Still Just Colorful

So much not posting. How can 2 weeks go by where pretty much nothing happens, yet there's almost too much to say?

I watched the Stratford Theatre Festival's live showing of their filmed "Coriolanus," which was really great. A considerable amount of ho-yay at one point, like whoa. I'm digging getting to see these. I usually go to an outdoor theatre nearby to see 4 plays a year (usually 2 Shakespearean), and haven't purchased tickets (I usually have them by April) yet because of the Rona, and who the hell knows. So it's good to have these from Canada, and some free showings of British plays as well. I'm going to see if I can find the National Theatre "Frankenstein" sometime soon.

While I was rummaging through the YouTube tv offerings, I stumbled on a Jeff Daniels special. Looked like a concert, which I can highly recommend. I saw him about a year and a half ago and really enjoyed him (and his son's band). He has written and performed songs for many years. He was in the first Broadway play I ever saw, "Fifth of July," which is why I had bought a ticket. So I'll be scoping out that special sometime this weekend too.

Big irritation this week: One of the neighbors along the long shared driveway that goes past my house (up to one street and down to another) dumped dirt and apparently planted grass seeds on a portion of the drive. So the upper entrance/exit will be useless to me and my duplex neighbor. This is an issue solely in the winter, when it's impossible to get up the lower drive. There's actually an easement for the whole length of the drive, so this is not something that should have been done. I spent a lot of time looking up courthouse records (Bwahahaha—the database for real estate legal records is called LANDSHARK!!!) and digging up my documents for the purchase of my place, etc. Chatted with the lawyer who helped me with the purchase (and presciently insisted on a clearer, more detailed easement doc), and he'll get back with me early next week. Here's something weird, though. When all the driveway conversations were going on, I knew there were 7 properties touching the drive, and all the others had to sign off. So all this time I thought there were many signature pages among all these different owners. No. There's the guy down the far end, and the 5 other properties were all owned by the guy who sold me this place. I used to chat with him quite a bit, even after the sale, and I had no idea. I'm not sure now if the parcel that blocked the drive has been sold and this is the new owner, or if the guy who was trying to sell it last winter is trying to improve its salability somehow. (I don't know when the one who owned it when I bought this place sold, but he didn't own it when I looked into it when it was for sale.) It's a weird, narrow lot, so I don't even know if what they did would add a lot of value. Just UGH.

In other news, the library class I was auditing has ended. Lots of great reading, and good info. I need to keep using my local library. They were great at getting me books, right up until the last day before they had to close. They're now allowed to do curbside delivery again.

Speaking of which, I should figure out what I want to eat and order and pick up. I have been doing so about once a week but missed last week. Friday is when a lot of the local places do it.

The other night I dreamed about going to a professional conference and realizing when I was there that I'd forgotten to wear a bra.

This morning I got a package and actually opened the door a bit to get it and yell "Thank you!" to the letter carrier, and realized I was not only not wearing a bra but still in pajamas. And didn't really care.

I do still care about my roots, which are pretty bad. I have color depositing shampoo but have so far been too lazy to apply it. Since it's been a while since I've updated regularly, it's probably not common knowledge that my hair is allover blue. I've been trying to think of a good way to describe it, and so far have only come up with KD Box Blue.

Must go scrounge in the kitchen for something to eat.

Sunny today, with spotty clouds. But tit-freezing. Might be perfect for a little drive, though. Maybe I should order a meal from some local joint and pick it up. There's a fancy steakhouse about 16 miles away that's doing takeout, and they do some pretty awesome stuff. (Not Ruth's Chris fancy, local supper club fancy, so a little over half the price.) I have to pick up a prescription in the town 7 miles in that direction, so why not. I've gotten takeout about 1x a week while in quarantine, so that's a helluva lot less than times per week I tend to eat out.

Later: I did go to the steakhouse, which was a splurge, but I'm totally justifying it because they are doing free lunches for kids and families in need. I got their special, which is a grilled prime rib, which is utterly amazing. It came with grilled (I think) baby carrots and a baked potato and a roll. I further splurged on a slice of flourless chocolate cake, which was also bliss. First time I've ever gotten dessert at that place, as the steak is so damn good I've previously always considered eating the whole damn thing as my dessert. This time I ate half and will have the rest tomorrow.

