violenticecream! Thanks so much for the gift card! That was totally awesome of you!

(Wheeeeee!)

(Now I, um, work on translating one of my Yuletide gifts. So that I may read it.)

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I feel that my personal sense of voter efficacy is low. Sigh. Oh well. I'm sorry Kerry had a less successful campaign, but I hope the half of the country that voted for Bush is happy. They'd better be. It's not the end of the world, though. I'm not moving to Canada. Also, it really sucks that all eleven states banned gay marriage. And that's all I'm going to say about that. Though, hey, on a local level I feel a high sense of voter efficacy, as all the local people I voted for won. So yay local politics?

We went and saw umbo last night. We had Japanese food. I'd never been to a Japanese restaurant before; I assume mall Japanese food doesn't count. I tried some of Shell's salmon tempura (have never had tempura before) with avocado and lo, it was good. Mmm, salmon with avocado. It was very nice to see Shell again. That was fun.

Okay, so we sat around yelling at the election coverage a lot. My personal favorite moment was when the CNN news called Utah as Republican approximately 30 seconds after the polls there closed, with, um, 0% reporting. I guess they figured it was a foregone conclusion.

My other favorite moment, because I am six, was when I discovered that Idaho had a candidate for senator named Crapo, and furthermore, he had 99% of the vote. (However do you get that many votes when you're not running unopposed?) We were watching the coverage in Spanish by that point, because it was less depressing than the news in English (I should mention that I do not understand Spanish), so we decided to call him "Señor Crapo, senador de Idaho," which we find hilarious. Because we are six.

Also somewhere around here I observed, in what I thought was a brilliant and insightful statement, that "Spanish consonants sound different than English ones when [Jen is] speaking Spanish." Jen is still pointing and laughing. Hmph.

In other news, whee, there is a new House series on PBS (Regency House), and they're showing Frontier House tomorrow. Whee, people participating in historical recreation and whining. No, really, they're good shows.

eruthros and m_shell got here last night, for the weekend. Yay.

So today we made them apple-cinnamon muffins and took them around downtown. We went to the place of 21 flavors of rice pudding, which is officially opening this weekend, so there were discounts and they took our picture. I would like to report that the almond rice pudding is very good, as is the chocolate tapioca.

We went and got cider and cider doughnuts in Southampton. Mmm, cider and doughnuts. Dinner was Italian, which was good. Then there was ice cream. I guess a lot of the day was about food.

It is nice that eruthros and m_shell are here; I have missed them. eruthros has just said she found a Harry Potter/John Lennon slash story. Eep.

We watched the cute bits of the Once A Thief pilot movie. Whee, slashy. I fall over go bed now.

Yay. It is Friday, and it is a long weekend. I finally got paid, which is also very good, except now I have to figure out how to deposit by mail.

The Rose Polenzani concert last night that we drove all the way to Framingham for was also very good, and her new album is excellent. She only played, like, eight songs, and I only knew about three. The woman she was touring with was really really boring, and we stayed through her whole set because they promised us Rose would come back out and sing again, but she didn't. Boo. But, hey, the album is really good and has "Girl" and "Sometimes" on it. So yay. And she played "Heaven Release Us," which was really really cool. Really really. And the song about the llama! And "The First Time" was cool.

We finally got around to hanging pictures this evening, so it looks much more like we live here. Not all the books are out yet. Need more bookcases. Pout. I want more of my books out, since so few of the ones out now are mine. (Which would be because my books are, like, all SF.)

eruthros and m_shell are, as far as I know, coming up to see us tonight for the weekend. I am looking forward to it immensely, as I haven't seen m_shell since moving day and I haven't seen eruthros since before she went to Turkey. So wheeee.

Yeah, yeah, I know, my third meme today. But this is the best one, I promise.

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Uh, lysimache, anything you want to tell me? :)

I forgot to mention that eruthros came over Saturday night. Like any self-respecting Santa Cruzian (and ex-Santa Cruzian) would do, we ended up at Saturn for a very late dinner. And dessert.

I had no idea they served a dessert consisting of: chocolate almond ice cream, brownie, chocolate mousse, probably some kind of chocolate fudge/syrup, whipped cream, and chocolate chips. Wow. I was impressed. That was, like, the most chocolate I have ever seen in one dish.

I mention this because I find myself craving chocolate now. It's a shame I'd never go there by myself. I also am now going to be even more sad to leave SC.

Mmm, chocolate.

