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Heavens, it's been nearly a week since last I posted! For shame! But really, I've been rather shockingly busy, in, yes, the offline world, what with writing a Hire Me letter and composing my first proper resume ever (it's very short and not terribly impressive, but the fonts are lovely!) for the job at the local paper, and then accidentally spending the night at the Meholicks', which has become such a tradition -- with the Nielsons, too, when they still lived here -- that I really ought to put together an emergency survival kit consisting largely of pyjamas and spare underthings and leave it in a convenient corner. You see, [livejournal.com profile] burningstarsxe was coming home from three months in Maine, and when she arrived at last, there was such a riot of conversation and general jubileeing that I kept not leaving, and then it was eleven thirty at night... The next day was Friday, which was also Season Premiere of Dollhouse Day, so Sarah and Hannah came back in the evening, and we had a drawer of inappropriate starches (a real drawer, too), only someone neglected to tell me that none of the normal channels work anymore. We have bloomin' satellite, so this really oughtn't be a problem, but apparently it is. So here we are, panicking, staring at the grey screen, frantically eating cookies and squeaking... oh, it was dreadful. Eventually we gave up, took the drawer upstairs, and cosied up on my bed to show Hannah the Supernatural pilot, while I refreshed downloady sites to no avail. (A link finally surfaced about ten minutes after their father collected them, of course.)

Saturday was spent at Hershey Park, to which we acquired free passes from buying certain products at Martin's. Dad took Heidi and Timmy and I in the shiny new car, while Mum stayed home with Leandra (who would be no fun at an amusement park, as she would climb everything and be impossible to keep track of and she'd probably try to jump into a roller coaster or kidnap a duck or something). Ah, new car, how marvellously you glide along! And how exquisite it is finally to listen to CDs in the car again, instead of ancient tapes! (Okay, that often meant that we listened to a lot of Steeleye Span, but after two years it begins to be tiring when road trip music always consists solely of the surviving remnants of what Dad listened to twenty-five years ago. A lot of it is modern jazz, which I'm not especially keen on, and even Dad isn't that interested in anymore, and some of the singer-songwriter stuff is too eightiesified, and there isn't any of Dad's awesome psych folk stuff from the seventies besides Steeleye Span.)

Anyway, I'm not the largest fan of amusement parks in general, especially when I think about them too much ("this would be a really rubbish way to die, in the service of something so frivolous", I occasionally think on roller coasters or even swing rides, where a line might suddenly break; and then I think about how ridiculously much money goes into building these town-sized clusters of sheer entertainment, when people are, well, yes, starving in India and being murdered in the Sudan, and I am well aware that this sort of thing makes me the epicest of wet blankets), but I enjoyed myself rather -- they had an excellent carousel that actually went around quite fast, and tearing down an old wooden roller coaster is fantastic, and those spinning swing rides I adore because they're exhilarating and relaxing at the same time. Also there's something peculiarly sordid and fascinating about amusement parks and fairgrounds and circuses, something I can't quite put my finger on -- something about the colours and the sticky-sweet smell and the odd music and the mechanisms and the peculiar names of things and the way so many things seem strangely frozen in time. I do so want to put Mr Caruthers and Evy onto a carousel or something. (I have also always wanted an old carousel horse, a real one, on a golden pole, to keep in my bedroom and try to know the stories of it.)

And then it began to rain. Bah. It was cold and wet and we braved it for several hours, but then they started closing the roller coasters because they weren't safe anymore, and the rain wasn't letting up at all, and we were soaked and shivering and finally toured the Hershey not-factory -- mostly it was an array of Yay Capitalism Buy Our Overpriced Stuff, but it was very interesting to learn all of the different processes involved in making a simple chocolate bar, and when we finally wrenched the siblings away from the piles and piles of obscenely expensive mass-produced chocolates we decided to just go home. Ah, warm car warm car warm car.