I have about half an hour before a Zoom convo with my local peeps, so thought I would actually write this post I've been thinking about.

I've been to the grocery store 2 days ago, so I reset the clock on feeling like I'm sufficiently isolated and won't get the Rona. I did go out with a mask (quickie handmade one which worked quite well—at least as far as I know) and nitrile gloves which I'd bought for hair dyeing. They were counting people who went inside, so it wasn't a traffic jam. Other than me there were only about 4 people who were wearing masks.

My class was this morning, discussing 2 books. I was still having a fair bit of problems focusing (again) on reading, so I ended up reading like a maniac yesterday, finishing the book I'd gotten from the library before they shut, and listening to the other on scribd. Both were books in verse: Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X, which I liked a lot, because it pinged with a lot of my feelings and memories about being a writer in my teens. I ended up tweeting a little fangirlishness to the author as soon as I finished it. The other, which was only available in text in an excerpt, I listened to. Great reader, though the visual effect of the poems was mostly lost. The reader did try to get some of that across. That was Skila Brown's To Stay Alive, a cheerful little book about the Donner Party. (Who doesn't love a party?)

I have 2 to read for next week, which stunningly, I've started on. The one I've started is Wolf by Wolf, author tk when there's not a cat on my tit. It's kind of an alternate history thriller involving nazi experiments on a young girl, which I first thought "Ooh, I don't know about this," and then I thought, "EXCUSE ME, WORLD'S BIGGEST WINTER SOLDIER WHORE?" What can I say, I'm a complex person.

So I've been meaning to write about this comedian I discovered recently via reddit, Daniel Sloss. I love the way he structures his act, and the stuff he gets into, which is quite serious and profound. But saying what each show ends up being about in order to rec one completely blows the effect, which is to smack you in the face with a dead mackerel of a topic while you're still being amused. Even that almost feels like too much to reveal, but you'll probably forget it while you're watching. His first two specials are on Netflix, and I'd seriously suggest watching them in order because the seconds spoils the first. I was hella impressed with those very profound sets, and watched the third on HBO, and holy shit, was it amazing. If you really prefer having content warnings, message me and I will tell you, but if you don't tend to look for them, you'll likely appreciate what he does. I will say, he says so much of what I want a man to say about the topics he speaks of, and he very much strikes the right tone, at least for me.

And my Zoom is about to zoom, so I'm off for now.

I think the lockdown is getting to me.

I woke up this morning, wanted to know what time it was, and double-tapped my face.

A couple of sunny days over the weekend, though not yet above the 50ºs. Did I get out and spend tons of time? No. None at all on Saturday, but I did go out and have a bit of a conversation 6' from my next door neighbor in our shared driveway. I texted her to ask her to witness my absentee ballot, which she did. We chatted a while and then later I drove on out to drop my ballot in the city hall dropbox and stopped at a restaurant to get a curbside pickup of the meal I'd ordered online.

I had mushroom ravioli with beef tips and a berry cream puff. Pastry was a bit tough, but whipped cream is always good. As for the berries, it was the kind of amount that would prompt my dad to say "the string must've broke."

My TV quit working on Friday, but this morning I turned off the power strip and gave it 30 seconds, and it seems to be normal now.

I found a letter I'd started to a friend of mine before Christmas, which I intend to continue and send. It looked like a missive from another world! Concerts and a road trip and writing classes. I never did get my Christmas cards sent, and I'm considering doing that now. The box I bought in November (I buy a box every year, whether I send any or not!) has a sloth on them, so it seems perfect. However, I should be reading my book for tomorrow's class, which I have about 300 pages left to read. OOPS. My focus, she is gone.

Speaking of which, I'm going to go do that now. I don't want to leave giant gaps in my LJ now that I've started it up again.

It was so great to see so many responses to my post! Especially on the LJ side. All my people flocking home in a crisis, offering and receiving community. What a gift!

