A Dark Red Tale...

For over a year now, my writing has been on hold... for those of you who didn't know, I was in the midst of beginning a science fiction novel.  My cast of characters are all still left standing in a stuffy living room next to an unfortunate gentleman resting on an oversized couch. 

Hard as I tried, I couldn't pick it back up again.  I'd lost my stride.  Was it the feng shui?  Was it Golden Girls?  Turns out, my muse is Dawn!  I had a great conversation with her today... hung up the phone... and felt inspired to write a short story about an hour later.  Like magic!

Unfortunately, it was already past midnight and I have to wake up early tomorrow.  This is as far as I got, but it felt good to get those writing synapses firing again.  Maybe this will help me catch my stride. 

Be warned, this one is dark and unsavory.

She glided down the dark, narrow hallway with an air of purpose and deliberate quietness.  The dim light bulbs inside of their cheap plastic wall sconces emitted a morose, red cellophane light.  The heavy sanguine illumination gave the long seedy hallway the effect of appearing as an organic passage. It pulsated in the rhythmic dimming of the down-and-out lighting.  The slight curve in the walls that bowed under the melancholy of surviving decades of failed gentrification lent the hallway a serpentine presence.

A door was affixed ominously at the very end of the this unhallowed passage.  The gold paint had peeled and chipped away from the black plastic numbers mounted on the thin wooden door.  She stood stock-still for a moment that seemed both intolerably long and impossibly short.  Fortitude retrieved from the depths of her conviction, she reached into her pocket.

... to be continued

Cake, Pain, and Critters

Yesterday was such a wonderful day at work because my Lead & Supervisor treated me and a teammate to the Main Street Casino Station Buffet to celebrate our 100% WOW Call!  I'm very happy I got one in March because I got to include it in my Zappos resume for the specialty team I applied for.  I just did a written test for that position and I'm waiting to hear back on a possible interview... *fingers crossed*

And then later on my Lead surprised our team with this super delicious Tiramisu cake from a local bakery!!  A couple weeks ago, I started this running joke/rumor.  Every night our Lead gets ready to leave and he asks, "Anyone need anything before I leave?"  I always answer "Yes!" very seriously and then add.... "I need a tiramisu."  And then he's like "Yeah.... I'm going to go work on that."  So, the late-nighters started telling the earlier peeps that he gets us tiramisu at night, which made them jealous...  MUTINY!!!!  hee hee hee...  We were SO SURPRISED and didn't even believe him when he rolled up with a white cake box and told us he got us a tiramisu cake!!!  LOL

Today was another story.  I woke up super, duper, insanely, out-of-this world sore from the Body Pump class that I took at the Las Vegas Athletic Club with a friend yesterday.  There's like... *Oh yeah! I worked out HARD!* kind of sore... ... ... and then there's... *I want to get a doctor's note for a temporary wheelchair* kind of sore.

I'm pretty sure this could be considered a kind of minor injury. However, I'm pretty happy that my back doesn't hurt! Usually that is my weakest link... but I've been doing exercises to strengthen it, so they must be helping! My whole spinal column feels fine and I have no sciatica pain, so I'm not too worried. My quads, inner thighs, and glutes are screaming bloody murder though! :( It's ok, tomorrow is my weekend, I will rest.

On another note, as I was slowly waddling around my house today, I noticed a new Forrest habit.  He usually warms himself up in the patch of sunshine that comes through our upstairs window.  He'll just hang out in the loft and follow the rectangle of sunlight around.  He just *LOVES* sunbathing!  Today, he found a very narrow strip shining down to the bottom floor (I think it's a new patch of light created by the shift in the sun's afternoon location).  And he just curled up in the middle of it, desperately trying to catch the rays before they went away - so cute!

Afterwards, I waddled over to the fish tank and just stared at all my little critters for a while. The tall spiral shell in the front with the weird thing protruding out the left side is my nassarius snail - I call them all Snorkies (because of the snork - they use it to smell).  The one in the background is also a Snorkie... they troll the substrate (sand) of the tank for leftovers and algae and such.  They keep the substrate aerated to prevent growth of bad bacteria.  The big shell on the right is actually the back half of Big Claw III - he has blue and black legs... but I didn't catch him in the picture, oops.

