Even more important, of course, was the company, with the special addition this year of
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oswulf, who was in town with his wife for the holiday. Most of the local family were there, too, and it was good to see them all, but D isn't just my cousin -- he was my best friend for many, many years. So the opportunity to hang out with him for even a few hours is precious. I am lucky to have a family I enjoy spending time with.I'm lucky in so many ways, really, and it's good to have a day to reflect on that. It's been a tough year for me and mine, but that doesn't negate the many things I have to be thankful for: solid marriage, financial stability, steady job that I mostly like, good relationships with co-workers and family, and so many good friends, including those of you reading this entry right now. You've probably all noticed by now that I don't tend to get emotional on people, but that doesn't mean that I don't love you all. And so here's a round of Happy Thanksgiving, all around. I'm grateful to be a part of this community.
- Mood:
contemplative - Music:FFIV Celtic Moon
It was more than worth an outing, and I would go back (with expectations adjusted accordingly. And a sweater -- it was really cold there for some reason). Still, the quest to find a tea shop that I enjoy as much as Lovejoy's continues...
Also accomplished this weekend: shoe shopping, a trip to the used bookstore, laundry, grocery shopping, playing with AO3 (on which more later), quality time with friends and with T, and some much-needed lazing around the house by choice rather than by force. Not accomplished this weekend: much in the way of writing. My plan to finish at least one story per week in November has now officially bitten the dust, along with both daily writing and daily LJ posting. This cold (which I think at this point has morphed into allergies) has a lot to answer for.
- Mood:
good
Also I bought yet more shoes today. What is it with me and shoe purchasing over the last year or so? There was once I time that I hated buying shoes and only did it when I absolutely had to. The Clark's store in San Francisco Centre has a lot to answer for... Sadly, they didn't have the shoes in the right size and color, so they're being shipped to me from Walnut Creek. Free shipping, no less. That's service.
Last but not least, AO3 Open Beta starts tomorrow! Looking forward to playing around with it. Will this be the killer app that finally gets me off FF.net once and for all? Stay tuned to find out.
- Mood: full
I am sitting on a park bench outside a restaurant in Berkeley, waiting for friends to arrive, enjoying a pleasant fall evening. It's a restaurant I've wanted to try, so I'm looking forward to it.
And I was early, so I went to a comic book store. With cats. And bought the new Alison Bechdel collection, which I've been meaning to do forever.
So, for now at least, life is pretty much good.
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
Objectively, a good thing, to be sure. And yet I am a mass of mixed feelings right now. I guess acceptance is a slow process.
- Location:Panera
- Mood: contemplative
- Music:"Prologue: Beauty and the Beast" - soundtrack
auronlu.Comment with the word "ICONS" and I'll select six of yours for you to talk about in your journal.
( Auronlu's choices and my explanations behind the cut. )
In other news, I have an
amybang all week, so if I'm a little scarce the next few days, that would be why.- Mood:
bored - Music:The conference call that will never end
Friday -- Editing in the morning followed by a busy day at work, went grocery shopping, watched Top Chef, intense (but good!) online conversations.
Saturday -- Good chunk of writing time, some FFXII, met
dagas_isa for an excellent lunch and walk-around, cooked dinner.Sunday -- Housework, a little more writing (stalled by some image reference research that took waaaaay too long), and a long anticipated trip to the Apple Store... yes, it is true, I have given in to the lure of the iPhone after two long years of fighting its sweet siren call. No one thing really tipped me over. It was just time. Naturally, that means quite a bit of today has been given over to futzing with it: downloading apps, making the wireless work. So far, so good, although I haven't been out in the world with it yet really.
So, that was pretty much my weekend, along with avoiding baseball scores (sigh). Tomorrow marks the return of chorus, which means that summer is really and truly over. On the upside: I get to go back to chorus! Good times.
I hope you all had excellent weekends with good weeks to come.
- Mood:
accomplished - Music:Qntal - Levis
- I finished my assignment for
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ff_exchange! It's a Penelo/Vaan story entitled "Lines of Communication" and it can be found here. I'd never written Vaan before, and Penelo only once in a drabble, so it was my first time with this pairing, but I was pretty happy with how it came out. I'm getting more comfortable with FFXII every time I write it, and of course starting the replay was immensely helpful. I was glad that there was so much interaction between Vaan and Penelo at the beginning; it helped me settle their voices in my head, and reminded me just how much chemistry they have together. - I got a handle on my out-of-control jewelry situation. For the last several years, I've kept all my jewelry in a nice box that I got for my BMC Alum work, and it just hasn't been working very well -- stuff gets lost, necklaces get hopelessly tangled, etc. So I went to The Container Store today and bought some clear plastic jewelry boxes -- a necklace stand, an earring hanger, and a small box with a lid, all enclosed to protect against cat incursions. Then I sorted everything out, including putting some of the stuff I never wear into storage. It's become clear, though, that I'm going to need at least one more earring stand for the first tier, especially as I am unlikely to stop buying jewelry! Probably a second necklace stand as well. Also, I'm rather dismayed by how many of my favorite earrings seem to have lost a mate. Such is life, but it's still sad. The box will find another life as a place to store hair stuff.
- I watched the first episode of Gilmore Girls, thanks to steluch, who lent me the first two seasons last night. This is a series I've been meaning to check out for years, so it's nice to have the chance finally. The first episode was certainly promising...
