fox

First, mea culpa -- I would never have left the internets for these particular two days without saying I'd be away if I'd known I wasn't going to have access from the moment I left my hotel in Utica until now. Apologies, and blame for the Syracuse airport (who said they had wireless, but whose wireless didn't work).

Next: the reveal! I wrote Secret Lives of the Cast of Galaxy Quest for

shealynn88, which, let me tell you, kicked my ass out of all proportion with my knowledge of and love for the source material. I have no idea why this thing was so difficult, but it was. Still, though, it has gone over well, for which I am glad!

My presents were, as I said before, The Knowledge, the Truth, and the Love, by Sabine (

iamsab), and it is brilliant and I can't tell you how much I love it. And my lovely stocking stuffer, Resisting Temptation, came from Assimbya (

assimbya). Thanks, Assimbya and Sab! [flings arms around both]

Am now in Florida at the home of the friends. The baby continues to be criminally adorable. Today I'm going to see if I can't exchange a gift that was, without the giver's knowledge, a duplicate of something I already had. Soon, home again!

Oh. Maybe I'd better find a spare for curling tomorrow night.

i was so ... awake

happy birthday: to

glasshouseslive

curling (GNCC junior playdowns): [falls down from tired]

yuletide: [continued glee]

That is all. G'night!

i was so ... exhausted

Am in Utica, about (tomorrow morning) to begin my stint as Assistant Chief Umpire for the GNCC Junior Playdowns. Woo-hoo! The (Non-Assistant) Chief Umpire is delighted to have me, because otherwise she'd be substantially by herself -- this is an idiotic week to have a competition that requires a whole mess of volunteers, is what.

Conversation that has been ongoing for a few weeks, but more ongoing the past few days because of proximity:

my mother: ... So this one lawyer I worked with when I was in The Hague is now doing work with the tribunal in Cambodia, and said we were welcome to stay with him if we were ever there. So what do you think -- your father and I are thinking of going to Cambodia!
me: You're not going to Cambodia.
mom: We might!
me: You're not going to Cambodia.
my brother: Please consider this very carefully. You know according to this guidebook that was published very recently by very adventurous travelers, Cambodia isn't the best place to visit. You can't drink the water -- you can't even brush your teeth with the water. At all. And there are still land mines in the country and muggers in the city. Plus, in the temples, in the darker corners, there are poisonous snakes. I'm not making this up. Also, you don't like the heat and the humidity and the mosquitos, so why would you think you'd enjoy it there?
my parents: Well, we were thinking about February, but that's really too soon for the following list of reasons, so now we're looking at going to Cambodia in October.
me: You're not going to Cambodia.
my sister-in-law: I really think they might.
my brother's mother-in-law: Some friends of mine were telling me about a trip they took to Alaska --
me: You've been talking about going to Alaska for years! Why don't you do that instead of going to Cambodia?
my sister-in-law: [thumbs up]
my brother's mother-in-law: -- it was a thing organized by academics, more sort of like a research trip than a cruise, if you see what I mean.
me, my brother, my sister-in-law: Yes, we think you should go on this Alaska Nerd Cruise instead of going to Cambodia.
my brother: Or, if you really want southeast Asian tropics, go to Thailand, or even Vietnam, and see how you like it, before jumping in at the Cambodia end.

Where it is now is, they understand our concerns (which, let me stress, are not that Cambodia is not a place that should ever be visited; I'd go, and I'd even have fewer objections to my parents going if they were going on some organized tour thing with a good reputation and knowledgeable guides and so on; but they are not of a sufficiently adventuresome bent that just Going and staying with an Australian -- and much more adventuresome -- friend who happens to be living there but wouldn't be in a position to take time off work and show them around much if at all is the sort of trip they should be taking to any place more alarming than, say, Budapest), and they seem to feel that we're more interested in their not going than they are in going. So my hope is that they really will look into the Alaska thing, or investigate a package tour to southeast Asia, or something.

I've been getting lots of lovely comments on my

yuletide fic -- close to twice as many as I got on last year's, in fact, although that may not be surprising, as a) there are more people participating this year and b) [redacted until after the reveal]. Also, and this pleases me out of all proportion with anything, [actually this might be construed as tipping my hand as well, so I'll hold it until after the reveal too]. Whee!

i was so ... good

I got two presents, which I can't quite work out in my head -- I think that should mean someone somewhere defaulted, but I didn't see my request on the pinch-hit list or the stocking-stuffer list or anywhere at all ever, so I'm confused. (I can believe that they managed somehow to send pinch-hit requests to the whole mailing list except for the person whose request it was -- I don't know how, but I bet it can be done -- but I can't imagine they could have made the stocking-stuffer list n requests long appear n-1 if the requester of one of them was looking at it, because, hi. Also, why is this what I'm puzzling about at 11:00 on Archive-Opening Day?)

