Who the heck do I think I am?

On top of the job sitch, I have a cold. I got home last night, made Ramen, ate it, watched an episode of DW* and took pills / cough syrup and went to bed. I was in bed by 8:50 and out like a light.

I forced myself up at 6:35 this morning, got dressed (jeans because yeah, don't care now!), opened my door, started shoveling, and then said: "What am I doing?" I went online and sure enough: Work CLOSED for the storm.

YAY.

There's a tradeoff, of course, because I won't get *paid* for not being there. But. SNOW DAY. I can go back to bed.


*I need to write a separate entry about the party I went to over the weekend, at which I scored all of the 5th series of Doctor Who... My kind of geeks!

I've been meaning to post for a while, but I'm recovering from a home invasion (my father was visiting, stealing my internet access, breakin' my stuff), and I've been plagued with leaving my flash drive at work, so I hadn't had time yet.

So. Here's a very brief State of Da Gwen.

My father was here this week, for three short, very long days. In that time, he messed up my internet (working again), broke my sewing machine, sharpened my knives (no I'm not kidding!), put gas in my car (after driving it), washed my dishes, asked me a lot of inane questions, bought dinner for me and etakyma, made more noise about wanting me to give him my iPod shuffle if/when I get a video iPod (which is like, six months from now, maybe?), and generally annoyed the crap out of me. But at least no shouting match this time, so that's good. The detox must have worked.

Seriously, it says something that Thursday, "Houses of the Holy" was coming on, and even though it's my least favourite episode of Supernatural, I tried turning it on in my bedroom just to get some peace and quiet, and even then, he kept wanting to talk at me.

We watched a Netflick - "Firewall" - which was basically good summer popcorn thriller. Nothing you really had to pay any attention to. And he's constantly asking questions, making guesses about what's going to happen... JUST WATCH THE FRIGGIN MOVIE, DAD. I know, you don't normally watch TV. But still. You didn't hear what Harrison Ford muttered? Guess what, neither did I. But there's a rule in movies: even if you don't catch it the first time, they *will* make everything painfully clear within 30 minutes. Really. Best dumb question of the film: "Do you know what Stockholm Syndrome is?"

Why yes, Dad. However, I'm not going to tell you that it's one of my major kinks. Thanks.

Watching Top Chef: "Do you ever try to make the food they make on this show?"

No, Dad. And a month ago when you were here and you asked me that? Still no.

ANYway. The most annoying man on earth has departed back to Baltimore. /rant Anabel is not doing well in the assisted living space and he and Allan may need to move her to a nursing home. Well, she is 89. Then he's off to the Camp Perry Rifle Competition to volunteer as a... I think he's a line chief this year, then the Stone Tool show in Letchworth, and then he doesn't know where, but west again.

Job: going well. Starting to get involved in more. Unfortunately this leaves less time for fic - writing and reading, but that's okay. I guess. Nevertheless, I did just get "Guns and Ammo" posted, in time to honour eloise_bright's birthday:

Read the fic at my wee_chesters journal!


Order of the Phoenix movie: We're going to the midnight show tonight, IMAX. Hey, since I interviewed the president of IMAX, I probably should go *see* the thing, right? I know, I know, lots of you are saying it's the best yet. Frankly...not a great track record, so far, but I am sort of looking forward to parts. Other parts.... Well, let's just remember that the *real* fifth book is still to be written. Heh.

And of course: Deathly Hallows. Plans coming together. moony has a room in Cambridge for the night, for a reasonable rate, so I'll probably crash there instead of trying to get out of Harvard Square after the buses have stopped running. May be able to park there, even, which is good, because I'll have swag to hand out for Portus, and I haven't decided to robe or not. Weather may play a significant factor on that score. I'm just so relieved it's almost over.

Speaking of which, if you're in Boston, pick up the July 19 "Phoenix." I'm being covered along with a few others as fanfiction authors and HP fans. They just sent a photographer, he left a little while ago, to take some quasi-cheesy shots of me in my flat. My really messy desk, and the shelf of books that I actually cleaned last night in anticipation. I kept things from getting too crazy, but told him we could do "cute". So look for that.

And now, I'm off to join etakyma to continue prep-work for Prophecy. OMG - Prophecy and Pennsic are less than a month away. Yikes!

So, yeah, it's been a while since my last general post.

