I just signed up for the Marvel big bang. Oh dear.

So my roommate, having seen Thor on her own initiative (and subsequently Iron Man and Captain America because I made her), suggested we go to see The Avengers tonight. I may have seen it three times now. I do not mind in the slightest, A++++ would see again, etc.

THEN she suggested we go for shawarma beforehand. And we DID. And I was falling over laughing and saying "trust me, it's appropriate, you'll see why" and then during the movie when she did see why she laughed and laughed and it was awesome.

We had the most amazing storm for about three hours this morning. Okay, it meant I got about two hours of sleep, but I don't even care. Stunning.

I love storms.

My opinion on the Montreal Student Protests have progressed to the point where it's now "what the fuck, seriously, Québec's government, what the hell, okay, screw you, the protestors are inconvenient as heck and I don't necessarily agree with the original reason for the striking but man, I hope they go for another hundred days."

Well, nertz.
That Avengers story I'm writing? It's past 3000 words and still going.

Stop laughing, guys, seriously, that is LONG for me. I'm looking at you, o strange people who can crank out novels in a single month. I am the mistress of brevity, really. I think I may use it as a Big Bang. If it's going to be long, I may as well get credit for "oh, hey, this is long". I think it can go ten thousand words.

... watch it come to a natural finish at 8000, and then I have to struggle. That would just be freakin' typical.

I have the kind of friendslist where I will randomly come across infant zebras.

"Mission: Gather a bunch of cool people, become friends with them" has clearly been accomplished.

Have the student protests/strikers in Montreal made the news in the rest of the world? My mood regarding them has gone from:

"Man, yeah, tuition increases suck, I sympathize."
to
"Insects? really?" (they let loose a whole load of bugs inside some of the downtown campuses."
to
"You're opting not to attend classes and you want to have your tuition reimbursed? REALLY?"
to
"I don't think the cops are all handling this very well."
to
"ffs, go back to school, I just want to be able to park downtown again without worrying that my car will be damaged."

Apparently someone with a phone number similar to mine has won the Florida lottery. Given that I do not know anyone in Florida, let alone someone who has my phone number, I'm pretty sure what is actually happening is that someone is playing a trick (didn't sound anywhere near professional enough to be a proper scam) on someone in Florida with a number similar to mine. :p

I love my friends. But you know, scheduling was a whole lot easier when I didn`t have a lot of people who gave a damn.

This is definitely better, but oy, I don't know how I'm going to pull this one particular week off without spending 26 hours driving over two days.

Maybe if I flew and rented a car? If I take gas into account, and food for two days' worth of travel, the difference can't be that huge. I wonder how close S's place is to Halifax.

(I've been invited to a wedding celebration - not the actual wedding, they eloped in January - of an old friend from cégep, another one of Laurel's protegés. I want to go, but there's a whole bunch of stuff I need to do in Montreal that same week! It is an overabundance of riches, it really is. Maybe if I get east a couple of days early I can see my aunt and uncle who live in Hebbville. Not to mention anigo. Seriously, when did I start to know so many people, I'm a freaking hermit.)

Beautiful art, interposed with Frank Herbert's Litany Against Fear. (May be triggery for domestic abuse, but it's a tale of victory.)

I promised myself I wouldn't get Diablo 3 on release day.

*watches download*

I lied.

(My battle.net name, for anyone interested, is Framling. I won't be playing hardcore, and I'll probably play through the story solo first.)

I've been watching The Unusuals, which is essentially M*A*S*H in the NYPD - colourful characters, lots of humour, takes the job very seriously. (Unlike M*A*S*H, it only ran ten episodes. WOE.), and it featured the following dialogue in one episode.

Character A: "I'm not her boyfriend."
(later)
Character A: "I'm not her boyfriend!"
(at the end of the episode)
Character: "I'm not her boyfriend. Twelve-year-olds have boyfriends." (pause) "I'm her man."

SWOON.

Two burns, three stubbed toes, and assorted lacerations later (seriously, why is my oven door SHARP I don't even), my kitchen is spotless.

Until about ten minutes from now, when I remove my sweet potato from the oven and put it onto a plate and eat it with a spoon, at which point there will be dirty dishes.

Again.

EDIT: to clarify, it's not that bad, really. The lacerations are all on the paper cut level, and only one of the burns is developing a (very small) blister. I'm mostly amused by the way I can never seem to clean without hurting myself in some small and irritating way.

