I have my window open a crack. I can hear the sea.
.....aaaah. Okay. Sane now. Really.
Maybe not quite. But I am back in the frozen north (er - actually, it's a couple of degrees warmer than Oxford), and feeling rather better about life. The Aeneid was wonderful - more thoughts on it when said thoughts are something beyond "omgyay!" - and the week ended very very well indeed. And now, amazingly, I am home. I didn't particularly think about what I was doing this vac, mostly because my life ended with the Aeneid, and now I'm here and really rather quite surprised about it.
But. Pleasantly surprised. At nine o'clock this morning I got a text from my mother, to the effect of, am in Dubai, see you later. I am an awful person and had entirely forgotten she was there, mostly due to the pernicious effect of the Aeneid cast party the night before. It was drunken. That is a big surprise to everyone, I know. But it was also joyous and filled with happy people, and I had not eaten in days, and drinking was clearly the best idea ever. (I tried. I really, really did. I ate a sandwich and everything. In the afternoon, I was packing up my room with the windows open with
chiasmata knitting and making soothing noises in the windowseat, and was being gradually consumed by maudlin. Because Balliol are not made of win, they want me to clear out all my crap. I, therefore, was putting away books, thinking, oh, won't have time to read much next term, I may as well take it home for good. Oh, god. Leaving Oxford. Please to not be getting me started on this always-cheerful topic.)
But, yes, yes, cast party. I participated in some glorious cocktailing, and now have adopted two more OULES children as well as Maria. And spent the rest of the evening curled up on the Couch of Lesbian Doom, so called because through a bit of syllogistic trickery, everyone on it was - here's the clever part - by definition a lesbian (
osymandias and
shimgray objected to this slightly, on grounds of being male, but they were both quite clearly wrong) and I was rather extravagantly rude to a gatecrashing sleazy boy drifting through the party (although not quite as rude as
chiasmata, who was heard to wish quite cheerfully that his penis would fall off), and after that, sinking slowly into sleepy contentment. Ahhhh.
Yes, nine o'clock this morning, my mother was in Dubai, and by six, we were both in Manchester Airport, she sleepy and endearingly irrational and me sleepy and wearing the Cat Ears of Troy. (Because, er, everything that was involved in the Aeneid in any capacity has become the "X! Of! Troy!", said just like that, with pauses for dramatic piano music. My life has become constituted and defined by the norms and mores of a student bastardisation of Virgil, why do you ask?) She's been gone a month, and I've been away for three, and it was nice to wander back tonight and dazedly talk about nothing much. She informs me that I've lost weight. To which my answer is, um, I haven't eaten in days, this is hardly surprising. (Is it some sort of grand only-daughter cliche that this should be our very first topic of conversation? Sigh.)
And now I'm home, and feeling sane enough to sit still and write for the first time in a while, and it's funny, but I'd forgotten what absolute silence sounds like. Above the aforementioned sound of the waves - which are particularly clear tonight; it's rough, and the trees are mostly still - there's no sound at all. It's immensely soothing. (I mean, no wonder I get crazy living in central Oxford. I lived here for eight years before that.) And now I can write again, and am eating a little more, and I might even be able to do some work for, er, Finals. These are all good things. (Which is not to say I am not missing Oxford ridiculously. I am, and with almost comical immediacy.) Things I have wanted to post for a while, and not done so through being crazy busy:
-
remixredux08! Hurrah, hurrah! I love Remix, and this is, frighteningly enough, my fifth year doing it. (And almost not; I signed up literally minutes before sign-ups closed.) I'm pretty excited about this year's - my author is intimidatingly awesome, in the good way, and writes about places and people and I really want to revisit. One thing I like is that I tend to have more fun with the writing each successive year - last year's effort was "Ways of Not Speaking (the Poetry in Motion Remix)",which I don't think I ever reposted - and that bodes well for this time around. We shall see.
-
lgbtfest, run by
penknife and my dear
mireille719. I love this idea; it addresses something that's always bugged me, namely, the relatively small amount of fic out there that addresses, alongside slash, notions of queerness and gender and sexuality in fandom's fandoms. For once, my timing is fabulous - prompts have just now opened for claiming - and they really are pretty cool. (I came up with exactly one. I fail. Other people emphatically do not, the list makes very intriuging reading.) I'm not sure if I'm going to sign up yet; I really ought not to do more than one ficathon at one time, but I do want to take the opportunity to finish my Teddy-Lupin-is-amazingly-genderqueer story, which is currently festering at 2000 mostly disconnected words.
-(Also, a 9000-word-story, Star Trek, supposed to be for
likethesun2's birthday, except not, because see above re: me failing, is festering as well, and that's annoying me because it was going so well. Again, we shall see, now I can sit still and, you know, construct sentences again.)
-My darling wife
jacinthsong has divorced me on Facebook. This is a tragedy of epic proportions. It is epic and tragic. (More than the Aeneid. Yes.)
She does, however, have her reasons. Er. Um. In brief: I have a boy; I am as surprised as everyone else, believe me; it's
shimgray; I am happy.
Right. To bed, to bed! In the morning I am going to the beach.
.....aaaah. Okay. Sane now. Really.
Maybe not quite. But I am back in the frozen north (er - actually, it's a couple of degrees warmer than Oxford), and feeling rather better about life. The Aeneid was wonderful - more thoughts on it when said thoughts are something beyond "omgyay!" - and the week ended very very well indeed. And now, amazingly, I am home. I didn't particularly think about what I was doing this vac, mostly because my life ended with the Aeneid, and now I'm here and really rather quite surprised about it.
