dianaschnuth

Monday: Bought the newest Civ IV expansion at Best Buy. Ran some random errands with Aaron. Maxxed and relaxed at home in the AC and played my new game.

Tuesday: Lunch with Aaron and Mark at Ruby Tuesday. Spent the rest of the day at home in the AC. Paid a bunch of bills. Got all funky-depressed from not exercising (or was it PMS?). Thenl we watched the Henry Rollins Show DVDs from his show on the Independent Film Channel, and I ate some oatmeal (with real maple syrup), and that made it all better.

Today: Went to the bank with Aaron and withdrew spending money for Otakon. Got a bunch of low-carb goodness and a cheap set of iPod speakers at Big Lots. Packed for the trip — and, again, maxxed and relaxed in the AC.

Tomorrow morning, we head out for Baltimore. It’s about an eight-hour trip from here, so we’re starting out around 8am. We’ll get to our hotel around rush hour, park and check in, walk to the Convention Center to get our badges, then meet the Ninja Consultants for dinner.

After that, it’s a wild ride of otaku conventioning and anime craziness until Sunday, a day of rest on Monday, then back to the grind on Tuesday. But that’s not for a while yet. I’ve still got half my vacation to go!

via  erinfinnegan:

1. Turn on your favorite media player and turn your shuffle feature on.
2. Hit “play” and keep track of the next 10 or more songs that come up. (If you have iTunes, you can make a smart playlist that will automatically list your most recently played selections.)
3. Post your 10 or more shuffled songs, along with these instructions. You are not allowed to lie, omit tracks or otherwise try to make your musical taste seem hipper than it actually is.

1. Blue Man Group: Synaesthetic
2. WOXY.com Modern Rock Minute: The Strokes Cover Marvin Gaye
3. Sufjan Stevens: Chicago
4. Gackt: ares
5. The Cars: Drive
6. Fumitaka Anzai: Sad Sequence / Part 1 – 2
7. Midnight Oil: River Runs Red
8. Talking Heads: Wild Wild Life
9. James: Avalanche
10. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Our Only Weapon

I made it through a couple more boxes and my trunk tonight. I now have a box of keepsakes (i.e. things I don’t want to get rid of, but am not going to need to use or display for a while) and a couple small piles of stuff on the living room floor. Stacks of paper and art supplies, mainly.

This begs the question: where does this junk live?

After I get the small bedroom clear of my junk, I’m going to need to clean and reorganize my desk area. That’s where most of this shit seems to be migrating.

This is just ridiculous.

Next task: clean out the closet in the small bedroom and reorganize our games. Maybe thrift or eBay some of the ones we’re never going to play. That’s going to be massive, too.

Saturday: Aaron, Mom and I went to the Crosby Festival at the Toledo Botanical Gardens. Had Italian sausages for lunch. Walked around for a few hours, took pictures with Mom’s new camera, ate frozen cheesecake on a stick, and headed home. Wore a halter top, and got a little sunburnt on my shoulders. (Finally, the long-awaited early summer sunburn!)

Later, Aaron went to Kris Heath’s bachelor party dinner, so Mom and I went to Kroger and got the makings for lasagna. Turned out awesome. Even left some for Aaron. We all played Killer Bunnies when Aaron got home, and I think Mom enjoyed it, even though she had a hard time reading the cards.

Sunday: We all ate lunch at the Reynolds Garden Café, then I went on a walk at Wildwood with Mom. After our walk, all three of us went to Borders at Franklin Park, walked around the mall, and ate some Dippin’ Dots. When we got home, Mom and I played some Tetris Attack, then we all went to Red Lobster for dinner. Mmm, Ultimate Feast.

Monday: Ate lunch at the Dragon Buffet, relaxed at home, took Mom to the bus station around 4:00. (Aaron took off of work so he could drive, and so we could have some one-on-one time later…) Mom’s bus was a half-hour late when we finally left at 5:30. Turns out that her bus ended up being over an hour late, and the bus we’d thought was hers was actually another bus. At any rate, on the way home, I figured out where I missed my turn on Thursday night. I don’t feel so bad for missing the turn onto Hill — it was hard to be sure it was the right turn even when it was light out, much less in the dark.

Of course, after a weekend of having my Mom in the house, Aaron and I made out like monkeys when we got home. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Overall, it was an enjoyable visit. Longer than usual, but that was cool. It’ll be a slightly different dynamic if Mom ever stays with us for longer than one weekend, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, I suppose. This weekend was all about getting Mom to relax and have a good time and not worry about all that stressful shit at home. I think it was a success.