Uh, whoops. One month, no posts. Hi!
Mar. 5th, 2013 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironicIn February I felt great and did a lot of RL things. In the form of a meme, it might look like this:
Did: Probably many if not most of you will sympathize when I say that I do best when I have something to focus on (a.k.a. obsess over), and in the past six weeks or so it has taken the form of homemaking. After years of hedging on properly setting up my apartment for comfortable long-term living, and after deciding to stick to the studio rather than stretch my budget with a one-bedroom, something gave and there was a bit of a whirlwind of organizing/furnishing/decorating.
Instead of sparse, mismatched furniture that didn't suit the space or necessarily reflect my style preferences or meet storage needs, there is now a proper TV stand and storage unit and desk and sofa cover and pillows and towel hook and entryway storage cube/ottoman and nightstand and front-of-fridge spice tins and picture frames for the eight or so (mostly Star Trek) autographs I'd forgotten I had. Most of it even supports a coherent color scheme of black, deep red, lime green, and dark to medium blue to counter the soul-numbing off-white of all the walls, window trim and ceilings. \o/ Gave the old stuff to friends or sold it.
For anyone who might like visuals: TV stand before & after
couch before & after
room, nearing completion
stuff waiting to be hung up on that wall
plant life
As a finishing touch, acquired a few succulent plants and will try my best not to kill them. (Well, a real finishing touch will be if I take the plunge and attempt to paint a couple of accent walls. Last time did not end well on account of accidental pastels.) Diving into the archives of Apartment Therapy was excellent for idea generation and for accepting that fixing little day-to-day annoyances can lead to a big improvement in your enjoyment of your living space.
Oh, and on a roll for making changes, I picked out new glasses frames at the store where my dad's fiancée, E., works, and got a haircut. And there went the rest of my last freelance paycheck.
Traveled: Weekend trips to Pennsylvania and New York. Made a batch of soft and tasty hamantaschen with my dad and E. for Purim. Got to see my mom for half a day. There was still snow on the ground on Long Island from the 30-inch storm three weeks earlier.
Watched: The usual TV shows, including The Vampire Diaries—which made me feel something several episodes back, gasp—plus more White Collar on Netflix and I think a movie.
Read: Cloud Atlas. Short stories on CD: sci fi radio plays from the 50s and 60s. Fic: an Inception Pretty Woman AU (WIP), an Inception lit mag publishing AU (WIP), something else I'm forgetting. Started a book called Alien Sex (!) found in a used store in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
synn's town. It honest to goodness includes a series of epistolary poems called "Sextraterrestrials" by Joe Haldeman and a friend.
Wrote/Vidded: Nothing, but have ideas. On the cool side, two recent vids will be showing at Muskrat Jamboree!
The reason I felt so good in February turns out to be health-related, as I was given a slightly different birth control formulation for 30 days while waiting for a refill of my regular one. The month (and more) before the substitution was crappy, as has been the week and a half since it ended (as Buffy would say, progesterone and I are unmixy things), so I am in the process of switching to the one that actually made me feel happy and energetic and let me sleep well and didn't make my head and back hurt. Nothing quite like realizing just how glum/lethargic/anxious/poorly rested/unable to concentrate you have been by virtue of it all being alleviated within like two days. Anyway, fingers crossed that it wasn't a fluke and can be recaptured.
How are you? I've been reading the flist & circle every day, just not participating…
Did: Probably many if not most of you will sympathize when I say that I do best when I have something to focus on (a.k.a. obsess over), and in the past six weeks or so it has taken the form of homemaking. After years of hedging on properly setting up my apartment for comfortable long-term living, and after deciding to stick to the studio rather than stretch my budget with a one-bedroom, something gave and there was a bit of a whirlwind of organizing/furnishing/decorating.
Instead of sparse, mismatched furniture that didn't suit the space or necessarily reflect my style preferences or meet storage needs, there is now a proper TV stand and storage unit and desk and sofa cover and pillows and towel hook and entryway storage cube/ottoman and nightstand and front-of-fridge spice tins and picture frames for the eight or so (mostly Star Trek) autographs I'd forgotten I had. Most of it even supports a coherent color scheme of black, deep red, lime green, and dark to medium blue to counter the soul-numbing off-white of all the walls, window trim and ceilings. \o/ Gave the old stuff to friends or sold it.