It's Mother's Day where I am. Some of you have met my mum. She's pretty awesome. I didn't always see that (on the other hand, I'm not convinced it wasn't reciprocal - we got on each other's nerves a lot). I still think the best thing I ever did for my relationship with my mother was to move far away so that the friction burns (nineteen years of rawness) could heal up a bit.

I don't think I will ever stop fearing that I am disappointing my mother. I don't think I'll ever stop wanting her to be proud of me. Now, though, it's because I value her good opinion and respect, and then it was because I was afraid I had neither.

The last year, I am so totally pumped about how pumped she is that I finally have a job she feels she can adequately describe to her friends. My main job is "something with computers, she types a lot"; now she can tell people I teach math. She's a teacher herself, which is something I really admire about her. I remember when she felt my sister and I were old enough that she could go back to work (my mother was lucky enough to have the choice), and I was so proud of her. I still am. If Mrs. F. is ever a sub for your kid's class, your kid is a lucky kid. Good teachers and good parents are immensely undervalued, I think, and my mother is both of those things.

Happy Mother's Day, Mum. I can't wait to go to that Alan Doyle show with you.

Love, always,
Em

"Written Upon Hearing About Poetry Plagiarism"

Poetry. Who steals poetry?
You might as well steal air,
or fingernails.
Some people
have lovely fingernails.
Mine are bitten down and uneven,
they show the pattern of use,
that I am someone who drives
and uses pens and maintains a car
(ink mixed with motor oil
and grease)
and gets nervous in the cinema.
They would look ridiculous
on you.
They're not your fingernails.
I've often thought,
"that woman has lovely fingernails"
but I haven't gone for the pliers.
My fingernails would grow if I let them.
Who steals fingernails?
You might as well steal poetry.


EDIT: The stolen poetry was not mine. On the one hand, thank goodness, the idea of someone stealing my work makes me nauseous. On the other, what, my poetry's not good enough to steal? :p

Mostly the first thing.

The Homework Program (the after-school tutoring I've been doing at W.L. Elementary since October-ish) finished this week. I have learned things from it!

1) If I ever lose my mind and become a Proper Teacher, it will be in high school. Or maybe CEGEP.
2) I am not going to teach a group of third-graders ever again. Alone? Sure. In a group? Nope. There is a special skill involved there, and I do not have it.
2) Grade six is a lot of fun. It's really cool to see kids turning into themselves (which is a weird way of putting it, I know, but it's the best I can come up with.) My Tuesday group drove me up a wall but at the same time I loved getting shown D.'s new breakdancing moves after (and the quiet, hushed confession that he was going to take dance lessons, to which I responded with "AWESOME. Girls dig guys who can dance. Wait'll you show (name of girl he's been mooning over for months).") and hearing about L's ideas for car designs and talking superheroes with J.

My Thursday group was particularly amazing. What a fantastic bunch of kids. S. who wants to be a doctor and C. who is a total rock star (and occasionally had to be restrained from belting out "Don't Stop Believing" when she was meant to be doing long division) and P. who never said more than two words at a time and probably had the hardest climb but worked her butt off and never stopped smiling the whole time. They actually said "awwwwwwww" and looked really sad to find out that it was the last week. I kind of hope their folks ask me to tutor them in high school so that I can get to see them grow up to be totally awesome.

In summary: Would do again, but not with Cycle 2 students - I think grade 3/4 kids would be better off with someone who has the particular knack of keeping them on track.

Dear self:

Why are you writing Avengers fic? You're meant to be cleaning the kitchen.

GO CLEAN.

You'll thank me later.

Cheers,
Mean Miss Emily.

Title: The Sweet Serenity of Books (the Sequestered Nooks Remix)
Author: framlingem
Fandom: DC universe, specifically the Batman books
Rating: G
Genre: Mostly gen with some het Babs/Dick fluff at the end
Summary: Five books and assorted other objects people gave Barbara Gordon.
Note: Remix Five Books Barbara Gordon Put On Hold At The Library, by Runespoor, which you don't have to read to read this fic, but I highly recommend it because it's great.

( The Sweet Serenity of Books (the Sequestered Nooks Remix) )

"It was like... like... imagine if they made a movie about Anne Shirley going to Oz and she was played by Audrey Hepburn. That awesome."
- Me, trying to describe the sheer glee and joy of The Avengers to my roommate.

Operation: Ask to see baby pictures was a triumph. I'm making a note here, huge success.

My eleven-year (apparently we're an entire cohort of procrastinators) high-school reunion is in an hour and a half. I'm mostly going because my flatmate is going and looked all sad at the thought that I might not.

