Thank heavens for little girls, for little girls get bigger every day.
Hallo hallo, friends. How are you all doing? I figured I would swing by to make an entry, bring attention to some cool things and brag about the awesome weekend I just had in NYC hanging with fangirls. :D
Life! Well, I own an apartment now. Officially. I don't get to live in it for another month and 10 days, but! I get to collect rent, so. Co-worker and I have decided I'm a slum lord. I like being a slum lord so far, it's pretty easy. You exist for a given amount of time, and eventually your real estate agent shows up with a rent check for you and buys you and your mother steak.
Immediately prior to closing on the place, I had the most bizarre week and a half of, like. IDK. My arm was going to fall off? I slept on it weird. I'm sure many of you heard me bitching. Anyway, I got some great physical therapy help and it went away, but now my neck has been hurting when I look left for like two weeks. I AM FALLING APART. I think it's my body's way of telling me I am reaching the point where I need to do some kind of exercise to keep myself alive. Fortunately, my co-worker wants a workout buddy, so I bought a bunch of nerdy workout tanks and I'M GONNA START DOING THAT...as soon as the May 1 spn_j2_bigbang deadline is in the rear view mirror. Until then, I need to focus on my writing game. SO. If you're an exercise person with any advice at all for a complete exercise n00b, give me tips, warning, secrets on how to get fit without actually having to try! I could especially use pointers on how to pick good shoes for working out in. I'm terrified to use gym equipment with my hiking sandals, and those are the only athletic shoes I have. And even those are on their way out, because I took them with me to dogsit my mom's corgi for a few nights...
This is the face of a dog who ate your favorite shoes and feels absolutely no remorse.
Since the summer is coming on, I'm beginning to make efforts toward not looking like a complete troll, so I got a haircut, also. If for no other reason than because my hair was getting so long and shedding on everything and it was driving me crazy. Current look is a little harder to style, but so, so blessedly light.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Except it's way curlier than that when not salon-dried. I think it'll look cuter when it's grown a few inches, too, which is nice, because I don't plan to get it cut again for months. Because money.
Anyway, this past weekend, me and my haircut took a couple of days off to attend a fangirl brunch in New York. It was, in all honesty, one of the best NYC trips I've had in years (and I go to NY about 3x/year, so that says something!). Although, I decided I was going on Tuesday and left Thursday, so I had to take the cheapest bus on earth, which was actually more convenient where it picked up, but kind of gross and smelly. WHATEVER. Until I am a rich business mad who can afford to take Amtrak, getting to NY from DC is always going to mean a really miserable bus ride.
But! This time, at the end of that long, dark tunnel, I met up with the lovely tebtosca for dinner and we went to see Les Mis!
All in all, a very great production. Ramin Karimloo was a wonderful Valjean when I saw him in Canada (December 2012), but the Broadway production was so clearly staged around the fact that, "Oh. Huh. We have a hot Valjean. This is weird. Let's go with it." He tore his shirt off (not exposed the top of his chest, no no. He tore his shirt off. Three times. Three. GREAT PRODUCTION, MUCH VALUE, VERY STRIPPER!VALJEAN, WOW. There were a lot of great performances, but for me, the Enjolras, Wallace Smith, stole the show. THE MARIUS WAS TERRIBLE THOUGH. SO TERRIBLE. HE BOTH LOOKED AND SOUNDED LIKE A DEAGED JEREMY CARVER. IT WAS TERRIBLE. TERRIBLE. I am scarred for life.
Anyway, after the show, we went back to her place, where I cuddled her dog who is the best dog ever and who TOTALLY LOVES ME BACK OKAY and we brainstormed EXCITING FIC THINGS. Then we woke up bright and early for fangirl brunch. bertee was in town! As was deirdre_c! And ordinaryink join us also, so IT WAS THE BEST BRUNCH.
I made really good decisions about what to eat:
And who to eat, also:
"You are the Pacman of my heart." - ordinaryink
Then I fucked off from brunch a bit early to go see a matinee of Gigi. Not a show I had any interest in, but Howard McGillin was in it. I don't think any of my Phandom friends are still hanging out on LJ, so probably none of you understand what that means to me. He was the love of my high school life. His voice is everything to me. I still adore him enough that I was willing to drop fangirl brunch with the above mentioned PERFECT FANGIRLS to dash across town to see a show I thought I would hate for him.
