Poetry & Prozac

I'm posting because I only get to use this tag once a year, even if it is no longer Christmas Eve Eve.

I love Christmas Eve Eve because I am always stupidly busy on Christmas Eve proper. Today's the day I get to really anticipate everything that comes with Christmastime for me. The food and the family and the traditions and the gifts I'm giving and the gifts I'm getting and the cute outfit I've got for tomorrow night.

It just, is an awesome day.

Also my little brother came home tonight. And we decorated the faily-est tree ever. We usually buy live trees and then plant them, but three years ago my parents bought this eeensy tree, and last year it grew somewhat and started looking a little funky, THIS year it has two tops and is vaguely hourglass shaped. We are owning our funkyass tree. I guess.

(No music tonight, as Ryan Ross is a failboat and has not posted his rec yet. For sure I will post some tomorrow though.)

* I know everyone on the planet is telling you this, but, OMG, go see Milk. It is AMAZING and awesome, and so worth seeing. If nothing else will convince you, there's plenty of boykissing. And James Franco. And Emile Hersch. And Diego Luna.

* I'm FINALLY starting to get into the Christmas spirit. I've had my shopping pretty much done for awhile, but I just, I don't know, wasn't feeling it. Getting there now, though.

* I have no other news. Have mostly spent tonight making fun of bandboys on AIM. Because you always mock the ones you love.

* At 24 years old, you'd think I could apply eyeliner. I've been puttting on makeup (with varying degrees of skill and intricacy) for over a DECADE. Why is this so challenging?

You know it's Christmas when...

Your cousin calls, in tears, looking for your mother, and when she's told that your mom's not around spills out a whole long story about OMG her mother is still so awful and unsupportive and she sent a nasty e-mail and her mom hasn't replied what should she do? She also reveals that she, her mom, and mine have been having three-way e-mail conversations during the days. Do you know who else is online all day and hasn't been receiving said e-mails? Yeah. Yes.

Your mother gets home from an office Christmas party, immediately fills your arms with stuff to carry and ignores your attempts to relay your cousin's message. Upon receipt of said message she proceeds to grumble about your cousin and, to no one's surprise, take her sister's side. Also to claim that she's staying out of this one. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. You start to bring up the whole excluded-from-family-emails thing and then back the hell down really fast because now is so not the time.

Happy Holidays, it's starting!

Now, I'm going to do a little cleaning and then set up my new mini metallic blue Target Christmas tree while blasting Christmas carols.

ETA: Broke a lightbulb, broke a bed, skinned my arm, gave up on decorations (the tree's totally cute, though)

Cousin texted, I gossiped (being annoyed at my mom helped, she may be in hot water with both her niece and her sister. Oops?). Cousin asked if she could call me after her shift ended.

Cousin called, I gave her more detailed info, listened to her whine (and cry. Again. God. I know I'm not an only child and so I don't know what that's like, but my brother and I are not super close. The LAST thing I'd do in a fight with my mom is talk to him about it. So the whining about being an only child I'm not terribly sympathetic of.), gave her some ideas about what to say when she calls her mom tomorrow (2 days after she was originally given the advice to call), and was basically just awesome. So I think I'm pretty much her favorite person right now. Of course she and her mom will patch things up and I'll go back to being the bitch who told her that her aunt didn't care about her problems and her mom's selfish and insensitive. It's so fun being the family bitch. (Ironically, my dad's not a huge fan of the cousin or the aunt for a lot of the same reasons I have issues with them and so we tend to be each others biggest fans when we have to deal with the group as a whole.)

And that is that. For now.

It's nice how I only post when my life is boring as hell, isn't it?

Not that the action's picked up a lot, or anything, but I have spent the past two days baking instead of compulsively refreshing my flist.

So far I've baked thumbprint cookies, brown sugar cookies, chocolate peppermint shortbread, and eggnog snickerdoodles. The brown sugar cookies and eggnog snickerdoodles are definitely winners, the others are, eh, alright. Tomorrow, gingerbread people and then I am done. (Until Sunday or Monday when I need to make brownies and a cheesecake). I love baking.

