Moths and Flames

Game Master Signore di Fortuna

Hmm.

Well, it does.

I'm posing my question here as well. Summer was just way too hot last time.
How does October sound to you? We were gonna take from the 5th to the 16th off. It should be cooler that time of year, without being frigid, whether we're here or there, and we thought it would give you enough time to request off for it. What do you think?

I'm sorry I haven't posted yet, the weekend sort of got away from me. I'll try to post later today.

Sorry for taking so long. We have an unexpected houseguest for an unknown amount of time...so my sleep schedule is a bit off and work has been a little stressful with a psychotic customer yelling at me for the past week and a half. Thankfully, he is no longer a customer.

Geez. Hope security memorized his face and keeps an eye out for him over the next week or two. If not, make sure all the current guards know this guy's face.

If we only had guards...we're a slow branch surrounded by uppity nouveau riche and a slowly dwindling elderly community. We'd have to have an incident (threats, property damage, or something of that sort) to get a guard.

Everyone at the branch knows this guy and what he drives. I've told them to contact our security officer if he comes back while I'm gone.

Good.

Regarding our "houseguest", he's the youngest son of one of my best friends. She was the only person to offer me friendship the first time I moved back to Arkansas to help take care of my grandparents at my parents request.

Anyways, no one was paying me for dropping everything in Cali and taking care of them, so when they had to put my grandmother in the nursing home in Cave City, I had no job, no money, no car, and I was staying with my parents in the middle of butt fu<k nowhere, and completely at their mercy for rides and stuff.

I finally got a job in Batesville (about 30 to 40 minutes away from where my parents live) at the White River Hospital in their house keeping department. I worked the night shift, and that's where I met Tami. I was from CA, so automatically an outsider and weirdo. Tami was the only person that didn't treat me that way.

My dad got tired of taking me to work and picking me up, especially as we neared the Winter months and the weather started getting bad. One evening before taking me to work, he said we were getting some bad weather later that night and I needed to either stay at the hospital, or find a friend to stay with. So, I packed a bag and prepared to stay at the hospital.

They let me stay in one of the empty rooms, on one of the less full floors, but it was still really hard to sleep, and I didn't getmuch sleep. That night on one of our breaks I was talking about what was going on, and Tami offered to let me stay with her and her family. They lived in a small house behind and within walking distance of the hospital. She pretty much took me in, and let me stay with them, even though their place wasn't very big. I slept on the couch, and it was way better than dealing with my blood kin and their bulls#it.

The point is, she was there for me when no one else was. PJ was only 3 or 4 back then, and now he's a young man who served his country, and was honorably discharged after a little over 3 years of service because there was some kind of accident while he was overseas, and he had to have like 6 surgeries on his spine.

He's married to an awful, manipulative, abusive woman, and has a sweet little boy of his own with her, unfortunately. He got a job with the UAMS Police Department, yes the hospital has it's own police force, but he lives in Quitmann which is like over an hour away and eats up gas, so he needs a place closer to where he works, without living in a neighborhood where he'll most likely get killed.

When his mom found out that he had been parking in random places and sleeping in his car to save money, she asked if there was any way he could stay with us while going through his training, so he could save some money up for a place of his own and have a safe place to sleep....I felt like I couldn't say "no", cuz he's trying to support his family while getting out of a bad situation.

I told her I needed to talk to Henry about it and let him know what was going on, and I was going to do that while we had this long weekend off together, but then PJ showed up on my doorstep Monday afternoon and said he didn't have enough gas money to get home, and something in me just wouldn't let me turn him away, even though it upset my husband.

I wasn't expecting it to happen like this, but here we are. I'm trying to help him find assistance through some different VA agencies to help with finding him a place to live. His stay here is not permanent, only long enough to get some checks behind him so he can get a place of his own. This is just a temporary situation while we try to help him get on his feet.

Sorry that got so long, I just felt the need to explain. It's not something I was really planning on.

I am really really not feeling well, but I'm gonna try to sleep it off. I couldn't even eat anything tonight.

Hope some sleep helps. Take care of yourself.

It would help more if I could stop getting up to go to the bathroom.

loot list:
two suits of leather armor
two light wooden shields
two morningstars
6 javelins
39 gold pieces
a small ceramic container with a stopper taped to the top
a clear vial sealed in the same as the ceramic container with some golden liquid in it

Those are some suspicious and possibly scary items. Lol

I don't think I have a bag of holding in this one, so I'm not sure we can take everything. Maybe leave the javelins? They just seem like they would be long and difficult to carry with us.

