The Hysterical Hystorian

Last night, with HeadBoy and Fred on yet another camping trip, I decided I wouldn't sit at home. I loaded up Boy2 and we went to the movies! He didn't want to see 'Super 8' and I did, so he saw 'Pirates 4'. They started within 10 minutes of each other, but Pirates ran 30 minutes longer, which was fine because I trust him to be on his own and no one is going to try to kidnap a large, smelly teenage boy. Really.

Super 8 is excellent!! I highly recommend it! Great storytelling, great action, great moviemaking, an engaging storyline, and the young actors are just terrific. JJ Abrams nailed 14 year old boy interactions. Elle Fanning is amazing.

After Super 8 ended I ducked into theater 2 to watch the last 30 minutes of Pirates. [WHAT? I was watching out for my kid!] I tell ya, I probably did not need those first 2 hours to tell me what was going on--except for the mermaid sub-plot. Anyway, it was all right, I guess.

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At work again today. I have been playing with the ST action figures on my desk. What's going on in today's Desk Action? If you can't tell that's Pike that's wielding a hypospray. Write inspired comment fic!

I have a fic to beta (thank you aome and magicofisis). My first Harry Potter fic in a while.

Looks like LJ has totally bitten the dust....

HeadBoy and Boy1 leave for the nation's capital in about 8 hours. If anyone is in the area, the Montreat Pipe and Drum Band & the Blue Ridge Brass are playing the Millenium Porch at the Kennedy Center. I think it's free. HeadBoy is the 'narrator' and Boy1 is making noise on the pipes.

While he's gone, I am going to have a hot and heavy, flaming, intimate affair with ... TurboTax. I have got to get the tax return done. Have to. Hold me. Give me hugs and love. I need y'all to keep me from losing my mind. And my faith. And from possibly killing myselfmy computer. Oh, I won't do that...Have I ever mentioned how much I hate doing the taxes? I mean, I really hate it. And no, I won't let anyone else do them. Oh, and I have to send in a paper copy this year because of a fuck-up with one of HeadBoy's employers, and it's the IRS's fault! Grrr....

I don't really have anything planned for the weekend, other than my TurboTax affair. What else should I do?

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A bunch of you have had birthdays lately. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, all y'all!

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Knob Creek is my new bourbon. Yummy!

I love this shit.

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! In May I caught a purse-snatcher who stole thistlerose's purse (30 points). Last Tuesday I gave luvscharlie a Dutch Oven (-10 points). Last Wednesday on a flight to Vancouver, I stole the emergency flight information card (-40 points). Last Saturday sangueuk and I robbed a bank (-50 points). Last Friday I donated bone marrow to weepingnaiad in a life-saving procedure (300 points). Overall, I've been nice (230 points). For Christmas I deserve a shiny red ball! Sincerely, abigail89

Write your letter to Santa! Enter your LJ username:

Ooh, as long as it's Karl Urban throwing that shiny red ball at me, I'll take it. ;D

*~*

In other more important news....



Wishing you the happiest of days, my friend.

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Last night I found my keys! I decided not to bore you with the angst that was my lost keys--again. HeadBoy helped me put together the tragic trail of stupid which lasted over 4 days and nights. And ended with a jacket I occasionally wear, which obviously I was wearing Friday when my keys disappeared, hanging up in the closet instead of on the coat rack. I am happyhappy to have my keys back.

We're expecting another hit of sleet and ice tonight. In happier news my grandma's area is not expecting snow this weekend, so that means we can go! Boy1 is even going with us. This will make her so happy. In case you wanna see, this is my beautiful grandma.

So, what do you get a 94-year-old woman for Christmas? I'm bringing my beading stuff and will make earrings and bracelets for her, because she, like me, likes the shiny and sparkly. We're going to cook her and my aunt dinner Sunday....I guess that's all she wants, eh? Yeah, just being there....

Do not want to work today. Or tomorrow.

Are y'all reading the fab stories at space_wrapped??

( The Ye Olde Olde Lady Heath Update )

Things seen/read around the net:

affectingly wrote a terrific, often hilarious, critical review of the new Star Trek YA novel set in the Academy years. I bought it but haven't read it yet. In fact, I woke up in the night and thought about reading it when I couldn't get back to sleep. Weird, I tell you. Glad I didn't. It would've enraged me.

