Thoughts on the Journey

I have a job interview next week and sent off another job application today for a library near where my aunt lives. I do love how when school's decide they want to talk to you, it happens quick. Yesterday I had an email saying are you still interested in this job, today they called to arrange the interview which happens on Tuesday. It's a school in a suburb of Detroit, so at least the drive won't be long and I've given myself time to hopefully not get lost. Detroit and the surrounding area is so confusing.

Life is strange and wonderful. I'm feeling much healthier, taking a break at dodger_sister's was completely the right choice. Not doing anything in a ACed house was prefect and I had a good long rest. Last night work was incredibly quiet and I hope tonight will be too as getting to work involves navigating Art Fair. I've seen some pretty things there including a lovely glass pendant in green that I might end up buying. The only drawback to Art Fair is that when its all quiet and closed down walking through it makes my late night walk a little stranger.

Now for one more round of the 5 topics meme. If you want me to give you topics just say five in the comments.

These are from aberration:

1. James McAvoy
I don't remember when I first discovered James McAvoy, I think it might have been when he was in Children of Dune, which I enjoyed. Then when I started at Milliways, I needed a face for Will Scarlett and I found him. Since then he's become an actor that I'm always watching to see what he does. I think what I love about him is that he's consistently good, makes interesting choices in his work and seems to have fun. At this point, I've yet to see everything he's done and probably never will but he's one of my strongest celebrity crushes. Whenever he's interviewed about any movie, he's always smiling and it's clear he chooses projects he enjoys. They're not always great and sometimes rather weird, but that's what's great about him. Sometimes I wish that more people knew of him, but not for long. I like that he can do what he finds interesting.

2. Greek Mythology
I've loved Greek Mythology since I was a little girl as I grew up with this beautifully illustrated book of the myths from the twenties that I loved. I've always been fascinated by the basic stories we tell and how they get changed through the centuries. Most of my undergrad work and grad work in Classics was based around literature and how are stories told. My favorite part of Greek Mythology is how even in their era, poets and playwrights went, this is how I'm going to tell this story and this is how someone else does. It means that there are many ways to think and approach and that's created a basis for us to be constantly examining the stories now.

3. Travel
Travel makes me happy. I love going out to see a new place, getting lost and then learning to find my way. One of the best ways to learn and realize what you don't know is putting yourself in a place where you don't fit. I've done that by living abroad and moving to new cities, its not an easy thing to do but its part of what makes me who I am. The kind of travel I'm hoping to do in the near future will be around the US, connecting with Milliways' people and more job searching.

4. New Zealand
New Zealand was the first place where I felt like an adult. During my first year there, I supported myself through temp work, found friends and connections and learned so much. The second and third years were trickier as I dealt with my master's degree that didn't work and broke up with a boyfriend, but its one of my favorite places in the world. Wellington has everything I love in a city, its by the water, its full of many different things and its walkable. I think the thing I love most about New Zealand is how the entire country feels small and people can take the time to care and do more there. When I worked for the ministry of health, I was impressed by how much they did for people and that comes through in all kinds of interactions. People just pay more attention and I hope to go back there someday.

5. Dessert
I have a sweet tooth, I always have and probably always will. Chocolate is my favorite item of dessert as it comes in so many forms and is just delicious. My father makes homemade chocolate sauce that I've had with so many lovely meals. I love to bake and cook so I enjoy trying new desserts from cakes to all sorts of other dishes. My dessert of choice this summer is ice cream and berries or yogurt and berries since it's just been far too hot.

My morning started off strange, I lost another right contact lens, which always leaves me off. I like wearing contacts but there are times I hate putting them on especially when I don't wake up when I wanted to. I'm still working on the Valentine's Day prompts and hope to post them this weekend as I have ideas and want them to be good.

Everything at Milliways is making me feel busy and happen. I love when plots come together and I get chances to have wonderful unexpected threads and to see what happens. There's a decent sized list of housekeeping of journals that I have to do in terms of OOMs and paid accounts but those will get done.

