raven: red tulips in a vase on a balcony, against a background of a city (stock - tulips)
[personal profile] raven
All right, so I'm not exactly old, yet. But I was standing at the till in Sainsbury's with a raw chicken in one hand and a bag of low-fat wine gums in the other and peering woefully at the "Under 21" sign, informing me about ID and alcohol purchases. And yes, it makes no qualitative difference, but not being under twenty-one is still odd.

An odd sort of birthday. There was, due to a strange sequence of circumstances, the tail-end of a cast party in our kitchen last night, and they were still making a noise at half six in the morning, so I picked up my blankets and pillows in the early-morning light and went to sleep curled in a foetal ball in the windowseat. I woke up with a start at half eleven with nothing before my eyes other than the drop. Someone said later that it would make a good beginning to a novel: "On the morning of my twenty-first birthday, I awoke to find myself falling from a third-floor window..."

Yes. Thank god for double glazing. I got myself up with minimal creaking and went into college, to find my parents had sent me a bottle of rosé and a ginormous cake by post. (Don't ask how, really.) Maria and I did some food shopping - my flatmates had made elaborate dinner plans, about which I was at the time wisely asking nothing - and then I sat in the kitchen and waited for the world to come to me.

Which it did. [livejournal.com profile] absinthe_shadow appeared and we had a brief discussion about fandom as female space, which got rapidly derailed by [livejournal.com profile] foulds arriving and talking about cheese. We have discovered, much to our joint chagrin, that we know the Aeneid. As in, we can recite it to each other. I am profoundly impressed and disturbed, and strangely happy, too. I am happy. People came and made me happy - [livejournal.com profile] shimgray did Bonsai Kitten impressions, Maria made tiramisu, [livejournal.com profile] deepbluemermaid presented me with lovely lovely minty chocolate and told me stories about New Zealand. My lovely wife [livejournal.com profile] jacinthsong came and we sat almost a metre apart and were not co-dependent, and [livejournal.com profile] lizziwig gave me the BEST CARD EVER. It is enormous and made of and with love, and I was filled with more joy.

The one thing my parents didn't send, as my mum somewhat emotionally informed me this morning, was birthday candles. So we used Diwali tealights instead (which [livejournal.com profile] shimgray took a lovely picture of) and I was so happy, I forgot to make a wish. I don't need one, right now. I had to chuck people out with considerable reluctance - the flatmates were gearing up with roast chickens of doom - and suddenly, without my noticing, I'd been steered into a chair at the end of a table and was looking down at a grand vista of food. Everything I like is made of sugar, so we had cake and rosé and baked apples and honey parsnips and roast chicken with blackcurrant jam and fairy cakes and sausage rolls and strawberry jelly and rich Ethiopian coffee. I have no idea where they were hiding so much food. (In fact, I missed this; I've sort of drifted away from my flatmates in recent months, and forgotten what wonderful people they really are. Somewhere in the middle of the hubbub of conversation, Liya said, into a space of silence, "Your ex-girlfriend's mother is Alan Rickman?"

Do you need context for a remark like that? I don't think so. There was full-on hysteria without any need for such trivialities.)

So, a quiet night, winding down into further quiet, coffee and cake, and I am still filled with love for everyone. People wrote me fic, too! [livejournal.com profile] absinthe_shadow wrote me "Five Times Geoffrey Tennant was happy" into my birthday card, and it had the same poetic, utterly stilling quality all her writing has. It was beautiful.

[livejournal.com profile] hathy_col wrote me "five things the Doctor never said to his companions", which is made of WIN;

[livejournal.com profile] rosariotijeras wrote me "five things Geoffrey Tennant definitely didn't do in the asylum", which is simultaneously hilarious and terribly sad;

[livejournal.com profile] nos4a2no9 wrote me Deserted, which is about what happened when Benton Fraser saw the beach for the first time, and it's quiet, and melancholy, and horribly sad. Love.

And [livejournal.com profile] pinkishmew wrote me the first of "five times Teddy Lupin was performatively genderqueer", which I have to admit I will also try myself.

(I also want to try "five things Rodney McKay thinks the Ancients should have invented, but didn't because they had no concept of pop culture", and I did suggest to the room at large this afternoon "five reasons Remus Lupin should not be dead", but that just degenerates into "because! because! because!" so I may desist from that.)

...so. In six months from now, I'm going to leave this place that I love and have loved so deeply. On my twenty-second birthday, a new president of the United States will take office. I don't know who it will be, and I don't know where I'll be to see it - Delhi? Japan? Formby Point? Cambridge, MA? - but I do know that I woke up this morning and I did not fall, and I will not fall, and the world is all laid out below my window, beautiful and lit and waiting.

on 2008-01-21 01:02 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] steerpikelet.livejournal.com
Happy birthday, sweetheart. I'm really glad you had a good time, and sorry I couldn't be there. x

on 2008-01-21 02:09 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
Thank you, my dear. :) *loves*

on 2008-01-21 01:05 am (UTC)
ext_20950: (hugs)
Posted by [identity profile] jacinthsong.livejournal.com
*love love love* (also, spam)

Am uploading moar pictures now!

on 2008-01-21 01:30 am (UTC)
ext_20950: (unfortunate news)
Posted by [identity profile] jacinthsong.livejournal.com
Oh yeah, I know he's not your man (I'm not sure how much more he is my man, but you know me on this), but this (http://jezebel.com/346910/) is still the best quote of the week.

on 2008-01-21 02:10 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
Hurrah for pictures! (The tealight ones, particularly, are beautiful.)