Sunday I woke to rain, and when one is under the covers and indoors, grey rainy wet days are cosy and wonderful. Alack, I had to get up for church, and was rather cross, but at least it was chilly enough that I could wear my little black and grey double-buttoned schoolmistress dress, and people left quickly, and at home again there was magnificent chili for dinner, the first of the season, and then I ran off to finally watch Dollhouse with Sarah and Hannah at their house, and there was much conversation, merry and thinky and both, and I do so like people (and having Sarah back). Also Mr Joss Whedon is rather a meany-pants, but I expect you knew that. (Also JAMIE BAMBER IN HIS REAL ACCENT IS SO GORGEOUS AND WIBBLE-INDUCING AND ALSO CONFUSING. WHY DID YOU HIDE THIS BEAUTIFUL ACCENT FROM ME FOR SO MANY SEASONS OF BSG, MR BAMBER? WHY? THIS IS CRIMINAL. And, oh yes, there was also Alexis Denisof with his real accent, which is, alas, American, but his voice is still quite splendid and I am afraid that Sarah and Hannah and I could not possibly be prevailed upon to tell you a word of what he said in his little speech, as we simpered like very silly girls all the way through it.) 

Today, there was leftover chili and rain and coffee and a little autumn-coloured cat in the morning, and a library run in my new favourite purple sweater and my elegant pashmina scarf flowing around me in the brisk belligerent wind, and I am really quite enjoying it all. Except for these silly advertisements all over my LJ and being reduced to fifteen usericons. Pah!
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You guys, I have been reading frenetically over the last several weeks. It is delicious, although occasionally disconcerting -- there were a couple of days when I was so locked into a pair of books that I could not drag myself away from them, and so did hardly anything but read. The catalyst, I think, is suddenly (and at last) having so many new books to read. Library trips have mostly been bringing back old favourites of late, or books I've read once or twice in the years since we've moved here, and the book-lover's soul does get a little lonely after a long time of this. But now I've a job in a bookstore, and I can borrow whatever I please! It is delicious. Also I have been buying far more books than usual. Eep. (But my bookshelf needs Eva Ibbotson on it! And Un Lun Dun! And...) Not only because of work, but because of serendipitous recent happenings that seem to be shoving books into my lap. There was the unintended trip to Rosie's Book Shoppe, the only used bookstore in town, during which I found Those Who Hunt the Night, one of the few vampire novels I have read and loved, and discovered that it has a sequel! which was also on the shelf! and together they were only five dollars. La la la... And then Ollie's, after getting my photo ID, and its stacks of discounted books, half of which are silly Christian-fiction nonsense (nearly every book I've ever read that dealt with Christianity in a meaningful way has never seen the light of a Christian bookstore), but I found and bought three wonderful books, though I've read them all before and haven't needed to re-read them yet.

My manager finds my frantic reading habits amusing, I think; he still seems surprised when I come back with my loans a few days after checking them out, and swap them for new ones. Of course I've been roaring through my loans especially quickly the last month, because I finally started reading Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, and when I get on a series, I really get on it. And I was actually surprised at how much I've been loving this one. The characters are fantastic and I adore them all, and while Mr Butcher's prose isn't always the most well-crafted, it fits Harry Dresden's voice in a way a more talented wordsmith might not be able to match. And the ideas and imagination and the plots are wonderful, which makes up for mechanical shortfalls. Have I mentioned that I LOVE EVERYONE IN IT? LIKE CRAZY? And aslksdghg, the Carpenters are pretty much my favourite people EVER. And THOMAS. And Murphy, and HARRY HIMSELF who is so adorable and ridiculous and has the worst life ever. (If you are named Harry and a wizard, your life will be awful. Trufax. Also if you are a private investigator specialising in supernatural shenanigans, and you wear a leather duster, your life will be awful and your love-life will be complicated beyond belief. Here an imaginary Ender Wiggin interjects, "Wait until you wipe out an entire race." And my Ten action figure scowls at him and says darkly, "Wait until you destroy YOUR OWN PLANET and EVERY OTHER MEMBER OF YOUR SPECIES WITH I IT." And then he sits back on the windowsill and looks smug, as though he's pleased about winning this argument, until it dawns on him, and he goes to emo on the candelabra, while miniature Martha facepalms from the lamp.) 

And I just finished the last book this afternoon and feel kind of adrift. There are more coming out, but they're not out yet, and I miss everyone already! 

The other books that I found particularly difficult to come out of were, as previously mentioned, Those Who Hunt the Night and then its sequel, by Barbara Hambly: Those Who Hunt the Night is a vampire novel set in England, circa 1907, and the protagonist, James Asher, is a philologist and folklore expert and professor who also used to be a spy (and he has a motorbike), and his philological observations of vampires make my linguophile self twirl in sheer delight, because that is exactly how I would react. I love the book because it's excellently written, and a compelling story -- someone is murdering vampires, why?, and Asher is pretty much blackmailed (via threats to his wife, Lydia, who is also one of the best characters in the novel) into investigating by vampire Don Simon Ysidro -- and it also examines the nature of vampires and vampirism. Hambly's vampires are neither demonised nor apologised for, which gives both the characters and the reader a lot to think about. They're both sympathetic and not sympathetic at all at the same time -- and fascinating.

