オレ、女の子捜してる．．．夕維っていうの
Aug. 24th, 2004 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ximenAs usual, I forgot I had an LJ until the resulting post was long, and so, I give you an LJ-cut:
Long hot showers are wonderful things. Long hot baths are even better, if you have a bathtub like neechan's, but then again I tend to overheat and fall over if I stay in those too long. Speaking of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bakeneko, I spent Thursday-Sunday at her house (though I had dinner at my dad's on Saturday). The escape from the sort of tension that always occurs when Max is sick was a necessary one, and more importantly, I had fun. Even if my eyes are still bleeding a little. I always like to visit neechan's house, where everything is fairly clean and free of any long-term drama. It's actually somewhat reasurring to hear arguments about things like power outlet strips, though I'm sure I'd be pretty sick of them if I lived there. But neechan's house is fairly argument-free, and there's always food, even if this time they're all on the south beach diet. I still had some tasty salad there. I felt kind of bad when I made cookies for the gaming session on Friday and Jyn's dad aired out the house because the smell of forbidden foods was making it hard for the family. But at least we also made a ricotta cake that everyone could eat. I'm not sure I could manage a diet that makes me give up sugar, the driving force behind most of my papers, but it's neat that neechan is trying it. I'm relying on her to tell me if it works. And in the meantime, I'm hoping that she'll forgive me for forgetting and pointing out pastries at the farmer's market and baking cookies at her house and similar things.
Staying over threw my sleep schedule off completely, of course, so getting up at six-thirty the past two mornings has been a lot harder. I'd go take a nap, but I want to make sure I go to bed early tonight, since I have to be up at six tomorrow to leave for Virginia, where my dad's mom lives. This has definitely been the summer of trips, between Baltimore, this trip, and the upcoming flight to San Francisco and subsequent cross-country road trip. Fortunately, I actually like traveling. I don't planes as much, but a couple of books will see me through most flights, and on roadtrips I can always stare at the scenery when no one feels like talking. I used to only bring one book for the relatively short Chicago-Atlanta flight, but ever since the time I finished the book Julian loaned me before the plane had even taken off, I try to include multiple pieces of entertainment. This coming road trip to my grandma's should be fun, so long as Max doesn't get too bored. I have half a novel (probably a little less by tomorrow morning), a book of Molly Ivins essays, and best yet, three volumes of ザ･ワンダラーby 垣野内成美, who wrote the Vampire Miyu and Vampire Yui manga. This is much easier to read the the Yui manga, and while all the masculine language is slightly more difficult to parse than the schoolgirl talk in Miyu, this one has something almost resembling a plot, so unlike in Miyu, I have a better chance of figuring out the context. I should probably be reading something that's actually a challenge, but since I am currently dictionary-less when away from the computer, I'm not too guilty. Besides, this is basically pleasure-reading, the same as my other books. And the manga is funny and cute and full of pretty manga people, including the hugely dorky main character. So I'm quite glad neechan is loaning it to me.
My mom is in the hospital again. This isn't particulrly surprising, though I am beginning to wonder why eevry time she promises to complete some piece of paperwork I need she suddenly goes into the hospital. I'd suspect conspiracy, but I think it's just an indication of how often she's in there. This will be the third time this summer, and all of the stays have been at least a few days. One of them was two weeks long. It's frustrating that I can't submit the insurance paperwork myself to get back on the insurance rolls, but it has to go through her work and have her signature on it. Not that it matters all that much anyway, since she's soon going to either quit or get fired, and either way, none of us will have health insurance. The Student Health Clinic doctor said that the Cook county health clinics were actually pretty decent, at least, so long as you can get into the system. So that's one thing to do once I get back the Chicago. I'm glad neechan suggested it to me.
