I Just Can't Walk Away

Aw hell. Monster High stuff is finally back in stock online... and I promised the Widge we'd go to TRU (the store) tomorrow. He's sure I meant today, but I said, "Sunday!" repeatedly. Bother. Some might ask, "But Impy, can't you just order online and then have a delightful lookabout with the nephew on Sunday?" I smack you with a trout and say thee nay. I mean I could, in theory, except for that part where I'm attempting to not spend all that much, and also where Mums took note of the MH gals as being one of the things I want for my birthday. Sadly, the moment we crossed over into the 11th, we hit the "birthday in less than a month!" buying freeze. With the exception of Ivy, that is.

The joys of not pressing "post" when done? The above is not really an issue since they're out of stock other than Cleo and Deuce and while I think Cleo is a very pretty doll (Deuce too, actually) I... would really rather see if I have options, y'know? Plus that whole birthday freeze thing.

Also, apparently AG is overhauling their JLY (the modern) line and making it into My American Girl/Innerstar University.

And on a vaguely related note, I should know better than to ask my father if he's changed his mind about something right before I commit to buying. The answer is always "yes" and he always takes the option I was just about to use off the table. Oi.

Bother.



In case you ever wondered, this appearance I do believe is the moment I fell for Tori the first time. Not one hundred percent sure as time does funny things to the memory and youtube is failing me miserably but it's pretty freakin' likely. If that's not it, it was around that time.

Today I did something I rarely do. I ventured into Barnes and Noble. I quite like shopping with them online, but going into the store [at least the one nearest me] is almost always a hassle, unless I time it just so. A holiday weekend is never just so, but I was hoping Mumsy would tell me something she wanted for her birthday so I could pick it up for Dad. Okay, and also because my trip to BAM failed to yield any of the 'new' Gossip Girl books. Which aren't new, but have new slipcovers with photos of the cast, complete with posters on the back of said flipcover. Only...

How do I put this gently? How do I justify my need for all things Leighton Meester/TV!Blair when the rational part of my brain is telling me I'm being a bit nutty? I expect better. I really do. Of the company and of myself. But mostly of the company. GG has the sort of rabid fan base that means we'll buy shit, and I'm on the more conservative end of the spectrum. But you shouldn't tout your limited edition books and then cheap the fuck out on it. It's just not right, especially since the books cost even more than they did when they first came out and it's the exact same book underneath the slipcover. Yes. The EXACT same book cover. I was hoping they'd have the cast photo printed there so I could run away with my slipcover/poster but no. Which I could live with if the damned cast photos weren't craptacular quality.

You know how you'll fall in love with a scene from an episode of your favorite show and someone will screencap it and it's not the best quality in the world, but since you'll be shrinking it and fixing things here and there, you're okay with it? But if you left it the way you found it, or you enlarged it, or just cropped it, you'd notice that everyone turned splotchy and the colors bled and why, oh why would anyone lighten a scene that was fantastically dark to begin with without correcting the aforementioned blotch/orange/bleeding issues? Because that's what happened with the cover of You Know You Love Me, and I couldn't just leave it there because Chuck/Blair. Seriously. You either fix that shit or you pick a different damn picture. And the 'posters' suffer the same issue. But again, much like my love for Holly, my love for Leighton overrode common sense. But this quality control thing? Yeah. NOT. COOL.

The sad thing is that I still want the other reissues and it kills me that I have to hunt them down in person or pray I luck out and win the damn things. G'ah.

To get to these two copies of joy [the only two they had], I had to wait for the obnoxious tween busy texting in front the first crop of Teen books to notice that she was standing in the damn way. As I'm looking for the Gossip Girl books [seriously, who knows how they shelve these things because it's not always by author name, no matter what the signs might indicate] I notice the new Melissa Marr book is out, as is the manga Wicked Lovely volume. But mostly I listen to the group having some meeting near the religious section of the store. And I think to myself, as someone says something so insane that my brain immediately shut off at the sound, "Old people. Tee hee!" As I walk past them, books in hand, later I hear a familiar voice. I turn around and nearly walk into a bookshelf because holyChristonacracker, it is a friend's mother.

