A Study in Contradictions

I did mean to make this entry Some Time ago but, ugh, you guys, I'm still pretty sick. I got sick almost exactly on the stroke of midnight (I'm not kidding, I stood up to sing Auld Lang Syne, sneezed and felt a little wobbly) and have only just come out the other side.

And by that I mean, have been coughing myself to death and leaving people completely ridiculous comments that make less than no sense. With .gifs. And because my friends are, you know, my friends, I am now engaged in TWO gif wars. Obviously.

Anyway, I also left for various Christmas type celebrations on the 16th of December, which I hope goes some way to explaining the amount of LJ radio silence. And LJ kind of sucks these days. But yes, I went and had four days in a tiny room with moogle62 and it was GLORIOUS. I think we had about 20 hours sleep total, there was a lot of time spent in pyjamas, some very dignified feels watching TSN vids at 3am that we had to talk to some ice cream about, some even more dignified feels about Sherlock Holmes 2 (IN PUBLIC GOOD LORD) and her flatmate describing me as "your *lowers voice* *makes air quotes* friend".

So all around a triumph, really.

And then we met up with some beloved marmfish for merriment and tube debacles and ice skating. Last year hanelissar and I spent the whole session hands firmly clasped in each others, with much clutching and spinning and delighting in each safe trip round the ice. When we got back onto dry land the rest of the group declared us married. This year I spent more time than seems, um, socially acceptably telling Moog and altogetherisi to just get their legs further apart, jeez.

And then home to the Isle of Man, which ended up being, to quote Moog, LIKE THE ISLAND ON LOST ONLY INSTEAD OF ACCUMULATING TERRIFYINGLY ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE AND ALSO POLAR BEARS IT JUST ATTRACTS THE WTFUCKERY/INTENSE EMOTIONAL REVELATIONS. So we'll just, move right along with that, then.

And then back to see the boy and his parents, only he got sick, then I got sick, and here we are! Oh, no, only I also recorded three episodes of podramble (more on that later) and wrote my Yuletide fic.

Not If, Only or Even, But Always. And no, I'm still not sure if all those commas are right.

It was for the movie Zombieland, a witty, charming movie which I loved more than I ever expected to, and featuring some of my very favourite faces. In a turn of events to surprise no one, I have a number of feelings about kickass conlady heroines and their sisters and their twitchy, adorkable boyfriends.

Um, if I haven't posted the Fandom Snowflake thing by the end of tomorrow, someone yell at me?

Happy New Year, my dearest flist!

How the devil are you?

Oh man, I am so tired at the moment, and my best girl from school is here, and so I'm totally relying on Past!Lal having achieved things to put any substance at all into this post.

Luckily Past!Lal hasn't been too bad. At least she took some pictures to pretty up the place. And my friends continue to have opinions worth chronicling. Which is handy.

So! I went down to my boyfriend's parents house for a massive family party. After much preparation (during which Nat and I had the most middle-class argument ever. It was about bunting.) many friends of the family and neighbours and extended family descended on the house.

Every second conversation I had, summed up.

Me: Yes, I'm Nat's girlfriend.

Party Guest: OH! When are you getting married.

Me: *thinks* fuck RIGHT off I am TWENTY FOUR YEARS OLD.

Me: *actually says* You should ask (boyfriend's older brother) and (girlfriend)! *forced laugh*

I also met a girl who sat down by me and declared "I love this cake. I would marry this cake. I would make love to this cake." So apparently my willingness to discuss frosting sex is something even strangers can sense. Pictures! Party balloons, party tent, party dress and shoes.


Me: *posts (different) picture of self in dress to Twitter*
Twitter: CONGRATS ON THE BOOBS!
Me: *is very unsurprised*
Then on the following Monday I met my wonderful marmfish loves hanelissar, playwithfyr, hanelissarand altogetherisifor a day of geeky frolics in London Town. We had the best time. We went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the IMAX in exciting 3D, picnicked outside of Foyles and left TDL bookmarks about the place.

And then we went to see the preview screening of Let's Kill Hitler! SO MUCH EXCITEMENT, OMG.I managed to take one, very faily picture on my phone but oh, wow, you guys, I was SO CLOSE to the front it was AMAZING.


