The unbearable delicacy of life...

Every day, we're lucky to be here.

A woman I know is dying of cancer...

"Dying in slow motion," she called it.

She sees the end of the line... it's coming on slowly. There's nothing, really, the doctors can do anymore to stop it...

If she lives... it will be one of those miracles that you hear about now and again. A miraculous recovery.

...A miraculous recovery?

You should remember... how lucky you are to be here in the first place.

Think of how the odds were stacked against you-

Ever coming to be, ever growing to sit here and read my words. How lucky you are, just to be alive today, doing the simple things you don't think about anymore. Drinking. Eating. Taking breaths, softly - in and out. Every day, we do not die. It is amazing.

Every day, you get up, and your heart works, and the chemicals in your brain pass along smoothly -

So think about the ones who aren't so lucky. Think about the ones who are dying, who see the end coming, who are edging closer and closer to the end of the cliff - remember them. Love them. Appreciate your life, because... our bodies are weak things, taken in the long run. We wind down and die in a very short time. Really... in terms of the span of the universe?

It won't be long until we go off that edge.

So just remember them. Feel for the birds that hit windows, for the butterflies splattered across car windshields - remember them. And remember that you're a delicate creature too, and remember that your life is a gift.

once there was a hot exchange student to hogwarts from new yerk omg omg omg she was a punk with pink hair and seven lip rings and three nose piercings omg and pink hair and blue eyes that were natural like both of them omg anyway hse had lots of piercings and she thought harry and hermione were TOOOOOTally cute and shud get 2gether DIE YOU BASTARDS WHO DISAGREE DIE omg and her name was Esmerelda Sparklypoo Picanic Basket Confectionary Treats Ravenswing. She was half elf half angel half human half alligator and she was pretty fat because all of those halves added a lot of extra weight omg.

and then there was this OTHER girl who was half-wild and raised by wolves and a werewolf and she thought she was in love with lupin and she had grey hair down to her ankles and golden eyes like the sun in the sky omg omg omg and she was tttally gawth even tho that was hard bcuz teh hogwarts uniform was already all black. well, she was GAWTHer still, get it? She wore eyeliner, okay?! And her name was Angua Silvertail Yelloweyes Berrynose Fluffyfur. And, um, SHE thought that Rawn and hermy were teh best0rz and otta get 2gether.

they had lots of fights becuz they did nawt rgree.

"omg ur st0upid wulf grrl!!1 harry nd hermy r teh best0rz!!!!"

"omg no u metal faced freeeeeek!!1!!! ron n hermy haf teh tr00 luvz0rz!"

And so on and so on and so on. Yeah.

And one day, Esmerelda and Angua were having a catfight just like normal! ZOMG! Over who Hermione should be dating! aND THENt they got closer and closer together and then they KISSED EACH OTHER OMGZ0RZ (fuck relationship development!) because hating each other always equals angry!love.

And putting aside their shipping differences, they went into the broom closet to make sweet sweet love to each other, like good little characters in a romance story. SO THERE.

The sad ending happens when they found Hermione and Luna already using the broom closet for angry!sex. ZOMG!

And they killed themselves together because Hermione would never get together with EITHER guy since she was madly in love with Luna, and everyone at Hogwarts was relieved (especially Hermione, who didn't appreciate being fixed up for dates) because they were pretty tired of finding Angua's hair in their plates. Um.

The end!

The moral: omg Hermione/Luna OTP!! <3

The alternate moral: Harry/Hermione shippers who are going insane about the fact that in Half Blood Prince Harry and Hermione didn't end up dating, you all need to get a grip. If you find yourself getting overwhelmingly angry here's a tip: take a break from the computer. Get a drink of water. Take several deep breaths. Scream into your pillow if need be. Read some AU fanfiction if you want. Just please, please, stop all this wanking. It's ridiculous.

Man, if I get flamed for this I am gonna laugh and laugh and laugh.

Here's something to smile about: the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, also known as the Lord God Bird, has been though to be extinct for something like twenty years. There has not been a reliable sighting in the US for over sixty years.

HowEVER, very recently this verdict put into doubt. And even more recently, there's actually been a sighting of an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in the woods of Arkansas, confirmed by scientists.

YES! They're BACK!!

I don't have much solid information. The information is still being analyzed. And who knows how many birds are left? They could still very easily go down the tubes.

But for now, I think I'm just happy about this. They aren't all lost after all.

Anyway. My day yesterday was so insane. -_- I work at a hand-dipped ice cream stand sometimes, and yesterday I was on the job from 11:30 am to 8 pm. Anyway, when I got there, the power had been tripping on and off for a while... and see, we desperately NEED that power to A) keep the ice cream cold, B) keep the chocolate that we dip the ice cream bars in warm, and C) to keep the microwave running so we can melt more chocolate when the pots get low. So ANYWAY, the technician guy that the opening girl had called finally arrived and hooked the microwave onto a different... power box or something, and then it was okay. But that was not the END of the disasters OH NO.

At about 12:30, it was starting to get busy. It's still just me and the opening girl, and we're expecting another girl to show up... I'm dipping the ice cream and she's running backup. The other worker is late. Twenty minutes. Thirty minutes. We're worried. I'm frantically dipping ice cream. The opening girl is racing around cleaning and trying to reach the girl who's supposed to be here on her cell phone. In the midst of all this, the health inspector pops his head in and says "I'm gonna be inspecting you guys! ^___^" Then he disappears and doesn't come back. I think he forgot about us. However, at the time it was merely another reason to panic.

It turns out that the girl who was SUPPOSED to show up had somehow missed the fact that she was supposed to be working. She was an hour away, in our home town, babysitting. Those of us at the stall panic. The opening girl makes calls frantically, looking for someone else to come in. She has to go on break at 3:30 for three hours and there's no way I can do everything alone.

