Well, I haven’t been as faithfully logging as I would have liked and I wonder if this wasn’t a good time for me. Nevertheless, I plan to finish this log and will do so in two posts, of which this is the first.
==Jeudi le 28 decembre==
My father had agreed to take me to Walmart that morning as I still wanted to check out the next biggest toy store for deals. Sandy was up by then and I took her upstairs, intending to put her in a pouch after I changed. While I was changing, I heard her beep and discovered to my horror a wispy shinigami with cat-like ears hanging in the upper corner, waiting to take her soul. I had neglected her too much. She was also sick and none of the icons responded and I couldn’t heal her.
I then remembered that if I hurried to the grave, I could wake up one of the deceased tamagotchis I had cared for to fight the god of death. So I dug into the menus and found the grave of Wostilde, a young mametchi I neglected too much in trying to get a bad care character. She was smiling as I had other tamas visit her before and pay reverence. I think she came out of her picture frame, flew around the shinigami, and chased him off. Wostilde then headed back to her grave, appearing stiff with her eyes shut. I then concluded she must be resting. Man, did I fill up all of Sandy’s meters and check her anxiously throughout the day.
We went to Walmart, also reeling from the holidays, and found the selection dissatisfying. The only doll I have have been inclined to buy – the black 2017 Holiday Barbie – was still at the full price of $45. Even more bizarre than how an obviously Christmas item was not discounted, was how they had so many of them. I speculated on going to another Walmart but my father thought they would be the same. Instead, I somewhat deflatedly asked if there was a second-hand store nearby. We headed to Value Village and entered the store, which looked the same as always with its vast, one room setup of all kind of things (mostly clothes). We headed right, turned at the shoe section, and found their “display” of dolls. In short, this was a rather manhandled selection sealed tightly in bags.
After I browsed, I headed over to the porcelain doll section and while I was nearly there, I checked Sandy. To my delight, she evolved into Kurokotchi, a familiar face from my V3. As I never got a picture of her normal sprite due to the future events, I’ll use the pictures I took of her animations to illustrate:
We headed home, with several dollies for the average in-store price of one. At home was probably the usually relaxing and anime watching till dinner, and the inevitable tama-bedtimes.
==Vendredi le 29 decembre==
Another easy day. As our internet was a little better, I took advantage of it and started downloading episodes of Inuyasha and watching others with my tamas as the downloaded. Sandy may have been hanging from my zipper pull all the while (I don’t remember what day I started this). My father was on the phone with the internet company and, still talking on the phone, came over to me and asked me to do a speed test because my computer had a different connection than his laptop. Ultimately, I was led to close my browser – killing my download – and run a few speed tests on explorer. At one point my father passed on the customer support man’s instructions to restart my computer, further eliminating my download.
I think my father turned on the speaker phone so while we carried out the customer support man’s instructions, we heard a distorted jumble of sounds. Bear in mind this all happened unannounced and my desk is where I keep all my active tamas, most of which are muted but some aren’t. I actually paused one needy vintage so that the caller on the other end didn’t get confused, and it would be a really bad time to reintroduce him to Tamagotchis XD One of the speed tests was particularity bad and after my father said (I think) the download was “0.07”, there was a long pause on the phone and then “Crap”. My father and I stared at each other in amazed disbelief (professionalism, snort).
A few times we were entering... computer commands (not a techie) in programming language and the man started doing it the long way with “T as in Tango”, “W as in Water”, “E as in Exile”, and “R as in Redneck Rudolph” (the last 3 are made up, but you get the idea). While it did make sense to do it that way as our phone was over VoIP and thus dependant on our internet, all I remembered was the excess word-age and I knew I wasn’t supposed to type “tanagowaterexileredneckrudolph/” and ask my computer to follow it. Thankfully my father kept track of the letters. The end of it all was exhausting our alternatives and getting the man to make a potential appointment for New Year’s Day for a Bell truck.
Life went back to normal and I think was spent watching anime and at my desk in general. Since Sandy was a care mistake away from death, she was watched like a hawk. As hours passed, bedtimes were reached. I think Sandy may have winked out at 10ish as she was probably on accurate time, as neglected characters sleep in late and compensate with night hours (ironically like me).