And aaaah, that is wonderful. I didn't see that before! They don't want to be helped, oh, dear, poor Obama.

on 2008-01-21 03:41 pm (UTC)
ext_20950: (Default)
Posted by [identity profile] jacinthsong.livejournal.com
I just bought clothes and now I have no money.

Pretty though.

on 2008-01-21 01:19 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com
Squeeee! Just a general squee. Because you are so very, very awesome, and also because I didn't know the inauguration would be on your birthday. And I just went and read all the fic and I don't have time to write reviews because I'm meant to be reading metaphysical poetry, but it was sad in a joyous way. ♥

on 2008-01-22 07:32 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
It's lovely, lovely fic. I love Nos a lot - her fic is all so saaaaad and I love it.

(Also, you need to post your fic from today, yes you do.)

on 2008-01-22 10:13 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com
Hee! I will post it when I have time to type it up... Not on my lj though. It will be f'locked in the ou3fs comm!

on 2008-01-21 01:29 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] troyswann.livejournal.com
oh my god, sometimes I just adore you so much.

*hug*

happy birthday.

on 2008-01-23 12:46 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
*schnoogles* Thank you, sweetheart.

on 2008-01-21 01:29 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com
What a lovely post. Happy birthday! I hope this is a wonderful year for you.

on 2008-01-23 12:47 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
Thank you! *loves*

on 2008-01-21 01:44 am (UTC)
icepixie: (Cake)
Posted by [personal profile] icepixie
Happy birthday!

on 2008-01-23 12:47 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
Thank you! :)

on 2008-01-21 05:55 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] casirafics.livejournal.com
Happy belated birthday, m'dear. :)

on 2008-01-23 12:47 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
Thankee kindly. :P

on 2008-01-21 09:27 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] tmpe5t.livejournal.com
Your life sounds so much fun... Remember that when you're on a downer...:D

In the meantime, am i the only person who's gagging to read Primeval Slash....? :D

on 2008-01-21 10:11 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] insaneizzi.livejournal.com
If I send you stuff just to Balliol College as the address you will get it right? *hopes*

on 2008-01-21 07:32 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] shimgray.livejournal.com
I have managed letters sent across the country to "[surname], Balliol, Oxford". This is likely to be one of those cases where it'll work...

on 2008-01-21 08:32 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
I got it! *loves you* And oh, oh, it's beautiful. Did you really make it? It's so pretty. Thank you, thank you!

on 2008-01-22 11:49 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] insaneizzi.livejournal.com
Yay! I am very glad you liked it. :D Yes, I did make it myself, that sort of yarn makes things pretty doesn't it! But hard to knit, it's all fiddly.

Will you take a picture of you wearing it?

on 2008-01-24 01:32 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
It's so lovely. And yes, yes, I will take a picture the moment I can get someone with a camera to take it!

on 2008-01-21 05:07 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] pinkishmew.livejournal.com
Eee. [cuddles]

2. Teddy grinned at his cousin, then concentrated hard, and let a mass of auburn curls fall over his shoulders. Victoire stuffed her hand into her mouth to stop herself giggling, and they both ducked in case Hermione saw them. They were sitting behind a sofa, while the grown ups fussed over Christmas.

"What's it like at Hogwarts, Teddy?"

He smiled at her. "Lots of fun."

"Have you got a girlfriend yet?" she teased.

Teddy started to blush, but threw his head back and focused hard. Victoire gasped as she looked up into an imperfect impression of her mother, and cast about quickly to see if any of the adults were watching.

"Now, my deeeer, vy would I want to get a girlfriend ven I can thrill all ze boys like dis?" Teddy squeaked, falsetto, then ducked as Victoire cast him a heavy thump across the head.

on 2008-01-21 08:33 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
Ahahahaha, wee Teddy! So much love for this. I wonder if making himself a Veela really does have an effect on his sex life. :)

on 2008-01-21 08:45 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] pinkishmew.livejournal.com
[grins] The rest are here (http://pinkishmew.livejournal.com/682227.html#cutid1). :)

on 2008-01-21 06:56 pm (UTC)
tau_sigma: (yellow tulips)
Posted by [personal profile] tau_sigma
Oh, that sounds lovely. I'm so glad you had a wonderful birthday, dear, you're such a lovely person you deserve all kinds of joy and friendship yay-ness and sugar-related foods. *g*

Also, I want someone to write that novel now. Or possibly fic; it could be done as fic, maybe. What a way to wake up, though!

on 2008-01-23 12:48 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] loneraven.livejournal.com
Oh, you. *loves* Thank you.

Do you know, I'm quite tempted to use it somewhere myself. In the meantime, I guess the rest of my life can be the novel...

March 2025

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819 202122
23242526272829
3031     

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 1st, 2025 02:55 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios