sigelphoenix

On the one hand, work made me want to cry today.

On the other hand, I went to salsa class and one of the leads told me I was the best dancer he'd danced with all night.*

I also bought my first yarn (I've been learning to knit on tools donated to me by shadawyn) for my first scarf, which I'm knitting for ratzeo.

Now if only I could be as happy at work as I am outside of it.

*Unfortunately, because he was trying not to announce it to the rest of the class, he sort of said it into the back of my hair, which made my personal space sensors go off. Lucky for him, my reaction to being startled like that was not to headbutt the offender.

I've always wanted to learn how to dance. I've made a go at learning a couple of times - in elementary school, my parents put my sister and me in traditional Chinese dance lessons for a couple of months; in high school, I took a west coast swing class; and in college, I went to lindy hop lessons given by a campus club. But I was just dabbling - I never thought I could actually get good, because I never thought of myself as a "dancer." I just assumed that "dancers" were people who'd taken ballet/jazz/etc. since the age of 6, and would forever and always be dancers, and the rest of us just weren't. I certainly wished I could be, but I was too sure that my age/clumsiness/introversion/inability to wiggle my hips meant that I shouldn't try now. And one thing I've always been good at is talking myself out of things, especially when it comes to convincing myself why I should try something new.

In possibly one of the cheesiest and most prosaic stories of inspiration ever, I started reconsidering my attitude when I began watching Dancing With the Stars. Here I was reminded of the grace and glamour that originally impressed me about dancing, all with high-budget glitz and a good bit of reality TV drama besides. And on top of that, the premise is that non-dancing celebrities get intense, one-on-one training in order to become dancers - celebrities who are already adults, usually have little or no dance experience, and often learn to become elegant and sexy dancers (or at least pull off some elegant and sexy performances).

So that's when I started thinking about it, but like I said, I'm good at talking myself out of things, so I sat on that feeling (and just fed it bits of wistful self-doubt) for two years. But last month, I started taking some classes through the University's community course offerings. And I am still doubting myself and/or feeling terror at my lack of talent at times, but I'm doing it anyway.

(I feel like part of my motivation is the approaching three oh - I'm 27 in a month, and I want to take advantage of my youth before my body starts to feel the creaks and cracks of age. And it's not like I won't be able to do anything after I turn 30 - I realize I sound a little silly, and I think it's the right of anyone of a certain age to laugh at someone younger who is facing a _____life crisis. But, it is true that getting older does not make physical activities any easier. Even if I'm not as flexible and energetic as I was at 10 or 15 years old, I want to focus on what I can still do. I don't want to focus so much on how I "wasted" my adolescence that I hit 30 and then wonder why I wasted my 20s.)

( First set of classes )

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, mostly because I'm on vacation this week and ratzeo and I randomly decided to spend it with holed up at home with a stack of dvds from Scarecrow.

Actually, the kick-off to my movie binge was seeing ( Captain America: The First Avenger )

Since I became solidly enthusiastic about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, next I saw ( Thor )

To complete our viewing of the Avengers-related movies, we rented ( The Incredible Hulk )

We also rented ( The Losers )

This morning, we watched ( Monsters vs Aliens )

Also in our Scarecrow haul are RocknRolla (also on starbird's recommendation, though I have to admit that it jumped up my priority list after I noticed that Idris Elba was in it ...), Blade Runner (because neither ratzeo nor I have seen it, even though it's a sci-fi classic), and Nine (to scratch my musical itch).

Stay-cations are awesome. :D

The rest of the post is definitely worth reading, but the main point is that pithy and powerful title. This is exactly why I have no confidence in men who announce that they would beat up a rapist they saw jump out at me from the bushes - I am vastly more likely to be raped in a home, by someone I know. Not only are such men likely to be useless to actually preventing any sexual violence; since they think those are the only targets, they're usually ignorant of - if not outright hostile to - the idea that there are other, more numerous and insidious, rapes to prevent.

(Also, if you aren't already reading Ami Angelwings, I recommend you do so. Don't let her netspeak fool you into thinking she isn't a sharp writer.)

David Tennant causes me to (continue to) wrestle with the question of: Is he sexy in spite of being ridiculously silly, or because of it? Also, am I desperate enough to see this movie just to see more of him in guyliner?

Alex Kingston is simultaneously adorable and sexy in a Craig Ferguson interview (prior to season 6, no specific spoilers). I found the video here, and box_in_the_box helpfully included a link to this advertisement for the Rampant Rabbit that Kingston mentions. Now, I know I'm a sheltered USian and Europeans are used to television that isn't deathly afraid of sexuality, but ... I wonder if this actually aired on television, and if it did, that's AWESOME.

Here are some more adorable and silly interviews with Craig Ferguson, this time with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. This whole cast just seems ridiculously fun.

