chaos is what killed the dinosaurs, darling

Officially moved into the new office. Nothing about this situation is truly ideal, but I have my own cubicle (no sharing a double-wide with pocky_slash) and no one can sneak up on me? And there's not much room in the cube for more bodies, so theoretically people won't insert themselves into my space quite as much. So there's that. \o? I have a ton of work-stuff to get done this week that I maybe put off during the packing process, and I need to get on that before the VP has my head. My vacation starts next week, too, so I should probably get all my ducks in a row before then.

The original plan for vacation was a trip down to Jersey, but I'm going to spend it in Boston instead. I'm probably going to sleep a lot, try to finish my big bang, and read some more books. If I can figure out the Cape Flyer thing, I may take a day trip down to the Cape and spend some time on a beach. I feel pretty good about this.

In reading news: I finished Cloud Atlas last night. AMAZING. I had no expectations going into it, just that the movie previews made it sound interesting, and I was utterly floored. I may need to buy a copy to keep forever (I'd borrowed the ebook from BPL). Started Rivers of London (Midnight Riot, whatever) and am pretty in love with Peter Grant so far. It reminds me a lot of the Dresden books (urban fantasy with mystery/detective storytelling), and I've been told that it does certain things better? We'll see.

Hannibal ended, and I can't really deal with that finale. paper_tzipporah and I started Orphan Black, which is just fantastic, and I'm eagerly awaiting the start of the third Almighty Johnsons series. Teen wolf is...well, it's Teen Wolf. I'm pleased with a lot of things that have been happening, but I've also been severely disappointed with some things. And I need to stay in my corner of the fandom, which is mainly just Joni and me at this point. At least the company is good.

I'm hungry, and I can't remember if the microwaves came with us or not, and I forgot to make a sandwich this morning. :\

Normally the first day back to work after vacation is terrible, but today is terrible magnified 1000 times. I'm pleased that things seem to have gone smoothly while I was gone, and it's relieving to know that most people managed to do what I needed them to without a lot of problems, but it's those few who just can't get their shit together no matter what that are bugging the shit out of me. Just do what I tell you! Don't argue with me! Those are the rules!

Ugh.

Anyway, vacation was mostly great. The kids were well-behaved 99% of the time, the museum was awesome (except for the panic attack I had), and the private suite we had at Yankee Stadium spoiled me for everything ever. Also we went for manicures on Saturday, and my nails are all glittery and wonderful.

I worked on my big bang a little by repurposing a piece of a Teen Wolf story I'd started last summer and never did anything with. I was bummed that it was just sitting in my gdocs gathering dust, so I'm happy that it was easily editable and fits with what I want to write. Still need to outline the rest of the story, but it's nice to have a beginning at least, you know? (Of course, everything I write now will be jossed by the start of season 3 in a few weeks, but whatever, it can be AU as of season 2, it's cool.)

Uh, I also started watching Vikings. I didn't expect to like it quite so much, but it's pretty great, and I want all of the fic for it immediately. I even wrote a little fluffy thing last night for pearl_o. :D? And there's another story I have in the works as of this past Thursday. ( Most of you probably don't care. )

...that may end up being longer than a ficlet. Balls. But yeah, that's a thing.

I suppose I should get back to work now. Hmph.

Work had a 2-hour delayed opening this morning, which is not what I was hoping would happen. I mean. I made it in safely and all that, but my bed was SUPER WARM and SUPER COMFORTABLE this morning, and it's snowing REALLY HARD still. :\ :\ :\

I continue to be exhausted and am also running low on patience and good will. This week has been especially stressful because of the mouse that invaded our apartment. Like, I tend to think of myself as mostly able to deal with various household pests (uh, by virtue of not having my dad around to make them go away anymore), but I've lost my shit so many time in the last few days, it's ridiculous. I hate it, the end.

But there have been some positives, too.

+I claimed a mix for bigbang_mixup, and it's excellent. I think I have the bare bones of an idea for what I want to write, so now it's just a matter of typing up some thoughts and making sure my mixer is cool with everything.

+Doug talked me into buying a blu-ray player. Well. The conversation basically went:

Me: I pre-ordered The Hobbit!
Doug: On blu-ray, right?
Me: No, I don't have a player.
Doug: You should get one of those.
Me: ...I do have that Amazon gift card.

And so on and so forth. The one I bought connects to our wireless, too, so we can watch Netflix in the living room now. :D

+Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis, and James Nesbitt answered fan questions on Twitter on Wednesday. Just. *flail* Adorable!

+I managed to complete and post a story on Sunday. \o/ It was a Hobbit RPF kink meme fill, and I'm debating whether or not to de-anon. Not like I haven't posted RPF before, etc.

+Three more weeks until vacation. I can totally do this.

In conclusion, kitty snuggles:

I'm alive! Kind of.

Work is an epic shitshow. I honestly can't even begin to explain what's going on. I pretty much come home at night and zone out in front of the TV until it's time for bed because it literally hurts to think. In summary, work is terrible, and I hate people.

