Appears Binx swallowed the plastic tip of a door stopper. Surgery would cost upwards around $1200, but the vet is going to try laxatives first. Downside is that if we wait too long to see if those work, he won't be as good a candidate for surgery anymore. Exceptionally troubling. Going to be a very paranoid cat mother from now on. Have thrown out most everything with ribbons and feathers and cried a bit today. Dani is very confused.

Life has kinda been getting Mike and I down lately. Some of it's small like one of Mike's XBox games getting broken and me stressing about classes. But some of it's pretty big like me still not finding a job, Mike losing his wallet, and Binx getting ill. He started this chronic vomiting three days ago and does it up to 5 or 6 times a day. Mostly water since the beginning. Our house is riddled with puke stains - seriously, 15 or so. We have to steam clean this weekend. He was acting normally, though, until yesterday - when I'm sure the strain, stress, and lack of nourishment finally started taking its toll. He's just so un-Binx-like now. Lethargic, listless, won't purr, curls up into dark corners. I took him to the vet this morning and he's currently getting x-rays. I just want my baby back, though I'm also stressing about the cost. The x-rays alone will be around $155, on top of the visit and whatever else might be needed. Money we don't have. But he's certainly worth it.

I dunno, just in a funk. One I feel like I've been in for awhile. I'm really looking forward to my trip home in August. I don't expect it to be a cure all - if anything, it will be extremely stressful since we'll be jumping around from place to place trying to meet vendors and see family. But I'm ready to be there for a little while, just to soak up the "homeness" of it all. See the people that know me the best and get me the most - family and friends included. Eat some Bojangles. Ya know, the important stuff.

Stopped drinking last Sunday - will only drink once a month until wedding. (Shower, Birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years.) I figure it'll be a good way to cut back on some empty calories. I know it always helped me when I was training for big races and I want to feel my best for the running I'm doing for exercise. So it's been over a week with only a sip of wine as an indiscretion and in my defense we were eating steak. It's pretty tough with all the free happy hours our complex gives and all the happy hours our friends like to attend. We'll see how it goes and how much of a difference it makes combined with the Nutri System. It would help if I'd stop eating a Ploughman's (bread, cheese, and fruit) for a dinner instead of one of the meals, but again.. it's been a stressful week.

Potter tonight.

Selling some electronic accessories Mike and I won in sales contests while working at Apple - we can't use a single one. Yeah, the contests aren't that great.

My eBay Store

So I am really excited about Tim Burton's revision of Alice in Wonderland due out next March. It has some fun similarities with a community I have been following for awhile, curiousinsane, as far as being about Alice returning to Wonderland after several years away and there being some interest between her and the Hatter. And it's staring some huge names like Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee, Michael Sheen, and Anne Hathaway.

Obviously I have a deep love of the Wonderland saga, but it's mostly a love of the visuals and a few recurring themes. Carroll's books actually tend to make me weary at many points. So far this film seems to be taking those juicy bits that are visually and thematically enjoyable, which I appreciate, and developing some characters who usually get little to no screen time, which I'm thrilled about. Unfortunately, it's also CG-heavy and, as Kai pointed out, not only is Depp's makeup as Hatter glaringly thick, it's obnoxiously bright and his entire ensemble screams of too much similarity with his horrid incarnation of Willy Wonka. If you have not seen the promo shots, do indulge!

I don't know. I'd almost rather Burton had gone darker with his look. But I am determined to be optimistic about it. After all, this is one of my favorite director's working with one of my favorite subjects. Great stuff is bound to come from all of this regardless. If you are weak, like me, you can also take a gander at the script. It's an enjoyable read, though I'll be curious to see how much they stick to and how much has changed. From interviews the White Queen sounds a bit different. I do hope they keep the Hatter's dialogue because that's what I think will make this possibly great, as long as Depp plays it fairly straight. His costume is kooky enough without adding an effeminate lisp or something horrid. I want a Mad Hatter - not a Flaming Gay Hatter, plzkthnx!