For anyone who might like visuals: TV stand before & after
couch before & after
room, nearing completion
stuff waiting to be hung up on that wall
plant life
As a finishing touch, acquired a few succulent plants and will try my best not to kill them. (Well, a real finishing touch will be if I take the plunge and attempt to paint a couple of accent walls. Last time did not end well on account of accidental pastels.) Diving into the archives of Apartment Therapy was excellent for idea generation and for accepting that fixing little day-to-day annoyances can lead to a big improvement in your enjoyment of your living space.
Oh, and on a roll for making changes, I picked out new glasses frames at the store where my dad's fiancée, E., works, and got a haircut. And there went the rest of my last freelance paycheck.
Traveled: Weekend trips to Pennsylvania and New York. Made a batch of soft and tasty hamantaschen with my dad and E. for Purim. Got to see my mom for half a day. There was still snow on the ground on Long Island from the 30-inch storm three weeks earlier.
Watched: The usual TV shows, including The Vampire Diaries—which made me feel something several episodes back, gasp—plus more White Collar on Netflix and I think a movie.
Read: Cloud Atlas. Short stories on CD: sci fi radio plays from the 50s and 60s. Fic: an Inception Pretty Woman AU (WIP), an Inception lit mag publishing AU (WIP), something else I'm forgetting. Started a book called Alien Sex (!) found in a used store in
synn's town. It honest to goodness includes a series of epistolary poems called "Sextraterrestrials" by Joe Haldeman and a friend.Wrote/Vidded: Nothing, but have ideas. On the cool side, two recent vids will be showing at Muskrat Jamboree!
The reason I felt so good in February turns out to be health-related, as I was given a slightly different birth control formulation for 30 days while waiting for a refill of my regular one. The month (and more) before the substitution was crappy, as has been the week and a half since it ended (as Buffy would say, progesterone and I are unmixy things), so I am in the process of switching to the one that actually made me feel happy and energetic and let me sleep well and didn't make my head and back hurt. Nothing quite like realizing just how glum/lethargic/anxious/poorly rested/unable to concentrate you have been by virtue of it all being alleviated within like two days. Anyway, fingers crossed that it wasn't a fluke and can be recaptured.
How are you? I've been reading the flist & circle every day, just not participating…
Date: Mar. 6th, 2013 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2013 01:45 am (UTC)Saw a bunch of reposts go by on your journal -- need to check 'em out. Congrats on getting some writing done on your hiatus!
Thinking good thoughts for you in general.
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Date: Mar. 6th, 2013 01:04 am (UTC)Oh, and your alien sex book sounds seriously intriguing and I'm glad you made such a discerning purchase.
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Date: Mar. 6th, 2013 01:49 am (UTC)Oh, on checking, the title appears to be Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex. But still.
That is reassuring re: succulents. I suspect they will need a grow light if they survive the repotting, anyway, since my windows are north-facing and even the spider plants reach toward the blinds.
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Date: Mar. 6th, 2013 08:13 am (UTC)Ha. Also, delicious pastries I had never heard of and Sextraterrestrials, REALLY? Oh dear, Joe. Also, I am not here either, but I am :)
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Date: Mar. 6th, 2013 02:15 pm (UTC)I really could not say no to a book with a chapter called Sextraterrestrials. Even if the poems don't live up to the title. Surely there will be gems between the covers. So to speak.
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Date: Mar. 6th, 2013 08:39 am (UTC)And ohh, look, there's a Xander! And you payed for Smiley to have con photographs taken! ;)
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Date: Mar. 6th, 2013 02:18 pm (UTC)Thanks for the kind words about the slipcover and stuff! & yes, it's a nice big room, about 450 sq ft with kitchenette, bathroom and closets. It would be really nice to have a separate bedroom, but in this building at least, that means two smaller rooms, you know? (And $.) And the windows wouldn't be so prominent. Also, I'm given to understand that few of the apartments here still have the parquet floors showing - most have been covered with standard white-ish carpet.
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Date: Mar. 6th, 2013 10:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2013 02:21 pm (UTC)Apple green sounds nice. It would look great in the kitchen here, but I'm probably not allowed to paint in there, so I've been keeping an eye out for bright contact paper & such. Until then, there's a paper paint chip taped to the wall. :)