To make it all even better, the girl who's supposed to show up at two is stuck in traffic back in town because there's been an accident.

Eventually they arrived at last, and the customers all sort of withered away... of course. But in the end everything is okay: we have people, the opening girl can go on her break, we're all sort of pissed with the girl who missed but whatever. She's just a flake. Bah.

And then I got off at eight and got a gyro sandwich and mom took me to the bookstore and I got two books which made me happy yay. So it all ended well.

And then today I worked another eight hours. Nngh. I'm getting paid I'm getting paid I'm getting paid. That makes it okay. Really it does.

I'm actually working two jobs at the moment, the ice cream one and one at a gardening and landscape supply center. It's quite boring but the people are nice and I'm getting money. I just have to keep telling myself that.

Now, to reward you for reading to the end of this, I will say something IMPORTANT: This Monday, the 20th, I'm leaving on a school field trip (for spanish class) to Peru. After that's done my mom and I are splitting off from the group and going to the Galapagos. ^^ I'm REALLY looking forward to this! However, it means that I won't be around or uploading anything for like three weeks. I doubt anyone really cares but I thought I'd mention it anyway... XD

Well, I guess I might be around for like... a few minutes once in a while... if we're in a net cafe maybe... but I kind of doubt it. *shrug* So. There you go. I'll stop this huuuuge journal entry before it gets any more out of hand. @__@

On Maisee's theme song:

Skitterklat: You know what her theme song should be?
Skitterklat: Barney, gone bouncy J-pop techno.
RedCrow108: you sicko.
Skitterklat: I LOVE you... doot doot... doot doo... you LOVE me... doot doot... doot doo...
RedCrow108: I don't know you anymore!
Skitterklat: Awwww.

OKAY, ALSO I WANT TO FEATURE SOMEONE HERE: Her name is ~Crow-Sensei and she is a BITCHIN' good artist. I can't believe that she doesn't have more pageviews, because she's so nice and she's REALLY good. I present to you:

[link]

and

[link]

and

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and

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and EVERYTHING SHE DOES GODAMMIT. A lot of links, I know, but it's great art so no complaints for you, bitch! Go look! Comment and give her love!

Now. Now now now now now. I gave out late Valentine's today. XD To the ski team. We were out on the football field, and coach was inside the school at a faculty meeting, so we were out there just goofing around and playing and tramping down the GIANT CRUST that was on top of the snow. And so we packed down a bit of a track, and then seperated off to play. Gunner started building a wall with the snow crust; it was a HUGE THICK CRUST, like two inches thick. And I got an IDEAAAA *dun dun dun*... I took my finger, and pushed it through the crust, and drew a heart. And then I slid my hands under it, and could pick up the nice heart-shape. If I wasn't careful they broke, but I managed to make several and ran around squealing and giving them to people. It was so fun!

In other news, I am SICK and coughing up GOO and my FOOT is SPRAINED godDAMMIT. Hee hee hee. In OTHER other news, it's confirmed that I will be going to state for skiing! I'm so glad.

See, regions went really, really well. I skied JV; and I actually placed in the top ten!

Well, there's so much to tell. We left Friday morning, but when we got to Su Valley there were HOURS before the first race. So, the whole team dug out their sleeping bags and we all kind of piled on to sleep and play lame card games. Hehe. The classic race was later; 6K for the girls, both varsity and JV. I was around the middle of the pack (skied JV again, of course); maybe a few places below. Not BAD but not that great either.

After the race, we got our rooms. And there was... HAHAHA... I giant, life-sized cut out of Orlando Bloom as LEGOLAS in our room. One of my friends on the team is/was a big Legolas fan, so when she came in there she squealed... out of FEAR! Because it SERIOUSLY looked like a real person! XD After we went to shower, well... my friend Jae had stuck the cutout riiight in front of the door. And this friend, she walked in ahead of me, talking to me all the while. So she wasn't really watching. And when she turned around and Legolas was right in her face... she jumped and squeeeeeaked. XD It was so hilarious. Later that night, we set him in the door, too... And it was a scream, because people walked by, they'd kinda rubberneck. Their heads would sort of flop over in that direction, because they all thought it was real too. Jae and my other friend and I just sat there and laughed.

I didn't sleep well at all the first night, but the race on Saturday was postponed because it was too cold; it was 30 below! So we had several hours to wait. I got back in my sleeping bag and slept for another couple of hours. After that I felt much better.

Even though it warmed up, the decision was made to cut the JV races in half, so we'd only do one lap of the course instead of two- 3k instead of 6, for us girls. And THAT'S WHERE I PLACED! Ninth in the top ten, and even if that isn't great, I'm still really proud!

HowEVER. This girl, Josie... UGH. Ugh. Most people who know me at all have heard me rant about her, more than once. She can be okay sometimes, but she talks about herself ALLLLLL THE TIME (I excuse my own exhibition of this behavior on here because it's my journal, and people talk about their things on their journals), and she's an airhead. And. She SWITCHED OUR BIBS. So I was marked as Josie, and she was marked as me. SO. When I got called up to the top ten, HER name was called. We figured it out though; pretty easily. And I ran up there. Like two minutes after my name was called. I'm sure I looked like a moron. Because I skittered back and forth like three times before finally going up there.

Hmmhmm. That's pretty much all that's important about regions. And about today. Other than that I got 100% on my algebra 2 quiz (that I had to make up 'cause I missed it on Friday) and homework, whoo! I was so happy. I have a 92% in the class now. Also I got an A on the spanish vocabulary quiz we took today. Hee.

Holy cow, this entry is huge. o.O