Accomplishing Escapism

 On Friday I skipped work to have a mole removed from my foot.  The mole was not cancerous, but my dermatologist said it was definitely a "high risk" blemish - words that made me nervous enough to have the whole thing cut out.  So now I have four stitches in the really thin skin right about my heel on the inside of my right foot.  It hurts to walk, so I've been moving in this kind of twisted club foot-esque fashion.  When strangers ask me why I'm limping, I've been telling them mysteriously that I have a congenital birth defect.

But seriously, if I don't know you, why would you care about my foot?  Or expect me to share?

Before I got my parrot, I did a lot of reading on them - what they eat, what their habits are, that kind of thing.  Because I am a responsible pet owner.  Almost everything I read said that conures like to have hidey holes, things to poke their heads in, and things to sleep in.  So when I set up Dizzy's sleeping cage I included a fuzzy sleeping tent.  I had no idea if he was actually using it or not, because he always wakes up before I do; but Monday morning, I slept all the way through to my alarm and realized Dizzy wasn't making noise in his cage, waiting to be let out.  I pulled the sheet off and had a split second panic attack because I couldn't see him in the cage at all - until I noticed the long red tail feathers poking out the end of the fuzzy tent.  He didn't move or make a sound until I tugged on his tail feathers, wherein he immediately poked his head out the other end all "What?  A guy can't get five more minutes?"

And it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

There are three firms that work on the floor that my dad's firm is on.  One is a two-man team that just broke off of my dad's firm.  They're very used to using the assistants in the office to do their filing and such, but one of them is such an asshole that as soon as they formed their own firm all of us were like "Oh good, we don't have to deal with them anymore."  But since they do still need administrative help, I've been hired to do part time work for them (about 5-7 hours a week) at an additional income of $20 an hour (which is slightly more than my normal hourly rate).  As a consequence, I will end up staying later or coming in earlier more often so as not to affect my salary, but hey, extra cash is extra cash.  I will gladly come in an hour early to the tune of an extra $100 a week.

I got my shipping notice for my copy of Star Trek.  While I'm slightly annoyed that I don't have it NOW THIS INSTANT, I'm willing to wait for the sake of the discounted price I paid for it.

My mom has decided she wants to see more movies in theaters, a result of which is that I get to see more movies in theaters.  We saw Coco Before Chanel on Sunday, which was pretty much brilliant, and tonight we're going to see An Education.  I've also been holding weekly movie nights, the goal of which is to bring films most people haven't seen before, and so far it's a resounding success.  Our roster so far:
Sunshine
The Slipper and the Rose
A Boy and His Dog
Frailty
Night of the Hunter (which I'd seen!  Did Seth show me this?  I don't remember!)
I've got Saving Face on the backburner, and my mom gave me a pamphlet with cult films on it from the library, so undoubtedly movie nights will only get more interesting.

I was going to post a big long thing here about a horrifying nightmare I had last night, and a mini-rant about how some of the rules animal shelters have set up are ridiculous, but then DW totally ate my entire post.  So, to sum up:

1. Had a nightmare last night of trying to save Dan (my friend who's been causing all the drama) from a shark attack, not being able to, and finding him drowned and dead.  Have determined that this means my brains want me to talk to him, even though I don't think it's in my best interest.  It's apparently causing me anxiety, so I have to try and do SOMETHING about it.

2. Went downtown today with my friend Ed and his Bitchface Girlfriend (for anyone who heard this story, that's the girl who accused me of being a homewrecker last summer.  Today we apparently decided we were going to ignore that incident).  It was fun except for Bitchface, who has an annoying tendency to try and lecture me about things I already know about (yes, I DO know that it is best to buy surgical steel body jewelry, CAN YOU COUNT THE PIERCINGS IN MY HEAD, WOMAN).  We stopped at the Chicago Humane Society, who told me I couldn't adopt a particular dog (this dog, to be precise) because she was considered "high risk," and I'd never owned a dog by myself before.  Never mind that I have EXTENSIVE experience with rescue dogs, or that I worked in a bording center for three years with dogs ranging from mild to monster, or that I currently share space with a 50 pound hound that's a bundle of neuroses.  Also never mind the fact that the rules don't appear to apply once you get to the interview phase of adopting, since they call references and quiz you deeply about your background.  They wouldn't even let me PLAY with this dog.  I was kinda peeved.

3. Had a lovely evening in with my boyfriend, in which we ate tasty pastas, watched Rome, and I got some painting done.  I'll tell you about the hobby stuffs later, when I'm not so desperate for sleeeeeeps.

Books I need to get rid of.  The less books I have, the less weight I have to carry around, and the more YOU benefit! (Because I don't buy bad books :P)

First come, first serve.  Since I'm putting this on multiple sites, I'll try and keep it as updated as I can so multiple people don't end up getting disappointed because someone else nabbed something they wanted.

Darwin's Radio, by Greg Bear - trade paperback, not in very good shape (about a quarter of it is water damaged), but all the pages are there and it's readable

The Golden Space, by Pamela Sargent

More Women of Wonder, ed. Pamela Sargent

Electric Forest, Tanith Lee

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling (paperback, used)

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin

Extreme Fiction, Fabulists and Formalists, ed. Robin Hemley

Where the Lightening Strikes, Peter Nabokov

On the Pythagorean Way of Life, John Dillon

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

The Shadow Lines, Amitav Ghosh

Sunlight on a Broken Column, Attia Hosain

English Lessons and Other Stories, Shana Singh Baldwin

Believing - A Historical Perspective, Wilfred Cantwell Smith

On Religion, John D. Caputo

Dynamics of Faith, Paul Tillich

The Vocation of Man, Johann Fichte

Anything that's not claimed by Friday is going to the Haunted Bookstore (they take donations, right?)