So! My presents are The Knowledge, the Truth, and the Love, a fabulous story of Gwydion going to rescue toddler!Eilonwy from an Achren who is not nearly as nasty, yet, as she gets to be when we know her in The Chronicles of Prydain, and I adore it. Hurrah for fate, and prophecy, and wistfulness, and Gwydion/Achren, and in general: yaaay!

Plus I got a stocking-stuffer, Resisting Temptation, which shows us Gwydion's thoughts as he's warning Taran against Achren's enchantments in the throne room of Spiral Castle. Again with the yay!

Plus, my recipient appears from her message to have liked her present! In short: a successful Yuletide all around.

And now I go read some more things.

i was so ... happy

Okay, so by thirty-three minutes ahead, I mean, of course, seventeen minutes after the original deadline or thirteen minutes ahead of the new one, as I was a victim of the Upload Crash of Doom. But! I am now safely uploaded, and all is good, and I can therefore open a beer and talk about a couple of other things.

One of the hired altos got zapped out of the Messiah chorus tonight. Apparently at last night's rehearsal, the director (who isn't conducting this concert, but is still our boss, and prepared us for the conductor) spent a lot of time hanging around in the alto section because he was Suspicious, and it turned out? that she hadn't really learned the music. Shame on her! The soprano behind me said "I mean, how can a person not know the Messiah?", to which I pointed out that before rehearsals began I knew exactly one movement of the Messiah, so I have in fact learned it all in a big damn hurry. And, okay, so I learn fast, but you know what, if you're going to advertise yourself as a professional? You need to be able to sing the stuff 72 hours before the concert, know what I'm saying? So I'm not sorry she got the boot. I appreciate knowing that there are standards and they're being enforced.
The alto standing next to me tonight (because I am on the boundary between sections, hurrah, my favorite place to stand, and I almost never get to stand there, because normally the seconds are between the firsts and the altos) told me I have a beautiful voice! Which is very exciting to hear any time, but from another singer is especially pleasing. I said it was very nice of her to say so, and she said something about just soaring up to the high notes, and I felt all cuddly and happy.
Holy crap, I wrote the last five hundred words of my yuletide story in like fifteen minutes. Yoiks! Must not let situation get so down-to-the-wire in future.
Back to the Future is on Bravo again, and I always wonder: how come they dub over "shit" ("stuff") and "son of a bitch" ("son of a butthead", which, what?) but not "bastard"? Also, holy crap, look how young they all were. Except Christopher Lloyd, who's been the same age since he was on Taxi, but who -- look, this movie came out twenty-one years ago, and you know the guy is still picking scenery out of his teeth.

i was so ... sleepy

Fortunately, I see it because I am about to upload my

yuletide story, a full THIRTY-THREE MINUTES before the deadline. Whew!

i was so ... accomplished

A good Messiah rehearsal this morning (this despite the fact that I'm fairly sure the director was speaking to or at least toward me when he said "It's awfully late for people still to be sight reading", although in my defense, I wasn't sight reading, I was just wrong [g] -- and I'm almost positive it was me who took a breath in a place that caused him a moment later to say we mustn't breathe there at all at all, worst place ever to take a breath, anywhere but there, etc. hee). Then a couple of hours before the call for the Christmas concert -- not enough time to go home, so I sat in the world's crummiest Starbucks and wrote a whole section of my

yuletide. Thank god. And then the concert, which went both miles better and forty minutes faster than last night. Hurrah.

i was so ... happy

Morning: cramps*. fog. bus was late, so I took the one going in what a rookie would think was the opposite direction. Apparently just missed a blue train, as board when I got to platform showed the next one nine minutes away. (NINE MINUTES! IN RUSH HOUR!) Took the yellow train instead, for which I only had to wait six minutes. (SIX MINUTES! etc.) Fortunately, barely had to wait at all at L'Enfant. Time to get to This Week's Workplace normally: 30 minutes. Time today: 47 minutes.

