chaos is what killed the dinosaurs, darling

Thanks to the snow and rain we got this weekend, Boston is now a block of ice. You can imagine how exciting my walk to the bus stop and to the office was this morning. Weeeeee. :\

Anyway, things!

Yesterday I went to the MFA with sky_was_green and barbed_whispers! Karen's a member, so we were able to get into the Sargent watercolors exhibit super early - not that the museum was at all crowded the whole time we were there (the bad weather did serve a purpose, I suppose), but it was nice to wander around and see only the guards and two or three other visitors. Strange, but nice. We also got to go through the She Who Tells a Story exhibit, which was AMAZING and possibly my favorite thing I saw yesterday. It's closing on January 12, so if you're around Boston between now and then and haven't seen it, I highly recommend you check it out.

Karen and I also went on a gallery lecture called "Expats, Immigrants, and Exiles: Geopolitics and Art" led by this really great and knowledgable grad student who I desperately want to be BFFs with. I would HAPPILY listen to her talk about art and identity and cultural context for the rest of my life. I also want to buy her a million drinks for deftly handling this one dude's inability to understand American South =\= Mexico. (Just. All the applause for this woman, holy shit.)

Other thing that happened: DESOLATION OF SMAUG. starsparkle333, paper_tzipporah, and I went to the midnight premiere and HOLY FUCK, YOU GUYS. I'll...just go ahead and put the rest of my thoughts under a cut, because there will be spoilers. Uh, I should preface this part by saying that I really do love the movie and want to see it a million more times. DON'T THROW ANYTHING AT ME.

( HOBBITSSSSSSS )

In conclusion: I may have reached the perfect balance of critical and batshit-in-love fangirl on this one. /shrug

This week in Television I Devoured: The Almighty Johnsons.

I totally admit I started watching it because my Dean O'Gorman problem reached the level previously occupied mostly by Holland Roden and Dylan O'Brien (so, like, the epically attached to his face level - but I'm trying to play this one cool, hush), but the rest of the characters hooked me by the end of the first episode. Also, I'm deliriously happy that they're filming series three right now, because I watched the series two finale this afternoon, and MAN. There may have been some sniffling and flaily NO NO NO NOT GOOD hands from me, is all I'm saying.

(I'm still processing the whole thing, otherwise I'd have more thoughts for you. I will say one thing: if series three could be all about the goddesses lounging around the apartment above the bar, drinking together and giggling a lot, I would be a very happy Retbot. Dawn can come too, because she's great and I love her the MOST, and she needs a vacation from Anders.)

(No but really, I have a lot of feelings for and about Dawn. She is my favorite.)

Anyway, that's sort of my life right now, besides writing and work and occasionally having epiphanies about Teen Wolf.

( Here, have some pictures of my niece and nephews to make up for my boringness. )

I NEED A DO-OVER FOR TODAY. ACTUALLY FOR MY WHOLE LIFE. AAAHHHHHHH. But whatever, let's ignore the problem for now.

Last night metonymy and I saw The Hobbit together (my third time! I am probably going to see it again on Friday! Look, I need to see it at least five times, because that's how many times I saw the other LOTR movies in theaters). I have a lot of dwarf-related feelings. Uh, mostly that they're a bunch of endearingly idiotic people, but also about them wanting to reclaim their home and no one being willing to help them except this totally unimportant hobbit who didn't even want to go in the first place. I may have spent a lot of time rocking back and forth in bed last night over this.

So, you know. In addition to work being all weird today, I'm getting beaten with the feelings stick. Pretty sure my feel-o-meter is at a solid 9, at least.

And I'm still poking at the coffee shop AU because of reasons.

( Bilbo is reluctantly fond of Fili and Kili. Goddamnit. )

Hmph.

I guess change is in the air? Or something? And by 'change,' I mean the need for a new wardrobe. I mean this in all seriousness, actually - fall is swiftly approaching, my jeans are all but worn out, and I have one pair of work-appropriate, non-jean pants that still fit me. I need shoes that aren't flip-flops or ten steps from falling apart. I have some cold weather tops that are probably good for another year but no plain long-sleeve tshirts that still fit me. I have plenty of ankle socks but probably need knee-high socks and some thicker tights. I definitely need a new winter coat. Basically I need to toss about three quarters of my current wardrobe and obtain a decent number of new pieces that I can rotate on a regular basis.

My clothing priorities are shifting, which is throwing me off. I still prefer jeans and tshirts, but I'm starting to realize that I need button-downs and nice pants/skirts and better sweaters for the office more than I need a new superhero tshirt (lies, I always need those). Can't wear sneakers and flip-flops all the time, either - have to toe the line between comfort and office-appropriate footwear.

