Elegant Pi

I still haven't answered all my comments from the holiday ficathons, and I wasn't going to post until I had done that (hell, I didn't even do a Yuletide reveal or rec post, BUT I WILL EVENTUALLY), but WHITE COLLAR PREMIERE GETS A SQUEE ENTRY.

BECAUSE IT WAS LIKE THE CHRISTMAS WHERE YOU ASK FOR A PONY AND KNOW YOU WON'T GET IT BUT THEN YOU TOTALLY DO. It's like, your parents bring the pony INTO YOUR ROOM and IT NUZZLES YOU AWAKE and you're like OMG I CAN DIE HAPPY NOW.

( Peter and Neal are going to kick your ass. )

And no one made Neal eat lemon chicken all by himself in a corner. The end.

So, someone put together a My Little Pony generator (warning: addictive). Since I just finished watching the latest White Collar episode (MY HEART, SHOW - YOU SQUISH IT), I had to put Neal into pony form. And immediately, my brain began contemplating fic. I cannot write any other fic until I finish my ABB draft. >.> But here, have pony!Neal, just for kicks and giggles. I hope they add ties to the "accessories" section, eventually.

( Eventually, I'll get around to pony-izing the whole cast... )

Mostly, sholio is to blame for my sudden onset of rabid White Collar fannish-ness. In reading her posts about this series, I became mildly intrigued, and when I saw season one going for $15, I picked it up. And the first episode led to marathoning our way through the first season and paying full price for the second season because 2-day shipping from Amazon was too long to wait.

It really is some of the best television I've seen this year! I've caught up on season 3 (all but episode 2) from my parents' OnDemand, and I'm going to get the s3 eps from iTunes for David to watch. And we're DVRing the rest of the season, of course!

I wish I had time to make an enormous post on all the things I love about the series, but I've got some... stuff going on that requires me to get up earlier than I would like. So, maybe later, although I make no promises since I've been a truly crappy journaler lately. In the meantime, general bullet points! And then some spoilery musings under the cut.

• Jeff Eastin is a Frank Abagnale fan. He HAS to be.


• EL AND PETER FOREVER. Seriously. They are tied with Sheriden and Delenn from Babylon 5 as my favorite tv couple. I love everything about them, as individuals and as a couple. I love, love, LOVE Elizabeth's intelligence and the way she so easily navigates the currents of Peter and his job, and the complications that Neal brings into their lives. She is awesome. And I love Peter for his genuine goodness and honor and rightness without righteousness. I love that he is always, always willing to see the good in people, the possibilities. ♥♥♥


• I can really get into the Elizabeth/Peter/Neal OT3, but ONLY in future!fic when Neal is out of the anklet and truly free to do his own thing. My interpretation of Peter's character is that as long as Neal is in his custody, the power dynamic between them being unequal, Peter would never enter into any kind of relationship with Neal. Nor would he bring Neal into his and Elizabeth's lives so long as any doubts about Neal remain. And, canonically, Peter has a LOT of doubts. But I do love putting the three of them together under the right circumstances almost as much as I love Peter/Elizabeth.


• Mozzie and Elizabeth's friendship. So. Adorable!


• Mozzie in general. David and I called him "Marty" through the first half of season one. The actor gives us Stargate SG-1 nostalgia! Marty was a favorite of ours.


• The playfulness of the whole cast. They all have great chemistry.


• The writers know how to sell the material. There have only been a couple of episodes where I had suspension of disbelief issues. Leverage needs to hire some of these people. Oh, Leverage, I have so many thoughts about you, but I'll save them for another post. The White Collar writers turn out consistently good stories and great dialogue. And believably human actions and reactions.

( Some thoughts on Season 3 and where it's going )

Conclusion: Love the show.

Also, crossovers with Castle are an absolute MUST. There are so many ways the characters' lives and the show stories could intersect. And so many ways for Detective Beckett and Agent Burke to bond. I have one quick rec for this. My soul, it cries out for MORE.

Five Ways Crime Does Pay by celli - Impossible to read without laughing loud enough to wake the house.

"Jimmy Ellery!" Castle said, jumping up and holding out a hand. "I haven't seen you in years. How are you?" He turned to Beckett. "He sold me that Lorado Taft bust."

"You sold him what? As who?" Agent Burke rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, then back down again. "Allow me to introduce my consultant, Neal Caffrey."

