Schoolwork. Oh, I don't think I assigned you enough ....

I've got finals coming up, just like everyone else. I'm beginning to feel the crunch. It gets worse when I think about the 4-day weekend we're taking this Easter to fly on over to Texas to see my grandparents, the Orclette's great-grandparents. Totally worth doing, don't regret it at all ('sides, my mother would've done something scary had we not shown up) BUT I'm missing quite a bit of study time in which I could:
1. Write my autobiography
2. Write my 3-5 page paper about Richard Write's autobiography
3. Write out my study review for Roots of Modern Europe. I've gotten 102% on the tests so far in that class and don't plan on stopping.
4. Do the reading for the above history class (the chapters are really really long)
5. Catch up on the reading for my East Asia class
6. Do auxiliary reading for my East Asia class so I understand what the heck's going on
7. Look over the next chapter in Spanish and attempt to start memorizing the vocabulary
So I'm trying to fit all this in before we leave Thursday night. It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't such a perfectionist when it comes to my schoolwork .....

But that's probably not very interesting to those of you who aren't in school, and if you are you have quite enough on your plate without reading about my woes. So I'll interject fun things.

The Orclette has a sand box. Boat, rather-we converted an old fishing boat into the sand box. Then her pa-pa (grandpa) decided that she needed a dock to put beside the boat so he constructed a really neat one, with the Orclette's adoring help. The whole ensemble is near a tree so us adults can sit in the shade while the Orclette plays. Very peaceful and relaxing; almost like fishing :D

I don't know what Damm's up to these days. He's been very busy making sure everything's in order for when he leaves, making contacts with the lady who will come to my rescue with guns blazing should anything bad happen (she's the family counselor person for deployed families, or something life that), and making sure our car is as repaired as possible. Not as much PT this week since the cadre all went to a ROTC camp thing (he's not contracted so he didn't have to go), and fonrtunately not a whole lot of homework, though his physics homework is looming ... bah humbug.

And me? I quit running. After a week of sickness, a week of recovery, I figured it wouldn't be worth it to struggle back into it. Plus we then bought the elliptical so all cardio problems solved. My brothers ask me if I "look pregnant" yet. Yes I do. No you will not have pictures. And the most wonderful thing invented was the stretchy piece of fabric that lets pregnant women wear their pre-pregnancy pants longer and to keep their too-big maternity pants on. I think I've gained 9 pounds so far, although if I keep on being as hungry as I was yesterday that number may jump quite a bit. It's really hard to keep a hungry pregnant person from eating. Even if she knows she's already had enough calories to feed her, the new kid, damm, and the Orclette. Incidentally, we changed the names. I threw out all the old ones. New ones are:

Charis Gwendolyn Audra Susan
Brendan Marcus Thaddeus Edward

We're still not finding out, and since I'm not going to the doctor until Damm leaves, even if I find out I'm not telling just in case it leaks out to him. But then I can buy appropriately colored onesies. And blankets. And yes, I've been itching to start doing that ... I love buying things for my kiddos. The Orclette teeters on the edge of being incredibly spoiled. At least with a sibling the spoiling will be divided.

And I have run out of interesting things to insert.

On Chocolate, or the lack thereof

How do you do a before-script? Like P.S. only at the beginning? Anyway, that's what this is. Check out Damm's story below-it was good enough to distract me from the book I am currently reading (and that's hard to do).

So, the lack of chocolate.

It's all my mum's fault.

When we brought the Orclette home, I discovered a box of biscotti by my bedside. I wasn't that hungry, thought I'd never get through an entire box, but I was wrong. Middle of the night feedings had me STARVING and so I'd munch on one, stomach would be contentified, and then I'd zonk out again. Wake up in the morning for my coffee and hey, wouldn't a biscotti go nicely with that? Eventually biscotti morphed into chocolate and here we are. I must have chocolate with my coffee.

There was a brief hiatus. Morning sickness made the drinking of coffee and the eating of chocolate impossible. It was a very sad period of my life. I wouldn't simply call it being addicted, although it was that. It was more that part of my morning was gone; like the English and their tea. If you've ever read Amelia Peabody (mystery series) you'll know that she considered the ritual of tea to be fortifying to the mental state as well as calming to the physical state. I feel the same way about my coffee & chocolate ritual.

So this week I bought chocolate. And it was wonderful. I'm still drinking fake coffee (flavored stuff that says it has caffeine but I'm convinced has absolutely NO caffeine) but I'm now pairing it with chocolate. Happy, happy days (incidentally when gum'ma fixes the Orclette's hair, an impulse which I don't understand because her hair's cute, the Orclette looks like the Fonz). Until yesterday, when I woke up and there was no chocolate.

WWIII. HYPERVENTILATING. RAGE AT WORLD. RAGE AT WALMART BECAUSE IT'S SO FAR AWAY. cry and whimper.

I morphed into The Bear. Bigger than the Big Bear Butt bear. It is fortunate for my hubby and child that they were not awake to see this transformation. But life does go on, and I continued on bravely. Got to the part in my morning where I can FINALLY eat food (you can't tell that I love food can you?) and guess what I discover hidden? One. Last. Serving. Of. Chocolate.

