(no subject)

[bironic]

Hm. I said I was going to stop writing summary posts like this. Another time, I guess.

This week in a nutshell:

Furniture. Up to NY on Saturday—saw my sister for half a day between a gig and the next leg of the tour, rescued her from a flat tire when she had no money and a dying cell phone, played a rousing game of "where the hell are the table legs?" in a house full of stuff from my dad's moving-in girlfriend, and ate sushi—back from NY on Sunday, and now I can has furniture. Well, the table/chairs, an area rug, a small bookshelf, a little papasan chair, and a metal cart left over from college, anyway, but at least now most of my things aren't on the floor.

Oven. Adventures in broken-down apartment features this week included the smoke that came steaming out of the oven when I tried to use it for the first time. Long story short, it took one day for maintenance to identify the problem, another for them to come back and fix the problem instead of just telling me about it, and another for me to find out they had come, because they sent a note to the previous tenant's email instead of leaving the piece of paper on the door like they'd always done. Aie. I had, naturally, just bought a chicken to roast; the poor thing ended up in the fridge for a day, cooked for ten minutes on day two, put back in the fridge for a day, frozen for another day, and it's now defrosting so I can cook it tomorrow. If I die of salmonella or something when I finally eat it, please all of you play nicely as you divvy up my things.

Hair. Attend: I am making a pact not to use elastics anymore (except at the gym, where I have been trying to go most evenings right after work). Gone with the ponytail of yesteryear, I cry! Thanks in part to a book about curly hair recommended by hannahrorlove and wisdom accumulated five or so years ago the last time I got a good haircut, I am trying to care for my hair with conditioner and gel so it can do its thing without frizz, and plan to use some freelance money to get a good-quality cut at a real salon in a few weeks when a spot opens up.

Alcohol. For the first time in all the years I've been over the legal drinking age, I bought a bottle of alcohol for myself. Two, actually: amaretto and sweet-and-sour mix. I plan to use it as a wise professor once advised me, to lower inhibitions so I can actually write without the impending deadlines of Kink Bingo. Okay, his advice didn't mention Bingo, but the rest is true.

Plants. A coworker who gardens potted two small plants for me, a spider and a philodendron, and they make a disproportionate difference in this place than their size would suggest. The spider plant is in a pretty earthenware pot that's glazed deep blue-green with brown streaks in the light. She said it reminded her of my eyes. Aww.

Job. I have absolutely sucked at work this past couple of weeks. Just sitting there all day getting nothing done. I have to get my act together and make up my mind about which of the two offers I have I'm going to take, because while neither is ideal, I can't keep stringing people along and agonizing so much that I'm totally unproductive. On the bright side, just got a raise and will have health insurance in November. On the dimmer side, that means a two-month lapse in coverage; need to find a stopgap plan, because there are prescriptions to fill and possible illnesses and accidents to be prepared for.

DVDs. After following up with Amazon, the postal service, and the place I used to live, a refund was attained, a new order placed, and SGA S5 finally arrived here on Thursday. Hopefully that'll kick-start the vid-that-was-in-progress about how Pegasus people are angry.

Fanpeople. Thanks to kassrachel, I was put in touch with a local cluster of fans who gather weeklyish to watch sci fi down the street from me. I met many of them for the first time last night and it was wonderful. We watched the Vividcon premieres along with a few others, had tasty food, and chatted about the usual hit-and-miss collection of fan topics -- vidding, knitting, cats, various Star Treks, works in progress, textual analysis, slash, Canadians, mpreg. Okay, the last was my fault for having brought up, as we were leaving, the fact that I was glad we hadn't talked about it, after barely_bean scarred me for life the first time I hung out with the NYC brunch crew.

Good vids included greensilver's American Tune, a tribute to The West Wing set to Simon & Garfunkel that moved me even though I barely know the show, and another viewing of Seah and Margie's spectacularly unsettling Dr. Who vid No Handlebars (again, need not know the source material), and Learning to Crawl by jarrow (BSG, ditto). A couple of nice vids introduced me to lovely songs, including Greg Laswell's It Comes and Goes in Waves (vid) and Jars of Clay's Boy on a String (unlinked vid of the same name was by traykor).

Okay. Off to see the wizard Laundrys for the first time in a while, and then… long weekend!

Comments

[theonlymeyouget.livejournal.com]

Strange you mentione alcohol and writing...people have thought I'm either weird (totally possible) or have a substance abuse problem (maybe that too) because I write best when decently intoxicated. The ideas seems to flow better and the internal censor shuts off.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it really helps us inhibited people relax enough to be creative instead of self-criticizing all the time. We'll see how it works....

