in my life

Nature continues to progress! New developments from the past two-ish weeks include ( shortly )

OTHERWISE:
-Winter Olympics were amazing, why do we only get them once every few years, how are snow and ice sports so beautiful and fascinating and aesthetically pleasing.

-I would like to read fic but honestly I have just fallen down the rabbit hole of m/m sports romance novels, starting with everything Rachel Reid has to offer, then KD Casey, now Ari Baran, and who knows what's next, with a slight detour into warm and cozy Kind by Hannah Leigh. I feel like at SOME POINT I should stop. If you ask me to tell apart all the different couples I've read about in the past 2 weeks I would be hard pressed to explain all the different characters and plots. And yet.

-Enjoying the new season of The Pitt and a few other show's I'm following, but nothing makes me as happy (and heartbroken, but mostly happy) entertainment-wise as watching a new episode of Shrinking every week. Just, how is that show so good.

-Nature! It's one of the warmest winters I can recall, less rain and warmer weather and a shorter green period, but there are still winter flowers, and I do my best to hike and picnic on the weekends as much as I can. This past weekend I went up to the Golan with a friend, just 2 days of walking around the peace and quiet of the green green north, which was incredibly lovely. The weather makes it constantly feel like Passover is just around the corner, which is disorienting and kind of nice and kind of not.

On Saturday I went to an incredible production of Cabaret. It's one of my favorite musicals to see in live theater, and this production really was incredibly, 360-stage Kit Kat Club and all, and I might have written more if I weren't falling asleep but I very much am, alas.

Okay hello again. In Hebrew, going endlessly on and on is called digging, so let me try and catch up on myself here without digging too much:

Fandom: juggling between reading fics, watching TV, some movies, and - gasp - even some books or occasionally an audiobook. Would really love recommendations for audiobooks you enjoyed. Fic-wise: kind of still juggling Captain America/Endgame fic and - still, my god - Harry/Draco fic, and also Schitt's Creek fic because I will at this point read anything lettered writes and that show is at least 30% fucking adorable (even if you don't watch the show - watch this clip of David and Patrick saying I love you for the first time, yes it's a spoiler but my god one should infuse every day of one's life with a dose of sweetness like this.

Since it's still summer, I'll take a moment to recommend Linda Holmes's debut novel Evvie Drake Starts Over, which is a small-town Maine romance about a widow who rents a room to a washed up pro-baseball player. It has romance and friendship and is both a good book and a good audiobook, if you are in the mood to read a really well done Hallmark movie equivalent, and I hope we get something come of it come yuletide.

Another fun romcom I recently watched is the Israeli show Beauty and the Baker, which is apparently getting an American version this fall, but you can also find the original on Amazon Prime - down-to-earth baker from Bat Yam and Bar Refaeli-style international model meet, love shenanigans and drama happen. There are two seasons which I binged in about a week.

Work: When I joined this start-up in December 2017 we were 10 people; we're now around 60, and it's been a year and a half of growing pains essentially, and on my end, way too much work and stress. But growth also means I'm no longer directly under our CEO but have a new manager who is really great, and push to get a replacement for me so I can stop managing accounts anymore (thank god) and move to the product team in a few months, which is what I wanted. I've worked with but never been part of the product team, and while I'm a little intimidated - they all come from technical backgrounds and come with experience - I do know I'm bringing value to the table, and I know the head of product has faith in me, which is encouraging. Ultimately, I'm hoping this will give me experience in a new field which I'll hopefully like and be able to grow in, and am also hoping will lead to a healthier work/life balance. So - scared/excited/hopeful. Theoretically, the transition will happen in January. I'll be sad to leave the account management team I'm in now, because on a social level they are wonderful people and fun to work with (and also mostly female, while product - not so much), but hopefully this will lead to good things.

Meanwhile, two girls I trained a year ago have just been promoted to team leaders, and they are so great and so deserving and I'm happy for them - while at the same time feeling this annoying little resentment at how they're getting this recognition and (WELL-DESERVED) applause now, and I'm not. Which is SO DUMB because I have specifically been telling my bosses for a year that I don't want to be a team leader (because I don't!) and want to make a lateral move to product instead, so there is literally nothing for me to be resentful about. I just... want the move to happen and for people to know about it already. (It's still ~hush hush~ for ~reasons~).

