Letter to my comment-ers

Dear _____________,

In response to your comment(s) I have a few things to say. No, I did not recieve and "For Dummies" books and once again I must inquire, why do you read blogs of people you don't like? And why do you try to leave annoymous comments. Own up to them. It's kind of sad and pathetic that you feel the need hide what and who you are. And yes, even though your comments don't post I still get them sent to my e-mail account.

As to my other commenter (and I hope you're not one in the same) I do have a half assed apology to give you. My last blog was not complete and it was nothing more than a rant about the holidays. It was not a dig at you or your boyfriend or any gifts I received. I appreciated all the gifts I received especially from you. When I say the blog was incomplete I meant specifically the part dealing with where you commented. Honestly, we knew they were from you and not him (I'm trying to leave names out of this so bare with me) and the only part we were joking about is if they really had come from him and not you. I don't want to return them and it was a poorly formed joke. I thought the fact that you guys sent anything at all was nice and thoughtful. I'm sorry you couldn't have been there. I could have told you a story about why I found it so funny. I won't write it here because I'm trying to leave this anonymous. I wish you would have left me a way to contact you instead of having to blog again. I hope you keep reading my blog because if you don't you will never get this apology. Not that I apologize for writing my blog the way I want.... I have my blog to rant about stuff when it bugs me. This holiday sucked for me and I wanted to let it out in a forum that wouldn't make all the people who love me think I am ungrateful. No one really reads my blog and its more of a journal than a well established blog. This is my place to be free if that offends you don't read it. I write what I feel and I'm not going to compromise my feelings to please people. Especially people I've only met twice before.

with regards,
Courtney

Eartha -- Chapter 7

Well, here we go again. Another chapter in the story. A chapter I enjoy because we see Mora and Roger again although after this point the story become primarily about Eartha and Garrick. This is the last we see of one of my better characters and even though not a lot happens in this chapter its probably one of my favorites. Enjoy.


Chapter 7

Eartha could not get home quick enough. She was fidgeting the entire way back home and she managed to be the first one off the subway to find her parents. She saw her mother first and she took off running without a second thought. She threw herself at her mother and embraced her in the biggest bear hug she could muster. She felt her mother’s bare cheek against her own. She felt the warmth flow through her body and was overjoyed to finally be able to really feel someone again. Even her father avoided touching her bare skin ever since he transferred a vision once. She held her mother for an eternity afraid that she might be dreaming. She saw her father coming towards them from the other direction. They were alive. That was all that mattered at this moment. Alive and well. They were never going to leave her sight again. She would make sure of that. Not until the monster killing psychics were caught and locked up forever.
“My goodness!” her mother exclaimed, “What is this?”
“I was so afraid,” Eartha mumbled into her mother’s hair as she finally relaxed.
“Of what?” her father asked.
“That they would come after you before I had a chance to see you again,” Eartha explained turning to her father for another bear hug.
“No one is coming after us,” her mother assured her, “we’re not ever really part of that psychic community. The only person we ever talk to is Dr. Timmus. We hadn’t even heard of the disappearances until he called.”
“These people don’t care if you are active in the psychic community or not. If you have any kind of ability they’re going to try to recruit you,” Eartha said.
“No one has approached us about joining anything,” her father tried to calm her.
“But they will! I just know there’s a reason for all this!” Eartha exclaimed.
“A reason for what, sweetie?” her mother asked.
“All these visions I’ve been having!”
“Visions?” her father cut in as her mother gasped and stepped back.
“Yes!” Eartha cried out with annoyance, “All the visions of those people disappearing and then that man that they killed for not joining their group.” Neither of her parents could speak. They both stared at their daughter dumbfounded. It took Eartha a moment to realize what this meant. “Dr. Timmus didn’t tell you that I was having visions?” she asked.
“No,” her mother whispered.
“There must be a reason for that,” her father insisted, “he wouldn’t keep something that important from me.”
“What has he told you?” Eartha asked.
“He told us about the attack from that vampire kid and the break in. He warned me that my file might have been taken and that we might be at risk. Then last week he called me and told me a number of people known to have psychic abilities had gone missing recently. What exactly have you been seeing? Wait! We shouldn’t be talking about this here,” he said suddenly, “Let’s go home.” He quickly ushered his wife and daughter out of the subway station. He changed the subject to lighten the mood, “We have a surprise for you, Eartha,” he said happily.
“What is it?” she asked.
“You are not going to spend your summer vacation locked inside the house this year!” he exclaimed.
“What do you mean?” Eartha asked tensely. She had been looking forward to resting all summer to muster her energy for next year.
“We have rented a beach house for the summer,” he explained, “It’s a private beach. Only the people with the beach houses can use it, so you wont have to worry about a lot of people being around.”
“We’ll have a real vacation this year,” her mother added.
“Well, when do we take off for there?” Eartha asked grinning.
“Right now,” her father announced, “We have your summer clothes packed up and ready to go in the car. Eartha happily skipped ahead of her parents towards the car. Mora and Roger exchanged worried looks.

