The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

14-15 years ago, I had a crush on James. Can't recall how it started, but I went after episodes that either featured him or had some form of hurt/comfort material or both. And of course, my few fics either had him getting in trouble or being the hero. Or both.

(I also recall that the fact of there being a talking cat was one of the first things that fascinated me about the show. I think I was tuning in waiting for YGO, caught some of Pokemon, and was intrigued by either Meowth alone or the whole group.)

I seem to have awakened all of that crushing stuff and hurt/comfort wants by rewatching episodes over the last couple of weeks. It's like no time has passed at all. I didn't think I'd still crush on someone who is now much younger than me (if he's 16-ish in canon, he's almost half my age), but I'm pouncing on those episodes and having a wrestle with myself over fics. I ended up doing a most cracky TMNT 87/Pokemon crossover and was rather shameless with the hurt/comfort in it. And I couldn't seem to shake the desire for hurt/comfort afterwards, so I drew a picture.

On Monday I saw Wal-Mart was overhauling their DVD section and Johto was gone. They also only had one of those 4 Pokemon movie sets. It wasn't the movies I especially longed for, but for $5 I decided to get it. I figured with four movies, there would surely be something I'd like. Earlier today I watched Pokemon 4Ever, which I was sure I'd seen years ago but absolutely did not remember at all so this was obviously my first viewing. I loved it in general and due to the very intense and heartbreaking and long-drawn-out hurt/comfort climax, I ended up with an insistent plunnie that became a long hurt/comfort blurb. Basic premise: I wanted to see James be heroic and apparently die and everyone mourn over him, since even in the second movie, I don't recall that anyone mourns Team Rocket despite not knowing they survived sacrificing themselves to save the world. I think the only time Team Rocket is thought dead and mourned is in Pokemon Shipwreck. Which is probably why it is still one of my favorite episodes. (Also, I am darkly amused that every time a Pokemon is told to bring something back, they bring back Team Rocket. LOL.) Now the blurb wants to be a fic. Help....

I really intended on writing at least two other TMNT fics for October, three if I could. But this fic has me sidetracked. I write a little more in the blurb and I think that's it and things will calm down, only they don't. In a bit I'm right back to wanting this to be a fic. So ... I guess it's going to be a fic.

I also have the urge to put a Joseph Campanella character in it. I had the most random thought recently of wondering what would happen if the characters stumbled on a church where the pastor had Pokemon helping out with the garden and the upkeep and such. This fic will have some definite religious themes and it would be a perfect place to insert such a thing at the beginning. I want to have Joseph's priest character from The Invaders appear. I should probably watch the episode again, but I'd like to start writing the scene anyway and then maybe I can find the episode and see it before it's time to post it.

I'm also helping my local friend at a book fair. We set it up this past day. And we get credits for helping out. I wasn't sure if I'd find anything I liked, but I was secretly hoping I would, maybe even some Pokemon novelizations. I used to love those. They had a lot of varied stuff and several things I was definitely interested in. One is cheaper on Amazon, but some others are about equal in price. I found a Pony storybook, something I've been looking for for years and have never seen. Amazon doesn't even seem to carry it. And there was a guidebook to the original 151 Pokemon that looked fun. Honestly, things seemed so much more simple where there were 151 and there was a core cast that didn't keep changing. I set those two things aside in case I could get them. Then, right before we left, I found a Pokemon novelization. Looks like it's the first couple of Alola episodes. I'm not crazy about some of the Alola stuff. Animation for Ash looks awful. And a Pokemon school makes me go "..." because I'm just not crazy about school concepts for the most part. (Or maybe shall we say unrealistic schools, because I seem to like realistic school settings, like in Equestria Girls.) But the novelization looked fun with a lot of Team Rocket scenes and some pictures and I added it to the stuff.

(Funny thing, I don't think it ever occurred to me to wonder before what kids in that series do about school....)

