All the RomCom of Qi Xi

I love my town. I chose to move to Tucson for many (and varied) reasons, not the least of which was the weather. More than the weather, though, is the relaxed atmosphere, the fantastic people and the fact that Tucson skews towards the higher educated and more liberal than the rest of the state of Arizona. It's got a small town mentality in a small city. People hold doors for other people. Random strangers ask how you are and you can tell they actually care.

So when I hear Keith Olbermann say "let's make sure another Tucson doesn't happen", it breaks my heart. I'm proud of the fact that Tucson was the only county, across all age groups, to vote against the marriage definition act a few years ago. I'm proud that Tucson has a vibrant artistic community. I'm proud that Tucson has a fairly liberal attitude about immigration reform and that our Sheriff has refused to enforce SB1070 (the "show me your papers" law) and that City of Tucson Police officers were the first to file suit AGAINST SB1070.

But more than my own pride in my chosen hometown, I have to say that Keith Olbermann's special comment today resonated. We have to do something about hate-filled vitriol. We have to do something to keep others from getting shot.

Because today was horrifying. It's been an emotionally draining day filled with ups and downs. This morning, my Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was shot, point blank, to the head. A 9 year old girl standing next to her at the meet-and-greet event was killed by a gunshot wound to the back. Five others, most of whom are senior citizens, were also killed. There are a total of 19 victims today.

Arizona has some issues, I freely admit it. We've got wacko concealed-carry laws, ironically passed with the idea that if any citizen can carry concealed, then these mass shootings won't happen because the citizenry can defend itself. We've got crazy immigration bills and Minutemen on the border (Minutemen who happen to like to sell drugs and murder people, too). We've got lots going on down here. I can see the warts.

Part of those warts are the hate-filled vitriol that happens on all levels and by all sorts of people. From Sarah Palin putting a target on Gabrielle Giffords to Jesse Kelly offering a fundraising opportunity complete with shooting weapons with taglines of getting rid of Gabby to the insurance adjustor who came out to look at my car and her comments that "what do a bunch of towelheads know about fixing cars", it's everywhere and it needs to stop.

And what is ironic is that those that are bemoaning how "the left" is leaping to conclusions that link hateful vitriolic nastiness to this shooter are the same people that think that the Arabic people have a hive-mind and all believe in the crazy ideologies that tell them to shoot their senators. The same people that are shouting the loudest that this guy has to be just some random fringe loony are the same people that say that all Mexicans are here to take our jobs, rape our women and kill our economy. And by "ironic", I mean double-standarded and ridiculous.

I don't think that Sarah Palin actually meant for people to pull guns and shoot people just like I don't think that Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly want it to happen, either. But when you're constantly encouraging violence, you can't be surprised when violence actually happens. And if it can happen in Tucson, it can happen anywhere.

Class continues to be, err, "interesting". It's boring but, at least, I can get to the more interesting stuff after this. Textbook dramaz continue as I just refused delivery of the two sets of books that shouldn't have been sent to me.

My dogs are out of sorts, they're constantly looking around for Chubbs and IDK how to help with that. My left eye is swollen weird - IDK what I did when I had a crying jag but whatever it is, it fucked up my eye but good. It's swollen almost completely shut and it's the top and the bottom of the eye. It's not pink eye, at least according to the doctor I went to see about it. Doctor told me to just wait a few days to see if the swelling goes done - something about stressing the tear ducts or something. IDK, I'm not a medically inclined person.

Anyway - so the dogs are fighting, I'm fighting with my family and it's all this chaotic negative energy everywhere. I'm also 3 hours short of keeping my insurance from Fry's. But that's almost all right as I no longer need surgery as my endometriosis has responded to treatment, my andometriosis is under control and my ovarian cysts have been reabsorbed and are no longer causing me issues. So they called off my surgeries. I can switch to the shitty insurance for a month. I'm not stressing over it any longer. I don't have time.

