Usually

when I go to pick up A on weekend nights, I'm half asleep, but I got some rest this evening, and I'm perky and awake, and it's almost 2 am now. I've taken my various night meds, brushed my teeth, flossed, and rinsed my mouth (that's one of the things I have to do with my asthma medicine, rinse my mouth), I've put some Neosporin on the cat bite after washing it again, and generally I've done all the other stuff to get ready for bed. I'm sitting here listening to some music and contemplating going to sleep for the night. I want to get up fairly early and get my laundry together tomorrow, as well as take the trash out and even make breakfast, if I can get going then. I've some eggs and milk, and some pancake mix. That sounds really tasty. Then it's over to my friends' house and my Sunday duties and my laundry to do. We may watch something, too. Next week we end our hiatus from the game and start that back up, which I'm very excited about. This month marks the 25th anniversary of the start of our campaign. Yes, really, we've been playing the same Call of Cthulhu game since July 1991; our characters have come and gone, some have children, that sort of thing. I still have my original character, mainly because she has been insane, pregnant, recovering from a physical injury, or stuck in Yog Sothoth for periods of time. Her son is a scary mad genius of sorts, and he's twelve. When he was three or four, he opened a dimensional portal in the kitchen microwave. It's been a challenge. Here's the cast of my characters:

1. Rosalind Marie McVey--former linguistics graduate student at Miskatonic University who was a founding member of our group after her first Cthulhoid experience and training. Was put into a crystal room in a lost city in the desert, where her latent telepathy woke up and she was able to communicate with Cthonians and other Mythos creatures. A former colleague who had gone to the side of evil impregnated her and put her back into the room, making their unborn son incredibly smart, telepathic, and oh, yeah, having almost emotionless intellect with little regard for others. At one point, Rosalind was captured by the government, which augmented her telepathic gifts and used her as a weapon. Her Mythos knowledge got very high; her comrades were able to save here, but it took a lot of regular knowledge out of her brain and damaged her gift, which is mainly just a connexion with her son these days. She is currently working at the Orne Library at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts. Her brush with the government technically left her 'dead' in terms of identity, so she is living under an assumed name, Eileen Neila MacLeod.
2. Melissa Jane Andrews--physician who joined the group early on. Her father was a former American soldier; her mother was a British journalist. In her tenure in the group, her magical gift for necromancy woke up, and she had a transformation physically from someone who looked a bit like Scully from 'X-Files' to an Ancient Aegyptian with white hair and green eyes. She spent 65 million years in a Greater Race of Yith stasis pod on the moon, then travelled to the end of the time and into our present timeline. making her essentially immortal (although she can be killed). She cannot have children due to her status as a necromancer. She is currently in a magical order that is in a bubble of reality. She recently lost an eye in a mission. Her transformation was so difficult to explain, that she is living under a different name, Alexandria Mereneith Amentiri. (The last name I temporarily forgot,  then remembered it was derived from a name for the ancient Aegyptian Underworld.) 
3. Miranda Amelia Wainscott--her great uncle and she lived in a sprawling mansion outside Arkham, Massachusetts. Unknown to her, he was a cultist related to the Whateleys of Dunwich. He killed her parents and tried to sacrifice her at age 16, but it went terribly wrong because she wasn't actually a virgin. One a mission under the Atlantic, she went through a gate to another world full of water, where the people there changed her with various implants so she could survive under the sea. She returned, but had to be magically changed to be able to live in Earth's polluted oceans. She has three forms: her normal human form, a base aquatic form, and a silver battle form. She is currently in the magical order with Melissa. She has no children. Her house is now our headquarters. She is bisexual, but has had no children.
4. Sara Rashel Baum--an archaeologist who was born in Israel. She was seduced by a mystical creature, had a son, and died two months later by being stepped on by Shub Niggurath, becoming toe jam. Her tagline was 'You can get stepped on by a Dark Young of Shub Niggurath and live.' Unfortunately, the Mother with a Thousand Young herself was too much for her. Her child is being raised by other characters, and will turn into the same sort of creature as his father when he's older, becoming a life force vampire of sorts.
5. Ariana Sofia Krios--an electric engineer from California of Greek descent, she is now in the magic order studying as a Hermetic mage. She is of Witchblood, but never knew it--but has an affinity for air and water magic. She is a lesbian who has not had children.
6. Carolyn (Carol) Kathleen Reardon Grant--probably my favourite right now. She is a nurse who worked with Doctors Without Borders in Bosnia during the war there. She is a Witch in a coven with some other members of the group, apparently a late bloomer in her family. She has a daughter by an English lord who was possessed by one of the mystical creatures akin to Sara's lover. As a result, her daughter is very intelligent. She is currently pregnant by one of her comrades, who is an elemental mage. The children have their father's elemental magic, each with two of the elements, and are already demonstrating the gift in the womb.
7. Therese (Tessa) Celine Cavaillion--an artist from Quebec who is very much 'the good girl'. She was a novice in a convent but left to experience the world, and wound up having a Cthulhoid experience. She has some healing ability and a mysterious 'friend' who shows up occasionally to have her do certain things. She has a high will but seems to never be able to resist vampires, faeries, or anything like that. She married one of the other characters, and was pregnant with their daughter, but they went to the Everglades, battled alligator men, and she was injected with a mad scientist's serum, which caused the child to have augmented body-shaping ability (an extension of the biokenesis in Tessa's family) but also made her 'download' various aspects of Tessa's personality, splitting her into several discrete personalities, able to change form for each until that gift was turned off psychically. One of the personalities is male, one is an alligator creature, and one is totally sociopathic and is terribly dangerous. When she was two, she drove a screwdriver into a character's eye, partially blinding him. She is now in a mental hospital where she occasionally tries to get out and is very rough with the staff. The father was killed by a Dimensional Shambler in the future on the moon. Tessa has another child by a mobster (long story, let's say magic was involved), who's pretty much normal, and is raising her quietly in Newton, Massachusetts. She ran afoul of the mystical creatures that Sara was involved with, some of whom basically killed most of her family off, so she's had a lot of death and tragedy in her life.
8. Celeste Malfalda du Mornay--raised as the daughter of an opera singer (who was one of the Savoy family, the former rulers of Italy) and a French industrialist (who was killed in a car bomb when she was young), Celeste is actually the daughter of an English lord whose family figures prominently in our game (several of Brenda's characters are members of that family). Celeste was kicked out of several boarding schools and is an unlikely operative, but she is doing pretty well. She lives in Arkham, Massachusetts with her Bichon Frise, Abelard, and her nieces, who are blood magicians from another timeline, and a long suffering but well-paid maid. She has a small precognitive gift. She is bisexual, with no children.
9. Joshua (Josh) Ethan Adler--my only male character. He was somewhat telepathic He survived a plane crash only to save the world by manoevering himself into a position where the Elder Things would not recognise him as sentient and so they had him killed by a Shoggath and his head put on a machine that keeps a horrible Mythos creature at bay. Note that the two characters I had that were Jewish both died. Josh was a photojournalist; the one other photojournalist in the game (the father of Rosalind's son) died horribly as well, after going mad. So Josh was doubly-cursed, apparently. But his death was very good in the sense that it saved a non-player character I am very fond of, and also saved the world. I love a good martyrdom.
10. Alexandra (Alix) Evelyn Bishop Rhodes--a former socialite and soldier who is married to a necromancer. They have a newborn son who was fated to suffer his family curse upon his father's death, but she had Carol's mother, a Witch, potentially solve that problem. She is mildly telepathic and a recovering alcoholic. She has a lot of trouble around magic of all kinds, and it tends to screw her over a lot. She lost an eye, which was replaced by an NPC with future technology. She is unhappy with her husband's familiar, which is an undead cat that has magically been transformed to look alive, which hates psychics of any sort--but who tolerates her based on her husband's commands, and who would protect their child with every ounce of her undead might, but it does make getting a nanny problematic.