Loving the articles about the Harry/Hermione interaction in DH-1. Steve Kloves gave a very interesting interview with the NYTimes over the weekend about his 10 years with Harry Potter. His comments are quite insightful. Still, I'm never forgiving him for HBP.

People are generally thrilled with the Royal Engagement. That he gave her Diana's sapphire ring made me cry just a little.

I finally watched the Random Act of Culture video about the Hallelujah Chorus at Macy's in Philadelphia. So. Damn. Awesome.

Still plugging away on fic. The harryronbigbang may go into December at this rate...

I got my amazon order today. I ordered "The Face of Appalachia: Portraits from a Mountain Farm" by my friend Tim Barnwell, who is a terrific, wonderful photographer. I'm going to review it for the visual materials section newsletter.

I also got the 2011 Harry Potter appointment calendar, because 2011 is coming. And I completely spoiled myself for the movie. First time that's happened. My calendar!! But I have to admit, this is a really awesome calendar. I've had a Harry Potter calendar since 2001, but this one actually is a desk calendar with an address section, and extra pages for notes and tabs for the months and a monthly calendar at the beginning at each section.

So my grand plan to remain unspoiled for the final HP film has been blown. Oh well.

Tonight, HeadBoy & I went to our favorite Chinese-takeaway place for Pad Thai and Hunan chicken and sushi and hot&sour soup. Yum. Then we came home and watched 'Iron Man 2' that I checked out of the library. It was sorta cool but meh.

And Karl! Karl has another film coming out in December. "And Soon the Darkness"--not sure what it's all about, not sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy, but I made a few screencaps.

( Karl, dude, frosted hair? Srsly? )

It's time for a fun post...ok, I think it's fun, but y'all may yawn your way through it.

( What I've been doing during the day )

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! to leviathan0999 and sail_aweigh! I wish you both glorious celebrations!

*~*

I am a huge advocate of walking away from an email or an LJ post when feeling overwhelmed by anger or disgust or some other negative emotion.

I am taking my own advice today.

Remember when I was yammering on last spring about Max writing a script for a historical documentary about the college? Well, we both knew it needed to be cut severely and rearranged into an actual script; and things were going to be added in and left out.

I got the 'new script' last night.

I am in AWE of how much the new script writer GOT WRONG. Gross over-generalizations. Poorly understood the facts. Completely left out ideas central to the founding the college. Did this person even read Max's script? Did they not get what was so plainly written?

I need to walk away. For many hours. I cannot send this back to the Dean in charge of this project with the email I just wrote: "I am very unhappy with this script." Yeah, whoa.

*~*

Thank you again for all your kind thoughts and messages about my cold. I'm feeling better today. I know it's only temporary, but I can breathe somewhat, and my nose isn't running freely. This afternoon is the ultrasound on the mass in my left boob. Still not worried, but yanno, it's my beloved left boob. I finally told my director about it. She's been through breast cancer. We have a colleague going through chemo for breast cancer. Two other colleagues who are now retired have been through breast cancer. It's a fucking epidemic around here. So yeah, it's kind of a sensitive issue. I had to reassure her I go through this song-and-dance pretty much every year. *crosses fingers and toes*

Another really busy day today. There are 10 students writing papers this semester from the archives. That's the most ever.

So I get home and I have not one, but TWO packages on the doorstoop.

My glasses arrived from the hotel in Washington. So very glad to have them back. One thing: I reported them lost as soon as I discovered it, and called for 2 days running. The label generated when the glasses were turned into the Security office notes the date, and it was the Friday while I was still there. I called Friday, and Saturday--late, and a week later. Yeah, so kind of a FAIL on the part of the hotel, but hey, I have my glasses.

And, a carepackage from dear aome, some of her homemade granola. Yum. Thanks so much! For everything....

*~*

Tonight is pottery class. I'm not sure why I'm doing this, other than that it's my friend Martha who is teaching and she needed 4 to make the class. The other 3 taking it are complete novices, so while they're struggling to get their first ball of clay centered, I'm on the second bowl. But I can get some things made for gifts. *shrugs* And the hell of it is, I can't even really spend time with Martha because she had to help the other three so much.

