Here, have photos from Saturday. Trying to get image links on a mobile device is apparently nigh impossible.
Big news hit the MCR fandom last night! At the San Antonio show, Gerard said, “ we’ve always wanted to make another record [...] you guys kept us alive so long, you guys deserve another record [...] "
POSSIBLY A NEW ALBUM?!?!?!!
Yes, the calmer people in the fandom have pointed out that “wanted to” isn’t the same as “will”, and the statement was part of a longer speech about grief and stagnation, as one of his best friends & creative collaborators had passed away last summer. But this is more hope for new music than the fans have had for a long time, so of course we’re all freaking out.
—-
Left the house yesterday! We went to the farmers market, I checked out a herbalist shop that I kept meaning to go to, and I went to the local Discovery Shop thrift store. I found a fist-sized labradorite sphere that came with a metal stand for $21. Except when I got to the counter, I found out that I had misread the tag and it was actually … $12. And THIS is why I prefer small independent charity shops
I continue to be exhausted, with a side of feeling glum and/or grumpy for the past few days. I have NO interest in doing work things, and am trying to force myself to read process docs that I'll need to follow for next month. BUT I DON'T WANNNNNNNAAAAAAA.
The only things I want to do, besides sleep, is zone out on the couch with a movie on and work on my outfit for the Halloween MCR show. (Beaded blood spatter on a black frock coat and pink lace jabot and cuffs. I'm almost done making the jabot, then I can move on to beading.)
But seriously, I lowkey hate everything, including myself. Should I just write this day off as a loss and work on Sunday instead? Ugh. I don't know.
The only things I want to do, besides sleep, is zone out on the couch with a movie on and work on my outfit for the Halloween MCR show. (Beaded blood spatter on a black frock coat and pink lace jabot and cuffs. I'm almost done making the jabot, then I can move on to beading.)
But seriously, I lowkey hate everything, including myself. Should I just write this day off as a loss and work on Sunday instead? Ugh. I don't know.
For the upcoming 20th anniversary (OMGWTF) of the release of The Black Parade, My Chemical Romance is releasing a remastered version with additional material. I was only going to buy the CD, and then I looked at the collection.
Oh no. Hello, I am a target market, and you're damn right I bought it. Now I need The Cure to release a pink vinyl version of Disintegration.
Oh no. Hello, I am a target market, and you're damn right I bought it. Now I need The Cure to release a pink vinyl version of Disintegration.
Tags:
A week after the trip to the ER to be be told I was dealing with an "atypical migraine", I'm still so easily worn out. I hate this, because I was already dealing with this sort of thing, and now having an added level of "hahahaha nope no energy for you" from my body is bullshit. I feel even more like a Victorian invalid that needs a relaxing trip to the seaside.
I checked with my neurologist's office about getting an appointment with the actual neurologist, not with one of the (very nice) ARNPs who handle my Botox appointments, only to be told that the MD specializes in movement disorders, which means I need to find an actual neurologist and hope they can help me.
---
In other news, I am late to the party, but I've discovered Twin Temple, and I'm charmed. They're a satanic doo-wop/country band, and they're so damn good.
---
You know what I miss? The weekly gothy stitch & bitch. I miss sitting with a group of my friends, working on assorted projects. The difficulties in restarting that are, of course, finding the time, distance from each other, and transportation for those of us who don't drive and are not nearby. Hell, I'd host, but we don't actually have enough seating. More importantly, no matter what we've tried, Miss Ezerbet No Biting continues to randomly treat the entire house as her litter box, so there's always the faint scent of cat pee. But damn, I miss those sorts of social events.
I checked with my neurologist's office about getting an appointment with the actual neurologist, not with one of the (very nice) ARNPs who handle my Botox appointments, only to be told that the MD specializes in movement disorders, which means I need to find an actual neurologist and hope they can help me.
---
In other news, I am late to the party, but I've discovered Twin Temple, and I'm charmed. They're a satanic doo-wop/country band, and they're so damn good.