Castle froze, his hand still held out in front of him. "Neal Caffrey the con artist?"

Caffrey tilted his head in an aw-shucks gesture. His hat remained tilted rakishly on his head.

"Neal Caffrey the forger?"

"Alleged forger," Caffrey said.

Burke groaned.

"Awkward," Ryan muttered.

"Oh, my God," Castle said. His face lit up, and he reached out to Burke and shook him by the shoulders. "I got conned by Neal Caffrey!" He let Burke go and grabbed Caffrey's hand. "This is awesome."

Burke looked at Beckett. "I don't even know what to say to that."

"I never do," Beckett said.

I have not been a very posty poster lately. Dad has been in and out of the hospital, and he's there now, poor thing - not only in over Father's Day, but he has a procedure tomorrow that requires him to be on a liquid diet. So, not even a morsel of cake! We're having a do-over next Sunday.

As for me, I've been in sort of a slump. This is the way it goes: things seem to get a little better, and then BAM! Something awful happens, again. The more it happens, the worse I feel, and the more depressed I get, and the harder it gets to just get out of bed in the morning, take a shower; all the stuff that should be easy and automatic becomes a big damn deal. I'm trying to get past that, though.

I decided that I would not be able to do summer courses. I'm too tired, and I needed recovery time to get back on my feet, to get rid of the brain fog that comes with depression. And things are starting to get better, now. I don't feel rageful like I did a few weeks ago, I don't feel so gloomy about my own prospects and abilities, and I don't feel that "what's the point?" feeling that makes everything so much harder. I've been reading again, and my enthusiasm for math has returned, finally. For a while, I thought I just wasn't going to be able to do math or science anymore. I've had a lot of stumbling blocks thrown at me that were in no way my fault but that I failed to manage in a productive way. I'm so far behind my original plan that it takes my breath away to acknowledge how far I have yet to go. For a while, I had given up on all of it; just wanted to get my M.A. and call it quits. But I've been reading Dr. Feynman's books again, and I went back and read through some of my favorite parts of Greene's The Elegant Universe, and it was like, "Oh, yeah! That's why I started all this in the first place!"

So, I feel renewed. And now that Dad's OK, and also now that I've sort of made my peace with what will eventually happen, I think I can follow through without further serious disruptions. I can't make everyone's problems my problems, you know? And I don't have to feel guilty that I made this time for myself to do what I want to do with my life, even if there are certain people in my life who have tried to make me feel guilty, who have tried to imply that by trying to keep up with my schoolwork, I'm slacking off and not contributing what I should. People who think that since I have free time, I should give it up to them. People who want to lay problems on me that they themselves created but don't want to take responsibility. I didn't create these situations. It isn't my fault, and, while I'm willing to help, I'm not going to shoulder all the burden, and I'm certainly not going to allow myself to be punished for other people's mistakes.

So, in lieu of taking a course or two, I've set myself some goals for the summer. I don't know if I'll achieve them all, but I'm going to give it my best shot! Some of them are essential, others not so much. All of them will be fun. :)

1) Finish my Atlantis Big Bang story by the July 27th deadline. This is coming up quickly, so it's on the top of my priority list.

2) Work through the Single Variable Calculus lessons from the MIT OpenCourseWare site. There are lecture notes and video lectures, and the course covers the material that is split into Calculus I and II here. So I'll earn myself a much firmer foundation in Calculus, and I'll be better off when I start CalcII again this fall. I think I'll do the online course.

3) Work through the Fundamentals of Chemistry course. I am so pissed at the number of times I've had to drop Chem I. Last summer, it was due to the death of a friend. This past spring, it was due to all the stress with my dad's health. I'm going to try again this fall, and I intend to have it all under my belt so that my biggest worries will be the labs, not the course material. Chemistry is so easy at the fundamental level. It's mostly memorization. I just need to actually meet the course attendance requirements and finish the labs on time.

4) Study to take the exams for a QKA certification. This is a weird one! David and I have been talking about what I can do to earn a little extra money. Now, he works in the pensions field, and some of the stuff is definitely work I can do. With a QKA cert (meaning I'm qualified to administer 401K plans and the like) I can probably pick up some part time work that will more than cover my tuition and fees. Also, when David eventually sets up his own business, I'll be qualified to assist. I'm quite liking this plan.

5) Filling out my observing notebook and earning some of my certificates. This is a great way to become familiar with the night sky. It's not actual astronomy - it's stargazing - but it's still very useful. Plus, FUN.

