Regina Noctis

I thought of and , since we’d recently talked about piratey things, and figbash pushed just about every clothing-related button I have by posting a link to dresslikeapirate.com. And besides, i think that and did an amazing job on the redecorating.

Go, check out the Buccaneer Bathroom.

When I was a kid, my father owned a Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma. In the course of running the place, he met many good people, including a local country/rock band calling themselves Tweed. There were many nights we went to hear them play, and they’d bring a range of instruments that they’d leave at our table, so we could play along. I alternated between maracas and bongo drums. My dad would play pretty much anything that I wasn’t.

One day, they gave us a little 45 they’d cut. I don’t remember one of the songs at all – I never much liked it – but the song on the flipside of the record I adored. I played it all the time. I hadn’t thought about that song in probably 25 years. You’d think I’d have forgotten the lyrics in that time. I’d have thought the same.

For the last several days, the_bone has been driving cross-country on his move from Florida to California. He mentioned recently that he had gotten across Texas. And when I saw the line that Texas was now in his rearview mirror, the demonloop began.

Yes, it’s the song by Tweed that I adored all those years ago. “Putting Texas in my Rearview Mirror” has been stuck on constant replay in my head since I saw that post. And I still remember the song and the lyrics, all but one line in the last verse.

It was nice to remember the song, and all the memories associated. At least it was for the first hour or so. I’m now MORE than ready to have the damn demonloop STOP, however.

Poor sleep and a few projects have been keeping me away. But there have been some good things that I want to put down here, before they slide through the Swiss cheese I call a memory.

1. Psycho cousin is in jail. Again. This time, the stay will likely be longer than the previous ones. All he’s ever been convicted of in the past are misdemeanors. This time, he’s got his first felony charge. He stole his mother’s car, and she turned him in for it. He’s in jail, awaiting trial. Let’s hope he’s gone for quite a while, this time.

2. The hearing for the longer restraining order happened. The first one was just a temporary. This time, the order is good for three years. All we need to do now is get it served, and since pyscho is in jail, we know exactly where he is – no trying to figure out how to get him served when he’s not really officially living anywhere these days.

3. Welcome to cat number four. Like our previous new addition to the feline horde, this one was abandoned and wound up here at the Amazing Stray Magnet House. Her facial features, set of the ears, length of the tail, and long legs with delicate little paws indicate that she’s probably the half-sister to the last two strays that we rescued. As far as we can tell, there’s someone around here with a female cat that they haven’t bothered to get spayed. Every few months, we wind up with another little cat, and they’re getting younger ever time, that has been loved, socialized, and cared for up to a point. There is also some abuse mixed in, so the cats have had a desperation to have the kind of petting and love they had before but are simultaneously afraid of humans. They all show up half-starved. This one was in worse shape than that. Not only were her ribs sticking out through her coat, she also had an upper respiratory infection, ear mites, and infections in both eyes so bad that they eyes were swollen most of the way shut and welling up with pus. She’s been here for almost a week now, living in our bathroom while the we medicate the hell out of her according to the vet’s instructions. In another day or two, she goes back for the last of her shots, the leukemia shot, since she was too sick and weak to be able to survive a shot as strong as that one when she first showed up here. She’s a loving, darling little thing, maybe 8 weeks old. She’s got all the playfulness and high energy you’d expect from a kitten, and I love having her around, since we haven’t had a kitten in a very long time. All of our cats may have been abandoned street cats before we acquired them, but they were all adolescents or adults by the time we got them. I’ve missed having a kitten around. We can’t keep her, however. Our spoiled Lords of All They Survey are tired of new cats, and have been growling and hissing when they see her, and smack her if she’s on the floor instead of being held by one of us. We’re going to see if we can tempt my uncle into taking her, since she’s named after a cat he had when he was a kid, and looks a lot like his childhood pet. This makes the fourth cat we’ve rescued here in Hellano, one (my insane Manx) before I moved here, the other three since.

4. While I was up at BayCon, we finally got a door that actually shuts and locks put on my room, so if the psycho does get out of jail, I’m a little safer than I was before. This is a metal-clad door, with two good locks (one a deadbolt.) It also has a cat door in it, which my Manx has half-learned to use. He knows he can get out of my room through it, but hasn’t yet figured out that he can get in the same way, so he sits outside my door yowling still when he wants in.

5. I finally gave in and went to the optometrist. New glasses will be here any day now. Unfortunately, because of a combination of bad allergic reaction and eye phobia, the contact lenses I got last year didn’t work out. So, back to glasses. But they’ve got the Transitions lenses, so that covers my biggest reason for wanting contact lenses – sunglasses. It’s BRIGHT in this valley.

6. My optometrist told me why it is I’m so hypersensitive to light. I was wondering if it had something to do with the extemity of my nearsightedness, but apparently that’s not the case. He said that it’s genetic, a common problem for those, like me, who are naturally glow-in-the-dark pale. For people like me, it’s quite usual for light to be painful. It’s rather nice to know the reason behind it, and that I’m not the lone freak when it comes to light. It’s also apparently balanced out by slightly better-than-average night vision.

7. I’ve discovered my latest addiction in Chinese food: Crystal Prawns. Recipe forthcoming eventually.

8. I must remember to make the lemon-honey glazed chicken for my grandmother again soon. The Incredible Picky Grandmother Unit liked it a great deal, and considering how difficult it is to get her to eat anything besides ice cream and cookies, any new weapons in the arsenal of cuisine need to be deployed often. I’d put that recipe in here, but as with many of the things I invent, that’s difficult. “Until it looks right” just doesn’t translate well into cooking instructions.

9. I learned at BayCon that you haven’t lived until you’re on the balcony of a ninth floor suite, at a party, with a bunch of drunk queens, heckling the naked people having sex in the swimming pool at 3 in the morning. And damn was that man well-endowed. When you can see it from the ninth floor, well, that’s impressive.

10. , you’re a star. I heard comments about “I love that boy!” made about you at the Eric in the Elevator screening party this year. If you’re ever at BayCon again, you might have to put in another appearance as Bill, the actor with Tourette’s.

Home now.

Very tired, but happy. It was a wonderful con.

I would say more, but right now, what I really want to do is turn into a vegetable for while. I won’t say that I’ll write about BayCon later, because every time I do, I never get around to it. Maybe it’ll work the other way if I don’t make that promise to myself in the first place.

I go fall over now.

*thud*