---
You know what I miss? The weekly gothy stitch & bitch. I miss sitting with a group of my friends, working on assorted projects. The difficulties in restarting that are, of course, finding the time, distance from each other, and transportation for those of us who don't drive and are not nearby. Hell, I'd host, but we don't actually have enough seating. More importantly, no matter what we've tried, Miss Ezerbet No Biting continues to randomly treat the entire house as her litter box, so there's always the faint scent of cat pee. But damn, I miss those sorts of social events.
On Tuesday night, my migraine came with a side of blackouts. Tiny, few second blips, and extreme vertigo. I took meds and went to bed. Wednesday morning I still had the migraine, but it didn’t seem as bad as the night before, so I logged into work. Then the blackouts and the extreme vertigo came back. My insurance no longer has an on-call nurse line, but options of different telehealth companies, which I don’t trust. So we went to urgent care, but they couldn’t do the tests they felt were necessary because the software they use was having outages. I won a trip in an ambulance to a hospital; over the course of six hours I had an EKG and a CAT scan, the results of which were that everything was fine with me, it was probably an atypical migraine, and I should make an appointment with my neurologist to discuss things.
I came home and slept for 12 hours. Everything seems okay, but I’m resting and being very aware of how I feel.
I've been feeling exhausted, woozy, slightly stricken with vertigo, and in a lot of pain since Sunday. I've been sleeping more than usual to try and fix it, but it didn't help. Then yesterday evening I had two instances of quick - no more than a few seconds - blackouts. (This was after I'd stood up from the couch and walked to the bathroom.) I spent the rest of the evening incredibly dizzy, with a few more of the split-second blackouts, and with the Stroppy One keeping a very close eye on me. Then migraine symptoms started rolling in, so I gave in and took my migraine med and went to bed early.
Today I'm still exhausted and a little dizzy, but feel much better than I did last night. But the Stroppy One and I are on high alert for anything weird, and if I start having any of the blackouts, I'm going to call the UHC nurse line that is part of my benefits package.
To say I'm less than pleased with my mortal shell is an UNDERSTATEMENT.
Today I'm still exhausted and a little dizzy, but feel much better than I did last night. But the Stroppy One and I are on high alert for anything weird, and if I start having any of the blackouts, I'm going to call the UHC nurse line that is part of my benefits package.
To say I'm less than pleased with my mortal shell is an UNDERSTATEMENT.
I got my hair cut on Friday! It now brushes my shoulders, which is the shortest I've had my hair since high school. But the reduction in weight plus some layers definitely makes my hair look fuller. Of course, this means I'll probably need to have regular haircuts to keep it like this, which is another thing I haven't done since HS.
---
The Bloodmilk Jewelry trunk show on Saturday was fun. There's a huge fan community, no surprise, and some people travel to attend them (!!!), which means there's always fun conversations and catching up while we're all in line. Yes,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
minim_calibre and I were in line three hours before the doors opened. Look, having a chance at limited edition items is Serious Bizness.
However, shockingly, I didn't buy anything. Everything was out of my very strict budget, woe. I'm consoling myself by frequently reminding myself I have a piece on order, which I should get a click-and-ship notification for Any Day Now. ANY DAY NOW.
---
I slept until almost 2pm on Sunday. In part because of a migraine, but also because I felt exhausted. And I still feel exhausted today. Dear Body, knock it off.
---
The Bloodmilk Jewelry trunk show on Saturday was fun. There's a huge fan community, no surprise, and some people travel to attend them (!!!), which means there's always fun conversations and catching up while we're all in line. Yes,
minim_calibre and I were in line three hours before the doors opened. Look, having a chance at limited edition items is Serious Bizness. However, shockingly, I didn't buy anything. Everything was out of my very strict budget, woe. I'm consoling myself by frequently reminding myself I have a piece on order, which I should get a click-and-ship notification for Any Day Now. ANY DAY NOW.
