Is this week over yet?! I’m glad tomorrow is Wednesday and all, but it needs to be Friday. There is a bottle of alcohol with my name on it. (I haven’t yet decided whether that bottle is whiskey or vodka.)
My goal tonight is to get my ass in bed early, but I really wanted to stop in here and say hi. I feel kind of bad that I’ve been paying more attention to Freaking Bookworm lately. (More on that soon! My dreams are coming true!) If you’ll excuse my laziness, here is an update… in bullets!
I had allergy testing done yesterday. It turns out that the crazy, all-over itching probably has more to do with my cat than the Mystery Autoimmune Disease. I am allergic to everything – including my cat — except dogs. It fucking figures that I’m a cat person and am allergic to cats, and am not a dog person but don’t have a problem with them. I actually had no idea that I was allergic to my baby. The proof is in the weal that is still on my arm. The biggest weals are ragweed and birch tree, though.
I attempted Jillian Michaels’s 30 Day Shred: Level 1 last night with Sandy, and discovered that it is definitely not for people with joint pain. It’s too fast paced, too intense, and today I am paying the price in all of my muscles and joints. I’m gonna stick to crunches from here on out, and try to go for a walk every day. I’ve been staying away from garbage snacks, though. Apple cinnamon rice cakes are my crack.
I’m kind of afraid that I can’t hold a full-time job. My symptoms are affecting me more than I thought they would when I signed my contract. The Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome, fatigue, and pain are kicking my ass. Right now I struggle to get through those eight hours, and by the time I get home I’m exhausted. I’ve been putting whatever energy I have left into Freaking Bookworm, and then collapsing into bed. I can absolutely not afford to go to bed at midnight and get up at six in the morning anymore. Today I came home, slathered myself in Icy Hot, popped a Tramadol, and lay in bed reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for hours.
Sandy is organizing a team for a kidney walk in honor of her little guy, Konner. The name is Team Konner. If you can, please donate to Team Konner. If we are Facebook friends, you can contribute to my fundraising goal, but either way, the donations go to the Kidney Foundation for research. I thank you in advance.
That’s really it, for now. I do have news on the other thing, but basically it’s just a surgery date; we don’t know anything new in terms of how bad it is. I’m still waiting until I know for sure that all of my family members are up to date before I go talking about it on the internet. Thank you all for your understanding and support.
I hope you are all well. I tried to play catchup on Twitter today. I miss you all!
PS: Go check out my Freaking Book Club! We just finished Nana volume 1, and are now reading The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. It’s free and it’s fun! (At least, I’m having fun!)
I used to watch whatever anime I could get my hands on. My sister and I used to pool our money toward DVDs, because they’re expensive. (I never understood why anime DVDs are so fucking expensive!) We were like little junkies. It started with Sailor Moon and Pokemon and went all the way to X/1999, Blood the Last Vampire, Bounty Dog, some of the Captain Harlock and Emeraldas movies, and more.
High school kind of sucked, because the only other person I knew who watched anime was my sister, and she was still in middle school. Then I met Sean, and although he had different tastes, he was at least someone who knew what the hell I was talking about. At some point, anime and manga exploded in my school and it seemed like everyone was watching and reading it. It kind of pissed me off at the time, because to me these fuckers were fakers. They were either new to the game because they thought it made them cool, or they were ultra-fanatic about anything Japan-related. These people bounced off the walls and mimicked anime character mannerisms, as if this made them Japanese. I wanted to shout, “Uh, no. Japanese people do not do those things! Everything is exaggerated in cartoons, people, even in American cartoons!”
Even worse, both the Watching Anime Makes Me Cool and I’m Obsessed With Japan only watched and read the stuff in Shonen Jump. (Come to think of it, this was all Shonen Jump‘s fault.) Even when Shojo Beat came out, you would see these people tugging Shonen Jump out of their backpacks to read the latest Shaman King. (Don’t get me wrong; Shaman King was pretty cool. But that was pretty much all that magazine had going for it.) I started reading Shojo Beat in the hopes that there would be some lesbian manga in it, since I am a closet lesbian bisexual.
Nobu and Hachi
That was how I discovered Nana. The first issue of Shojo Beat had an “issue” of the first volume of Nana¹. My inner lesbian got excited and immediately bought the first volume when it became available. I read it and liked it, but then slowly but surely stopped reading manga and watching anime.
A couple of weeks ago, I was bored and jobless, so I went to Hulu to see if I could find something to watch. I wasn’t even thinking about anime. I went to browse all TV shows alphabetically, and when I got to the N’s, saw Nana. Because I had nothing better to do, and a small part of me wanted to know if it actually was a lesbian series was curious as to what happened after the first volume of manga, I watched the first episode.
I got hooked pretty fast. Two young women with the same name meet on a train to Tokyo. Nana K. shares her entire life story, and since Nana O. has nothing better to do, she just listens. When they finally get to the Tokyo train station, Nana O. leaves without saying a word. Nana K. is a little disappointed, but continues on with her new life with her boyfriend and friends.
