Greedy Glutton Sabine

Sabine is one of those rats who loves food. She loves it so much that I have to count my fingers after giving her a treat. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but I have had to lecture her more than once on the topic of "Please take the food, not the hand!"

A couple evenings ago I fed the rats in the evening, as usual. Of course Sabine went straight for the food, stuffing her mouth with more than it should really be able to hold, so she could hide it in some corner of her cage.

While she was doing this I found a snack for myself, which I figured I may as well share with Sabine. When I held it up to the wires of her cage she came running, as usual...but didn't take it from me.

I began to get really worried. It was obvious that she wanted the treat, but wasn't taking it. She's already getting old, her hind legs are really weak, and she's even gone blind in one eye. Considering all this, I thought something might be seriously wrong with her. When an old rat suddenly changes their behavior drastically it's probably for bad reasons, and she's never been the type to turn down any kind of food.

But when I got down on her level, trying to figure out what was wrong, what did I find? She had her mouth stuffed full of her regular food that she'd been hiding, and she wasn't willing to put it down to take the treat.

Greedy glutton.

Greedy glutton who wanted both her usual food and her treat at the same time, and couldn't accept that she could only manage one at a time.

Greedy glutton scaring me like that.

I dropped the treat in her cage, which seemed to be an acceptable solution for her.

Note to self: Don't give Sabine treats immediately after feeding her, that just doesn't work.

LGBT Month: Books

I had a bit of a debate with myself about whether to join LGBT Month. On one hand, I've been neglecting my blogs. On the other hand maybe I just need a good prompt, which this will give me.

And, yeah, I'll be busy with school starting tomorrow. Then again, one of my classes is queer studies, so I don't think I can complain that I'll be too busy to read LGBT related stuff. It's not like I won't be reading and writing about it already for school anyways.

So I signed up for LGBT Month. :)

It's being run by two bloggers I'd been unfamiliar with before yesterday, and I discovered LGBT Month via a link to the post about it at Fighting Dreamer. You can click the link to read about it, but the only rule seems to be to talk about anything LGBT book (or movie adaptation) related.

I'd like to note that all these posts will make an appearance both on my book blog, and on my personal blog. This is because I made the decision back in October to put all LGBT posts on my personal blog since it's a subject that's personal to me, even though book related LGBT posts also belong on my book blog. So if you happen to follow both blogs, you'll see the the posts both places.

And, for anyone who doesn't know:

Sarita's Book Blog URL: http://saritaslibrary.blogspot.com/
Dancing With Fey URL: http://dancingwithfey.blogspot.com/

Random tidbit: My spell check wants to change LGBT to LG. Um....???

Birthday Loot

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey

Let's see, what did I get for my birthday?

First of all, I got the new iPhone 5S. In silver. I'm not sure exactly what advantages it has over the old designs, although this one does have the definite advantage over my old one in that it has twice the memory. I'd been getting tired of having to delete things in order to get new music from iTunes.

There's also an iPhone case I still haven't received yet, but which is coming. (By the time I requested it there wasn't time for it to arrive before my birthday. Oh well...) It was pretty water colors and says "wibbly wobbly timey wimey!" And it's cute. :)

Tall One got me my own sonic screwdriver. I suppose it isn't a real one, since human technology isn't up to Doctor Who's standards, but it goes on my key chain and it doubles as a tiny flashlight. Which is pretty neat.

Oh yes, and the kukri. My boyfriend got me a kukri. Which I like.

Last, I bought some new Heather Dale music as a present to myself, and I have got to share one of the songs. I couldn't find the exact recording on YouTube, so instead here is a live performance.



I'm almost in love with the sweet colleen of the nut brown hair after hearing this song.

Of Birthdays and Hearing Aids

Today's my twenty-fifth birthday. I am now a quarter of a century old.

...I do need to stop putting it that way.

I finished watching series 5 of Doctor Who (the "reboot" or whatever you want to call it), did some reading, went for a walk, and went out to eat with my family. We went to a favorite restaurant nearby that had closed down temporarily, and reopened in a slightly new location. I may have eaten too much, and need to do some digesting before eating cake and presents...so the post about those will be tomorrow.

What I can talk about today, though, is my dad's new hearing aids. In addition to other health problems, yes, he's got hearing problems. He couldn't even make his own appointment to get them over the phone, though he did try.

Dad got the hearing aids yesterday, and I guess this will sound strange since we live in the same house, but dinner was the first time I really talked to him since he got them.

Turns out that hearing aids take some getting used to, so he'll need time to adjust to them. And apparently, at least in my dad's case, part of that adjustment is speaking in a quieter voice. Possibly too quietly, whereas before he'd tended towards speaking loudly.

It also turns out that the hearing aids can "talk to each other," so when mom called dad today he was hearing her in both of his ears. That has to be weird.

It'll be interesting to see how adjusting to the hearing aids goes, and what other odd things I learn about them.

A Cure For Homesickness

I've been homesick. For my old apartment. And also for school.

Getting my own place is something I've been working on. I had a temp job that seemed promising, since it lasted for half a year, but there was the slight problem of it not going permanent. And although I have been working on my unemployment problem since then, nothing promising has come along. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and getting nowhere fast. I mean, I moved back in with my parents "for only a few months, just until I get another job" well over a year ago. Over a year ago. And I'm still here. And most of my stuff is still in a storage facility that my mom is kindly paying for. Including most of my books, which as an English major I find sort of depressing.

But school...I can do something about that bit of homesickness, without having to wait for someone to take a liking to my resume.

I had a plan when I took a break from school, and it's one that I'd pretty much forgotten about. I was going to wait until I could file as an independent on taxes so that, maybe, I could get more financial aid, and I thought that I might get enough to live on. In retrospect I'm actually not sure who told me that was possible, and I don't know if it even is possible for me. I realized this in the last couple days. But I guess there's one way to find out.

Last week, sort on on impulse, I filled out FASFA (federal student aid) forms. My reasoning being, hey, it can't hurt to check it out.

Then I realized that I'd have to also apply for financial aid with my school to find out anything.

And to do that I have to be a student. Which meant contacting my old adviser in the English department and saying along the lines of "Hey, I think I want to come back to school soon, probably by fall, maybe this spring? What do I need to do?" This led to us talking to admissions (I had to apply for re-admission) and me meeting with my adviser to talk about classes.

Early on in this process, I was just checking it out. Exploring a possibility. You know, seeing if I could get enough financial aid to let me have my own home again while completing school. But while e-mailing with my adviser and admissions, even before setting foot back on campus again, I realized something.

I've missed school. I've missed it a lot, and I got really freaking excited just thinking about going back. And if I just turned around and told them "Yeah, sorry, never mind," I might hate myself for backing out. Even if the financial aid doesn't turn out to be as much as I'd hoped.

So, will I be able to get my own apartment soon? I don't know. Will I be working on my English degree again? Definitely yes.

As for how I felt after meeting with my adviser to pick out classes for spring term, I can't remember the last time I did something for myself that made me this happy.

That said, I'm also nervous. And I know school will drive me crazy, oh...maybe two weeks in. But that's all part of the fun.

The fountain at school