Liz

Aww, thank you, Eir and Violet.

An hour to go, and I enter another year of my life. I hope it's at least as good as the one I'm getting ready to leave behind... Yes. I'm doing the lyric thing again. "When this old world starts getting me down And people are just too much for me to face I'll climb way up to the top of the stairs And all my cares just drift right into space On the roof, it's peaceful as can be And there the world below don't bother me, no So when I come home feeling tired and beat I'll go up where the air is fresh and sweet I'll get far away from the hustling crowd And all the rat-race noise down in the street On the roof, the only place I know Where you just have to wish to make it so Let's go up on the roof And at night the stars put on a show for free And, darling, you can share it all with me I keep on telling you Right smack dab in the middle of town I found a paradise that's troubleproof And if this old world starts getting you down There's room enough for two Up on the roof..."

I went shopping a few days ago, which is something I rarely do because I have almost no interest in it. I usually go because someone else is and they want company. I ended up with two pairs of shoes, three shirts, a new pair of jeans, and a skirt. I feel dirty for spending so much... On the other hand, one of those shirts is a Queen shirt (News of the World) and I don't regret getting that at all because that's the first time I've ever seen a Queen shirt sold in a store instead of on a tour or online. And it's really comfortable. Yay. As to the age thing, I'll have to think on it a little more before I make up my mind.

Ha. I completely forgot you asked me that when I left for a few days. I wonder though, why you're curious about it... Just because it's thus far not common knowledge? I could understand that. Can't really think of any other reason...

What's wrong with autumn? It's my favorite time of year. The air is crisp, the sky is blue, and I feel energized and motivated. Summer is blah... Rainy, humid, hot, sweaty, and ugh. And I always get asked, over and over, "Why don't you cut your hair off? How can you STAND to have hair that long in the summer?" So yes. Autumn person here, too.

1. Spread Your Wings - Queen. 2. Staying Power - Queen. 3. Tear it Up - Queen. 4. Grace Kelly - We all know who did that. 5. Love Today - See above. 6. Lollipop - See above. 7. Pour Some Sugar on Me - Def Leppard. 8. Animal - Def Leppard. 9. Hunk a Burnin' Love - Elvis. 10. What a Wonderful World This Would Be - Sam Cooke. That's a newly rediscovered favorite right there.

That's a lovely story. I'm glad that something I did brought up something so nice. My father used to sing that song to me. It just... Came to mind tonight. And I walked into the dojo singing it softly to myself, and my sensei looked up from his desk with this look on his face that clearly said, "Woah, is she REALLY smiling and singing?" and he just kind of stared at me while I was singing it until I realized he was watching me... I then abruptly stopped and he looked back down. Anyway, Violet reminds me of a question I was asked not too long ago... Do you guys think it's possible to fall in love in a month?

My thoughts seems to be flowing in the form of lyrics lately. It probably gets a bit irritating, so after this I'll try to stop. And so I give you... "Don't know much about history Don't know much biology Don't know much about science books Don't know much about the french I took But I do know, that I love you And I know that if you love me, too What a wonderful world this would be Don't know much about geometry Don't know much trigonometry Don't know much about algebra Don't know what a slide rule is for But I do know that one and one makes two And if this one could be with you What a wonderful world this would be Now I don't claim to be an A student But I'm tryin' to be Cause maybe by bein' an A student, baby I can win your love for me Don't know much about history Don't know much biology Don't know much about science books Don't know much about the french I took But I do know that I love you And I know that if you loved me, too What a wonderful world this would be What a wonderful world this would be."

How can you fail a piano exam...? I mean, unless they don't know you can't read music. And we review all the stuff we should know tonight at the dojo for belt testing on Wednesday. They're going to fail me the day before my birthday, I just know it... I couldn't practice when I was visiting my mother... Nngh. And my nervous habit is twirling my hair, rubbing my neck, or playing with my earlobe. I'm weird.

Yeah, that's my favorite genre of books... And I just remember some of my other true favorites... Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott.

I'm jumping in without reading any posts but the original (I've been out for four days and came back to sixteen thousand some odd posts- what do you expect from me?) My favorite author is Alexander Dumas, followed by my favorite book being The Count of Monte Cristo. The last book I read... Was a big encyclopedia on Egyptology (Ever seen Egyptian-Roman art? Not pretty) does that count? Besides Alexander Dumas' work, I would recommend... Peter Rabbit. In fact, all the Beatrix Potter stories. I say this because I've been going through old books lately, and came across my childhood collection of those books and fell right back in love with them. Go read them!

They were working on one, and it was to be posted... But they haven't got around to it posting yet. I'm not entirely sure if it's absolutely finished.

