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feeling: ...interesting
listening to: Cowboy Bebop - Yuuenchi (no idea what that means)
Today has been interesting.
1~ I woke up kinda late, and dragged my butt downstairs toward the bathroom to wake myself up and such. As I passed the kitchen, where my dad was preparing lunch or something as my mom stood nearby talking with him, Dad greeted me by saying "Well, there she is, the thief. Right there." To which Mom said "Yeaaah..." and I didn't look up at either of them as I ambled on my way, mostly because I knew they were playing around, though I had no idea what about. So I got to the bathroom, washed up, put my contacts in, and braced myself for whatever interesting bit of information I was about to hear. And as soon as I re-entered the dining room/kitchen area, Mom goes into the story, trying to confirm that I remembered the last financial statement I'd gotten from the school with a summer quarter charge of $15 or some such. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I played along. She then told me she'd checked it out online, and found that the $15 charge applied to a quarter I'm not even attending OSU for is to cover a missing microwave turntable.
Yeah.
Well, here's how this past year's move-out day was, regarding that: I cleaned out the fridge, which was disgusting because of some leaked fruit cocktail juice that congealed and then became rock solid over the course of several months. And I decided to leave my roomie to clean the microwave, since she'd used it possibly every day throughout the year while I'd only used it a few times, AND I'd always wiped it out after using it myself. Well, the lady who checked out the room's condition upon my leaving confirmed that with me, and said she'd remind my roomie to clean it, since she wouldn't be leaving for a while yet (but wasn't in the room). So I checked out, locking the dorm room door behind me, even though I knew Roomie would be back soon to load the rest of her stuff. Therefore, either my roommate decided to pitch/steal the thing instead of clean her own soup splatters off of it, or someone from another room suddenly decided they could use a spare microwave turntable. Either way, I now owe the school fifteen bucks for a piece of soup-splattered glass. I kinda hope the ex-roomie contacts me about that so I can hear her viewpoint. I know she won't though. But I kinda wish she would.
2~ A bit after that, Dad announced to me that a Labor Day family cookout was in planning. But not at his parents' home where they usually are. At our home. Why? I do not know. But I'll get back to this later.
3~ Parents went to town, leaving me home alone, which isn't the point. Soon, my brother called, saying he and his wife both had to work Monday, so they wouldn't make it to our cookout that day, and that they would come by later on in the day instead. Cool with me, but I desperately needed a shower after being too sick to think for nearly a week (I'm better, by the way, besides my throat, sinuses, and occasional dizziness). But I didn't want to shower while they weren't home unless ALL the doors were locked (recalling certain events of July ¬¬), and if I did that, I think I'd have locked them out. Long story. And besides that, I figured that by the time I got out of the shower to tell them about Bro's call, it'd be too late and he'd already be here with Sis-in-law and Nephoo-chan. So I waited for them. This leads to...
4~ I discovered that our dog was free of her chain, which very rarely happens. She's lived chained up for the majority of her 12 year life and hasn't gotten much attention at all, besides daily feedings, for about the last half of that life. I feel really bad about that now, and if she weren't so old and unhealthy (she's very overweight and unsteady on at least 3 of her legs, and works up a pant just standing up and walking across the deck) I'd try to find a more loving home for her, but... no one would want her now. Poor old Lady... I never thought I'd be capable of neglecting an animal... holy crap, I actually typed 'anime' before I typed 'animal' there... *slaps self repeatedly*
Anyway, as I said, I felt bad. Especially when I opened the door and it took her close to a full minute to get to me from her shady spot under the deck (onto which the door I opened leads), whereas that trip used to take her about half a second. Knocked a little chunk right outta my heart, ya know? So I put on my shoes, went outside, and took her for a walk. Why is that strange? Because that dog has NEVER been taken on a walk. Not because of neglect, though: when she was younger, she'd just run herself ragged around our property (and a few others', the little tramp) for exercise, and any attempts to walk her failed miserably to her strength and excitability. Which was ok with us since we live surrounded by wooded hills. But today, all I had to do was walk, and she followed right at my heel, as though she'd been trained to all her life. Didn't run off like mad, just because she was no longer capable. Well, I took her for a couple rounds, stopping for a drink after each, then made my way back to the house via the door I'd come out through. And when she saw me making for that door, she kicked the energy up a notch, dancing around my feet and nipping and clawing at my ankles. She hadn't done that since I'd stepped outside. I knew why: she didn't want me to go back inside just yet.
And that walk with Lady made me realize how little I understood animals the last time I'd spent any real time with her, years ago. I kinda take pride in myself now for so easily understanding where my critters are coming from, and I've come to see that every animal has its own personality, just like people. Like my cats, like Dumplin's cats and dog, like Mitsu. But I never saw Lady's until today. She really is a good dog. Loving, loyal, patient, just wants to be with her humans. All these years, that's gone to waste, and I realized that I - ME - have actually neglected one of my own pets. Really knocked me over. ;_; So I decided, now that I know she won't jump all over me when I'm within a foot of her, that whenever she's off her chain from now on, I'll try to walk her again. Or at least walk out to visit her and pat her on the head a bit more often.
Well, moving on.
