bookish dreamer

It's 10:30 pm on a Saturday and I'm home with the dog feeling accomplished because I actually wrote for about an hour today on my dissertation. I'm struggling with the rewrite of my second chapter, because I needed to pretty much reverse the polarity of the argument (which in all honesty meant I needed to go back and rewrite the chapter). I did that AND 2/3rds of a fellowship application that's due on Monday.

I started an Instagram account. Because I need *more* things to check online that aren't lj. And I'm mostly posting pictures of my dog. She's more photogenic than I am.

Dog and I have been doing pretty well lately. She loves having me home every day, and now that it gets dark so early (curse you, daylight savings time!) I've been taking her on a walk at 3 pm instead of 5 or 6. Our schedule changes all the time because it seems like every department or college event this semester happens at 5 pm or from 4 - 6 pm, or somewhere thereabouts. And I've found that my fuzzy friend over there pouts if I'm not home during that time UNLESS I take her on a walk earlier in the day. Which is great and all, it's not like I can't use the excercise, I just wonder if I used to be this concentrated on taking care of the dog? I know I took her out a lot after dark, but I'm realizing these days that she *really* doesn't like that. And truth be told I'm not too big of a fan of it either.

In weird news, my ear continues to do odd things. I now seem to have tinnitus in my left ear. My awareness of it goes in and out, and sometimes it sounds like the loudest buzz imaginable, while at others it fades into the background ambient noise (which include buzzes from the fridge, and powerlines, and at night, crickets). It is uncomfortable, and a little scary, and because of that I haven't called a doctor to go see what is actually wrong. That's what the internet is for right? WebMD or some other site noted that smoking, since it affects your blood pressure, can affect your ears too, and that scared me enough that I cut down to about 1/3 my daily intake (3 - 4 cigarettes). Which is good. I should/can/will try actually to keep cutting that down, but that was a big reduction from my 8-12 a day so I'm counting it as a win. And actually, excercising *really* helps me not notice the buzz, which is also part of the reason for the weird Domino walking times.

But we're both tired of walking around our neighborhood. Two months ago I did a hike with some other grads and my friend up to Griffith Park (with the dog), and since then the dog and I have gone three more times. If I went fast it would be a 15 minute uphill walk, but since I don't it's more like 25, and I huff and puff my way up the trail.

( Have some pictures of that )

now, if I remember, in my next post I'll tell you all about how I threw an awesome murder mystery party (theme: post apocalyptic zombie cannibal asylum), how I showed up on a Japanese academic's twitter, how I helped interview an up and coming Japanese writer, and how my nemesis (though I dunno if she's that now) provided me with about three days worth of schadenfreude (which i know is not nice, but it happened, ok).

Gleee!
1. Bought my tickets for the academic conference i'm going to Harvard for later this month, and decided to fly JetBlue instead of the nasty American/Delta/United - it will be my first time on JetBlue, but I've always wanted to fly it.
2. Puppy has been without tummy incident so far this week! and didn't have poo problems last week - there's hope people, hope!
3. My housemate totally made me dinner (well, in that she gave me her leftover spaghetti, but that totally counts because it means i didn't have to cook dinner!)

Three things I'm proud of myself for today:
1. actually read three pages of Japanese today! (my first for the semester)
2. i did three other things off my to do list for the week
3. I made my mom laugh! twice!

Two things I look forward to doing (better) tomorrow:
1. writing more on the presentations for said conference
2. getting my laundry done

(meme stolen from the lovely mirelle719)

I'm going to write about media in my next post, but here's the upshot for me in RL.

I found a housemate! She moves in Dec 1! So far all our interactions have been really good and I think it's going to be absolutely great. She got the dog seal of approval right away, too, and the second time she came over Domino didn't even bark at her, so that's a comfort.

Dog has been slowly getting over her tummy troubles. She's not through the woods entirely yet, but the chinese medicine I've been giving her has definitely made it so she's not having scary BMs anymore and she's eating every day. It's called yunnan bayao and it's good for internal bleeding and even putting on small cuts if you get them (I've read some reviews where people say they put it in their medicine cabinet just cuz it helps close up little wounds). It'll take a bit longer with this stuff just because it's about using it until her own natural healing kicks the rest of the way in (at least, this according to my chinese medicine consultant). But she's happy and energetic and eating and pooping, so that's the important stuff for me. Oh, and just in case I switched her to this low-grain food and her coat has become even softer than before over the last three weeks - she's like a teddy bear to pet now. A constantly shedding teddy bear.

