The Parents Arrive: 12 p.m.

They're here. They're settling. It's so, so, so weird.

I thought that I would just give an update.

Ta-Ta, for now.

Ah. A Copy of My of Latest (Rough) Mix: A Vision of This Period in My Life.

Ah, this day is never going to end! So, alas! I am going to make yet another post, to pass the time until I have something better to do. My reasoning: why not? Okay, so while John was going at it his cello (he's playing for some . . . thingy) I was sitting with headphones on compiling something that I have now entitled "A Fifteen-Song Mix for a February Afternoon," as February is the month of mixes. The playlist relies on my current listening attitudes and moods and goes something like this:

"I am Warm and Powerful" by Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
"Nantes" by Beirut
"Leeora" by The Sea and Cake
"Benefits of Lying (with your friend)" by The Apples in Stereo
"One by One" by Billy Bragg & Wilco
"Together" by The Raconteurs
"Two-Headed Boy" by Neutral Milk Hotel
"Satan Said Dance" by Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah!
"Forecast Fascist Future" by Of Montreal
"By the Sea" by The Essex Green
"Star Witness" by Neko Case
"Androgynous" by The Replacements
"The Dress Looks Nice on You" by Sufjan Stevens
"Everybody Knows (except you)" by The Divine Comedy
"Women's Realm" by Belle & Sebastian

The cuts a little rough, but I wasn't really going for a "good" mix, but rather a summation of myself at the current moment . . . and well, I'm a little rough right now. If have any of the above mentioned songs or artists, listen to them . . . it'll be better for your soul.

I'm a Manic: So What?

I've got nothing to do, so I thought I might as well press how much I completely adore the Billy Bragg + Wilco duo. I had the take the music off a while ago because John was wanting to practice his cello and needed to "be able to think" . . . (though my thoughts on this are that it was because he wasn't into it much . . . sheesh.) Furthermore, I thought that I would add a couple . . . (yeah) . . . of pictures to illustrate my mania.

Really, don't act like you didn't enjoy that . . . especially the one of Jeff Tweedy sleeping (featured above.) I enjoyed it because not only is it of Jeff Tweedy, but he's also sleeping . . . which makes me slightly envious . . . (also, on a side note, my couch has a crazy pattern like that as well . . . ha.) Gee-whiz, I need to get a grasp on life.

The Parents are Driving in Creating a Weeklong Event of Me Being the "Perfect-Hostess."

I suppose last night was just one of those nights, because it seems my mood has shifted once more for the hopeful. Today, it much like all those other days . . . I woke up and went to morning service and afterward John picked me up so we could go out the market. His parents are coming to stay with us this week . . . which makes me nervous. I don't know. They're nice people, but I don't know if I'm completely comfortable with them staying with us for so . . . long. I'm just not the "perfect-hostess" type, and it took a good hour or so of grinding on me before John convinced me to agree to it. Hmm . . . we'll see how it works out.

Oh, today I woke up feeling for that country, folkish, rock mood, so I put on Billy Bragg & Wilco's "Mermaid Avenue" and it just hit the spot.

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I've gotten better and the sickness has left my body for the most part. Now I am just dealing with the return of the sleeping sickness and life and everything and on and on. I suppose its just that time of year, February . . . when the buzz of the "new year" drops and leaves that empty pit of the following 335 days left for the year. Myself, I'm just a little down . . . the sickness brought me down . . . the return of not being able to sleep brought me down . . . living brought me down. Well . . . John's pulling in for the night so I think I will try to as well. I think I've made my point as well as possible for now.

Oh, in more news, I've hooked myself on a Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin kick. I don't know why. They're from Springfield, MO where my brother is currently residing, though I knew about them before he even lived there. I'll expand later . . . for now I need to finish turning all the lights off.

The Sickness Makes Another Appearance To Help Me Catch Up On My Much Needed Sleep.

I woke up yesterday with a bad case of the sickness, you know, where everything comes up and nothing goes down. For a couple hours there it seemed like my entire body wanted everything out . . . maybe even an organ or two as well. It started the moment I awoke (finally on my own will) and began to brush my teeth . . . maybe it was the toothpaste or the brush, either way the moment I began to scrub my back molars, the contents of my stomach decided to exit. I got hit with a wave a nausea and fell softly to the floor.

Somewhere between that moment and the following minutes, John was awoken by the noise and fumbled sleepily into the bathroom to find me pale in face lying on the bathroom floor. He saw me and the mess in the sink and quickly acted. Pulling me up and ushering me into the bedroom to change (of course, asking me first if I was going to hurl again) and then medicating me with aspirin and tucking me back into bed. Like a good guy, he even cleaned up the mess. I suppose that when you know your with a good guy, when they're willing to clean up your sickness and then even go to the trouble to supply you with orange juice (even if it doesn't stay down) and take you temperature. I had a slight fever of 100 . . . ah.

