MINNESOTA!!! I'm on borrowed time so I'll make it quick. The plane ride was a bit bumpy but fine (thanks to BSG and Firefly). Tam is cool, more on that later. I did have to shell out another two hundred to rebook my return flight because I have a final Tuesday night (damn strikers, damn BC). Don't think about it won't bother me. Tomorrow we head to the Mall of America. I miss Ike. I have BSG issues (have an entry on it coming soon). Anyone read my drabble? Let me know.

I got cramps so Imma curl up in front of the tv until Tam and her roommate, Tirzah get back from this church thing. I miss NYC. I miss LJ and I miss Ike the most. Signing off.

I'll be in Minnesota. It hasn't hit me yet. I haven't even packed. I must do that as soon as I finish up here. I was trying to dl some music for the mixtape I'm making Tam for Grinchmas and iTunes wants to be a biatch and not work. So I had to dl the program again and it just now is working--to download. Home I have dial up. So it's gonna take forever. I may just try to get the songs from work tomorrow and make the cds there.

Today I went home early from the job and went to bed straight away. I was soo tired and I dunno why. I got up at 5 and went back for another 3 hours. I can't think about traveling as I have to reschedule my return flight. Damn strike and damn school changing my final to next Tuesday.

I watched BSG and now I have two epis left. Sad ain't it? Hopefully I can dl them from Apple when the new season starts. While I was over by Snape's I kept seeing the promos for BSG. I can't imagine watching the show from week to week. That would drive me more batty than having to wait til the end of the season to buy the DVDs. Don't ask my reasoning. I do miss Food Network though. I remember how geeky cool Scifi Channel was. Snape made me watch some C movie (Anaconda Vs. Python, I think) with super scientist Smarty Pants from SG: Atlantis as one of the major characters. It was so bad but to see him as a long-haired cool scientist with a 8 thousand foot snake as a pet was worth it. Snape likes those crap movies. I just wanted to watch Emeril Live.

My head is all over the place. I went to MZP and forgot why I went there. I can't even remember the last webseries I read over there. Bad Lake, bad Lake. I think I need this trip badly. I gotta sort the essentials for the trip--Wenty, Wallace, Firefly/BSG/MacGyver dvds. Clothes too. Yeah. I don't enjoy plane rides that aren't JetBlue(satellite tv!!) so I gotta pack for the long haul. I'm back on Tuesday but I gotta average in the downtime and the moments where I wanna kill Tam and need a bit of home to keep me sane. I'm gonna miss Ike, too. He's only seen me for the last two days because of my weekend at Snapril's. Now I'm going for longer. I hope he doesn't get cabin fever and eat through his tank and starts shanking people.

I just realized I look younger now then I did in the eighth grade. Yeah, I'm really gonna start telling people I'm nineteen from now on. They won't believe the twenty-three thing.

This day has been a slow drag. I feel all Mr. Rogers-y cos I got on my new Skully Airwalks. Snape couldn't fit 'em so she gave to me. I think I should leave them here at work and be Mr. Rogers with the sweater and the shoes. They are soo comfy. I'm not into skully things but Snapril is and thus needs to corrupt me. She's one friend I don't want to lose--even if she likes to poke me. I have few things in my life that are stationary. Like Wallace, my shuffle and Wenty, my laptop and Sir Ike, the baddest Tortoise in Brooklyn. I realized how much I missed my MikenIke when I saw Snape's turtle Snoopy. And when I pet Gizmo, the cat, I thought of him too. I hope he's alright. Can't wait to go home. Now it's twenty after four.

I have a strange attachment to Ike. I talk to him like we're equals. I savor the dirty looks he gives me. I love to see him eat. I think I need to get a bf right quick. I've had 'im since last May, when I saw him in the pet store with a lizard who mistook him for a rock. It was horrible. I had to save him. Altogether he cost me about 2 hundred dollars but it was worth it. He has a big home to roam and a sugarbox to hide. I use to keep water in with him but he always kicked it over. Now I soak him in the bathroom sink. He hates it. I better pretend to do work now. Toodles.

Random fact: lambytoes  refers to my lamb socks I've had for the longest. It's a coincedence Wash called Zoe that. A friend use to call me Lamb because I was like a lamb, obviously. Never clicked until I looked down at my feet one day while I was on an lj Firefly group and remembered.

