Paper Dragons and Cookie Fortunes Thursday, May 14, 1998. 8:11pm I had a strange dream this morning, where I was in a store somewhere, checking out, and the cashier had to go check something on my credit card or somesuch, then wanted to go over me with a lint brush for some reason, and so on and so on; whatever she was doing, she was really trying my patience, but I took it all in stride and stayed calm. Because of that, she rewarded me with something out of the car that had been the next register over only moments before (dreamstuff can be so weird at times). What she pulled out was a magnificent origami dragon, made of multiple pieces of iridescent paper. It was fantastic, and for me, it made up for all the runaround I'd been given. The dream got even weirder then, shades of Babylon 5 and so on, so I won't even get into that, but I do remember the dragon, and I would really love to have one like it. I woke up at seven-something and got up and hopped online. Connie messaged me on ICQ after about twenty minutes (I'm not sure how long she'd been on, as she hadn't yet authorized me since my last reinstall) and we chatted back and forth for two hours. I think we talked more (or I did, anyway) than the whole ten days I was with her. Face to face conversation is something I'm very bad at, and I'm sorry to say so. Around ten, Mom asked if I'd like to go to the Chinese buffet we found in another town nearby for lunch... and that I was buying. *chuckle* I said yes, as it sounded really good, and so after I worked on my cross stitch for a while, we took off for lunch. Since it's about a half hour drive, I grabbed Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead (of the Pendragon Cycle books), which was one of the books I checked out from the library Tuesday. I'd read a few chapters last night, and squeezed in a couple more on the way to lunch. I'm really enjoying it thus far, as the protagonist is a very believable character, and one I can identify with... at least more than I could with anyone in Glimmering. I guess characterization is one of the things I really look for in a book. Byzantium is long (over 500 pages), but I think I'll get through it, and if the Pendragon books are much like it, I think I'll enjoy those, as well. The place where we had lunch has those paper placemats with the signs of the Chinese Zodiac on it. I know I'm a Boar (ha ha), but though I'm sure I'd looked before, I really didn't remember Jevim being a dragon. Seems he is, though... I wonder if he knows. *chuckle* Anyway, that made me think of the dream, and that's how it ended up in this entry. The waiter brought our bill and two fortune cookies, and I broke mine open and read the paper inside. "Versatility is one of your outstanding traits." I don't hold much stock in fortunes and tarot and the like, but I thought it was appropriate, considering my recent Jill of All Trades entry. I did read a bit more on the way home, but Mom wanted to stop at a flea market she'd seen on the way up, and between the mid-chapter stop and the heat, I really didn't get back into the story. Home again, I set to work on my cross stitch for a while longer, but between being stuffed from lunch and sitting out on the porch in the sun, I got too uncomfortable and came in. I wound up sitting down and playing computer games for a while... a long while, it seems, and then Mom brought in the phone bill. It seems Sprint's 'dime a minute to the person you call the most' was either a limited promotion, or something you had to sign up for. I had three mid-day calls to Jev that were billed at 25c a minute instead of 10c, and that was a little annoying. I don't know if I'd mentioned it already, but I got a check for $100 from AT&T that is mine free and clear if I just switch back. I hopped online, as I was going to check out Sprint and AT&T's web sites and see who had the better offer in the end, but I got sidetracked reading list mail until I finally realized it was after six and I was missing Babylon 5. After the show, I hopped back online and did a little reasearch; Connie found me and we chatted some while I looked into the long distance providers' various offers. Seems she got the same sort of $100 check from AT&T and took them up on the offer. What I found online though, sweetened the deal to where I think I'm going to take the bribe. If I sign up for "AT&T Online" which is credit card billing and online statements, etc, I can get the dime a minute to anyone rate for just $1 a month instead of the $4.95 a paper-bill subscriber gets. Granted, I may have to pay an additional $1.50 because mine is the second line in the house that would be using AT&T, but Sprint is already charging me some 80c regulatory fee, so what the heck. Besides, $100 would be nice spending money for my trip to see Jev. Going to give it a little more thought, but by this time tomorrow, I'll probably have changed long distance providers again. Loyal? Me? To whoever will give me the best deal! Not counting the little startup long distance companies, that is... one of them got hold of Mom and she got stuck with $11 in switching fees. Jev did call this afternoon while I was playing computer games; before the phone bill came, so I didn't have that to tell him about. He's still got the missing-me's, but he sounds like he's doing okay. He said he was going to go out and goof off, so he wanted to call and let me know, in case I started wondering where he was. I miss him too, especially since we don't get to chat every day like we usually do, but I guess being at Connie's while he finished up the semester and moved and got settled in for his co-op job helped wean me away from spending every minute online, and chatting with him every spare moment he had. I wouldn't complain if he suddenly showed up online -- not in the least -- but I'm not going through the kind of withdrawals I had expected, either. It's only a bit more than three weeks now, until I head off to see him again, and I think that is part of what's keeping me sane, too. I still need to type up yesterday's entry -- another one written in the notebook -- and get them posted. I don't know why I've been putting off doing the journal overhaul, but I guess it can wait another day, or week. I thought I might just wait til the new month to change, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. || Previous Entry | Next Entry || || Home | Journal Index || < back two < previous < [ list all | next five | random ] This Webring site owned by Lisana. > next > ahead two > [ about open pages | about webring ]