Confessions of a One-Track Mind

I've been the recipient of an email requesting the please of my company for turkey dinner at Schnauzerland this evening (a little advance notice would have been nice!), so we'll see what S & T have been up to. I just hope she isn't contagious. I don't want to risk passing anything on to Kat.

I spent much of Christmas afternoon at the C's---it was so funny, I've moved in and taken care of their dogs numerous times, so they now me very well. The little one (a Jack Russell-Cavalier King Charles mix) was so excited to see me that when she charged the screen door, she went through the solid panel at the bottom. The whole thing popped out, although PJ said he wouldn't have been surprised to see a little Rosie-shaped hole in the door.

A half-dozen other folks from church showed up, there was a lot of food---I felt like I was eating all day long, not something I dislike---and we had a lovely time. AI and I exchanged gifts---I made an art-glass necklace for her, and she made two heavily beaded bracelets for me.

Yesterday was my afternoon at the movies. Sherlock Holmes was fun---I *DO* want to see it again. Red took off as soon as it was over, which was disappointing---I would've liked to schmooze---but it was great while it lasted. We both want to see Clash of the Titans, Spartacus: Blood and Sand (John Hannah!) and Sorcerer's Apprentice. She was intrigued by Date Night, I am less so. We both bounced up and down at the trailer for Iron Man 2---May 2010! Yay!

I confess, I did a little extra-curricular shopping while I was at The Avenues. Lane Bryant had 60% off on clearance merch---I got a little brown velvet vest trimmed with little brass studs and grosgrain ribbon. It hooks just under the bust and really shows off what I have in the way of tits and a waist. It makes me think of RenFest---which I miss something rotten!---but it isn't too costume-y. And it was under $20, marked down from something like $39.50. Not TOO infernally extravagant.

Also hit World Market for a fix of CHowards Violet Mints, which I absolutely adore and can't find anywhere else. Talked sternly to myself and didn't get too carried away---*did* get a calendar for next year: Comfort Food, complete with pix AND recipes. Didn't get any of the 75% off ornaments, 50% off accessories, 20% off food.

All my Yuletide offerings have been commented upon. And that's all I'm going to say about THAT.

On the site "Is it Yuletide yet?" (http://www.isityuletideyet.com/): I can't tell you how much I wish I had put a hit counter on this damn thing!

I remember my first Yuletide; it was the year I was house-sitting at Schnauzerland because S & T were spending Christmas in Hawaii. The story I wrote as a gift has the distinction of being my swan song for the Once Upon a Time in Mexico fandom. I was also very much into Pitch Black; I was simultaneously working on "It Takes One to Know One" and what I eventually titled "Beyond Blade Runner" (slash crossover).

Last year was pretty good; I wrote a Stephanie Plum fic (two out of three of the Plum fics I've written were for Yuletide, the other was a SPN crossover) and a treat for Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer Trilogy.

This year---well, give it a week and you'll see...!

It was 46F according to the display on the big digital readout in front of one of the car dealers an hour ago. I know that to many of you storm-struck f'listers, that's practically balmy, but bear in mind---This is FLORIDA, we don't expect shit like this!

It was every bit as cold at the food pantry this morning, and holy night, the place was a zoo. I was there at 8, which is about a half-hour earlier than usual, and I've never seen the line like that, even at Thanksgiving (which I really think of as more of a food-centric holiday).

To distract myself from the fact that I'd unwisely chosen a jacket sans pockets, I practiced people-watching, which was...interesting. There were a few hairy-legged guys running around in shorts, but what got me was the staggering number of folks doing the socks-and-sandals thing, or worse yet, flip-flops and bare feet. If they're truly so poor that that's all they have, I feel sorry for them. On the other hand, if their lifestyle is such that they have eight pairs of flip-flops and no real shoes? No sympathy here, ya boneheads. None.

My Yuletide stories have all been uploaded with time to spare---enough that I was able to beta a pinch-hit for the person who beta'ed most of mine. *breathes sigh of relief-contentment-joy*

Tomorrow I'll probably be spending much of the day with J, baking cookies and trying to convert her to the RDJ cause with a viewing of Iron Man. Our plans for Christmas Day are up in the air---Schnauzerland has no firm plans, so we've devised a back-up---I'll spend it at J's, because it has heat and is wheelchair-accessible---mine is certainly neither. We may end up having "dinner" at Denny's or Steak'n'Shake and catching Sherlock Holmes, which has me all tingly with anticipation. (Hence, Iron Man.)

