Maledicte

• Today it's cold and lazily snowing here in Santa Fe. That's right. It's May 13th, and it's snowing. This place has the weirdest weather.

• This Saturday I'm going to put on a cap and gown and do the whole walking/shaking hands/accepting my "diploma" thing. (The school already mailed me my diploma since I actually finished my course work and all that in Dec. I think it's sort of hilarious that I'm doing this all now, but it is what it is.) Various family is coming, and there will be some juggling of time, but I think it will be a nice time all around. Certainly I'm looking forward to being done with everything concerned with this college.

• I had a job interview today, for a position I'm not entirely sure I applied for but that I'm probably qualified for and which seems like it might be more interesting (and in some ways less anxiety-inducing for me) than the position I think I actually did apply for. I'm pretty sure the people liked me, and I'm pretty sure the interview went well. Think good thoughts for me, internet peoples. I really need something that's going to bring in some money.

• This is the week of season finales on TV. Once Upon A Time ended on Sunday, and had about three minutes of everyone being happy and me crying because it was so beautiful and amazing before all that happiness got stabbed in the face and everything was terrible again. I mean, it was wonderful, but I'm pretty sure my cat is concerned for my well-being now, since I actually screeched in horror. The current seasons of Castle and The Blacklist both ended last night, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will end tonight. Elementary will end this Thursday.

• On the other hand, Game of Thrones is currently in the middle of it's current season, and Da Vinci's Demon's just passed the halfway mark. Plus, Penny Dreadful just started, and Crossbones will begin at the end of the month, so it's not like I won't have anything to watch.

• I'm currently rereading various of the Tortall books by Tamora Pierce. I really love these books. If I ever write YA stuff, I want it to be like these amazing stories, and not have some of the weird tropes that show up in YA these days.

Well, that might be it for now. I need to do some cleaning around my apartment, and I should maybe do that while there's daylight.

Argh, more than a month has gone by since I last posted. I was going to be better than this! So, lessee, what's new this month?

• School still goes. So that's not exactly new. I was feeling like I was drowning in homework and work in general last week (and possibly the week before), but I seem to have gotten my head above the water again. I am so incredibly thankful that this is my last semester.

• Myth, Archetype, & Fairy Tale is still by far the best and most awesome class. We all have to do a final project, and since the class is mostly filled with Writing Majors most of us are writing. I'm going to be writing a small collection of retold tales. Red Riding Hood the Werewolf Slayer, Maleficent's Curse, the Love Story of Hades & Persephone, Cassandra of Troy: Modern Day Prophetess are all the things that I've sort of got a handle on so far. I want to do something with Captain Hook but I'm not sure what yet. So we'll see. I'm pretty excited.

• J and I moved furniture around the house last week, putting the TV, Wii and cable box in the bedroom and making space for a small desk/work nook in the corner of the living room for me. Both of these changes have made life much easier and more enjoyable in this teensy apartment we call home. Plus, watching movies (like The Lone Ranger, LOL) in our bedroom on the big TV is much nicer.

• I have a doctor's appointment a week from tomorrow! This will be the first time I've seen a doctor (other than the dentist or my optometrist) in much too long. I'm definitely not looking forward to having bloodwork done—tattoos have not exactly made me fond of needles, but I think I might be past the post of spontaneously bursting into tears at even the sight of a syringe—but I am looking forward to having a reliable someone to prescribe birth control (rather than my school nurse) and possible someone to prescribe sleeping pills. This sleeping-poorly bullshit has got to stop.

• Plus, also, I need a doctor's note in order to go to Israel this February. Free trip to Israel because I'm Jewish, woo! I've gotten them everything they need except the doctor's note (because I don't currently have a doctor, whoops) and I really, really hope that the Culinary trip hasn't been filled by the time I get it to them because it seems like that might be one of the only trips I would really enjoy. So, fingers crossed and all that.

• This fall's TV is so far awesome. I'm watching Sleepy Hollow (and hiding from all the scary parts behind my hands), Downton Abbey (how much do I love Mary? a lot!), Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which I am really loving to bits and pieces), Once Upon A Time (which continues to be full of awesomeness and their Peter Pan is my new favorite), Castle (because I can't give up on it now), Masters of Sex (which I am watching entirely because of Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan) and Elementary (because, Sherlock Holmes. duh.)

