The Mezzanine

Things in my life right now:

- I have started eating porridge for breakfast*. It is YUMMY.

- We went to a different church this week, which was awesome. Our regular church is quiet, solemn, and rather lifeless - as well as being quite challenging to meet people. This church is friendly, enthusiastic, and SINGS WITH GUSTO, which we've missed a great deal. (Not a comment on worship style, precisely. But when your church service feels more like a funeral, it becomes rather wearying.)

- The internet went down yesterday, taking away half my possible activities. *pines* Thankfully, it has now returned.

- Brought a huge amount of wool to Germany with me, with the intention of making a huge blanket that would
a) keep me warm
b) occupy my crocheting time for several months, in case I couldn't find more wool here.
I am now utterly sick of my half-finished blanket, and am plotting trips to wool shops to buy supplies for making baby things. It would be rather ludicrous to teach myself to crochet and not make my baby crocheted things, after all.

- Have finished Veronica Mars (except the movie). It's rather fun.

- Am getting kicked awake at 3am every morning, and thus missing out on a proper night's sleep. Can't wait until this kid is born, so that it can actually be put down away from my internal organs once in a while.



* My appetite being somewhat increased by pregnancy, it's actually my third breakfast of the day, following yoghurt and cereal.

Last night, the fiance took me to see Swan Lake. Beautiful production, with excellent dancers. And then, on the way home, I looked up the ballet's synopsis online, and discovered that it bore no resemblance whatsoever to the performance I'd just seen - except for the characters' names, and there being a lake full of swans.

Which, I guess you can do with ballet, since you don't need to deal with any lyrics.

It did make for a rather confusing Wikipedia experience for me, though. Kind of like looking up the BtVS season 2 finale and seeing this:

In Whedon's original draft, the battle at the airport was less prominent than it became in the finished episode. Also, originally Buffy attempted to follow Emily's plan, and failed - rather than dismissing the plan outright.

Confusing, no?


Wonderfully fun evening, despite Wikipedia lying to me. Very tired today. Must sleep some more.

Am awake bright and early this morning, despite my plans to sleep in.

Why? Because my wonderful cat, delight of my life, peed on my bed while I was in it.

EWW.


He is now in deep disgrace, my sheets have been swiftly deposited in the bath, and I am bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and contemplating dim-sims for dinner.

In retrospect, I really should have bought the butter-menthols.


My night so far consists of waking up every half-hour or so to vomit. Then trying to find yet another butter-menthol substitute around my house...

(Does the rest of the world have butter-menthols? They're cough drops - containing butter and menthol - and are really good for soothing sore throats.)

The interesting bit? I'm not actually sick.


I was sick, a couple of days ago, with a cold. In which, courtesy of a stuffy nose, I ended up with post-nasal drip - which is where you have snot dripping down the back of your throat and irritating you into coughing.

I also (if you recall) have had whooping cough in recent memory. Which means my throat is slightly more sensitive than it should be. So, slight cough became bigger cough, which has now progressed to REALLY HORRIBLE cough that wakes me up every half-hour... originally just to cough and feel lousy, but now I'm actually throwing up from coughing too much.


I need butter-menthols, or similar (used up the cough syrup this morning). I don't have any - but I've already explored the full range of stuff available in my house, from lemsip, to asthma puffers, to soothing drinks, to, most recently, just big spoonfuls of honey. Hopefully it'll calm my throat down enough to last until 7am, when the shops open.

I'd considered buying butter-menthols yesterday, actually, but shrugged and decided I could always get them when I needed them. Hah.


*is miserable*

Smudge has a security blanket, in the form of one of his favourite toys: a piece of cord from nimthiriel's pyjamas.

nimthiriel (the housemate) and her husband moved out this weekend, and Smudge spent the whole day walking around looking lost and bewildered, carrying the pyjama cord for comfort. He's spending another week with me, and then moving across to their new place. Elf will miss him... and so will I...

