Mistress of my Domain

I seem to have a disease in signing up for too many fests. Last year I had so many fests I was signed up for, that seemed to overlap, for much of the year. The summer, especially, was my busiest time. But this year, some of them didn't come back (yet), or came back later, so I didn't feel so bogged down. This summer I only had summerpornathon and aftercamlann (and I still managed to mess that one up.)

But all of a sudden there are so many interesting fests and I feel like I've signed up for all of them. It's definitely going to be a busy time the next couple of months trying to get everything done (which I'm determined to do.)

First I've got a rough draft due for teenwolf_bb on Sept. 17.
Then there's aftercamlann amnesty week Sept. 23-30.
Then there's Gluttony Remix, a mini-fest for my team from summerpornathon that's due on Oct. 3.
After that I have some time before my Teen Wolf Fall Harvest fic is due on Oct. 31.
But then I have a few things due around the same time. There's merlinmpreg which you can pick your own posting date, that's from Nov. 1-15. I have reel_torchwood on Nov.15 and then the next day it's the final draft due for the Teen Wolf Big Bang.

There's also another Teen Wolf Big Bang I'm doing, but the rough draft for that's not due until January. And even with all that due in Nov, I'll probably sign up for merlin_holidays which, if it holds to last year's schedule will be due around Thanksgiving.

All this, with wedding planning to do. So I say I am definitely insane. But I have a lot of story ideas I'm excited about, so it's not all bad.

Stacey

quichey asked me to discuss anything I wanted for December 19th.

So I guess have some work musings. I've worked in retail on and off for over ten years, and I've been shopping for much longer than that and I've never figured out the habit of people all coming to check out en masse at the same time. I mean, I get it at a crowded supermarket when there's so many people, so there are always people at the registers. It happens when I'm a customer. But at Cracker Barrel, even though there can be a lot of people there, it still confuses me how we can have customers come to the register one at a time, or have these long lulls, with no one around, and then bam, all of a sudden there's a line a half mile long.

Why do some people think it's okay to throw their bills at you? It hasn't happened to often at CB because the customers are generally nice, but it still happens. I know sometimes it's an accident but when it's not it just ticks me off. It doesn't take much effort to just hand it to me.

I'm not sure why people insist that smiling only counts when you display some teeth. I suppose some people only consider it a grin if you don't smile with all of your pearly whites on display. I've even looked up the definition of "smile" and the usage of teeth is not involved, but according to many at work, apparently that's their definition because I've been told that I never smile. I'm not a big toothy grin person, not unless I'm really happy. I get self-conscious because when I smile big, there's a lot of my gums on display and I don't like how it looks and my mom's even told me that it looks odd, so I get self-conscious and I don't usually smile that big. But I am polite and do smile at work. But it seems unless I'm smiling a loon, at all times, it doesn't count. People are constantly asking me what's wrong. I guess I just have one of those faces, that unless I'm smiling I look like I want to murder people.

I'm a pretty quiet talker, so a lot of people don't hear me when I talk, but there are also a lot of older customers at our store, so this doesn't just happen to me - but I love it when I ask someone how there day was and there response is "yep." Sometimes they just haven't heard yeah, and sometimes they have and that's still there response. I don't know why, but that makes me laugh.

I'm really sick of the music at our store. I'm not a big fan of country music in the first place, but the songs we have aren't just especially annoying because they're country, but they're played on an incessant loop. I'm starting to hear some of the songs in my dreams, which...grrr.

Sometimes I don't get how I'm, basically anyway, a writer and love to come up with words for stories, and yet somehow words escape me when I'm on the phone. I've had some awkward times at work when I've answered calls, and simple words like "employee" and "soup" seem to escape the grasp of my brain.

On the good side, I am starting to get the hang of being on the register and dealing with things like returns and upselling certain items.

So I guess those are all my work gripes for now. It could be worse. Not my favorite job ever, but it'll do for now.

