Let's celebrate 20 years of SPN fandom together!

What is Summergen?

Summergen is an anonymous, prompt-based, gen fanworks gift exchange originally designed to help Supernatural fans while away the desert months of summer hiatus. Since the show has ended, we just can't quit it. SPN is the Hotel California of fandoms. :D

Basically, you'll submit a set of prompts for a fanwork you'd like to receive. In return, you'll receive a set of prompts from someone else. You'll have just over a month to create a fanwork of at least 1,000 words (fic) or art equivalent (use your best judgment, stalwart artists!). Once you're finished, you'll submit it to the AO3 collection. It won't be visible yet--we'll slowly reveal one fanwork per day, keeping the creator anonymous. Once all fanworks are posted, we'll do creator reveals and see who made what!

Important Dates

June 1 – June 14: Sign-ups.
June 15: Assignments sent out.
July 21: Fanworks due. There is an automatic one-week grace period following this deadline. If you need just a few more days, assume you have 'em.
July 28: Deadline for withdrawals or extension requests. If we don't hear from you by midnight of the last inhabited time zone (Samoa Time Zone, UTC +13), you will be in-default and at risk for not participating next year.
July 29: Posting begins!

EDIT: Slight edit to the schedule--assignments will be sent out on June 15 (originally it said 14th), since sign-ups don't close until the 14th in Samoa! Whoops!

Sign up on AO3!

I'm pretty sure the mere act of looking back through February rendered me unconscious from effort. But three non-work things I did!

1. I went to fancy brunch at the local hotel school (where people learn how to be fancy hoteliers). It had two rooms, one with breakfast-y items and one with lunch and dessert. The selection was tremendous. The tastes were tremendous. The volume was approximately six human meals' worth. Truly epic. 

2. I painted Bleach-themed matryoshka for my friend and Tumblr co-blogger! I'm very proud of them. We had a little photoshoot before I put them in their box to be mailed, and I felt a pang of sadness to see them go:

3. I went to a presentation last weekend at the History Center, and learned about the first Chinese family to settle in the area. I can't do the presentation justice here, mostly because I am halfway to comatose and suddenly obviated of all life force, but it was a great time.

Happy new year!

As of the 22nd, I've officially been on LJ for twenty years. I'm not certain I could say that about many things in my life, so I am glad to have the milestone. In that time, I've posted 2,437 entries and 38,331 comments, and received 30,932 comments in return, which ratios the hell out of any other social media, certainly. 

Last night I celebrated Dean Winchester's birthday with this very fine meal:

The salad in the back is a Cobb salad, which is not a salad I typically choose for myself but felt very American diner (in this scenario Sam bows to stereotype and does get the salad, because I wanted one--I maintain that Sam *does not eat salads for every meal*). The burger is cheddar-jalapeño. The plate was a gift from septembers_coda and brightly_lit many years ago! <3

As far as the rest of the month goes, I opened it in California, visiting family, which involved eating a lot of things. The rest of the month has been fairly routine--by design, as I try to be very conscious of my time and energy and make workable plans for myself. 

One thing I've started is to write down one new thing I learn everyday, however big or small. My most staying things so far are: 1) That barn quilts exist (I went for a walk and noticed a bunch of houses had these pretty quilt-square things on the sides of their houses, and was like... have those always been there?? What do they signify?? What they signify is that my neighborhood community center held a barn quilt workshop and a bunch of people went to it, and then adorned their houses with the results, which I think is super cool!), and 2) a bunch of information about how to touch-up varying levels of paint damage to your car, because I drove my colleague home one night and was rewarded for this good deed by scraping against their fence on the way out. =_= There's not much to be done right now, because it's too cold for paint to function, but it should be an edifying project come spring.

I also watched the first season of Interview with the Vampire while stringing together 1000 paper cranes (a goal of 2024 I did not complete, and thus committed to now). I enjoyed it, and I think Sam Reid is a great Lestat. In high school, Anne Rice vampires were *our thing* amongst my friends group, so it was pleasant to return to that canon with very little retained memory of it. I love Louis's alternate backstory and the additional historical contexts it affords, in terms of setting the series in time and place. But I also kind of felt like the series felt like it had to be a little too buttoned-up about their presentation of the spectacle that is Anne Rice vampires. Like, everyone in this series is basically doing crazypants things the entire time, and they get to do that. But it often felt like there was this quiet insistent need to assure the audience that yes, that's all crazypants, and *we know this is problematic behavior don't cancel us.* Not that I think it's realistic to trust a general audience to be discerning and aware of that on their own--I just think either you're prepared as a text to take that risk, or you aren't. And it never quite felt to me that IWTV was.

