Sena's DW :: Watermelon Life

...I know that Christmas traditions vary from family-to-family, or even person-to-person; but with me and mine, Christmas eve and Christmas day have always been about just that-- family. Or maybe that's just the way I always viewed things.

Today, when I went over to Mom's, though, I learned that Trunks had arbotrarily invited his girlfriend to the family gift exchange.

The thing with him and his girlfriend is that they might as well be joined at the hip-- they're constantly together. But while she never brings him to her family occasions, but she's always at ours. She tagged along to my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary (this past summer), for example... but even that I managed to handle without having a fit.

Christmas, however, is different. It's fucking Christmas.

Lee and Mom justified her being there by explaining that she had two gifts under the tree (one from them, one from Graeme), so she could stay just to open hers. I kind of took a breath, and went along with it; deal, Sena, there's nothing you can do anyway.

Then, after the gifts... she doesn't go home. And doesn't go home. And doesn't go home.

She and Trunks turn on their music, crank it up (to the point of giving me a splitting headache), and then settle down in the living room. Out in the kitchen, I'm working on Broken Glass Torte with tears in my eyes because of my head, and also because the longer she stays, the more upset I'm getting.

I was really looking forward to having a family night for once-- I figured it was Christmas, so for at least this one day/night, they might have some consideration for the happiness/comfort of other people. But no. Who am I kidding? Thinking that just shows how naive I am.

I got more and more upset, until I had to go and sit at the kitchen table and concentrate on just breathing for a bit. At that point, Mom called Trunks into the kitchen to explain what the problem was... and he informed her that, gee, he forgot to mention it, but SHE'S SPENDING THE NIGHT. ...EXCUSE ME?!

I freaked out. I started crying like an idiot. I completely ruined Christmas for the whole damn family, and ended up getting Mom to drive me home, because I can't stand being in the house with the two of them tonight.

...the stupid thing is that I'm not even angry anymore. I've gotten past the point of being angry with either of them.

Now, when they do something as rediculously inconsiderate as that, I just find myself so disappointed that I can't help but cry.

....

Or maybe I'm asking too much, to just have a nice, quiet Christmas with my family...

...not so much today, but I will be tomorrow. In the morning I have to go to the grocery store with Lee and Sarah, then I'm going to Mom's to do some more baking (time for Broken Glass Torte!), and around 4:30-5:00, Ryuu-chan is going to pick me up and we're going to visit with a few people for an hour or so. ^^

After that, I have to go back to Mom's place to have dinner, and we (me, Mom, Lee and Trunks) are doing our family gift-exchange then-- because in the morning, we have to get up and head to Grandma's for the extended-family Christmas dealie. ^_^; So I'm spending the night at Mom's, too, obviously.

So much to do in such a short amount of time...

Yay, I finished my Christmas pony! ^_^

( Her name is Holiday Trimmings, but I call her 'Trims' for short... )

She was made from a G3 Bowtie pony, painted with acrylics (white, red, silver, black), and sealed with satin finish acylic sealant. >^-^< Her hair is Ever Green and Taxi Yellow Katsilk hair, from restoredoll.com, and her accessories (lights/bow) are from a local dollar store. She has a row of silver stars running down her leg, and a little red Christmas ornament on her front left hoof. :)

The Santa Clause is on the TV right now... one of the best Christmas movies ever made. ^^

I'm working on a Christmas MLP right now; her name is "Holiday Trimmings", but I'm calling her "Trims" for short. I'm 75% done, but I have some more pony hair ordered and I can't rehair her until it comes in. >^-^;; Then once I get her rehaired, I have tiny little Christmas lights to wrap into her mane and tail. But all that should only take an hour, tops. Once the hair gets here, Trims'll be done in no time!

...and meh. Dad says he might not be coming down this Sunday, either. =_=;; I'm so sick of him changing him mind about these things right at the last minute... gah...

Oh, and yay! More userpics! X3

Anyway, that's about it...

I got another package today. ^^ A Kirara plushie from papercut917, whom I love. <3

And this afternoon, I went over to Mom's a did a whole bunch of Christmas baking. Three dozen fruit cookies, and a dozen shortbread... I was going to do a batch of macaroons, too, but I screwed them up so I have to start them over tomorrow. =_=;;

Oh well.

So tomorrow I'm going back, to do said macaroons, as well as a tray of date squares. Then I'm doing broken glass torte a couple of days before Christmas. Fun stuff.

I haven't had anything to eat today except for two cookies. I need to go get something for supper.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm selling Ed!pony, just to see how much I can get for him. >^-^;; I listed him yesterday.

