xans

Okay, okay, RL post...

Got a temporary job doing stocktake at Alan's store. It's only for a month (two weeks already gone) but hey, it's a bit of extra dosh and quite handy for shelling out on necessities like firewood, and not so necessary, like Amanda Palmer's kickstarter project because it is so utterly cool and exciting how fast she raised money. And she's funny and I love following both her and Neil Gaiman on twitter because they are an adorable couple.

Also on twitter, amusing to follow Zachary Quinto & Simon Pegg and see them getting up to shenanigans in Hooters with Cumberbatch (I don't even watch the new Sherlock)... weirdest thing is reading Leonard Nimoy's posts with his voice in my head.

Anyway, back to the job thing... it means getting up at 5 a.m. two mornings in a row, which is a bitch but survivable. Although, fuck this cold. I know it's heading into winter but fuck the cold. Winter also means July also means my birthday means holy shit I'm almost twenty-fucking-SEVEN ayfkm surely I only turned 17 last year. My brother is going to be 30, which is supposed to be grown-up, right? Except it's impossible to imagine my brother being grown-up. And me being grown-up. I will never give up my legos.

I still need to organise my wedding holy hell I am terrible at this.

Summing up my thoughts in both this post and the comments: How the fuckity fuck can people not realise how awesome Natasha/Black Widow is? IF YOU DISAGREE, WE HAVE VERY DIFFERENT MEMORIES OF BUDAPEST, OKAY? Also, see title of post. I can has icons?

A couple fic recs:
By Arwen Lune -- Rock Happy A Generation Kill/SGA fusion, or; Brad Colbert in Atlantis. "You know what's really weird about the whole thing?" Brad finally said. Nate raised en eyebrow. "Apart from the whole highly classified, inter-branch, civilian and international, can't-tell-you-what-our-program-is-called-without-non-disclosure-paperwork, independent-thinker selecting, amiable Air Force and Corps officer cooperation thing?" Also, Brad Colbert mentioned in Rock Happy that he found a Shit My CO Says list on the Atlantis wiki. Rock Happy is still a WIP but what I've gathered from the notes she is close to wrapping it up, and then intends to write shorter fics featuring the Generation Kill boys in Atlantis. Normally I steer clear of WIPs because I hate the long waits, but she's been fairly regular.

By auburn -- Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves John Sheppard/Rodney McKay Summary: Vala Mal Doran and her partners, renegades Jehan abd-Ba'al and Meredith McKay, hijack the Tau'ri ship Prometheus and leave the Milky Way behind in search of the Lost City of the Ancients, Atlantis. This is a long read with plenty of action and suspense, that parallels many canon events but also takes some new twists, and also explores some things the show never touched on, like just WHY everyone manages to mostly understand each other, except some languages and the written word. For the most part, I enjoyed it immensely, although I don't know if it's personal preference/head canon, I just felt Carter got a bit of a raw deal, but then the author's main focus was on Vala, Jehan, and Meredith as the core cast of this tale. There's a couple shorter pieces set in the same 'verse that I haven't read yet.

By copperbadge/sam_storyteller -- Avengers: A Partial Dictionary Of The 21st Century Steve/Tony but really a gorgeous exploration of the 21st Century by Steve, with some interesting extrapolations about the other Avengers... It's amazing what you can keep in the refrigerator. By the time the team is living in Stark Mansion, the big industrial fridge in the kitchen is packed. Bruce and Natasha tried to institute the "everyone gets a shelf" rule, but Tony just eats whatever's there and Thor doesn't really understand the concept of personal property very well and Clint positively delights in eating other peoples' food, because he says it tastes better if it's stolen. And, and, there's just this reference to Xavier/Magneto that tugged my heartstrings...

By dduane -- "Mycroft's Delight" okay, it's supposed to be BBC Sherlock but I haven't seen that, so I was picturing Stephen Fry's Mycoft from the movie, bust still. Part of me just loves the fact a published author doesn't hesitate to write fanfic (esp. after that ONTD post about author's opinions on fanfic--mainly, the authors they chose to quote mostly were quite dickish about it), and the story itself is delightful to sink into, and, bonus, she included a recipe at the end.

That's all for now...

The tree is up! We had a note in the mail saying they would be cutting power today to do some linework so I thought I would use the time to put the tree up. The power never got cut off but I put the tree up anyway. It looks nice. I put a couple pictures up on my facebook of our cat snuggling on the tree skirt underneath.

