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I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day. I spent a nice day in with my mother and my daughter. We didn't do much to celebrate the holiday, actually, other than foregoing chores for the day. But that's pretty much the best way to spend the holiday, isn't it?

Chris Skyped me yesterday for mother's day. When he first tried to talk me into downloading the thing I wasn't really sure, but it sure was nice getting to see his face again. He told me all about the great mother's day that he had with his family in New York, and then I told him a couple of stories about our mother which I think he appreciated. Kid seems to be doing alright though. Apparently he's become popular at school now that he's back, and has even convinced his oldest sister to take him volunteering at the animal shelter over there. He can't do much because he's still a kid, but he seems to like the dog walking.

Okay Valarnet, on the heels of the super fun weekend I spent in a blonde (Hey Sharon, how's Viv, can I please come babysit soon?) I got a serious question for you guys out there that wake up with nifty new skills.

How likely is it that, one day, I will wake up shooting lasers from my eyes? (Please be aware, I can do this in my dreams, it's not just a random thing I cooked up.) And is there a way I can sort of save my dad the stress and worry of having to rebuild to roof of the house? (Especially since it stands to reason he might need to do it three times.)

Up until now, I never actually worried about it. But now, with the body changing and werewolves being a thing I now accept as normal everything, it's best to get a jump start on this.

Got my body back only to have my appearance changed. I'd accuse Leon of giving me a makeover like I did to him, if I didn't look exactly like my dreamself. No way he could have known about it.

LIV!!!

WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!

How many times, exactly, should I expect to wake up as a woman?? This is bullshit.

No offence, Liv.

I guess I can add "talks to animals" to my list of usable skills. I meant to mention this before, but I got distracted trying to get down responding to them.

Late night at the office tonight, and thank God for pack-and-plays. Viv is asleep in the corner while I go through this paperwork. Poor girl. She's amazing and patient. I wish that I could have given her a more interesting night tonight! But she's got her blocks in there, scattered around her little, sleeping body.

Means I'm stuck here until I'm finished with this mess and can head home. I'd sell my soul for a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich right now.

Venturing into the world of online dating isn't as good as I thought.

People lie - A LOT!

My roommate is moving out, so I'm losing my vicarious pup. I've heard good things about the local SPCA ... is there anywhere or anything I should know before looking for a new dog to adopt? My mother says I'm crazy to want to adopt a new dog when I'm still caring for an infant. But I think now is the best time to find a dog to add to our family. Not a puppy, that's too much work... hopefully I can find a nice, calm, adult dog to bring into my home.

Learning how to cook today. I suppose I've been learning for a while but I'm officially trying to teach myself using internet videos now. I have a feeling I'm going to have to explain a mess then get a real teacher.

Who the fuck's bright idea was it to design the gates of the Berlin zoo to look like the goddamn entrance to Chinatown? I can't believe how pissed off I woke up this morning because of it.

I've had some free time which meant that I've had time to waste watching youtube videos. And then I stumbled across this one.

Ponchan, D's raccoon thing, did the exact same thing when I gave her some candies one time when I was petsitting. Can't believe that still makes me fucking laugh so hard.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who's ridiculously excited to go see Zootopia? Mom's watching Viv, so I can go this weekend. Just need to find someone to go with look up show times. How adorable does it look? And, apparently, it's a good movie on top of being family friendly... It's setting records and still at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Are they going to take away my adult card because I'm so excited to go see a kids movie?

I fell asleep on the sofa, and woke up after something quite...startling. I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it.

Private to Peggy

Sorry about that. The girl in the dreams I mean. I...she grabbed me and I am going to stop talking before I stick my foot in my mouth anymore.

The dreams seemed to stop for me for a little bit. I don't know why they did that because I really did want to know what happened next in them, but I had another one last night. Very action packed, lots of explosions, very Michael Bay-ish if I'm being honest here. Still, managed to save some POWs and get them back alive.

My mom has decided to move to Southern California. We're looking for a realtor to help her find something she wants to buy. God, looking at real estate prices in the area is really intimidating, but my mother seems really excited about it. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

My dreams decided to give me a goddamn cane as a gift today, so I guess I don't need to go out and buy one. How fucking thoughtful of them.

Can the person who invented that horrible Puppy-Monkey-Baby thing on commercials please be banned from creating such hideous things in the future? My nightmares would appreciate that. Thanks.

A restless night. Up at 4am but don't feel like moving much and not sure what to do with it. Laying around is boring, but can't really decide what to do.

I'm so glad to be home in time for Girl Scout Cookie season. Though, I'm afraid I might eat my weight in Thin Mints.

I'm home! Sounds like I missed some pretty crazy adventures. What's this about a fog?

[ooc: Trigger warning: Sharon's father passed away today. Mentions of that under the cut and in the comments.]

( [Private: Friends Only] )

Now that my dreams are over I decided to take the PI exam to see how much information crossed over.

Turns out a lot. I didn't quite beat my dream score but I did get a ninety-three which is oddly the score my dad lied to me about getting when he took it.

I almost forgot what rain was like.