I don't want to go, I'm scared and tired and I've had two solid weeks of being social and I just want to be home.

This is a bunch of people with whom, with a few exceptions (who aren't going to be there), I had very little in common. And I'm bad at names - heck, at least one person, eleven years ago, asked me to sign her yearbook and I HAD NO CLUE WHAT HER NAME WAS THEN. What if I can't remember anyone's name? Will there be nametags? That would be good. I like nametags. What if someone comes up to me and is all "EMILY HI HOW ARE YOU" and I have no idea who they are but they think we were good friends or something? What if I suddenly turn back into that person I was in high school who never knew how to say the right thing or when to start talking or when to stop talking? I hated being that person.

I'm GOOD with people. But I'm good with people in very small groups, or when I'm in a teaching position, or acting, or anything I can script. This is going to be a large group of people. I don't know if I can do it.

I have already scripted a few things. ("Hi! You look fantastic. How are you? Oh, you have kids? Tell me about them." <--- I figure new parents will require minimal response from me other than agreement that their kid is awesome.) I've also come up with a description of my job that makes it sound impressive as all get-out while still being entirely true. I am wearing a pretty necklace, I attacked my hair with a straightener, I have my go-to-ruffly-blouse on, and I have a pair of heels in the car ready for action (see? BATTLE ARMOUR DONNED).

Be calm, self. You have run through several scenarios in your head, you have scripted possible conversations, you are dressed appropriately for a spaghetti dinner (you googled "appropriate dress for a spaghetti dinner" and compared several results to get the average). All else fails, you can duck out early, because you are taking your own car and not giving a lift to anyone. Today, you are an actress, playing "Emily the Successful Adult Who Can Do This", not "Emily the person who is still in a state of shock that she's an adult now and is contemplating sneaking out the bathroom window and hoping nobody notices".

Right?

Right.

I saw The Avengers last night and thoroughly enjoyed the film. So much so that I'm probably going to go and see it again on Tuesday. My local movie theatre, unbeknownst to me, has spent the last few months converting one of its rooms into what the employee, in response to my incredulous "where did you fit it?!", describes as "one of the smallest IMAX screens in the world".

While it was definitely the smallest IMAX screen I've ever seen, I have to say, watching giant epic battle scenes between superheroes and Impossible Odds on it was extremely satisfying.

I did have a few "wtf" moments with some of my fellow audience members, in particular the guy behind me who upon seeing a scene where a man strikes a woman tied to a chair in the face whispered gleefully "hit her again!" (sure, folks, misogyny is dead *eyeroll*), but the film itself was excellent fun.

Particularly enjoyed Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, who is one of my favourite "never the star, but frequently in the background being competent" characters in comics.

I shan't say any more about it for fear of spoilers, though!

Will potentially be visiting San Francisco during Fleet Week again.

:D PLANES! SHIPS! BOATS! LOTS OF PEOPLE IN UNIFORMS LOOKING SMART!

Oh, and, you know. Work. Work work work. Meetings.

(BLUE ANGEEEEEEEELS.)

And meetings. >.>

What a week. I counted five unscheduled hours that weren't spent sleeping, and they weren't contiguous. *grin* I am worn out and looking forward to being a hermit on Saturday. I'd do it sooner, but this week's pretty booked up, too.

The St-Bruno Players' production of Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" was on Friday and Saturday. I wasn't acting this time around, but I was up in the crow's nest running the sound board, which was something I'd never done before. It was a blast, and I'll happily run sound for any future productions. What that meant in terms of this week was five hours a day spent at the theatre, and this on top of my job and my tutoring students. I ran from 6:30--23:30 every day. Loads of fun, but exhausting! The play went very well; there were some screwups, but we're all pro enough in the Players that the audience didn't notice.

On top of that, my choir concert was on Sunday! I was really nervous about it, especially as my dad was going to be there. It's been a long time since I've sung for an audience whose opinion I actually cared about (karaoke in a basement bar in Beijing, for instance, I did not care about), and my dad's a classical music nut who'd be able to spot any goofs. My mother would have been there, but as she's in England right now, it would have been a bit of a logistical issue! She'll have to wait for the CD. I only goofed once, but cut off the note as soon as I started making it, so that was okay. I had a good time over the whole thing, and will join them again for the Christmas concert, I think. :)

I also had a birthday in there somewhere, and it was lovely, even if I'm feeling a little shocky about not being able to claim "mid-twenties" with any honesty anymore. I know, I know, I'm young yet, but I'm older than I've ever been before! :p