Travel: Two exciting trips on the horizon:

1. Aug 20-25th - I'm going to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival again! This time I'll be traveling with marina and another mutual friend. This will be our first trip abroad together, so you know, rooting for success. I am looking forward to some green, some rain, some theater and bagpipes and cobblestones. (I will also toss out there - if you happen to be in the area, do let me know; we also have a spare bed in our airbnb at the moment so it is possible that Things Can Be Arranged.)

2. Sept 18-Oct 10th - NYC/Atlanta! Have I mentioned my new boss is lovely and she not only did not blink when I told her I wanted to fly out during the holidays, she told me "Just let me know the dates and it will happen"? So I bought a flight out for the night of the elections; vote in the morning, will discover the results at the airport. (Yes, in case you haven't heard, we are having elections again, because this country is dumb and elected the Likkud again and Bibi couldn't form a coalition so back to the ballots it is).

Anyway - I plan on working from New York from the 18th till the 26th, taking a vacation to Atlanta from the 26th to October 3rd, and flying back to NYC until the 10th, working from the office there with probably another day of vacation. Would love to meet any friends I can while there, as usual ♥

Life: I'm still going to choir, and have started taking voice lessons as well, to learn how to sing better. Every once in a while I'll go to a play or to improv or to trivia or to an escape room with sisters or friends. I started running again for a while, then stopped, and am trying to start again. I started going to a weekly women's soccer practice, which has been really fun, though now on break for the summer. I just finished a month-long watercolor painting course, which was, more than anything, incredibly soothing. I went on two dates, which were okay but nothing special, and swiped a bunch on tinder but not done anything beyond swiping. I don't feel lonely and have very little energy or motivation to make the effort of working towards having a relationship; at the same time, I'm 34 and should start thinking seriously about whether I want to have biological kids and whether I want to do anything about it, because if I end up not, I would prefer it to at least be my choice and not just something I never got around to (which would be very easy for me; I am very talented at never getting around to things).

*

A few weeks ago, I took a day trip to a few monasteries in the Judean desert. This was not long after Good Omens came out, which naturally made every story rife with Crowly or Aziraphale cameos. I will share just 3 photos:


St. George Monastery in Wadi Qelt. The current monastery is from the 19th century; the original was destroyed by the Persians in 614. The only part remaining from the original is a small shrine that holds relics of the monks who were massacred in 614, which were discovered 50 years ago. According to the abbot, the remains had never been found, until one day 50 years ago the monks started seeing a path of snails, all going in the same direction. The monks followed the snails, until they arrived at a small cave, where they discovered the bones of those ancient monks. A chapel was built in the place, with snails inscribed on the door, a monument to The Miracle of the Snails. I think we can all figure out who orchestrated that particular miracle.


Nabi Musa - the tomb of Moses, according to Muslim tradition. In Jewish tradition Moses never makes it across the Jordan river, but according to this story, he perhaps wanted to see the holy land after all so he sneaked across the river at night, and got to the bottom of a red hill, where he happened to encounter a man digging a grave. He offered to help him dig, and the man said okay, and when they were done, Moses lay in the grave to see how it feels, at which point he realized it was his time to die, and the man, who was the Angel of Death, took his soul away.


Deir Hajla/Monastery of Saint Gerasimos by the Dead Sea, or: ~Aziraphale and Crowley on a date~

Have a good week, all <3

While I haven't always lit candles every day over the years, it's somehow the one holiday tradition that I actually do find myself following fairly consistently, even when I'm alone. Can't really think of other holidays I'd do that for - mainly, maybe, because most other traditions involve prayer, making food, or having other people around, and lighting candles is something simple you can do to mark the holiday even when you're alone. Also, firelight in the darkness! That's always fun.

Counting the days of Hanukkah so far:

Day 1: had job interview with CEO of a small but growing start-up in the morning. Shopped for groceries. Peeled and grated roughly one million potatoes by hand. SUCCESSFULLY LATKE'D. Successfully hosted partly-extended family for the first time, for the first candle. There was singing, there were candles, there was food and coziness, overall graded myself an A.

