my moral standing is lying down

Rangers are playing up and down and all over the place. Not a good sign for the rest of the season. However, we continue to hope, do we not?

Liz and I will be going to the Rangers vs. Calgary game on Sunday 12/7. Hope it's a good one. When I was looking for tickets, I had to decide between the Calgary game this Sunday and the Florida game last Sunday. After the good Florida game on Friday, I'd wondered if I should've gotten the Florida/Sunday tickets, but after hearing about that 4-0 rout, I'm SO RELIEVED I didn't get those! It would've been SUCH a disappointment! =(

As it is, who knows how their game tonight against the Penguins will go. I'm excited to see Sunday's game... but apprehensive as well. =/

In other (former-)Rangers news, have you heard about Avery's "off-color" comments regarding his ex, Elisha Cuthbert, who's now going out with Dion Phaneuf of the Calgary Flames... who we'll see on Sunday night. Haha, it all comes full-circle. In any case, Avery has been suspended indefinitely until a hearing takes place.

I have to say, my first reaction was along the lines of OMG stupid NHL, who cares what he says? He's a provocateur; always was and always will be. Though upon review, I think I've come to the conclusion that it's not the sort of reputation the NHL wants to have, and punishment is the right way to go.

There are a couple of points to make here.

1. I think what Avery said isn't really a big deal, and if he'd said it on his own time, it wouldn't have been one. But he made sure he had the attention of the press outside the locker room and deliberately chose that moment and method in which to make this provocative insult.
   
   
2. The NHL took the right path in not letting this slip by. Avery should be punished for what he did because to let it go would set a precedent for low standards of conduct. Despite the fact that most think what he did is pretty funny (including myself), it's not behavior that should be encouraged, which is the message that would be sent by just letting it go.
   
   
3. On the other hand, as someone in hockey mentioned, the NHL -- which seems to be unable to set suspensions or punishments consistently for heinous injury-causing behaviors -- doesn't exactly have its priorities straight.
   
   
4. That being said, I think the attention is (unfortunately?) actually good for the NHL. It hasn't promoted the sport to its potential; attendance, sales, interest are lagging. The NHL needs an attention-grabber in a big way and truthfully, Avery is that.

To close, I will leave you with this; I had an interesting dream last night. I was at MSG. There was apparently a big dinner event -- several 20-seat tables were set up on the ice. (On the ice? WTF?!) It was before dinner; people were walking around, chatting and mingling. I walked up to a group of around 8 Rangers. But they did NOT look like they do IRL; in fact, none of them had faces I recognized even though I knew they were Rangers. They all looked like they were from a 90s boy-band: short, square-cut, gel-spiked hair, plain black or white T's, and stonewashed jeans. (Where the HELL did this all come from? Judy's been playing her pop music too loud, obviously, if this is what I think of when I go to sleep.)

Anyway, I talked with them for a few minutes; we were talking about someone across the ice whom I was looking at. The conversation paused for a moment, and when I looked back over at the guys, they'd all gone except for one. I didn't recognize him, so I asked what his name was and he said Merino. ("Like the wool?" I thought, but didn't say.) Instead, I said "Oh, I think I recognize you." Which was total bullshit, of course. And we walked toward a table together.

How weird is that? Merino wool? WTF?

I really enjoy my weird dreams. Good thing, since I have a lot of them. That said, I wonder sometimes what the hell my subconscious is up to. >_<;

In any case, it was quite a novel feeling to take the JLPT today. So reminiscent of SATs and such, which I haven't taken in YEARS. In fact, I haven't taken any tests in years. You'd think I would have been nervous, but I wasn't, actually. Very odd. And it's not that I was all that prepared, 'cause I really could have prepared better for the grammar part of it.

For all that studying I did of kanji, the kanji part of the test was SUPER EASY! Listening comprehension was the most difficult; grammar was okay, but there were some points that I hadn't formally learned so was a bit shaky on; reading comprehension was also super easy. =D Overall, I think I passed, but don't want to get my hopes up.

But studying on Saturday was invigorating and so was taking the test, actually. It's one of the few things I think is lacking from the Japan Society classes -- tests. I never thought I'd say it, but I think they could stand to administer an assessment test at the end of each level, just for one's own knowledge (since no one gets graded on anything anyway).