Another month that was, by volume, really intensely about work! But I ate a lot of delightful things, some of which were work-related and some of which were not. (At my workplace's Winter Celebration my friend and I agreed that it really said something about how very sad we were that we were SO, SO happy at the Winter Celebration, and had been long forward to it SO, SO much. I was moved to tears by a gingerbread man.)

I also was in downtown Ithaca two separate times, which is a feat (despite the fact that this is, indeed, the location of my gas station and a place I drive through on the way home from the grocery store once a week). Once for the Habitat for Humanity cookie walk, which is a big fundraiser where a bunch of community members bake a bunch of cookies, and those of us who do not want to bake cookies come and buy them and donate the proceeds by volume to Habitat. And once for lunch with someone, plus an exploration of a new local bread bakery and a chocolate pop-up, both of which were delicious and educational.

I've been in California to visit family for the holidays and meet my dad's new dog, who is neurotic but full of personality and very cute. Also featured: soup dumplings, many a taro confection, syrok, sushi from a Hello Kitty-themed conveyor belt sushi place, and more. 

We also went to the local silent film museum, where the top two things I learned were that playing films at too slow a frame rate could result in them erupting into flames, and that since the films were hand-cranked and didn't always come with specific instructions about what frame-rate they should be played at, sometimes the showings weren't identical and the projectionist might get artistic about it. On Saturday evenings the film museum also hosts showings, so we went to comedy shorts night. They were splendid, and the whole affair was charming and full of enthusiasm on the parts of the hosts and audience. And wouldn't you know, my tenth grade high school English teacher sat behind us?? He approached my afterward to ask my name, and I was so impressed he still remembered me. <3

The other main thing I've done this November/December is play a ton of Zelda--I beat Ocarina of Time and it only took a month (my and my sister's previous attempts took seven years, which suggests that maybe I am, indeed, smarter and/or more observant now. Certainly I am not better at hand-eye coordination, a video game skill I've never possessed, but I can read for subtext and solve the puzzles, lol). I also played Link Between Worlds, which was so much fun I immediately started a new playthrough and am now halfway through the entire game a SECOND time. It's a pretty short game, and I find New Zelda (she says, about a game that came out in 2013. But all Zelda from 2003 is New Zelda to me) easier/a lower barrier to entry than old Zelda, without compromising on it just being FUN.

One thing I haven't done much of in the last two weeks is write fanfic, though, which I want to get back to. But you know what's a lot easier than writing? Collecting pixels in the shape of baby hermit crabs scattered across Hyrule, that's what.

Next year (next MONTH, as a matter of fact) is my 20th LiveJournal anniversary, which is pretty phenomenal just in terms of sheer dedication to the form. I stay here because 1) This is still my favorite fandom format, even if "fandom" proper hasn't existed here in over a decade, and 2) you, my LJ friends, mean a lot to me. So to everyone who's on this platform, with frequency or just here and there, I love you, and I hope you have a wonderful 2025!

What even WAS this month? I have no idea, and I have no idea where it went. I spent most of it [THESE ENTRIES AREN'T ABOUT WORK], well. Okay, then. Here are my non-work highlights!

Linkin Park: Linkin Park put out a new album, and linked up with some indie record stories to host listening parties (a full playthrough of the album a week before its release), one of which was only 30min from where I work?! In some random upstate down, population 6,000?? A "listening party" is not something I would go to in a million years, except that it's Linkin Park, my musical gateway drug, one of my favorite bands since I was 13. So I went, and it was very small and low-key, and I enjoyed it supremely. I teared up multiple times as they played the album.

I love the new album, btw. We already bought our concert tickets for next year. <3

Horseheads Mall: And the record store was in what is now my favorite mall of all time. It is the most liminal space I've ever experienced. From the outside--and frankly, from the inside--it looks like one of your typical Saddest Malls in America: Slightly empty, a little haunted, kinda grungy. It has typical mall stuff, like your JC Penney and Claire's and Bulrington Coat Factory and whatnot. But this mall has also been colonized by Nerd Kingdom, because it also has: a sword store, a massive board game/TTRPG store, a diecast store, an axe throwing place, an airsoft range, pickleball, a "break stuff" place, an arcade, a gaming lounge (separate from the arcade), and a bunch of other specialty/nerd ephemera stores. Guys, it has a SWORD STORE. 

