Thoughts on the Journey

From k_a_webb a meme that gives me an excuse to update. She gave me 27.

If you comment here with the words "I wanna play" I will assign you a number from 15-30 of facts about yourself to post about yourself in your journal.

1-I'm allergic to pretty much the entire bee and wasp family-the vespids.
2-I lived in New Zealand for three years.
3-I speak French and can read and write Latin and Ancient Greek.
4-I always have a book in my purse-current one Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel Jose Older.
5-Country music is my comfort music.
6-The best way for me to finishing writing a fic is if I'm writing it as a gift for someone or as part of a fic exchange.
7-I didn't get my driver's license until I moved back from New Zealand in 2008.
8-My dream job would be as a youth librarian at a small public library or a middle school librarian.
9-I hate the texture of raw coconut.
10-My two favorite kinds of tea are English Breakfast and Earl Grey.
11-At the moment I live in a seaside town with a lot of retirees.
12-For every new book I'm reading, I'm always rereading an old favorite at the same time.
13-I love working as a fact-checker, its intense and interesting and has helped me feel far more confident in my research abilities.
14-Every day I wear my watch, two bracelets and always put on earrings and a necklace.
15-I discovered my first grey hair was I was in my sophomore year of high school and have a grey/silver streak hidden in my hair.
16-I'm part of a blended family, the youngest and the glue with two older brothers and an older sister.
17-I studied abroad in Athens in 2002 and whenever I read about Greece's troubles, I remember how beautiful the country is and how kind the people were.
18-I've been wearing glasses since fourth grade and contacts since my senior year of college.
19-I miss having a cat.
20-If I won the lottery, I would pay off friends' debts then travel to see everyone especially my new nephew.
21-I was raised as a Quaker and consider myself one.
22-I don't like the taste of coffee.
23-My favorite color is dark blue.
24-I know how to do stage makeup.
25-I get my best ideas when walking or driving.
26-My great-grandfather was a Congressman, a member of the House of Representatives.

My Christmas is off to a wonderful start. Last night we opened presents and I'm already enjoying one of them, a clever tea infuser that is lovely and I'm now enjoying loose leaf tea for the first time in a while. It even fits wonderfully into the tall mug that my brother gave me last weekend.

I have two new books, one I've already started reading and another I plan on playing with a lot. One is My Dear Cassandra, a gorgeous, illustrated book of Jane Austen's letters to her sister and the other is the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. I've wanted this cookbook since I've known it was going to happen but hadn't bought it. I'm going to have such fun cooking with it.

I've just started my headlong dive into Yuletide and have two recs, my gift and a wonderful Old Kingdom fic.

What Could Go Wrong?, a fic about the Carmilla web series and it captures the tone of the series perfectly. Its an adventure in the midst of trying to write a paper and it doesn't require too much knowledge of the series.

Then when looking over my friends list, I found this fantastic Old Kingdom fic that's post-canon and really follows along with my own ideas of what might happen next. And Sam making something with Nick working with him is a huge part of it.

The Eighth Bell (4569 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lirael (Old Kingdom)/Nicholas Sayre
Characters: Lirael (Old Kingdom), Prince Sameth, Nicholas Sayre, Mogget (Old Kingdom), Sabriel (Old Kingdom)
Additional Tags: Worldbuilding, Post-Canon
Summary:

After the events of Abhorson (and The Creature in the Case), Sam and Lirael decide that since Mogget/Yrael helped defeat Orranis, he should have a bell.

This morning I checked out the Holiday Inn and settled in a place with actual suites. I have a kitchen and will be going shopping later today to get herbal tea, hot chocolate and stuff for lunch and dinner, though this place does provide dinner four nights a week. Its not too far from school, not as close as the other one but its nicer. Fall has truly arrived in Michigan, the days are grey, chilly and sometimes there's rain, but I feel as if its all possible. I think October is going to go a lot better than September as I've found my feet.

I have some ideas of what I might ask for when Yuletide sign ups happen, I always ask for at least one Diana Wynne Jones' canon, probably will ask for Tommy and Tuppence and definitely The Seven Realms. In terms of what I offer, that's going to be a little trickier as there are always ones that are stretches and some that are easy.