Today I seem to be seeing a lot of people who, from afar, look like people I know. Like, across the street I see a guy who looks sort of like my former classmate Farouk, or a girl who looks like Nefte who sat next to me in 10th grade English. Upon closer inspection, however, it's fairly easy to tell it isn't them. I was thinking this was kind of odd.

On the bus back here just now I saw someone who looked exactly like eruthros, sitting a few people in front of me. Approximately her height and build, with her hair color and length (which is fairly distinctive, I think), glasses like hers, wearing clothes she would have worn, keys and ID clipped to her hip, and carrying a backpack of the same style, manufacturer, and color that I think eruthros has. I nearly said hi when she got on the bus; it really looked like her, even up close, and it took me several seconds to realize that it wasn't her, because eruthros is, as far as I know, on the other side of the country.

The universe is playing tricks on me today. Help?

Not having class today, I decided to go downtown, mostly because I wanted pizza. Which I got. Mmm, pizza.

I also ended up with copies of Girlfriends and Curve, which I was quite afraid of buying because I was worried I wouldn't be gay enough or something. I skulked around the magazine section of Bookshop Santa Cruz for a while before getting up the nerve to buy them, after establishing that no one particularly cared what magazines anyone else was looking at. And I guess I am gay enough, 'cause no one said anything.

I also got the omnibus edition of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Renunciates books, part of the Darkover series. I think this is the first time I've ever paid full price for a Darkover book -- the ten or so others I have I got for about $1 each from the used bookstore that I used to walk by on my way home from high school. I'd had the first two Renunciates books in an omnibus edition, but I had no idea there was a third one. Wheee, fantasy novels. I managed to resist buying the Legends II collection even if it did have Hobb and Gaiman and McCaffrey stories, because, hey, expensive hardcover. However, waaaaaaant.

I also got a thingy each for eruthros and antigone921, whom I will hopefully be seeing sometime this week, like tomorrow. Yay, things.

I should write abstract. Bleh.

I am informed that this is sweeps week for TV. Well, that explains why Stuff Happened, doesn't it?

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*reads email, runs over and hugs umbo* Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! 50 icons!

Hmm, now I have to find 40 more things I want icons of. This could take a while. But, wheeeeeeeeeee.

(I note also that I'm attempting to use a new version of the LJ Phoenix Mac client. This one displays my selected userpic at the bottom of the entry window, which is kind of cool. We'll see if, unlike the other newer versions I tried, this one lets me post without crashing.)

[Edit: Yay, it works. Finally I have a LJ client that doesn't have broken entry-security selection. It's about time. Of course, the first one I had didn't even let me select multiple userpics, so I suppose this is a step up anyway.]

mrdorbin came and watched this with us. It was fun. Also we got Thai food. Mmm, pineapple fried rice. Anyway.

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I kind of know who the Public Crush is. Hi, lysimache. :)

I don't know about the other two of you, but I'm sure not paying $4 to find out.

I should point out that I had neither heard of nor taken the original version of this meme whence comes their data, so if you're wondering who your numbers were, it's not me. Mostly that just means that someone who has no Public Crushes listed ought to have one. And anyone who has read my journal for five minutes can maybe figure out who that would be, yeah?

I did in fact go see Queens of the Stone Age at the Warfield (in SF) with antigone921 last night.

They were very, very, loud. They were, however, more melodic than their opening acts, which is good. I have no idea what songs they played. It was still pretty fun. And Giuliana gave me new rainbow necklace. Now I have two.

Highlights of the trip include getting rather lost on the way back. Somehow we ended up on the Great Highway, which my mother found rather impressive when I woke her up to ask directions. She directed us to a 280 on-ramp in Daly City, which unfortunately turned out to be 280 *north*, meaning we ended up heading back into SF. Whoops. Luckily there's a 101 junction. My dad informed me today that if we'd just stayed on Skyline (35), it would have merged with 280 south. Oh well. But then I would have missed the opportunity to see that some section of 101 is the "Civilian Women Volunteers All Wars Highway," or so it said. Then it was the "Military Servicewomen Highway." Isn't that nice?

And, yay, I have milk and cookies. And lysimache is online. Whee.

It's National Coming Out Day. Come out, come out, wherever you are, provided it is safe for you to do so. So, yay, I'm gay. (Also I have a lovely girlfriend. This pleases me greatly.)

I'm going to a concert with antigone921 tonight. Queens of the Stone Age. I know nothing about them. This should still be fun.

Ow, my head still hurts, since yesterday. Ow.