I'm working two shifts, the setting up and one while the sale is on, and my friend says we'll each get $5 for working two shifts. If we do four, we can get another $5. I don't know if I want to work two more for $5, especially since I'd rather not do it without her but earlier is better for her and later is better for me, and I'm so exhausted from today that I just don't see how I could do more than the other early shift I already had planned. But if I do later ones, I'd be doing them without her. And next week is the only time the fair's on and it's really not a good week for me to try to fit a bunch of shifts in. And just for $5 ... it doesn't seem worth it. Now, if we get $5 for each shift, making $20 total for four shifts, I would totally do it. I received a gift certificate for $5 for this past day, but I don't know if that's because they're counting the other shift I'm signed up for, or if the certificate is for both of us, or what. Only my name is on it, so I figured my friend got her own. I really need to ask the person in charge or something to confirm about the money. It's possible my friend understood it wrong and it is $5 per person per shift. She thought it would only be $5 for two shifts because ... I think because I'm a volunteer she recruited to work with her and she's on the PTA and I'm not, or something like that. Maybe it is, but since I got the certificate for $5, I'm confused. I should have asked something then, but I was too exhausted to think. I didn't get much sleep before I went. I had trouble going to sleep when I hadn't been up long, and then I woke up sooner than I needed to. Uggggh.

I want all three of the books I turned up. The $5 credit for two shifts would cover the novelization. But I can't pay full-price for both of the others, so either I have to choose just one to pay full-price for (and it should probably be the Pony one, since it's rarer) or I have to decide to work more shifts and get most of the cost covered for all books. Only if it really is $10 for four shifts, I just don't feel I can spare the time for that much work and so little credits. And the Pokemon guidebook is on Amazon, so there's that. Although I don't know if I'd try to get it ahead of other things if it wasn't a setting other than this book fair, where it's right under my nose.

It's so funny that I'm a grown woman and the section I was most thrilled with at the book fair was the kindergarten to 3rd grade section. My friend or someone else there was mentioning there was a table with grown-up books and I looked at it, but nothing on it really excited me much except cookbooks that I couldn't afford. I also was mostly "eh" at the Middle Readers section. But Ponies and Pokemon ... fun and affordable stuff. They also had some Nick Turtles markers with character toppers, but they're $4 a pop. Eeek. I don't think so. I'd rather have a book. Of course, if it was 87 Turtles and they actually had a human Baxter one, I'd be all over it.

One fun thing about being into something like Pokemon is that there's always some kind of merchandise around. And when I like Pikachu, that makes it even better. He's probably my second favorite Pokemon after Meowth. Naturally cats would be tops with me. I also really like Umbreon. Always have. And Eevie. And Vulpix/Ninetales. And Goldeen. And Articuno. I kind of want that Pikachu plushie Build-a-Bear has, if they still have it in-store. I can't recall if I saw it there or not. I always wanted a Pikachu plush, even before I started watching the show. Can't recall why I never got one. Build-a-Bear just released Vulpix, but I'm not so crazy about the way they did the tails. It looks like they're all on one flat piece of material, sigh. The tails are the most beautiful feature, so that was disappointing.

Wooow, what a long day. Made even longer by the fact that I only got four-ish hours of sleep. I had plenty of time for a good sleep, but my body refused. Ugh. As soon as the batch of wash I'm doing is done, I hope to sleeeep.

First thing was that Dad wanted to visit an old friend. We got lost finding the street. But finally we did, and as soon as I saw the place, I remembered vividly being there years ago. It was also August back then, August the 5th, but temperatures were cooler and I waited in the car and wrote and observed some kids at the house across the street. It was honestly an outing I remember very fondly. We drove around the area afterwards and I saw a bride running through her front yard to the back yard. Apparently she was having either the wedding, the reception, or both on her property. We stopped for gas around 8 and I observed that the sun was going down. It was a hint of autumn on the way and I was thrilled. I even remember what I was writing: it was the early chapters of my YGO mystery Ballistic in Boston, when the Jackie Chan Adventures character Viper showed up. I'm not even fully sure why the memory of that outing makes me so happy, as I don't recall finding anything awesome while shopping. But it was such a nice, peaceful street and I was happy to sit there and write and watch those kids and I loved the hint of autumn.

Anyway, this trip out, it was way too hot to even think of me staying in the car. It was practically 100! Uggggh. So I went in. Luckily, the visit didn't last much more than thirty minutes, and the man was very nice.

K-Mart was ... oh brother, a mess. Unlike our K-Mart, which tried to keep order despite closing, this one was helter-skelter, especially in the toy department. Everything was everywhere! I had to dig through the toys on all shelves to make sure I didn't miss something awesome. Only by doing that did I find a Miraculous Ladybug figure, one of Marinette in casual clothes. That was awesome, and she was 10% cheaper than she would have been had I bought figures when our K-Mart had some. The dream that shook me up so much regarding that show seemed to be more in the background, so I snapped her up. Cat Noir was unfortunately the subject of the horrible dream and seeing his picture on the back of the card made me chill a bit, so I don't know if I would have got a figure of him had I seen it. Looks like it will still take a while for the dream to fully stop upsetting me. It's not that I'm leery of Cat Noir; it's just that he reminds me of the dream and it was extremely upsetting to me.

