Um, wow. I haven't written since Feb?? Crazy.

In the spirit of not sucking for Sesa, frenslist, I'm counting on you. Provide me with a popslash pairing of any variety - ah, nsync variety, I should say - and I'll write a little something about them.

Yeah, it might take a while. But I'd appreciate the encouragement, if you've a mind to.

Sesa, yes?

oh my god, this is killing me. I may be dying.

"Chris Kirkpatrick confirmed you as a friend on Facebook."

*hides face*



I've wrangled this awesome situation at work. I'll continue to work at Stanford in a relief capacity, which is to say in two month increments three times a year, and I'll keep my benefits and seniority and all that jazz... but my home base will be Wisconsin. So every so often I'll wend my way out thisaway, work a little bit and see all my friends - maybe escape some winter? - and then head back and hang out with my beloved family, whom I miss omg so much. \o/

The sad thing is that 6 mo of work at Stanford is roughly equivalent to a year's salary for a WI nurse. Well. Not sad for me. I may not have to work for 6 months of the year.

Later today I'm picking up my new RV, in which I & the kitties will aim for WI soon to get settled in there before the snows come. Watch this space for approx. 834928498 pictures, no doubt.

Omg, I kind of wish I were there.

There are thousands of burners out on the Playa this year, tens of thousands, and thousands of people watching the live cast. Seriously, check it out. Every year they port everything in for hundreds of miles, build cities & art & just live like that for a couple of weeks, under the sun, in the wind & dust - like a new life or the possibility of one, a new way of living - and then they burn the Man and port everything back out again, everything, garbage included. Crazy fuckers. One of my patients is seriously upset because he'll be missing it for the first time in 9 yrs... yeah, he has no immune system, so no. I should have gone for him. Damn.

Ok - what's the use of Facebook, again? I just signed up for one and here I am, half an hour later. Um, is there anything to do?

Yay, I got my Beatlefest tickets today! 33rd year of the Fest, which is just so awesome, and my... fourth? Idk, maybe my fourth time out there with Donna and Ash and Erin, and my boss just told me about a Beatles cover band going to be playing in Menlo Park the day before I head out, so there's a great start to the festivities! I.can.not.wait.

Speaking of boss, I may have volunteered myself to do a study on whether & how a discharge planner might help streamline stuff on our unit... like, researching the lit & surveying how other transplant units handle things & how many $$ would be saved despite the $100,000 in salary to bring a dedicated RN specialist on for that... adkfalkdljl I swore I'd never get involved in this kind of nonsensery again, but then I got bored, or something. At least I managed to sidestep the offer to head up our unit council, because I am not entirely stupid. Just a little impulsive, I guess.

Also, Remix is up, I just finally realized, so I'm happily reading through. When are the authors announced? Dude -- mine is totally easy to guess. How embarrassing. Anyone wanna give it a go? *eyebrows*

OH. Ha. I may have been doing a bit of googling the other day -- "jc chasez fierce hat," yeah, no, I don't know -- and came across this, which is no doubt old school to all of you lj whippersnappers, but filled me with GLEE.

In which Ohnotheydidnt falls under the Spell of the Chasez and some of them actually say OH JC

Don't Hate, Thank You.

Annie Lennx/DJ Earworm, Backwards/Forwards

Absolutely the most amazing Mashup I've ever heard/seen. Gorgeous.



Remix in the can, just about as late as usual; a tradition! I did something a little different this time, and also enjoyed the writing, which was really nice. Thank you, Maggie. You're a gem.


Back to day shift, by the way. Less $$ < The Sun *choir*

Oh! And a new phone #: 408-368-8526. It was tough, since I've had a New Mexico exchange for like 10 yrs. But omg - I fuckin' love this iPhone. Soul, pissh. Overrated.


Comparison of places I've lived, A guide to fine living:

Wisconsin - Culver's
Florida - Chik-fil-A, Pollo Tropical
California - In-N-Out Burger
New Mexico - ...tamales out of the back of someone's truck, made by gramma. Mmm. And Guadalajara Grill

Didn't end up jetting off to NM. I decided to save money instead. PISSH. Maybe next year!

I didn't know they broke up. :(


Going to be in Taos July 16-20, if anyone's in the mood for some sky.



ps. Remix due when??? Criminey.

Hiya, lj. I totally forgot I had signed up to be cancelled from work tonight, so as I was pulling out of my garage, grumbling (as you do), I got the call. Whee! So I immediately squeeled on outa here and headed for the Salvation Army store on El Camino, and got like 3 shirts and 7 books and some sheets for my bed and a crocheted poncho, all for 8 bucks. It was half-off day today, you see.