• On a totally different note: I really dislike how DW's tagging works, in that I really like it when LJ will show you all the tags you have that start with L if you type that in. DW only shows you one option, and since I don't remember all my tags, it's less useful to me. I always have to cross check my tags with LJ when I post here.

ETA: Oh oh oh! One more thing!

• J and I are going to the east coast for the weekend after Thanksgiving! (Which is when my mother's family gets together to celebrate Thanksgiving, since there are six of them, and they all have significant others so they go their separate ways on the actual holiday.) This is exciting because it's going to give us Friday evening and some of Sunday in NYC together. He's going to bring his camera and I'm going to take him to some touristy places and feed him real bagels and real (fake) Chinese food and real pizza. And maybe a falafel sandwich from a cart. And he'll get to meet Aaron on Sunday, and maybe Mira and Em depending on what those two are up to around then. So that's exciting too!

It's a shame y'all over at LJ can't see my awesome Mary/Downton Abbey icon. :p

I'm in Denver! And I found a free wifi thingy! Yay! This is my celebratory icon.

• Except for one script I have to revise and another really short one I have to write all before midnight tonight, school is done for the semester. Whoo!

• Let summer vacation ensue! (Also the warms. I'm done with wintery weather now. Give me some warms.)

• I'm on my way to the east coast for a few days for a family thing. And I will briefly get to see some friends before I fly back. So that is really nice.

Yeah, that's all there is. Back to editing the aforementioned script.

• Well, I heard back from Clarion West, and alas I was not accepted. I don't think I had any real expectations either way, but it was still a disappointment.

• Though, that makes my summer plans sort of neat. I'll be working with one of my teachers and finishing my novel (for school credit even!). Mostly because she wants to read the rest of it. Which is really encouraging.

• J bought me a yoga DVD the other day, and I did a 20 minute yoga session on it yesterday. Which left me so sore, holy crap. It was just the intro stuff! My sides, my lower abs, and the back of my thighs protest just about every movement I take. I mean, I guess that means it worked, but still. Ow. I will absolutely be doing more just as soon as I am a little let ouchie.

• I get to register for fall classes pretty soon. One of my teachers (the same one I'll be working with this summer) is teaching a lit class called (something like) "Myth, Archetype, and Fairytales" which I will absolutely be taking. Jung and Campbell! And a little bit of writing, to make it super interesting.

• I might also be working with a different teacher on another novel as an independent study next semester. Because I'd like to have a few finished things by the time I graduate in Dec. so that means I actually need to write. And why not get credit for it (especially when there aren't any other interesting classes and I need a certain number of credits)? Not yet sure what I'll work on. I suppose whether or not I want to write my current novel's sequel will depend a lot on how I feel after I've finished it this summer.

• I am planning on pounding out some words for the April session of Camp NaNoWriMo. Not a whole novel's worth, but probably the beginning of something. I have a thing I'm excited about, so I'll be working on that.

• I discovered that books that I find too boring to actually read can be listened to while I knit. So I am exactly half way through listening to The Fellowship of the Ring on audiobook. (Or at least, I'm about to start "Book Two" of it, which is right after the ringwraiths get their butts handed to them by the river.) I have the other two Lord of the Rings books for after that, and also Frank Herbert's Dune and The Mists of Avalon for when those are done. Because I need to have these things in my general knowledge, but I haven't ever been able to get through them. Audiobooks are a happy solution to this problem! I'm planning on getting some Jane Austen, too.

• J also got me the extended edition Lord of the Rings collection on blu ray, too. So my present to myself for having finished "reading" The Fellowship of the Ring will probably be to watch it in beautiful HD.

Yeah, that's it. I love this icon.

• I hope everyone had a good Turkey Day. I myself spent most of it with the Boyfriend and his mother, who made us a fantastic feast (and then sent most of the turkey home with us). I also got to play him at Mario Kart, where we discovered that I sort of suck at fake driving. I did improve slightly over the few races we played, though, so I suppose there's hope for me yet.

• I seem to have wrenched my neck in the night, and every time I think I've figured out where it's safe to hold my head so that I won't be in pain, the pain attacks. I would lay down and and hope that the pillow would work some sort of magic, but I actually have school work that I really need to get done before Monday. Still, ow.

