in my life

Soooo did anyone see the Glee finale? You will be shocked, but I had tears - both in the flashback episode and in the future episode, because that is how I roll.

Friday morning hagar_972 very, very kindly followed up on her offer to take me shopping for a make-up starter kit, which was not only generous beyond words but also an awesome experience: she basically handheld me through not only what I should buy but also which brands would be good for me and what prices were reasonable, without having any ulterior motives of having a salesperson's commission! Afterwards we went home and she gave me tutorials on how to apply each thing, which seriously like, I had utterly no clue. So that was awesome of her <3. Also the most amazing thing I learned is that you can apply moisturizer *(which I now have!) to your lips instead of chapstick and it does amazing things. Like, seriously. I have super dry and chappy lips and sure, it only lasts for like two hours, but those two hours are smooth.

My sister is visiting from Brussels; it's awesome to have her around, even though we didn't do much but like, watch TV together. We had a family dinner at my cousins', with my grandmother, which very expectedly turned into an hour long argument about "why the left" lost in the elections, which is hilarious because pretty much all of us voted for the same two parties (except my dad, who voted for a third), and still there was a lot of argument to be had. And heartbreak, in my grandmother's case. The election results were frustrating for me as a 30-year-old with a lot of future ahead of her, but I can only imagine how disheartening it is for her, who invested the first thirty years of her life helping to build this place and living and breathing left liberal ideology, and who is now 85 next month, to see, in her words, what this country "has become". From that perspective, the results are even more dire.

*

Also: I bought some flowers! After my successfully keeping the yellow orchid my mom got me for my birthday for two months, I now have: a small and super pretty fuchsia plant, a small red anthurium, a plant with purple flowers I just call the purple thing, and petunias in the windowsill. They're all very pretty and, a week later, alive! We'll see how long I can keep that going but for now, they are a pretty nice splash of color in the apartment.

Perhaps inspired by watching the Smallville series finale last week after not having watched the show since 2003, I caught up on a few other season/series finales today. The Office, which I stopped watching regularly about a year ago, was kind of charming. NCIS was not very interesting case-wise but aww, I will never not love these characters (I also watched the "Baltimore" episode, which yay, flashbacks!).

I watched the latest episode of House, and I kept watching the whole way through like a masochist even though it was one of the most painful House-watching experiences I've had, oh my god D: ( spoilers )

And THEN I watched the Brothers & Sisters series finale. I haven't watched the show since mid-season 4 and didn't even know it had been canceled, but when I read that the series finale aired I had to watch. Aw, Walkers. I do love that family. ( spoilers )

In continuation of my vague squee at Grey's Anatomy yesterday, if you want to see what I was excited about -- mainly smart, well-written, wonderfully acted (&Sandra Oh;) scenes about abortion -- I am posting the relevant scenes under the cut. Spoilers for the season 7 finally, obviously. ( Cristina Yang fiiinally )

Sooo... I think that's all about TV. Well, I also watched this week's Glee and like Jane Lynch a lot. and that's really it. Which means I can move on to movies:

Yesterday I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Um, that's basically all I have to say about that, actually. I was disappointed. I loved the first movie, enjoyed the two sequels, and this movie was meh enough that I actually nodded off near the end, and I don't think I was that tired. The music and stunts were cool -- I think Pirates is one of the only movies that still have those kind of old classic action-adventure kinds of stunts that are perfectly choreographed and inventive and just plain cool, with costumes and settings and music that just sweeps you in for those few moments. But then the plot happened, or "plot", idek what that was to be honest. One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that the 3D is entirely pointless and I hate that they are making me pay 10 extra shekels for movies these days ugh :/

On Thursday evening I went to my boss's wedding. It was fun and sweet and I danced like I have not danced since Club Vivid. Some of my coworkers got utterly sloshed but I did not drink more than appropriate for driving, which I slightly regret. I'm not a huge fan of alcohol, which is also why I don't like spending actual money on it, but there was a free bar and good company and had I planned it otherwise it would have been an opportunity to drink some more. But whatever, I had fun. For those of you who are maybe interested in how these kinds of Israeli weddings go, here is how it went: ( wedding in points )

And oh, one last thing about the wedding -- one of my coworkers, an Israeli French (sweet married-with-kids-)dude, was looking really sharp in a white pressed shirt and nice black slacks. When I mentioned this, the girl next to me murmured, "You should see the pictures of him online". So I did. Why hello there.

I was going to post about work today or something but I fear most of this post is going to be about Bandom again /o\ No wait, okay, today I:

1. Didn't wake up in the morning. Made it to work on time, but wow do I need a new alarm clock stat.

2. Learned where the bathroom on our floor it. It is the most newbie-hazing bathroom I have ever scene, oh my god, located in a hallway between three supply closets where all of the doors are identical and unmarked. They don't even have handles. You just walk along the hallway awkwardly pushing until the secret toilet reveals itself. MASTERED.