Day 2: Baby sister came over in the afternoon. We briefly lit candles together in the evening, then left to meet my aunt and uncle for drinks and a movie - Scaffolding, a fairly depressing Israeli drama.

Day 3: Went to second women web coding class (I officially know a tony bit of CSS now), bought a new menorah at Nahlat Binnyamin, started listening to the Call Me By Your Name audiobook* (*WE WILL RETURN TO THIS), and had dinner + Star Wars: the Last Jedi in the evening (fun times, enjoyed reading people's reactions after.) Lit candles when I got home at 3AM.

Day 4: Candle lighting in the evening with sisters and parents, at my parents' house.

Day 5: Spent the day in bed, basically. Lit candles at home.

Day 6: Had second job interview at same company. Got job offer, and they want me to start tomorrow /o\ Felt overall very strange about this swift turn of events. Received contract draft by email, had a few questions/revisions that I sent back, am currently still waiting for them to get back to me. Lit candles at home. Drove to a town in the center to meet a good friend for coffee, updates, and freak outs about life; ate the best pomela I have ever tasted in my life, and picked another one from their tree to take home with me, no offense intended to my parents' pomela tree.

***

So, job-wise: basically I am waiting for their feedback on my comments and if all goes well I guess I'm going to start tomorrow. I am not unconflicted about this, but I think/hope it'll be okay and prove to be a good decision, and we'll see soon enough.

***

Let me take you back now to Call Me By Your Name because wow. The movie's coming out here next month, and after seeing some adorable clips and cast interviews it was definitely on my radar as both 'to watch' and potentially 'to read', especially after seeing tumblr descriptions of it as "one of the most romantic books I'v ever read" ((c) Someone On Tumblr).

And then suddenly youtube decided to bump up this 7+ hour video into my feed, which is the ripped Call Me By your Name audiobook narrated by Armie Hammer.

NOW. I figured to myself, okay, let's listen to a sample, and if I like it let's go ahead and buy the real thing. FRIENDS I COULD NOT CLICK THE 'BUY NOW' BUTTON FAST ENOUGH. Just a few minutes in, it was very clear to me that I definitely wanted to listen to all seven hours and forty-four minutes of Armie Hammer's gravelly voice in my ear, like a long, slow seduction that is nearly impossible to listen to in public without blushing. Like, imagine walking down the street with his voice IN YOUR HEAD going ( paraphrased quote ) or ( and another ), like, WHAT EVEN dude, have some mercy. And I'm only in chapter fucking five. And then he started saying words in Hebrew. Help.

All of which is to say, if you have Audible, books currently have a 50% discount. If you don't have Audible, you can get the 30-day free trial and get your first audiobook for free by using 1 credit. Which I think is what I did. So know that that is out there.

1. I have about a gazillion photos of flowers and trees because it is SPRINGTIME EVERYWHERE here and nature - be it planted, inner-city nature - is breathtaking, and you can find the first batch of them here. That post is "unlisted" so if you reply there it's actually really hard to get a convo going, so uh, interaction preferred here :-)

2. For dinner tonight, I bought an Ugly Orange, which is an actual real name of a species of delicious citrus, and a kind of filo-pancake-sausage-burrito for $0.7, and a box of fresh pineapple pieces for $1.50. Which is just... unreal.

3. Following marina's rec and seeing a bunch of wonderful reviews floating around along with some excited twitter conversation, this weekend I started reading, then full-out binged on K.J. Charles' Society of Gentlemen trilogy, and then I went to AO3 and had my *heart broken* at the fact that there are exactly 0 fics for this fandom. Granted, book 3 only came out two weeks ago, but still. I feel so strongly that fic should exist! What can I do to help this? Do we need a prompt fest? Is there one already out there? I WANT TO HELP.

For anyone who might be interested in the books - it is a trilogy of m/m Regency-era romance novels, each focusing on a different ship among a group of characters who know each other. Both of the recs I linked to are for the second book of the series and were written before the third came out, but I actually read the trilogy in order and am very glad for it; the first book started out a little slow but completely hooked me by the time I was a third of the way in, and then book 2 ♥♥♥, and then book 3 ♥♥♥_♥♥♥. Yes, that is my very eloquent rec. It's what it says on the tin, but it's what it says on the tin so well.

