05-18-03 @ 6:10 pm EDT

My brother and sister-in-law drove up from Georgia and arrived around five AM Saturday morning. Cosmas was not happy to see them. He spent most of the time hiding, after he hissed at me--for the very, very first time in his life--and clawed my...um...chest. He did stare out from behind the chair the second time they showed up, I was told, and showed especial interest in Rayne, the baby, though he's too yellow to do much of anything else but sniff and cower.

I didn't go to sleep today. Instead we went to Petoskey (Old Mill Creek we decided was too boring) while the guys went to a shooting range. The Book Stop was closed, and On Cue has apparently disappeared. Horizon Books and B. Dalton were open but I didn't get anything at B. Dalton, though a Clive Barker book intrigued me--it was the very first one I set eyes on when I entered the store, sitting right up front as if placed there with me in mind, and its very cover cried out to me. I felt CERTAIN that book was meant for me to buy it--like fate, or something. Have you ever gotten that feeling from something? I don't think I ever have, but I got it this time. Until I read that there was going to be a sequel or something, then my heart fell...I love series stories (why else would I write so many of them?), but I can never seem to get my hands on the sequels anywhere...thus I miss parts...and I hate missing parts of something...so I put it back and left the store, bookless.

Clive Barker's loss, I guess, though I would have liked that book, and whatever followups it had...it had a weird title I can't remember, but it was something about some islands and each one represented a different hour of the day...and it had his artwork in it...I saw the audiobook version (I DETEST audiobooks) at Horizon but didn't look at it...*sigh*

Horizon tempted me with some postcards and two books, The Ojibwa Woman and The Indians Of The Western Great Lakes. I've seen the former on Amazon but wasn't much interested until I browsed it at Horizon...it seems quite interesting, for something non-myth related. And the other one might teach me something about the different tribes of the area. If I can ever find time to read them. I'm almost done with the Algonquin myths book but don't know what I want to read next. Maybe my OTHER Algonquin myths book?

Oh dear...I think Dad just spilled pop all over the floor... >_<

Anyway we cleaned the house up before Eric and Shannon arrived so it looks a bit nicer but for my ever-present stacks of videotapes...they stand in there like some miniature city about ready to fall over whenever Coz goes creeping past. He has a fetish for my VCR and tapes. There are tape towers forming a fortress around one side of my VCR and around the lamp. They seem to get taller every day. Oh yeah, Adult Swim brought back Lupin III for some reason. Ugh. Why don't they just shoot Cowboy Bebop and put it out of its misery already? And move Inuyasha into a later timeslot.

It was very warm today, warmer than they said it would be. Are we going to get rain? There were some PROTESTERS in Petoskey, protesting the nurses' strike, though one of them was holding a white dove sign and there were only about five of them, standing on the sidewalk as if lost...they weren't very convincing...still, it's the first time I've ever seen protesters. And two little girls in the park interviewed us for a school survey project, apparently. At least I'm guessing it was for school. Can't think of why else little girls would go around asking if we think Petoskey needs strip malls (no, said Ma) or if sports are given more attention than the arts (big YES, said I).

I also got Matchbox Twenty's newest album on cassette...I couldn't find it at our Walmart, but I found it at theirs. I've lately fallen in love with "Unwell." It's such a wonderful song when you listen to the lyrics. I might be getting some words wrong as this is just off the top of my head...

All day
Staring at the ceiling making
Friends with shadows on my wall
All night
Hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow might be good
For something...

Hold on
Feeling like I'm headed for a
Breakdown
And I don't know why

I'm not crazy
I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay a while and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy
I'm just a little impaired
I know, right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be...

I also wanted to bring home a little friend for Cosmas...but now I cannot find a pet store even in Petoskey. That was the closest city that had one, and now it's not there. :( Where am I going to get a rat? I just cleaned out Katchoo's cage, finally, over a year after her death...for months and months it just sat there with its wood shavings and food bowl and waterbottle, as if waiting for me to pick her up and put her back in it. I just...never felt like cleaning it out, I guess. I did so before Eric and Shannon arrived. Dumped out the shavings, poured in some dish soap, and soaked it in hot water for a few hours. Had a teeny hope that maybe I could find something to put in it sometime soon. But now, I'm not sure how.

My train of thought just ran out. I can't remember what else I was going to type in here. I finished Part 14, I guess, though that wasn't what I was going to say...oh. The worry from my last entries still hangs over me but I'm trying not to always cry about it...well, I tried finishing this entry, but the Dixie Chicks are playing in the next room, and now I can't think at all. Natalie Maines's voice...aghaghugh. So tar...