( Let me say this RIGHT now. I have nothing against homosexuality, bisexuality, heterosexuality (though I have something against men as a species, but that's just me), metrosexuality, or whatever other sexuality is out there (is there such a thing as asexuality pertaining to people? I know some species have it, but I digress). This is my personal opinion about something that has been bothering me for a while, and if you are easily offended, or read this and decide to ream me up the ass because, OMG, you don't agree, then please, STFU. My journal, thank you. If you're curious and can read this with an open mind and not feel the need to rip me a new one, then, by all means, click away. I warned you. )

I just handed my resume over for a Librarian position in Boone, NC, I think (I'm a little confused because the entire district was referenced, but I think it's for Boone) and am now waiting to hear if I get called back for an interview, which will happen after the fifteenth of this month.

Meep!

The little filly is home and on medication for the surgery on her ankle joint, but otherwise she seems to be doing well. No surgery for the colic, thankfully, now it's just a waiting game to make sure her previous incision and injury heal nicely.

Thanks, everyone, for the thoughts, prayers, well wishes, etc. I think I'm going to have to rethink a few things. Stupid faith crisis. >.<

In other news . . . . I splurged like whoa and bought myself a Nintendo DS. Any game recs?

In other news, other news, I never thought that I'd never find another character who liked to eat the same bizarre food combination that Orihime does, but Loki from the Mythical Detective Loki manga (not the anime, I don't remember him cooking in the anime) has the EXACT same taste in food. He'll eat Yamino's cooking (and Yamino is presented as having five star chef abilities), but when left on his own he makes up these weird combos and LOVES them.

I have this mental image of him in his child form and Orihime hanging out in a kitchen with Orihime giving him "tips" on how to use curry with Yamino all T_T in the background. XD

Murphy (my pet name for the Higher Up, so to speak) likes to throw a curve ball.

Just found out that the filly who was supposed to be coming home on Monday has colicked (basically, a severe stomach ache in horses, only in horses it can be fatal) and the doctors are talking surgery again (last I heard, anyway), which isn't good because that will be two surgeries in ten days, and animals do not do well being put under in the first place.

So now it's just a waiting game, I guess. The owner is, understandably, highly upset.

Holy cow, two journal entries in a month, I must have something wrong somewhere (or I'm not getting enough sleep again, take your pick).

Ok, updates on stuff. Still working with the lady about the exploded piece of doll furniture. It's off being evaluated by a guy who builds custom cabinets, and I'm going to pay for the repairs. Hopefully her daughter, the one who wanted the clothes press in the first place, will accept that and keep the cabinet, otherwise I'll be getting it back and finishing the refund. Boo.

Another item I sold, Felicity's original Chocolate Pot set, arrived with a dent in it that the buyer SWEARS had to have been there before I packed it up (it wasn't, I went over that thing with a fine toothed comb and I'm paranoid about describing collector's items correctly), so she gets snippy and sends it back demanding a full refund, which I complied with even though I didn't appreciate being called a liar. Once I got the pot I checked it over, and discovered that the dent matched the shape of this little heavy stopper that fits in the lid of the pot and is attached to a chain, so it can swing free. When I refunded the buyer's money, I asked if the stopper had been in the lid or swinging free in the box, she said swinging free but that "the dent couldn't have been caused by that because the dent was on the side of the pot that was facing down in the box". Um, stuff shifts while it moves around, lady. Bleh, she's not worth my time, really, but it's really frustrating knowing what I know about it only to have someone dispute my word. So I've concluded that I really HATE selling stuff on ebay (though I do like the extra money, really, it's not worth the time and effort to me) because of things like this. Personally, I like to shop on ebay instead. So now I have a damaged chocolate pot set and I'd like to try and resell it, but I don't know if I can get that dent out safely. Maybe I'll ask a friend of mine about it, she sells stuff on ebay all the time, and she works with leather and the like. Maybe she can fix it.

Let's see, the little filly who was so sick a few weeks ago will be coming home on Monday. Here's hoping that she stays healthy after coming back and doesn't relapse, otherwise I don't know what will happen. Thank you, everyone, for your well wishes and the like, I know it helped. I may not believe in prayer proper (at least prayer in the conventional sense), but I'm a FIRM believer in a higher consciousness and the power of positive thought. So, again, thanks.

Now I just have to survive the final week of horse camp (WILL IT NEVER END?????) and maybe then my brain can catch up.

Hope everyone is doing well!

I'm so frustrated right now, rawr!

I've been selling off my American Girls' collection which mainly consisted of accessories from the Felicity doll. One of my prized possessions (and the most valuable piece) was her clothes press from before Mattel took over the company. Considering its age (at least 16 years old, maybe more) it was in amazingly good shape and looked practically brand new. Just a few nicks from being moved around and played with, but I was never hard on my collector's items and you could barely tell that it had been previously owned.