For now I'm going to do another round of this new variation on the question meme:

Comment to this post, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random.
Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

Seven questions from minkhollow
( 7 Answers )

Questions from ladysingsthe

1. What is your favorite thing to do when it's cold and wet out?
Get a big mug of tea, a good book and ignore the world.

2. When you're stressed, what relaxes you?
Venting, a good vent clears the air for me. Then I do something that has nothing to do with why I'm stressed but gets me moving. I find cooking can be one of my best stress relievers as it involves chopping, stirring, considering spices and by the time I'm done, I'm past what's bothering me. Other times going on a walk or a drive, just getting out of being in the space where I'm stressed does wonders for me. Whenever I'm stressed, I have this bad habit of overthinking and creating bad thought spirals so getting myself to do something physical short circuits them.

3. Do you believe in ghosts or anything paranormal?
I do, but I don't tend to talk about them a lot. My mother and I both read the tarot and see omens and answers in the not most obvious places. My father is a scientist so we don't really discuss those things too much with him, but I do believe that there's more out there than what's visible.

4. What's one thing you want to do or learn, but haven't yet?
It's hard to pick just one thing for this. I want to learn Tai Chi and a new type of dance for me.

5. What types of music do you gravitate towards?
Music that tells stories. I have a rather large collection of country music because I liked it when I was younger due to the stories. Now I also listen to folk, alternative and really anything with a story that clicks with me. Also music that I can move to, I adore Baroque music, soundtracks and musicals as there's a sense in them of this music wants you to be active.

6. If you could have three wishes, with let's assume no perverse incentives/loophole-seeking genies, what would the wishes be?
1-A job at a public library that's not too far from people I know where I get to spend my days getting kids excited about books.
2-A guy in my life who just wants to be with me.
3-Money to take an amazing US road trip or a trip around Europe.

7. Are you a dog person, cat person, or another kind of person entirely?
Cat person. I grew up with cats and whenever I get to visit someone with cats, I feel really happy. Though I'd consider myself a dog aunt as I love to see them when I don't have to take care of them full time.

I'm feeling productive as I've been getting some words out there. Yesterday I wrote a gift fic for thebattycakes, it's a William Evans and Bill Pardy fic and might end up being a part one. Today I also posted a poem on my librarian blog called Recipe for a Librarian.

This little meme was just posted on wanderlustlover's journal and I think it's wonderful.

Tell me about a story I haven't written.
And I'll give you between one and three sentences from that story.

Now I'm going to do two more rounds of the five words' meme, which keeps getting me writing about things dear to my heart.

From saphyria( Michigan, librarianship, James McAvoy, mythology, books )

From wanderlustlover( Robin Hood, education, travel, kindness, gaming )

It feels like Fall is on the way today as its rainy and getting colder. Today has been up and down. I've been enjoying watching Leonardo! that innerbrat introduced me to, but I'm also feeling slightly off. I have various errands I need to get done like grocery shopping and home stuff that I just don't seem to have the energy for at the moment. Tonight to try and cheer myself up, I took myself out to dinner and a nice local place had a soft shell crab sandwich. That sandwich made me terribly homesick for the East Coast as it was too small, too battered and a cruel thing to do to a soft shell crab. I'm having a small slump as my ideas are being slow in coming except for one, which is mean to one of my characters. Either tomorrow or Monday, I'm going to do errands and put my music on loud as I accomplish things.

I saw Captain America last night and really enjoyed it. They captured wonderfully how honest and earnest Steve is and it was overall a fun ride. I'm excited to see what the Avengers will be like together since the teaser at the end made me hopeful.

Now for another round of the icon meme with an extra. The first time I did it, it was actually meant to be seven icons but I completely forgot to do one for in_the_blue so this time, there will be that icon and then another six for skidmo

Comment if you'd like some icons and I'll give you six.

( I love my 100x100 squares )

That was good and distracting, now I think I'm going to try and write things.

Today is turning out wonderfully. It started out with seeing X-Men: First Class with the_croupier and that was a good solid movie. I enjoyed the visuals and James McAvoy's talents were on display in a great way. Rick and I agreed that you could tell the people in the movie enjoyed making it, Thor was the same way. James was so clearly relishing the chance to be Charles with references to Patrick Stewart and brilliant. I'm not allowed to get a Charles Xavier's voice but I might see the movie again.

After that Rick and I headed to Zingerman's Roadhouse where sadly I discovered, they don't really know how to do fried oysters. I love oysters and my mother taught me to flash fry them and I've been missing seafood, so I tried their oyster po'boy. It was one of those dishes that was overthought, too much breading, too fancy bread, too much other stuff and not enough focus on the oysters. Though it led to a wonderful conversation about how easy it is to cook seafood since when its good, the trick is to not do too much to it. The only problem is I can't get to Copp's, the hidden away seafood store that my parents good to in Lewes and buy scallops or oysters or catfish and make something myself.