The hair I ordered for my ponies came in today, including the yellow that I'm using for Ed!pony and Link!pony. Whoot! X3

Also, the copies of Advent Children for Trunks and I got here. I still have a lot of misc. stuff coming to me, but I'm getting there. I really want my pony rehairing tool so I can deal with Union Bell's baldness and give Ed!pony hair, too.

I think I've decided to braid his tail, too, by the way. lol.

Und! Today Mom and I did a whole whack of Christmas wrapping. I totally know what I'm getting for Christmas, but that's okay. Usually I know, since Mom doesn't like wrapping and I do. ^^; I do wrapping for everyone...

1) My finger hurts a lot, but it's not so bad today; the swelling has gone down, but now it's bruising a bit, and it still bleeds when I change the bandages (because it sticks to them). Other than that, all is pretty much on the well side of the tracks. :)

Lesse...

2) Went Christmas shopping with my Grandma today-- it's a thing we do every year. It gives us an excuse to spend the day together, and I help her to find gifts for Trunks, since he's extremely hard to buy for.

3) When Grandma got here, she gave me a Christmas card from her and Grandpa... which was wierd. In my whole life I've never gotten a Christmas card from them. Neither has Mom, Dad, Lee, or Trunks. I was like O_o;; mweh? ...then I opened it up, and there was $100 inside! @_@;; OMFG! Grandma tells me that Grandpa knew I was really short on money this year, and thought I might appreciate some help with Christmas shopping... and when Grandma told him I was pretty much done already, he said then I probably could use it for myself, then. ^_^ I've been doing Christmas shopping and kind of skimping on stuff for myself for the last month or so, so it's totally true. Anyway, I <3 my Grandpa! =3

4) OMG she brought me date squares, too! *_* She makes the bestest date squares ever... *drools*

5) I found a Seaspray pony while we were shopping. Yayness!

6) Also, while we were shopping I discovered that Terri Clark has a new CD out, so I picked it up since Walmart had it on sale.

7) Got a copy of "Donnie Darko" on DVD at Zellers for about $8. I am the queen of bargain media shopping.

8) After shopping, Grandma dropped me off at Mom and Lee's place, because a guy was coming to look at my drums around 5-ish and I had to be there. I got there just before 4, and played with/brushed/generally cuddled the dog while I watched TV.

9) At 5, the guy came about my drums... and I finally sold them! WHOOT! ^__^ We talked for a few minutes, discussed the drums and why he wanted them (they're for his son for Christmas), and then he goes "well, I'll tell you what-- I've got $480 in my pocket." To which I replied; "sounds good to me!" No bartering or anything. I was asking $500, so twenty bucks short was awesome. I thought I'd have to end up selling them for about $400 instead. ROCK ON. I HAVE SOME CASH NOW. X3

10) To celebrate, I took Mom and Trunks out for supper. We just went to Arby's, but it was nice anyway. ^^

11) Am now home. Have some Christmas wrapping to do later, but I'm using the computer for now.

12) And finally... cat_mcdougall gots the gifts I sent for her and her kittens today! YAY! elsewherecw also got hers, a couple of days ago. ^^ I'm happy. A few more to go, though!

So I did a quick run to the mall today... which involved sitting on the bus with a SCREAMING child for half an hour. =_=;; ARGH. I could've done without that.

But! Once I got to the mall, it was okay again; I nabbed more ponies, since Zellers is still selling them for 25% off (for all this week). Dad actually went on ebay and got me a whole bunch of used ponies earlier this week, too, so now I have something like 30 of them to work with (not counting Bell and Suzuki which I've already worked on), once Dad gets the time off to come up and visit, and bring said ponies with him.

Still. 30 ponies, and I still have no boy ponies! ;__; I need boy ponies! And I want a couple more of Toboggan and Seaspray, because I love those ponies and don't want to do anything to them, but they have really nifty poses and expressions so they'd make good customs... ACK. Need more Toboggan and Seasprays! XD

In any case, after Zellers I skipped down to the bookstore to look through the bargain racks (I saw a couple of books I was marginally interested in, and one I might pick up for Trunks for Christmas.) And just out of habit, I wandered over to the fantasy section, though I didn't really expect to find anything... and @.@ ZOMGNEWVALDEMARANTHOLOGY?!

I was like *YOINK*! X3 It's called "Crossroads". Whoot. So happy.

Then, hmmm... I went to Burger King and got something to eat, and bought a couple of the silly little SD Star Wars toys for Dad. lol.

