Her Life is a WIP

Yesterday was a day to celebrate, flist! First off, it was my last day at work and as of last night I'm on vacation for a whole month \o/ Second, I don't think I've mentioned it here but the past few months I've been getting ready to take a competitive exam to basically secure my job (no pressure, right?) and I got the results of the first part of it this morning, I passed! I'm now allowed to take the oral examination, which will be the final step before I'm done. Said examination is in October so I have time to get ready for it but right now I'm just very happy (and extremely relieved) to have passed that first exam :)

I've left the university with a pile of books I mean to read this summer to help with the process... I guess I'll have another studious summer since I'm supposed to also finish my thesis. Yes, the fun, it never ends!

On fannish news, I've recently fallen for The Borgias (my favourites are Cesare, Lucrezia and Micheletto and my favourite dynamics are Cesare-Lucrezia and Cesare-Micheletto). I'm also still watching Graceland, which I'm enjoying more and more. Also, I'm starting to think Johnny might be my favourite... he's the goofy character of the show and I usually don't go for that type of character but thankfully he's much more than that: he's smart, competent, loyal and reliable. He's laid-back and very sweet. He also has the cutest laugh, I just love hearing him laugh :) Admittedly, it's not easy picking a favourite because I love them all, it's another great ensemble cast.

Oh, and I realise I had this in-progress post in my draft, so I'm posting it too ;) Those are pictures I've taken last week, a bit in a Week in the Life way.

( Pictures of last week )

My program today... keep doing nothing this morning then library this afternoon and Pacific Rim in the evening :)

You know how the end of the world has been scheduled for December 21st? Turns out it's the least of my worries as I might not be alive to witness it, anyway; work will be the death of me. What's a little Apocalypse compared to that?

Today was hectic again, for both Cookie and me. As a result, we're both in our pajamas (I know it's only 9.15PM, I did say it was one of those days), we've ordered Indian food and decided to start dinner with the "dessert" aka Kinder Pingui. How wild are we!

Today wasn't a total nightmare though thanks to this little gem that I found during my (short) lunch break. Spartacus s3 sneak peek! Focused on Agron and Nasir! With possessive!Agron to boot ♥ I cannot wait omg! Also, I can't help but smile whenever Dan Feuerriegel talks about "Nagron", he does seem to enjoy using it ;-)

I know they're airing Spartacus on French tv at the moment, I need to check the schedule so that I don't miss the beginning of s2. I miss Agron and Nasir! And everyone else, admittedly.

Hello from Lyon, flist, where I'm staying with nicelyobsessed and our co-workers for a three-day seminar. More precisely, hello from the main hall where we've been stuck all morning because, believe it or not, the rooms where the workshops are held are so small that they can't fit everyone who wants to attend. So we've been forbidden from getting in and we're now waiting for the next session, see if we're luckier this time. We're not exactly complaining though, the main hall is nice and the armchairs are insanely comfortable. Also the workshop rooms might be too small but their wifi connection? Is a dream! So we're busying downloading "stuff" lol There are worse ways to spend the time, I'm sure you'll agree ;-)

Plus, being in Lyon also means we could spend some time with crazybutsound last night, which was absolutely lovely! We ordered food and talked about Glee and Blaine Anderson and Darren Criss (ok, so that was mostly Jem and me, Cookie humoured us #BestGirlfriendEver) and watched Say Anything - I'd never seen that film, it's so cute!

Then she drove us to our respective hotels. Yes, because Cookie and I are actually staying in different hotels. Some couples sleep in separate beds? We actually slept in separate houses last night lol But she's staying with her co-workers - who don't know about us - and I'm staying with mine - half knows about us and the other half doesn't - so that made the logistics a bit tricky. But it's also fun, we're stealing kisses and stuff, it's all very romantic, anyway ;-)

Back to my hotel, on my lonesome, I hunted some more Blaine-centric stories because I'm all about Blaine at the moment. I'm dividiving my fannish time between Spartacus: Vengeance and Glee (as well as The Hunger Games, though I'm not reading fic for that one so it's different). No need to say that it makes for interesting times because going from one to the other is a bit of a cultural shock lol Though, you know, I find Nasir and Blaine are both the most adorable tiny dudes and their pairings the most gorgeous and adorable. I mean, for all gladiator-soldiery that Agron is? Seeing him with Nasir is a joy ♥

Ah, fannish obsession, you're time-consumming and sleep-depriving but always so much fun!