---

Far too many late nights in a row. I keep falling asleep in odd locations.

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On dr_carrot's recommendation, I have started using exciting new shampoo/conditioner/body wash/face cleaner, from MooGoo! So far, I'm enjoying it.

It's apparently called MooGoo because it was invented by dairy farmers using an adapted form of the lotion they put on cow udders to keep them healthy...

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This weekend, the boyfriend has helped me nephew-sit, lent me his car to get me home early, started a jigsaw with me, moved furniture for my housemates, eaten my cooking and made yummy noises, held my hand, watched ridiculous tv with me, whispered silly comments during church, listened to all my ridiculous blathering, and patted my cat.

He's terrific.

---

I really will get all those photos up soon, I promise...

I'm so sick of being randomly tired.


Silly anti-anxiety meds - very helpful in getting over near-breakdown, but have the side-effect of making me drowsy all the time. I keep needing afternoon naps and early nights. Hence the disappointing lack of interesting posts here lately.

However, to summarise my Interesting TV thoughts of late:
- Downton Abbey!
- Warehouse 13!!
- Zombieland!!!
- Leverage!!!!

It's rather nice discovering new things that are worth watching.


Anyone have any thoughts on any of those?

My cat really does love me.

I occasionally go "Nah, he's a cat. He'd like anyone who fed him." But I'd be wrong about that. My cat is, in fact, very much obsessed with me, personally.


I just got home from a weekend away with my family - a whole day-and-a-half. And my cat has not left my side since I walked through the door.

He has varied from
a) sitting next to me
to
b) sitting at the other end of the bed
c) purring at me
d) sniffing my nose
e) sitting on top of me
f) walking over to check that I'm really still here.

*feels very loved*

Just got home from being a bridesmaid.

Fun day (LONG day), involving lots of photos, lots of champagne, and getting to catch up with friends I haven't seen in quite a while.

I am now home, and rather exhausted...



Random points:
- My housemate is now on her honeymoon for a week, so I have the house to myself. WOO! *starts meth lab* *also organises terrorism cell HQ in living room* *crazed dance party*
- Still need to write most of my Remix fic. In a single week. *panics*
- Two weddings in two days is a bit much, really. *collapses*

Watch in awe, young sewers, for I have scaled the heights of fabric, battled the flaming monsters of unpicking, and conquered the realm of completed products!

WOOOOOO! *does excited victory lap around the house*



It probably would have been less frustrating to get things right the first time, but when you've unpicked and then unpicked again, thrown the whole thing across the room, screamed in annoyance at the one millionth mistake... it really is so satisfying to finish the damn thing.

And this? This is incredibly satisfying. :D


(The object in question is a pillowcase. A big triangular one with a ruffle along the edge - so slightly more complex than "pillowcase" would tend to mean. And really hard to actually sew from scratch.

But my big triangly pillow is finally covered and back in service! I get to sit up in bed again! Yay!)



*is terribly accomplished and oh so pleased*

*is also slightly smug*

Going to the Astor is rather like going back in time. It has balconies, and chandeliers, and lots of wonderful things designed to make patrons think of going to the cinema as a real night on the town.

It also has a weird colour scheme from about the sixties, but that adds to the charm.

The boyfriend and I went to the Astor last night, to see two anime features. I've been hearing about this place for years: a standard back-of-the-toilet-door accessory in share houses is the Astor's poster of upcoming features. But I've never been before.

One thing I enjoyed was the previews. I'm used to the LATEST 21ST CENTURY MOVIES!!! previews, but because of the Astor's unusual movie preferences, you're more likely to get previews for
a) foreign subtitled movies you've never heard of
b) really really old movies with corny STARRING THE RADIANT AUDREY HEPBURN announcements
c) really really old foreign subtitled movies you've never heard of
All very fascinating.


So - among other things, I have now seen Spirited Away, and my uni friends can stop bugging me to watch it.