• Since Turkey Day has passed, Holiday cards are now relevant. I'll be posting a call for addresses probably tomorrow. Keep an eye out, and give me your addresses so I can send you a card. :)

• I only have four more week of this semester. I am excite.

• I was very fail this NaNoWriMo and thus this year will still not be my year to win. Not entirely unexpected, but I did actually get a good novel idea out of this year, and most of the details for it. I am looking forward to writing more of it and hopefully finishing it. It's actually something that I could see being published. And with sequels! So that's sort of neat, too!

• (I ought to get a mood theme for my DW journal.)

• Went and saw The Avengers yesterday. It was totally amazing. There were a few things that I thought went unexplained, and a few things I would have like done better (or not at all), but overall I was impressed with the movie, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I'd like to see it again for a more nitpicky viewing, I think, as there were several moments where I remember thinking, "Oh, that's sort of clever," and I can only remember one of them off the top of my head. So yes, another viewing might be necessary. (I don't think the Boyfriend will go again with me, though. Mayhaps my dad.)

• Actually, I can't stop thinking about The Avengers from what I like to think of as a storyteller's point-of-view, and I think there are definitely things that could have been done better. But I didn't actually notice them as I was watching, so I guess that sort of means that it doesn't really make that much of a difference.

• Avengers icons! (Though, if you're reading this on LJ, you won't be able to see it/them.)

• Things in general are ok. School ends after next Friday. I'm really looking forward to this.

• I'm very seriously thinking about how to make a presence online as a writer, and considering making a blog for this. But I keep getting held up because I feel like I still don't have an identity as a writer—in that I don't yet have a name that I want to publish under. I have some ideas, but nothing I'm satisfied with yet. Which means that I keep not writing about things that I'd like to talk about. And that in turn is making me feel like I can't write about them, like I've lost the ability. (As an aside, I've also stopped writing in my paper journal. I keep swearing to fix this, and then I don't. I don't think I've written in it for about a month.) Anyway, I'll have to keep thinking about this name thing.

• I'm excited for summer vacation, and I've a feeling it's not going to be anything like I originally planned.

• My time in NYC is drawing to a close. I had a great time here, despite not seeing some people and only seeing others for short periods of time. This time, though, I am really looking forward to going home, as the Boyfriend is still in NM. I have actually had something to miss while I was here. It's an odd thing. But I will be happy to see him again.

• While here I have reread three of Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series (haven't finished Lady Knight again yet) and three new books (two Nora Roberts, and Patricia Brigg's newest Alpha & Omega book, Fair Game). I am feeling pretty good about the rate at which I am reading books this year. Since the beginning of 2012 I have read (including rereads) 21 books. That's a lot!

• I'm currently reading Anne Rice's newest, The Wolf Gift which is good so far. Werewolves rather than vampires, in case you couldn't tell from the title. (Also, I saw somewhere that she imagines Matt Bomer as the main character if they ever made a movie of it, and that got stuck in my head. Good times.) I haven't actually read any of Anne Rice's stuff (except the last of the Beauty Trilogy (the gay one) which is hilarious if you're considering it), not even her vampire things. I have Interview With A Vampire and Queen of the Damned, so maybe I'll give those a try after this. We shall see.

• Kindles are the best.

• Dishes, however, are not the best. And I forgot that I needed to do them before I leave, since I have no idea how the dishwasher here works. Whoops.

• No interviews were had while I was here. I am not deterred in my determination to have an internship for the summer. I don't know if I will be able to get out here again for interviews, though. I really shouldn't miss more of my M/W/F classes. (They are too early in the morning for me. I am too likely to say "Fuck it," while still mostly asleep, and then not go. WHOOPS.) Maybe I can talk the teacher into some extra credit work instead (since the stuff seems to mostly be things that I already know, so far). That would probably help moderate the damage done to my grade by missing classes.

And now it is bedtime, since I have to get up at 4am to get to my 7:30am flight. Gah.

• I keep... forgetting to post. I check my flist and think, "I should update my journal," but then I think, "But what would I say?" And so I don't. That worries me a little.

• School continues apace. I'm a little behind on everything because I'm starting to realize that I'm bored with school. Obviously this means I need to figure out how to make it work for me again. I think that's going to me just putting my head down and doing the work no matter how bored I get. Not an exciting prospect.

• Slightly more exciting: I talked to the head of my department (also my Poetry teacher) and mentioned that I was worried about being able to graduate in May 2013. I'd been looking over the list of things I've taken and things I need to take, and it seemed like there were more that I needed to take than would allow me to graduate after another two semesters. This is totally unacceptable. But she was really reassuring! She said that we should talk to my new advisor (old advisor now has a different position) and that we could likely spread my previous credits out to apply better. I nearly wept with joy.

• Things with the Boyfriend are still wonderful. Wonderful enough that I sometime look around to make sure that the rest of my life isn't falling into ruin while I'm distracted. (It seems not to be.) I sort of hope this wonderfulness never goes away.

• Summer Internship applications start... now. My first deadline is tomorrow (and I am finishing up my cover letter before I go to sleep tonight) with Penguin Group. After that, most things need to go out by the end of March. I'm applying to pretty much every major publishing house in NYC that has a fantasy division, and about two dozen literary agencies. I just need something for this summer so that I can a) be in NYC for an extended period of time and b) have it for my resume when I apply for internships the summer after I graduate which will hopefully help me get a job.

• Apparently when I get down, I start looking for apartments in NYC. This doesn't actually help. Note to self.

It's been a while since I posted anything of substance, so here we go!

• First, I bought myself some paid account time on DW and now I have icons! This is delightful! (Despite the fact that still most of my posting (which mostly consists of comments) is over at LJ.) I am very pleased, and have even changed some of them around. Delightful, I tell you. Obviously, for those of you reading this on LJ, it likely won't matter. But the fact that I have them on DW just makes me happy. So. It's the little things in life, clearly.

• Right. Next. I am officially dating someone*. We met on Christmas Eve when we were sitting next to each other on a plane. We spend the weekends together mostly since he lives an hour away. It's lovely, he's wonderful, I'm happy.

• We're doing a Valentine's Day thing next weekend. And by "thing" I mean, "I've been tasked with picking out a restaurant and I have no idea what I want, so I haven't picked anything yet." I know tons of restaurants in NYC because I eat out so often there, but I don't actually eat out that often here in Santa Fe. Not really. More research must be done.

* I'll have to figure out how I want to refer to him here, if I decide I want to.

• Moving along. School. It's going well so far. My Gothic Lit class and my Poetry class are by far my most interesting classes. I volunteered to go in the first group of workshops for my Poetry class, and while I'm not nervous, I sort of hate my poem. I have a paper coming up in my Gothic Lit class, and I suspect I'll be writing on the Poe stories we read, since we won't have read anything else that actually will hold my interest. I suspect I'll be writing my final paper on Dracula because, um, yes.

• My Religion & Image class makes me mentally slam my head against a wall for an hour three days a week. I'd forgotten what talking about literature with teenagers who aren't into it is like. Let me give you an example:

This morning a girl said something like, "It's definitely a dream," about one of Kafka's stories (A Country Doctor for those interested or those who might be familiar with it), and when I asked her why she said "definitely" she explained how the whole sequence would never happen "in real life" and I just... couldn't look at her and say, "You haven't read much Kafka, have you?" So, I just tried to explain—without being snarky, not sure if I succeeded, but really I was just trying to show her that there's no "definitely" about anything—that it really didn't seem to out of character in the surreality of the story. I got a blank (and possibly slightly annoyed) look in return.

My Paradise Lost class is only slightly better. We talk about the book a bit more, but we also go around the room and read long passages of it aloud and the teacher goes, "See how this is an example of something I told you would be in here?" Less slamming my head against a wall, more internally crying.

• I am already behind on my IS. I am likely going to write two short stories this week (nothing super polished, just first drafts) in order to catch up. Oof.