Also went Christmas shopping at the same two stores two days in a row. Was much more successful today. I now have presents for my mom! And Katie and Molly. And something for sparly who I am having way more trouble shopping for than usual. I'm hoping our trip to L.A. on Saturday will solve the rest of my gift-giving problems. If not, I'm kinda screwed.

Got my American Apparel package in the mail today, which, while awesome, is not either of the things I needed delivered before Christmas. I'm loving most things about this sweatshirt, but it is not fuzzy on the inside. What kind of sweatshirt is not fuzzy on the inside?!

Okay, so that's my life. That and flailing over the drips and drabbles of bandom which delight me. (Why so fascinating, panicathedisco.com? No, really, why?)

...Holy shit, there's really less than two weeks until Christmas? *blinks* *puts on Christmas playlist*

I'm sure you're all sick of stories about my family, but we crack me up, so.

Like a week ago my brother e-mailed us all his Christmas list. This kid is IMPOSSIBLE to buy for because he genuinely just doesn't WANT stuff, so it really is like shopping off of a list. (I bought him a concert ticket. He knows it. He's also getting a used "Scrabble" game because I refuse to just hand him an envelope.) Anyway, so this triggered my mom's Christmas email which included items such as "face wash, a cheap hair straightener, and used CDs" (which, hey, a couple of years ago she asked for a toothbrush). And then my dad sent his, asking for SOCKS. When I called him on it, as you do, he requested a Porsche, sans matching jacket 'cause "that's too Ferrari owner". Then I sent my awesome list, a few DVDs, a bunch of CD options, a couple of books, some clothes ideas, and, for a bit of levity, a pony. My family? Will not let this die. When we were shopping last night my dad spotted a life-size pony toy and me, being me, went over and petted it and hugged it. My father snapped a cell phone picture and promptly texted it to my entire family. This morning we receive an e-mail from my brother listing 15 exotic cars, the cheapest of which was $63,000. There was a flurry of "reply to all-ing" and then my mother replies just to me needing his original wishlist. Also wondering if ponies can drive, 'cause that would save on shipping. *sigh* This is what I get for trying to inject a little levity into the holidays.

The e-mails are all actually pretty funny, I'm mildly tempted to post them except for how that would be sketchy.

Last night I went to this fair trade website to see if I could find a stocking stuffer for my brother, maybe something for my dad, and something for my mom. I ended up buying: a Mother's Day present, girthygrizelda's Christmas present, and an awesome necklace for myself. Because I'm rad.

Mmm, I smell like gingerbread. It's hard not to feel festive when you smell like cake. Thank you, www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com

Also, I have not forgotten about fic. It'll totally happen in the next few days.

This Christmas we... um laughed a lot. And cried a little. But mostly it was laughter and good times. Which is nice, I think everyone was worried about how the first Christmas since Grandma died would go. Apparently with lots and lots of laughter.

I didn't get anything spectacular, but lots of pretty good stuff that I'm happy about. One of which is a Best Buy giftcard. What should I get???

And, Merry Christmas everyone who celebrates and Happy Monday everyone who doesn't. I hope it was a lovely day, regardless.

My brother is home!!!

Which, it's weird because we're really not tight, but our family does sort of tend to the awesome when all four of us were home.

( Highlights of tonight )

Wow, there was totally more funny, I laughed *a lot* tonight, but I cannot remember whatelse about.

Sadly, Aunt Julie will be arriving in the next few days and good family time will become increasingly less.

So since last I posted about my snack (because what I am is 4 years old) I have: Hung out with my mom, blow-dried my hair, gone to dinner with my parents (Mongolian BBQ, *loves*), gone Christmas shopping with my dad (oh my god he is SO WEIRD, but he gave me $30 so that's cool, also weird, but money), mocked television with my mom, discovered a bunch of new bruises, and babbled in comments to wordsaremyfaith.

But really what I need to do is post about Michelle's birthday and the perils of being me before I forget.

( Michelle's Birthday Party )

Mmm.

So probably later I will post about Michelle's birthday party and all those shenanigans.