IT WAS SUCH A GOOD LIFE DECISION THOUGH, OH MY GOODNESS. Honestly, it's been a long time since I saw a Broadway show and felt what I felt during this one. There was that old Broadway buzz about it. Again, not a great show, but a mostly wonderful cast (the romantic leads were terrible actors, but both strong singers), and you could tell they were all having a lot of fun with what they were doing. The costumes were gorgeous. Fantastic choreography. Just a really, really strong production. Worth the price of admission for the way my heart pitter-pattered every time Howard was on screen, and I've never actually had the good fortune to see him in a show other than Phantom, so it was fun to see him doing a more fun, hammy Broadway role (he's very good at those, historically), even if his part wasn't the lead.
Not to mention, I paid for the absolute cheapest possible seats, but I arrived at 2:02 (2 minutes after the showtime, but the curtain hadn't lifted yet), so the usher was like, "It's your lucky day!" They sat me in the front mezzanine because the seats hadn't sold and at 2:02 were clearly not going to sell, and it was easier than making me do the climb to my actual seat. So I could both hear AND see Howard from where I was sitting. :'333333
I'M SO SORRY. Broadway!Cherie needed a moment there. I FORGET SOMETIMES HOW MUCH I LOVE MUSICAL THEATRE BUT IT IS A WHOLE LOT, OKAY????
Anyway, after the show, I headed to Central Park, just because it's one of my very favorite places in the world, it was a beautiful spring day, and I had some time to kill until ordinaryink & bertee got out of the movie they went to while I was at the show.
I FOUND BALTO ALL BY MYSELF FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER.
And then I took a selfie with the Bard.
And then I took a nap in the sun on this hill, heyyyy-o.
Anyway, I did eventually meet up with ordinaryink & bertee, and we saw dear Bertee off and then Tracey and I headed to a Mountain Goats concert. I'm not familiar with the band, but once they started playing, the music was really enjoyable and the guy was funny. The opener was awful, though, and the layout of the table where we were sitting was really awkward. Apparently New York is super into trying to make European-style communal dining where you have long tables and sit next to strangers and get to know each other is a thing. EXCEPT WE DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS HERE SO YOU JUST SIT AN INCH AWAY FROM A COUPLE ON A DATE AND NO ONE TALKS TO ANYONE, NOT EVEN THE PERSON THEY CAME WITH. This is not our culture, NY, it's just awkward, please stop it.
Anyway, since Saturday was such a crazy one, it was super nice that Tracey and I had no plans for Sunday except a) play Mortal Kombat and b) drink. We did these things like pros. I killed her with my hair once. Righteous.
Also ????
Anyway, I headed back to the city yesterday. I went to see the 9/11 Memorial, which I thought was really well done and respectful and I adore the new World Trade Center building. Then I walked to Chinatown, where I had the most repulsive meal before getting on the train back to D.C. Wonderful, wonderful vacation all in all, and I think it did a lot of good for me.
Truth is, I've been feeling kind of...I don't know. Sad seems like such a weak word, but...dumpy, I guess. I've been in the dumps about fandom recently. Not that anyone needs to hear me whine about kids these days and how fandom community has been watered down, because I think everyone has already heard it from me and wants me to shut up. But, I dunno. It's rough to convince myself to write a 20K fic when the last one I wrote got 19 readers who cared enough to bother leaving a comment, you know? I mean. Ugh. It's not about the comments, but still. I've just been a little bit sad about it lately. Can;t let go of the good ol' days, I guess. I know I'll get over it, but JFC, if there was a good time to have an existential crisis re: writing fanfic, fucking spn_j2_bigbang season is NOT FUCKING IT. So I'm trying to shake it off. I think spending time IRL with fangirls is the best cure of that kind of shit. So nice to remember how fucking magnificent it is to sit and be so understood and have a conversation about exactly the stuff I care about. :)
I did have a nice little ego boost today in that my writing comm, infatuated_ink just hit (and surpassed) 400 watchers!! That's so crazy to me. I cried the day it hit 100, no joke, because I could not believe that many people would be interested in reading my fic. I mean, I know 400 people is not a lot in the grand scheme of social media, and I know like 70% of those people are not hanging out here anymore. But still. That 400 people ever stopped by and said, "Hey, I want to keep up with her writing!" gave me a smile.
