Clever Manka is dressed and undressed

The air conditioning just kicked on for the first time this year. Thought I'd note it. Conveniently/coincidentally, I transferred my seasonal wardrobe yesterday.

Original fiction recommendation while I'm still here: Under the Whispering Door, by TJ Klune. First non-romance fiction I've read in years. There's definitely a romantic element, but it's not the whole point of the book. I want to be friends with the characters, which I think is the main selling point for anything I read. Perhaps don't pick it up if you're currently grieving someone--it's all about death and moving on (as both the dead and the bereaved). I won't spoil it, but can promise a very satisfying ending. Feel free to DM me for full spoilers if you need them.

Yes! A snippet! Because I wrote 1,003 words on Good Intentions in an hour yesterday. An hour! I don't think I've ever written that much in that short a time. Amazing.

But first, let me tell you about the weather. 😂 It's currently two degrees Fahrenheit--one degree under our expected high of three, and it's snowing. I didn't think it could snow when temperatures were this low, but apparently it can because it's coming down like rain in tiny flakes. My driveway and patio are completely covered. I wish I could get a video of it but my camera's not good enough so it just comes out looking foggy. That's how fine the snow is. I keep my place pretty chilly and my heater is still kicking on every 20 minutes. It's. So. Cold.

I hung my Necklace of Pining in the front window so there's a spot of brightness when I look up from the couch. It was beautiful yesterday with the sun shining through it and I love how it's still gorgeous against the gray and swirling white. I need to buy a suction cup for it so I don't have to loop it around the window lock.

Thank you to all the kind souls who commented on my feeling down about Sundial Exchange. I'm sure the fandom love and support helped me come up with those words for Good Intentions. Definitely gonna do my best to keep that ball rolling today.

So here's the snippet.
They sat in silence for a few minutes while the wind and birdsong carried through the trees. Shen Wei ran his fingers around the lid of his water but didn’t open it.

Zhao Yunlan cleared his throat. “The Chu’s parents are really cool.”

“What’s that like?”

“It’s weird, man.” Zhao Yunlan shook his head and threw another pine cone. “Having dinner with them is a trip.”

At the mention of a meal, Shen Wei’s stomach growled. He laughed, embarrassed and surprised. Surely it hadn’t been that long since breakfast. Zhao Yunlan laughed with him, though, and pointed to Shen Wei’s unopened bag.

“It’s not much,” he cautioned, “but it’ll keep you from keeling over.”

We've got some impressive thunderstorms happening right now, so not much going on in the "watch the sun move across the sky on the longest day" stuff going on.

I SENT OFF MY FIC TO A BETA! I'm not sure they want acknowledged before they have a chance to look at the draft I sent, but I sent it and now I wait.


Got the former department student worker successfully hooked on Guardian yesterday! She came over to watch the first episode and we watched two (as well as the first ep of History 3: Trapped). I think this makes...six? people I've brought into the fold. Emotional trauma is better when it's spread around, right? 

Today I really am going to break out the airbrush kit I swear to dogs.

ETA: this Tumblr post of my dude looking fit as fuck with an award he won earlier this year. I'm very happy for him (his first writing award!) but I'm happier for me because check out those guns, children. Aw yiss.

When I crawled into mckitterick 's bed this morning he said something like "hey, you don't have to go to work" and I screeched  "EVER AGAIN!" which is probably going to keep being funny until the money runs out.

Today I want to get my summer clothes hung and winter stuff put away. It's the end of fuckin' May but our weather here's been so weird. Up until last week we were still having days in the low 60s. So even though I was hung over on Saturday (good times, bad habits), I forced myself to carry eight loads of wet laundry to the laundromat (my washer works, it's just the dryer that's broken) because I need to get these damn wardrobes switched out and that wasn't happening with two weeks-worth of dirty winter clothes. Still no ETA on the backordered, broken dryer part (that we don't think is the actual problem but I know the repairman isn't going to listen to me).

We're also going to an early matinee of Detective Pikachu finally. Finally! I'm excited. All I want is 90+ minutes of Ryan Reynolds' voice coming out of something cute and fluffy. My expectations are very low. Looking forward to it.

Tomorrow's Tumblr collection is a slew of Zhu Yilong photos. You're welcome! I think it's hilarious that most of the photos of Zhu Yilong (for non-Guardian people, he's the nattily-dressed professor dude) I see come across my dash are photos like this while Bai Yu (the scruffy motorcyle-riding cop dude) usually shows up on my dash looking like this.  ETA: Or apparently like this? Wow. I...honestly Do Not Know What I Think of the styling here? I'm...conflicted.

