Dancing through life...

Somebody tell me a story? Please?

::puppy eyes at everyone, especially aziraphalesshop::

(No, this is not a dirty story. Keep reading.)

I stopped by Dred Moo this Sunday to say hi to Kathy and Dan, and Kathy said that she had something to show me. She took me through the back door on the empty side of the booth onto the back deck. Down by the edge of the pond was a big, fat, beaver. It was just lying there, not really moving at all. We couldn't see its tail because it was tucked under the rest of the beaver, so Kathy thought it might be a woodchuck. I have previous experience with castor canadensis, so I knew it was most definitely a beaver.

Since it wasn't moving, I was concerned for the poor rodent. Remembering an incident involving baby snapping turtles the previous weekend, I deduced that the best people to ask for help would be the bear/birds of prey folks.

Of course as I was hustling my butt over to the bears as quickly as I could, everyone AND THEIR MOM wanted roses. Eventually I made it over to Jay, who told me that he was stuck with the bears, and I needed to go talk to the people at Birds of Prey.

At Birds of Prey, the show was about to start. I couldn't find any of the people who Jay told me might be able to help, so I found Drew and Rocky. Drew said he would help, he would just have to put Rocky down. We went through backstage chessboard to the rear entrance of the parrot enclosure. Drew went to grab this teeny little parrot-catching net, at which point myself and another gentleman (whose name I did not catch) explained to him that while beavers are rodents, they are in fact quite large. Leather gloves wouldn't help either, since a beaver can chew through just about any type of wood without a second thought.

Off we went back to Dred Moo, Bubbles and Drew to the rescue! I took him through the back door. Now the poor beaver was lying on its back with all four legs in the air. For a second, I thought it had died while I was trying to find help, but then it rolled over onto its side. We could see its tail now.

There was some concern that the little beast might be rabid, since it still seemed completely unconcerned at our presence. Drew went around to get closer to the critter, in order to better assess its condition. As soon as he got within two feet of it, the beaver sat up, gave Drew the most offended look a beaver could possibly give a person, slipped into the pond, and swam off.

He was fine all along, the bastard! Drew said that he probably hangs out there pretty often, since there aren't alot of plants growing in that spot, and there's a little spiggot spraying water right next to it. It's a comfy little beaver bunk!

Now when anyone tries to tell you that there can't possibly be beavers at the faire, you can tell them that they are sadly mistaken.

I am watching the most amazing episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I know, some of you are probably skeptical about that show, but hear me out.

The "straight guy" they are helping was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when he was ten. His parents were told that he would probably not live past the age of sixteen. He's had a double lung transplant, and is now turning forty. He's married with six year old twin boys. While his wife was pregnant, he was in the hospital for his transplant, and they didn't know if he would make it. Six years later, he can run five miles. He just got laid off from his job.

They took his wife out to a spa, and got him an entire new wardrobe. They're helping him out with job interviews, and throwing him a block party for his birthday. They re-did their whole kitchen, and it's beautiful. To top it off, the Fab Five are sending him and his wife to the Bahamas for their tenth anniversary.

He said that the next time his boys ask him who his favorite super friend is, he's going to tell them that not all super heroes wear capes. Some of them wear lavender suit jackets.

Wow. Just...wow. I want to send these guys a thank you note. They're just awesome.

Ok, so I re-wrote the story I posted here in order to make it better. It's ten pages long, so if y'all have time, I'd appreciate some sort of feedback. I'm turning it in tomorrow.

With that said, I present to you...( Choices (v. 2.0) By: Me )

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Did everything make sense?

Remember a few days ago when I posted that I had to get rid of my car? Well, as it turns out, I get to keep her. And no, there are no drugs in the back seat.

We went to the dealership on Monday to pick out a different car to trade for Celine. They had one choice for me. Needless to say, I liked Celine better. So I asked what the problem was with the title.

The original owner, when he sold the car, had written the wrong mileage on the back of the title. This voids the title. So my dealership needs to get a duplicate original from California (where the car was originally sold) to replace the original original. California, being stupid, is very slow and picky about doing this.

My insurance company had been whining about how my car wasn't registered, so my mother called them and explained the situation, and they were very nice about it. As long as I keep giving them money, they'll keep insuring my car.

The dealership had just wanted to make my life easier by offering me another car, but this happens to be easier anyway. So Celine stays with me, and I am happy.



I spent the past couple of days in New Paltz with Rich aziraphalesshop. I needed gas when I went to leave last night, so I tried to pay for it with my debit card. It was declined. I figured there was probably something wrong with the physical card, so I used Mommy's credit card and went home.

When I got home at about quarter after eleven last night, I decided to check my account online, just to make sure everything was cool. I should have had approximately thriteen hundred dollars in my account. What I actually had was negative two thousand seventy three dollars and fourteen cents!!