Here it is raining A-FUCKING-GAIN, which is seriously messing with my mental health. So is spending an entire day sitting in one spot reading Twitter. I know that! But it's addictive. But also there are such great things to be found there, like the jolly old gent singing "Stay the Fuck at Home." The bored sportscaster calling his dogs dinner time as if it's a sporting event. (Brilliant) A family (including elderly dad, who had refused to dance at his own wedding) dancing to "All the Single Ladies" and killing it (including the dad). People being kind. Useful information. Somewhere around 2:00 a.m. (kill me now) I began Blocking All the Motherfuckers.

Note: In the last four years since I was reliably here, my language has gotten to be a shitload worse. I curse like a motherfucker. I wonder what could be the cause of this.

I can't forswear Twitter until I finish my 19-day CORVID-19 tweets, which link to cool info on crows, ravens, magpies, jays, and the new-to-me treepies, which live in South and East Asia. It's been fun looking for and tweeting about corvid research, birdwatching neepery, mini-documentaries on the ravens who live at the Tower of London, etc.

Otherwise, I am apparently not one of those people who find being stuck in the house a great ambition engine. Though I might have found my motivation in not wanting to die with my house in the mess that it is, if I happen to get this shit.

I am also having trouble with next week's reading assignment. I now have 2 novels to read in 2 days. Yesterday I read some, but I find something in the writing that isn't compelling. I ended up taking an hourlong nap (with Sammy cat curled up on my pelvis). Might try the other book today and see if that goes better.

I also need to make a drugstore run and a grocery run today. That, at least, will get me out of the house, but I'd much prefer it not be rainy and darkish. The drugstore run I can do from my car, at least. Not sure about the grocery run.

Okay, I'm going to make my breakfast and try to get some other things going today. See you soon!

So hey.

I'm really embarrassed to see that pretty much this whole page of posts is "Oh hi. I haven't been around for ages, but I'm going to try to be around more." And then I don't.

But...hi. I haven't been around for ages, but I AM going to try to be around more. I've been spending A LOT of time obsessively scrolling on Twitter and paying attention to the news, and i don't think it's the best for my mental health. And I miss being here—the conversations, the fannishness, the friendships. So really, I'm going to try and do my best this time. We need connection as we live with social distancing/quarantine/sheltering in place. I hope you are well!

So, let me give some highlights:

I got fired from the job I'd been at for 12 years about a year and a half ago. After 2 years of toxicity, I decided "Fuckit, I'm retired!" and I don't miss working daily. So I came into the sheltering in place stuff with plenty of practice.

The creativity has been a struggle. I feel like I can wind up my looooong running fic in one chapter, but it's not speaking to me. I wrote some notes on a novel I'd like to write, but that's been stalled for a bit.

Other stuff I've been up to:

• Went to a 5-day memoir-writing class at a rustic conference center in West Virginia. Great people, wonderful teacher, really enjoyable writing.

• Folded it into a road trip to see my family and a stop to see a friend on the way home. While I was in hometown I went to see Lyle Lovett and his acoustic band, which was a great show.

• Signed up for an online class at UW in creating characters, and got a bit of a start on a novel I want to write.

• Am auditing a class in library and information sciences on resources and books for young adults, because the main character of the novel is a librarian. Reading some great books, enjoying the discussions and the students.

• Did Ladies Rock Camp in December and had a blast. I've been planning to go to the May camp, though it's uncertain whether that's still going to happen.

• Broke my foot in May of last year and had to have surgery to stabilize it. I'd broken the same foot a year and a half before that (3 bones!).

I think I'll leave that there, and be around more. I will! I've missed y'all!

Dear 2017,

Please don't suck moose dick.

Thanks for your cooperation,

nwhepcat

So I am lying on my recliner, beneath a cat (Sammy, aka Junior Cat), wishing I had an affinity for dumb TV. My holidays have been ridiculously quiet, so it's not due to any raucous activities--I just have very little stamina. My big accomplishments of the week have been 1) just beginning to walk like a regular person when I'm in the house, where I can wear regular shoes. Out in the world I'm still using the boot and a crutch. 2) Managing to go to work 4 days in a row for 3 weeks in a row, and lately walking the hella long way to the bathroom at work 4 times in one day instead of needing the knee scooter.