3. Had lunch at a really nice restaurant that was beautifully decorated for Christmas, and I want to be all mocking "hi hippy place that thinks it's subversive and cool" but really I was just all *__* pretty. And also Christmas music! So pretty.

4. Learned more about the job.

5. Got cake put on my desk? For someone else's birthday. I work in the open space area in the middle of the floor. And then my boss came out and made an announcement reminding everyone that the Cake Desk was My Desk now, so please keep your crumbs elsewhere thank you.

6. Walked into the office to hear Darren Criss crooning Soul Sister from someone's laptop :D :D :D. For the rest of the day, not 30 minutes went by without hearing someone start whistling or humming the song to themselves. Darren Criss your chipperness is contagious.

...yes, I totally set that up to be able to segue into skintightsocks's amazing But Seriously, How So Hot? A Darren Criss Primer. Or maybe picspam, I don't know, it's kind of RIDICULOUSLY GORGEOUS I can't stop staring. Have I mentioned that Darren was my new dream!Panic member? Because he is. My scenario used to be that Spencer gets jealous of him and Brendon and is all sulky until it ends with a threesome, but now I don't know since clearly Spencer is in love with Adam Lambert, so they could just be split up nicely. Or hell, this is Panic, you know how it always ends. (Group sex. It always ends in group sex. I'm not sure why that needed a clarification.)

Meanwhile in MCR Land, Frank has cut his hair! More importantly though THIS PIC HAPPENED, holy christ Frank. Link accompanied by an appropriately NC-17 ficlet if you scroll down :D If you were at that show in Toronto, I imagine that really, the only thing that could possibly have made you drag your eyes away from Frank would have been GERARD'S PURPLE UNDERPANTS. I'm not sure whether the question there should "how low are your pants?" or "how high are your underwear?", but either way lol keep doin' what you're doin', Gee, thanks.

And okay I have to point this out because omg: so a while back, tieleen wrote two ficlets about Johnny Weir being the third Way sibling. Johnny, the Littlest Way! HE IS MY FAVORITE. When he was eight, Johnny's big brother made him a comic book for his birthday. In the comics Johnny was a Russian Tsar who was friends with aliens, and he fought crime and skated and wore the most amazing fur coats. I heart it so much. And suddenly. SUDDENLY we have these MCR lyrics, and they go: Johnny won't you come back home?" ( Is there really any other way to interpret this? )

PS I made this for dinner! With, like, other stuff. It was really good, though not as amazing as I hoped it'd be from the photos; I changed the recipe a little, nixed the capers (sorry, NO) and used olive oil instead of butter. Because APPARENTLY THE BUTTER SHORTAGE IS REAL. I never eat butter so I have no idea what's going on in the world of buttertry, but apparently there is a GRAVE SHORTAGE and my mom is guarding our single stick of butter with her LIFE, forbidding its usage on anything other than bread. Because all the grocery stores and supermarkets are out. The horror D:

Guys, I am taking a brief hiatus from all my current fandom interests to proclaim that I am officially on board the good ship HRM DARREN CRISS/Kurt. ♥ x a LOT.

I don't usually watch Glee -- I have various issues with the show, and at most I watch some of their musical numbers because I do like their arrangements -- but I was excited when my baby sister* told me that Darren Chris (of A Very Potter Musical fame) was going to guest star on the show as an onscreen partner for Kurt, and then she showed my the clip of the song he performed on the show and it was very nice.

And then I saw mandy_croyance's post where she links to all these interviews with Darren Criss and HE IS SO ADORABLE and then I watched all of his character (Blaine) and Kurt's scenes from the episode and Blaine is SO MUCH COOLER WITH CONTEXT and ugh, I want to read all the friendship/mentoring/possible romance fic in the world. Except just the good fics. Preferably the serious, slow and gradual ones.

My dream boyfriend for Kurt used to be Justin from Ugly Betty, because I really do think those two would be an amazing match. But seeing as that is not likely to happen, Blaine seems like an excellent substitute, and maybe even better. HEARTS AROUND THEM BOTH.

Speaking of A Very Potter Musical, by the way -- I fully intend on requesting Quirell/Voldemort for yuletide, and I seriously urge you all, if you have any interest in either HP or fan-made parodies and musical theater, to watch this clip to understand why. And then sign up to write it for me. They are the oddest of couples ♥.

*whom I caught the other day independently watching a Panic at the Disco music video on YouTube, WHAT IS GOING ON.