I've Got My Hands Up So Take Your Aim

I survived VegasCon! Only lost a few *muffle* dollars on video poker and slots, but gained a shit ton of memories that were of the most excellent variety. Not only thanks to J2 and all the other amazing guests, but with the wonderful people I hung out with throughout the week. And it was a lot ... like 20 something? rozearkana was keeping track prior to the con of who we knew that was attending and we got to 20 ... then some others popped around that we said hi to, had dinners, drinks, something or other with.

I roomed with rozearkana and kelleigh, and it was just the most mellow and lovely experience sharing a space for that long. We also sort of became the hang-out place and folks came by on Thursday for an SPN watch and pizza party, including souslelys, vatititech, bewarethesmirk, fiercelynormal, lavishsqualor, cherie_morte, and a bunch of others whose LJ names I can't remember at the moment. But it was most excellent to watch it with company and hear all the groans and moans and whimpers and laughter, and just experience it with a big group.

On Monday, we had a van and six of us trekked down to the South Rim (heh) of the Grand Canyon! I had never been! Vegas, I've seen a half dozen times before, but this was a totally different ball game! Such amazing nature that I knew was there, but never thought about the full scope of it. Just utterly amazing. And somehow also terrifying? I mean, I hate heights, but I love roller coasters, so I thought I'd be really a-okay. But the spots where you can walk out on rocks hovering over the abyss? NOT COOL. Especially when cherie_morte climbed over the side to a ledge that I DID NOT KNOW WAS THERE OR HOW BIG IT WAS AND I FREAKED OUT AND YELLED AT HER. She likes to laugh at me about it. But it really did terrify me.

Not so terrifying, however, are a few pics snapped throughout our time ...

( VegasCon 2017 )

Facebook's memories popped up this pic from three years ago today. My heart is so warm now (especially as my brain is so dead from working too much this week).



And today, my mom emailed me while she's taking care of the cats (as I'm in Columbus for work all week), and said "Look who was waiting for me..."

Hello! I keep thinking about posting because it seems like it's been a lil while, but then I get distracted by something else.

Like this two-hour Foo Fighters Concert from 2013. Or Led Zeppelin's Celebration Day from 2012. Or this killer mash-up of Missy Elliot & The Black Keys.

The only other thing really going on here is I've been working on polybigbang, with drafts due next Tuesday. I'm writing a college AU based off of this passive aggressive note :D And after that I'll move into writing for spn_j2_xmas. Which, I cannot believe it's that time of year already!

And just for fun, here are some random pics for your time: ( PICS! )

The other day I saw a picture of a toy cowboy riding a cat. My brother asked why I never do that. So I made this instead:


When in doubt, add Han Solo.

Last night while watching the SPN Finale, JUST at the moment they first showed Crowley, Shep jumped onto the TV stand and stared at the screen, eventually lying down while Crowley enjoyed his massage.


Affectionately known as Shep & Shep: Ladykillers

And in case you hadn't noticed, Shep is HUGE and Lucy is still teeny tiny.


She is definitely the cranky!Jensen in this relationship.

A) What is up with LJ the last few days? It keeps timing out or telling me connections are reset. I've barely been able to be on it all morning!

B) How was everyone's Thanksgivings, Hanukkahs, and/or long weekends? Ours was pretty good, all things considered ... starting late, a mouthy family member, having to leave early to drive my aunt home.

C) I've been checking out some Cyber Monday deals and nothing is striking my fancy. Except I did find a cat window perch for only $20 with an extra $5 off in Petco Rewards points \0/ (these kitters are so spoiled).

D) Speaking of kitters, I was without a phone for like three weeks and of course that's when they were uber adorable and I couldn't capture it. Luckily they continue to be adorable, like Shep all wore out after playing with his favorite cat toy for an hour straight, and Lucy giving her approval to some new furniture I got over the weekend.

E) Back to shopping on Petco's site ... I was a lil surprised to see a bunch of hamster items in the sale section ... and then I saw this picture and I couldn't help myself:



F) Related to Ron Burgundy and Anchorman, check out this story: Will Ferrell anchors North Dakota newscast as 'Anchorman' Ron Burgundy. "I've never seen fighting in a hockey match before," Ferrell says after the sports segment. "That was fascinating." HILARIOUS!

Friday night, I trekked way up north in the city to visit with dodger_sister and her sister and friends, who were all in town for Chicagoland visits. We had amazing food at Leona's and I left stuffed to the gill with excellent food and beer, not to mention fabulous conversation. I wonder what neighboring tables thought as we discussed fandoms all the way back to X-Files and all the porny fic possibilities. It was an excellent visit and I hope to make my way up to visit her sometime soon!

It was a bit tense later that evening and through the weekend, however, because my dad was taken to the ER via ambulance Friday evening ... HE'S OKAY. They think it's just a bad reaction to a switch in blood pressure medication, but the Blue Cross Blue Shield nurse told my mom his symptoms could be stroke- or heart-related, and to let the professionals deal with it. Of course she had started crying, and the niece and nephew were over, so they start crying ... By the time I got home for the night (like 1030pm), he was also home and feeling relatively okay. They gave him some liquids, ran an EKG, and drew blood, and then let him leave with instructions to not take his BP meds all weekend, take it easy, and call his doctor Monday morning. I saw my brother and his family Saturday afternoon for the kids' soccer games, and everyone seemed a lil soft about it, asking how he was, yet skirting around a real conversation. My mom, however, wouldn't let him be alone this weekend and I agreed to "babysit" him so she could get out to a friends' brother's wake, but then she decided to not go either. I think she was really spooked by the whole event and just wanted to be home with him. We wound up watching Gasland on Netflix (during which I fell asleep :-\) Then some random TV before I headed on home.

