Zoe’s Journal

One only realizes as they exercise how sedentary they have actually become. Since I have started going regularly to the gym - playing basketball or running the treadmill, I have noticed an increase in my energy, and a more vivid mental awareness of everything around me. No longer does the creeping moss feel welcome upon this log! I have shaken it off and found my power. My body is alive - it wants to move, to run, to jump. It wants to scream RRRAAAAARRRR I AM WOMAN HEAR ME ROAR!!! I can definitely feel the new levels of testosterone surging within as my desire for competition increases. Like a triumphantly victorious warrior, that scream just builds up, vibrating frustration in its intensity, being held back for the fear of rafters falling in that great crescendo over my head. I am Amazon, of that feared woman tribe - nothing can stand against the thunder of my strides.

Once upon a springtime, on a lake filled with stars, there lay an enchanted flower. Oh, how this flower wanted to go into the forest and be as other flowers, blooming upon their bushes, yet she had to stay, for she had a purpose. She knew not what this purpose was, but she knew that  it was, for every night as the stars twinkled upon the lake surface, there came to her a Woodsman. He would pick her up from the clear water where she lay and held her in his big, rough hands. He sang to her stories. He spoke to her of magic and white unicorns, of craggy werewolves and the bright sungods. She loved to listen to his stories - they filled her petals with imagination and song during the long, hot hours of the day as she lay waiting for the sky to darken and the Woodsman to come once more.

The days passed and spring melted into summer. But the enchanted flower felt no heat. The fantasy stories told her by the Woodsman shielded her from the scorching sun-gods passing by in the chariots day after day. And at night, the twinkling stars came out to rest in the rippling lake of water. And every night at that time, the Woodsman came to her.

One day, her reflections on the land of faerie were disturbed by the sudden chattering of the forest birds, shouting and cackling in terror. The Woodsman did not come that night. The flower wept bitter tears, salt splashing into the star-filled lake. The next day, as the sun gods arose, the flower was fevered and warm. The rays of the sun-chariot pierced down deep into her petals, withering their delicate touch. She did not dream of faerie or centaur - her thoughts wondered where her Woodman lay.

Late that next night, as the lake-stars faded into the lightening sky, the faerie came to her.

……. 
  

(to add your ending to this story, leave a comment)

He got me all excited at the prospect of gaining a larger readership of WoW nerds and gamers in general. This means that:

a) I need to write more about my gaming ‘experiences‘ as well as my regular run-of-the-mill every-day stuff
b) I need to get some links to WoW-related websites and attach them to my site.
c) *sigh* I need to write more reviews and actually get the books linked up to Amazon just in case that affiliate program really kicks off and pays enough so that I can sit at home and play all day.
d) I actually have to set up that affiliate program in the first place… but not until more reviews are in place. Grr.

I have a song stuck in my head. A really bad, old song.

“There’s a staaaar man, waiting in the sky…”  I even forgot who sang it. OOOhhhh.. it’s David Bowie. I’m kind of embarrased now. :”)

What have you done to me, Forrer!!?!?! David Bowie and Joni Mitchell’s ‘One Tin Soldier Rode Away’.  *groans*

What has happened to the days of Linkin’ Park and System of a Down!??! Alice in Chains?!!?!? Now I’m stuck with a Starman and Tin Soldier. How scary is this situation?!?! I shall feel the need to remedy this - soon.

ooooo…. Christmas music!!! The LotR gets so annoyed when I start celebrating christmas - I don’t get it… it’s only 3 months away!

So anyway, on with the World of Warcraft experiences. Today, I started out only a couple of bars into my level 45 rogue. (named ZoeJane, of course). I wanted to level so bad, but I didn’t want to stay up all night, so by the time I got all excited about the website, I was still 5.5 bars from leveling. *sigh* I did make it into the Un’Goro Crater for the first time though. There were all these purdy crystals sitting around, so, being a natural girl, I started picking them up. I got quite a few. Then I ran into a level 60 Tauren Shaman. He paid me 2 gold for crystals, lol. Sucka. And yes, I do understand that they are for a repeatable quest. I was mostly beating around the bush in Tanaris though… killing scorpids for their scales, and hyenas for their leather, though I learned to leave the rabid ones alone - that’s a nasty disease they spread.

It’s my mom’s birthday today! I remembered on Monday, and ordered her a ‘christian romance novel’ from Amazon. I called her this morning, and she really liked the… Wrapping Paper??? Yeah. She was excited about the book too. But, she said, “I’m going to keep this ribbon from the package!”