So, yes. Fic for this series. Let's see how we can make that happen before Yuletide.

It's been a beautifully sunny Friday and wonderfully rainy Saturday and multi-rainbowed today, and I am decently caught up on all of my shows; which softens the blow, a little, for the fact that I got home from work today at 11PM.

Here is a fun thing: a person changing her mind about wanting a position in your department, after you've spent an enormous amount of time and energy training them for the job for the past two months; at time while also training another person for a different job, and while doing your own job, and at times while filling in for your boss who was away. Like - it's good that she left now, because better now than in a few months of doing a bad job I guess, if she didn't care and it wasn't good for her, but man, what a stroke of bad luck for the department.

The reason I stayed late wasn't really anything to do with that, but because I finally sent a massive email I'd beet putting off for 2-3 months, so at least that's a giant load off my shoulders. I mean, at least until tomorrow, when I get in the office and see people's responses, but oh well.

I haven't been reblogging Captive Prince things on tumblr because I... don't want to spoil anyone for anything, though I'm pretty sure anyone who might be spoiled has already read the books. And yet. So - some random Captive Prince links:

Captive Prince kink meme on DW! That is a think that is happening :DDD
Combating the King fanart lol
This manip of Laurent - a lot of people have many ideas about what the characters might look like, and while they don't always hit my tastes, this one struck a chord with me. (I also like this Laurent, though there's something about the expression that feels a little... off.)

I have also been reading some fic, which has been fun; I'm happy that now that the series is over and so many questions are answered, there's also more room for people to write fic with a fuller understanding of the characters.

Also: I have seen someone on tumblr reccing Song of Achilles. Has anyone read it? I had not heard of it, though goodreads has... quite a number of reviews. Any thoughts ("nice" "good" "totally overrated") appreciated.

Continued here! Spoilers all the way to the lone chapter we have in book 3. I think.

( Book 2 reread reactions. )

I will leave at this point because hahaha I am actually AT WORK and should attempt to concentrate on that. More reactions toooooddd...aaaa...y? Maybe.

ETA: It is a day later and I am back! Let's see what I can squeeze in here before work.

( Book 2 reactions cont )

While anyone hockey-inclined probably read that title as a typo of some sorts relating to Jonathan Toews - my fingers actually automatically typed 'toews', which surprises no one - I am, in fact, talking about my actual toes!

I have spent the past 9 days traipsing around London and Edinburgh (with the awesome sabra_n in a pair of boots, which I thought were comfortable when I bought them this winter? But I guess I must not have walked around in them at all, for it took barely 24 hours of admittedly hardcore full-on-tourist walking for my toes to rise up in rebellion and cry: NO MORE.

Of course, my toes had no actual choice in the matter, and so, scuffed and bruised, remained imprisoned for the rest of the week, until this morning, when they were finally reunited with their good friends, my sandals. if I had the time I would compose an Ode to Sandals. In rhymes, and probably some kind of fancy verse.

Anyway, the trip was great. Over the course of five days at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, we went to 24 shows, a combination of comedy and improv and musicals (and improv comedy musicals!) and theater and dance and... weird stuff. I hope to write a more in depth write-up of the trip later when I am not... at work.

Seeing as hockey is a not-entirely-to-say-the-least-happy-place for me right now, I downloaded a of optional reading material, the only one of which I actually ended up reading was this highly recommended hockey/kink original novel, which, hockey people who are into kink, read it :D

...and then the rest of the time I read Fast and Furious fic - for which I've left zero feedback so far, but I will, it was all super awesome -

and--

dum dum dum

for the first time ever

DUE SOUTH FIC.

Yes, somehow I have managed to be in fandom since 1998 without ever having read a single due South fic, and what's more, without knowing what was the canon explanation for RayK replacing RayV in the show lololololol wow. That's just - amazing.

Anyway, sabra_n gave me a crash course and some recs, so I read Chicago's Most Wanted, and have started reading just a few others. It's so weird reading all these fics from like, 2003, both with regards to style, and tropes, and even the technology, with their most sophisticated piece of tech being at best a palm pilot.