It's almost like living back in London. Hello El Nino, stop flooding the roads.

Just when I thought I got rid of the kid, I get a phonecall from Chris saying he's coming down for Christmas. So I guess this means I'm spending Christmas with my kid brother after all.

He's coming down on Saturday and staying for a week, which means the east coast Orcot family also learned the meaning of "advanced notice." Kind of. It's better than finding out the day before/day of at least.

so i'm supposed to talk about my dreams, yes? alright here we go. i woke up missing a hand, it was a bit awkward.

there is absolutely nothing to do during the day when you're laid up in a hospital bed, drugged, and not wearing much beneath the thin gown. it's also bloody freezing.

i've taken to learning new medical terms and using them in conversations multiple times, counting how many. today's is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia which is really the term for an ice cream headache. the nurses are quite impressed.

and now i'm giving up on typing one-handed so

forgot where i was going with that anyway

Had a pretty great weekend enjoying the snow and decorating for Christmas... until Viv spiked a fever last night and nearly sent us to Urgent Care. They fit her in this morning at the Pediatrician's office... ear infection. Merry Christmas.

[Private to Aramis and Porthos]
I think the crying may have stressed out Veronica. Can Viv and I come and stay with you guys for a couple of nights, until the antibiotics kick in?

Today is bullshit. The fuck is this shit falling from the sky? Why is it still coming? If I wanted a white Christmas I'd move to Canada.

At least I still have winter clothes from the last couple of years, but seriously. Fuck this shit.

( Friends Filter )

My mother and father are planning on coming out to celebrate Christmas with us this year. Viv's first Christmas is a big deal, even though she won't remember any of it!

Does anyone have any recommendations as to activities I can suggest for them? They'll be here for quite some time, and want to explore the area.

I can't believe it's still snowing.

Well, I guess I should believe it. Southern California isn't exactly known for its snowfall, so I'm guessing this is a Thing.

Kinda nice, though. Peaceful in a way.

Better than being turned into a demon horse, that's for sure.

I'm not gonna mention the snow

When is it an appropriate time to start dating again after a divorce? Legitimately asking for a friend.

I fell asleep at my desk at work today. The Captain woke me up with a fucking megaphone. I think he was far more amused than he had any right being.

Not like it was my fault though. I got a full eight hours of sleep last night. But in my goddamn dreams D decided it would be hilarious to keep me up all night with some horrific adult sex ed lesson.

These dreams really are out to sabotage my career. And I'm pretty sure I'm officially scarred for life.

((OOC: For anyone interested, D's educational (and SFW) sex ed lesson is here 1 2, read right to left))

Don't you love when your dreams have been all done for months, then you start again right before your wedding? And dream of being in the middle of a Civil War? Then it's completely blissful when you go to Belize for your honeymoon because no dreaming, only when you come back to reality they start again. God, Orange County.

I am on the way to assassinate a child-eating witch, however, so that should be fun.

Oh, and cute kitten. Bigby would be upset if he wasn't given a mention.

((Pretend this was posted yesterday morning because whoops. Leon's costume, for reference))

I haven't been trick-or-treating in probably about fifteen years, but I'm kind of excited for it this year. Not that I really have much of a sweet tooth, but Chris is all fired up. And he's a big fan of his costume too.

[Photo.jpg]

Downside is that I guess I don't get to go to the bars tonight to check out all the good-looking girls in skimpy outfits, but I'd rather spend the night with Chris anyway.

I've been dreaming of an apartment. It's apparently important. I dreamed of moving there. I dreamed of living there. No big deal. Pretty normal.

Last week though I dreamed about the apartment and...it was different. It was red. Like rusted up or maybe someone had slaughtered something in it. None of my furniture was where it was supposed to be. A credenza I had in the corner had been shoved over and a record player was where my TV used to be. It was like I was dreaming about a dream about the apartment.

Then this thing crawled out of the wall by the credenza. I would call it a monster, except it was human shaped. Bald, naked and zombie like. It crawled out of my wall and then crawled across the floor towards me, reaching out to grab hold of me and moaning. I can still hear it.

Then last night I dreamed I was trapped in the apartment. It was my apartment...well, the same one I'd been dreaming about before, except the door is chained shut. Not like your usual security chain, like someone actually chained it up from the inside.

I can't get out. I can't get out of the apartment. I've been trapped there for a week. And I don't think anyone has even noticed I'm gone.

I want something other than dreams to focus on, so I enrolled in a photography class. The first one is on Thursday, but all I've got currently is my phone camera. I assume they'll want something better than that. Anyone else doing photography have any ideas what I should get?

I know I'm obviously missing something in my dreams, but that's never been more obvious than the last couple of dreams I've had.

A couple nights ago I dreamed of going to D's for tea, and Chris was off playing somewhere. And then D's weird goat-dog-tiger thing and his raccoon that are always hanging around with Chris came running yapping at D, and D flipped the fuck out and went running and was downright relieved when he found Chris. And then neither of them would let me in on their damn conversation so I literally have no idea what happened there.

And then last night I dreamed that the captain forced me to finally take some vacation time, so I decided to be nice and took D and Chris on a week long vacation to this island. And I remember getting there and the first day there, and then nothing at all until I got back to LA.