TV's been good to me this season so far, so yaaaay. This week's H50 gave us Danny and Steve stuck in a boat (a dinghy) in the middle of an ocean for most of an episode, which was pretty much everything I could have hoped and dreamed it would be. I'm not all that thrilled with what's happened with Chin since the premiere started - on the one hand, I'm all over these family moments the team is having with each other like white on rice. On the other hand, I didn't want them ( spoilers )

I started watching Made in Jersey for lack of another Friday night show. It's cute! Not the greatest show out there, but it's lighthearted and fun, and I like the main character a lot. I've a feeling it won't go very far, but we'll see, I guess? Other shows I'm enjoying: Elementary (LEGITIMATELY, too! I was cool with liking it out of spite, but it's not bad! Joan Watson Appreciation Society always), The Voice (CAN'T HELP IT), and Storage Wars. One day I will catch up on Suits and Revenge. I think I DVR'd the first episode of Arrow, though I'm not sure I'll actually watch it.

Project Runway is almost over, and All Stars starts on the 25th. Whatever, this season hasn't been terrible. I think the show has lost of steam since the network change (among other things), but while I've been tempted to give it up more than once in the last couple of seasons, I keep going back to it. /shrug

I have zero interest in Once Upon A Time - wait, scratch that, I had interest in it, but the first few episodes of season one lost me. HOWEVER. I've been hemming and hawing over at least watching the parts of the show that have Jamie Chung as Mulan because I'm intrigued by her? and her really cool-looking armor? And then this morning I saw caps of her alongside Sinqua Walls as Lancelot, and my brain went YES, THIS IS GOOD, VERY GOOD. I'll be watching the Mulan pieces that have already aired, and I've asked metonymy to alert me to when Lancelot actually appears on the show. For, uh, reasons.

(Look, I want only good things for Sinqua. He was sorely underused on Teen Wolf last season - I'm not sure Jeff Davis realizes that there's a decent number of people who watch the show who don't give a fuck about Hoechlin, Colton, and/or Posey. I'm not saying get rid of them entirely, but come on, Davis. I want at least three episodes next season where Stiles, Lydia, Boyd, Erica, Isaac, and Allison just chill together. Nothing has to happen, except maybe some group cuddling. I don't think I'm asking for too much here.)

(THIS IS AN UNTAPPED GOLDMINE, DAVIS. CALL ME.)

I guess I've been doing other things, too, though fuck if I remember most of them. Went apple-picking and ate cider donuts this weekend. Baked pies. Made applesauce. Have been having really weird dreams (woohoo, work stress). This Friday I'm having dinner with sky_was_green, and Saturday paper_tzipporah and I are building a blanket fort at her apartment because we are adults and have adult problems now. I'm woefully behind on my big bang and haven't even thought about my exchange fic yet. I really want to see Pitch Perfect and Looper and Alex Cross. THINGS. ETC.

ANYWAY. How's it hanging, friends? Everybody in one piece, more or less? :D?

Back at work. *faceplant* Today there's really no supervision as both bosses are out still, so I suspect there won't be too much actual work done. I mean. I have a few things I should accomplish before tomorrow, but I'm not in any rush to do them. Need some time to recuperate from vacation, you know? And I have a bunch of little stories I need to finish this week for various deadlines. Wee!

So I realize that some shit went down with the comments on LJ last week - I've set this journal up so that it's not whatever the default is, FYI. But since it seems like a bunch of you are migrating over to DW, some permanently, I feel like I should put this out there: here is my journal there. Same name and everything. Not moving myself, but I'm going to try to be better about cross-posting than I have been, so feel free to comment at either location if you're interested. I don't know what I'm going to do about hardlyabird, but since I post all of that to AO3 anyway, I'm not sure that it really matters.

Anyway. I figure it's better to have my entries archived in both places in case one or the other goes kaboom. *shrug* LJ is still my main base of operations; I'll try to remember to check DW in case any of you choose not to cross-post here. I don't want to fall out of touch with you guys! <3

Okay, uh, back to work? For all values of work that equal writing fic. :D?

Jesus. You spend a DAY out of the office, and you come back to 5 voicemails from the same person about the same goddamn thing. I appreciate this person finally getting back to me and all, but LADY. COOL IT. OBVIOUSLY I'M NOT AROUND TO ANSWER YOUR PHONE CALLS. (This in addition to an email from a consumer - not in my inbox but in one that I'm responsible for - that makes very little sense to me and will have to wait until Doug gets in, despite the fact that it came in on Wednesday night. Sorry, person.)

Uggghhhh. Empathy levels are low. I have to finish a story and have it beta read by midnight on Sunday (I started it last weekend, but then I got distracted by Suits and my own inadequacies, so. Oops). paper_tzipporah is coming over tonight with wine and a terrible movie. I need to clean the apartment and do my laundry and pack for next week. I have lots of work-work to get done today so I'm not running around like a crazy person on Monday and Tuesday.

On the bright side, I am feeling a bit more positive today, despite being tired and more than a little grouchy about Other People's Opinions. Anyway.

Here is a little excerpt from the Suits fic I most certainly should NOT be writing right now because there is too much going on. And yet I am only halfway through what was supposed to be a quick thing. >:(

( But their faaaaaaaaces are really gooooooooood. )

OKAY. GETTING BACK TO WORK IN 5...4...3...2...