“I just can’t believe she’s having visions on top of everything else she has to deal with,” Mora said with her arms wrapped across her chest. She was standing at the beach house window looking down at her daughter running through the surf.
“You must have known she was going to inherit something like my abilities,” Roger reminded her. He came up behind his wife and wrapped his arms around her.
“But I thought her extreme version of my gift was what she inherited from you,” Mora protested.
“That had nothing to do with me,” he replied, “She would have been like that even if I had no abilities at all. Those two gifts have nothing in common. She’s stronger than you just like you were stronger than the parent that passed it on to you.”
“It just seems so unfair that a little girl should have so many burdens like this,” Mora whispered.
“And how fair is life?” Roger asked, “Besides they’re only burdens when you view them as burdens.”
“God! What? Are you a walking proverbs book today?” Mora exploded suddenly, “Our daughter suffers everyday and all you can say is ‘life isn’t fair’! She can’t have friends or a normal life; she can’t even do things normally. She’s swimming at five o’clock in the morning because there’s no one swimming that early and yet ‘it’s only a burden if you view it as a burden’? How else am I supposed to view it?!” She pushed him away as he tried to comfort her. She didn’t want to feel better about this. She had brought a little girl into this world that could never fit in and would never feel normal even among people like Roger.
“Mora, had I known you were a healer when I met you I would have forced myself to give you up no matter how much it hurt,” he whispered honestly, “I know the dangers, but I didn’t know what you were and that changed everything. It changed both of our lives and there isn’t anything we can do to change it. Don’t think that it doesn’t pain me to see how difficult it is for my daughter, but that is how it is and we need to accept that or Eartha never will.”
“I just want her to be normal… to feel like she belongs… just once,” Mora whispered defeated. Roger couldn’t say anything. As much as he would have liked to tell his wife that Eartha could be normal he wasn’t even sure that was true and he couldn’t completely accept what his daughter was going to have to deal with for the rest of her life.