And then I feel bad. But I also wonder why she's associating with this particular brand of crazy or if maybe I mis-heard the other old dude, or maybe she's debating. Issues I may have or have had with her over the years [when your friends are hurting and sometimes it's directly tied to how their parents are treating them, you see the parentals as the enemy so long as their behavior continues, okay?] I will say that she was never dull. Art, artists, crazy people [some good, some bad], and hearing the story that always began, "So, sweetheart she was, -name omited to protect the naive- never realized she was dating a warlock until..."

Welcome to the official start of the tourist season here in hell. For the non-locals, I speak of the Spoleto festival, which is when the historic district [I deal with tourists. You say downtown and they look at you like, "whazzat?" and you adapt. Sadly.] whores itself out to artists of all sorts. I don't really have much against Spoleto. I think it's a great idea. In theory. The problem is that it brings out the horrible rich snob in entirely too many people. Also, it's incredibly hypocritical for the city to encourage Spoleto and condemn any other concert outside for being too loud.

Anyway. I get to give directions which is just bad for all involved since I have NO SENSE OF DIRECTION. Sad, but true. I can tell left from right, but that's about it. If I say we're going the wrong way, one of two things has happened: a) you've really fucked up and passed the same building/tree/homeless person repeatedly or b) I'm wrong. So very, very wrong. Like I said. No sense of direction. So giving them to people? I can get you back to Highway 17 South, and I can get you to Folly Beach. Just about everything else you should ask someone else. So people asking how to get to something downtown? You're fucked. Sorry, but you'd be screwed anyway considering the way downtown is set up. Besides, if you're seeing me and it's not a little past the asscrack of dawn [7-8am] you shouldn't be down there anyway. You'll get yourself shot or something. Seriously. Don't believe those who romanticize the city in books or films or whatever. I promise you, you want to stay as long as the sun and not too much later.

So, this will bleed on through Memorial Day and skate us on through til June. JOY. I hate summer aside from the fact that my birthday is growing ever closer.

On the plus side, the import of tourists means that I can quietly swoon over the various accents that appear. Previously we had the British invasion and the Aussies for whatever reason. Last night brought me Ireland. Mmm. Ireland. And since I got to card 'im, I got to hear even more. *purrs*

Now, let's circle around to Tori's newest, kay? I haven't watched most of the little videos. I watched a few [Starling, Welcome to England, Not Dying Today] but a big part of what's keeping me from watching them? I can't read which video is which. o_O My eyes aren't quite that bad, right?

Song-wise, the only song I'm currently enamored of is Starling. I'm just trying to figure out if I'd like it better without the odd sounds or if they add to the song in such a way that they're absolutely required. Hmm. I quite like Fast Horse as well, and there's good reason Ophelia and Welcome to England are both listed as tracks to beg/borrow/steal. I also like the dandelion/what the hell fluff bit in Not Dying Today. Curtain Call hooks me if I'm listening closely, too. How's about you? But now, if you'll excuse me, I have to wonder what the hell is going on with all this flavor business. *confuzzled*

Hrmm. I needed something, anything, to post so that this wouldn't be identical to LJ. It'll probably be that later, but we should always begin at least a little different, no?

Yeah. It was this or shriek about how the white space was driving me insane and now that's ruined and... yeah. Tedious to say the least.

In the land o' the el and the jay, the Tori comm there prompted this: Tori love began when?

And since her new album drops today [a phrase that has always and will always cause me to giggle] I figured this was a good a start as any.

I don't fully remember what prompted the Tori love. I know that I saw the Caught A Lite Sneeze video sometime before I could identify who she was. I just don't know when. Or how, other than obviously on TV sometime. I want to blame a friend's older sister, only they... didn't have a TV. So it's possible I heard the music coming from her room, but not the video itself.

Anyway, when Choirgirl was about to come out, Tori was doing the media!blitz that usually accompanies a new album, and I guess MTV did a little newsbreak and I heard a snippet of Spark, or saw one, and thought, "That. Looks...Yes!" So I made damn sure to watch TRL before it was TRL when she was on for Spark's premiere. And I sat there, probably a bit stunned as she was clearly out of her gourd, and thought she was the most fantastically wonderful crazy person, the way she went on about her songs as if they were more than songs. As if they had feelings. She was firmly in her "they're my girls" period at the time. And it made sense to me.