Am I forgetting anyone? I don't think so--I did almost forget Alix. That's eight children, total [Tristan, Jason, Lia, Kaia, Claire, Nathan, Aiden, and Eden], if you count the two on the way, I think. That's the character list for me, in a nutshell. Taken together,  they incorporate much of my personality and interests.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to going back to the game. I'm curious as to how Carol's twins will turn out. She just survived a warlock attack. Hopefully there won't be any more for awhile.

Well, that didn't help

There wasn't anything amazing and new on Facebook.  I think I will take a nap,  since I haven't been getting enough sleep lately.  But first,  I forgot to mention that my friends' cat got upset with me and did something totally uncharacteristic for him--he reached out and bit me while I was playing with him.  It's not very deep,  but he did draw blood.  Teach me to annoy cats.  He was all lovey with me later,  of course,  because that's how cats are.

I'm feeling pretty sad right now

We were watching the episode of 'Ugly Betty' where she (finally) got her first business cards from Mode magazine. I was reminiscing about how I felt when I first got mine, and then that inevitably led to the fact that the job that's been such a part of my life is ending in nine months. I'll still have most of a box of cards left when it ends (they gave us new ones when the logo changed, and I've only gone through about a fourth.) My tendency, of course, will be to hoard them, but instead I'll keep one or two as keepsakes and move on, hopefully to a new job with new title and cards. But despite everything, I really haven't kept the focus on losing the job so much as trying to find another one, so all the emotions I'd been suppressing came to the forefront a little while ago. While it's good I let myself feel them and express those feelings, it's best not to wallow in them or otherwise have a self-pity party. But my workplace has been my home away from home for almost twenty years. That's hard to let go of.

I think it's time to head over to Facebook. I need something to cheer me up. Maybe there will be a funny video or two.

Sorry I didn't post last night

I didn't get home till 12:30 or 1 am, having gotten A from work and before that I was over at YKWIA's helping him with various things until time to go pick up A. I was so terribly tired. I woke up late this morning (had to be over to pick up my friends for an appointment), but they're there now and I have a little time for myself. I should be working on the house, or cooking a quick meal, but instead i had a banana and popcorn for lunch and I'm on the computer just for fun this time.