6) Attend meetings with the JSC Astronomical Society AND get my membership for the Houston Astronomical Society and attend their meetings, too.

7) Start making a plan for my website/blog, and then try to make at least 3-4 posts a month. I need to write better essays, better articles, and be a better blogger in general. I want to join in the conversation on so many different topics! I've been sitting silent on the sidelines for way too long.
7b) This has a b) part to it: I want to be more active on Dreamwidth and get to know you lovely people better. We're in each other's circles, but there are many of you that I don't really know, and I want to change that.

8) Be more active with the OTW, and put in some volunteer time.
8b) Be more active in the ARG/transmedia conversation and activities.
8c) Be more active in fandom. I love fandom and the people in it, and I'd like to get off the sidelines and jump into the thick of things. :)

9) Make a plan for my capstone project for the M.A. degree - this is also essential, since I've got to start working on it this fall.

10) Do more photography. A LOT more.

11) Cross off every item currently on my to-do list. I won't add any more items, but I want this list CLEARED.

And I think that's quite enough for one summer, don't you? What are your plans for the summer? What have you got going?

So, I watched the first episode of Game of Thrones. It was OK - I liked some of the cinematography, and I had no trouble following the plot, even with all the threads they introduced. I was not pleased with the Breast Parade, but it's HBO, so yeah.

What I thoroughly did NOT enjoy was the rape scene at the end of episode 1.

( mild spoilers for Game of Thrones episode 1 )

I have a problem with rape of women shown for entertainment. I did in passing think, "Maybe there is some significance to this scene, to the story." So I went to the internet. What I found made me even angrier. In fact, in the book, the wedding night scene was very much NOT RAPE. Khal Drogo ASKS her for permission to have sex with her. He is not forceful with her, and from Daenerys's point of view, he is gentle. She is a willing participant in the sex. She gives the final assent. SHE SAYS YES. It is implied in the scene that Khal Drogo would not have gone forward if she had been reluctant. I'm not making excuses for the fact that here is a story about a girl sold into marriage and forced into a wedding night that she didn't want, but when it comes down to the actual sex, it's clear that she is interested and aroused. By her "Yes." and her actions at the end of the scene, her choice to experience the sex is made quite clear.

So why, I have to ask, was that scene changed from consensual sex to rape? Did the producers think rape is more entertaining, that having Daenerys consent was just... boring? Or are they asking us to buy into the idea that "rape is love" or that women who are raped will eventually grow to love sex with their rapist if he keeps at it? I don't know what their motivations were, but I don't feel that I can trust this tv series not to show rape or violence against women as something normal or desirable.

So, here (with thanks to sheafrotherdon for the transcription) is the wedding night scene straight from the book.

( Compare and Contrast: Daenerys's wedding night scene, straight from the book )

The meme has people posting file names of the WIPs, but some of my WIPs are on paper and haven't been transferred to digital yet, so I'll just post what I'm working on. More like "poking at" rather than "actively working on"; I would love to have a few days to do nothing but write fic and rewatch my favorite episodes of things. I have a little bit of time at the end of my spring break, after SXSWi, so maybe I'll do it then.

Sammeeeees:
Sammeeeees (and its sequel, Sammeeeees II) is an alternate reality game that ran in 2006 and 2007. It had such a great story. I dreamed about the Sammeeeees 'verse one night, very vividly and intensely, and when I woke up, I decided I really needed to reconstruct that dream as a fic. This is first on my list to finish, because I'd like to have it done by this summer so I can send it to my fellow Sammeeeees.

• The Witches of Spoocheeeee - Peeps has invited all of the Sammeeeees to a party in his garden in Maine. He's also invited his elderly neighbor, who was once a jackal in the service of Spoocheeeee and who escaped. In the middle of the party, a young woman appears, and Peeps recognizes her as one of the Witches of Spoocheeeee. She brings a warning - that the Witches are reclaiming the power of Spoocheeeee and raising up the Eidolon once more.

Stargate Atlantis:

• Rites and Passages - A Miko-centric story that was supposed to be a quick little scene of her and McKay sort-of-bonding over a piano and a piece of music. It is not a Miko/Rodney story - it's very, very gen. And it has morphed into a much, much longer story about Miko and her relationships with Atlantis, her boss, her co-workers, her lab, her work, her family, all of that. I love it a lot, and I'm being extra-careful with it, so I never work on it unless I can give it my 100% attention. I hope to finish this one by summer.