You can read my recounting of this marvellous event at my tumblr. And if you want to talk about the episode, I can finally do that! YESSS. Not spoiling people has been really hard.

Still very conflicted about Steven Moffat. For those of you playing along at home!

The very next day, having got the bus back from London, which takes 6 hours and meant I fell into bed at 6am, I had a hanelissar to stay. She was good to me in my times of sleep deprivation, and we only wept on each other about our Big Bangs a very little bit. A forest for my pines etcetc. Also there was baking, as per. We made all manner of chocolate chip cookies. Pony cookies! Ship cookies!

For his birthday Nat got tickets to Sunday at Leeds Festival, hurrah. It. Was. Awesome. I mean, it was cold. But awesome. I got to see the National live, which I've wanted to do for an age, and I got to see my best friend Lil be in charge of lighting a whole stage, and go stand with her in the technical area which makes you feel all fancy. She is a fabulous lady doing fabulous things in a completely male dominated industry and I couldn't be prouder.

And at the end of the night we saw Pulp and it was the perfect festival experience, thousands upon thousands of people dancing and singing and yelling lyrics into the night.

LEEDS! MUD! SUNSETS! MUSIC!

In the morning I discovered that I'd sent Moog an email at 2am. I do not remember typing this email, but my inbox suggests otherwise. In it, among other, crazier things (and by that I mean all caps versions of the ridiculous AUs that we are not writing, oh no, that would be ridiculous, what, why are you looking at us like that), I continued a conversation that had started a week or so ago on Twitter.
playwithfyr

This weekend Nat and I went to that there Londontown to catch up with old friends aplenty. There was a concerning few days midweek when the snow got so bad that I got sent home from work and sat in the car with a co-worker (my favourite co-worker and not just because she agreed to drive me most of the way home) and we couldn't see anything beyond the front of the car bonnet. Which was a little alarming, to say the least!

So we drove down as far as Luton and stayed in a Travelodge. It was not exactly the most glamorous night of our lives.

On Saturday we made it safely to Belle's house in the Tropics (if by the tropics you mean Middlesex and I do) where there no snow. No snow at all! Our tiny minds were blown... Then we all ventured into London to sample the delights of the food market on the South Bank. We shamelessly exploited all the free samples on offer. It appears that student living leaves its mark. The plan had been to wander the German Market but we spent a lot of time mocking the extremely poor "Snow Globe Experience" and then it rained a lot so what we actually did was go to (HUT THING) and drink very sweet mulled wine. I was meeting my other two housemates from university, Sal and Wren, and their boyfriends, and it was great. I miss my girls a lot.

Then we planned to go to Covent Garden but it was raining and we got distracted by the giant ship in a bottle on the Forth Plinth, so what we actually did was go to the pub. Are you noticing a pattern here? We were forced into having extremely grown up conversations about our jobs (Belle teaches English as a second language, Wren works for the Historical Royal Palaces Society and Sal for a children's charity. My friends are vastly more impressive than me) and our housing situation and the cost of travel and the weather.

Then when we were done with that we got talking about books, which always happens and had about a half hour discussion about YA and how The Book Thief is amazing and made me and Sal bawl our eyes out. Apparently telling people this does not make them want to read the book. But you should! Because it's really good! We were standing in the corner of the pub and the whole thing became kind of animated because we all care a lot about books and the Australians sitting at the table next to us clearly thought that we were all crazy and/or some kind of in pub entertainment.

Me: But once you get past the genocide! It's actually very uplifting!

Belle: The whole thing made me want to ring my brother and yell at him and then *makes sweeping gesture* I don't know, tell him he's awesome.

Sal: Where was all this teen literature when I was a teenager? 14 year old me is PISSED OFF.

Me: Oh, you know Nat doesn't read fiction.
Wren: (Her boyfriend) neither.
The four of us: *turn as one and tut at the boyfriends*

We went out for dinner and while we were in the bar waiting I got a text update from twitter in which moleskinned quoted some fic and I got these terrible snorting giggles.

