Mmm...pseudophedrine.

Despite my penchant for joking that I possess within the dank hollows of my insides, a bitter, cold and blackened heart, I do have to admit that I - like I would hope most people do - hold a very deep and unconditional love and affection for a select few: my family, Scott, my dear friends, Bela the (now) flea-less cat, the Food Network, Star*ucks...

But I can almost honestly say that, at this moment, there is absolutely nothing I love more than Sudafed, Ibuprofen, and their combined ability to make my head feel, for the first time in 10 days, like it's not gradually throbbing its way into one gigantic disgusting explosion of bile and mucous. So now I must take advantage of this wonderful opportunity before the meds wear off, and do the things I've been wanting to do, lo, these ten days past . Namely, watch the Food Network while sitting up on the couch. And finish off those Thanksgiving leftovers. Ah, it's good to be back.

Also: Snow Pictures!

The lake just up the road from our apartment.

The big grassy hill at our place, now covered in powder.

That's the pool behind those gates, with the fountain still going.
Oh man, if that thing were heated, I would have jumped in.

Snow Daaaaay!!!

Look, ma, we're in the news!

Hmm...what's better than waking up to a bright, white, pristine snowy day? Waking up to a bright, white, pristine snowy day and not going to work, that's what! Wheee! While a snowy landscape is really pretty, it's also very inconvenient and downright dangerous -- especially in a city like Seattle, which is utterly unaccustomed to having to deal with conditions like this. Last night, it took me 2 hours to drive the usual 8 mile route from work to home and Scott actually had a minor accident driving home from his rehearsal at UW. Because we are not supposed to get snow like this here,* the cities are poorly equipped with salt trucks and snow plows, so everyone was pretty much driving on black ice last night. Black ice, like my cold, black heart. Except my icy, black insides have been temporarily thawed due to the prospect of not having to do anything today except watch the Food Network.

Anyway, I decided to stay in, at least for the morning, so as to not slip and slide my way through the streets of Washington. But then I called in to work just a second ago, and was told to just stay home because they were going to go ahead and close down early anyway. Yahoo!! Nothing beats guiltless hooky. Also, our Wind Ensemble concert tonight has been postponed until Thursday. And now I may just say screw you! to my Invincible Flu and go play in the snow outside. Is that stupid? Don't worry, mom, I'll drink extra Xango to make up for it :)

Also, yesterday was my Dad's birthday. I'm sure he and my mother celebrated by sharing a nice bottle of wine with dinner and then settling in on the couch, watching good ol' Seinfeld reruns on DVD. They have good taste! Happy Birthday Papa!



* Thank you, Global Warming. I blame George Bush. Al Gore, save us!!

A lunatic am I.

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Thanks to Sarah L. for that quiz :)

***

In other news: My poor Scott is stranded in the Denver airport (Or is it somewhere in Wyoming? Is it bad that I don't even know?) today. He left on Friday to head the initial audition/camp for the Troopers drum corps and was supposed to fly back into Seattle this morning -- except that his flight was overbooked and he's now been bumped from two flights. Damn you, airlines! Leave us be!!! Two potential problems that go along with this: 1) we have a Wind Ensemble rehearsal this evening, which, by the looks of it, will not be attended by Scott; and 2) Scott borrowed my luggage for this trip meaning, of course, that the airline will surely lose it. In case you were not aware, there is apparently an Unwritten Airline Code stating that, whenever Ysabel's luggage comes within a 1 mile radius of any airport, the bag must magically disappear and resurface in Chicago or Portland.

Also: I cooked Thanksgiving dinner and it was awesome, thank you very much. ...Okay, I should say that I cooked a roast chicken (turkey's too big for just two people...that was our justification) and veggies, and then warmed up some ready-made cranberry stuffing and pecan pie. Mmmmm... I have no qualms nor feelings of shame regarding eating ready-made food for Thanksgiving dinner because: 1) I was in a medicated haze at the time and still managed to turn out a delicious bird; and 2) I was then and still am in a flu-tainted fog and managed to not vomit inside my mouth even when having to handle and discard the neck and gizzards from the inner cavity of a cold, dead chicken. But I cut it close a couple of times. Also: 3) the stuffing and pecan pie was damn tasty. The only downside to the whole dinner was -- besides the fact as I have mentioned before that I was slightly nauseous the whole night and, hence, could not partake in the usual uncontrolled gorge-fest that is the glorious tradition -- that I seem to have forgotten about Scott's damned Infernal Defective Can Opener of Doom (yes, this very same one) and was not able to include my beloved jellied canned cranberry sauce as part of my dinner. Boo. So now there are two delicious uneaten cans of jellied cranberry sauce waiting for me in the cupboard and I know one definite thing I have to buy next time I'm in Target:

Oh! And also: It snowed last night! Wheee!