(Cutest little girl there, name was Amicham, which I know because her mother said it approx. 4,000 times. Amicham went up to every single person in the store and said Heellloooooooo, just like Seinfeld, and I laughed every time. Amicham had DORA THE EXPLORER shoes, except she called them Doya, and Amicham was a year and a half old, except she told everyone she was 5, and omg - so cute. Made me miss my niece, who I remember being a year and a half old as if it were just yesterday, but who just bought her first bra. What!!)

Totally made up for the most boring mall in the world, aka Stanford Shopping Center, which I went to last week for the hell of it. Now, I'm not opposed to spending money (<.<), but when Banana Republic is the red-headed stepstore stuck all the way in the back, well. Five hundred smackers for a pair of shoes should be a special, giddy-making occasion, y'all, not a typical afternoon out. Freaking Palo Alto. There are stables here. For the students who bring their horses to college.

Thank goodness I'm not the envious type.

All signed up for massage school, which starts in October - the latest move in my continuing quest for a job that doesn't stress me out. Stanford Hospital is awesome, the pay is fantastic, the unit and the people, I love 'em quite a bit. I fit in very well. But, you know, nursing, and 13 hr days, non-stop, so I'm heading up to Berkeley 3 days a week come fall to become an Esalen certified massage person, which is to say, massage with all kinds of energy work & mindfulness & right living & such added in. There are also classes in bodywork for terminal illness and for trauma and for old people, and also I get some kind of discount on workshops at the Esalen Retreat in Big Sur, which seems like a way cool place, and all in all this way I'll be playing to my strengths as a comforter and also finding a way to transition away from bedside nursing. I'm excited about it!

/random


Here's a couple of fun links for ya, by way of saying Happy May!


Down with This Sort of Thing, I tell you. *snif*

People are Awesome. Also, dogs. Sheep... are really, really patient.

OMG OMG I WANT A COOOOOOODE.




/hee <3 donna

Oops, dreaded NTLDR error on my Windows-based laptop. Thank goodness for my MacBook.

Anyhow, Person Who is Remixing One of My Stories, you can check out the My Fiction tag here on my journal for the few stories that aren't on the website, and also there's this: my MTYG story from last year, which also didn't get up there yet.

And now, we troubleshoot. Friskin' Windows.

Hi, Person Who is Writing a Remix of One of My Stories! Hi!

I'm updating my website tonight just for you, because I realize I haven't done that in like a year. Two years. I haven't written a ton in that time, but there are about 5 or so stories to go up, so I'll do that tonight. Sorry it took me so long; had to fix the partitions on my external hard drive to access my site template, etc., (*nailbite*) but turns out it's all good and I'll upload them all and you'll have more to choose from, and yay. Yay, right?

If you are someone who doesn't read here - and who does, since do I ever update? No, I do not - but anyway, could someone pass the word on? Thanks, thank you, someone -

Anyway, I'm ridiculously thrilled to be writing remix again, and thrilled you are remixing my story. I hope you have fun with it or at least get something out of the writing. You know, go wild, do what you want: there's no way you ever offend me by thinking a lot about one of my stories and then writing your own version - are you kidding? I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Now, on to the uploading. Be tough not to get distracted by all the wips I just found on this old hard drive. Chris and Joey, betting on who would win in a fight between JC and Justin! I gotta finish that! JC and Chris, fucking in a hammock! Ha ha, ouch. And music! All my old files from when I ripped the 3000 cds to move away from New Mexico! And pictures - criminey, if the repartition hadn't worked... D:

Today I went here, to see Babbage's Difference Engine Number 2 in action. It's the most beautiful machine I've ever seen. Watch the little vid on that page to see what I mean... while I was wandering around the museum, which is filled with awesome old computers with like vacuum tubes and punch cards and things, some dude wandered up to me and said, "Um, are you terribly technical at all?" I told him no, not at all. So then he looked at me, and at the freaking huge Eniac or something that I was looking at, and pointed to a picture of a room full of components and said in a slow, careful voice, "All of this is one single computer."

To my credit, I did not answer the way I wanted to. Soon he wandered away, and I got lost again in fond memories of my first computer, an IBM PC with an Intel 8088, running DOS, and how I used to spend my evenings calling up random BBS's and half the time sending modem tones into some poor schmuck's ear. Ha ha, loved that. I'm no hacker, god knows, but man, I worship me some computers.

Do you remember your first?

Happy JuC Day, y'all! I was gonna try to have this one story done in time, but - yeah.

Anyway, Sunnyvale is awesome, even though at times there's a funny smell in the air (I call it Sunnydale, but no one gets the ref, so sad) and I'm surrounded by big companies with guard houses in the parking lot called things like "Applied Materials'" which, could you possibly be more ominous and vague?? But I love my apt and my drive to work has been cut in half, also I'm back on nights and am loving that, because I'm way too old and tore down to put up with the daytime craziness, which is to say, management and politics and phone calls and doctors and, just, ugh.

