somniloquence

It's been such a busy few weeks, and getting busier -- two potential jobs coming on top of a new book I got today that is the first for a major travel book publisher. I'm very nervous about this one -- even though it sounds like I passed their (insane) test with flying colors, I still feel like it's a lot of work and very unfamiliar territory. The copyediting isn't really, in many respects, the big issue, it's more about the codes. They have the most convoluted typecoding system I've ever seen, and every single thing is coded, so the page is a morass of complicated Quark codes. Still, they give new CEs and proofers 2 hours of paid time on top of the estimated time for the book, so you can peruse their lengthy guides and codes and whatnot.

It's something I'm going to have to do on the couch, because I still can't sit here in my office for very long. I finally ended up at a new chiropractor -- I have always been afraid of chiropractic care because it just seems so incredibly dangerous to have people jerking your spine around, and every time they snap your neck, I am totally skeered that I'm going to be paralyzed for life. But the first time I went to one I was in so much pain that I literally couldn't move, someone had to help me walk from my office chair to my car so I could get to the place, and I instantly felt relief in a way that muscle relaxants and pain pills hadn't given me. I've only been a few times since then, and it took a lot for me to go this time, but my acupuncturist sent me to her guy, and already things are a tiny bit better.

But this time I'm in it for a longer haul -- they're working with me on costs and stuff, so I can do this, but I really wasn't surprised when he showed me how badly out of whack my hips and lower back are on the X-rays. I know it's going to be more than a few treatments; we're talking about probably three to four months before I begin to get a little better. The hard part is taking it easy -- like right now, there is so much work, and the yard is a mess, and so on ad infinitum. Plus, honestly, I'd really like to do something fun, like writing or vidding; not to mention that Yuletide is coming up (although apparently I completely missed all the deadlines for Festivids, c'est la vie).

I have started writing in one of my blogs but it's not much so far, I'm mostly trying to get back in the swing of things. For weeks I was a nervous wreck about this workshop I was doing on Saturday, and it's such a relief now that that's over with and seemed to go well, allowing me to concentrate on funner things. And I even started a tea blog just for the hell of it so I could keep track of all my tea tastings. Which means I'm not without some creative output, but it's not necessarily fannish in nature and I kind of miss that.

The hard part is just that there's nothing that really makes me feel that incredible rush of fannish love right now. I feel like I need to talk about my love/less than love with Fringe right now (I'm so torn! There's Charlie and Broyles in hot, tight black t-shirts in the alternaverse, but I really don't like the alternaverse! I don't like alternaLivia! Walternate creeps me out in a bad way! But then... then they do things like the twin storyline, which just... well, come on. Those of you who know me will know how deeply that story touched me --I was pretty much a blubbering idiot afterward). I'm waiting for next season of Justified. New Burn Notice this week. Chuck is... I don't know what Chuck is right now for me.

Until end of January, I have all the pay premium cable stations, which means I've been able to watch Boardwalk Empire and Dexter in real time (and was able to catch the end of True Blood in real time, too, which was awesome), and Dexter is intriguing me a lot this year (though I am seriously hoping they don't do with Lumen what they've done with everyone else who knows about Dex in the past, I think it would jump so far past the shark if they follow formula here), plus there's bonus skeevy Peter Weller, which is awesome.

Yet even with all this bounty o' TV, I don't feel that heart-fluttering need for fannish content the way I used to. Where is my Buffy equivalent, or my Mag 7 or Fast and Furious passion? I don't know. Maybe it's just that I'm so lonesome lately, and I don't have anyone nearby me to share passions. Most of the shows I watch, I used to watch with other people. That would certainly help a lot. I don't even really have online communities I feel part of for that. I wonder if at Escapade I'll feel as dissociated as I did last year? There's a lot to be said for having fan friends... I'm looking forward to watching Mag 7 with some newbies in a few weeks and seeing how people react to it (and keeping fingers crossed for some fannish interest).