The doctor diagnosed me with stomach flu . . . again. I must be susceptible to it . . . Either that or the doctor had no clue and is just pushing his white pad and big words at me to get me to leave. Whichever, today I felt a little better. By 5 o'clock I was able to stomach dinner. I had some Kashi hot cereal with bananas. It was as good as possible.

In the meantime, I've been listening to Neko Case excessively and obsessively since yesterday afternoon. She's who I listened to the last time I was sick. I suppose she has that quality about her that I crave when I'm bed-ridden and weak. I mean, there's nothing better for sickness than that sense of woman empowerment that she radiates. Plus, I had to have somebody that would be folkly enough to wean me of my Neutral Milk Hotel kick. She fits into both requirements.

Well, I am going to nap . . . I think this had finally released that built up tension from lack of sleep . . . because I've slept more in the past two days than I have in the past month. Ah, it feels good.

My Aquarium Spiel.

I'm still having troubles with sleeping. Tonight the problem seems to be getting to bed, as I laid down to rest nearly two hours ago and have since gotten back up again to occupy my time. John's still awake so I suppose that's comforting. Of course, he's watching some sort of documentary that seems to be a million hours long and vegging out on fruit . . . I went to the market yesterday and stocked up on everything good that they had in store.

Along with finally getting out to go grocery shopping, I also accomplished a lot more yesterday than I have in the past months. Nearly two months ago, I got this great . . . and by great I mean GREAT . . . deal on a this resale aquarium . . . I wasn't actually looking to invest in a new tank set-up but the deal was too good to pass up. So anyways, I bought this tank, 175 gallons complete with pumps, filters, heaters, everything. It's been sitting somewhere between my kitchen and living room ever since I bought it, because I didn't have the time to invest in the set-up and didn't want to think about what to begin to put in it . . . I didn't want to think.

As an aquarist, I've been through a lot . . . a lot of tanks, a lot of fish, a lot of set-ups, and a lot of strip-downs. I wanted to try something moderately low maintenance, but also something that would suit the tank, because 175 gallons . . . well that's a lot of tank. I have a 200 gallon already and I know that its a lot to handle. On my whim yesterday, I decided to set-up everything.

I went with a brackish river set-up. It's something different for me, because I haven't had a brackish tank in forever, and when I did it was a mangrove swamp. I planted most of the tank pretty heavily . . . because I aesthetically like a lot of greenery . . . but I also left a good portion of open swimming space . . . I also put in lots of driftwood and natural rocks.

I must say that the end result is quite stunning, and it really brings the room together with such a big centerpiece being there. I ended up placing it up on the main wall that runs along the living room. My other four tanks aren't in out in the open, like my 200 gallon and 55 gallon are in the bedroom and the two smaller tanks, a 10 and a 30 gallon, are in the supposed dining area; so I thought it would be a nice switch to have one in the open.

I'm going to start a trial stocking period sometime next week. I'm just going to pick up a couple Sailfin Mollies and give it a go. In a couple more weeks, I'll finish stocking the tank entirely, with some gobies, chromides . . . and if I get up enough spunk to give go with puffers, I'll put a couple of those in there.

Well, the movie's over and I think John's pulling in for the night, so I think that I will try to do the same. Toodles.

Jump, Run, Go, Fun: Why I Felt to the Need to Bore Others With My Completely Drab Listening Choices of the Present and the Past and Even the Future.

I didn't doing anything of interest today . . . unless you consider napping interesting. Therefore, I thought that I would update my current listening choices. I believe I was last stuck somewhere between The Raconteurs and The Essex Green and maybe with a little bit of Belle & Sebastian through in the middle somewhere. Lately I have been in a folk-like mood, you know, something just melodic and clear. Yesterday this tab was filled for me by Damien Rice, which was a switch for me, since I normally . . . well, never is a better word . . . listen to him, but yesterday I had one of those cravings for something . . . and he was the first thing that popped into my head and it just fit. The only reason I have any of his albums is because a friend gave it to me a while back because he thought I would "dig" it. Apparently, he was right.




My Damien rice fit ended in the later hours of yesterday evening, but for my first awakening, which came an hour earlier at 1 a.m., I was in a different mood. I put on The Divine Comedy because it has that drive, but isn't too "loud" so it wouldn't wake John up. I love Neil Hannon's voice. Its so . . . beautiful . . . if that's the right descriptor? Its is just so . . . indescribably great. I have three favorite voices in music, and he is number two . . . number one is Jeff Tweedy . . . and number three is Bonnie "Prince" Billy.

My second awakening at 6 a.m. was accompanied by Neutral Milk Hotel. I actually finished that kick only hours ago at 4 p.m. I hadn't listened to them in quite a while, so it was so refreshing, because forever ago, like eight years or more maybe, they were on top three for listening overall. They were second . . . with first going to Wilco . . . and third to Belle & Sebastian. I don't know what happened to them, but I just now remember why I loved them so.

