Yarr.

I have a free plane ticket, and I am trying to figure out how to use it. Under consideration:

June 30-July 2, HeroesCon, NC - added bonus of spending time with asim
Same bat-time, Cleveland, OH - see Ferrett, meet rest of Clevelanders and honorary Clevelander yuki_onna and Chicagoan scathedobsidian, who has expressed a willingness to travel to meet me

And here we get into the nebulous zone of "when will Adam get the job", because as soon as he does, I must devote my entire life to packing up this damned house. I will have the help of Spooky and the Scholar, thank goodness, but what I am saying is that I cannot spare the time to travel once Adam has a job offer, and therefore I'm edgy about making way-in-advance plans.

July 14-16, Midwest Haunters Con, Columbus, OH, with Spooky - will Clevelanders come up/down to say hi?

Boston. Anytime.

San Francisco, if things work out well for xanadumalion... it would be nice for us to have an artistic retreat and come out with a new Shayara comic book!

There's Florida, to spend time with kires, but it's so cheap to go to FL that I don't want to spend a free ticket on it; besides, he's coming up to see me soon.

And yes, I want to see many more of you, but... aagh. I need a wealthy patron.

EDIT: And I need someone local to measure me for a costume, because even if I don't go to Midwest Haunters Con, I'll need it for October, as I shall be putting in some time at Spooky's haunt.

Important People

The problem is that I have a lot of Important People, and not enough travel budget and time to spend with them. (This is another big reason for the move - many of my Important People are in the Northeast.)

I was reminded of this on AIM the other day, when I was discussing the HeroesCon option with someone and realized that he hadn't known that Asim was an Important Person.

Him: "You have a lot of Important People!"
Me: "Mmm. I guess I do!"

I am a magnet. I am, per one person's description, a "ball of fire" energywise, much bigger than I actually am. I have a "shine". And this draws a lot of people near. (And I say "shine" in a metaphysical way, not "look, I'm shiny!", and, um, Charles de Lint's wife concurs.)

*peers out at LJ audience* Hi.

But yes. It draws a few crazies, but it draws a lot of uber-nifty people. And it is maybe why I have more Important People than other people I know... my nexus-ness pulls more people into my orbit, so proportionally I have the same as anyone else; it's just a matter of scale.

Anyway, yes. Asim is an Important Person. So's Monkey, but I am not allowed to visit New York without Adam. *pouts mightily*

Daily body, daily BPAL...

...and then I swear I'll go do stuff that does not involve LJ.

Medical
Brain Meds: The usual exhaustion + nausea, some tingliness about the face, some slowness of thought, some fumbliness. EDIT: Tremors like whoa.

Pain: Fierce headache! Took Excedrin. Otherwise, I woke up with achy arms, neck, and shoulders.

BPAL
Some have asked; for those who have not, but have been wondering, BPAL = Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. "Smelly stuff", as crisavec puts it. Essential oils blended like fine wines, in unexpected and intriguing ways. Seriously. I have never been a perfume girl. (And this isn't perfume - no alcohol!) But this is addictive.

( Szepasszony, Centzon Totochtin, Van Van, Djinn )

I'm not going to swap stuff til I'm done testing all my new pretties, because I don't want to end up sending someone three packages when I could've just waited and sent them one. Plus, I'll be re-testing some of these that I'm on the fence about. I'll make a list in the near-ish future so you can request what you'd like, but things won't be mailed immediately.

I am definitely keeping Centzon, and most likely keeping Djinn.

As for wishlisting: What I want most right now that I do not have is Torture King. Everything else that I've fallen in love with so far, I either have an imp or bottle of or have one coming, or it's general catalog. Torture King is limited edition. If you have Torture King and do not love it... *clasps hands together* pretty please?

Mom

So I talked to my mother last night.

I don't know why I do this. I just keep hoping that one day I'l be able to have a rational conversation with the woman. It's not going to happen

So last night. (Or the night before? Hell, I can't remember.) Talked to Elayna... nice uneventful conversation. And she passed the phone to Mom.