In the meantime, I've pretty much run out of ways to help my mom, save cleaning her house every few weeks to get rid of the rotting food and ashtrays. her being away yesterday gave me the perfect opportunity to empty her bedroom of months of accumulated trash, get the computer de-ashed, and to air the entire house out a little, too. In the process, I came to the conclusion that one reason that house is so unpleasant even when fairly clean and unoccupied had to be demons. So, following the airing-out came an exorcism, with much banging on pots, waving of bright streamers, and shouting. I think I chased most of them out of the house, and shut the windows behind them. I rearranged my mom's bedroom to minimize demon (and trash) filled nooks, and taped pieces of paper reading ｢悪霊退散｣ onto most of the doors. I also, at Sushu's suggestion, printed out some notes politely asking all demons who were not in the house on exclusively benign business to please leave, and stuck them in places where demons seemed likely to gather. It wasn't a complete exorcism (the fridge is going to need one all of its own), but it did the trick. The house feels at least a little happier now. All-in-all a success, except that ever since then I've been hearing weird noises, so I think a couple of them may have followed me home. That's okay, though. My dad's house is much more stable, and maybe if they settle in somewhere that's a bit more pleasant they'll be happier demons. I certainly hope so.
This has been a good week for acquiring stuff, and a bad week for clothes. I lost one shirt to a mysterious but large hole, another shirt to something my mom said was stain remover but turned out to be bleach, and I spilled thai tea on a third shirt, though I think I got the stains out. But on the plus side, I got some One Pound Gospel, two volumes of 日本語で Ogre Slayer and some sort of scary story manga, also 日本語で, fromkarishi. The One Pound Gospel is actually for Sushu, but I get to read them first. Thank you, Jeremy! Oh, and I got glasses! They're dark blue wire frames and nifty leaf patterns that you can't see when I'm wearing them and they actually look kind of silly on me, but oh well. I still wear my contacts most of the time, having been forced to get used to them, but I like having the choice, especially early in the morning and late at night.
And on a completely unrelated note, the NYT Sunday magazine had an article about mild depression in Japanese society, and how the drug companies are trying to convince the japanese people that depression is something medical and not just laziness or whatnot. Apparently they started calling it 心の風邪 in an attempt to make it seem more medical. It's an interesting article, and if someone wants me to scan it for them or something, tell me. It may also be on the NYT website.
And, that's about it.
Long hot showers are wonderful things. Long hot baths are even better, if you have a bathtub like neechan's, but then again I tend to overheat and fall over if I stay in those too long. Speaking of
bakeneko, I spent Thursday-Sunday at her house (though I had dinner at my dad's on Saturday). The escape from the sort of tension that always occurs when Max is sick was a necessary one, and more importantly, I had fun. Even if my eyes are still bleeding a little. I always like to visit neechan's house, where everything is fairly clean and free of any long-term drama. It's actually somewhat reasurring to hear arguments about things like power outlet strips, though I'm sure I'd be pretty sick of them if I lived there. But neechan's house is fairly argument-free, and there's always food, even if this time they're all on the south beach diet. I still had some tasty salad there. I felt kind of bad when I made cookies for the gaming session on Friday and Jyn's dad aired out the house because the smell of forbidden foods was making it hard for the family. But at least we also made a ricotta cake that everyone could eat. I'm not sure I could manage a diet that makes me give up sugar, the driving force behind most of my papers, but it's neat that neechan is trying it. I'm relying on her to tell me if it works. And in the meantime, I'm hoping that she'll forgive me for forgetting and pointing out pastries at the farmer's market and baking cookies at her house and similar things.Staying over threw my sleep schedule off completely, of course, so getting up at six-thirty the past two mornings has been a lot harder. I'd go take a nap, but I want to make sure I go to bed early tonight, since I have to be up at six tomorrow to leave for Virginia, where my dad's mom lives. This has definitely been the summer of trips, between Baltimore, this trip, and the upcoming flight to San Francisco and subsequent cross-country road trip. Fortunately, I actually like traveling. I don't planes as much, but a couple of books will see me through most flights, and on roadtrips I can always stare at the scenery when no one feels like talking. I used to only bring one book for the relatively short Chicago-Atlanta flight, but ever since the time I finished the book Julian loaned me before the plane had even taken off, I try to include multiple pieces of entertainment. This coming road trip to my grandma's should be fun, so long as Max doesn't get too bored. I have half a novel (probably a little less by tomorrow morning), a book of Molly Ivins essays, and best yet, three volumes of ザ･ワンダラーby 垣野内成美, who wrote the Vampire Miyu and Vampire Yui manga. This is much easier to read the the Yui manga, and while all the masculine language is slightly more difficult to parse than the schoolgirl talk in Miyu, this one has something almost resembling a plot, so unlike in Miyu, I have a better chance of figuring out the context. I should probably be reading something that's actually a challenge, but since I am currently dictionary-less when away from the computer, I'm not too guilty. Besides, this is basically pleasure-reading, the same as my other books. And the manga is funny and cute and full of pretty manga people, including the hugely dorky main character. So I'm quite glad neechan is loaning it to me.
