burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

I had my 4th/final pilates-on-the-ball class yesterday.  Wasn't excessively challenging, which I was glad of.

Heh, my Free Will horoscope (which I almost never look at these days, despite its amusement factor) is about facing fear.

I had a good conversation which helped me deal with the irrational anxiety I have around one of the parts of my job.  (Amnesty is a good thing.)

Prof.B. wants me to check in every 3 days while I'm in Europe -- text message or e-mail or whatever -- to confirm that, y'know, I'm not dead.  He's more solicitous than my parents ;)

He also suggested wearing a hat and said something about my being fair-skinned.  What is up with that?

[Poll #1036062]

***

You know how there are all those stories of people on the 9/11 hijacked flights who called their loved ones to say goodbye?  I was idly thinking about this last night, and then telling my parents today when they came to retrieve their Harry Potter book this afternoon.  Of course my thoughts included instructions.  I expect this will viewed as morbid, but really it's just pragmatic.  (And okay, possibly the tag for this should be something like "the cat is on the roof.")

I forbid Pastor Bill doing my funeral (I'm not gonna bar anyone from attending, and if you wanna open the floor to anyone to say nice things about me, fine, but he is not officiating), but I'm not necessarily opposed to having it at UCN.  My mom thinks having it at UCN would be uncomfortable.  Conveniently, I'm attending a multiplicity of congregations.  CWM meets in an upstairs room rather than an actual sanctuary, but CAUMC has a sanctuary (and also a smaller chapel area adjacent).  CHPC also also has a sanctuary, but I feel more connected to the CWM/CAUMC world.  It would be kind of amusing to do it like Trelawney and Eric's wedding, with multiple officiants, but I think I want Tiffany to do it.

Just in case anyone is still misconstruing this: I have no desire to die, and in fact a strong desire to not die.

***

At lunch, Katie said, "My pickle is leaking."  It went downhill from there.

Sidebar: I said the verb rather than the noun is the problem.  Eric said "is" is the verb.  I said it's a gerund phrase.  He said "is" is still the verb.  I said okay fine, the gerund portion of the verb phrase is the problem.

wikipedia says:

In linguistics, "gerund" is a term used to refer to various non-finite verb forms in various languages:

• As applied to English, it refers to what might be called a verb's action noun, which is one of the uses of the -ing form.

Oh, and I was still meeting with Prof.B. when Katie left for the day, so she left me an adorable note on my desk.  How do I surround myself with such good people?

***

I knew Ari wouldn't mind if I didn't finish it until after Europe, but I felt guilty on behalf of the comm, so I finished my femslash_minis fic.

When I was first starting writing it, the structure helped me a lot since initially I had absolutely no idea for plot.  By the end, though, it became more hindrance than help, so the flow is somewhat uneven now.  However, I am not a good enough writer to go back and rewrite the whole thing, so there it is.  And I'll stop myself now before I end up listing all of the abundant flaws of the fic.

And yes I really did wanna come up with a better title -- like one that didn't begin with a number.

***

P.S. I know the source of my Subject line, but out of courtesy for my parents (and anyone else), please no Book 7 spoilers in comments.

***

Oh, man, bahletegate keeps getting worse and worse.  Some of this is making me want to go back to working on the entry I started back during the incest round, but I'm kind of glad I'll be away (though it's not like that will be stress-free -- I will have to be on the 'net at least some this weekend to finish my travel plans).

And on that note, I should go back to packing.  (Yeah, finishing that fic took way longer than I had expected.  Though having ideas was kind of cool.  Even though the ideas didn't always work with preceding structure plans.)  I need to be up at 5, so I may do that all-nighter thing and just sleep on the plane (which will of course fuck me up since I arrive at 8:30pm local time; sigh).

In the spirit of self-indulgent birthday fic: unbetaed ficlet for the autumn baby.  (Well, one of them.  I hope Lez had a happy birthday as well.)  Crossover device stolen from the birthday girl herself.  Fic itself largely inspired by said girl's own "Autumn" fic.

[And dude, I forgot about my plan to write 500 words/day until I had written almost that many words in this.  I ended up making almost 3 days worth of quota.  I win.  I started around 3pm and had televisual commitments, hence the lateness of the fic. Apologies.]

Sits, looking, and moves on.

The leaves crackled as they turned into smoke.

( word count: 1443 )

Is it bad that one reason i'm glad i wasn't able to go to the Boston screening of Serenity is that it meant more Emma time?  However, phineasjones wrote: "sean maher and morena baccarin were there! and they were so frickin pretty. i mean like... whoa. like, they only look half... ok, maybe 3/4 that pretty on screen. and they said a few cute things and people cheered at them and then they sat down (close behind where dancingrain was sitting) and watched the movie with everyone."  I am le jealous.

Friday morning, when i was supposed to be at work at 9am, i woke up at 9:20.  Thankfully, i work across the street, so i basically just threw on clothes and hustled.  It was such a slow day that i still finished everything before leaving for a noontime lunch.

After lunch i said goodbye to Emma (who had to go pack) and then took a quick shower before going back to work.  Yeah, i have i have issues.  Makes me wonder how i survived those cross-country camping trips.

The afternoon primarily consisted of reading fanfic.  (I continue to be impressed by people who can actually create involved plots.)  I did copying for Stacey one last time.  She, too, had a gift for me.  We talked for about an hour before i actually left and opened it, though.  She and i have a pool (read: billiards, not swiming) date next Wednesday.  If i bartend, i need to frame my diploma, put it up, and send her a picture.  (Because really, what do you do with a B.A. in English? ;) )
So yes, gift.  Lovely note.  And omgscarf.  Unfolded it's big enough to be a shawl and i have no idea how to do this scarf thing, but it's beautiful.  It's a really deep dark purplish blue, and at the ends there's brownish black embroidery of bamboo and the like, and at the very ends dark blue fringe.  And i have no idea what i own that i could wear with it, but it's beautiful.

Leaving at 5, handing in my name badge, and knowing i wouldn't ever be coming back, not in that capacity anyway, that was the first time i got really choked up about this whole graduating thing.

That night, Kate and i went to Pleasant St. and went through the entire store, twice, before finally deciding on Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.  As expected, an enjoyable movie though i had coupling issues.  (The IMDb trivia was impressive, though.)  We then caught the end of Drumline (which i had never seen) and most of Monsters, Inc. (which i had seen before and still enjoy).

What is up with this Out By Ten A.M. thing?  [In the past it has been noon.]  Moot point for me, obviously, but irksome for everyone else.  And it deprived me of some goodbyes.  And after all that, RADS has, as far as i can tell, yet to show up at my house.  (Note the time stamp.)


Ari posted the fic i betaed!  I got to do that dorky beta thing in which i glee at the ways in which my suggestions were incorporated and note other changes and wonder what other people's suggestions were.

And y'all should go read it.  It's mostly about apocalypse and ancients and plotty and thematic.  I say this to make people who would be squicked by the pairing read it, but i'm not lying.  It's more about interaction than 'ship.  And i feel that it has a sufficient happy ending for my people who don't do the tragic angst.  (Though i've gotta say, if you don't like the tragic angst, why are you in my fandom?)  So yeah.  Go.

Title: Familiar Smells
Synopsis: Tara has to get away, but she’s not sure where she wants to go. (post-“Tabula Rasa”) The end is rated R/NC-17.
Disclaimer: Joss and company own all the characters, i’m just playing with them, blah blah blah.
( Read more... )