Today didn't feel like a Monday at all and it flew by, which is always a plus in any workdays. I've gone through a little phase where I had trouble enjoying what I was doing (it was mostly through December, though) and I'm happy that the feeling has completely gone. It didn't last long but it was unpleasant.

I have another reason to be in a good mood this week, I've taken Wednesday off. It won't be a day of leisure as I'll use the time to work on a paper for school, but I've realised that aforementioned day off coincides with White Collar's season finale (that is D-Day+1), which means that I'll have the opportunity to watch it right after it's done downloading (I always download in the morning. Which is frustrating as it also means I have to go to work with the knowledge that the episode is already sitting on my HD and teasing me). So I intend to have a lie in before I watch the episode and then I'll go the library to work. I approve.

Stil about work (but actually about the Oscars), it was fun at work today because everyone was talking about The Artist and Jean Dujardin and the Oscars. It's also amusing to think of Americans discovering Jean Dujardin in the film because, obviously, we French have been following him since the very beginning of his career and it is indeed incredible to think of his "journey". Speaking of the beginning of his career, it includes gem like this one - Brice from Nice, a character that he's still famous for today and that's become a sort of classic. As proof, just last Saturday my BIL mocked me for something and quoted Brice when he did ;-) Dude, it's odd to think that "Brice" actually got an oscar lol

Speaking of early career and beginning - I'll use the above as a segue for my answers to the meme that I've seen all around my flist the past few days. ( Fandom starts )

That was fun!

Today was one of those days when you feel a lot was accomplished: new proctoring session (I was at work at 7.45AM for that, definitely not a schedule I'd like on a regular basis) which went well even though the start was quite hectic. Then in the afternoon was the conference our department had organised, during which I took notes and tweeted (and squeed silently whenever one of my followers would RT - professional RTs make me really happy whereas regular RTs at my personal account don't really mean anything to me, I love tweeting from my work-account \o/), it went very smoothly too and the teachers who participated seemed very interested and pleased, go us! Then after work, Cookie and I went swimming, it's officially becoming a 'thing'! #PrideIzUs

Soon we'll sit down and watch the latest DW - all my downloads failed yesterday, which was sad, but everything is back in order today and JDownloader has been kinda busy; DW, GoT (I know I said I'm gonna wait before watching the show, doesn't mean I don't want to have all the episodes sitting on my HD whenever I'm ready to dive in), SPN, TVD, Glee. It's nice to see it download its little ass off :-) I'm just waiting for Cookie to finish working on her drawing, one of the many she's been commissioned to hand in for a project at work (my girlfriend is officially a paid artist! And the teacher she's working with, as well as our colleagues, are all very impressed with her work, which, dude, OF COURSE YOU ARE, guys! She's very talented :-)).

I'm not getting bored in the meantime, mind. I've finally had the time to sit down and watch Panic's newest video clip and I love it, it's so much fun! ♥ Incidentally, I can't believe I'll be seeing them next week! Man, I'll burst from joy, I'm sure :-)

The month of May seems very bandom-oriented, come to think of it. I'll be seeing Patrick Stump tomorrow [ETA: ok, so we didn't go, after all. No real reason, we just weren't in the mood anymore], then it's Panic on the 12th. And there's BBB on the horizon too, what with the summaries that were posted for claiming the other day. I've had a look and there're several stories I'll be waiting for impatiently, plus some others which I'm curious about. Big Bangs are so much love; whenever it's BB time, it feels like Christmas. They're my favourite 'event' fic-wise, there's nothing quite like it. I love fic-memes with their awesome themes all the time (dude, the Kink memes were totally meant for me) but Big Bangs? They hold a very special place in my heart ♥

The Walking Dead 1x02 has been watched tonight. I could have done it yesterday except that Miss G wasn't home and she forbade me to watch it without her. Apparently, it amuses her a lot to see me freak out and squeal in fright and hide behind pillows. As it happens, the second episode was slightly less stressful than the premiere was. Not that it wasn't as good, though, but I almost didn't hid behind aforementioned pillows (or hands) at all. Take that, Mocking Miss G!