When I was in Tampa for the Depeche Mode concert in September, missybrat and I paid a visit to the Goodwill there. One of my purchases was a queen-sized comforter, which I intended to cover my couch with at the time. Well, guess what, between coming home to the party, and everything that's been going on with Kat, it stayed in the big generic black plastic bag until a few days ago, when I shifted it, said "WTH is this?" opened it, and went "Oh yeah, right...." It's on my bed now, let me tell you, and very warm and cozy. It warms up the room, too, being predominantly red with brown and beige.

Does anybody have an AO3 invite?!

I'm trying to upload my labors, but because of this new archive BS, I'm tearing my hair out. Please, please, please---if you have a spare invite you can zip this way, you will save my sanity. Help!!!

Thanks to a friend of a friend, I'm hooked up and working my way through the intricasies of AO3. Have made it through the ToS; geeky of me, but worth it---otherwise, I would never have stumbled across the following delightful statements: "You understand that using the Archive may expose you to material that is offensive, erroneous, sexually explicit, indecent, blasphemous, objectionable, or badly spelled. ... Unless it violates some other policy, we will not remove Content for offensiveness, no matter how awful, repugnant, or badly spelled we may personally find that content to be." Somebody over there has a sense of humor!

Onward!

The tree is finally trimmed. I took twnty minutes or so and made gold wire hangers for the ornaments---I had the wire on hand, and definitely have more time than money. They may be less perfect than store-bought, but who the hell is going to look at them up close besides me?

So now there's: *draws a deep breath and sings*

lots of little white lights
18 golden balls
4 silver swirlies
2 flying saucers
and a leaping poodle on a pink Christmas tree!*

The so-called "flying saucers" are a pair of vintage fifties ornaments I acquired at two different yard sales over the years. They're showing their age, but the shape of them is so cool it doesn't matter. I got the swirlies at Family Dollar because they reminded me of the flying saucers. I like it, although I may end up getting another batch of gold balls and losing the others, for this season, anyway. I really love how clean and minimalist it looks with just the white and gold against the pink.

I've also cranked out 1650 words on yet another yuletide story in yet another fandom. If there's nothing too riveting on TV, I might even get it done tonight. I am *so* going to be ready for that massage tomorrow!

============================================

* I know, it's silly for someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas as such to refer to a Christmas tree, but after all, it *is* a bastardization of an old pagan custom, that of the Yule Log (We had when I was growing up, yay Norwegian tradition!).

I just finished a voluntary contribution for yuletide: 4100 words, untweaked. This is the one I started late Friday/early Saturday. I had only a vague idea of where it was going when I started, but I've learned to trust my intuition in such cases---ideas unfolded as I wrote, and hopefully it'll get a good response.

This makes two voluntary, IE "I didn't sign up because none of my requests made the list" stories. Completely different fandoms. And I'm perusing my little list for more: I went through that monster Dear Santa post and made a list of the requests that struck me. I just need to decide Which One....

After payment of a small fortune, promise of future payment of a similar fortune (which may have exhibited undue optimism---or desperation---on my part) plus all my skills as a professional groveller, I got my internet back. *hugs internet fiercely* There's no place like home LJ!

And what did I then proceed to do? (Rhetorical, y'know I'm gonna tell you.) I read through the YuleGoat letters over at yuletide. Yes, all 41 pages of them. Mind you, I only read the letters of people who stated their fandoms and had something listed I thought I might possibly want to write---( for Yuletide, or as a NYR. )

I've noticed that there's a new feature since I posted last---the time of the post adjusts automatically as you're writing! Very cool. Or course, it erases that sense of HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN SITTING HERE? that the old system sometimes brought on.

This was written for yuletide, but it's such a zoo over there you can hardly hear yourself think. Meanwhile, my recipient wanted a Stephanie/Morelli/Ranger threesome and how they got there. Here's a look at developments in Stephanie's love life, complete with cake jokes, in the form of excepts from the purely imaginary title "Over 21".

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

( Over 21 )

First fic post on LJ in 2009. Feedback is shiny!

I feel like I've read more fan-fiction in the last week than I have in the last six months. There were some fandoms I didn't comment on, because I wrote in them. Usually I'm all for shameless self-promotion, but not until after the reveal.

( Multiple fandoms, in no particular order beyond my requests )

Kat was feeling under the weather today. I watched a lot of TV and read a lot of Yuletide stuff. (Eventually I'll do one of those rec posts; at this point, I'm mired in the 'N' section.) The thing I really HATE about exchange fics? Not being able to post thank yous right then.

I've decided what I'd like to attempt in the way of a NYR...to do one productive thing every day, whether it's take out the trash, change a lightbulb or hang a picture. Good, yes? Not that I'm necessarily going to make a public post about it, but still....

