Three FOUR! bits of good news, all so excellent they probably don't need much elaboration:

1) My hips don't hurt.

2) I got my first choice of public high schools for wtfpotatoes, and she's gonna look into starting internet high school.

3) I got a job offer today from The Best Temp Permanent Job Ever, and I said yes. A little more money per hour, flexible hours, lots of time off, and full benefits.

4) Mom's biopsy came back, and she's fine. Nothing's wrong.

1) I'm enjoying having the Munchkin here. She a good source of affection for me, and I do like her a lot. Also, she's not surly or uncooperative, the way I know teenagers can be. She sometimes has to remind me not to treat her like a younger child, but she's very good-natured about it, and she really is willing to give respect, not just demand it. Also, while I really wish we had a separate room for her, she's taken the whole living-on-our-couch thing in stride. (And she still wants her aunt to tuck her in from time to time, which makes me very happy. I love this kid a lot.) I do wish things had gone better for her at her previous home, but I'm so glad I'm able to offer her someplace stable and full of love.

2) Still addicted to WordTwist. Spending way too much time on the game.

3) Really liking Ubuntu. Sure enough of its relative permanence in my life that I'm ripping all my CDs to that partition, and looking for an invoice software that will run on Linux so that my last ties to Windows will be gone.

4) Just in case I haven't made it abundantly clear, someotherguy didn't have to agree to have a teenager invade his home for the long (or even medium) haul. The fact that he agreed with me that it was the right thing to do makes me love him even more. In fact, the same can be said of stonebender and sogwife and loracs -- when they heard what the situation was, they all said some variation of "Yep, gotta do what we gotta do -- how can I help?" My family is the bestest family I could ever have imagined.

1) I am breaking nooks's rule for a second to say "I haven't been not-blogging because nothing is going on, or because things are going on, or because things are rough or easy or happy or sad -- just because I haven't felt like it."

2) Had the heart scan thingy. It was interesting, and I may make a post about it later. I have a medical appointment on the 29th to talk about it.

3) The visit to mom's was better than last time. LOTS. First of all, my mom is doing well, and wasn't in the hospital. Second, the sibling I can't seem to get along with made herself scarce. Third, I saw most of my beloved relatives. Fourth, there was real Mexican food. Lots of it.

4) I will have exciting news in a day or two. Sharpen your pencils, writers and artists!

A day in bullet points:

1) The butter in my ear was accidental (I was cleaning and must've gotten butter on my finger. Then I scratched my ear), but it was worth it to read all the responses to it. I have such fun and funny friends.

2) Lovely date with stonebender. ( Slightly spoilery mini-review of 'The Mist', the new Stephen King movie )

3) If you want to help me cook and/or eat all the foods I loved as a child, please check out this link to find out what's up with it, and if you want to help out, friend that journal to keep up to date. My mom never reads this LJ, but she doesn't even know the other one exists, so if I just keep her birthday surprise mostly over there, I'm likely safe.

4) In the past week, no fewer than half a dozen people have offered to help me out with the financial difficulties brought on by my mounting medical bills. Sucky health-care system pwned by fucking awesome support network.

5) I stopped caring about NaNo when I went into the hospital. I've been waiting for the caring to come back, and it hasn't, so I'm letting it go. Life's too short to do things I don't care about.

The good:

Fuck euphemisms (thanks for the link, gramina.)

Ikea Hacker

Munchkin The Elder had a shitty week and dealt with some problems with great strength and maturity. Yay!

( The bad: [Nooks, you might want to look away. This is the closest I get to blogging about blogging] )

( The mundane: )

1) Still not ready to turn on lights or increase the brightness on my computer screen, but after about fifteen hours of varying levels of agony, I'm starting to feel human again. I will probably still be feeling the effects of this tomorrow, but at least I can form semi-coherent sentences now, and whimpering is not my main mode of communication.

