the Dalaverse

To begin, I finally saw "Up" as a mid-week roomie date with Vanessa. Y'all, I cannot even. I knew from the mildest of spoilers that I was going to cry in the first ten minutes. I did not realize that I was going to cry every ten minutes. See, I have a grandpa thing, and not in a creepy Anna Nicole Smith way. I mean that one of my grandfathers died before I was born and the other died when I was four (I have a memory of him sick and asleep in bed, a memory of the funeral and that's it), so...yeah, there's that, entirely aside from the fact that it was a wonderful film. I swear, every time Pixar releases that first teaser trailer I go "Well, of course it'll be good, but how can a movie about a talking cowboy doll/fuzzy monsters/a neurotic clownfish/an over-the-hill superhero/a rat chef/an ET-looking robot/an old man and a flying house be that good?" And every time Pixar stomps all over my heart. ("Cars" is missing because it was the only time it really wasn't that great, and "A Bug's Life" because I still have never seen it).

And then, and then! Saturday was a v. busy day. Ness took me along on a field trip to the Delaware Museum of Art. It was for her Victorian Lit class, because they have the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art outside of the UK and she knows I love me some PRB. Very nice collection: a couple of gorgeous Rossettis (including a replica of "Beata Beatrix," which seemed less dark and sad than the original) plus a Millais, Holman Hunt's "Isabella and the Pot of Basil," a Frederick Leighton, some Bourne-Jones and that fugly Romeo and Juliet by Ford Madox Brown. So that was a nice expedition. But on the way home, I got stuck in accident traffic on 695 FOR AN HOUR. This was a concern because I was late for a very important date.

WITH BILLY JOEL AND ELTON JOHN, BITCHES. I made it home just barely in time to pick Mom up, and we went to the very first concert ever at Nationals Park. WHICH WAS AWESOME. Even though Elton stomped offstage in the beginning because he had a broken pedal on his piano. Billy just went ahead and started his set. Um, I think I love Billy Joel more than Elton John, just a little? There was a time when this wasn't the case. They were both good, but Elton went off on these reeeeally long jam sessions at the end of "Madman Across the Water" and "Rocket Man" that were, frankly, boring. Then they both came back onstage together and did a bunch of stuff together, closing with "Candle In the Wind" and "Piano Man" (which was how you knew there would be no encore because "Piano Man" is THE encore song). It was a solid three and a half hours and it was totally awesome. Meg was also there with her mother, aunt and cousin, but they were sitting down on the field (she texted me after Billy made a crack about his divorces: "I'll be divorce #4, Billy!" To which I said, "You're even the right age" and she replied, "Or a little too old."). Oh, and I forgot that Elton cut out the "Piano man takes his stand" verse from "Tiny Dancer," which made me really sad. Maybe he did it in protest after his bad start? He did seem to be in a grumpy mood the whole night.

And now it's Monday, boo. I'm going to sort through my many many locked fic posts so's I can do that WIP meme. Including a brand-new one (as of, like, an hour ago) in which Jim nearly gets his fool ass killed yet again and McCoy cannot deal, so he dumps him in Pike's lap. Literally. I really like the idea of Pike/Kirk/McCoy, but it needs to be written from Pike's POV and that will take some work.

Oh, and I have HP tickets for Wednesday! The tradition lives on, even if we're missing Katherine this year ::pouts:: We really missed her at "Year One" too, because she loves the George Michael Bluth and also there was a point where Meg leaned over and whispered, "That's totally something Katherine would say" (the line was "I saved her life! With my lovemaking," and yes, it totally IS something Katherine would say).