Finally happened to me

It finally happened to me!
Really it did, I had an animal encounter! (I feel so accomplished now.)
I was heading back from a meeting with my professor, and there at the crosswalk was a black kitten, staring at the passersby with a very friendly expression. I got off my bike and started talking to the cat, he was rubbing his face all up and down the concrete, but didn't want to actually be touched. So I was following him along, trying to get him to come to me, and wishing that I had some kind of food with me- because he was really skinny.
As I was doing this, a guy came up and the kitty got spooked- somewhere along the way I started calling him Mal. Even though he was now in hiding, I couldn't forget it so I grabbed a piece of lunchmeat from my dorm (since FruitBat and her magical truck of cat food were not t the campus) and hoofed it back to where I saw the cat. I didn't see him there anymore, but left the meat anyway. I will confess that I felt pretty depressed that he wasn't there...
Anyway when FB got back I told her about the kitten and after dinner/studying we went back to where he'd been on our walk- Fruit Bat brought along a can of wet food, and we popped that sucker open and settled down to wait.
Let me tell you, seeing a black cat on a dark night, is not easy. But Mal did show up, and we then hoofed it over to the dorm to grab FB's truck and trap... we tried to get him into the big trap- but he was too clever and light to trigger the switch! So we caught him in the trap meant for rabbits and squirrels... lol.
I swear, Mal is adorable, and I feel wonderfully/horribly overprotective. We've got him at the lady who'd taken care of Mamma-kitty earlier. He let us pet him! He's really horrible at being feral... He let us hold him and fuss over him, and even when he wasn't happy that we held him he didn't claw or bite at us, he just squirmed.
Of course... none of us can keep him... but... I love him anyway.
My first animal rescue!

Mini-rant: it's FUN SIZE!

This is going to be quick, because I'm supposed to be studying for a test tomorrow.
This is... a rant on dual standards, particularly racism. I'm white, and as a white person I am very aware that there are things I can't say or do because they are racist.
But last night I went down to the laundry room with Fruit Bat, and there was Hispanic girl there loudly telling the entire room (about six of us) that she just can't get along with white people.
Wow.
That's just... wow. Four people in the room were white.
Doesn't she think that we might find that a little offensive? That she's stereotyping us like that? Of course, we can't say anything though, because heaven forbid that we ever get past our ancestors mistakes in dealing with people of other races. Everyone knows that white people are racist, it's impossible for any other "minority" race to be considered racist.
It just really bugs me- why should it matter? We're never going to get past this nasty racism thing if we can't all just ignore skin color- and I'm preaching to myself here too.
That girl could have said- "I don't get along with my roommate" (the basis for her claim.)
And then I wouldn't have been annoyed and looked over to see what ethnic background she was from. And all that jazz. And annoyance.
Also- I found out from Fruit Bat that apparently all Catholics believe that it is against God to spay and neuter their animals- which is news to her, since she's a Catholic. Yay uneducated stereotypes.
(No, it is not against God to spay/neuter animals, and catholics don't believe that it is.)
But anyway, back to studying.

Sooo embarasssing!

Gah! I totally did not mean to spend my Sunday doing this.
Okay, so I've got an account on DeviantART, (as longtime readers will know) and today I was looking around at some stuff on there and came across some Pok'e'mon stuff.
*Wince*
As a kid, I was pretty into the show. I'll tell anyone who'll listen stories about how I woke up at 5 on Saturdays to watch "cartoons" that didn't start until 8. "Cartoons" really being code for two main shows, and any number of smaller ones. The two I cared most about?
Recess and Pokemon. And Pokemon was the one I liked more.
But it's a silly show, it's a KIDS show, it's been going on for 14 years and the main character is still 10 years old. So even though I saw these pictures and had a moment of nostalgia, there was no way that I was going to actually WATCH THE SHOW.
Yeah... right.
So this is what's really embarrassing- not that I went back and watched the first episode anyway (because I still watch a lot of cartoons), not even that when the theme song started playing some part of my brain (damaged no doubt from watching infomercials for three hours waiting for my shows to start) remembered to get excited and a goofy grin stretched across my face, but that I watched the show.
And I enjoyed it.
ADGGHADOSIBGAWSE!
Just two or three years ago I watched the first episode again and it seemed inane and stupid and I couldn't stop mocking it and had to turn it off before I finished because I couldn't handle it!
Today I sat and watched it and laughed at all the ridiculous parts and couldn't believe I was watching it, couldn't turn it off, couldn't stop smiling!
And I'm going to watch the second episode!
If this keeps up, Fruit Bat may have to hold an intervention.