The summer ended too quickly for Eartha. She knew her parents were safe as long as she could see that they were safe. She couldn’t go back to school. If she went back she wouldn’t be able to see them and she couldn’t be sure that they were safe. She would just have to discuss her concerns with her parents rationally. They weren’t safe if she wasn’t near them and that was simple enough to understand. There was no way they would make her go back to school once they understood that. Eartha was very sure of herself and went to discuss school with her parents right at that moment.
“I’m not going back to school this fall,” she announced.
“Oh really?” her mother replied as her father just smirked.
“No, I can’t. It’s not safe,” she explained.
“Don’t you think Dr. Timmus knows when it’s safe for his students to come back?” her father asked.
“No, I mean it’s not safe for you if I go back to school,” she explained.
“Safe for us?” her mother asked.
“We’re not in danger, honey,” her father reassured her.
“Yes, you are!” Eartha insisted. They apparently didn’t understand what she was trying to explain to them. “There must be a reason that these visions are coming to me and not to anyone else. It’s warning me that you two are in danger and I can somehow prevent it.”
“Visions are not necessarily an omen for the person receiving the vision,” Roger explained.
“Have you seen us in one of your visions?” her mother asked.
“No,” Eartha replied.
“Then what makes you think that someone is coming after us?” she asked.
“I just have a really bad feeling about these visions and I just know there’s a reason why I’m having these visions~” she stopped suddenly. They weren’t going to believe her and they were going to send her back to school. She knew there was just no way they were going to keep her home this year. She could see the look in their eyes. They didn’t believe they were in any kind of danger and that she was just being paranoid.
“Honey, I remember my first visions too,” her father tried to comfort her, “and they made me overly anxious about everything too.”
“You’ve never seen anything like this!” Eartha shouted savagely, “You don’t have any clue what this is like! I’m just waiting for the next body to appear in my mind and I don’t know if it’s going to be you!” She turned and ran from the room seconds before she burst into tears. She was angry with her parents for not believing her, but she was more upset with herself for not handling that situation better. Her parents were never going to believe her if she broke down into tears every time she tried to explain these visions. She was just being too emotional and that’s all they would see.

“What do we do, now?” Mora asked in a choked whisper.
“She’s overreacting, Mora,” Roger tried to reassure her, “We aren’t a threat to anyone and no one even knows where we are. She has to go back to school~”
“Did you hear her?” Mora asked, “I think this threat is a little more serious than you would like to believe.”
“Mora, I somehow think I have a better grasp on this aspect of her power a little better than you,” he shot back and then realizing how rude that had come out he added, “I’m sorry.” Mora didn’t accept the quick apology thought. In fact he saw the explosion coming before Mora even realized what she was going to say. He closed his eyes and waited for it.
“You are so fucking arrogant!” she shouted, “You think you understand everything better than me just because you’ve been dealing with this longer?”
“No, I~” he started.
“You don’t have a clue what this is like for her! She sees people being abducted and she can’t do anything about it! She sees people being murdered, but she doesn’t have a clue who’s doing it! All you can do is predict what I’m going to say next and you somehow think you have a better grasp! I think you’ve lost your grasp on reality!” Mora’s face was red and her eyes were quickly welling up with tears, “She’s in pain. This is torturing her and I don’t need a special power to tell you that.” She finished completely defeated and breaking down. He took her in his arms and she had no strength left in her to push him away.
“Mora, I know what she’s going through and I know that it’s torture,” he said quietly, “No, I don’t go through this torture first hand. I had to watch my roommate from school go through it instead. I found out about five years ago that he committed suicide. I understand it in my own way, but even if we are in danger, having her here is not going to make the danger go away. She has to go back to school because if we do get attacked I don’t want her here. She will survive and go on even if we are the next to go.” Mora froze unable to say anything. He was right of course. They had to send Eartha back to school just to keep her safe. Mora suddenly pulled away from Roger and ran upstairs and, just as their daughter had, locked herself in her bedroom.
Roger stood in the living room alone and sighed heavily. When had this gotten so complicated? Why now? When everything had been going so well. He and Mora had never been closer since they discovered what the other was. They had put Eartha in the best school for her special ability. Everything had been running smoothly and then it all began to crumble away slowly. All three of their lives were being torn apart and all because of some psychotic psychic who thought he had the right to rule the world. He knew just as well as Eartha that he and Mora would not survive the attacks. He couldn’t tell his wife that he was seeing flashes already. It was getting closer and the images he was seeing were getting clearer. It would frighten her and she would want to run and take Eartha with them. He knew all too well that running away only made everything so much worse. These people who were attacking psychics were everywhere. There were stories of disappearances across the country. He had already discussed what he was seeing with Dr. Timmus, but all he could tell Roger was to watch for the signs and do everything in his power to protect himself and his family. He also told Roger to send Eartha back to school as soon as he possibly could. If these people got a hold of Eartha they would use her abilities to destroy those who would oppose them. Roger knew that Dr. Timmus’ advice was sound and the school would be the safest place to keep Eartha… especially if he and Mora did not survive. He couldn’t explain this to Mora and it was impossible to tell his daughter. He could save his daughter by sending her away and if he could save Mora’s life by doing the same thing he would. He went to the study and called Dr. Timmus.
“Hello, Roger,” Dr. Timmus answered the phone, “I sensed the disturbance. I assumed this would happen as the new school year drew near.”
“Eartha knows that we are in danger,” Roger said.
“I know. All she wanted to do for the last month of school was go home to make sure you were both safe. The fact still remains, however, that it is imperative that she comes back to school,” Dr. Timmus reminded him.
“I know, but how can I explain this to either of them without upsetting them?” he asked.
“Not upsetting them is out of the question at this point, Roger,” Dr. Timmus said bluntly, “and, really, it’s up to you how much you want to tell them…. Have you told them about your visions?”
“No,” he sighed, “I don’t want to frighten them. I really don’t want them to know. Especially Eartha.”
“Why ‘especially Eartha’?” Dr. Timmus asked.
“You said it yourself, she has to go back to school. If she knows that I’m having visions of the possible death of her parents there is no way she will leave us. I can’t put her in danger and if that means I have to lie to her and tell her that we’re not in danger I will do it,” Roger stated.
“Then why are you calling me?” Dr. Timmus asked.
“What do you mean?” Roger snapped.
“You’ve already made up your mind. Are you calling me to get my approval?” Dr. Timmus returned.
“I don’t know,” Roger moaned, “I honestly don’t know. I don’t want to lie to either of them, but I don’t think I have a choice if I want to keep them safe.”
“All I can tell you is to follow your gut. It almost never steers you wrong,” Dr. Timmus offered.
“Thank you.” The conversation ended and Roger still felt unsure about what he should do.