More wedding ranting. :) I've gotta get it out somewhere, right? ;D

Short version is that our wedding website is up! Still needs some tweaking, but I'm mostly proud of the result - even if I cheated by using MobileMe and iWeb. :P

Otherwise,(  I'll put the rest of this mess behind a cut... )

I have a big post coming about wedding stuff, but I just wanted to throw this up here because it made me smile at the sheer, honest, natural beauty of it... pretty pretty!



And I'll mention here that my schoolwork has consumed me body and soul this week. I only came up for air for food, a happy hour, and an amazing experience at the local Austin Wildlife Rescue today with Michael. We took their intro to volunteering class so that we can go feed and clean the cages of animals they take in. :D Eventually I will work up to handling squirrels, when they get some in. But we saw some amazing animals.. deer, geese, raccoons, heron, possums, vultures, skunks, doves, pigeons, blue jays, grackles, and even some prairie dogs!

The poor place is really overrun mainly with possums and raccoons a close second - well, both of those second to all the flippin' birds. 8D But I think it'll be a great way to give back and learn about animals that I may otherwise never see or at least handle. Kyla turned me onto the place when she sent me info about how they'd taken in hundreds of displaced squirrels after hurricane Ike. It was ridiculous. They've actually been slow coming in because of drought (ironically) this year. But I've gotta put in a good 20 hours before I'd move up to squirrels anyway and I need to make sure our cats are up on all their shots before we start, just to be safe. But yay! Amnimals. :D

I think I broke my bridesmaids..

I kind of sent a long and involved email that may have had more information than strictly necessary. ;D But things get tough when you spend a week looking at wedding stuff and obsessing over ideas with few people to bounce those ideas off of. Anyway, gist of the deal is that I have decided to give my bridesmaids free reign regarding their dresses - mostly. I want their dresses to be below the knee or longer and blue, but that's about it. Well, wintry blue like the ones marked at least. I came to this decision because of OffbeatBride.com's article and the fact that parties forced to wear one color from a traditional bridal place looks a lot less happy than those who have the freedom to choose a color within a spectrum. Examples here and here. I want them to feel more comfortable and hopefully find something they can use again in the future. And I'm really excited about the choices two of them have already sent! Of course they're free to pick anything (and change their minds in the 8 months we have :P), but it's fun to know they pick so well. ;D

I have also come to come conclusions about an overall "theme". I have basically described it as a "Neo-Victorian Alice Post-Wonderland Grand Floridian Old South Winter" theme. Which makes no sense, but I made up a little inspiration board to give some idea of what I've been looking at. This all originally stemmed from the fact that we given in and decided on the Carolina Inn for our reception site as it is right across the street from the church and very all inclusive. It will take place in the Old Well, whose interior reminds me a bit of my favorite Disney hotel the Grand Floridian which is inspired by southern Victorian resorts. The dress and tux we have picked out also fit loosely into this theme, so I figure we might as well embrace it. :) And the groomsmen will most likely be in grey tuxes with pinstriped vests and blue ties. The Alice in/post-Wonderland reference is more because it is a Victorian story and Mike and I have had two Wonderland Halloweens in our past. We are not going overboard with that as a theme necessarily, there will probably just be small hat-tips to it if anything.

Otherwise, we are trying to find DIY ways to do the rest of the work since we're paying more than I would have liked for the Carolina Inn basically because it's so convenient. As viewable in the inspiration board I'm thinking button bouquets, rock candy decorations, pomander centerpieces (with the fruit painted blue), and candle lanterns. I'd still like to put out a request for any and all wedding favor ideas or, heck, anything anyone thinks of if anyone happens to think of anything. :P But at least a lot of the troubling decisions are made and done with, allowing Mike and I to focus on having them come to fruition and making the money to pay for it all. ;)

P.S. "UP" and "The Hangover" rock.

Gurtin' from slyfoxesq cause I caaan~

Name your 20 absolutely favorite characters and ask people to see what trends they notice about your characters. Try to pick different fandoms.

