A Lot of Ten-Year-Olds Hate Me Right Now

And long day was long. Let me walk you through.

I went to the Sertoma Butterfly House today. I now have butterfly book darts. Also, I was being brave and getting close to the small spider enclosures they have along one wall. The first one had a Mexican Red Velvet Tarantula in it. There were a few other species and then one of them had these Madagascar hissing cockroaches. They’re kind of cool-looking.

Also, a butterfly walked on me. Not just walked on me but stood on me, tasted me for about a solid minute and then continued to stand on me. And it continued to stand on me until my mother got him to stand on her long enough to put him on a nearby plant. So that was awesome. There were so many of these bright blue butterflies in there. Every time I’d see one, I’d think ‘Hello, Absolum’ because I am a geek.

It’s not just a butterfly house, though. They have a small aquarium attached. With a touch tank. And lionfish – I love lionfish. I couldn’t pet the lionfish but I did get to pet the stingrays and one of those little algae-cleaner fish – I’m not sure what they’re called. (I know they have an actual name but I can’t look it up because the internet at the hotel is down. Again. So, if you’re reading this, either it came back up or I posted it from a Barns and Noble. Or possibly a McDonald's.)

Then we popped into World Market again. I now have two more bottles of Blood Orange Soda and I am happy about that. I also found these little square violet mints that I used to get from my father. I haven’t had them in years and I’d completely forgotten about them.

Since it was getting on toward noon, we decided we would stop for lunch at Cracker Barrel, which is a nice place, really. It’s country but not annoyingly western. It’s more like old-world, out on the plains kind of country. We both just got an egg sandwich with tomato and fired apples in a little dish on the side. Just good, cozy food.

But this is the part most ten-year-olds would hate me for.

We went to Cold Stone Creamery, a place which neither of us had ever been to. Guys. I can’t even … I had a small scoop of Oatmeal Cookie Batter. It was rich enough that I was feeling slightly ill by the end of it but it was good enough that I didn’t care about that.

Then we went up to the Great Plains Zoo. It was hot and sticky outside but they have Amur Tigers there. Also, it’s connected to a museum (which is awesome and much cooler than outside) so we wandered around there for a while before we walked out into the actual zoo.

A man named Bill walked up to us in said museum (while we were looking at eggs, if I remember rightly) and mentioned that he saw we had some tattoo work. We do – both I and my mother have full sleeves – and we get asked about them quite a bit. He put a hand on each of our shoulders and said ‘You know what I think about tattoos?’ We shook our heads. ‘I think they’re a beautiful artistic expression. And you are beautiful people.’* Then he hugged us both.

So that was new.

We walked around outside and stared at a giant anteater and a tiger for a while, hanging out in the shade, before we ventured out into the rest of the zoo. We managed to catch the train around the one side of it and then walked around the rest. I really wish I’d thought to bring my camera (it’s usually in the car, not in the room so I spaced on it) because there were giraffes. And giraffes are huge in person.

There were also geese – gaggles of them – waddling around the zoo so we fed them. Then Mum goosed one. Not really, but we touched them without getting pinched, at least.

I managed to bruise my knees crawling through the ‘Turtle Tunnel’. (Yes, I am almost twenty and no, I don’t care.) But that’s all fine because I got to ride a camel. His name was Cletus and they let me pet his head. *squee* Unfortunately, it made me miss riding horses. I haven’t been riding in forever and I really want to go again.

So that was my day. I am tired, I need a shower, and I’m stupidly hungry even though nothing sounds good.

I’m going to go and maybe try to write for JulNoWriMo a little bit until it’s time for dinner. I have so many ideas, guys, I just don’t know what to do with half of them. I’m bouncing back and forth between something original and a fan story right now – actually, several fan stories right now.

I wonder if it’s something to do with all the stress lately? I mean, I’m going to college and I really want to do the study abroad thing and that’s stressful for a girl who’s never been out of his parent’s sight… I just mixed my pronouns there. Huh. Well, I’m not fixing it. Welcome to my brain.

Really, I’m gonna go. This thing is about a thousand words now and I really don’t need to talk that much.

Bye for now guys.

*This is somewhat paraphrased as I can’t remember exactly what he said. I was something along those lines. We’ve since dubbed him ‘Crazy Bill’. But, hey, if I have to be around crazy people, I’d rather them be crazy like him. :)

This City

which is our lifeblood could be brought to its knees by a single thought - why do we dream? - Galiger Tibalt.