In wonderful writing news, I seem to have got my writing groove back and thanks to the awesome Graveyard Smash ficathon have now written two things.

What's Mine, a Natasha fic with an appearance from Mystique.

Only the moon howls, a Ruby from Once Upon a Time fic.

It feels wonderful to have the words coming, they've been slow lately. The tropes' meme got me going a little but I've been so busy and stressed that I haven't been writing as much as I normally do. There's at least a few of those prompts that want to be larger.

Yesterday was quite busy with TwitterFicFriday as well.
( FicFriday )

I have learned something new about my body that I kind of wish wasn't true. For part of this week, my asthma seemed to be acting up, I was wheezing and took my rescue inhaler and was coughing. It wasn't good, but after I cam home from work, silveraspen told me on Twitter to relax and reminded that I have been under a lot of stress. That got me thinking and I started focusing on my breathing, long and deep breathes until I wasn't having as much trouble breathing. So I found out that the inhaler can only help so much when part of the issue is going on in my head. At the moment I'm still coughing a little bit and my throat hurts, but I can't hear myself wheezing which is an improvement.

I will be so happy when its August and I've moved back to Delaware. I know that there will still be stress there as I'll be looking for a job, but the moving portion of the stress will be gone. Also in Delaware, I'm a lot closer to my support structure in terms of family and friends, which will help a lot.

( In which I grumble about one interaction at work )

Today though I'm doing a lot better. I walked to one of my favorite places in Ann Arbor, Tea Haus and had a light afternoon tea as I read Incognito, a book about how the brain works.

Also in my inbox, I keep getting new comments from the two latest CaptainAwkward posts and I recommend them both; the first one where the LW really didn't get it but the comments are full of great advice on meeting and talking to people and the follow up that is full of recommendations of women centered and created media. What's great about the second one is reading all the opinions on different authors and the conversations that start up. Posts like that remind me why I'm a librarian, because I want to facilitate that kind of discussion, where everyone goes I loved this, I hated this, do you know this? The first post inspired a blog post of mine over here called "Go Where You Want to be" and that's the last time I'll link it here.

FicFriday was rather quiet this week as it seems like this week has hit a lot of people really hard, but I'm happy with the various pieces that I wrote.

( FicFriday )

I'm feeling a little better prepared for my next round of job searching and have some ideas. Also I signed up for a shift tomorrow morning but it's good for me as I need to sleep more and have a book to return. This way I can be on campus, get up early and then wander around museums and do fun stuff like that.

Currently I have various RP ideas for EPs and threads and OOMs but I'm moving slowly on them as I don't have to rush, which is lovely.

And now for another round of questions from crazyfurries. If you'd like questions, comment and let me know.

1. What is your favorite book series?
This is an incredibly hard question so I'm going to cheat and give you the three I reread the most and make them into categories. All of these series, I have a hard time rereading just one as the worlds pull me in so deeply.
Favorite mystery series is the Ngaio Marsh Inspector Alleyn mysteries
Favorite science fictionish-Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold
Favorite fantasy-Diana Wynne Jones tied between the Magid and Chrestomanci books

2. What got you into drinking tea?
I've never really liked coffee even though the rest of my family adores it, but my mother also drinks tea. So it's been something that I like but it didn't become my drink until I lived in New Zealand. There I could get a pot of tea with my lunch at a cafe for 3.50 and it would be tasty and I was hooked.

3. What teas do you currently have and why do you have or like them.
I have two cupboards worth of tea in my kitchen, so I'm going to simplify this to my current favorite teas.
Yorkshire Gold-an English black tea blend that is my daily tea, it wakes me up and is complex and delicious
Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Camomile-this is my going to bed tea and one I drink when I'm feeling tired and sick.
Earl Grey-this is the tea I order the most when I'm out. I didn't used to like it but I like how its light and sort of fruity.

4. Favorite Milliways moment to date and why.
Oh this is another really hard one. I'm going to cheat and say the Allpocalypse here but the entire Orannis plot with Sameth was probably the one I'm most proud of. We've been working through canon for a long time and it all came together in a fantastic way. That particular plot to me was a lot of why I love Milliways. If it hadn't been for Yrael, I wouldn't have read canon and apped Sameth and gotten to know Saph, Aspen and Amy even better. Then through playing Sameth, I was able to tease out forgotten strands of canon and finally, we capped it all during the Allpocalypse.