On Facebook I found a post on a Twitter account that is truly hilarious. Medieval Reactions takes art from hundreds of years ago and pairs them with modern interpretations. Here's more about them in the article I read, along with some of their posts. My favourite is 'When your mate uses fabric softener', even (or maybe because) it's a little blasphemous. Be sure to check them out. I definitely went ahead and followed them.

I am terribly and utterly pooped

Why is it that the days we're not at work seem the longest and most busy? I spent 13 hours waking my friend up, getting him to his appointment, waiting for it to be over, getting him to the pharmacy and then home, and keeping him company while he slept off an on, only leaving him once he'd had some food. Then I took something over to another friend, and finally got home, ready to get away from traffic, people in general, and just relax to some music. I wound up working on job-hunting related stuff--LinkedIn profiles (I didn't get all of my publications in, but I did get quite a few--it's looking much more polished), and I moved my online documents to another URL that didn't have rabid librarian in it. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with being a Rabid Librarian, but I don't want that to be the first thing people see. So now it's under my whole name (I almost never use my second middle name (it isn't even on my driver's licence or work signature, just on my social security card, really). But it is a part of my legal name.

Today was one of those days when I couldn't seem to get anything right, but overall I did okay. I'm back to work tomorrow, which is good, because I actually didn't have enough personal time off to cover today--I can't afford to miss any more for a little while. I accrue at a high rate, but I spend it in a couple of hours here and there for appointments, and I always seem down a bit, ever since they used 80 hours of PTO instead of extended illness bank hours for my last two weeks of being off with my ankle; my PTO has never recovered. I should have made them fix it, but I let it go at the time because it was such a bother, and I regret that. Oh, well, that's water under the bridge now, no use in bemoaning it.

Alright, I think that's all I can do tonight. It's definitely time for bed. Tomorrow comes early (I'm going to try to make up some time and still be able to get my allergy shots this week.) Good night.

So I'm off today

for a friend's procedure, and I'm in the waiting room, where they have happily provided Wi-Fi. I'm not sure how long it will take, so I brought the computer. My friend is very testy--he hasn't had coffee in two days, and I parked too far away because I thought the procedure place was right next to the doctor's office, not in the next building, and of course, it's raining. So he's not happy. But they've taken him back and it's just a matter of waiting now.

I've got a lead on a job to apply for, so I'm going to work on that some. I have my résumé pretty much tweaked; now I just have to do a cover letter. The application is through CareerBuilder.com, so I'll have to check and see whether I have an account with them and whether I have any documents that need to be replaced. It's a consortium of colleges based in Richmond, KY, which is a little ways from Lexington, but at least I'm on the right side of town should I commute. Wish me luck.

'Matlock' is on the TV in here. Before that it was 'Perry Mason'. I think it's MeTV--that seems to be the staple of doctors' offices these days, that and HGTV.

Okay, time to go do something useful....

Quote of the day

Sent out via e-mail today by one of my co-workers, who isn't exactly my boss (I help her department out sometimes when someone's out, so I'm on their mailing list):

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.

--Corrie ten Boom

So let me get this straight

The question of transgendered students' use of bathrooms aside, schools are resorting to having them wear an identifying badge of sorts (apparently without thinking of things like the use of yellow stars to identify Jews or pink triangles to identify gays, because, gosh darn it, they look like everyone else, so they have to have some sort of identifier). My mind is blown. The whole transgendered issue of bathrooms, which blew up this year so quickly and utterly, is the biggest red herring I've ever seen in my lifetime to distract people from more pressing dangers. Let people pee in peace. Any sort of 'examination' is an obvious human rights violation. People who actually identify with their birth gender are being harassed because they might be transgendered. Governors are using public funds to fight the government on its policy of allowing transgendered students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with--in essence, to discriminate. My own state has joined that suit. :( Just let people pee in peace. I'm not saying bathrooms are completely safe--I know better. But it's not transgendered persons who are the problem. They are more likely to be targeted by the others using that bathroom than they are to be a danger, after all. And that's a problem with 'nice, normal' people, who put their prejudice into action.

Lawsuit: Trans Students Made to Wear Green Bracelets to ID Themselves

Thanks to Bill

who first introduced me to 'I Am Stretched on Your Grave', who suggested this version, which may be the original I heard (I don't remember it being a duet, though), is beautiful, AND includes the stanza about the priests and the friars that I learned that was missing in the one below, along with the exact wording I learned. I highly recommend it. Bob commented on the Kate Rusby version, which I love, as well--it's on my phone. I don't care that much for Sinéad O'Connor's--too pop-like; I prefer the folk style better, which is why I like this version better. This is by the Voice Squad:



Here's another song that Bill introduced me to all those years ago (not the same version, but close). It's a song credited to David Dodds, sung by Nigel Parry, called 'The Magpie':

I've shared this before, but you can never have too much of a good thing

I don't know if it's because I'm a vegetarian (well, pescetarian, really, I do eat fish), or if I just have a perverse sense of humour, but this song never fails to put me in a better mood (although the cow is a he with an udder in the video, which makes me wonder about their grasp on science). :) Okay, let's all sing along:

'We will fight for bovine freedom
and hold our large heads high.
We will run free with the buffalo, or die--
Cows with guns.'

And on that note, good night.