In better news - my help_haiti auction for fic ended up going to katmarajade for a mindboggling amount. I shall be writing Deamus for her. Current plot points planned put the fic at over 50k. Poor elanorofcastile, anathema91 and shygryf have had to put up with me babbling my way through this plot. It's either going to be the greatest HP fic I've ever written or it's going to fall flat on its ass. I don't think there's going to be a middle ground for it. Here's to hoping that it ends up succeeding beyond my wildest dreams.

In even better news - IDK how many of you all that actively read my LJ were around for my car loan dramaz but, basically, shit happened and I had to pay off my car with a loan from Bank of Dad back in 2006. Well, I have 3 more payments. THREE MORE PAYMENTS. I've been paying on this car since November of 2002, peeps. THREE MORE PAYMENTS. Three more and then I'm free!

In other random news - I watched all of the Lord of the Ring movies in the past two nights. Well, by "all", I mean that I skipped all the Frodo bits. The unnecessary zoom on Frodo's eyes annoys the fuck out of me after awhile. I also sort of skipped Legolas a bit as I got tired of the dramatic staring past the camera. I did watch all the Karl parts. And the David Wenham parts. And the Merry/Pippin parts. And all the battles. Oh Helm's Deep, I was already overly emotional. Haldir dying had me sobbing uncontrollably.

Which brings me to my last point - as much as I loved the slashy goodness of Holmes, methinks that my participation in the Sherlock Holmes fandom is going to be like my participation in LOTR. As much as I love the fic, I have no energy or drive to consume the original book source material and nor do I feel it necessary to write in said fandom(s). I'm sort of sad about that.

Day has been spent working and in tears. I worked what is, probably, my last shift at Fry's last night. I thought I was all right but it's so weird to think about being forced off my job tomorrow.

I've never been fired. It's sort of a weird position right now because it feels an awful lot like I'm being fired because Fry's is the one calling for the lockout of all union AND non-union employees.

IDK. I'm in a weird spot emotionally.

I called my student loan company to ask for a deferment as I'm losing my job and they won't give me one even though I'm going to be locked out and am not choosing to lose my job. Instead, I got lectures on how lazy I was to go on strike and how they can't be losing money just because I choose to walk away from my job and blahblahblah*insert judgmental cunty commentary* blahblahblah. So, I finally snapped at the woman that I'm going back to school and I'll be getting a student deferment instead and so they couldn't collect interest on my loans anymore and to "stick that in [her] judgmental crackpipe and smoke it" which, probably, was not the most reasonable/mature thing to say. But it did inspire to go to the local community college's website and register for two classes to maintain the 6 credit hours needed to put my student loans in deferment. Thus, I'm taking "The Holocaust" and "Gender Identities, Interactions and Relations". The second one sounds really cool:

Examination of the social structures and processes related to gender in society. Includes sex versus gender, theoretical perspectives, politics past and present, gender and the family, love and marriage, and masculinity. Also includes gender in the workplace, in the media, religion, and medicine, and global perspectives.

Both are either online or self-paced classes.

So fuck you, judgmental bitchy cuntragdoucheball at the student loans that I have overpaid 6 times in the past 9 months. FUCK YOU! I'm going back to school and there isn't a fucking thing you can do about it.

Thus, I should be able to almost pay my bills starting in April when I pay off my car loan to Bank of Dad. So now, my only concern is health insurance so I can get a couple of necessary surgeries done.

I know, I know... stop talking about how sick you are. BUT, I went to the doctor's yesterday (actually, I went to the CVS Pharmacy Minute Clinic) and I have to say that it was a great experience. The nurse practicioners (god, I know that's spelled wrong but I can't figure out why) were really sympathetic and caring and lovely. They listened (which is something that hasn't happened at a doctor's office in like a billion years for me) and they focused on making it better and not trying all these stupid new tests or drugs. I was in and out in less than 30 minutes. They walked the prescriptions over to the pharmacy for me and put a rush on them with the nurse saying, "look at that poor girl, let her get some sleep already!" and gestured towards me. I had my meds in 10 minutes and there were 7 prescriptions so all in all, really really impressed. (though not so impressed with almost 100 dollars in copays for medications. The cough suppressant was 30 dollars to me and a 130 to my insurance. What the fuck is in a pill that causes it to be that much money? Liquid gold?)