[purridot.livejournal.com]

I love reading your updates. You go girl!

P.S. Yay me, I finally qualify for benefits at work too! Gee, it only took 5 years!

P.P.S. Work starts next week and I do not want to go. I am scared! I spent the summer as a happy recluse. I went to my office for the first time this week and I cannot get used to all the people around. *shivers uncontrollably*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

3) I'm so sorry. Blah! Being a happy recluse is great, and facing people, especially new people, can be nerve-wracking. You'll be fine, though. Coping mechanisms?

2) Yay, and yikes! Why so long?? Are you part-time?

1) Thank you. ♥

[purridot.livejournal.com]

Coping mechanisms = baking!

I don't teach in the summer, so I had a nice break :D

I love your exciting city life stories!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I meant why so long to qualify for benefits? :)

I think I will be baking some dinosaur-shaped cookies today using a mix and cookie cutter my sister gave me a few years ago. Any plans for you?

[purridot.livejournal.com]

Don't forget to use green icing on the dinosaurs!

I made a baking breakthrough yesterday. Theoretical, anyway. I visited a brand new artisan/fancy bakery yesterday -- the kind with dainty glass display cases and ribbons on all the boxes -- and saw that they had a freezer full of cookie dough (individually shaped cookies, but ready for baking) (of course also tied with ribbons). The breakthrough is that I could freeze my *own* cookie dough that way, and cook only what I plan to eat that day, instead of feeling compelled to wolf down the entire dozen "before they go bad." :P

But no baking today, because I bought a dark chocolate/caramel/fleur de sel tartlet there for today's consumption :D

[purridot.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah -- on the benefits front -- you need to have taught so many classes to get benefits. It's a rotten system, because over 50% of the teaching is done by sessional lecturers like me, but the administration hates to give them anything at all (in some cases, they don't even get office space!)

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

You sound so much happier. That's such a nice thing. :)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm glad I do. It comes and goes (in waves, as the song says), but I'm trying to stay upbeat. Does a body and a brain good.

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

I plan to use it as a wise professor once advised me, to lower inhibitions so I can actually write without the impending deadlines of Kink Bingo. Okay, his advice didn't mention Bingo, but the rest is true.

As this is advice I often use for myself and impart unto others, I can only assume you are talking about me. Thank you; I am indeed a wise professor. Although I should tell you I'm more of a "her" than a "his."

Also: She said it reminded her of my eyes. Aww.

Dude, you just got cruised!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*g* She's married, and nope, I really meant one of my professors. Though the fact that the method works for you also recommends it.

[treewishes.livejournal.com]

Delightful to learn you are local!! And yay, CON.TXT!! Of course let me know if you want to network locally with other fans (or professional types). :D

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I can't believe it's at the place I can see out my window. And yes, yay! As soon as I get this job thing sorted out, I'll be pleased as punch to make new acquaintances.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

p.s. Sorry -- LJ ate the comment twice and then showed up twice when I submitted it a third time.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you had a good time at Sciffy night! I had no idea you lived right in their neighborhood; that's awesome.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Less than a ten-minute walk from my front door. The only way it could have been closer is if it were in my building. Did I mention thank you for putting me in touch with ellen_fremedon?

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

I was just going to be quietly amused about the alcohol, but then I remembered I was going to ask you if you'd been following any of SurveyFail? Morally objectionable or not, I thought the tentacle porn was... really well done XD

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I thought SurveyFail was horrifying and then hilarious -- is it still going on since Ogi deleted in shame? -- but the tentacle porn actually had me squirming in embarrassment, lol. Nice thought, but the RPS and poking fun at real people (however idiotically they were acting) didn't do it for me.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Honestly? I didn't know surveyfail existed until yesterday. I just followed a link on the basis that "NSFW, we mean it" was probably worth clicking. Then of course I got sucked into reading the for/against arguments.

[celebriangel.livejournal.com]

RE hair: It is *so worth it* to get a good cut. I have curly hair, and my despairing and talentless (with hair) teenage self wore ponytails all the time. I do not suit ponytails. With this haircut, all I have to do is use some decent shampoo/conditioner (Tresemme is cool and cheap and comes in biiig bottles), some de-frizz goop and give it a vaguely competent blow-dry.

And it works. Yay.

Ignore the shallowness of this comment. I've had enough being Deep and Thoughtfully Melancholic for one year.