Ever since Carol finished my back piece, I've been desperate for a new tattoo. I was going to wait until December since we're going to Mexico City and the cat-girl was going to call in a few favors to get us free or, at the very least, cheap tattoos by some awesome artists she knows down there, but I received an unexpected windfall and rather than fritter all of it on theatre and food (a large portion of which I already have), I decided to just get myself a tattoo.

I have a bunch of different ideas that I've been thinking about, but I decided I wanted to get something similar (in layout not theme) to the cat-girls Soviet virgin of Guadalupe, so I settled on a kind of Tropico-Canaanite design: a three-toed sloth with Puerto Rican fruit-bat wings standing on a Judean lion (as a kind of pedestal). Each element represents something from my heritage: the sloth is, in my mind, Venezuelan; the bat is obviously Puerto Rican; and the lion pedestal is an element from pre-Hebraic peoples in Canaan that actually made it into early Judaism.

I have a consult early next month with an artist who apparently really dug the idea. It's funny how something that is usually portrayed in Pop Culture as impulsive actually takes a long time... if you want it done right and well.

I tend to attribute a fragility to those around me that is, in fact, all mine. The truth is that I am a coward: I live in terror of making the wrong decision and wind up not making any decisions. However, when I do make a decision, it is usually inspired more by anger and a desire to lighten the pressure.

My father's family, of which I've seen and heard from more than I'd like to lately, have a tremendous ability to make me feel like an adolescent; and the truth is that, financially at least, I am. I was raised with no practical abilities whatsoever (over the last few years I have acquired a few), and am overly fond of luxury.

Of course, these are all excuses. The truth is that, if I wanted to, I could cut it all off. If I really wanted to, I'd get rid of all my bad habits and become the person I should be, the person the cat-girl thinks I am.

It's time for decisions.