Hello, all! For those of you who're wondering why I've dropped off the face of the earth for... *checks calendar*...two months? Really? Anyway, I'm not dead. Just extremely busy now that I'm working full time at the local hospital. It's a pretty awesome job-- there's a lot to do and my co-workers are just fantastic (they actually thank me for doing a good job every time my shift's over), and the hours are pretty flexible.

I'm also working at Bath & Body Works, which I guess is all right, but I made the mistake of starting my shift there directly after my shift at the hospital. May I never be that exhausted again. Gah.  I think I'm going to let them know that I can only work on the weekends from now on.

So anyway, yeah. This time I actually have a legitimate reason for disappearing, instead of "Kaiya is too lazy to update her journal." XD

One of my favorite series of books as a kid were the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede. It had everything that tickled my early adolescent fancy-- a princess who could kick ass, a sassy witch, talking cats, a "techno-geek" magician... oh yes, and dragons. There were a lot of those.

One of the things that really got me excited, though, was that the proclaimed King of Dragons-- who was said princess's good friend-- was actually female. When one of the characters was confused as to why a female dragon would take the role of king and not queen, the princess offered this explanation: "'King of Dragons' is the name of a job. It has nothing to do with gender."

Needless to say, this blew my young mind as well as got me thinking "well, why not?" After all, it doesn't seem to be written in stone that a king has to be a man-- it's just sort of implied, as far as I can tell. But still, why should a king always be a man? We're pretty progressive and open-minded now-- isn't it time to do away with those types of gender roles?

I'm sure you guys have figured out by now that I'm going somewhere with this. You're right, and so I'm sure you can imagine how utterly ecstatic I was when I read this particular story. Just... that is absolutely awesome. Hell yes.

It's 7 in the morning and I'm doing memes. Why do I do this to myself. =_=

( More long-winded dorkery. (Slight spoilers for Escaflowne, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Hellsing, Cardcaptor Sakura, and X/1999. Also link-heavy.) )

GAAAAH WHY AM I STILL AWAKE

To paraphrase Goldilocks and the Three Bears, "Someone has been stealing from my bank account."

I recently got a bank statement that was rather troubling. There was a payment I don't remember making for $79.00 to DirectTV Inc. We don't have DirectTV, and even if we did, why would I, a starving college graduate, be the one making the payments?

I called the bank about the discrepancy, and they said it would probably take seven to ten business days to sort everything out.

I'm only slightly worried, but mostly extremely confused how they managed to get ahold of one of my checks. My mom told me that these were troubled times, and more and more people were turning to small crimes as a way to make ends meet, but honestly. DirectTV? I could understand if they used it to buy food with it, but...

Hopefully this will work itself out and I'll be able to get my money back.

Wow I've been horrible about updating this.

( In which I get long-winded about events in my life. Again. )

...I've really gotta stop waiting until I have to make a long-ass post just to keep up with what's going on. XD

I just got my first visit from some Jehovah's Witnesses.


...is it odd that I feel kinda special now? XD

I really have been horrible about updating this, haven't I?

( In which the intrepid Kaiya strikes out on a new adventure. )

HEY

HEY

GUESS WHO'S FINISHED WITH THAT HELLBOUND GODDAMN ASS-RAPING SEVENTEEN PAGE PAPER?

FOREVER?



Hiatus is officially over. I'm back, bitches. It's like I never left.

(And I totally would embed that thing in the post if I could. Curse my lack of html-fu!)

...no, not that "h" word. XD

Okay! So due to my school's determination to rape me with deadlines, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to go on a tentative hiatus. I've got at least four papers and an oral presentation due by the end of this semester, and it looks like the only way I'm gonna get through with all of them is if I take a break from the internet for the next few weeks.

(tunasaladsonnet , I hate to say this, but that also means you'll have to do without new fic from me during that time. D: But I will try to be on Windows Live or whatever so we can chat a bit. I'll probably need the moral support anyway. ^^)

So, yeah. Ducking out from the intarwebs for a while until I can at least make some headway in my projects.

See you soon!

Edit: Okay, maybe I'll retract the "no-fic" rule. Because I'm nice like that. ^^

Dear Emotions,

Can we not have the utter clusterfuck that we had last night? Because that was annoying as all hell and not pleasant for anyone. Seriously, work with me here. Don't force me to make good on my promise to kill you in the face.

No love,
The Girl Who Just Wants to Be Happy, Dammit

( Listen in awe as the brave Kaiya battles the evil research paper! )

So! In other, less mind-shattering news, has anyone seen this site before? It's kinda like all of those MMORPGs that you find everywhere, except apparently you get rewards for doing household chores. You heard me. Household chores. Like, in real life. That... has got to be one of the most awesome things I've ever heard.

Edit: Huh. I just realized that I hit the 500-entry mark with this one. I don't know whether to congratulate or scold myself for being such a dedicated dork. :p

Dear Migraines,

( How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways... )

Ugh, my apartment still smells a little like cigarette smoke. The worst thing about smoking cigarettes, I've found, is that it follows you everywhere. One of my roommates brought her friends over, and they must have had a few before they came in because the entire place smelled like an ashtray when I got back. Do not appreciate my nose being bitchslapped, kthnx.