I really wanted to LOVE Gasland, especially since there's a sequel out now that I've heard is really great ... but yeah, it got really slow after a while. I wound up watching Valentine Road off HBO On Demand, and Jesus, it was heartwrenching and showed both sides of the crime/event ... and while I always get frustrated with the other side's ridiculous opinions on the crime, I always love those types of documentaries.

What I am super enjoying now is My Cat From Hell. LOL. My mom has been telling me about this show for a year now, talking about things that happen on the episodes, insisting I watch so I know how to take care of my cats. I always brushed it off because A) my cats are pretty well behaved (in the grand scheme of things) and B) I felt like this was just one more step towards CRAZY CATLADY. But seriously, it's kinda funny to see how these other people are handling their cats in ways that don't make sense, what ideas he has to make cats more comfortable, and to eventually start to see what they should be doing anyway. I even enacted one of his suggestions for giving cats perches near windows and for at least 24 hours Lucy stopped climbing my screen door.

And now I have a short week leading to a long weekend for visits from bertee and zuben_eschamali! Bertee is bringing me delicious chocolates and I'll be taking her for milkshakes and baby-sized nachos. Very important things obviously!

Totally unrelated - I am actually incredibly slow at work and it's KILLING ME. I keep looking around, trying to find something to do.

Yesterday, I made an appointment to take Lucy to the vet ... she's had something up with her one eye for a lil over a week and it's gotten better then worse, better then worse. Basically the inner part of her eyelid was looking red and swollen, and she'd get some nasty discharge out of it. Well, the second I brought the cat carrier out, she went running under the bed. Flash forward to the vet's office and she kept going INTO the carrier to hide from all the weird noises in neighboring rooms LOL.

Following a 10-minute conversation on feline herpes (omg scary) followed by a long dye test to make sure her eye hadn't been scratched, the doctor finally decided it was just an irritated eyelid and gave me a steroid ointment to give to her twice a day. With the nurse holding Lucy down while wrapped in a towel, the vet made it seem very simple to get the ointment into the corner of her eye. Last night and this morning? By myself? Not so much. At least after just three treatments, the eye is already looking better. And she doesn't have feline herpes. LOL, seriously though, I liked the vet, but I don't get why she had to have this long, thorough conversation on it when we weren't even testing for that.

Hilariously, they weighed her and said she's 9.6lbs. O_O I can only imagine how much Shep weighs, since he is literally twice her size.

I go back to work tomorrow, which will likely be good for me (human interaction, getting up and around, actually showering), but I'm still feeling a lil crummy and coughing a ton. I'm also still incredibly bitter that the first time I get REAL DAYS OFF from work, I'm stuck indoors watching TV. Blah.

But I did find a great new show - though I will warn that it's only five episodes, ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and is just barely into production for its second season. The Fall (BBC on Netflix) with Gillian Anderson as a senior investigator brought in to analyze an unsolved murder investigation ... which turns into just one death in a serial murder case. I found the first episode captivating and creepy, which I think is a great combination for a crime show. The show spends equal parts following the police as it does the killer, and I found that incredibly interesting (and still creepy).

I've also started Ripper Street, also on Netflix, but the second episode wasn't as interesting to me as the first one. Summary: Set in the East End of London in 1889 during the aftermath of Jack The Ripper murders. The infamous H Division - the police precinct charged with keeping order in the district of Whitechapel- is in a chaotic state trying to keep order after a tumultuous time for London and reported infamously worldwide.

Finally catching up!



In my fridge



I finally went shopping on Friday but LOL to the three bottles of wine - none of which did I buy that day. You will also notice I have plenty of condiments/dressings/whatnot in the door, but not much to go with it in the actual fridge! This is the life of a busy single person who doesn't like making messes to cook all that often.

Earliest Memory
I'm not sure if this is a recreated memory - as in, I've heard the story enough that I have fit all the visuals together - but when I was a lil over two, we moved from a two-bedroom apartment to the house we lived in for the next two decades. I remember walking out with my mom, holding her hand, but stopping at the door to the apartment, looking at the empty living room, and waving and saying goodbye to it.

Strangely enough, I have a memory of us having a dark-haired cat when I was a wee one in the house, but I recently asked my mom about it and she says the first pets we had as kids were guinea pigs, which we got when I was about 5-6. Weird.

If I won the lottery
I would pay off all debt, give my parents and family some money, and buy a nice place. I would likely still work, but maybe actually take the paycuts that scare me in order to get a better, more enjoyable job.

( Totally random notes on my weekend, including kitter pics and documentary recs )

This is one of the greatest things I've read in a long while: The Great Gatsby is an alternative timeline where Jack survived Titanic.

I loved this book in HS and it's always felt dear to me, in general, I don't know why. Even when I haven't reread it in yeeeeears. Because of that (and the general ridiculousness of the soundtrack), I have no real wish to see the movie, maybe that's why the above link cracks me up so much. I mean, it's smart, well founded, and yet ironic all over the place. The author makes connections to most of Leo's films, 'proving' how Leo himself is reliving Jack's AU lives. It's so clever, and now seems so obvious.

I only wish they would have connected Jack to The Departed, a man who tries to make the best life that he can with what little he has and makes a few wrong turns that bring everyone down around/with him.

Though now I'm thinking of the time that neros_violin and I tried to plot out a J2~Departed and had fun swapping each of the guys into each role for varying reasons.

In other news, on my first Mother's Day (snort), the kitters sat on my full bladder while begging for treats. Perhaps it was my mistake to offer them some before getting out of bed.



Also, Lucy has finally become a cuddler :DDD

Trying to write spn_j2_xmas, but it's not working. It's worse than pulling teeth to drag the words out of my brain. And then I come back from grabbing coffee to a couple of someone's blocking my chair.



How can I resist these li'l faces?