It doesn't quite fit as Sioux Falls is far from Tokyo in terms of cyberpunk technology but it's a cool quote. Tibalt is asking, or rather pointing out, that we do not often stop to question our own lives and their relation to the world around us. More often than not we lock ourselves into a classic model for success - work, money, family - and never stop to question our motivations or to wonder why we dream. This quote seems to say that if we did, we might lose our current society but the unspoken continuation is that we may gain something much more valuable for taking the risk.

It's kind of an amazingly simple and deep quote... considering I just made it up. I make up quotes a lot. Anyway.

I ate blueberries the other day. That's not really a big deal except it kind of is because up until then I wouldn't eat them if I were starving. They were in this salad with sweetened spinach leaves, sliced strawberries and candied walnuts. It came with this little cup of tomato basil soup and I almost made myself sick on it.

Also, you know what they have here? World Market. If you don't know what that is, look into it. It is an amazing store. It has things from everywhere - Japan, Germany, Korea, Norway - and I just love it to death.

Let me take you through what happened here, 'cause it's kind of a long story:

We got into town and had planned to stay in an extended-stay hotel for the week. That kind of fell through since the place was basically a glorified Motel 6. So we stayed at the Ramkota Hotel which has an indoor pool with a water-slide, a restaurant and a little sports bar in the hotel. Also, the rooms look like this:

So that's kind of awesome. We then spent several days looking around the place. It's nice, actually. I mean, I rather like it but then mum and I figured out a better way to handle the whole college thing which effectively made this whole trip a long vacation. Which is fine by me.

Time for obligatory pictures of Falls Park:

And this one:

And then across the park (it's a big place):

There's also this creepy-looking thing near the actual falls:

Which leads me to bite my tongue to avoid making a 'The Key and The Gate' reference. I mean, seriously, look at this thing:

It's kind of a shame they had it closed off.

So then, after talking things over quite a bit, we decided I could go to Grey's Harbor Community College (which has a study abroad program, amazingly) and then go on to Evergreen State, we went to the bookstore. Prepare for book spam:

I got The Catcher in the Rye:

Slaughterhouse Five:

A Clockwork Orange:

The Sociopath Next Door:

Batman and Psychology (my geek is showing):

This awesome Edgar Allen Poe book:

And, of course, The Art of War:

So that was about 100 dollars and an awesome trip. From there, we went out for lunch since my stomach was about to eat itself. Chili's is actually good about substitutions so I could get a veggie quesadilla. Yay~!

The next little while was spent wandering around World Market. As a result, I have even more picture spam for you:

'Kimmy' Seasoned Seaweed (Korea):

Curiosity Cola:

Ramune Drink (Japan):

'Hello Kitty' Lucky Stars Candy (China):

'Chimes' Ginger Chews (Indonesia):

Blood Orange Soda (Italy):

And Dolfin Dark Chocolate with Pink Peppercorns (Belgium):

So yeah. I have way too many pictures and are you jealous yet? You have to be jealous. I would be. *squees*

Anyway, that was my picture-heavy post for the past few days. I'll be heading back soon and getting things straightened out there. But first I'll be in Montana for about two weeks. I feel like a touring author ^^

So... sorry (or not) for the picture spam this time but I'm all happy and excited because I won't be as bored anymore. I feel like Sherlock sometimes - 'Bored.'

Bye for now guys. I'm rambling and taking up a lot of space here so I'll check in once we figure out what exactly we'll be doing next.

(Long blog post was long.)

SF, SD

So. I'm in Sioux Falls. And because I'm in Sioux Falls, I'm both happy, tired and slightly stressed.

We were going to stay at an extended-stay hotel but it's in the industrial area and just... not quite our style. So I'm at a place called the Ramkota Hotel. They have this little place inside called the Maple Street Cafe and guys... OMG. They have this roasted tomato pasta with this red wine sauce. I ate it. All of it. And I feel sick but I don't care.

On the drive up here, we saw cows and the occasional motorcycle. That was about it. Oh and a truck full of pigs. They were adorable.

For right now, I'm busy getting slightly annoyed with people in general and being stressed about things and (stupidly) wanting to write. Also tumblr isn't loading quite right so that's annoying too. I'm kind of wired for sound in a couple of ways, neither of which really make sense.

I've also been fangirling couples again. This is apparently my stress reaction. So yeah. Anyway. IDK what I'm doing right now aside from freaking out as the fact that I'm up here now and will have to get on with things slowly sinks in.

Also. Script Frenzy. Apparently the OLL can't keep running it; it's too much of a loss for them and it just hasn't grown like the other programs. So that sucks. I'll still do it though. It was an awesome program. If nothing else it was a great way to plan and outline.

Now, I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe write a little on something pointless and just not worry about things for a while.

I'm rambling so bye for now guys. I'll check in probably tomorrow and let you guys know I'm still alive.