I'm Baaaaack!

greetings earthlings!
My computer is back from the grave, and it doesn't complain as much now either!
Anyone who's worked in the same room as my gray matter will testify that the fan runs a lot, and very VERY loudly. But since we got the new hardrive, I haven't heard a peep out of my mechanical brain.
I'm also back from a weekend back home, there have been some difficulties in re-obtaining employment at my previous location, so I don't have my job back quite yet. This just meant that for the three day weekend I got to go home, ostensibly to get my computer fixed and meet Hodgins, the newest addition to the family.
My dad was in the parking lot at a GoodWill when he came across a kitten. A starved, oil-spattered, 4-5 week old kitten. So he took it back home with him, he's been taken to the vet, checked out, and is now being spoiled to within an inch of his little loud-purring life.

Cents and Skunks

Today was our first full day back at the dorm. I rolled out from my house at around 8:35 yesterday fro the 3.5 hour drive to San Angelo- thankfully my parents got me a nice audiobook to listen to on the way- it makes the trip more bearable.
Yesterday was spent making the dorm look lived in once more, this year, Fruit Bat and I didn't have any help- her family didn't come this time, though they wanted to.
We managed, though our arms are embarrassingly sore today.
Anyway, this post was supposed to be about today... we stopped by our respective former (current, in Fruit Bat's case,) places of employment. I asked for my job back and received positive overtones in return- so they do seem to want me back. At least my manager does... hope she still feels that way when she sees my availability... XP
Also while we were out and about, we saw a garage sale, and it was suggested that we stop. We went shopping yesterday, and found ourselves in need of a bowl to mix things in. The garage sale was really a godsend, we found just what we needed for only 50 cents! The man running the show was really very nice, and we were really glad that we found what we needed so cheap.

And, I know you can't tell... but its been a while since I started this post, and now I can't remember exactly where I was going with it- except to say that we've seen Momma-kitty and Abel, as well as... a little skunk. Like a baby skunk that's been eating the cat food... That's not good. Fruit Bat's already considering ways to trap it without getting sprayed...

Back!