1. Tsukino Usagi (Sailormoon)
2. Atreyu (The Neverending Story)
3. Tim Drake/Robin (Batman)
4. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley (Harry Potter) [They tie; it's too hard. :P Ron if pressed. I relate more to Harry, so I guess I would like my best friend better than myself yah? 8D]
5. Peter Pan (The Little White Bird, Peter and Wendy)
6. Tamahome (Fushigi Yuugi)
7. Van (Escaflowne)
8. Remy Etienne LeBeau/Gambit (The X-Men)
9. Simon (Firefly)
10. Jim Halpert (The Office)
11. Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
12. Howl Jenkins Pendragon (Howl's Moving Castle)
13. Grumpy Bear (Carebears)
14. Mickey Mouse (Disney)
15. Alvin (Alvin & the Chipmunks)
16. Max Goof (Goof Troop, A Goofy Movie)
17. Westley (The Princess Bride)
18. Kit Cloudkicker (TaleSpin)
19. Huck Finn (The Adventures of Huck Finn)
20. Eilonwy (The Chronicles of Prydain)

I had a hard time keeping it to 20. :P And like Kyla I stuck to "Disney" as one fandom instead of delving into the many possible films. And I left out some of the more obscure choices like Jonathan Strange from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and Tee from Quest of the Delta Knights. ;) These are also not in any particular order. So!... Trends? 8D

Oh, and if you can, for godsake avoid having your wedding in the 10 days before Valentine's Day. Prices on roses are jacked up 40-50%, and you'll have price increases on other flowers, too.
-- Off Beat Bride

The more I look for ideas and inspiration, the more I run into things that make me *facepalm*. I'm not having roses.. but, still. Feb 6th date. SIGH.

Mike insists he can make me a button bouquet like this instead of dealing with flowers for myself at least. ;D

The Photoshop class filled up completely, but a basics of programming class opened up. Well, there is a new Photoshop class that's distance learning, but my whole point was that I wanted to learn the Adobe stuff in a classroom so it seems silly to then do that online. I think. And it'd probably be better to learn Photoshop stuff a the same time I do InDesign and maybe Illustrator.

I dunno, I'm grateful to have anything open up.

Ugh, back to bed... maybe. I shouldn't. Just for a bit? :P

Sigh.. choosing the reception site has been such a tug of war. We've tried the whole "pro/con" list, but it's still so close..

We've got:

La Residence (restaurant)
- 0.4 miles away from ceremony, so majority may have to drive
- includes flower centerpieces, tea lights, and iPod hookup for music
- menu includes two hors d'oeuvres, two salads, two entrees, two sides, and two desserts to be served w/ cake

Carolina Inn (hotel)
- 66 feet away from ceremony, literally get to walk across the street
- includes votive candles; ipod hookup will be $60
- menu includes two displays (like fruits, veg, or cheese), two cold hor d'oeuvres, two hot hor d'oeuvres, and two entrees
- running special where we get $500 off and a room for Friday and Saturday in the hotel

So if we add the iPod hookup costs and subtract the $500 rebate - La Rez would still be about $500 cheaper. Granted, two nights at the Carolina costs about that much which puts them pretty even. But then we're looking at the fact that flower centerpieces and extra desserts are going to be on top of all that.. yet, we only need to walk across the street.

I guess it breaks down to, is being able to walk from the ceremony to the reception worth whatever it will cost us to do flower centerpieces and extra dessert? (We're considering a rice krispie igloo as it is.. :P That shouldn't be too much, right? :\)

Eitherway they're both kind of outrageous - I wish I worked in the wedding business. ;P At least we've got our photographer. Yaaay, Andrew! :)

Good news: A faxed transcript, which incidentally does not count as an official transcript anyway, was never received by ACC and cost me an extra $5 to fax in the first place - and I got it refunded.

Bad news: I lost the last three classes I signed up for because I thought tuition was due tomorrow, but it was due yesterday. Registration doesn't open again until 9 AM Monday morning - when I'll be in the one class I do have paid for.

Mike's going to help me out and register for me if it actually doesn't open up before then, but STILL.. it just seems ridiculous. And the chance is there that they won't be available. Why do I manage to make everything more difficult? Sigh.

