.: so comes snow after fire :.

Happy August 15th, for those of you who celebrate it! I had a good night of sleep (yay), listened to Louis Armstrong all morning (double yay) and just finished listening to the new Welcome to Night Vale episode (triple yay)! It was a great episode, especially for fanartists. It felt like there were so many new concepts and scenes that deserve to be drawn. Speaking of which, the amazing entangled_now wrote a Night Vale fic for me, Poetry, and it's absolutely fantastic! \o/ *happy dance*

In other news, I spent a whole hour this morning fighting with some stupid malware that managed to infect my computer. I think some chocolate is in order now, to celebrate my victory. And I've also painted my nails and toenails fuchsia to match my hair. Yessss.

Hurrah for happy lazy summer entries!

Feeling a lot better today. Still have a couple of blisters on my feet, but nothing serious. It was definitely the hottest day in weeks, so I ate a lot before heading out of the door. Not going to faint in public again, thank you very much. For the first time since I was 13 I bought art supplies. That's... 16 years, holy crap. Obviously, it took me an eternity to choose. I wanted cheap stuff, because it's not like I'm an art student, but not too cheap, and there were lots of Disney pencils and pens that got me sidetracked, and Spiderman erasers too. Kids are so lucky nowadays, wish we had those when I was a kid. Wow, now I sound like an elderly lady. Long story short, this is what I bought:



I felt an awful lot like Steve Rogers in The Act Of Creation Will Be Your Salvation, which is one of my favourite fanfics ever (go read it, it's amazing), and it has this beautiful chapter about pencils and the colour blue, and there was a moment when I checked the pencils and got lost in thought trying to guess the proper names of all those colours. I blame the heat.



Tea and biscuits when I got back, and I finally tried the Loki tea. It's mint-flavoured. Which is, as you all know, green. I opened it, sniffed it, and started laughing. Well played, Cara, well played. :D I put icecubes in the cup, and it was very refreshing indeed. And green. ;D

( Follow the cut for the Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff teas. )



Bonus picture of Sakura. She hates the heat, and she's even sleepier than usual (considering she's a cat, she's sleeping all the time). She doesn't usually sleep in that position, she usually looks way more graceful, and her sleep is light - she actually purrs while napping. Lately her sleep is so deep she doesn't even notice when I leave the room, and I usually find her sprawled on the couch, like my dog used to do.

Yesterday night I finished watching Grimm! What an ending, what a cliffhanger! I'm so glad I only have to wait 10 days for the next season, the ending took me absolutely by surprise. I finished watching it by 1 am, and when I woke up this morning I found myself humming This is Halloween while making breakfast, which I guess was my brain processing the show. XD I did a quick search, but it seems no one made a Grimm fanvid to that song, and that's so weird.

I'll try and do my first drawing before dinner, so that I can show it to my therapist tomorrow. I already have a couple of ideas twirling around in my head, it'll be nice to put them on paper.

What a tiring day. I walked all across town, to get to the hospital and get an appointment for my annual mammography. They told me to come in the summer, so August 1st? Sounded summer enough for me. Well, first they told me to come last December, then February, then in the summer. So I got there, and it's hot as hell and my feet are starting to hurt, but I'm there and I have tiny Sherlock and John hidden in my bag for moral support. And the woman at the desk tells me that no, now they have a new policy and I have to get there two months before my oncological check-up, and that would make it next October, and she looks at me as if I'm so dumb I'd mistake August for October. I tried to tell her it was their mistake, treating me like a ping pong ball, but she wouldn't listen. By that point I was already late for my therapy session, so I rushed back and got there just in time, all sweaty and in a bad mood.

About therapy, I got homework this time too, I have to buy colored pencils and do abstract pictures of my thoughts. My therapist noticed I use visual examples for everything, and told me to put those images on paper. That is going to be great fun, I've always loved to draw and paint, but my professor back in eight grade was an ass and told me over and over again I had no talent, so I dropped it then and there. I'm not saying I do have talent, but I loved drawing, so it's a lost passion I could get back.

And then I bought a sandwich at the hospital bar, and went back home. And the Paradox Series updated this morning, after a year and a half, so instead of taking a nap, have some tea and go out to buy colored pencils, I'll be reading that all afternoon. Priorities, priorities.