2) Had a not-exactly-a-date with a person I met on OKCupid, but who has known me for some time from local listservs on which he mostly lurks. We had a misunderstanding early in our correspondence that I thought would be a dealbreaker, but we managed to work it out admirably, and we met in person a week or so later. He shall henceforth be known here as Secret Agent Man, and I like him a fair bit. My boyfriends are having a bit of fun teasing me about this, but that's okay. My boyfriends are the best boyfriends in the world, so they're allowed a lot of leeway.

3) I did nearly no work today, so if I ignore you all for the next couple of days, you know why.

4) Did I mention what good boyfriends I have? Today, they really were the heroes of the revolution. Without them, I might not have eaten at all, my kitchen would be a wreck, and I would probably be huddled in a corner somewhere crying for my mommy. I don't need much tending most of the time, but every so often I do, and I got it in abundance today.

5) Oh, and loracs. She rocks, and she put up with my utterly ungrateful reactions to her attempts at taking care of me today. It was not her fault my headache was making me feel cranky. She is a darling, and I don't deserve her.

Stuff that's fun about my life:

1) Having two jobs I like, working for two people I like (yes, one of them is me -- so?)

2) Having crushes again. I thought my crushimicator was broken

3) Saying "crushimicator"

4) Tom Petty (well, he's something fun about life in general, not mine specifically)

5) The people in it

6) Making the foods of my childhood

This Sunday, the Official Month o'Solitude?-Don't-Talk-To-Me-About-Solitude is over -- oh, well, I tried, and I think I did end up freeing up a lot of energy, even if I was fairly busy all month. I cannot schedule when work is going to explode, or friends are going to melt down, or relationships are going to change status, so I just rolled with it, and I do think that having fewer social commitments helped me cope without melting down into a puddle of goo.

October: Work, social stuff in moderation, HALLOWE'EN PARTY!, and preparing for NaNo

November: As I just said to someone elsewhere, November is NaNoWriMo, so I'm keeping my calendar fairly light, though everyone is encouraged to bring/buy/send Thai food, the official writing food of Serenes everywhere. Anyone offering Thai food gets automatically bumped to the top of the social calendar. :-) We might go see someotherguy's mom for Thanksgiving, if finances permit.

December: Will probably have a munchkin visit. Giftmas. Signing up for classes at the local community college? Work. Who knows what else.

Numbered lists are about the extent of my brainpower today:

1) Missed many fine parties the last few weeks, which I regret (tenacious_snail, babyfly, etc., I love and missed you!). Did make it to two lovely ones, though, and it was so good seeing klwalton and mackenzie get a fraction of the attention and adoration they deserve.

2) sogwife is really cute when she's all giggly.

3) The Month O'Solitude has begun, and when I think about having no open-door dinner policy, it makes me sad, so I take that part back. If you wanna drop in for dinner, you should do so, especially if you're fine with whatever silly vegan thing I happen to throw together. Dinner's at 7 every night except Saturday.

4) I think I'm going to do a science-fiction novel for NaNoWriMo. I've never written a word of science fiction before.

5) OKCupid is still fun. I'm enjoying chatting and flirting with people. Also, the more neat people I meet, the happier I am with my current situation, which I admit is a bit paradoxical, but there it is.

6) It is deeply satisfying to me that when we're out of bread, someotherguy doesn't run out to the store -- he asks me if I would mind making us some bread. He's all apologetic about it, but I don't know if he gets how happy it makes me that I make almost all of our bread.

7) Finances being what they are, I may not make it to alt.polycon in February. I mean, I'm still planning on going if we can afford it, but between the room ($421.83 plus tips), the plane or car (in excess of $300 either way), and spending money, we're talking about a month's pay for me, and I'm just not sure it's responsible of me to be doing that. Current plan is to see if I can amass enough extra income to make it less of a hit for us. Stay tuned.

