nekokoban

Oh, Mondays, and your quintissential ... Monday-ness. People will be proud to know that I did not, in fact, fall all the way down the stairs this morning -- I tripped and stumbled and nearly dropped my bagel -- but then I rescued it! It was very dramatic and the only casualty was my pride.

Weekend was a mix of anxiety and zennnnnnnn; we kicked things off by going to see the new Batman movie on Friday (I ... will possibly post on it later, though suffice to say I felt it was a very good movie and a well-executed one, but it was also something I don't really want to see again |D), hanging out with people all Saturday, finishing up New Who season 3 Sunday (I hadn't realized how much they use the Gallifrey theme in the last three episodes until this rewatch, at which point I kind of internally went ;; a lot, because that is probably my favorite of all the OST pieces for all four seasons thus far), and a lot of eating out.

... oh, and anenduringoath at CFUD get. |D I HAVE AN AMAZING STORY ABOUT IT that basically involves covert topping me into topping myself, which really is the way to go about it. :( Guys, guys, what am I doiiiiiiing if I'm doing it wrong HIT ME REALLY HARD also eff to you all, I'm not cute. :(

Now it is Monday and I am at work, which is thankfully mellow at the moment. Brainpower is at a minimum, incoherency at maximum, and it is a gorgeously sunny day.

Now I'mma go respond to comments, because people are very kind to me and I love them lots. :(b

Generally, I'm of the opinion that there are no boring stories, only boring ways of telling them. I mean, for example: today I went out to get lunch. Tah-dah, it's a single sentence.

However: it was raining, but only lightly, so while I only had my (beloved and full of holes) sweater and no umbrella, and though I'd brought a book just in case, the worst that happened is that my hair turned kinda frizzy and my glasses got water-freckled. It was cool-ish, but the walk helped with that, and I was on my way to find this street-vendor-esque place that only is in this area on Tuesdays that I'd read about in the newspaper. When I found them, they were kind of surrounded by a huge moat of collected rainwater, so the lady taking orders waved at me to go around some of the parked cars. I got food (that turned out to be super-super tasty; gosh I like finding new good places to eat♥) and on my way back, I was struck by the color of the trees.

Which sounds kind of lame, and a bit ... well, okay, just lame, but. Because of the drizzle, the sky's kind of a flat pale gray, where your cloud clover is spread so fine that you can't see it, and the sunlight comes through muted but bright. And against that sky, there was a tree -- probably some sort of oak, I'm bad at identifying -- that was this bright almost lime-green, and even though it's the middle of May already, I looked at the tree and the first thing that popped into my head was "Spring!" I ended up just looking at the tree for a while, never mind my half-hour lunch break or the food cooling or the rain or the trucks passing by: there was me and there was a tree, and the tree made me smile because it was just. Pretty. ♥

And now I am back in the office and I'm stretching my lunch by tacking on my break with it. There's still work to do, but it's been slower today than it has for a while, I'm inside where it's dry and warm, my belly's full, and even with the terrible seesawing weather, there are trees that are bright green and forming arches with the surrounding building outside.

It's nice. :)

On the downside, there's also going too far with your metaphors and your phrasings; my mom is a fan of Harlequin romance novels, and like any good daughter, I stole some now and then when I was little and read them. (omg secret revealed?!) The thing that gets me with some of them would be that there was a good story, somewhere in there -- I think there's a reason most stories have a romance subplot, even for the non-romantics out there -- but it'd get bogged down with the ANGST and the LAYERS OF DETAIL and just. It's like stuffing someone genuinely pretty in layers and layers of stiff fancy clothing, then tossing them in the water and expecting them to float.

Of course, years later, I've substituted BL dramas for Mom's Harlequin romances, so obviously they're doing something right. Or I'm just easy. *g* And I mean, what makes a story effective, anyway? What's too much, what's enough? Will I ever figure this out without writing x100 words about it?

Nahhh, probably not.

...

♥ Thanks for reading.

