Selenay's Ramblings

For the first time in ages, possibly months, I had time to do all my regular chores without skipping things or drafting in help from Mum. It was glorious. I never though I'd get excited about having time to clean my bathroom, until even getting laundry done required help from the mothership.

As much as I've loved my summer of family visiting me and going travelling, it's really taken a toll on my ability to get anything done.

The best part was that I had time to do my chores *and* spend a lovely afternoon on Saturday walking by the canal and drinking delicious hot chocolate. Our original plan was for that to be a Sunday activity, but we looked at the weather forecast on Friday evening and changed that plan. Good thing, too, because I had a migraine on Sunday night and slept through it for long enough to miss the window where my really good pills would work. So I had to take the less good ones, which resulted in the migraine taking ages to go and then me feeling hungover and miserable even after it went. Quality Sunday, that one :-(

Thanksgiving is coming up. This has been a bit problematic in the past, with my aunt being unwilling to commit to a plan until almost the day and other shenanigans. Not to mention, she is incapable of cooking anything even remotely resembling a "small" turkey, and always sends me home with a massive quantity of leftovers so I feel like I've been eating turkey forever by the time we get to Christmas and there's EVEN MOAR TURKEY OMG.

(I am not the biggest turkey fan. Sorry.)

Last year, due to my aunt's planning shenanigans and my dad's visit overlapping with T-day, we opted to do our own thing. We had a cashew roast instead of turkey, all the trimmings, and it was lovely. Best of all, when Christmas arrived, I actually enjoyed the turkey fest because I hadn't been turkeyed out already.

(It helped that my cousin guarded my leftovers plate and didn't let my aunt add half the turkey after I selected quantity I was happy to take home with me. She always tries to sneak a ton of extras onto me, even though she's been told many times not to. I did end up with half an apple pie and a quarter of a huge lemon meringue pie, but there's no escaping my aunt's inability to understand that it's not my thing at Christmas and I'd much rather eat Christmas pud and mince pies. If she can't supply two types of pie, she's failed in her Christmas hostess duties. Even though only me and one cousin can actually *eat* pie without being very ill. Diabetics and Coeliacs rah.)

In view of that, Mum and I made a radical suggestion: how about we not have turkey? And, you know, make a plan a number of days in advance instead of the day before?

So this year, we're having lamb and many trimmings. Mum and I are hosting, so we can selected the size of lamb joint and avoid my aunt's massive over-catering issues. It's all quite stress-free and lovely so far. Hopefully it will continue that way.

(She'll bring us a pumpkin pie and an apple pie, won't she? And two extra dishes of stuffing. And some sweet potatoes and a dish of mash. Just in case. She's done it before.)

Things I need to do this weekend:

- Edit a short Peggy/Angie fic and send to beta
- Write some words on the demon!Clint fic and pretend not to see the short original story I accidentally started this week
- Read
- Sleep
- Sleep
- Sleep
- Catch up on telly box things
- Sleep

So, you know, it's a busy weekend I have planned there :-)

Sadly, I'm also supposed to work for a few hours on Sunday morning. Grr. That's going to interrupt the sleep schedule.

Last night, I got curious and watched the pilot for The 100, which I hadn't bothered with last year because it sounded so totally ridiculous. Except people keep Tweeting about how good it is, and I needed to find out how wrong I'd been.

Damn.

It's a good thing it's all on Netflix, that's all I'm saying. My attempts to catch up on tell box things might end up getting derailed by binge watching all of it.

(Someone please explain how I got sucked back into Holby viewing, please? I'd gone cold turkey for a year and then I watched one episode and now I'm so off the wagon it's not funny.)

(Someone make me feel better about buying sushi for supper tonight. I cannot think of a single thing I want to eat tonight that's not sushi, even though I'm supposed to be on a takeout freeze for January.)

(Someone take away the parenthesis keys on my keyboard.)

Over the last two weeks my stress levels have reached the kind of levels where I'm either going to end up sick or fall over in a heap of crying. Last night I bowed out of knit night early because I was so tired. I had a browse in the bookshop we meet in and *the books scared me* because of all the words. That's how overwhelmed I am. So this weekend my plan is to do everything I can to de-stress. Tomorrow is my day off and, touch wood, I'll actually *get* my day off. So I've got three days to get less stressed :-D

Plans tomorrow include:

- Hairdresser for colour and cut
- Sleeping in
- Quality time with my unread comics and stack of books from the library
- A long, long soak in the bath with some kind of bath melt that includes lavender
- Yummy pasta carbonara for supper

I'm terrible at staying the bath. No joke, I'm never able to do it unless I've got something to read or listen to. So I'm looking for recs!