Good things about today:

1) stonebender is breathing easier and doesn't appear to be as wiped out by this whole thing as I would be in his shoes

2) loracs's cold seems to be getting better

3) Messages from my Suitor while I was gone, sweetly pointed out by someotherguy (I left in a hurry for the ER, so my computer was left on, and he needed to use it.)

4) Shower. Shampoo. Conditioner. Clean body. YUMMMMmmmmmmm. (Yes, I could've taken a shower at stonebender's, but I have this terribly girly attachment to having all my stuff for my shower, and since I only had to wait one day... ;-)

5) About to go watch a movie with someotherguy, one of my favorite ways to lull myself to sleep.

6) I'm too tired and relieved (aka "Foolishly benevolent") to rip an acquaintance who's being a fuckwit on one of my newsgroups a new asshole.

7) Tomorrow is "someotherguy's birthday (Observed)". We will have pancakes for breakfast, homemade pizza for lunch, and if I have anything to say about it, lots of sex for dinner. :-)

Have a wonderful Sunday, y'all.

* Even though Monday is supposed to be the day I do invoices for the "day job", the boss said to go ahead and wait until tomorrow because I'm so tired. He's really good about letting me do things whenever I feel like it. I should never take that for granted.

* someotherguy took me at my word ("I don't care what we have for dinner, so long as I don't have to cook it") and made us a lovely dinner of shrimp dim sum and fresh artichokes. I'm lucky.

* stonebender got me really paying attention to Ednaswap yesterday, and they've given me a lot of joy today.

* I got up the nerve to send a geek flirt to a beautiful/smart woman today, and she flirted back.

* GreenCine sent me "Bend Over Boyfriend 2". ;-)

* Possible happy development at The Best Temp Job Ever. I'll post more if it becomes what it may become. Y'all know I've been down this road with them before, so I'm not expending undue energy on this. Four times burned, fifth time shy?

* Even though I'm so tired it hurts, I'm feeling happy and optimistic and loved. Not half bad, not half bad.

The Munchkin is here. He is happy, peaceful, and affectionate. He is enjoying the birthday gift his Nana and I got him, and he is helpful and gentle. I have missed him SO much. I'm SO glad he's here. And now, the two of us will go to sleep. Oh, wait, he just zonked. Okay, *I'll* go to sleep. Right after I post about nice things recently.

Nice things recently:

mackenzie came over and brought yummy tomatoes and tolerated my fixation on getting mail wrapped and stamped.

stonebender and I spent a few hours hanging out in Berkeley today. Once again, I got too much sun. That's it. I have to start being religious about sunscreen, and buy a good sun hat and glasses. I sunburned my eyeballs again, not to mention my face. (I know that doesn't SOUND like a good thing, but basking in the sun with my sweetheart is worth it.)

My mother sent me the pot she made spaghetti sauce in all through my childhood. I am happy.

I have been working my way through the house, getting it back to a state I can live with. I cleaned all the dead plants and detritus out of one windowsill, took down and cleaned one of the over-the-sink shelves, and deep-cleaned the sink. Tomorrow, another windowsill and the icky kitchen floor.

I'm taking a break from being mean to bisexuals, and being mean to atheists for a change. 'sfun.

Good stuff today:

• Work is going really well. I know what I'm doing; I'm doing it well; I'm caught up on the things that need to be caught up on; the problem client is happy with me.
• My kitchen is clean enough. For the past week, it's looked like mad gerbils set upon it and threw everything everywhere. Now I can cook in there without feeling grossed out.
• someotherguy brought me fun/interesting food: the slightly spicy coleslaw from Bakesale Betty, and some gluten-free coffee cake (yum) from the Mariposa
• After months of intending to join GreenCine, I finally did it. Only two at a time, but added to Netflix, that'll be 5 total, and GreenCine has a better selection of old schlock, as well as porn, which Netflix doesn't offer. I've never seen some of the classic porn films (Debbie Does Dallas, Deep Throat, etc.), so it'll be fun to check them out.

