In the dark, there is freedom

So, I'm attempting to update this more, even though I really feel like nobody's reading and it doesn't matter anyway... Whatever, I've got some new followers thanks to a couple of friending memes on slushieverse's social comm. Also possibly a friending meme in avengers_land. FFFFFFF, I don't remember! Gaaaaaaah.

Anyway, wherever you came from, welcome!

Apparently, I'm on a Renner kick (as in Jeremy Renner of The Avengers fame), and two of the three fics I'm actively working on at the moment feature his characters. One is an AU rpverse where Clint Barton is a Marine and married to Stephanie Rogers (who is a female!Steve Rogers, DON'T JUDGE ME, BRO.). It's loosely based on The Hurt Locker and it's all captain_elessar's fault (mostly because she's my Clint ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and it was her idea to start with). The other is an Unusuals fic. WHERE WAS I IN 2009 WHEN THIS SHOW WAS ON THE AIR? HOW DID IT NOT FALL ONTO MY RADAR? OMG, RENNER, I COULD'VE KNOWN ABOUT YOU SOONER! ALL THOSE WASTED YEARS I COULD'VE BEEN STANNING YOU.

I mean. Uh. Yay, obscure fandom! \o/

IDK, would anybody reading this be interested in the fic? I might've created an ex-wife for Walsh, and the story is about how they ended up getting a divorce. I can't totally blame that one on captain_elessar (that's Renner's fault for being so goddamn gorgeous and awesome and totally badass that Megan sprang to life after one episode. YES, I AM THAT GIRL /paranoia over being accused of a self insert OC), though she has encouraged me to pursue this character idea.

Just in case you don't already know, you can follow me on Twitter, Tumblr and oh, look, AO3

That Altima is sounding better and better... I love driving it and I wants one. Mom and I may be going car shopping this week, if I have my car back.


Sigtag by daynavon

Sooooooo, roughly three hours after I made this entry about having my car back on the road, this fucking chick runs into the rear driver's side of my car in the parking lot of fucking Wal-Mart, man. X( I was going down the aisle like a normal person, looking for a parking space, and she comes out of nowhere, cutting through the parking spaces from the next aisle over and plows into me.

There's a dent on the rear door and the bumper, and a scratch on the quarter panel. All that has to be replaced, plus they're doing an all-wheel alignment since she hit right on the wheel.

She was apologetic and gave me her contact information, her insurance policy number but said she'd really rather pay for it out of pocket. So I was like "Yeah, okay, whatever, I'll call you with the estimate price."

Monday afternoon, I called her, left a voicemail. No word. Tuesday morning, called her, apparently woke her up, judging from the sleepy sound of her voice, gave her the total, had her freak out "WHAT?! I just hit the bumper!" Uh, noooo, I'm looking at my car and you hit right on the rear wheel. She was like "Okay, I'll have to call you back."

Yesterday afternoon, hadn't heard from her by lunchtime, so I called my insurance to see what I needed to do. Got home last night, had a message from them, they advised me to call her insurance. The claim was filed last night after dinner, and this morning, Progressive called me to schedule repairs for my car and reserve me a rental. XD

I just... My poor little car! I've had it for seven years, and I've only been in one previous accident (I rear-ended a lady, whoops), and that was...ffff, three years ago? Now, in the span of three months, my mom ran over a gator while driving me to the airport, the starter died and now this. I think it's time to trade the bluebird in >_> Or stop driving (Yeah, right.)


Blinkie by babygirl

Okaaaaaaaaay, let's talk New York vacation, eh? Just got back from a three day trip aaaand I have pictures! Yay!

The weather was not so bad. It stayed mostly in the 40s, and Thursday was overcast while it rained a bit on Friday. Of course, when I was leaving on Saturday, the sun came out, lol. Isn't that the way it always goes?

So, I took Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off from work. Wednesday was my relax and pack day, and then Wednesday night, Mom and I drove up to my uncle's house to spend the night. He lives less than an hour away from Orlando International Airport, so it saved us from having to get up at 4am. Then again, I'm not really sure if it was worth the aggravation of having to wait for my aunt and cousin to show up from their shopping trip. My uncle told them we'd be there between 8 and 8:30, and it was 9:30 when they finally showed up. They claim that they told my uncle they were leaving a key under the mat, but I don't know. I wouldn't put it past them to have placed the key under the mat after getting off the phone with my uncle, but whatever.

The bed in their guest room is soooooooo uncomfortable, and Mom was snoring, so I didn't really get a lot of sleep, which made getting at 6am a bitch. Mom woke up first, and then we got dressed and headed out. She dropped me off at the airport, blah blah blah, I ate breakfast and waited. The plane actually left on time (yay!) and I was in JFK by noon. Got my suitcase and hailed a cab, and I was checked into my hotel by 1:30.

The first day, I just kinda spent it wandering around the neighborhood. Apparently when I'm in New York, I forget that I'm a fat woman who rarely exercises because I tried to walk six city blocks. Talk about winded. I thought I was going to die. X(

I got up Friday and headed off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I saw about maaaybe a quarter of the exhibits, lol. I loved it though. I got some pictures!
( And here is where we go behind a cut for the first round of photos! )

So, I didn't take pictures of all of the Egyptian wing, but it was so awesome. They had another replica of a priest's tomb -- his name totally escapes me at the moment, but it started with a P and he was the head honcho of pharaoh ceremonies and stuff. Gah, if I had my museum map, I could tell you... Oh well. Anyway, they had actual pieces of the tomb walls behind glass, and they had it set up just the way the tomb would've been in Egypt. So the chambers and halls were really kinda narrow, and the guy said if you were claustrophobic that you probably shouldn't go in but I went in anyway because c'mon, how many times are you going to see something like that?

Then they had statues from Hatshepsut's tomb (she was an Egyptian queen) and all kinds of jewelry and artifacts, and it was just so neat thinking about the fact that I was staring at stuff that was made thousands of years ago. They had some of the sarcophagi that Egyptians were buried in (alas, no mummies) and all I can say is that they were really, really skinny and tiny people.

Next up after the Egyptian Wing was the American Wing and the first thing I saw...
( Going behind another cut for Round 2 of pics! )

Okay, so, the main reason that I planned this trip to New York was to see Nick Jonas in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Now, he replaced Darren Criss, who replaced Daniel Radcliffe. I really wanted to see Darren, but I couldn't swing the finances at the time. Getting to see Nick was such a pleasure though.

One of my goals for the trip was to track down Nick's billboard in Times Square. My friend emo_dj_steph lives in Queens, and we were planning to meet up and hang out anyway (because how often do you get the opportunity to meet an online friend when they're in your area?) and she's a Nick fan too, so I asked if she minded going on a hunt for the billboard.

She figured that the billboard was in the quintessential part of Times Square, on Broadway, where you see the ball drop and everything, so we started off on 42nd Street and started walking down Broadway, checking out all the advertisements. We didn't really see the billboard the first few blocks, so we kept walking and we finally started to get toward the end, and she said "You know, we're going to start running out of advertisements soon..."

We stopped at an intersection to wait for the crosswalk signal to give us the okay to cross, and I happened to be looking around at the ads and things across the street. There was this building with a black, shiny facade, and I gasped because I realized that there was a pair of familiar eyes reflected in the surface. So I pointed it out and was like "OMG, I see his eyes!" and she looked and said "Oh, okay, we must not be able to see it from the angle we're standing at, so let's cross the street."

So we did, and sure enough...
( Round 3 of pics )

( My review of Nick's performance in How to Succeed )

And then Saturday was spent flying home, LOL

What a trip though. I'm so glad I went. Oh, and apparently there was a Darren Criss Sex Riot while I was gone because outtakes from his People's Sexiest Man Alive shoot were released. Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng.

I'll be making an entry about that later when I go through all the photos and pick out my favorites.

My Kindle Fire has just been shipped. \o/

I've kinda been leery of eReaders and eBooks just because I'm old school and love the feel of a paperback book in hand. Then I decided that I like technology a lot too and love having gadgets, so I got online and looked at reviews of the Kindle Fire versus the Nook Tablet. Obviously, I'd rather have an iPad because I'm a Machead, but I'm choking a little on the price tag.

So, I'm getting a Kindle Fire. Which it's not really a comparison to the iPad because they're really in two different categories, they do share some features. I'm looking forward to my Fire though, woo! And it'll be here tomorrow! Yes, I'm impatient and had it shipped to me overnight.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, rec me stuff, bitches. ;D

Hmm, so I made a pact with myself to start updating this journal more since it was pretty lively in October and November, what with the 30 Day Original Character Development challenge and NaNoWriMo updates. Yet, here it is, December 13 and I've only posted two entries, one of which was a Christmas present.

I posted a link to a Holiday Love Meme! Go, leave me anonymous bits of love! The only problem with that is I want to know who's leaving said little bits of love, but whatever. That defeats the point of the meme. XD

Leave me your link in the comments and I'll leave you some love too.

Holiday cards! I haven't sent them out yet (that procrastination thing is rearing its ugly head, sorry >.>), so if you want to get in on the fun, just drop me a comment here!

What else, what else? I'm still writing on Bright City Bites. It's not finished yet. I have a bunch to type up, actually. Still looking for beta readers. I'm not even sure where to start looking, really. Fellow writers, is there some kind of site? I guess I could just google it.

I'm thinking about maybe writing entries as my original characters. *strokes chin* Too weird? I know of at least a couple of people who enjoyed Joseph and Zander responding to the various challenge subjects. Would you guys be adverse to reading entries from them and other characters lurking in my head? I could get prompts from various writing comms around LJ. I've got some friended. Discuss!

Granted, that does not include my fandom rp characters. Though I may start writing journal entries for them in their own journals just because, you know, it'd be a fun way to get into their headspace.

You know, when I was in high school, I had a friend -- who shall remain nameless -- who likened our circle of friends to the solar system. She said to me, "You know, like, so-and-so is the Earth, and I'm Mars and so on and forth," and then she looked at me and went "And then there's you, and you're, like, waaaaaay out there. Beyond the edges of the galaxy. You're, like, an undiscovered planet or a comet or something." At the time, I prided myself on that description because I thought it meant that I was unique and different and not like everybody...special, if you will.

Now, looking back, I'm not so sure that's the case. I don't think she was trying to pay me a compliment.