I think I have some blatant internet snobbery in my veins and for that I am truly sorry, but after 13+ years online I'm not sure I have it in me to change or care. We all have opinions and I believe that I have always been pretty up front about mine - though I know I can also be a hypocrite. And it's totally always the little things. Though I may fall for them occasionally, for the most part I'm not a big fan of Facebook quizzes - but specifically the Gardens and Aquariums. Yet, I've had a Fluff Friend probably since day one and adore it. I think actually attempting to go through and list every single book you've ever read in Good Reads is obnoxious, but that's just because I've personally decided to use it to list what I read as I read it. I abhor Twitter feeds on Livejournal, although I have Flickr double feeding into Facebook and a Twitter box on my profile.

But we all have these quirks, right? Or am I just being a condescending user? I'm not quite sure anymore. And I do feel kind of bad for it sometimes, because it's not as though I have some kind of loyal following that keeps up with anywhere near half the junk I have updating so I might as well be kind and generous and understanding of the few I do. But on the other hand.. it's how I feel, right? And I really think I have been pretty nice about it, but.. Who knows.. the law of the interweb is a tangled mess of subjectivity anyhow. But nothing can be solved by saying nothing, at least that much I'm sure of.

In funner news, we had great times with Kristi in town. We did manage to take her to Mimi's on Sunday. Then we took a stroll around the apartment complex and headed downtown. Unfortunately we were pushed for time, so we skipped Hula Hut and went straight to TGI Friday's - a mistake I think I won't make again unless it feels appropriate. But you can honestly see the bats' mass exodus from the Congress Street bridge from several quaint spots along the lake, so there's no need to sit through weak, expensive drinks and overpriced apps to do it on a patio. Maybe good to take aging parents to, but I think our siblings can rough it on a grassy hill next time.

After that we hit up the Dirty Dog downtown for shuffleboard and then straight to 80's night at Elysium - complete with live performance by When in Rome! We had such a blast - even though they called us "Houston"... We danced our sweaty little hearts out and drank a good deal before heading to Magnolia's for a late night meal. We didn't get home until well after 3 AM. Monday was slow going, but I was determined my sister try Chuy's - in hindsight maybe not the best plan as she was apparently ill today from hangover + texmex + plane ride. But still! We did it. Then I drove her to her flight and she was off. Overall an excellent visit, though. I think she and Mike got along better than ever. He was quite a charming host, though.

Recently I have finished two books in two days, which is helping my list along slowly. I'm still very behind, but I enjoyed the volumes rinabeana sent me immensely as they were page turners and just what I needed after finishing the engaging Temeraire series. Otherwise, I got a little obsessed with making some different outfits on this Lollipop Doll Maker on Portmanteaux shared by laurahonest. ( Follow to see inane cuteness. )

Oh, and speaking of cuteness.. my first real "photoshoot" with my Pinkies resulted in this shot that I love. I'm sure there will be more to come, you've been warned!

Classes opened up! I am currently signed up for 14 hours - which sounds like a lot, but they all take place on Monday and Wednesday except for the History class which is all online anyway. So, I have high hopes. And that way I still only have two days I can't work when I find a job.

Here are the classes:

Basic Graphic Design (ARTC 1305)
Digital Imaging (ARTC 1402)
Basic Illustration (ARTC 1409)
History of Communication Graphics (ARTC 2311)

They're all pretty self-explanatory, except Digital Imaging - which is just going to be a class on Photoshop basically. If I keep up at this pace, I could be done with the degree by next December. If I want to go for the degree instead of just a Certification. Which I'm kind of leaning towards since most of the extra classes necessary are covered by my undergrad. But we'll see how things work out and what kind of job I manage to find.

Anyway, just a quick update - my sister's here and we're having fun showing her around Austin. :) We went to the Thermals concert on Friday night at Mohawk after she got in and gave her a glimpse of 6th Street. Saturday we fed her Kenny's for breakfast, went kayaking on Lake Austin, and went to the Salt Lick before having a night in of games and pizza. Today we're thinking Mimi's, Hula Hut, and the bats before downtown and possibly 80's night Elysium.