Using LJ shamelessly for shoutouts:

antigone921: Happy birthday!

eruthros and m_shell: I got you some of the new Safe Space signs with the pride slugs on them. One with slug in corner; one with large slug in center; "Family," again with small slug; "Queer Spoken Here," same. These also have tips for coming out on the back. I got you an Ally one for if you wanted it for someone else, or just to see it -- it has tips for being come out *to* on the back, which I thought was good. Anyway, just let me know your address...

lysimache: I love you and miss you.

Today was mostly spent reading bad Sentinel slash AUs, which I am not naming because whyever would anyone else want to read stuff like this? We laughed and laughed. Mostly it is eruthros's fault, since she IMed me and pointed out that one of our very favorite such writers had a new story out. I got Jen to read it, and I may have created a monster, because she just wanted to sit and read the story.

Trying not to think about how much leaving in a week is going to suck, because, oh, it will be bad. This is indicated by having to spend twenty minutes apart at Target (to buy presents) and the supermarket (for me to run in and buy challah bread, which I have never had before and have found is yummy, unlike the strange sourdough bread here), during which we both called each other's cell phones and were all sniffly. We hugged joyously in the parking lot. And that was really only about twenty minutes. Yep, leaving is going to suck. Sigh.

But let's think about happier things now. Like dinner. Mmm, dinner. I hope I like chicken marsala. Also I have to wrap this present I bought Jen for the occasion of, um, having known her two years. I'm a sap like that sometimes.

Also also, my mother said she found my new black shirt that I had thought was lost forever. This is good.

I have now been in the water of two oceans. Previously I had only ever been in the Pacific. Now I have also been in the Atlantic. It really weirds me out that you can, like, swim in it. I kept clinging to lysimache and being terrified that at any minute there would be horrible undertow sweeping us out, because what else is an ocean supposed to do? But I think I got less terrified, and it was fun. Also the water was freezing cold, because of the rain yesterday. By "freezing" I mean, like, 60. :P

Also I think the water is a different color in addition to being all calm, and the sun doesn't set over the ocean like it ought to -- it was strange eating dinner around sunset with Jen and m_shell and her sister, because the sun wasn't where it should be. Also also, the sand is whiter and less coarse and sticks to you more easily. I'm not used to sand sticking unless my skin is wet. And there are little bitey things. And the seagulls look different.

But yay, ocean. And also we bought fudge and pizza and played Skee-Ball. A day well spent, I say.

The experiment with hair-straightening product yesterday was, um, unsuccessful, I am sad to report. My hair is rather curly, and lysimache worked patiently on it for, like, an hour with the hairdryer and about half a tube of hair product. I had very nice almost-entirely-straight flat hair with only a bit of wave to it... for about thirty seconds. Then it decided to be as poofy as it normally is when I brush it out, which is rather a lot. It kept telling me how it wanted to be free, free, unshackled by the bonds of hair product! Even hair spray would not hold it! I give up. I don't want to iron it. But at least it was nice for a minute, right?

And then we saw the pirate movie with m_shell. Arrrrrrrrrrrr! This time we stayed for the scene after the credits, which I found disappointing. Sigh. But also arrrrr.

Today we went to the bookstore, the pizza place, and the grocery store (which had pink lady apples! Yummy yummy yum!). Jen has been singing various requiem masses at me all day. It's kind of cute, except the parts about fiery death. She does indeed sing very very very nicely, though her dog has a tendency to howl along with her.

Tomorrow: hopefully once again to the Atlantic Ocean (I am told the proper phrase is "down the shore") this time with m_shell and her sister. Ocean and junk food, hooray!

It's very odd to decide at midnight that I want ice cream and then be able to go out and get ice cream. I [heart] my girlfriend. We also ended up with donuts and bagels and Hostess Sno-balls, which are the most disgusting thing ever, what with the cupcake and marshmallow and shredded coconut. So naturally Jen likes them, as we have no foods in common. But we did end up agreeing on plain bagels and chocolate frosted donuts and Edy's M&M cookies and cream ice cream, which still weirds me out because that brand is supposed to be Dreyer's, I swear.

So then we ate these things and watched a tape of the Homicide ep where Kay visits her family. Kay is cool. I want her hair. Then I managed to sleep through all the landscaping in the morning. Go me. Then we saw the HL ep with Nick Lea as a bank robber. Hee. He's cute. I want one. And a Kay too, please. Though perhaps not at the same time.

And soon we are going to see the Pirate movie again, this time with m_shell. Arrrrrrr. And I bought one of those round brushes and some goop that claims to straighten curly hair, so I'm going to see if I can have temporarily straight hair -- brushing it out will remove a lot of the curl, yes, but it also makes it stick, like, a foot on all sides of my head. Yay hair product. Arrr, pirates.