MILES to GO || before I sleep

*singsong voice* Oh an_ardent_rain....! Your fic is here!

Miss Scrooge
A Yu-Gi-Oh! HOLIDAY Fanfiction
By Azurite

"Prompt: "the joy of giving", Seto x Anzu

Summary: Domino High has modern-day Scrooge in it, but it's not Seto Kaiba.

Oneshot, complete.

...Even if you take out the blather I always put at the beginning and the end of the fic, it's still 10,232 words! WTF!? I think writing short stuff is impossible for me. Budget your time for reading accordingly, I say!

Anyway, it's hosted on FFnet (and will be up on the other places like MMorg, Dragonfayth, and FicWad soon), so please leave a review there if you read the story!

Thanks for this fun challenge, ILB-- I hope you like the story!

 Crossover Interlude by Utada from Exodus (Rating: 0)

Who wants fics for the holidays?

I DO, I DO!

So I'm starting a gift exchange! This is NOT limited to any one fandom, genre, pairing, etc. It's a free-for-all, and you get to pick the fandoms and the prompts and participate in ones YOU find interesting! It also does NOT have to be holiday-themed.

Here's how it works:

(1) Comment to this entry with anywhere between 1 - 3 fandoms starting with a particular letter of the alphabet. Include the subject line "FANDOM." Go with the most common name, the Japanese title, or the title you prefer. Only one fandom per letter! ANY FANDOM IS OKAY. Anime, manga, TV shows, movies, books, whatever!

So let's say you like the letter "F." How about "Final Fantasy VIII" then? So for the letter F, the fandom will be "Final Fantasy VIII." But that means no one can submit "Final Fantasy X," okay? Try and pick a fandom that multiple people might write for/enjoy.

(2) The fandom Master List will be posted here (see below). This is the list of participating fandoms. I think 26 is a pretty good variety, don't you?

(3) Post 3-10 prompts (don't make them fandom-specific) in the comments. A prompt can be a single word (like "Wreath") or a phrase ("12 Days of Christmas") or whatever you like (images, lyrics, etc.)! But again, don't be fandom-specific-- no pairings, characters, etc. in the prompts! Include the subject line "PROMPT."

(4) Respond to the other prompts in the comments (you can respond to your own prompts, but it's more fun if you challenge yourself!), either by including a ficlet (drabbles or longer) right there in the comment, or linking elsewhere (either on LJ or another site). The comment should include what fandom it's for, and any other relevant information.

If you'd like an extra challenge, try combining one or more of the prompts, or crossing over the fandoms! Just make sure when you comment with your fic/link, you comment to EACH prompt that you used, or you mention EACH fandom that you wrote for!

More people have added fandoms, so I added the last of my three. Feel free to submit more fandoms-- you can submit more than one, but remember-- only ONE fandom per letter! Check below for what letters are already snagged! (Also, if we don't get enough people submitting 3 fandoms each, those that have already submitted three might be able to submit more, probably up to 2 more. But hopefully you guys are spreading the word about this post so people do more than submit fandoms-- they also submit prompts and fic[let]s!)

A:
B: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
C:
D: Doctor Who
E:
F: Final Fantasy VII
G: Ghost Hunt
H: Harry Potter
I: Immortal Rain
J:
K: Kingdom Hearts
L:
M:
N:
O:
P:
Q:
R: Rurouni Kenshin
S: Slayers
T: Teen Titans (cartoon)
U:
V: Vision of Escaflowne
W: Where in The World is Carmen Sandiego?
X:
Y: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Z:

 Silent Night by Sarah Brightman from A Winter Symphony

Today was the last day of regular class before finals. Next week, I have three days when I'm supposed to show up to a "class." I don't say, "I have three finals," because only one of them is really a final-- the other two are relatively easy (I would hope). The "real" final is the one for my ENGL 313 (Pop Culture) class, and my ENGL 355 (Writing About Literature) is a reflective final, where I mostly write short paragraphs about the class and service learning experience. Then it turns out I really do have to show up to the final hours on Wednesday, for my ENGL 408 "final," which is actually a presentation of our radical revision to our workshop story... which I haven't even started on, yet.

