Significant life events. . . and catching a Shiny pokemon

There are instants of my life that etched onto my memory like a brand on cattle. That time I was hospitalized with Dengue fever and couldn't breathe (I distinctly remember a doctor standing over me, sticking his gloved fingers in my mouth. Even the rubbery taste is still in my memory). When I stepped into an American airport for the first time (lots of whooshing cars and horns). When I first vomited a "hot dog" from a NY hot dog stand (severe disappointment there). The first time I passed through the Holland Tunnel (it looked so shiny!). When I saw the Twin Towers fall from my seventh grade class window (it was during English period, and I didn't realize the significance of what I was seeing. I wasn't even scared).

And then there's the time I caught a Shiny Cacturne:

The one on the right

It was the summer of my eighteenth birthday. I was at Rutgers New Brunswick for a summer program that must have had to do with EOF, towards the end of it. I'm gonna say it was early afternoon, though the mercilessly bright sun could've as easily been from later in the day. I had just finished taking a summer preparatory class for pre-calculus, and I was a little bummed that I'd gotten an 87 (actual numerical grades on individual tests still meant something to me back then).

So I walk outside the dorm room next to Frelinghuysen Hall, which has classrooms in the lower floors (don't remember the name of the actual dorm, but I lived at Frelinghuysen during my second year at Rutgers, with I roommate I rarely saw or spoke to). The actual architectural details escape. Maybe it wasn't a dorm.

Anyway, I know next to nothing about EV points at this point, so I'm trying to get some random Pokemon to level sixty (probably Charizard). And I'm at the area with all the Cacturnes in the game that must have been a remake of the originals. There's a constant sandstorm in the area. And instead of the regular Cacturne, I get a brownish-burgundy one! I almost killed it in one hit before I realized it was different.

I threw my single master ball at it, which, looking back on it, was probably a waste. I called my friend immediately to brag. Couldn't text because I had one of those flip phones from. . . I forgot the company that made them. It was magenta. Then I probably called my brother. At the time, shiny Cacture was an omen of my good fortune, and I had to share it with anyone who might slightly care.

Sadly, I've long since lost the cartridge that held this all-important life Pokemon. Which is my long-winded way to say: I'm playing Pokemon again!

Hoenn Confirmed!

Hiking trip one: more like walking with a really nice view

I've finally gotten tired of vegetating for weeks, so I've decided to explore the Garden State. For someone who's been living here for about fifteen years, I know very little of it. I'm an inside kind of person, and for a long time, I didn't have a car. Never saw the point of the expense when public transportation in the area has always been reliable. Or, "reliable". At least there is public transportation.

Anyway, talking to my brother inspired me, so last weekend I explored one of the parks running along the Hudson River with my friend Chris. We didn't venture far away from people, and we walked basically in a straight line, but there was a lot of nature. And non-city smells, like water, trees, earth, and flowers. And mosquitoes, which were less nice, but I suppose they enhanced the afternoon.

A bridge leading to New York, which I should probably know, but I didn't check Google maps. I want to say George Washington Bridge, though. It's fairly close to where we visited.

How I will be spending my disposable income, now that I have it

About a week ago, I went to Spencer's with a friend and saw this:

Gengar!! Most favorite Pokemon ever :)

I trained Gengar every single time when I was kid, and had elaborate dreams where I became a Pokemon master by defeating the Elite Four and the Champion with a Shiny Gengar. I thought mine psychic to defeat my friend's Crowbat. Memories.

Anyway, I spent more money than I'm comfortable remembering for this thing, all because it has Gengar on it. So I write this post to alert Nintendo/Shonen Jump/Marvel/assorted companies to continue making supbar products with my favorite characters on them, then overpricing the hell out of them. I will probably buy them like the weak consumer that I am. In all fairness, the Gengar wallet seems good so far, but it's been a week. And how much does a wallet need to do anyway? So it's not like I can destroy it.

It also makes me want to spend more money because it gives me an excuse to pull it out besides "admiring Gengar". For starters, I'm currently half-way to convincing myself that I should totally buy the next Pokemon game because I will totally have enough time to play it this time, somehow. I am of course deluding myself, but there are two Gamestops within walking distance of my house. This is a problem.