---
I slept until almost 2pm on Sunday. In part because of a migraine, but also because I felt exhausted. And I still feel exhausted today. Dear Body, knock it off.
As I mentioned in the previous entry, on Saturday I'm heading to Olympia for a Blood Milk Jewels event. (They're located in Philadelphia, but occasionally travel to satisfy the ravening hordes of collectors.)
So anyhoodle, I'm thinking about my outfit. I know what layers of jewelry I'm wearing - that's the easy part. But the actual dress and belt? That's more difficult. The outfit I'm currently pondering:
- "Governess" dress (long sleeves, high collar, long full skirt, POCKETS) in pink lawn with black lace accents.
- Black elastic belt with skeleton hand buckle
- Chatelain that holds a powder compact, chainmail bag for a lipstick, notepad and pen, and a coffin pill case.
- Small leather Victorian-style bag that's just large enough to hold my wallet, keys, and inhaler.
- Black zip-up ankle boots with black buttons.
- Wide-brimmed black hat decorated with lace, tulle, and an enormous black bow.
So pretty much classic Cupcake Goth. But the Body Image Demons are mumbling that I'll look enormous, shouldn't I wear a more slimming color, blah blah blah. I'm doing mostly okay at ignoring them, because 1) hello, classic Cupcake Goth, 2) fuck "flattering", fat is a value-neutral word, and 3) the idea of this outfit makes me happy.
But, y'know, Body Image Demons. Argh.
Here's a photo of the style of dress I'm talking about, even with the belt I'm thinking of!
I finally got around to listening to the original Broadway cast recording for The Lost Boys musical, and I now understand why Ali Louis Bourzgui won a Tony for playing David. Some of the songs are hit or miss, but turning the vampires into a rock band and David as the lead singer? Yes, I endorse these changes.
---
Speaking of rock star vampires, AMC put the entire Lestat concert for viewing, and hooooooooo. Hi egotistical rock star vampire boyfriend, how are you? Damn. And kudos to the movement coach listed in the credits, because they certainly helped Sam Reid nail the performance.
---
On Friday I go get my hair cut, and on Saturday I go to Olympia w/minim_calibre for an in-person Blood Milk Jewels pop-up shop. I expect everything to be crazy expensive and I doubt I'll be able to afford anything, but I wanna at least look at the shiny limited edition objects.
---
Speaking of rock star vampires, AMC put the entire Lestat concert for viewing, and hooooooooo. Hi egotistical rock star vampire boyfriend, how are you? Damn. And kudos to the movement coach listed in the credits, because they certainly helped Sam Reid nail the performance.
---
On Friday I go get my hair cut, and on Saturday I go to Olympia w/
minim_calibre for an in-person Blood Milk Jewels pop-up shop. I expect everything to be crazy expensive and I doubt I'll be able to afford anything, but I wanna at least look at the shiny limited edition objects.Apparently I come up with clothing modification ideas when I'm waiting (and waiting and waiting) to fall asleep. So, as some of you might remember, I found one of my holy grail J. Peterman items, a silk frock coat, in a size that's closer to my current one. *Closer*, because it's about 2.5" too small. Usually I add lacing strips to the inside of jackets that are slightly too small so I can lace it up to have an open front that fits me better. But I don't want to do any sort of sewn alterations to this jacket. I had the idea to use dress clips to secure the front, but then realized that the teeth on the clip hardware would possibly damage the silk satin.
My morning brain remembered what I thought of, and I searched Amazon for magnetic dress clips, and why yes, they exist! I ordered a set of these, and will report back on how this idea actually works.
(Will the weather support wearing a silk jacket right now? Ha, no. But I know that if I wait until autumn, I'll have forgotten the idea.)
My morning brain remembered what I thought of, and I searched Amazon for magnetic dress clips, and why yes, they exist! I ordered a set of these, and will report back on how this idea actually works.
(Will the weather support wearing a silk jacket right now? Ha, no. But I know that if I wait until autumn, I'll have forgotten the idea.)
