Friday, January 31, 2014

Allow me to share a thing...

Tanya is always concerned that I don’t have a set interest. It’s not idyllic when purchasing gifts for me I suppose, but I mean… I just love so much. I love everything I’ve ever gotten, regardless if I’m super into a fandom or not.** But I get on to secret kicks where I just sit and absorb. I am sponge… I am Spongebob Squarepants. I sit and I laugh uproariously to myself and just scroll through the internet.

tough spongebob meme computer time only ten hours today lol


Let me tell you what happens when I get deliriously excited about something: I research. Consistent and thorough research is how I deal with the tightness in my chest from anticipation. Is there a new show that someone recommended? Perfect. I will watch every episode, read director/producer/cast interviews and text people hilarious quotes. Is there a possibility I’ll have the funds to decorate a room in my house, or get staple furniture that I’ve been waiting years to buy? Break out the big girl pants, because this lady is about to do some major price comparison shopping with her good friend, Google. Paint colours, how to hang an asymmetrical grouping of art, the difference between hardware finishes, various historical themes (my bathroom is going to be Art Nouveau themed), common design patterns for that era, etc. These are all things I have seriously looked into. I could go on. Literally, I could. I would continue until your eyes bled from reading.

Fun fact : When the bombs went off last year at the Boston Marathon, I pretty much didn’t sleep for three days. I was partially terrified, but also very into learning everything I possibly could about the situation. I stayed up to 4am listening to police scanners with Redditors. I mentioned something that I had gleamed from a late night feed in comments and it was subsequently posted to some news sites that week. This made me supremely proud, if not a little worried for where the news gets its sources. My username is an Adam West Batman reference; not thinking they should take me at my word…

To put it bluntly: I get scary obsessed with something for a few weeks, put everyone off with my fascination and then realize that there are other things in life to be interested in. I still have a clandestine love affair with my old interests, but they are not as intense as before. It’s a good way to live.


What I am concerned about is the upcoming HPcation. I’ve been very bored lately. So bored, in fact, that I am trying to memorize the geographic location of all 196 recognized countries in the world (and some non recognized countries). That's not really the point of this story, but I feel like you will take pity on me and my crazies now.

If you are unaware, Tanya and I have kind of talked about going down to Florida for years, especially when Harry Potter World opened at Universal Studios. Each time it was mentioned, we discussed the best time to go, set a due date to save up our money and then promptly put thoughts of savings out of our mind; something always came up. We’re still both fairly young and at this stage of my life I have learned that there are a lot of things you want and a lot of things you need. Prioritizing is not always easy. Anyways, I had a crazed moment where I realized I haven’t left the country in nine years. I have gone down to Ogdensburg, which is extremely close to our border. It was only for an afternoon or so – just enough time to go to Walmart and stock up on US-only food– and then we’d head back to Canada. I wouldn’t call it a vacation.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="380"] For Reference[/caption]

I panicked and immediately started looking up train ticket costs, the average rent in Berlin, best backpacks to use for long term trips and the easiest ways to live in Europe for three months, as per my aforementioned panic-induced obsessions dictate I should. I then received a Universal Studios email to my personal email and had an epiphany of sorts. It was a manic sort of happiness. With three hours of extra exploring the web (along with the compiled research I had stored from three other planned Florida trips in my head) I booked a hotel in August for Tanya’s champagne birthday. I had very little patience for Tanya to actually tell me whether or not she would come with me. She would come, even if I had to pay for her.

That’s not even the scary part, my friends. I have spent the past four days compiling the following:

  • A list of necessary rides to go on, including those for a part of the park THAT IS NOT EVEN REMOTELY FINISHED YET (see: Diagon Alley expansion)

  • Menus for restaurants in our immediate vicinity, along with the best times to go to miss the lines

  • Directions, walking times and water-taxi schedules for the best way around the park

  • Ride times, average line times and best way to go around the parks without needing to take a 30 minute nausea break

  • The best pools around our resort, cost of spa stuff, where all the Elvis memorabilia was in the Hard Rock (they have a jumpsuit!)

  • What is necessary to go into 313 bags for air travel, what to pack in carryon bags, best dresses to pack on vacation, insoles for sandals so I don’t have to wear runners around

  • The importance of Birthday buttons at Universal; what rides you can jump lines in; birthday related resort/park things that you could get

  • Mystic fountain questions, hidden props around the park and fun things to say to cast members

  • Around which area and what times Beetlejuice is around, because I'm ridiculous.