Today I went to Madison, planning to see a couple of movies, but the timing was such that I made it to one, and didn't have the energy for 3 hours before the other one I wanted to see. I had lunch in the bar at the theater, thought about doing a couple of errands but both places were closed, so I came home. Madison is my preferred movie spot these days because they have recliners, and I'm all about having my foot up when I can. I finally saw "Rogue One," after a couple of weekends of wanting to get there to see it. Such goodness, having a capable heroine in yet another SW movie! And a diverse cast too.

It's almost like Hollywood is finally catching on that wimmins like movies!

Yesterday was my originally planned movie day, but I got a slow start, then my friend of 38 years called and we talked for 95 minutes. I scaled down my plans, going out to buy the specialized cat food my boys eat, then having a BBQ lunch. As I was about to leave I got into a wonderful conversation with two women who were at the next table. We chatted for maybe 30 minutes or more, then swapped contact info. I never would have met them if I'd gotten an early start on my day, so Yay, sloth! Oh, and I met the service dog of one of the women, named Hector--anyone who read my Christmas story will know why that tickled me. (Hector is one of my favorite characters I've added to the MCU.)

Christmas was super quiet, as I lost all my PTO while being off work after my foot surgery, so no travel. I went to Christmas eve service with friends and had dinner with them, but otherwise spent 2 solid days holed up writing said Christmas story. Which is a perfect way to spend a solitary holiday, if I'm going to have one. This weekend I've also been working on my WIP, and almost have a chapter done.

I'm not really resolving, but I suppose I have some goals. One is to be around here a little more.

Happy new year, y'all! Let me know what's up!!

That 4-day weekend where you mean to go to the city and hit the movies and then you spend two full days writing (sort of) a fic instead.

I swear, I was more active right after my surgery, but that's probably because my bladder was so small.

Anyway, here's the link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/9072778

Some of y'all might actually remember me. It's been almost five friggin months since I've posted at all. Sheesh.

What's been up? A lot, plus not much. One main thing is, I had orthopedic surgery 4 weeks ago today. Serious reconstruction shit, with screws and plates and all that. I've had ever worsening pain for quite a long time, and finally hit the point where the idea of living with it was much worse than the idea of surgery. I talked to a surgeon who was well recommended, went home with the idea that I would still put it off and try steroid injections, and about 2 days later decided: 1) I'm not getting any younger, 2) it's not getting any better, 3) I have good insurance, 4) I have friends who are schoolteachers. So I set it up for this summer.

( lots of updatinessCollapse )

So it seems that I never posted "These Songs of Freedom," the post-Chosen fic set in Liberia, on AO3 or the Buffy fanfic archive. Apparently I wrote it two laptops ago, so I have no idea....

Seems I didn't post it here, just a pointer to where it lived on a site that doesn't exist anymore.

Does anyone know where it might be on the interwebs, or failing that, happen to have a copy of the damn thing they've downloaded?

Of all the fics to lose....

Also, I have news but am getting ready for Wiscon, so I hope to get it posted sometime after things calm down. (Oooh, teaser!) I guess we could call it real life hurt/comfort, coming up.

ETA: Found! Thank you, hannah!

Well, this is a relic of a few weeks ago, but I'm gonna finish it:

I'm listening to an episode of Coverville, a channel on Mixcloud, which I discovered via the excellent host of Rhythm Revue, Felix Hernandez. This episode is full of covers by and of Wilson Pickett and of Lady Gaga. Quite a lot of nifty stylistic riffs on Gaga, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. Though I find that music impedes writing, even of chatty journal posts.

Anyhow, here's the ep: https://www.mixcloud.com/BrianIbbott/coverville-1118-its-the-land-of-1000-just-dances-with-cover-stories-for-wilson-pickett-lady-ga/

Back from vacation (a visit to Hepmom), which wasn't very active, but I have been kinda wiped out last night and today. Got home from the airport just before vertigo hit, so that was probably what had me wiped out today. Also, waking up around 4 pm (and also being awakened at some unknown hour by happy Elder Cat). It's been an exhausting couple or three weeks. as remarked on in my last post.