Hard/bad stuff today:

• Still feeling a bit off. If it lasts longer than today, I'll have trouble attributing it to Tuesday night's almost-migraine. My thyroid thing hurts; I have a strange, disconnected feeling all over; I keep wanting to go lie down.
• Must've thrown an oily potholder in with the laundry. One load now smells like stale cooking oil. *sigh*
• Still not king

1. Oscar bash was fun, even though the hosts were really dull (in more than one sense of the word).
2. The Best Temp Job Ever is no longer the best (as it's about four hours a month), but I'm here, and I'm happy to be. I like it here.
3. About a month until kevinkjr comes to visit, yay!
4. I'm really liking my job these last few days. The boss and I finally came up with a system of organizing time and tasks that's going to work for both of us, and it's exciting putting that into place. I may be some kind of geek or something.
5. On paper, I have a ton of money. In reality, I have $2.57 in the bank. Look for rice and seitan if you're dropping by for dinner this week. :-)

I have been SO freaking busy with my fun new job (I'm working part-time for my brother-out-law's company, in addition to all the contract work I was already doing) that I've been essentially absent from here. I'm taking a quick break, though, to post a few little notes:

1) sogwife rocks. Not only is she Snow Fucking White (a *chicken* followed her home yesterday), but she rescued all my plants from my horrid neglect the other day. She trimmed them, watered them, cleaned them, and set them back in their windowsills. She even did the outside ones. Now to see if I can start treating them better. My house has basically gone to shit the past week while I've been riding my new learning curve (which also involves some NP(roject)E), but today I am trying to whip it back into shape.

2) I like "Heroes" more and more, and "Studio 60" less and less.

3) I forgot to post the funniest line at last week's slam. The guy who won actually had a line in one of his poems about Blackbeard coming back from the dead. The phrase he used that just dissolves me and someotherguy into giggles, though, was the unfortunate "disembodied corpse". WTF?

4) Worst slogan ever, on the wall of one of our favorite Thai places, Tuk Tuk Thai (a tuk tuk is one of these): "Tuk Tuk Thai: Let us drive you to a good Thai cafe"

The power has gone out briefly tonight -- just for a few seconds at a time. I have work to do on the computer, but I have to say I wouldn't mind a reading-by-candlelight evening, either.

Last night, I went through and tagged most of my oneword poems, and tonight I plan to play with them and see if they can be made into stuff I want to send out. On breaks from doing my paid work, of course.

If any wombabes are reading, the final dates for the Oakland Womboink are May 18-20, and there is crash space available for the days surrounding that weekend.

someotherguy has been plying me with throat-soothing tea all day and doing all the cooking. I know it's a little thing, but it is so comforting to be taken care of when I'm sick. I never used to like that, because people would fuss, rather than just being available to help out. Not that my mother and my ex-wife weren't sweet and all, but when I'm sick, I mostly want to be left alone.

I really like what I'm doing for a living now. I hope to continue for the long term.

Have a good night.

Still a bit sick. Very tired. Munchkin got off safely. Gonna go drop into bed now. Night-night. (Have to call between 11 and noon about jury duty -- as lcohen would say, it's all glamour, all the time.)

someotherguy and I are sick. I am also super-tired. I think I'm gonna get into my jammies after I drop wtfpotatoes at the airport at 5, and try to sleep. Sorry for the short notice -- see you on the 22nd.

Coexisting with my low-lying anxiety over stuff I can't control is a deep peace and joy. Most days, most times, the joy wins. Today was one of those days.

Doesn't hurt that I got a lot of cooking and baking done today. A batch of toffee, two loaves of bread, a layered polenta bake for dinner, and I don't know what else. And the kitchen is clean, which is even more of a joy, because tomorrow, I really have to work on my project, and won't have time for much puttering before I go over to stonebender's place.

I think a lot about my own death, always have. Lately, I've been feeling pretty satisfied that when I die, even if it's much sooner than I hope, I will have lived a pretty good life.