Everyone: What, Lal, what?
Me: Er. You wouldn't, it's a, never mind. Internet joke.
Wren: It's going to be about porn, isn't it?
Belle and Sal: *nod sagely*
Sal's boyfriend who has not spent a lot of time with us as a group: *gives Sal a 'they seemed like such nice girls' look*

Sunday was a particularly lovely day that we spent on the canal boat that Wren lives on with her boyfriend. It's like a real house all condensed down into a teeny tiny floating space, which Wren has also managed to make stylish and lovely with cushions and baubles and plants. We were talking about how Wren is very good at growing things.

Wren's Boyfriend: I won the longest chilli competition at work.
Me: *tries not to laugh*
Sal: *starts to giggle*
Me: *catches Sal's eye*
Me, Sal, Belle and Wren: *all laugh at once*
All the boys: *look confused*

Then we took the boat out down the Thames. It was a gorgeous day and we made it to Hampton Court Palace. AKA Wren's office. Like I said, vastly cooler than me.

Wren gave us her tour and I added ridiculous but nonetheless true facts about the Tudors and may have suggested that Henry VIII was kind of foxy. You know. In his day.

Then we drove the boat back and made mulled wine. It's very important that you get those steps in the right order.

The next day I went to meet the extremely marvellous hanelissar and altogetherisi for mooching and Harry Potter watching. While Hannah and I were waiting in Waterloo for Isi we went to WH Smith and rearranged their children and young adult section so that all the copies of Hush, Hush and Crescendo were covered by other books.

( Further Fabulous Adventures (because this entry is already flist killingly long) )

The whole thing has left me in a far superior mood for the whole week. Clearly all I needed was to spend some time with people who I can be myself with. Which seems to mostly involve making all bystanders stop in their conversations, but that's practically a tradition in my family.

Have you all had good weeks/weekends? Ready for Christmas (ahahahaha I am so not, before you ask)

This is such a self indulgent post, really, but my brain feels all implodey. I'm still getting over a throat infection and I slept on my friend's floor last night, which is the first bit on context you need. And Leeds train station was covered in posters for the Hush Hush sequel (the book that altogetherisi and I find more upsetting than Twilight. Really. What Aja (and awesome linkees) said, only with considerably more swearing. My hatred is endless) which made me full of violent thoughts. All in all, everything is a bit strange and vague with sleep and rage right now.

Mostly, though, my brain is being eaten alive by it being all WIPs, all the time...

So, this is what the inside of my head looks like...

Inception (Just in case you hadn't worked out that this fandom has eaten my brain or were worrying about running out of fic *g*)
( Oh, so very many (dangerous) ideas )




*cries* Steampunk AI AU which has been a WIP for *mumblemumble* months. Years. Lifetimes.
( I can practically write this part from memory )

500 words of Summer fics
( Yes, yes, I know, not summer anymore )

Sigh. And those are only the ones that have a googledoc of their very own. I hope y'all are doing well! Feel free to commiserate or just say hi or whatever. It's all groovy <3

You guys.

YOU GUYS!

I HAVE INTERNET AGAIN.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

We have broadband and cable TV and a landline and I installed them all myself.

AND I HAVE INTERNET FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A MONTH.

A MONTH.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

BRING HATS AND AWESOME GIFS/PICS, I AM OFF TO DOWNLOAD TV SHOWS. LET'S CELEBRATE!!!


So how are y'all? :D

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I've been volunteering in a charity shop. I did it before I had my previous job, and I've been back for about a month. It's fairly awesome.

For those of you who don't know, a charity shop is one that relies on donations from the public and people working there for free, and they use the money they make from selling the stuff to a specific charity. The one I work for is a heart disease charity, there are ones for Save The Children and Oxfam, and pet charities like the RSPCA. We mostly sell clothes and books. I do all sorts of things, I sort and price and tag donations, I sort out the shop floor and I work on the till.

(Tangentially, there is an RSPCA shop next door to us. Several people have brought in donations to us and declared that we are getting their money/items because they don't like animals.  People are so odd.)

I decided to go volunteer for a few reasons. As one of the Great Unemployed, I have a ridiculous amount of free time, and it is tragically easy to descend into wearing your pjs all day and hardly emerging from the house during daylight hours, like some sort of plaid clad vampire.So having something to get up and go to is pretty important, and probably good for me.

