I really loved this teacher, until in 3rd grade when our cat died of cancer, she told me that cats don't have souls and can't go to heaven. It kind of traumatized me at the time and made me hate her a little bit. You don't tell a 3rd grader that, yo.

Anyway, so the first thing she does when she friends me is post on my wall saying how she wasn't surprised to see a picture of me with a cat on my shoulder. She always assumed I'd become a vet or "an owner of 20 stray cats".

It's good to know my teachers at that young of an age thought I was going to be a crazy cat lady.

Also, I think I"m going to start running. Anybody have a good playlist for when they run? It'd be appreciated

There's a local used/new bookstore down the road from us. Occasionally, they'll send out coupons where for their used books, paperbacks are $1.99 and hardbacks are $2.99. BF and I will only allow ourselves to go there when we get one of these coupons.

The first time we went was about a month or so ago, and for a little less than $30, we got the following:

All of The Dark Tower series (put trilogy here at first, wtf?) by Stephen King, along with his "On Writing."

A Terry Goodkind book, a Terry Pratchet book, The first Dune novel, and a Star Wars book.

Kitties not included.

This time around, to the tune of $70 (and that's with $9.95 discounted) we got:

These jacked the price up since they were all new books, but I really didn't care.

But now I have a definite case of First World Problems; since reading the first Dune book we got (that boyfriend actually picked up) I've been really wanting to read the rest (which we got, that was actually written by the author and not the sequels by his son). But I also picked up the latest True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse novel that's been out since May that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. My life is so hard you guys.

I really need to make a list of which books I have in which series though. I went to pick up several books today then realized I wasn't sure if I had them already or not.

We also went and roamed around the new Fresh Market that just opened up. I'm telling you, BF and I are so on the borderline of being hipsters that it's kind of scary. We're just not pretentious enough to be hipsters so we feel we're okay. Maybe. Maybe by saying we're not pretentious enough that in itself makes up hipsters. I don't know. Anyway, they had a lot of neat/fun stuff, and a whole fun-colored aisle of candies and nuts. I really get more excited by new grocery stores than I should, it may be a problem.

I've been dizzy all damn day, and it's been ridiculous. Like, the world is spinning way too sick and if I lay the wrong way I'm going to throw up oh god I feel drunk dizzy. It'll die down some, then start back up when I least expect it. BF just fed me an iron supplement because he says it's from where I'm anemic and don't take them like I'm suppose to. He said if I didn't take it, I wouldn't get ice cream tomorrow. D: He's so mean.

I wanted to find a cute gif of a dizzy cat, but in my five second google search, this was the best I could come up with, so:

"Yup."
"Forever and ever?"
"Yes, forever and ever."
"You're not lying to me are you?"
"Nope."

Sometimes boyfriend is just adorable. This is pretty much ritual for us though, sometimes several times a day we'll go through this. Still gives me the warm fuzzies knowing he wants to keep me haha.

Well, kind of. More like a couple of hours.

The Maryland State Fair has been going on for a couple weeks and since this is my first year missing Jackson's Apple Festival, I asked BF to go so I could get my horrible-for-you-food fix. And oh, did we.

We had dippin dots, a turkey leg, a corn dog, a funnel cake, and lemonade. Omnomnomnom.

We went to Weber's Farm earlier in the day because they recently started selling Apple Cider. I got an apple cider slushie and a little pint of just plain cider. Mmmm, fall, how I love you.

OMG IT'S A BABY PIGGY!

They were selling Deep Fried Buckeyes, and I really thought about getting some. But then I realized I didn't want to die. I was also sad that they had a sign up explaining was Buckeyes were (chocolate covered peanut butter to look like the nut), but then I remembered I wasn't in Ohio anymore and this apparently isn't common knowledge?

Bad picture of Bowser, but he was huge.

I also noticed that there weren't many kiddie rides at the fair. We saw two, maybe three at most. The rest were all upside-down scary kind of rides. So either people around here raise their kids to be fearless, or they just don't ride until they're older.

All in all we had a really good day. Can't take the place of the dinky little Apple Festival in my heart, but it made a good show of trying.

That, upon buying Sister #3 a birthday card, writing a check to go in it, and addressing the envelope, I have to stop and think about what address to put it on the envelope. Should I put hers? Or should I put mom's and mom can just give it to her.

I called my mom and asked her.

"This is going to sound like a weird question, but I bought Sister #3 a birthday card and I was putting her check in it. I was thinking, should I send it to your house or hers?"

There was silence for a bit, then. "Eh... you should probably just send it here, I'll give it to her when she comes out for her birthday."

Why, you ask?

Because her husband will take it. They've been strapped for money for years, as long as I can remember actually. And that was my first thought upon writing the check. Followed by "I should just give her cash", but I never have cash on me and getting to the ATM is a bitch considering I don't remember my PIN number for my debit card (I'm lazy, shush).

She swears up and down she's going to leave him when their daughter graduates high school this year. But she's said that before, so who knows if she actually will or not.

