I seem to have this thing for, as my friend Duane put it, "taking command and ownership of the langauge". This means that words I say weren't originally intended to mean what I assign them to mean. It's not just something I do with English, even though it is 'easier' for me because it is not my first language, hence I have less qualms about taking the wrong word and hammering it into the wrong place in my word puzzle. It's just something I do. Any word can mean anything. I am known in real life for my over use of the words "stuff" and "thing(s)". Luckily, people adapt, at least enough to sort of understand what I'm getting at, or enough to let things that make absolutely no sense slide.

"You know the thing I saw when we went to that place and got stuff that was behind that other big thing? I heard it has some pretty cool stuff there." can mean anything from "You remember the refrigerator I spotted when we went into their kitchen and picked up the books that were behind the counter? I hear there's some pretty nice food in it." to "Remember the weird little store I saw when we went to Barnes & Noble to get the magazines that were behind all those cool photography books? I heard they have some really neat postcards in there."

The magic is that the people around me have been around me enough to catch onto what I mean. My favourite moment of that was when me, Aziza and a few others were sitting on the floor, playing Trivial Pursuit, and I felt the need to tell Aziza something, but the words didn't come out right. "Aziza, Aziza, I got points for writing about that... you know... *swirling my finger in the air*.. uh.." Aziza:"Ozon layer and the pollution problem?" Even I was impressed.

I never did make that dinner last night - was too tired. I ended up with a lame frozen veggy lasagna instead. Despite being dead tired, I couldn't go to sleep. Eventually, around 11:20, I gave up and asked Aziza if she had anything that'd help. I got some painkillers, and thankfully, they worked. It is a scary step, for me though. I'm not a pill person - no reason, I'm just too stubborn to bother with head ache pills and coughing syrup. It is just too frustrating to try and get by on 4 hrs/sleep every night, mixed in with nightmares every 3 nights. *shrug*