Call The Doctor

I didn't have to. The Doctor called me.

The Doctor, the Doctor. The friend I've known longest, all the way from Sunday School and church camp to lines and pipes and raves and the mental hospital.

Mi dottore.

It's been a long year (well, nearly) since I last saw the Doctor in the flesh. He's always been the center of attention, always been the spark of the party. I missed him. And after several false alarms, he's back. Sort of.

The Doctor ran away a year ago. He walked out my front door, told me he'd call the next day, and I didn't see him again until he pulled up outside my work this afternoon.

He's gone, now. He had to drive back to where he lives, two hours and a time zone away, in time to be at work at midnight. Supposedly he'll call.

It's sad when a nasty and disloyal part of me starts writing him off as soon as he fades from sight.

***

My car has a broken starter and I am not speaking to my dad. It's been too stressful and icky and full of badness around here this week to make with the funny or interesting; three people on the periphery of our social circle have died, Imbolc was cancelled for one of the funerals, and it's basically been D&D and ride-bumming and work, and nothing else. I haven't been home to do more than sleep in days, and I missed TV Time again this week because I...wait for it...forgot it was Friday. And that was my dad's fault too.

Oh, and for the record, Dad, you're an asshole.

***

DMing is the new black around here. PhilTar is DMing an evil party in the other room, a campaign I would have loved to join, but would have had to flake on as I don't have reliable transport and this one's being held forty-five minutes from my house. The Artist is still DMing the campaign where the original Erin Wolf died, and is getting ready to release a terrasque (for the non-nerds in the audience, a terrasque (pronounced TERRE-ass-queue) is a creation originally made in D&D to kill off PCs who have gotten too powerful) because he's sick of most of the people still alive. In order to kill a terrasque you need to first get it to negative 30 HP (which is dam'near impossible, as they regenerate VERY quickly) and then have a Wish spell hanging around in order to make it stay dead. CDHSarah is DMing the campaign with EW Two Point Oh. StarFucks Man is DMing another campaign that's getting ready to fizzle because his wife is having so much fun DMing her Quest to Kick the Necromancer's Azz.

So I've come up with my own secret plan -- The Not-That-Humanoid Campaign, where all the PCs have to be distinctly nonhuman intelligent creatures: young dragons, dryads, satyrs, treants, centaurs, giants...stuff like that. Now I just have to figure out why there needs to be such a party and what they're going to do. I need to read the Handbook of Villains and some of the subsidiary Handbooks (Humanoids for one).

There won't be any free players until at least a month from now, so I have some time. I've actually never managed my own campaign, always sat in as sub-DM or as a PC. I'm excited.

***

I applied today to become Quality Assurance, which would basically mean listening to calls and telling people what they did wrong and right. Crossed fingers would be appreciated -- I could use the raise. And I've had 100% QA for the 2 years I've worked there despite 6 major overhauls, so I have more than a fighting chance.

***

All right, bitches, here you go.

What I'm Reading

The Virgin In the Garden, because my brain stopped hurting too much for A.S. Byatt.

This morning I finished off The Jewish Book of Why, which was excellent and made me want discretionary funds with which to purchase the sequel. Yesterday I reread Chuck I-Can't-Spell-Your-Goddamn-Last-Name-But-You're-The-Guy-Who-Wrote-Fight Club Pahlaniuk's Diary, which is SO incredibly fucked up and SO incredibly amazing, like William S. Gibson got depressed about being categorized inside his categorization that he went over to Kurt Vonnegut's house with multiple bottles of Goldschlager...whereupon the two of them ended up getting so sloppy and sad that they called Stephen King at the suicide prevention hotline, then decided to write a book instead of offing themselves on his advice.

What else have I read in my brief hiatus? Oh yeah, I reread I'm the One that I Want by Margaret Cho because it usually makes me feel better about myself. I think it worked. At least today I'm not throwing shit and yelling "Fuck it" at the slightest provocation.

What I'm Eating

This is here solely because I found cheese danish at the store, which I can never seem to find when I want it, and I am going to do terrible things to it as soon as I digest my fajitas. Meat, bread, cheese, sugar. Life is good.

I would like info from someone in the know on how the "Amazon pays you a very small fee if people use your links to buy things" program works.

I would also like for you to leave a comment.