So I took no one's advice (sorry! :C) and got all those Pinkies, y'know. And slyfoxesq is totally to blame, of course. :P But I do absolutely adore them. Here's the new group for the moment, though we have the Wild Arms set coming in of which I'll be taking Rebecca's (left) head and hair and then we bought a few separate pieces from an Italian girl on Flickr. Because the thing is each set comes with one head and two outfits - so you start to feel pretty wasteful having all these clothes and not enough heads to go around. :P So I have three heads coming my way as well as these little gems - Ayanami Rei and Asuka Langley! I think I'll totally be repainting Rei's Shinji doll to look like Kaworu, cause Shinji is all that is wrong and emo about the world. :P

In my defense, I haven't spent too much on all of this, really. I had two already and Mike and Kyla have spoiled me so rotten my teeth hurt. ;D And I do love them. Kyla's also getting some for her sister and a friend of ours here in Austin and we're trying to talk slytherati into joining the party, because it's been a lot of fun to have each other to squee over stuff with. :D We even created a community here because the ones going right now are kind of dead and unorganized. It's hard to find helpful information.. so, speaking of, I am gonna pimp out said Pinky:st community real quick:


Come join us on pinky_street to share tips, tricks, and trades on Pinky:st dolls!

Everyone should come play with us. 8D

Two mini announcements...

1. I am officially registered at ACC for their Interative Design Specialization - basically described by them as: Structured to establish the foundation principles for the design, development, and implementation of interactive design projects, as well as, advanced techniques. Aka design for the web. Part of me feels like I'm probably being a total n00b for not just.. oh, I dunno, teaching myself this stuff. :P But I learn well in a classroom and with my uncle paying for the expenses, it seems silly not to take the chance while I can. Plus there are internship opportunities and I can get feedback on building a portfolio. Unfortunately since summer classes start June 1st there was only one course open that I needed, but I'm going to check back Saturday to see if any folks who signed up didn't pay their tuition on time and maybe steal their spots. ;P Fingers crossed! 8D

2. I will officially be taking voice acting classes from Tails. 8D Well, a Tails - from the 1999 Sonic OVA. She's done more commercial voiceovers than animation, but still - she's been in the business a long time and at least she's done some work in the field. Unfortunately the weekend seminar is not until August, but I suppose I have lots of other things to keep me busy. :P And I think I might do some of the informal acting classes the WOBCP theatre is offering just to stretch the ol' muscles a bit.

So.. it's stuff. Meanwhile I still need to find a job and now my standards have to get all kinds of knocked down. I just need something to help make ends meet and that will fit within my class schedule. Not ideal, but I gotta make it work.

Hey guys, I'm selling some stuff if you're interested. The pics and info are all in that Flickr set, but feel free to ask questions here or there or by email. Whatevs. Lots of random stuff I won at work but I never won anything to go with something I owned. Very sad. Anyway, see if you can use any of it or maybe know someone who could. I'd really appreciate it, thanks. And let me know if you're interested or could use anything but it's currently priced too high for you - if I can't sell it for the price I want I'd like to at least sell these things for something, ya know?

I went to an informal class hosted by my apartment complex tonight about job development. A professor from UT led it and gave lots of interview tips - which'll help if I ever manage to land an interview. I met a woman there who moved from Phoenix last year and she lost her job this past January - JANUARY. Going on six months unemployed. She is also engaged. She and her fiance have had to push back their wedding twice and have never set an exact date. They're about to dip into their savings for said wedding.

Mike and I basically have no savings, so.. I dunno. I'm beginning to fear the realistic possibility of not being able to afford this wedding in time and wonder if we should be pushing it back.. I mean, 9 months is awhile, yes. But it all hinges on when/if I get a job and what type of job it is.. I hate being a grownup.

I went to sleep in my bathing suit hoping to wake up, grab breakfast, and just jump in the pool. (We'd had a pool party happy hour at the complex last night.) So of course it's been cloudy all morning and just started pouring. :P I jinxed my day hardcore. :\

So! Let's finally chat about this play I was in. Exit the Body is a three act farce by Fred Carmichael. Here follows a good rundown of the show:

A mystery writer rents a New England house that is the rendezvous point for some jewel thieves. The focal point of the set is the closet which opens into a living room and a library. A body found in the closet promptly disappears only to be succeeded by another. The hunt for the jewels reaches a climax at 2:00 am when four couples unknown to each other turn up to search. Not since the days of Mack Sennett has there been such a hilarious series of entrances and exits.