The night before I left for HepState was the final evening of a fascinating series, which has also been a pretty profound experience, and one that I happened on completely by accident. Early in March I realized it was election day, and I didn't know anything about the candidates in one of the 2 races (all local or state judges), apart from one of them really seemed to have some enemies with big money, because we got a full-color 81/2" x 11" attack ad in the mail pretty much every day. (Turns out he has been pursuing the John Doe investigation re our governor and his minions, so yeah, I voted for him.) The local grassroots org that pointed me to the info on the candidates also reported that there would be a 5-week series of talks called Welcoming Our Muslim Neighbors, sponsored by several local churches. Each week a Muslim speaker came from a nearby (if 45 miles counts) to talk about different facets of their faith.

First session was about misconceptions about Islam and fears about ISIS and other radical groups. I really enjoyed the speaker, who was from Libya, if I remember right. The second week was about the similarities between Islam and Christianity, which I probably learned when I took comparative religion back in college, but that WAS a little while ago. That speaker was from Sudan. I had sneaked in a little late, coming straight from work, and sat at the back. The first couple of sessions I was either too shy or too hungry to talk to the speakers, but after that I did every week. The third week was at the local library, and was a presentation of Islamic art/architecture, with a speaker from Egypt. I'm not sure where the speakers from the fourth session were from--there was a couple, both engineering professors (just looked them up--they're from Bangladesh), and a single UW student, speaking about Muslim family life. The female engineering instructor was the first woman speaker we heard. She and her husband were funny and personable, and I enjoyed talking with them after.

[That's where I ran out of writing juice. So to continue...] The last week was a group visit to the Islamic Center in the city. It's actually a rather humble building, no minarets or dome, but the traditional niche facing Mecca, and not surprisingly, nice rugs! I'm not sure how many of us there were who came--more than a dozen, I think. We kinda outnumbered the congregants, as it was a Wednesday around dinnertime, so probably most people were doing their prayers at home. It was just a prayer time, not very long, as the big day of worship is Friday. Before the prayers we had a couple of men talking and answering questions (we were upstairs but had a view of the main room), one was the man from Sudan and the other was Palestinian. After the prayers, we were introduced to a college student, a 4th-generation American. It was incredibly interesting to get his perspective. His mother's family actually came from Ireland, and she converted after doing some seeking, a couple of years (if I remember right) before she met his father, who is Palestinian-American. (The Palestinian side of his family has actually been here longer than the Irish, though both came around/over 100 years ago.) There was a young woman who helped set up some snacks, and they invited her in to meet us, but she seemed shy and didn't stay.

Everyone we met was so warm and welcoming of questions--even the hard questions. The man from Sudan had such love in his eyes as he spoke or listened to the other speakers, and I definitely felt it toward our group. (I gathered he was one of the leaders of the community, though there's no imam in the sense that the media portrays. The imam is whoever is leading the prayers during that service. The young American guy said he had done so at times.) The two older men said we were welcome to return any time (the young one had gone off to play basketball with his friends), and I told them I was really going to miss these gatherings. One said, "Oh, are you moving away?"

This really moved me. I feel like our two groups were peace mongers in our own small way. And the group was pretty neat. Pretty much middle aged and older. My friend L's 92-year-old father came to two of the regular sessions, and also to the mosque. He sat doing his breathing treatments during the program at the mosque. I loved his commitment and his interest in learning about other people. (He also had art cards made of paintings he did, and the proceeds of what he sells he's donating to aid Syrian refugees.)

All in all, it was a really profound experience, and I hope the people who organized it get us all together again.
___

I missed two sessions of my art group to go to the first and the last sessions of the series of talks, so I recently ran into one of the regulars out roaming around on garage sale day in town. I told her why I'd missed the two nights, and she proceeded to trash the religion and tell me not to get "sucked in" by their warmth and kindness. Arrrrrrghhhhh. Way to shit on something that was really profound. I really liked her, but damn. That's going to be hard to overlook. Weird, because she's generally progressive.

So anyway, that's What I Did with My Late Winter. I was really glad a relatively small rural town put on something like that, and it was gratifying to see how well received it was on both sides.

I know I started a post somewhere along the line, abandoned it as boring and eventually had to shut off my laptop. Thus saving y'all from having to read it 3 weeks out of date. Life has been more interesting of late, and if I have time to complete a post before I do the next thing, or continue in between doing the things, there's a chance I'll actually post it.