I renounced the Bear title. It's yours again 3B. I halted WWIII. I decided I was not, in fact, mad at the world but loved it. Walmart was precious to me because that's where I buy my chocolate (don't tell my grandmother that, she'd be mortified I just admitted that, being from Belgium where real chocolate is made).

And, in fact, ya'll just read the first draft of the first part of my autobiography. I think I'll split mine up into sections like "On Chocolate," "On the Orclette," etc. Teacher said that he doesn't care how it's formatted, how long it is, as long as we try and find our true voice and re-explore our relationship with words. True Voice? What is my true voice? And then I thought, my blog! I write like I think! At least what I'm thinking at that very moment. I think it was a brilliant idea, esp. since I have tons of stuff I could include (edited and revised because I don't think my classmates will understand 3B, Shrinn, or Orclette references).

Have a good day everyone.

Paying rent. Part 1.

Anna smiled and waved to the kids as she entered the class room. A thin wiry elf with tightly braided blond hair, she managed to be both aloof and inviting at the same time. The kids she taught at the volunteer clinic in the south eastern Albuquerque sprawl blossomed under her tutelage. Their parents also became open and outgoing in her presence, no matter how shy and recalcitrant they may have been to start with. And yet no one, not even the oldest of volunteers, knew much about Ms. Anna. All questions were answered vaguely and the subject would change deftly to a different topic. This status-quo had been maintained for many years.

"Muss Amma Muss Amma come see my picture!"
"Muss Amma I made you a birdday chard!"
"Muss Amma! Look at how good a babelrina I am!"

"What a pretty picture Mario! A birthday card!? Is it for me Jenna? Is it my birthday? Wow good job Tina, you are a very beautiful ballerina."

"No Muss Amma it is my birdday! I'm dis many!"

And so went the steady daily sounds of the school. A tenaciously peaceful retreat from the bitter poverty and crime filled life in the surrounding neighborhood.

On this Tuesday there was a small but significant difference. Anna's commlink blinked and emitted a small quiet tone into her ear.

"Ms. Velez?" The older troll woman turned from cleaning and looked at her. "Would you mind watching the children please? I have a personal call." Ms. Velez nodded assent and Anna slipped into the quiet empty hall.

A colder sterner Anna answered the comm.

"Speaking."
"The status changed. The brothers are out of business."
"Ah. Please arrange a meeting at... 5pm should do. Tonight."
"Yes maam."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Running Man clumsily dug the commlink out of his pocket. After dropping it once he found the accept button.

"(stupid technology)... Hello?"
"Mr..... The Running Man?"
"yes thats me"
"Rent for this month is due. Please be at the office by 5pm tonight. Is this possible?"
"Yes maam. I'll be there."

Three minutes after the phone call was ended he found the off button.

------------------------------------------------------

Anna calmly walked into the room and sat at the head of the table. All of her tenants were present including the four new ones, an athletic dwarf, surly young elf and the quiet human couple.

"As per the terms of your lease, you owe me one favor a month. The favor to be commensurate to your abilities. Unfortunately this month I will be required to ask you to pay rent." Anna smiled sadly at the phrase. "The Brothers Grimm, a local troll gang, is no longer in operation. Until now they controlled the sprawl to the north and northwest and had nominal ownership of our neighborhood. However in the last few weeks they have been systematically destroyed by two rival gangs. The Three Leaf triad to the west and the humanist group, Neighborhood Crime Prevention, to the north."

"My staff tells me that the Three Leaf triad would be amenable to a "peaceful coexistence" fee and I will be asking a few of you to deliver a letter and return with a response for me in this matter. Perkins and Ramirez if you would please accompany Broken that should be enough."

Ramirez, a well dressed, middle aged, male Ork, nodded. Perkins flashed a quick "nodders" text without looking up from the hand sized robot he was fiddling with. Broken just smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"Their trip will hopefully be as exciting as it sounds. For the rest of you however I can guarantee there will be a bit more excitement. The NCP have a strict human only policy. They expel metahumans briskly and any resistance is met with lethal force. This is unacceptable to me and even if I were inclined to negotiate I believe that any alternatives I could come up with will be unacceptable to them.

So we will not be negotiating. I have identified the building they use for their headquarters and where the majority of their leadership resides. We will be executing a multi-phase strike. Termination of leadership, asset liquidation, astral security, response containment, and extraction. As with any activity of this sort anything can happen but we are well prepared to handle the eventualities. Tina is passing out team rosters now, I will meet with the team leaders in a few minutes and then you will meet with your teams and discuss your plans for each objective. In two hours we will meet back at this table and will answer any final questions."



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Thanks for all the positive feedback. Yes this -is- my own work, a project of mine to attempt and keep my imagination happy during school. I'm aiming for a 5,000 word short story, and once all my rough drafts are done and the story wrapped up I plan to clean it up and post one big post all neat like. We'll see.

**22 Feb 2010 edited very belatedly to fix commensurate thanks Cap'n John.