Me & My Shadow

Good Stuff:  I wore a brown-based outfit today (like the only one I have) and am geting TONS of complements on it.  (It's a swank animal-patterned shirt Mark's mom gave me, and a sueded long skirt.)  I may not be a fan of brown, but it's nice to have all these people gushin' all over me about how nice, fancy, swanky, professional, etc. I look today. ^_^

Plus Sat. night I had two guys bein' all affectionate and com-on-y.  Wow.. duude.. how.. not usual. ...  It was FUN. ^_^

Gourmet Thanksgiving leftovers RULE. :D

Hack and Slash are teaching at a very cool Sword Fighting workshop.  There will be LOTS of big movie fight choreographers there. ^_^  All you fanboys and girls out there; YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO GO. ;D

I just sent this as a test to a coworker's e-mail, to make sure my server was working.  It's a silly li'l poem I thought up on the spot just for message filler.  And makes me think I should write children's books. ;D

"Ibbledy Bibbledy
Snaggledy-foo. 
I like silly nonsense,
Do you like it too?" ;D

I put up a video about my two li'l rat-boys on YouTube last night. :)  If you wanna see it, (or any of my other bizarro, trivial stuff), you can go to www.youtube.com/renaessance. :):)  (BellyHorror, FaerieCon and other vids there, too.)

My friend Ryan is donig a reshoot of a movie he's been working on for EONS now.  The new script and storyline is MUCH better than the first, and he's gonna have me in it for a bit! :D:D  Plus, he's casting right now for all but one main role, and for extras n' supporting roles.  If you're a LARPer, vampire-fan, or just acting fan who's local, gimme a holler and I'll pass on your info to him. :)  (It's a non-paying, low-budget gig, but it'll be goin up on MDB< and potentially be seen by.. very influential eyes. :):))

As I'm quitting my job, and my last day is on Friday, Dec. 5th, would anyone like to go out and celebrate w/me, either on Friday or Sat?  I'm goin' to Midnight Sat. to whoop it up.  ^_^  MIght dye my hair blue... dunno... :D:D
*wants to be the very antithesis of straight-laced, business-appropriate decorum*

And dassit!
How was everyone's weekend??

..Nearly 3 Days and Counting...
^_^
Nae

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone!!! I wish had somethin' to do/someone to go out with tonight to celebrate, but in lieu of that I think I might just buy a bottle of wine, go home and crank up my stereo w/some of the best of my Latin music collection. ^_^ (I bet my neighbors across the hall who're Latino and don't speak much English are gonna think I'm far from my home, too w/the way I'm gonna get happy w/my tunes AT LAST/FOR ONCE. ;D:D)
Anyone else gonna celebrate?

And this weekend was good, too. On Sat. I took my ratty-boys to the bet n' found out they seem healthy. ^_^ (Shad's been sneezing, but the doc said to keep a watch of it and only call if it keeps up or gets worse, as ratties can get lung infections easily- to which we'll have to give them both anti-biotics, since often what one gets, the other will, too.) For a trad. precaution he gave me de-wormer to give them both for 4 days since this was their first appointment to a vet, too. ..Last night was tough on both of them AND me 'cause I had to give their meds to them, though. (They have to be scruffed n' held w/their face skin pulled back so they open their mouths for me to shoot the wee syringe in.) So tonight I think I might try spiking a treat for them and being sure they each get the proper dose that way. I know I need to have more interaction w/them so they get more used to being handled and learn not to be afraid around me, but I don't think traumatizing them 5 days in a row is a good way to do it... So treats, rubbies n' meds should do the trick I think. :):)

Later that day I chilled, then went to the nearest Bally's w/a pool, n' had a lovely time s'immin' in their lap pool, and then chilling with my latest book beside it while I waited for MA to come. :):) I was a little bummed they didn't have a larger pool w/a non-laned area, but hey.. they have a saun, whirlpool AND water for me to play in, PLUS I got in free, so I ain't bitchin' 'bout it. ;D:D

Sunday I got up early to go shoot on my friend's film project. I was buggin' at first 'cause I thought I'd been screwed out of getting there on time by MA AGAIN, (they've never gotten me to his filming on time ONCE) but the driver who finally came n' picked me up BOOKED, so I got there w/even a few mins. to spare. ^_^ Makeup and filming went well, n' I came home and just -crashed.- I tried not to, but like the day before after coming home from swimming I was just --exhausted.-- I fell asleep on the couch, and later woke up to feed my furries, give the boys their meds (ouch.) and clean their cage full-over. :):)

All in all it was a pretty great weekend. I got to rest and -still- got stuff done. ^_^

So.. what about yours?