Currently I'm in a hotel room in Hepmom's town, for a visit with her in the care center where she lives. She's been there for more than three years, and is happy and as active as she can be, considering health issues. For instance, she gets up at 5:30 to deliver the handful of papers to the residents who subscribe. She also gets a cloth napkin at lunchtime that is shabby around the edges, re-hems it, and returns it with the next meal's tray. Otherwise napping, reading, socializing, killing at bingo (and donating her winnings to the church's world hunger drive).

I'd been staying at Chez Hepmom on these visits, but the house is finally cleared of furniture, so I decided a hotel would be comfy. Hepbro lives nearby and offered a room, but I figured 3 adults and 2 dogs (one a mountain cur) would be a little much over 6 days. I decided it was worth spending a bit extra (not terribly much, actually) per night for the room and got a suite with jacuzzi tub and kitchenette, and this is more comfortable than I've been in a couple of years at my mom's house. (Last time I was there, there was a twin bed, a chair (not recliner) and a wooden chair to put my feet up. And lots of empty space. Weird.) This is an especially good thing, considering I have a lot of time to hang around. My mom goes back to bed after she delivers the papers, so we don't check in with one another until noon, and then if she's feeling sick, she might not want to see me until mid to late afternoon.

My friend of 40 years now llves a little over an hour away, so she's sharing my room for a few days so we can catch up big time. She's now in the fitness center, so I'm catching up with y'all.

The previous couple of weeks have been just wild. My department at work is moving to a brand new building, especially designed for the creative team and photography studio. It's been really thoughtfully done, and one of the best features is that it will have lots of natural light without glare. The outer windows are much higher than the inner walls, so there's a transom window effect. So the result of this wonderful new stuff is that I've had to go through and pack all my stuff, and do it a week before others did because of my vacation. I got it accomplished, though not much else!

I have framed a bunch of art cards to put in my new cubicle, although my nerd life will probably steal in before very long. My sub-department's moving day is the day before I return, so I'll be back for one day to begin packing, then we have Good Friday off. A three-day weekend will be pretty appreciated.

The other main thing that's been happening is worth a post of its own, particularly because it's getting late and I'm not sure I'd get through the whole thing. It's been a really interesting, thought-provoking and cool time around my little town of late.

Good grief, it's been a long time since I've been here. I think maybe because I've been around on Facebook a bit more--probably a couple of reasons for that. I've been interacting with a closed group from a course I'm taking, and that is involving. Seems like a good bunch of people in general, invested in supporting one another, yay.

The other reason, besides hanging out chatting with friends, is I've been following Mikal Gilmore, the writer for Rolling Stone and author of Shot in the Heart. We used to be on the same NYC-centric BBS back in the day, and so when I stumbled on his Facebook page I started reading him again. Actually I find FB a much better forum for reading lengthy-isn posts than Echo was, so I've probably been more engaged than I was then. A few months ago, Mikal was diagnosed with cancer and has been undergoing both chemo and radiation, and he's doing pretty well. I have been really moved by the grace and openness he and his wife Elaine Schock have demonstrated during all this. Mikal has been posting regularly--his habitual commentary on music, politics, life and cats. But he's also kept a running public journal during his treatment--posting a daily picture of the radiation department with a countdown to his last treatment, and a running account of various songs they've been playing on the hospital shuttle. During the Christmas season, he posted videos of the musicians that played in the common areas at the hospital, and the decorations. Every week Elaine posts an account of the medical details. And now there's this big community on FB sending loving thoughts, prayers, cat videos, and sometimes physical gifts. It's really amazing to be part of it.

it's really moving to read their posts about each other, too. The love they express is incredibly moving. Anyone who's read Shot in the Heart knows Mikal has known darkness and he has a gift for writing about it. Seeing his unabashed declarations of love for Elaine, reading about her fierce advocacy and care during his illness...they just give me hope. It's hard to describe, but there such a lot of love--between the Shockmores, as he calls them, their friends and people who have never met them, and connections being made between those following Mikal and Elaine--there's a LOT of light and love in that corner of the internet, and for me it dispels some of the darkness that can also be found online.

