I've finally been keeping up with reading LJ again. Lurking, yes, but reading. I'm sure it won't take much longer before that's thrown off again, not with Thanksgiving coming up and heading back to NJ for holidays and dress shopping after that.

In the meantime... Monday I'm going in to fill out paperwork for allowing the potential employer to do a background check. Cos they still haven't done that, or talked to references. :headdesk: Seriously, why do they need my permission for everything? Couldn't I have granted them that when I filled out the application, etc, and we could be moving on to the part with the job offer?

The up side is that if I do get the job (and believe me, I'm not even counting on this right now because God knows they could still go with the other guy) she's trying to get my start date pushed from December 1st to January 2nd so there wouldn't be a problem with the moronic flight date choices my mother made.

I'm trying not to stress out over this. I really just want to know one way or another, and be fucking done with it. Getting the job would be great but seriously. Seriously. This is a lot of bullshit for scooping ice cream.

Anyway.

Yesterday I went in to Dallas with David and we spent the day with his mom running errands. I made the deposit on my cupcakes and need to submit an order form etc. I tried the flavor snickerdoodle... Also delicious. Some time I really need to get into town on a Saturday and Sunday and try out some of the other flavors I'm really interested in. Then I had a meeting at the Arboretum ironing a few details out and signing some paperwork I'd missed in the email. I've got a super basic ceremony outline now, and I know when I can do my photography and whatnot. We did some shopping, though not as much as we wanted, and mostly involved picking up some stuff for his mom and then more centerpiece bits.

And then we had dinner with David's parents. It was our "engagement dinner," so his dad payed for us to go to Outback Steakhouse. Delicious! Yes, it's not as awesome as a few other places we could have gone to that would have cost a little more, but that's ok. The Awesome Blossom makes up for it, in my opinion. I haven't had one of those in years.

It still seemed like the only conversation I had with David's dad was him asking questions and me answering them... although there was a little less emphasis on them. It ranged anywhere from what my parents do for a living (... how does he not know that already?) to what church we went to in NJ and my employment prospects. :shrugs: It didn't seem as stressful as when I was in (as David's put it) the "interview stage" but it was still awkward. I think he and I just aren't ever really going to click.

I'm not going to jinx what I hope will involve a new car by discussing why I'm hoping it's true. :knocks on wood, spits, hops thricewise widdershins:

Over all it was a pretty good day, although exhausting... And whatever I'm fighting off is still around, I think. I felt pretty great yesterday, but I think I was making myself because I needed to be for our errands etc. Going to bed early and sleeping in hasn't made me feel rested, and it's not that "oh god I slept way more than I should have" feeling. Meh. :wards it off:

In other wedding bits news, David and I have each got a sixpence (mine's Victorian, his is from WW2) and we're only waiting on a back up. ...What? It's for the end of the poem... "Something old/something new/something borrowed/something blue/and a sixpence in your shoe." We've also purchased our attendant gifts... Which are made of TOTAL dorkiness and fit with our dorky collectible vinyl partial theme for the reception. I'm perfectly happy with them. :D

... I totally meant to have something else to say. ... Nope, gone...

Maybe a nap before writing. Must write...

I've fallen way behind on LJ again. :headdesks:

I'm still waiting on the job thing. It's... complicated. Complicated! For scooping fucking ice cream! Ah well. Hopefully I'll find out sooner than later.

Wedding planning is coming along really well. We finally have a budget... and it's better than we thought! We're making arrangements for a photobooth, and a chocolate fountain, and custom decorated vinyl by a webcomic artist that I kind of love. I'm so excited right now guys!

Speaking of collectible vinyl... We want to decorate the reception in part with Dunnys (by the company KidRobot). Obviously we're buying some of them, but we're more than willing to receive any from people who'd like to send them (the same way other people were sent rubber duckies, heh.) They're usually available in comic shops and they're also at Amazon, and they're usually sold in blind packs (meaning you can't see which one it is til it's opened). We prefer Dunnys from the 2010 series, just because there's the most in that collection that would be wedding appropriate, but if you decide to get some and can't get those, that's ok. Just know that something we can't put up at the wedding will be in our personal collection. :D

angst_bingo is also open for ROUND 3!

Um... I think there was something else I was going to babble about but it's totally gone now. I slept like crap last night, waking up every 45 minutes. Meh.

But! Everything is made better with this:


I'll be not so quietly squeeing in the corner now, mm'kay? About everything.

But also the Avengers. And my wedding. And yes.

Two things...


ONE: I have an interview on Friday! For a job! It's the first in a long time, and I'm kind of freaking out. And by kind of, I mean a lot. It's not my favorite of the applications I'd turned in to the university, but it IS permanent part time (50% FTE) paying monthly about what my parents have been helping me with. This would be really, really good. (Even if it does kind of amount to scooping ice cream. I don't really particularly care, because dude - JOB. And I'd have plenty of time to continue editing/writing.)


TWO: The print version of Southwest Soul is becoming available! If you are interested, please contact me. For my friends, what we'll do is David will order copies, sign them (maybe get a message), and you will pay us $10 for the book plus pay for shipping of your choice. This is especially good for those of you interested in a print version internationally, because I'm not sure it will be available through the online store as a physical book that way. Leave a comment here if you're interested, and we'll hash out the details.

The Nook and iBook versions are in the process of being available. Hopefully those will be up soon!

Was let go. Store was doing badly enough that they can't pay me.

That store was the best damn job I've ever had.