Procrastination has been a big deal with me this semester, but somehow I've managed to pull through on almost everything. I've done exceedingly (maybe even surprisingly?) well in my Pop Culture class, though the final does worry me. I'm glad I've been working with the same girls all semester: we worked together on our video analysis project and again for our "chix flix" blog, and we're helping each other prep for the final by splitting up the reading and terminology definitions. The essays in our textbook, the "Audience Studies Reader" are not light reading, so I'm glad we're working together.

I turned in my fandom essay on Yu-Gi-Oh! today, and it was put together with the help of a number of members of playthedamncard. In truth, I knew I wanted to do Yu-Gi-Oh! as my fandom of study since the start of the semester when he announced the fandom essay, but again, I procrastinated... I don't much like the essay I turned in, and would like to re-do it for my own picky self, before I post it online anywhere.

I still have two (one super-late) essays due for my Writing About Literature course, which I MUST MUST MUST get in by next Thursday, so I need to work on them this weekend along with studying for the big, "real" final on Monday (ENGL 313).

I tried to file my Grad Check today (because everyone always asks when I'm going to graduate) and they wouldn't accept it, because I altered the date to Fall 2009. Assuming all the classes I need are offered when I need them, I should be graduating after that semester. Originally, I was shooting for Spring 2009, but that won't happen with me in the Disney College Program. I thought, maybe Summer 2009, but the classes I'm required to take in my senior/final semester won't be offered in the summer, or if they are (like in the case of the journalism tutorial JOUR 498), there isn't much of a selection. I'd rather "go out with a bang," as it were, and take classes I really love and enjoy than attempt to cram a full semester into summer just to graduate when it's blazing hot and sunny. Besides, it's not as if I won't be graduating with more than 120 units anyway-- I don't mind delaying my graduation necessarily, because I've always taken classes or done things with my time that I enjoyed. I like staying involved.

I am still worried about getting credit for the Disney College Program, though, because I've basically been getting the run-around from all the departments on campus. The Career Center doesn't give credit, but they were the ones that had the presentation and said that previous CSUN students had done the program and gotten credit. The Journalism department can't give internship credit for internships that are not strictly Journalism-related, and the other courses, while recommended by the American Council on Education, are not specific to Journalism enough to qualify for Independent Study. The one course that DOES seem to have a specific department --Organizational Leadership, which is recommended for credit in the Business Administration/Management area... well, I went to the College of Business and Economics, and they told me that because I'm not a Business major or minor, they can't give me internship credit either. I left my phone number and a note about the situation for the Associate Dean of the department, but she hasn't gotten back to me yet-- and it's been three days. -_-

This weekend I'm going to San Diego for Mother's Day with Baba, Grandpa, and my cousin Erin. I already sent my mom something, but she's supposed to get it this afternoon, because actual Mother's Day delivery wasn't possible, and Saturday delivery was too expensive. Of course, it's not like I'm really going for any "fun," either: not only do I have to study (and I mean it!), but I'm broke (like, really, really broke) and can't go shopping. Actually, that's a story in and of itself, about how two banks managed to screw me over at once. Supposedly they're fixing it, but it's already been six days at this point since I knew this was first happening, and nothing's changed. It really bites.

On top of all that, I still have to pack for moving to Anaheim (Erin's volunteered to drive me at an ungodly hour of the morning). I finished faxing in my paperwork just a few hours ago, but I have yet to receive a bunch of other documentation. Am I the only one that thinks fax machines ought to die!? I mean, why do we still fax?

Anyway... I've still got a lot to do:
* Presentation for RTM 330OL/Women & Leisure class One down... a shitload more to go.
* WebCT discussion on what makes for sophisticated, multi-ethnic, contemporary literature worth including in a college course
* Those essays I mentioned before
* That radical revision I mentioned above
* The study guide for my ENGL 313 final I'm doing with the other girls
* The take-home portion of the ENGL 313 final, which Prof. Hatfield posted on our class blog

Brain asplodey.

I'm not in prose mood at the moment (today was my "off" day, so to speak; I spent a lot of time working on "Ace of Hearts," the Sailor V x Kaitou Ace fanlisting (now live! check it out!), then reading old Sailor Moon fics and fic ideas, including one that I don't think I ever posted anywhere except maybe the SMRFF. There's also one I intended to write for an Aria's Ink contest but never got off the ground. So I really want to work on those, Epiphany, and of course, WDKY26. Priority 1, though, is my JOUR 371 project.

But look, I've gone and babbled again. This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for:

-The right to vote. Need I say more?