Also, when I went for the LP listening party, it was also hosting a Comic Con, unbeknownst to me, so a ton of people were in cosplay. But half the people were also just there to do normal mall things?? And it's the combination of both happening at the same time I am so in love with. The paid portion of the Comic Con was set up in what used to be a Macy's, and even though it was filled with rows of comics booths IT STILL LOOKED VERY MUCH. LIKE A MACY'S. 

I went back the next week to pick up my copy of the LP album (because I liked the record store so much--this is like, an 80-mile roundtrip lol), and it honestly wasn't any less liminal. There was a woman with a giant, live white rabbit just draped over her chest and shoulder. In the mall.

I also got a massage at the mall, which was also liminal--you could hear mall sounds, but they were also playing poorly looped ambient "spa music"--and not particularly atmospheric, but felt really good. It hurt like hell, and then hurt like hell for a day, but then it felt really good. Would totally go back. 

Legend of Zelda: Hm, what else? At the record store (I got my mileage out of this mall, what can I say), I impulse-bought a copy of Ocarina of Time--I figured IT'S A TIMELESS CLASSIC--and I've played way more of than than I should have. It's utterly intoxicating. And even though I don't really play video games, it turns out I am a smarter person than I was when I last regularly played a Zelda game, because I am not finding it as excruciatingly challenging as I remember it being as a child. It's fun-hard (and... any time it gets more than fun-hard I just look stuff up on the Internet, which was not something that was possible the last time I regularly played a Zelda game).  So I guess I play video games now?

Bread: I also learned the other day that there are *three* indie bakeries in Ithaca I didn't know about, in addition to a new Taiwanese cakery at the farmer's market, all of which I'm very excited about. One of my new year goals is to make a local bingo card of stuff/places to try, and there's about to be a whole row just for bread. As is only appropriate. 

...Oh my god. Now I remember what November was. WE HAD AN ELECTION. HAHAHAHA. Oh god, we did. (No, we didn't.)

YouTube Music inspired reminder that Lisa Braeden's favorite song is "Behind Blue Eyes"--both the version by The Who and the version by Limp Bizkit.

I love you forever Lisa Braeden <33333333333

MY DREAMS / THEY AREN'T AS EMPTY / AS MY CONSCIENCE SEEMS TO BE

You'll never guess what October was like. In a rare turn of events it was, you guessed it, chock full!! In reality, I spent the vast majority of this month just working 7 days a week, well beyond the 9 to 5 window. But I got to take four days off (Thursday-Saturday two weeks ago and this past Saturday). But let's, as usual, ignore that and my extreme displeasure about that.

Two weekends ago, I went on vacation in Toronto. My bff from California flew in and I drove up, and we got to eat our way through Chinatown (divine), see the waterfront (Lake Ontario), go to a concert for one of our favorite bands--which was amazing--and. AND.

WE GOT TO SEE SALMON. SALMON JUMPING IN A RIVER. SALMON GOING UP RIVER TO SPAWN. We got to see SIX!! It was a holy experience, they were resplendent, and I want to see more salmon in a river every single year now.

I also went to a mushroom cultivation workshop last Saturday. The workshop itself wasn't great, pedagogically, but it was still nice to go to and now I have a bucket that if I can manage it, will become mushrooms over the next month. There are so many people in this area with so much knowledge, and I'd really like to be able to have time to actually take advantage of this and have a nice life. (I have a pretty nice life. But I want to work less.)

This was ages ago, but I also got to eat a pumpkin bagel with pumpkin cream cheese on it early this month. I biked 23 miles to go get this bagel and come back, and it was completely worth it.

Outside of that, I've spent most of my free time continuing to work out regularly (yay) and spending a lot of time writing--and then, lately, reading my own fanfic. I really enjoy working on it and I have read it so, so, so, many times because I really enjoy reading it.  What's disappointing, however, is that I have read it so many times I have definitely read it more than the entire rest of the world has read it, collectively. This is the long Bleach WIP I've been working on since 2021. I just started posting Part 1, as in the writing process I'm nearing the end of Part 2. So far I've posted 2 chapters/20k, and have managed to at least achieve my 10th kudos on AO3. Luckily I have a friend who has been leaving my extremely labor-intensive and very nice comments, which makes a huge difference, but my overall thoughts about how it feels to share this fic is: This is why you're ultimately going to die alone!! Your inability to connect meaningfully with other human beings, even in the context of the social lubrication that is shared fandom.