I know some of it is the time of year, too -- as the birthday creeps ever closer, and the feeling that I have nothing to do on that day (everyone's usually busy or gone on T-day weekend) but sit home alone and be reminded that sis_r is gone, overwhelms me, it adds a lot of gloom to an already dark, dreary time of year. I just feel so isolated and alone, and having to be home, resting my back so often makes me feel like even more of a shut-in. I wish there were fun things to do in November. A lot of times I've gone up to Vancouver for my birthday, but this year the person I usually go with is gone. And anyhoo, I have this new job, which is due the day after.

So, I need to go ice my back, and start reading all this material on coding and processes and what have you. Fifty pages of basics, and that doesn't even count the manuscript!

It is more joy day! Yay! I have a very meager entry for more joy, and it's probably only going to give me joy because these are some of my favorite grrls out there. BUT. I have long enjoyed other people's Fights Like a Girl icons, and have wanted to make some for my favorite ladies, many of whom have sadly been kind of forgotten these days. I have some more I want to make a little later, but my arm is killing me at this point, so here are just 8 girl fighting icons with some current and distant faves. Take, share -- I'm not the best artist in the world and not very skilled with p-shop, but I love playing around anyway.

( Fight like girls )

OK, first things first: I was wrong, but most importantly, YOU were right. It's true that pinch-hits don't mean Christmas blues. I got not one, but FOUR freaking stories, and apparently there are more Madness stories still to come. I'M NOT WORTHY. And it sounds like possibly the person who defaulted still put the story up, and it sounds like something terrible happened (so of course now don't I feel like a shitheel). And they are all great.

My pressies, let me show you them!!!

So, I get these two wonderful Christmas cakes of Buckaroo Banzai.
Saddle Up is a wonderful post-movie depiction of Buckaroo's intentions of bringing Rawhide back to life. And just about anyone at the Institute in the movie makes an appearance, and there's this wonderful little pun of Johns who come to help.
and then
The Adventures of Rawhide: Navigating An End and a Beginning (With Bloody Feet) is a look at the post-Peggy Buckaroo, with glimpses back to how Rawhide met him and some adorable case-file names and nemeses. It's beautifully written and I'm thrilled.

And more cake! MORE CAKE, PEOPLE! White Collar cake, to be precise.
The Great God-Daughter Caper has Neal and Peter chasing around looking for Peter's missing 16-year-old god-daughter and being Neal and Peter together. Aaaaaaahhhh.

So there's the cake and then I get this SURPRISE FROSTING. My little fandom that there are hardly any others who have even seen it, the fandom where I was the only one who mentioned it this year (last year I bullied someone else into offering it, but this year it was just my lone request, no offers), MDs, and someone wrote me a Bruce/Robert story with smut! I AM SO HAPPY. Happy happy frosting. It's called What's Worth Keeping and you know what? THIS STORY is worth keeping!

And then there was a cherry! A little Chuck ficlet called Reverse Surveillance where Chuck might just turn the tables on Casey watching him all the time. EEEEEEEE. Chuck and Casey.

I am going to be sitting on that horrible plane and in the horrible airports just thinking about these stories and being happy, so watch out air travel, you can't get me down now! I dare you! I HAZ BUCKAROO, WHITE COLLAR, MDs, AND CHUCK STORIEZ!

OMG, I 3> Chuck from last week and this week so, so much. But AUGH, everything seems like it's setting up for a complete ending because they know they're being cancelled for realz. NO!!!!! I cannot live without my happy-place Chuck. I will have no more happy places left.

( How awesome was Capt. Awesome? )

So... I've waited four days, and still no posts on my flist about Chuck Monday night? Really?? Am I the only one still watching it? I can't be, I think I remember seeing people post about loving the show. Maybe I'm the only one who likes all three of the main leads, including seeing a potential for Chuck/Casey (not to mention a 3some with Chuck/Sarah/Casey)?

( Surely there must be fic after that? )