-The freedom to choose: my elected officials, the clothes I'll wear, the way I look, and whether or not I can have an abortion in my state, if the need ever arose and may the Powers That Be forbid that necessity for me in my lifetime.

-My family, no matter how over-dramatic they can get. Both sides, Mom's and Dad's. Mom AND Dad, even though between the two of them I think I might develop a mental instability some time before I turn 40.

-My health-- the worst medical problem I have right now is my finicky stomach. I am so glad to not have (diagnosed) breast or skin cancer, two things which I am VERY vulnerable for. I am grateful for never having broken a bone, and having healed quickly from all sprains. I am thankful that my back is not as f*cked up as my Dad's, nor my head as pounding-full-of-migraine as Mom's. I am thrilled that my asthma, allergies, and poor vision have not taken over my life.

-My job. It may not be Journalism and it may not pay as well as a job in San Francisco right now or even a Target Executive Internship, but I love the people I work with, and even on my worst days, it's still a great job that I'm confident in doing. I can always, always learn more there, meet more people, and help others-- three things I love doing no matter what.

-My education. I know that there are some people --men and women, people of all ages-- that don't have the privilege of going to high school, let alone university. I am thankful that I have gotten scholarships and loans to be able to pay for it, and that my university has a beautiful campus, professors that are really interested in their subjects (some of them, anyway), and great programs.

-My home. It's always a bit awkward to think, but it becomes really, genuinely honest when I say it aloud to someone else: yes, I live with my paternal grandparents. No, I've never really lived alone, though I did have my own dorm room in Japan for 5.5 months. But living with my grandparents has not only made me more aware of what it takes to get as far as they have, but also so many other things: taking care of yourself physically, taking care of others whenever you can, and enjoying life to the fullest, highest degree. I am so grateful to have not just a roof over my head, a room to call my own (with my own posters, even when they won't stick on the wall!), and food in the fridge to eat, but a family to come home to.

-My friends. Even though I feel sometimes I'm a lousy friend, and don't call/email/IM enough, my friends really do mean the world to me, up there in the ranks with my family (by the way, this list is by no means in any sort of ORDER). I've got friends who have stuck by me when the rest of the school thought I was a super-bitch or total nerd. I've got friends who can share in my geekery, revel in my nerdosity, and giggle with me about anything and everything. Whether I know these friends in real life or just online; whether it's been years or just a few months, THANK YOU. And I would attempt to name all the names and all the reasons why, but it'd get too long. THAT I am grateful for. I've gotten to the stage in my life where I couldn't count the friends I have on one hand, let alone two, even if I tried. Once upon a time, someone asked me to name all the friends I had and count them-- they laughed when I didn't even hit 5. Now, I have so many more than that-- not just on this "Friends List," maybe even reading this now, but beyond.

THANK YOU, EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, EVERYWHEN.

Happy Thanksgiving, even if you don't celebrate and/or aren't in the U.S.A.

Love and best wishes,
Meredith Sweet, aka Azurite aka Andi aka whatever the heck you wanna call me, I really have too many nicknames

You Are a Red Crayon

Your world is colored with bright, vivid, wild colors. You have a deep, complex personality - and you are always expressing something about yourself. Bold and dominant, you are a natural leader. You have an energy that is intense... and sometimes overwhelming. Your reaction to everything tends to be strong. You are the master of love-hate relationships. Your color wheel opposite is green. Green people are way too mellow to understand what drives your energy.

Ah, let's see... I seem to be recovering from my surgery quite well, as I can eat things beyond mushy oatmeal. I'm not going to grab a Snickers right away or anything, but I'm not longer bleeding, I can move my jaw and tongue pretty normally, and I don't have this weird "stitches hanging out" feeling on the left side of my mouth anymore. I still had a killer headache earlier today during breakfast, so I ended up taking a Vicodin and then passing out.

My cousins (Shaina, Brooke, and Erin; Erin came just this morning for a quick stop with her new boyfriend) and I all hung out; yesterday Shaina, Brooke and I went shopping at Express and Old Navy, and I walked out with a good chunk of new wardrobe with Shaina's help. Better yet, I only spent about $160 on what was enough to make at least a week's worth of outfits-- all sorts of new jeans and tops, a new knit hoodie (in plum!), and a new jacket in sage green. Shopping with other people my age really helps me, I think- not to say my fashion sense sucks, but I think Brooke and Shaina both have a better eye for that sort of thing than I do-- I tend to hang onto clothes for years, even if they're worn out or even out-of-style. Well, no more! After we came back to the house from all our shopping, Shaina and Brooke helped me clean out my closet, so I got rid of two huge bags of clothes I won't wear anymore. cutieme4u, you'll be glad to know Shaina convinced me to ditch that shiny plaid top you never liked on me-- even though I wanted to make it into a pillow... Ah, it's hard to let go of the things you love!

