The Thursday Anomaly

Hey readers!

I couldn't help myself.  This week there is a Thursday update.

(Consider this a compensation for deleting the Monday post. I'm trying to avoid things like "lol" on here, but just imagine I'm shaking my head and laughing to myself lightly over it. Cause I am.)

Alright, so, couple of things I feel like chatting about today, because I can't get my brain to hold still for the life of me.

(That started last night when I couldn't hold a train of thought long enough to help myself sleep.  You know how it is: you pick something to think about as you fall asleep and it helps you.  Last night, I kept grabbing at the meditations I've been learning, but they kept getting interrupted by random pop songs and writing ideas I'm not gonna get on paper among other things.  At least I kept them away from school stuff.  I even went outside and sat in the wind and grass for an hour before trying to go to bed, hoping to get my brain to Just. Shut. Up. When they say manic days with bipolar feel like a fucking train barreling through your mind, they are not kidding; that is how it is exactly.  I am strung.)

Alright, anyway.

I've started knitting a new shawl and honestly, it's insane.

I've wanted to knit it for a while now, and so for my birthday what feels like a lifetime ago, my parents helped me get the yarn and beads for it.  I bought really nice sock yarn (Dream in Color, Smooshy in the colorway Black Parade - I know, I've been shit talking [not on here] the cycle of emo and scene stuff coming back around, but a little MCR in my yarn can't hurt) and some really nice beads.

It's a good concentration project.  The pattern is 19 pages of charts essentially, and one of those has over 500 stitches across 8 pages.
I've started using a highlighter to help me.  If I highlight a row, I know I need to knit the row above it.
Normally I use sticky notes, but for an eventual 8 page row, that's pretty unrealistic.

I also cut out the yarn overs (the things that make the holes next to the beads) because I think they look tacky in this situation.

So far, the Little Dipper is fully formed and several other constellations are on the rise.

(Get it? Cause constellations rise and set across the sky and - nevermind.)

I would share pictures, but I'm so bad about them. As soon as I finish my current chart, I'm sending some to friends, but otherwise...use your imagination.  It's awesome.

We are on Day Two of Operation Pink Eye.

I found out yesterday that some people have never had pink eye or know what it is.
(I found this out talking to someone on one of my social media sites who thought for a moment I might seriously get hurt from it.)
I think I kind of assumed that everyone was familiar with it, especially with how easily it spreads with kids.
I stand corrected.

So lucky for all of you, I've decided it might be a good idea to explain the process of it.

Basically, pink eye is a virus in your eye.  Now, this sounds gross, and it kind of is.
What happens is your eye gets really irritated and turns bloodshot, aka where the pink portion comes from.  Some people experience itching with it.  For me, my eye just gets sore.  There's watering and crust forms along your eyelash lines as well as the corners of your eyes.

It's gross, but nothing antibiotic eye drops can't handle.

Sometimes though, you get it in one eye, and then almost overnight you get it in the other.
Aka, double pink eye.

That's the beautiful thing I woke up to this morning.

Yay, eye drops.

My husband and I finally made it to the pool yesterday.

Now, let me tell you the saga of the pool.
The pool in our apartment complex opens every year over Memorial Day weekend.  This year, however, someone got the really smart idea that the pool needed repairs.
Which, truthfully, it did.
But this prolonged the pool opening.  Initially it was going to open at the end of June.
It didn't open until about two weeks ago.

Normally, I am a mermaid essentially and am at the pool almost every day.

(Flip side of this is that I've been walking an insane amount to get out of my head since I couldn't get to the water.  Let me tell you, Colorado is full of hills and the two mile loop I do feels like I'm hiking mountains on a bad day - I'm not, for the record, I live in the city.)

And then, the water was freezing when we went the first time.

So we went yesterday and - I swear it was like magic - the water was actually warm enough that we could swim without dying of hypothermia.
It was great.

(I'm still annoyed with how long it took them to do the repairs.  They did our parking lot too, but took more time than expected, so we ended up losing several days of parking. Gotta love summer, I suppose.)

Alright, I could ramble on forever today - I honestly can't sit still - so we should leave it here.
Actually, wait, I lied.

Same person online who never had pink eye sent me this.  Imagine every "HOA board member, I want to speak to a manager, my kid is smarter than yours" white woman you know.