- I had a lovely dinner with friends on Saturday -- homemade fajitas, grilled corn, and miscellaneous coladas. Lime colada was probably my favorite, although I'm a little sad that we never got around to mixed berry. But others thought that berry and coconut would be an odd combo, and it could be that they're right. Fortunately, the blueberries made an excellent topping for S's tres leches cake.
- So when I started this entry, I had an idea that the list was going to be much longer, but everything else is way too dull (grocery shopping! laundry! Bubble Spinner!), so I'll just leave it here. ;) Have a great week, all.
- Mood: accomplished
- Music:"I Can Sing" - Barenaked Ladies
Today was a lazily-exploring-Boston day: pancakes for breakfast, pedicures, walking around downtown, having tea at the public library -- they have a really nice cafe where they serve afternoon tea; it was tasty, if a little heavy on the sweets as opposed to the savories. This evening, we met up with
concertinette and her husband for dinner, and then they came back to amybang's for some excellent hanging out and chatting and playing with the kittens. Did I mention the kittens? There are two, they are nine months old and totally adorable. A moth came in, and watching them chase it was both hilarious and adorable. They didn't catch it, but they're still half looking for it to come back. I can tell.Tomorrow we head off to Cape Cod, another place I've never been. We're taking the ferry to Provincetown (yay boats!) and spending the night at an inn. I won't be bringing the laptop, so I'll bid you all adieu for the next couple of days. Adieu!
- Mood: happy
I may have a dessert party and a brunch in alternate years from here on out; both strike me as very civilized ways to celebrate a birthday. But in the future, I should probably decide to have the party more than a week in advance. Today was just a little on the crazy side, in terms of running around to get everything done. Worth it, though.
- Mood: accomplished
Good trip so far -- presentations are a mixed bag, but some of them have been really good. Sherman Alexie spoke last night; he was amazing. A. Maz. Ing. If you ever have the opportunity to see him speak, do not pass it up. Tomorrow is Ira Glass. I have high hopes for him as a speaker, but he has a hard act to follow. Yesterday I had dinner with
anonamys, whom I haven't seen in years, and then we hung out with another college friend, EW, whom I hadn't seen in even longer. Then today I ran into a colleague from an old job and had lunch with her. As a trip for revisiting old connections, it's been excellent. Boy am I ready to be home and sleeping in my own bed, though. And with regular access to the Internet. I knew I was going to miss it, but I didn't realize it would be this much. If this trip has taught me anything, it's that I can travel without T, or I can travel without the Internet, but not both.
- Location:Washington State Conference & Trade Center, Seattle, WA
- Mood: busy
angeltaisha!!!Even with everything going on in your life right now, I hope you take some time to celebrate, because you deserve it. All my best wishes and thoughts are with you. *hugs*
- Mood:
okay - Music:"Shadow of the Moon" - Blackmore's Night
- Mood: good
- Music:Am Morgen Fruo - Qntal
kunstarniki!! I hope you have a wonderful day, and many more to come.GBP = Gratuitous Birthday Post
So today, I collected: we had a very posh tea at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. I've had high tea at the Fairmont in San Francisco, but never San Jose, so it was a new venue for all of us. Good quality tea, tasty scones with lots of Devon cream, very very fancy tea sandwiches (the ham with fig was my favorite), and a selection of little French pastries, all while seated in cozy couches in the lobby of the hotel. Very nice, although the atmosphere would have been better if football hadn't been playing on a huge TV screen over the bar. Overall a nice little escape and celebration, followed by a trip to the used bookstore and its semi-annual 25% off sale and then some Chinese food for dinner.
My to-read pile is really out of control. I thought I was being nice and moderate by getting only 6 books, but then I also borrowed a volume of manga from SE ("Black Jack" by Tezuka), and then I got home and saw how many books I still have to read from my big Amazon haul a couple months ago, and once again I am despairing of ever catching up. I also really need to get some of my older books sold -- I have an overflowing box in the bedroom, and another bag hiding in a cupboard (it used to be in the bedroom, by the box, until Lexi decided one day that 5:30 AM would be an excellent time to start pouncing on it). Of course, once I get rid of those books, what will happen? That's right, I'm going to turn them into more books. And so the cycle continues.
- Mood: full
- Music:"Good Lovin'" - Bobby McFerrin
sleepy- Mood: busy
I didn't really mean to vanish. Time just got away from me, and then I looked up and realized I hadn't posted for a week. Mostly it's that my mental energy is being consumed by a work thing that's been dragging on forever, and annoying me to my last nerve, and too complicated and boring for me to want to talk about here really. Maybe once it's all resolved I can tell the sordid story.
amybang is in town for work, and I lured her out here a day early by promising otters. We went yesterday, and they were, as always, awesome. Best cure for a stressful week/month/year/whatever: going down to Monterey to watch the otters play. Pictures soon.After a bunch of false starts, both mental and actual, I made some progress on one of the "out of the comfort zone" meme stories. It was fun to write once I actually was able to get going on it. I need to rethink the ending, but with a little luck I might be able to post it tonight. This meme seems like it will be good exercise, but writing exercises only work if you can motivate yourself to sit down and, you know, actually write.
- Mood:
stressed
- Mood: good