Details to follow a week or so from now, when I will almost certainly bought a copy of Pokemon: Whatever They're Up to Now. 

I am a terrible cook

In an attempt to improve my awful, USA northeast professional diet, I've been trying to become a better cook. Today, I tried to make zucchini fries. Unlike any logical person, I did this without consulting any recipe. This was the result:

I'm not even a good photographer

Dónde Estará Mi Primavera; musical benzo

I've been listening to this song almost nonstop for the last three days:

The title roughly translates to "Where Will My Spring Be?", which I know sounds odd, but that's because English is inadequate for this. I would try to translate the lyrics, but I would butcher them worse than Google translate. I'm pretty sure. The singer is Marco Antonio Solís, who I assume is extremely famous in Spanish speaking countries because my mother knows who he is and I've been listening to him in the background of my life since I was a kid.

Anyway, I don't think I can do much a "review" because I don't know anything about music. I can't even identify the instruments in this. I assume they're classical? There's a piano! And a violin? A cello? I'm not sure about the last two, but they sound like classical instruments, so I'm gonna go with them. That being said, I do know when something sounds nice, and how it makes me feel.

I got cut off in traffic today while listening to this song, and the following thought crossed my mind: that's okay, I'll get to listen to this song a little more. So I have concluded that, while listening to this song, it's impossible to get angry. A benzo couldn't make me so calm that I wouldn't mind being cut off in traffic. 

We need to harness this song's power to cure all anger management problems. 

Immortal in Death: Dallas takes on skinny supermodels

Buy on Amazon.

The good news is that this one is infinitely better than the second one, which had the leads behaving like unlikable high school students. I finished this one much quicker.

I assume that this series started as one of Roberts' many trilogies because there's no real reason for Eve and Roarke to jump from meeting, to getting engaged, to fairy-tale wedding that Eve totally doesn't want, for realsies, in three books. Especially when their issues get rehashed over and over again in future installments.

The wedding stuff is pretty boring, perhaps because it's difficult to get into the fairy-tail-ness of it all when Eve acts like she's marching towards an execution. I'm not entirely sure why Roarke insists on it when they could easily get married legally and take a private trip to some outer space colony or something. It leaves me feeling like the party is all for fan-service's sake, and it ends up throwing me out of the book. I know I'm a lady reading a romantic thriller, and that part of it is wish-fulfillment (though I've never fantasized about a fairy tale wedding, to be honest), but I don't need the female lead to be tortured with some fancy party where she has to wear a custom-made designer dress. Really.

Enough complaints, though. As I said when I started, I mostly enjoyed this book. It starts with Eve going to visit an up-and-coming designer for the aforementioned dumb wedding. The designer happens to be dating her BFF Mavis while trying to break off a relationship with the supermodel "Pandora", who of course shows up to make a scene as Eve is getting her measurements taken (while naked, also of course).

The Wheels on the Bus, but worse somehow

Pharell Williams "Happy" is the worst. Yes, this one:

I took a long drive today, and it went south even before my phone started bleeting this song (I assume I liked it at some point, because someone must have downloaded). First, I miss one lousy turn and, instead of following my instincts and doubling back, I let google maps sort out how to get back on track. I figure google is the closest thing we have to God. 

Somehow, it took me through four different tolls, all within fifteen minutes, before getting me back on a highway that would have cost me one toll, if I hadn't missed the one right turn. 

I would say lesson learned, but it's only a matter of time before I find myself behind the wheel of a car, and too lazy to think for myself.

Anyway, I'm driving around between trucks with my phone's brightness set to the lowest point because I lost my phone charger like two months ago, and I don't want to run out of charge out in the highway. My phone is my GPS (how did humans function before phones came with GPS?). When my phone is on lowest brightness setting, I can't see anything but a black screen when I'm outside.

So. I'm driving in the highway, with trucks on all sides. "Happy" comes along, a seven minute or so version that I must have liberated from the internet at some point. Normally, I'd let Pharell Williams do the chorus once or twice, them switch to something else. 

But this time, I can't.