Randomness Part II

Random Quote of the Day: "Is it safe?"

Random Thought of the Day: Liquid food coloring stains. Just pretend like the red is blood to make things more interesting.

Random Bitch of the Day: If wearing compression pantyhose makes you uncomfortable maybe you should question your sexual orientation.... because we are not going to change all our paperwork to please one insecure man. (This rant is about four weeks old, but it still bugs me).

Another Random Thought of the Day: Christmas is the time to see how many times your family can make you cry. This is why I despise the holiday. Sorry to all you Christmas enthusiasts.

Side Notes for Anyone Who Cares: I have re-written the first six chapters of my Eartha story and I have written more on The Dreamlands. I will probably have something new to post by the end of this month.

Thank you. Enjoy the day.

P.S. Randomness According to Nick:
A few interesting/random things-today is the last day to Hanukkah
-this morning I saw three cars parked on 60th street that had smiley faces drawn on the snow on their windshields, it made me smile
-apparently Sunday is Free Hug day, the sick puppies are playing in town, but I just found it amusing that we're having a free hug day

Randomness

Random Thought of the Day: Chunky Roses.

Random Quote of the Day: "The sky is blue. It's beautiful. And so are you."

Reminder of the Day: I'm buying Harry Potter #5 on Tuesday so anyone who thinks that's a good present for the holidays needs to think again.

Another Random Thought: Singing in the shower at 5 am is not appropriate when you live with other people. It's probably a good thing that I don't sing in the shower.

Thank you for wasting two minutes of your day to read this utterly pointless blog.

Eartha -- Chapter 6

Holy crap!!! Three months later and I finally continue with the posting of my story. Once again, I am re-writing much of this story and now its slightly different than what I'm posting. I completely re-wrote the last scene in the book, but since that is still several chapters away it really doesn't matter at this point. So, here is the calm before the storm and I'm sure when i re-write it it will be different, but oh well. Enjoy.