Speaking of being bitchslapped, man was it windy outside today. The lake was so choppy that it was actually splashing up onto the shore. The entire walkway to school was completely soaked. We actually had a power outage while I was in class, and when I got back to my apartment they announced that classes were cancelled for the rest of the day. My roommates were overjoyed, as you can well imagine. That wind must've been pretty powerful.

And this isn't related or anything, but are the mods at 30_kisses  okay? I want to post a claim but it doesn't seem like they're active in the comm anymore. I keep checking the request page and the last few claims've still been unanswered. I hope nothing's happened. I don't think I can post fics without the mods' say-so and I'm getting a little impatient. *fidget*

So due to the combined efforts of chicken broth, oranges, and a very long and very hot shower (although not all at the same time, because that would just have been messy), it seems that my cold has died down for now. I still have a bit of the sniffles and the occasional annoying sneeze, but I figure I can deal with that. If only my writer's block could be that easy to cure.

Oh, and don't adjust your monitor-- I'm doing a little redecorating with my journal. The lovely and talented tunasaladsonnet  was able to present me with yet another amazing profile layout. I'm gonna have to do something in return someday. Maybe write her a gift-fic or something. Thanks for everything, hun. ♥

Meme stolen from rosehiptea .

( Edwin Arlington Robinson - Richard Cory )

Ugh... I feel like I'm coming down with something. Which is weird, because I spent most of the day at the gym. I thought working out was supposed to boost your immune system, not lower it! *sniffle*

So did you guys know that they made a Tales of Phantasia OVA? It's only four episodes long and they really crunched down the plotline (which means that those who haven't played the game will be extremely confused), but it's pretty cool nonetheless. I love the animation, for some reason. It may be the shading. Or the eyes on the characters. Dunno.

My writer's block is slowly but surely getting chipped away. Which is good, because it had gotten to the point where it was beginning to suck my will to live. School isn't really helping that much either. (It's only been a week why are there essays due already arrgh)

Man, I keep having these freaky dreams where my teeth are falling out. I know it supposedly has something to do with my health or schoolwork spiraling out of control, but I don't feel out of control yet. And why is it always the canines that are falling out? Always! There's gotta be some meaning in that, somewhere. *shrugs*

My sister should just stop talking for the rest of her life-- nothing will ever come close to the sheer amount of awesome that came out of her mouth last night. XD XD XD (For context, she was playing Okami when she said this. Just imagine three chainsaws spinning around above the main character and you'll probably understand why I was laughing so hard.)

*sigh* She left for college today and I am already missing her terribly. We were certainly in rare form for a couple days, and I don't think there's ever been so many times where we've both nearly asphyxiated from laughter. I love my sis. ♥

On the darker side of things, I may need to kill someone if my writer's block doesn't lift soon. Oh my freaking God this is annoying. *tears hair out*

I also need to find out a way to change the profile layouts for both of my journals, as they are looking a bit too... not-pretty. Tuna, help a gal out? *puppy eyes*

For Christmas, I got my sister a copy of Okami, which would probably explain the lack of entries as we've both been playing the crap out of it. Or rather, she's been playing the crap out of it-- I've been watching her play the crap out of it. We've got less than a week until we go back to school (... *sob*), so we're trying to beat it as quickly as we can.

One thing I've noticed while watching her play, though, is that I have an utter inability to properly give instructions when it comes to video games. I've beaten Okami before, so you'd think I'd be able to guide her through it, but more often than not our conversations end up like this:

Me: Over there! Go over there!
Sis: Over where?
Me: There! There's a thing! You gotta get it!
Sis: What thing?
Me: The thing! The glowy thing! No, go back!
Sis: Just tell me where to go!
Me: I just did! Why do you not understand my mouth-words?

Sometimes my sister and I feel a sort of twinlike psychic connection between us, even though we're two years apart. This, unfortunately, is not one of those times.

In other news, the family and I finally watched the final part of Tin Man. 

( Spoilers, though I tried to be vague. Oh, and random text-spazzing. )

I finally get out of my creative funk, and then the computer decides to become a bitch and completely wonk out on me. It looks like it's fixed now, but jeez was that annoying.

Speaking of glitches (lol see what I did there?), the family and I finally got around to watching Tin Man.

( Vague spoilers for the first two parts. )

Here's hoping everyone had a Merry Christmas/Happy Chanukah/whatever the heck. I won't bore you with the details of my own gifts, but let's just say I'm greatly enjoying my new little Mp3 player. ^_^ Today was officially PJ day at my house, which was nice because we just lazed around and watched Tombstone (which, by the way, is what the title quote is from. Be thankful-- my dad also got 300, so if we'd watched that you'd have to deal with  "Madness? THIS. IS. CHRISTMAAAAAAS!" or some variation thereof. No, I'm not going to apologize for the way my brain works.)

I always liked the fact that I eventually stopped caring what I got for Christmas. That way, you can always be pleasantly surprised by whatever you get, because you don't really have your heart set on anything. This year was apparently Read-A-Book year, because everyone in my family got tons of books. So if you don't hear from me for a while... well, actually it won't be any different than any other day, will it? XD