Guess what I'm getting for my birthday?

The flu. And my period. Whoopee.
Last night, everyone was in an awfully touchy-feely mood. Actually, to me, it was more like an "awful touchy-feely" mood. People who aren't normally even touchy-feely people just decided they needed to reach out & touch someone. That someone happened to be me. So all night, I come in, feeling like a pile of crap that a truck ran over looks, body aches, head aches, throat all thick & painful, glands swollen, chest tight, and people just wanna reach out & touch me, hug me, pat me on the back... I'm like, "Stay away from me! I have cooties! Aaaaaggghhh!"
Night before last I thought it was the blood-pressure death pills the cardio doc gave me, & quite a bit of the light-headedness & dizziness probably was, but the rest - that's all flu. And even as I'm sitting here busily typing away, it's getting worse.
I can only fight shit off for so long, & I think those stupid diuretic pills stripped away what mineral/vitamin reserves I had left & now I'm getting sick.
I'm wondering if Rob would go along w/me taking Josh to see Jimmy Buffet next month. Of course, it's gonna depend on how much those tix are, when the concert is & if Josh & I could both get whatever night it is off together. I'm not particularly a fan of Buffet, but I know Josh would never be able to go on his own & occasionally I do attempt to do things for the sheer Karmic payback. Off to Ticketmaster.com I go...

Phenomena (doo-doo-da-doo-da)

So, in a vain search for the Lovecraft Tarot here in town, Rob & I ended up at Eastern & Serene, in the Wal-Mart shopping center. Just the fact that the shop is in a Wal-Mart shopping center (in Henderson, of course) should have clued us in to the evil that awaited us beyond that smoked-glass door... No incense-fumes greeted us in the parking lot as we opened our car doors. No grungily clad Goths were slouching about. The shop is called Phenomena (doo-doo-de-doo), and it's a happy, shiny kind of place. I immediately started getting nasty flashbacks to some of the New Age shops in California. All glass display stands, angels every-fucking-where... one little collection of Llewellyn insta-witch books... some incense, bath sets, and parakeets busily chirping away, blending melodically with the incessant noises of the fountains... (as if I didn't already have to pee from being out in the cold). It was very well lit. Needless to say, I was terrified.
One vote in favor - el libros en espanol, including one about Santeria. Very multi-culti of them. And they had some hard-to-find stuff, like War Water & Dragonsblood bubble bath (which smelled more like baby shampoo than Dragonsblood). It would have been more in their favor if they'd taken all the "AzureGreen" stickers off everything.
Phenomena (doo-doo-da-doo-da) just really doesn't fit in w/all the other failed & somewhat thriving occult shops here in Vegas. I mean, even when a new Psychic Guy opens they already have that incense-ash-ground-into-the carpet smell, someone managed to dump a bottle of patchouli or sandalwood oil on the floor on opening day, everything was set up w/the dust already on it, none of the lights are working & you can't tell if that pendant is a mood-pendant or a lapis kinda atmosphere. Hell, they didn't even redecorate Bell, Book & Candle when Robin C. took it over - the shelves are all in the same exact places. I think it's even the same 14 or 15 books that never sold when BB&C was run by Lucky.
The Galleria mall (where all fruitless trips to Henderson somehow wind up at) was packed. Why were all those people there, and why couldn't any of them drive?