quote of the day

From an urban evacuee relocated to a rural site: "All these trees," Ms. Taylor sobbed, as her husband, Ray, and her two sisters reached out to comfort her. "It seems like hell."

Mr. Taylor, a landscaper in New Orleans, wiped away a tear as well. "It's scary," he said.

Wow.

yeah, baby!

You scored as Lestat. You are so unashamed of who you are you frighten people. Your hot and you know it. Sometimes you can be a brat but hey gotta love ya! Your Flashy sexy style makes people sit up and notice you. </td> Marius 67% Lestat 67% Blade 58% Louie 42% Spike 42% Armand 33% Angel 33% Dracula 25% Akasha 17% Deacon Frost 8% Whose your Vampire personality? (images) created with QuizFarm.com

That's me, okay. My Flashy sexy style makes people sit up and notice me all over the place. In the grocery picking out the cauliflower, in the library checking in the books....

She's lap sitting!

I took a practice version of the GRE CAT tonight on my poor old computer. It has a program installed that wants to update from online... every minute or two. No kidding, I actually checked the clock. I click "No, never" and it comes back again, interrupting the test every minute or two. Believe me, I said some really rude things while I was clicking the mouse as hard as I could... as if that would make the stupid program understand that I really meant, "No, never." Because, you know, yelling really does make your meaning clearer to those who didn't get it the first time. It wouldn't make any difference if I told it to go on and update, because that computer isn't hooked up to the internet. Sigh. Oh, well, maybe that'll make the test seem easier when I take the real one-- not having to click an annoying "no" button every two minutes for two and a half hours. More time to work on answers and all that.

This is the second time I've taken the full thing on the computer. It's kinda silly to take the first two parts, since they're essays and there's no way to grade them. I'm glad I did it the first time, though, because I was seriously disoriented by doing the essays first. This time it didn't bother me so much. And this time I only missed two questions on the verbal! Woo hoo! I improved on the math part, too, though not as much. (I wish...) I'm at least getting more willing to take a wild-assed guess and go on if a question completely stumps me, and that seems to be a good thing. The books keep saying that leaving questions unanswered takes off more points than missng questions does.

Mother called today, just out of the clear blue sky, to tell me she loved me, and is proud of me, and will be praying for me on Friday. She says she's already praying for me to do well on the test, but it sounds like she's organizing a whole group to do so on Friday during the test. Wow. I'm not so much on organized religion myself, but the thought of her doing that is so sweet it makes my eyes prickle. My ex-brother-in-law is so opposed to religion he'd be pissed as hell if he thought someone was praying for him. Now that's just stupid. Why not? What have we got to lose? And if they're right, then maybe there is something to be gained. Even if I don't get blinding revelations on hard questions on Friday, I know that people are hoping the best for me. How bad can that be? Duh.

I've been trying to balance study with doing other stuff. A very little of that has been cleaning, some of it cooking, plus some errands, and sometimes I just break down and read a book, unrelated to anything helpful at all. Except in the sense of letting things seep through the brain unhindered, maybe. I hit a spell of picking weird books at the library, but I'm back on track now.

Miranda just climbed up in my lap and is sitting on my arms while I type. She's purring madly. She has a short attention span, though... she's already gone. I do miss Nic lately. As sweet as the girls are, they don't gravitate to my shoulder and deliver that deep purr that can be heard across the room. Oops-- Miranda's back. This time I managed to extricate my arms to pet her, and she wrapped her paws around my arm to pull it to her head for a good ear-mooshing. She's settled down in the crook of my arm now, so I'm typing one-handed. Go, us. She's got that This is the way life should be look, so I guess I'm doing okay. Too bad my arm is going to sleep.

That's about all the news for now. More exciting stuff about studying, test-taking, and cat-petting later. I know you're on the edge of your seats.