I also saw a doll of Chloe that looked amazingly accurate, but I don't like her and won't like her unless she shapes up this season, so I opted not to get that even though it was a temptation from the high level of accuracy. Then there was a figure of Marinette as Ladybug, but it was a fancy figure that could twirl, and even with the discount, I didn't think I should get that right now because I need to help with grocery money. So I just got the other Marinette figure.

Didn't see any 87 Turtles stuff except another of those Leonardo hats that really hurt to wear. There was lots of Nick Turtles stuff, though. And I find myself regretting I didn't get the snow cone maker. I wanted it badly at our K-Mart, but I couldn't get it then. This K-Mart didn't have it quite as cheap yet, so I still didn't get it. Now I'm thinking that for the sake of 10% more, I really should have, because it's unlikely I can get back to our K-Mart before they close and also unlikely that they will still have any of that product. I didn't realize I wanted the snow cone maker so badly. I'll see how I feel after sleep.

The class reunion had wonderful food! Potato salad, and potatoes drenched in butter, and chicken salad, and lettuce and tomato salad, and chicken teriyaki, and buttered rolls, and so many wonderful desserts! Cheesecake! Lemon cake! Eclairs! Some other cream puffy thing! Ice water! And luckily, I remembered to bring sandwich bags so I could smuggle food out if I didn't finish it all. There were also lots of leftovers on the buffet table, so I decided to help by running off with some of them. I'm not sure if the hotel just throws away the leftovers or what. I heard that if the roast wasn't completely finished, what was left of it would be thrown away. So wasteful! Why not let the employees have it? But anyway. I wasn't interested in the roast, but I ran off with the food I did love.

Aside from the food, though, I have to say that I was underwhelmed by the reunion. It didn't last long, and while I was grateful since I wanted to do more shopping, I was sad at the same time because it felt like there really wasn't much to the reunion and there really should have been, when it's the last official one they're going to have. Five years ago, they had an elaborate program with people singing fifties songs and I just adored it. This time, the program was very short. Everything, including the dinner part, was over within a couple of hours. Nobody seemed to want to stay and visit for long after the official festivities were over. I'm glad my focus switched to being excited more for the shopping, as otherwise I would have been tremendously disappointed. Part of the reason I looked forward to it for five years was because of how awesome the last one was.

I also felt a little less connected than I did the last time. That may be because my main interests right now are cartoons rather than 1950s shows, although I still adore them as much as I ever did.

Since things let out earlier, I debated whether I wanted the big F.Y.E. or Toys R Us more. I chose the former, and I don't regret it. I found an 87 Turtles shirt on clearance for $3! I also saw that they had been selling a shirt with the Team Rocket crew on it, but I couldn't seem to find any aside from the display copy, sadly. I'm planning to try to find the shirt online later.

We needed to grab a couple of items at Wal-Mart, so we hurried across the street to it. When we lived at the old house, that Wal-Mart was always my favorite. It always seemed to have more stuff than other Wal-Marts.

It didn't disappoint. After years, I finally got season 4 of The Wild Wild West! Squeeeee! And for cheaper than Amazon was selling it for! This is honestly the first time I've seen season 4's DVD set in person. I exclaimed out loud when I saw it and I immediately snapped it up. I have taped copies of those episodes, but I bet they're cut for commercial time.

I also saw two Baxters in the figure area! I didn't blog about this yet either, but I've finally been getting some more work and I felt I could offer the Baxter I had to my friend as a gift, as originally intended. And I was very happy that he wanted it and was thrilled with it! I'd like to get him another to make into Barney, as he's expressed the desire to have a Barney too and wishes he could find the figures in his area, but I wasn't sure I should get one right then after I'd had a mini-shopping spree and when I need to help with grocery money for at least a while. And I think the stores down here will be having more of him soon. The one two towns over is finally getting ready to sell the Mutagen Canister line! So I didn't get one. Hope I won't regret that too.

So overall, an awesome shopping time! And I am totally exhausted.