Tomorrow Japan Society registration is open to non-members and so hopefully Judy will be able to get into that class with me, which will be cool and probably more motivation to study harder. =D

[edit: BTW, yoshiinjapan, I just had to mention that today's gift on facebook is a healing crystal. It's obviously a sign.]

So I've had this recurring dream for the past couple of nights that I'm in some sort of school environment where I see the same people every day. It must be high school. And my boyfriend is Ichigo. (Which is pretty darn odd because I haven't watched or really thought about Bleach since I stopped watching at episode 57.) And there's a bitchy Hispanic girl who keeps spreading rumors and trying to break us up. (I think this may be because I saw Take the Lead a few nights ago.)

I vividly remember her accusing me of cheating (like, on a test -- either trying to cheat, or trying to help someone else cheat, or trying to get someone else to cheat) and lying. And making sure that the rumors were going to get back to Ichigo. And then I was all worried by that (why, I have no idea ~ this dream is obviously a shoujo manga) so I was running around the school trying to find him. Finally, I found him (did I mention that he went around school in his Shinigami robes? Although that would explain more why I would be going out with him), and he was looking at me with this disappointed, slightly angry face and I was really upset that he was going to break up with me over something like this. (I don't even know who the hell it was that I had tried to help cheat!)

So I explained to him that yes, I'd tried to help this person cheat, but no, I hadn't lied about it. (There was a little more detail about what exactly I had or hadn't lied about and what was said to whom, but I can't remember anymore.) And I explained exactly what had happened and what I said. And he was like, oh, okay then. ;_; And we were all okay and still going out.

I felt so proud!!! that I had subverted the typical breakup-because-of-miscommunication/misunderstanding plot device. Guh.

WTF, I ask you. W.T.F?!

I keep falling asleep at my desk -- that kind that lasts a few seconds at a time.

And I keep having the weirdest dreams -- stuff about my co-workers going around the office kicking soccer balls, or dribbling them as the jog from one office to another. Or my personal favorite, one particular woman shouted something vaguely like, "Ooou! Go~!" and pumped her fist in the air.

@_@;

Definitely watching waaaaay too much of Whistle.

Definitely need to catch up on sleeeeeep.

But that seems to be just the tip of the iceberg for the past month. My whole family was sick while we were moving our crap from our apartment to our new house. It was a pain in the butt, let me tell you! I tried to write in this LJ several times, but something always happened to prevent my writings from being published! The first time, I got kicked off AOL, so the window closed -- along with several paragraphs I had already written. I was so pissed that I just couldn't bring myself to re-write it or anything, so I turned off the computer. The second time was when we finally had the computer set up in the house and I was typing in Internet Explorer, so if AOL kicked me offline, I'd still be able to save what I wrote. That's when I accidentally brushed the restart button, so I lost it anyway!

In any case, I was sick at the beginning of the move, but seemed to get better. My parents and sister, though, got worse. I was feeling great.... then I got sick. It hit me a few days ago; I was dead tired and even fell asleep for an hour or two during the middle of the day -- that's how I know I'm sick, 'cause I never fall asleep during the middle of the day unless I'm sick. And now I'm all stuffed-up, runny-nosed, coughing up lungs every few minutes. It's yucky.

Not to mention, I lost the earring I had in the cartilage of my left ear for a few months, so it took me a few days to get to an earring store (Claire's) to buy another one. Angelica put that one in, and she said to tighten it when I got home 'cause it was a little loose. But I forgot to 'cause I wasn't feeling well (oh, did I mention that my wisdom teeth are cutting again, which gives me a massive headache, and the right side of my lower gum is swollen?), so I woke up the next morning and it was gone again! ::sweatdrop:: So then I get all mad at myself 'cause I'm spending a fortune on stupid earrings. Not even pairs of earrings, but single ones! So I decided the next day I'd have to go buy another one and tighten it this time. But then -- lucky me -- I found the one that I'd lost the second time, and put it in my ear and pushed it down a little so it wouldn't fall out.