Oh wow, I was actually missed. That makes me feel so special! I feel an awful lot like people want me to go away sometimes... Maybe that's because "Go away!" was often shouted at me when I was little. I am by no means done. I don't think I'll ever be. I was away for the last four days, as was noted, visiting my mother. Good times... But I was completely deprived of my music, so I had NO MIKA for four days. Or Queen. Or Def Leppard. Or Billy Joel. Or Aerosmith. Or... Well, you get the idea. No, I was in Blues land for four days- not that that's bad, because I like blues too, but... In small doses, y'know? Not going to several different blues jams, listening to it to and from places. But that's okay. The trauma will recede, I'm sure. I also was clearly detached from the Mika boards. It was a dark time of my life. We will not discuss it, instead only solidifying that I am happy to be back. Now, let's see. My thoughts right now are, "You think this shadow of doubt is hangin' over my head- it's just an angel whose wings hide the sun, and it's myself I betray, I cannot wish this away, took my chance, now the damage is done." Mainly because I'm singing that right now. Anyway, it's my own fault I had none of my music. See, a few months ago, I had just got home and was changing my then-dirty clothes with every intent of emptying my pockets... I was tired out and tense already when my cellphone went off (GOD OF THUNDER! And rock n' roll! The spell you're under will surely rob you of your virgin soul! - quite a ringtone) and it was important... So I grabbed a new pair of jeans, pull them on, and headed out. And forgot to empty my pockets of the other jeans. So I got home, tossed the old pants in the laundry without thinking and turned on the washer. And when I went to put the clothes in the drier... I remembered. Horrorstruck, I grabbed the jeans, turned out the pockets- And found out I had just washed my poor, unsuspecting i-Pod. My pretty, shiny, beloved red i-Pod. I was so mixed up with anger, frustration, and sadness that I didn't even yell or cry. I just stood there for two minutes straight, staring slack-jawed at my Christmas present disbelievingly. I still haven't bought a new one, or told the person who gave it to me that I actually did that because I'm so ashamed of myself for it when they made such an effort to buy it for me. Anyway, my last thought is more lyrics... "Day and night, black and white Take it all for granted I'm the one who turns you on When you don't know where you belong And nothin' seems to matter I'm the one who's holdin' on It's alright to be wrong All we need's a little time But nothin' here can last that long We show the world a brand new face It's taken us all this time All this time All of this doubt... We get to work it out All of this doubt We get to work it out."

Heh, how old do you think I am?

Most excellent, I love North Carolina!

I'm really sorry you didn't get it, Violet. There's other jobs out there you might like, though, so keep your chin up! You'll find one!

My birthday is in exactly one week... I had plans for it, but, I think they're about to fall through given everybody's different schedules. It's a bit sad, since I've never really been able to celebrate my birthday on my birthday for pretty much my whole life- I kind of hoped to this time around, because this year was very special for me and I wanted to end it memorably. And they're doing belt tests at the dojo the day before it. Yesterday was a complete fluke day. The black belts kept dropping their tonfa, the brown belts forgot their tonfa sets, I just couldn't get the rhythms and stances right on mine... It was so frustrating, because my mind knew what it should be doing and at what speed, but my body just wouldn't physically cooperate in spite of my practicing. I'm so mad at myself. So yeah, we review everything on Monday and test Wednesday... And I hope by then my muscles will be rested and healed. They're terribly sore from all the exertion lately since our regular instructor for jiu jitsu was at a tournament, he had someone else fill in for him and he was terribly sadistic (in the best possible way- that was a fun class) in all the stationary drills he had us do. So uh. Those are my thoughts this morning. I'm done now.

I love how you put that... Big honkin' grizzly bear. I'm still snickering at that. The answer about cannibal scientologists amused me. And poor him, being attacked by a dog. I remember when my brother got bit by the neighbor dog that broke its chain and chased him down the street. Not good times.

I'd... probably gesture at the rest of the people around me and say, "Psycho fans." I'm not good at just walking up to people I admire, really. I'd have to wait for him to say something to me first and as the swarm of fans grows, the odds of that for me will get less and less. But, life goes on.

Boxing, nice. I'm not really big on kickboxing itself- I've never seen an impressive match of it yet. Judo is good, a lot of jiu jitsu links with that... Karate is great too. Cheng Mei sounds familiar, but I'm not sure where I heard of it. My classmates are kind of scared of me or have a futilistic point of view because I have a slightly unfair advantage... I'm incredibly double-jointed and otherwise the most flexible in the class. A lot of armbars and joint locks don't work on me, and ones that will have to be done with a serious intent to damage me for life... But by the time I get to that point, I usually found a way out of that situation by then. We nickname each other. They call me Psycho or Twister. Lately, I've been tapping out when they get me in a lock that should work on me if I were "normal" as they put it, but doesn't because of my flexibility. The only show on TV I regularly watch is Ultimate Fighting Champion. It is SO awesome when you see good jiu jitsu players on there. I'm so weird for a girl...

I'm just going to jump right in (how unlike me- what am I talking about, telling jokes at all is unlike me) without checking to see if someone's said it... There were these two peanuts walking down the road, and one of them was assaulted.

What all do you take, Kiwi?

Florida is just a sweaty place to be, with all the humidity and summer round the bend and whatnot. I'll bet he lost a little weight from all of it after that show. I'm glad everyone seemed to have a good time, even though I didn't get to go...

Hehe. Well, in any case, I kind of wish more of the girls in the dojo would willingly take on the guys... It would really help them with their self-defense. I mean, if all you do is fight other women, if an actual guy is attacking later on for the first time... That whole difference in weight and feeling their strength will throw them completely, they'll start to panic, and forget all the techniques they learned. I'm one of two girls in the class that willingly fight the guys and they DO fight back, especially when they find out you mean it... They don't like losing to a girl. But if you partner up with the men more often, you'll be used to it and you'll learn their size and strength will probably end up to be their fall if you know what you're doing.

Awwww. I love bunnies. I had three when I was kid- they were awesome. I had a dollhouse and one of the bunnies used to push open the front door and just go sit in one of the bedrooms or the kitchen. Smart bunny.