Suzi Moonlight

I should start with, I once used to read a blog called Hollywoodactor.com. In my last post, I mentioned it. Now the whole site is gone. Well, the page is still up, but all the posts are gone. I had nothing to do with that, honestly. It had been around forever, so I don’t know why it’s not around since I mentioned it.

About the title of this post, I’m not Chinese. As a baby, however, I looked Chinese. Strangers would ask my mom if I was adopted, seriously. I had very slanted eyes. I don’t now, so I don’t know why I did then. When my first teeth came in, they were my fangs (incisors?). Until more teeth came in, I was a Chinese vampire baby. I’m sure my mother loved it.

I once owned an iguana. I know what that makes me sound like. I’m not one of those crazy reptile people. I do like reptiles more than birds, but I never wanted to have a reptile.

I’m not great with pets. I go from over-protective to ‘how long has your water bowl been dry?’ I treat pets like people. That doesn’t mean I dress up my dog. It means, my dog understands terms or concepts that are necessary. She doesn’t know ’sit’. She doesn’t know ‘beg’ or ’stay’ or any of the things people teach dogs. She knows ‘wait’ or ‘one minute’ – either words or holding up one finger. It means, I can’t take you out just this second, but I acknowledge the request and will get to it in a minute. She knows ‘mine’. That means whatever I am eating, I am not going to share it with her. I use this for things she’s not allowed to have. She knows ‘bad bone’. It means whatever I have (like chicken) has bones she cannot eat. She doesn’t like those phrases, but she knows what they mean and will sulk away. She knows ‘this way’ ‘that way’ ‘mailbox’ ‘later’ ’short walk’… terms that make both our lives easier, because it puts us both on the same page.

I was talking about an iguana though, wasn’t I? The sister of a friend got an iguana from her friend. Her friend had let her dogs chase the iguana through the house, then didn’t understand why it wasn’t tame. She couldn’t handle it, so she gave it to my friend’s sister. My friend’s sister had no idea what she was in for and after the second time of getting a tail-lashing, asked my friend to please take the iguana. It was wild. It would bite and lash, constantly. My friend already owned an iguana and thought she could handle both of them. She couldn’t handle the wild one. I like reptiles. I’m pretty good at taming animals, but iguanas live about 9 years and require a lot of space – they get about five feet long. She had to ask me a few times.

I took the iguana. I named her… damn, I can’t put that… after the dog in the movie The Lost Boys. I built her a cage. I fed her and ignored her for about 3 weeks to give her a ‘chill’ period. Then, I cut a hole in the top of the cage and put a stick coming out of it. After a while, she started climbing the stick and hanging out on top of the cage. I would pet her occasionally, but ignore her mostly. I wanted her to get used to not being hassled. Eventually, I built her a stand. It was a leveled ‘home’ with lighting, a heat rock, a bed area. We had a few fights, but they were fair fights. She would climb on my desk and throw everything off of it, to claim it. I would put her back on her stand, rub my desk and bob my head. The iguana form of ‘mine’. I only had to do that twice and she got it. My friend would come visit sometimes. One time my iguana bit her. She tried to pet her while she was sleeping. I was so proud. That meant, I hadn’t broken her spirit to tame her. She wasn’t submissive. She was confident. Good for her. I gave my friend some antibiotic cream, but couldn’t help beaming.

I once broke a million in Robotron. Some day, I hope to have a real Robotron machine. I loved that game. I just realized recently that the theme to Futurama has sound effects from Robotron. The theme is based on the song Psyché Rock by Pierre Henry. If you know Robotron, listen to this and you’ll hear the level changes from the game.

I once appeared to have the power of resurrecting the dead. I was at a friend’s house with her kids. A bird flew into the sunroom window. We all ran down to have a look. I picked up the bird to show the kids. They all gathered around and petted it. Yes, I know the bird could have lice, but how often do kids get to pet wild birds, even dead ones? I let them pet it. Then, I felt it wiggle a little and closed my hands. I opened them, and the bird flew away. The kids watched it, then turned to me and stared like I was magic. It was magic. The whole thing was magic.