The sequel is Traveling With the Dead, in which Hambly nearly but not quite steals my idea (except it was really Kyra's, I think), about vampires and foreign governments and the years leading to the Great War. While the first book is mostly James', the second primarily belongs to Lydia (though it centres on James and what he is doing, the journey is Lydia's), and we discover that she is even more made of awesome than previously suspected. I love that she's a strong, opinionated woman, a female doctor and theoretical scientist in an era in which this was rare and controversial, but she's allowed to love pretty clothes, and be vain about her spectacles, which she will not wear if anyone is likely to see her. And she's brave and funny and clever and I love her a lot. I think I love the second book even more than the first, because it takes everything we learnt the first time and deepens it, examines it, develops it a little further.

I must warn you, however, that if you pick these books up, especially at a used bookstore, do not be deterred by the horrible pulpy covers and the deeply misleading sensationalistic back-cover blurbs. (Huh. For some reason the blurb for Traveling With the Dead makes a big deal about James going on the Orient Express, which, sure, he did, for a tiny part of a chapter, and that was in flashback, and the Orient-Express-ness was not even remotely important or much emphasised. Also it makes Ysidro out to be the villain of the piece, which... he really, really isn't.) 

* * *

Today it was so warm that I spent half the day outside -- I spread a quilt on the lawn and made a picnic of my lunch (roast chicken), and stayed for several hours more finishing Small Favor, the last Dresden Files book, and sometimes just lying on my back or on my stomach, marvelling in how the sunlight and warmth felt almost tangible. Later, I went to the playground with Mum and the siblings, and pushed Leandra on the swings and tried to spin on the merry-go-round with Heidi, which didn't work out so well. Mostly I read Neil Gaiman short stories and watched people in between. And I am revelling in dresses! Oh summer dresses, I missed you most of all! 

In the evening, I shut myself in the book closet with an old candle and an old mix I made for Kyra last year, and wrote poetry and made hand-shadows against the weird flickering light.
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Ugh. SO, YOU GUYS, PRINCE CASPIAN IS THE MOST FABULOUS THING EVER AND I AM STILL GRINNING MANIACALLY EVEN THOUGH I COULDN'T STOP SMILING ALL THROUGH THE FILM ITSELF (EXCEPT FOR THE BITS WHEN I WAS CRYING, ALTHOUGH I WAS BEAMING THEN SOMETIMES TOO).

Anyway, today was the best day ever. (Today I was loud and we were all fangirly. Then we were kidnapped by the Meholick tribe, never to be seen again. It was the best day ever!) The girls and I have begun a writing club of sorts, dubbed the Quill and Ink Society, in order to improve and share our writing, and have a great deal of fun in the process. Our first meeting was today, and we handed in word prompts and then had two minutes to scribble a storybit inspired by the prompts. (Then we read them aloud. With much flourish.) Alessandra and I had already done this, which lead to her idea of making it a regular thing, with everyone -- amusingly, when I did my first one with Alessandra, most of my storybits ended up fairly wistful or gloomy (as most of my writing seems to be): today they were nearly all comical. I'm rather pleased with them, actually, and hope there's a story waiting to rise, because goodness knows I could use a short story or two under my belt!





Then we drove home and were really, really loud and fangirly all the way. And I did the dishes and would like to go scrounge up food now.
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Dear Wesley Wyndam-Pryce,

PLEASE, JUST STOP SHAVING ALREADY, OKAY? ALSO, YOU ARE MADE OF AWESOME AND I THINK I AM MADLY IN LOVE WITH YOU.  (However, because of this I am afraid I have doomed you to a miserable existence (look at the statistics, yeah?), but now at least there is a distinct statistical possibility that you will reference T.S. Eliot (you're really such a "Prufrock" sort of bloke, you know), or at least, like, Dylan Thomas or something. Child Ballads, Welsh, I don't know. -- Actually, didn't you already reference something awesome and I forgot? (Yes I know everything has long been written and filmed, but though people assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. So, you know.))

