Hello, Yuletide Santa!

( Read more... )

And then I spent all of my birthday money -- which I've been saving as my Christmas-gifts-slash-winter-travel fund -- on a locksmith.

Because I am just that brilliant.

Yeah.

So everybody in my department liaisons with (liaisons to? That's not even a phrase and/or word, is it.) a few divisions within the Library as a whole. They give us books, we give them fixed books and advice, yadda yadda, and so it goes in a neat circle.

I got a few items from one of my divisions this morning.

Tucked alongside them was a big bag of Hershey's Kisses.

*HUGS IT, AND THEM* I love my job. :D

Also, in a little over an hour and a half I will be airport-bound, then Wisconsin-bound for the Thanksgiving holidays. I, er, kind of feel like a "I won't be around much" warning will be a tad useless, considering how little I've been around as a whole lately, so I won't. But! I hope all of you American types have a marvelous time, and I hope all you non-American types...well, still have a marvelous time, but just on principle rather than because of an abundance of turkey and cranberries. <3

A well-established cure for the burgeoning wintertime blues? Spending a weekend at Chez batyatoon and sdelmonte. I'm learning how to cook things. Tasty things. >:D

All I have to do now is convince my body that no, really, I am not a bear, I do not need to hibernate, and eight hours of sleep a night is perfectly sufficient. Really. But I think we might be getting there! Maybe.

(I can't believe Thanksgiving's coming up in four days. Crazy familial hijinks ahoy, hurrah and huzzah.)

EEEEEEEheeheeheee Yuletide.

I am so going to need to do some serious canon revisiting/cramming over the next month, but that does not negate the initial "oooooooh yes interesting *_*" response when I saw my prompt. It is like. This is the kind of thing I love writing anyway, and while I don't have any concrete ideas yet, I know I will a LOT sooner than I did with Yuletide '07 (much as I adored that year's prompt).

Sing it with me! Who's ready to rock the Yuletide? I'M READY TO ROCK THE YULETIDE! :D :D :D



...I may have had a rather strong apple spice martini when I went out to a belated birthday dinner with Dad, Stepmom, and Sister earlier tonight. Maybe. Don't judge. >.>

So...apparently I've been around for a quarter of a century as of today.

How did that happen?

(And it's Friday the 13th on top of it! I leave the jokes in your capable hands.)

I like living in DC. I do. (Or, as the case may be, living in the DC metro area and working in the city proper, since that is an important distinction around here.) It's near enough to where I grew up that I have the comfort of the landscape -- trees, parks, and all -- but the closeness of a city as well, and I just...I feel comfortable here, moreso than a lot of other places I've lived.

But God, if there is one thing I hate, it's that I can't avoid political issues that trigger a flames-on-the-sides-of-my-face reaction.

The brief backstory when it comes to me and health care, since I do have some newcomers to ye olde f'list: a little over two years ago, my mom was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (the same type of cancer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was just diagnosed with, if you've been keeping up with that news). She's fine now; it's basically in remission thanks to a certain medication she takes every day. Without that medication, though, she'd probably die within a few years.

The medication also costs about $40,000 a year without insurance. So when people start screaming about the evils of universal health care, I tend to, um. Get a little tetchy. And show up to work with teeth marks on my tongue and nail marks on my palms. You don't get to decide this, I want to scream. You don't get to decide whether somebody like my mom who has the misfortune to be uninsured will live or die.

Have I mentioned that when I walk part of the way to work, I go right past the Capitol? Or that if I take the Metro all the way in, I get off at a stop that's often heavily targeted by protesters?

Yeah. There is, literally, no way for me to avoid it, even when I turn off the news for the sake of my blood pressure and veer away from debates I overhear in public. I had to phone up Mom on the way to work last Thursday, as I passed by a group of tea party protesters with signs hefted over their shoulders, and ask her, "Please remind me to breathe."

I am so glad the reform legislation passed the House. And oh, God, do I just want the whole thing to be over.




On the bright side, though, I got my Yuletide request in and thoroughly enjoyed tonight's Glee (oh, KURT, HONEY <333333), so. That's something, at least.

Man. I have been crap at keeping up with LJ this month, haven't I. (Posts and comments both. *winces*) It's not even that things haven't been happening -- they have, and some of them have been pretty neat -- but...I don't know. All I seem to want to do when I come home from work is nap, and cook, and maybe watch a little TV, and before I know it: boom, it's midnight and I need to go sleep.

But like I said, stuff's been happening, so. Here's my attempt to catch y'all up on the major events, both last month and this month.

