2001-01-17 - 15:34:19
*brrr* Lost keys and introspection ...

Yesterday's answer, for $500,000: A. J. Bruce Ismay

I think I may give up the Millionaire questions after today's million-dollar one; they are interesting, but typing them all out gets repetitive, and I enjoy them in my office anyway. So what's the use putting them in my diary? =)

I wore my coat yesterday, a thing I almost never do. I really should wear it more often; it's midwinter in the Great Northwest, and it freezes at night on a regular basis. I'm pretty tolerant of cold temperatures up to a point (I'd have to be, to have survived living in Nappy and Jocasta's attic -- 65°F feels pretty warm to me now in our new apartment). Beyond that, though, I have this little allergy called cold urticaria -- Do check that link; it's got a nice ugly photo on it and plenty of descriptions that'll give you a good idea of what a diagnosis like that means. It's getting better -- I can eat ice cream again -- but I still have a pretty serious case.

Anyway, I mentioned the coat because I seldom wear it, and yesterday I did. So this morning I got up, dressed, packed food to take to work, so on and so forth, and then it was time to go. I reached for my purse and started to fumble in it for my keys as I made for the door. No keys. Nada. (Good thing I checked before I walked outside! I don't have a spare apartment key!)

I searched everywhere ... I dumped the purse out, I checked between the couch cushions, I stuck my hand into all the open boxes in my room. No luck anywhere. And then I saw the coat draped over a chair. Naaah, I thought, I wouldn't put them in my coat pocket, I wasn't driving when we went out yesterday! Well, of course, I had. Silly, silly Shell. *grin*

I'm going to my first SCA meeting tonight ... I'm so tempted to back out, you have no idea, but Jocasta wouldn't let me, even if I decided to. Which is a good thing. My irrational terror of meeting large groups of people I don't know is NOT going to keep me from making new friends and having fun. I am determined!! If I can just get past the first few weeks, my comfort zone will expand to include them, and all will be OK.

We discovered last night that some of the items on our Diablo II characters, that my brother traded his friends for over the network in his old apartment, have altered durability. This didn't matter until we got a patch -- we'd never upgraded before, and we went straight to Patch v. 1.04b. Somewhere along the way, the system started checking for "class" durability, and everytime you start the game, or die, the durability of every item (if above the usual for the "class") is reduced accordingly. So my really cool boots that had 100/100 durability when I left the game, have 16/100 durability when I start back in; and since they ARE cool boots, they require over 1000 gold pieces to repair the durability back to 100/100. (Not that money really matters in Diablo II once you get past the first couple of Acts).

I'm sounding airheaded again. Not that it matters; this place is a release valve for me. But when I read it back to myself, I sound a lot lighter than I feel, most of the time. *sigh* I guess I'm just in an introspective mood today.

I watched "28 Days" last night -- the Sandra-Bullock-as-alcoholic-and-drug-addict movie. I've heard from people who didn't like it, and in truth, it isn't a very light-hearted movie. Nor does it end as happily as one could hope. But it meant something to me ... it reminded me of my mother's family. Except that in Mom's family, their parents lived longer, and there were two more siblings in the picture. Also, unlike Sandra Bullock's character, my mother's elder sister didn't manage to break out of her self-destructive life until her late forties. Before that, she and her husband owned their own company, then lost it because of their drug dealing and hard living; she wrecked her car while high and shattered a bone in her leg; she refused to go into any of the programs for battered wives. She's still not doing very well ... just better than before.

Yes ... there might not have been much hardship in my own life. But you name the shit, and it's hit my extended family or my friends at one time or another.

I might still be Innocent Shell, but I understand far more than most people think I do.

...
...
...

[For $1,000,000]: Who has been chosen as the new model for Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic?

A. Laetitia Casta
B. Estelle Hallyday
C. Nathalie Simon
D. Daniela Lumbroso