I thought I'd just drank too much, but then Jill showed me that the islanders took out an ad in the LA Times thanking me for saving them from a damn volcano eruption? I woke up to it lying on my nightstand and everything. "We'd like to thank Detective Orcot for getting everyone off the island in time. If not for his quick thinking, there would have been more than one casualty." You'd think that would be the sort of thing you'd remember but it's like the whole thing got wiped from my brain.

It's the last time I take D on a fucking vacation though. He claims he also doesn't remember a thing and he's pretty damn convincing. Didn't even know how he got this nasty bump on his head from it and tried to insinuate that I put it there when he's the one that's always throwing shit at me. I'm not sure I buy it though. Whole thing's fishy if you ask me.

I sucked it up and signed up for an eHarmony account. A lot of people are meeting online now-a-days, right? I'm actually kind of excited about it. It feels like there's more of a screening process than just randomly bumping into someone in a bar. (Not that I was ever much for bars, but...)

Wish me luck?

It's been Pope Central around here, since his visit to the country. We watch him on TV, and then Mama calls to make sure we're watching.

Si, Mama, claro.

(Which, for the record, is about the extent of my Spanish.)

Did anyone else watch the coverage?

What’s my prize for solving a murder? Someone taping me in the privacy of my boyfriend’s dorm room and releasing a sex tape of us… where we aren’t even having sex might I add. Solved that one too. At least that was more of a collegey crime.

I’ll take sex tapes over murder any day.

I’m over these dreams though, can they be done now?

What a way to wind down a much needed vacation. We saw Barcelona play Atlético Madrid yesterday. I'm very, very happy to say that Barcelona came out victorious (and I'm still suffering the hangover). Even Porthos enjoyed himself there, I think.

But it will be nice to return home tomorrow. For some reason, I find myself really missing Orange County.

( Cut for talk about schoolyard bullying/children getting into fights. Viewable to all )

Okay, I'm new to this whole social media thing, so don't laugh too hard if I screw up. I figure it's time to meet some new people, and it was this or okcupid... and I don't think I'm ready to visit that side of the internet just yet.

Where do I start? The name's James, but most people call me Bucky. I just moved to the OC a few months ago-- I'm from Brooklyn, originally. Thought the change in scenery would be nice. I work at the VA doing social work.

Is that enough information? Or too much? I can never tell with blogging.

I have to say that I know my dreams are coming to an end, but I'm still constantly surprised by them. Dreaming about basically a real life Hunger Games on the streets of the Capitol was not something I wanted to experience. We lost a lot of good people, but justice (for the most part) has prevailed. I just -- I just wish there was a better way to go about this.

But I will say that the people that deserved to die did, but I'm still upset about the ones that didn't deserve it. The only thing about trying to take our freedom back is wondering if we're actually going to do good with it.

I have to admit that I do enjoy the feeling of going back in time with my dreams. Still in the 40's, but this time I've teamed up with the Howling Commandos once again. I've missed seeing those boys in my dreams and I really had the chance to prove myself to the prat that is James Thompson.

Off to Russia/Poland we went and to an abandoned school. The thing is that they were certainly brainwashing young women - one tried to kill us. We managed to escape and brought home a man that was being held in the prison there. This isn't going to end well.

[Natasha]
I think this place I went to ties into your past in the dreams.

Has anyone successfully been able to keep the dreams separate from their real life?

I thought I could, but thanks to the dreams writing no longer feels... right. Looks like I am taking a break for the time being.

Moose is proving to be a very good babysitter, I've found. And lord, look at all that hair Viv's got already. She takes after her father for certain.

( cut for adorable image )

Yeah, I'm sure I'm missing something big this week. But I'm on vacation at Aramis and Porthos' house, letting Viv spend time with her daddys. It's a shame she's not smiling or anything yet, but she's still so little. We spend a lot of time napping in front of daytime television and changing diapers. Oh, and doing laudry. I've got the most exciting life ever.

Note to self: Next time I rescue D from terrorists, I should have a plan other than barging in through the front door with my handgun, yelling for everyone to put their hands up. That's a really good way to get six assault rifles pointed at me.

So yeah. In my dreams, D and I got kidnapped by terrorists, and we were supposed to find the lost treasure of El Dorado for them. Then we found it. And it was a bunch of fucking gold fish. Not like koi fish or whatever goldfish actually are, but this extinct species named the Titicaca (hehehe, titicaca) Orestias. It would have been fucking hilarious if I hadn't been so sure we were going to die. But hey, at least I got some fucking newspaper clippings to commemorate the time I got kidnapped by terrorists, whisked away to South America, discovered an extinct species, and then got yelled at by my boss.

Does anyone know how the fuck I'm supposed to explain these handcuff wounds on my wrists to my coworkers?

I can't believe that Viv is fifteen days old. Fifteen days. I'm on some pretty heavy duty pain killers that make the world seem a big foggy, but it feels like it's been longer. Maybe the lack of sleep makes it harder to judge the time?

Fifteen days. Wow.