A Mighty Fine Life

So yesterday, one of my favorite authors (Justine Larbalestier) did a giveaway on twitter, with copies of her first book, a non-fiction about gender in scifi. That is a thing in which I am just the teensy, tiniest bit interested (you may have noticed) and ... I won! Otherwise this probably would not be "things that are awesome" news. But it's probably the only give away/random draw/whatever that I've ever won, so it's extra-awesome.

Also extra-awesome: along with the book (which arrived super-fast), she sent me a promo pamphlet for her upcoming novel "Liar." Which looks like it is going to be RIDICULOUSLY GOOD. I have to wait until October for the book, though (whiiine).

But still. I am a happy fangirl. Hooray!

In less awesome news, there is a conference at work this week. Sigh. But whatever. Today was only ten and a half hours of work; that's not so bad in the grand scheme of things (by which I mean compared to AIDS2008, which was 14-15 hours days).

First, thank you all for the birthday wishes. ♥ It was a delightful day! In fact, it was a delightful run of days, as it turned out.

Tuesday: Blana picked me up from work, which meant I got to leave at a reasonable hour, heh. We picked up Chipotle, because Chipotle = ♥, and spend the evening hanging out and watching the All Star game. Which was lovely!

Wednesday: Was my birthday! Basically, I consumed nothing but sugar and caffeine all day, and it was AWEOSME.

I had braced myself for a long day at work, because Wednesdays always are, and it was. But during the course of the very long work day, there was an hour-long break for cupcakes and coffee to celebrate my birthday, so that was lovely. (And it wasn't a bad day at work, just lengthy.) When everything there was finally done, two of my coworkers and I headed up to Lalo for food, by which I mean pie. DK came out to join us, and so did my friend Erika a little later. And basically, I drank an entire quart of coffee, got home a bit after midnight, and did not fall asleep until dawn.

Thursday: I woke up feeling like poo, because I'd only had a couple of hours of sleep. After three hours of week I gave up and came home, and took an AMAZING four-hour nap. Thumbs up for napping. After that, I finally actually got to see my sister, who had returned from Paris the previous day, but was dead to the world well before I got home. We went out for a slightly belated birthday dinner of delicious Indian food, and at some point she asked what I actually wanted for my birthday. I believe my answer was along the lines of, "IDK, a Corbin Bleu picspam or something?"

So then this happened, and I cried. ♥♥♥♥

Friday/Saturday: I managed a complete day of work, heh. But then Jen came into the city to play! We had dinner and chilled out all night, and possibly I forced her to watch the first episode of Band of Brothers. Saturday we had delicious brunch and spent some time wandering a bookstore (as you do), and it was lovely.

And now I am off to do some cleaning, and then head down to Brooklyn to see Jess, so the awesome JUST KEEPS COMING. :D

So it turns out I'm getting a bonus at work. I don't entirely get why (except for the obvious, "I'm awesome," explanation, but apparently something corporate policy and my employment agreement which I TOTALLY READ, and anyway, I am) and while it's not enormous it is, actually, pretty sizable.

Smart thing to do would probably be put it in savings. I'm trying to build that bank account up, 'cause it's pretty sad, and... You know, recessions are scary.

On the other hand, I've been saving up for a new bed, because I kind of badly need one. And a real dresser. And some bookshelves. And I have this beautiful dream of buying a desk, not that I'd ever use it except as a place to pile papers. So I just cruised the IKEA website for all of these things and worked it out, and, well...

If I blow the entire bonus, I can buy 'em all. I wouldn't just do it all at once, but there's no way to get things here except by shipping, and shipping is pretty outrageous, and cheaper to do all at once. So after that check clears, I'm buying basically an entire bedroom set. HOORAY!

ZOMG I JUST MET DAVID MOSCOW.

Kind of. Accidentally.

ZOMG I HELD A DOOR FOR DAVID MOSCOW.

I was leaving work, and as I exited the building I paused to hold the door for the dude behind me, who looked passingly familiar but I didn't process why. He said, "Thanks," and went back to talking to the woman he was with; I believe what he said was, "It got cooooold," and that was what tipped me off to who it was was, because he sounds just like, you know...himself.