Along with school, which frankly has been pretty busy as the semester starts to wrap up, I've been dealing with a new and not exciting medical issue: I didn't realize it at first, but I've been experiencing hearing loss in my left ear for about five months. I just thought I needed a cleaning. Went in for that and found out I'm whistle clean and there's no sign of an infection (redness, swelling). The doc put me on prednisone and sudafed, assuming there was some kind of fluid build up on the inside of my ear, and it didn't clear up the hearing loss. In fact, it made me hyper aware of my left ear (which is the one having problems), and seems to have actually sort of aggravated whatever was happening before. I took a hearing test, but sadly the results were conclusively "yep, you've got some hearing loss" and not clearly anything else. After working through all that they finally gave me the referral for an ENT, whose first appointment was the second week of December. So for now I'm on sudafed and ibuprofin and hoping it doesn't get any worse before I can get into see this Doctor (and hopefully the specialist will do something other than proscribe me things that make me feel like it feels worse). It's made me tired just thinking about it, so I've been doing quite a bit of snail-shelling with TV and the like.

EXCEPT when my Mom came to visit for four days two weeks ago. It was so nice to see her, even though her visit was WAY shorter than usual. We packed a ton of stuff into the two real days she was here - went looking at Amoeba Music for lady singers for her (she's doing her lesbian protest rock phase now, lol), got new plants for my patio, tried to get some things at Ikea for her craft/art room (but Ikea was sadly out of the things she wanted - which is crazy but it does happen), and then topped it all off with a trip to Huntington Gardens. Which were AWESOME and perhaps I will have to picspam. It was so bright too that we bought HATS! (from the gift shop - they were expensive but really pretty so... i think on balance we won.) And we went and saw Ender's Game. Oh, and helped my housemate move the last of her stuff out of the apartment. For us that's like a whirl-wind of stuff to pack into two days :D

ETA: OMG AND I FORGOT THAT TWO FRIENDS CAME UP TO VISIT FROM LONG BEACH LAST WEEKEND and we had a great time at breakfast and then visiting my favorite place in LA, the Planetarium. And we saw Ride of the Valkries (Planetarium show). I am COMPLETE sucker for Planetarium shows, even if, as wise friend noted, they're not in depth enough to make you happy about learning more on the science side (re: aurora borealis) OR on the myth side (re: norse gods)... it's basically a show that sketches some cool stuff and has stars and Wagner accompanying it. But still. It's awesome. And these women were awesome company too - it was such a good sunday to walk around and just hang out (and compare notes on life and media and living in sunny california, even if its' rainy right now)

So yeah, I've mostly been trying to balance dog and work and ear and the quiet of my apartment (which i'm not the hugest fan of - it makes it really easy to just keep clicking 'next' on netflix to fill the silence instead of getting things done). Our semester ends the week after Turkey day, so that's coming up all in a rush too.

Ok, so, um. It's been nearly a month since I last posted! I've been on LJ a lot because of Summer of Giles, but haven't really been checking my own journal much. But I have news!

I WENT TO SOUTH DAKOTA AND INSTEAD OF GETTING A TSHIRT I CAME BACK WITH SUNBURN AND A NEW BOYFRIEND.

The sunburn was from walking up Bear Butte. The boyfriend was cuz I made a pass at my best friend and he caught me. Or something like that.

There's a whole story there, and I will get into it, I think, in some later post. But for right now I have a totally new way of seeing someone who i have always loved, and who has seen the worst of me over 15 years, and i'm liking it. we're doing the long distance thing, but he's already planning a trip out in September.

So the rest of the South Dakota trip was, in a word, FUN. I'll do a picspam in a minute so you can see how green and pretty it was.

Since then?

• moving Mom was both less hellish and more exhausting than i expected it to be, and unpacking was even more, but it's mostly done
• i discovered the "joys" of intermittent internet access and reaffirmed my hatred of AT&T (and i am now bound to them with a wireless contract, so that's going to end well).  but i now have a smartphone so can join the crowds of people who get pinged at all the time.
• my dog killed a skunk (though didn't eat it).  (so that was fun - i have a skunk wash recipe for those who want it though).  luckily she was covered on her rabies shot and we got her a new booster anyway, and i washed her FOUR TIMES.
• i got new shoes that are so ridiculously comfortable (compared to my last pair) that i don't want to wear anything else
• i have watched more documentary-style true crime 'dramatizations' on Investigation Discovery Channel than I care to actually admit to myself.  There are lots.  It's kind of amazing the evil that people do.  My mom is a total junkie for the channel though.
• i am leaving for Lake Tahoe with the parents today.  I plan to introduce my stepmom to the Marvel Superheroes movies (Iron Man through Avengers) and sit by the pool a lot.  

and there you have it, an LJ post. HA.

The menu worked out so amazing I want to go and do everything over again. But the fun of holiday cooking is getting to explore other things, so possibly not?

( all the dishes and links to the recipes )

(and then, when we had everything again the next day, we also did orange-cranberry sauce!)

And, a Turkey Day Picspam:


( the four ladies of thanksgiving invite you in )

As you may have noticed from the image up there (and the pics) I got to celebrate my turkey day with elizabuffy & my mom & amber! We had an amazing time - lots of eating, lots of (slightly unplanned) car riding, a planetarium show, an awesome silent movie, a bbc sherlock marathon, and seriously amazing company. Sadly EB & Amber took off this morning for other parts, but I get to keep mom for a couple more days. My brain is offline enough that I can't come up with the perfectest words to express how awesome the entire couple of days were, so you'll have to just take my word for it. For all this? I'm thankful.