I have a notebook somewhere for loot, so just let me know exactly what we should take with us and I'll write it down.

Yeah we can probably leave the javelins, or at the very least pick them up on the way back out. They're potentially useful since they're simple ranged weapons so even Astoria or I can use them in a pinch, but they do take up space until we have a back of holding or at least an efficient quiver.

I figure once we have some time we can use detect magic/spellcraft to try identifying the liquids.

Okie dokie, that sounds good.

Does anyone need or want any of the items listed? I think we should leave all the bulky stuff here, until we're on our way back out if that's okay with everyone?

Of course as always, if there is something that someone can use right away, let me know and we can wait a couple minutes for you to get it or whatever, and I'll omit it from the list on our way back out. :)

Does that make sense? I'm tired so I'm not sure. It's been kind of a crazy weekend and we lost power for a while on Saturday which caused my Anxiety to go up a lot...I don't know why that happens, especially when we lose power during the day....it just does, I can't explain it.

We did end up getting a new loveseat and couch from my friend Ashley. They belonged to her grandparents, but when they had to move into her dad's house, they didn't have room for them, so they let us have them. :)

Eh, I wanted to map out these caves but not with Dungeon Designer 3...

Ah okay. Not versatile enough?

It's a little time consuming for a not-super-important map.

Should we just go in hammers, spells, and crossbows a'blazin, or try to get in a surprise shot?

I don't want to waste time trying to come up with plans that get more innocent people killed.

I'm down to one 1st level spell left and we pretty much always fail stealth checks so might as well just attack from surprise. Everett, shoots first then we rush in.

Just want to wish a Happy Birthday to the best slightly older brother ever. You're so much more than just a friend, you're family.

I hope you have an absolutely awesome birthday Mark!!

Thank you!!!!

Happy birthday!

Thank you!

So, if I try to heal a little as a swift action, does that provoke, and can I still attack the jerk that tried to set me on fire?

Swift actions don't provoke. And you'll still have you full turn afterwards

Okay. Sorry for the delay, we were trying to get a lot of stuff done at the stores tonight. I wanted to try and do everything on our list, so we wouldn't have to go to another store during this crazy holiday weekend. After dealing with 2 stores though and over 200 dollars later, we couldn't keep going.

Henry pulled something in his back today somehow, and I've been hurting pretty bad too. My pharmacy was already closed by the time we were ready to go out, so we have to go out again sometime tomorrow anyways.

Our two trips were very successful though. We even found a cooling fan for a reasonable price to keep our room cooler, so maybe we'll be able to sleep better.

That's good at least, sorry you're both in pain.

Just part of the crap of getting older I guess. I'm still having trouble with my eyes, but I'm gonna try one more thing with the eyeglasses people before going back to my neuro clinic.

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend.

You too.

Oh yeah, we are just gonna a relax, spend some quiet indoor time together out of the heat, and catch up on some much needed sleep.

Unexpected houseguest is being thrown out. He can pick up his crap tomorrow. One of the locks has been changed.

I'll be committing war crimes upon unsuspecting Koroks.

Oh, good. You got your game :)

Sorry to hear that they turned out to be a problem. Stay safe.

I was stupidly trying to help someone that I thought was just having a hard time, and needed to be closer to work since he lived so far away. He turned down every bit of help I tried to give him in finding a new place saying that he was "working on it", when in fact what he was doing was hiding the fact that he's just been laying around downstairs, playing video games, and drinking booze that he was hiding downstairs.

We weren't letting him stay with us for free, feeding him, making his lunches, buying him clothes and shoes, and doing his laundry so he could spend the money he was saving on gas on giant bottles of booze and do nothing to find a place of his own or whatever.

It's like...he was just waiting for it to fall out of the effing sky or something.

It was bad enough that he brought a gun into my home, I could overlook it sort of since it was part if his necessary training attire for his job, but someone accused him of being suicidal cuz of some stupid s#i+ he said, and it got taken away from him. He had to have a psych eval and according to him, they cleared him, but since it took so long he has to start the whole academy thing over in Camden in September.

However, since he's been hiding hard liquor in my house as well as his drinking and I can't trust him worth a damn, I dont know if I can believe anything that comes out of his mouth. I told him he would have to find somewhere else to stay cuz I'm not gonna watch him self destruct. It's like my cousin Amber all over again, and I won't do it. He has seizures and supposed to be training with a weapon. He doesn't need alcohol on top of that.