It also kind of gets on my nerves sometimes, because BF is really.... well, he's kind of elitist. He grew up in a well-to-do family, and sure his parents went through a really, really bad patch financially a couple years ago, but it wasn't like what your average person who makes ends meat goes through. Coming home from grocery shopping tonight, there was this really beat up, old oldsmobile that passed us, and the girl was, in his words "super classy". Cig hanging from her hand out the window, bleached blonde hair, etc. He went on about how trashy she looked/was, and it always just makes me cringe. Because that's Sister #3. She's the cig hangin' from her hand in a shitty car, talking trash and getting into fights while fucked up on gods know what. You know what? I can't tell when she's sober. Whether it be from alcohol or pills or what. I grew up with her so fucked up that I just cannot tell the difference.

 But you know what else? She's still my sister. As much as she deviated from the rest of us (and oh lord does this come up in fights more often than not, especially around christmas) I still love her and hope the best for her. I know she's a good person deep down, and she's just been fucked every which way by a lot of people in her life, including our own parents in a lot of ways.

So please be nice to people, even if it is that girl that wants to kick your ass and screams loudly about it in a bar. You never really know.

...well okay, if she's actively trying to kick your ass, you don't have to be peaches and cream. But you know what I mean.

We'll start off with random shit I was thinking while on the plane from Baltimore to Columbus:

-The lights down below reminds me of Cowboy Bebop, the episode where Ed is friends/talking with the Satellite on earth and it draws shapes of things on the surface of the planet.

-My overhead light is broke.

-This is the most legroom I've ever had on a flight. Thank you, Southwest.

-Light working now!

-Planes remind me of ships. Giant ships on a sea of black. They don't creep me out the way ships on open water do, though.

-I really have to pee, but I don't want to get up.

-Clouds are bumpy. Why? Clouds are supposed to be soft and pillowy. Though I guess if you tried to run through a pillow it wouldn't go smoothly either.

-If the pilot had been on time, I'd be home by now. Fuck you, pilot.

EARTHQUAKE TIME!

So I felt my first earthquake EVER yesterday! It was kind of cool and terrifying and then cool again. I was back in the scheduling room which is basically just an oversized closet, and J and I were talkin' and all of a sudden we feel a little tremor. We look at each other and at first we think it's somebody yanking really hard on the doorknob. So we both get up and open it, looking out into the clinic and see that everybody is looking at each other like wtf, and then the bigger tremor hit and everybody was like, FUCK this shit and we all ran outside (even though, uh, that's not what you're supposed to do in an earthquake, but it's policy, so). So we all stand around outside basically going omg and I'm like, we don't get this in Ohio! Since when does MD get earthquakes?! And they're all, since now, apparently.

It was really cool. I'm glad i wasn't home when it happened though. The clinic is on the 3rd floor and the building swayed something ridic, I couldn't imagine what it'd be like on the 10th floor of an older building.

BF and I had our first fight sunday night when he picked me up from the airport. 2 1/2 years and we've never had a fight, so it really threw me. I wasn't in a good mood with him anyway because he had been ignoring my texts all weekend, and I had a headache and hadn't slept a whole lot so I was grumpy to begin with in general. So we get home, barely talk, I shower and go to bed where he already is. I lay there a bit then feel bad about being grumpy so I try to talk to him and I just get these clipped, one word answers.

Now, i believe the bedroom is a safe place. Nothing bad happens in the bedroom. So instead of dealing with a fight there, I grab my pillow and go into the living room and lay down on the couch, fully okay with sleeping there for the night. Well, BF comes in a few minutes later and asks what I'm doing. I say trying to sleep and he asks me why, and I said that he was mad at me, bedroom was safe place, and I didn't want to deal with it, I just wanted sleep. Well this pisses him off more and he's all

"You've been mad at me all weekend! You're pissed that I made you move here."

Keep in mind I'm terrible with conflict, okay?

Me: "No, I'm mad because you ignored me all weekend!"
Him: "You were at a theme park, I didn't think you'd want to be texting all the time."
Me: "So you just don't answer when I text you? That makes sense."
Then he said something that I didn't reply to, so he just said "Fine, be a bitch and be mad at me." And went back into the bedroom, which made me start to do that really gross, ugly cry.

Couple minutes later he comes back with tissues and sits down on the floor and rubs my back while I sob all over the couch cushions because I refused to bring my head up. Finally he told me to come back to bed (When I stopped sobbing) and I did, and I slept, but we did that awkward "hug the edges of the bed for dear life" thing. Monday morning was horrible, because I leave for work before he gets up and I didn't know what it'd be like when I got home so all day I was a mess.

We're okay now though, I simply told him that he didn't make me do anything. In fact, I kind of decided I was going to move before he even formally asked me. And if I wanted to move back to Ohio, I would, it's that simple. I'd up and leave. He just nodded, so I don't know if it went through or not. I don't know. I do know I hate fighting though. It was just a horrible feeling.

I would have liked to receive flowers though to signal all was good. He apologized, saying "I'm sorry I'm such a bad boyfriend/jerk". But I've never received flowers from a boy I was involved with. It'd just be nice. I've never been romanced before and I'd just really like to get a little bit of it. D:

On another note, I have two weeks worth of laundry to do. Fuck.

