2009 = bah. Maybe 2010 might fail less.

Resolutions? Screw that. Resolutions are poo. HOKEY PILES OF POO.
Seriously, they’re just attention-seeking statements of grandiose things you want to do. You end up botching them, and it makes you look like some two-bit flake who can’t keep your word. So, don’t bother with them! Let what comes, come… and if you screw up, at least you don’t look as stupid as you would have if you resolve to do THIS EPIC THING.

—

I would have gone out today but I had to cancel because the router kept crashing hardcore and mother decided that enough was enough and it was time to switch it out. Now we have a D-Link that is actually a little faster and overall much more stable. The previous router was a Linksys that had just come out when Wireless-N had gone into beta… yeah, that was quite awhile ago. Probably some of the internal pieces had gone south… I don’t know. The D-Link I’d swapped in is supposedly optimized for use with streaming video, which in theory should be nice considering we have Slingboxes and Rokus and such all over. Still, I’ma try to migrate stuff onto ethernet where possible to lessen the wireless congestion (not to mention that Gigabit ethernet is sexy).

—

My previous driver permit resets next week. Good riddance. I was saved to Rancho Cucamonga before, but I’ll restart at Fontana– madhouse it may be, at least their clerks aren’t as pithy. >_>;
Thankfully it appears mother has backpedaled on her “MY WAY OR NO WAY” stance in regards to training, YAY. I never wanted her sticking her fingers in this to begin with since she cranks up the stress and drama by a billion (and she has this thing about blabbing everything to Evil Stepfather, wtf).
I WILL have my Yoshi Car in my full possession this year. It would be nice if I could pull it off before Yoshi Day, but so as long as this ends with me walking out with my full license…

—

There will be one, maybe two more Snowschemes, though they’ll be more about FUN WITH SNOW.
Mayhaps a piece for Crimson Day (Jan. 25), too… bwahahaha~

—

Broken heater = best time to shower is before 3pm (noon-3 is when the house is warmest due to THE SUN).
This is important, I don’t take well to sudden temperature shifts AT ALL. x_x I already feel kinda icky and even one instance of temperature whiplash could… well, at the very least it would be a totally miserable experience.

Paid up the next term for Yoshi Car insurance today… it lowered to $831 from 1000, and when I was initially quoted, before the SURPRISE BUTTSEX SPEEDING TICKET on my mother’s record came up, the agent told me that if it was just me I would have been started around $800. I’m assuming that if the premium were to go down further, whenever it gets switched over to me, it’d reset to $800.

Still, better than $1000. Gives me a little pocket change, heh.

Poor Yoshi Car. Because I’m a dork and was intimidated the hell out of the whole process by asshat test admins, mother’s tendency to drama queenery and, above all else, my easily-obliterated and usually nonexistent confidence, my car sits out on the driveway, alone, going months without a soul as much as spraying her down. She’ll be a year old next month and supposedly still has new car smell, that is how infrequently she has been touched since I got laughed out of the Rancho DMV office in January. >_>;

I think I should probably fix that.
I already paid up the fee and got my picture/thumbprint taken, it’s just a matter of “let me in, I gotta retest” and hope that jerk test admin is off that day (or at least manning information/checkin instead of the written test).
Ulterior motives? 1, to have the ability to GTFO and restock on food, and 2, Chaffey redux. The economy still sucks too bad to job-hunt without making my head implode (after all, it’s about as backwards as the DMV) and I’ve some unfinished business at Chaffey… and, let’s be honest, Chaffey is as much a social thing as anything else.

—

In other news: ARGH.
My brother is being a dork about his birthday. You…. aren’t allowed to say no! Especially since this is the first time I can actually buy you stuff! >:(
(That and it turns out he already has the Die Hard blu-rays. Booo.)
I was going to cook up some plot to get myself kidnapped on Thursday, only to remember I’ve volunteer service (with new hours no less) and it would just be a total pain to either ninja my brother for dinner either before or after since he likely still has to work that evening.

Only thing I can think of… well… with father gone, I no longer recognize Father’s Day (especially because Evil Stepfather seems to think he can set himself up as a replacement figure). Perhaps I can ninja Robert for dinner then. >_>;

At the very least, I’m totally stuffing his WoW inbox with delicious cake. >:D

I’m tempted to overnight a Gamestop gift card to his house ANYWAY. Maybe.

It’s getting rebooted on the 8th. I get to play at Rancho DMV again… and while their parking lot is made of stupid, it’s better than the alternative: Fontana DMV, which is clogged until the 29th.

….the 29th.

If Fontana were the ONLY local office, that would get a HELL NO and a massive tirade on how disgustingly inefficient the appointment server is, and how I’d rather just chance having to sit in the DMV all day to get it sooner. But, the 8th is a little more tolerable.

Seeing as how my brain has taken to likening this backwards process of getting my Yoshi Car to Mario terminology… I feel like I’m having to walk into Bowser’s Castle to buy a continue, with the risk that I’ll walk out and realize I just bought three Poison Mushrooms instead.

