Fancyland: No children allowed

Yesterday was surprisingly productive for me. I drove around town submitting applications for most of the day, cleaned up my apartment, met my friend Dan for dinner, made cupcakes, and found the way to Fancyland.You're going to want to head west.

Dan is kind of an amazing guy - we've been friends for nearly twenty years, ever since my freshman year in high school when I fell madly in crush with him and commenced five years of stalking. I finally managed to bully him into dating me in college and we dated for a couple of years before we worked out that we get along much better as friends. Since then, we've drifted in and out of touch, once for nearly six years, but we always manage to reconnect. To me, that's kind of insane. I don't really maintain friendships all that well so it's nuts that someone has managed to stick around for two decades. The only other long-termer, Charles, has been the Best Friend for about eleven years. After that, it's five years or less. My friends are great people, mostly, I just haven't really known them for that long.
Lately, I've been hanging out with another high school friend I've reconnected with through FaceBook and it turns out that this guy, me, and Dan are among the very few who graduated that year (and have accounts on FaceBook) who are unmarried and childless. We like to sit around and talk about how strange it is that nearly all of our classmates are soccer moms, and then celebrate our awesomeness with whiskey.

Dan and I, staying out late because we don't have to worry about paying the babysitter.

Leap of Fail

Ike's home is a very large birdcage, all wire and lined with newspaper and bedding to protect his paws. The front of the cage has a large door you can pull up to open. There's a way to snap this door into place so that it stays open and that's usually what I do when I lift Ike out of the cage. When we're done hanging out, I lift him through the door and set him down inside. Lately, Ike, instead of waiting for me to place him inside the cage, has taken to jumping from my hands and through the doorway as soon as we get close enough. I'm not too keen on this because a) it startles me every time and 2) he's using his tiny tiny claws to gain purchase on my palms for the leap. Still, what can I do? He's a bunny. He's practicing his bunny skills.
So, just now, I was lifting him towards the cage and, as per usual, Ike performed the Bunny Leap Of Mad Skillz only this time, he totally miscalculated the distance and smashed, head-first, into the wall of the cage just below the door, ending up dazed and confused on the floor with me standing over him, dumbfounded and empty-handed.
He may be the raddest bunny ever but I can't help thinking that he may also be slightly stupid.

Ooops

Something tells me I haven't been getting enough sleep lately. My first clue was waking up four hours later than I'd intended to. My second clue was when I passed out again, even after realizing I'd already lost four hours and really needed to get up.
I'm typing with a hazy brain and can't really remember why I started typing at all so I'll leave you with my traveling friend and the dudes he's playing with.

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Erm... Sorry about that.

I meant to write a blog post, I really and truly did. First, though, I wanted to dash off a Quick Note to a friend that's far away, just letting him know things were a-okay back here. One thing led to another, the Quick Note turned into a Long and Pointless Ramble, and I've exhausted the part of my brain that I use for writing things.
I'll try again tomorrow.
Bing says goodnight.

Really? Already?

This is Ike's favorite hang-out spot. He claws his way from my lap to my shoulder every chance he gets. More parrot than rabbit, really.

It turns out that I'm going to have to look for another new job. This last new job isn't working out as well as I'd hoped. I was promised at least four shifts to begin with - I've got two. No bueno. The Hunt For Employment began yesterday and hopefully, I'll have something new by the end of the month. You know, when rent is due.
TAFKAM is flying me out to see him next month. I'm very happy about this. He really is the greatest big brother, like, ever. I was whinging about my money troubles and my relationship woes and just like that, he bought me a ticket for a flight to San Francisco so I could stay with him for a few days. A mini-break with my best bud. Everyone should have a brother like mine.

It has occurred to me that my grandparents both have birthdays right around now and I think I may have missed both of them. Ever since I broke my Palm Pilot, I haven't been able to keep track of people's things and keep getting embarrassed when I find out I've missed a thing. So, Granma and Granpa - because I'm pretty sure that both of your birthdays have passed, I'm sending you my sheepish but heartfelt wishes for a wonderful year and all my love.
Also, once I track down your address, a card.Ike also sends his love.

Art and Steak FTW

Yesterday, Fil and I hit up the LA County Museum of Art. He'd never been and I was all excited about showing him my favorite things in the galleries. There are three pieces, in particular, that make me happy and I couldn't wait to see them again. Sadly for me, two of them are gone now. The Rodin section? Gone. The whole entire thing. Every sculpture in the room was missing and all that was left were a bunch of empty, forlorn pedestals. The super-cool garage thingy in the contemporary art building? Also gone. Annoyingly, I don't know the name of the piece or the artist responsible for it so I can't even look it up. I've been googling descriptions of it but getting no results. I should ask my brother about it. He's a walking, talking Gallery Catalog. He'll know.
I hadn't been to LACMA for years and man, they went nuts while I was gone. It was like visiting a whole new museum. I had a lot of fun exploring the new building and galleries. This thing was pretty cool:
Right? It's like a street lamp forest. I was impressed.
There was some other art, too:
Also cool.


The new stove has finally arrived and in celebration, I'm making a Big Dinner. Very excited about this. Here is my awesome menu: To begin with, a tasty Soccer Mom Dip. I don't know what it's really called but a soccer mom at a BBQ showed me how to make it and it's fabulous. Then, Tasty Salad, followed by Pan Fried Rib Eye Steak with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Carmelized Carrots. For dessert, Homemade Brownies. I rock at cooking things.

Thunder makes me spacey

I'm incredibly absent-minded. Like, all the time. I try to play it off and act like it's a sort of charming, ditzy affection but really, I'm just not very good with the old attention span. I will make breakfast and then forget to eat it. Or I'll call someone and as the phone is ringing, suddenly realize that I don't remember who I'm calling, or why. So yesterday, when I left work, I set the alarm but forgot to lock the door. An hour later, I'm getting phone calls from my boss wondering why the police are at her store. Luckily, nothing was robbed. The wind blew the door ajar and set off the alarm.
Strangely, my boss is not angry with me. I suspect it's because she suffers from the same inability to focus that I have. Halfway through the conversation, she got distracted by something and forgot that she was mad at me.

Ike is doing well. I bought a huge birdcage for him, lined it with newspaper and bedding, and that's where he spends his time when I'm away. When I'm here, he runs freely through the apartment. He's adopted me, I think. Every few minutes, wherever the two of us are in the apartment, he'll seek me out and nuzzle up to my ankles for a few minutes before dashing across the floor again, off to seek new things to sniff/chew on. The other super-delightful thing he does is come to me when I call him. He's still so small that occasionally, I overlook him and keep on calling, wondering why he's not coming, assuming he's tunneled his way into The Cranky Neighbor's apartment and is about to be crushed by said Cranky Neighbor. Either that, or he's somehow managed to open the lid of the toilet, fallen in, and drowned. I have a habit of assuming the worst. This is actually a good thing. This means that when the worst does not happen, whatever did happen is always a pleasant surprise, even if it's a bad thing. It couldn't be that bad, you see, because it wasn't the worse thing that I'd already imagined. 'Bad' is always better than 'worst'. Meanwhile, Ike's sniffing at my feet, wondering what all the fuss is about.

There is crazy-scary thunder happening right now. I normally don't mind thunder all that much but knowing that I'm going to have to run errands in a few minutes makes me nervous. Thunder sounds too much like bits of the sky falling. What if something falls on my head? Would I have to change my hairstyle if my head is shaped differently?