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Yesterday was my monthly Shopping Day (my money came in on Friday but Friday is my brother's day and God forbid he should do his shopping on another day, but whatever) so Mom and I left the house around noon-ish, just about the time that I would normally be laying down for a nap. :P

First, though, I went on mobile banking and opened a savings account and transferred $100 to it to go toward taking the cats to the vet at the end of the month if they get worse again. The $200 that comes in on the 18th is also going in that account, as well as $100 from next month's money on the 28th. If the cats continue to get better and don't backslide again, I'll send the money to Mom so pay off a huge chunk of what I owe her.

SPEAKING OF VETS. I called around and my current vet (Pine Grove) is LITERALLY the most expensive vet in town. I'm switching to Mariposa because to walk in the door at Pine Grove is $250 per animal, and to walk in the door at Mariposa is fucking $134 per animal. THAT IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE WHAT THE FUCK PINE GROVE??

Anyway, shopping.

The first place we went was to the bank, where I pulled my rent money for November and handed it over immediately. Necessary but still BLEGH. And I'm expecting Mom and Lee to raise my rent again any time now, too, since I'm getting the $200 more each month and THEIR rent just went up by like $40, so. Yeah.

After the bank, we went to Walmart, where I went to McD's first thing and bought myself something to eat, and then Mom stayed there with her kindle and a coffee while I went off and did my shopping, which is pretty much what happens most times. I struggled to get the cat litter into the cart by myself this time, despite my back, but I managed it, and then I spent a while looking at carpets because I need to replace one of the rugs that I have in my bedroom right now. I ended up getting like an indoor/outdoor carpet with rubber backing, which I'm hoping is tough enough to protect the ACTUAL carpet underneath where I'm forever sliding my computer table back and forth and wearing at it.

I also bought a bunch of binders (as usual), though there were two I wanted and couldn't find, and the blue/green/white ones I like were on sale for $4/each (almost 50% off) so I bought an extra of each. Then I headed to the groceries section to get my V8 and whatnot, and I looked for lactose-free yogurt while I was there because I seriously have a problem with lactose nowadays. =/ I managed to find some, and I picked it up even though it was SUPER expensive, but it was Greek yogurt and I wasn't sure I would be able to even EAT IT because typically Greek yogurt makes me gag. (BUT I had some today and I can eat it! Yay!) I also bought almond milk for the lactose reason. Then, AFTER I had already checked out, I spotted someone else with EGGNOG in their cart and I was like "...um, excuse me?" XD;; The man was very nice and told me where to find it, so I left my cart with Mom and ran back to get some eggnog, and THEN we were done at Walmart. :P

At the Dollarama I grabbed three different sized jars that were on my list but at the time I couldn't remember what for. But I know better than to just not buy them because then the INSTANT I get home it's like "OH YEAH :|" so I bought them anyway, and sure enough, now I remember what I wanted them for! (Thumb drives/mini chocolate bars/Itsy.)

After the dollar store we went to Zehrs, where I WALKED IN THE DOOR TO THE SMELL OF THEIR WEDGE FRIES and immediately made a beeline to buy some. After that I grabbed one each of these Marvel glasses (Black Widow/Iron Man/Groot/Black Panther) that they've been selling for a while now (a while back I bought a Groot one to put some bamboo in) and had discounted all the way down to $1/each. I'm keeping them in their packaging for later resale in a few years. I also found a new, blown glass pumpkin for my collection that was 50% off because it was after Halloween. And then, of course, I got the SAMOSAS that I had GONE IN FOR ORIGINALLY lol.

Zehrs was followed by Metro, but I just went in there to get dumplings and managed not to get sidetracked for once and just came out with the dumplings and that was it. After Metro was Tombly's for worms for the axolotls, and again, that's a hunting and fishing store, so it's easy for me not to get distracted in there. Worms and go!

Lastly, we went to the dollar store by Giant Tiger (Dollar Joint? Dollar Tree?) so I could buy all the stuff I needed for the Samaritan's Purse Operation: Christmas Child shoe box that I picked up the other day. Basically, it's a Christmas decorated box that you fill with toys, hygiene items and school supplies and then you donate $10 for the shipping and the charity ships the box overseas. The boxes are all given out to children in need. It's a good program, I've done it before. SO. I bought a bunch of goodies for my box, but I also found a book for myself ("Girl One" by Sara Flannery Murphy; it sounds SO good and Mom agrees!) and I bought some little Halloween sun lantern things that were just TOO cute, even though I'm immediately going to be packing them away until next year haha.

Then we FINALLY went home and I put away all my perishables, and brought my bags up to my room and then just... died for a while. My back was KILLING ME. :|

In completely unrelated news, Itsy passed away and I don't know if it was from old age (if he WAS actually a male it's entirely possible) or because of all the pesticides we sprayed the whole house with a few days ago because of the cats/mites. (I'm lucky Winter and Shield didn't die from that, tbh.) In any case, RIP Itsy! You were a good boi (for a tarantula!)

Also, yesterday was November 1st, so it was the start of my unofficial NaNoWriMo/attempt to actually fucking FINISH TKA. I made my 1,667 word goal yesterday but I'm only around 450 words so far today, so I have to really get off my duff and get writing. The problem is that my brain is very stuck on Waiting On A Miracle (my Disney/Valdemar crossover fic) right now and I keep getting distracted by that. FOCUS. JUST FOCUS. >/

Way-back-when I wrote like four chapters of a Valdemar fic called Down Came A Blackbird, following Shadowshade k'Treva, his Bondbird crow Lale, his Companion, Cassandra, and the girls Mink and Taialyn and THEIR Companions, Uriana and Uriel. Also the Companion Yeo and her boy Julian (Chosen after her original Chosen, Neneya, was killed.) The story was basically about a vampire plague (the "Blood Plague") sweeping across Valdemar and a bunch of Trainees being the only ones who can stop it. Anyway.

After four chapters, I decided I didn't like it very much and deleted it (Kierseth was very disappointed), and after a couple of years I regretted it deeply because I decided that it had PROMISE and at that point the chapters that I HAD written were trapped on 3.5 floppy A drives that were completely obsolete. Blah.

So, I've been thinking about Down Came A Blackbird lately and considering the idea of actually writing it, starting over again from the beginning. I remember the general plotline and the characters (though Julian needs to be renamed because there's a Julian in Of The Deepest Dye; I might go with Lance.) But Shadowshade, Mink, Taialyn, all their Companions and everything. I do need to flesh out the cast a little but I think I could pull it off.

I just have a million other projects to finish first. :|

Speaking of finishing projects, today is the 30th, which means tomorrow is the 31st, WHICH MEANS IN TWO DAYS IT'S NOVEMBER FIRST AND THE (UNOFFICIAL) NANOWRIMO DURING WHICH I PLAN TO FUCKING FINISH TKA. I WILL BEAT THIS NOVEL IF IT KILLS ME, EVEN THOUGH I'M SEVERELY DISAPPOINTED WITH IT SO FAR. BLAH. WISH ME LUCK.