Listening: Dead Can Dance Boxed Set
I'd rather be sleeping
Considering: getting coffee
Desiring: more time in a day
Aches and Complaints: sore/tired
Enjoying: I don't know who's fooling who here
as I'm watching your decay
we both know you could deflate a 7 hurricane
Seems like you and your tribe decided you'd rewrite the law
segregate the mind, from body, from soul....
...I believe in defending what we once stood for
seems in vogue to be a closet misogynist homophobe
a change of course in our direction,
a dash of truth stretched thin
--Tori Amos
--"pancake"

Not much going on now. Got in early enough that I don't actually have work to do. Managers want to make it so that I can't/shouldn't show up this early but since my work is supposed to be distributed to me the night before it's to be processed I don't feel too bad.

The weekend immediately past was alright but there were a couple of troubling set backs. And then Molasses' car was broken in to. He was parked on my street and some time between 4am and 1230-ishPM someone smashed the window and grabbed all the CDs in his car. Fortunately they didn't get into his trunk but it still really sucked, if for no other reason than it's always a pain in the ass to replace a window, especially on a Sunday.

So on the one hand he didn't end up going to the garou game and leaving me on my own - I would have been sad and mildly bored, but not bored enough to go to the game myself - on the other hand I got to play supportive girlfriend and be nice and feed him and stuff. Way later in the day when the police report had been filed - with Officer Min of the Rampart division (don't worry, Molasses is white so nothing bad happened) who's attention to detail and patient explanation of a report really made us feel a lot better - and we spent a couple of hours driving around making sure there was no one in all of LA willing to replace the window on a Sunday we finally headed to Long Beach and had some food and did a little bit of shopping.

The only person who is missing anything is my oldest brother. I want to get him a copy of Enemy at the Gates on DVD, but I want to pay less than $25 for it. Supposedly Hollywood Video is having a blowout sale and most DVDs are on sale for roughly $15 dollars. Hopefully they'll have this flick. I would have gotten this movie for my dad but the sex scene kinda makes it a bad idea. The movie would have been perfect but for the one inexplicable scene of gratuitous sex. I guess it was the idea that they had to be quiet and do it on the floor while surrounded by their compatriots, so that went further to explain the living conditions of the Red Army but still.... Anyway I think my brother can handle it better than my dad, and maybe my dad will borrow it some day. (No I have no idea why my dad gets freaked at the concept of sex but blowing up and mowing down people by the hundreds is alright with him.)

For my dad I still have to write him a short letter to explain why I don't have something physical for the larger part of his present. I want to arrange for him, and prolly my mom, to have a nice weekend by themselves in Lake Tahoe, where I want them to have the opportunity to play in the snow. But I don't know what weekend would be best so I'll have them tell me and then I'll make it happen. }:>

I had gotten a small present for Alexa but then I was chosen to be her Secret Santa. *sighs* my sister made up the list and the stores mentioned are all in Orange County. Some of the items mentioned I can either buy in LA or online, but they're a tad bit expensive or unfeasible for an infant - my sister wants educational videos, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but I do know that it's not a good idea for children under the age of two to watch any television.

So I can spend well over a hundred dollars on a high chair or track down some toys. Must remember to try checking out Goodwill.

I've done very little shopping for Molasses. I don't like being told precisely what to get - it totally kills the surprise which is a great part of Christmas. I did get him one of the DVDs I know he wants and now I'm stuck between other items I think he could have use for but i don't know if he actually wants them. His one hint was mildly unhelpful.

It occurred to me that I hadn't thought of what to get Agent Orange, but now that he has enough money to get anything his heart desires it seems pointless to try to think in terms of entertainment. So I'll be getting a couple of practical things. Unless he actually tells me what he wants.