Chapter 6

The next few months of school were torture for Eartha. She didn’t feel that she was allowed to speak or write to her parents often enough to make sure they were all right. She was also becoming a nuisance to some of the other students when she continually inquired about the well being of their parents as well. Most assumed she had gone insane from her vision and very few sympathized with her. Only a few of the other precognitives understood how a vision could drive you mad thinking about how you could change what you had seen. Of course, Garrick was still sticking by her side, but she wasn’t entirely sure that he believed what she had seen either. For a while everyone assumed she had just had a really bad dream until the disappearances began.
The first few went unnoticed for several weeks by most people, but Eartha knew each time one of those people disappeared. She often woke in the middle of the night feeling the terror of the person being snatched. She was almost getting used to feeling terrible all the time, but not really. She felt responsible not doing more after each vision. Each time Eartha felt another person taken she went immediately to Dr. Timmus to tell him to expect another missing person and each time she went to speak to Dr. Timmus she became more hysterical. She knew her parents were in danger and she wanted to go home. Dr. Timmus assured her that her parents had been notified and were well prepared for the worst. This did not calm Eartha in the least. She knew quite well that Dr. Timmus had warned many people and several of those people had still turned up missing or dead.
Then the night came that Eartha woke up screaming. No one could calm her or make her stop. Dr. Timmus was sent for. Before he even got to the dorm he could hear her screaming that the murders had begun. Many students had begun to gather around the other two dorm rooms as well. He didn’t bother sending them back to bed because he knew they would not obey.
Dr. Timmus was unable to calm Eartha with words and was eventually force to sedate her. Before she passed out she looked at Dr. Timmus and whispered, “They tied him to a tree.” He was unable to get any more information from Eartha since she had finally gone out, but he knew what this meant. The situation had gone from serious to dangerous with those few words. People were now dying and the only link he had been able to find was a hysterical eight year old who was only able to tell him when to start looking for bodies. The officials had even less to follow and were almost useless when it came to the investigation. The local police in each of the cities where a disappearance was discovered was making most of the progress. Without the connection of all the missing people being psychic the police were just filing them away in the missing persons file because what police force would believe Dr. Timmus if he told them they were all psychics? So far all Dr. Timmus could be thankful for was that the school year was almost over and he would be able to dedicate his summer to tracking down whoever was hunting these psychics down.

“Are you okay?” a timid voice approached her the next afternoon in the garden. She looked up to see Garrick’s worried expression looking down at her.
“Compared to what?” she whispered with a faint smile. He sat down next to her, but he couldn’t muster a smile to return. He just stared for a moment and then finally asked, “What is happening to you?”
“I didn’t know they would hurt so much,” she whispered looking away, “he never told me that they hurt.”
“What hurts?”
“The visions… I saw him die… and I could feel his… fear… his pain,” she was focusing all her energy on keeping her voice perfectly steady and for a moment she accidentally dropped her shields. Garrick’s emotions came rushing at her before she had a chance to block them. She gasped suddenly caught completely off guard by what she felt. The pain and fear that she normally absorbed from people who were upset or worried was not there. All she was receiving from Garrick was love and concern for her well being. He was upset and she felt it, but she could feel the love behind it and it was so much stronger than any negative emotions she had ever felt from anyone. Garrick didn’t seem to notice her surprise and unconsciously he reached over towards Eartha, “I’m so sorry…” he whispered and he touched her bare cheek. She pulled back out of habit and she regretted it. He pulled his hand back quickly realizing what he had just done, but she smiled to reassure him that it was okay. She didn’t know how to explain the feeling that she had just absorbed. It was the oddest sensation… she actually felt better, revived somehow. No one had ever made her feel better by touching her. It had always been a negative experience and yet, she felt stronger. Of course, she was still upset about seeing that man, but she no longer felt the exhaustion that the vision had created. She distrusted the feeling entirely and quickly decided not to tell Garrick what she felt. It was a fluke… it had to be. People drained her of energy. They didn’t give it back to her.

