So I am now officially 21! I was born around 7:30AM so yeah....I'M SO PSYCHED! I am actually not doing much today. I opened presents last night because with grad school, it's hard for my brother to find a spare minute. I got some fun stuff, including the Disney My Villains Monopoly game! Ratigan is on Boardwalk's spot of course! I am having lunch with my grandma and am going to the DMV to get my license updated, new picture, yay! Tomorrow night is when the party will begin. My cousins are in St. Louis today at the Cardinal/Cubs game so because they wanted to be a part of the drinking festivities with me and my brother, we're waiting for them. Don't worry, I'm a light weight, I'll mostly dance and laugh at them! In a way that's good. I was up till midnight with my best friend playing Villain's Monopoly and watching One Hundred And One Dalmations I won, I was shocked! I guess my childhood sister-like friend had kept me in the dark about the real rules of Monopoly so she could beat me all those times! Without her rules, I do JUST fine!

Yeah, fun times! Pictures will be on my Facebook and I can always add a link to some for you guys here. I am thinking of trying to get the fan-fiction stories up here for you, might be a while, so no promises of when, but I will try. I have to get 2 stories updated on the actual fan-fiction site for fans who have been waiting WAY too long for updates!

Have a WONDERFUL Friday everyone!

Stolen from , found this on her journal when I went to say "thanks" for a favorite she made on my gallery, thought it looked cool! Here Goes!

:FIRE:.

[] You have a short temper. (Short only with certain personalities I think)
[X] You often act on your emotions without thinking first.
[] You are very competitive.
[X] You like to play with fire.
[] You are not a strong swimmer, or you can’t swim at all.
[] You prefer warm weather over cold weather.
[] You often lose control over yourself.
[] You can be quite reckless.
[] You sometimes hurt people without realizing it.
[] People have often called you insane.

Total: 2

.:WATER:.

[X] You have a calm, laid back personality.
[X] You like to go to the beach.
[X] You rarely get angry.
[X] When you do get angry, you know how to control it.
[X] You think before you act.
[X] You are good at breaking up fights.
[X] You are a good swimmer.
[X] You like the rain.
[X] You can stay calm in stressful situations.
[X] You are very generous.

Total: 10

.:EARTH:.

[] You are physically strong.
[X] You have a close connection with nature.
[] You don’t mind getting dirty.
[X] You form strong opinions on issues that concern you.
[] You could easily survive in the wild.
[X] You care about the environment.
[X] You can easily focus on your work without getting distracted.
[X] You rarely get depressed.
[] You aren’t afraid of anything.
[] You prefer to have a strict set of rules.

Total: 5

.:AIR:.

[X] You have a free spirit.
[] You hate rules.
[] You prefer to be out in the open rather than in small, enclosed spaces.
[] You hate to be restrained.
[X] You are very independent and outgoing.
[X] You are quite intelligent.
[] You tend to be impatient.
[] You are easily distracted.
[X] You can sometimes be hyperactive and/or annoying.
[X] You wish you could fly.

Total: 5

.:METAL:.

[X] You have a specific set of friends you usually hang out with.
[] You love making things from scratch.
[] You change your mind often.
[X] You occasionally feel insecure.
[X] You are different and proud of it.
[X] You are curious.
[] You are never normal just for the sake of not being like everyone else.
[X] You love the indoors. (I do, but I LOVE nature)
[] You would rather have a car or a television than a cat or a dog.
[] If chrome and gold were colors, they would be your favorites.

Total: 5

.: DARKNESS:.

[X] You spend most of your time alone.
[] You prefer nighttime over daytime.
[] You like creepy things.
[] You like to play tricks on people.
[] Black is your favorite color.
[X] You prefer the villains over the heroes in movies, TV shows, video games, etc. (sometimes, not always)
[] You don’t talk much.
[] You are atheist.
[] You don’t mind watching scary movies.
[] You love to break the rules.

Total: 2

.:LIGHT:.