*hugs you all*

Spent the whole day in recovery from last week's mid-term grading hell by watching Vampire Diaries.  Oh yeah baby, that's some good crack.  Went out last night and did this face-time thing with students from the *other* university in town, which was good, but filled up my socialization quotient for the week.  Thus, meme:

SIX NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Kate
2. katekat
3. Katie
4. Mouse
5. Kathryn
6. Page

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. black running sweats
2. black v-neck long sleeved top
3. white socks.  i am that awesome

THREE THINGS YOU WANT VERY BADLY AT THE MOMENT:
1. my dog to stop having pain in her haunches (it happened again today - i have vet appt scheduled for tues)
2. brown skirt (like seriously, i have been looking for two years - the whole industry is against me)
3. netflix to stop being turdy

THREE PEOPLE WHOM YOU HOPE WILL DO THE MEME:
Three people who want to do this meme?

THREE THINGS YOU DID LAST NIGHT:
1. had drinks with other grad students in Westhollywood
2. started watching Vampire Diaries - the good crack
3. took the dog on a walk

THREE PEOPLE YOU LAST TALKED TO ON THE PHONE:
1. Tyler
2. Ingrid
3. EB

THREE THINGS YOU ARE GOING TO DO TOMORROW:
1. homework
2. make tostadas
3. take the dog on a walk

FOUR OF YOUR FAVORITE DRINKS:
1. mocha latte
2. moscow mule (ginger beer & vodka)
3. coca cola
4. very very red wine

THREE THINGS THAT MADE YOU SMILE TODAY:
1. Texts from a friend
2. Limited Release by rageprufrock
3. buying myself chocolate swirl ice cream

to everyone who took my silly poll yesterday!  I managed to get laundry done, and get started on the first set of homework, and (as those of you who want to read it know) managed to get some notes for my lit reading done as well). 

And the house is clean!  Which is really quite good because Neil's parents are flying their way down here as we speak.  It's their annaversary, so they're coming to visit for a little vacation and to see our new digs.  Which, if I don't say myself, are looking pretty nice at the moment.  Two days of cleaning will do that to a house.

( and let the random nattering commence )

( I completely forgot to mention that my Mom's visit was a blast )

It was a puppy-tastic weekend:  the adoption place where we got Domino has a puppy easter egg hunt every year, and so we hopped in the car with our dirty dog and went to go hunt plastic easter eggs filled with doggie treats.  It's a great way for Domino to visit with other dogs, and we were hoping to see the people who we'd adopted her from there, so they could see how much progress she's made now that we've had her for a year.  Sadly, they weren't there, but they did have someone in an easter bunny costume, so we got a picture taken with them, and it's really cute.  Perfect picture of Domino, if I do say so myself.  She looks a million times healther than she did in her photo from last year.  And on the really fun side she/we hunted down one of the "special" golden eggs that were actually well-hidden (since the rest of the eggs are sort of nestled at the edges of grass borders so the dogs can find them, and usually the dog sniffs at the egg and moves on, and the owner is the one who cracks it open and hands over the treat).  The special eggs are prizes, and we ended up with a basket of doggie treats, some dog shampoo, and a squishy toy.

( 2008 easter pic, and 2009 easter pic (and a whole lot of cuteness) )

This lead to me thinking it was a great idea to wash the dog at home.  Never again.  NEVER AGAIN.  Not that she did all that badly in the bath, but after she got out there was that "getting water off" shake, and she probably sprayed all four bathroom walls and possibly the ceiling.  It is not fun to clean that up after cleaning the dog.  The N & D spent half an hour brushing her wet hair while she was on-leash outside.  I spent the rest of the day combing her hair with a metal comb, trying to get some of her undercoat out.  She looks 5 lbs lighter now, and she's definitely far more pettable, but dear gods.  This is why we take her to the $7 dog wash place - not only do they have endless towels, when she shakes the only thing she gets wet are the floor and us, and we get smocks.

today we did coffee (another trip, car ride and all, that involves doggie fun), and that was good even if I froze way to fast.  But sometimes that happens when the wind is going and it's not exactly super warm.

( now for the wittering parts )


And ok, I feel much better just having gotten that out.  Now, back to reading about High and Low and King's Ransom, HAHA!

Actually, we named her Domino.  And I would like to present, to you, the newest addition to our household:


She's a two-year old Shiba Inu/Heeler mix, adopted from Austin Dog Rescue (they rescue the dogs that are in the pound but aren't found homes).  We met her on Monday night, had the home visit on Wednesday, and she came home with us tonight!  She's settling in, doesn't care one whit about the cat (although he is still trying to figure out what the big fuzzy alien thing is doing in the living room), and is super sweet and a little shy.  We love her to pieces already.  And here are some other images of random adorableness from her first night home.