Today sent me all sorts of mixed signals. The morning was splendid. Everything I set out to do went perfectly, and everyone I met was incredibly nice to me. I had all kinds of wonderful conversations with strangers. Then I had some problems at the bank (they changed my account's number), and I had to call four different callcenters, and that got me so nervous I was on the verge of tears. But then everyone who answered was exceptionally nice, and now I have solved almost everything, and only have to visit another office on thurday. Crisis averted, faith in humanity stronger than ever. And I even rescued Sakura who was trying to eat a bumblebee. I scooped her up and rushed her inside before the bumblebee decided to act.



On the way to the bank I walked by a little music store. I checked the windows, and they had Harvest by Neil Young. It was my dad's favourite album, and I already had it (both tape and cd), but I suddenly remembered all the times he told me of when he bought the LP, as a teen, and how much he loved listening to it. So I entered and bought it. The clerk put it in a transparent plastic bag, I walked out, and a middle-aged couple saw it, and the man stopped and said, in awe: "Harvest. Neil Young. Congratulations." I stopped on my tracks, smiled and said thanks, a bit surprised. He went on praising the album and my taste in music, and I thanked him again, and we talked about how the classics stay in our hearts, and that even if cds have the best sound, vynil records have an inimitable nostalgia factor.

Today shall be remembered as the day corporations tried their best to piss me off, while strangers made my day so much brighter.

It was also the day my Art of the Avengers artbook finally arrived, which made me squee and do a dance around the living room to Heart of Gold, while Sakura silently judged me.



She can't understand why I got so excited over that book, while it came in a much more interesting box.



Along with a few Civil War comic books, that are apparently very comfy.

day one • a song
day two • a picture
day three • a book/ebook/fanfic
day four • a website
day five • a youtube clip

I'll go with the latest book I bought, Professor Moriarty : The Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman. It arrived two days ago, I haven't had the chance to read it yet, so here's what Amazon has to say about it:

Imagine the twisted evil twins of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson and you have the dangerous duo of Professor James Moriarty - wily, snake-like, fiercely intelligent, terrifyingly unpredictable - and Colonel Sebastian Basher Moran - violent, politically incorrect, debauched. Together they run London crime, owning police and criminals alike. When a certain Irene Adler turns up on their doorstep with a proposition, neither man is able to resist. An entertaining and wickedly humorous crime adventure from the bestselling writer of Anno Dracula.

Sounds so fascinating! *____*

On the fanfic front, my favourite Avengers fic, and one of the best I have ever read, In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned by Nick Fury) by scifigrl47. It has everything, humour, romance, drama, great character development, an eye for the comics while keeping the movie characterizations flawless, it is definitely an A+.

And another anniversary has come and (almost) gone. Today it's 13 years since my father died. Everybody knows how much I hate anniversaries. My therapist says it has a lot to do with my catholic upbringing, with marking the calendar for every tiny occasion. So, even if rationally I know I don't miss him any less any other day of the year, anniversaries are still a low blow. Thankfully, this one came on a rainy sunday, so I was allowed to stay all day in, curled up with Sakura on the couch, reading and listening to old albums he loved. It was quiet and uneventful.

Talking about fandom life, I'm really enjoying the Avengers one. It reminds me of the X-Men First Class one, all full of kind persons, no trolls, with very talented writers all around. The Marvel fandoms are great! Sadly AO3 is down today - according to twitter they get too many hits on the weekend and the servers collapsed - but it gives me a reason to catch up on my to-read folder on my kindle. So many recs, so little time.

So, how did the anniversary go? I have to say, better than I expected. I still felt nauseated the whole day - every bad emotion goes straight to my stomach, it's my curse -, but no panic attacks, no crying, it was a quiet day. Good. I avoided conversations, kept my head down, spent the evening reading and I only ate junk food. ^^

Not to mention, the adorable stardust_made wrote a story for me! How cool is that?! It's called An Interlude, and you should all read it, because it's stunning. Do yourself a favour, go read it, you can thank me later. So beautiful. ♥

In other news, today I finally watched Warrior. I had it sitting there since christmas, at least, and the other day I saw an interview with Tom Hiddleston saying it made him cry like a baby, so today I watched it too, and holy crap, I cried and sobbed the whole movie. So glad no one was here to see me, not even Sakura who was napping on the balcony, because seriously, it was embarassing. Tears everywhere. Truly a great movie, and such amazing performances (and there was even Emma from Once Upon A Time!).

