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So, I found out that Bea isn't allowed to go to any of the pride events this year.

That was her phrasing.

So I'm like... what went on here? I didn't ask over text, we'll be meeting up next weekend and she'll probably want to talk about it then. But I do wonder.

Hearing it didn't shock me; she's nice but seems like the kind of person who could accidentally make people uncomfortable, and then make the situation worse when trying to fix it. But I guess I'll find out later what happened.

This is a bummer, because I was going to ask if she wanted to go to the pride brunch. But. Well. Ahhhh well, I guess I'll see other people I'm familiar with there, it's no big deal. Just, knowing this, is kind of awkward.

Opened up tumblr, found that I had 99+ notes. Had a moment of panic - "What on EARTH happened here, did someone start some kind of wank --"

But then I realised it's because various people found my post about the hilarious card for occasions that I saw down at the Superstore. Whew, crisis averted.

Speaking of which - would anybody be interested in receiving a winter-y card from me? (Also have some Cool Art ones with no winter holiday connection.) PM me if so! :V

I had a terrible day. One of those angry as hell, "fire breathing dragon" days.

But then I got home and discovered that Tik's letter had arrived.

I feel so much better. All is right with the world.

Management was cleaning out the parkade today, so I hung around at the end of the day, reading and having coffee, then picked up some custard tarts on the way home. The change in routine was kind of nice, a little relaxing.

Received some surprising news from Lumiere. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. It's all quite a thing, but she seems to have taken some consideration in planning it out, so all I can do is hope that everything will work out the way that she wants it to.

That's the frustrating thing about internet friendships - you can't be around to support people. Not that she needs it, of course, but it would be nice to have the option.

Speaking of which, I sent Tik a letter last week. I wonder how long it'll take for him to get it. Could be anywhere from another week to... a month, maybe? Ah.

You know what, I think I really could do with a hug. But that's, uh, not happening.

Or even like, just hanging out in the same room with somebody, and not really interacting with them, but just chilling. Like cats.

I remember when I had that one-day overnight stopover in Iceland, and I spent the day with Kainoliero and Fukkafyla, and the evening ended up with us all in the same room, doing things separately. Fukkafyla was playing video games and Kainoliero was noodling on the computer and I was writing fic in a notebook. And it was just so nice. Just... being around people without the exhausting need for conversation.

Maybe I should write a fic with something like that. Just a very short and atmospheric thing. It might be nice.

True love (platonic or otherwise) is making flirty jokes about how you're a monster, and the other person, instead of fussing and being all "no you're not", just rolls with it and gets into the idea of being in cahoots with a monster.

Ugh, why is Poland so far away?

The Anne of Green Gables ballet was lovely. Really glad that I decided to go. :D I laughed, I cried, it was a good time.

The dancer for Anne's part was an absolute delight. Perfect for that role. The duo playing Marilla and Matthew were also really really excellent.

This performance is based on the musical, rather than directly from the book. I looked for clips of the ballet, but cursory flip-through doesn't turn up much. There's a trailer though: here.

It's been quite a while since I saw a Ballet Jörgen performance, but this one fit with what I remember of their style from when I saw them several years ago in Halifax.

C and I decided that we would dress up for this, because why the hell not. When we got there, we were pretty much the only ones who had, and stuck out quite a bit. Oh Fort McMurray, oh you. Ah, well.

We ran into C's friend M after the show, and got to talking. Apparently he's part of a writing group that meets on weekends. I gave him my contact info, so hopefully I'll receive more details some time soon! That could be interesting.

I ended up getting home wayyyy past my bedtime, and I totally paid for it today. ;) No regrets, though. It was a good time.

☆ Looking forward to Chocolate Box Exchange! Noms open from now until the 28th, signups start on the 1st, more details over at chocolateboxcomm. I've already started on my letter. :D

☆ Went out for coffee with C again today. It was nice! I am glad that I'm continuing to make an attempt at acting like a normal human being. She mentioned that she might be hosting a board game party sometime in the next couple of weeks, and I'm welcome to come - so hopefully she'll call me once she nails a date down. It sounds nice.

☆ All of the crazy reviews for the Cats film are kind of making me morbidly curious about it, haaa. It almost makes me want to watch it. But I'll probably wait until it comes out on disc - I'm not that curious. ;) (And I can only afford to go to the movies so many times in one month, anyway.)