But I did also see salmon jumping in a river.

Haha, I feel so overwhelmed. But we're ONE WHOLE WEEK INTO SEPTEMBER so let me do a quick August recap!

My local racetrack does Bike Nights sometimes, where you can turn laps on your bicycle on the track. (It's a road course, so there's Esses and elevation changes and the ranking isn't as bicycle-unfriendly as an oval track might be, haha.) I went to the one in May, which was great. But at the August one... NASCAR Cup Series Driver of the #48 Chevy Camaro Alex Bowman came to bicycle with us?!?!?! Which was pretty cool and very sweet of him. I don't think I'm a big "meet famous people" person, but Alex Bowman is chill and has a very low-key, dry sense of humor and comes across as very genuine. I already liked him, but this made me really love him.

Bicycling-wise, I also managed to beat someone up a climb? Which has never happened to me, ever. Not that I bike with other people, so it pretty much couldn't ever happen, but this guy beat me on the downhill, and then I actually timed my way down the gears correctly and I passed him on the incline?? We weren't actually racing, lol, but I was like WHOAAAA. That happened!

--

At some point I need to stop writing "wow, that a full month" and just acknowledge that that is the default description of literally every month. Once again, we'll skip work stuff.

— I saw two movies in theatres this month, which is usually my max per calendar year. The first was Evil Does Not Exist, which was all right. Definitely immersive and atmospheric, with wonderful cinematography. There are a lot of excruciatingly long cuts--people chopping firewood in real time, people in city council meetings in real time. It's about a Japanese mountain town threatened by a glamping operation run by a talent agency hoping to capitalize on COVID subsidies. The pace is very slow until the very end, and then it's very, very fast. The second was the Haikyuu movie, which was one of the greatest cinematic experiences of my life. I immediately wanted to walk back into the theatre and watch it again. I felt every emotion on this earth and I haven't stopped thinking about how much I loved it, and it's been 2.5 weeks.

— I drove to Michigan for the second time this summer, the impetus for which was getting a crown done, and to which I tacked on 1) a two-night camping trip along the shores of Lake Erie, which was sublime despite being during a heat wave. I read many books, got some work done, wrote some fanfic, went on walks (in and around the lake), RODE A FERRY, explored an island, and saw fireflies and tiny bunnies and a raccoon right up against the mesh of my tent.

Then I was in Detroit for a baby's dedication, which was really lovely, and I rounded out the trip with a <3 friend visit <3 that involved more hiking and turtles and tiny frogs and black raspberries and SPN and delicious foods (and also a crown appointment).

On my way back it was good weather until Cleveland and then was, rather unexpectedly, 100 miles of storm so heavy visibility was almost zero, cars were going 30-40 down the Interstate with flashers on, my phone blared a National Emergency Alert that I couldn't read because I was driving (it was a tornado and flash flood warning for my area. Goodie!), and then after that spent another 200 miles driving through a lesser version of the exact same storm as it, too, moved eastward.

— Then, this past weekend, I hosted a friend visit! We went to Canadian Costco (for the poutine at the food court) and Niagara Falls, then spent a chill Sunday painting rubber ducks and watching the NASCAR race (bananas), before heading out on Monday to more local waterfalls and a local lake.

Saying Devil Makes Three music reminds me of SPN is completely cheating, because this is so true of basically any of their songs. But I'd previously attributed this one to Sam Winchester, and it came back via shuffle today and hit me so hard with all my feelings about Sam Winchester I am in a STATE right now. My heart is breaking:

It just makes me think about Sam and Jess, and Sam and the YED, and Sam and Ruby, and Sam and Lucifer and the long, long run that is Sam's life aaaaaaaaaaaaahHHhhhHHhahHHH

Come paint my face, come take my hand
I do not wish you to understand
Someday you too will go to war
And by that time, may you not fear death anymore

Fortune may hold you, she's not your friend
Kind words spoken, bows deepened
Foulest creature may wear the sweetest smile
Oh, do not fear for I will see you in a while

Eyes upon you through the years
All of your troubles, all of your fear
Always watching, always see
I am you now and you are me

If I should fall, you take my sword
All that is mine will be yours
Do not fear those we leave behind
The blood that runs in your veins, it is mine

I am a stone fallin' through black water
On the bottom, I start again
I am a stone fallin' through black water
My fall, it never ends
My fall, it never ends

Come paint my face, come take my hand
I do not wish you to understand
Someday you too will go to war
And by that time, may you not fear death anymore

May was another incredibly full month, where you look back to where it started and it seems inconceivable that it all happened in the same month. I'm going to leave out all the work stuff.