But for now, I must hop in the shower, so that I may venture off to eat lunch with frausorge, Afghani food. I'm thinking the pumpkin, yes?

Oh! Oh! And I almost forgot, going to Disney World with withdiamonds soon! Omg omg, can't wait! It's been forever since we saw each other. Omg, literally.

TrickC, about 2500 words: My apologies, my most grievous error.

Thank yous to Lesasoja for laughing at the words, the exact encouragement I needed.



( Dirty Pop )

Tags: my fiction

Morning. Videos ( para ti: )

There's this little pond in Golden Gate Park that has the strangest feel to it (yes, I found it again, Lesa). It's completely covered with some kind of watery plant that for some reason I call duck weed, I don't know why -- ducks do live on the pond, shoving their way through the scum and tangles and dipping down into the water below, but they're usually almost completely quiet, fairly motionless, so not ducklike, and they ignore people. The whole pond is in a kind of pocket between steep slopes, very little sunlight, and once when I walked through there a ragged man lurched up to me and said, "Nothing helps." I walked on, thinking to myself maybe that's true? Wondering about him, wondering about that place, about the pond, which is surrounded with greenery and flowers, but so locked in, so stagnant -- creepy.




And also, I think about Gackt. Hi, Gackt!




That's all I have for today. Oh, except: looks like I'm going back to nights. I'm more than okay with that. Twenty percent differential, no running around like a crazy person; yes, please. Weird!

I just spent the last week rereading the early days of Fandom Wank on journalfen, as one does, and oh, good times. Tell me, did Charlotte Lennox ever reveal her identity? I loved all that shit so much.

And, of course, reading the wank communities is very educational. See here. Is that not the best thing in the world?? Delicious bacon, never leave me. I love you so.

I also love California.




Still working on that TrickC. Damn, without a challenge deadline to miss, I get nowhere. Poor guys have blue balls the size of Texas by now.

FRIENDSLIST. Omg.

So I said to myself, self, one does not merely tankcat into livejournal, one must have something to offer. And I was thinking I would have something, and then New Year's went by and I was sad, but then frausorge had the great kindness to laugh several times at over my offering, so my determination was renewed, and I wrote and wrote and wrote, but then I got stuck again. As one does.

So yes, I do have a story in the works, and it is in fact trickC, kind of dirty, and I did just work my way past the tough part, so we might actually be go for the moon from here on in. Maybe done in a few days? Weeks? Still, I find myself in the unusual place of really omg missing all of you fuckers and wondering what's going on, and also got nudged! Omg! And I don't want to wait anymore, I'm ready to tankcat now!

That is to say, um. Hi.

Here's a little bit of what I'm working on, an outtake, as it were - in fact, the very bit that was giving me trouble, until I recalled Lesa telling me to kill my darlings and knew that it had to die. Snif. But I still love it.

But before that... for the statistics part of this update, I will tell you that I'm doing rather surprisingly well, working at Stanford, planning on moving to Sunnyvale soon (SF is fucking so expensive, god), and soon my neighbors will be Google, Intel, McAfee, and about 1,000 really awesome looking Indian restaurants. I'm so easy. The K's are doing great, kind of spring-fevery (Munch has taken to pulling the books off the shelves jflkdjlfakjlfk), but soon they will have a patio to crouch on again and more space to careen around in, and that's pretty much all they really want. I've found myself during my extended lj break really expanding the focus of my obsessions - if that makes any sense? - and getting into a lot of new stuff, while still going through spells of heart-clutching love over JC & Chris & John & Rodney... wow, there's a 4some. I'm kind of afraid now. *muses* But anyway, here's a short list of current obsessions (sorry, no links, google is your friend, I am lazy):

+ Gackt
+ Tokyo Hotel
+ shortwave radio Numbers Stations
+ the Archimedes Palimpsest
+ Stanford Linear Accelerator!!!1! *swoon*
+ the Parker-Hulme murders
+ natural VLF music, recordings of the ionosphere
+ oilfield roughnecking (I don't know either)
+ Kombucha mushrooms
+ stories about phone calls from the dead
+ McMurdo Station/Raytheon/PORN SPILL
+ the Uncanny Valley
+ CAKE IS COMING TO OAKLAND IN FEBRUARY. CAKE.

...yeah, there was more than that, I just -- what?