In the most current hours, I made quite a switch by moving from Neutral Milk Hotel to Of Montreal. I don't particularly know what compulsed me to do so, but I am enjoying the switch of styles. I think I go the idea because out of random closet dig, I found my lost Of Montreal tee that got lost somewhere between me buying it at the concert and me coming home . . . I've been searching for it for over a year, and I didn't even find it when I packed up and moved and then upacked, but somehow it made the journey with me without being discovered.

Ah. Now I'm going to go and take another nap . . . I've done everything I needed to do for today.

Classes Canceled, Alarm Clocks, and My NREM: Why I Wish I Could Be Like a Normal Human Being and Go To Sleep.

I don't know what I'm going to do. As if becoming a habit, my current sleeping patterns refuse to realign and play nice. This has been happening for a while now . . . you know the story . . . I finally get zapped out by a sleeping pill at midnight and then once two or maybe three a.m. rolls around I'm back at awake and ready to roll. By the time I eventually pass out again around 5 a.m., there is only an hour or two left of good sleep before I have to wake up again. However, my problem arises there . . . because somewhere between 5 and 7 o'clock I go into this deep comatose state, that only seems to be awoken with the help of four alarms and a sound knock on my backside from John. Oh, really, I don't know what I'm going to do.

I went to the doctor, and he told me that everything seemed fine. Ha. I don't feel fine. I feel like somebody tied me to the train tracks and I'm fighting to find my way off of them before the train comes and lobs my head off and dismembers the essence of my being. However, I don't think it would be quite appropriate to tell a doctor such things, so I just nod my head and take the pieces of white scribbled paper he hands me.

Then, as usual, I get a day like today. I fell asleep around midnight and I woke up at around 2 a.m. and fell back into sleep around 4 a.m. Two hours later my third alarm begins to go off and I'm still passed out without even hearing it. At some point a very sleepy and annoyed John rolls over and turns it off while somehow shaking me awake. I wake up and get ready to go. On some whim, I end up checking my computer before I leave, only to find out that classes were canceled. At this point, any normal person would shirk off their clothes and crawl back into bed for a couple more hours of sleep. I remained awake despite the extreme pull upon my body begging for rest.

In the end I ended up waking John (again) as well. He made breakfast. It was as good as it could be, for being a 7 a.m. morning with the snow falling outside and while the rest of the world is cozy in their beds. I was just wishing I could do the same.

Health, The Buzz, and An Anti-Drug Campaign: Why I Gave Up The Sugar For a More Healthy Alternative.

Okay, so I got to thinking that I would healthen this page up, because its been candy mania since 10 o'clock this morning. I thought I'd go a little more healthy. You know, something for the kids, to show them that there is more to life than a buzz (who knows this post might even turn into a rallying point for an anti-drug campaign . . . ha.) In any event though, I decided to not make sugar the base of my lunch; instead, I went to the good old standard of the food pyramid.

I started with the dish on the right and ended with the dish on the left. Looks pretty nice doesn't it, and as a judging standard, none of the dishes included the colors hot pink, baby blue, or electric yellow, so I think I did pretty well.

John even came over and joined in . . . though I think the real reason was because he wanted to experience the lesser thrill of seeing what I had bought at the candy goldmine.

Candy Gold Mine, Gumballs, and Lollipops: Why I Felt the Urge to Maintain the Ultimate Buzz of Sugar.

So I went a little crazy. Who cares? It was a candy gold mine . . . I think that is all that I need to say . . . Candy Gold Mine . . . those should be words enough for any sane person. Right now, I am just sitting and writing in awe of my wonder upon a.) perchancing upon a candy store that I never knew existed and b.) actually loading up in the candy store that I never knew existed. It makes me feel like I'm eight again, when everything was real and possible . . . of course, when I was a child I never ate much candy . . . my father didn't allow it, so all of my experiences were of the sneaked, hidden in the closet kind . . . in other words my brother, when he lived with us, snuck it to me whenever father wasn't around.

I'm in awe, complete and utter awe of the possiblities of the candy universe. Maybe I'm just crazy, but there are only so many chances in the life of an "adult" that one gets to have fun. I'm using one of those chances right now.

I love gumballs. Too bad the flavor lasts about ten seconds and then you have to pop another one in to get that rush of pink flavored goodness. By the time your gum chewing experience your jaw is in major pain and the wad of gum you've been smacking on is about the size of China. I suppose thats the major downfall of the gumball, and because of that I prefer chewies and gummies better. It's a two in one combo, because not only can you savor the yummy flavor but they are also chewable like gum, but you never have to worry about flavor going bad or having to dispose of it in one of the many ways that gum gets disposed . . . under the table, on the sidewalk, in your seat . . . but never in a trash can.

I had a couple of other bags of gummies and ropes, but alas, they didn't survive the trip home. I'm a sucker for gummies . . . and chewies . . . especially if they're grape or really any kind of fruit flavored. Ah, this is the joy of candy bliss . . . or maybe its a buzz of sugar . . . I can't really tell right now.