My mom is in the hospital again. This isn't particulrly surprising, though I am beginning to wonder why eevry time she promises to complete some piece of paperwork I need she suddenly goes into the hospital. I'd suspect conspiracy, but I think it's just an indication of how often she's in there. This will be the third time this summer, and all of the stays have been at least a few days. One of them was two weeks long. It's frustrating that I can't submit the insurance paperwork myself to get back on the insurance rolls, but it has to go through her work and have her signature on it. Not that it matters all that much anyway, since she's soon going to either quit or get fired, and either way, none of us will have health insurance. The Student Health Clinic doctor said that the Cook county health clinics were actually pretty decent, at least, so long as you can get into the system. So that's one thing to do once I get back the Chicago. I'm glad neechan suggested it to me.
In the meantime, I've pretty much run out of ways to help my mom, save cleaning her house every few weeks to get rid of the rotting food and ashtrays. her being away yesterday gave me the perfect opportunity to empty her bedroom of months of accumulated trash, get the computer de-ashed, and to air the entire house out a little, too. In the process, I came to the conclusion that one reason that house is so unpleasant even when fairly clean and unoccupied had to be demons. So, following the airing-out came an exorcism, with much banging on pots, waving of bright streamers, and shouting. I think I chased most of them out of the house, and shut the windows behind them. I rearranged my mom's bedroom to minimize demon (and trash) filled nooks, and taped pieces of paper reading ｢悪霊退散｣ onto most of the doors. I also, at Sushu's suggestion, printed out some notes politely asking all demons who were not in the house on exclusively benign business to please leave, and stuck them in places where demons seemed likely to gather. It wasn't a complete exorcism (the fridge is going to need one all of its own), but it did the trick. The house feels at least a little happier now. All-in-all a success, except that ever since then I've been hearing weird noises, so I think a couple of them may have followed me home. That's okay, though. My dad's house is much more stable, and maybe if they settle in somewhere that's a bit more pleasant they'll be happier demons. I certainly hope so.
This has been a good week for acquiring stuff, and a bad week for clothes. I lost one shirt to a mysterious but large hole, another shirt to something my mom said was stain remover but turned out to be bleach, and I spilled thai tea on a third shirt, though I think I got the stains out. But on the plus side, I got some One Pound Gospel, two volumes of 日本語で Ogre Slayer and some sort of scary story manga, also 日本語で, from
karishi. The One Pound Gospel is actually for Sushu, but I get to read them first. Thank you, Jeremy! Oh, and I got glasses! They're dark blue wire frames and nifty leaf patterns that you can't see when I'm wearing them and they actually look kind of silly on me, but oh well. I still wear my contacts most of the time, having been forced to get used to them, but I like having the choice, especially early in the morning and late at night. And on a completely unrelated note, the NYT Sunday magazine had an article about mild depression in Japanese society, and how the drug companies are trying to convince the japanese people that depression is something medical and not just laziness or whatnot. Apparently they started calling it 心の風邪 in an attempt to make it seem more medical. It's an interesting article, and if someone wants me to scan it for them or something, tell me. It may also be on the NYT website.
And, that's about it.