• My Kindle is my current favorite thing. Well, my Kindle and the application calibre. I've been adding books to both like crazy, and reading almost as much. Though, I am having trouble sticking with one book and finishing it. (Except for the one I'll talk about in a minute.) I suspect this is because I keep getting new books and having "new toy syndrome" as applied to books. (I dub this, "new book syndrome.") Still, I am reading books and having fun with gadgets. The Boyfriend is pretty much convinced that he wants a Kindle now. Which I consider a victory. And I am finding that it's nice to be able to carry a ton of books with me wherever I go, and that reading on the Kindle can sometimes be nicer than reading from an actual book. I like having the actual book, but sometimes the slim little gadget it nicer to practical application.

• The only book I've finished (that's not a reread) in a while on my Kindle was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. If you haven't read this book already, read it. Go out, buy it, read it right now. There are so many amazing things about this book, I literally had to put it down at times and hyperventilate over how I will never write something this amazing. Or at least, how I'll never write this book because someone else already wrote it. (Other books that inspire this feeling: Steven Brust's To Reign in Hell and Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens. Probably there are others, but those are the two I can recall off the top of my head.) Of course, I am happy with the things I am working on as books that will likely sell if I can get them into some sort of publishable shape (and, you know, written) but sometimes I just think, "Why couldn't I have written this?" Seriously amazing, if you haven't read it yet, do it asap.

Note to exrpan: Consider reading this for your Independent Study with David. No, seriously.

• Other than DW/LJ, I've been slacking off on my other online hideouts. I haven't really used Twitter or Tumblr in a while. I've sort of lost interest, even though I don't want to have lost interest. It's an odd conundrum. I haven't even really been reading fic. It's not that I am losing interest in my fandoms—because, if my reaction to the Avengers trailer during the Super Bowl is in any indication, I'm definitely not—I just have other things that I am thinking about at the moment. Hm. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to fandom things in not too long.

And that's it, folks!

• I'm home in Santa Fe. This should be surprising to no one.

• School started today! I am... mostly hopeful about the classes that I had. I have a relatively light schedule (more time for writing!) and today was only two classes. Two lit classes, but still. Ugh, I still have none of my books, except the free ones that I was able to get on Amazon on my Kindle. My teacher—who actually asked in class, "So, who else got a Kindle for Christmas?"—says that most of them can be found for free online, so I'll look into that more. At the very least, the first book I need should be, since, um, it was published in the 1700s and thus is very much in the public domain.

• After school, I went to our post box and picked up mail, which contained lots of presents for me. :) It was late birthday things—things that my mom ordered for me that didn't come in time—but they were more like, "Congrats on starting school again!" presents. My Kindle has a shiny new skin on it, and my mom got me a giant bottle of my favorite perfume, Comme des Garçons! (Wouldn't it be cool if you could smell things over the internet...) Also some knitting needles that my mom and I discovered are the best (though, she got me the regular ones, not the lace ones, which I think are even better).

• Speaking of, I've been getting more into knitting these days. I'm trying finding projects for yarn that's in my stash, and it's been fun! Of course, I'll actually have to start those projects soon. I did swatch a bit for an afghan I want (desperately) to make. But I'll actually have to get yarn to make that one, since I have only one ball each of the two colors I need, but I already cast on for it and have knit a few rows. I'll need to get more yarn before long, though. (Ugh, and I just remembered about dye lots. Hopefully they will match well enough that I don't try to kill myself by ripping it all out and starting over.)

• I got snowed in yesterday! Luckily, I wasn't planning on leaving.

• Got most of my Independent Study paperwork done. The head of my department thinks I am a little crazy for attempting 8 short stories in a semester. I... was way more confident before she stared at me in astonishment. I mean, I am defining short story as 5-20 pages (or 2k to 10k words, I guess?) and this does not seem strange to me. Challenging, yes. Impossible or stupidly difficult, no. I'm not expecting these stories to be masterful works of literature. And likely all of them will be first (or second) drafts—in that the way I write things tends to be more like transcribing something I've already composed in my head—so... I totally think it's possible. Give me encouragement, guys.

• I need to write the first story sometime this week, actually, and email it to my advisor so she can read it for our first meeting. Which... will be at some... time. Uh.

• I also resolved to finish one fic that I started last year every month. I haven't really worked on anything except the secret_mutant fic that I didn't get in on time. Likely... I will try to finish that one for this month and then post it to the comm, because I want the person I was assigned to have it. They will probably find it as hilarious as I do. (Lookit me, being all cryptic. :p)

Yeah, I'm done now.