  • Merchandise in the parks that I can accrue as gifts/souvenirs


This is just the beginning. Keep in mind that my mind hasn't actually accepted that this is going to happen and also that it is still seven months away. If I spent this much time on learning French for my job, I would be fluent. I’m convinced that I’ll pretty much have the entire park, resort and surrounding area memorized before we get to YOW on the 25th. I’m just so excited this is happening and that I get to share it with my very best of friends. I hope you guys don’t think I’m delusional. I’m fairly normal, if not a smidge weird. If you can think of anything we should consider before we leave in August, please let me know so that I can research as soon as possible. Many thanks.

** Best gift ever still goes to this year’s Crystalopoly. Half because I’ve always wanted my own Monopoly game and half because I never think that people pay attention to me enough to know what I really like. Boy, was I proven wrong. Best. Gift. Ever. Ya’ll lose. Sorry, not sorry.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Imaginary Friend

Create an imaginary friend (human or not).

Tony was a neat beast, his feet looked like hands and his hands looked like kitchen utensils. Specifically the left was a ladle and the right a spatula. Tony had the pinkest of pink skin, so pink that it was often times considered to be the inspiration for the color of pepto bismol. What happened was Tony was good friends with the inventors, he had given them the idea to create something that you could drink so that you wouldn't feel sick after eating all the terrible foods he would serve, in return the rumor is they decided to make the medicine Tony Pink. Another rumor about his skin tone is that it is simply so pink because he is actually made of pink Muppet felt. No one will ever truly know the answer because Tony is a mute. Also he doesn't speak English. His language is unknown to our kind. The only way he was rumored to be able to communicate with the makers of the Pepto bismol was through modern dance. He is a beautiful dancer. While everyone tends to use the expression graceful as a swan, swans tend to utter, graceful as Tony, when they are away from the judgmental ears of humans. Mostly because swans know that if humans found something more graceful than them then there would be legitimately no reason to keep swans around. Especially if they could figure out a way to reproduce Tonys. Tony stands three foot seven and two thirds of an inch. His nose is shaped something like a tiny trumpet and when he sneezes (which is often due to his allergies) it always comes out as a perfectly pitched E flat. His eyes roughly the size of dimes but were just solid black like a marble, make some people feel uneasy but I always like knowing that his peripheral vision is hazy at best. This is beneficial due to his raging temper and his ability to run extremely fast and also because his influential nature, he tends to quickly recruit animals to follow his lead and attack his victims. Needless to say the ability to slip away quickly when he gets mad allows you a safer get away. See, while he is a vengeful creature, he is also extremely forgetful and as long as you stay out of sight for thirty six minutes he will have completely forgotten his anger. I am afraid I cannot tell you more about Tony because he is currently in the witness protection program and any other information may give him away to the large variety of criminals and psychopaths currently looking for him.

So that was my first attempt at these prompts. let me know what you think. You really get no choice in the matter but it would be nice to hear from people on the internet. It gets so lonely in the real world. Is it sad if I am in no way kidding? Whatever I am going to hang out with Tony.

Remember Me?

Oh Hi!

I guess you may have forgotten about me and my dear friend Crystal. You see, we have been... how do I say this... Lazy. I guess she has a better excuse than me with the ol' Two-jobs and way too much to do thing. I mostly have no excuse. I have been super busy work-wise and when I get home I have no motivation to do anything other than fall deeper and deeper into that lovely cavern I call Netflix. Its endless I tell you. ENDLESS.

The main issue is a lack of inspiration about writing topics. Without Crystal providing me with challenges I have nothing to say. Especially right now given that every day is basically a carbon copy of the day before. I mean what has really happened to me since you last heard from me... Nothing. I mean I did Nanowrimo again, and then there was that whole... Christmas thing. But other than that my life consists of Netflix and a lot of driving around.

I was at chapters the other day and I discovered this book:

642 thingsAnd so now I have some inspiration. By inspiration I mean a lazy way to have other people tell me what to write about without having to wait for Crystal to not be so busy. I can't really promise a schedule right now because its me and I have commitment issues but I do intend to prewrite a bunch of the prompts so that when I am bored at work or even if Crystal wants to still contribute (strong hint..please contribute also..everyone likes you better anyway) she can. Anyways, some of these prompts are short, some of them are a bit more involved. Some are silly, some seem to be more serious. We will see where this goes but hopefully it is fun. I should also mention I picked up the 642 things to draw as well so some may just be random pictures because drawing is fun also.

I will begin soon! STAY TUNED!

Shopping is Best When Done in the Comfort of Your Sweatpants!