I got a bike! Last year's model of this bike, to be exact, and oh I cannot even tell you how much I love it. :D I've yet to bring it along to work with me -- federal security checkpoints, heigh-ho -- but I've been riding it to the grocery store and around the park near my apartment. And it folds up so tiny. Like, I can stick it in my shopping cart when I go to buy food.

(However, I have yet to name it. I'm possibly thinking Cricket, but suggestions are welcome. *serene*)

I got a bonus at work! And...promptly had to fork over the whole thing to my electric company as collateral until I've established a good payment history. *sour* Still, though: further affirmation that I don't suck at what I do is always, always excellent, and hopefully it will not be my last one ever.

I'm cooking stuff on a regular basis and have only exploded two dishes so far! Protip: those rumors about exploding Pyrex are true. I made the mistake of using mine as a broiler pan -- which I didn't know you weren't supposed to do -- and promptly spent the next few days picking glass shards out of my oven, out of my linoleum, and occasionally out of my bare feet. Not fun.

BUT. Lately I have been looking at more and more food that I buy -- bread, granola, frozen burritos, soup -- and going, "...you know, culinary dunce-itude aside, I bet I could make this." And I have! I highly recommend this bread recipe especially; I've gotten in the habit of coming home, slapping some dough on the counter, tossing it into the oven, and making some really excellent sandwiches out of it for dinner and lunch the next day. Plus, it makes my whole apartment smell amazing. :D I may even invest in a real baking stone soon instead of half-assing it with my baking pans!

I'm also (a bit more slowly) getting in the habit of setting Sundays aside for a giant kitchen-centric marathon, where I cook like crazy, seal away everything in individual Tupperware containers or freezer bags, and let my lazy-ass self take over for the rest of the week as I just reach into my fridge and grab ready-made stuff to eat. It's pretty awesome, and it's also cutting down on my need to fork over cashy money to the cafés on Capitol Hill once my lunch break rolls around.

(...oh, yeah, and for the record, the other exploded dish was a plate that cracked in two in my microwave. One of the plates that, in fact, survived last year's car crash completely intact. What.)

I'm turning twenty-five in two weeks! Sdkfljsdfkljafkls how have I been around for almost a quarter of a century already. Moving on.

Yuletide! The other side effect of not keeping up with LJ is that it seeps out to the rest of my creative drive: I have done very, very little personal writing this fall. :| But while I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year -- or, more accurately, I'm probably going to do a quasi-NaNo thing where I try to finish up last year's manuscript during November -- I will be doing Yuletide, which excites me terribly. All of the fandoms I wanted to nominate made the cut, and I have two of my three requests nailed down, so. Yeeeee!

I also find it hilarious that some folks tried to nominate Harry Potter and Twilight. Seriously, guys? Seriously? Bwahahahaha way to miss the whole point of the exchange.

New TV! I have gotten hopelessly, hopelessly addicted to Glee. Just. I can't even. The last time I was this utterly charmed and delighted by a TV show was the late, lamented Pushing Daisies, and it's a bit pathetic how much I've been forking over to the iTunes store every week for their songs. Also, despite having given up on Heroes for good, I still want to see Sue Sylvester and Angela Petrelli get in a cage match. You'd pay good money to see it, too. Don't deny.

I've picked up FlashForward as well, albeit...kind of half-heartedly. The pilot intrigued me enough to tune in the following week, but I think, by this point, I'm just watching it for the excellence of the cast (Joseph Fiennes! John Cho! Jack Davenport! Dominic Monaghan! Gina Torres, oh my god. :D :D) and not the excellence of the plot or storytelling -- which, for me, is not a good enough reason to religiously keep up with a show. Nowadays it tends to hang out in my Hulu queue as weekend viewing, instead of being something I watch the night it airs.

(Dollhouse used to be in the weekend queue, too -- if that show and I hooked up on Facebook, our status would be "It's Complicated" -- and then? I saw last week's episode. Now, as soon as it comes back in December, I'm setting aside a chunk of my Friday nights again, because holy shit I still get a little shaky and floored thinking about it. That was some deeply unsettling and damn fine TV; that's what Dollhouse ought to be more often.)

Braaaaaains! What? They're delicious.