I am slowly making my way through the 520 Guardian exchange gifts. Doing my best to slowly parcel them out when I really want to just hole up in my bedroom and binge them all. At least I have a high capacity for delayed gratification.

Yesterday's responses to my call for hysterectomy stories was overwhelming (in a good way) and incredibly helpful. I was touched by the care and compassion of friends and complete strangers, who shared intimate details about their experiences. I fucking love the internet.

This morning I was lying in bed, checking in with my body. I do it every morning. It's my pre-flight check to make sure nothing is so wrong that I might not make it through the workday. I...have never typed that out before, and now that I've done the equivalent of saying it aloud, I realize how bizarre it is. Who does shit like that? Me, I guess. Anyway. I was checking in and made myself aware of the near-constant slight abdominal pressure I've known about for a long time (at least a year, perhaps more). I always thought it was gas or something not sitting right or maybe I just needed to pee. It felt like menstrual cramps, but surely I wouldn't have menstrual cramps if I wasn't at that part of my cycle, right? Lying there this morning, I realized/admitted to myself, that's probably the giant fibroid. Gross.

I don't often have regrets, but I am very much regretting not wearing tights under my skirt today. I am freezing. I've got a lot going on this weekend, but hauling out the winter wardrobe on Saturday is a must. I don't have a record of when I switched out wardrobes last year, but I think this might be a record for lateness thereof. Hurray for boots, sweaters, and tights! I am not a fan of cold weather, but I least I enjoy cold weather fashion.

Here's a job I would've been really good at, y'all. But that would also mean living in a big city, so...no. Ah well! Last night at Henna Time I sold hdsqrl and radiantmephit on Hamilton, and that was great. I also started following Lin-Manuel Miranda on Twitter because he is fucking hilarious and I'm starting to develop such a crush on him.



This has been in my head all week so I'm sharing it with you, too. God damn I love this song so much.

Allergies. Sigh. Once in a while I think about trying a low-histamine diet, but then I get depressed and overwhelmed because oh my god cut more things from my food options? UGH. The complete lack of results with 90 days on the auto-immune protocol diet doesn't encourage me to try another elimination diet anytime soon.

Also, this happened yesterday:


PT guy Tim gave me a fix that will alleviate a bit of the pressure on the shoulder in that pose, but it's still gonna be tender for a couple days. Typical.

For later reference: Pre-workout alignment exercises.

This evening I'm gonna break out my new serger knowledge and see if I can't re-fashion some of these thrift-store clothes that've been piling up in the sewing room. So excited! If I like the process and the results, I'm gonna open up an Etsy store for them. I did a lot of searches on Etsy and all the refashioned post-apocalyptic stuff is either costumey and so not really wearable for daily use (although gorgeous--and expensive) or just...shockingly amateur. This, for instance. Fucking brilliant idea. Terrible execution. I do like the D-ring strap shorts she's selling. But again, they don't look finished, somehow.

Speaking of finished, here's my self-insert fanart! It'll post on Tumblr tomorrow, but y'all get a sneak preview today. After looking at it for a while, I see a few places I'd like to add things. Maybe someday? But not now. Also, I need a better way to scan these babies. It's $10 a pop every time at FedEx/Kinko's and I think that's just fucking outrageous. If anyone local has access to something that will flat scan 14"x17" images, let me know.

Last night I made some food for a friend going through a rough time to save her and her husband the hassle of cooking for a few days. Caring for select individuals makes me feel good, and to be honest, cooking is probably the thing I'm best at (besides giving unflinching and often unwanted life advice). Making someone's life a little easier makes me feel necessary and appreciated, so win-win!

I have one more evening of solitude tonight while mckitterick wraps up his CSSF Summer activities. Hurray for getting one more night of puttering around the house with loud music and scented candles but also hurray for (starting tomorrow), getting laid on a regular basis again!

So despite getting not nearly enough sleep last night (ugh, 3am thunderstorms), and having a constant dull ache in my shoulder, I feel pretty good today. How's your day/weekend/life shaping up, friends?

Edited to add: HOLY SHIT MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN THE U.S.A.