What else? Tomorrow I'm finally going to visit Tati, since I'm not ill anymore (let's do a celebratory dance, stupid bug is finally dead), and in the meantime I'll try to finish that last Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC. I have to beat the boss with a 5-star performance, and so far my record is 2. Embarassing. ^^"

A little announcement here, I finally got some free invitations on Archive of Our Own. I have 10 of them, so whoever wants one, just drop me a line and I'll be more than happy to help you. ^^

Just FYI, an AO3 account is very useful, even if you are not a writer: you can subscribe to your favourite writers and stories, and get email notifications when new chapters are up.

News and links, for I'm stuck here for another couple of hours and I'm bored. :D

The biggest Sherlock community, sherlockbbc is on hiatus. The community in itself was great, the users are amazing, and I met so many friends there, but I wasn't the only one who had a problem with the mods' administration, and now they decided to shut everything down for a while. So, for anyone who needs them, here's a bunch of helpful links for all your fandom needs. ^^

Communities
bbcsherlock
johnsherlock
fyeahmystrade
221b
holmesian_news
221b_recs
holmes_finders

On Tumblr
An Army Doctor
Fanfic Recs
Blanket For Your Shock

My personal recs would be my Bookmark Page on AO3, obviously.

And my Tumblr is here, just in case. I think Tumblr isn't a proper instrument for a fandom: it's great to share links and recs, but you can't properly comment and discuss with other users, at least not without spamming everyone, and I'm convinced that should be the core of it. But yes, if you're looking for links and recs, that is definitely the place now.

I'm trying to follow everyone from my f-list on AO3 and tumblr too, but in case I somehow missed you, drop me a line with a link here. ♥

----

On real life news, nothing much happening, but for Sakura still taking her syrup, and me crossing all fingers that it works because if I have to carry her another time to the vet during the next week she'll just pack her bags and leave. Definitely.

And Game of Thrones keeps getting better and better with every new episode, while making me cry for minor characters I didn't even notice I loved so much until now.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit a couple of friends I haven't seen in months, I'm so happy! We have so many things to talk about, and I missed them a lot! *___________*

To anyone who celebrates it, Happy Holiday Of Your Choice! To the new priest now living at the church just around the block, who's been playing those bells every half an hour since 6 am, I GET IT.

On Facebook I got a few Happy Easters, one Happy Spring (although with the clouds and the rain and it being April, I don't really get it), and one Happy Zombie Day, which took me fifteen seconds to understand, and made me laugh so much I'm going to re-watch the first episode of the Walking Dead to celebrate. XD

I'm in a very good mood, because this is the first time my aunt completely accepted my atheism. It was absolutely unexpected, since she previously just chose to ignore it, and I was used to my mom actually crying about it and starting fights and so on, and it happened over the phone of all places, but it was such a wonderful feeling.

I'm in a very good mood also because I stayed up late yesterday to read A Study In Winning on my Kindle, under the covers, while listening to Carla Bruni's Quelqu'un m'a dit album on my iPod (helloooo guilty pleasure) and then this morning too over English Breakfast Tea and French Bread. Talk about continental breakfast. :D I'm glad I remember more about tennis than I thought I did, and there's a sequel too! Sherlock Fanfic Writers, I love you all. ♥

On mostly-but-not-really-related news, I'm working on a Sherlock fanmix. It would be my very first fanmix, and probably only for my f-list, but I'm working hard on it. *_____*

Spent a lovely day with Tati, we walked on the beach trying to fight off our shared incoming cold by inhaling the fresh salty air, watched A Study In Pink for the 100th time, sang harmonies on Rock Band. The usual. ^^

Then I came home, and there were a couple of packages on my doorstep.



My Kindle is here! I called it "221b Baker Street" and downloaded every fic I had bookmarked on AO3 (bless that site), and then I got a ebook copy of the complete Sherlock Holmes stories too. It's very easy to use, and the background is a nice light grey one, perfect for someone with my eyesight problems. Now I can bring my favourite fanfics with me everywhere, I'm so happy. *_______*

And my deerstalker hat is here too! I wasn't expecting it before Easter, it was such a nice surprise! I obviously had to put it on right away, even if I bought it for display. It fits perfectly, it's warm and comfy. I can't for the life of me understand why Sherlock dislikes it so much. :D

For a picture of yours truly wearing a death frisbee, ( this way please. :D )