It's not a cry you can hear at night, it's not somebody who's seen the light...

The past few days have been eventful. First, I got Echo a collar and decided she could go outside, since she doesn't just hide under the porch and refuse to come out like certain tortoiseshell cats I know. Her first day outside and she gets stung in the throat by a bee. It swells up to gigantic proportions and I have to take her to an afterhours vet which costs a heck of a lot of money. So guess who gets to stay inside for a little while now. :| Not happy.

The other night I woke myself up screaming! I had been having ghost nightmares all night, but the one I woke up from and finally decided to just stay up involved a room in the basement of my childhood home. But the room was Evil. And we were hanging around outside it, who knows why. One of the cats wandered in and Leah decided she didn't like him in there and she was going to get him out. I watched from the door frame and this random doll was running around to be freaky. Dolls terrify me. And she handed the cat to me but she didn't follow. I went back for her, calling her name. I found her in the corner, staring dead-eyed up at a ghost who had taken her form but twisted and terrifying. And the Leah-ghost turned towards me and rushed me. When Leah-ghost was a centimetre from my face, that's when I woke up screaming. Not.Awesome. Unless it was in a movie. Then really awesome.

Went to the doctor to renew my prescription and complain that I am still tired. I explained that I had even slept about 10 hours last night and woke up feeling like I do when I travel and don't sleep for two days. So tomorrow I have to have MORE tests done. Joy of joys. She said now it's probably just post-virus fatigue, but she wants to rule everything out.

Me? I just want to sleep for like...days. Humph.

But I did get a 1949 edition of Chaucer's Poetical Works in stunning condition from the Uni bookstore's used books shelf for incredibly cheap. It's so beautiful, I want to marry it.

Recent history being what is has been, I feel like none of my entries lately have shown my trademark silliness. This is for obvious reasons, being that it's hard to be silly when there are still soldiers barring you from entering your city, you keep having panic attacks, and you spend most of your time sleeping. But I do miss writing ridiculous things that probably only I giggle about.

So getting this out of the way, I went to sleep last night at 8 and woke up at 8 in the morning. I struggled to stay awake until about 11 when I finally gave in. I decided it would be best to have a whizz before I crawled back into bed, and I was so tired that the energy it took to go into the bathroom made me cry. So then I slept until 8 tonight. And I am still tired (my head feels too heavy to hold up) but I haven't cried yet, so that's...kind of like progress! And I have tuna melts. So it's progress with melted cheese.

Speaking of tuna melts, my housemates are trying to kill me in really subtle and underhanded ways.

Leah did all the dishes (bless her). I usually do them, but since I have been sleeping...the effect there is obvious. I think in revenge she removed the wombat-shaped oven mitt from the kitchen. This may seem like it is of no consequence, but it is of huge consequence when you have tuna melts in the oven getting blacker and blacker and you can't find the damn wombat-glove. And my sleep-addled brain didn't think to just get a dishtowel and hope it was thick enough to save me from the burning sensations. No. I ran around in circles until I remembered we had other less awesome and less chompy oven mitts. They were nowhere to be seen either. I opened the drawer where the clean things live, usually known as the drawer where nothing is. And lo and behold, non-chompy oven mitts.

So ha HAH, Leah. Your crafty plan to burn me to death has FAILED! And my tuna melts are only a little overdone, so you haven't even ruined my dinner. Muahhahahaa!

I have been reading Japanese Ghost Stories, a book I got from www.bookdepository.co.uk (FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING!) and have been dismayed to find that it contains very few actual ghost stories. Most of the book is about psychic phenomena, which is interesting enough in and of itself, but should be found in a book called Japanese Psychic Phenomena so it doesn't mislead unsavvy collectors of ghost books like me into buying it. And I would be more interested to read about the phenomena if the book were written by someone with an unbiased eye. Like, say, not someone who considers themselves to be a freaking shaman. There's nothing wrong with saying "hey, I'm a shaman. I will heal your ass and write books about that girl from the ring and her photographs". Call yourself whatever you want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone (I'm a pretty airplane! Board me!). But he doesn't exactly look at both sides of the issue. So all 'facts' presented could really be bullshit, or hopes, or wishes, or ~dreams~. By the same token, I always enjoy ghost books written by randoms more than the ones written by the people with ghost tour companies, because you can never tell if those ones are making shit up to get you to go on their tours.

I wanted to read about onryo and Oiwa-san, not faith healing. There IS a chapter about modern hauntings but one chapter out of many is disappointing. Next I shall move on to my Queer Hauntings book. I am excited. And since it wasn't written by a guy claiming to be a gay ghost, I think I will enjoy it much more than this one.