I got some clarification from frugurl27 in the comments yesterday and then this morning in an email from KU's HR department about the furloughs and they will affect us in regards to the new fiscal year, starting June 7. So I still have a paycheck coming. That's nice!

Also nice: Last night I had enough energy after dinner to work on a new apron. My old one was (frankly) disgusting from nearly ten years of use and stains. I didn't quite get it done, but I'll be able to wrap it up tonight if my energy levels are similar to yesterday. But after last night's thunderstorms (at 3:00a and again at 4:30a), that's...not a certainty.

Also also nice: My left hip is hurting much less. It's only a teensy bit sore/achey now instead of nearly-debilitating. The improvement is, I think, a combination of starting to lose a bit of weight after a week of conscientious eating, easing up a bit on the PT exercises, and not sleeping with a pillow under my knees.

Someone on FB shared this with me today: Rejected Princesses. I'm not sure I like attaching the term "princess" to most of these women (and I'm not sure they would either), but the website itself is great.

Anybody who is on Tumblr these days (at least in the circles I'm in) knows it's kind of All Tom Hardy All The Time which is a nice change. I am 100% thrilled to see his face instead of Blenderdick Candycrush's (admittedly pretty but not as interesting to me) mug plastering my dash. Here's a sample of what I'm seeing for probably thirty to forty percent of my dash these days:




NO COMPLAINTS FROM ME

There are so few people around the building this morning that the motion-activated lights in the hall outside my office just turned off.

NO COMPLAINTS FROM ME

Miss Piggy honored with a Sackler Center First Award from the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum



Gonna wrap this up with a story about yesterday. There's this house between mine and campus. It's always been a rental and it's always been little sketchy. Cinderblock construction, overgrown front yard, beer bottles and overflowing ashtrays on the porch, you get the idea. Lately there's been a really nice 70s Honda motorcycle sitting outside and once or twice I've seen a guy working on it. A few weeks ago I passed the house when the garage was open and it was packed with maybe ten ratty old bikes with maybe some scooters mixed in. Just a ton of junked-out bikes. So obviously this person does repairs/restorations and if that Honda is any indication, he's pretty good. Yesterday, someone posted to this to a local FB group. That's totally this guy's bike. So I thought I'd stop by on my way home and see if the dude was home and let him know. As I was walking up to the door, I had that This Is A Terrible Idea feeling. The house was dark and even the front smelled (from the beer bottles and overflowing ashtrays). There was yard work stuff piled in the doorway, covered in cobwebs and dirt, and the storm door was broken and hung open. The doorbell was broken, too, and when I knocked on the inside door I was honestly relieved that nobody answered. Fucking creepy house.

And that's the story of how I avoided being the victim of an axe murderer this week.

Because I want to take my Sherlock fandom tee shirts to 221B Con, and they're currently packed away with my summer clothes, I'm switching out my seasonal wardrobe today before I pack my suitcase for tomorrow morning's departure to Atlanta.

Apologies for the final freeze/inch of snow/horrible weather of hell's choosing this will inevitably bring upon the locals.

If you reference a person's accent in any way other than "omg that is a sexy fucking accent hngngngn" or something similar, I'm judging you.

Mobility Mobility Mobility! Breaking Muscle has an extensive post about getting deep into a squat. I have mobility issues in my hips and my ankles and my squat form is, in a word, terrible. I know this. I'm working on this. I want to work on this more.

OH MY GOD THIS TEE SHIRT.

Because I am L-A-Z-Y lazy (and also, I have no burning desire to be a published writer), I decided not to spend the energy on a re-write and submission of that disordered eating post as an article to The Toast. So in case you missed it before I marked it as private, here it is. I'm also going to post a link to it on Tumblr tomorrow in case anyone wants to reblog it there.

Today's Tumblr, btw, is Tuesday, February 17: Wolves.

And speaking of Tumblr, I had a giveaway last week and nobody took me up on my offer. *sigh* If this looks like something you'd enjoy, please drop me a comment or send me a PM. First response I receive gets a free online art workshop--mutual follows get first dibs, but if none of my mutuals are interested, it'll go to the first commenter. If you're not on LJ but you have my email address, email me! I'd really like someone to use this gift certificate for the workshop. I've never taken one of Traci's online workshops, but her in-person classes are top-notch and I've seen several of her videos, all of which have high quality production standards.