But. Pleasantly surprised. At nine o'clock this morning I got a text from my mother, to the effect of, am in Dubai, see you later. I am an awful person and had entirely forgotten she was there, mostly due to the pernicious effect of the Aeneid cast party the night before. It was drunken. That is a big surprise to everyone, I know. But it was also joyous and filled with happy people, and I had not eaten in days, and drinking was clearly the best idea ever. (I tried. I really, really did. I ate a sandwich and everything. In the afternoon, I was packing up my room with the windows open with
But, yes, yes, cast party. I participated in some glorious cocktailing, and now have adopted two more OULES children as well as Maria. And spent the rest of the evening curled up on the Couch of Lesbian Doom, so called because through a bit of syllogistic trickery, everyone on it was - here's the clever part - by definition a lesbian (
Yes, nine o'clock this morning, my mother was in Dubai, and by six, we were both in Manchester Airport, she sleepy and endearingly irrational and me sleepy and wearing the Cat Ears of Troy. (Because, er, everything that was involved in the Aeneid in any capacity has become the "X! Of! Troy!", said just like that, with pauses for dramatic piano music. My life has become constituted and defined by the norms and mores of a student bastardisation of Virgil, why do you ask?) She's been gone a month, and I've been away for three, and it was nice to wander back tonight and dazedly talk about nothing much. She informs me that I've lost weight. To which my answer is, um, I haven't eaten in days, this is hardly surprising. (Is it some sort of grand only-daughter cliche that this should be our very first topic of conversation? Sigh.)
And now I'm home, and feeling sane enough to sit still and write for the first time in a while, and it's funny, but I'd forgotten what absolute silence sounds like. Above the aforementioned sound of the waves - which are particularly clear tonight; it's rough, and the trees are mostly still - there's no sound at all. It's immensely soothing. (I mean, no wonder I get crazy living in central Oxford. I lived here for eight years before that.) And now I can write again, and am eating a little more, and I might even be able to do some work for, er, Finals. These are all good things. (Which is not to say I am not missing Oxford ridiculously. I am, and with almost comical immediacy.) Things I have wanted to post for a while, and not done so through being crazy busy:
-
-
-(Also, a 9000-word-story, Star Trek, supposed to be for
-My darling wife
She does, however, have her reasons. Er. Um. In brief: I have a boy; I am as surprised as everyone else, believe me; it's
Right. To bed, to bed! In the morning I am going to the beach.
no subject
on 2008-03-09 01:40 am (UTC)(I am really just commenting to say: "*blink* Yay!", but I thought I should at least pretend to have more content than that.)
Oh, actually, I do have more content. Have you read
no subject
on 2008-03-09 08:15 pm (UTC)No, never! All the SGA fic I read tends to have been by
(Damn, I no longer have a Rodney-McKay-is-smarter-than-you icon.)
no subject
on 2008-03-09 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 02:04 am (UTC)Trepic, perhaps? :)
I hadn't previously read the prompts on
(If I'd broken it, anyway, it should have been for Remix again. One of these years....)
no subject
on 2008-03-09 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 02:09 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 02:27 am (UTC)While I'll understand if you can't sign up at
no subject
on 2008-03-09 08:46 pm (UTC)Thank you so much for running this! It's going to be so much fun, even if I can't participate. (I want to, so much!)
no subject
on 2008-03-09 04:55 am (UTC)And, congratulations!
no subject
on 2008-03-09 08:48 pm (UTC)Thank you. :P
man, woman, or toaster?
on 2008-03-10 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:49 am (UTC)Also, lgbtfest does look awesome. ("8. Any fandom: A character with a military parent and/or mentor is surprised to find they are open-minded about the character's sexual orientation." has to be either Stargate or M*A*S*H (perhaps Potter is ok with Hawkeye's sexuality?) "15. Any fandom: In a femslash pairing, one partner gets off on wearing a strap-on. The other accuses her of playacting heterosexuality." has to be SG1, Sam/Janet, with Sam in the strap-on. "27. Any fandom: an older character realizes/admits for the first time that they're gay or bisexual." Giles! When Ethan visits! ... sorry. I'll stop now.)
no subject
on 2008-03-09 08:56 pm (UTC)Go forth and write for it! You are bubbling with ideas! This is a good thing! I want to - I'm just twitchy about ficathons and Finals and how they don't go together...
no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:15 pm (UTC)I may not have Finals, but I do have essays and exams which count towards my degree, and I am quite stressed about them already. I'm not sure a ficathon would help at all-I haven't even checked what the deadline is for lgbtfest, but any extra deadline can't really be good.
no subject
on 2008-03-09 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 11:26 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:00 pm (UTC)Queer issues fic ftw. I really want to be involved. Bloody Finals, I want to sit at home and write fic all day.
no subject
on 2008-03-09 12:07 pm (UTC)*dances you*
*mocks*
*dances some more*
(Apparently I am still allcaps!Katie. Huh.)
(Oh, and I'd completely forgotten I said that about the horrible groping boy's penis. I don't take it back, though. Vile creature.)
no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 12:44 pm (UTC)Oh hurrah! :D
no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-10 10:28 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 06:17 pm (UTC)Anyway. *loves* I'm so glad you got through the past week and emerged victorious.
Also, re: the fannish things in this entry: (1)
(2) Also, a 9000-word-story, Star Trek, supposed to be for likethesun2's birthday
*flails* asjassadjkdkljkjdsjkdskj I LOVE YOU.
no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:15 pm (UTC)Love you too! I will finish this story, I will, I will.
no subject
on 2008-03-09 06:21 pm (UTC)Hoorah!
no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 08:36 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 09:22 pm (UTC)Also, I still want to talk to you by means of telephonic communication! I'm home free tonight, if you get this in time...?
no subject
on 2008-03-10 09:28 am (UTC)<3
on 2008-03-10 09:08 pm (UTC)