By that point he was too far away for me to say hi too without yelling or chasing him like a lunatic (and I do not do well with famous -- errrr, "famous" -- people. I met the bassist from my favorite band in 12th grade, and actually literally forgot my name when he offered to sign my ticket).

BUT STILL. I sort of met David! :D :D :D

(This is my only icon with D-mos actually in it, somehow. FAIL, SELF.)

Raise your hand if you're sobbing.

*raises hand*


ETA: I almost can't believe I'm typing anything so silly at this point, but. You know at the end of Newsies, when Snyder gets arrested and Denton says, "Say goodbye to the Warden," and the rest of the cast yells, "GOODBYE WARDEN!" and laughs with glee? That's sort of how I feel watching Bush get into the helicopter to fly away FOREVER.

You guys!! I now own a light-up, quacking, rubber ducky key chain! And it goes on the same keychain where I already had my heart-shaped Chad charm, which means it is now a keychain OTP. ZOMG. *loves elvensorceress SO MUCH*

Yesterday was supposed to be my family's Chanukah party, but due to weather, it was canceled. I was both bummed and relieved by that; I wanted to see the fam, of course, but I was drop-dead exhausted and spent yesterday basically dead to the world, sitting on the couch staring at the wall. (The most productive I was all day was alphabetizing all the DVDs in our apartment. It was bugging me like whoa that they weren't.)

Today, however, was poisonivory's family Chanukah party! And she invited friends as well, so I met up with second_batgirl and we headed out to Jersey (and met up with harmonyangel there, of course). It was a nice, chill afternoon, full of delicious latkes and lots and lots of chocolate-covered pretzels. Which are, of course, DELICIOUS.

Aaaaand presents! I am such a flake that I forgot to bring anything with me, but Margot got me the new Mercedes Lackey book (!), and Jess combined my birthday and Chaunkah gifts and gave me a raccoon stuffed animal that she knitted herself (I just about cried -- long story), the first HSM on DVD (I know it seems odd that I didn't own it, but I didn't!) and Jump In!, which clearly I NEEDED.

And speaking of things I needed? Jen got me HSM candy canes. Chad is yellow (tropical fruit), Troy is blue (blue raspberry), Gabi is pink (strawberry or cherry, I forget) and Sharpay is green (green apple -- and why is Shar not pink?!). Sadly no Ryan or Taylor. But this is especially awesome because a) apparently, Jen is just fantastic at finding delicious HSM candy (she's also the one who gave me Ryan- and Chad-flavored bubble gum!), and b) you can imagine the dirty, dirty jokes about sucking Chad. *cough* *blush*

Work for the next three days is going to be killer. But then: VACATION. :D :D I'm not going anywhere (except Jersey, for the rescheduled family party, and Long Island, to visit Margot), or doing anything (except the afore mentioned visiting), but DAMN I am looking forward to spending a week and a half chilling on my couch with no stress. HUZZAH.

An unexpected benefit of hosting that shindig last night was that one of my awesome coworkers brought cupcakes from Magnolia, and declined to bring the extras home when she left. Meaning I now have several very delicious cupcakes all for myself! (And Rachel.)

ETA: Is LJ totally not sending comments to anyone else?

So I hosted a party tonight! I've never done such a thing before (no, I don't count cast parties in mod 10 -- they were neither planned nor financed by me). Mostly it was folks I work with, though Jess and a few of Rachel's friends also came. We had dinner, drinks, and played pop culture trivial pursuit. A good time was had by all (at least to the best of my knowledge).

Employee review went well, I think.

Night.

Misty May and Kerry FTmfW!

So in the time I was basically computerless:

1) I (finally) went to the dentist. I have four cavities, which will be filled over the next month or so. On the one hand, this sucks. On the other hand, considering I've had no dental care at all for two and a half years and I thought I was going to need a root canal or something, it's not that bad. I didn't especially like the dentist I saw, but the convenience of his office being in the same building where I work can't really be beat.