P.S.: Also you should get a long coat. Preferably something in dark blue wool, maybe double-breasted, with slits in the back? Yeah. Oh what, everybody else's got a coat, come on!
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So, I've just had the most marvellous birthday ever.

This photograph ought to tell you several things worth knowing. (One of these things is that I have a lot of nifty hats.)




And today I got my hair lopped off! There will be better pictures later, but I can say that it used to be to my waist and now it is practically bobbed and I like it very much. (Although I realised to my shock that I seem to have accidentally copied Rose's hair in S2 a bit. ACK.)

ALSO! VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE THINGUMMY. I AM GOING ON HOLIDAY TOMORROW AND WON'T BE BACK UNTIL MONDAY. (AS YOU CAN SEE, I AM TRYING TO USE MY WEEK'S QUOTA OF CAPSLOCK LEST I GET CHARGED FOR WHAT I DIDN'T USE.) I WILL BE GOING TO A WEDDING OF A CHILDHOOD FRIEND, WHICH WILL BE VERY WEIRD BUT ALSO NICE, BUT -- okay, really, I can't do this capslock thing anymore, ugh. But my parents also have a meeting with Dad's church denomination, so we are going to Ohio, and staying in a condo for three days -- a condo which has a spiral staircase, DVD player, cable television (PLS TO BE DOCTOR WHO ON PLS PLS PLS!), and a hot tub. Somehow all of this is ridiculously cheap. I'm not sure how. I get my own bedroom and will hopefully be doing a lot of writing, or at least daydreaming, and if nothing else, reading. (Because also Dad says that there are two books he ordered for me that haven't come yet and should hopefully come tomorrow morning before we leave.)

So, in case I can't post before I leave -- fare thee well, lovelies! ♥
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I'm a bit overdue on this one, but -- comment and I will name you 3 interests from your list, and 3 userpics, and you explain them in your own post, asking the same of your f-listers.


And today was a good day. I bicycled to my guitar lesson in spectacular weather, thereby getting some much-needed exercise (and sun!), and then I stopped by Rosie's Bookshop on my way home and was redeemed for That One Time when they had two copies of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I didn't purchase either of them because there was a new copy on the shelf and it is now mine (!!!). (I will have to post about the book when I am finished re-reading because it is amazing and possibly the only book that comes close to being comparable to Tolkien in any substantial way.) I also found The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (!!!) and a new copy of Anne of the Island (mine has pages missing, and the book itself might actually have finally got itself lost, as it is not in my bedroom nor the box with M-authored books in the basement), and got a little sack of chocolates, and made cupcakes when I got home (cupcakes that were not sour).
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Right, so, 'The Lazarus Experiment' was MADE OF WIN AND CAPSLOCKING. AND ELIOT QUOTATIONS, OMG. ELIOT QUOTATIONS. THIS IS EVEN BETTER THAN DYLAN THOMAS QUOTING, YOU GUYS.

(This also totally proves my not-theory that the Doctor went to visit Eliot -- probably by accident -- and saved the world and inspired bits of 'Prufrock' and stuff.)

Speaking of 'and stuff' -- Ten trying to explain himself to Mrs. Jones -- priceless. 'And...stuff.' Oh, Ten. I rather like Martha's family, by the by -- especially because it's considerably larger than Rose's, so there are more people to play off of and interconnect and -- well, yes, that's the people-watcher in me rearing its geeky head.

I rather liked the monster, too; even though it didn't quite look real, it had this fantastic scary sort of Kafka-esque quality and reminded me very much of something that might go in a really surreal and creepy photomanipulation, or surrealist art from the early twentieth century.

AND, the Doctor plays the organ!! ♥ ♥

Did I mention that he quoted Eliot? COS HE DID AND VERILY IT WAS WONDROUS. 

He also did all of this IN AN ABSURDLY LARGE BOW-TIE. AND TUXEDO. IN CONVERSES.

I still adore Martha, too. And the Doctor was right; her shoes were lovely. Someone ought to sell those. I'd buy them, along with a nice pair of beige-and-red Converses. :D

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Right, so, this was supposed to be a post about National Poetry Month with a long-overdue Poem of the Week in it. Er, sorry, that's next time. THERE IS SQUEEING TO BE DONE.

