Between the good and bad, that's where you'll find me, Reaching for Heaven

Just back from a short trip to Lowell, for an appointment with my therapist, and to take care of some bank business. Also had my lunch at Dunkin Donuts: tried their new apple cider -- iced, as it was little warm to have it hot. Tasty! But I have feeling it tastes better when it's warm.

Still getting the hang of the iPad: I think the hardest part is figuring out how to hold it. Hold it in one hand and type on it with the other? Lay it in my lap and type on it two hands? If there's more spelling gaffes than usual, this is part of it. For some reason, this is causing me to type slower and make more mistakes. Plus, the spell check on Safari seems a little more sensitive than the one on FireFox.

Started watching the chunk of Supernatural season five that I missed last year (read most of it), and so far, I think "Changing Channels" is my favorite of thus season. Of course, I love anything involving the Trickster: he's a great comedic foil to the Winchester Brothers. And the Big Reveal involving said Trickster seemed less jump-the-shark than I thought it was, from just hearing about it (I won't go into detail, at the risk of spoilers): I guess it's a case of an idea being Better Than It Sounds.

The past few days have been rather full, so I haven't been posting here, and my Tweets have been a bit sporadic: Thank heaven for LoudTwitter and their options for posting your Tweets to your blog. But I will try to make a run-down of what's been going on: ( Cut for leeength: I had to jam a week of errands into three days )

I had planned to go Christmas shopping after my appointment with my therapist today, but I discovered I had forgotten to bring my cellphone (which I use like a watch), thus I ended up coming home sooner than I anticipated. I'm slowly working through my recent irritations (re: The Event of The Season, as someone called it), but the process is a slow one. I've gotten past the point of wanting to call said person and have it out with them.

I did manage to do a little more of the "writing while taking buses" thing I've gotten into the habit of doing as a result of NaNoWriMo. One fic which I contemplated putting in someone's fandom_stocking I may end up posting to ff.n, as I feel a little odd posting *three* fics to this one person's stocking... Plus it's an idea that wants to be a full-length fic instead of a drabble.

Also need to get back to typing the next chapter of the infamous Twhinelite crossover: I have several parts of it written out, I just need to type the draft. And I'm trying to keep the rating down to T+, which is not easy to do since it involves a certain Evil Albino/White Haired Pretty Boy energy vampire staking and vamping out on a certain whiny sparkle-pire...

Went to St. Joe's with my mom for First Friday Eucharistic adoration, Mass and confession. There's a new priest offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and he was exactly the priest I needed to talk to. He's very compassionate and open-hearted, and he definitely was listening to what I had to say. He offered some counsel which I needed and wanted to hear, and for once I could sense Christ working through someone in the Church! I'm going to make a note to go to confession to him the next time I go, if he's available.

Other fun stuff that happened: LAST NIGHT -- made my once-a-month trip to the Salem, N.H. Barnes & Noble, where I picked up among other things,

-- A new blank journal with a Japanese print of a snowy, star-lit scene on a bridge;

--Also a nifty (and oh-so-fun to read) book on Goth culture and etiquette entitled "Gothic Charm School" by the lovely [Unknown site tag].

--I also leafed through the new issue of "Realms of Fantasy", which features an editorial on the demon lover motif in fantasy, starting with Twilight (which was par the course, considering that for better or for worse, it's the most popular paranormal romance at this time) and moving on to obvious things like Dracula and Byron's poetry... and then it reached for the Book of Enoch and the account of the Grigori; cue much rejoicing in my head! I'm teaching myself to forbear with Twilight talk, but any editor or writer who discusses the Grigori is a hero to me, since the Grigori are so sadly underused, but are sloooowwly starting to come into the limelight.

--I also did a good deed and purchased a book to be donated to a local charity which is collecting books for kids in low-income families: in this case, I donated a copy of Richelle Mead's "Vampire Academy".

--Also treated myself to a red velvet cupcake and an iced chai from the cafe. For some reason Asato, the Nephillim in my NaNo novel, was "hanging around" in my head and went into paroxysms of glee over the cupcake. Note to self: no red velvet cupcakes while I'm working on this NaNo.

TODAY: Went to Burlington intending to check out any deals at the Hallowe'en stuff store, but they had closed for the year. Better luck next October.