2) Tuesday evening was feminist SF book club! We read an Ursula LeGuin collection, which I thought was very good, even if it isn't what I, personally, would pick up for fun. Last time I went, the discussion was kind of meh; this time it was great and smart and full of people thinking about things and disagreeing politely and generally being awesome. I'm so pleased, let me tell you. (And afterwords, a coworker [who also is part of the club] and I went out for ice cream. Well, sorbet on my part. But it was fun times.)

3) Yesterday, harriet_vane and I finally went and saw some apartments with our realtor, who is a very nice guy. Knock on wood, we found one we loooooove, and so began the process of nabbing it. Such things can always fall through, so I'm trying not to have my hopes up too high, but it would be so fantastic.

4) Work has been work. To make up for the time I've been off getting my teeth cleaned and trying to find a place to live, I stayed crazy late a couple nights and came in early, too. Which sucked and was pretty exhausting. Ah, well. Sadly, it's just going to get crazier; between the big-ass conference at the beginning of August and the week I'm taking off for the move, it is going to be super stressful and annoying. Groan.

5) July 4th! Pretty much my favorite non-present-giving holiday, because I looooove fireworks. poisonivory is coming out to play, and she and harriet_vane and I are hopefully going to go see the giant show. Hooray! Also: long weekend! Double hooray!

6) I read Suzanne Brockmann's Hot Target, and you should too! You know, if you like WWII (or WWII movies), trashy romance, trashy gay romance, hot Navy SEALs, and -- especially -- dreamy gay-in-denial actors with substance abuse problems and daddy issues. (And who doesn't?)

7) I have a Twitter, if you are a person who likes to follow those. It's mostly mundane stuff and complaining about work, though.

8) I have written jack shit. I know I should just get back to work, but I had such momentum built up in my projects that now that Teh Novel has been wiped I'm just exhausted and having trouble forcing myself to get started. Maybe this weekend. We'll see.

1) pepino21786 mailed us cookies!! Cookies!! ♥

2) Lots of things got posted at Tweenage this week. I wrote about New Kids on the Block reuniting, Zac Efron not showering (vote in the poll!), how Ryan Evans is totally gay (a category that now has its own tag), and about Disney's "music videos". Jess wrote about Tizz's Rick Astley cover (aka, OH TIZZ HONEY NO), and the greatest collaboration of all time ever made!

Basically, you all should subscribe to tween_wasteland, although I will probably continue to link to posts, assuming I remember to.

3) Hot Starbucks Guy wasn't at work at all this week. I fear he may have quit or been fired or changed his schedule so he's not opening. Perky Starbucks Girl is kind of adorable, but it's not the saaaaaame.

4) Meme! From everyone:
You know how sometimes people on your friend's list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you *should* already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy my response below, erase my answers putting yours in their place then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration! One-word answers seldom help anyone out. :)

( Me-me-me-me-me )

So you know that episode of South Park where the internet disappears and everyone goes into withdrawal? It is not as funny as it might otherwise seem!

Yeah, so after a couple months of being unrelible, our airport finally kicked it for good a couple days ago. Alas. This, of course, necessitated a trip to the Apple Store to buy a new one, only to discover they aren't selling any with setup compatable with anything older than 10.4, which...I didn't have. Neither did Rachel. Much hair pulling out; finally, my parents ageed to get me a the OS upgrade as my late Chanukah/early birthday type present.

So now I'm running 10.5, which is scary and weird, though I'm sure I'll get used to it; and also we have the internet again! Even though it flashed amber at me for five minutes and said it I was missing settings from our ISP. And then...it worked for no apparent reason I used my MAD SKILLS that I TOTALLY HAVE to get it to work. That's right.

Two days is a long time to go without reliable internet. And unplugging/replugging does not, in fact, bring things back from the dead.

In other news, I had dinner with the artist formerly known as irontears tonight. I absolutely did NOT attempt to tempt her back to fandom via discussion of adorable newsboys. Pshaw, that would be crazy.

And now...I should go to bed, seeing as how everything finally installed okay, and also I'm exhausted. And it would be nice to be able to speak coherently to Hot Starbucks Guy in the morning, which i have failed to do so far this week. (Which is sad. He has been quite flirty, and also hot. Why must I suck so hard at these things?)

