Despite the fact that I don't post often, I do still lurk on LJ quite a bit, and I can't quite imagine leaving. That said, so many folks I know and follow are departing that I am at least taking steps to cover my rear, as the saying goes. I started a blog at Dreamwidth years ago, just never really used it, but that's clearly going to change. I'm starting the frightening process of migrating this enormous mess over there, though I suspect the queue is rather long at the moment. I've been on LJ since 2001 and can't say yet if I will eventually sever ties, but I'll definitely be in both locations for the time being. So if you're heading over to DW, please do find me there. It's a bit barren at the moment, but that will change soon. http://emluv.dreamwidth.org
Fifteen years ago, Live Journal was the place to be, as regular phone reception in/out of NYC was snarled all to hell, and cell reception became nonexistent with the fall of the towers. But all of us in the city at the time could post to our journals, letting friends around the country and the world know that we were safe. Hard to believe so many years have gone by. Sometimes it still feels like yesterday. Thinking of you all...
I am very glad tomorrow is Friday. This has been a painfully long week. Unfortunately, it's also been the sort of week where everything takes five times longer than it should, other people are not doing their jobs, and unwanted interruptions keep rearing their ugly heads, which basically means I'm still somewhere in the middle of Tuesday's to-do list. There's also the chance I'm coming down with something, or else allergy season has already kicked off, because my nose is stuffy and my throat is tickly. In short, I'm a cranky girl who needs a real weekend. In the absence of one I'm willing to settle for the pretend sort, where I still work but at least don't have to answer the phone or email.
On the upside, as of this past Sunday I have art hanging over my fireplace. We won't discuss how many years that took me. I really want to measure a bunch of other unframed things I have lingering in the closet and go see if I can find some cheapish solutions at Ikea, but I've been a bit spendy lately so I think the rest of the picture hanging must wait at least until after pay day, and more likely until after I do my taxes. Instead I am going to try to weed out some more books to donate to the library and possibly get a few stacks off the floor. Yes, I need a new bookcase. This should not be a surprise. But it's also another good reason to hold off on a trip to Ikea. That place is dangerous and my impulse control when it comes to shelving is in short supply. I'll just start telling myself how much easier it would be to vacuum if I could shelve all the random book piles, and before I know it I'll be loading heavy boxes into the back of my car.
I'm having one of those days where I don't quite know what to do with myself. Oh, I got work done and paid bills and cooked a pot of chili for dinner and did some reading. But none of it's doing anything to cut through this... restlessness? Boredom? Not quite sure what it is. But it's a dangerous feeling, because I have a tendency to handle it by going and buying doughnuts or ice cream or something, despite the fact that hunger's not the problem and I'm not really jonesing for something sweet. I just... don't know. Don't want to watch anything, my books aren't grabbing me, I opened a couple of writing projects and just kind of stared at them. It's a mystery. Blah...
So Mercury is retrograde and being quite obvious about it, David Bowie is dead (and how is that possible?), and a friend forwarded me the dates for my high school 30th reunion (which I have no intention of attending. I haven't been to any of the others, why start now?), and I'm feeling very old and Monday-ish. Not the best mood for tackling big goal type stuff. The problem with new years is that I start them with the best of intentions, and then reality comes along and chuckles and points at me.
On the upside, I've got a flight booked to Atlanta the second week in February for a couple days of quality face time with my co-workers (which I'm basically just considering group-hug week in my head). It's been forever since I saw most of them outside of a conference setting where we were running around meeting with clients and kind of just waving at each other as we passed in hotel lobbies or on the street. Also, I'm drinking lovely red wine right now. Unfortunately I should be editing a manuscript, which I kind of forgot until after I'd poured, so... oops. So that's being tabled until tomorrow. Instead I'm going to go read something fluffy and call it a day. And in future, I will try to post on some other day than Monday...
Happy New Year, everyone! Yes, I'm still here. I'm actually a bit dismayed at how long it's been since I've posted, as I do read my friends list regularly. I kept meaning to do a nice long catch-up post, but as is the way of these things, the longer I put it off, the more I had to say, and the more daunting the task. So I'm declaring a clean state and just starting fresh with the new year. Suffice to say that I survived 2015. It had its ups and downs, per usual, but came out mostly on the plus side in the end.