Gobble-gobbledygook.

Happy Turkey Day one and all!

I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this year's festivities. For the first time in my entire Thanksgivingy history, there is nobody whom I have somehow managed to convince to cook up a delicious, savory, glutton-fest for me with which to stuff my face past any point of recognition as a means of celebrating the good-will and generosity which the Native Americans showed the newly settled pilgrims early on in our American history. I'm pretty sure that last sentence was grammatically improper on several levels. Whatevs.

I mean, even when I left California and moved to Tennessee, I still managed to finagle my way into the good graces of Ben's mom, Mary Ann - hi Mary Ann!! - and partake in some traditional Southern Thanksgiving deliciousness with their family for three years. *sigh* Those were some good times.

But, alas, this year, Scott and I are celebrating Thanksgiving by going to the grocery store on Thanksgiving Day, people and attempting to concoct our own Thanksgiving dinner by ourselves while hopefully not making the entire apartment complex explode in a giant fiery ball of death. We still have a couple of really really good steaks in the freezer which was so generously given to us by my aunt and uncle a few weeks ago, so we joked about starting a new tradition of having Thanksgiving Steak once a year. But that didn't seem right. And then we joked about just going to KFC or Boston Market and picking up a can of jellied cranberry sauce (Mmmm...delicious. And I'm not kidding.). But that didn't seem right either. So we are going to buckle down in the next hour or so (it's already 11am and I'm still in bed writing this blog...) and bravely join the rest of the sad sacks who are at the grocery store on Thanksgiving Day. Something tells me that new Thanksgiving traditions will be started this day, and that can't be a bad thing, can it?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Owie.

My throat hurts. Waah. Also, my whole body hurts and I can't seem to do anything but lie down on the couch, wrap myself up in a sleeping blanket and moan quietly to myself. Bah, damn this blasted flu season...

***

In other (happier) news: I just came back from spending the last day and a half in California for my baby niece's baptism. The fam is just as kooky as always. Someday, when I'm not slumped down on a sofa having myself a pity party and sipping some disgusting steaming hot TheraFlu from a mug, I will tell you all about it. It was fun. Except for the fact that the airline - I kid you not - managed to lose my luggage...again. Oy vey. Ok, back to wallowing on the couch and watching the Food Network. Huzzah!

* nothing but sounds of Ysabel's rapture *

I went on my first real, good old fashioned, gloriously self-indulgent Target run since I could remember this evening.

Not the standard variety "I need some toilet paper" Target run, where you actually walk out of the store with just toilet paper. I'm talking about the "I'm only going to stop in to buy some flea bombs because of our g*d-damned flea-infested cat...aaand I'll just look around and see if there's anything else I need to buy" Target run, where you (meaning "I") walk out of the store with the following:

1. 3 cans of Blue Diamond almonds. Specifically, 2 cans of Smokehouse and 1 can of Jalapeno Smokehouse. Holy crap, so good. Scratch that. I mean, hooooooooly crap, SO GOOD.

2. Dried cranberries. Delicious and nutritious.

3. Dried cherries. They were next to the dried cranberries.

4. Cute shoes. Closed-toe Mary Jane wedges (i.e. I can wear them outside without getting my toes wet) which not only match exactly the dark brown shade of my purse, but were also on sale at 50% off. C'mon people, how could I not get them?

5. 2 bowls of Campbell's instant soup. 1 Italian Wedding and 1 Chicken Gumbo. By this point in the excursion, I had come to the realization that I was past the point of no return and would have to counter-balance the imminent destruction of my conservative budget and bring my lunch to work from home instead of going out to eat delicious Thai or Indian food as per usual. *sigh* The shoes are worth it.