Fandom things I am super excited about:
Have been waiting for *cough* certain lazy bone friends to make a SPN Opera comm for years. Someone beat them to it, and we are all the better for it. I have a cool idea for it, too! I am probably going to come sniffing around for an artist to pair up with for that one, so if any artists are interested in doing opera things with me (er, except murder), do feel free to let me know!!
Not 100% sure what I'm gonna do for this one, but I have been bouncing some ideas around in my head. I love that this fandom still has exciting new challenges like this starting up years and years in. :D
NOW FOR SOME RECS:
If you were not able to get through spn_masquerade because of the SHEER VOLUME of fills, check out these rec lists I made of my favorites! I didn't read everything, but the stuff I did was marvelous. So marvelous I had to do one reclist for Supernatural and one for RPF over at spn_themes. That's right! TWO fantastic recists full of porny goodies. ^___^
ALSO, IF YOU HAVE NOT HEARD, the absurdly talented podficcer, chemm80, made a podfic of Sparks are Whirling Faster, a college knotting AU I wrote aaaages ago. It's SO GOOD and really hot! Y'all should check it out if podfic is your thing, and let her know you loved it. :D
Wow, okay. Look at this 2008!Cherie length LJ post. I talk too much!! Also, I am at work. I should, like, actually do some work. But work is the only place I can LJ, which is why I've been such a shitty friend on LJ this past year. My home internet is THE WORST, and getting my FLIST to load is hard enough, but then getting it to load a comment page?? And post my comment??? Without losing connection and all my hard work???????? Impossible. I WILL BE BETTER IN ONE MONTH AND TEN DAYS WHEN I MOVE INTO MY(!!!) APARTMENT. :DDDD
OH, ALSO. I have been rewatching the X Files. It has been my very best life choice and I recommend it for everyone. That is all.
Life! Well, I own an apartment now. Officially. I don't get to live in it for another month and 10 days, but! I get to collect rent, so. Co-worker and I have decided I'm a slum lord. I like being a slum lord so far, it's pretty easy. You exist for a given amount of time, and eventually your real estate agent shows up with a rent check for you and buys you and your mother steak.
Immediately prior to closing on the place, I had the most bizarre week and a half of, like. IDK. My arm was going to fall off? I slept on it weird. I'm sure many of you heard me bitching. Anyway, I got some great physical therapy help and it went away, but now my neck has been hurting when I look left for like two weeks. I AM FALLING APART. I think it's my body's way of telling me I am reaching the point where I need to do some kind of exercise to keep myself alive. Fortunately, my co-worker wants a workout buddy, so I bought a bunch of nerdy workout tanks and I'M GONNA START DOING THAT...as soon as the May 1 spn_j2_bigbang deadline is in the rear view mirror. Until then, I need to focus on my writing game. SO. If you're an exercise person with any advice at all for a complete exercise n00b, give me tips, warning, secrets on how to get fit without actually having to try! I could especially use pointers on how to pick good shoes for working out in. I'm terrified to use gym equipment with my hiking sandals, and those are the only athletic shoes I have. And even those are on their way out, because I took them with me to dogsit my mom's corgi for a few nights...
This is the face of a dog who ate your favorite shoes and feels absolutely no remorse.
Since the summer is coming on, I'm beginning to make efforts toward not looking like a complete troll, so I got a haircut, also. If for no other reason than because my hair was getting so long and shedding on everything and it was driving me crazy. Current look is a little harder to style, but so, so blessedly light.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Except it's way curlier than that when not salon-dried. I think it'll look cuter when it's grown a few inches, too, which is nice, because I don't plan to get it cut again for months. Because money.