I've usually avoided getting brainless entertainment like games or movies for people because it's something they can easily get themselves and I pride myself on thinking of things that they wouldn't think of that fulfills an unknown or unheeded desire. But I'm pretty well through with getting clothes for people after many of them have spent time bitching about what was wrong with the color/size/design of what I gave them. I like giving books to people and often when I descend on a subject I know it's something they'll like, but too many folks have whined that they don't like to read. So only some folks are getting books and only after I'm darned sure tehy want what I'm getting. I really don't like gift certificates because they indicate the ultimate capitulation to a lack of creativity. But then my mom is tough to shop for so she can decide what she wants from Macy's this year.

My list of non-family to give presents to is fairly short this year, primarily out of a lack funds and secondarily out of not knowing what people already have versus what they want. I'm contemplating a move toward ultimately creative and totally free, but that will depend on how much faith I have in myself and my powers of expression. Otherwise there's just a couple of folks left to be crossed off my list, and a quick trip to Barnes & Noble should fix that.

Other than that I just need to send money to the various loan institutions and I'll be (mostly) done spending money for the month.

Last night I went climbing with the Squire of Dimness and had a good time of it. We nearly didn't go but I was glad we did eventhough sliced open my thumb on the last route. I think it got caught on one of the quickdrops as I was practicing freeing a rope that Squire had put up on a lead route. The route is a little tough for me and I've never tried to free a rope while holding on to a route and ended up being more or less unable to do it. In the meantime my shoulders were worked over pretty good and my thumb bled all over my hand. I don't actually know what happened to it to get cut, I just noticed the blood when I hit the ground. But the bandaid is making it hard to use my trackball.

But there were a couple of routes that I did well and totally impressed myself with the first route (they were all 5.8s) cause I really had to muscle it up there. Squire, of course, burned up a couple of 5.10-'s like they were nothing.

After I posted last night I stayed up for another two hours reading. A lot of my discipline is gone which is weird cause I more or less taught myself to read and read The Hobbit the first time when I was in the third grade. But I'm rereading The Two Towers and my mind kept wandering. 50 pages used to be relatively easy to do before bed. }:P

But fortunately I'm still fairly stubborn to the point of seriously hurting myself and ended up getting less than three hours of sleep. Currently I'm doing ok, but that will probably change when I get some work to do.

Course I also had trouble falling asleep once I did put the book away. I dozed off at least twice and woke up in a panic before I finally dropped off.

Today after work I'll head by the store to get a couple of cards and then the post office to mail them. Tonight Molasses and I will feast on the Massive Meal at Mykonos (I don't know what it's actual name is but I liked the aliteration) Greek Grill. I may squeeze in some shopping and maybe Molasses and I will take a boat tour of Naples and look at the pretty lights, but we'll see. On Wednesday I'll head up to see Tori at the Universal. W00!! Tori! W00!! Orchestra seeting! B00!! sitting alone! }:< On Thursday i don't remember all the details, but if all goes well Molasses will come up to Pasadena and we'll get to see The Two Towers. Friday there's a Cam/Anarch game, Saturday I'm going to run around like crazy first thing in the morning, getting Molasses' gifts while he's at class (I hope). Then maybe we'll go hang out with some friends and possibly see about going to a club before everyone disperses to the four winds. Sunday the only plan I have is a birthday dinner with some friends. Then Monday I have to get up stupid early - I think 3am might still legally count as Sunday - and take Molasses to the airport. And then try not to be too lonely over the ensuing week.

In other (very different) news I've been watching the scrap-up between Lott and Capitol Hill with some mild interest. I'm very glad that there are people who are outraged by what he said (and what he's been saying for the past 40-odd years), but I don't feel like joining them. I already knew he was one of the Bad Guys, I already figured I couldn't trust him, and I already understood that there was no way he represented me. But still, I'm glad people are not letting it slide.

It's funny though, how people aren't getting equally annoyed at Thurmond, now that one of his old skeletons has escaped from the closet. Maybe because he won't be in office much longer, maybe because he's a centenarian now and we're supposed to be nice to such folks....

*sigh* I'd really like to know what the process would be for replacing Lott if it came to that. Does the whip step up and then the GOP picks a new whip? Who is the whip? What are his/her politics?

Anyway... time to go do something productive.