By which I mean I did the Silver Spring Zombie Walk last weekend with chavalah, blackbird599, and Chris-who-I-don't-think-has-an-LJ. I can now tell you that in addition to shambling through downtown, clawing at the windows of posh restaurants and growling, "Braaaaains," until you're hoarse and coughing, there is something utterly sublime about sitting at Noodles & Company in full bloody-and-pale zombie regalia happily chowing down on mac and cheese. (We scared a few small children. No, really. Wide-eyed stares happened as they went by our table.) Plus, we got free shots at the Piratz Tavern and the walk itself ended with Shaun of the Dead at the AFI Silver, which: always excellent. A++, would be part of the walking undead next year. :D

And now I'm hanging out at blackbird599's for the weekend for Halloween hijinks, which I ought to get back to. SO. Hopefully I will not go this long without a post again; happy Halloween, all, and I'll catch you again soon. <3

*SPITTAKES*

copinggoggles, you will especially want to read the full article attached to that.

phoenixchilde
I was telling Aspen last night that I kinda feel like a wuss for getting knocked this flat by a cold, but. I would rather be a wuss who gets better soon (hopefully) than one who's still sneezing a month later.

batyatoon
Exactly. *firm* Rest up and let your body reserve energy for fighting the viral invader. ...or bacterial, whichever it is.

phoenixchilde
...now I have a mental image of a bunch of white blood cells with their faces painted blue, charging down the slopes of my lungs shouting, "FREEEEDOOOOOMMM!!!!"

*tests forehead, sheepishly* I don't THINK I have a fever.

batyatoon
*cracks up at desk* Phoe, you're my favorite.

(...my mental image tends more toward armored space soldiers with big guns.)

phoenixchilde
*beams!* <333

(...have I been infected by teenytiny Cylons? :O)

batyatoon
Nah, virii aren't smart enough to be Cylons. Except maybe the kind that actually look like robots, what do they call them, centurions?

phoenixchilde
Centurions! Yes.

Maybe prototype Centurions. The kind that bump into walls a lot. Or Roombas.


...*goes to get the thermometer*



In conclusion, if anybody asks, I am fighting off the deadly Centurion Roomba Invaders from the comfort of my own couch. I feel this is a perfectly noble and productive way to spend my day. *solemn*

Roman Polanski raped a thirteen-year-old girl. Your argument is invalid.

Jeez, no wonder it took me two and a half weeks to write all of this. Leaving aside how my September's been going (i.e. rush-rush-scamper-rush-keel over so hard I need to take a sick day, rush-rush-scamper-rush-sleep in until noon both Saturday and Sunday, lather, rinse, repeat ad nauseum), I don't think I've scrawled a post this long since Starfest '08. It must be turning into one of those blog corollaries: con reports = Beth babbles like a mofo.

Anyway. This is the first year I've done all four days of Dragon*Con, and yes, it was eminently exhausting, and yes, I will do it again in a HEARTBEAT. >:D Here's how I spent my extended Weekend O'Geek earlier this month.

( FRIDAY: In which I spend more time outside of the con hotels than in, and do not mind one whit. )

( SATURDAY: In which I help wake up Atlanta BSG-style, go into geek overload, and squeak, but do not faint, around multiple celebrities. (I also spoil the BSG finale, if you're still dodging said spoilers.) )

( SUNDAY: In which many other people are much prettier than me. )

( MONDAY: In which we close out the con, and I bid Atlanta adieu properly. )

...okay, the massive D*C post is probably not going up today, due to last night being one of those "fall asleep for a nap and wake up the next morning" nights.

The edges of the sunrise are quite pretty, though!

(And as more con reports come in, I am continuing to beat my head against the wall for not hanging out with the gaeta_squeeers during D*C, even just a little bit. I thought it would've been too weird and awkward, since I'm pretty much just a lurker there, but. But. They had dinner with Alessandro. sldfjksdlfjskdlfja! I clutch my autograph and photo for consolation.)

Goooooooood evening, ladies and jellyspoons.

I am back home from Dragon*Con, a bit punchy from sleep dep but otherwise none the worse for wear. I'm going to be picking away at a much, much bigger post with the hope of it going up on Wednesday, but for now...an appetizer! Or something.

First, let's all make the wiggly Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure hands and travel back in time. (doooodleydoo! dooooodleydoo!) The date: last month. The place: batyatoon and sdelmonte's. The conversation: as follows, after getting on the subject of BSG a few minutes earlier.

Me: [blah blah something something else, concluding with a facepalm and:] And then poor Gaeta gets played like a frickin' fiddle.
bookelfe: [eyes me] But...fiddles are actually kind of hard to play. Gaeta's more like a banjo.
sdelmonte: Or a kazoo.
Gaeta: [is cheerily and lovingly referred to as "Kazoo Boy" for the rest of the trip]

Which brings us to Saturday. And this:



Yes, that is Alessandro Juliani's autograph. And yes, he was mildly puzzled by the kazoo, but also the consummate gentleman about it. I'M SORRY AJ I DO LOVE YOU I PROMISE. My only disappointment? I couldn't find a real kazoo for him to sign. *cheerful*

Hope everyone who went to Atlanta got home safely! I miss you all something fierce, and I am already counting down the days to next Labor Day weekend.