Then I browsed through a kiosk in the middle of the mall and ended up picking up a game (it's called "Dirty Minds" nyahahaha... X3 lol.) for Steve for Christmas. Now I just need to find something else for Michelle... I think I'll get her a teddy bear or something. ^^

After the kiosk, I went to the dollar store. And bought a little blue teapot.

And then I came home.

The end. ^_^

Hm. Despite the snow, it wasn't as cold today as I thought it would be, either, which was a big plus...

Yesterday was grocery day (as per every Sunday since a year ago); normally, Mom, Lee, Sarah and I all go out for breakfast/lunch (depening on when we leave) and then go to do groceries together. It makes things easier for Sarah and I since neither of us drives, and it's a nice excuse to go out together for a meal.

But this week, Sarah had a scheduled MRI in Barrie, so she and Lee had to go and do that-- thusly, Mom and I went out for breakfast and did shopping by ourselves. We ate at the Zellers restaurant (instead of the one we normally go to when it's all four of us) and I had a Spanish omelet, which was good except for the sour cream, which I've never been a fan of. :P lol.

After that, we went to Canadian Tire. They were having a half-price sale on air purifiers, so I bought one in the hopes that it would help get rid of some of the bird allergeons (sp?) around here. I actually need two for the side of my place, but they only had one left. ^^;

Then we went and did groceries, and I plugged my new purifier in when we got back from that, then closed the window, grabbed my laundry, and headed back to Mom's place. Did said laundry, watched a movie with her and Lee, and then cooked dinner for them (Coca Cola chicken, rice and cabbage-- it was awesome! *drools*), after which I headed home again.

Wow. There was a big difference even with having had the purifier running for just those few hours. It's really helping. But the little guy has to work like hell to do this huge place, so today when Mom and I went up north for our Chiropractor's appointment, we checked the Canadian Tire there as well. They were sold out, but gave us a Rain Check, so in a couple weeks we can go back and still get one at the sale price. Awesome.

I'm naming my new air purifiers "Alpha" and "Omega". Alpha is currently situated on my dresser by my bed, so that the air around me while I sleep is cleaner; Omega is going to go over next to the aquarium, which is diagonal from where Alpha/my bed is. ^^

Yup.

Oh, and today I mailed the boxes for cat_mcdougall and her kittens. >^-^< They were the only ones I could ship because I ran out of packing paper last night when I was wrapping things up. ^^;; Nyahaha... everyone else's packages should go out next Monday (in a week), because I bought some more paper today on the way home. :)

As for Cat! The packages for Christmas should get to you soon (might take a bit longer than normal, given that Christmas rush has started, but I'm not sure). Feel free to unwrap Jasmine and AJ's and re-wrap them in Christmas paper if you want to, or just give them the packages as they are. ^^ I really hope your kids all like what I got them. I had so much fun shopping for them... =3

I hope you enjoy your present, too, of course. ^_~ I hope everyone does!

Last night, around 11:15 or so, I had to go back to the emergency room at the hospital again. I called Mom to let her know that I was going, and then headed down-- it's a good thing that I like about two blocks from the hospital, or I would have been in serious trouble, since I couldn't breathe at all. Mom met me at the ER a few minutes later.

In any case, I got there and when they took my stats in triage, I was back into tachycardia, at 126 bpm, and the tips of my fingers were turning white and blue. They took me in fast (a lot of times waiting to be admitted takes a long time), so I thought I'd be okay... and then they stuck me in a room, and left me there, gasping for air, for forty-five minutes before a doctor finally got around to seeing me.

At that point I was so oxygen-deprived that my face was tingling. =_=;;

He listened to my breathing for a moment, then muttered something about salbutomol and disappeared for another fifteen minutes.

Eventually, they got a respiratory technician to come in and do some tests on my lungs, and then gave me a dose of salbutomol (which is what I have for rescue inhalers, and which weren't working, but whatever) and then did some more tests. In the mean time, they contacted the RVH hospital in Barrie and got the results of the CAT scan I had done yesterday morning.

Long story short; NO BLOOD CLOTS. Thank effing God.

They thing that the problems with my lungs are all just due to my asthma-- there's something setting it off, but they don't know what. So they prescribed Apo-Prednisone, then gave me a dose at the hospital (since all the pharmacies were closed) and sent me home.

My lungs hurt like hell, but my breathing is a bit better today. They said the Prednisone will start working entirely in a day or so. Hopefully.

After we left the ER and I went to Mom's place to spend the rest of the night.

....