My throat hurts and my head hurts and I can't seem to spend more than 5 or 6 consecutive hours awake at a time. And that's if I'm lucky. I spend those hours wanting to be asleep or half-asleep (and all nauseated) while the telly is on in the background. My doctor isn't in until Thursday. I am hoping it's just a cold that's taken me down with it, and not glandular fever (mono for you yanks) but the other day I had fever chills. And all the coughing is coming from my throat, not my lungs.

Hhhrrunnngggg.

I did go to the store today, but I had to lean on the shopping trolley and I don't quite remember the walk there. I was dizzy the entire time and wanted to stop and lie down on several occasions. Probably not very smart, but I am so sick of my stupid (so comfy) bed and I needed cat food. And a jelly mold. Don't ask...

I tried to read yesterday, just one of my ghost books. Each story is like 500 words long. I would reach the end and have no idea what I just read. This...is...awful. But OH I found a book called Queer Hauntings on the Book Depository website. And both Leah and Alison said (separately) "It's like all your favourite things! Gay people and ghosts!" It's funny 'cause it's true.

Please cross your fingers for me and hope I'm just being a pathetic, whiny loser? I would rather that than actually being quite ill.

And this is all the coherence I can handle today. And it took me far longer than it should have because I kept drifting off and almost falling asleep.

My books came *squeals* I got The Legends of Saint Patrick with a prettier cover. It is a reprint from 1889 and full of ridiculous myths which I love. I don't think he turns any blasphemers into foxes like he does in Jocelin's 'biography' (we shall use that term loosely) but it's still amazing.

I also got The Life of Saint Patrick another classic reprint. They're so sexy, you guys. Sosexyomg.

Helios is chewing on my FOOT. Little bugger.

But boooookkksssss. *glee*

Now I am going to go make some salsa and watch Most Haunted while fondling my sexy books.

Token ghost books I buy every time I come to the US acquired! Why they don't sell books like this in NZ and Australia is beyond me. Except in The Haunted Bookshop in Melbourne. Oh Haunted Bookshop, I miss you even though your owner is an insufferable twat. For some weird reason, the guy LOVED me though I thought he would hate me because I look like SUCH a square. But when I asked for something and obviously knew what I wanted I think that helped. Actually, he probably loved me because I practically bought out his entire 'hauntings' section over the course of a year. He said it was harder and harder to find books on hauntings because of the internet, but there are plenty to be found here at Hastings and I found lots in the UK as well. Whatever, Drew is a weird guy. And he runs the Melbourne ghost tour. Which I would TOTALLY recommend if you are in Melbourne and interested in ghosts! It's awesome! Lalala Linky!

ANYWAY, I bought a huge book of tales of haunted places, because those are my favourite. Obviously as I have about 30 of the things. And then I bought Idiots Guide to the Paranormal because it not only talks about ghosts but it has stuff about angels and demons in there too. Which is interesting research for FG. I read about Belial in the car! And there's a section on the exorcism of Annaliese Somethingorother which was what The Exorcism of Emily Rose was based on.

I love these books. There was only one book by Holzer though. No good paranormal section is complete without several Hans Holzers, please. He wrote over a hundred of the things. Holzer died in 2009 and I totally cried because I am a loser. But he inspired my Father Peter father_peter because I wanted a character who knew about the supernatural (and is the reason Peter was in Austria originally, because Holzer is from Vienna) and his ideas of mediumship are still what I use when I write my mediums in Darker London.

Also? Also? I kind of bought The Idiot's Guide because it has a section called Father Peter's last Exorcism which made me laugh because like...MY Peter's last exorcism was Svetlana except it didn't work and Thomas totally died and I laughed out loud IN the store while I was reading what has nothing to do with my characters and is about a Roman Catholic exorcist. So there I am in the New Age aisle, holding a book about the paranormal and cackling. A lady who was walking by gave me a VERY strange look.

It was awesome :D

I went to the website to read about the sequel to my second favourite children's book ever The 101 Dalmations. The sequel is called Starlight Barking and Ali TOLD me it was weird. And then I read the wiki page.

The dogs travel to Trafalgar Square where they are addressed from the top of Nelson's Column by Sirius, Lord of the Dog Star, an extraterrestrial dog.

That is awesome.

Having just been there, I can freaking imagine it hahhhahahhaa! Nelson's Column is freakin' huge! Like no humans would realise this alien dog up there barking to his dog friends. I suggest he rent out that platform in Trafalgar Square where he can present his extraterrestrial views as if they were part of an performance art piece, or political activism. Then he would totally blend in.

Oh, Dodie Smith, you're crazy! ♥