.:reflections of twilight:.

My sister dies the day after Christmas, my grandfather dies on Valentine's Day, My step-sister dies on Mother's Day and my uncle dies around Halloween.

This most recent one didn't have any deaths (thankfully), but I did spend a good chunk of it in the Emergency Room. Not for me, but for mom. She started having pain in her upper abdominal around 3 PM. At first she thought it was just gas, but it lasted far longer than gas usually does. At around 7, she called the doctor since it still hadn't gone away. Her PCP wasn't on call, but the doctor she works for was, and he had her stop by the office for an exam. Since I'm her taxi service, I had to come with. He thought it might be something to do with her gall bladder, so he wanted her to go to the ER in order to have some tests done and a more thorough exam. So... we did.

Turns out it was indeed a gall bladder attack (after an ultrasound and some blood work was done). Since she had been given some pain medication (by the really cute male nurse), it was determined she could be released. They told her she'd have to watch her diet from now or or face another attack. She said she felt better this morning. I think they said there may be some additional testing she'd have to go through, but with the help of some medication and a careful eye on what she eats (no greasy foods), she should be fine. No gall stones or anything of that nature. With any luck, she won't need a gall bladder-ectomy.

The cook-out itself wasn't too bad. Of course, Mom was in the middle of her gall bladder waging a war with her, so she wasn't overly social, and I'm hardly ever social, so we sat by the kiddie pool and I ate while she had a little something to drink. Way for us to meet new people, eh?

Aside from that, we didn't do anything else. We missed whatever fireworks were going on, but once you've seen them, you've pretty much seen them all.

I had to redo my headers for my userinfo page. For some reason the ones I had before went all screwy, so I had to do it a bit differently...

OMG! Today I got to see some of the scans from Furuba ch. 129!! The hug! THE HUG!!!!!! *squish* Our little Kyo's getting so big! *sniff* This really does feel like the end...

I read all of 'Absolute Boyfriend'. *cough*scanlations*cough* I couldn't stop reading it, I was wanting to see how it ended. I can't really talk about it, I'm a little depressed...

Trivia of the day: Originally a palace, the Louvre was made into a museum after the French Revolution.

...I came into the world.

Mom made me open my gifts at midnight last night. She wanted to see what I had gotten. Here they are:

'Hopes and Fears' by Keane
'Star Wars Ep. III' soundtrack
'X&Y' by Coldplay
'Songs for Jane' by Maroon 5

The only one she ever heard of is Maroon 5. I had to explain to her that they didn't have any dirty lyrics or anything. I'd think at least by now, she'd trust in my taste in music...

I went and bought the newest issue of 'Shojo Beat.' Like kawaiiayu said, I'm thinking of maybe subscribing. If any of the stories in there were put into graphic novel form, I'd probably buy 'Absolute Boyfriend' and possibly 'NANA.'

I really like the art in AB. Yuu Watase does good work, and it's slightly different than the stuff she did for FY. She renders bishies very well (as evidenced by Hotohori and Tamahome from FY. Yowza)! One of the characters, Soshi Asamoto, I barely recognized in one scene due to the fact he wasn't wearing his glasses. I read it a second time and I could pick up on the resemblence later (which I think was the point). I was thinking, "Wow! He's lookin' really good!"
I should really try to curb by bishie obsession, but I think I'm a lost cause.

I bought a few other books as well. A 'Star Wars' one, 'The Joiner King' which is the first story after the whole New Jedi Order series. I also got the fourth 'Slayers' novel (finally) and the newest 'InuYasha.'

It was a little amusing last night at Bible Study as my Music Minister and I (to a somewhat lesser degree) were explaining to my mom the finer points of 'Harry Potter.' She used to be of the mindset that they were a bad influence due to the fact they were about 'witchcraft' and I personally think it ridiculous since it has nothing to do with actual witchcraft. J.K. Rowling herself said that the majority of the novels are things she herself has come up with and the remainder is based on common folklore. The novels have good moral lessons in them. I told mom I'd let her read the first novel herself so she can get a better indication of what they're about.

We also were also surprised by the presentation of a birthday cake for me and another member of our group who has a birthday the day after mine. It was an ice cream and white cake. It was pretty good.

Today I'm not doing much in the way of chores and my grandma called and said she'd take me out to lunch today. Also, I plan to actually sit down and watch 'The Notebook' so it can be returned to Netflix. We've had it since forever.

*goes back to stare dreamily at her wallpaper of Jin*

Quote of the day: "Truth is the only safe ground to stand upon." -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton