I completely fail at the area of life which includes not hurting myself. There were some shaky moments on the ice today, walking into the building, but did I hurt myself then? Oh, no, I had to go and fall down stone steps inside, much later in the day. I literally think I walked off a step and thought I was done, so I missed the next step. Landed right on both my knees with my fifty pound book bag driving me down. (To be fair, that might have been why I fell; once I lost my balance, there was no getting it back with that many books on my back.)

However, I win at the rest of life, especially summer employment. WIN!

I also win at celebrating, and after I was done for the day, I went and bought Age of Empires III (and the War Chiefs expansion pack) and books (Cross my Heart and Hope to Spy [the straight D.E.B.S. series! Again! I hope it is cute and silly like the first book] and Unleashed, which might just be the answer to my werewolf cravings [or it might not, because it's by the author of Tripping to Somewhere, which I loved up until the end, but the end ruined the whole book for me] even though it sounds like it is more shapeshifters than actual werewolves).

Then I came home, had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and played my new game for a long time.

I have plenty of homework to do this weekend, but I intend to write and catch up on my flist, too. Also on television; I have Supernatural and Friday Night Lights to watch.

My left knee is fine, but my right knee is bruised to hell. This is interesting.

This morning I woke up to a dream where I was mourning the loss of someone important in my life and ended up talking to Remus Lupin about it, which led to watching the Perseid meteor shower (which is supposed to be quite a show this year), which led to some really hot frottage. (It's quite possible I was Tonks in this dream, and we were both mourning Sirius.) And yet, in the middle of the dream, I'm thinking, "No, don't do this, you're not Sirius!" so maybe I do finally have an OTP. (Except not, because I'm pretty fond of the idea of Tonks/Lupin, if not always the execution.) Anyway, yes, that was a fun dream, except for the whole being in mourning at the beginning and the fact that my alarm woke me at the end when, somehow, Sirius walked in. Damn alarm.

So then I went to work my last Saturday shift, and then came home and packed for hours. Yeah, I leave here a week from yesterday. I am not yet ready, though I am making good progress. I have two more days of work, two stories to finish and post, and packing to do before my going away party Wednesday night. Thursday morning is already scheduled as hangover morning. The theme of my party is Make Carla Your Favorite Alcoholic Drink.

(If any of you will be in the area and want to attend, let me know and I'll send you an email with details.)

Friday night I plan to spend in a hotel, and Tuesday through Friday of the next week the school is putting me up in a hotel during early orientation, so I might have some internet access, but I don't know how much. Then I'll be in the new apartment, and I likely won't have any there for awhile. Plus I think I'll be quite busy with school, it being a program different from anything I've done and a good school, on top of that, so I'll be scarce here. I'll likely read more than I comment or post, but I will read when I can, and I'll miss you guys tons.

(Since there's all this movement, I'll repeat I'm escritoireazul at greatestjournal and insanejournal, and will be at journalfen if that's where everyone goes and I find someone to hook me up with an account. I've been trying to add people at those places as they've posted their names, but my internet time is dropping soon, as I've said.)

---

While thinking about The Baby-Sitters Club books, I was struck with this thought. It's always such a big deal that Mary Anne has two best friends, and the tension between Kristy and Dawn (the two best friends in question) comes up throughout the series. Which is one of the more believable things to me, actually; Kristy is the One in Charge, the One in Control, of course she'd hate sharing her best friend. However, I'm not sure why the idea of two best friends was supposed to be so shocking, especially when you consider the following.

Members of the BSC with two best friends:

Mary Anne (Kristy and Dawn)
Dawn (Mary Anne and Sunny)
Stacey (Claudia and Laine -- though, eventually she ends the friendship with Laine, and later still she and Claudia have that big fight and their friendship is never the same, either)
Jessi (Mallory and her cousin whose name I can't remember and all my books are packed Keisha?)

Members of the BSC with one best friend:

Kristy (Mary Anne)
Claudia (Stacey)
Mallory (Jessi)

Members of the BSC with no best friends:

Abby

And yet the two best friends thing is so weird when Mary Anne does it?

