I made the mistake of reading four Shirley Jackson books in the last couple days. That godawful Liam Neeson movie The Haunting is VERY loosely based on The Haunting of Hill House, which inspired me to re-read that and all her other books I have. The Sundial and then a collection of short stories, The Lottery. I have more somewhere...We Have Always Lived in the Castle. that is a WEIRD ass book and the main character reminds me of myself when I was twelve. I can't find The Bird's Nest anywhere, and it annoys me. I know I had one.It had been a long time since I'd read the Lottery, and it has sent me back to that horrible feeling that I was meant to have been born in about 1945. I wanted to grow up when ladies still wore skirts, hats, and gloves. Then I look in the mirror at myself wearing Dad's shirts with jeans three sizes too big and wonder what happened.

POOKIE happened. All I ever wanted was some stupid job that would give me enough money to have a little bitty apartment of my own and keep the car. I would go to the laundromat on Tuesday nights, clean house on Saturday mornings, go to the zoo or a park Saturday afternoons, maybe a movie once in a while...my own CLEAN little apartment, without my psychotic family. Place settings for four and flower pots on the windowsill. but NOW I'll never be happy without this damned thing. it's like HEROIN or something. And now there's that boy to consider. I suppose I could incorporate him into that somehow. This that I want is all that my mother wanted. I feel so guilty all the time, but it isn't my fault that she made a series of very bad decisions when she was my age and a little older. She can still have what she wants, once my sister leaves for school.

...THAT was a leftover rant from July.

Now I break the long silence with an Update on my Lack of Life.

We are moved back to Columbia for another fun-filled year of bad food and sprinting to class. This time I have brought Punkie Trout with me, to spice things up a little. We are living in a reasonably happy fine arts oriented dorm, which is at least a step up from the Sorority Hell of last year. Two Nice Girls live upstairs and condescend to be our friends. (Miracles happen!) I persist in my painful pursuit of a degree in comp sci. This semester I am blessed (?) with COBOL and systems analysis, which we have renamed Anal Pookie and which is the current bane of my existence (one of the many. Scratch another career option off the list). My darling Sailorwombat now lives much closer, which provokes the occasional visit.

Whee. I can make links.

I am wearing lots of faux leopard fur. Their name is Felix. My mother bought them for me. I love my mother.

For many reasons.

I love the new Georgia quarters. They have PEACHES on them. The Happy Quarter Men designed them just for me. I want to tile a floor in them and dance around on it in tap shoes with bells on the heels. I would also like a pet glass penguin to play a flute as accompaniment.

Everyone humors me so much. Someday one of you will buy me a Moon Princess dress, and my already weak grip on reality will break. I’ll only answer to Serenity, and you’ll all get nice new names. Chammers will be Endymion, Biskit would make a good Minako, Punkie can play Chibiusa, Ginger would be Makoto, Hector has her Rei-chan moments...I’m taking applications for an Ami...maybe Mary. Although I don’t see Ami liking ‘N Sync.

There aren’t really very many roles for the boys...let’s think. Bunny might have been a Seiya, Bill could be Taiki at a stretch, and Greenfreak might be a decent Yaten. Except for the morphing into a girl part.