Babylon 5:

• The Walk - A tag to "Objects in Motion". What John and Delenn saw, heard, talked about, and encountered on their 5-mile walk down the length of Babylon 5.


• Conversations at a Bar - Lennier and Vir and their clandestine meetings at the B5 bar over the course of 5 years. I'm sure someone else has already written something of this kind; I may not finish it, but so far I've been enjoying writing it, anyway. So much character development to dig into!

Crossovers:
Most of these exist as ideas on paper.

• Wheel of Time/SG1 - Because you know that if there's a Stargate anywhere in WoT-world, it's in the basement of the White Tower. And there are Portal Stones for switching between universes. Yeah. That's all I've got. I'm saving writing this for when I have a long stretch of time and several bottles of wine at my disposal. :D


• SGA/Twin Peaks - Audrey Horne and Bobby Briggs both come to Atlantis. Bobby is a military guy (like his father). Audrey is a psychiatrist, part of Kate Heightmeyer's mental health team. Twin Peaks-ish things happen.

AUs:

• Stargate SG1: Roller Derby - I've been scribbling notes on this like crazy. As nutty as it sounds, it's been a lot of fun to poke at. This is another one that I want a looooong stretch of time (but no wine) to just write all the way through. It's likely going to be 35K or more when completed. It's also a story that lends itself to showcasing the awesome women of Stargate.

That's all for now!

So, back in 2009, I made a scary-but-wonderful decision about the direction of my life. Before June 2009, I'd been in a comfortable but mind-numbingly boring job that caused me to become so depressed that I stopped writing, stopped being social, stopped caring about life for the most part. It was a learning experience - I learned that I am not happy or comfortable in an office environment or in a job that has an unvarying routine that involves few mental challenges. So I quit, and I decided to return to school as a graduate student. That wasn't the scary-but-wonderful decision, though.

That came somewhere around the middle of August 2009, when I started asking the question, what can I do with my life that will make me happy forever? At first, I thought it would be working in the transmedia industry, which is why I chose digital media studies for my graduate program. But that summer, I started to get a little bit scared. If I've learned anything over the years, I've learned to listen to those uncertain flutterings in my stomach that are the result of my brain telling me that something is not a good idea. I worried over how I would fit in the transmedia industry. I worried I wouldn't make a good freelancer, or that I would be a weak link in a deadline-driven, high-intensity environment. I worried that many of the people I knew who had jobs in this very new industry were already getting laid off as the economy kept on diving. I worried about putting myself in a position to be unhappy again, this time with even worse consequences.

So I had to decide - what could I do that would make me happy? Ugh. Too big a question to contemplate. So I just decided to watch a lot of television and hope that the answer presented itself to me on a silver platter. Haha.

Well, actually... It did.

Since then, it's been slow going. I had a couple of flubbed semesters - last year was just a rotten year, to be honest. In the spring, there were some family problems. In the summer, a friend died. In the fall, my dad had several collapses, which culminated into a nightmarish event in early December. (Dad is improving every day now, though - still in the hospital, but I believe he will be home in a month or so!!) I also found myself overwhelmed by some of the work. It took a while for my brain to adjust to the study of mathematics and science after being out of the game for so long!

As a consequence of several circumstances, I ended up dropping some of the pre-requisite classes I needed for the physics program in the spring and summer, so I was not able to enter the UHCL physics program in Fall 2010 as I had originally planned. BUT! I am still on-track to enter the program this fall. And here are some milestones that I've passed.

• I passed Calculus I with a B. Wow?


• I can do more with math now than I have ever been capable of in my entire life. Things that I remember being difficult are very clear to me now. Last week, I had a chemistry quiz covering problems in dimensional analysis, something that I struggled with once upon a time - I finished it in fifteen minutes with no hesitations. My grade was 100%. Amazing.


• This semester, I feel like I have finally reached a place of balance in my academics. I don't feel like a "crappy student" - I feel like I'm moving forward and that I am performing well in my classes.


• I'm struggling with some of the subject matter in Calculus II, but I'm not panicked about this. I know, from my experience in Calculus I, that I will be able to understand the material with time and a lot of practice and maybe some tutoring. I've never been this sanguine about failure subverted into a learning process. It's a big step for me.


• I am one class and a capstone project away from completing my M.A. in Digital Media Studies. In the fall, I will be a full-time physics student.