At the moment, I'm basking in a glow of well-being. Life is good. I got a super AU story as my yuletide big gift, my recipient had squeeful things to say about my gift to her (Later!), I got a delightful treat story, and there was good feedback on my last-minute submission, too. (Last minute is right---I kept track, there were only NINE stories uploaded after mine!)

Am probably going to be browsing for the next week or so, but the Anne McCaffrey section is excellent. I've read my way through all of it, some of it twice. Another story answered one of my requests so perfectly that it was like getting another gift. (There was a lot of that going on---all four of my fandoms got some kind of response. The other two being Devour and The Catch Trap. Surprise, surprise!)

The non-electronic part of Christmas was good, too. Got to sample my pamplemousse rose body scrub, washed my hair, defoliated my legs and applied polish (glitter over silvery blue pearl) to my fingers (no pedi because I had one eye on the clock).

Went to dinner at Schnauzerland, which went very well. S baked an awesome spiral-cut ham, we all gorged---it was her and T and her adult daughter J and me---and afterward, we watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on their big honkin' HDTV. It was okay, but I'm kinda glad I didn't spend any of my own money on it.

Came home with a dozen cookies and a box of chocolate-covered cherries from J, a cucumber-melon bath set and some cash from S & T...well, technically I started out with a dozen cookies, but I munched a few during the movie. You know how it is....

From GK came books and a calendar, the Fiestaware pitcher is the perfect shade of turquoise, and the Estonian "sewing kit" consists of a bag of various buttons, padded with a leopard print pillowcase and contained in a great little zippered black bag printed with "Easily distracted by bright, shiny objects...". She knows me so well!

Tomorrow I have to work, AND it's payday, so I'll probably be scampering out of the house early. I hope y'all had a great Christmas, too!

*headdesk* I went to post a comment on my yuletide treat, it wouldn't go through, I read some other stuff and managed to paste the comment and post it for the wrong story. (D'oh!) Now it won't let me comment to explain and I STILL haven't been able to post it to the correct story. Clearly, I need to take myself away to bed.

But I got a terrific story AND a yummy treat, so I'm going in a very happy frame of mind!

I just posted a "treat" story at yuletide. (It was #2417.) This afternoon, I took a look at the prompt list they released, and one jumped out at me. I spent most of this evening working on it, since Criminal Minds was a rerun and there was nothing else on that appealed to me. This is the first time I've spontaneously come up with 1700 words of anything in quite a while, and this one might actually turn into something longer. (We'll see how much I've written when Yuletide does their reveal.)

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Yuletide posted with 8 hours, 45 minutes, 47 seconds to go.

I have finished my Yuletide tale. *gasp of relief* Which leaves me precious little time for tweaking, but hey, at least it's complete.

Note to self: Do NOT sign up next year if you're still at this job. It's crazy-making.

This morning, I woke up, looked at the clock, screamed and ran for the door. (Well, okay, I DID put some clothes on, but I didn't bother with a slip. Trivial, when it's 11:39 AM and I need to be ON US1 by noon.)

I managed to make it to work in a timely manner, despite the asshat in the green Envoy who pulled out in front of me and managed to keep me pinned in at grandmother speeds for the next five miles. And work was not horrible. This was the most mellow it's been since November. I scribbled quite a bit in longhand for Yuletide (The end is in sight!), got a long lunch, and, though I didn't get my preferred 9-10 PM block off, I DID get out an hour early, and it was good. I even found a dime in the parking lot on my way to my car.

Now, here I am, contemplating something like dinner and feeling fairly serene. Two more OT days this week, and Tuesday, which is a normal schedule. And after Xmas, we've been promised that we'll have our 2009 vacation time available to begin scheduling. *rubs hands together*

Writing. Blergh, brain has slipped a gear and does not want to work. Too many pretty nuisances on TV. Yuletide. Four days. (Only one of which is a day off.) Doom, I say! Doom!

Lunch with Kat. Package arrived from GK, who also called. Schools are closed because of the ice storm; not only is she stuck with Thing One and Thing Two, but hubby is also home. Poor her! (But at least they have power.)

Possible invitation to Schnauzerland on Xmas day. Although, I'm underwhelmed, having been to enough functions that stalled because of S's issues. We'll see.

And there's this: I've expressed this as a percentage for years (85/15, actually), but I disagree somewhat with the accuracy of the results, since there was no DIY category for the past 12 months. So, I kinda went with my prefered flavor of porn. TMI? So sorry!

Do I sound incoherent? I wouldn't be surprised.