Shaina and Brooke also gave me a mini-makeover-- my hair's a bit shorter now, about chin length, and I think it looks pretty good, depending on how I part it. Normally I'm anti-short hair (I've been trying to get my old, long, wavy hair back for a while now), but I had to get rid of all my split ends and the leftover miscolored hair from my perm in Japan. So while it seems a bit "young" for me, I think with the right clothes and makeup I can be very "young professional." Brooke thinks that to complete the look, I ought to get more square-shaped glasses, so I was looking at more on FramesDirect.com-- but they don't have a lot. Does anyone know of any eyeglasses websites where you can upload a picture to see what the glasses look like on you? Either that or really high quality, LARGE images of the glasses?

When I went to the optometrist last week, I didn't like anything in store, but back then, I was leaning toward more frame-top/rimless-bottom glasses that is a cross between my current egg-shaped glasses and what I consider "young professional"-- sort of cat-like corners with narrower ovals, or maybe slightly squared on top but round on the bottom. I had them order me a Nicole Miller catalog because at first I was pretty deadset on her Webstress glasses, but... maybe I shouldn't be. Brooke thought I looked good in her thick-framed rectangular (as in 3/4-stick-of-gum size) glasses, but I thought they seemed too heavy on my face. So I have to compromise. What would suck is if I found a good pair in a place like Sears or Lenscrafters-- I wonder if I'd be able to get glasses through them if my optometrist carries his own (does more than write prescriptions, that is).

Let's see... after I woke up from my "nap" earlier, everyone had already gone-- but I'll see them again soon, I'm sure, at least for Thanksgiving in Seattle. I invited Shawn over and we hung out for a bit at the mall-- I ended up giving him my $15 off card at Express because, bonehead I am, I forgot to use it yesterday when I bought my new jeans there. But at least he got some new shorts (kind of a grayish plaid) for only $15, because they were $10 off ANYWAY! :) I successfully resisted buying more clothes, going to Borders, etc., because my fin aid check hadn't cleared-- but it may tomorrow morning, which is what I'm hoping- I want to get my new laptop this week so I can try and finish WDKY25! But opening up any Adobe or even the Microsoft Office programs on 512 MB of memory has been next to impossible. Sometimes even Firefox with "too many tabs" causes the computer to putz out.

I finished watching "Into The Woods," a musical I've liked ever since I was young and I first saw it on PBS back when it came out, in the early 90s. Back then I didn't understand a lot of what happened, and now that I'm older, I still enjoy it, but it has a sad twinge to it that I never remembered.

I also got my latest shipment from PCH (probably my dumbest purchase outside of those damn Hercules Hooks which never seem to want to go into my who-the-hell-knows-how-thick walls)-- mood-changing lipsticks. The catch is, after a certain point, they all look like the same color, which on my lips tends to be hot pink. Oh well, maybe for Halloween? I still don't know what I want to do, but I want to do SOMETHING.

Finally, I got my commitment books from the Literary Guild, so my new reading list is...
* The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova
* User I.D., by Jenefer Shute.

I also got a new craft book-- 101 Crafts for under $10, some of them very nice, like pressed-flower stationery. I think creativity with me has to have wider boundaries than just writing, or even graphic design and scrapbooks. I miss painting, beading, and things like that-- I wanted to do so much this summer, but it still felt like it went by so fast and I never had enough time. But I think if I get organized prior to school starting, when I do get the urge to pull myself away from my computer and MAKE stuff, I can.

Well, since Erin has Grandpa's car for an interview in Culver City tomorrow (I have no idea why she's not in S.F...), I'll have to get up early to walk to school-- I also have to swing by the post office to mail my Media Law book from last semester, which -huzzah!- sold on Half.com on Friday. I'm expecting my own shipments from there... hopefully soon! So, sleepy time!

Even in San Francisco, the weird dreams find me. I know at least one dream had something to do with Sailor Moon, but that's unsurprising considering all the videos of that I was watching on YouTube last night.