==Samedi le 30 decembre==
We were now into the real weekend, which would have been spent largely the same except I had to bake that day. Cooking with tamas is something I would have been doing more of had I got more adjusted to my course schedule. Anyway, how I’ve always been doing this is bringing up all my active tamas to the table across from the kitchen, setting them up in a stand, and then checking them when I had a moment. So Sandy sat with the others at the table from an elevated perch, directly in sight of me as I busily prepared shortbread cookies for belated Christmas presents. As I doubled the recipe – wanting to have some leftover for us, too – I was baking while the rest of my family was eating. It was only after the last pan went in that I headed downstairs, only to return 5-10 minutes later. I think I may have left my tamas on the table or taken the stand downstairs.
I assume the day was usual and judging from my internet history, we probably watched less anime (if none at all). Sandy was cared for throughout the day and didn’t suffer a care mistake. She ultimately winked out in a clean environment, looking as cute as she usually did (her mouth even forms a heart in her happy sprite!). I wish I had gotten more picture of her, but alas.
==Dimanche le 31 decembre==
As it was Sunday, we headed off to church and I took Sandy with me along with her device-wise cousin Sotilde. We got there early as my father had to do sound so I headed to the kitchen, stowing my bag with my tamas in a cupboard. I think we got allot of donations for the refreshments, notably Chirstmas cookies and cake from a wedding yesterday. There was allot of laughing with two of my good friends and after one them remarked about that other that “she’s a mean one”, we made the connection that she was “The grinch” - she was even wearing green! We then joked we had seen her movie and she did get it, but she hadn’t seen the movie (the animated one is the best).
After the refreshments were all prepared and the table was set, I went up to the service, likely muting both of my tamas before. It was a usual service spent in the usual manner, meaning my tamas spent most of their time in my bag, getting to see the ceiling during the sermon, and checked a few times. As one woman decided to say “Happy New Year”, that started my mother saying “Happy New Year” and soon everybody else – even though we were not at New Years yet. At home, my tamas attended me for lunch and I think we had some brief anime watching after, but only with Sotilde and Sandy (unfortunately, my tamas paused on Sundays often stay paused for nearly the whole day). I was looking forward to ushering the new year with my tamas but unfortunately – and quite understandably – they winked out before 12.
==Lundi le premier janvier==
[Note: It is a convention in French to say “le premier” (luh pruh-mee-ay) for the first of a month, and it literally means “the first”.]
It was the start of the new year, well for some tamas anyway. I later learned that Sandy was still stuck in December but the date doesn’t matter for me as I don’t keep track by it, nor the time really (Tamagotchis are another kind of watch entirely (^: ). My sparse notes I have conclude this day must have been just relaxing and judging from my internet history, we watched some anime (as is getting usual now). I’ve lost the date but once on this day and once a few days ago, Sandy was with me as my parents and I sat down to play a card game. On the first occasion, near the wood stove, Sandy hung from my zipper pull as we sat around a small table and played a game of Hearts. My mother – who can be a real annoyance in games – was behaved and my father and I had to coax her to play a few more hands as she likes to end the game early. The second time, the same group of us and my brother played 31 at the dining room table, Sandy resuming the same place (as she had undoubtedly done for most of the day). I ultimately went out first and watched the others play. Once again, my mother tried to end the game early but I and my father had to get her to play more.
Sandy likely winked out at 10, as usual.
==Les 2 et 3 janvier==
These were two days quite the same that were marked by my return to the drill of school and thus my geology course. Just so this makes a bit more sense, I do my course by correspondence so most of my time is spent at home, studying. I was probably getting into the daily routine of bringing Sandy down with my other tamas, unclipping her from my lanyard, and clipping her to my zipper pull. There she would hang, following me around for the rest of the day, and laid on the table for meal times to prevent her getting dirty. It was an average day for her.
Generally from a day or two after her adulthood till now, the matchmaker had been consistently coming for her but I read that Sandy would only turn into and oldie when she was 16, so I wanted to keep her till then.
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Chopping here as it is the most logical division. All will be clear in the next log, which will recap the 4-13, where this log ultimately ends.