Which is to say, I JUST SAW 'SMITH AND JONES' AND VERILY IT WAS MADE OF WIN. ALSO CAPSLOCK. AND TEN. BEING AWESOME. ON THE MOON. (Also Martha, who I am liking considerably.) ♥ [personal profile] avendya

*FLAIL*

*CAPSLOCK*

(By the by, peanut butter cookies and Doctor Who go very well together.)
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OH PLAGUES AND PLAGUES I MISSED REMUS' BIRTHDAY. 

I AM A ROTTEN FANGIRL.

(Actually, there are ninety minutes left, but that hardly amounts to anything. I missed Aragorn's birthday, too, but the fic I was contemplating turned out to have even less plot than my fics usually do, so I gave up on it. Seriously, it was about Aragorn and Halbarad in the woods eating stuff. Or learning to cook. Or something.) So, um, happy birthday, Remus. Depressing fic ought to be forthcoming. I've been mucking about with that Rhapsody on a Windy Night fic for quite some time.

So, I'm going to have to finish one of my fifteen and a half Remus!fics have a go at some kind of belated celebration. I feel guilty. Then again, I forgot Ian's birthday in November, which is really pathetic, seeing as I made it up and all. (It's the ninth, because...I wanted a Lost number. Shut up.) 

We visited Leandra again today (hopefully our last trip to Pittsburgh; if all goes well she'll be at our home hospital by midweek or earlier), and took a long detour at Borders, where I bought nothing because what I did want was four times the amount I would pay if I bought it used on Amazon Marketplace or at Rosie's Bookshop in town or I hadn't read yet and was rather keen on, but I rarely buy books that I haven't read yet without a great deal of trust in the author. I got to touch Ysabel and The Ultimate Sandman and The Essential Rilke (!) and wasn't able to spend thirty seconds in the young adult section without wanting to run away, and I think I want to read Neverwhere rather badly now. I also nicked one of the (free) ancticipatory Deathly Hallows bookmarks. I totally love that even the advertising is getting into the whole 'Snape: Good or Evil?' thing: fandom is taking over the world.

Also, Best Time Ever = driving through Pittsburgh in the rain, blaring Steeleye Span, and debating with the siblings as to what the TARDIS noise sounds like. :D We have this family ritual dating back to my toddlerhood which involves us pointing out imaginary sea-life when driving through a tunnel--"oh, look, there's an octopus!" and suchlike (I've taken to saying things like "the Giant Squid!" and "a bunch of krakken!" lately), so we're driving through the tunnel and I go "hey, look, a police box!", and lo, the fandom joke was gotten, and Heidi said, "there's the Doctor! and Rose!" and I smiled smugly with the knowledge of converts made. (And then my brother says, "Rosebud?" and I says, "NO.", and he says, "Her last name should be Bud", and I says, "Nobody is that cruel, even Rose's crazy mother," and that was that. Citizen Kane jokes are the new black in my house, despite my brother having only seen the very beginning and remembering it very well for some reason. I think it's because his Robosapien says "Rosebud!" when you turn it off, which was the best and nerdiest thing ever, especially because we all, except for Heidi, got it. So then I said, "look! it's Orson Welles on a sled!" and my brother gave me the blankest look possible.)

The drive home consisted very much of thick, rolling fog, the sort of fog one rarely finds outside of films (and England), and I kept thinking that we were going to drive out into some barren moor in an alternate Victorian universe or be spirited away by the Unseelie Court, but alas, nothing out of the ordinary happened, which was extremely disappointing.
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So, um, mostly rotten day (I feel awful; like I'm sick, except not sick, and I've got this nasty sort of ghost of a headache that refuses to leave off, and also I really, really need a shower, but it is ruddy cold here), but on a whim, I went to look up Lost spoilers, because I have been feeling too dismal for quite a while since the hiatus began to be very interested in spoilers, but I was feeling rotten and needed something to cheer me up, so...anyway. According to SpoilerFix.com [and here there be rather minor spoilers, but you guessed that, right?], the first new episode will be a Juliet flashback, which is squee-worthy enough, because I ♥ Muffin (even if she might be sort-of-maybe evil, she is still fascinating and she snarked at Jack) and omg Otherville, and...yes. But then I scroll down a bit, and episode eight? IS A DESMOND FLASHBACK. I AM DEAD OF THE SQUEE. (And loooook, he's got an adorable scarf! Rather a lot like one which I wear very frequently. Sorry, that's an awful picture. Oh, Desmond, I love you and your polo shirts and your scarves and your Scottishness and your super powers, omg.) [/copious italics]

I need to dreg up my Desmond Lost icons again. And wear the scarf more often. It's also the Sirius Black scarf, you know.

