Sometimes You Should Quit

      I was just playing Scrabble, and my opponent hit two triple word scores and got 131 points. I forfeited. What else could I do - play a word for 7 points? Pathetic. Nothing I could have done would have saved me.
      Sometimes quitting is just the best thing you can do. If not the only thing. I don't know if he was cheating or playing honestly, but I could not compete.

Apple Pies, Nightmares, And Invisible Angry Cats

      Well, I've had a very...interesting...past week. The weekend left us with a vacuum cleaner that while being used started to smoke and smell like burning rubber. I shut it off before it could catch fire; which it would have, had I not shut it off when I did.
      And of course, almost having a fire in my room set me up with a string of nightmares ever since. There was both a small frying pan catching fire on its place on the wall, which isn't where it's kept in real life; and a flood in the same dream. In another, which occurred on the same night, my brother flicked a giant black-and-brown spider at me from across the table (where it landed after falling from the roof). And finally, in last night's dream there was a rattlesnake by the fridge, and I was pleading with my mom not to go over there and take off its head, and the only compromise she was willing to meet me halfway with was if I went over there and helped her. As if I would know how. So then I shoved her into a bedroom and told her not to leave it, and I would call SPCA. And of course my phone is in my room, past the fridge...and then I woke up.
      And now, after there are two apple pies baking in the oven; I've noticed a scratch that inexplicably appeared on my arm. And maybe I'm imagining it, but it seems like it's growing.

      ...Thankfully I have had my flu shot. The doctor barely touched me with the needle - he put it in and then before I could count to one he was pressing the cotton ball against a mark I couldn't see. But, I did feel the tiny sting of it going in; so hopefully I am protected.

The Rate-Me Type

      I don't understand why people want so badly to be rated by a total stranger. Typically, one is pretty lame, and ten is the best rating you can get. So, okay, they're just asking for my opinion. "Am I a ten or a zero?" Okay, you asked for it, I'll rate your superficial ass. They're just numbers. How can they care so much what a stranger thinks? They don't know me. My opinion shouldn't matter to them. Theirs don't matter to me.
      I mean, if my family likes me, my life is complete. I couldn't imagine being one of the losers who signs on and begs to be rated with insignificant numbers by some person I don't know. Does it make a big difference in their life? Are they really so shallow?

My dA Death?

      All my work shows up as empty boxes. My Favorites are empty. And when I click on something it says there is nothing to be found. I don't know what's going on...I'm going to restart my computer, and if nothing has changed I guess I'll try logging in. Hopefully it doesn't tell me I deleted my account!

Movie Sequels For Your Inner Kid

      I just Googled Toy Story 4, and apparently its release date is in 2017. Finding Nemo has a sequel due for 2016. Unfortunately I don't think Tangled will have a sequel; for one very simple reason - the things Eugene says at the end. "Beloved by all, she ruled the kingdom," which implies she took the throne after her parents. "We're living happily ever after" - Shrek is the ONLY movie series I know that got sequels, despite this being said in the first.
      But, for your undying inner kid that only grows as you start to shrink; Tinker Bell also has another sequel scheduled for release in 2015. And I'm really not fond of them using the name Nyx for a new character. It's bad enough P.C. Cast ripped off Greek mythology; but we don't need someone else to do the same. I mean, she transformed a mythological horse into a modern human woman who goes by the same name. I was kind of hoping she would have been as imaginative and fun as she was with her Partholon books, but no such luck.
      Well, I just hope all these sequels can amount to all the good things that came first. Yes, yes, all the good things. I'm a friggin child living inside a grown woman's body. Except I'm not grown, you know, height-wise.
      I'm going to go whip me up some hot dogs. Maybe then I'll watch some movies. Not the ones I own, though; I've seen those too many times. Maybe I'll watch some of this "inner kid" stuff. What else would I do - go skating with my boyfriend and his wife? Maybe swathe myself in pink fur and not much else, then spend half of my millions? Or perhaps take to the air in my own private jet.
      Then it's settled. Kiddie movies it is.

Oye. Vey.

      I found a book I worked on in 2011. What the HELL was I thinking? It's awful! How did I ever think it was good? Was I suffering a brain lesion? My God! And all these years, I thought I wasn't improving. Wow.

Weird Dream

      I don't even know how my dream began; but somehow I ended up standing next to a stranger in front of all these other strangers. I was supposed to speak with them. But even in my dream I didn't know what to say. Apparently it was some big deal, because this guy next to me gave me an introduction and said I was going to discuss whatever it was with them. And we were all outside; they were arranged on tables and bins and basically anything big and strong enough to hold a person. I recognized the place as my old school, Hatzic Elementary; but the playground was gone and the yard was flat.
      Then, when the speech was over, I walked back to the car with my mother and brother, only to realize that somebody had shoved a needle into me. It looked like a plain sewing needle, and I hadn't felt it go in; nor did I feel any pain pulling it out. It might as well have been hanging off my jacket. My mother was worried anyway, and we ended up walking to the hospital because of car problems (it figures; even in my dreams it's a piece of crap). As usual, my overactive imagination had animated the hospital, and moving arrows were bouncing over the desk and the nurse and the patient, trying to reassure my doubtful dream self that it was, indeed, the hospital. (I bet the arrows came from that Gala Stories game on Facebook I've been playing for maybe just a week. My mind is crazy even when I'm unconscious.)
      Well, no harm had come from the needle. I did, however, bump into my sister and my stepfather; and he was trying to convince me to go swimming. When I refused, he said, "But it's my world!" Well, my sister and I have always been able to say the same things at the same time, and in my dream there is no exception. We both looked at him and said, "It's everybody's world, dumbass." And then I woke up as I was explaining to him that I was epileptic, I couldn't go underwater; meanwhile Mom is agreeing with me and telling me to be careful...
      Silly dreams. Always making me wonder what the frig is wrong with me. If I had a dollar for every crazy-ass dream, I'd be a friggin millionaire.