5. You have a big happy labrador charging at you, what do you do?
Brace myself and say the dog's name and down. Growing up one of my very best friends had dogs that liked to jump, so I got good at being firm at them.

6. If you could spend a week anywhere for vacation, where would YOU go and why. (yes I know it's a reflection but honest curiousity!!)
I think at this exact moment, my choice would be a week in New York City hanging out with Milliways' muns there and refreshing myself with art and walking. It's been too long since I've been to New York City and that city and the people living there make me feel alive.

7. Any animated movies that you adore?
Oh yes, I grew up in the '90s with Disney and have a huge amount of love for Aladdin, Mulan, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast. In terms of newer movies, Howl's Moving Castle as seeing it in New Zealand helped me to rediscover Diana Wynne Jones' works and Up spring to mind. Cars as well though I haven't rewatched it a lot. When it came out I was in New Zealand and it was such an American movie that it made me homesick, so it means a lot to me.

I've been posting a lot this week and I'm just fine with that. It's nice to have a lot of interesting memes floating around and the fic I thought was done is getting added to. So that will be posted another time.

The ship meme is still open here.

Now I'm going to answer three rounds of this five words meme.
Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you, They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back to me). Other people (including me) can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

From yakalskovich( baking, children, Discworld, car, photography )

Round two from in_the_blue( Charles Xavier, New Zealand, University of Michigan, social media, and wearing face paint )

Round three from skidmo( Tea, New Zealand, libraries, writing, Moist )

This week has been all over the place for me with more down than ups, but I've mainly made it through. One thing that started me off on a not great foot was that on Monday I worked a much longer day than normal, five hours instead of three and it left me tired.

The good that balanced it was I'm going to be on the East Coast during Thanksgiving break actually the week around it leaving on Monday and coming back the next Tuesday. I'm going to be trying flying into Baltimore and taking Amtrak to Wilmington to connect with my parents. The hope is that during the break I might do some informational interviews and meet up with people who know library folks. Also I get to see my family and the ocean, I'm such a coastal girl.

So that's a good and I'm hearing positive things about the story I posted last weekend, which makes me happy. Charles Xavier from First Class is an incredibly easy voice for me to write and last night I started on another story about him, this one about dreams.

Tuesday had a nice low as my shark week hit right after I'd come back from a meeting, which meant I had to go out again. Wednesday and Thursday I didn't work but Wednesday I wanted to curl up and Thursday I felt better but still low on energy.

Today was thankfully quiet at the library, all of the printers worked and then I came out. There was a thing I thought about going to tonight, but I didn't want to walk in the cold again. Tomorrow I'm working an extra shift in the morning, but it should be quiet and I can do more writing.

Other fun and random thing that happened this week was I drove to the mall to get a new watchband and the watch kiosk is near Teavana. I've been curious about Teavana since I know a lot of people who adore tea love it. Well, they have delicious tea and incredible sales people since I bought more than I meant to. Part of this was due to me feeling sore and tired, but it made me a little grumpy as I can afford it but felt a little led. The good is that I have delicious Jasmine tea and a huge tea tin that will probably hold my PG tips when I finish the Jasmine because that's the only one I buy in a pound or so measures. Though I'm going to be wary if I go there again, because I'm willing to pay for tea, it's just paying for an unexpected experience isn't my favorite. For now I'll keep looking at their stuff online because someday I'd love to have a travel tumbler for tea.

I love Halloween and I want to try and do something as I work at the undergrad desk in the afternoon, but so far anything more than my fox makeup is feeling a bit much. In my closet I've got a shirt that's cut like a men's almost musketeer shirt and I might try doing something with that.

For Milliways I've got some ideas for my pups. I'm considering two conversation with dead people for William and Tumnus and I want to put William in Logan Lerman's awful wig and costume from the new Musketeers movie, but all his icon space is full. I know I'll end up doing it for him, I just need to make the icon and decide if this is a good excuse to buy more icon space.

This is a terribly rambling entry but it's been that kind of week and I'm currently sore and cold. Things will get better.

My birthday yesterday was really wonderful and as is normal with my family, its going to stretch for a while longer. I started the day by opening the package that my parents sent me which had some beautiful blue glass earrings and the Stacy Schiff Cleopatra book.