Tags:
I now have all of the BPAL scents for The Vampire Lestat!
:: cackles ::
I've only tested one so far. You guessed it, the scent for my beloved Brat Prince himself, Lestat.
"His scent opens with a theatrical blaze of warm cognac, aged beeswax candles, and feral lupine musk. At the heart of his perfume beats Medieval French church wood, incense smoke still clinging to the stone, all aflame with the black leather, sweet brandy, and glam-glittered crystalline musk of a rock god."
It works on me, yaaaaaaay! In fact, it works so well that it's made it into my top five scents, which are, in no particular order: Blood Popsicle, The Vampire Lestat, Goth Club 89, Lord of Misrule, and Coromandel.This weekend, barring migraines, I'm going to sample all of them and write a review for Gothic Charm School. I'm a little wary of sniffing Black Licorice, because some licorice notes make me recoil, but I want to give fair reviews to everything.
---
As mentioned in an earlier entry, I did my therapy homework from last week, being a whimsical bitch! I sewed fangs on Pooh Bear, then we had a discussion about if he liked them. Pooh Bear did not, so they were removed. But he did like the cape I made, which I think turned out really well.
My weekly homework from my therapist is to "Be a whimsical bitch!". Because I've been so exhausted, sick, and stressed about work that I've lost touch with that part of myself. So this weekend I'm finally going to make the vampire cape for my Winnie the Pooh plushie and give him fangs. The impetus for this comes from a past conversation with the Stroppy One where he declared the fastest way for someone to understand my personality is to know that Dracula and the Winnie the Pooh books are part of the core foundations of me. He's not wrong. Hence my need to make my Pooh bear a vampire.
Now I just need to find where I put my stash of vampire fangs ...
Now I just need to find where I put my stash of vampire fangs ...
I had to be at my company’s Seattle office at 9am on Wednesday. We got a hotel room for Tuesday night, but Wednesday morning still involved getting up much earlier than I prefer. Between that and the bad air quality due to the wildfires, my body chose violence on Thursday afternoon in the form of a bad migraine. Which continued through today; it’s almost 7pm and I’m finally starting to feel better. I’m so tired of this.
Tuesday I have a doctor appointment, not with my PCP, but her practice partner. I haven’t seen them before, but I trust my PCP, so I’m going on the theory that her partner is also a good person. I have a list of things to discuss, including my increasingly bad GERD, my increasingly bad fatigue, brain fog and poor memory, and oh, yeah, the hair thinning.
In other words, reeeeeaaaaallllly not happy with my mortal shell. Meh. It’s not that I want to be a brain in a jar, because that removes the fun of dressing up, but I’d like a new body please and thank you.
Has anyone seen DW icons from The Vampire Lestat floating around? I obviously need icons of my Brat Prince.
Knock wood and cross fingers, but I may have dodged the bronchitis path after the horrible acid reflux last week. I wasn't sure if I'd need to go to urgent care for antibiotics and steroids up to last night, but was waiting to see how severe my coughing was, because I've learned that I need to be at a certain level before a doctor will take me seriously.
But! The Stroppy One remembered I had a daily steroidal inhaler (that I'd stopped using because one of the potential side effects was vivid nightmares, and whooo did I have that), so I used it yesterday and today, and my coughing and faint wheezing have lessened dramatically.
---
I'm still having fluctuating anxiety about work. Today when I logged on (after missing three days last week), there was a DM from my boss listing four work tickets that were overdue, and let's talk about it at our 1:1 today. As it turned out, two of the tickets were created last week while I was out, so there was no way I could have known about them, one was a ticket that I've been discussing with the PM and he forgot to change the due date, and one was assigned to me last week by another writer. So everything is fine, she let me know that I'm not the only writer dealing with this stuff, but I need to make sure my stakeholders are happy with me (and the larger tech writing team), because they feel they've not been well-served in the past.
