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

Because it's easier to copy and paste than to write it out... My mother has amazing skills of keeping things for too long. Really.

Lara: I just found a cake mix in the cupboard from 1988. Which means this cake mix moved with us from Seattle to Kalispell and then Kalispell to here. This cake mix has been in my cupboards since I was 7. I don't even know.

Simon: LOL

Lara: If I asked her, she would probably said, "I might need it sometime." "WHY WOULD YOU NEED A LEMON CAKE FROM 1988!?" Zombie Apocalypse.

Simon: You could probably kill a zombie with a 23 year old lemon cake.

Lara: I think so!

Simon: cure for the zombie virus right there.

Lara: As long as you followed the high-altitude baking instructions if you lived here. Otherwise they would be like "this bullshit didn't even rise" *NOMS YOUR FACE*

Simon: LOL well yes

My step-father is awesome. He walked into the room holding this bowl of pumpkin pie innards I baked and said, "are these punkin guts for eatin'?" He was also reading the clouds to me yesterday. They were long and streaky and he was all "Those are lenticular clouds. It means there are mighty high winds around the tops of those peaks there. If you were flying a small aircraft you'd want to stay away from those clouds." He likes unleashing some of his pilot-fu. Like when we drive across the state and he points out fields he landed his plane in. It's kind of hilarious.

ANYWAY it's blizzarding here now, wheee! SNOWING SIDEWAYS! Also I am hyper. I haven't had energy since I've been here and all of a sudden YAHOOOOOOO ENERGY!

My poor mother has to deal with me *snickers* Also Simon but you see, that is voluntary.

Yesterday I got Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. It's translated into English which is sad, but it was two bucks at a thrift store. And it's Rainer Maria Rilke. Who could write a grocery list down and I would read it with glee.

Oh and I watched more Doctor Who and I now believe if they don't let David Tennant light the torch for the 2012 Olympic games in London, I will be very, very upset!

Cantabrians, Treat Me (http://www.treatme.co.nz/Christchurch) has a deal for a $79 dentist check up and clean. I totally took that, since as a poor student I can't usually afford the dentist. Now to book in before heading to the US. Which is difficult since much of my time before I head off, we're going South to Fiordland. Though if I don't use the booking before I head off, I have until the 2nd of Feb. I'd like to do it before though. YAY dentist!

Guy Fawkes was awesome. I hate fireworks and since I live two houses away from Firework Park, I decided to partake in some Bravery Vodka in the form of vodka and oranges. Better than anything else where you can taste the alcohol, bleh. Apparently I spent a great deal of time hugging people and clinging to Alison's leg. And Woot says I nommed his ankle. I also professed my love for Simon about 20 times and called him pretty, according to him. Spamming Tumblr askboxes is so classy. Hey, at least I'm an affectionate drinker. And now that Guy Fawkes is over, let's just NOT have more Bravery Vodka. Until next year.

I have to say, it did help. Instead of screaming and hiding and crying, I was lying on the grass and staring up as the fireworks went off above me. It was pretty.

Now if only all my friends were well again, that would make me happy! In the meantime, I will settle for walking to the store once it's open, and purchasing and eating a chicken. Yep.

EDIT: DENTIST BOOKED for Wednesday at 9:30am. Woot! Now to the store for chickens!

EDIT 2: AUUUUGGHHHHHHH I opened the door to let Helios Tiberius Fassbender in and a white-tailed spider FELL ON ME! AAUUUGGGHHHH HEART-ATTACK SPIDER! So I killed it in the midst of my freaking out and then felt bad I didn't just trap it under something and relocate it. Sorry, spider. But pls no falling on me.

Real Halloween today. Slept until 5 pm from exhaustion. But then I ordered pizza (online Hell special!) and suddenly a bunch of trick-or-treaters showed up. People don't usually celebrate Halloween here so I had no supplies! Had to give them Mint Slice biscuits. So now I am cookieless ;) But it was great, save for the fact that I was dressed in sleepy clothes. And then the landlord came around to giggle about the kids in costume so he saw me basically undressed. And then the pizza arrived.

It was chaos I was ill-dressed for. But it was still awesome.

So now I am watching the original Nightmare on Elm Street (which I still keep calling Friday the 13th for some reason) and eating my salad. Halloween eve spent with my girls and Halloween spent with Simon while watching horror films. Pretty awesome.

Also it's not often I find an original creepier than a re-make since they usually re-make horror films to amp up the violence and yikes-factor. But the original Nightmare on Elm Street is so much more creepy than the re-make even if I like them both.

You must all be so glad when you see a post from me these days. I can feel the excitement from here. I am so sorry this is all I talk about now. But seriously, I can't think about anything else when I feel so wretched.

I finished my law essay and went to class today. Class was okay because I was just sitting there. And I actually enjoyed being a loud-mouthed and opinionated pushy girl so that was nice. Then I had to go turn in my essay on the 6th floor of the history building. I didn't walk up the stairs because my knees can't take it, but I decided to walk down because I hate elevators and hey, we're still getting enough aftershocks that I filled my waterbottle up before I even got in the elevator to go up just in case one knocked the power out and I got stuck.

So I was walking down the stairs and I kept shaking. Mad, knee-knocking, entire body-trembling shaking. And it got gradually worse and worse as I went down. When I was on the third floor, I just burst into tears because I was shaking so badly. Strangely enough, my lecturer was returning to his office which is on the third floor so he whisked me in there and got me some tea while I sobbed on his desk about how I can't even walk down a flight of stairs. I finally managed to suck it up and head for the bus. During the ride Simon was kind enough to keep me distracted so I didn't sob the entire way home.

I napped for several hours and then ate tacos and lots of fruit. I still feel like hell. I think it's actually just one of those days I am stupidly overtired and my blood sugar isn't cooperating and there's nothing I can do about it. I have been eating all day to try to fix it. It tends to work itself out eventually but in the meantime I feel rotten inside. I seriously just ate a huge meal, a nectarine, a mandarin and a banana and I feel like I haven't eaten in days.

I hate my stupid body. (And I have to keep telling myself I am not dying because of my anxiety. SUCH FUN.)

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.

1. My family is the most awesome thing in the world.

2. Still waiting on my program to confirm my results to the loan people so I can get my second semester loan. If this is refused, this entire year is basically a wash. And it's 7 weeks til the end of term (break weeks not included) So. That sucks. But-

3. My family is still the most awesome thing in the world.

4. I now have all The Kills albums! :D

5. Simon is wonderful for cheering me up.

6. My family is seriously the most awesome thing in the world.

It seems the worst of the snowpocalypse might be over, which is good. I don't know when things will open again, but it will be nice not to feel stuck at home. Not that I go anywhere these days, but I like it to be an option. It does mean Alison will fly away from us tomorrow, waahhhh. Let's not focus on that, or the fact that a virus deleted the essay I had mostly finished so I had to write 2,100 words for it last night. I kicked it's arse though. Thanks to my own personal cheerleader. His name is Simon!

So here is a pictorial account of the last few days. It is awesome and features mostly cats, my bathrobe, Jen in an awesome costume, a lot of me (some upsidedown) and a photo that looks like I am choking Ariadne. I was not.

( Listen close to everybody's heart )