Dhivael/Anne’s Hyperactive Blog

I had a strange dream last night. I don’t remember much of it now, but I do remember a few of the stranger points.

Shirley Temple’s father (only her name wasn’t Shirley Temple in my dream) dropped Shirley off at my place so I could babysit her. He didn’t return when he was supposed to and a search was started to look for him. He had turned into a centaur and had been wounded while doing something or other. Shirley was summoned to see him, the father said he was ‘going away’ so said goodbye to Shirley. Shirley left and her father died. I ended up adopting Shirley or something. Then things get even stranger… Captain Janeway, from Star Trek Voyager, was in my dream at some point. She was going off to do something and I was going to be left in charge. In charge of what, I don’t remember. But I still had Shirley at that point.

Silly weird dreams.

After getting the Sunday paper last night, my mom decided that she wanted soda. Due to all the construction around, this turned out to be a very convoluted trip. No left turns here, no U-turns there… anyway, we ended up going across train tracks.

Normally, going across train tracks is nothing. Especially in the daytime. Tonight, however, just as we were approaching the tracks, the lights on the crossing signals started to flash. The arms slowly started to swing down.

My mom didn't seem to be stopping.

I said, “Stop, stop, stop.” and she finally hit the brakes, just as the bars finished coming down. A couple seconds later, the train started going by. My mom commented, “Oh. I was wondering what all the blinking lights were.” Now, she might've been joking. And we probably could've continued before the train went by. But I'd really rather not find out either one.

I went to Fry's (Kroger) yesterday. When I went to get a cart, I found out that they had replaced all the old carts with new ones. Wonderful! It's always a struggle to push a shopping cart around when it has a bad wheel and needs some extreme oiling. The upside to these kind of carts is that they make a lot of noise, so you don't have to say 'Excuse me' to anyone; they hear you coming and get out of the way. Even the little kids, who don't usually get out of the way for anyone.

So, here I am pushing this brand-new cart around. It rolls marvelously. Perhaps too well, actually. As I got to the end of an aisle, there was a mini-display of A-1 steak sauce. Two flimsy cardboard displays, actually. So I turned slightly to read the aisle markers to figure out where I wanted to go next. As I did so, I inadvertantly pushed the cart, just barely. Literally. I didn't even realized I'd pushed it.

The cart swung to the side and hit the corner of one of the displays. DOMINOS! The first display hit the second and A-1 bottles went tumbling and sliding across the floor. Luckily, I think they were plastic. They didn't sound like glass, and none broke, but I didn't know A-1 was packed in plastic. Then again, I can't remember the last time I actually bought any.

Every other time I've gone shopping, the store's been nearly deserted of clerks. But I usually go shopping in the afternoon. Yesterday, I went in the morning. The morning before the new ads come out, prices change, etc., etc. Of course, the store was full of clerks and not 10 seconds after I ruined the display, one came running up and said “It's okay, we'll get it.” I apologized profusely and fled off to another aisle. When I went back the other way about 5 minutes later, the bottles had been picked up and put in a shopping cart. The clerks were just finishing collapsing the display that I had run into (which remained standing while the other did not).

The ironic thing here? I had coupons for A-1, though I wasn't planning on purchasing any. Maybe it was some strange magnetism that attracted the cart to the display. I still have the coupons, though.

I don't get sick.

Well, I do. I've got allergies, I need glasses, usual stuff. But I'm talking about getting sick from germs. I can walk around in the middle of winter, my feet covered only by flip-flips, and get little more than a runny nose. I've almost always got a runny nose in the morning, even in the middle of summer when it's 110F (43C) outside. Darn allergies. So a runny nose isn't much of a problem.

My mom always scolds me for not wearing anything on my feet. But in the first place, I hate having things on my feet. In the second… it just makes my feet colder. My feet tend to start sweating when they're cold (lovely choice, feet) so socks just make them colder. And they sweat more. And my feet get colder. And… can we see the problem here?

Every so often, I do get really sick. Feverish, dizzy, horrible coughing, stupid, etc. (No, I'm not usually stupid. Hush.) Flu, I guess. I've even had strep throat a few times. But, usually, I don't get sick.

My mom's been sick for the past week, followed not long after by my brother. Both coughing terribly, congested, much nose blowing.

Yet… here I am, right now, sick. What prompted this? Did I run around in snow (Snow here? HA! Not often), barefooted and wearing shorts and a t-shirt? Did I go outside with wet hair? (I did that a few weeks ago, nada.) Nope… I shared a drink with my mom.

I figured she was past the contagious stage and that, since my brother obviously caught it from her, if I was going to get sick I would've already. So, while we were out grocery shopping, we split a drink. Big mistake. My throat started hurting almost immediately. So finished shopping, came home, etc., etc.

This… germ, virus, whatever that made my mother and brother so sick… What did it do to me?

I have a sore throat and a stuffy nose… and if I look at the monitor too long, my eyes feel all fuzzy. I guess I have a fever, too, but that's not bad.

I suppose I should be thankful I don't get sick that often, but it can be annoying to be the only one that's not sick.

I've just woken up, about a half an hour ago. As soon as I wake up, I'm greeted by a cacophony of barking. Nevermind being trampled by at least one, sometimes both, dogs.

I proceed out into the living room and, after a few minutes of shooing away animals, I grab the laptop and turn it on. Of course, this is the signal for the cats that it's time to sit in my lap! While the laptop boots up, I spend a few moments shooing the cats away. Finally, they give up and decide that they'll steal my blanket and curl up next to me. Fine. It's better than them walking across the keyboard. I go grab another blanket.

Both dogs still want to walk back and forth in front of me, taking a detour over the laptop. One's, oh, 10-15lbs; about the size of a large cat. The other is a German Shepherd/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. The little one's not bad, mostly annoying, but the big dog… Not only does it hurt when she steps on me, there's the serious danger of her hurting the laptop.

Eventually, my brother calls her away and she goes off to sleep atop my brother. At least, I think that's what she's doing, it's what she does to me. Any idea how hard it is to sleep with a 60lb dog on your face?

The little dog (I'll call him Growly, since that's what he does a lot) is, or was for awhile, trying to steal my second blanket. He dislikes cats, so he won't share with them. MushyKitty isn't too bad to him; when MushyKitty was going outside regularly, the dog would run up to MushyKitty and MushyKitty would run a few steps away before waiting for the dog to turn his back and then running back and batting at Growly's tail. MushyKitty doesn't like playing, but he likes playing with Growly. EvilKitty enjoys swatting Growly on the rear end, not even with claws out, just for fun. Growly always yelps and gives a couple short barks at EvilKitty, but EvilKitty continues to swat Growly whenever he goes by. Mo' (Molasses) doesn't care too much one way or the other about Growly, but Growly treats her like she's EvilKitty. So that's why Growly won't share blankets with the kitty.

Growly has settled onto the blanket I'm using, EvilKitty and MushyKitty are sharing another blanket. Mo' is off… somewhere. The large dog is off sleeping on my brother.

What a menagerie I live in.