Which, okay, that's stuff I can take care of. But my boss also said, "Because, y'know, we're still having ongoing discussions with the leadership of that pillar about the value of them having a technical writer". A phrase that doesn't cause me to worry AT ALL. I keep telling myself that 1) we have a solid backup plan if things go south with my job, and 2) I'm now armed with a lot of information around how and what to negotiate for if it comes to my unwilling parting of ways with the company.
I'm going to focus on keeping my head down, doing my work, and not pushing myself. But I wish I could tell if my anxiety and gut instincts around all of this are correct, or if the Brain Raccoons are being extra noisy.
---
All of this, of course, has set me in the mood of being vaguely upset with everything and everyone, including myself. So fun. Oh, and did I mention I'm going to get the genetic test to see if I have the markers for Alzheimer's? Yeah. I've been forgetting words, how to spell some words, and various things I should remember. It could all be because of stress, but Alzheimer's runs in Dad's side of the family; the side I take after. So yeah. I suppose it's no wonder that I feel like this.
Meh. I want a trip to the seaside with someone who will bring me tea and tasty snacks while I lounge in the shade. I want a few days to live like a wealthy Victorian invalid lady.
But! The Stroppy One remembered I had a daily steroidal inhaler (that I'd stopped using because one of the potential side effects was vivid nightmares, and whooo did I have that), so I used it yesterday and today, and my coughing and faint wheezing have lessened dramatically.
---
I'm still having fluctuating anxiety about work. Today when I logged on (after missing three days last week), there was a DM from my boss listing four work tickets that were overdue, and let's talk about it at our 1:1 today. As it turned out, two of the tickets were created last week while I was out, so there was no way I could have known about them, one was a ticket that I've been discussing with the PM and he forgot to change the due date, and one was assigned to me last week by another writer. So everything is fine, she let me know that I'm not the only writer dealing with this stuff, but I need to make sure my stakeholders are happy with me (and the larger tech writing team), because they feel they've not been well-served in the past.
Which, okay, that's stuff I can take care of. But my boss also said, "Because, y'know, we're still having ongoing discussions with the leadership of that pillar about the value of them having a technical writer". A phrase that doesn't cause me to worry AT ALL. I keep telling myself that 1) we have a solid backup plan if things go south with my job, and 2) I'm now armed with a lot of information around how and what to negotiate for if it comes to my unwilling parting of ways with the company.
I'm going to focus on keeping my head down, doing my work, and not pushing myself. But I wish I could tell if my anxiety and gut instincts around all of this are correct, or if the Brain Raccoons are being extra noisy.
---
All of this, of course, has set me in the mood of being vaguely upset with everything and everyone, including myself. So fun. Oh, and did I mention I'm going to get the genetic test to see if I have the markers for Alzheimer's? Yeah. I've been forgetting words, how to spell some words, and various things I should remember. It could all be because of stress, but Alzheimer's runs in Dad's side of the family; the side I take after. So yeah. I suppose it's no wonder that I feel like this.
Meh. I want a trip to the seaside with someone who will bring me tea and tasty snacks while I lounge in the shade. I want a few days to live like a wealthy Victorian invalid lady.
Hi there, I’m on day three of a horrible migraine. I had a really bad bout of acid reflux on Tuesday night, which caused this AND coughing up a lot of phlegm. Because my body’s reaction to my esophagus being badly irritated is to threaten bronchitis. So far it’s just been the coughing and no crackling or wheezing from my lungs, so hopefully I’ve dodged it.
—-
Guess who didn’t realize she was supposed to apply for FMLA because she thought that was something done by HR? Yeah, this idiot. I just finished the application, so now it’s the waiting game.
—-
In good news, guess who’s going to L.A for a week at the end of October to hang out with friends and see two(!) My Chemical Romance concerts? This fangirl, that’s who. Eeeeeeeee! Yes, I’m going to start planning my outfits now.
—-
Guess who didn’t realize she was supposed to apply for FMLA because she thought that was something done by HR? Yeah, this idiot. I just finished the application, so now it’s the waiting game.
