A little bit of rest by the side of the road*

[bending_sickle]

I keep meaning to make a post and then I blink and end up somewhere in the deep bowels of Tumblr and it's the wee hours and I don't know what's going on anymore. Sorry about that. It's just so shiny.

So I'm still in "yay, it's the holidays!" mode, made especially easy because I'm a whole country away from my life, staying mellow in just south of Barcelona with my aunt and uncle. I've had the occasional thought of "I should email that person" and "I should send some CVs" but for the most part it's been bliss.

I achieved the purpose of my travel here in under ten minutes. Thursday morning I went to the next-door town armed with my 10 a.m. appointment and, at 10:10, walked out with a piping hot passport all shiny, new and plastified. They didn't even need a new photograph or signature, just took it right off my national ID card (because it was less than 2 years old). And I'd been so worried, about the photograph, about the days it would take to get the passport ready, and so forth.

On Friday I went up to Barcelona for shopping (fail) and a haircut (win). Basically, I only cut my hair when I come here, 'cause there's this brilliant hairdresser I know and for the rest of the year, eh, if my hair gets longer it just curls more and never looks like it's actually gotten longer so much as just more. Anyway. I have this thing, apparently, about getting my hair cut. One, I always have the feeling that it is going to take hours and hours, but that's only because when I was a child I'd go with my mom and she'd get highlights, which indeed took hours and hours.

Second, and more important, is the quirk that I do not feel comfortable having my hair cut. Come on, strangers are touching you and running their hands through your hair and washing and how am I supposed to relax in that situation? And then there's the occasional forced small talk, which again, strangers, breaking the personal-space bubble, and me squirming in my seat trying to sit still and overcompensating by making my face super-expressive. Even with this hairdresser, whom I've been seeing once a year for a few now, I still get a twinge of stress. I think the one time I was relaxed was with Paulo, but then that's because he was 1) charming, 2) gorgeous and 3) genuinely nice. (He's actually a singer, which is just that much more awesome.)

So once that was over I wandered around the one mall we have, El Corte Ingles (which ironically means "the English cut") confirming that 1) there are no pretty clothes and 2) they do not fit me regardless. And my hair kept getting in my face. So that was frutrating. Eventually I managed to buy a postcard ("Goddamnit I will buy something! I don't spend anything all year and now this?!") and, after scouring three bookstores, finally bought The Hunger Games (which I then devoured that evening in one sitting).

The weekend was spent watching movies and walking on the beach (barefoot, of course, because there is no other way to walk in sand, no matter what the weather). I'm off to Barcelona with my aunt this afternoon and tomorrow morning I'm going again, but to see an old friend of my mom's (the one who helped me out so much when I was living here), so that'll be nice. And then Wednesday I'm off again, back home.

I've finally finished sprucing up Nanowrimo 2011 and have been thinking a lot about Nanowrimo 2012 (because of course I'm doing it). I think I've got a better grip on it than this year's, although that's mainly because I'm moving the great big plotty things to the background as flashforwards, so hopefully I'll be better able to manage them and not get bogged down with the bits in between. I'm almost done with the omnibus of my short stories too, which is awesome. I just need to work on the covers.

I haven't watched The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King yet, despite this past weekend having been slated for it. I did, though, watch Person of Interest 1x10 and omg. Finally, finally, I cared about the characters, and that incldues the lead ones. I even got a bit wibbley when Reese's day took a nose-dive into no-good, very-bad, and that was only partly because the screen was punching all my kink buttons. And Finch's mini-litle freak out of guilt was wonderful. And continuity! Yes, show, yes. I think I might start to like you now.

Qutes of the Day: greygirlbeast, here

Sometimes, I feel it's most important that people know and believe the truth – which is passion, but also no small degree of arrogance, to imagine I know such a thing. But other times, I feel it's best they believe whatever comforts them, regardless of my ideas of truth (and fact), so long as they do as little harm as possible. But that's pretty much the whole of the Law, isn't it? (Rhetorical question.)

Links of the Day:
Supernatural:
dean_sam's flocked Official Magazine, #28
mclachland's Fic Named
agirlnamedtruth's Fanvid Burn up in the light ; Could you be the devil? Could you be an angel?
wolfpup2000's Fanvid We are not sheep
bevwa's Fanvid Messed up family tree
secretlytodream's Fanvid I sold my hands for food so please feed me
affablyevil's Fanvid A conviction of angels
ash48's Fanvid Supernatural's Flying Circus
rumrouz's Fanvid Old country - Fanfic Trailer
thevividimagery's Fanmix Oblivion

• Tickle_me_misha's Masterpost for all fic recs ; Meta Dean Winchester: The boy who gave more than enough and still believed he was less than everybody else


• j2annon's Meta One finds their gravity inside himself, the other on the outside of himself.


• hellosweetie's Meta Supernatural is a faerietale


• themooseinthetardis' Meta Sam, looking at dead Dean

Sherlock:
redscharlach's Fanart Sher-chocs

Other Fandom:
Elphiyero10's Community Fanvid At least it was here
Total Film's The Hobbit's Article

Random:
extemporanea's Video Pirates of the Caribbean - Piano Solo
wondermark's New Holidays for 2012
greygirlbeast's Video Krampuslauf Graz 2010 ; Brown Bird's "Cast No Shadow"
ursulav's Poem It has comet o my attention
Neil Gaiman's Illustrated poem, Conjunctions
Madratlab's fantasy armor and lady bits
Doctor Nerdlove's Nerds and male privilege
Hypable's Why The Help doesn't deserve much, Oscar wise
Time Magazine's The Adorable Dozen: Bizarre Animal Friendships ; Are Penguins Gay? No, They’re Just Lonely - "However, NewsFeed refuses to let this ruin the beauty of the romance between Roy and Silo."

• Seschat's Novels Masterpost ; Video The rape of Samburu women


• Newton_pulsifer's Female comic heroes featured in breast cancer detection ads ; Conflating violence with mental illness is always harmful

* Brown Bird, "Fingers to the Bone"

Comments

[seschat.livejournal.com]

[...] and me squirming in my seat trying to sit still and overcompensating by making my face super-expressive.

*snorfleees* *smiiiiish*

Love you, darling!

Also, Nano. NANO. OH GOD I OPENED THE PDF BUT I CAN'T I JUST CAN'T I HAVEN'T STARTED YET BECAUSE MY EMOTIONS *___*

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

*CACKLES MADLY* YOUR EMOTIONS ARE MY PUPPETS! MUAHAHAHAHA!

...I'm fully prepared for you to come chase me with a blunt weapon for each and every Steve-scene.

:D

[seschat.livejournal.com]

weusgweru5gtzsjdasy Adri it's so good that I can't even read more than a couple of pages in a row before breaking down and sobbing into my gigantic bowl of ice cream.

EVERYTHING HURTS.