But then for some reason I dreamed I looked at the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG instruction book, and because I hadn't stayed up to date with it, everything had changed-- WInd-element monsters became "Dust" type, for some weird reason, and the icon changed from a Japanese kanji to something that looked like a turtle shell. Also, the trap card icon changed to something that looked like a turtle-shell-shield, and it wasn't called "trap," it was called something (possibly a fake word) that looked like a cross between Briarary and Bestiary. And Ritual cards were called the same thing, even though their icon looked the same (sort of like fire, right?)

Anyway, today is INDEPENDENCE DAY (and man, I want to watch ID4. :D) and I'm going out to meet ... whoever (not sure who, lots of people! Friends!) at the Pier for dinner, fireworks, and who the hell knows what else. Yay for going out and freezing my tits off...!

What? I'm feeling vulgar this morning.

I woke up at 8am this morning with a stomachache from hell. Why? I have no clue. All I know is, I hate the possibility of it being caused by food that was delicious and that I love to eat whenever I get the chance. In this case, it's either the Chinese food I ordered after work yesterday (when I met Grandpa at Vons) or the Blueberry Morning cereal I had for a late dessert while I was watching a Sailor Moon S marathon.

(By the way, smrffers-- Usa Day *WILL* start next week, and I might even contribute something for it if I can get my brain churning. I'm already thinking of some articles for the SM-section of Epiphany, which I really want to get live before the end of summer.)

So I called in sick, because I'd gone to bed with a horrid headache, and the slightest tinges of it were telling me it was going to come back. And it did. I went back to sleep and woke up again (around 10:30 or 11) feeling like someone had partially chopped my head open (think headband-style). I kept touching my head thinking I was going to find some disjointed part of my skull where I could just reach in and touch my BRAIN! Eew. Shudder-twitch-EEW!

So I'm still feeling kind of ill (want to eat, but something tame-- maybe Cream of Wheat with just raisins and some cinnamon?), and almost scared to go back to sleep even though my head is pounding-- I mean, what the hell prompts dreams about getting beheaded improperly? (Does this have something to do with my wanting to go to Egypt and everyone in my family always saying "No, not this year, you'll get your head chopped off!"?)

Speaking of Egypt, yesterday I got my copy of "Pharaoh Gold" (which includes the Queen of the Nile: Cleopatra expansion) yesterday, and I tried to install it-- it seemed to work okay, but I couldn't run the game, even with either CD in the drive. I didn't get an error or anything-- nothing came up. There was an hourglass, then nothing, just an arrow sitting there all "Dur, what you want me to do?" So I figured, maybe there were some remnants from the copy of the game I had (the single CD version that was all scratched up-- a U.S. edition, I should note, because the Pharaoh Gold copy is from the U.K.), so I removed the new program, edited the registry to remove all data about the OLD game. I made sure it took effect in the Add/Remove programs list, and then re-installed Pharaoh Gold when I got home.

...Still nothing. I thought it was odd that my Windows drive was saying it was about 8GB when I clearly specified in Parallels for it to be expanding up to 15GB, and all these damn "Low on disk space!" errors were getting on my nerves, so I searched the forums, discovered Parallels 3 no longer has Image Tools (which you would use to resize the virtual disk image after you'd created it and put stuff on it), so I had to use this other DOS-based tool to do it. So I did, and I also defragged the drive... but still, NOTHING, even after the defrag (not the Windows one, either-- a much more intensive one I found a 30-day trial for) proclaimed my drive "healthy."

I click on the game icon in the start menu, my Games shortcut folder, or in the Recently-Used programs list, and NOTHING HAPPENS. No error, no pop-up, no nothing. Just a brief arrow-with-hourglass, and then NOTHING. >_<

HEEEELP! What do I do?

Aaahh, what a wonderful feeling. This is weird. I've bid on eBay before, but never was I so "obsessed" (I put that in quotes for humor's sake) with refreshing the page to make sure *I* didn't get sniped. And lo and behold, with less than 30 seconds left, someone tried to outbid me, thinking that I foolishly wouldn't get notification in time. Little did they know I was parked right in front of my bidding page, watching like the "eagle-eyed editor" I am! (Compliment from Prof. Witten this morning. Yay!)

BUT I SNIPED THEIR ASS!