Somebody in Jersey had been spending all of my money on gas and home improvements. They spent over a thousand dollars at a Lowe's. So I woke Mom up. She called the cops, and they told us what to do.

I called work this morning and told them what was happening, and they said I didn't have to come in. Mom and I went to the bank. I signed a bunch of affidavits, they gave me back the service charge they had given me for insufficient funds, opened me a new account, shredded my credit card, and started the investigation. They said I should have my money back in a couple of days.

Then we went to the police department and filed a report.

I put a fraud notice thingy on all of my credit reports, in case the person/people who did this try to mess around with that.

This incident has led me to believe that we should change our justice system. Punishment should include allowing the victims to beat the crap out of the criminals.

On a much happier note, I finally had the pleasure of meeting the Stefan person, who's been sitting over in the big sandbox for almost a year, and is now finally home. He's really cool. I think we shall get along swimmingly.

PREPARE FOR NON SEQUITOR!

Six years ago, there was an offer in a magazine for free jeans. You pay ten bucks shipping, and you get free jeans. Woohoo! Mom paid the shipping, and I never got my jeans. I got a few postcards saying that they were ridiculously backordered and they were working on it, but no jeans. Eventually, the postcards stopped coming, and we forgot about the jeans.

Yesterday, another postcard arrived! All I had to do was e-mail them to confirm my size and address and whatnot, and I would get my jeans. So I did, and they say my jeans will be here in March or April. We'll see about that.

If they actually come, I think I'm going to customize them with patches and dye and stuff. It'll be fun!

And now, time for nap.

Last night we workshopped my first story in my fiction class. The whole class loved it! (And here I was, not wanting to turn it in because I thought it sucked.)
So I present for your enjoyment, the first, and definitely not final, draft of the story I still have no name for.
( Annika, Draft 1 )

So that's story number one. I think story number two will be about vampires. Yeah, I've seen Underworld one too many times.

Ok, so I jumped the gun a bit in my last post. I don't have pink eye, and I'm not quitting at Outback.

It turns out that I'm on the schedule so much because several people are on vacation, so it couldn't be avoided. And the pink eye was just really random bad allergies.

Work tonight was fun. Very slow, but fun. The most hillarious thing happened.
Blake had gone to Target and gotten candy for us. We had the bag with the candy sitting in the crayon basket. These two really large women came in and asked for a table. We weren't on a wait, so Tara went to show them to their table. As she's walking them to the table, one of them reaches into OUR bag of candy, takes some, and says "How long will we have to wait?" Blake and I almost died, and so did Tara when she got back.

But wait, it gets better...
A while later, as they're leaving, the same woman looks around and goes, "Where's the candy?" Once again, near death. Tara said, "It's not like they didn't just eat an entire meal at Outback. I bet they ordered appetizers and dessert too." There was some mention of portion sizes, and hillarity ensued.

If you want to get me to laugh within the next couple of days, just come up to me and say "Where's the candy??" I'll probably crack up. :)

I went to the big anti-war rally on the East Side today with Patti and her sister Krista. The main reason I went was because I've never been to an anti-war rally, and I wanted to see what one was like. There were thousands of people there. It was so awesome! For some reason the cops kept redirecting us away from where the actual rally was taking place, and people were getting kind of pissed off. We were chanting "Open up!" "Our streets!" "Open up!" "Our streets!" "We" even broke down a barricade. (I, of course, had no direct affect on this. I'm a good little girl!) We almost got trampled a couple of times, because the cops wanted the crowd to go one way, but the crowd wanted to go the other way. That was fun. There were so many people there that you had to literally shove your way through to get anywhere. It was very much like sardines.
Anyway, it took the three of us over two hours to get from Grand Central to 53rd and 1st. We heard some speeches and songs, then Patti and I decided to avoid frostbite and hypothermia and go home.
The subway ride home was once again sardines. Fun and games.
Anyway, we made it home safe and sound without getting trampled or arrested. I sat next to my radiator for about half an hour to get myself warm again.
I had been planning to write something all deep and philosophical about war and why it's bad, but I'm too hyped up on caffeine at the moment to do so. Eh. I'll think of something later.
In other news:
The first week of fourth semester went fairly well. I have drama showcase first, and our director, assistant director, and stage manager are all really cool. My class seems really nice, too.
The scene I wanted to do in showcase didn't get picked, but that's ok, because I might get to play Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker instead, which would be really fun and challenging.
Finally, quotes from today:
"Make pudding, not war!"-Me & Patti
"Draft the Bush twins!"-Numerous random signs
"War is bad!"-Sign for easy interpretation by W, because all the words have three letters or less.
"I don't care what the American public thinks, they didn't elect me."-Quote credited to W on a random sign.