The two Nanas meet again not long after, while both looking at the same apartment. They decide to become roommates, and before they realize it, become best friends. Nana O. calls Nana K. Hachi, because of her dog-like eagerness to please.
Hachi is one of those girls who fall in love at first sight with every man she meets. She ends up in a bad relationship time after time, and then always wonders why. When she moves to Tokyo, she is meeting her boyfriend Shoji, who is actually a good guy, but feels as though she isn’t too considerate of him. Hachi is pretty needy, but also takes care of her friends. She’s kind of funny to watch because she is such a fucking train wreck.
Nana moves to Tokyo to start her own career as a musician, after her boyfriend Ren leaves their hometown to join the super popular band, Trapnest. Nana’s pride got in the way of their relationship when he made the decision, and she wants nothing more than to have a band more popular than Trapnest, without Ren’s help. Nana keeps most of her past and feelings to herself, but through her actions her love for Hachi and her friends is apparent.
The series is a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching Nana’s and Hachi’s friendship blossom, and watching Nana’s band Black Stone — also known as BLAST — rise. The series got very serious all of a sudden, though, and just when things were getting super intense, the first season ended. There are tentative plans for a second season when the manga series is finished, but apparently artist/writer Ai Yazawa has been really sick and is in no hurry to get back to work. Lucky for me, the manga series is way ahead of the anime, so I can at least see what happens next, but if Yazawa doesn’t finish the series and there isn’t any more of the anime, I’m pretty sure my life will be over. The series is set up as if both Nanas are reminiscing in the future, and haven’t spoken to each other in a long time because they had some kind of falling out. I have to know if they ever fix their friendship.
The music in the anime is awesome, too, even though most of it is in Japanese. For a while, this song was the anime’s theme song:
And this was the end song:
Apparently there is a live-action movie. I don’t know how much of the story it covers, but from what I can tell, the music is performed by different artists than in the anime. Sad face!
At some point, I plan on buying all of the DVDs. They’re about $50 each, though, so it’ll be a while. I will definitely be buying the manga, though, because each volume is only $10. I did some research and it looks like the anime left off right before the manga volume #12. I thought I still had #1 in my box of books, but apparently I donated it. It’s weird how much time went between me reading that volume and becoming obsessed with the series. I do wish that I hadn’t given it away, but what can I do? I’ll pick it up again somewhere down the line. (Hell, maybe I’ll even find it at the Savers I donated it to!)
This series feels less like a cartoon and more like a drama that I would watch on girls’ night with my best friend. It made me laugh out loud so many times, cry two or three times, and kept me watching until late in the night. Since it’s on Hulu for free, I highly recommend you check it out.
What are you currently obsessed with?
¹Translating Japanese manga format to American comics format is a little difficult, but I’ll try. Also, if I’m wrong, feel free to correct me. Where American comics come in issues of about thirty pages, manga volumes are about a hundred pages. Think of a manga volume like an American trade paperback… only you read it backwards and it’s smaller in size. Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat publish the equivalent of an American comic issue in each magazine edition. They are also the first to serialize any of the manga later published in volumes.
I have two sweet cats (even though they aren’t so sweet to each other). I have a printer that does print (even though it is mentally challenged), and a laptop, both of which I use to write stories. Which reminds me — I am thankful that I have the ability to put my thoughts and feelings and imagination into words.
I have an awesome sister who is my best friend, and an awesome best friend who is like a sister. I have a beautiful family: my mom, dad, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I have a boyfriend who fits me completely.
I also have a mouth, which can taste and chew and eat (pleasepleaseplease let 2:00 tomorrow come quickly)! I have a body that may be diseased, but does allow me — roadblocks and all — to do what I love , and I am so thankful for that.
I have a great group of friends, both online and offline. I have a job that, although it can be stressful, I love, and allows me to work from home, during my own hours. I am so thankful that I don’t have to get up early in the morning, that I can work in my pajamas or sweats, and take as many breaks as I want, so that I can rest when I need to.
I have a beautiful niece and beautiful godchildren.
I have so much good in my life that, when I lump it all together, it far outweighs the bad.
Running around on xmas really takes a toll — especially when you’re running on about two hours of sleep.
For xmas eve, Mike came over for dinner. We had all kinds of seafood: scallops, white cod fillet, some other kind of fillet, and of course the requisite pasta. Noni made lasagna for Mike, since he’s allergic to fish. We had tuna sauce, white clam sauce, some other kind of seafood white sauce, and regular sauce for Mike. Dessert was two kinds of cheesecake — the Jell-O kind and homemade baked — and apple pie. I was so full I could only manage a tiny sliver of the homemade cheesecake, and couldn’t even finish that.
Between dinner and dessert we did gifts. I gave Mom and Lauren their embroidery gifts, and Lauren Wall-E and a To Write Love On Her Arms tee shirt. (I had taken Mom to see It’s A Wonderful Life on stage in November as her gift.) Dad really liked the small First Aid kit and thermos set I got him for hunting. Mike liked his gifts, too. Continue reading →