Another thing I noticed is that we have a gigantic colony of copepods!  We first introduced copepods to the tank when we had a Scooter Blenny "Scooter"and my 6-Line Wrasse "Marcy Darcy" living in the tank.  They have since then unfortunately succumbed to either: Ick, Popeye, or Starvation.  Scooter needed a special diet of copepods but we didn't have enough to support him, so we think he may have starved to death (O.o SO SAD!!!!!)... and Marcy Darcy got this weird discoloration in her scales and then just died one day.  Anyway, the surviving copepods must've stayed in the sand and live rock crevices and reproduced.  I saw a whole bunch of them fighting for little food pellets at the bottom of the tank!  I'm thinking now I can get another fish whose diet is mainly composed of copepods.  So, we shall see.  The Summer of 2013 tank annihilation (we lost Bean *boy clown*, Marcy Darcy, and Scooter - as well as Kevin Tran the Starfish and all my little corals) really made me too sad to get any new fish... but we may start again soon.

Anyway, I have a new gardening project lined up for this weekend - expect an update soon!

When It Rains... It Pours

I've been so busy that I haven't really had a chance to blog. I'm in Week 13 of my Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages certificate program... I'm kind of running out of steam but I started out really strong so I'm riding on a strong 90%+ grade to the end.  I've lost track of time and just didn't have the *umph* to complete assignments a couple of times.  So, I won't be finishing with an A+ or anything... but I only need a passing grade of 70% to get my certificate. I still have 3 weeks to go and a final exam, so wish me luck!

My days have been so bizarre since I started my 2:45pm - 11:30pm work schedule.  I like the fact that I get to hang out with Will every day before I go to work.  We've been having so much fun and just have a smoother relationship overall because we can communicate efficiently (i.e. talking face-to-face), instead of texting over many hours due to opposite schedules and then waiting days in between to finally see each other.  We get to eat lunch together every day... we can run errands before I go to work... we walk the dogs... we do all sorts of things!  I'm sure the normal-scheduled couples are probably like... *duh*... but those are definitely newfound gems of treasured time for us.  I think 11:30pm might be a taaaaaaad too late, so I might try for like 10:30pm end time for my next shift bid. 

Even though I love my new schedule because of the benefits, I don't think I've transitioned too gracefully.  For example, just this past week I thought it was Wednesday pretty much the ENTIRE day until about 6pm... when I finally figured it out it was, in fact, Thursday!  I had missed my 12pm deadline for my homework assignment and told all my customers the wrong delivery date (Friday when it should've been Monday). 

Luckily, it didn't affect my quality check for this month... I got another 100% WOW call!  I am soooooo happy about this because I feel it helps me look like a super strong candidate for the specialty team I just applied for.  I'm also happy because my Lead, Supervisor, and Manager all take me out to lunch whenever I get a WOW call.  So far, I've been to Hash House, Serendipity 3, Nacho Daddy... and I'm waiting to see where I'm going next week for March's WOW call.  *Eeeeeee*

Even with all the awesomeness happening, my brain was really started to get a little crazy.  I also blame the monsoon season weather - the stormy weather really sends my sinuses into a tailspin and that kind of messes up my mental powers.  The skies have cleared up a bit and it's getting warmer again, so maybe that will be the end of that weirdness.

My dad's health has also been a topic of intense scrutiny these past couple of months.  It's been difficult to try to be a translator between him and his doctor, but its my familial duty and a priority - even before work.  It sucks and I wish it wasn't happening - but I have to be there for him and have my wits about me.  So, it's been a huge load of unexpected stress but it will be fine.

On a brighter note, I'm really happy with my sessions with the personal trainer.  She has a regimen set up for me to follow and it's challenging but adjustable to my needs at the same time.  She was really understanding about the limitations that my scoliosis places on my activity level - so she made sure there's nothing high impact and added weight machines that strengthen my back muscles.  My determination to get in better shape is motivated by the need to get my PCOS under control, once and for all.  The endocrinologist said that if my hormone levels look good in 3 months, then I can experiment with stopping my medications.  PCOS put me on a hormonal, emotional, and physical rollercoaster - and I'm ready to get off.

Lastly, in the middle of all this chaos... I've discovered a new little passion.  I was thinking about this really awesome pesto that I made like a year ago.  It was pretty basic: olive oil, garlic, walnuts, spinach, and basil.  It was delicious!  And then I thought about how disproportionately expensive fresh basil is compared to all the other ingredients.  I had this brilliant thought!  Why don't I just GROW MY OWN BASIL?!  Will and I took a trip to Home Depot - I bought a little pot, organic soil, gardening gloves, a small garden trowel, and a packet of organic basil seeds!  I should see in about 8-10 days if there will be any little sprouts... ^____^

P.S. - Will really wanted to buy this lucky bamboo... mostly because his zodiac sign is a sheep.  It's working, he's won the last 3 times he played poker! YAY

Do you spy a little Bodhi in this picture?