Anyway, this past weekend, me and my haircut took a couple of days off to attend a fangirl brunch in New York. It was, in all honesty, one of the best NYC trips I've had in years (and I go to NY about 3x/year, so that says something!). Although, I decided I was going on Tuesday and left Thursday, so I had to take the cheapest bus on earth, which was actually more convenient where it picked up, but kind of gross and smelly. WHATEVER. Until I am a rich business mad who can afford to take Amtrak, getting to NY from DC is always going to mean a really miserable bus ride.
But! This time, at the end of that long, dark tunnel, I met up with the lovely tebtosca for dinner and we went to see Les Mis!
All in all, a very great production. Ramin Karimloo was a wonderful Valjean when I saw him in Canada (December 2012), but the Broadway production was so clearly staged around the fact that, "Oh. Huh. We have a hot Valjean. This is weird. Let's go with it." He tore his shirt off (not exposed the top of his chest, no no. He tore his shirt off. Three times. Three. GREAT PRODUCTION, MUCH VALUE, VERY STRIPPER!VALJEAN, WOW. There were a lot of great performances, but for me, the Enjolras, Wallace Smith, stole the show. THE MARIUS WAS TERRIBLE THOUGH. SO TERRIBLE. HE BOTH LOOKED AND SOUNDED LIKE A DEAGED JEREMY CARVER. IT WAS TERRIBLE. TERRIBLE. I am scarred for life.
Anyway, after the show, we went back to her place, where I cuddled her dog who is the best dog ever and who TOTALLY LOVES ME BACK OKAY and we brainstormed EXCITING FIC THINGS. Then we woke up bright and early for fangirl brunch. bertee was in town! As was deirdre_c! And ordinaryink join us also, so IT WAS THE BEST BRUNCH.
I made really good decisions about what to eat:
And who to eat, also:
"You are the Pacman of my heart." - ordinaryink
Then I fucked off from brunch a bit early to go see a matinee of Gigi. Not a show I had any interest in, but Howard McGillin was in it. I don't think any of my Phandom friends are still hanging out on LJ, so probably none of you understand what that means to me. He was the love of my high school life. His voice is everything to me. I still adore him enough that I was willing to drop fangirl brunch with the above mentioned PERFECT FANGIRLS to dash across town to see a show I thought I would hate for him.
IT WAS SUCH A GOOD LIFE DECISION THOUGH, OH MY GOODNESS. Honestly, it's been a long time since I saw a Broadway show and felt what I felt during this one. There was that old Broadway buzz about it. Again, not a great show, but a mostly wonderful cast (the romantic leads were terrible actors, but both strong singers), and you could tell they were all having a lot of fun with what they were doing. The costumes were gorgeous. Fantastic choreography. Just a really, really strong production. Worth the price of admission for the way my heart pitter-pattered every time Howard was on screen, and I've never actually had the good fortune to see him in a show other than Phantom, so it was fun to see him doing a more fun, hammy Broadway role (he's very good at those, historically), even if his part wasn't the lead.
Not to mention, I paid for the absolute cheapest possible seats, but I arrived at 2:02 (2 minutes after the showtime, but the curtain hadn't lifted yet), so the usher was like, "It's your lucky day!" They sat me in the front mezzanine because the seats hadn't sold and at 2:02 were clearly not going to sell, and it was easier than making me do the climb to my actual seat. So I could both hear AND see Howard from where I was sitting. :'333333
I'M SO SORRY. Broadway!Cherie needed a moment there. I FORGET SOMETIMES HOW MUCH I LOVE MUSICAL THEATRE BUT IT IS A WHOLE LOT, OKAY????
Anyway, after the show, I headed to Central Park, just because it's one of my very favorite places in the world, it was a beautiful spring day, and I had some time to kill until ordinaryink & bertee got out of the movie they went to while I was at the show.
I FOUND BALTO ALL BY MYSELF FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER.
And then I took a selfie with the Bard.
And then I took a nap in the sun on this hill, heyyyy-o.