—

In other news, I am a bonehead for ever offering to eat all the veterinary expenses. Even WITH pet insurance. I stepped up since I thought doing that was, you know, the “good, responsible daughter” thing to do, since Evil Stepfather makes it otherwise far too harrowing than it would be worth to otherwise contribute to the household.
But if I’d known that this enabled mother to go nuts in her puppy lust, I would have said “NO I AM ONLY COVERING CATS.” (or more selfishly, only cover Kestine… aw, who am I kidding, Daisy is too cute to leave hanging in the wind)
But… would that have worked, or would it have just pushed mother into Raging Drama Queen mode and caused her to whine and cry about not being able to afford vet bills and such and have her guilt-trip and shred me even more than she already does?

Now two of the Four Pups of the Apocalypse have cherry eye (a Bulldog-specific ailment). And mother keeps going on about “oh, why bother filing insurance claims? They probably won’t cover it.” FFS, let me file the papers, if there is any chance I can get a penny back for everything I spend fixing your ailment-prone wiggly puppies, I’m going to damn well pursue it. >_>;

On top of this potentially hampering my Christmas plotting (I WILL pull off at least OMFGBOX, though)… I wanted to avoid having to lop off a bit of my Wells Fargo CD in January if I could help it. But complications with getting my license, any kind of non-retail employment, and now mother running up vet bills like it’s a shopping spree… yeah, I’ll have to nibble a bit of my CD so I have enough to cover the next car insurance payment and such. -_-

Ya, there’s that secondary payout that Robert mentioned, but I don’t expect that to get here before January.

Mother is, thus, banned from accusing me of spending too much on myself. Looking over my ledger, over half my money went to either Rancho Regional or other stuff related to the Four Pups of the Apocalypse. And then there’s my own medical expenses, car insurance…. yeah. Don’t take this as me complaining about expenses of life, I know that comes with the territory. My beef is with mother acting like I’m still ignorant about it on the basis that I choose not to make a giant fuss about every little thing. :P

and ohgod I need food. @_@

16/15 allowed minor errors. YOU LOSE THANK YOU COME AGAIN

Bonus prize: Voided Permit

….

Um, yeah. There goes any hope of being able to drive by the end of the year.
I don’t have to drop volunteer service, but… well, I won’t be able to do any Christmas shopping or any such stuff.

I want a power that will just… make Evil Stepfather and the Four Puppies of the Apocalypse just GO AWAY, I seriously can’t deal with this “you are lower than puppies” sentiment that’s going on here (mother’s promises to train me more are a crock, she is so wrapped up with puppy obsession that she was only able to train me once since the last attempt, and neither of my siblings want to come get me lest they trigger her Raging Drama Queen mode).

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

O hi, Christmas commercials already? Well, I’m not complaining. :P
Speaking of which, I should probably pick a Snowscheme… I’m leaning towards “Numair’s Cookie House” since while I was sorting books, there were a couple about Christmas decorations and… Christmas baking. >_> And here I thought it was dangerous for me to sort Children’s because I would get distracted by old stuff I read as a kid.

Also… little Snowflake (puppy #4 for those who are keeping track) had surgery today to correct Cherry Eye and also to get spayed. Except for some reason the office decided to close an hour earlier than they’re supposed to. Helloooooooo Raging Drama Queen mode. -.- I don’t get why I’m being yelled at because the vet office staff decided to shove off earlier (and they called me, like, 10 minutes before I got off volunteer service). But I was able to defuse most of it by buying dinner. >_>;;;
Need to pick up the puppy tomorrow morning…

…tomorrow…

…oh, right, Fontana DMV tomorrow. If either I screw up, or I get slapped by a technicality… I’m pretty much screwed until January, due to how much the appontment server is made of FAIL and gets clogged all too easily. And I’ll most likely have to drop volunteer service, since I’m what’s keeping mother from finding work, it seems…
No pressure, right? >_>;

I just kinda feel… I dunno, a bit of resignation, that despite best efforts something can and WILL go wrong tomorrow. This whole process has been debilitating on my self-confidence as a whole (moreso from being slapped with technicalities as opposed to screw-ups on my part). It’s not that I don’t want to get my license– seriously, I really need this because with Bren gone until, what, June and my mother being a Raging Drama Queen about anything relating to siblings and having practically no RL friends that I could reliably poke, it’d be a drastic understatement to say that any prospects of doing anything even remotely fun is NIL. And being stuck here with Evil Stepfather and the Four Wiggly Puppies of the Apocalypse will nuke ANYONE’s sanity. No. DO NOT WANT. Must get out, even if it’s just during the day. ARGH.

I still need to take my laptop in to have her monitor lid checked out… red snow and distorted colors at most angles is creepy. If this is indeed the strike 3 that triggers an exchange under the service plan, that effectively translates to a free upgrade… but if not, well, I’ll just use the opportunity to trade in for Dinah 2.0* and request as much reimbursement as I can get as my Christmas loot.