forever we try

Every time I fall out of journaling and then try to write a catch-up post I remember that my life is pretty boring for the most part...which I don't mind except for when I'm trying to write catch-up posts. But anyway. I've been pretty busy. Some things have happened. More things have not happened. 

1.) My summer class is officially over with! It ended up being a lot more relaxed and less stressful (though not stress-free) than I was worried it would be. It still did obviously take up most of my time, and I haven't wanted to read or write much of anything for the past three weeks or so. I don't want to not want to read or write anything, so hopefully I can get back into the groove of that soon. Hopefully. 

2.) I'm about three episodes into season 3/the last season of Jessica Jones and realizing more and more that the show peaked for me in the first season. It's not that I hated season 2 and I don't hate what I've seen so far of season 3 either but...I'm just not grabbed by it? Either emotionally or plot-wise; I keep switching it off mid-episode and going to do something else because it's...not all that interesting. At least not to me and at least not right now. I wonder if some of that has to do with pacing; NONE of the Marvel Netflix shows had this as a strong point but back in season 1 of JJ Kilgrave was a presence right from the beginning. Season 2 took its sweet time setting up the villain, and season 3 seems like it's going down the same route, and for some reason they way they went/go about that sucks so much urgency out of the plot for me. Not having a good sense of who the villain is for the first couple episodes doesn't leave me all that interested in finding out. Also--I really, really didn't want to be this person but GOOD LORD is Trish getting on my nerves. I love her. I really do love her, and boy do I get the obsession with wanting to be someone special and heroic and to do something that matters (who doesn't?), but her desire to be someone is really starting to overtake her desire to, y'know, actually help people. Which I'm pretty sure is what this season is going for, and I'm pretty sure they'll resolve it in an interesting way (if I can make it that far), but. TRISH.

3.) On the bright side I got a new phone and have been catching up on My Favorite Murder and also getting into The Teacher's Pet; I need to finish The Long Dance, too.

4.) War and Peace keeps chugging on. I'm up to Volume Three, Andrei is very obviously Not Long for This World and I'm much, much sadder about that than I expected I would be based on my reaction to him when I first started. Pierre continues to be adorable and awkward and ineffectual in the most relatable way, Natasha and Princess Mary and Sonya are all lovely and wonderful, Hélène is awful and wonderful, Anatole is pitiful, Dolokhov is...Dolokhov. I know I'm missing more than half the characters, but I really do love every single one and I'm both excited to say that I finished War and Peace and not ready at all to finish War and Peace. 

I mean, significantly less cold than what other people in other parts of the country are dealing with, but still--COLD.  

Only just started it, really, (I go in for my third shift tomorrow) but the summer job has been going well so far; a little stressful, and much more fast-paced than any other job I've had before, but not unbearable and time usually passes pretty quickly. So, yeah, I can't complain. And I have made a couple of dumb mistakes, but not as many as I worried I would.

Another perk is that so far I'm usually only scheduled for one or two days a week--I'm sure that will change once the summer picks up, and I could use the extra cash, but for now it's nice to have time to do other things without always feeling rushed or exhausted. My sister and I even had time to make a very spur-of-the moment decision to watch Solo last weekend. It's not my favorite Star Wars movie, not by a long shot, but I walked away much more in love with certain characters (read: Qi'ra) than I expected to be, plus there was a lovely soundtrack and space pirates!( small spoiler ) The ending seems to kinda-sorta-maybe be hooking in for a sequel, too--even though I wasn't especially interested in Han himself, I would like to see more of Qi'ra and Enfys, especially. So who knows.

(Also, some Star Wars-related weirdness: Last night I had a dream that morphed into an hours-long, super-detailed Kylo/Rose epic featuring much bickering and UST and we-care-about-each-other-even-if-we-don't-like-each-other feelings, which was just...very interesting, and I wish I could remember more of the details beyond that, but I'm also wondering if I'm more obsessed with them as a crack pairing than I first realized, if they've literally started showing up in my dreams.)

 

Final Exams: Taken
Final Papers/Projects: Turned In
Exchange Fic: Finished & Submitted
Infinity War: Watched

Whew. So. April was a month that happened, and now that it's happened, I'm very, very happy to be moving on to May.

