tabitha_dornoc

I loathe the heat - would much rather be bundled in layers and tucking my nose into my shoulder to try and work some feeling back into it.

So mid-March? Walking about it tank and shorts? Does not bode well.

It's warm enough that I can open my window for the night (!) and not startle hilariously at the BUNNY sitting on my front lawn gazing RIGHT at me, head tilted.

We had a staring contest. It won.

In high school, we used to have this one teacher who liked to shush us. A lot. It was kind of her go-to reaction for any noise above the whoosh of air your arm makes when you raise it for a question.

Shh. Shhhh.

Sometimes she'd stutter a little: Shh-sh-sh-sh-sh.

All my notes from that class have little tallies in the upper right corner, where we'd count her shushes. One glorious day we got seventy-five. (Granted, by the time we got to sixty, we were pretty much being obnoxious to get her to do it - we really wanted her to average out at a shush per minute.)

We made a line graph of the semester. It was pretty fantastic.

I'm thinking about this today because I have a coworker who likes to give compliments, and I would dearly love to tally her compliment-giving. I imagine it would outweigh the shushing.

But that's so sweet, you say. Indeed, yes. For the first day. Week.

Then it gets weird. Then annoying. And then just weird again.

"You're amazing." "You're fantastic." "You're awesome." ... Then she draws up short, so she starts repeating herself. "Oh, that's great. You're awesome." "Thanks for doing that. You're amazing."

I've started replying back with, "No, you're amazing," and then we volley back and forth for a bit on who is more amazing.

And the real kicker? She's absolutely genuine. She honestly believes we are all wonderful, skilled people whom she can learn from, and it is her honour, nay privilege, to get to look upon us let alone work side by side.

(I am 97% sure she goes home on a day, pulls out a latex suit from the closet and sweetly informs her husband that the safe-word is 'amazing'.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY syvia ! <3<3<3 I hope work lacked stress and the eatings were good. :)

Remember when I was a good friend and used to write fics for birthdays etc? I read a lot of fic today, if that counts. So much that my computer tried to reboot on me for some needed updates.

Which I postponed for four hours. Twice. D:

After which I went on a cleaning rampage and dueled some fearsome dust bunnies (who were out for blood and babies) to try and feel a tad productive. (Which totally worked, btw. Coasted the rest of the day, mm.)

Roommate and I, lounging on the couch, each with a netbook in our lap, reading fic. I've got some Inception on the go, and she's searching for some good Sherlock. Suddenly,

Her, laughing: "Sherlock Holmes is a reluctant racehorse. John Watson is-"
Me: A horse whisperer?
Her: That'd be better! No, he's "a broken police horse from New York City".
Me: ...
Her: It's twenty chapters long.
Me: Click on it.
Her: No!
Me: Yes!

And now we're reading each other bits and pieces from it. A clever author could probably pull this off, actually. This author just really, really likes horses.

Our poor neighbours. We maybe shouted some profanity at the television. WTF.

A recommend. Tangled fic. It is woooonderful. Read it! <3

Boosting the signal on this one, courtesy of syvia's entry, because I've been reading articles out loud, and my roommate and I CANNOT STOP MAKING D FACES! D:

Short: Mississippi voting Amendment 26, deciding whether fetuses and fertilized eggs should be granted same rights as a fully developed person. Designed to outlaw abortion and stem-cell research.

Syvia's got links to some great 'let's stop this' sites, including a way to donate in order to help spread word. I googled the amendment's homepage to see if what was being proposed was actually, you know, being proposed. Surprise! It totally is! (There's a lovely real-life story on there where we learn abortions don't make you not-pregnant, they just make you a mother of a dead baby. Lovely.)

I don't live in the States, so I don't know how often someone tries this sort of stunt, and personally, I don't even know where I stand on abortion, but the thought of the option of one being removed? Not. On.

My new town's annual festival is a celebration of the carrot. Yes, the orange tubular vegetable. Mostly it's a chance to shut down the main street and let people set up shop. So many handmade things for sale - most of it jewelry, but I dropped most of my money at the food booths. I came home with little jars of homemade taco seasoning and butter chicken sauce. (Also found a genuine Totoro at a stuffed animal stall, so there's my sister-in-law's Christmas taken care of.)

They've postponed the release of Legend of Korra due to extension? We get two seasons instead of the one, but now must wait longer to get it? I don't know. It's sadface, in any case, and I'm in an airbending mood, but I lent out my copy of the series. It's really good background noise? Like, if you're writing or drawing or whatevering, having Aang et al natter on is just really soothing. (It's Zuko's lisp, but don't tell him. XP)

I cooked with tofu noodles and they were yummy! Roommate and I, being people who have never tried tofu, sat at the table trying to think of the appropriate adjective to describe the consistency, but it was not an epic fail, so I call SUCCESS in the kitchen.

Joys and celebrations. I have been lacking the nets for nearly a month. I moved recently into a little walk-out apartment, and the amount of Ikea trips and Costco runs and dinners we got half-way through before discovering we didn't own an essential like a can opener or a cheese grater...

Internets. They are lovely. My roommate and I decided that there is not room in the budget for the fun television channels, so we're systematically going through our DVD collections. Buffy is the current show de jour. <3