Audiobooks! Podfic! Stuff that will make me laugh or sigh but absolutely no nightmares! What should I be listening to in the bath tomorrow? And in the car next week and so forth? (Don’t worry, the iPod sits well away from the bath and I listen to it on speakers).

Also, if anyone has favourite headphones they love then I'm looking to replace my iPod earbuds with something that isn't falling apart. They need to be small and compact (so I can throw them in my handbag easily) but comfortable. And if they've got noise cancelling dodads then that would be awesome. Tell me about your earphones, I need some guidance.

Saturday's plans currently include:

- Comic shop
- French patisserie (it's been months since I did that)
- More reading of library books and comics
- Watching Iron Man 1 & 2
- Ordering takeout for supper

I'm going to need to make some granola and visit the bank and buy light bulbs over the weekend, but those are tiny little things. Mostly this weekend will be about relaxing and trying to get myself back into the habit of sleeping at night.

Apart from anything else, if I'm this exhausted and stressed at the end of next week then Iron Man 3 after work on Friday may not go well. Exhausted me plus 3D glasses seems like a bad combo. I want to squee, not fall asleep midway through because I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open even for an awesome film.

I really know how to do a day off *right*. So far today I have:

- Been to my new new GP (blood pressure fine, here's a new script, see you again in six months).
- Exercised to celebrate my good blood pressure.
- Folded laundry.

And the rest of this morning is going to be spent replying to AO3 comments. Do I know how to live or what?

This afternoon I plan to veg out on the couch with some writing, some fic, and a book that's due back at the library on Thursday. If I'm feeling really indulgent, I may start working on my Easter chocolate.

Actually, my afternoon plans are pretty much my idea of heaven so it's not all bad :-D And having a quiet day before another rough week at work will be great.

Tomorrow my entire department is going curling for the afternoon. I've already said that I won't be going on the ice (I don't think my boss wants to spend the afternoon in the ER with me while I get my knee/hip/shoulder/wrist/whatever else I can dislocate relocated so he's happy with this) so I'm going to be cheering on my co-workers and snacking on treats.

Apparently I have to yell "Harder!" or "Go hard!" or something along those lines. Right. Yes. Curling. Filled with innuendo-laced cheers, apparently.

The last week has sort of got away from me to a large degree. It feels like I've spent most of my time paddling madly, trying not to get swept away by other stuff.

My traditional three day monthly migraine didn't help with that sensation. Sadly, my vow to talk to a doctor about it didn't work out because I'm yet again between GPs, waiting for my new one to start. Argh.

This means that I haven't done the reading that I wanted to do and although I've been writing, most of it hasn't been on the things that I actually *need* to write. You know, like the femslash12 fic that is now on version three because I keep writing 2,000 words and hating all of them.

This time I'm trying a different POV character and I don't hate it quite so much. Words, how do you work?

The one thing that I did achieve that's of use was accompanying mum to the garden center on Saturday to choose bulbs for our flower bed. It's going to be gorgeous in the spring.

This week I need to do the following:

1) Read Plain Kate so it can go back to the library
2) Read the latest volume of The Unwritten for the same reason
3) Finish the femslash12 fic
4) Start the C/C exchange fic
5) Edit and post Courting for Dummies #4 (aiming to post tomorrow!)
6) Catch up on TV such as Merlin, Holby and Downton
7) Buy new pillows, pillow cases and a towel
8) Get my hair cut

So, you know, that's a nice short to do list...

According to Amazon, my Avengers DVD will be arriving tomorrow.

Eeep!

That's a whole day earlier than I though I'd get it. Wonder whether I can persuade the parents to have a movie night tomorrow...

My mother has arranged the weekend for me already. It's my day off on Friday so we're going for a long drive down the coast. The parents are bribing me with lunch. And on Saturday we're heading over to the city. I'm hoping that I can persuade them to leave me in the comic shop while they buy very important...stuff...from the outdoor gear shop. I may have blanked a little when Mum was explaining the stuff...

Sunday is always packed with church and family stuff and Skyping with people in England. I'm feeling pretty cruddy and tired today so there's a high chance that at some stage I'll collapse into a sniffly heap of ickness due to the over-booking.

( Cut for book delay venting )

I've got to finish at least two more books this months. Tonight shall be dedicated to finishing City of Bones and possibly starting Batwoman: Elegy.

First and most importantly: a call for information!

I've checked wikipedia and the Marvel wiki, but I want to be sure that I'm not missing some random mention that everyone except for me knows about.

Is there an established birth date for Clint Barton?

I need to know For Reasons (yes, ficcing reason, OK I admit it).