Nothing on the schedule for the weekend, and I have Monday off! Except Boy2 has Monday off too. Blah. But that'll be perfect for taking him to Target to apply for a seasonal job. Time for the boy to get some work experience. I'd love for him to work at a fast-food joint. Nothing inspires you to study to go to college like working at MickeyD's.

It's the first of the month, which means bills (BOO!) but getting paid (YAY!), and HeadBoy got his first check from the college (and a bigger one!) and his longevity pay (skimpy but appreciated nonetheless). Into the savings account! Boo-YAH.

Aaaaand...I have to go back for more imagining for my mammogram. Yeah, I do this every year. Probably nothing, like every year.

Internet at the school has been dodgy at best. And not having a desktop that's connected to the scanner and printer makes getting the new exhibit moved along before Parent Weekend impossible.

For being in a profession that is wedded to the past, we're awfully dependent upon technology. Let's go back to being old school! Pencils! Paper! Index cards!

STBB: nearly there, nearly there.

But I took a moment on Sunday to stroll by bridge2sickbay and picked up a couple of prompts to prime the creative pump, as it were.

It's gotten cooler here, thank god. Rained for 2 days straight, again, a reason to rejoice. I picked two of the prettiest red bell peppers off our pepper plants on Sunday.

The reading glasses I lost in DC during the archivists meeting have been found by hotel security!! I couldn't believe it. However, they somehow were separated from the case, which is weird--why would anyone take an eyeglasses case, especially one that was kinda marked up with pen; next time I'm gonna write my name all over the blessed thing. But I should have them back at the end of the week, and I am so excited. That means I have 3 pairs of reading glasses that I can leave everywhere I go.

I left my rainjacket in the choir loft on Sunday. I mean, how spacey can you get, abigail??

I hate funerals, and even moreso, attending 2 funerals within days of each other. On the tragedy scale, one was not at all and the other kinda. The first was for a very old lady, the MIL of the woman I sit next to in choir. She was 98, lived a very long, significant life, had declined over the year, and died peacefully in her sleep--not tragic at all. The other was the son of a beloved former faculty member here at the school. The guy had just retired, was looking forward to writing that book he'd wanted to write about the Civil War, moved back here from Mississippi, and then just...died. On the tragic scale, kinda tragic. And yet, his funeral was the most sterile, unemotional service I've ever attended. It was very strange.

Wow. This was really random.

You remember my big declaration that I'm gonna just let my kids run their own lives, that I'm through running mine and theirs and working 40 hours and doing laundry/cooking dinner/grocery shopping/OMG STOP ME NOW?

Yeah, that lasted about 2 weeks.

So I yelled at Boy2 to get his damn math homework done instead of reading a pleasure book he's read a hundred times. On the other hand, he was reading a real book.

Boy1 has a report out on the kitchen table related to his work with his autistic client. I moved it so that I could sit my plate at my place at the table. Nope. Not gonna read.

Boy1 also called in to tell me he was going from one friend's house to another, and that the first friend is gonna make band t-shirts for them for less than what they'd been paying. And oh yeah, 'love you, mom. See you later.'

He's half-grown up. I'm rejoicing in that.

*~*

Finally have things on track with startrekbigbang and hope to have it done soon. weepingnaiad and I have been chipping away at it in between running households and supporting children and husbands, and working and trying to get enough sleep at night.

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Work at the school has been a little insane. Saturday I entertained 2 classes of freshmen who have been learning about the history of the school and who had to look up the names and biographical info about boys who died and had memorial plaques in the chapel. They were amazed at how many died whilst at the school. Tomorrow, the sexy assistant head of school is coming in with his special studies class on the '60s and they will be going through school newspapers to look up stuff about the 60s. I went through all the newspapers and there ain't much, other than several students who wrote ultra-conservative screeds about communism and how awful the Democrats are. One of them out-Becked Glenn Beck. I had to hold my nose to read his columns. It'll be interesting to see how these kids react when reading the paper from the 60s.

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Happy Birthday to grownuphermione!!!

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That is all I can come up with. Boring entry is booooring.