I woke up at 5 am as usual, Ike's up, and it's quiet. It's never quiet, I live on a major street so there should be buses passing through. Of course not. I turn on the TV and the strike is on. Are you kidding me? They shut down the city. I live far from the bridge so I can't walk it to Manhattan. I would, honestly. I'm not breaking out my skateboard (yes, I own two of them) nor my rollerblades. I may have to walk to the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) and pay a lotta monedas to go two stops to school. And it's cold.  Thankfully I took the day off for my finals. I'll have more time to figure this out. I'll have to leave about noon or so to make it to the LIRR, which is not far but who knows how crowded it'll be. My first exam starts at 3:30p. Work, Iunno about tomorrow. The LIRR goes to Penn Station so it's not far from work, five or so minutes walking, but I'm not sure how long the strike is gonna last. May have to buy a week pass. Can't miss too much work. Don't work, don't get that BSG money. Gonna do a test run of the trek to the city later I think, if I can and try to get to BestBuy. They have a sale on BSG. I'm saddened they waited until 3 am(instead of 12 like they promised) to announce it. Of all the gawdsawful gou shi shitshit things. They pussyfooted around from Friday and then finally sprung it on us. That's where I lost respect for the TWU. You're striking, then strike. Don't change your deadline to the middle of the workweek. Fucking walk off the job at 12 am Friday morning and don't make excuses.

And of all things, it's barely 20F. Froid. Froid. Il fait froid. December usually isn't this cold yet, and it sucks balls. I value the union, support even. I don't value the timing. NYC is a mess. Four people to vehicles in the city, people riding bikes and walking. Twenty five years ago it happened. I wasn't born but they say it was bad. Two weeks the city was like a beast taken down by a bullet.

I WANT BSG, AND I WANT IT NOW!!!!!! [/end Veruca rant]

Writing is keeping me sane. Ike is surprisingly quiet, peeking out at me from behind his "sheet". I'm not going to take it down just yet. It just turned six and I don't start his day on the weekdays until seven. Sometimes I want to hug him and hold him but he's a tortoise and he likes his space. He scratches like a mutha when he's fussy. He lets me touch his soft neck sometimes. Ike is the first pet I've had (since Howard, Doniecio and Warren the goldfish) that was completely mine. I grew up with many, many dogs. We took second-hand dogs when I was little. Dogs unwanted from friends, on their last leg before the pound. I love them all. I miss em too. But I love Ike. Just cos. Oh this entry will go on until they say the strike is over. Okay, so it won't but jeebus, realworld sucks right now. I think Imma watch some MacGyver and try to cope. Signing off.

Last night I spent what would be class time in the throes of pain. Toothache worse than a mutha. Reduced me to tears. I guess I needed it--to cry and a reality check. I thank the Powers for that. I did review my favorite episodes of Firefly and recaptured my love for it. If I don't think about that other movie, I won't be upset. END OF TALK.

Random fact: My tortoise Ike's full name is Dwight D. Eisenhower for the 34th president of the US.

Today I slept in . . . til eight thirty like a nerd. Then I watched the parade and the end of Earthsea. I can honestly say, it was an okay movie (if I hadn't read the books) besides the language and cheesification. And as usual, something rotten kills T-giving in NYC. Another balloon hit a lamppost, knocking out spectators. ( They say it was the M & M  float. )

I saw a woman during lunch pushing a carriage with a baby that reminded me of Ike. Yes, my tortoise. I have to develop and scan the shots I have of him sometime.

He made me smile yesterday because he came out of his sugar box to look at me and press his nose to the glass.

It's four to 9 and already I want to go home. I missed school and work yesterday just cos. Lousy excuse.

I come back with shit thrown about my desk and no one asks if I'm feeling better ( told them I had a major fever). Aah, well. Maybe I should get another job.

I've been thinking about how I'm gonna move my stuff to California. I may take a train because I don't know if they allow tortoises on airplanes these days and I'm not comfortable going anywhere without him.

Il fait froid! Ike kept me up cuz he was cold and I was cold so i had to turn on the heater this morning. I was gonna call out but I thought about the food.

I dreamt about going to see Serenity and how cool that was. I want to go tonight but I know it's gonna be horrendous at the theaters so I'm going tomorrow at 11 am. Plus I want to watch Threshold tonight and catch up on sleep. I wish I had a laptop so I could do my writing at home. Perhaps I should really buckle down and save instead of intending but never following through.

That's what I never do: follow through. For things for me I can't do it. But a friend needs something I do and do. Fuck em all. I haven't called, emailed or anything anyone (Mother, sister, friends) in close to three weeks. Snapril being the exception because we eat lunch together since she started here at NYPL. We text to see if we're meeting and IM the same. I don't ask about the others and that's that. Funny, cuz they don't seem to miss me and never ask. Sadly, I know this started when I went away for college in 2000. I was expendable and it's loyalty and familiarity that keeps us together. Not that Cardinal Sign bullshit. I'm too old to make new friends. Or just too lazy.