The school became a very tense place for the last couple weeks of school. Especially for Eartha. Everyone was more frightened of her now than they ever had been before. Now, not only was she hiding what she was from everyone, but also on top of that she was predicting murders. Even for precognitives this was unusual. Most seers could not predict exact events or anything that specific. Eartha had no problem with the other students keeping their distance now. She was more focused on going home for summer vacation and she was worried about her parents. She knew there was a reason she was getting these visions. And she was positive it was personal, that this would affect her directly. She knew that whoever was attacking these people was going to go after her parents sooner or later. Somehow she felt that if she were there to watch over them they would no longer be in danger.
Her finals she rushed through and didn’t really care if she did not do very well on them. She wanted nothing more than to go home and she didn’t care about anything that was keeping her from her goal. On the final day of school when all the other students were throwing end of year parties she was locked in her room packing her bags. The next morning she was the first student out on the platform waiting for the subway that would take her back to her parents. She knew it wouldn’t even be there until eleven o’clock, but she was still waiting on the platform at seven.
Around eight o’clock she heard the first sounds of other people coming to the platform. “Why am I not surprised to find you out here?” a familiar voice asked.
“Where else would I be?” she returned. She didn’t bother turning around, Garrick knew well enough not to touch her. “Aren’t you going to eat breakfast before you go?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she replied.
“You do know the subway wont get here before eleven right?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“Then why don’t you eat first?” he asked.
“I’m not hungry,” she said, “You know, if you want to go to breakfast there’s nothing stopping you.”
“I ate before I came up,” he said.
“Then why are you so concerned about me getting breakfast?” she snapped.
“I’m not,” he shot back, “I just don’t understand the stupidity of standing up here for the next few hours when you know you aren’t going to get out of here any quicker than the rest of us.”
“I just wanted to be away from them and this would be the quietest place to think and I won’t lose track of the time this way,” she explained.
“Whatever,” he mumbled. She heard him walk away and leave the platform. She glanced over her shoulder to see if he had gone for good. She was alone on the platform again. She felt bad now. She knew she had been rude to Garrick for no reason. He had been nothing but supportive ever since he found out exactly what she was. She considered going after him, but something kept her in her place. It was a feeling in her stomach. A fear that warned her not to get to close. Never get too close. Any friends that she had ever made in the past had disappeared and it hurt like hell every time she lost another one. If she never got close she couldn’t get hurt. She heard footsteps again and she receded into the shadows like she unconsciously always did.
“Eartha?” Garrick’s confused voice called out. She stepped back out surprised to see him back. “Oh, hiding again,” he said knowingly as he held out his hand with two good-sized muffins. “Here,” he said prompting her to take one, “Blueberry and cherry.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly taking the blueberry muffin.
“No, no.” he laughed, “They’re both for you. I told you I already ate.” He put the cherry muffin in her hand. He brushed the few stray crumbs off his hands and pants. She took a bite of the blueberry muffin and automatically began to feel guilty. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly.
“Why, it’s not your fault the muffins are crumbly,” he said not realizing she wasn’t talking about the muffins.
“No, I mean for being rude to you before,” she explained quickly looking away.
“Ah!” he said dismissively, “I’m used to your mood swings by now.” He grinned at her in his goofy way that told her that she hadn’t offended him at all and that he was surprised that she had even brought it up.
“So, where are you going over summer vacation?” he asked changing the subject.
“I don’t know,” she replied, “We don’t normally go anywhere. Too many people exhaust me and most entertaining places are pretty crowded in the summer. I don’t think it will be any different this summer.”
“Well that sucks,” he said lightly.
“No, it’s peaceful,” she smiled, “It’s good for me.”
“I’m going skiing,” he stated proudly.
“Ugh. Haven’t you had enough of cold weather?” she asked.
“We’ve been cooped up all year. I didn’t get to see any snow except through windows,” he reminded her.
“I’m ready to see the sun again… and my parents,” she said. A dark shadow seemed to cover her face as the thought of her parents in danger crossed her mind once again. They were home all alone with no idea how much danger they were really in. No one knew what was coming except her. They hadn’t seen what the others had done to that man… just for not joining their group. Her parents were on the list… she knew it. All these visions were some kind of warning for her. They were telling her to go to her parents and not leave them. The moment she left them they would be gone from her life forever.
“Hey,” Garrick broke in on her thoughts, “They’re gonna be fine.”
“Yeah,” she replied halfheartedly. She looked over at him and noticed he wasn’t convinced by her reply so she smiled at him. Garrick wasn’t entirely convinced by her smile either, but knowing that he could never really insist that her parents were going to be fine he didn’t say anything. Before he had a chance to lighten the conversation again the subway arrived. Neither of them had realized that a number of other students had joined them on the platform or how much time had passed.