In the midst of all this--while he was undergoing chemo and radiation treatments--Mikal wrote Rolling Stone's cover story on David Bowie. It's a fine read, and doubly meaningful to know that he was writing about Bowie's death while getting a powerful reminder of his own mortality.

Elaine is pretty damn cool her own self. Her updates show some great writing too, and she's had her own big jobs to attend to during this time (oh, Willie Nelson singing for the President and shit...She works with him, among other artists).

So...I've been spending more time on FB of late than I thought I ever would (apart from GISHWHES!). But it reminds me too that I have a great community here that has made a profound difference in my own life. My life wouldn't be nearly as good without fandom and LJ/DW and the community I've found in these overlapping worlds. I love you guys.

Well of COURSE I had a shit-ton of stuff planned to do to day and OF COURSE I have vertigo. Not lying down and feeling like puking vertigo, but not wanting to be up and around vertigo.

I do have important stuff to do that can be done on a sofa, so I may get some things done. But I think I'd be most adept at supervising from a horizontal position as handy-people do all the work.

Okay, I just got up to make breakfast, and it's not too bad. Meds have apparently kicked in some.

So yesterday I had one of those Go to Town and Do All The Errands days. In the early morning I had a vet visit for Sam for his physical (he's in great shape!) and rabies shot. Came home, chatted with Hepmom on the phone, headed into Madison. Super healthy stir-fry lunch, stop at hardware store to buy some storage stuff (went looking for one thing, which they didn't have, then bought a bunch of other organizational stuff. As one does.) Went to the spice store to replenish my favorite spice and herb blends that I'm out of and get a free jar of Turkish oregano. Target to find the thing I didn't find at the hardware store, and of course I bought something on impulse (cute lunch pail/bento box type thingie with a strap handle!). Went to my appointment for hot stone massage (good thing the weather turned colder--dunno if I could have dealt with the heat if it was as warm out as it has been this winter). It was nice but not as relaxing as I hoped.

Got dinner at 5:00 because two or three good pees and all those healthy vegetables I had for lunch were GONE. I thought it would be pretty barren (I went to a popular retro diner that does a bunch of kinds of pie) but it was pretty crowded but no line yet (by the time I left there was a line). Screw vegetables--I had baked mac & cheese and pie.

Then I went to a couple of craft stores looking for a magazine/book on altered couture and ended up with two books on drawing. As one does. At JoAnn's I turned into one aisle and a young woman smiled at me, and I smiled back, then I got closer and saw she had just used the big decorative letters to spell out BOOBS. I laughed, so we got into a little conversation. She said, "I'm glad you laughed, I thought you'd be like THAT's mature." I said maturity was overrated. I gave her a high five and we giggled some more. MY PEOPLE!!!!

I have developed an extreme hatred of driving in the fog at night. Because it makes me fuckin' ILL. Literally. I'd considered heading home from work a little early tonight so I could drive in the light, but when I went to look at the weather, it didn't look all that foggy. So I stayed. When I left it was dark and foggy. Don't know what it is, but that kind of drive has made me all clammy and nauseated twice now--the time before this I also got a powerful case of vertigo on top of it. This time it was just the clamminess and nausea. Bleh.

So I had Triscuits and seltzer for dinner, whee.

Do I do anything but complain here? I think I do, but it may have been a while.

So I'm currently back on a podfic kick (listening, that is), after some audios. I listened to most of David Byrne's "How Music Works," which is interesting, densely packed, and not exactly what I expected. It's not so much music theoryish as what things have historically affected what's going on in the music world (like the technology, and the sort of places where music was/is heard), businessy stuff, stuff about Byrnes' own creative process. Where it really sort of fell down is not taking advantage of the fact that it was on audio--I'd have loved to hear the songs he was alluding to at the point where he was talking about them. I don't know all that much of his/Talking Heads' work, so I didn't have an instant mental playback as particular works were discussed. Pretty interesting in general, and he seems not to have a bloated ego, at least it doesn't seem so to me. I loved that he quoted a line from a review, not meant to be complimentary, that he'd "collaborate with anyone for a bag of Doritos." It's narrated by a reader, not Byrne, but the guy is pretty good. I need to go back and listen to the last couple of chapters, since I put it on one night when I had insomnia, so of course I fell asleep and missed 95%.