As for 2016, I have high hopes and many plans. I'm still trying to iron them out as I ended up getting back from visiting my parents in CT for the holidays a few days later than intended. (Delayed flight which meant I would have missed my connection, so I had to rebook, pushing my trip back to Los Angeles from the evening of 12/29 to the morning of 1/1.) I'm just shaking off the last of my jet lag (exacerbated by my staying up to watch the ball drop and then just... continuing to stay up until I needed to leave for the airport at 3:45 am), and trying to energize for the most physical thing on my to-do list, which is to get back to running. I was sporadic at best the past year, and I miss it on both a physical and mental level. I just have to retrain myself to crawl out of bed early enough to run mornings, because if I don't go then, I just don't go.
Beyond that, I've got a bunch of work projects in the works, both agency-related and personal, including a revamp of my work blog and a long-long-long-overdue designated URL. I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. Anyway, more on that when it's ready to launch, which I hope will be sooner rather than later, but it's just one of several things I'm juggling and the most flexible of the lot.
I'd like to plan a nice vacation for the fall, but the reality of visiting my parents over Christmas included the realization that we've reached the stage where I need to go back and spend time with them more often to help them get some things taken care of that just won't happen if I leave it solely to them. So chances are more of my travel time will take me to CT than to other places I'd prefer to go, such as Vancouver (for a non-conference trip for once) or Paris. I won't say neither is possible, but they're looking less likely.
I will end there, with a promise not to be a stranger. I hope everyone's year is off to an excellent start.
2014 has not been my favorite year. It's been challenging, and most days that would have been putting it kindly. And it hasn't just been me. While I've been juggling work and personal issues, I've also been watching my friends struggle with their own work and personal issues, and more than a few health problems that have me sending out virtual hugs and crossing fingers. Still, I visited a few new places with work, signed some new clients, and caught up with a few people I hadn't seen in a while. Other friends had good work years, with new accomplishments, and even a couple of new businesses. There are adorable new babies in my circle, and a new home owner. Hopeful things.
But I'm really looking forward to 2015.
My apartment is clean. There's a pot of chili on the stove (because I'd like a little more spice in my life), and black-eyed peas and an arugula salad lined up for tomorrow, and the fridge is filled with lovely healthy foods. I came home from visiting my family for Christmas to two checks in my mail box. I've set up my spreadsheet for tracking my writing output in the coming year, and I'm polishing up my list of resolutions -- and their accompanying action plans. And I've got plane tickets for a really great trip come April.
I know what I want 2015 to look like, and I'm going to make it happen.
Wishing you all a very wonderful new year, filled with joy and love and good health, and great success with all your plots and plans.
Last night I dreamt I was on a fishing boat. Not one of those little day cruisers, either, where you just drop a line off the back, but a serious trawler. I woke up with the smell of salt in my nostrils. The night before last, I dreamt I was in Paris.
Not sure if this means my brain's in storytelling mode, imagination kicking into overdrive, or if I just really, really want to travel somewhere...
I'm enjoying one of those rare lazy Saturday mornings. There are hard-boiled eggs and strawberries and coffee. I've got the soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy playing, because I saw the film yesterday and immediately came home and downloaded the music, since it was going to be stuck in my head all weekend anyway. Loved the film, which was really, really funny and had great, loving 80s references threaded through it, and pulled off some real miracles, as far as I'm concerned, in that they somehow made me care about a tree and a raccoon, the latter of which I was kind of determined to be annoyed by going in. Chris Pratt's character felt like some weird combination of Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Mal Reynolds, which all seemed to make perfect sense. Zoe Saldana kicked butt in the best of ways. And finally, despite the really different tone, this movie still slots into the Marvel universe perfectly. So yes, I'm a little frustrated with Kevin Feige and his idiotic rationalizations about why there's still no Black Widow movie on the schedule (or some female lead -- I'm flexible), but that doesn't mean I'm not still onboard for what they're doing. And I do think they'll get there, even if they're moving a little too slowly. I think the recent changes in the comics division show they do intend to follow through. Perhaps this goal to get to three movies a year will help.
My plan is to get some work done this weekend, even though I'm hyper aware that attending a conference last week means I technically worked last weekend as well, and I am trying to hit that life/work balance a little better. But I basically took my half day/summer Friday yesterday to go sit in a wonderfully air conditioned movie theater, so I don't feel too bad about committing myself to my desk a bit more. I've got one project to read and another to edit, and I should get part of one of them off my plate. But other than that, I'd really like to get some serious outlining done for a personal writing project, and also a bit of writing in on the fic I'm currently playing with, and if there's time left, read a book. You know, one with a cover.