• I'm participating in designing projects for some of the digital media studies classes. It's pseudo-TA work that I can put on my resume.


• I've already designed my capstone project and plan to begin production this summer.


• I'm learning to program! Right now, I'm teaching myself Python. Programming is fun! I may have to learn C later (dreading dreading dreading) but I'm totally a Python convert thanks to Bruce and Michael.

So, that's it. I am on track to receiving my B.S. in physics in December 2013, if all goes well. I've already got my eye on the graduate program that I want: University of Texas' Graduate Program in Astronomy. They have an affiliation with the McDonald Observatory out in West Texas, and they have a strong research program in my area of interest: Extrasolar Planetary Systems. They basically have my dream program, and everything I do from here on out will be aimed at being an acceptable PhD candidate in their school.

This is an exciting time to be an astronomer! You may have heard about the amazing results recently announced by NASA's Kepler research team. We're making new observations about our universe as fast as we can refine and produce the tools with which we observe. I'm just as excited about this decision as I was in September 2009 when I first wrote about it. I really have come a long way since then. Two years ago, if someone told me I'd be spending half my waking hours studying calculus and chemistry, I would have laughed that person off as crazy. Now, I can't imagine doing anything else, and I can't wait to be a full-time physics student. UHCL also offers excellent astronomy and astrobiology courses, which I will, of course, be taking!

Tomorrow, I'm going to my first meeting of the JSC Astronomical Society, and I'm planning to begin an observing program later this month. The JSCAS has certificates for completing different observing programs. Since we've paid off my car, I'm going to purchase an entry-level telescope and begin with observing and recording the Messier objects. It's an excellent way to learn observation techniques and familiarize myself with the sky! Mostly, astronomy observations are made remotely - astronomers don't huddle out in the cold to get their data anymore. ;) But we still learn to observe by going outside and looking up. I can't wait to start earning my certificates and learning from people who love astronomy as much as I do!

I'm just... every time I think of my future as an astronomer/astrophysicist, I get the most amazing head-rush. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to do this, to change my life so completely. My husband and my sister have both been such awesome helps to me in this endeavor. They keep the kitchen clean, they bring me food when I'm too tired or too busy to cook my own, and they just generally take care of me and let me see to my schoolwork without making a lot of demands on me. I'm very lucky! And then there are my friends Bruce and Michael, who patiently answer my questions about calculus problems that twist my brain into painful knots.

Now that the bad things of last year are fading into the background of my memory, I'm still kind of tensed up and waiting for the universe to smack me down again. But I swear, I will cling to these classes by my fingernails and teeth. These things are non-negotiable: I am finishing my M.A. this year. And I am starting the physics program this year.

So, that's where I am in the process of becoming an astrophysicist. A little behind, but definitely not out of the game!

First, an update on my dad. He was transported by air to Methodist hospital in Houston (from Little Rock, oh god, what a nightmare place) and is doing so much better, although we have a long, long way to go as far as recovery. He's totally conscious and totally with us and will soon be off the ventilator, and guys, I can't tell you how much I can't wait for that because all I've wanted these long, long weeks is to hear my Dad's voice again. I've been dreaming of him almost every night. I'm hoping against hope that he will make a strong recovery and can at least go back to living a mostly normal life with my mom, at home. Please hope with me!

Bethany and I drove back on the night of the 23rd, also, while Mom and Dad flew. It's a long drive but an easy one. We're so glad to be home, and David is so glad to have us home. David's Mom is visiting with us for a while, and I don't even fret when she cleans my kitchen - that's how tired I am, lol! Mom stayed with us a few nights, but she's going back to her house tonight and will come over again tomorrow after being at the hospital. Poor Mom is so tired. But we're all going to be fine, I think. I hope.

And now, other things. So, it's not even the new year, but I've already got some projects in the works! I'm coming up on the end of my M.A. program. I've just got 4 classes left, and then the capstone project, which is what I'm beginning work on now. I'm not going to share too many details about it, because the shape and substance of it is going to change a lot while it's in development. I will need an audience, so I will begin promoting it before it goes live, which should be at the end of next November. I'm super-excited about it, and I finished the project proposal this morning, which I will present to my advisor as soon as the semester begins.

Now that I'm in a crisis-free period, I also need to finish two projects that I have been owing to people for several months now, that should have been finished and sent out last October. Hoping to have these two things finished and on their by the end of next week.