I've also listened to part of Sarah Vowell's "The Partly Cloudy Patriot," which I intended as light listening between chunks of the David Byrne, but the chapter on the election of Bush II over Al Gore kinda depressed the fuck out of me, particularly in light of things that are going on at the moment. It's very good, though, and I loved her remarks about Al Gore as a "big honking nerd" (which she, as a big honking nerd, means as a compliment). Her particular insights on how media shapes a narrative it has already delineated really depressed extra fuck out of me.

Speaking of things that are going on at the moment, I implore you to read this piece on Donald Trump's hair, at Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/12/donald-trump-mark-bowden-playboy-profile#1

The main article is interesting, though not at all surprising--I had not expected to learn that Donald Trump has hidden depths, so finding out that he's exactly the repulsive vulgarian he seems wasn't particularly shocking. But it's worth a read to learn a little more about what a terrible human being he is. No, the (as an editor of mine used to say) piss de resistance is the slideshow on Trump's hair over the decades. I wish I knew who wrote the captions, which are gloriously mean and hilarious. (For example, the suggestion that at one stage his hair products were "rubber cement and snot," which made me honk like a Canadian goose.) So scroll down and behold the glory that is world-class snark. (As VF put it "Warning! Don't Read Before Lunch!")

ETA: And for legal snark: http://abovethelaw.com/2015/12/an-awesome-response-to-a-cease-and-desist-letter-from-donald-trumps-lawyer/

Do read the whole letter. (And the original letter from Trump's lawyer has some comedy gold, stating that an attempt to make attack ads regarding DT is "fool hearted.")

I don't think I have shared this story here, so sometime I really need to regale you with my actual brush with Trump, in which he WINKED AT ME.

But I should really get to bed now.

I posted this fic, which is part of my long Clint Barton fic, on AO3 a couple of weeks ago. But in case you missed it....

Arlington: Christmas Day, 2013
Fandom: MCU
Summary: Steve inadvertently steps on a land mine in a war he knows nothing about. He reacts about like you'd expect. (Not nearly as grim as this summary makes it sound.)
Warning for Fox News

( Read more...Collapse )

Dizzy. Started last night as I drove home in the fog--well, it really manifested itself as nausea, as I was really focused on the road. But by the time I got home I was bathed in sweat, after having a window partway down, and the dizzy manifested itself. FEH. It has hung on today, all day, despite the fact that a night's sleep usually makes it leave. The weather was similarly foggy and close, so I think that's a factor. So...sick day. I've been lying on the sofa reading social media, for the most part, eating things that would seem unwise, working a section of my long Clint fic into a Christmas story and posting it, and writing a fan letter to Ann Leckie. All while horizontal!

The fic, "Arlington: Christmas Day, 2013," is here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5383475

Now must get more horizontal.

Yes, Walmart. Don't judge me.

I knew this, but still it is TOUGH to find superhero shit for kids aged 3. All the Avengers toys STARTED at 4+. Except...wait for it...the Hulk fists. Those are okay for a 3-year-old. And there are Iron Man fists so 2 kids can punch each other without being all Fight Club about it. I BLAME YOU, AGE OF ULTRON.

I didn't get those. I did get a knit hat and gloves, a Captain America Pez dispenser, a pack of pencils (age 4+ but sue me--they had Natasha and Clint!), an art set that comes in a metal case (also with Clint and Tasha!), an Avengers logo watch, and a lunch box. Everything appropriately age graded except the pencils (oh come on! Pencils!).

While I didn't go without first eating, I didn't have a very big lunch, so halfway through the expedition I thought "I could eat THE FUCK out of a cheese danish!" So I bought some, and just ate a far bigger piece than strictly necessary.

Tonight is the big deal gallery night/Christmas shopping extravaganza in town, and there's no way I'm going to make it. My feet hurt and I'm generally tired. I woke up at 3:30 to pee and couldn't get back to sleep. Feh.

But my adopt-a-family shopping is Mission Accomplished, w00t.