Had a pretty decent birthday. Saw my brother for a mere five minutes, which was fantastic. Had a few drinks with John Munch. What more could a girl ask for?

( private )

So it's my birthday tomorrow. I plan to work and then maybe go out for drinks if anyone is up for it, you'll find me at the bar, you know the one. Mostly, I'm concentrating on this case... that I thought was pretty straight forward until MCS came strolling in. Ugh.

To take my mind off an actual police investigation... I'm gonna make my character ramble on, possibly about that fake one and her fictional life. Works for me. I wanted to hold off on updating this characters journal because I'm behind in a certain RP *cough*Cassie knows*coughcough* but I figured wth, and carried on anyway.

My brother is still living in my apartment, crashing on my couch and eating all my food. My job is still taking up most of my time. That former husband of mine is still annoying, and I think I miss the fun of Baltimore. Nothing's changed then.

This new case is turning out to have a few twists in it. I've mostly been doing background work... like checking surveillance cameras etc. Although, it was fortunate I did that when I did. My timing is still good.

Aside from all that, I've been visiting my Grandmother... she's been in hospital for a few days after she decided to change a lightbulb herself. *eyeroll* I've told her about that more times than I can count. She slipped off the stool she was stood on, and broke her leg. My brother isn't doing anything -- he could always make himself useful and live with her!

Grandma's birthday...

Not a clue what to get her... my brother is buying her some new false teeth.

People need to start being more clear with me. Lani is a good person, she really is, but if she tells me that she's just hanging around to keep herself from working, and I'm busy as Hell, I'm gonna say something about it. I can't even tell if she was joking or not... but she certainly left the squad room in a hurry. And the whole "taking a friends side over that of the friends' boss that I'm sleeping with" wasn't funny... whether she meant it as a joke or not. If I wanted comedy, I'd go see a stand-up comedian on stage.

As for her boss that I'm sleeping with... well, that's just another story altogether. This may not be love or something serious, but I care about him, and I don't want to hear a list of complaints about him or his apparent whining (her words). I'll be honest, the Lieu can be a pain, too... but I don't spend my precious time going on about it. My job and extra-curricular activities take up all my time, and that's how I like it. Maybe I'm over-reacting... but she just left me hanging.

As for John, I like spending my time with him and I think of him as a good friend. St Patrick's Day was a lot of fun, well, just like most times we tend to "get together". Like the snowball "fight" for one example. I like being in a relationship where I'm not expected to settle down, etc. Tried that, it didn't work, and I'm not in any hurry to rush back into anything like that again. Sometimes I see those "perfect" couples, especially on Valentine's Day and I feel a little bitter... maybe... but, it lasts about 2 minutes and then reality clicks back. It's not worth it.

My brother decided to experiment with my toaster.

His experiment failed. To say I'm angry would be an understatement. I now have burnt patches on my wall, and the toaster is pretty much history. How hard is to keep your eye on the toaster?

My brothers' one week stay in my apartment has lasted longer than a week. I guess I saw it coming but I really hope this isn't like last time where it's YEARS. Convenient how he turned up as soon as I was settled in my new apartment.

With all the snow we did have to check on Grandma -- turns out she's dating the man in the opposite apartment. A little shocking to see them have some kind of romantic dinner. Mark mocked her quite a bit about it but I think it's sweet... even though they insisted it was Valentine's Day on the 23rd as opposed to the 14th.

Taken up the new sport of snowball fighting, which Munch got to discover I'm really good at.

I'm seriously considering getting a pet.

But I want something unusual like a stick insect. I need some ideas. Throw any at me. My brother suggested an ant colony... *eyeroll* That's not quite what I want.

( E-mail to: Lani Rallita )

It was great to spend some quality time with the girls... and Larry. Who I guess was so thrilled to be around women--evidenced by the grin plastered to his face the whole time he was there. He even came running at our call, lucky us.

( Private )

I've had an interesting week. Well, few weeks actually.

( Private )

But that just shows how busy I am.

My brother didn't come over for christmas, so I got the joy of spending it with my Grandmother, alone. It went alright -- aside from her trying to give me her false teeth as a gift. It took me hours to convince her they were hers and that she hadn't bought them for me. Do I look like I need false teeth? God, I hope not.

Planning on going out tonight and, hopefully, getting drunk. I have no idea why I want to, but I'm going to follow through with it anyway. If anybody wants to join me, feel free.

Firstly, the items I had ordered offline finally arrived. I'm so relieved they're here now so I can actually send them on.

Secondly, elevators need to stop breaking on me. The first time wasn't so bad, I mean yeah, I was stuck in one box for 15 minutes but at least I had decent company, that was Detective Rallita. Yesterday the one in my apartment building decided to break and I was stuck with a strange man babbling about UFO's and little green men. *eyeroll* Why me?

That would be the internet. Finally, success at christmas shopping. I got the idea when I was talking to Judge Ross, whom I met whilst shopping at the weekend. I went straight home and started looking online and found what I wanted.

I just hope they turn up before christmas.

My week, or has it been two? has been busy with work and... work. I did meet a Larry Paul over a week ago, at a coffee shop, and was the convinced to see him perform at a piano bar called CJ's. He plays well, and I was impressed. When I was younger, I'd tried playing the piano, I gave up after a few weeks when I got bored and lost my patience with my instructor but it kinda made me want to try it again.

Why do I always have to try new things? It costs money. *sighs*

Connie invited me for lunch last week, and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm so pleased I came to homicide. It seems this really is the best squad I've been to yet.

Halloween was... interesting. I saw some crazy costumes, I saw some costumes I didn't even understand. Who would dress up as Glinda, a good witch, and turn it into something not-so-good? That costume made no sense to me. The evil witch, now that I can understand. I looked out for Falco, and I couldn't see him anywhere. So either he was a no-show or he wore something that made him so nobody could recognise him.

I spent most of it just drinking and chatting to some friends. Getting drunk is always a bonus, which I did. I won't write anything else about that...

Work has been keeping me busy but everything seems to be settling down, which is what I wanted. This is good. Now all I need to do is keep my brother from coming here and ruining it all. Something he is very good at.

 

 

( rp )

...and I'm fed up of smiling at my ex-husband whenever he comes over claiming I have something of his that he desperately needs in order to live his life. 

Seriously. If he had left a shirt behind and I'd found it, I'd have burned it. I had hoped a new apartment would stop this from happening. Doesn't a shirt seem trivial anyway?

 So Mark visited for the weekend... I wish I could say who he came to visit because it certainly wasn't me. He seemed to have plans with just about everybody in the City apart from me. I wish I could say I was surprised but I'm not. By Sunday, I got fed-up of waiting for him to spend some time with me so I decided to head on down to that bar that Joe Fontana said he'd be at. I'm glad I went, I got to meet some people and have a few drinks. Joe seems like a decent guy and he's into opera, and from what I can tell, he's very cultured. Definitely somebody I can be friends with. I also met a defense attorney named Caroline Parker, she seemed like a nice enough woman although she seemed troubled, and I was trying my best not to listen when she was talking about whatever her trouble was with Joe. It wasn't easy but the beer helped.  

...Not to mention the odd, loud singing by the random man who was at the bar, left and then came back as if he was going in circles. He sang well but it was strange.

Speaking of meeting people, I also got the chance to meet the Homicide ADA, Connie Rubirosa. And if I'm to judge the 2-7 by the people I have met so far I have got to say I am impressed. It's turning out to be a good experience so far, and compared to those at Narcotics they are much more welcoming. I'm looking forward to working on something other than getting drug dealers off the streets.