There is a lot (a looooot) I could complain about regarding the temporary office space we moved in to, as well as the remodeled office space that will await us at - supposedly - the end of the year. But rather than dwell on that, I want to talk about the good things and revive my defunct happy-5 list practice:

1. I have office plants! I never really got the appeal/need for them, until we moved into this depressing basement cubicle farm (oops ... no complaining, right). kiwikiwi started making plans for decorating off the bat, and that's definitely more productive than wallowing, so I followed her example. I now have a peace lily, a bromeliad, and a pink quill, all in adorable teacup-shaped pots. They're supposed to be good in low-light conditions, so I'm crossing my fingers that they'll survive the basement.

2. Someone brought in an espresso machine. I'm pretty happy with the makeshift lattes I make using this and this, but it might be fun to learn how to make real espresso and real steamed milk.

3. It's kind of (really) annoying that the open cubicle farm layout means I can hear everyone talking ... But, on the other hand, I've had two conversations this morning that involved me overhearing a conversation and being able to jump in and say, "wait, I know something that will help!"

4. Due to various events (graduation, orientation, retreat), we have a plethora of leftover bagels and cream cheese. I loooooove bagels and cream cheese. And yes, this one is temporary, but food makes me happy so it's going on the list.

5. I found out that we have herons nesting on campus, and I'm going to go see them on my lunch break. ♥

Getting back from San Francisco was not terribly pleasant, as we found out at the SFO airport that our flight (already scheduled to get us back to Seattle around 10:00 p.m.) was delayed by an hour. Once we landed, I then discovered that this delay put me in downtown Seattle right as 70,000 people left a U2 concert. >___________> With the clusterfuck this caused for public transit, I didn't get home until nearly 2:00 in the morning. >_<

But! On the bright side, I had a ratzeo with me, because he bused all the way down to the airport to meet me and then bused all the way (aaaaaallll the way) back with me. That made me feel good. ♥

And then all the cats in the neighborhood turned out to greet me! Well, not really. XD But as we were walking back from the bus stop (we were too late getting out of downtown to catch any of our usual buses, so we had to take another one that dropped us off a little less than a mile away from home), a small cat ran into the street to say hello. He was a gorgeous little blue point shorthair who clearly thought of strange humans as sources of petting rather than fear ... Unfortunately, he was also very clearly unneutered. :/ I don't know if he was a stray or not, because he was in good shape and so friendly, plus the apartment building he ran out from had what looked like buckets of litter in the yard. So it's possible he's being taken care of by humans who are letting him run around outside without a collar and intact. >_< At least he looked healthy, but I really wish it hadn't been 2:00 in the morning and I could've called someone to pick him up.

Then ratzeo and I got back to our apartment building, and as we were crossing the courtyard I saw Drannor in the window of our office, looking down at us. I waved and called up to him, and he meowed back, loudly, several times in a row. And, okay, that doesn't sound like a big deal - but Drannor does not meow. He, even moreso than Kershach, is a cat who murrbles and grunts, but he does not meow to chat. He saves his plaintive, unmusical meow for one thing: a single, whiny burst of "hey!" when I'm serving his dinner kibble and I don't put the bowl down fast enough for him. So hearing him cry "hey! hey! hey!" over and over down at me made me really wooby. ;____; (And yes, I know, that means I'm as important to my cat as kibble. XD)

And then he followed me around until I went to bed, and the morning after. Every time I moved he showed up to lounge just a few feet away, making sure I didn't leave his sight. ♥

On the other hand, Kershach greeted me, as he has done every time I've been gone for a few days, with consummate Cat Cool. He walked up to me and let me pet him, but didn't immediately roll over for belly rubs or anything needy like that. He only just happened to flop over at one point, several minutes later, not too close but not too far from me, and waited to see what I would do. (I, of course, rubbed his belly.)

The next day I also ran into the neighborhood overlord, a giant orange tabby with seven toes on each paw, who is as friendly as anything. I hadn't seen him in a few weeks, so it felt like he was welcoming me home, too. XD

- Death metal vocalist Olle Ekman warms up his death growl. Kind of cool to get a glimpse of how you have to train the grunt ... and yes, also just silly-looking. XD

- In related news, Roy Khan has left Kamelot. :( I really love that guy's voice, and he also has some fantastic charisma on stage. I was lucky enough to see him live once (though at a venue that would not be worth returning to, regardless of the performer) and it kinda sucks that I won't be able to again.

- Unrelated to any of the above, Jim Hines shared a link to (NSFW) femslash fanart of his princess books. It's Snow and Talia, for people who know who those characters are and understand why it makes me squee. (And if you don't, I'd be happy to lend you my copies of the books!)

A new, unspecified "anime project" has been green-lit. It's been years since I watched Kenshin, but this takes me back to my teenaged fannish days and fills me with all sorts of nostalgic glee.

Also, I'm linking to this page instead of the original announcement because the poster added a piece of fanart by Julie Dillon, who is awesome, and is also doing the cover for the Royal Archivist universe guidebook, and that's awesome.

Title: After the Bombs
Characters: Nexus and many others
Word Count: ~5400
Summary: Nexus' life after the war begins.
Notes: The fic is named after The Decemberists' "After the Bombs," which is on Nexus' FST.

( And after the bombs subside / And this long, low campaign / Calls it good for the night )