* Actual topic of conversation with my coworkers today: "Who would win in a fight: Godzilla, or Godzilla's weight in bees?"

(Pretty much all of us went with the bees. That's a lot of bees.)

* We're getting down to the wire with D*C, which means not only am I gathering up the last of my props and costumes, but it's crunch time for D*C Thriller. Apparently the 13,000-strong group in Mexico didn't dance to the full version of the song this past weekend, which means we might still have a chance at breaking the record. :D! It also means I am pacing around my apartment muttering phrases like, "jump reach, aiiiir guitar to the left! tick, tock, tick, tock rock on rock on rock on rock on -- "

Hey, there are reasons I pull all of my shades whenever I work on the dance, guys. And I'm sure if my little sister could see me -- as she is the real dancer of this family -- she would be laughing her ass off.

* Protip, related to bullet point two: if you're using store-bought fake blood to stain your clothes, apply multiple coats, because it dries much, much lighter than it originally goes on. I swear, my bathroom is going to look like a murder scene before Thursday comes due.

Also, I seem to have forgotten about dinner. Um. Somewhere I'm sure there's food! *dashes away to find*

So after about six months of being on the fritz, my long-suffering power cord gave up the ghost tonight in a glob of half-melted plastic and suspiciously burnt looking wires.

(It's only a small patch of burnt plastic and wires. Still.)

Hopefully, if all goes well, I will be able to jostle my way down to Pentagon City tomorrow evening and shell out the eighty-five bucks needed for a new cord -- which, by the way: seriously, Apple? seriously? -- without having to wait for shipping delays, things being out of stock, &c &c. And in the meantime I have Ziggy and...about two hours and forty-five minutes left on my laptop battery. So.

*waves, somewhat forlornly, and quasi-disappears for a bit*

While up in New York this past weekend (did I mention I went to New York? I went to New York! It was my first out-of-state vacation since February and I got to see loads of folks I hadn't seen in forever and oh, did I ever need both of those things in a HUGE way), I picked up The Lightning Thief, the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Once a sucker for Greek mythology, always a sucker for Greek mythology, dude; plus, I've been needing some quick brain candy reads after the string of srs bsns Pulitzer books I've found myself plowing through this year.

Can I just say how much it delights me that at Camp Half-Blood, Hermes' cabin is the one that unofficially "adopts" everyone who doesn't have a home yet? Because, yeah. That is something he would do, isn't it. And I am going to kick my feet in the air in GLEE if he shows up in any of the later books.

(This may be the series that finally gets me to use my super-special staff card, too: the one that lets me use the LoC like a regular lending library. Because I know I'm a slow reader, I tend to be the worst librarian ever and not check out library books very often, lest they come due before I'm done with them. These, though? I can totally tear through them in a few days apiece, so -- finally -- I have no worries on that front. SCORE. >:D)

Really, show?

You're going to drop a nuclear vid bunny on my head after I've seen all of four episodes?

Really?

*sighs, put upon (only NOT IN THE LEAST), and goes to cue up more of The Listener*

It seems the trick to not falling asleep immediately after work is as follows:

1) Take two ibuprofen about a half-hour before leaving;
2) Blast "Circus" as loudly as possible while leaving the bus and dance the whole way up the sidewalk to my building.

Hey, whatever works, you know? Especially because regaining an hour-plus of my life every evening means I've cleared away a whole lot of chores that've been sitting undone -- like doing my laundry, filing the MASSIVE amounts of settlement paperwork in my brand new teeny tiny file cabinet, and cleaning out the fridge.

And that means, dear f'list, that I can devote the upcoming weekend to creative stuff. :D!

( The More Doable Creative To-Do List )

( The Much More Ambitious Creative To-Do List )

The immediate to-do list: dinner. Possibly chicken curry, because it's been a very long while since I've made that. Mmmm, curry.

(Also, thank you everyone for the congrats on my last post. *beams!* It is still so weird to look around my apartment and realize....dude. I actually own this. Holy cow.)

I was going to post this last night (and did manage to post it on Twitter before going ker-thump), but to keep you guys in the loop as well as make a long story short:

After a set of snafus, I finally signed the last of the settlement paperwork on my condo yesterday.

I am now, officially, a HOMEOWNER.

:D :D :D :D :D!!!!!!!