Okay, so I paid a bit more than I wanted to for Mom's Mother's Day present, but considering it's so much cheaper than list price, I think it's worth it. Plus it's a practical gift, and when Mom gets it and she'll be "...I can't believe it. You actually bought it." it'll be the greatest day ever.

I never thought I would like sniping! I was channeling Weird Al, that's for sure. What fun!

Speaking of happiness, yesterday at the Pub (eatery here on campus), I overheard a group of high-schoolers (don't know what they were doing on campus, but they were definitely too young to be students here at CSUN) arguing about something that sounded suspiciously like Sailor Moon. I sort of skulked around as I was waiting for my order, seeing if I could overhear something that would confirm it-- and sure enough, I heard "Mini-Moon!" Now, I may not be the biggest fan of the dub from Super onward (not that Stars ever got dubbed-- or ever WILL), but I just started giggling. Then I asked the trio what the argument was and none-too-modestly said I could probably help settle it (being an expert on Sailor Moon... but... what? It's sort of the truth! I mean really, short of individual names of youmas and the like -and I do know *some* of them-, or anything about the musicals, I don't think there's much about Sailor Moon that I DON'T KNOW!).

Turns out the argument was over whether Mini-Moon was Sailor Moon's daughter (*snorfle*). The lone girl thought yes, yes of course she had to be! While the two guys with her doubted it, because after all, Mini-Moon appeared when Sailor Moon was *still in school.* (Oh, the scandal!) So when the question was out I said, "Damn right." (I really ought to watch my language around younger kids. I mean if they really were in high school, I'm sure they've said/done/seen worse things, but you never know who's got the most impressionable mind) And then I explained that she traveled back in time whenever we saw her, although technically she's over 900 years old...

And the girl triumphantly said "SEE!?" I told them I was surprised they'd been talking about Sailor Moon, and I thought it had to be impossible/coincidental that what they were saying SOUNDED so much like Sailor Moon, but it turns out the conversation had some roots in the fact that I have a small Sailor Mars charm on my backpack, and that spurred the subject. It's good to know that even though Sailor Moon ended well over 10 years ago, it's still very much alive here in the USA. :)

Okay, so today was essentially a good day. Holly made me silver dollar pancakes topped with a cute strawberry, as promised, and we took the earliest bus/train possible from Akatsuka to Nippori, and then the Yamanote Line trains in Tokyo to Shinjuku first, then Hamamatsucho (to the Ryutsu Center via the monorail), and then back to Shibuya. We accidentally took the "long route" to Shinjuku, so we got our time messed up a little, but we had fun-- as soon as we exited the station, we looked for a place to eat, so we decided on this small cafe/restaurant that had apparently JUST opened that day (it was pretty busy, and there was a "GRAND OPEN!" flyer on the cashier) called "Ducky Duck." I had a Foccacia pizza and a blueberry bagel (with blueberry cream cheese), the latter of which I got at the train station because I was so ravenous, and the former with a thoroughly lemon-soaked Coke.

After that, we wandered around Marui Young looking at the Gothic Lolita clothes; we'd gone there for a few minutes before Ducky Duck, but I was so hungry I convinced Holly to get grub so we could do some power shopping. While I find the various Lolita styles interesting, I can't really see myself wearing anything except maybe the most tasteful and plain (i.e. as few bows and hearts as possible) dresses. I saw one gorgeous Santa-inspired red coat with white fur trim, but it was over $315! Yeah, WAY out of my budget. But Holly found lots of things she liked, and we found out that if you spend over 10,000 or so yen at Marui Young and are a foreign visitor, you can get the consumption tax (5%) back! So we did that, and then went to look for Okadaya, a craft store.

We finally found it after some wandering, but it was a bit of a disappointment to me-- floors 4-6 were mostly about sewing, with things like rick-rack, buttons, small bolts of fabric, yarn, and the like everywhere. Not my cup of tea, to be honest. Floor 7 had some magazines and books, but they were all over-priced; floor 3 had some cool makeup and wigs, so I bought some nice cheap nail polish and some Victorian-style scrapbook stickers. I also bought some things from the other floors for Baba and Joyce. Floors 1 and 2 were all about beading, and while I was totally tempted to get some things, they were way expensive, too. I might have been reading the signs wrong, but I'm pretty sure the signs had a price "per bead."