Anyway, I did eventually meet up with ordinaryink & bertee, and we saw dear Bertee off and then Tracey and I headed to a Mountain Goats concert. I'm not familiar with the band, but once they started playing, the music was really enjoyable and the guy was funny. The opener was awful, though, and the layout of the table where we were sitting was really awkward. Apparently New York is super into trying to make European-style communal dining where you have long tables and sit next to strangers and get to know each other is a thing. EXCEPT WE DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS HERE SO YOU JUST SIT AN INCH AWAY FROM A COUPLE ON A DATE AND NO ONE TALKS TO ANYONE, NOT EVEN THE PERSON THEY CAME WITH. This is not our culture, NY, it's just awkward, please stop it.
Anyway, since Saturday was such a crazy one, it was super nice that Tracey and I had no plans for Sunday except a) play Mortal Kombat and b) drink. We did these things like pros. I killed her with my hair once. Righteous.
Also ????
Anyway, I headed back to the city yesterday. I went to see the 9/11 Memorial, which I thought was really well done and respectful and I adore the new World Trade Center building. Then I walked to Chinatown, where I had the most repulsive meal before getting on the train back to D.C. Wonderful, wonderful vacation all in all, and I think it did a lot of good for me.
Truth is, I've been feeling kind of...I don't know. Sad seems like such a weak word, but...dumpy, I guess. I've been in the dumps about fandom recently. Not that anyone needs to hear me whine about kids these days and how fandom community has been watered down, because I think everyone has already heard it from me and wants me to shut up. But, I dunno. It's rough to convince myself to write a 20K fic when the last one I wrote got 19 readers who cared enough to bother leaving a comment, you know? I mean. Ugh. It's not about the comments, but still. I've just been a little bit sad about it lately. Can;t let go of the good ol' days, I guess. I know I'll get over it, but JFC, if there was a good time to have an existential crisis re: writing fanfic, fucking spn_j2_bigbang season is NOT FUCKING IT. So I'm trying to shake it off. I think spending time IRL with fangirls is the best cure of that kind of shit. So nice to remember how fucking magnificent it is to sit and be so understood and have a conversation about exactly the stuff I care about. :)
I did have a nice little ego boost today in that my writing comm, infatuated_ink just hit (and surpassed) 400 watchers!! That's so crazy to me. I cried the day it hit 100, no joke, because I could not believe that many people would be interested in reading my fic. I mean, I know 400 people is not a lot in the grand scheme of social media, and I know like 70% of those people are not hanging out here anymore. But still. That 400 people ever stopped by and said, "Hey, I want to keep up with her writing!" gave me a smile.
Fandom things I am super excited about:
Have been waiting for *cough* certain lazy bone friends to make a SPN Opera comm for years. Someone beat them to it, and we are all the better for it. I have a cool idea for it, too! I am probably going to come sniffing around for an artist to pair up with for that one, so if any artists are interested in doing opera things with me (er, except murder), do feel free to let me know!!
Not 100% sure what I'm gonna do for this one, but I have been bouncing some ideas around in my head. I love that this fandom still has exciting new challenges like this starting up years and years in. :D
NOW FOR SOME RECS:
If you were not able to get through spn_masquerade because of the SHEER VOLUME of fills, check out these rec lists I made of my favorites! I didn't read everything, but the stuff I did was marvelous. So marvelous I had to do one reclist for Supernatural and one for RPF over at spn_themes. That's right! TWO fantastic recists full of porny goodies. ^___^
ALSO, IF YOU HAVE NOT HEARD, the absurdly talented podficcer, chemm80, made a podfic of Sparks are Whirling Faster, a college knotting AU I wrote aaaages ago. It's SO GOOD and really hot! Y'all should check it out if podfic is your thing, and let her know you loved it. :D
Wow, okay. Look at this 2008!Cherie length LJ post. I talk too much!! Also, I am at work. I should, like, actually do some work. But work is the only place I can LJ, which is why I've been such a shitty friend on LJ this past year. My home internet is THE WORST, and getting my FLIST to load is hard enough, but then getting it to load a comment page?? And post my comment??? Without losing connection and all my hard work???????? Impossible. I WILL BE BETTER IN ONE MONTH AND TEN DAYS WHEN I MOVE INTO MY(!!!) APARTMENT. :DDDD
OH, ALSO. I have been rewatching the X Files. It has been my very best life choice and I recommend it for everyone. That is all.