This is my favorite icon I've made in years, by the way.

So I apparently am That Girl People Buy High School Musical Stuff For, which is about the awesomest thing that's ever happened to me. Since the weekend, I've been given

- Chad and Ryan bubblegum from harmonyangel. Seriously. They're small Bubbletape (six feet of bubblegum for you, not them) containers with holographs of the boys! (One of Ryan, one of Chad.) As you tilt them, you go from boy standing to boy jumping. Delightful!

- A Chad Danforth keychain from liketheroad. It has his face. On a heart. And then a little pink dangly heart! It is perfect!

Seriously, these are the best things I have owned since the sparkly rainbow Justin Timberlake ring in 2001. ♥ (And of course, for Chanukah I got HSM2 on DVD, two HSM junior novels, and the Corbin Bleu Unauthorized Biography. I think my love of HSM makes me waaaaay easier to shop for.)

Semi-relatedly, and completely awesome, last night was great dinner out with Rachel, imntsaying, and pepino21786, who were all lovely. A good time was had by all.

Unrelatedly, but also awesome, I will be finishing a huge-ass project at work tomorrow morning. THANK GOD.

So I seem to have accidentally gone to a My Chemical Romance concert. Uh, whoops? But it was for Rachel's birthday, and it turns out that I kind of enjoy The Black Parade. The concert was fantastic start to finish! I'm sure there are people on LJ who actually, you know, know what songs were played and will give actual detailed accounts, but yeah. That was my very short concert review. It was good.

And then afterwards Rachel and I went out for late dinner with the Entire Internet. Hi, Entire Internet! You were all very nice!

--

Unrelated, I'm apparently going to see Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" next week. One of my coworkers really wanted to see it and has put together a post-trip group outing. I, uh, failed to mention to my coworkers that the only reason I'm really interested is because Max Casella is in it.

And now I'm going to bed. Because goddamn, am I tired.

My insurance card arrived in the mail today!

Finally home!

I'm leaving in a few hours to head off to harmonyangel's house for the night. Tomorrow, she, poisonivory, and I are heading to visit second_batgirl for a week-ish. Unemployment be damned! This was supposed to be paid vacation. Grumble. So yeah, I'll be out of town; probably with minimal email access for awhile. But i will have my phone if you need me.

Speaking of job stuff, the interview/test I mentioned thinking I did quite well on on Thursday I apparently did (knock on wood), because Friday they called to schedule a third (hopefully final!) interview. So that'll be the Monday after I get home.

In non-job, non-vacation news, I've been reading links and links about the LJ account deletions and their implications. I, personally, have no interest in leaving LJ; I didn't come here for fannish reasons, and despite the fact that there's been a lot of fannish stuff mixed in here in the last few months, I don't primarily use LJ for fandom. I'm quite attached to this place, so I'll likely be staying here.

That said, I do get why other people are deciding to leave. And I don't want to lose track of anyone on my flist! So if you're heading off, please tell me where. I'm queenitsy on IJ and GJ, and have an ancient, never-used account as temira on JF. Feel free to friend away. (My initial impressions, incidentally, are that I like IJ a lot more than GJ or JF, but I probably won't be using any of them much.)

The HP release was fun, crowded, and crazy. I enjoy that while waiting for your numbers to be called in line, everyone gets to be best friends.

First four-ish chapters read; can't keep my eyes open much longer. When did I turn a million years old?

My default icon is mildly appropriate for once.

Thanks for all the happy wishes today, y'all. I got a bunch of nice comments and a few phone calls from awesome people, which made me feel very popular and loved. :)

As for the day itself, I spent the whole of it with Josh--I'd crashed at his place last night and he, ahem, opted out of work today, so we hung out for awhile then went on a harbor cruise in the evening. It wasn't quiet evening enough to really be "harbor lights", but it was lovely regardless--I picked up some neat history geek type things from the cruise commentary, so that was also nice.

So overall, a lovely day. And now, alas, to bed.