My mum tells me she sent me her wedding dress in one of the parcels she sent me this year. I... don't remember ever getting any dresses from her. I honestly can't remember what her wedding dress looks like anyway, but I would have thought I'd remember that. But she insists she doesn't have it anymore and must have sent it to me. The possibility is that one parcel never arrived...

It came up as I showed her pictures of the dresses I like, and how I want a medieval/fantasy wedding. I told her how I'm pretty much in charge of planning it since it will mostly be "my" day. That's not to say it's not Alan's day and I won't listen to what he wants, but he's pretty easy-going about a lot of it. Not only that but this will be my first ever wedding, he's already been there and done that.

I have a job interview on Friday. Fingers crossed.

Fin.

Missed out on the house we really wanted.
Hopefully get another...

It's unreal I finish at work next week.

Which reminds me, get Georgia's details for a reference just in case. Transfer is a bit iffy atm.

Sleep is eluding me Wednesday mornings. Sucky. PMS is sucky and needs to hurry up and piss off.

I'm hoping to surprise mum by staying up in Hams for the entire visit. She's gonna cry no matter what.

Life is life.

Fin.

ETA: Been reading Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels, and his sex scenes always crack me up. Oh, fandom, how you've ruined me for old fashioned smut.

Mylie Cyrus' "I Can't Wait To See You Again" is a sucky, sucky song to wake up and realise you've been dreaming about it. And are still singing it in your head. Bugger that.

Mind you, Alan having a nightmare about a tsunami where he almost gets washed away, and at least one of his boys is injured... way worse. Poor darling.

My down-on-the-knees begging got me the time off work at the end of December, yay! That gives me from Christmas Day to just after New Years up in Hamilton with my mum and step-dad. And all the rest of the family and pandoras_evil_t.

Still sleepy. Damn.

Fin.

You know... give me a dream about being a jedi running around in a storm trooper's gear killing imperial troops and I'm happy. Gimme a hispanic/asian looking side-kick and, yeah, weird, but okay, still running around killing bad guys. Gimme Uma Thurman as a superhot princess to rescue ('cept she doesn't need much rescuing) and things are better. Put me in a house and find fucking scorpions in the bedrooms?

Wake me up in a sweat 'cause they're bloody scary. Thank you brain. Thank you so much.

Yay, I now have Death Proof.

Also, Bones is now on Sunday nights, so I can actually watch it, if I remember, which I didn't, when NCIS was on at that time.

Darling may be moving up in the world. May be moving further south, if all goes well.

Why work doesn't just, I dunno, change my hours on Monday from 2-10 instead of from 3-10? Beyond me. If we move, it won't matter anyhow.

Alan thinks I'd be more than capable to do the work to achieve the qualifications in retail that he's just completed. Reassuring. I should be a superviser, it would me work so much easier. Probably longer hours and the push to let work take over my life, though.

Ummm... Mum and Gary are coming to New Zealand for Christmas. I seriously wish I could get more time off work to spend with them, but NO LEAVE AVAILABLE they tell me and like I'm gonna find someone to cover those shifts? Wish I had a doctor friend to fake me a sick note, but that would be unethical. Eh, well.

I forgot one of my Aussie cousins lives in Rotorua now. I'm so out of touch with reality sometimes. My other cousin in Rotorua is pregnant. Christ (Alan's eldest) and Tarns are expecting the twins to arrive on the 19th, but like babies know that sort of thing. He just proposed to her on their anniversary, too. He was a real romantic about it, too.

Fin.

I suppose I should offer more than a month of silence. I've been retreating from social areas a bit. It's just how I've been feeling, the need to be introverted for a bit...

Alan has got a job back at Mega, working the seasonal department but he's whispering in the right ears that he'd like some advancement before too long. Unfortunately there are little to no good higher-paying jobs out there that he would like better and are interested in having him... but still, working at Mega is better than temp/unemployed.

Kitten has been taken to the vet today to get her first vaccinations and to get spayed. Operation has gone well, but she's probably not gonna be a happy girl.

My Grandpa McFarland has lung and bladder cancer, and starting chemo this week. He's in his eighties and I'm not sure on his chances.

The other day I got 28 Weeks Later and Blades of Glory from the library for $10 ea. Have been buying a few other DVDs (Sliding Doors, Mulan, Babylong 5) and working on changing my wardrobe as I have gone up a pant size and possibly a top size as well... Also my clothes are still mostly from my teenage years and my tastes are changing along with my figure. Jay Jays and Shanton are my favourites, although K-mart I got a hoodie vest on clearance for $3.50 that had been $40...