(Okay, technically I'm leaving out Logan and Shannon here, but they're associate members! Everyone knows they don't count!)

---

I'm working on my femgen story, and I'm really wishing my books weren't packed. I don't remember the end of one of Claire's plotlines. (I'm writing Making Out fic, which would thrill the girl, except she's never around anymore.)

However, I'm enjoying the story.

Via hermionesviolin, The 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.

KEY:

bold = read
italics = own, to be read
[brackets] = on my to purchase, to read list

The To Purchase, To Read list is only books already on it, without looking up information on the ones I don't recognize.

I've read around 52 (I was interupted a couple times during this, so the count may be slightly off). That's more than I expected, considering this is one of those lists where it's almost all more modern books, which makes no sense to me. But I needed something to do to kill time and help me forget about my leg, which hurts extra today for some reason.

( cut for so many books )

Finally broke into the last two dvds. I had planned to do it this weekend, but stayed far too busy for far too long, between meetings and getting rid of books and gaming all night Saturday night. I continue to love it.

( Battlestar Galactica season one continued )

I'm interested in the religious theories about how it is treated in the show; any good essays/thoughts?

I am definitely going to have to buy this show so I can rewatch to my heart's content.

In other news, I did, finally, manage to make it to the gym this morning, and I'm ready to up my weight on a number of moves. I have this problem where I nickle and dime it to death, and I know this, I did it even back when I first started lifting in high school, and I have to stop. I can handle more weight and fewer reps, and work my way back up. It's part of being a perfectionist, I don't like to switch to the higher weight until I am absolutely sure I can do all my sets with full reps, but that's not quite how it works best for my body.

I went to buy black handwraps after work, because I had so much free time. Unfortunately, every place is still out of the black, and I refuse to buy the white, so instead I picked up new trainers, sunglasses, and workout clothes. According to the workout bottoms I just bought, I have dropped three sizes. I still don't see it, but I know I'm down over thirty pounds, so maybe it's true. I don't know. The new clothes are so comfortable, though, and just in time for kickboxing tomorrow night. Plus it was nice to wear the sunglasses out in the late afternoon sun; I really need them this morning after the gym, as I drove into the sunrise to go home to shower. Painful.

I think I need a new PS2. I've had this one (or should I say J. has had this one) since they first came out, and it's starting to mess up on tonight's BSG dvd. Of course, it could just be because it's a Netflix dvd, but it messed up on the last disc of BtVS season seven the other day, too. It's starting to get frustrating. In no small part because I'm saving money for Wiscon, the Salt Lake holiday, and the new place this summer, so I don't want to have to buy a new PS2. I just went and checked the disc, and it is pretty scratched, so maybe that's it.

It's almost bedtime anyway. I want to go back to the gym in the morning, to get lower body lifting done, because after kickboxing I'm too exhausted to do anything else. In a good way, but still. Time to up the weight on the leg work, too, and tomorrow I want to add in some deadlifts, which I've never done before. This morning the gym was just as crowded at 5:30 a.m. as it is at 5:30 p.m., except in the morning the crowds were on the cardio machines and in the afternoon there are a bunch of guys hogging the weights. (The wrestlers from the high school, mostly, I think.) It was easy to get the bench this morning, and tomorrow I shouldn't have any trouble getting the squat wrack. Good times.

I read the BSC Friends Forever Super Special today, Everything Changes or something like that, and I was hit with the need to write Kristy/Abby.

( Everything Changes )

I still need a Starbuck icon. Hmmmm.

Taken from obislollipop, and done because thestalkycop told me to do it (in that way which went "I'll do it if you will" which gets me every time).

( fandom meme )

Somewhat disturbingly, I treat my personal relationships much like the way I treat my fandoms.

I am still trying to read Heat Stroke by Rachel Caine and I am still having trouble getting into it. Why? I don't know. There's just something about the narrator, or the first person point of view, or the setting which doesn't hold my attention this time, even though I liked Ill Wind, was swept into it, and couldn't wait to get the second one. (Except I did wait, because I wanted to buy it at one of the local bookstores, but they were always out. Recently I gave up and ordered it online instead.) Has anyone read these? What did you think about the second compared to the first? I'd really like to figure out why I'm not getting into it, and maybe fix that why, so I can.