Now, this conversation... I swear Mom had a bowl full of little slips of paper next to her, with a random fact printed on each, and she was drawing them at random and trying to figure out a way to make them relate to the Boston move. This has to be some sort of game. I don't know how else this conversation could've happened.

Mom: "Adam's overweight."
Me: "...yes?"

It is an undeniable fact that Adam could lose a few pounds, yes. But why did this enter the conversation? So Mom could establish that Adam was not 100% fit and could stroke out or have a heart attack from the stress of moving.

?!?

It got more surreal from there. Random thing after random thing. The one where I finally snapped was where she was talking about the stress of finding a new job + relocation, and she said, "Trust me, I know from experience..."

Me: "No. You do not."
Her: "Yes, I do!"
Me: "Mom, you have never moved between states in your adult life."
Her: "I moved from New York to Florida!"
Me: "When you were a kid."
Her: "I was 18."
Me: "You moved with your parents. And you did not have to look for a new job. You didn't have a job til you were in your 30s."
Her, sputtering: "Well, but - I'm older than you, and -"
Me: "Yes, but that doesn't mean you know better than me. And definitely not where this is concerned."

Damn, I'm glad I said that. She's not glad. But it's the damned truth. She's had one interstate move in her life, and she was tagging along with her parents. I've had several. On my own. I'm sorry, age does not trump experience.

Yes, this is stressful. Moving and changing jobs are on the top 10 list of major stressors. Major illnesses are on there, too. So I really do not need the random parental hounding.

Additional frustration: Only reason we're not up there already is because Adam has a niche job. My field is broad-range... if I was currently work-capable, we'd be there, and it would be easier for Adam to find work there if he lived there, I feel. (Incidentally, where I am in the disability process = just got a letter advising me to eport to their doctor for evaluation. People who've gone through this... is this good, bad, or indifferent?)

Word of explanation

* This is a bad meds day; this is, in particular, a day when I have to fight to finish every thought. So I am trying to work it out on "paper", to push through it. What this means for you is logorrhea. And... me possibly not always making perfect sense. And not replying to anything that requires coherent thought.

* The writerbrain is mired by all of the rest of the stuff that's going on in my world. *sigh* I need to get to the writing. In particular, I'd like to finish the Fenris-and-Julia bit from the "I can't" prompt. Fenris has been on my mind quite a lot lately.

* Got some cleaning done in Miss Kid's room, and I feel good about that.

* Also, a note, already communicated to the person in question: remember my dilemma over something that I found unpleasant and distressing, and the person thought I should have specified it as a hard limit, but I didn't, because I've always been fine with it before him and one other person?

...it's a pain thing. Meaning, my limit has moved, due to the possible-fibromyalgia. My pain processing has gone unpredictable. That's what it is. I'm currently unable to manage my usual degree of painsluttery. I ... really hope that that is not permanent.

* Post-shower, I smell like BPAL's Beaven Moon. What does Beaver Moon smell like? Spice-cake cupcakes, lavishly frosted.

Okay, yeah.

I need a bottle of Beaver Moon. Spicy frosted cupcakes goes to cinnamon-vanilla-wtf-is-that-tobacco? deliciousity.

And the cat likes it, too. It is a kitty love potion. Thingie.

Dammit. I'm not allowed to spend any more money on BPAL this month. *sniffs beaver-moony goodness* *wails* Need. *whimpers* *is so edible right now*

One-word prompt from kires

Waffle House at 3 AM: He's telling me he's sick, and I'm not looking at him. I'm looking everywhere but at him. Smudged windows. Grease slick on my horrible coffee. My bitten-down fingernails.

If I don't look at him, if I don't answer him, it's not really happening.

He asks if I heard him. I close my eyes.





(This is what you get when you give me a flash-fiction one-word-prompt of "waffle" when I'm really tired. G'night, everybody...)