Cars: At the end of April I took my car in for some caliper noise--100 miles later, while driving on the Interstate, I heard something clatter through my LF wheel well and on rough terrain, intermittent scraping/clunking. Cool. When I inspected it while changing from winter to regular tires, I found that the ENTIRE CALIPER-TO-BRACKET BOLT WAS GONE. Due, I'm pretty sure, to mechanic error when they were working on said caliper a few weeks before. I was very displeased by this, because I don't like imagining parts of my braking system flying off while I'm on the Interstate doing down a big hill at 70 miles an hour. It was honestly a marked inconvenience to me, because I had to then do all my commuting by bicycle--fine, except for the thunderstorms and sundown, which I was not willing to risk--AND I had to call a tow truck in the dead of night to take me to the mechanic shop to get it fixed. Because although it mostly didn't affect drivability and probably would have been fine, there was a chance the caliper could dislodge entirely if the second bolt failed, and it felt irresponsible to put myself, my car, and those around me knowingly at risk. They fixed it for free, everything's fine, no one died, and then I drove 1500 miles from NY around the Midwest and back at the end of the month.

One of the reasons I was in the Midwest was to see the Indy 500! I've seen Indycar races before, but they were road courses rather than ovals, and they didn't have the 300,000 strong crowd that the Indy 500 draws. It was an electrifying experience, even though it was very stressful because the extremely poor weather (hours of heavy rain and thunderstorms) delayed the race and complicated/destroyed my favorite NASCAR driver's attempts to run both the Indy 500 in Indianapolis and the NASCAR race in Charlotte, NC on the same day. I have. A lot of emotions about this but am trying not to touch them until tomorrow, when NASCAR runs again. 

I love racing. So, so much.

Arts & Crafts: This month I also got to hang out with finchandsparrow who I saw in a musical production. She was fabulous--SUCH a good stage face and presence, and such animated dancing and the whole show was really, really wonderful. The sets and props were completely out of this world!

For my birthday celebration, I attended "Forage n' Feast" at a local nature center, where we foraged and then cooked an almost fully-foraged multi-course meal. It was so much fun and so good--we wrapped Finger Lakes trout with spruce tips and dandelion capers in burdock leaves and steamed them under hot campfire coals as the main course, which excited me SO much, because I love burdock and I think it's cool, and I love things wrapped in leaves!

Bicycling: I spent the last week away from home, so I've been missing my bicycle, but we've had some quality time together doing some local mid-length rides. I also got to do four laps on the Watkins Glen International Speedway and had the time of my LIFE. It was really fun because people from all walks and all levels of bicycling came out to do it together, and Watkins Glen is a NASCAR track <3333 so I loved it dearly from that perspective alone. And since it's a racetrack the pavement is super smooth, which made for great bicycling. And since it's a road course, there's lots of runs and elevation change, so that was fabulous.

I have some other journaling I want to do, but I think I should put it in its own post, so I'll stop here. But May was a good, busy, possible OVERLY social (by my standards) month.

Also, in case you missed it, spn_summergen signups are open until June 14!!! This challenge was established in 2007, and here's to 2024! <3

For my birthday every year, my tradition is to watch the Supernatural episode closest to Dean's birthday and Sam's birthday, the years they turned the age I am. This year was 7x13 "Slice Girls" and 11x20 "Don't Call Me Shurley"--which, THE THINGS I DO FOR YOU, SAM!!!! It happens that 11x20 is my least favorite episode out of the 322 or however many there are. Very bottom of the barrel! But I did it for you, Sam!

I have seen a decent number of people absolutely adore 11x20? But I hate it; it is silly beyond all reason, except it's supposed to be important and profound, unlike things like 8x15 "Man's Best Friend With Benefits" and the like. This episode is 2/3 Things About SPN I Don't Like, 1/3 Things That Are Boring Or That I Cannot Take Seriously, and a rounding error's worth of "at least Sam and Dean are in this sometimes!! (even if they're boring or doing things I cannot take seriously)." I did it for you, Sam!