Two orders of books came in today!

The Judas Rose by Suzette Haden Elgin (I am so excited about this, I loved Native Tongue.)
Far From Xanadu by Julie Anne Peters
Princess In the Spotlight by Meg Cabot
Princess In Love by Meg Cabot
Mates, Dates, and Diamond Destiny by Cathy Hopkins
This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
Tending to Grace by Kimberly Newton Fusco
Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Girl Walking Backward by Bett Williams

Any thoughts? There in the middle, those are mostly fluffy, light reading to make myself happy, but there are some more of the teen homosexuality group, and The Judas Rose is feminist sci-fi with lots of linguistic work (which makes me swoon).

I love books. Just absolutely love them. Odd thing this time though, with all these fluffy books came a sample of degree for men. Awesome. Actually, I just checked, and I do wear degree for men, so apparently my taste in books does give this away for me. I'm a little freaked out now, honestly.

Two more orders to come, plus I just received my federal refund (one of these orders, plus the two to come, were out of my state refund money, after I paid bills), so I may order some more. I've never had so many unread books of my own before (though I used to take fifty at a time out of the library). I'll have to continue through this reading spree I've been on.

I may have to give up on Heat Stroke for now, and come back when I can get into it again.

No time before bed, because am shattered!

But. I had a bad day at work (which hey, I suddenly realize was like fandom discussions coming alive for me, literally, because it was all "I am not smart enough because I am a woman and do not have a penis and obviously know nothing about construction or automobiles" bad stuff, which I have already ranted about elsewhere and will not rant about here any more than I just did and don't hate me because I don't have a dick, okay?) and I want to make a list of good things. So. Good things.

Good Things on Tuesday:

+ Supernatural Squee. Saw all the twists coming like a mile off, but still I squee. And I am in love with Dean. Oh yeah.

+ Received the CD from crimson_keys. We are doing our own personal fic exchange for Christmas (because she is the best adopted fannish sister in the whole world, she is writing me a The Lost Boys/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory crossover and I didn't even have to ASK she just started writing it [which means I'd better rent the new version, so I am all up to date, yay netflix]) and she sent me music to inspire me. (Her request of me was to write a Sprite/Marko story; Sprite is an original character from my "The Protector Series" a long set of stories about The Lost Boys.) I think I have found the base song for the story, though I am waiting to make a decision until I a) listen to the rest of the CD (because I am on #5 of 19) and b) get the actual track listing so I can look up lyrics. However it has a specific line which caught my attention: "scorching the blood in my vampire heart"

+ Interesting, intelligent, thought-provoking conversation even in the middle of fights and anger and unnessary accusations. This is the part of fandom I like, when people say things which make me both want to respond and feel completely out of my league when it comes to saying something equally intelligent, etc. back.

+ I'm reading The Ice Limit by Preston and Child. It is one of the few books of theirs I haven't read, and I picked up a first edition at a local used bookstore awhile back. So far it's interesting. I prefer the Pendergast books, but I think this will be good too.

+ While I didn't do NaNo exactly, because I'm the middle of rewriting some original fiction, I did set myself a goal of 50,000 words this month, mostly because I have to do what thestalkycop does. It's important. As of last night, I've reached my goal, and actually as of today I'm at 53,000+ so I am both pleased and excited. Also a little intimidated, because now I have to keep doing this, since I know I can.

+ I'm about to go crawl into my toasty bed and watch Family Guy before I sleep. Nice.

I keep coming back to this topic, but it never bores me, so. I compiled a list of recommendations for dragonsinger and decided to list it here, too, in hopes that people might see this list and add others. These were the supernatural/fantasy stories that had more romantic aspects to them, because that's what dragonsinger wanted. I, personally, like the more horror and supernatural based stories, but I'm willing to read anything once.

( a short list of recommendations )

What do you suggest I read?