Actually, I got back yesterday, but didn't feel up to doing much of anything. A day in the car can do that to you.
Anyway- the breakdown of the trip!!
We left on Friday, but only drove about six hours to where my Aunt and Uncle live, the seven (there are eight in my immediate family, but my older brother didn't come with us,) of us divided into separate households, Mom and Dad staying with my Aunt and Uncle, while EvilGlare and my little brother stayed with "the ticklemonster" cousin and his family, and Squirt, my littlest sister and I stayed at another cousin's. She has a great dane named Samson, and he is adorable. And huge. Reallly Reallllly huge. He was so excited to be around people!
We got up early the next day and drove for about twelve hours- all the driving on these trips is done by my dad, he says he can't relax when mom drives. That might be weird for other families, but its been that way as long as I can remember, so it's pretty normal to me. A little tough on dad though.
(As a side note, it was totally crazy- once we got out of texas, everything was GREEN. And there was water EVERYWHERE. I mean, it's one thing to know that your state is almost constantly in a state of drought, but it's another to see it. And the swamps of Louisiana? I'd never even seen a swamp/bayou thing before. Holy cow that was a lot of water- just sitting there! and trees growing up out of it!!)
We stopped that night at Panama City beach, the next morning, Mom, Squirt and I were up with the sun to gather seashells before the other tourists got to them. Yeah. We're greedy. XD
Didn't really matter though, since we didn't find any big shells, we did get a lot of pretty little ones though. The weather was really nice up until the others woke up- then a storm blew in. It was pretty incredible to see the lightning strike the water- mom says that she and her dad used to watch that all the time. It was cool, but we kids (probably mom and dad too) were pretty worried that we wouldn't be able to play in the ocean, and it was such a pretty beach. The closest ocean beach to where we live is probably Galveston, and that beach, while nice enough if you can't get out to a real beach, is pretty depressing. Brown water meeting brown sand, and everything smelling a lot like fish. The Panama beach was gorgeous, white sand that wasn't coarse, and water that was a dark green near shore, and blue on the horizon.
The storm blew past in about 40 minutes, and we were the first ones in the water. There was a pretty strong current- fortunately, it dragged ACROSS the beach, not OUT to sea. No Riptides please. We had to keep wading ashore to get back to our stuff on the beach!
After a while, and burying my little brother, most of the family just laid out, tanning, or resting in the case of my mom and I, who only really freckle and burn- burning being the more likely.
Since I know I burn, and was too excited to just lay around, Squirt and I tried our hands at making a sandcastle- with Mom and Dad giving pointers. We still failed pretty miserably. I like to blame that on the beach- it was a pretty steep one, so all the good wet sand got hit by the waves every few minutes, so we hand to build it up on the level dry sand. We wet it down with seawater, but.... yeah. ANYWAY!!!! I tried to make a moat too- but the seawater sank down into the sand.... lol..... should have thought about that a little better!
After this, we all piled back into the van, and headed out once more. We stopped to say hi to an old friend of mom's, who she hadn't seen since before any of us kids were born.
We arrived in Orlando and checked into our hotel...
The next day we spent at Universal Studios, the first of our long tour of theme parks. We went on the incredible Hulk first, I was really happy with the way the lines were set up, so that it told you the story as you went along. The only thing worse than being in a long line, is being BORED in a long line. The ride itself was good, though I kept trying to black out on the first... loop? incline? I couldn't tell because my vision kept going out and all I could really see was a dark impression of the track in front of me. Fortunately I never lost vision completely, though it still would probably have been a good idea to avoid going on it again. We also rode Spider-Man, a 3-D virtual reality type ride, which was REALLY good. I mean, no upsidedowns or anything, but really impressive as far as action-storytelling goes. I can't remember much else of what we did, I know we did Poseidon's Fury, which was fun... I think this post has gone on long enough though, and I haven't even gotten to Disney yet. Maybe I'll write more later... today or tomorrow.

You can't handle the truth!

Sorry, had to say that since I'm watching that movie later today- A Few Good Men. Whooo.....
But here is the truth, whether you can handle it or not.
I'm leaving for DisneyWorld today. Yep. The "happiest place on earth" will soon be visited by yours truly. I can't wait, I'm so excited, hence this post as I frantically kill time that just won't stay dead.
I've never been to Disney before, though as a kid I always wanted to go and in high school I nearly died of envy when my sisters EvilGlare and Squirt got to go as part of a band trip. Much as I hated band, it actually made me wish I'd stayed in it!
But this year, rather than the traditional family trip to Colorado, we're driving to Florida. That part causes mixed emotions- (not the driving, I'm well used to long days in the car) but the fact that we aren't going to Colorado. We usually go just about every year. I mean, I LOVE Colorado, its one of the few places that I feel I can totally relax and recharge because its all so natural and beautiful, and I don't have my computer with me. I'm a bit of geek- I tend to use my computer and play videogames more than anything else, so a week without it is refreshing.
But still, we're going to DISNEY. I've wanted to go for FOREVER. I've halfway talked myself into riding all of the rides, no matter if they scare me or not- but I just remembered (how could I have forgotten?) that there are TEACUPS at Disney. No way am I getting on one of those things. That would be a sure way to ruin my vacation.
Well, I should probably wrap up this post, as I'm starting to just ramble- the sad news? I only killed about twelve minutes. *Sigh*