Old friends and new ink.

Well, while my father was in the hospital, I got to spend some time with an old friend from junior high school. Boy, that was fun – we don’t get to see each other very often, and we don’t really have many of the same hobbies anymore, but it was so great to see her, and I realized how much I missed hanging out with her! Raquel has such a great sense of humor, and she’s so open to everything, and she’s not oppressive, and she’s so mellow – it’s really great hanging out with her!

Angelica, Raquel and I had dinner at the Uno’s Pizzeria in our neighborhood: spent way too much money, but got some yummy drinks to make up for it! Raquel got an Appletini (which was really great, btw, even for someone who dislikes apples), Angelica got our usual Bacardi Strawberry Daquiri (Bacardi is the best), and I got a Citron Martini – Citron Vodka wa yay! After dinner, we went over to my house (‘cause Raquel hadn’t had a chance to see the new house yet) and ended up watching some of the Malice Mizer concerts, (No, Raquel isn’t an anime/J-rock fan, but Angelica was doing her best to convert her!) and most of Eddie Izzard’s most recent stand-up routine, called Dress to Kill. I’d seen most of it on HBO (or one of the other cable movie stations), and he’s one of the funniest comedians I’ve seen in ages! I’d started using a lot of his jokes in my inside jokes with Angelica (explaining them to her first, of course) – but guess what?! Raquel knew all about Izzard already! It was so perfect!

And I have to admit that it was fun to show off all of my body mods to someone who’d known me before I got them. >_< It turned out that Raquel had gotten a tattoo, also – as she said, half so she would be able to surprise/shock people who never would’ve expected it from her. Her tat was of a butterfly in mid-flight on the back of her right shoulder. I was more impressed by the fact that her mom actually took her to get it, rather than the fact that she actually had a tattoo! Her mom was one of those majorly over-protective single mothers! I wonder if it’s the fact that Raquel’s been away in Connecticut for college that has lightened her mother up a little…

So, that must have been about two weeks ago.

But just this past Friday, who should happen to stop by the store to say hi but Aleza! (She went to high school with me.) Aside from Angelica, she was my closest friend during high school – but she’s so genuinely nice and sweet, sometimes I feel really uncomfortable hanging out with her when we’re not in a larger group. Anyway, I had a nice chat with her before going back to work. It seems she’d broken up with her boyfriend of about 4 years. It’s weird to think of it like that, especially since I’d been wondering about them recently.

It also turns out that she’s kept in touch with Lauren every few weeks, and had seen her recently too. But that’s not all!

Talk about coincidence, but on Monday night I went out to the Barnes & Noble on Austin Street and guess who I bumped into? Yep, Lauren. It was weird. She said she’d just spoken to Aleza who told her about seeing me briefly on Friday. It was nice to see her, but I realized when I saw her that I didn’t really want to stay in touch with her. I’m bad, aren’t I? Yes, I know.

Aleza saw my piercings right away on Friday ‘cause I had my hair up, so it’s hard to hide them, but she was really cool about it. She said things like, “Oh, they look really nice!” And asked if I’d just gone on a piercing spree lately or something. I ended up explaining that I’d gotten most of them in the period of a year, but that they weren’t really spur-of-the-moment decisions or anything. Then I mentioned that I had a tattoo and she mentioned a friend who had body mods and who said that they are addicting. I told her that it was so true and that if she wasn’t sure she wanted them, not to start, because – unlike potato chips – once you start, you really can’t stop! I’d told Aleza when I saw her that I only had one tattoo at the moment, but I’d been planning to get more. Oddly enough, when I spoke to Angelica later that day she mentioned that Chris was going to come by her house on Sunday to do tats for Joe and her mom. Well, I jumped at the chance! So now I have a brand new tattoo of a 5-pointed star on my back, at the top of my spine. It’s black-bordered, with blue inside. Ooooooh, it’s so pretty! I really like it! I’ll have to post some pics, as soon as I take some…

I can’t remember if I had my hair up on Monday when I saw Lauren, but I think I must have because I seem to remember her eyes flicking to them every few seconds. It was too funny. And she couldn’t even see that I had tattoos, I wonder what she would’ve thought. Then again, Aleza probably told her. I shouldn’t make wild assumptions about Lauren – I really don’t know her well enough anymore to do that.