Yeah.
That's Gayle.

Watch it and have a laugh.  It absolutely cracks me up.

Alright, happy Thursday!
~Birdie

The Wednesday Lowdown

Hey there, readers!

I really wanted a clever title for the blog post.  See, I was thinking that for the rest of the summer I would update on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Then when school starts in August, I would do Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursdays (since Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm at school and will have time between classes to write so I don't lose my mind) with the possibility of occasional posts should something exciting happens.

I was hoping to keep the titles consistent, so like Sundays would be listed as "Sunday Editions" and stuff, but I can't figure out enough newspaper puns at the moment.  So for now, it is what it is.

At least it will be consistent.

Anyway, this was not what I wanted to blog about today.

Actually, in all honesty you guys, my blogs tend to be random, so I normally don't have a plan when I write them.  Monday was an exception because there was so much I needed to cover.  Normally though, I can't promise what you're going to get.

Again, not what I wanted to blog about.

Someone is making me fanart.

Someone online offered to pay me money to write a fic because they like what I write so much that they wanted more.  

Can we talk about this for a moment?

Remember in the previous blog post I mentioned the MGS fandom saving me during a dark period and how I write a lot for the fandom?  Yeah, so apparently I make more waves than I thought because people online actually know who I am due to my writing.  People online actually like my writing.  You know, the stuff I can chunk out in handfuls when I'm on a good day, the stuff that I like writing but that I also worry about posting because frankly, there is so much good fanfiction out there.

I am so floored.

I feel like I'm this wholly unremarkable person, and yet, people like what I do, (and for some reason, they like me too, but that's a post for another time).  And some of the people who mention it are people who's writing I adore, so it's a little like being star struck.  And the whole reason I do it is because it makes me happy and it makes my friends happy.

And then I found out that someone really wanted more of a particular series I was writing, and when I reached out to her to offer to write her one, she had a mini meltdown and proceeded to tell me that she would pay me or do fanart or both as a thanks.

Again, I am floored.

I declined the money.  

I mean, I'm broke as fuck (I have a dollar to my name until school starts) but this isn't why I do what I do.  

If you're kind to me, I will happily bend over backwards for you.  

If you ask and I like you or know you, I'll write you anything in reason.

(That goes beyond fanfiction.  Kindness goes a long way.)

Anyway.

I'm getting a piece of fanart.

Of my favorite OC.

With her canon character beau.

I feel like crying.

It means so much to me that people actually think enough of me to offer these sort of things.  

And to be kind enough to work with Andi.

Alright, honestly, I love Andi so fucking much.

She's my favorite character I've ever made, and I get to explore so much through her.

Every time I write her or RP her or talk about her or get to share her with anyone, it just.

It's like there's a piece of me that gets away from everything and gets to love my girl instead, even if it's just for a small fic or quick reply or brief conversation.

I'm learning to love myself through her.

I've been incredibly fortunate, too, cause my bff, my husband, and my sister all get an earful from time to time, and they are so patient with me, and actually...like her too.

See, this is the beauty of fanfiction, folks.

You can have these characters you love and make characters you love, and they get you through.

They give you something to look forward to and something to get out of your head.

It is a legit writing form, and no one will ever tell me otherwise.

I encourage it.

Which actually, let's talk about OCs for a moment, since I'm gushing about mine.

There are times you will not like someone's OC.
You will feel competitive or frustrated that they're everywhere or just annoyed in general.

This has happened in one of the tags I follow.

But that does not give you the right to publicly drag the character or the person who created them.  It makes me so mad that people do that.
Frankly, I don't like a lot of OCs.
But the amount of love that goes into them does not deserve me coming along and to the creator's face telling them I dislike them.

We all love our OCs.

If you don't like them, move along quietly.  

Feel free to bitch to your friends, but please, just ignore us in public.  

Call outs are cruel.

Anyway, back to the point.

I am getting fanart of my favorite OC by a girl who is super kind and likes my writing and is officially the second person to ever draw her.  

(My bff drew some great Andi stuff that is my phone wall paper, and I will never, ever get rid of the art.  Ever.  It means so much to me.)

I am, in fact, blown away.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to end this post and go squeal a bit while trying to knit something.

(Next post will be about that, brace yourselves. I got yarn for a really cool project, bwahaha.)

~Birdie