My October

As it turns out the month of October was extremely busy for me. It started off with Nick and I returning to the grand town of Vermilion South Dakota for..... D Days!!! Woo hoo! So exciting. D Day (for those of you fortunate enough NOT to live in Vermilion) if SDU's Homecoming week. What it boils down to is a college town of several thousands students all getting wasted and stumbling around town. No worries of drunk driving because pretty much everything is within walking distance for you to stumble to. Here is Ashley stumbling.

Most of the day we spent drinking at the apartment of my cousins Ashley and Spencer. We ate chili and chocolate/peanut butter cake (not necessarily in that order) and Ashley's dumb cat, Vic Mackey, climbed inside my book bag to take a nap. He's a lazy piece of crap as you can see. We played drunken board games and took a walk around the neighborhood. Of course at that point half the crew had disappeared or passed out and we were left with only a few people who I like to call The Lasters. Yep, that's right, I'm the only girl who can hold her liquor apparently. Shortly after this picture was taken even Nick was passed out on the loveseat. Dustin went home a little while after that leaving Spencer and me to reluctantly go to bed at well. Boo, to all you lazy drinkers.

So that was the weekend of October 13th and it was highly entertaining. I mean where else can you yell out "STD Days!" and actually get people to cheer?

A brief stop on Tuesday October 16th, Boss's Day, since I was the only person in my office to remember and buy cards and bagels for everyone. Yeah, I'm the good one.

I took three days off after that which gave me plenty of time to clean out the storage room in the basement and turn it into a makeshift bedroom for when Ashley, Spencer, Dustin and Erica came down that weekend for Hutch's big Halloween Bash. I also managed to make a lot of food those three days: cupcakes, cookies, chili cheese bean dip, lots of jello shots and my green mixture that would be my "Absinthe" at the party that weekend. I also managed to do some laundry and other boring stuff that would make me a good little house wife if I had a husband :D

So the big Halloween Bash comes next. Where I went as the Green Fairy aka the Absinthe Fairy, Nick went as Duffman, Kristi was a mechanic, Madonna was a nurse, and Hal..... well, no one really knows what Hal was supposed to be, but eventually he gave in and just accepted that everyone thought he was Willy Wonka from the newer version with Johnny Depp. My costume got plenty of praise, mostly because my 'absinthe' was a tasty concoction that everyone wanted a piece of. I got a lot of people wasted that night between my 'absinthe' and the jello shots. There was the usual drama that goes around every year and because Hutch is usually a huge asshole his skank was there. He promised she wouldn't come, but this is a Hutch promise which usually means little to nothing. I think she got the point that no one likes her when two people rang out simultaneously "The Skank?" when someone asked where she was.... she was, of course, within earshot when this happened. Plus I kept referring to her as "the wench" all night because she was so appropriately dressed as a wench. I guess you can't really argue with what you are.

We all had fun regardless of the drama and the Skank because we were all wasted and my cousins were in town and still willing to drink a little more when we got back to the townhouse later that evening. Unfortunately they all wore exceedingly lame costumes which forced me to make fun of them throughout most of the night. I passed out really quick that night and still managed to wake up with the glue like glitter plastered to my face. That stuff took at least two showers to get off. I was pretty impressed.