Very nice lady bought it, and me, being insanely paranoid, packed the ever loving SHIT out of the box. We're talking enough bubble wrap, packing peanuts, and inflatable bags to float a battle ship. Hell, part way through I ran out of peanuts because the box was so large and had to buy more. I still DREAM about packing peanuts, but anyway.

I ship it UPS and figure that's that. Oh no, I get a note from the lady that she had gotten the clothes press . . . IN PIECES! It had busted apart completely on the way there, and she sent me pictures and it's horrible. Thankfully it broke apart along the seams, but still, that wasn't the item she bought and that wasn't the item I oh so carefully packed. So now it's off to the UPS customer care center armed with a TON of pictures of the item I packed, the box, the packing materials, the pieces of the dresser, etc and raise holy hell (if it comes to that) about them paying the insurance claim. She sent me pictures of the box, too, and it's obvious from what the box looks like that it was very roughly handled. There's an area where the box looks like it was torn and that something was either shoved into it, or that it run into with something. Our guess (the nice lady and myself) is that they dropped it, then shoved it onto the truck and dropped MORE stuff on it.

All I can say is that UPS had better honor the insurance claim AND pay back the shipping price. I'm highly upset, and so is my buyer, though thankfully she got in touch with me directly instead of just instantly leaving negative feedback and having us get into a war on the feedback forum. She's going to see if a friend of hers who works with cabinets professionally can repair it, but that's still not the item she bought in its original state.

Sooo, it's off to battle!

Ok, I'm usually not one to request people pray for me, mainly because I don't really believe in it. I prefer to think of it as sending positive energy or well wishs to the person I'm thinking about.

Anyway, there's a little two year old foal named Suds that I know who's having to undergo life threatening surgery (too long of a story to go into, let's just say an injury went bad in her ankle area) and if you have time just send some healing thoughts or wishes for a safe and swift recovery in her direction.

Thanks, and I hope everyone is doing well.

I'm on a WIKI!!!! O_O Granted, it's a fanwiki, but a wiki none the less. I'm amused. http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/Alyson_Metallium ^^;; And I really should update my own entry, don't you think? XD Not to mention they haven't put up my latest fics. I wonder if this thing is an extension of ff.net. *hunts for information*

And Thank goodness I've used my fan author name for a lot of my online stuff, because it just hit me that people who interview me for jobs (not that there's been any, it was just a passing thought) and the like could hunt up any bashing of previous job places that I've worked by my real name. O_O ACK! And yes, I've always been aware of that in the back of my head, I just never really THOUGHT about it before. I'm an idiot. XD

I've been having really strange dreams lately, too. One I actually woke up crying from, and those who know me know that I. Do. Not. Cry. Unless there's a damn good reason, but otherwise I bottle it up. But here lately I've been having dreams about exploding spaghetti, stalker serial killers after my family, some woman slapping me, and someone else telling me that my pony was dead (and I hadn't really thought of her in years).

I honestly think Murphy (my pet name for God) has it in for me sometimes.

I was thinking about going through and friend's locking my more . . . inflamitory journal entries, but . . . that would be a major pain and I don't feel like it at the moment. Maybe tomorrow. ^^;

I've finally caught up with Slayers Evolution-R, and my inner fangirl has been screeching her head off (ok, the outer fangirl has been squealing, as well) over how much fun it is. I love the detail that the crew put into it, even bringing back secondary characters (and their original voices) for flashbacks. We've also learned more about Zel's background and just WHY he hates Rezo (it's for more, really, than just turning him into a chimera) which was super nice. The first season kind of led you to believe that Rezo just ran across Zel in the woods and changed him, but that's not the case.

Speaking of Rezo, I've always known he was an asshat, but damnit, he's a total douche bag.

Another thing about Rezo is that I forgot he and Neuro were voiced by the same actor (Yay, Koyasu!) and . . . *snicker* Rezo's soul is stuck in his jar (not a spoiler unless you haven't watched Revolution) and he's been talking, and I keep picturing Neuro in the jar instead of Rezo. XD Sadly, this mental image makes me snicker at inappropriate times. XD

In other news, so much shippy goodness! Not only do we have Zel and Amelia continuing to play off each other (especially when it comes to teasing Lina), but they're showing more concern for the well being of each other, which brings back memories from NEXT.

I will say, though, Zel's Angst O'Rama in episode 10 had me alternating between wanting to smack him, and wanting Amelia to lay a huge wet one on him. As if the poor boy didn't have ENOUGH to angst over. Rezo, you're an ass.

Soooo, I'm reading Slayers Evolution-R on one manga. . . .

MAJOR ZELAME STUFFAGE, WOOOT! Sooo, Zel, nice catch, and you're going to take her somewhere safe, hmmm?

Mwahahahahaha.