But more on my new tat! There were a few times where it hurt more than my leg tat, but overall it was much more comfortable ‘cause I wasn’t in a weird contorted position that caused my feet to fall asleep. Nope. This time I was straddling Lisa’s kitchen chair, leaning my head on the back of it. It was much more comfortable! I’ve been putting Bacitracin on it for the past 3 days, so tomorrow I’m switching over to A&D ointment. The first day I left it covered with the bandage, but the next day I left it uncovered under my shirt. But today the tag in the back of the shirt I was wearing irritated it, so I covered it loosely again. ::sigh:: I want it to heal already.

At one point during the tattooing, I started talking to Chris ‘cause Angelica and Liz had totally abandoned me to go online in Angelica’s room! And he asked me when I would be getting my next tat. In September? I said no ‘cause in September I’d be getting two piercings in my right ear and that’s going to cost $50, so I can’t afford to get more tats anytime soon. Besides which, I think it’s better to leave some time between these things so as not to overexcite my parents. o.O* Wouldn’t want them to have any heart trouble or anything because of me. But I’m really looking forward to those piercings in September. I want two CBRs in the correct spots so that I can change them for a barbell when they’ve healed. Yes, I know I can just have them pierced with the barbell, but I’d rather they heal properly before putting the barbell in. Even if it ends up costing a bit more.

I think I lost track of what I had planned on talking about. Oh well. More soon, I’m sure.

I remembered!

BAAF! And AXNY! They’re this weekend! I went to pick up my Staff T-shirt from Ryoko today, along with my volunteer badge and manager’s paperwork. As it turns out, you get one shirt per shift. I have 4 shifts. So I was thinking, what am I going to do with four shirts?! So I ended up getting the 3 extra shirts in the correct sizes for Liz, Louie, and Angelica. Aren’t I nice? Afterwards, I called Angelica and told her what I did and I think she was really surprised by how nice I was. But I don’t get it, I mean… what else would I do but think about my closest friends?

Hmm, in addition to one shift per day for BAAF, I’m also manning the promo table in the Dealers’ Room for Yuricon on Sunday from 4 to 6:30 pm. So, if you’re there stop by and say hi!

Book recommendations:

1632 by Eric Flint:

It’s actually been about a month since I finished reading this book, so I’m not going to be able to recall all the details, but it’s a really good read! The premise is 6-mile radius of land from the middle of Appalachia in the States is transplanted through space and time to a small town in Germany in the middle of the 17th century (hence, the title 1632).

Mother of Demons by Eric Flint:

I have a difficult time getting “into” alien sci-fi, partly because I find it tedious to remember the descriptions of the aliens. But this particular book had me hooked from the start! Flint’s sense of humor is very apparent, and his point of view on history (which is intertwined throughout the book) is fascinating! My main interest is military fiction, but Flint could definitely pull me into the subgenre of alternate history. As long as it’s with his intriguing humor, of course.

Harmful to Minors: the Perils of Protecting Children from Sex by Judith Levine:

The first non-school, non-fiction book I’ve read in…. oh, about 10 years! I was at the library and picked up a book by Sara Ryan that sounded very interesting. I would have read it, but I’m so not in the mood for first-person-diary-entry format right now. It really gets on my nerves at times. So I put it down, but I noticed on the back cover that the author had a website… so I went to the site and clicked on her book recommendations link and saw the recommendation for Judith Levine’s Harmful to Minors, so I went to look it up. I’m about half way through at this point. While it’s not as fast-paced or intriguing as a fiction novel, it is very interesting and Levine really explains a lot of what goes on in the government and the whole “Christian Right” sex-scare. I actually stopped reading for a bit, partly because it’s too scary to read, all in one shot, about the horrible politics that go on in your own government. Especially when those politics take away your rights; freedom of choice and personal privacy, etc. Obviously, I’m a liberal. ::shudders:: I’m going to have to go back and finish it soon.