Stacey

It's kind of interesting when you discover things about yourself that you didn't realize. Or, maybe things that you were kind of aware of but didn't realize was such a pattern. I went wedding dress shopping this weekend (separate post later) and it struck me that the two dresses I ended up loving the most were dresses that didn't necessarily wow me upon first glance. I started thinking about it and realized that I lot of stuff that I end up really loving, I didn't have the greatest first impressions of.

This happens with songs, movies, TV shows, clothes, even people. Like for songs, the ones that pop into my head are Lifehouse's "Broken" and Coldplay's "Fix You." I listened to them at first and really liked them, but didn't immediately love them. But then they stayed in the back of my mind and I was kind of drawn to them and the more I listened the more I fell in love.

Friends is my favorite show of all time. But at first, I avoided watching it for the longest time and when I finally watched it, I did really like it but didn't immediately love it. But the more I watched it, I did fall in love, fairly quickly.

Like I said it even happens with people. With Gareth David-Lloyd and Colin Morgan, I was immediately attracted to their co-stars but my opinions of them were kind of on the "eh" side. But it didn't take long before I was putty in their hands and drooled at the sight of them. I look at them now and wonder what the hell I was thinking at first.

And, I really hate admitting this, I had the same reaction to my fiancé the first time I saw a picture of him. I've never told him that, though I don't think it would bother him. It shouldn't bother me either, given that I clearly changed my mind, but I still kind of feel bad about it. I saw his picture on EHarmony and, again I kind of had a shrug my shoulder response. But I saw that we had a few things in common so I gave him a "wink" and now the rest is history. :)

Just some random observations.

Stacey

If I really wanted to depress myself I'd start listening to that Boyz II Men song. But I won't do that. I've said it before, but this has not been my year TV wise. Dancing With the Stars has been a great clusterfuck IMO. My favorite soap couple are apart, and I don't know if they'll get back together. I still haven't watched the last episode of Doctor Who. I know it's not going to end well for my favorites Amy and Rory. The episode's just sitting on my computer but I can't bring myself to watch it yet. And now to end the year with the worst news of all. 


( More Merlin musings... )


The one good thing for me, is that unlike after Torchwood, I actually have more of a life now so I have other things that I can focus on. My boyfriend Michael really didn't know that I was depressed and needed to be cheered up, but we decided to watch Mystery Science Theater 3000. OMG! I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard. I was watching this The Princess Bride documentary the other day and Mandy Patinkin was talking about sustaining this injury to his ribs from laughing so hard. And I thought he must be exaggerating. Well, I guess I've learned to never question Mandy Patinkin because I honestly hurt my side from laughing so hard last night. It was a great way to get my mind off my Merlin depression. I'd recommend that for anyone still feeling down in the dumps.

Stacey

Living with someone is a great way to learn things about yourself you never knew. Like I always deluded myself into thinking that I was the only one in my immediate family who didn't snore.But my boyfriend burst that bubble and informed me that I do snore. Though, I had been a told a couple of times by others that I do snore but I always thought they were joking. Not only do I snore but apparently I also mumble and chatter in my sleep and sometimes thrash a bit. 


Last night I seemed to have added acting out my dreams as well. Eight times out of ten I can't even remember my dreams the next morning. And I can't really remember what this one was about. My boyfriend did recently discover worms eating a lot of the vegetables and fruits he'd planted in his garden. I think, in my dream, I was going around killing worms. I kicked this worm and all of a sudden it started to mutate into this giant thing, so I started kicking it wildly. As soon as I start to kick in my dream, all of a sudden I'm awake and realize I've delivered this huge kick to my boyfriend's leg. I'm not fully awake still, but I look over and it seems that Michael is still asleep. Relieved, I go back to sleep. Cut to this eveniing and we're eating out and he asks me if I was having a nightmare last night. I ask him why. And he says that I was kicking him a lot. I burst out laughing cause I thought he had no idea. Then he made me laugh so more by telling me that it wasn't just one kick but this series of kicks and start to act out my kicking. And he said that it didn't bother him, he just found it hilarious.


So, apparently, I'm a weirdo conscious and when I'm unconscious.


Stacey