Today I also got a wonderful early birthday/graduation gift from my oldest brother, a 100 dollar gift certificate for Amazon which knowing me will take a while to spend. And yesterday I figured out how to spend this weird online only gift card that I got for doing a Twitter survey, I bought stuff from Lush.

At the moment, I just started my shift and when I get home, I'll do my reading for class tomorrow and on Wednesday, I'll turn thirty. Life is good.

In this review of The Conspirator, I read a description of James MacAvoy's acting that perfectly captures exactly why he's Will's face. I think I also want to see this movie, the review is fairly positive and it has actors I like.

But between The Last King of Scotland, Wanted, The Last Station, and Atonement, he's in danger of becoming typecast as the nice handsome guy to whom other people do awful things.

Maybe X-Men will change that and he can actually be badass and not die or get beat up. I'd appreciate that.

I finally have all of my grades for the semester and I did better than I hoped. This entry is going to be full of prompts and memes and good stuff, because I feel accomplished and happy at the moment. The title comes from the fact that one of my favorite things to do during the Spring is make dandelion wishes and there are so many dandelions on my walk into town. I think tomorrow I will go and take lots of pictures of Ann Arbor in the Springtime.

My grades:
502-Core Course where I learned programming and other cool stuff-A+
Online Communities-A-
School Library Management-B
Archives-B-

Now for some more prompts, because this week is my own and I want to write for people and I adored all the prompts that I got last time. Choose a lyric and give me a pairing or a fandom and I'll write something for you.

1-The weight of gravity or the lure of life
2-And hopefulness is like a drug
3-I say fate should not tempt me
4-Spit and polish til it shines
5-That its habit alone keeps you turning for home
6-It's the hardest kind of need that never knows a reason
7-I knew I would only see his shadow in what light is left
8-It's like a fever and a spell, unbroken by a sigh
9-It was the place I put my heart
10-Am I going overboard to want that touch?
11-Without thinking, he must erase each scar
12-Who can stand all those should haves
13-I wasn't odd or strange, just quietly rearranged
14-How to laugh at catastrophe
15-Hands that heal can set a chained man free

I think to find myself a whole lot more Mary Chapin Carpenter music, because picking these lyrics reminded me of just how much I love her stuff.

Now for the amazing icon meme, this round from misslucyjane
001. Reply to this post, and I will pick six-eight of your icons.
002. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
003. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
004. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee.

My icons are going under the cut so I don't clog up anyone flist's.
( Six icons for me )

THE MEME

1. Comment to this post with "I surrender!" and I'll assign you the basis of some TV show idea. (Science fiction show, medical drama, criminal procedure, etc...)
2. Create a cast of characters, including the actors who'd play them.
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios and show synopsis that you want.
4. Post to your own journal.

THE PROMPT via newredshoes
Robin Hood analog with fantasy elements in the non-medieval setting of your choice.

TYPE: Twelve episode miniseries on BBC, each episode an hour in length and a two hour finale.

RATING: M

OPENING THEME: "The Town I Loved so Well" by The Dubliners

FINAL CREDITS ENDING SONG: "Like Its a Bad Thing" by Gary Allan

SYNOPSIS: When the Great War broke out, countries drew up walls to keep themselves safe. England's monarchy found its guns again and each shire fought for a chance to live. Notthinghamshire fared badly except for the new Earl who had the ear of the new king. His deputy rules Nottingham and plots to destroy any opposition to him as he fills his treasury with the profit of Nottingham.



( Get Lost in Her Paths )

Thanks for all your good thoughts everyone, things are better both with me and parents just had a hard part of the day. So since the poll tied with Will/James McAvoy and Alizee/Tiwa and I haven't made that many icons, I'm going to post them both.

Anyone is welcome to use these icons but please comment and credit if you do since I like knowing where they're going. Be warned, they're not all perfect squares just because I'm still learning how to do this so hope you enjoy.

5 James McAvoy
1 Stock of a red headed boy
1 Illustration from Changeling the Dreaming Corebook
3 Alizee
( A Handsome Man and a Laughing Woman )