Next up we headed to Hamamatsucho; the monorail was a very interesting ride, and it took us through Tennozu Isle, the same place that inspired Infinity Island in Sailor Moon S. I even saw the building that inspired Infinity Academy! :D I just read about it the other day in one of my new books: Warriors of Legend: Reflections of Japan in Sailor Moon, so it was pretty cool actually seeing it in person, even if it was just for a few moments.

The antique fair was pretty easy to find, and it was nice that it was all indoors (I thought it might be outdoors based on the description and warnings from the PaperLantern.net page). But everything was so expensive! I was hoping I would find things for both my Dad and Scott (and maybe Grandpa), but of all the incredible things I saw, only one thing "called" to me as being perfect, and that was a present I snagged for Dad. The guy I bought it from even gave me a small discount! I think he was just surprised that I was being so picky and interested in what he had to offer. I thought about getting Scott a Buddha statuette, or maybe some Japanese ukiyoe art, but with prices running in the low thousands for STAINED stuff, I said no. Besides, nothing "called" to me as being perfect for him. I'm hoping I think of something soon, or see something in Hong Kong. I feel kind of guilty having not gotten him anything for his birthday or Christmas yet, save the one small-ish, kind of silly thing I already bought (which I hope to mail this week, along with the other boxes and cards).

Holly and I split up through most of the fair, and even though the exhibition hall was large, we found our way through the whole place pretty quickly. It was mostly housewares (plates) and genuinely antique-y stuff like samurai armor, swords, prints, toys, and things like that. EVERYTHING was very expensive. One Buddha statuette I looked at was 10,300 yen (over $90 USD, about)! And it was barely the size of my palm!

We ended up leaving before the fair actually ended, and we headed back to the monorail to go to Shibuya. I wanted to go to the NANA 2 museum and cafe "Lotus and Strawberry," but we didn't have a whole lot of time; we were also hungry, so we stopped at a Royal Host and had dinner (I had Mexican tacos along with some honey & wild berry ice cream). After that, we tried to find our way to the Jewish Community Center, but because we weren't coming directly from the station, the directions we had (and the lousy map) weren't very useful. We asked for directions at a koban (police box), and managed to make our way there, but only after TONS of walking. And according to the hours, they were closed on Saturdays! I found that hard to believe, given that synagogues and the like are usually OPEN on the high holidays, and the front door was open, too. Another guy came up and asked us if we were there to see the movie; we said no, we just wanted to see the place, we'd come from Mito, etc., and sooner than later, a guy working for the JCC came and let us in. I saw they had a table of goodies set up-- alas, the dreidels (glass) were too expensive, so I ended up buying matzoh and coconut macaroons instead. YAY! :D :D :D MATZOH! IN JAPAN! :D :D

But all that walking took so much time, so we had to run to catch a bus (flat rate of 170 yen, how cheap!) and get back to Shibuya so we could take our train to Nippori and then back to Mito. But my stomach started hurting on the bus, so at Nippori I found a bathroom and stayed sick for a good half hour. :( My stomach was still finicky when we finally boarded a train, but thankfully it was a Rapid train, so there was a bathroom (which was surprisingly clean). I'd taken a Pepto from Holly back at Nippori, so my stomach started to feel a bit better... but I think the fake Mexican tacos did that to me. :( I'm still feeling kind of queasy.

The guys at the JCC told me about a Hanukkah party going on tomorrow at some Otani Hotel, but there are LOTS of Otani Hotels in Tokyo, and I can't remember which one/where they said it was! I want to go, since the whole point of me trying to find the JCC was to do something Hanukkah-y, and plus you get free food and a free menorah! But since I'm not feeling well *AND* since it costs extra money (plus even if I use another day from my Seishun 18 ticket, I'd have to buy another one for use with Bonnie when we're in Tokyo! It's totally worth it, since it pays for itself if you spend more than 2500 yen or so in a single day, which I do just coming from Mito, though), I might not go. I'm waiting to see if anyone emails me back with the exact address, or there's no point.

I also want to try and start writing more for my scholarship paper/the book. It occurred to me that there are LOTS of books on anime, but not very many on manga, it seems. Mine wouldn't be the first, and perhaps not even the first to explore the connections and dissimilarities between manga and Japanese novel writing, but I'd like to give it a shot.

Anyway, since my tongue is brown and my head is achey, I think I'll get to sleep now.