The following and last weekend of the this fine month just so happened to be the busiest weekend of the month. Friday started off with an early departure from work to get to a wedding in Lincoln. I didn't take my camera in, but Nick got a bunch of pictures. I had somehow obtained a hole in the side of my cheek the day before making me completely miserable. Every time I opened my mouth it hurt, chewing food was painful and bordered on impossible and the pain was spreading throughout my mouth and onto my head. It didn't matter how much Advil I took I was miserable. I went back to the hotel (which was pretty cool since it was in an Embassy Suites) and went to bed with the TV on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It was a pretty pathetic night and not much better of a morning the next day. Nick was being the best boyfriend in the world about my whining and crying and after watching the truly fantastic movie Across the Universe we went to Walgreens to get something to fix my problem.

That evening we had another party to go to at Madonna's brother's house (another yearly tradition). By this time my cheek had been sufficiently numbed up and I was in a much better mood. I was lame and wore the same costume because I had put so much effort into it, but Nick went as White Goodman and Kristi was a blue fairy. Madonna and her siblings all dressed up as musicians which ranged from Beethoven to Michael Jackson to Dolly Parton.

The party didn't quite manage to live up to the Drama of a Hutch party, but it still managed to be entertaining and fun. Nick got a lot of comments on his costume which was nice for him since he took so much effort on it (you know asking his mom to sew all the pieces together). :D And yes he really did shave his facial hair to look like White Goodman's handlebar 'stach. Sad.

Sunday was the 28th and my mother's birthday. We had already decided earlier in the week that we would be unable to go out on her actual birthday due to the fact that I was going with Nick and Kristi to see Carlos Mencia who was in Omaha for the first time.

He liked our crowd so much he stayed on the stage for two hours! That's pretty awesome considering most comedians can barely come up with a hours worth of entertainment. The comedians that were with him were all fantastic too and I think at least a couple of them will soon be doing shows of their own. Fantastic. No pictures though. No one brought their camera.

On Halloween Day I had to work. Duh, it was Wednesday, obviously. That didn't stop me from dressing up. I went Emo for Halloween! Of course no one actually got that because the Emo revolution hasn't been around as long. I explained to a couple staff members that emo kids are pretty much our goth kids of old with a slightly better fashion sense. Except they apparently really enjoy having their hair in their eyes because they don't want to see the horrible-ness of the world. Don't cry emo kid!

So that was my fantastic October. And for the first time real pictures in my Blogger. Yeah, I had that one flip off picture several months back, but that doesn't count because I just found that picture on Photobucket especially for that blog. Well, let's hope that November has something to offer us that can try to match up with October :)

What is a bookshelf for, again?

I just saw a bit on the Today show that annoyed me. Oh there's a shock, something's annoying Courtney again. The bit was titled "how to decorate a bookshelf" which doesn't sound as ridiculous as it really was. It was how to place items on your book shelf to make it look as pretty as possible, which meant adding useless decorative boxes and bowls that serve absolutely no purpose. Why does this annoy me? Hmm, let me explain:

The purpose of a bookshelf is to place your books on it, right. You can order them however you see fit (I personally normally put books on my shelves according to size, but whatever you fancy is fine). What a book shelf doesn't need is useless crap that is just going to block my way to getting to my books. I don't need a bowl of potpourri sitting on some of my books that I laid sideways because they were to big to put upright. My books don't need to smell like country apples or fresh linen no matter how much i like those smells. I also don't need fabric colored boxes taking up precious book space. I have many books, all of which I would like to get to should I choose to read them again.

My bookshelf is not there to please your eyes, its there to hold my books. If books aren't pleasing to your eyes just the way there are then why the hell do you have a book shelf at all? I actually need several more book shelves for all the books I have and I don't plan on squandering any of my space on a decorative misshapen bowl just to make my guest visually appeased.

In other words, kiss my butt you silly decorative bowl people!!!!