7x13, on the other hand, is immaculate, and full of 3/3 things I love about SPN. Winchesters fraying at the edges (and through the center) by the acid of their mourning; their rote, no nonsense approach to the incredible and inconceivable that keeps even the most zany premise grounded without feeling so self-aware the story's not willing to go all-in with it. The way Sam and Dean treat each other, so frustrated in very real ways but also playful ways and often not with both brothers on the same page about which of these will be welcome at any given time. Sam smoothly anger-lying to their Ancient Greece professor in his FBI persona: "I'll sweeten the deal. I'll remove your wiretap." The open wound of Dean's eyes as he meets Sam's after Sam shoots Emma. S7 is one of my favorite Winchester vintages, mmmm. <333333

For Sam's birthday, finchandsparrow and I watched 2x12 "Nightshifter" and 4x13 "After School Special" in his honor, and I love. Sam and Dean. So, so, so, so, so, so, so much. Absolutely no one is doing it like them. We had a bunch of thoughts that I said we should save, but then I proceeded to not save them (Teleparty doesn't save its chats as far as I know). 

But what a lot of it came down to was thinking about 2x12 in the context of the rest of the season. It's not something I've had nearly enough occasion to do, just because S1/2 are so episodic they lend themselves to thinking about the episodes in that way, rather than thinking about the fascia, whereas in the later seasons the fascia is usually the best and most interesting part.

Like, we were thinking about the ways that knowing they were wanted by the FBI and had Victor Henricksen on their tail would color 2x14 "Born Under a Bad Sign." Sam GOES MISSING while they are wanted by the FBI, and also his body is committing a bunch of crimes (and Meg doesn't care one iota about low profiles)--and how would it feel to know that not only is Sam gone, but that he is gone not only in the context of visions and special children and maybe having to kill him if he can't save him, but also with the FBI in the mix? And having that threat always breathing down your neck as you, too, are trying to track someone down.

I wasn't in the fandom while S2 was airing, and while I've written and read my fair share of S2 fic, I can't help but imagine, starry-eyed, the potential for all that tagfic in between episodes as they aired.

Wow, once again, the span of a month comprises so many things. I also feel like I just wrote one of these, but apparently it was a month ago. I'm going to skip everything work-related, because otherwise I'll be here all night, but:

— My father came to visit me (and the total solar eclipse)! We got to go for some hikes, drove on the Watkins Glen International Speedway, and experienced the eclipse at the Cayuga Share Farm, which involved a potluck and a Haudenosaunee elder telling the story of the Haudenosaunee and their relationship to eclipses.

— As an update to my having purchase a bike, I got the disc brakes adjusted by the community bike people, which was very cool, and have been on a few rides. Looking to do more!

— The riding was interrupted by a work conference, which was in Seattle. I chose to stay at a hostel in Chinatown, which was great. The conference was also great, but I said I was going to omit all the work things. The day after the conference, I signed up on a whim for a tea appreciation class, and it was the best thing EVER. No one seems to believe me or thinks I'm kidding, but it was so good. It was with Floating Leaves--they also have a YouTube channel, if you're interested. But we spent 2.5 hours talking about tea and sampling five incredibly different oolongs and just getting so deep into the nature and personalities of tea, the farmers and roasters and brewers, and wow. I really loved it. 

— I can't remember whether I shared this last month, but as I come upon my two-year anniversary of having moved to New York state, I set a goal for myself last month to actually like, buy furniture. And I drew up a  monthly plan for what tasks I wanted to take care of each month. March was a low lift month, where I just bought soap dishes and washcloth hooks. But April was "bedroom" month--I bought a BED FRAME. The first bed frame I've ever bought, and the first I've utilized since early 2015, when I left the furnished apartment I was renting then. It's basic, but solid wood, and I'm very happy with it. I also bought "adult sheets," AKA organic cotton percale sheets. I'll admit I'm perfectly happy with my 100% polyester "dorm essentials" sheets, but I've heard percale sleeps much cooler, which I think will be nice for the summer (my bedroom is on the second floor and I don't have A/C).