Anyway, here's that one thing:

( Unfortunately, Joey wasn't drunk enough yet )

Heya. Settling in to a new place, new job. UCSF is fine, much like a hospital! Doable, great people, ugh nursing, I think I will like it, why must I work?? So, mixed. As per usual. Been walking the city quite a bit; Golden Gate Park is so cool! Yesterday I trucked down to see the buffalo, like 30 blocks each way, ow legs OW, and Thursday maybe I'll hit the beach, or the GG bridge, which I see everyday walking down the hill from my place. When it's not foggy.

As for Munch:



Yes, that is his litter box. Comfy! Tomorrow he goes in for a checkup with the surgeon. I think he's doing well, if by that you mean "bored in his hut and wanting to be just like all the other kids, aww COME ON, I wanna go outside & plaaay." Only ten more weeks. Gah. Malcolm offers his opinion on the matter by reaching through the netting to overturn his water bowl: ha HA. Showed you. I don't know. It is cat logic.

The apartment folks have been relentlessly apologetic, yet the upper mgmt folks have not yet approved a reimbursement. Am anticipating irritation in my not-so-distant future. Like, just give me three months free rent! Why so difficult?

So, I dropped out of the JuC Swap because of everything, Munch, etc., plus fail, and in a surprising and really awesome turn of events llamabitchyo dedicated her story to me anyhow. It's a great story! Do Not Arouse or Awaken Love (Until it So Desires), a subtle look at Justin becoming aware of his feelings for Britney post breakup and, in the process, his feelings for JC as well. Gives great snark, and also, Chris! Oh, 3manbus of my heart... this is a seriously nice JC, too, very much himself and self-aware, odd, sexy, loving. I think she has the relationships down, and I admit to a great wash of JuC love reading this. Thank you!

And now I shall go get ready for work. Nights again, yes indeedy. I've been on an eljay hiatus lately (times like about a month now); anything fun I should know?

Kitties have had a challenging few weeks! We moved over from the east bay to SF for my new assignment at UCSF, taking three trips (how did I accumulate that much in only 4 mos?) and many more miles than strictly necessary (once I had to sneak up on the city from San Jose), only to discover that the place wasn't ready; they hadn't cleaned or put down the new carpet. No problem, says I, I don't have much stuff, it will fit into the bathroom and wee kitchen for now. However, I'm going to Wisconsin tomorrow, so the carpet people will have to watch for cats when they enter and leave. Oh! the apartment people said, brightening (possible service recovery, yay), we'll watch your cats for you! Yay, says I. Just check their water Thursday night or so.

Then I packed like two Beatles t-shirts and some undies, closed all the unscreened windows, cursed the universe quite seriously at 5 am when my car wouldn't start (car alarm ftl), and caught a bus for the airport.

...yes, the "unscreened windows" thing was like Hitchcock's gun on the wall: important to the plot. I had a fantastic time with my beloved family, packed up the condo mostly, sold a bunch of stuff at an endless two day garage sale, felt sad for friends going through rough times (♥), and then, Monday afternoon, during school shopping for my neice, I got a phone call from the SF Veterinary Specialists.

It seems some kindly person had brought in a very hurt kitty, and when they scanned the chip, my name turned up. I was in Wisconsin, and Munch was in California, at the vet's, hurt because the apartment people had opened the windows a bit to air the place out for me. He jumped out the window, it seems, and that might not be so bad, but I live on the fifth floor. Also, he might have struck a ledge or something, who knows, on his way down to the paved parking lot. Window opened Saturday; they found him Monday.

So he had to have a plate and pins put into his shattered leg bone, and he had heavy duty sedation and a wee little pain patch, and he came home yesterday with a lime green cast. He's not in pain, but he is pretty bummed out, because he has to stay enclosed in his KittyWalk thingy for about the next 4 to 12 weeks (depending on healing), and I think he thinks he did something wrong. The KittyWalk thingy is basically a big net in a metal frame, so I lay on the floor and the net allows him to slump against me, and of course I also let him out sometimes to take his yummy meds: antibiotics, and an anti-inflammatory. Malcolm is freaked out, too, mostly at his smell. Much hissing and yowling, but Munch just ignores him

I almost feel sorry for the apartment people. $4500, zoicks, and you're darned tootin' I'll also be submitting the follow up bills. Yeah, almost: when I called in tears to have them check on Mal, the manager said he would, then called me back and said he was fine, that all the windows were now closed.

Got home Tuesday night. Malcolm was fine, although scared and thin. The south window was open three inches; a frickin five-lane highway for a cat.

Gah, people. What the fuck. On the other hand, now me and the kitties kind of own their asses, and also I really love this apartment. Hee! Here is Munch:

Cast has since been signed.

His poor bruised armpit!

Showdown. I believe Malcolm is calling Munch a gimp. No, wait, that was me.