Today, I was so tired I slept until almost one in the afternoon, then when I got up I sat and watched Trunks play video games for a while. After that, Mom and I went to fill my Prednisone 'script. Yay.

Then we went to Zellers for me to get some Christmas wrapping paper and tags quickly. I looked for the thing I was planning to get for mavan, but Zellers didn't have it either. ;__; So I found something else instead. ^^

I'm almost done my Christmas shopping for this year! I'm going to start mailing packages on Monday. :)

I currently have a bunch of fun dye circulating in my body. It's not radioactive or anything, but still. :P

The CAT scan went fine, though I started to freak out a bit when they put the IV needle in my arm, taped it there, and then sent me back to the waiting room. Sitting there in a hospital gown, with a big ass needle in my arm, surrounded by strangers, I had a bit of a panic attack. I don't do well with situations like that. But once they took me back to have the scan done, and I was away from the crowded waiting area, I was good again.

In any case, they pumped me full of dye, scanned me, took the IV out, and sent me on my way; when I was originally supposed to be getting my scan done here, I was supposed to get it done and then go to the ER to wait for the results. But since I had to go out of town to get it done, I have to wait for my doctor to call me with the results instead.

Which basically means that I still don't know if I have clots in my lungs or not, but it's a serious possibility. Fun stuff.

So, having been poked, prodded, stabbed and scanned, I headed out, and since we were in Barrie already, Mom and I went to Chapters. We were planning to go on this Monday coming up anyway, but this saved us a trip. I proceeded to spend way too much money on books/manga for me (they still don't have volume 11 of Furuba, dammit!) and Christmas pressies for other people.

--Tyrannosaurus Sue, by Steve Fiffer
--The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt, by William Nothdurft (with Josh Smith)
--The Unicorn, by Nancy Hathaway
--Candidate For Goddess, manga volumes 1 & 2, by Sugisaki Yukiru
--Tokyo Mew Mew manga volume 1, by Ikumi Mia and Yoshida Reiko
--Chobits manga volumes 2 & 3, by CLAMP
--Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle manga volume 7, also by CLAMP

I was originally looking for Fruits Basket #11, Gravitation #4, and Mahoromatic #4, but they didn't have any of them. And since I finally managed to finish up some of my manga series the last time I bought some (I finished Instant Teen, Tokyo Mew Mew a La Modé, Deus Vitae and Tokyo Babylon), I figured I could start a couple of new ones; hence Candidate For Goddess and the first Tokyo Mew Mew series. Also, I've had the first volume of Chobits for about a year now, and am finally working on collecting more of that set. ^^;;

As for the book books, I've been having a serious dinosaur jones lately for some reason, which is why I got the two books pertaining to dinosaurs. I haven't bought a new dinosaur-related book in about a year and a half (I think), so I'm looking forward to reading them. The unicorn book I just got because I found it in the discount racks, and it looked interesting-- it's a little encyclopedia of "unicorn" myths from all over the world, and talks about the differences between them. :)

And that's just what I bought for myself. ^_^;; I'm not gonna list the other stuff, 'cause some of it's for people on my f-list...

Anyway, after the book store, we went to the Walmart across the road, where I got a Christmas gift for my brother, my step-dad, and my brother's girlfriend. AND I got myself two cheap DVDs... because they were FRAGGLE ROCK! X3 I have Fraggle Rock DVDs now!

...and now I'm really tired, because I can't breathe very well. But I have stuff to do, so off I go.

EDIT: Also, I was browsing DevART last night, and found ~PaperCut's gallery. It was awesome. Not specifically for art, but because she makes custom My Little Ponies, and does an awesome job of it. ^_^ I know, I'm childish. But check her gallery out. And dude. These two made me giggle and squeal: Sesshoumaru MLP and Naraku MLP. X3

Dance your cares away, worries for another day! Let the music play, down at Fraggle Rock!

Still feeling icky, but not quite so bad. I've got to talk to my doctor about my meds again. She keeps messing with them and adding more (I literally take a handful of pills every day) and I'm taking so many right now that they're making me sick. The ammount, maybe, or they could be interacting badly. Whatever. I just need it dealt with.

Tomorrow I have an appointment to sign all the papers and stuff for my ODSP, which isn't supposed to take very long, but as it's dealing with the government, you never know. What's supposed to take a half an hour could take all day. I certainly hope not, but it's happened to me before. At least once I have all the papers signed and everything, that's all I'll have to do-- ODSP will officially be completely dealt with on my end... at least until 2010, when my case comes up for review, if I'm even still on the program.