It was just very hurtful and made me feel stupid and used. I should just be mean and heartless from now on, so people don't see me as some kind of sap they can walk all over.

I'm sorry for the wall of text, but I thought I needed to explain why he's being removed from our home. We're not just arbitrarily throwing him out.

He violated my trust, and if I can't trust you I don't want you in my home. I also needed to vent cuz it's always so much harder when it's someone you care about.

Anyways, that's pretty much what happened. Tried to help someone out, and it blew up in Mt face. Like it usually does.

On the lighter side of things, I'm so glad you finally got your game Bubba.

I'm really looking forward to coming up there in October and getting out of this a$$ backwards hillbilly state for a few days. I can't wait to see what it looks like up there in the fall, watch you and Boobear play games, and have my hair assaulted by the kitties. Are Wayne and Garth still with you? I should have asked that first.

Ohhhh....the weather. I'm wondering how cold it's gonna be.

Sorry to hear that they turned out to be a problem. Stay safe.

It seems to be how things go for us when we try to do "the right thing".

Don't worry though Bro, we got this. I know I seem all fluffy and stuff, but underneath the sparkles and rainbows, is someone that when pushed too far, will totally rip someone's face off.

Besides, I don't need a gun to disable someone, but they need a hand to fire one.
*evil grin*

That's why Henry took precautions though, and changed the keyed doorknob thingy. We don't think he's stupid enough to risk his life, freedom, or job, for stuff that we already have packed up for him. Henry is not taking any risks with our safety though. That's why the lock change since bozo has a set of keys.

I got some stuff for my sinuses too, to try and open up my nasal passages so I don't have to breath through my mouth anymore. I'm just hoping the nasal strip doesn't come off my nose and get tangled in my hair while I'm sleeping. Once my mind slows down enough for it to fall asleep.

Okay. glad you guys took precautions. As much as you want to help, he's trouble you don't need.

I know....it's not my responsibility to try and fix him, or make sure he's doing what he's supposed to. You can't save someone that doesn't want to be saved. Blah blah blah....

I don't know why, but I just expected more out of him.

I promise I fell asleep after whatever time was the last time I said something. I haven't been awake all night.

We had his stuff packed up and ready to go, so when he came to get it we helped him load it in his car. Thankfully he didn't make it awkward or otherwise uncomfortable. We just loaded up his stuff, I wished him good luck, gave him a hug cuz I could see he was shaking even though he was trying to hide it, and bid him farewell.

That was it.

We're still coming down from the stress of everything we've been through the last few weeks, especially this last weekend.

It kind of sucks that it had to happen this weekend because we hardly ever get 3 day weekends, even more rare that it was a three day weekend that we had off together.

Oh well, at least he's out of our house and we have the peace of our home back now, without worrying about what the bum that lives under our stairs is doing.

Bubba, I want you to know that we really enjoy having you stay with us while we're on vacation. The two situations are completely different. You're a Brother to us, and one of our best friends. Getting to spend real in person time with you is something we look forward to every year. It's almost become like a yearly tradition. I just wanted to make sure you knew how we felt, and that our visits with you are nothing like my dumba$$ allowing someone to stay with us for an undetermined amount of time that came to an abrupt end after finding out that he had been lying to us. The two situations are COMPLETELY different, and I didn't for one second want to make you feel like that's how we feel about you because we don't.

Henry and I are really excited to come see you for a few days, and then brother nap you back here with us, where we'll play more games and eat lots of good food and have NO medical emergency incidents whatsoever.Lol

One of these years, when I can stop having medical stuff done and actually save some money in our pockets, we'd like to come to New York. I've only been in upstate New York when I was visiting Cindy and the girls.

I'd love a chance to see the museum, maybe a Broadway show, the Empire State building, Statue of Liberty....all that stuff, and visit with our other Brother/Best Friends.

I also need to go to Hoboken to fulfill a lifelong sweet tooth dream of mine. If their Bakery is still open, I would just die for some pastries from the Cake Boss's family bakery. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I wanna see Atlantic City and the Boardwalk, the Central Park Zoo of course.....there's just so much to do there. If we plan things right, we can come see you guys in New York, [i]and[/] drive to Virginia to spend some time with my friend Donna and her family.