Atalanta Pendragonne

Why oh why is mamey not more popular?

I think they one I had was underripe; the Wikipedia article compares the texture to avocado and mine was more a sort of dense melon-squash. But the flavor was a nommeriffic maraschino cherry taste that handily kicks papaya and mango's asses, and that rich deep orange just has to point to lots of beta carotene.

Oh yes. I think I like mamey.

Got the BookMooch and the bribe for rehd_fawx mailed out, got my meds (all of which are generics now!) picked up, had a nice big breakfast at Kerbey Lane (baked potato omelet with homefries and sourdough toast), went to Fiesta. It was Unusual Fruit Day. I got lychee, longan, and loquat (all canned) and mamey (fresh).

Finished the new Valdemar book. It's pretty much a rehash of her standard themes, but it was a pleasant enough read. Still, I'm quite pleased to not have had to pay for it.

I spent most of the day dozing, so hopefully I will succeed at pulling that all-nighter and going erranding. I really need to get some stuff Done. Maybe I'll stop at Kerbey Lane for a big ol' omelet. They do good omelets.

I'm getting dug in to my ARC of the new Valdemar book. It is classic Mercedes Lackey; miserable kid in a bad situation gets rescued and is Special. In this case the kid is a slave in a gemstone mine... am I wrong, or did she just up the ante? And since it's a Valdemar book, he's rescued by being Chosen. So far about all that's happened is the being Chosen and starting to find his way around classes. So far I'm enjoying it but I'm very glad to have scored it on BookMooch rather than be faced with the prospect of buying it in hardcover.


Have any of you tried Conjure Oils? rehd_fawx and I were drooling over some of the product descriptions on their site and I'm thinking of ordering a few sample vials to investigate. Gonna put together a wishlist and start contemplating.

Because I really needed another etailer of gorgeous smellies, right? But I do need joy where I can get it, so.

Time to shower, hopefully that will help me get clear-headed.

I was going to make an erranding-run this morning, but a) it's raining, and b) the imps I'll be sending to rehd_fawx haven't come yet anyway. So I'd need to go out again anyway. I do still need to go to the post office (got a mooch to send out), Walgreens, and the grocery store, but maybe the imps'll come in today's mail and I can do it all in one trip...?

Yesterday was a good mail day, though. Got my loot from syrenemyst's SGA decant circle, which was extra awesome since I won the draw for the chapbook! It's frikken gorgeous. And it was interesting sniffing Snow, Glass, Apples (which smells like apples and cold) and Schwarzer Mond (incense-y and so very warm) in one sitting. And my pretty little blue Kirra dress from HolyCLothing came (although the purple Keely dress still hasn't arrived!), and the scary-huge bra I ordered through Amazon, and the ARC of the newest Valdemar book I scored through BookMooch. So I should be pleased.

Also my mood should be lifted by the utter adorableness of River/A at hogwarts_hocus. They're being ridiculously smitten teenagers and it's cute as hell. All cotton-candy-fluffiness and it's like a warm fuzzy blanket of sweetness. Seeing how ugly and angsty some of A's stuff has been, and how twisty and mindfucky a lot of the RP relationships have been, it's a joy to have a chance to be flat-out schmoopy for a bit.

But right now I'm just sort of crochety, and in need of more sleep so I can be properly pleased by these good things.

The Omnivore's Hundred is a list of foods the gastronomic Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives.

The rules of the meme:
Bold those you have tried.
Strikethrough those you wouldn't eat on a bet.
Italicize any item you'll never eat again.
Asterisk any items you'd be interested in trying but have not yet.

( My List )

Disgusting thought for today: What would semen taste like after eating Miracle Fruit?

Going out to eat before MHMR visits seems to be auspicious. My lunch at The Spaghetti Warehouse was very pleasant. I was "naughty" and had a glass of sangria, which was pleasant and strong enough to make me feel nicely relaxed. The spaghetti and meatballs seemed tastier than they'd been last time I was there, and the waitress was pleasant and efficient. My timing was good too; it was near-empty when I went in, but by the time I left there was a huge line for a table.

MHMR was, well, MHMR. The nurse I talked to didn't want to change my meds, even though I've been having worse mood swings, so she gave me a single month's refills and an appointment next month to talk to a nurse again.

Oh, and I got to the post office, mailing out the things I needed to send. The clerk there told me postal rates are going up again in January! Fucking insane.