*groans*

Now I’m tired of writing. Maybe I’ll do a book review. Most likely, not.

Ciao!

I refer to the Internet. Or, as the LotR has so aptly/annoyingly corrected me, The World Wide Web. It was down earlier - I couldn’t pull up a single website, though I could play online games and chat.

Weird, eh?

Yes, it was. And I am so tired. Soooo…oooo tired.

I totally got suckered into buying a product today at the mall that I don’t really need - but it makes my nails so shiny and smooth! I talked the salesguy down to half-price - flirting is really a useful trade. It was basically a package with a nail buffer, cuticle oil, and special Dead Sea salt lotion. Really, I asked the guy why I needed the lotion as I already had a bunch… and he said “But this is special lotion!”

I’m a sucker. Yeah, I know.

Oh, and I DID IT! I calculated how much I really work on payroll while I’m at work, and I found out that the job only takes up less than 40% of my time. How depressing is that?! And I told them when I started that I absolutely hate to be bored. So, armed with this information, I went and asked for a schedule change. While I’ll still be working 40 hours per week, I will have Wednesday off to study and do homework (instead of staying up late at night to get it done). I also told them that I would really prefer to have a job -one job- that I can specialize in that takes up my entire day - every day,and if they happened to run across a position that needed filled, they could consider me up for it.

AND THE EXCEL FORMULA WORKS! This was the nemesis of my week until today. I have this spreadsheet, workbook really, that was extremely tedious and non-navigatable. I linked all of the pages together and made an index in the front with ‘home‘ links on each page, but that wasn’t the hard part. Basically, it has to do with calculating bonus tax for everyone in the company based on what they file for federal tax (boring, yes, I know). Anyway, there is a separate table of numbers that we have to follow based on whether or not they are claiming ‘married‘ or ‘single‘. I was getting so fed up with making sure that each page had the correct table, and I wanted a way to make the right table pop up as soon as I typed in ‘married‘ or ‘single‘. I started fooling around with the Excel formulas, but I had to ask for help from someone else (I was so close to being right, I found out). Well, his didn’t work either, but I messed around with what he gave me, and today, WABOOM! It worked! I almost cried, I was so delighted. I spent a good 5 minutes alternately typing in ‘married‘ and ‘single‘ in that little box, and watching that baby of a table change to match my mood.

I realize that you probably skipped over that part. That’s okay. Really.

I just wasted an hour. Phooey. It’s late.

Goodnight.

The LotR’s mother arrived from Sweden yesterday. So today, we went to the zoo. I didn’t know we were going until around 5am this morning. I stayed up playing games until 3:30am, then I couldn’t sleep because I drank almost an entire liter of Mountain Dew. So the LotR and I stayed up all through the night watching YouTube videos. He had to meet some friends for a hike around 9, so I caught an hour of sleep after he left. When we came back, we dressed and went to pick up his mother. The rest is self-explanatory and just plain cute.

Prarie Dog eating Grass.

I think I just read a news story stating that 6 Flags in Texas was offering free lane jumping for the entire day if you ate one of these - Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches - alive.

Okay, this is one ugly/scary mofo I would not want to meet outside of a cage. (some kind of eel)

yeah, this is what happens when you only get one hour of sleep the night before. You mistake a tribal head for your fiance.

This pretty fella was making a racket - banging against a window in that little alcove and growling. The other tiger must have been right inside.

Ah yes, the most krom-göd person alive - except for her son.

yeah yeah. Keep snapping those photos. (and uh… something just happened to my font and I can’t fix it *hollers for LotR to come fix it up*

Nice Silhouette.

I will never understand parents who tell their children these innocent dumb beasts are PUMBA. They are Warthogs - not some cheesy animated Disney character.

Random picture of the Savannah.

Find the Meerkat. And No, this is NOT Timon (or however you spell that Pumba character’s friend’s name).

This little guy was soooo adorable. *melts into a pile of buttery goo*

Ummm yeah. That’s a lizard.

Well, look who crashed into the fence this time. (he’s either sleeping or dead - we can’t decide which)

Look out for the Giant Anteater! (what a ferocious name) *shiver me timbers*

What is it with Arizona and lizards?

Hahaha… he looked like a toothless old man gumming up his food… he couldn’t keep it inside his mouth.

GUINEAS! I used to raise those…

Spot the hummingbird.

That’s my Swedish man!!!

No… we’re not going inside… please noooo….

…ahh… “Be it near or far, where ‘ere I roam”, … uh…. “there’s no place like home.” Yeah.