This has been a week. It culminated in last night, when mom went to the hospital again, this time for severe abdominal pain-which they could find no cause for, and thankfully it eventually went away, so they let her go home, and she's fine right now.
She's also having more trouble paying the bills. Wednesday morning she initially thought we'd suddenly gotten a phone bill for $666 dollars, which certainly would have been appropriately symbolic for the phone companies, but it turned out that was, instead, how much she'd overpaid them by, since she'd paid last month's bill multiple times. We're going to have to set up some sort of system for keeping track of what's been paid and what hasn't.
But it's not like my memory's very good either, right now. Feels a good deal like a sieve at times. Tends to happen, I've been told, when you country starts descending into a fascist dictatorship. Yesterday, we all got an email saying we don't have to email them five things we do each week anymore, but were required to come up with some way to improve governmental efficiency by Wednesday; and it was very clear once I saw the form they're hoping we snitch on each other. I made a general comment about a less hot-button practical matter I suspect a lot of people will make, one I could avoid blaming anyone for.

***

Title: Vernal
Author:kat_lair
Fandom: Wheel of Time (both book and tv-show applicable I think)
Characters: Aviendha, Moiraine Damodred, Egwene al'Vere, Bair, Melaine
Tags: Canon Compliant, Rain, Ficlet, Rhuidean 
Rating: G
Word count: 737

Summary: The rain lasts until sunset.

Author notes: Picked some spring themed prompts to get me out of a writing slump. This was for the prompt 'vernal'. Unbetaed so if you spot a typo or mistake you should tell me.

Vernal on AO3

( Vernal )

***

Have a wonderful day.

 I'd like to participate in more things in life. more writing. more roadtrips. More. More. There's never quite enough, is there?

No, not really. 

I'd like to do more. My boyfriend got me a headset. Or earphones. Over-the-ears. Point being, I'm glad because they make everything shut the hell up for a little bit, but I just got them. I wish I was more productive. Tonight, I'm mealprepping. Dinner. It's my off day and I have a week until school starts, so I might as well enjoy it, right? 

My goal is posting more. Hanging out more. doing more. 

I think I'm gonna start participating in fandomweekly again. 

...I tended to enjoy grinding against the deadline, anyway. 

I have to find gifts. But... me and bf are slowly getting there. Maybe the failing relationship is in front of my eyes and I'm just too stubborn to see it. Or maybe it's just be and my insecurities festering like rats on Kenny. 

I got a Stan figure! And some posters. And some new clothes. It feels like a new me. More... cutesy. But more kitchy. More me. I drew today?

All the small things count for something. 

 ---

One of my goals for the next twelve months is to do a themed monthly post.  Having given it some thought, I decided to simply post photos taken from my bedroom window.  So each month there will be two or three photos marking the passing of the seasons.  In addition, on the occasions when I'm away for a night, I shall also include a photo from that window.

I played two new games yesterday and also read a whole comic book on the way home.

Potion Explosion:
This is a fun game where there's a display of different coloured marbles in tracks on a cardboard stand and you have to collect marbles of the right colours in the right combinations to brew potions, which then give you abilities that help you collect the right marbles for the next potion, etc...
It was all about visualising how the marbles would change position once you removed some, and then figuring out how to combine the various abilities you'd accumulated to maximise collecting the right combinations.
Definitely a game that played to my strengths - we played it twice and I won both times by quite a big margin. But I had no idea while playing how I was doing compared to anyone else and was very surprised by my victories - so I think I would have enjoyed it just as much, even if I hadn't won.

Jaws:
We also played the Jaws board game, which was fun in aspects but not in others.
Three of us played characters from the film, while one player took on the role of the shark.
In the first part of the game, the crew was trying to save swimmers, close beaches, deploy ways to locate the shark and generally prevent the beast from doing too much damage.
We failed spectacularly and the second part of the game was triggered by the shark eating the maximum number of swimmers, rather than by us successfully locating it twice...
I quite enjoyed this section, though, as there were lots of options for what to do and it was fun trying to figure out where the shark might be at any given time and act accordingly.
In the second half, we were out on a boat in the water and the shark kept surfacing to attack us, while we tried to predict where it would come up and attack it back.
This section was less fun, as it felt like the odds were stacked very highly in the shark's favour and there was little we could do to damage it, even if we could figure out where it was going to be.
We all died...

Stranger Planet by Nathan Pyle:
I was left without a book to read on the way home so I read this comic book on my phone. I know there’s controversy about some of the author's views but I’m not going to talk about that here. I really enjoyed the first volume and the TV show based on the comics, and this was very much more of the same. I love the beings and the way they talk – plus how very relatable some of their situations and attitudes are. I had to interrupt the podcast Dave was listening to multiple times to show him pages of the book that reminded me of him or of us together. Largely very sweet and very funny – a good way to pass a journey when I didn’t have a physical book to read.

 ---

 ----

This is what I wrote for the unsent_letters_exchange. :)

Title: my heart is with you
Fandom: DCEU
Pairing/Characters: Diana/Steve
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1983
Summary: Diana writes letters for Steve, until she no longer has to.

These were the fics I received from the unsent_letters_exchange. :D

Title: Please Mr Postman
Author: Ultra
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Pairing/Characters: Lane/Dave
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 2855
Summary: When Dave goes off to California for college, he and Lane agree to do the long distance thing, largely through letters... and a lot of pop and rock music references, of course

I was so excited to get Lane/Dave! Loved all the fun music references and the letters were very them. :D

Title: Please Mr Postman - Post Credits Scene
Author: Ultra
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Pairing/Characters: Rory/Jess
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1097
Summary: Inspired by Dave & Lane's letter writing, Rory writes to Jess.

The Rory/Jess references in the original fic was already nice but it was a lovely delight to get a followup fic with giving them a chance at a happy ending too!