Today I just spent the first half or so of my Amazon gift card from one of my brothers on A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones, The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer, Welcome to Bordertown and an Ignenuitea pot with four green teas.

When my parents arrive at the end of next week, I'm going to get a new Mac laptop as a graduation/birthday gift which I'm looking forward to. Mac users, what kinds do you have and what do you recommend? I think this computer knows I'm going to move on from it as the screen's been acting up more.

Thank you to everyone for the good wishes, I feel quite blessed with such wonderful friends and for all the help figuring out how to spend my gift card. One of the great joys of yesterday was that I was able to talk to my oldest friend, we've known each other since we were about a year old on my walk home from work. I'll be doing another purchase at some point too, I love having my only worry being deciding what to get.

Yesterday I was reminded of just how nice people in Ann Arbor are because so many people smiled and wished me Happy Birthday when I told them. As a treat, I bought a sundae at the Ben and Jerry's store on State Street and it was good but filling. I don't eat ice cream very often and I'd forgotten how heavy it can be. Sadly I finished my first pot of homemade mint tea but I'm going to make another one. Homemade iced tea is one of the best parts of summer.

School stuff is also full of interesting things, tomorrow in the early morning I have meeting to help out with the Ann Arbor Book Festival after my parents leave. This is something I've wanted to help with since I started at SI but the timing never seemed to work out. If this comes together, I'll get paid and be able to help with children's activities.

I have a paper to write this weekend that I think will go much faster than the other one and then I get about two weeks off from class in which I work on my grant. The idea I have isn't in as good a form as I'd like so I'm going to push it into shape before I turn in a draft.

Apparently I really wasn't all there this weekend as I mislabeled the last meme entry and missed yesterday's. Classes went well as the reading made more sense when discussed in class about communities of practice and ways of learning, while the one shot workshop I helped to run actually turned out okay.

Last night I had a long and complex dream about the world of BSG somewhere in I think the Caprica era. Most of it was Moist von Lipwig running from things and searching for doors to Milliways and then at another point, I got involved, it had me rather on the edge when I woke up. It was one of those dreams full of lots of places and it was never clear where the exit was or the safe place.

Currently its another rainy day and I don't really want to go to class later but I will and possibly use my Borders' coupon to buy something BSG as my brain seems to call for it.

Day One: Pride - Seven great things about yourself
Day Two: Envy - Seven things you lack and covet
Day Three: Wrath - Seven things that piss you off
Day Four: Sloth - Seven things you neglect to do
Day Five: Greed - Seven worldly material desires
Day Six: Gluttony - Seven guilty pleasures
Day Seven: Lust - Seven love secrets

I don't consider any of these terribly guilty as much as pleasures so be aware of that. The quote in the text is from Bujold's Komarr and said by an amazing character about life don't create false shortages.

( No false shortages )

So not this week but the week before last I had to write a paper on if digital libraries can be called online archives. This is a paper that's due in a final draft at the end of the semester so I turned in something pretty rough.

My idea was that honestly, once you start looking at actual things on the web, both of those definitions end up rather meaningless since they're connected to older institutions. My professor didn't like it, he said that instead of using logic, I should have looked at it in terms of definitions or pure theory. I see what he wants, it just makes my head hurt.

I really like this professor most of the time, because he's really good at keeping us rooted in this is the theory and this is the reality. The other assignment for this class is we're creating a wiki of digital libraries that I need to do a lot of work on. This assignment and feedback just leaves me going huh. I feel like its sort of acknowledged that things change when you put them online, calling things by older names helps, but can get in the way. Also a little part of me feels bothered because I chose to interpret the assignment almost too closely and got into trouble.

Today has just been long. I spent it cataloging with a few people showing up, I rushed my lunch so I'm only now having proper tea. Tomorrow I don't have class so I can sleep in before doing work, but I'm going to spend part of the day in a cafe reading Charles de Lint. I was good and did get gas on the way home, so there's that. My dinner will be some odd cobbling together of things, but I'll figure it out.

In the meantime, anyone know any good soup recipes? I have one I'm going to try that's peanut and pumpkin, but its the season for it and I want more ideas.