Trip Fantastic

BREAKIN' THE LAW! BRREAKIN' THE LAWWW!!! WOOOoooooohooooo!!!! What a fanTAStic time I had at the Judas Priest concert on Friday night! Queensryche opened for them, which was just as fantastic. It was Ron and I and my cousins Lisa and Mark. We were smart and got there early so we could down a few (fifty) beers before the show. We thought they'd be $10.00 each inside, but they were only $5.00. Still a rip off, we only had to buy a few inside. I had such a blast talking to all the metalheads, headbanging and dancing like a spastic retard. I hadn't been to a show in years. I need a crazy night of music and partying occasionally, while I'm still young. The last concert I went to was Incubus, which was wonderful as well. Actually, the last show I went to was Styx, last May. We got to go backstage 'cause my date knew (and I think he wanted to blow) the drummer. That was an okay experience, but nothing in comparison. The show didn't end until about 1 a.m., by which time I was starving to death. I hadn't eaten any actual food since about noon. So we stopped at a Del Taco just outside of buttfuck Egypt and got the slowest service imaginable. Plus they got half the order wrong. Good thing it wasn't any of my order...I sat there wolfing down my chili fries while my cousin yelled at the dork behind the counter. I know I was wolfing because the next day I found chili on my dash board! When Ron and I finally got home that night, we shed all our clothes in the middle of the kitchen floor and went straight to bed! The next morning it looked like two people had melted into the floor and left their clothes! Hehee!! Funny sight...guess you had to be there...

I didn't get up until 1:30 on Saturday afternoon. I dragged myself out of bed, showered and headed to the parrot store to check on the status of my parrotlet. I also went to ask about what I can do to help poor Pickles. His condition has worsened considerably as of the past week. He has plucked his entire chest, belly and legs and looks awful. I told the lady at the store about how I'd just gotten rid of some budgies and about his plucking and humping habits. She and I agreed that it has to do with stress (separation anxiety) and seasonal hormones and that once parrots start plucking (always due to stress, no matter how small you think the matter is) they turn to it when the going gets tough. There is nothing I could have known or done to prevent this so it's not my fault, she reassured me. So I bought some homeopathic medication to put in his water and spray on him twice a day. It's supposed to calm them and ease their nuerotic behavior. Parrots are so hard to keep happy. They haven't been domesticated like dogs and cats so you have to deal with a lot of wild behavior that's hard to understand. They're either not tame and in a cage all the time where they don't know the difference, tame and well adjusted (has to do with the general temprament and good breeding of the bird) or tame/nuerotic. Pickles used to be tame and well adjusted...'til the boarding incident. Then something just clicked in his little birdy head. It SUCKS and no matter how much people tell me it's not my fault, I feel like it is. If I would have just stuck him in a cage with another bird and not interacted with him at all, other than to feed him, he'd be fully feathered. I read so much about lovebirds and did everything for Pickles...changing his toys around, taking him outside, letting him out of the cage on a playstand with lots of toys and branches every day, feeding him different foods, socializing him with other birds and people... I read over and over that you don't have to keep lovebirds in pairs, that they're fine just so long as they have you as a companion and you give them at least a little attention every day. I made sure to give him alone-in-the-cage days, days that I wouldn't let him out at all so he'd get used to the fact that I'm not always going to be there/let him out. All to prevent this. How STUPID of me not to realize that taking away his birdy friends would throw him into a plucking (fucking) frenzy! And now, I come to find on Saturday, I have to wait MONTHS for my new bird. He's a little blind, featherless worm right now. I won't even get to meet him for three weeks, that's when he'll be old enough to be brought into the store for handfeeding. Right now the parents are feeding them. The parrot store lady obviously doesn't breed them herself, as I thought she did, she's got a breeder friend. That's why she keeps telling me to call in a few weeks. She's not sure what's going on. But I've vowed to be patient. No more pets-on-a-whim. This is good for me. Unfortunately, it's not so good for poor Pickles. I'm praying he gets better and doesn't start chewing holes in his chest like I've seen some crazy cockatoos do. I don't know WHAT I'll do if he does that...

Shit, enough about Pickles. I'm worried to death about him and I need to stop. Yesterday was a nice day, too. Ron and I woke up late and lounged around watching movies all day. Later in the afternoon I went out to clean Caramel's cage on the porch and found bloody raccoon prints on her cage and the ground around it. GROSS! I think she bit the rascal through the bars. So I cleaned the cage and brought it in the house. I'm really hoping one rat won't be so stinky and allergy-aggrivating because I really don't want to keep the poor girl outside on the porch now the she's all alone. No really, I ENJOY my pets...*sigh*

Last night Ron and I went to the North Hollywood H@@ter's for some naked chicken wings and beer. They were having a special and the wings just hit the spot! We don't usually go to Hollywood because we both hate it, but this was worth it. We got a great chicken and beer buzz and had fun looking at the thousands of tourists and freaks.

Tonight I'm just going to go home and jog and then head over to Melanie's to do a load of laundry. She offered her facilities to me a few weeks ago, so I think I'm going to take advantage of it and do a few small loads. Plus it'll be nice to get out of the house and hang out with a girlfriend for a while. I need to do that at least once a week/few weeks or so. Ron won't be home until about 9:30 or 10:00 and I don't feel like hanging around the house. I'll just end up falling asleep too early like I've been doing lately. Oh yea...and I had some bizarre, vivid dreams this weekend. Every night was full of dream after dream. I hadn't been remembering my dreams lately so it was interesting. I had a couple dreams I've had before, too... They were mostly fun, only a couple were depressing.

Okay, it's time to finish up and head out. I've been adding to this on and off all afternoon. BYE BYE!