Main thing to make public: I've found a job. Yay. It's right back at BIDMC, but it's in Facilities Management, learning (among other things) how to manage new buildings, backfill of newly opened space, and engineering operations. Should be interesting, and I've heard nothing but good about the department. My two bosses (Engineering and Operations) give off no crazy vibes. So far. Starts Monday.

The book signing at Balticon was a blast. We're already talking about putting together a "sequel" and possibly another project for next year. My cousin's wedding was fine, but it took until Saturday night (at the after-party) to find anyone with whom I had anything in common to talk about, so it was fairly boring most of the weekend. (If you haven't bought "Bad-Ass Faeries," go order it!)

My father has left Baltimore and took a couple weeks getting up here. He's coming in to Boston today and will stay presumably through the weekend, I'm not sure exactly when he leaves yet (but after Father's day is a good bet). Our only planned activity is a Boston Duck Tour, because neither of us has ever been on an amphibious troop transport. :^D

Because I'm going *not* going to be looking for work for a while (really, really, I hope!), I'm looking at auditions again. I really want to be in something this fall, not just helping out on production. Lots to do this upcoming season, so yeah, gotta get back in the swing of that.

I'm also looking forward to working again. It's good to have someplace to go in the morning, and I know (ironically) that I'll lose weight when I'm working - I'm annoyed that I actually gained weight during this layoff period. Sitting around with nothing to do but snack, dammit. (Work will fix that. So will getting in a show and rehearsing in the evenings.) Lately I've been doing the temp thing, though the jobs have been *insanely* low-key, really just getting paid to sit around, answer the phone and emails, and the rest of the time read fanfic. Which I've been doing. A lot of.

Because...here's the thing: I found my new fandom. I fell hard. Supernatural pwns me. I've been watching it intermittently since about mid-first season, but not religiously, and not even all that closely. Thursdays at nine? Yeah, usually in rehearsal, or packing to go away for the weekend, or whatever. So even though I'd have it on in the background, it wasn't, like, appointment TV. And I hadn't even really approached any of the fanfic, despite all you wonderful flist-people telling me how awesome it is.

So, two things happen: 1. etakyma gets the Season 1 DVDs and we started watching from the very beginning (the first ep I ever saw was 9, "Home"); and 2. I get this job at MetLife and have nothing to do all day but read fic. Which incidentally, I had to do by saving files to a flash drive, because I couldn't get to LJ on their servers. Ahem.

Anyway, that's done it. I'm well and truly hooked. Completely obsessed. It's kinda like the rush of those early days of HP, and that's kinda weird too, because given the spoilers about S3 (I'm reserving judgment and I won't talk about them here, for those who want to be spoiler-free), I may again be entering a fandom just as the source material is peaking. But who knows?

What I do know is that I've got an incredibly frightening crush on Jensen Ackles, way too much for my own good. Again, this is odd, because I was *aware* of his character on Dark Angel, but didn't really pay attention to him on the show. Then again, he was (IMO) not even as good-looking then, *too* young and hadn't really filled out the way he is now. Now he's serious man-candy. Sigh. Sorry, grouchyoldcoot! But be comforted by the fact that a. he's way too young; b. he's got a girlfriend; and c. it's not like I'd have a chance anyway.

So, the upshot is that I'm working on a bunch of SPN fic, devouring the episodes as fast as I can get etakyma to share them, and delving deeper into the fandom online. Most of the message boards (supernatural.tv, winchesterbros.com, television without pity) kind of scare me, and I'm trying to cultivate that healthy fear to keep from teetering off the edge. But oy, it's hard to resist the information. We even bought the comics because I just have to know!!! I'm such a geek.

And I was even so t00by as to start a community (mainly because I couldn't believe there wasn't one by the name): wee_chesters. Of course, no sooner do I do this than I find out about spn_flashback, sn_flashback, weechesterfic, and a bunch of similar comm's, but that's what happens when you're late to the party. You don't know what stories people have already told.

And I really, really wish I could go to 10-year, but there's no way, even before my father decided to visit this weekend. I keenly miss AEthelmearc.

I still suck at guitar. But I suck on many different songs and chords and strums. It's amazing how many songs one can play with G, C, D, A, D7, Am, E, and Em. Though apparently none of these is the one I need in "Seasons" for one particular change. Hope to find it soon - maybe at Pennsic if not before. But I can't barre to save my life. And any chord requiring 4 fingerings? Forget it. Changing chords? Also kind of a problem.

Jeez. Looking at the last few months of my life like this really sums up how lame I am.

Does anyone else ever wish they could get a do-over, like from college on? (With all experience and knowledge intact, of course.)