I don't see myself going all in, but it's really nice to have some of these fics to dig into. So: I can find rec lists and such, but if any of you have any particular dS favorites, do feel free to share :-)

Seriously, HALLELUJAH, I am actually reading a book for reaaaaaaal this is so exciting. I started Uprooted over the weekend, and I have definitely reached 'hooked' (='dammit-this-will-make-me-late-for-work') status.

In fact, I was almost late for work this morning because I was gonna get ready and then chapter 11 happened, so of course I had to read that the whole way through. My reaction through that: ( spoilers )

I'm pretty sure I've seen some posts by people here who've read the book; I have skipped them all for spoilers so I don't remember who wrote anything now, but if you've read it, please lmk so I can hit you up when I'm done :-)

1. Learned that Harry Styles apparently has a thing with Judaism? DON'T DO THIS TO ME 1D FANDOM. I do not need to be drawn in via this.

2. Read a memoir about hockey which was, hey, at least an actual book instead of just reading fic, so it's almost as if I expanded my horizons.

3. Watched The Sound of Music for the first time in at least 15 years. When I was a kid Christopher Plummer was always old and mean and unattractive and watching the film now my mind was blown at the fact that he is hot and sarcastic and witty, WHO'D HAVE THUNK. He's pretty mean but in a... deliciously cynical way. How is this movie still so enjoyable. Also, I want a Sound of Music AU in pretty much every single fandom I've ever been in, but ugh especially now, I would totally read a Kaner/Tazer futurefic where Tazer was a mean embittered single dad with kids both old and young and Kaner is the hockey player/nanny that --

--shit just realized this already exists in real life in the form of Danny Briere and Claude Giroux carry on.

(I still totally want the Kaner/Tazer version though. Could be minus the age difference I don't mind.)

4. Got no writing or primering done :( :( :(

5. But uh, thought a lot about the fic I want to get done?

6. Slept a lot.

7. Marveled at the new video ad of Patrick Kane stickhandling because jfc:


On that note I'll mention that if you're not a hockey fan and you watch that video, I would love to know if it looks impressive or not. Because to me right now it's like O_____o holy shit but I think perhaps two years ago I'd have looked at it and completely shrugged it off? I am lacking any kind of objectivity here.

...Two more September holidays to go. Hope I'll be more productive then?

I've finished The Hunger Games so I'll just get my very minor reactions for the third book out of the way: ( major spoilers )

I had so much fun reading on the Kindle that when I finished the last book I immediately went and bought another one. I have avoided buying new books for over a year -- mainly because I have a backlog of literally dozens of books I haven't gotten around to yet, so no need to waste the money on yet more books I wouldn't read -- but like. It's so CHEAP and HANDY and THERE. So I bought Terry Pratchett's Nation -- another YA book, but one where I can't complain about the quality of the writing, and one that is actually very fitting thematically; its beginning somehow really ties in with the end of The Hunger Games. So I am at 12% now. Yay for public-transportation that enables reading comfortably :-)

Other media I have consumed includes, inspired by sabra_n, finally watching Tangled, and my god, the animation *___*. SO PRETTY. And Zachary Levi's voice is cute, and the movie is very Disney and really, really glorifies being a white-skinned-green-eyed-blonde, but it is also sweet and enchanting and I enjoyed it muchly. And the other thing is... yesterday's episode of House, because I saw people's reactions and was intrigued. Um. I'm too lazy to code another cut tag so no spoilers, but if you want to discuss it we can in the comments.

*

Thank you so so much for recommending me music the other day! ♥ And now I have another music rec favor: rec me your favorite song covers?

*

BY THE WAY, some Bandom links:

Picspam of Frank Iero's lips by desfinado
Picspam of Frank's guitars by sassbandit
Spencer Smith drum meta picspam thing by starafar, just to balance it out.

And LOL, guys, I cannot promise this is good because I have not read it yet, but here are 10,000 words of Kris Allen/Frank Iero.

The following, however, I can promise you is excellent: ***Seventeen (Here’s to the Atom Bomb)*** by fictionalaspect. Brendon/Spencer, NC-17, 8200 words. I don't think I've read too much role-playing fic in the past so I don't have too much to compare this to, but I love this take on role-playing so much ♥__♥. So, so much. (So much.)