[X] You are very polite.
[X] You are spiritual.
[] When someone is in trouble, you never hesitate to help them.
[] You believe everything you see or hear.
[] You are afraid of the dark.
[X] You hate violence.
[X] You hope for world peace.
[X] You are generally a happy person.
[X] Everyone loves to be around you.
[X] You always follow the rules.

Total: 7

Water! I knew it! Then Light, Earth/Air/Metal, Fire/Darkness, sounds like me chick-a-dee!

So because my brother is in grad school and because he had that apartment fire, he really was in need of a laptop. Mom and him went to the tech place at the college, and he got this incredible deal where he got a great laptop and a printer/scanner/copier. The best part? He set up the printer here since he's living with us, I think he plans to let us keep it. I can now scan my artwork right onto the computer at home, no more going to my aunt's to do it, and thus forgetting my sketchbook there every time I go! So yeah, you guys got 4 new pieces from me uploaded! Yay!

So tomorrow is September 1st, meaning it's 17 days till my birthday, but not just my birthday guys....my 21st! And actually, I'm more happy that I'm passing this milestone than I am about being allowed to consume/purchase/transport alcohol in all 50 states of the US. I'm serious! Yeah, it's nice knowing that I can actually go to clubs and hang out with my cousins when they go up to the city to party and spend the night in a hotel, but it's more about the fact that I'm allowed now, not so much about the act of partying itself. I was just the kind of girl who didn't party or do anything that was illegal, and that meant if someone was sneaking in some booze I didn't want to be there. I didn't buy a fake ID, I wasn't interested, and so many people I know in this town are like that. I was a goody-goody that way! But now I can let loose a little bit, and it's not like I want to go crazy or anything, but just to know that the option to go out and meet some people is there, that's really nice! I'm psyched!

So anyway, life is good. Things are looking up, and art will be SO much easier to get up here now! It's all good!

Oh dear, where to start? The title was a question asked to my dad's mom by his sister, who visited us this week from Cali. Problem? Soon after they arrived, trouble brewed in our family.

The Saga of Poe

Poe is our only surving cat now. He is a male blue-point Siamese, thus being male, thinks he is king of the jungle! So recently we've bought a flea collar for him and let him go outside around our trailer park for a few hours each day, since he's fixed, to "be male". Thursday my cousin took him out and since the neighborhood kids like to harrass him, he flew out of my cousin's arms and took off when he heard their screams. Thought nothing of it, since he always comes back. At 4 that evening, the little bugger had not shown up. Gracie starts to get nervous, as does her mother. Poe knows his way home, he NEVER goes out too long. 12 hours since he left, no sign. We call all over, go all over surrounding neighborhoods, nothing. The night passes with tosses and turns. Where is he? Did someone take him? Did some animal hurt him? He doesn't have front claws, what if he couldn't fight back? What if he is lying somewhere bleeding out? All those thoughts flashing through our minds. Next morning, still no Poe. Mom instructs me to make a flyer. Numb with worry, I make one out and fall back asleep crying as she runs all over town sticking up flyers and going to the newspaper to put an add for a lost cat. All day we couldn't move without thinking he was gone. We went to dinner with my aunt, uncle, and cousins trying to get it out of our minds. We thought either someone had him and the add would help, or he'd just decided to take off and never come back. That night at around 10, we decided to scout the neighborhood one last time before letting it go to fate. We called, we shined a flashlight, we went into a brickyard that flanks our park, calling all over, our dachshund Bella with us, who by the way, could tell something was wrong. We spent at least an hour, maybe an hour and a half looking. We came back home. Mom sat on the front porch reflecting, I went inside to do the same. We were dreading accepting the inevitable, that our cat was not coming back. When Mom came in, I had been sitting for 10 minutes, maybe less, when I heard a meow. We had always been having those "missing animal delusions" where you think you hear them but it's something else entirely, but this WAS a meow. The second time I heard it, I said, "I swear to God, that's a meow." Jumped up, went to the door, Poe bumps past my leg into the house!!!! I burst out crying I was so shocked and happy. We took a lot of the flyers down over the next few days, but are happy our beloved cat is home, with nothing but a small cold to show for his insolense. Needless to say, he will never go outside alone again without a cat leash!

