Triumphant Return!

Back on Iki after:

2 days in Kagoshima City

2 1/2 days on Yakushima Island

3 1/2 days in Nagasaki City.

Great vacation, but super glad to be back.  Iki, I missed you!  And I’ve fallen back into the right direction: currently eating some frosting for dinner.  Except BOO for me, as I forgot to take out the garbage before I left.  Groooooooosssssssss.

 

Please Note

The new progress meter to your right.  This is for my WIP that I’m committed to finishing.  No stop and start and stop crap that I did with The Wife Hunt, Untitled Future Earth 1, and Christmas Cookies.  Nope, we’re gonna get this thing done.

So please pester me about it.  Because I’m very lazy if it’s just me.

That is all.

(Oh, in case you were wondering, this is another futuristic romance.  And I guess you could throw in some paranormal.  Sorta.)

 

Stupid humidity.

WARNING!  The following is often times gross, full of unnecessary information, and really, just a ton of complaints to make myself feel better about life.

When I was just entering those formative teenage years and that whole puberty thing was happening, my body gave me an annoying side effect: migraines.  Now, for most people, migraines are just extremely painful headaches–ones that usually knock you off your feet, make you want nothing more than to pop several advil and sleep for the rest of the day.

Well, my migraines were the same.  PLUS one of my eyes would go blurry.  PLUS I’d throw up.

Really, they were super uncomfortable.  My first experience with them was on the first day of sixth grade.  I’m in math class.  Ms. Carlson is droning on about growing up or something and then BOOM!  Vomit everywhere.

Yeah, I did that.  In the classroom.  In front of 30 of my peers.  Disgusting.  Embarrassing.

This is leading somewhere.  In case you were wondering.

So humidity in Japan is pretty killer.  During rainy season (which it is now), it can reach epic levels.  Rain pours for hours at a time and it’s hot, really hot, at the same moment.  I love watching the rain, listening to it, but being stuck inside with the heaviness of the hot hair filled with moisture… well, it’s no fun.

Mostly, I thought the excessive sweating would be the worst of my problems.  But I’d forgotten that humidity (and tight hair held up to keep the neck from getting too hot) also causes other problems.

Yeah, you guessed it.  Migraines.

I had my first migraine for about seven years today.  It started during lunch.  My right eye went half blind.  I didn’t freak out as I knew the signs, so I just started chugging water, hoping that the water would get my mind working better.  Twenty minutes later I was sick to my stomach.

I resigned myself to teaching my last class (I had five today) and trudged through that without vomiting all over my students.  Thank goodness.  But it was a close call (twice).  Then I went home.  Tried to sleep. Expelled my innards.  Slept.

Ugh, I forgot how frustrating migraines are!  Unlike when I’m sick, I don’t feel less alert or tired, I just hurt.  And trust me, curry-flavored vomit is one of the most disgusting flavors there are.  (Probably too much information, but whatever.  I’m complaining.)  It’s turning me off curry for at least a week.  Sad, as I have a whole pot in my fridge.

And I’d been having such a good day “teaching.”  (Really, fun classes.  I taught my third years the Cha-cha Slide and the Twist.  My second years learned the game Mafia.)  I hate not doing my best in class, not making it interesting.  I especially hate leaving school early, since I already leave earlier than everyone else as it is.

But I suppose that’s the way it goes.

I still have a bit of a pound going on in the back of my head, but I’m not nauseous, and not blind.  Better than nothing.  I’ll probably be better tomorrow.

How’s the weather treating you fine folks?

and oh!

HARRY POTTER!  HARRY POTTER!  HARRY POTTER!  (K@’s countdown: two days!)

 

Better! Huzzah!

So I still have occasional OMG I’M DYING bouts, but overall, I’m way better than I was.

What’s that, you say?  I was bad before?

Oh yes.  That cold that I’d bemoaned about catching?  Well it struck with vengeance on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  I went home sick each day after I finished teaching (and honestly, I probably should have taken sick leave for the whole day).  My nose was like a hose.  I had terrible sinus headaches.  I was loopy and exhausted and probably shouldn’t have been driving.  I coughed up disgusting phlegm.  Really.  It was bad.  Worst cold I’ve had in a long time.

I started getting better on Friday after an excellent four hour nap, then I made the (somewhat poor) decision to go to curry.  I couldn’t really taste it, but the excellent time of my life came when I went to grab my flying pig order from Christine–

 

Loooooooooooooove!

She gave me NyQuil.  

I took two capsules when I got home.  Fell asleep thirty minutes later.  (Did not hang my laundry, though.  That was bad.)  Woke up ten glorious hours later.  Felt much better.

Then I made the definitely poor decision to go galavanting around Iki because I felt so much better.

Came home.  Took two more pills.  Slept for ten hours again.

Woke up and stayed home and rested.

Took two more pills.  Slept for eight hours.