This thought prompted by working out a timeline for the Damage Limitation series. There is a timeline. With several more fics plotted. My crackerific series that started with a dubious one shot has an *arc*. What the hell, guys?

I also made the discovery this morning that I'd accidentally used the name of a minor Marvel character as an OC in a fic *headdesk* I've added a note to the fic and vowed to check every bloody database completely before I name any other OCs. Oh, Marvel, so many minor characters!

( Cut for weekend babble )

The other adventure over the weekend was hitting the Avengers at the cinema. For viewing number four :-D Every bit as awesome as I remember and I noticed a few things that I hadn't spotted before. Most importantly, I noticed that Natasha's Widow's Sting gets used against a Chitauri during one the big battle sequence and I nearly squeed out loud.

My Natasha fangirling, see me go.

I actually endured 3D for this showing. I figured that as I already had a horrid headache, it couldn't make things too much worse and I was right about that. The 3D wasn't as distracting as I thought it would be (and I concede, I spotted a few things that I hadn't noticed in 2D showings due to the different perspective) but I still prefer my films in 2D.

Mostly due to the discomfort of the glasses and my general feeling that 3D doesn't add enough to the experience to warrant it being as popular as it is.

Yesterday my mother caught my Annie-cat in a compromising position with my shower cap.

Even she admitted that the cat was making love to the cap. OMG, mother!

Actually, the biggest oddness about it was that Mum hadn't caught Annie with my shower cap on previous visits. That cat is frankly embarassing if she gets her little paws on my shower cap.

Kate has now taken to sitting in a particular spot in the kitchen at medicine time, waiting for her 'treat'. And shouting if I'm late. Tonight there is no more medicine. She's in for a big disappointment.

There are days when I am deeply concerned about my cats and my relationship with my cats.

It is Friday and this is an utterly brilliant thing because I'm so incredibly tired that I might fall over soon. I'm just hoping that I can get eight hours of sleep tonight so that I feel a bit less ick.

Tomorrow my main job of the day is to make a batch of savoury muffins. Then I'll probably spend some time writing and get some reading done. I'd really like to get Marvel Big Bang finished this weekend and get a certain chunk of the AU I'm writing done.

See, I have goals. Muffins and fic. These seem like good goals :-D

Good things about my weekend: finally seeing Spiderman.

Bad things about my weekend: Woken up at 7am due to construction across the street, the men's cycling road race, yesterday evening's migraine.

Yeah, so the film was the highlight and otherwise the weekend sucked *sigh*

Hopefully this weekend will be better. Due to the way my new hours work out and a federal holiday, I have a four day weekend coming up :-D In fact, due to a coincidence of dates I'll be working four day weeks for the next three weeks. Woo!

Now, if the guys building the house across the street can get rained off on my days off, it will be perfect :-D

No writing happened over the weekend, but I did get some ideas and make some changes to the Marvel Big Bang outline. There are no longer any sections that say "something interesting happens here" and one of the things that was concerning me (the fact that Natasha is just sort of lurking around with nothing to do for large chunks of the story) got resolved with the changes. I'm feeling pretty happy with that. I'm also starting to suspect that this fic is going to be looooooong.

And I need to have the first draft ready by early September. I can do it. Right?

I was all psyched up to have a brilliant day because any day that starts with the radio playing one of your favourite (sappy) songs is automatically brilliant and it's Friday and...

...and then I came to work.

It appears that this was my major mistake of the day. Why do we bother to do all this requirements gathering and use case malarkey if we're going to be given TOTALLY THE WRONG INFORMATION every single bloody time?

*ahem*

And my manager keeps trying to help us this week. For the love of god, will someone give that man something to do so that he doesn't interfere with our work? Surely someone has some urgent resourcing charts that he can play with? He'll love using all the pretty colours that Excel can hold, I promise.

Er, yes, I do tend to feel that my manager is best left in a quiet corner with some glitter pens and construction paper rather than trying to 'help' us. Although he does occasionally get us good chocolate when we're looking particularly desperate. It's the reason we like him.

Still, I've got a weekend lined up filled with cycling and tennis. There are good books to read. And if I haven't finished 5 Things by Sunday evening, feel free to yell at me and wave pointy stakes, OK?

So when 3.30pm rolls around (no, my new hours *still* haven't been approved although all the other departments are on their new hours grump grump grump manager) I'm out of here and my day will improve drastically. Maybe I'll even talk Mum into pizza for supper.

ETA: Day got better - my local con announced Gail Simone as a guest. OMG. With Brandon Sanderson, John Rhys Davies, and Nicholas Briggs already announced, it’s something I’m definitely going to need to go to.