Less than 7 hours until a 4 day weekend. U officially declared this a "fuck off day" during the morning meeting, and had it seconded. I *will* be doing some work, but it's kinda my choice & at my pace.

Tomorrow the day of thankful feasting with friends & family. Tonight, Kareoke at Cat's (which I never get to do because of my work schedule). thurday, the one MEAT a year I can always make it to.

I'm a pretty damn happy girl right now.

3 14-year-old girls from Brooklyn, saying what we've always wanted to say. *loves*

My leopard gecko, Loca, just passed away.

I first met her when she was a couple weeks old. She was one of a clutch of baby leopard geckos at the local petsmart. They were all cute, small, and pretty identical. A few months later, I began working there. As I spent more & more time in the animal department, I began to notice that one of the leopard geckos was much smaller than the others (the others had grown quite a bit by then). She was thin, sickly, and had a massive shed buildup on her feet. The others had bullied her away from food for some time, and no one had noticed. I put her in her own tank & nursed her back to heath. She had lost most of her toe tips from the shed build-up, and always had to have help shedding skin on her feet from then on. She had an under bite (probably from malnutrition), she was undersized. She had abnormal growths on her head (it made her head heart shaped). I fell in love. When my ex asked me what I wanted for Christmas that year, I pointed to the damaged, sick little animal & said "her". I didn't really expect her to live that long. She turned 9 last June.

Her life has been plagued by multiple health problems. When she was 3 or so, she was blinded in her left eye by an overzealous vet. Her abnormal growths were mostly harmless, but once one got an infection & had to be removed (it promptly grew back & never misbehaved again). The vet (a much better one) even made her a tiny cone to wear so she wouldn't scratch at the stitches. It was prettymuch the most tragically cute thing I've ever seen. Through all this, she was the most active, most personable, most lively leopard gecko I've ever met, and I've met a lot. Inspired by her, I became the top rescue and rehabilitation person for leopard geckos in Sonoma county. None were ever as awesome as my tiny, cutely deformed, spunky little girl.

She was with me through my entire marriage, my divorce, and my various relationships & moves afterward. Other than a few months when I was pretty much couch surfing & she had to live with my friend Deanne (one of the only people I would've trusted her with), she's been with me continuously for almost 9 years. No other animal has been with me that long. Very few people either, for that matter.

She started getting sick again about a year ago. Her bad eye was prone to infections, but this time was worse that I'd ever seen it. After multiple vet visits, we got it under control, but it kept coming back. She's had various physical problem ever since, getting worse & worse. Leopard geckos can live 25-30 years under perfect circumstances, but she got off to such a bad start, it was amazing she lived as long as she did. I know I gave her a good life. I know I did much more for her than most people would have. I have spend thousands of dollars over the years making her as comfortable as possible. As her body started failing, I guess I started preparing myself for this. Still, til the end, she was active & happy, eating well, and exploring her home. Just yesterday she came out of her cave and was wandering around, looking good. I thought she would pull through this one, but I knew I wouldn't have her much longer even if she did. She was losing sight in her good eye, and her digestive system had begun to fail.

In the past few weeks I have given her much love. I've tube fed her when she was too sick to eat, I've washed her eyes out when they were bad, and sometimes I've just held her & told her how much I loved her. I'm so glad when I saw her yesterday I didn't just walk by. I stopped & talked to her, told her she was a pretty & that I was so proud of her (yeah, I know she wouldn't have any clue what I was saying, but at least she heard a loving, soothing, familiar voice).

Goodbye Loca, Lady Loke, Loke Geck. You were always my tough girl. There will never be another like you. Thank you for being with me through everything. Sometimes, you were all I had.

Why I love my work: Pictures from my department(and friend's) group halloween costume: Fucked up clowns.

Saturday night I did NOT want to do full face paint like Friday. I kinda felt like my halloween may have peaked Friday night, and I had no costume-gumption left for Saturday. As 8pm rolled by, I wondered what I could do with either short purple hair or long blue dreads, mostly gothy or thunderdomey clothes, and no lipstick (I'm out) that wouldn't just look like me.

Oh yeah, the cannibal chick from doomsday. No shit!

The face make-up was a bitch, but I pulled it off pretty damn well, and went on to Sunshine Biscuit for murder ballad fun.

No one there had seen Doomsday. Still, I won the costume contest. it was awesomely fun, even though there were only about 20 people there. Still, most of them were good friends & great to hang with in a non-crowded-club kinda setting.




I like 'em rare, extra crispy!

I'm contemplating my transportation options for this evening. Has anyone taken the San Mateo bridge way at night this week? How about richmond/GG bridges? Is it insane? Thinking about BART too, but really, I'd rather have my car if possible.

Of course, 511.org says the bay bridge *might* be open by tonight. Crossing fingers.

rivetpepsquad , this is for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL01SReeOqE&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg

Wow! Today just took such a sudden 180 from FAIL to WIN I think I just got whiplash!

Hellll-ooooo raise & promotion!

SweeEEEeeet!!

Wow am I glad I left the great white-trash north.

The people of Walmart