nor so wide as a church door

I swore to myself that I wouldn't post until I'd done the second ladiesbigbang check-in, and I swore to myself that I wouldn't do that until I had broken 30k on the fic. Which I did! Sadly for me, it is ... still not quite half-done. D: Why, brain? Why is it always epics? I also can't wait to edit it, because ... well. It's not as bad as it could be, but it could still use some work.

Anyway. I absolutely LOATHE HEAT, so this hasn't been the best week ever, but I've still managed to get some weeding done by going at about 7:00 in the morning. And then spending the rest of the day lying on the couch trying not to move too much. Before it got too bad, I got another bowl of those magnificent blackberries - well, okay, black raspberries. Whatever. Point is, they're out again this year, and they are just as gigantic and gorgeous as last year. I also had to give up a little blood to pick them, same as last year, and again, I got that funny sense of appropriateness about it. If you want fabulous black raspberries, then you've got to be willing to get pricked.

The Fourth was pretty good. Too hot for my taste, of course, but we got to go over to a friend's family's house for dinner, and show them Stranger Than Fiction, which they had not seen before and absolutely loved. I was a little worried about it; I love that movie, but it can take pretty hefty suspension of disbelief for some people to get past the premise and just enjoy it. But it all worked out! \o/

I wish I had something intelligent to say about Vividcon, but I've never been and I have only just begun to scratch the surface of the wonderful world of vids. ( Some blithering about my personal opinion below. )

In lighter, more squeeful news, I am getting seriously overwhelmed by shows. I need a Time-Turner, I cannot watch HawthoRNe and Covert Affairs at the same time. :P (Please, Covert Affairs, be good. You don't have to be great, I am not a demanding viewer. Just be decent!) I keep forgetting to post about Burn Notice, but it should suffice to say: ♥♥♥♥♥! I am still happy, and looking forward to wherever they're going with this whole badass-hot-assassin-lady thing. I also managed to catch the end of last season/beginning of this season set of Warehouse 13 episodes last night, and all I can say is: I LOVE CLAUDIA. AND EVERYONE ELSE. Including ( maybe a bit of a spoiler. )

... I still can't believe I have a job. D:

It was B's 21st birthday yesterday, so, naturally, she went out and got drunk.

I don't drink, for a number of different reasons: the biggest one is that I just plain hate the taste of alcohol, but I also actually find the entire idea of drunkenness a little creepy, like, you are deliberately putting yourself into a state where you no longer make the same decisions you would normally make - you are, at least to some extent, a different person. It weirds me out, idk. Plus it doesn't really seem like it's worth it: B tends to characterize it to me as something to do for fun, but A) I have always managed to have fun enough to make me happy without alcohol (M, K, Ka, J, and Q also do not drink, generally speaking), B) it seems to only actually be fun as long as you're drunk, given the number of times B has bemoaned all the drunk-dials she made/stupid things she did, and C) the amount of pain and vomit that follows seems like quite a bit more unpleasantness than any power of alcohol to enhance fun can outweigh.

(NB: All of this applies much more to binge drinking, college-party-type drinking, than going out with friends for a few drinks on a Friday or having a cold beer on a hot afternoon. I'm not, like, morally opposed to the consumption of alcohol in general, or anything like that.)

Anyway, the point is: I feel like a terrible person, but I'm kind of evilly enjoying watching her suffer through her hangover. (I know, worst friend ever. /o\)

I also kind of enjoyed that she was gone last night, because it meant I had control of the TV; I watched a couple episodes of SVU, and then an episode of HawthoRNe that I think I must have missed the first time around. I've come to really love HawthoRNe: I love the predominance of relationships between women, and between characters of color (and, pleasingly often, both at once!); I think I may be developing a girlcrush on Jada Pinkett Smith - and Suleka Mathew, for that matter; and I'm pleased deep in my nerdy soul to be seeing Colonel McQueen from Space: Above & Beyond again. 24 can be fun to watch sometimes, but there are so many things about it that annoy me if I let them; it's nice to have him be on something else. I haven't gotten to watch as many episodes as I'd like to, but I've very much enjoyed all of the ones that I've seen, so.

Also: ( an awkward conversation with Br. ) Obviously, it's okay to dislike a ship, to not like slash very much or not like het very much or whatever it is - it's personal taste, it can't really be categorized as wrong, as incorrect. I think what bothers me about Br's gripe is that the way she phrased it moves the issue into, or at least toward, the realm of moral judgment, with her on the side of people who are capable of appreciating the beauty of strong, platonic male friendship, and people who ship things like Frodo/Sam on the side of the poor, lust-driven plebes who can't leave well enough alone and get all carried away with that wacky subtext crap.

Phew. Now that I've got that off my chest: shower time!