Times like this I wish they still did, oh what was it called. Where the rich aristocracy paid for artists to live and eat just to sit around and do what they do. Words... words aren't working so well at the moment. But that thing.

Because then I could be writing right now instead of thoroughly freaking out.

I've already registered for unemployment and been pre-approved online. Already emailed my parents.

Gotta run some errands. But.

Any distractions today? Would be really, really welcome.

Hope y'all's week starts off better'n mine...

Today was possibly the worst day at the shop ever.

Didn't even break $50.

Boss has already said he wants me to come in Monday a half hour before work to pick up my paycheck and "go over some stuff before people are running around the store n stuff".

I have no idea what this means.

::chews lip:: I really, really hope I'm not about to be let go.

Neil Gaiman will always have a special place in my heart. I had been sad and broken, for quite a few reasons, and burning out on apathy when I read The Sandman for the first time. It swallowed me whole, and reminded me of my first true love: making things up. Not that things got better right away or that I started writing then, let alone writing well.

But that was the spark.

And now there's a new Sandman comic coming out. The Dream Hunters. It is a comic re-telling of the illustrated story he did ten years or so ago is Yoshitaka Amano. The art isn't quite what I wanted, but it works.

The words are more important.

From the inside of the title page:

I know not whether
you came to me or I to you.
Nor whether it was
reality or a dream,
asleep or awake.

I am lost in the darkness
of a downcast heart.
Dream or reality,
let it be decided tonight.


So I am both a happy geek, and reminded of what I do no matter how much trouble I'm having doing it at the moment.

Also. I need to stop wasting good story titles on journal entries...

I feel like I've kind of fallen off the map this past weekend... I've only been skimming my flist, and haven't been keeping up with any of the mini nano stuff that hasn't shown up in my flist... In fact I'm fairly certain I might have missed some of those anyway.

My own nano writing has been working on Zee and Ixchel's presents, which will have to wait to be done before they're posted. Zee's is going well, I think. Ixchel's I'm going to start over because... well I just don't like it right now and that's just not cool.

In other news, I was quite thoroughly a drowned rat yesterday. Was pouring out when I walked to work, and there was flash flooding when I went home, and I didn't even get to hang out with the artists that were visiting the shop yesterday. To make things even more awesome I found out that I got to break down the table and chairs by myself, as well as move the double sided bookcase all on my lonesome. Yeah, that bookcase that's way too heavy for me to even tip over even with all the books removed and shelves taken out. ::rolls eyes::

I can't say that I was completely miserable... badfalcon's picspams are too distracting. I'm skimming along my flist at work, wringing out the bottom of my jeans so I can stop slipping and growling to myself, and then hello... like remembering to breathe by holding your breath.

Yes I know I'm a dork. ::grins::

I ended up sleeping as soon as I got home and, barring waking up for Heroes, slept straight through til like 430am. Methinks I was on the verge of getting sick (I'd been kind of lightheaded earlier in the weekend) and a gorgeous storm thundering overhead was a brilliant way of catching up. I feel pretty good today, too.

Now to wander off and write. Or maybe play with my cats. Or maybe convince one of them to curl up on me while I write. Hmmm...

And as a final note:

Today started off sucking. A lot. And not just from conversational fallouts after the debate. I got rained on while running errands this morning. My schedule at work for today got fucked with, which meant that long lovely nap I'd been planning on and looking forward to? Was reduced to 20 minutes of pretending to watch Mythbusters while petting Pippin. (And the only reason I unwound enough to be laying down was chatting with thehighwaywoman and chatona, I was so tense and disappointed, but they totally had me laughing and distracted...) Then it was back to work to close the store. By the time I was home again, I was too awake and pumped from walking to sleep, and too braindead to do anything. (That thing I refer to as sanity was once more maintained by Zee and Chatona. Sooo much love.)

Things got steadily better.

And then Supernatural happened. \o/ (Watched it "with" Zee, too, twas awesome! And I felt less lame for missing Wincon heh.)

And then there was Life on Mars. \o/

There'll be more actual thoughts on those later. Later later, assuming I can brain by then.

And now? Pizza. And comfy chair. And sleep. Oh, glorious sleep.

Have a happy Thursday/Friday! ::smishes all around::

From my mother:

I just looked at the stuff you forwarded to me. WHOA!! Chris Kane is HOT!! He reminds me of another actor, but I can't think of his name. It's like they could be brothers. His music is good, too. And yes, Leverage looks like it's going to be a really good show. I'm looking forward to it!

I wonder if she's thinking of Stephen Dorf, because back when I first started watching Angel and saw Blade I kinda maybe sorta confused them. ::hides::

::cracks knuckles:: On to stage 2, namely teaching her not to freak out and close pop-up music players so that when we reach stage three, I can addict her to Steve. Maybe if I'm really really lucky I'll come home with actual CDs for Christmas! (That's stage 5, along with maybe certain chick-flick DVDs. Stage 4 involves a combination of Leverage and photo spamming, because God knows I'm not teaching her out to use hjsplit...)

Found the cord for the camera last night, so this weekend should include a post about my babies cats. Possibly even with video. ::crosses fingers::

Now back to wo --

...

...

My first customer of the day is a 40 year old fat guy in a too-tight shirt that says "I ♥ Hentai" with a scantily clad chick in a Playboy bunny style costume. (ETA: She's the logo on his shirt, not an extra person... oooops.)

It's gonna be one hell of a Saturday...