Evening: more cramps*. just missed a blue train. Waited through two orange trains; the next blue train pulled all the way in, forcing us at the reasonable bit of the platform to hurry halfway along to meet it (and why they think it's a good idea to run two six-car orange trains for every four-car blue train -- there are more people who live on the orange line, but three times as many people? BAH, I say). Thing is impossibly crowded, of course. Doors close. Doors open. Chime sounds. Doors close. Train sits for three minutes. Doors open. Doors close. Doors open. Driver yells at people to stand clear, as train cannot move if doors cannot close. Doors close. Train sits for two minutes. Doors open. Driver announces that train is now out of service and everyone must exit. Platform is crowded with passengers waiting for orange line and next blue train. Getting off train v. difficult. Decide to go home the way I came in; hurry to other platform and get train going other direction. At L'Enfant Plaza, I just missed a yellow train. Waited four minutes, during which time a green line train came and went, which was a total melee such as I've hardly seen in a long time. Yellow train back to Pentagon. Line for the bus is so long the end of it is halfway back the line for the next bus. A bus that shares our stand but does not go to my stop pulls up; the bus for the next stand, whose line we're halfway back in, pulls up to its own stand. Then my bus arrives. Normally, when it couldn't get to the stand it waited until it could, and people who wanted to get on as soon as they saw it were waved away by the driver. Lately, though (Monday and today), it's just pulled in wherever it could -- in this case, behind the bus at the next stand, so, two bus lengths back from the front of the line. Of course that means a) the back of the line is now closer and b) there's no way the collection of people trying to board the bus will ever be persuaded to remain in any sort of "line". Another (moderate) melee. Then, traffic on the HOV lanes. Time to get home from This Week's Workplace normally: 40 minutes. Time today: 65 minutes.

Plus, got the news that a kid who was two years behind me in college, and whom I knew moderately from theatre my senior year, died on Sunday. I know no details, and I didn't know him well enough for this to be like a personal loss, but I'm pretty cross with the world at the death of people in my peer group when we're still this young. Plus, did I mention cramps*. Plus, cannot be social tonight as must stay home and ~~work on~~ finish Yuletide. (These last two are obviously a different sort of rotten than the first.)

In brighter news, though, I got cards in the mail today from

denis77 and

abka and from

merrycontrary, so that's happy. And I got a message that my Messiah score, which I ordered a week ago Monday and was told would be in by the end of that week, is now ready to be picked up -- that is, only a week later than they estimated. Grr. But, yay for not having to use a borrowed score anymore.

So I'm off to pick that up; and hit the grocery store, which I didn't do last night; and then: Yuletide. Hurrah.

*( footnote about cramps )

i was so ... cranky

Drive was uneventful. Family is all safe and reasonably well. Have GOT to start thinking productively about yuletide instead of just biting my nails and fretting. Promised wish list earlier, so will now deliver: mad coveting of new curling stuff, of which everything I own is aged. Can't replace it all at once, of course, but if I could, I'd get this broom with the 1 1/8" handle and some bright-colored (for visibility) head; these pants (I love how there's a place to select a color even though they only come in black); these shoes, with a 1/4" full slider (not just perimeter; the guy assures me this can be done) and toe dip; these gloves; and probably a couple of shirts and a jacket on account of my old fleece vest is kind of shapeless and blah. (Hey, as long as I'm thinking about an ideal world, right?) It's true that Goldline is not the only game in town -- for values of "in town", of course -- but we're pals with them, so I feel like unless there's a compelling reason, it can't hurt to give them my business.

This has been today's edition of The Wish List. Because it was on my mind. Stay tuned for the whole wish-list meme thing, which I may get to. :-D

i was so ... sleepy

I am all a-frisse* with the (relatively speaking) instantaneous arrival of

yuletide assignments. Yuletide yay!

Nowthen, ( for my Yuletider: )

*a-frisse: backformed from "frisson", because "a-quiver" wasn't quite doing it for me. Neologisms yay!

i was so ... bouncy

I meant to -- this is one of the things I should have made an entry and tagged "yuletide 2006", because otherwise I'd forget, which I did -- I meant to suggest My Fair Lady, for the heaps and heaps of Higgins/Pickering!

[cannot check master list at present workplace, because yuletidetreasure.org is filtered][crosses fingers and hopes someone else nominated it][makes a note not to forget this in yuletide 2007]

i was so ... d'oh!

Profile

fox

May 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Entries tagged with yuletide 2006

yuletide reveal!

speed roundup

random roundup

whee, yuletide!

caught in the undertow

oh my god, that ticker is TERRIFYING.

productivity yay

BEST COMMUTE EVER

sleepytime

oh! santa!

oh! yuletide!

Profile

May 2025

Tags

Expand Cut Tags