So a few minutes ago I get a knock at the door. It's the maintenance guy, telling me I need to sign for an envelope, and that he didn't know what it was.

So naturally I was concerned. But when I opened it up, it was a WalMart gift card! I can only assume it's for consistently paying my rent on time. $15. So of course I hopped onto WalMart.com and did some nosing around.

They have a special, 97 cents shipping on all jeans.

They had a pair in my size that came in black.

They were $14.

So, all I had to pay was tax!

And I'd been wanting a pair of black jeans.

And yes, I know, WalMart is evil and I wouldn't normally shop there, but it was a gift card.

Hopefully this is a good sign for the rest of the day and my Keely dress will arrive in today's mail. My package from hcolleen should arrive today too, but that's UPS so I can track it.

It was an Auspicious Occurence.

So I just got a "what's new" email from The Soap Box Company. Whole bunch of Arcana LEs, including a soap called Inari ("For Inari, the Japanese kami of rice, foxes and fertility: a heady blend of jasmine flowers, delicate green tea and mango fruit. Made with white kaolin clay, rich cocoa butter, coconut milk & sweet rice."), a perfume oil that sounds right up my alley called Fugue ("An amnesiac haze of dark clove, spiced amber, sugary milk, white musk, nutmeg, and a drop of aged patchouli."), and so funny I don't think I can avoid getting it, Quim ("The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world. –Lao Tzu
Lush French cognac, deepest chocolate, banana creme, and succulent orange entwine over a base of sensual ambrette musk.").

Yes. A perfume called Quim. How can I not want some?

Also, they have a sample pack of their Villainess exclusives.

I am so fucking doomed.

So I set to using Screedbot and Minifesto to make some new icons. It was time for a new default, really. Most of them are Dorothy Parker quotes.

But...

I really wanted to make icons with the lyrics to "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" and The Gothic Archies' "Shipwrecked". And they were both too long :(

I posted this to my LJ, then realized I could post polls here as well.

I've decided on the design for my next bodymod.



ETA - better pic.

Pretend those awkward ovals are all circles and all the same size.



Poll #2151
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

If price is not a factor, should I get a...

And I'd love to hear opinions in the comments.

The actual physical ticket to the Magnetic Fields concert in October has arrived!!! It was snugly tucked in today's mail and is now even more snugly tucked in my BPAL LE case. I am so psyched! The dress I am planning to wear to the concert should be in Monday's mail or thereabouts. This is gonna be awesome.

So, I just read chapter one of Bakuman, the new series by Ohba Tsugumi and Obata Takeshi. It's adorable. Not like Death Note at all (although there are a couple of DN jokes), and just adorable.

And I am sure there will be yaoi of it very, very soon. I don't think it will be written by me, though.

I left the house early. Really early. Not quite 10 am early.

It felt good to get the book from BookMooch mailed finally. I hate making people wait.

Turns out the 17 headed towards MHMR doesn't stop exactly where I thought it did, but close enough. On the ride out, I initially missed the stop for IHOP and had to double back. Oh well, familiarizing myself with the route! Which means I won't have to depend on STS to get me there.

I had a surprisingly pleasant brunch at IHOP. The service was much more friendly and attentive than I'm used to from there. The waitress actually recognized the poem in my Resume tattoo, although she hadn't known who wrote it, and she complimented my Emily wallet as well. She was also very good about keeping my Coke refilled. So I left her a 30% tip.

Still plenty of time to kill so I took the bus back to go to CVS. Now, the CVS on Congress & 5th is tiny and doesn't have a huge selection, but I was able to get the anti-allergy eyedrops I needed, and while I did not find purple quick-dry polish, I found quick-dry spray!

I still had an obscenely long time in the waiting room. I painted my nails, which got a comment from another patient that she "couldn't afford fancy grooming like that" (note: the polish and the quick-dry spray together were under $6). The polish itself turned out more blue than purple, but I was putting it on over black polish so who knows. The quick-dry spray worked great, too! I finished the book I'd been reading (The Ninth Life of Louis Drax) and since it was a trade paperback & thus would cost too much to ship for BookMooch and I doubted I'd want to reread it (it was ok but not great) I gave it to someone else in the waiting room.