I totally forgot how much I loved this show. *squee*
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So, I just (read: about half an hour ago) finished watching Doctor Who: The Girl in the Fireplace. (With much perseverance. Ruddy sound kept going off. As in, off. Like, off-off. You know, no sound at all.)

OMGSQUEE. CINEMATOGRAPHY. MUSIC. TEN. !!!!

(There really isn't enough squee for this, to be honest.)

*fangirls everything wildly*
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I. This is probably the most newsworthy, so I'll get it out now because I am feeling charitable and won't leave you lot hanging in suspense: THE BABY IS A GIRL. !!! Mum had an ultrasound...er, several days ago...and it was, according to her and the doctor, very obvious. I...actually forgot to post about this, which is really rotten and scatterbrained of me, but I didn't get on until late that day, and I posted it on my Xanga, and...here, have a whole barrel of excuses; they're on sale today. Anyway, we are quite excited (except Timmy, who was hoping for a brother to even out the pack, but he's coming around), and Mum and I are already having to resist buying cute baby clothes.

II. Our wee kitten's got a name at last, six days after we got him! The trouble was that Dad and the rest of us couldn't agree on a name, and the poor kitten got called 'kitten' for days until Heidi suggested 'Bartholomew', inspired by the Doctor Seuss books Dad had got out for her recently (Bartholomew and the Oobleck; The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins). I like having a long name for a wee kitty, and somehow it suits him, although we may take to calling him Black Bart as well. (And, you know, we could call him Barty, too, which by a long, long stretch of imagination, logic, and fangirlishness could end up as Ten. Which...has just proved me The Ultimate Fangirl, as I am fangirling for a fandom I'm...not technically in, due to variables I can't, unfortunately, control. I'm going to go hide somewhere now.)

III. On the way out of Goodwill this evening, I spotted a man walking a VERY LARGE BLACK DOG. Sirusly Seriously, it was massive. Says Mum: "Oh, that looks like a Newfoundland." Says I: "OMG IT'S SIRIUS. I TOLD YOU HE LIVES IN OUR TOWN." Mum is oddly silent and not leaping jubilantly or attempting to knock the man down and make a run with the dog.

IV. While in Goodwill (a new one to us in a town we happened to be near), I finally found my winter coat. I have a lovely brown tweed dress coat that is simply crying out for a fierce black umbrella, but I can't wear it out all the time (I nearly ruined it bicycling down the highway on a rainy day; the back was horribly mudspattered and we had to take it to the drycleaners', which was when, um, we sort of totalled the car), and it's bedimmed hard to find a nice short coat. I was looking for a pea coat, but this one was just as lovely. (Yes, I look...ill and disgruntled and sort of mentally questionable in these photographs; they were taken with the ruddy flash on.) Also, the scarf? Was once owned by Sirius Black. You know it. (Can't you see him wearing it while motorbiking through the sky?)

V. I might as well get the clothingspam over with, so, um, here are photograph of me gadding about in a couple of dresses, and looking very much as though I need a shower. (Which I did. I took one afterwards.) Here I am in this rose-covered thing that I would wear to a holiday party if I...had a holiday party to go to. Here is this vintage thing with awesome buttons. And here I am in my pathetic go at dressing conservatively (we went to a different church on Sunday, and I was instructed not to worry anyone with lurid colours, striped stockings, or other things that might jump out as Really, Really Odd). Yes, the preening is on purpose. It's a foppish sort of outfit (or foppish vampire, which was what I looked like the last time I wore it, I think). How is this conservative, you may ask? Well, the colours are vivid but subtle (if you can't tell, the jacket is dark sage and the skirt is royal purple and the boots you can't see are burgundy), and...I'm not wearing the hat.