I'm conscious that the entirety of my weekend plans revolve around sitting. I wish this heat wave would break so I'd feel inspired to actually move around a little. I think I've got a few days more to go... Blah. The hotter summers get, the more I want to move back over the hill into cooler territory. Maybe I should start playing the lottery so I can afford Santa Monica. Ocean breezes sound lovely right now.
Because I've been trying to write more for me. And because prompts are always helpful. This is a settings Bingo card (there's one for genres, also), and I'm quite intrigued by some of the choices. We'll see what I can come up with between now and the end of the year. (Note for the curious: GYWO = Get Your Words Out, a closed writing community.)
I've scheduled myself an official "stay-cation" the week of June 30th. We're closed July 3rd/4th anyway, and there's generally little-to-nothing going on in the publishing world that week, so it seemed like a good time to do it. Plus, despite my new-found sense of sugar-free calm, I have not had an actual, unplugged, just-for-me-time vacation in… well, it's been years, and I think I need one. Unsurprisingly, I plan to lie around and read a lot of books that have absolutely nothing to do with my job. The joke there, of course, is that I have enough books on my to-read pile(s) to last me for a year-long vacation, forget about a week. But half the challenge is to see how much ground I cover, so there you have it. I am ridiculously excited about this, which I suppose is as good an indicator as any that I'm over my book-burnout phase.
Lest anyone worry that I will be this half-blind, crazy person at the end of my week off, I fully intend to leave the house occasionally, maybe see a movie, meet up with folks for lunch, head down to Santa Monica and walk on the beach. Or maybe just read on the beach…
It occurs to me that I've really spent very little time posting here lately, despite the fact that my Friends feed is always open in a tab. *shrugs* I wish I could say it was because I was too busy to post, but it's more a case of not having much to talk about, especially if I try to avoid whining, which I've been doing.
However, I actually left my house yesterday, in a quest to find air conditioning I didn't have to pay for directly, which leads to chatty things. Saw Jon Favreau's CHEF, which was such a fun, feel-good movie. It had me laughing out loud and also tearing up a bit (because I'm a sap, and this is what I do), and also -- fair warning -- craving a cubano sandwich like nobody's business by the time I walked out of the theater. Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr. both have bit parts, and RDJ is ridiculously insanely funny. (Also, so weird to see him clean shaven, but a really smart move because it makes it easier to disassociate from Tony Stark/Iron Man.) Sofia Vergara and John Leguizamo were terrific, but the best characters/relationship between characters were Favreau and Emjay Anthony, who plays his son. The kid is great, and the two of them together were really adorable. I will say, however, that if I'd had anything to do with this movie, I'd have pulled Favreau aside and told him not to name two characters Martin and Marvin, because I spent a good portion of the film trying to figure out why there were two people with the same name until I came home and checked IMDB to get it straight.
Anyway, that is all to say that I really enjoyed the movie and highly recommend it. Such a relief to find something entertaining to see that isn't a comic book movie (even if Happy and a few Avengers were present).
I love springing forward. I love the extra hour of sunshine come 5pm. What I don't love is this: Trying to wake the fuck up the first Monday of Daylight Savings Time. Oh my god. Soooooo tired…..zzzzzz
I seem to have misplaced November. Not only did it go swiftly, but I didn't do much in the way of writing about it. Not that there was much exciting going on. Work, a quicky weekend trip up to San Francisco, and a two-week long head cold. It wasn't really that I was too busy to chronicle; more like I didn't have much to say.
I will recap a bit of the holiday weekend, however, since I swore off work entirely and therefore have actual activities to talk about for once. It was my usual hermit Thanksgiving. M invited me down for dinner but I really wasn't in the mood to drive anywhere, or to feel like I was horning in on someone's family holiday, so I declined. Besides which I'd already purchased chicken and beans and stuffing and bacon, and had the fixings for pumpkin tea bread with pecan topping, and no real desire to set aside my plans. So Wednesday I baked, and the house smelled lovely. Thursday morning I indulged in bagels and bacon and lots of hot coffee, though only after going for a run. I committed to the Runner's World holiday streak, where you attempt to run every day from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, though with the caveat that I'm not in good enough shape right now to actually run every day, even though they say even a one-mile run counts. But I'm just getting back into the swing following months of inactivity and my cold stalling out the progress I was making in October, so my personal deal with myself is to run at least five days a week and then to walk purposefully on the two days off. That's working so far, as I managed short runs Friday and yesterday, and today will be a walking day because I'm bloody exhausted.