This coming month, May, is "outdoor table/chairs," because I want to work from home, outside, as much as possible, and take as many meals outside as possible. I did this last summer, too, but I think having a table and a chair will improve the feasibility of this  noticeably, lol. I'm excited, because the table I want is the exact dimensions of the front window of my living room, so when it's not summer I can just bring that same table inside and it can overwinter indoors AND still be a functional piece! (Kalliel, won't an outdoor table look super jank in your living room? Well, clearly you haven't seen the rest of the living room, lol. But in all seriousness it'll be by the entryway and the bicycle parking, so in all honesty, that side of the room already has an outdoor feel, so I think it'll be fine. It's also solid wood and fairly handsome, as IKEA patio furniture goes. Looking ahead, June is "figure out wall decor" and "buy frames." After that I'll probably take a break from my furniture-buying marathon, but who knows, maybe one day I'll own a couch.

Phew, this month was a lot! I've been using a HabitTracker app and yesterday I LIED about writing an LJ entry in the month of March because I wanted to keep my streak. Look, I wanted to write this entry after all of March had happened, but I just spent 30 of the last 48 hours working; I am haggard; everything is a blur; I desperately need to shower and buy groceries and all of that. So here's March's post just a tiny bit late.

Cool things about March:

— Arizona roadtrip with friend! Got to see the Grand Canyon in the snow, Monument Valley not in snow, and Phoenix Raceway very much not in snow. B)

— Visited NYC friend on the way back. <3 I have such a love/hate relationship with that city. I feel like there's probably lots of cool things I would like to see, but every time I'm there I'm overwhelmed and want to sit and stare at my backyard bunnies back home.

— I bought a new bike! I'm super excited about getting to ride her one day, though it hasn't been in the cards yet, either due to salt on the roads (this precious child will never see it on her frame), or snow, or being too busy, but I'm hoping to make this my summer of biking.

— Watched 13x05 Advanced Thanatology. I'm sorry, this gets its whole own bullet point, I love this episode to pieces. <333

— finchandsparrow CAME TO VISIT MEEEEEE. <3333333 ToT <3333333

Making good on my promise to post once a month here! Not that I have anything in particular to say--all memory of the last month has left my body completely. But I'm sitting in the Indianapolis airport right now, after a weekend hermiting at my friend's house for the Daytona 500, which was really lovely. It's funny, because after not leaving her house for four straight days, I was thinking, I feel ready to travel--like, take a trip, vacation travel. Which I haven't necessarily felt all that desirous of for years, because it just felt like more Things when there were already too many Things. 

In addition to sitting on a couch for 4 days straight, I also think it's that work-wise, this is my course release semester, to free up time for research. While I haven't been doing enough of that, I feel like I'm finally, finally getting some time to HEAL and RECOVER from being really stressed out all the time. I'm still stressed out, lol, but the wires feel less taut, for the first time in a long time. Lucky me, I am indeed vacation traveling next month.

In hopes of making some space for myself, I also decided to give up Random TV Shows for Lent. My "I'm really stressed" blanket is to just have comfort TV playing in the background of my daily tasks--stuff I don't really need to pay attention to, but want to wrap myself in like a media cocoon. This is how I've already rewatched all of Superstore this year (and I cried multiple times. Why is it always sitcoms that get me?). It should be a fairly low lift, as far as "sacrifice" goes, because I'm still going to watch plenty of things as part of Social Time with Friends, not just me mainlining television in the background of my life. If I'm watching something, I want it to be Social, and I want to actually be paying attention to it. Again, SHOULD NOT BE TOO MUST TO ASK, RIGHT. XPP

I have this thought basically every other day, and almost every time I'm here I feel like I express some version of it, but I've been really missing having a sense of creative community. People who are invested in me as a person, and as a person who writes things. Specifically, who writes things for Bleach.

Edit: lol I tried to post this yesterday but apparently failed? Because it takes two clicks to post an entry off the new post editor. OKAY THEN

Happy birthday, Dean. <3 My favorite, forever.

Genre: gen, angst, post-5x22 "Swan Song"
Characters: Dean (POV), Lisa & Ben
Word Count: ~2000
Warnings: non-graphic suicidal ideation
Summary: He's thought about it. Let her engine run and the exhaust pump out 'til there wasn't any air left. He's not sure if it's because he wants to die or because that's just what he thinks of when he thinks about garages. It's probably a little of both. But Dean's not keen on having any paramedics' hands wrench open his doors, and anyway it'd be a shitty thing to do in some else's garage. They have to do laundry in there. They have refrigerator boxes to stash.

Link to AO3 because oh my godddd it was already hard-coded but is there not even an HTML option for the New Post Editor? help

Did it take five tries to figure out how to type additional text onto this pre-made entry using the new post editor? Yes, yes it did.