I went to see Infinity War on Sunday--I'd already given up and spoiled the plot for myself by reading the Wikipedia entry, so some of the emotional beats didn't hit me like a punch in the gut the way they were supposed to (and probably would have if I'd just been more patient). All the same, there was a lot I loved, a couple things I wasn't so wild about (more in terms of not being as interested/emotionally invested instead of disappointed), and nothing I hated. I don't think I'll ever be super interested in the Avengers when they're not hanging out with a.) the Guardians of the Galaxy or b.) Peter Parker, so it was a lot of fun to see everyone finally band together.

Couple more scattered, spoiler-y thoughts:
( Read more... )

I need to tackle all my unread/unfinished books that have piled up over the semester, but so far I've only managed to start new ones: The Stand, which I'm now almost 400 pages deep in, almost to the end of Book I, and And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich, which I just started today. I also bought myself a copy of Ahsoka by E.K. Johnston when my sister, our friend, and I went to 2nd & Charles to celebrate the end of the semester, and I've been meaning to do a full-scale Earthsea reread for a couple months now, and...yeah, yep, there's no way I'll get it all done. But it's summer, so I might as well try. 

The weather's been gorgeous around here for the past couple days--a little hot, maybe, but I'm just glad to finally get the windows open and have some fresh air circulating. I haven't been doing much besides sleeping in, writing, and writing up an abstract for one of my papers; next week I need to turn in the paperwork for my summer job, and I also still have a school-related portfolio to worry about...it's fine, though. Everything's going to turn out fine. (Maybe? Possibly? Hopefully?)

Two things on my fannish to-do list:

Catch up and/or keep up with Penny Dreadful. My sister's started watching it and managed to get me semi-hooked. Who doesn't love a good old-fashioned, capital-G Gothic horror story? The story itself is pretty creepy so far--the atmosphere is to die for. 

Start watching The Clone Wars. It's on Netflix (at least for now), and the semester's over. I really don't have a good reason to hold off any longer. 

I'm still here and still reading. Will probably try to get an actual post out in the next few days. We're coming down to the end of the fall semester, which is INSANE, so, aside from working (or not working) on assignments and sneaking in time to write fic all I've been doing is a little bit of reading and some knitting. Not much else.  

It passed over us around 3:00. Outside it got very dim, but not completely dark, and since I didn't buy a pair of those special glasses (not that I could have; they're apparently all sold out 'round these parts) I didn't see much. Oh well. That's what photos are for. I'll probably take a look at and/or reblog some of those, then make myself tea and work on fic. 

I can't believe it's almost July! I always start the summer off thinking I'll have plenty of time to write a billion stories and read a billion books...yeah, not so much. I am happy with what I've managed to get done so far, but there's always more that I could be doing....Oh well.

At this point I've seen GOTG Vol 2 in the theater a grand total of three times, which is kind of insane. I was not expecting to love this movie as much as I did, especially considering that I had a pretty lukewarm reaction to Vol 1; I liked it, but didn't get all that emotionally involved. Then along comes Vol 2 like a sucker punch to the gut. Going back to rewatch Vol 1 now, I like it much better, even though Vol 2 is still my favorite. They're dozens of little moments in both movies that I didn't pick up on until the second time around, and I can't get over how weird, goofy, and beautiful they are. Everything is bright and loud and a little cartoony, and it's all such a joy to watch. Also, Meredith Quill. The world needs more Meredith-centric fics, because that woman is a saint.  

But anyway. I doubt anyone needs to hear me blabbing about how great/amazing/so-good-just-go-see-it-already GOTG Vol 2 is again. 

Driving lessons are going pretty well. I'm getting more and more comfortable going up to 60 mph on the highway. That's a pretty big deal for me, seeing as the last time I got my learner's permit I was too nervous to go on the highway at all and pretty much just cruised around the neighborhood at a brisk 15 mph. Driving's always been something that's given me a ton of anxiety, but I've finally gotten to the point where I get that I just need to buckle down (hah) and get it done. 

My writing hit a rough spot a few days ago; I stalled out on two projects and couldn't make any headway at all. So I took a sort-of-break (worked on another fic that I'll probably never post; it was more of an exercise and a way to keep me writing) which I think helped a lot. It's always been hard for me to set something aside (even for just a few days) and accept that something about it isn't working right now, but that's much better than trying to fix something I can't necessarily fix--and that, nine times out of ten, doesn't need to be fixed, just left to percolate for a little bit.

Otherwise, things have been quiet around here. My life during the summer tends to get really boring really fast.