before now.
Me and Karot: *give him gossipy details on the story*
Dad: Well, times sure have changed. I mean, it's not like that's not how she is all the time under her clothes anyway.
Karot: Magic nakedness!
Dad: Heh.

- The KFC across the street from us is now surrounded by a chain-link fence with a large white banner reading, "Closed for remodeling" and then address of the next closest KFC. This would be less wildly entertaining if the building were, in fact, still standing. You rather reassess your definition of "remodeling" when faced with a lot composed of nothing more than one unlit KFC bucket and a whole lot of dirt.

- My only real concern with the new Pod is that I'll get too caught up in listening to Prairie Home Companion podcasts or something and forget to look before crossing the street and die.


That about sums it up for meaningful content over here. It's time for dinner and then bed (boo work at 7am I'm still not sure I'll be well enough to go to), besides which all those fish need feeding too. Maybe that's why it looks like they're all giving me the stink-eye from the tops of their bowls.

So following a random discussion today, the Girl and I have decided we need to track down some porn.

No, no, gay porn. As in with just boys. No, yeah, it's no big deal, just that Karot's never seen any, and I only saw it with friends in college (Oh drama dept. boys how I miss you).

Our problem is this: We have no idea what to rent, or a non-scary place we can rent it.


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karotsamused here.

And I quote, from the grumpy pink ball on the sofa:

"No burning beans. Beans are not for burning. Evil sun. Whoever heard of wanting crispy beans? That's just gross. You're s'posed ta cook 'em in a crock pot for like eight hours. Ararararargh."

Translation:

We went to the beach yesterday. This little karot got her shoulders done medium rare. Rune is one burned little bean. She had to come home from work early 'cause she was feeling awful D:

She is now sympathetically watering our plants. Just in case they're dehydrated too. <3

I am going to make her take a tepid shower and then smother her under cool wet washcloths while I make dinner and stuff. Poor burny bean.

Even when my brain still feels a little bit like it's been turned into a shriveled raisin, she makes everything better.

Panic attack totally legitimizes having rocky-road ice cream for dinner.


And she even gave it to me in my favorite bowl. Mm.