My store is apparently getting a refurbishment (MUCH needed) and changing from Woolies to Countdown.

Have been playing a computer game called Titan Quest that is fairly enjoyable although I'm going to have to wait ages for the expansion to come down in price I'm sure. I got my game for $20 but last I saw the expansion was $70. I'm a cheapass with my computer games.

Just bought the Zombie Guide for a quick re-cap on my do's and don'tss pending Zombie invasion. I still maintain on keeping my plans fluid becuase I can't be sure where I'll be when it all goes down. But it's good to have the guide to be more mentally prepared than anything, and just mebbe up my chances at making it. With luck and hoping no stupid people try to tag along with me.

Been immersing myself in Stargate fanfic again. Lovin' it.

Alive and well. *smooches f-list*

Fin.

Okay, so I've been pretty lame on the updates, few and far between. I keep meaning to set up the internet at home, and then I get busy, or distracted, or flustered and I don't do it. Flustered is the main excuse. I'm good at that.

I am, of course, happy with my life, mostly. Sometimes work gets me down, or the whole uni thing, 'cause seriously: blah. I freaked out at the beginning this year and cut back to part-time uni and part-time work. Small bites. But five months in and I'm still madly in love with Alan. Living with him is domestic bliss. All we need is kittens.

I've indulged over the weeks, buying this or that set of lego, because I can. The only sucky thing is being more prepared to HIDE the legos, 'cause we've had three guests over the last few weeks who brought kids with them, and two out of three went straight for the legos. The other just latched on to me and mooched my breakfast of crumpets, and took over my computer. She went completely shy on Alan, 'cause she hadn't seen him since she was a baby, which amused me 'cause he was trying to be all nice, whereas I just ignored her--so like a cat, she came straight to me for company.

The lego is cool, though. I got Star Wars sets, and some medieval ones with dwarfs and orcs and trolls, or they could be ogres. I might possibly snag some Indiana Jones ones... The Lost Ark set has plenty of treasure, or possibly the chase with his dad, 'cause Indy's dad is cool, too. They've got fucking novels for instruction leaflets, these days. Maybe it's because I'm getting the big sets that I never could have as a kid.

We are also indulging in a coffee maker, grinder, and new electic kettle of a pricey but high-quality nature. And they're red, which is the perfect colour for the kitchen. Going to learn to make cafe-esque lattes and the like. MM, real coffee.

Also working on getting back into the baking thing. He loves my cornbread/muffins, or the blueberry ones that came from the box... and my 'nana cakes. I made some brownies, but they were a bit gooeyer than I intended. I like 'em gooey, but not that gooey. Still, mostly it's getting familiar with the dodgy oven and stove. But yeah. Baking fun, if it makes a bit of dishes.

We have lots of chocolate in the house... the small boxes of Cadbury roses, that are like... $8 or something? They're selling them at his work for $2.99. So, yeah, lots of boxes of roses. PLUS I've still got two king size dark chocolate bars that I'm nibbling away at. I love dark chocolate, I really do, but I can't pig out on it like I do with milk chocolate.

I got a sexy sweet pair of boots for $40. They hve nice solid high heels that I can walk all day in without killing my feet. I'm very happy. And Alan likes what they do for my sweet, sweet ass. His fascination with my ass, I don't get. The boobies I understand. I have nice boobies. But I don't get the ass thing. Still, he gives me pervy looks and I like it. I think he wanted me to mention here how much I love the sex with him. 'Cause it is pretty damn awesome. And I'm not just saying that 'cause he wants me to.

Hearts for my friends.

Fin.

Comp at home died. No computer games for us. Will really suck if we can't find a way to back up some of the files on there that weren't backed up. And oh, yeah, that may put a delay on copying Equilibrium...but we'll see.

I very much love my man, have I mentioned that?

Looking to get people at work to cover some of my shifts in Feb when he has time off. Managed to get the Monday and Wednesday shifts covered, but I really want/need someone to do the Tuesday one, which is his birthday. And, oh, yeah... gotta get something Andrea for her birthday in Feb too, eh?

Anyway, life not majorly exciting atm, but more a matter of domestic bliss.

Fin.

Okay, since I have all the time in the world at the moment, I'm going to make an attempt to cover the ups and downs of my life over the past two months. That I haven't really said much about in here.