Anyway, Thanksgiving dinner was roast chicken and green beans with sausage cornbread stuffing, and lovely red wine, followed by pumpkin bread for dessert. I've been indulging in leftovers all weekend, which means I haven't needed to cook again, and it's been lovely. Though this evening I'm going to make lentil soup, because I'm tired of chicken and ready for something to break up the monotony.
After weeks of having not enough time, I've finally worked my way through my DVDs of The Hollow Crown. I'd caught Richard II when it aired on PBS, but my travel schedule was such that I missed Henry IV pt. 1 and I didn't want to watch the rest without seeing that, so I waited. As a result, I've had a fabulous Shakespeare fest the past three nights, and I'm so completely ready to pack a bag and fly off to England that it's not even funny. I'm practically twitching. Never mind that I have neither the time nor the budget for such an adventure. Also, a part of me wants to sit down and watch all four plays again, back to back, four nights in a row. (I didn't rewatch Richard II, and now I'm wishing I had.) I suspect I will pack them for my trip home for Christmas and subject my mother to them.
The other big weekend indulgence has been reading books with covers. Well, one book, mostly, since I delved into Donna Tartt's THE GOLDFINCH, which is over 700 pages long and dense reading in the best of ways. I'm taking my time, because even while a part of me wants to gallop through the entire thing, the writing is too gorgeous to rush. I've also been reading online, mostly book reviews and author interviews, because that's pretty much the way I roll. Busman's holiday, etc.
I hope everyone's had a wonderful weekend, holiday or not. Would love to hear what you've all been up to. I'm not the only one who's been quiet on LJ.
Edited, because I apparently have developed an addiction to repeating the word "lovely," and several of them needed to go.
So apparently my tired, overheated mind decided that editing long-forgotten fic that takes place in Vermont in December was a valid method of combatting the SoCal heat wave. Two weeks of temps over 90 (and often over 100). I needed to think about snow and cold weather. The result was a short follow up to my Jim-and-Bones rom com challenge fic from last year, Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover, entitled A Matter of Definition. The new fic has nothing to do with the rom com the original was based on -- I take all the blame. Me and my melted brain...
Title: Not in Our Stars Author: Emluvemluv Beta: Lindmere lindmere Fandom/Spoilers: Star Trek AOS, borrowing from TOS Characters: Leonard McCoy, Jim Kirk Rating: R Length: approx. 36,300 words complete Warnings: Some swearing; minor violence; angst; mentions of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in a captive situation as described by a character after the fact. Disclaimer:Star Trek is owned by the Roddenberry estate, Paramount Pictures, and probably a few others who are not me. No profit made, no infringement intended. Archive/Distribution: Please ask. Date: April 19, 2012
Summary/Author’s Note: Written for a prompt on the buckleup_meme requesting a fic in which brilliant young medical student Leonard McCoy volunteers for a Doctors Without Borders-type organization and ends up helping with the rescue efforts on Tarsus IV, where he meets a teenage, traumatized Jim Kirk, who will, for whatever reason, allow only McCoy to treat him. I have played fast and loose with TOS information about Tarsus IV and its location, making it closer to Earth so that McCoy could feasibly make it there and back in one summer.
Title taken from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act I, scene ii: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in our selves...”
This fic is complete and will be posted in five parts at regular intervals. Additional notes follow the final part.
Title: Not in Our Stars Author: Emluv emluv Beta: Lindmere lindmere Fandom/Spoilers: Star Trek AOS, borrowing from TOS Characters: Leonard McCoy, Jim Kirk Rating: R Length: approx. 36,300 words complete Warnings: Some swearing; minor violence; angst; mentions of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in a captive situation as described by a character after the fact. Disclaimer:Star Trek is owned by the Roddenberry estate, Paramount Pictures, and probably a few others who are not me. No profit made, no infringement intended. Archive/Distribution: Please ask. Date: April 19, 2012
Summary/Author’s Note: Written for a prompt on the buckleup_meme requesting a fic in which brilliant young medical student Leonard McCoy volunteers for a Doctors Without Borders-type organization and ends up helping with the rescue efforts on Tarsus IV, where he meets a teenage, traumatized Jim Kirk, who will, for whatever reason, allow only McCoy to treat him. I have played fast and loose with TOS information about Tarsus IV and its location, making it closer to Earth so that McCoy could feasibly make it there and back in one summer.
Title taken from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act I, scene ii: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in our selves...”
This fic is complete and will be posted in five parts at regular intervals. Additional notes follow the final part.
Past
nostalgic
sad
tired
weird
restless
mellow
creative
bouncy
exhausted
hot