I Came, I Saw, I Blogged

I think our heat wave is finally breaking up. It was windy yesterday, and now it's just clouds and more wind. Maybe we'll even get some rain.

Met up with some coworkers at Norm's yesterday for a write-in. I'll be the first to admit it's weird seeing them outside of the office...I went through a phase where I tired to just be, well, coworkery with them, but maybe it's better if I try to be friendly. They're all nice people. Some of them frustrate me endlessly at work, but I don't have problems with them personally - or I'm trying not to let the work seep into those personal relationships.

I'm not particularly good at separating work and personal life, in case you couldn't tell. Frankly, I think we spend so much bloody time at jobs, typically, that it becomes impossible to do that.

The rest of the day was spent lounging around. I watched Bright Star, which is about the poet John Keats and his work Now, I usually love me a good costume drama, but this one was...

KEATS: Hi there! I'm consumptive.
FANNY: I've got a stick up my ass.
BROWN: I could replace that stick with something more pliable.
KEATS: Whitherin we passed our way to dusky death...
FANNY: Your poetry sucks.
KEATS: Oh, I'm bleeding from my lungs.
FANNY: I LOVE YOU!
KEATS: Seriously?
BROWN: Whoops, knocked up the scullery maid.
FANNY: Let us make sweet love amidst your, erm, bloody sheets.
KEATS: Let's not. Peace out, I'm going to Italy!
BROWN: He's dead.
FANNY: ...I'll walk through the woods reciting poetry.

It had its cute moments. The acting was fine. I think it was the editing that was very jarring - jumping from one scene to the next, no transitions. Abbie Cornish, who played Fanny, was particularly good. But even she couldn't help this film.

Wrote more. Finished reading Salt and Silver (3/5 stars) and am continuing along with the biography of James Fitzjames, third in command of the Franklin Expedition. Painted my toenails purple and my fingernails bright blue, which is a different look for me.

Some of this, doubtless, is to make myself feel better about my face, which I am currently hating on.

My chin has definitely improved. My forehead (on the same side) has exploded. My skin briefly stopped peeling, but then began again....sigh. I am keeping it heavily moisturized and drinking lots of water, and I know this will eventually ease up, but it does make it difficult to put on foundation (and I'd love to avoid foundation completely, but my skin is so icky at the moment, it's just...no).

Besides concealing things with foundation and concealer, I have started playing up my eyes even more as a distraction. Everyone who knows me knows I have a rather unpleasant eye shadow fetish...if I "collect" anything, it's books and mineral shadow. So I've been mixing and matching. digging out the colors I don't usually use (and there are far too many of those) and seeing what I get. Last night it was gold and blue.

Oh. Went to Sephora and traded up from the Cover Girl stuff I was using. Make Up Forever Mat Velvet + in 30...which looks a hell of a lot nicer on me, and is probably somewhat better for my skin. Also discovered that the HD stuff is a no-no for me while my face is flipping its shit, so there goes my Cargo concealer stick, which may have been making things worse. I rummaged around my stash for something else and am using a Revlon 2-pot concealer at the moment, which is doing the trick nicely...and doesn't cost thirty bucks. So maybe I should stick with that.

All men have to do in the morning is shave (if that) and run a comb through their hair. Fuckers.

Lindz and a friend of hers stopped by for a little bit, and we spent quality time discussing embalming fluids and battleships. I tidied up the place beforehand. It's funny; in my old living room, my couch and chair always looked very dark, because the place was so cavernous, we never had the right light fixtures installed and...well, everything was dark. Hence, I spent two years believing my living room furniture was very dark, almost black, and therefore quite tacky.

Here, I've discovered my furniture is actually a very tolerable shade of brown-green - not too difficult to match stuff to. It's not earth-shattering, but it's a nice surprise.

"This is great," Lindz's friend said, looking around.

It is great. I think this little apartment might be the smartest thing I ever did. I've been careful not to be too abusive to it; I try to put things away after I use them, and use weekends for cleaning time. This weekend, with NaNo and everything else, things had gotten a bit roughed up. I had a small puddle of clothes in my bedroom. Everything is now put away and tidy. It is a place worthy of my most excellent self.

My closet is easier to access here, so I've been busting out better outfits. I almost feel like the apartment influences me to look nicer; to match it, maybe? It looks good, ergo I should look good.

I stopped off at Barnes & Noble yesterday after the writing group, intending to pick up a new Franklin Expedition novelization. They didn't have it, but that didn't stop me. Picked up Under Enemy Colors (Royal Navy FTW), Echo City (just looked awesome) and a couple of writing books which I will attempt to use as write-offs, along with my complete computer rebuild. Ahem.

While at the bookstore, I witnessed a grand mal tantrum from what I think was a four-year-old. B&N echoes terribly, and this kid just...she came in crying, and then at some point tore herself away from her family and ran screaming through the writing section. Her grandmother ordered the father to collect the child and depart. The mother of the daughter (I assume the grandmother's daughter) said "Let's stay and see if she calms down" and the grandmother gave her this look and said "No, we are disturbing others!"

Which is exactly what my mother would have done. None of this "Let's see if she quiets down." Apparently, the little girl saw Peter Rabbit - who was there to do a reading in the kids section - and freaked out. I, too, am fearful of giant bunnies and sympathize with her terror, but they let her shriek for way too long.

Props to grandma for doing the right thing and leaving. Save us from her screams and save the child from further emotional scarring wrought by giant leporidae.

And then I got home, put my books down, and promptly ordered the Franklin book off Amazon, because dammit, I want to read the thing.

And that, amigos, is a wrap. Or a rap.