Before the ODSP meeting, though, Mom and I are going out to buy my step-dad his birthday presents, since his birthday is a few days from now. I have no idea what I'm getting him; he is like, the hardest person in the world to shop for, and he never gives any suggestions, either. A couple of days ago, when I asked what he wanted for his birthday, he thought for a while and then went "I need a new snow brush for the car, and another snow shovel."

What the hell? Argh, Lee. You don't ask for snow shovels for your birthday! You're supposed to ask for fun stuff for your birthday!

Yeah. Anyway. So we'll find something, and while I'm out I plan to do a bit more Christmas shopping. I need to finish my shopping for people that I have to ship the gifts to, so that I can maybe hopefully get the packages to said people by some point close to Christmas. ^^;

And I'm so far behind on my NaNo that I seriously doubt I'll ever catch up. Maybe, but probably not. BAH.

First thing's first, I took Neko and Tri to the vet today-- it was Neko's checkup after the last time, and he had to have another urinalysis (sp?) done, and the two of them were due for their vaccines (hence Tri going with us as well.)

SO.

I put Neko into the kitty carrier, and clip a leash onto Tri, since Tri is teeny and (supposedly) easier to hang onto if he freaks out.

.... =_=;;

We head downstairs, and as soon as we get outside, he has an ATTACK. He squirms, he wails, he climbs up onto my shoulder and tries to leap to safety, efectively half-hanging himself in the process. I retrieve him, pet him a bit to try to calm him down... and then sigh, give up, and let him sit on my shoulder while I head to the car.

And then, OMFGBBQ, this is the part where he has a nervous breakdown and pisses all over me. >_<;; All over me! My back, my shoulder, my neck, and even in my hair. It drips down the front of my jacket and soaks into my shirt.

I'm not afraid to admit that I flung him down off of me. He landed on the ground and cowered. I picked him up by the scruff of the neck and marched him to the car, where he hid under the seat until we got to the vet's office. The appointment went okay. Then Tri went into the kitty carrier and I carried Neko home in my arms, as he was relatively calm.

Anyway! Neko is all better now, and has lost a pound and a half to boot. ^_^ He's all good.

I, on the other hand, was in desperate need of a shower before I went out again. -_-;; So we dropped the cats off, and Mom hung around here while I did just that. Then we went to this temporary discount bookstore that opened up at the corner near where she lives, and poked through the tables there for about 45 minutes.

-The Medium, The Mystic, and the Physicist: Toward a General Theory of the Paranormal (LeShan)
-Clones and Clones: Facts and Fantasies About Human Cloning (Nussbaum/Sunstein)
-Great SHARK Writings (Taylor/Goadby)
-Complete Guide to Vitamins, Minerals and Herbs (Ulene, Dr.)
-600 Garden Favorites (Dunn/Kite)

Mostly for my writing. The Garden Favorites one is an encyclopedia of garden plants. ^^ And I got The Incredible Internet Guide to Star Wars for my Dad, because it was amusing. XD

After the bookstore, we did some other little shopping bits, and I got some Christmas stuff for etcetera_cat (SHINY!) and for cat_mcdougall's kiddies. All in all it was generally a busy day.

I'd say "good"... except for the being peed on thing. .__.

The same meme as last year (done a bit earlier this year), and stolen from catystorm. :)

Step One

- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two

- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

( Sena's listy. )

sena.shenta@gmail.com for my address if you need it. ^^

Since Mom and my step-dad were out of town at a wedding this weekend, grocery day got pushed back from Sunday to Monday, and Mom and I went by ourselves this afternoon.

Before groceries, though, we stopped at Walmart; I needed shavings for the rabbit/rats/degus/mice/gerbils, some corn cobs for Phantom, blank CDs and tape (for taping up packages! X3). Then while we were there, I got some photos copied (also for packages)... and then I bought midnightstar16's Christmas present. >^-^;;

Because I know I won't be able to afford everyone's gifts all at once in December...

Anyway, after that we did groceries. Nothing special there. But I got a ton of strawberries so that I can cut them up, package them, and freeze them (in my new freezer! <3) for the winter, when they aren't really available in the stores. ^^ Also got some thirsty cakes (um... what my family calls Mary Anne Shells) for the same reason.

Then after we were done there and took my stuff back home, I went to Mom's place and made some Cream of Broccoli soup for her, because I promised her I would last week. She was so surprised when she found out I could make it... it was funny. It turned out really good, too. ^^

*is rather proud of her cooking abilities... toot, toot, toot of the Sena!horn*