So, back in June, I'd moved into this temporary women's accommodation place, while I job and flat-hunted. Landed two part time jobs, one at a supermarket as a checkout chick, and one at Mitre 10 mega in the service aquad. One of my coworkers at said Mega was looking for a female flatmate to move in with him and this other guy, and rent was about 90 a week. So I moved in with Ben and Clayton in August sometime.

It was okay, had a lot of fun when Ben was over in Aus and Clayton had this friend Lauren visiting. We went out on the town and stuff, got pissed several times and I discovered red wine makes me nauseous. So boo to that.

Ben came back from Aus, two weeks later than planned, and we fought a lot. His little peculiarities got on my nerves, I felt he was behaving like a child as he tried to treat me and Clayton like errant children in "his" house. And it was revealed that he would be moving back to Australia to be near his estranged wife and their three four kids. (I got to find out from the landlord's wife that Sam had had their fourth in September when he was over there. I lived with him and he didn't fucking tell me that.)

I was quite angry about the shit Ben left behind. He owed me money, which was factored into the price I paid for his fridge. I couldn't afford his washing machine straight away, but I had plans to buy that too. But he'd also left a bunch of other furniture and rubbish for me and Clayton to deal with--Clayton busy with his own plans to go an an OE. And Ben owed him money, too.

Anyway, I ended up with the fridge, washing machine, microwave, and kitchen table along with all my stuff. But I had no flatmates and couldn't afford the rent on my own. Not even til too possible other flatmates could be found. So it was back to the women's accommodation place, and time to start flat-hunting again. On the upside, Nga still lived there so I had at least one friend to get along with to begin with. But the other girl Christy was not bad, either.

Gladys, who used to live there, got to hold on to my bottle of scotch as the place was alcohol free, and it gave me an excuse to visit her (although I got so busy with work that I didn't get much of a chance to).

We had another girl move in, who had lived there before as well, by the name of Bella. And alternative-lifestyler, she and I got along very well given our like of kink. She more than I, but the other girls were quite vanilla compared to us. Still, another fine friend in my life with her.

Flat hunting was hard. My time was consumed between working, sleeping, and making sure I got my chores done... not to mention being social, and any bits of shopping or whatever I needed done, that sometimes, yeah, the flat-hunting got put on the back burner. And that was not a good thing because the house closed down from the 22nd of Dec to the 21st of Jan, and I really didn't want to up and move my shit all over again.

Being expected to cook a meal or two a week was also inconvenient, given my working, not to mention the fact we were rarely all home together at the same time. The rules of the house almost go by the assumption the residents have no lives outside of the house, which just ain't so.

Anyway, early November, I put in an application for leave at Mega for the last weekend of December. If I did that and didn't pick up extra shifts at Woolies, I could have four days up in Hamilton to see family and friends. But I was told the next weekend it couldn't be approved because no one gets leave in December or January, the busiest time of year. Well, I'd already made my plans and bought my (non-refundable) tickets assuming one little weekend off would not make a difference. So I handed in my resignation to finish on the 16th of December. (My manager said to my darlin that it was a shame since I'm such a good worker, but 1: they didn't even wait for me to leave before scraping my name off my cubby hole, and 2: I got replaced by another girl pretty damn easily, really.)

( And my deciding to quit Mega is how I landed my darling. )

This was all happening in the lead-up to Christmas as well, wasn't it? So I'd got mum and dad pestering me for a mailing address and what I want for Christmas (and I'm going, "I don't know where I'm living at Christmas!" and "I don't have any idea what I want, nothing big!"). And of course the customers at (either) work are in a rush, sometimes cranky, and it's a hectic time to be moving and all. Plus I told Dad and Suzy not to get me anything expensive because they bought my bike earlier this year.

Mind you, I came to the startling conclusion that I needn't do my shopping for anyone til Boxing day, because I don't see them til after that. Except for my darling, and I sort of got him two presents. The one before Christmas was some choc body paint and this, um, outfit? (It doesn't hide much) The outfit was for me to wear, 'cause I knew the effect it would have... and that was a good end to my Christmas Eve night. Work was such a bitch on Monday.