...dear god. Is this the next stage of growing up? Is this what that feels like? Or is it yet another part of the quarter life crisis I've been battling for the last couple months?

Anyway. I bought new shoes this morning - ankle boots that I've been told will go with skirts AND pants - so that's a good start, at least. I'll hold off on everything else for a bit. Maybe I can convince Cathy to go shopping for me - she tends to make smarter clothing decisions than I do.

Ah, Tuesday. You're weird.

EDIT: I also need to decide whether I'm growing my hair out or keeping it short. It's just about shoulder-length again. Why is this so hard. :(

So last night I was complaining about how there just isn't enough kissing fic in my life - like, as much as I don't understand the appeal of makeouts in real life, I just want all of my favorite characters to kiss each other a lot? Which I feel is a totally just and righteous demand to make. Look, makeouts seem like nice things in theory, so there should be more examples of it.

Whatever, I just want there to be a lot of kissing and I don't care what fandom it's in, shut up.

Anyway, paper_tzipporah promised me commentfic if I prompted this on LJ. I think this will benefit everyone in the long run, so if you feel like joining in, you totally should. Look, I even wrote Hawaii Five-0 OT4 makeouts last night. Maybe I will write more this afternoon. Who knows.

:D?

Somewhere along the line, I don't know where, I developed an anon meme addiction. I was only peripherally aware of their existence before last month, but apparently they're now something I check a couple times a week (only two memes, I feel I should clarify that point). I know that it's an unhealthy attachment, and there have been plenty of moments where I wanted to reach through my computer screen and strangle an annoying anon. That being said, I've also read some comments and gone OH GOOD I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS THIS, etc. As with all things in life, anon memes are a mixed bag.

I suspect that my fascination with them stems from being, for the most part, out of touch with fandom opinions at large. I've spent about half my life in fandom, yes, but I so rarely interact with people outside my friends list (and many of you aren't even in my current fandoms right now, so) that I have NO IDEA what's going on most of the time. Anon memes are chock full of opinions and wank and scandal that I wouldn't have heard about until five years down the road! Plus I am not-so-secretly desperate for gossip. I like to know things! Of course, knowing things would be a lot more useful if I actually knew 99% of the people these anons are gossiping about. I don't recognize most usernames on LJ or AO3 unless I'm friends with the person, so I'm always like MAN THIS WANK IS FASCINATING but who -? (My memory is a terrible thing, friends. I remember obscure facts about The Silmarillion, which I haven't read since high school, but god forbid I be able to tell you who wrote the super amazing awesome fic I read last night.)

Anyway, all this to say I have a problem. Haven't quite reached the comment tracking point, but I don't doubt that I'll hit that in the very near future.

Uh, besides anon memes and furiously trying to finish my big bangs, I haven't been all that enamored with fandom. Like, it's a serious shift in my life that I am currently more concerned with writing than I am with reading every fic I can get my hands on. That...is probably more to do with me being dissatisfied with what my fandoms are offering at the moment than anything else. Basically a lot of people are writing things that make them happy, and that is an awesome, good thing, but personally I am not interested in any of it. SHRUG. I'll just be over here, crying over how no one is writing the stories I want to read.

And that's enough rambling. Back to work, I guess.

I have a terrible mental block right now. Like, I've gone through most of my in progress docs and done some editing here and there on the BBMUs to make sure all the pieces connect properly, but I cannot for the life of me add anything new without wanting to burn the whole thing. :\ I'm hoping that maybe doing some drabbles/commentfics will help? So let's bring this back for a couple hours:

Comment with a character or pairing and a brief prompt. I'll give you a few sentences in response.

:D?

Eventually I will be able to do stuff from off my actual to-do list. The following snippet comes from my future to-do list, which is apparently much more ~*attractive*~. Which is probably fair, but not very helpful at the mo. *shrug*

What I'm trying to say is, I'm going to be writing a Steve/Pepper/Tony fic eventually, and here is part of the beginning. Movie 'verse, for those of you who care.

( If I couldn't have you, I'd rather be alone )

It's Halloween! Let's do a little trick or treating, shall we? Comment here (as many times as you like) with "Trick or Treat!" and a request (for a picture, or a drabble, or something!) or a prompt or whatever, and I'll either respond with whatever that is (treat!), or I'll give you something entirely different of my choosing (trick!).

:DDD

( Scary Things and Me. )

How are things, friends? Everyone hanging in there?