in my life

As Israel experienced its worst storm in the past 20 years this weekend, it snowed in my hometown for like 20 whole minutes ♥ Last time I can remember that happening was the day we got our report cards one year in middle school. Spent a lovely weekend enveloped in blankets and warmth, playing Dixit with family and friends, hosting one of my best friends visiting from abroad, venturing into the rain, calling the fire department to extinguish a baby electrical fire from a spark-emitting utility pole, felt like winter.

On yesterday and today, I spent some more time doing reserve duty. It is not close to being interesting enough to talk about but I will mention that it included meeting a few American LTs and managing not to ask them where their wolfbrothers/wolfsisters were, so: success! (Which is to say: if you have not read dira's Every Marine a Wolfbrother Generation Kill AU yet, you should.)

Then this evening I saw The Hobbit! Part 2. It was as usual fun to dive into Peter Jackson's beautifully crafted Middle Earth, but wow did that movie drag out. Still, despite its flaws, I enjoy being immersed in that universe for a couple hours every year.

Meanwhile, the Hawks are continuing to put stuff out like this:

...sure, guys. Keep producing videos of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane talking about how they're always paired together, how competitive they are, how they want to be around each other all the time, how they dream about each other, how their off ice relationship translates into on-ice success, narrated over the backdrop of them hugging each other, none of this is even exaggerated it's all right there in the video. If their objective here is killing us all one by one, they're doing a pretty good job of it.

Finally, insta!rec, read over the past few days and finally finished today and still can't get out of my mind:

A Month of Sundays by kelfin, 68,671 words, rated Mature, Erik Johnson/Gabriel Landeskog, AO3 tags: Colorado Avalanche, Family, Religion, Sexual Identity, Coming Out (Hockey RPF).

Summary: Unlike some guys, who freak out when things get even a little bit gay, Erik is fine with this stuff. Erik's not even fazed when Gabe's attempts at flirting with him start to get semi-public, a fact that, by his own judgment, makes him at least five to seven times more tolerant than your average forward-thinking American.

I like Gabe Landeskog (youngest-captain-in-NHL-history-Captain of the Colorado Avalanche) well enough but had never read any fic about him, and had never heard about Erik Johnson at all, so I was not at all predisposed towards reading this fic, but the tags and length looked interesting, the betas were authors I adore, and a friend recommended it, so I figured I'd give it a shot, and oh my god. This is such a fantastic, painfully realistic, absolutely engrossing story about a religious guy - in this case, a professional athlete - struggling with his sexual identity and whether it can coexist with his beliefs, with starting this relationship and trying to be a good person and not disappointing his family and whether or not all these things can happen at the same time. It's so well written, with an entire cast of fully fleshed out complex characters and no easy answers; I love the characterizations of Erik's entire family, and the dynamic between him and Gabe - Gabe as the nineteen year old with a crush, who is carefree and optimistic and also the brilliant player who was just handed captaincy of the team, and Erik as the twenty-four year old teammate/roommate who is so hard on himself, who loves Gabe's attention and flirting but doesn't know how to accept it and feel like what's he's doing is right, not just yet. And it's so heartbreaking at times, but really, beautifully written, and while to me reading about his thoughts and family was like peeking into an unfamiliar world, the comments are filled with people talking about how much the story and characters resonated with their own experiences. OH AND ALSO both the unresolved sexual tension and later the resolved sexual tension are both breathtakingly hot, gah.

All of which is to say: this is a good fic ♥, and I recommend it both as original fic and as hockey fic and as fic for people who like reading about sexual identity in a religious context.

PS OH HEY I made a rec for the first time in forever even though I have read so many reccable fics recently gah, I need to remind myself that I can do this. Note to self: you can do this! Rec more. Love, you.

Back from con! And apparently I am made of fail; I promised sabrina_il that it would be okay not to order tickets in advance because there's no way the slash panel/lecture would be full. This is based on the one ICON panel I ever went to, which was a lecture about leadership in BtVS given in, um, 2003. Apparently I have drastically underestimated my countrypeople, though, because the event was sold out! Yes. There are forty slashers somewhere in the country. Tonight, in Tel Aviv. It is a lovely thought to know, even if I missed out on the chance to meet them. Ah, well.

The punishment for my presumptuousness was that the movie we went to see instead, The Accidental Husband, was utter crap, and that the theater was air-conditioned, so my painstakingly-picked-sandal-clad feet froze a little. However, I am 256.99% sure that for a moment I saw Jared Padalecki make a cameo in the movie as an extra in the background of an Indian party, dancing in a long blond wig behind JDM's head, so it was almost worth it.

Missing the slash panel was totally my fault, though. As an apology, sabrina_il, here's the GK icon you wanted:


"I am assured of this."

or maybe:


"Ray. The Battalion Commander offered no sitrep as to J-Lo's status."

...well, except you have to add the words yourself because my skills only go so far. ( Four more Nate-is-assured-of-this expressions under cut. )

And yeah, that was me totally not-so-subtly pimping Generation Kill. For context of the icons watch the scene starting at 1:10, or just watch the entire clip, which is of moments from the first episode.