OOH, and anyone else gonig to see the Cure on Friday?? They might still have a few tickets leffffft! :D:D *tempt tempt*

Ne E Wei, night, all!
Happy Fifth of May!! :D:D

I dunno if anyone'd be interested, but if so, I just put up my cage for sale on Ebay and CraigsList.com. :):)

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/for/628846510.html
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200213296561&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=010

Or, if you don't wanna go though those channels, just drop me a line and we'll see what we can eek out. ;):)

Cheers, all!!
-Nae

Holy shit.. I have a visually impaired rat!!! O.O It turns out Houdini, my little escape artist, is almost entirely blind. After noticing various behaviours I'd started to come to that conclusion, but after talking to some people, it's pretty well clinched. My wittle Houdini can pretty much only see light and shadow... Wow.. now I gotta think back to my mobility days, thinof my blind friends, myself and my visual impairment, and apply it to a tiny, month and a half old baby rat... Damn.. no wonder the thing panicked when picked up, and why he's so timid. Poor little guy... Makes me wanna hug 'im all the more. ..Funny how Fate works out like that sometimes, huh?

Oh, and I found my keyes. ^_^ ..Paid $13 for 'em, but I found 'em. :):)
Now off to a bit of Christmas shopping online before workies...
:)
Nae

I am apparently not supposed to keep.. Stuff...

My keys are lost and God knows where. They have my storage unit key on there, and the key to the house I'm in atm. :P
My badge fell out of its holder AGAIN- (fortunately I hadn't been anywhere but home, but STILL!).
And at this point, I think "my" rat is just mocking me. I've heard him skittering around the room at night, tried to look in all the places I think he might be during the day, and last night not only did I hear him up on my desk knocking stuff over, I've found THREE humane traps empty, two w/the doors down. :P I even tried a basic-but-brilliant trap a friend suggested, (a simple notepad-over-trashcan trap), but despite the thing being so precarious the magazine I'm using's fallen into the can TWICE, this morning when I got up I found the blasted thing sans bait! :P:P

He might be too big for the humane traps I got at CVS, but he also hasn't touched the 3-mouse trap Ian brought home. Fortunately he also got a bigger one he told me about today, so I'm gonna bait and try THAT one tonight. Last night I was up a couple of times in the middle of the night trying to see if I could snag the little stinker, but then when I laid down all nice and still I heard/felt a tiny scritching on my bed. Yep, you guessed it. Not long after I felt a little pressure on the blanket down by my feet, and damned if the little stink didn't crawl right up behind me as I lay still, going from feet to head. He sniffed my hair, and then made his way back off the top corner of bed! :P:P I was SO tempted to fling the blanket over him and try to catch him, but I didn't want to freak him out even more, and I thought that maybe if I let him sniff me it might help him get a little more comfortable w/me and not see me as a predator.. you know? So I just layed there kind of laughing at the both of us, the situation, and about how perhaps he's either playing with me, or having a game of "Investigating Mommy." ;P

Either way I'm starting to get the impression Stuff and I aren't supposed to coexist. ;P

Hope this makes some of you smile who need smilin', and that everyone's doin' okay.