—-
In good news, guess who’s going to L.A for a week at the end of October to hang out with friends and see two(!) My Chemical Romance concerts? This fangirl, that’s who. Eeeeeeeee! Yes, I’m going to start planning my outfits now.
Last night we caught up on two episodes of The Vampire Lestat AND watched the season finale. Wheeeee! Here's what I posted on Tumblr afterward:
Did The Vampire Lestat veer away from the book(s)? Yes. Do I believe the show still stayed true to the characters and overarching plots of all of the novels? Also yes.
I still say there’s no way to do a 100% book-faithful adaptation of the Vampire Chronicles, so even tho’ the show has taken liberties with the text, those liberties *work*.
I get why some of the book purists are angry and have (very vocally) flounced from the show. But I’m not one of them.
One character/plot comment, which is hopefully not a spoiler: THERE’S the Armand I’ve been waiting for. My precious damaged drama queen psycho baby!
---The Stroppy One commented that he liked the season, but it felt very bipolar. My reply was that of course it was, because it was all about Lestat and how he's not a model of mental health. The Stroppy One said he expected that response from me, and he didn't disagree.
So yeah, I loved the season, I want a physical CD of all the songs, and I want an announcement that there WILL be a season four. As there's now a Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat panel at San Diego Comic Con in the main hall, I'm pretty confident that announcement will happen.
We have safely returned home from the UK! This is the face of a cat who believes I was away for FAR too long.
Random things:
- Two days before heading home, one of my ankles rolled when I stepped into a shallow gutter in a parking lot, leading to a big fall. I’m banged and scraped up and my left ankle is spectacularly bruised, but I’m okay. It did disrupt one of our plans, because I obviously wasn’t up to hobbling around Bath.
Random things:
- Two days before heading home, one of my ankles rolled when I stepped into a shallow gutter in a parking lot, leading to a big fall. I’m banged and scraped up and my left ankle is spectacularly bruised, but I’m okay. It did disrupt one of our plans, because I obviously wasn’t up to hobbling around Bath.
- This may have been my last trip to Glastonbury, which feels weird to say. I went to my favorite witchy shop and stocked up on oils and incense, I found a new- to-me store and bought a book entitled “Don't Burn the Curtains”, for witches who don’t want to burn the house down, and then … every other store I wandered into all had the same tarot decks I can buy online and a lot of witchy knickknacks that I’ve seen on AliExpress. Dammit, Glastonbury is supposed to be better than than, but I can understand shop owners needing to make money by pandering to the tourist market.
- My main souvenirs from the trip are antique keys and a load of new bras from Marks & Spencers. M&S bras are a traditional UK souvenir for me, because they’re just that good.
- For various reasons we had a lot of UK cash on us, so we did a thing we never do and shopped Duty Free at Heathrow. We brought home fancy whiskey and a bottle of Chanel Coromandel perfume. (It’s the only scent I like by them, I love it enough that I wear it a lot, and it’s only available at very specific Chanel boutiques.)
- Speaking of spending a ridiculous amount of money, when arranging this trip, the Stroppy One decided we were going to travel in comfort and booked our plane tickets accordingly. I am going to hate flying coach even more than I already did, but it was an amazing experience.
We left Edinburgh yesterday to take the train to Manchester, then switch to a smaller train to get to Chester to stay with old friends of the Stroppy One’s. A woman next to us on the smaller passed out from the heat! All the passengers around her swarmed to help her up, offer water, and so on. I’ve been having to chose between having the protection a sun hat offers vs. the hat trapping heat against my scalp. Today, since the weather is “only” going to be around 85, I’m going to risk the hat. Because today is going to be wandering around Chester, including stopping at another Marks & Spencers so I can buy more bras, because well-made bras in large cup sizes for approximately $40? Unheard of.
Last night I took a calculated risk: the dessert was Eaton Mess, which is part meringue, which of course is made with a small amount of cornstarch. Guess what? I DIDN’T GET A MIGRAINE. Yet one more strike against the US food supply.
.