Going to bed now, I promise.
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I. So, [livejournal.com profile] lady_moriel and I were on the phone until twelve-thirty last night, which was basically The Best Thing Ever, except I woke my mum up because I was shut up in my closet for no good reason. (It's kind of cosy in there. Besides, Remus lives there. With his random piles of Time and various newspapers and books he keeps nicking off my shelves, and our vintage Life magazines from the seventies and eighties, and a lot of sandwiches.) Also, we made up the Best ScarletWoman!Ginny Fic Ever, which involves Antarctica and Random Hot Scientists and transfigured penguins and Dead Unimportant People and Molly's Amazing Clock of Eerie Accuracy. (CLOCK: [hand points to SHAGGING RANDOM STRANGER]. MOLLY: Must--go--to--Antarctica!) Also, Sirius uses netspeak specifically to irritate Remus (until he gets bored with typing funnily and finds something else), and we both read the Pony Pals when we were young and were probably vaguely ashamed of it even then. Heeee. AND! We are going to picket for Werewolf Rights!!(P.S.: Il Divo was on instead of Monty Python. AAAACK. *woe* I NEED MY FIX NOW.)

II. I am such a girl. Even without meaning to be, which is, I think, almost worse. Case in point: Saturday, my boots, blouse, and nail varnish all matched. (The varnish, which I found in my closet, is part of my semi-annual attempt to Not Bite Nails. Instead, I peel the stuff off with my teeth.) ERU SAVE ME. (I got really killer red boots for four bucks on Friday, though. The heels sink into the ground when I walk, which feels springy and weird and sort of awesome in a bizarre kind of way. And I got a purple floor-length skirt and something that looks kind of like an English riding jacket.)

III. I'm writing Eagle of the Ninth fanfiction. This is kind of scaring me (not least because I have the utmost reverence for Rosemary Sutcliffe). Is anyone else cool enough to even know what I'm talking about? :D Also, I had to do Wikipedia research for a passing mention in a vignette, wherein I discovered I got something wrong. Ack, historical fanfiction.

IV. L.M. Montgomery is pretty much the literary equivalent of mint and chocolate right now. *fangirls* Yes, I'm on a kick. Even though the first and third Emily books vanished mysteriously from the library two years ago. *cries* Also, I think I might be a Dean Priest fangirl. This is REALLY TERRIFYING.

V. Because I was talking to [livejournal.com profile] lady_moriel basically all night and watched a movie with the family last night, my internet usage has been disgustingly patchy. Am still working on comments & things.

VI. DO NOT SCOLD ME ABOUT THE TIME.

VII: It's Christmastime! I am so absolutely enchanted by this; I must dedicate an entry to it soon.

VIII: I STILL HAVE A PRIDE & PREJUDICE MOODTHEME. *squee*

VIIII: Shut up, I am going to bed. Also, I have a sinking feeling that I am getting the Roman numerals wrong.
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(Warning: LOST spoilers.)

OMG I WAS RIGHT.

THE EXPLOSION GAVE DESMOND SUPER-POWERS.

!!!!

*is deader than dead*

[/fangirly incoherency]



Also...er...fic. Heh.

Oh Dear

May. 31st, 2006 06:26 pm
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Someone attempt to convince me that having Remus using the penname "Thomas Sterns" or some variation thereof would be much too geeky (and obvious) to even be allowed

Oh, plague. And triple plague.
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I do believe that I am being haunted by the ghost of Sirius Black. 

Of course, that would mean that he is actually dead, and I am still clinging to the hope that he is simply lost, hiding, or stuck. Or something. In any case, he is trying to contact me. I am sure of this. 


In conclusion: yes, he isn't dead. But why is he contacting me? I mean, me, of all people! I can't even drive! If I write about him, it will always be angsty! I own a cat! I don't have enough money to ship him off to England where he belongs and hopefully has god-grandchildren. Or something. (Furthermore, what the bloody plague is he doing in my small, insignificant Pennsylvania town? Twice?)
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You know you are on a steady descent towards madness when you find yourself, in the middle of the night, writing Remusfic that is not only inspired by Eliot's "Rhapsody on a Windy Night", but is actually based on the aforementioned poem.

So, I had this assignment in poetry class: we were supposed to take a poem, turn it into prose, and then turn that back into poetry. I, the ever-faithful student, forgot altogether until, er, two days ago. Since I have absolutely no model for this (Ben Franklin used to do it as an exercise, but I don't know if any of the poems > prose > poems survived, or where I can find them if they did), I kind of dawdled nervously, until last night, when I thought, "oh plague, it's due tomorrow, and I haven't got anything at all!" So I paged through poetry, trying to find something I could turn into prose.