Our Christmas day plans were kind of ruined by the weather. The idea had been to hit up the beach and take a stroll before a picnic lunch. So naturally, it rained. Porbably just as well, because my six day work weeks, and adjusting to a schedule of broken sleep (getting up at five to be in town when he starts, then sleeping some more at Bella's since I don't start til afternoon...), I was so tired I took a nap or two, and had an early night. I felt bad because I kind of neglected Alan in favour of playing some Dungeon Siege, but as he told me later, he could tell I needed the mindless game thing to relax, and so he gave me some space even if he would have liked my company (and for me to have been a bit more amourous, but my mind wasn't cooperating).

(lmao I knew this would happen. I haven't signed up for a single extra shift this week, given the being out of town thing, so naturally I got a call from work asking if it would be possible to do a few hours this afternoon/tonight. Georgia said she'd make a note of my unavailability so it doesn't happen again.)

So Boxing day I did my shopping, and spent more money on myself than anyone else. Best I could calculate it was around $400, but then half of that was on the cell phones. I decided it was time I got a new one, just a cheap one, but nice, and then I also bought Alan one because he didn't have a vodafone, just telecom. And if I'm really efficient I'll set up txt2000 and BestMate so it's even cheaper than my current prepay thing.

I also bought a couple sets of lego, which was where I spent around a 100 more of the estimated 400. It cracked Alan up to see me sitting on the floor putting my lego sets together...butt nekkid. And that he felt the chill long before I paid any attention to it because I had my legos. Also, telling me to put my toys away and come eat dinner. It was pretty funny though.

I seem to have done well with my choice of presents for the family though. My step-sisters all got the same type of chocolates, which was easy enough and they were all happy. Savannah quite liked her glow necklaces. Amarah did cuddle with her little stuffed zebra, but Izayah was only slightly interested in his stuffed frog. Suzy does like her scarf and Il Divo cd (that I copied before giving to her) and I got Dad this drill bit set he asked for, plus the Spaceballs dvd (copied that one too).

My presents were quite nice too. From Mum I got the usual mix of clothes and itty bits (vair cute) and $50, from Dad and Suzy I got a set of pjs, the Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz dvds, and lollies. I got a diary from Carla. Oh, and Alan got me one of those stone dragon ornaments, one that's perching on an arch of stain glass.

I suppose... I should go have shower, get dressed, and do more than read the backlog of my f-list. I have read a bit here and there... maybe I'll make an effort to comment later, but for now... shower, clothes, food, coffee.

Still breathing.

Fin.

In a bout of cleverness, I went and lost my ID in town somewhere, not this past weekend, but the one before that. So not only do I need to replace my US Passport (it's expired, fucking hell) but now I gotta do something about the NZ one, too. Goddamnit.

I popped the back tire of my bike, haven't taken the time to see if it's a simple fix or not, but that's another thing not in my favour.

And moneywise, well... even taking into account the money Ben owes me, I'm still paying some more money to buy his fridge off him. He's moving out, and it was easier to buy it then and there, than faff about sorting a new one or renting or whatever. But he's also taking his bond back, so I'm going to have to shell out money for a new bond, and, well.. Clayton looks to be moving out soon too, if he can. So I gotta find me not one, but two new flatmates.

In the last two weeks, I've had texts from three guys who I've been with in the past, but haven't seen/spoken to in a while for whatever reasons. And they mostly had nice things to say to me. Is there something in the air...?

Met up with a coworker from Woolies on Saturday night, it being a birthday bash thingy she was having, where I was introduced to a bunch of people I didn't know, but two of the turned out to be the aunt and uncle of a girl I work with at Mitre 10 Mega. I was the youngest there, but I got along well with them, and, well, the guy closest my age was nice, interested, and at one point bought me a rose before turning around and saying that it didn't compare to my beauty. *smirks* I didn't sleep with him.

...yet...

Oh, a parcel arrived for me on Friday from mum, with some very nice clothes, including a Harley Davidson t-shirt that I wore on Saturday night, along with my skirt with studs down the sides. Hee.

And that's... about it, for now. I'm caught between happy about good stuff, and worrying about money stuff... and when I'll be able to afford that computer *le sigh* At least I picked up a shift on Labour day, which pays time and a half and should help things just a 'lil bit. Plus, well, yeah, got my cousin Dimitri coming visiting this Friday, and it will be nice to see him again.

Fin.

ETA: There must be something about me right now, 'cause even the bartender at Uno's was generous enough to serve me Jack and Coke that was more JD than coke. (They don't bother to ID me there, which means I've either been there often enought they recognise me and know I'm old enough, or I've hit that stage where I look old enough... *shrugs*)