5~ Parents came home, so I told them about the phonecall, took a shower, and then found that it would take Bro and family some time yet before getting here, so I went outside again, where Dad was preparing the grill and Mom was sitting around talking with him. Dunno why I did... it was nice outside and boring inside, I guess. Dad had chained up Lady again though, since the baby would be here, so I just sat there on the picnic table for a while. Then Mom sat down across from me and told me the latest news about my grandpa/her father: he'd been through some tests which found that his blood is totally devoid of antibodies to fight off infection and the like, and a full-body X-ray found 3 areas like little holes in bone - 2 in a hip, 1 in his head. They think he has multiple myeloma. Cancer. But the results of the third test, a bone marrow biopsy, won't be back till Thursday, so we won't know for sure till then... but Mom has been just... numb. I hadn't noticed it till she told me, and she's known since at least Friday morning. So if you believe in that kind of thing, pray for my Grandpa Schrader, his wife, and my mom. Heck, throw his whole family in. He's got gobs of 'em. And even the toughest of the lot cried when the news came to them.
6~ My bro, his wife, her first son Steen, and my nephy finally arrived, and Dad let Steen crank a gallon of ice cream for later, then my bro broke out his very old beebee gun and let Steen fire at some pop cans with it while we all passed my nephew around. He desperately wanted down to crawl, but he couldn't, since we were out on the deck, which would splinter up his poor little knees. o_o Anyway, time flies, Dad cooks, Chris gets stung by a bee, and we all eat inside, since there are a few too many bees hopping around the deck for our comfort. And while we ate, Nephy-chan was constantly looking in my direction, giggling when he caught sight of me. He luuuuuuvs meeeee. My mom's jealous. >:D Then, thanks to an earlier-made phonecall by someone, Dad's parents show up along with Gaki and her age-40-something-going-on-10 father. So basically Monday's cookout was moved to today within about 10 minutes' notice. And Dumplin' couldn't make it. ;~;
7~ Immediately Gaki takes charge of everyone there younger than her, meaning Steen and my nephy. Steen wants to walk in the woods, so Gaki announces that it's ok, she'll watch out for him... and when they return, she announces that she'd told him not to go too far but "he wouldn't listen to me". I would just about guarantee that in reality she was all for whatever distance he wanted to travel, maybe even encouraged his exploration instincts. Just the fact that she thinks she's older than him grates me. She's 13 and he's 8, but she has the mentality of an 8 year old, if that. Well, then she claimed my nephew, trying to keep him in her lap or arms or at least holding her hands at all freaking times, acting surprised to learn he could crawl and pull himself up to his feet by grabbing higher surfaces. Failing to understand that he's not an infant who needs to be constantly held and cradled and kept stationary, but is independent enough to crawl around and play on the floor and let someone know when he wants picked up by climbing up their pant leg and cooing. As if that weren't enough, she just HAD to start singing to him. *removes own tonsils with a plastic spoon* He was playing with his parents, giggling like mad, having a total ball, and she claimed him and started singing her little lullabies, just tugging him closer when he gave her confused looks and whined and wanted to return to playing.
Oh, also, at one point Steen tried to start a game of bouncing a little beach ball thing back and forth with Gaki, and her response was to wave him off while saying something like "No, not in the house." Not realizing that Steen and I had played the same game long before she'd arrived, sitting on the floor and harmlessly bouncing the ball back and forth, only moving outside when his returns got a bit overzealous, but not because of anything being damaged - just because he wanted to make it a volleyball game over the clotheslines. Anyway. Just another of Gaki's "I'm the responsible adult here" efforts.
8~ Bro and family left before long, leaving us with Dad's parents, Gaki, and Gakidaddy. Grandma declared her intent to pass 2 things along to me: a pair of jeans that were too small for Dumplin' but too big for Gaki, and an old afghan she'd found while cleaning Gaki's room. I have no idea what use she thinks I'll have for my own afghan. Especially since she's already given me one or two, and some rugs, AND a comforter. Anyway, so then I decided to hide out up here till they left, since Grandma and Mom were talking at the dining room table and everyone else was watching some stupid western. Even up here, I could hear my uncle's evil-wannabe laughter at the movie about every 3 seconds, not to mention his running commentary of every freaking thing that amused him. Which was a LOT of things. I was begging for someone to remind him that all those people sitting around him could in fact hear the TV just as well as he could.
9~ They finally left, and a couple hours later, I turned on my TV to watch Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, which has 3 hours of anime on every Saturday night. I only normally watch the first hour though, and last week no anime was on at all. Anywho, I turned on the TV and checked the guide to confirm the usual lineup: YuYu Hakusho, Cowboy Bebop, an hour of Gundam, Outlaw Star, and Pilot Candidate. But tonight I see a change in the lineup. The last title has vanished, and everything else has been pushed back half an hour, leaving the first timeslot with a brand new anime title that I've never seen but always wanted to see: Inuyasha. This was very, very cool to me. >:D So I watch it, and get immediately hooked. Then I watch YuYu, the episode called "Kuwabara: A Promise Between Men", and marvel at the shounen ai slashfic fodder provided in this episode. 9u9 Then...
10~ Finally, I watch Cowboy Bebop. Episode #20, "Pierrot le Fou". And for some reason I cannot explain for the life of me... it was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. T_T I think it was the cat symbolism... the maniacal laughing... the totally appropriate, yet also totally inappropriate, carnival atmosphere... and dude, the music... yeah. So friggin' sad, and I'm not even sure why.
Oh, and one more interesting thing that happened a while ago but was still interesting: one night, I was sitting up here fooling around on the computer, when I heard a loud and somewhat unnerving noise outside. I hear a lot lately, it seems. Stupid incident in July robbed me of my sense of security. Anywho, I looked out, but couldn't see anything in the dark, so I went downstairs and told my parents, describing the sound as similar to... a tree falling. But they hadn't heard anything, so then we all kinda dismissed it and went to bed. The next morning, Mom came and woke me up, telling me to look out the window. I did, and what do I see?
A huge tree has fallen across the driveway.
My mom was impressed. :3
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dragged from Becky's stream of consciousness at 9/01/2002 02:16:00 AM
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