Because we're finally getting some snow here, I have to drive the fucking Subaru to Kansas City for my appointment with Dr. Jonah today. UGH. I hate that vehicle. I know it's not unsafe, but it handles so different from the Crossfire that I feel unsafe in it. Like I'm not really connected to the road and the skinny little tires might just fling themselves off the highway at any moment. Blech.

In other vehicle news, mckitterick finally settled on what engine to buy for the Chevelle (remember when I said the engine was the only part of the car we were keeping? yeah, never mind) and now we've got an engine on the way that is worth more than what we paid for the entire original car. Life with a gearhead, folks. IT IS GOOD. We've also decided to just grit our teeth and do a full off-the-frame restoration and finish the body work while we've got the thing apart, so that's going to delay our estimate on getting this thing on the road (again). But I feel like finally we both understand what the other wants out of this car and there's an actual plan in place instead of just nebulous concepts. So now it's just a matter of when we can get the things done that we know we want to do. This car's gonna be five years in the making but god damn it's going to be an amazing ride.

It was so cold this morning that when mckitterick gave me a ride to work (bless him), he couldn't get the car doors open, and had to crawl in through the hatchback of the Subaru (this would not have worked in the Crossfire) and then push the doors open from the inside. And then my door wouldn't shut, so I had to hold it while we drove to campus and then he had to hold it closed on the way home. Good thing he has long arms. At least the sun's out?

I'm not kidding when I say I don't remember the last time it wasn't sunny on February 2 here. I do remember the last time we didn't have snow on the ground for my birthday, though. It was in 2010, and my 40th birthday party.

Speaking of, a few people came over to help celebrate my birthday on Saturday and it was Good Times. Someone brought me Djarum Blacks which was very sweet of her, but I haven't smoked in ages but I had two of them and two days later my lungs are still hating me and I honestly didn't really enjoy them all that much. So does anyone want the rest of this pack?

My office is an annoying temperature that is too cold without my extra sweater on but too warm with it.

I ordered some nose jewelry from a seller on Etsy and she either didn't read or ignored my purchase note to please make the pin shorter than usual. Just looking at the piece in the bag I can tell it's going to hang below my nostril. It's just enormous. I wrote her, but she says on her store that she doesn't do refunds and I'm not a little upset about this. I mean, it wasn't cheap, you know? I know if she refuses, I can leave unhappy feedback, but that doesn't give me back my nearly $80 because she charged fucking ten dollars for shipping.

Day Two of this Whole30 and am feeling good. My body was ready for it. I made a whole bunch of treats for my birthday (semi-paleo things like these blondies and these brownies) and I ate, like, one of each of them because meh. I've been feeling so bloated and stiff and just generally blah lately that I'm psychologically and physiologically ready for a system clean-out. Wasn't even tempted to put coconut milk in my tea yesterday and that's huge. Coconut milk is actually fine on Whole30, but I've been using too much too often and that's a lot of calories I'm not using when I'm not lifting heavy so I decided to cut that habit, too, while I was at it.

sherwood21 sent me this article on how to sit smarter. So many people decide to transition to a standing desk without realizing or acknowledging the fact that standing for hours and hours a day is nearly as bad as sitting for that long. There's a lot of stuff I'd never thought about, like foot placement and pressure when sitting, as well as deep breathing. I'll be incorporating those things during my sit-down time at the office.

Speaking of postural stuff, I'm on day three of the four-week posture alignment program I mentioned last week. It's pretty impressive. The first exercise doesn't do much for me (I think my calves are too tight?), but the second and third ones are amazing. I was surprised and dismayed at how little my torso rotates when I keep my knees and hips stacked and upright during a prone twist. I've always thought my spine was flexible, but what with Dr. Jonah's analysis and now this, I'm learning different. When I'm in the third pose, with my legs on the chair, I feel how unevenly my sacrum rests against the floor. I'm already starting to feel a pulling on the right side, just above the butt dimple, and a slight ache on the left, which (I think) means things are moving and shifting. Hurray for immediate progress/reward!

Speaking of progress, I'm gonna see how much super-focused eating changes my measurements, especially in regards to abdominal swelling. Here are my numbers as of February's Whole30, Day One.

Weight: 169.4
Waist: 33.5"
Navel: 40.5"
Hips: 44"

I won't measure again or weigh until March 1. I know that's not technically thirty days, but I am so in love with the perfect month of this year's February.



Isn't that just so soothing to look at? I mean look at that. God damn. So nice.