But I didn't pick Choirgirl up for awhile. I started with... crap, I don't remember. Little Earthquakes, I think, because it seemed like A Good Idea At The Time. Also? It was probably the only Tori album in the store at the time. Whatever. I listened. I loved and I also wondered if maybe I'd followed the wrong redhead because all her girls were not as easy to get along with as Spark. Still, I figured that was part of the process. To get the stuff you loved, you learned to appreciate the other songs or you left them alone until someone else could convince you to tangle with them again.

I snagged a few singles because I love-love-love singles, and the Great Expectations soundtrack because she was there... I also continued to stalk MTV and fell in love with Jackie's Strength and Raspberry Swirl. I think I ended up with Choirgirl the Christmas we moved, as it was the one CD I desperately wanted and I wrote that on my list.

And immediately thought I'd lost my damn mind. She's Your Cocaine nearly killed me. I don't know why. We've long since made peace, but at the time...

Apparently my copy of Comic Book Tattoo came on Friday, but no one let me know about it until I checked on the delivery status online yesterday morning before bed. It said "Delivered!" and I said, "Bull!" Only it was. I found the Amazon box at the table, sitting in a chair, very much at home, waiting for a cup of tea or something. Sadly our cabinets are overrun with spiders at the moment, so tea is out of the question, but I picked up the box, said hello, and damn near broke my arm in the process. I thought it was the phone book sitting on top of the box. No. It's CBT. It weighs more than my cat.

Curiosity being what it is, I opened it and started reading. I'm not sure some of these will ever grow on me, and frankly, in my sleep deprived state you'd think I'd get some of them more, not less, but Marianne [I think...] escapes me completely. Toast is my current favorite.

So, if you've leafed through it, what do you think?

I'm off to wage war on the spiders. If I survive, I'll let you know how that went.

Oh, T.S, have you any vampire fiction recommendations?

ETA: Thus far I have sucked the spiders out of all but the two really infested cabinets [I know, figures, right?] and we've scrubbed and sprayed all of... one. WOE.

If you sign up for someone's email list 'o pain, you figure you'll be on their list of pain, yes? Nyargh! Shoulda gone to Target. It boggles the mind that if I signed up for Monster's list and was sent a Cats/Monster reply/coupon/list of stuff that comes out today, and that then does the fun little promotional thing when you click any of the links contained within, I still have to haul myself to Cats to get the nifty goodness promised. WTF? If it's an exclusive to one store, then kindly mention that, kay? Thanks.

On that note, yes, I gots me some new Tori goodness. Currently playing even. Just no fun lithograph. :( Which I shouldn't be surprised aboot. The last Tori CD also fucked me over in the extra promo goodness department. I should also be fast asleep in my bed, only I woke up around two and found that I was hungry and could not sleep. So I toddled downstairs to find out if Mumsy's trip was a success. Yay, first two Dresden books and Tori goodness.

Must go work on the food sitch. The start of Digital Ghost is really pretty.

And why in the hell do I not have a Tori icon?

I do not need a second helping of pasta. I do not. I do not. Do not, do not, do noooooot.

But I want one something awful.

So. Walgreens is having their Buy 1, get 2 free sale, which means I now have three new boxes of Christmas/holiday cards. Which can be added to the box I bought last year during clearance, the left overs of the three I bought during this sale last year, and the various other boxes I probably liberated from their store-prisons sometime during my lifetime. Attention! This is the first call for holiday cards. If you want one, reply in some way. Either hit comment or email [might I suggest snarkyimp@gmail.com], or board-hunt me and PM me if you want to get all sneaky. Granted I might miss one of those, but you'd get points for creativity. Odds are good you should include an addy and you might wish to mention if you're anti-confetti. I don't think I have any holiday confetti yet, so don't get your hopes up, but if you don't want to be vacuuming for the next six months, you really should let me know.

Lots of goodies in today's paper. Yay! I'm off to see if anyone's having a sale I need to hit, or if I'm going to sleep and veg and finish Working for the Devil which is so good I'm taking as long as humanly possible to finish.

before I do, hell froze over last night. They played Tori on the radio and I got to listen to most of the song [a sorta fairytale]... Or I would have, except my mother would not shut up. Why is there no polite way to muzzle someone until a song is over?

Important question of the day Squall or Withered? Discuss amongst yourselves and lemme know. I desire one. Muchly. Actually, I desire both, but cannot afford both now.