Well, ho ho ho! It's actually December 26th, at 12:34 in the morning. I can't help it, on breaks my internal clock is off. O.O;;

So, how was your holiday? For me, it wasn't much of one. Unless holidays are constituted of guilt, feelings of remorse, worthlessness, and the occasional rude snipe about Mom's boyfriend and his family.

Don't get me wrong, I normally try to get in spirit and all-- but if someone asked me, "On a scale of one to ten, how much do you like the holidays?" I'd have to say three. (How low can you go!) By Christmas Eve, I'd only had time and money to get my mom one thing. We normally both hate the holidays, because we end up making food for people that don't deserve it-- people who mother claims are "friends" but don't even know how to spell our names correctly. (GRR) I end up getting mad at myself for not having enough gifts for my friends, or worrying if my cookies that I annually bake for everyone (and I KNOW they are damn good-- after the fact) are edible.

Come Christmas Eve, I'm in a frump-- Mom's invited her bf over, along with his entire family. At first, I didn't mind Mom having a bf-- but she always fed me the same excuse-- "my friends think I'm doing so well now, that I'm social and everything." Pardonez moi? My sister died in 1996-- that's 5, count 'em 5 years ago! Not that I'm saying "get over it" or anything-- but normal people do move on after 5 years, right? Sure, they reminisce, they mope, they even cry from time to time-- but my mother sounds like a damned rehab patient! And what about me?! I can never forget that I was ALL ALONE at my sister's funeral, and I was only 10. Middle school went miserably the next three years, and high school is looking worse. I seem to have more enemies than friends, and I tend to be more suicidal than I'd like.

*Ahem* But back on topic. (<.>) So Mom's bf is this Einsteinish guy-- he actually LOOKS like frizzball, but he's all about sociology. Still earning some kind of graduate degree. He has a spoiled daughter who's traveled *all* over the world because of her "wonderful operatic voice." Yes, her voice is nice, but I hate it when my mother makes friends (or tries to make ME make friends) with people who are airheads about what real life is like.

And who am *I* to talk-- the girl who actually HAD a Christmas, who can afford to fly on planes and travel? Hah... I should be thinking of the poor children in some third-world country, shouldn't I? Worrying about the fate of someone who could care less about me... I know it sounds selfish of me when I say stuff like this, but I'm NOT those people. I can't help them the way I am now. Sure, I'm better off than them, but so are the rest of oh, EVERYONE in the US-- even the homeless people in big cities.

So on Christmas, I'm wishing I were somewhere other than home-- I'd even told my mom that much, because I didn't eat (she made TOFU TURKEY!! GAAH) and the bf's daughter isn't exactly attentive, or fun. Not to mention she's a know-it-all senior at an Opt-In Arts school in a classy neighborhood of the city.

Mom's kinda mad at me when we get home from dinner tonight, because in the car, BF-boy wanted to analyze something ELSE sociologically. >_< Why can't people be happy with their own lives, and stop interfering with others where it isn't ridiculously necessary? What's more, my mother seems to live to make me feel embarrassed about my life-- she tells people about my messy room, my "slight" (and I do mean SLIGHT) ability to speak Japanese and Hebrew, and my rudeness-- such as barging into a plant.

"You'll hurt the plant," She says, while cuddling up to BF on the couch. Gah, I want to BARF!

When my Dad was with someone, I was jealous at first, because there was suddenly no time for me. I eventually got used to her, even liked her to the point I called her "Mini-Mom." They got engaged; I was happy. Then she had an affair-- and things fell through. My dad was pretty much a jackass from that point on-- getting rid of my dog, moving from place to place... and I don't speak to him anymore. I don't want that to happen with my mom.

She seems to like BF's family... and I suppose they're okay, it's Oink-oink BF that I don't like. He's a know-it-all, rude, disgusting idiot who lives to rub it in that he's spending more time with my mom than me! I try to tell my mom, hey, I'm feeling left out here... but she is tuned out. I think inside, she wants BF's family to be a replacement for her mostly-dead family. She pulls a teary act around me, and immediately, I'm as guilty as sin.

I love her for thinking of me-- from time to time. And it's not the material things that count, but I appreciate those anyway. But I want the mom back that died when my sister did-- the one that was there for ME too... even if it meant sharing her with a sister. But not a boyfriend, a daughter, and two seniors. No, my mom is just that-- MINE.

Sorry if I got off topic... I had to do my annual X-Mas rant. Knowing my life, there'll be a New Year's one too. See you.