Also, I finally figured out how to get the tablet's Bluetooth keyboard to work, so now I can use it like a mini-laptop. Squeee. It will make typing long messages on the tablet very plausible and pleasant! Usually I've avoided typing long messages on the tablet and wait till I get back to the laptop. Now I won't necessarily have to, depending on what I'm doing while using the tablet.

I got the keyboard hooked up in case I wanted to take the tablet and write story scenes using the keyboard, but I'm glad I didn't. I only had a bit of writing time while Dad was visiting with his friend, so I did it the old-fashioned way, in a paper notebook.

Now the water heater is dead. It seems to be the thermocouple and maybe the pilot light too. Thank God this happened in summer and not winter, but ugggh, we need hot water! Warming some up on the stove every time we need it is not convenient. Oh, we are so pampered in this modern age. And now we'll have something else to pay for that we can't afford, yet we can't afford not to.

And I'm in super-headache mode from a combination of nervous insomnia and sitting too close to a movie screen thanks to assigned seating. Blech. (I loved the movie, but not the seating. I saw Wonder Woman and now I kind of want one of the dolls Wal-Mart is selling. They kept not making a Wonder Woman movie because she was "tricky" for them to grasp for some reason, but they did a basically awesome job with this one! Could have done without one scene, though. But I found it awesome that Robert Pine's son played Steve Trevor.) I hope this won't go on long; this is the second day of it. I thought I was feeling better, but it came back on after a while. And I have to get up early on Sunday for another singing assignment. I'm really worried that will mess me up for days on end now that this headache mess came on again.

Speaking of movies, haven't bought Beauty and the Beast yet. I haven't been able to get to Wal-Mart, plus I heard that most of them aren't even doing special release week sales and are charging $20 instead. Ugh. So far the cheapest price I've heard for it is $18 and I'm not sure I'm willing to pay that much, at least not right now. Especially with the Scottish Festival only a month away. Last year I actually bought stuff there, so this year I might find stuff again. I always like to have money on hand just in case.

Earlier I finally watched Planet of the Turtleoids again, on my Cowabunga Classics DVD. That was my introduction to liking the 87 series last summer (the DVD, not necessarily the episode), and getting it out again made me feel a burst of nostalgia. My favorite watching time with it was, I believe, either the first or second time I had it out. It was late at night and my light was about the only light on in the house at that time. I watched maybe four or five of the ten episodes and I was having a blast. I finally realized the 87 series was awesome. I couldn't get enough. I felt transported back to the 80's/early 90's. I felt like a kid again. And it felt so good.

I'm rather baffled by some of the episodes viewers apparently voted on for inclusion on the set (the Gadget Man episode, wow. I mean, I like it, but to vote for it as one of the ten best? Really?), but others I totally understand. Curse of the Evil Eye is definitely an epic one. Plus it's nice for Baxter fans. I remember my initial confusion over who the character was, as I believe previously I'd only seen the season 1 design. Then Shredder addressed him as Baxter and I finally got it. I was surprised. And I remember thinking "Whoa ... yikes" when Baxter threatened the Turtles with his clay monster. Initially I didn't feel terribly sympathetic to him just from that one episode, but after watching all of his episodes, boy, did that change.

One thing I've been wondering for ages: what is the writers' obsession with wombats? In a lot of the episodes, there's jokes about wombats. David Wise did it a lot, but so did Michael Reaves, I believe. And maybe others. What's so funny about wombats? Did they just like how the word sounded? Or did someone on the writing staff really like the critters? LOL.

Now I need to decide on my next story, as the one I planned to do next I'm not sure I want to do next. It's based on that dream I recorded about the antique mall and Baxter is undercover, but I can't make up my mind whether he gets stabbed like in the dream or not. If he does, he's healed by a religious relic the crooks were after, as I have no interest in writing complications from stab wounds in the chest or lengthy recoveries and it wouldn't work well for my series when one story blends into the next and time passes slowly between stories. (Not to mention when Baxter is the main character and he kind of needs to be functional from one story to the next.) But I used a religious relic already in a Kolchak story and both relics are based on the one in an episode of Mysterious Ways, so I don't know that I should use that relic again. Maybe I need a new one. Or maybe Baxter shouldn't be stabbed and something else happens. Stabbing wouldn't even be a consideration if not for the dream and wanting to follow it as closely as possible. I shall ponder on it. Probably within a day or two I'll know what to do. I believe the next story will be #50, so I should probably try to make it a special one. The religious relic bit would fit the bill for a special one, definitely, if I decide I want to go there.