Best part is that they participate in my insurance and they're treated as a primary care physician and NOT as an urgent care center (even though they keep urgent care hours and policies, like walk on in and get treated) so my copay was only 20 bucks instead of the 50 bucks I was facing. I highly recommend them. Without insurance, my visit would've been 70 bucks. The clinics get a very high YAYES recommendation from me. Would totes see them again.

Turns out that I have - an ear infection, a sinus infection, an upper respiratory infection and pink eye. I'm off of work until January 3rd. Nurse recommended that I eat lots of fruit but not bananas as they have something that will make the pink eye worse or something.

So see? I'm not just whiny for no reason. I have reasons. 4 achy annoying painful reasons. I'd be more than happy with the snuffles if the cough and the pink eye would go away.

Funny scenario last night - I woke up in the middle of the night coughing and choking. Went to take a drink and dumbass me didn't turn on a light. SOOO, I ended up spilling my full glass of water all over me, my pillows, my blankets and my bed. I was laughing and wheezing and coughing and choking and tears were streaming down my face. Maybe you had to be there.

Went to bed early last night as I just don't see the BFD about New Years. It feels just the same today as it did yesterday so why the fuck should I care? The only thing that I care about is that it is now tax preparation season for me and that, my friends, blows monkey chunks. I have to kick it into high gear and get all sorts of crap done for vendors and employees. *blech*

I did end up writing one thing, now to find a couple of hours to fix it from the beta comments and get it posted. Considering it's a gift for someone, I really need to get my ass moving.

Did anyone do anything cool for New Years?

I participated in the Kinky Kollaboration Month at Daily Deviant on IJ. Thus, Fic.

I worked with kethlenda and omg, braintwin. We had similar ideas and the story turned out quite lovely, in my not so humble opinion. Details:

Title: In Which Dean and Seamus Miss Each Other and Check Out Girls
Pairings: Dean/Seamus-ish. Seamus/Lavender-ish. Dean/Luna-ish.
Warnings: Voyeurism, Wanking
Wordcount: ~3200

Go check it out and let the pair of us know what you thought. Please?

Have been playing with stuffs for the hd_worldcup and created a widget for the google homepage. You can find it here. Let me know if you all find it handy?

Have a bazillion recs to post but can't get the brain to function properly. They're mostly from smutty_claus and rs_small_gifts as those are the two fests I'm following because I'm participating in them. I'm quite enjoying the recs from merry_smutmas that you all are posting, though. They point out the great fics that I might pass on first glance as the pairing might not be my cuppa. So, thanks for widening my horizons and highlighting the brilliant works.

( work babbling/ranting ahoy )

I should not be trusted on the internet without yodels around. I have signed up for picfor1000 and hp_springsmut. I got a crazy prompt for picfor1000 last year that ended up turning out pretty cool. hp_springsmut shall be interesting as my requests are either Seamus/Someone or Sirius/Someone, basically. Good luck to the mods with matching me and May the Force Be With You. Sorry to be so complicated.

I have tl;dr thoughts on how detailed a prompt you should leave for your author (hint: it isn't 16 words long counting each name in your pairings). But that is for another post.

Someday, I will get to posting the last of my resolution reviews. They've only been done since November 15th.

Am dogsitting at the house from the 50s over Christmas. I am also starting a second job starting Sunday. It's at a grocery store that sort of masquerades as a Target and I will be working in the home department. Err, yayes for folding towels for 6 hours a shift? But, needs (and Terminus) must so 20 hours a week shall do it.

Finally - I have just mailed out the Christmas cards. Didn't get all the drabbles finished so, instead, I'm going to post them here for a 12 days of christmas sort of thing, instead. I hope that's cool with everyone. I'm sorry to be so lame. Life just got chaotic.

Ok, I lied. slashfest Round VI is coming! BWEE!!! Get your prompting thoughts ready! And, err, if you have outstanding requests? Could you take a look and see if they're really something you still want? I have 410 outstanding requests right now. Also - I suggest you all go take a look if you're looking for inspiration or you have something you're working on. Maybe perhaps hopefully the story/artwork will fit one of the outstanding prompts.