But that wasn't such a good thing, I guess, because it started hurting when I leaned on it in a certain position, so I had to go get a different one anyway. But by this time I had decided to get an earring like Angelica's, where the whole hoop goes through the hole and the ball is what connects the two ends of the hoop. So we went to the village on Monday and I got one (after much protest 'cause I'm a scaredy-cat when it comes to pain, although I do have a high pain tolerance... I make no sense, but I guess that's nothing new). So the ball that I got was a black one. But I meant to get a red one. I was just so worried about the pain of having my hole stretched (please no hentai comments!) that I completely forgot about wanting a red ball and just asked for what I already had, which was a black one.

The reason I wanted a red one was because of a dream I had had earlier in the week about being in the village and wanting to get my ears pierced with a hoop with a red ball, but wondering if Angelica would be mad if I went and got my ears pierced without her, so I ended up not getting them pierced. It felt so real. LOL. When I saw her the next day I asked her if she'd have minded, and she said no, so that was kinda like a go-ahead, I guess.

So I got the black ball instead of the red one. It's okay, I guess. I'll try to see if I can get a red ball without the hoop. ::shrugs:: But about an hour before I got the new hoop put in the cartilage of my ear (which is now throbbing, but not enough to really bother), I got a second hole in each of my earlobes. Little gold stars with white sparkly fake-diamond things in the middle. I don't normally wear gold 'cause I like silver much better, but they were stars and I really like stars, so it's okay. It's only for about 2 months, anyway. I think I waited for 3 months before changing my cartilage piercing, so 2 months should be fine for the lobe piercings (which don't bother me at all, actually, except for the inital burning sensation which only lasted 5 minutes anyway).

But that's not all!!!

The day after I got really sick (which was last Tuesday, I believe, 'cause Angelica and I were supposed to hang out Wednesday, but I still wasn't feeling well enough to really go out), I actually felt a bit better. So it was Wednesday when I sprained my ankle. ::sweatdrop:: I'm not normally this much of a klutz. (Shutup, Angelica.) Yes, I do tend to sprain one of my ankles, on average, once a year, but all this stuff doesn't normally happen all at the same time! Oddly enough, this ankle sprain isn't so bad. I've been able to walk on it almost as if I hadn't sprained it, but it's still a bit sore in certain positions.

Yesterday, after going to the village to do my ear-care package, (Oh, btw, the cartilage hole-stretching didn't hurt at all when the guy did it, but it's been throbbing in the background since a few hours after and all of today), we went to Burlington Coat Factory to buy me a coat. After an hour or so of intense deliberation which included me trying on 2 different long wool coats several times (one gray, one black, slightly different styles), I decided I'd hold onto the gray one and go look to see if they had anything else I'd like. Angelica wasn't quite happy with the gray one, so she oh-so-subtly led me over to some faux sherling jackets. (Did I mention that she really likes faux sherling and has an intense hatred for long wool coats that she hides only half as well as she thinks she does?)

So there was only one that I could possibly have considered because it was this navyish/blackish/grayish color and all the others were tan (eewwww) or green (eeewwwww). Those are sooo not my colors. Even if they were, I just couldn't wear anything that light or bright. I'd go crazy. (Crazier?) Anyway, the navy/black/gray faux sherling just happened to be my size. Lucky me 'cause there was only one of them. Apparently Angelica tried it on, but it was a bit too small for her. (Baka. Were we going coat-shopping for her or me, I'd like to know!) But anyway, I ended up getting it. It feels a lot warmer than the wool would be. But I had just gotten used to long coats 'cause I had been borrowing my sister's long wool coat this past winter.... so now I have to get used to a jacket again. It's nice though, so I forgive Angelica for being a sneak.

So today I hung out with Angelica the whole day. It was nice. I got some money that was waiting for me at the post office, so I didn't even use the $50 that was in my wallet. Maybe I should have, though. 'Cause I lost my wallet somewhere in the library on 40th Street and 5th Avenue between 3:30 pm and 6:00 pm, but didn't realize it until 7:20 pm. Did I mention that they close at 7, so I couldn't go back? Hidoi, ne?

So I'm going back tomorrow morning. Hopefully some kind person turned it in. (I'm not counting on it, though. After all, this is New York.)

I feel like I should be reading that children's book that everyone seemed to have read to them in 1st grade, Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Unfortunately, I don't own a copy.