As is expected, I ended up at the Barnes & Noble, where I picked up:

--Another Japanese print journal, this time with the famous "Mount Fuji and a ginormous wave" picture (I'm reserving the Japanese print journals for notes, etc. on anime fics, for obvious reasons);

--Also a new twist on an old tale, namely "Vampire Darcy's Desire", a retelling of "Pride & Prejudice", only with Mr. Darcy as a dhampire (half human/half vampire, able to go out in daylight) and Mr. Wickham as a vampire who's bedeviled the Darcy family for generations. I've always imagined Wickham as a vampire and I'm very much looking forward to this book. The author is a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America and from what I can see, she's done a good job of making this book a delight for both Janeites and vampire lit fans (no randomly sticking fangs on characters, as in one very bad attempt at a vampire adaptation of P&P that I'd come across)

--And in a fit of whimsy, I also got the Harvard University National Lampoon's parody rewrite of Twilight, entitled "Nitelight". I also did a bad, bad thing: I took several copies of this book and stuck them on a huge display of Twilight gewgaws.

--Waiting for me at home was the latest of another series of packages from Amazon.com containing the first volume of "Descendants of Darkness" (aka. Yami no Matsuei). I got the series somewhat bass-ackwards (picked up books 6, 7 and 8 at Harrison's in Salem, Mass., found book 5 in the Burlington B&N, found 1, 2, 3, and 4 on Amazon, but they got shipped in reverse order), but at least now I can get a start reading the series...

Once I get my NaNo typing quota in: I managed to write my word count for the day out, longhand, while I was riding the bus. I've been maximizing my time very well this first week, I just hope I can keep this up till I hit 50K or the month is over or I finish the book, whichever comes first.

Since last week was so dang cold and I was too upset from the hunt for my bank passbook (which we found later in the day I got the new one), I have two weeks of errands to get done over the next couple of days.

I went to the Borders in the Burlington Mall, mostly to say goodbye to the good folks there: turns out they're closing their doors because the lease on their space went up and they couldn't keep the books balanced. I got (on clearance) a little black diary I intend to keep in my purse to jot down story ideas, paragraphs, etc. as the need arises, also got the first three volumes of the manga version of "Blood+"

And hooray! "Moonlight" came out on DVD, so I now have a copy of that. Also took care of the phone bill and some other boring bank business. Bought some new pants at Wal-Mart, after my brown work pants wore out at the knee. Went to the Lowell Barnes & Noble where I picked up another marked-down Magnetic Poetry kit, this time the "Genius" edition, plus the novelization of "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans", which I may go and see next week, if it's still playing at the Lowell Showcase Cinema.

Lest we forget: ye dragons! Feed us clicks, please?

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Eeesh, only eight posts in all of February. I feel like I've been neglecting you folks.

Busy day today: I had an appointment with the therapist, as well as some shopping to do at Wal-Mart. I need some new shirts for work. But let me say this:

I hate shopping for clothes.

I can never find things I like in the women's department. I don't know *WHAT* is up with the styles these days, but it seems women are dressing like hootchie-mommas, and that's about the last thing I'd go for. If I was ever going to show more skin than I do, it would be a classic noir-ish femme fatale manner, not like some cheap little tootsie. I couldn't even find any plain cotton tee-shirts that hadn't had the neckline or the sleeves messed with. So I just marched over to the men's department and picked up a few tee shirts and fleece-lined jerseys. I should be set for the season.

Also, made my semi-weekly trip to the Salem Barnes & Noble, where I picked up a collection containing Jane Austen's "Sanditon" and her three notebooks of things she'd jotted when she was a teenager. I've read her hysterical "Love and Freindship" (spelling hers!), which I'd had from the Lowell library, and I was eagerly looking for more of her early writings, which are utterly ridiculous in a good way. Someone needs to film "Love and Freindship", if only as a playful parody of the typical Jane Austen movies, since the book itself is a parody of the novels of manners of the type that she herself would later write. I think that's a testament to how witty our girl was, since she was able to poke fun at herself, as it were...

And yep, the icon is based off the funny-lovely photo from Entertainment Weekly's Most Influential People in Hollywood from a few years back.