The case manager himself was, bleh. I don't get his logic... apparently it's selfish for me to want to make sure a gift I'm giving is one the person getting it would like, because I should be happy giving it and not in taking pleasure in knowing they like it? Whatever. I got the 3-month review done, it's what matters. And I go back next Thursday to get the nurse to write a scrip for med refills until Lodwick can see me again (in November).

So I achieved what I set out to achieve. I still want a proper purple nail polish, though. Maybe next time I go to Fiesta I'll duck into Sally Beauty Supply.

Also, I was immature. My other cheap box fan died, and one of my cheap desk fans died. Instead of ordering another box fan from Amazon to keep up my cross-ventilation in the living room... I ordered another dress from HolyClothing. But it's so pretty!

StarShipSofa #36 is up.

A story of mine is on it. I really, really like the narration job. I'm really, really delighted to have a story read on this podcast. Give it a listen, folks, and tell me what you think! You can even see an author photo of me on the website.

The good news: I don't have to go to MHMR (county mental health agency) today.

The bad news: I have to go on Thursday and next Thursday.

Because STS (my ride) didn't show up.

When the ride was about 20 minutes late, I went to call STS. I was on hold for over 10 minutes before I gave up and called their other number. The woman I finally talked to said "Oh, you have a taxi voucher!"

What? No one told me.

So she said she'd call me a cab with a voucher, and I waited... for over half an hour, before giving up and calling MHMR. Because skipping appointments with them gets your case closed, which would mean no more meds for me. I have to come in Thursday for my every-3-months paperwork bullshit, and next Thursday so a nurse practitioner can write refills for my meds, and then I get to make an appointment for my next doctor visit.

Fucking joy.

And then? The cab came. And I had to explain to an annoyed cabbie who didn't speak very good English that he had arrived too late, I had to cancel my appointment, and I wasn't going anywhere.

Now is Valium time.

Apparently my bathtub is now a cat bed. This would make more sense if it was porcelain or metal or something that actually stayed cool instead of fiberglass.

So I recently read Goth Craft by Raven Digitalis. In my defense, I got it off BookMooch thinking it would be lulzy.

Oh, was it ever. Elemental associations of various goth/industrial bands, occult meanings of various styles of overdramatic makeup, rituals for making spiky bracelets into protective tribes. Rampant fluffy-bunny (fluffy-bat?) language, lots of "Real Witches don't..." "True Pagans never..." "Goths don't really..."-speak.

Oh please, oh I hope it's an elaborate prank on Llewellyn, to prove they will publish anything.

In less funny news, I'm off to MHMR this afternoon. Boo. On the plus side, it's a lot cooler than it was yesterday. On the minus, it's because rain is likely. Y HALO THAR EDOUARD. I also have a mooch to mail out, and possibly a meal to treat myself to. I'm thinkin' IHOP.

Pulled an all-nighter again so I could go to the post office and Walgreens before sunup. All my meds are now available in generics, yay! I saw "deluxe" M&Ms, but they were $5 a package so I didn't get any, although raspberry almond was tempting. I did get a bag of Jelly Belly Ice Cream Parlour Mix.

My mother manages to frustrate me so much. I asked her what scents she liked, so I could send her a morale-boosting care package from The Soap Box Company, and she flat out ignored the question. It sounds small, but it's a pattern. I try to keep some connection, but she just... I don't know.

One thing I've learned from having an air conditioned bedroom and thus having to keep the door closed: Hecate is not happy unless she has access to me. If I am shut in the bedroom without her, she will mew at the door until I let her in. If she is shut in without me, she will mew at the door until I let her out. When I go into the bedroom, she goes in with me, and darts out when I leave. She's not a snuggler; she'll curl up on the bed near me but not cuddling. But she wants to be near me, or to have the option of being near.

RP-wise, I wanted to use Aaron Webber as a PB for i_am_an_hero, but I couldn't get a decent shot of him without his glasses, and A doesn't wear glasses. So I suppose I'll be staying with the icons I have for now.

I could use some new bras, but bras in my size are crazy expensive. Woe! Maybe I'll just order pizza instead.

I am already all aflutter over what to wear to the Magnetic Fields concert in October, and considering buying a new outfit.

Anyone got any thoughts on what might be a good thing to wear? I'm pondering a dress from HolyClothing, or a fun tshirt (maybe from BPTP?) and jeans or capris. I'll probably want new socks, too...

It's been so long since I've had anything to dress up for!

It's raining.

Raining hard.

It's fucking beautiful. The temperature is comfortable, even pleasant.