Being at work when you're still sick is the balls, guys. :( But I've already taken two sick days in the past week, so I can't really justify it, even to myself. >_> H-hopefully things will be slow today, and I won't have to actually. Try to explain things to people, because I'm honestly not sure how coherent I'd sound if I actually try talking. ("It's the thing that ... you know? With stuff. Stuff in it. Wow. --Wait, we weren't talking about that at all? Oh.") I spent most of Sunday in bed, intermittently napping and staring at the computer, except for the dragging myself to the grocery store and having my return bus be twenty minutes late.

(So if rain + sun = the fox is getting married, what is it if there's snow + sun?)

ON THE PLUS SIDE:

I HAVE TACTICS V10. CURSE YOU FOR BEING A BIMONTHLY SERIES, NOW I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER YEAR+ TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. :( :( :( :( But resolution that leads into more things that might be going wrong and guys, guys, I LOVE MY FANDOM, tiny and quiet and dead as it might be. ♥ I agree that the series could easily end in a volume or two, but if they DON'T explain some things (like whatever it was that Rin and Ibaragi saw in Kantarou that frightened them so much), I will. Throw things. Or something. :|

There's a new Flogging Molly CD! I love Flogging Molly, but I hadn't seen anything new from them since "Within A Mile Of Home" came out, so I stopped checking on whether or not stuff was coming out. But I was in Barnes & Noble on Saturday with the roommate, and on a whim poked through their music section. So far, "Float" is about what I expected -- which is a good thing! -- fun and upbeat and angry without screaming about it. It's helping me keep awake right now, in fact, which I am grateful for. :Db

My mom is awesome. I idly mentioned to her that I needed to buy some stuff, because I was asking her where she did most of her kitchen-shopping (our measuring cups melted! ;o; well, their labels did at any rate) and half an hour later she called back and was like "So I ordered them for you, FEEL BETTER SOON. :|" Which was actually really unexpected since I am now ostensibly a working independant adult and I was sort of under the impression that aside from birthdays, my parents wouldn't be buying me stuff. It's really nice, when you're sick, to have someone who'll take care of something for you, even if it's only tangentially related. ♥

New BPAL! Our order arrived last week, and I was able to sample them before sickness robbed me of the ability to smell. /o/ I really like my gambled-on scent, too, so even better. :Db

ALSO I FELT LIKE WRITING AGAIN. THAT IS AMAZING AND WONDERFUL AND I WAS VERY PLEASED.

So, in spite of the physical cruds? Not a bad week. \o/

ETA HOWEVER: Guys. Seriously.

How hard is it to spell my name right when it is IN MY PROFESSIONAL SIGNITURE. When it is IN THE EMAIL FIELD and IN MY SIGNATURE and ALL MY TIMESTAMPS. How hard is it. :(

The problem with my life is that things happen, and I think, "this could be entertaining!" but then I'm already going on. Like a katamari, I gain momentum and can't stop!

--or maybe I hit a dip and go to sleep for a while, either is entirely possible. :Db

So, there's this question meme that's been going around LJ for a while -- it's one of those things that seems to come and go in waves, the "ask me anything you want!" open invitation. Part of me thinks it'd be cool to do, but at the same time, I also feel like if I do or say anything confusing, it's just because, uh, well. I'm dumb, and there are times where I don't realize that I've already changed the subject because the conversation finished in my head, but not in reality. (No, really, I've been mocked for this before, because at the end of a sentence, I will say something that totally doesn't go with what came before -- it's because in my head, I edited the sentence I meant to say, but didn't correct myself aloud, hence it's like A-A-A-A-A------Z! when I talk. Not always, but a lot of times; I do it less online, because I can at least look back and see what I've "said" and edit before it goes anywhere.

Usually. Uh.

What I've actually got is a question (though I suppose if people want to ask me something, they can, though I'm not sure how well I can answer beyond an armflail and a "but it made sense at the time!") -- I've been online a long time, see. Twelve years, actually, oh god that's half my life. ... no seriously, in about a month, HALF MY LIFE where I was involved with some version of online fandom. God, that's weird. That's very weird.

During that time, I've preeeeetty much kept the same online psuedonym -- at least since I started in anime fandom (which was pretty early on), I've been going by the same "WhiteCat" nickname. Still, along the way, it's not necessarily like I've been keeping my real name a huge secret; there are a number of people who call me by that, rather than any online nick. Which is cool, but my memory is like a sieve, and I can't always remember who I told and who just found out through, I dunno, Jedi mind tricks or something.