And to end, here's a picture of TT, my moms cat. She's gained sooo much weight! She's a blimppp.

So, I suppose this is for a certain someone (cough @pika_whoosh cough) who bitched about me only updating once a month.

Know why? Cause I'm old and boring. I get up, feed the cats, get ready for work, go to work, come home, feed the cats, clean, make/eat dinner, shower, go to bed, repeat. Truly, people, I'm that boring.

I do do (heh) cool things sometimes though. A couple weeks ago we went to Otakon, a large anime-con in the area. I took a couple pictures from that, but to be honest, the shoes I wore killed my feet after the first day, so I was kind of just miserable the rest of the time.

Next weekend I'm flying out to Ohio to go to a theme park (King's Island, reppin') with the family. I'm excited, because I actually really love the logistics of flying, trying to put everything into a small carry on bag to avoid paying the checked bag fee/waste time finding your bag, security, all of it. But I'm weird, which you all already knew. But I'm ridiculously excited about this, so there may be pictures from that, so you know, stay on the edges of your seats.

I'm really enjoying my job, if anybody cares. I'd like to be full time instead of part time, though. I'm working full time hours for the next couple weeks because of people on vacations and stuff, and I'm SO excited for payday next week haha. You guys have no idea. One of the girls, rumors say, is leaving, but I don't want her hours. It's 830-5 and I'd just rather not. I hate traffic as is, leaving at 430, nonetheless adding that last half hour. Yeah, I'm a baby, but at least I'm honest about it.

And here's some random pictures from my adventures:

Last time I was in Ohio for the 4th of July, my niece and I went to a thrift store. I was amused by the lunch box that said "Everyone needs a Sugar Daddy"

Momma bought me pandas!

Yukina/Hiei Cosplayers!

Yoko Kurama/Kuronue cosplayers that stayed in our hotel!

Kitteh Belleh!

Oh hai

Another thrift store find I found amusing

Oh god, make it stop. D:

I haven't done one of these in forever. But, I felt the need to make some chili this week (what? you mean there's a heat wave going on? Ours broke! It's only been in the mid-80s! Totally chilli weather....). This is my sisters recipe, so if you make it and it's delicious, you can thank her.

But please, don't tell my mom. She'd be sad I didn't ask for her's, but, eh... she blends her beans up. Yeah. Whatever. Moving on.

Cast of Characters:

2 pounds of hamburger

1 large can of tomato juice
1 large can of light red kidney beans (or, if you're like me and shopping at Giant, 3 regular sized cans)
1 med/lg onion
1 or 2 small cans of chopped green chiles
2 cans diced tomatoes
Chili powder

The Play:

Start out by chopping up your onion and adding it to the bottom of your skillet. Then add your hamburger and brown that all together. Please, don't be like me. I didn't read my sister's email all the way at first and forgot to add in the onion until the last second, but really, it's okay. But just don't be like me, okay?

While you're waiting on that to finish the last couple seconds, go ahead and add your wet ingredients to your big ol' pot. All of 'em. Juice and all!

Aw, look, the chiles kind of made a heart shape! You know why? Because everybody loves chili. That's why.

Now that you're hamburger is finished browning, please for the love of ceiling cat drain off the grease. The amount you have depends on what kind of hamburger you got. Did you be good and get the 97/3 hamburger that I like getting? Then you won't have much! Were you lazy when you went shopping last night and just grabbed whatever Giant had? Like I did do? Yeah, well, you'll have a bit more. I find it easiest to use a turkey baster to drain out the grease, because I'm clumsy and if I tried to just pour it out, all my meat would be in the sink. Don't be like me.

When you're done cleaning up your potential meat-sink mess, add the hamburger/onion mix to your wet stuff.

Now you're going to turn your burner onto medium/medium-low or so. Every stove is different, so you'll just have to figure out what yours works on. You want it to do heavy sided simmer, if that makes any sense. Did you stir it? Please do that. We don't want this to stick to your pot. We're going to let that sit for 20 minutes or so and while we do that, I want to talk about these babies:

These are delicious. Please use them. If you're like me and have a tummy that loves to rebel at any heat, don't fear! These really aren't hot, I promise. And they're delicious. Please, please use them. Use two cans if you want! Heck, use 3! Go crazy! It's your chili, after all. On that note, go ahead and add whatever you want other than what I listed. Sister suggested green bell peppers, but I was like, eh, no thank you. Because I'm lazy.

Is our twenty minutes up yet? Yeah.. oh, well, okay. Here is where we add the chili powder. I don't know why after 20 minutes, that's just when Sister said to do it, so that what we're doing. Start out with a sprinkle and carefully add more to taste. This isn't science, but just remember: You can always add more, but you can't take any away.

Note: Please don't burn your tongue while you're tasting your chili. Like I just did. It completely messes with your ability to taste!

We're going to let this sit and simmer/cook for another 40 minutes. Then you can taste it again. If it's done to your liking, then make some grilled cheese and have dinner! If not, you can let it cook longer I suppose. If you want, but I mean, isn't your kitchen smelling so good? And you're tummy is rumbly? Yeah, just grab a spoon and nom. I promise you won't regret it.