Happy Wednesday evening to everyone else.

Has it really been 4 weeks since I've posted? *hangs head*

And now I'm in to say "Hi, I survived Sandy" and to post a meme: In honor of All Hallow's Eve (otherwise known as Halloween), I'm inviting trick-or-treaters to my 'door'. Comment "Trick or Treat" to this post and... well, you know the drill. Treats can be anything that strikes my fancy (pics of your fave actors or pairings, one sentence fics, graphics, a few words why I'm glad to have you on my flist, etc. etc.). The more "houses" to visit the more fun it'll be, so go ahead, open your journal and help spread the fun!

So at least one of the topics sahiya gave me got me thinking even after posting my babble. Always a dangerous thing.

Ever since we moved to Connecticut, we've cut way, way back on decorating for any holidays. There's a disgusting mask on the front door that Patsfan put up one Halloween that never came down, and for a few years we had a potted tree that came in the house (or eventually just the front porch) for December, but that's about it.

A lot of that is a combination of space and work, too little and too much respectively. With regard to holidays like Christmas and Easter, there's also Patsfan's cynicism about them and my total shift to not particularly wanting to celebrate them as they're no longer "mine."

But right now, I'm thinking ... why don't I have at least a couple of dolphiny-things to hang up for tomorrow? Granted, there are a couple of dolphin decorations around the place anyway, but it'd be kind of nice to have something that comes out just for Delphinia, for one example.

Maybe I'll collect some of the random dolphins from around the place onto Apollo's shrine for now, and think about what I'd like to create for next year. Maybe a garland of some kind. White with blue dolphins. Could theoretically be made to look like dolphins in surf, if I could work out how, and figure out what sort of material. *ponders*

It's funny, really, the way I make more of Delphinia (celebrating Apollo of the Dolphins) than I do of Thargelia (Apollo's birthday), which by all sanity should be the bigger holiday. Part of that may be the dolphin aspect, and the other part might be that Thargelia is also Artemis' birthday, and I feel no connection whatsoever to Her. In fact, on the odd occasion that I've approached Her, the response has been something along the lines of, "Oh, you. You hang out with my brother, right?" So, um, the lack of much connection (or interest in any connection) seems entirely mutual, at least through my admittedly totally subjective filter.

So, yeah. Thinking about doing more with actually decorating my home for at least the more important (to me anyway) holidays.

First: Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating, and happy Sunday to everyone else!

Second: Squee! My Mistletoe and Hallucinogens gift at bowtiesnblasters posted, and it is lovely!

Title: I See Your Face
Author: keenquing
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating/Pairing: PG, River/Doctor
Prompt: Sting's "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You"
Why you should go read it: It's a lovely ... I almost want to call it a character sketch, though that isn't quite right, but it has very cool insights into River's character and how she views the Doctor. And it's both Christmassy and not, with wonderfully telling details.

Third: My M&H fic has also posted. If you're up (heh) for a bit of Eleven/River/Jack, swing on by and check out Chance Would Be a Fine Thing as well.

... I simply have not adapted to living in a state where home fireworks are not only legal, they're completely pervasive. I have, at least, stopped freaking out at the huge tents selling them in various parking lots, not to mention the bleeping wall of them one encounters upon walking into WalMart. I have not, however, become blase enough not to cringe when I see them being sold in gas station stores. Because, hello? Explosives in a gas station? I get that they're not big explosives, but there are lots of them, and, you know, it's a gas station!!!

Actually, I think they may be legal in Massachusetts now too, but they don't seem as pervasive there. Or maybe that's just me not noticing.

The drive home tonight was, er, fun though. My car may have gotten a tad scorched by the spark-spewing thingies some idiot had on their front lawn entirely too close to the road, and my next door neighbors (heh, mistyped "neighbots" at first, which might actually fit better) shot off a ton of the damned things. At least it all seems to be settling down.

As it's my brother's birthday, I spent most of the afternoon and evening hanging out with him and watching Star Wars. The one area where he can completely and totally out-geek me, hands down. So it was fitting that there was a marathon on. Missed most of Ep 3, the only one I've not seen, but I did finally see most of the "new with added wtfery" version of Ep 4. Dude, wtf with the Greedo thing? Seriously, Han did shoot first, and it was asinine and looked horribly patched together to alter that bit. Never mind the scene with Jabba. *eyeroll* Was much better having him be this mysterious entity who suddenly turned out to be a massive slug later. So, yeah, that was fun. No, seriously, it was. It was like MST3K in my parents' living room. No wonder they retreated to the porch.

Oh, and hey, it's also Independence Day, the real reason people light off explosives on my brother's birthday. (Yes, my inner 4 yo may still have slight issues with that. LOL) So for those here in the States, I hope you've had a great Fourth. Everybody else, I hope you've had a great weekend as well!

And now that it's just about over, can we please stop selling the explosives in gas stations, at least until next year?

Or just happy Sunday!

Whether you "do" Valentine's or not, have a look at today's Foxtrot comic strip and have a chuckle. :-)

So today, by at least some calendars, is Mabon. I haven't kept up posting daily-ish gratitudes (or, well, much of anything) since the 8th, and I'm not going to try to catch up two weeks of daily grats. But at various times over the past two weeks, I've found myself grateful for the following:

* friends and classmates who ground me when I need it
* friends who understand when I suddenly am drowning in school
* friends who understand when an absolutely rabid plotbunny has taken my brain captive and won't let me write anything else (I will get those birthday fics done someday, though, I promise!)
* iced green tea, my new favorite soft drink
* that what hit me in the face on my first "active" day of clinical was sterile water and not any of the other numerous things it could've been
* patients who remind me why the hell I'm putting myself through this torture in the first place (and oddly, it's the really tough ones that everyone else would love to pass off to someone else that really manage this)
* my OB clinical instructor, who handled my little breakdown in her office admirably well
* the lovely lady in the campus counseling office who helped me put the next three weeks and all the "issues" they've raised into perspective
* my med-surg clinical instructor, whose matter-of-fact attitude makes it easier to cope with just about anything
* my boss at the tutoring center, who took my decision to not tutor at all during my OB rotation startlingly well
* Patsfan, who has been cooking for me on both of his days off for the past few weeks, as I furiously write care plans on Monday and then collapse on Tuesday, not to mention any number of other things he does such that our apartment is not quite ready to be condemned yet, despite my complete and utter neglect of, well, all things housekeeping

Whew! And I'm sure there's been more.

So that ends this year's round of the Gratitude Project. Happy Mabon to those who celebrate it! And Happy Autumn to all in the northern hemisphere, and Happy Spring to those in the southern!