6. 4 comfy t-shirts. In a variety of colors. They fit me snugly, as I prefer my t-shirts to do, without being from the little boys or the little girls section. They were in the ladies section, damnit. So I bought them. Also half-off. See Dad? I am good with money!

7. 2 sets of Raid flea bombs. I wasn't making it up. Bela has g*d-damned fleas.

8. 1 pack of flea death drops. Ugh.

9. 2 packs of gum. Come on now, you can't partake in a delirious Target run and not throw in a couple packs of gum at the cash register. I'm just glad I didn't end up buying a trashy magazine to top it all off. 'Cause that's just unnecessary impulse shopping.

Anyway, look, I haven't been able to do this sort of thing since I quit my last job, moved across the country and found a new job, so be happy for me and my uncontrollable, unhealthy relationship with Target. Payday is in 3 days and I decided to celebrate a little early :) And I mean, seriously, those smokehouse almonds? So. Freaking. Good.

***

On a somewhat related note, the other day I was at Walgreens and bought a 6-pack of Hanes tube socks. Men's. Size 6-11. Not for Scott. For me. Because I will be wearing boots for an indeterminate number of months straight - seeing as how the only other variety of shoe that I wear are sandals (well, until See Above happened), which happen to be an unintelligent choice during this time of year - and there are few things in my daily life that irritate me more than having my socks continuously slip down below the top of my boots so that the zipper part keeps scratching your skin everytime you walk. Anyway, these socks appear to be made for your standard-issue NBA player and, when stretched to it's full splendor, reach past my knees. It's awesome. No longer will my tender legs be unnecessarily irritated by the dreaded boot zipper. Huzzah!!

Oh, to blog freely once again...

Hey, you know what I miss? Blogging about work. Namely: blogging about the delightful nincompoops and lunatics that I used to work with everyday in Knoxville. Ach, but I've been scoping out the internet savviness of this new workplace and I'm still too paranoid to go there. This is Seattle - birthplace of Microsoft - after all. And I have a bad feeling that the second I write about anything even remotely critical (i.e. entertaining) about anybody here, I'd get put on the first train back to Unemploymentville. And that ain't a place I'm ready to go back to yet, ya know what I mean? Especially since, as I've told you all recently, I am currently driving around in a big mildew-harboring sponge-on-wheels and will be needing money to turn it back into the glorious beautiful Lucky it once was. But oy! the stories I have just begging to be shared with the world!! *sigh* Lucky for you, you're all just one unfortunate meeting with a whisky sour or two and a laptop away, and the stories will be free for one and all...

In the meantime, the red Star*ucks holiday cups are here for the season, as are the Eggnog and Gingerbread (and Peppermint...but that's available year round) Latte...wheee!!!

Holiday Bliss in a cup.

Happy Election Day!

GoooOOOOO Democrats!!!

***

On a more serious note, how the hell does McDonald's have the balls to take medium fries off of my artery-clogging deliciously affordable beloved dollar menu? And then replace it with some sort of fallacy called "McValue" fries?? When these so-called "McValue" fries are clearly just small fries in sheep's clothing??!! C'mon, they can't actually think people will fall for this. I am McBitter.

Ugh, I could have sworn there was something else I was going to write about here, but my anger over the McSham fries has caused me to forget. Whatevs.

***

Oh, wait! Now I remember: so I'm sure some of you more news-viewing readers have seen that Seattle has been having some serious rain these last few days. Not the cute drizzly stereotypical Seattle-rain of yore, but like California mudslide rain. Which is all fine and dandy, except that my car has decided to start leaking. Rainwater. On the inside. In mass quantities. And I have no covered parking, neither at my apartment or at work. Bah. It's like driving around in a giant damp sponge with four wheels. A giant sponge that smells like mildew. Blech.

"Christmas time is heeeere..."

I just noticed the first holiday commercial (thank you, Mastercard) of the year whilst watching Seinfeld reruns tonight. Squeeeee!!! Who else is excited??!! Is it too early to start playing Christmas music at work? 'Tis the season of Raspberry Peppermint White Mochas!!