But right now I have Christmas Cookies and cocoa. The best Christmas Cookies and cocoa. May I highly, highly recommend Godiva Dark Chocolate Truffle cocoa? Because yes. It is not cheap and you have to mix int with milk, but, oh my god, SO GOOD. And cookies! Even though there are no wreaths this year or flowers with cherry middles, these are the Best. Cookies. Ever. They're all pretty and almondy-and crispy and some of them are just slightly burnt so that the bottoms are a little bit carmelized. As much as I love Magic Cookie Bars, and I do, everyone loves them, although their families probably have traditional non-crazy ones because their mothers can follow recipies, Spritz cookies are my favorite.

Mmm, cookie and cocoa snack.

That is really all.

No takers on Advent Drabbles. Which is okay, it actually IS just like Christmas. Maybe I'll open a bunch of little paper tabs next week. Or maybe Christmas. Or maybe never. But if you comment with suggestions I'll write them.

Also, if you want mail or feedback, tell me so here.

And those are my public service announcements for today and also my not-whining-and-having-a-general-meltdown-featuring-tears post.

Alright, I am stealing cadhla's Advent Drabble this year. Because I miss writing and I can.

Advent, for those of you who don't know, is a Christian tradition which counts down the days from the first of December until Christmas. My family has a couple of different Advent calenders (and I just got a chocolate advent calender in the mail, scoooore), but this is not mine, this is still cadhla's and I am still ripping it off.

How this is going to work:
You guys will suggest holiday drabbles for various fandoms I write. Or could write. Every day starting tomorrow will have a fandom, a title, and a character or pairing. Suggestions for the next day's drabble goes in the comments. If I don't get drabble suggestions, I will make something up, but that is less fun. Also, you don't have to be on my flist to make suggestions, your idea just has to intrigue me.

Keep in mind, I get to choose to write the drabbles that interest me. So if you suggest Sam and Dean having sex in jingly Santa hats you won't get it. If you suggest Mark and Roger in the same situation, you might just.

Onward with the suggesting of things!

* So, Thanksgiving was, whatever. It was fine. There was no family fight which I am a little bitter about, I spent all of Saturday being a mopey emo pain in the ass (I seriously wanted to smack myself, but yeah, didn't really work).

* Went out with my cousin last night in Huntington Beach, drank at a bar where the bartenders couldn't manage a Midori Sour (it's Midori and sour, I really don't understand where that gets complicated) OR a Gin Fizz. So, yeah, spent like $20 on bad drinks. Whoo. However, before the real bar we were at this other bar and "Night Moves" came on. I was deeply amused to be sitting in Orange County listening to Bob Seeger. Oh O.C. season 1, how I miss thee.

* Today mostly my family's just chilling. My real family, Mom, Dad, and Sam. So it's nice and funny and I *heart* them. The 4 of us together are awesome, with the others less so. Also it's FINALLY cold (and by cold I mean the computer says 62, but it feels colder than that. It might be in the 50s) which means, sweaters, yay!

* Alright, going to do some more online Christmas idea-ing, read a fic, hang out with family, and take a bubble bath, because, cold.

Two Christmasy-ish related things

1) Stolen from several people:

If you're reading this (on my flist, on my friendsof, via friendsfriends, whatever)...

My gift to you: leave a comment to this post with a reliable link to one of your fannish creations (fanfic, vid, art, icon post, essays, whatever you do). I will read/watch/view/whatever it and leave you at least a paragraph of feedback by year's end (or, you know, Valentine's Day. Definitely by Valentine's Day).

Since this is a holiday gift, you will receive positive feedback only (unless concrit is requested). Slash/femslash/het/gen, taboos, RPF/S, whatever.

Any fandom is okay, but you'll get better feedback if I've seen the canon. Obviously. So...

Harry Potter, Queer As Folk (US), Rent, The O.C., The Office (US), Veronica Mars, X-Men
plus other stuff that I'm less good with, just ask!

2) Letters.

I'm not going to promise holiday cards, because frankly it's not likely you'd ever get them. So. Leave your address and you will get mail. Possibly more than if I promised cards because I enjoy writing letters in boring classes. So I guarantee at least a random postcard, but probably more because I get randomly inspired.

So leave your name and address (international is okay, especially you two who know I'm going to want to send you stuff!) and get mail! Yay for getting mail!

Poll #868811 I want mail! Me! Me!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 10

What is your mailing address?