Fire Kitties

Saturday morning around 3AM- I am sitting up in bed, can not believe Poe came home, and can't sleep. I am reading an old favorite book to help me fall back into dreamland when I hear Mom's phone go off once. It goes off again. I know by now it is my brother, probably wasted and drunk-dialing us as he likes to do. But when it rings a third time I think something must be wrong. I answer, my brother is talking panicked and scared. "Grace, I pulled up to my apartment and it's on fire. I don't know where the cats are, the fireman says one might have gotten out. Oh God, oh God, get Mom." I try to calm him down while running into Mom's bedroom, screaming that she needs to get up, Graham's apartment is on fire. Mom bolts up out of a dead sleep and starts to come unglued. My poor brother! He was finishing up school at U of I and was coming home in August to do grad school at ISU, living with us to save money. His cats, Lila and Rita, are two Siamese that we rescued last August from a kitty-mill basically in some ladie's home in Missouri. They are his babies, and he adores them. What do we do?

My mother panicked as we drove over to my aunt's. I knew I couldn't make the hour-drive myself as I had to keep my mom calm. My brother was alive, I kept telling her. Everyone had gotten out, it was just the cats. The fire they think started in the apartment below my brother's second-story residence by a spark, and it went up the wall and into my brother's apartment, where the firefighters said a cat ran out when they burst through the door and demolished his living room to put out the flames. My aunt drove us, Graham calling and saying he didn't know what to do, he was so scared. We arrived to a scene from a CNN disaster story. Three firetrucks, a paramedic, cop cars, Red Cross volunteers taking names as the residents and their pets sat out front of the apartment building looking on in fear and shock. Everyone had been able to get out, but Graham wasn't home, meaning his cats had been alone, meaning he felt like a "bad father" of sorts. He was wracked with guilt and unaware of possibly losing everything he owned, because he was so grief-stricken for his cats.
He was able to a few things, but everything else was destroyed. My aunt and I went back home and I fell in bed again with worry. Mom called later and told me to stay put, that she didn't want me to see Graham how he was. Red Cross had done what they could, putting the residents up in a nasty hotel, and by noon my mom and Graham had found Lila under a car. But there was still Rita. Where was she? Was she the one a girl had seen jump from the window to the ground and hurt herself? Had she panicked and gone too far? My mom and Graham scanned a 5-block section for hours until finally, they went back in front of his apartment building. Mom thought she heard something. Graham looked up and there in the window of the apartment next to his, was Rita, yelling in her loud mouthy-Siamese meow to get out. She had been boarded up in the smoke-filled-place since the fire had been taken down! Graham broke in and got her. Her bottom lip was singed and she kept her mouth open, sucking in oxygen, but everything else about her and her sister seemed fine. Graham drove Mom home and brought the girls here, where Poe fresh from his adventure, smelled the smoke and licked them/fathered them. They're fine and getting used to the fact that this is their home now. But needless to say, it was a CRAZY weekend!!!

It is a common fact that in the Midwest the winters are extremely cold and the summers are extremely hot. I thank God for my AC and a friend's graciousness in letting my mother and I find relief at their in-ground pool, so we can avoid the crowds at the public ones and find peace.

My life? Hmmm...complicated, but going places I believe. I am trying to just "be", do my best and let God help me along with things I can't control.

My art...WAY behind. I have not been practicing much, though I do check this almost every day and love commenting on all your lovely talents! I hope to remember my sketchbook on my next visit to my aunt's who has a printer, though the main attraction is my cousin's new son and making fools out of ourselves for him to giggle, "oooo", "aaahhh", and make cute baby faces at us. I have been looking at different artists I like and doing my own interpretations of things of theirs, testing out their methods or just sketching down things I like. I do have a trace I did with Ratigan from my movie poster, (yes it's framed in my room, it's the one where he's learing over Big Ben and Basil, Olivia, and Toby are in front with Dawson hanging on the end of Toby's tail ) Anyway, traced him because I wanted to work more on color, so we'll see how that is received when I get it up. Will make it top priority to get these up SOON! Loves!