Poetry is hard to turn into prose! I suppose you've guessed this already. Most poetry is about an emotion, a person, an event. It has characters, or one character, generally. As a last resort, I was looking through my tattered Eliot book, and thought, "well, this is all madness, but 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night' rather has promise, and all the references to the moon are...rather Remusy, and...OH NO." And then I wrote it. It's not done yet, and I may not even have it done for class, but at least I can say I tried. And am going mad. 

(And yes, you lot will see it at some point.)
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So, my parents are my heroes right now for Pure, Unadulturated Geekiness. Mum told me this ages ago, but I'd forgotten: Mum and Dad used to have a cat named Misty. She was my other mother for the first year or two of my life; she used to bother Mum when I cried, and she slept in my crib sometimes. Unfortunately, she was hit by a car when I was two. But anyway--Misty was only her nickname. Her full name was Mrs. Mistofolees. Mum and Dad figured that the reason why Mr. Mistofolees of T.S. Eliot's delightful Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats was such a marvel was because "he" pulled nine kittens out of a hat, thus proving that "he" was actually a she in disguise, hence the cat's name.

But when Mum recounted this to me again recently, her response to my giddy geekish rapture was: "Oh, well, the Sweeneys (friends of parents) named their cat Macavity."

Here my mind went, with a bit of a leap, SWEENEY? I'd almost completely forgotten about them, although they visited us in Massachusetts, and that was long before I was interested in any Eliot other than Practical Cats, so I never made the connection. Now, I have no idea if Mr. Sweeney has ever been Erect, or Among the Nightengales, or if the man in the Spanish cape has ever tried to sit on his knees, but I am already longing to meet him again and ask him these questions, because if he understands them, he will be my hero forever.
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So. I just had this bizarre thing spring vaguely into my head: some sort of fantasy farce involving a somewhat foppish vegetarian werewolf.

Don't ask. I honestly don't know. And time will tell if he has a long coat and a weskit and a pocket watch or not. (Must--not--fangirl--pocket watches--!) 

In almost-related news, Miss Tuesday Aiken has informed me that her birthday is thirteen April. (That's in five days. What a time to tell!) Also, I have lost all ability to Write Coherently. I have about a billion fragments of fics, some jotted on paper, some taking up hard drive, and some Not In Any Tangible Medium At All, which is sort of stupid, I suppose. There are also several [profile] tuesday_skyline fragments. Apparently I either don't actually have that Deep Communion with my characters that I fancied I had, or I've offended them (again), and they're refusing to have anything to do with me. The latter is extremely likely. My characters are a monstrously fussy lot. 

Have been reading Little Women again, for the first time in...months? Maybe even a year, as dreadful as it sounds. Originally began out of fangirlishness towards Professor Bhaer, though it takes quite a while to get to his bit. Now that I am actually the age that Jo is at the beginning of the book, I'm finding myself astonishingly more and more like her (even if Jo is the one nickname of mine that NO ONE EVER USES *bawls*). The frenzied writer thing is more than obvious (I need a writing cap, though!), the nasty temper, the blunt manner of speech, the feminine-tomboy personality--it's almost frightning, actually. ^-^ Also, found two-week-old chocolate from my little sister's birthday party, which was a spiffing addition to the Saturday festivities. Or lack thereof.

(Should be writing, should be writing, should be bloody writing! --New mantra. Hopeless, aren't I?)

Speaking of writing: my old, seldom-used poetry journal [profile] _plentyofpaper is going to start doing things again. I promise. I'm just branching out a bit. (I mean, look at my profile! It's so much more interesting!) As I don't seem to write poetry very often, mainly due to Lack Of Own Computer, I am showcasing the varied, um...thingummies of my artistic...um...self? Blimey, that was a floundering mess of a sentence. Anyway. Go look. There isn't much, but I changed all my icons and everything!

As it is now Saturday, it is time for The Poem of the Week. This is one of my absolute favourite poems in existence. The very last verse is absolutely stunning. Most of you have probably read it, but re-reading it will be good for you, and who wouldn't want to re-read it, anyway (says she of the very tatted thrift-store paperback Eliot collection)? If you haven't read it, shame on you. Also, it reminds me incredibly of Remus in ways I can't explain. (I have taken the liberty of alluding the the fact that Eliot is Remus' favourite poet in at least two fics, however. ^-^ Eliot in general seems very Remusy to me.) 

EDIT: OMG. I MADE IT WORK. I FIGURED IT OUT. I MADE THE RICH TEXT CUT WORK. (And there was much rejoicing.)

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