I played Kate Bixley, a sarcastic slightly snooty New York secretary to the mystery writer Crane Hammond. She was an absolute blast to play because she had quite possibly some of the best lines in the entire show. Some of my favorites include:

KATE: I'm a secretary, Ms.O'Toole. A good, honest, New York secretary - trees scare me.
-----
KATE: There are so many birds. If they ever get a leader, we're undone!
-----
(The country maid Jenny says that she wrote a fan letter to one of Crane's characters and Crane says Kate must have responded.)
JENNY: You weren't very nice.
KATE: My computer gets away from me.

And those are just a random few. :) The group I worked with was absolutely phenomenal. Lots of experienced and new talent. Our Crane was spot on. She basically is the character in real life - sweet, naive, easily agitated, and takes me in stride. ;) And we had great chemistry on stage. We both got lots of compliments on how realistic our friendship seemed when we had just met. This was our director's first regular season show (she normally only does melodramas and then acts in other stuff) and she did such a wonderful job. She had a clear vision in her mind and really made it follow through. She also worked hard to get us all to come together. We just had lots of good times. :)

As my first step back onto the stage in almost 3 years - and really my first step onto a bigger stage in almost 10 - it was exceptional. I'm glad I was given a chance and to have gotten some fabulous feedback from my cast, director, and audience members. Not to sound too full of myself, but when we stood in the lobby to shake hands with the patrons a lot of folks stopped and pulled me in close to whisper that I was the best/the most realistic/their favorite/etc. And that felt really good. :) Acting and memorizing lines and things like that do come pretty easily to me and I don't find it hard to be in character. My next goals are to just keep pushing myself. Keep auditioning, keep acting, stretch my limits so that I can be even better. Because there were still moments I didn't feel completely Kate, so I want to continue improving.

( Anyway, follow for some pics! )

I finally opened and played with my Pinky:st girls today. I took several shots this evening, including a group pic, to catalog my mixing and matching as I go. I'm just making up names to keep them straight for the time being. I have another girl still to join them from Kyla, so who knows how that could change up things! You can scan back through the pics to see closeups of each girl and see what their originals and their second outfits looked like. It feels crazy to go from one to five (and soon six!), but I do love 'em. Next step - customizing! We'll see how that goes.

So things kind of exploded on me in the past 24 hours. First, my uncle offered to pay for my tuition to take classes at Austin Community College. With that kind of incentive I'm finding it hard to resist, so I filled out all the applications including the FAFSA and sent in all the information they required in the hopes that I may somehow be able to slip into their summer semester courses. I also got the ball rolling on a transcription job - training will begin immediately, but work will be highly sporadic. So it's not something that will get me by, but it's at least one thing to get my by. I still applied for some other jobs in hopes of finding something steady, but if ACC pans out I may just pick up a nights/weekend gig to get me through things.

I'm also thinking about taking a voice acting class - it's more like a weekend seminar - in August. I took a class from the instructor through UT last year and I've been hoping to do it at some point and I'm kind of stupidly going through life at this point thinking, "WHY NOT NOW?!" - which.. ya know, honestly.. why not now? So, still mulling that around but I'll send in the deposit Monday if I decide to go for it. I hope I'm not being ridiculous. I think I'm being.. young. Perhaps impetuous. But mostly thinking that I gotta go for these things while I can. And I have possible cushions if necessary, so I'm sure I can make all of this work. Whether it'll all pan out really depends on me, but I'm willing to take that chance right now.

Of course the wedding is kind of a fly in the ointment. ;) But.. I dunno, I somehow feel like that'll come together, too. It's looking like things might be leaning back towards Chapel Hill since the church here in Austin would be so much more, but there's good things about it being in NC so it's not going to be a problem either way for me. It's strange. I find myself wanting to sleep a lot and feeling in ways that I would consider kind of depressive, but I'm also filled with a kind of.. "this'll work out" vibe. So.. *shrug*. I hope the latter is correct. ;P