the Dalaverse

Okay, I'm making good on my semi-promise to actually use this journal for something and write about the recent vacation. So, Monday after Spanish (which was honestly one of the longest classes I've ever sat through and we weren't even doing anything) I bolt back to the room, pack, and am out of there by 3:00. Okay, 3:20. Anyway, a nice leisurely drive through Beltway traffic and I'm home, where my parents are thankfully not all that pissed that I skipped out of Lit on Tuesday to leave early. I call Beth, we go for Maggie Moo's, then wander around the mall. We try on a bunch of great shoes in Hechts and I feel horrible that I don't buy anything. Tuesday, we get a late start accompanied by my totally forgetting my way around stupid Gburg, before we're finally downtown! My city! It is home once again! We spend the whole day in Dupont; first we eat at this neat little restaurant called The Front Page with really excellent tortilla soup and a super-airy cheesecake. Then it's off to the world's greatest bookstore (full price anyway) and a side-trip to Beadazzled. I still haven't bought anything but food and Metro ticket (hey, when did they raise the all-day pass price to $6, huh?!), so I'm very proud of myself. We visit Lamda Rising, get creepily accosted by a guy in front of the Church of Scientology, and doze on the ride back.

Wednesday morning we leave for New Jersey. I don't get to drive! It is sad. Still, lunch in Red Bank at the Irish pub with the awesome open-face Reuben is fun. We finally get to stop at Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, where I buy a t-shirt that says "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" Dad gets a Buddy Christ t-shirt, and also a signed copy of "Clerks" for me for Christmas :) Wednesday night we head out to Macaroni Grill for dinner, where our waitress is high (swear to god, she was) and brings me a "calzonetta" that looks more like quesadillas. I know it said "chicken caesar calzonetta," but ewww. It had actual Romaine lettuce in it. It was really gross. We hang out at Aunt Nancy's house for awhile, Mom and Aunt Nancy chatting in the kitchen and me, Dad, and Uncle Howard talking politics in the den. Good times. Next day, we hang around the hotel room before going over there. Before dinner we visit a memorial for the Middletown residents who died on September 11th. Very affecting. I chill in the kitchen while Mom and Aunt Nancy gossip. They told some excellent stories about the family. Finally...turkey is done! We eat. It is good. I love real turkey. Then Uncle Howard breaks out this bottle of Mexican brandy. I get a small bit, but before I can taste it, I catch a whiff. It seriously smells exactly like rubbing alcohol. There's no way in hell that stuff is going down my gullet. I take the teensy teeniest little dip with the tip of my tongue -- I can't even really taste it. So yeah, that was a bust. Then, driving home -- I'm driving now -- Dad manages to miss part of the Mapquest directions and we're sent about forty-five minutes out of the way. Thanks Dad. I drive till we get to Maryland house, then crash in the backseat.

Friday, I decide that it's high time for a moviefest. I call around, but nobody answers the phone except Beth. So I go to pick her up, first driving past Katherin's house, where it looks like no one's home/awake, and then Meg's, where there are definitely people home. I grab Beth and we stalk Tina, whose big old van is missing and whose house is dark, so I assume they're not there. We decide to go kidnap Megan. Mr. S tells us to go right on up and wake her. Muahaha. We do so, grab some movies and fries, and head to my house. We watch "Down With Love," a cute little movie that had partially naked!Ewan going for it, and bits of "X:2" before Meg has to get home for the hockey game. I transport everybody, come back and chill till dinner. Saturday, Meg and I trek out to Montgomery Mall, where she buys hot boots and I still refrain from spending money (well, I spent money on the Kevin Smith t-shirt and the movies, but those were special ocassions). We are mallrats for awhile, then we head back home. I want a Chipotle burrito for lunch, but see the new Panera bakery and, off of Megan's recommendation, go there instead. Excellent potato soup, man. Plus, we see Sarah, who works there! Then, we see Jackie and her little sister Stephanie! It was very exciting. Jackie really wants to go to school here, so I gave her my e-mail address to set up a visit sometime. Then we grab the CDs I borrowed from Katherine and make our way to her house, to distract her from studying. Sigh. Now that was good times, the Megan and la Fernacion and moi, together again. I drove Megan back and cried all the way home from her house. I went to dinner at Chillis with my mom, where we saw Molly H., Rachel S., Jameela, and some other girls there. I know I should've said hi or something, but I didn't see them when we first walked in and after that it was kind of awkward. Plus Allison W. was there and I kind of hate her and Rachel.

Sunday was a day of lying around and a surprising burst of fic-writing, a new J/W PotC which is still unfinished. I left around 5 and got back by 7, which isn't too shabby.

Now I am very, very tired because I couldn't sleep last night. Two more weeks, though. Just two more weeks left before a whole month of freedom.

This is already up at ff.net. I wrote it on a whim and it's super-short.

( Read more... )

Okay, so I posted the first scene/chapter of the J/N fic, which is now named "For Want of a Nail." No, I don't know why it's called that. It has nothing to do with the story. Still, I couldn't post it without a title, so that line popped into my head and thus is it called. Possibly I'll think of a better title later. Anyway. Here's the first chapter.

( Read more... )

I'm so GLAD to have it finally out there.

I wrote this last night just before bed. It's...short, and strange. I'm not putting it up on ff.net until I can get it betaed. I'm not entirely sure that it does what I set out to do, and I don't want to waste the concept.


( After the Storm )

There was a stink beetle in our room and I killed it and it got all stinky.

EWWWWWW.