And because I'm a big fan of the name thing -- names have meaning, whether they're something you pick yourself, or someone gives you -- so. I'm curious!

How many of you guys "know" me by my real name? I mean, for those of you I'm friendly with (because I certainly don't expect most of you reading really think of me-the-person, which is totally fine XD) -- and you IRL folks don't count :P -- how am I "named" to you?

This is me totally indulging myself, because I'm a dork and I like names, and every now and then, I like to know what people think of me-as-me, rather than me-the-writing. I WOULD APOLOGIZE BUT I'M STILL CURIOUS. :|




P.S. While I'm asking for things, I, uh. I don't suppose anyone knows if there's stupid Thomas-and-Harry-are-morons wacky hijinks fic for the Harry Dresden series, is there? Noooot interested in pairing stuff for certain reasons, but. You know. Wacky hijinks, guys. :( Gods and fishes know I love 'em.

Today's just been another weird day in a kind of weird week.

Between really weird dreams about wanting to go to the beach (I hate beaches) in time to watch stars crash into the ocean and zombies of my friends rise up (... it's a long story), the phone solicitor that asked me to call IF AND ONLY IF I was a JEW OF THE HOUSE OF ABAD (only, it wasn't a call like "interrupt in the middle of dinner" call, it was a -- "I left a message on this service to call you back at a later time so I could give you my spiel only I got cut off in the middle of my very earnest reassurances that you need to call BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE A JEW OF THE HOUSE OF ABAD"), and then today.

So, like, when I get off work, I can catch a bus at two stops: one that's right in front of the office, but goes down 1st Ave and is sloooooow as all hell. The other is about six blocks away, and I can catch my direct-to-home bus there. As I'm walking, a guy in an Orange Cab Taxi pulls up and asks me if I want a ride. It's free, he insists, totally free, and I -- rather stupidly, I admit -- got in. He was an older guy, with a really heavy accent I couldn't place or quite understand, and he kept asking me questions. Did I have a roommate? Yes, I said, but I didn't know when she'd be home (this is not a lie: I know the ballpark of when miss_arel is coming back from California, but not the exact date/time :p). Did I have a boyfriend (?!?!?!). Uh, yeah, I said, and this was a total lie, but he kept looking back and giving me this really big smile and telling me he was being nice to me, won't I be nice back? I should be nice back, right? Sure, I said, I like being nice to people. (I stressed the people part.)

He went off on this random tangent at one point, saying it was a problem if I had a roommate, then a problem if I had a boyfriend, and he said if I didn't have a roommate, he'd take me home, straight home, for free! Totally free! Isn't that nice of him? (I want to know why it was a bigger problem if I had a roommate as opposed to having a boyfriend, ignoring that one's real and the other isn't, because uh. Well.) I try to make polite but detached conversation, and finally we get to my normal stop and he lets me off for free.

BUT! Not before he gives me a card with his number, asks my name (never have I been so glad about how frequently my name is mistaken for the OTHER spelling) and tells me I should call him, if I call him, he'll TOTALLY COME AND PICK ME UP AND TAKE ME TO WORK, I WILL call, right? Right? I'd better call, right?

I got out of the cab and he drove away.

Then I got on the bus, came home, did some grocery shopping, and now I'm giving the pile of dishes in the sink the hairy eyeball.

Clearly, the days of the week are trying to one-up each other in terms of sheer weird and a little creepy, but. Uh. I think I'm done now, kthx. D:

Definitely not one of my more brilliant moments. HEY GUYS, I'M REALLY STUPID. .___.

No, really, I live. 8D

But I! Just survived! My first week! Of grown-up full-time work! I've got everything set up, and everyone here is really nice, and I am actually entirely enjoying myself. XD I'm doin' stuff, yei!

(Even if I did sort of make an idiot of myself at the orientation, because I started giggling so hard I couldn't talk, and then I ended up crying because I was laughing too much and jeeeeeeeze. XD; Thankfully, people were nice about it. 8D)

And now! I am going to check the que one more time! and then! I am going! HOME!

Excessive exclamation points, HO.

And maybe this weekend! I can get some writing done! Along with sleep, haha. :D