☆ Speaking of movies, I'm probably going to go see Little Women with my mom some time during the break. She saw the trailer and liked it, and since she hasn't been to our new cinema yet, it seems like a good time. I've never read the novel, so I don't know all the details, but the trailer does look nice.

☆ I took the Good Omens tv series out from the library. :D I'm looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about! Now I just need to... find time to sit down and watch it... Not sure how that will happen, but we'll see. ;)

☆ Going to start planning my Norway trip in earnest in January. I was briefly considering delaying until 2021, because a museum that I wanted to visit won't be open until then; the National Museum of Art was supposed to reopen in autumn of 2020, but it's going to be delayed until Spring 2021. That's disappointing, but... no, autumn 2020 for this trip sounds good. It isn't as if that was the only thing I wanted to see in Oslo, anyway. ;) So! Time to research Oslo, Bergen, and Stavanger. And transport in between cities - which is my biggest concern. I have no difficulty figuring out things to do in any particular place, but inter-city transport always makes me very nervous.

☆ It's going to start getting a bit brighter soon! ...But not soon enough. Ugh, I'm so sick of winter already. Wake me up in May, please?

This weekend was pretty good!

...Except that it snowed again. And the snow stayed for a bit. I'm not impressed, let me tell you. But, well, one can't have everything, I guess. And I kind of appreciate that the air is so cool now, though I wish there wasn't wet to go with it. Right now, it's just right, so I've been wearing the band hoodie that my mom bought me for my birthday and ahh, it's so cozy. <3

A new coffee shop opened in my town back in May, but I didn't find out about it until this past week, so I decided to check it out. They're nearish to my house - a 20 minute walk, which is an improvement from the 40 minutes I usually have to do in order to get a cup of joe.

Upside: The coffee is delicious! And, again, it's close. They also have GF and vegan options, which aren't a necessity for me, but it's nice to have more places that provide that sort of thing. They also have a really interesting cold drinks menu, with not only bubble tea but a bunch of other Asian drinks that I've never heard of, so that's pretty neat. Downside: It's very expensive - which I expected, since it's independent - and there's very little seating. It's mainly a to-go type joint. No tables; just one row of bar-style seating. That isn't so bad when the weather is good, but it wouldn't be practical for someone in winter gear. And while the place was quiet enough that I didn't feel bad about lingering a while and working on fic while I had my coffee, it wouldn't be very comfortable at a busy time of day.

So, it looks like I'm still stuck either walking 40 minutes or going downtown if I want to get out of the house. Because of course, the point isn't coffee; I can have coffee at home. The point is being able to get out of the house and go work on things somewhere else. Ah, well.

I've been making some progress on that baby blanket I've been knitting for my coworker. Aiming to have it done by Christmas; there's plenty of time, but of course it's better to do it early. The pattern is very simple, and I could pretty much knit it in my sleep, I think. Those of you who're on Ravelry - it's this one. I wanted something simple, because I usually don't do big projects like this. Hopefully it'll turn out nice! I'm working with acrylic yarn - I know, I know, but I figured it'd be good to have something that will be very easy to throw in the wash. Upside, this one is nice and soft; downside, it's hella slippery to knit with. Hmm. Now I remember why I don't usually use this stuff.

I think once I'm finished this blanket, it might be nice to try a more complicated one. This one looks cute! But, we'll see how I feel later. (I might say NEVER AGAIN, who knows.)

I've picked up roleplaying again. Just a little bit; I'm continuing a thread with an old friend that we started ages and ages ago and then dropped for a while. It's really long and plotty and man, it smacks me right in the id. But more than that, it felt really nice to hear that Wald still wants to play with me, even though it's been so long. We'll be slow with this, but that's okay. We've got all the time in the world. :)

Writing-wise, I've been making some progress on a whole lot of things. My two outstanding FTH works are both typed up now, and I'll be ready to edit them by the end of the week. Hopefully that won't require much. I also have plans for revs on some other things that have been outstanding for a while. And I made a lot of progress on a longish rarepair fic (with Nor/Ger) that I started a couple months ago. So, that's nice! Feels good to work on things and finish them.

I'm going to try to aim for hitting 50k by the end of the year. I'm sitting at 34k right now, so I have roughly about 16k to go! That sounds really doable. Between the FTH fics, upcoming themed weeks, my Secret Spectres assignment, treats that I might or might not write, and personal stuff, I think I might very well hit it...!