Perpetual Smile

I’m going to be house sitting — and no, that isn’t a fancy term for a House (the lamest show ever, and YES, I said it, Mom, on the internet, in print!) marathon — for two weeks.

It should be interesting, as I’ve never house sat before, and this particular house has its quirks. There are at least ninety-nine light switchesswitches pretending to be light switches scattered throughout the house, waiting for you to flick them accidentally. These little Easter eggs usually cause power to go out in certain parts of the house, ejection from the house into outer space and, in severe cases, swine flu. The people I’m sitting for also have Comcast, and I am apparently not capable of using the remote; the various buttons on that thing could wipe out our entire planet, if I hit the wrong one.

So it should be interesting. Naturally, I’ll be blogging about it, because I owe you guys and I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of me trying to explain to my aunt and uncle why their house is on the moon instead of at their previous address: “I thought I was turning the kitchen light on!”

Anywho.

My little world has been a little crazy lately. I recently partnered my freelance web design company with my aunt’s web design and print company, and we managed to acquire a pretty big client. I’m not going to go into details, but the move was anything but simple. Luckily our client has been really understanding, and all is well as of tonight. I’m actually really surprised at myself; I guess you really do never know what you can do until you’re facing a deadline that is less than a week away and you can’t find a PHP developer. Needless to say, my basic PHP skills need to be a little more. I’m hoping to finally sit down and read the PHP book I bought over a year ago while I’m trying not to destroy my aunt’s house.

I also recently went to a new dentist. The dental hygienist kicked ass. She took x-rays of my mouth and it turns out I’m going to have to get all four of my wisdom teeth removed. That is not kickass. I knew it was probably coming, but I’m still terrified. The x-rays showed that the incoming teeth are pushing over my other teeth. I have a really, really tiny mouth, and I figured that’s what was happening anyway, but it’s still totally different to see it and hear it from a professional.

I sucked it up though and made an appointment with an oral surgeon for next Monday. My business partner and aunt said that I’ll get lots of drugs and ice cream out of the deal. I’m not too excited about the drugs, but I can definitely dig the ice cream.

I’ve been trying to write more lately, ever since I attended the 2009 NVCC Writers’ Conference a couple of weeks ago. (It may have been more like three weeks ago, but I’m so fried and brainless at this point I’m not too sure. I’m also too lazy to go check.) I recently got back in touch with Mary, my old Astrid and Dante roleplaying partner. We used to write for these two all the time, but gradually fell out of touch. Anyway, we started writing again. You can read all of our archived logs, and we are also currently writing new stuff, over at our new-ish blog. (My friends from LiveJournal might remember me posting logs or writing about these two.) I’m also planning on getting back to my novel while I’m house sitting.

I’m also currently working on a project I’ve been sitting on for a while. If you’re being followed by a freakingbookwrm on Twitter, follow back because that’s me! Freaking Bookworm is my upcoming online book club. I read a lot, and I often mind myself wanting to rant or rave to someone about different parts throughout the book. I don’t have the time to meet up with a regular book club every week or every month, so I thought it would be neat to do an online book club that anyone can participate in at any time. As far as I know, there is nothing like it out there on the net. It’s going to be kickass, so follow freakingbookwrm on Twitter (I hate that I didn’t have enough characters to keep the “o” in “worm”), and take our poll to help choose our first read.

I actually meant to be in bed by now. I’d say there’s always coffee, but my body stopped responding to caffeine a month ago.

Update: I just posted the latest Astrid/Dante, Ouch! (Part II). Go check it out and let us know what you think. (:

Kate’s party was last night. Mike and I got there when it was basically winding down, but we had a good time. I played a quick “Thunderhorse” on Guitar Hero after Mike couldn’t figure out how to do it. Heh. I paid for it afterward, though; I can’t play that game because of my arms/hands. Good thing I had a Guinness to make me feel better. There was a kid who looked like McLovin’ who was nasty on expert “Thunderhorse”. It was kind of painful to watch him play, because I know my fingers could never bend that way and not make me feel like offing myself.

We watched her play beer pong and Mike filled in for this guy a few times. The guy was wearing an MSI shirt but I’m not sure he knew who they are. (His NY hat matched it, so that’s probably why he bought it in the first place. Sigh.) Mike and I helped Kate clean up when it was over. Her coworkers Brian and Liz were gonna crash there, so we got to sit and talk with them once everyone else left. Turns out Brian is as much of a video game freak as Mike is. They talked about NES games that I’d never even heard of for like an hour while Kate and I chainsmoked and Liz and I watched them like you’d watch a tennis match.

It was a pretty chill party. It kind of reminded me of my garage days. Part of me misses those days but Mike used to freak out when I hung out with those guys, so. Besides, I hear Steve is a “drunk bastard” now, as a mutual acquaintance put it. (I love Firefox’s spell check feature. I forgot how to spell “acquaintance” and of course Firefox had my back.)

At about 3 this morning Kate kicked us out, so we went to Denny’s. It was my first time. I know Mary would be proud. Heh.

I’m supposed to be going to Mike’s for a picnic today but a) I don’t feel like moving yet and b) he hasn’t called me yet. (I’d probably still be sleeping now, too, but my mom woke me up around noon.) I should probably get moving, though. I really don’t want to sit here all day. I guess.

Those pictures from Friday night should be coming up soon. I’m just waiting for Sandy to post them on MySpace.

PS: All this partying made me forget the reason I wanted to post in the first place! Heh. I was just looking at the syllabi from my art courses and I now know two things: I’m going to go broke, and I’m probably going to fail (at least the crafts class). I have most of the painting supplies, but the crafts class is going to run me penniless. Did I mention that the requirements are ridiculously hard for a basic level class? Fuuuck.