Woke up today mostly perfect!  HUZZAH!  I still have the occasional cough attack, and my nose does get a little stuffed, but overall, I’m back to my normal self.  I even did some belly dancing without dying.  And honestly, I don’t think I would have recovered so fast if it weren’t for the NyQuil.  

So for you, my Dear NyQuil, I dedicate the following

Oh NyQuil, the brainchild of vicks

You keep me alive when life is the s**ts.

I coughed and I sneezed, I tossed and I turned.

Despite no fever, I practically burned.

But Vicks NyQuil, my green-colored love,

You rocked my socks off.

I know, I should be a poet.

 

Giving it a Go

 

Not sure quite what the apple is supposed to symbolize? Temptation from Eve? Temptation in general? A good contrast between skin and red-ness?

Well, so I’m reading Twilight.

I have friends in both camps about this book–friends whose opinions I trust.  On the one hand, there’s the “It reads like a badly written, Mary Sue, dream-for-self Fanfiction” camp, and then the “Oh, it’s really interesting and suspenseful, and totally realistic” camp.

Well…

First of all, just to get it off my chest, here are the things that annoy me:

1. First Person - Don’t ask me why, because I don’t have an answer, but unless it’s in a literary novel, I don’t like first person narratives.
2. Not Accurate Teen Terminology - “Sour grapes”?  ”Didn’t know her from Eve”?  These are things I’ve never used in a regular conversation.  I’m 22 (only just).  That’s not that old.  And I’m from Washington and lived in Arizona.  WE DON’T TALK LIKE THAT.
3. PwP? - I get that the key to this book is the blooming “relationship” between Edward and Bella, but seriously, is there anything to this plot besides her fascination with him?  I’m on page 92 (movie paperback edition), and nothing.  Oy vey.  
4. Bella doesn’t like Washington - As a Washington Native, that just drives me up the wall.  Oh, and Thriftway (the grocery store) was either shut down or taken over by Fred Meyer’s back in 2002 or something.  I dunno, I was still in High School, at least.  Which means Bella could not have gone to Thriftway.  Just saying.
5. Ochre?  I had to look up the word on Wikipedia.

What I do like about the book:

1. Aside from the random terminology, really, let’s be honest, when I was Bella’s age (16?) I pretty much obsessed about boys nonstop.  Much as I hate admitting that I was so vapid and shallow, I didn’t move beyond my own ego until at least my sophomore year in college.  And really, I still obsess about boys a great deal.  So although it’s annoying to have PwP? it is realistic.
2. The banter between Bella and Edward is pretty good.
3. Her aversion from Mike (puppy-boy, hah…) and all the other kids slavering after her is realistic for someone who’s not too people-persony.  Even I don’t like obviously clingy boys, and I consider myself very sociable.  Someone who’s mysterious will always be more interesting than someone who’s willing to show you everything right up front, no matter how unhealthy a relationship that may lead to.  Fact of life.
4. Makes me think of home.  I miss the Seattle area.  A lot.
5. Easy read.  After going through Northanger Abbey, it’s nice to read something that doesn’t take any effort.

What I know will annoy me in the future:

1. Really, I just don’t like vampire romance.  It makes no sense to me.  These people are dead.  DEAD.  That’s not sexy.  Plus, if someone’s lusting after your blood, what does that someone do when you’re bleeding from a very particular place once a month?  Just saying.
2. Bella being annoying.  I can just tell she’ll be the whiny type.  Whiny people (total double standard, I was whiny like woah) annoy me.
3. Edward being SPARKALAY.  Someone mentioned this.  Vampires should not sparkle.

So why, Ms. Kat, are you reading this, you may ask.  Well, because I once snubbed my nose at Harry Potter, thinking it was too juvenile to read.

Well, you can guess what sort of decision I consider that now.  (If you’re a bit obtuse, please reference the title of this blog.)

That is all.  Kat out, back to read.

UPDATE!  Page 174, 

“I followed you to Port Angeles,” he admitted, speaking in a rush. …

He paused.  I wondered if it should bother me that he was following me; instead I felt a strange surge of pleasure.

All I can think about is the Ex: “Why do women find it attractive to be stalked?  Stalking is creepy.  CREEPY!  Do you want someone watching you to keep you ’safe’ from your bedroom window without you knowing about it?  Really?  REALLY?”

Oh, Bella’s such a teenager.

UPDATE 2: 

We are now on page 195.  Bella has had, maybe, three solid conversations with Mr. Vamp.  

She is in love with him.

::rolls eyes::

This happens in romance novels all the time and doesn’t keep me from reading them all the way through, so I won’t stop here.  But Ms. Meyer, I have this to say to you: love is not some dopey, slap you in the face emotion.  Love does not happen because someone is mysterious and saves your life a couple times.  Love happens when you know somebody.

…anyway.

Moving on.

Book is more enjoyable than anticipated.  Even if it’s occasionally silly (I like to whine, have I mentioned that?), the narrative is tense and spell binding enough that I keep reading instead of dicking around (too much) on the internet.  That’s a good sign.