Love,
Nae

I heard him skittering about the night before last during the night, and last night I enlisted my landlord/friend to come "help me" catch him. (He apparently needed a flashlight to see anything even though the room was fully lit, and I- and I imagine the rat, couldn't see WITH it, so that was kind of a connunudrum...) My landlord and I both stunk at actually catching him, but we saw him many, many times, and he ran through my hands twice, jumped up my face, over my head, and across my arm while I was under the lower ledge of a desk in the room, and that's the closest I got. (I couldn't raise my hands to get him 'cause I was under the low ledge.) At one point he tried to hide in/on mybackpack and neither Ian nor I saw him, so when Ian instructed me to pick up the bag so we could try again to find him (he'd been racing from place to place in the room to avoid us), I heard a small *thud* as I picked up the bag, and Ian thought I'd dropped something out of the bag. Turns out it was the rat... :( Naturally worried, I said I hoped he was okay (since he'd dropped about a foot and a half-two feet), and Ian snapped at me. "Renae, he's fine!!" When I expressed how little (agewise) he is, and how that's about ten stories' equivalent to OUR height, he replied "He's FINE. I've seen rats far lots farther than that before and be perfectly fine." I can understand his frustration at the situation, and am thankful he was at least willing to come up and help, but I can see now where he gets his animal empathy from... ... (He is sadly woefully neglectful and abusive to his animals.. and I'm beginning to think he doesn't get that they're living, breathing, feeling creatures that depend on HIM for respect, sustenance, CARE, etc.) I'm still a little worried about the little guy, but I heard him quite a good deal after that behind my li'l refridgerator, and this morning I found that the Cheerios and peanut butter that I left out in places (thanks, ashoe!!) last night had been eaten, as well as some water I left out had been drunk. So.. yay.. he's alive and presumably well, and at this point I'm thinking about a humane trap.. 'cause in the house I'm in right now, every day that passes is an increasing chance that he could get out and be consumed by a heatin duct, or a hungry cat. ('Cause their parents don't actually FEED them.... *sighs*)

On the up-side, there is hope, and his brother and I are doing just fine as far as the bonding process goes. He stops squiggling pretty quickly now, doesn't tremble or shiver anymore already, and just LOVES hanging out in my hoodie. ^_^ With his big brother the escapee, keep yer fingers crossed, and hopefully soon I'll have the chance to show you pictures of my little Houdini.
(..You know, that might be the best name for him yet.. come to think of it... It seems he's an expert at disappearing, after all... ;\ Plus it's magicky to boot.. hmm....)

Anyhoo, wish us luck, y'all! :):)
If all goes well, I'll have a LOT to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. :):)

..Hells.. I already do. ^_^
And since I don't have a comp at home, I should wish you all this now, by the by: ^_^

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!!  **GREAT BIG HUGS TO ALL**

Love,
Nae

After TWO NIGHTS, I've -already- fucked up.

Last night, after staying late here at work to do some ratty research, I found out that babies need as much contact as you can give them, especially at first when you acquire them. So I"m all excited, I go home, and snag Nicodemus, my more skittish, (read constantly, utterly freaked out by me) gray and white ratling. I pick him up, he struggles, I hold him to me for a moment, and then he shoots loose of my hands, zips up my shoulder, springboards off it a foot and a half to the top of their cage, streaks across that, and jumps down onto the desk that's in the room, and from there, God knows where. ... I have gone from upset and worried to pissed off and back again so many times I can't count, and now, a mixture of these, I have spent a long night with their cage on my floor, food and water outside it, his little brother inside it, going back and forth between sleep and mock-sleep, hoping to catch a glimpse of him coming back to his bro-bro or to take a bite of food or get a drink of water. I dreamt about catching him 5 times last night, (outside of a very "SAW"-like dream), and each one felt so real I could swear I actually caught him all 5 times... The scrabbling, the clawing, the squeaking, frantic wriggling and writhing of his soft, furry body.. :((( The room is full of things he can hide in or behind, ther's an open heating/air duct that's been blocked for a long time by layers of towels, and aside from the bedroom door itself, which has also been heavily cloth-blocked now, I -think- I've taken care of all of his options of egress... I saw him once again streaking across the back wall as I searched for him again last night before I slept, but since then, both my guys have been maddeningly quiet. If I hadn't seen him myself w/my own two eyes, I'd sear Shado had escaped, too. I spent most of the night w/Shads in my hoodie w/me, and that was relly nice, but now I'm scared to death Nico's either down some hole in the wall somewhere, or has found his way into one of the ravenous gullets of the households FOUR cats.

Gall-dammit, Nico. Come the fuck hom, and get back in your damned cage. I miss you, and I know Shado misses you, too.

Fraggin', razzafrazzin' panick-rat. Now I'm gonna worry all day, just liked I worried all night. God I hope he's okay...........