Tomorrow, I'm doing a photo shoot with my lovely cousin, for my first concept photograph that will involve a lot of post-production work in Photoshop. I'm super-excited! We're going to experiment with costumes, possibly levitation, and play with meanings and metaphors. It's going to be awesome. I'll post the results if I manage to do anything worth showing off. :)

Right now, in between poking at some of the scripts for my capstone, I've been reading through the Yuletide archive. I need to make a proper rec post, but I am just blown away by the sheer amount of AWESOME that I've read in the last couple of days. Right now, I'll just recommend that everyone go read the fic that was written for little me. It's a beautiful piece set in Heian Japan: Bangai (Apocrypha).

Reading the comments my giftee made about the fic I wrote (no link to until after the 1st, have to remain anonymous for now!) had me absolutely in (happy, ecstatic, proud) tears. She even went to her LJ and her tumblr and the Yuletide Love!Post to rave about it. It touched me so much that she loved it that amount, and it meant a lot because after reading through her tumblr I could tell she's a very intelligent, creative young woman, someone I'd love to sit down and have a cup of coffee with, and a long, fannish discussion about the fandom we both love a whole lot. :) That was the highlight of my Christmas morning: reading the gorgeous fic someone wrote for me, and reading the comments on the fic I wrote. <3

I've got some fic that I want to complete by the end of January, most especially an SGA piece centered on the character of Miko Kusanagi. What started as a little scene drabble that I wanted to jot down has turned into a complex character study, and I am having so much fun working on it. It just feels like I am never going to reach an end!! And plot and character stuff keeps popping up, demanding to be included, so it just gets longer, and longer, and longer... But I think it's going to be my very best SGA fic yet.

Speaking of SGA fic: I need to mention the lovely piece written for me by my sga_santa: Science Day, a "day in the life" story centering around Dr. Rodney McKay. It's plotty, science-y, and funny, with John and Rodney working together and snarking at each other, and a little bit of backup by Teyla and Ronon, and my favorite secondary characters Miko and Radek make an appearance here and there. It has a little mystery woven in that is pure Stargate-ness, and a great scene where Sheppard is all "No one messes with MY scientist!! >:P" <3

I think that's all for now. I'm about to go make two delicious French Silk Chocolate Pies for dessert tonight. We had turkey (cooked by someone else, the best kind!) last night, with green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. Tonight, it's leftover turkey with squash and sweet potatoes (and leftover casserole and mashed potatoes, yay carbs!)

And at 8pm, I've got a training session for VolCom at the OTW, which I'm looking forward to like whoa. :)

So, I'm hanging out in the lobby of the hospital's hotel. There is a computer here, and internet, and snacks, and coffee, and silence, and it is perfect for someone who can't sleep but who has two sleeping people in her hotel room. And the lady on duty came over and brought me a kleenex and gave me a hug, and then told me to stay as long as I liked and brought me a cup of coffee.

Things That Help:

• Lurking in fannish spaces and fannish journals, reading back entries, especially the SQUEEEEE ones.


• Re-reading fledmusic's Stargate Atlantis reminiscing post, and all the comments.


• Reading fic, especially happy fic.


• Working on my Yuletide fic. (I am trying to get it finished while there are no immediate crises. I'll drop out on the 17th if I have to, but until then, I'm going to keep scribbling away, hoping to finish the fic, because I love it and I want my recipient to have a chance to love it, hoping she won't hate it. ^_^)


• Being proud that my sga_santa fic is already finished, hoping that my recipient likes it and that it's not too silly or stupid. I finished it the night before I left for Little Rock.


• My final grade in calculus was a B+. Dude, that is something to SING about. I totally thought I was going to fail, fail, fail, right there at the end.


• Discovering on GoogleMaps that there is an Indian restaurant down the street. If things are a) the same or b) improved tomorrow at the hospital, I'm going to celebrate with dinner and a movie (The Tourist, because Johnny Depp is hot). I've already decided that things are going to be improved tomorrow, so I look forward to nomming a lamb rogan josh with my mouth and nomming Johnny Depp with my eyes.

Somewhat calmer now, but wide awake, so I'll be here in the lobby for the foreseeable future, possibly until it is time to go wake everyone up for breakfast. I'm re-reading Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier, which I haven't reread since waaay before David and I got married, and which is even more fun and sweet now that I have been steeped in Indian culture for nearly six years.