And I used to walk past the shop a lot and see the sign that said, "Please Help! We need volunteers!" and I do like to help out. It's a really good thing to do, and that should be reason enough.

Also, it's one of the most rewarding things that I have ever done, on lots of levels.

Generally, the feeling that you get from working somewhere like a charity shop is one of incredible optimism. It's full of people who are all there, working for no money, just to make the world a better place. And there are lots of volunteers. Then, at the end of the day you get to see how much money that has been made by the shop, and you know that all that money will be going to do great things for people who really need it.

And people are always giving us more money or bringing in items to be donated or putting change in our collection box. I have never felt so reassured about human nature as I have working in my shop.

On a personal level, it's been amazing what working there does to my mood. Like I said, it makes me feel better about the world. And everyone who works there is extremely nice. Not being able to find a job plays hell with your self confidence, let me tell you. But at the shop, people are always saying things like, "Lal can do that, she's a smart girl," or "That's a great job you did there" or "What a nice skirt you're wearing." It may not seem like such a big deal, but having people be positive in a really matter of fact way about you is pretty awesome. When I told my boss I had been made redundant she said, "Those bastards! What idiots."

And I like being able to interact with people. Headingley, where the shop is located is a strange place in many ways. It's one of the student areas of Leeds, where a lot of student housing is and most of the businesses there are quite student orientated (bars, takeaways etc). But it's also right next to a really nice upper class part of Leeds, AND really near one of the poorer areas. So you get all kinds of people coming into the shop. My favourites, I have to say, are the students looking for fancy dress outfits. And my favourite of those are the boys who come in to buy dresses.

It's amazing.

They always come in groups, stand round the rail and have this conversation.

Guy 1: Dude, what size am I?
Guy 2: No idea. I think my girlfriend is a, 12, or something?
Guy 3: This looks huge, but it says 20, and I'm usually a 38 in shirts.
Guy 4: Why are there no odd numbers? Why does it start at 8?
Guys: THESE SIZES MAKE NO SENSE. WOMEN ARE CRAZY.

Then the large majority? Get really into it and start trying to find whole matching outfits and holding the dresses up to themselves in front of the mirror to see what suits them.

I do have a new found hatred for people who A) cut all the tags out of their clothing, thus forcing me to guess what size something is when tagging it. Even though I am one of those people! Tags are annoying. But seriously, I am a really bad guesser of sizes. B) Commercial radio. OMG you guys, it is so bad. Local commercial radio. Where you can hear the same songs every hour! Interspersed with low budget advertising for car dealerships and outlet malls!  C) And this is real hatred, people who try and get money off. One, this is a CHARITY SHOP. Any money you give us goes to charity. And you are begruding 50p? Seriously? Two, you are already getting a good deal. Most of the stuff we get in is hardly worn, and loads of it is brand new. I would say that on average people are saving over £10 PER ITEM. Also, did I mention that we are a charity shop. And you know who are the worst at this? Not the students. Not the old people. No, it is middle aged middle class women who come in laden with bags from high end retailers and then think that £4 is too much for a brand new pair of Levi jeans. I'm sorry, but it makes me SO ANGRY.

Luckily, for every person who makes me mad, there is someone who tells you a joke, or tells you to keep the change or who buys books and then brings them back the next week to be sold again

Something I find quite interesting and quite like, is that the shop is very much ruled by women. There are guys who work there, but the staff are mainly female and all the people in charge, managers, supervisors etc, are women. They are not hippy drippy types, either. And it's really cool! There are free tampons in the bathroom, and really good biscuits in the staff kitchen. No one is allowed to be disrespectful, although friendly banter is encouraged all round. My bosses do not take crap from anyone, and won't let you, either. And everyone is free to complain about stuff but everyone just gets on with the job in hand. It's kind of hard to explain, but the general atmosphere is so great and the work ethic so good it makes me wonder just how awesome the world would be if it was run by really no-nonsense women from Yorkshire.

Volunteering. I recommend it! Cheap clothing (I get a staff discount! How ridiculous is that!) and the ability to make a fairly cynical person like myself all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Other than that, how is everyone? Twitter is awesome. The two days of summer we had, also awesome. Househunting? Sucks.