After that, some more Merlin it was. Back to series 2 for tonight, because chronological order is so overrated! [It's the very last scene of "Lady of the Lake" and awwww, such a sweet moment! ♥]

Changing the subject; I've had a very satisfactory day at work today. I've felt very accomplished. Also very grateful to fandom. Turns out I had to do some HTML tweaking for one of my projects and the only reason why I decided to learn some basic HTML Back in the Day was because of my fics and Geocities. So thank you fandom and then later LJ for making me learn something that is now useful in my job. Actually, I'm glad I'm the kind of geek who got interested in blogs and social networks of different persuasions because that's also something that I now use for professional reasons. It actually amuses my parents to no end "So your hobbies are now part of your job? Who'd have thought?" Not me, dude. But I'm definitely not complaining!

Oh! And speaking of the parental unit. My dad managed to get four free tickets for Bharati thanks to a guy he knows. I'm absolutely thrilled because we've been wanting to bring my mother to that show for the longest time and we're finally going to do it \o/

I don't remember if I mentioned it but in a couple of weeks I'll see Cobra Starship in Paris with crazybutsound and greedy_dancer. When we got the tickets, Jem put our names (or whatever the hell she did) for their Meet & Greet. Turns out we got in! Colour me not surprised. I totally knew we would score those tickets. This wasn't a hunch, it was science! Because, ok, it's not that I didn't want to go to the Meet & Greet, it's just that if if we hadn't won the tickets? I wouldn't have been sad. I really like CS but, say, not to the extent I love Panic! or MCR. So I'm excited that we won, but I wouldn't have wanted to cry if we hadn't. Therefore, I knew we would get the tickets. QED :-)

I've been having another busy week, what with me getting ready to meet with my thesis director tonight and making a mini presentation of the work I've done on said thesis. Since I was sorta behind, I had to really work a lot but now I have something to hand to her \o/ I'm just hoping it'll be what she's expecting because if I have to do it all over... well, I'll do it and I'd rather know now than in a couple of months but I'll be all sad and stuff. So fingers crossed that it goes as I'm hoping *fingers crossed* [ETA: Omg, the universe really does have a sense of humour! Just after posting this, I received an email from aforementioned thesis director: she has to replace a sick colleague at a conference, so our meeting has been delayed. Again. Dude, on the one hand, I so wanted that out of the way, on the other, yay even more time!]

After tonight I'll give myself a couple of evenings off because I totally need (or maybe just 'want', same difference right now) an evening when I don't do anything but cruise LJ, read fics and maybe catch up with either SPN or WhiCo. The FP is coming over Friday night and the timing is just perfect ♥

PS: Totally unrelated but I worked Saturday night (cloakroom attendant) and my arm hurts! Damn those heavy, heavy winter coats! *rubs arm* But it was on a barge cruising along the Seine so as locations go, it could have been worse *g* I took a picture of the Eiffel Tower I'll try to share later on.

I'm being haunted by SPN today. First at work, when I received a mail telling me I'd been dropped off the J2test list (which was an error, as it happens - then again, why would I be 'work!defriended' by a list called J2? This would be so wrong). Then in a message from my dissertation (or is that thesis, I never know which one to use when you're doing an MA. In France we have the mémoire for an MA and the thèse for a doctorate, so I'm confused) advisor giving me an appointment for January in the "SPN office". I'm taking this as a sign that said appointment will go well :-) Also, I gave her the first draft of my bibliography and she liked it, which made me very happy \o/ I'd have hated getting it wrong and having to do it all over again!

Another good news is that I have my tree! It's bare at the moment but I'll decorate it (and the flat) either tonight or tomorrow night. Can't wait *bounces* Once the flat is all prettied up and Christmas ready, I'll start going through my Christmas films - another part (though recent) of my Christmassy traditions. I'll start with either Christmas Cottage (which I genuinely enjoy, despite its cheesiness - or 'because' of its cheesiness'? Hm, I'm not sure) or Love Actually.

And speaking of Christmas and winter and all, the weather forecast decided to make me happy and announced a cold wave starting this weekend. Finally! And! They're even talking about maybe!snow in Ile-de-France next week omg! We can haz snow near Paris too! \o/ *fingers crossed*

So if I've been on your flist for some time now, you might have noticed that I love the cold. Winter is my favourite season and autumn runs close because of how it basically leads us to winter. So I've been waiting for the temperature to go down impatiently. This week they have and that made me very happy. I went and bought a new "autumn coat" and when I'm wearing it (which is everyday now) I feel all warm and cozy. I'm not wearing my winter gloves yet but I do have have to wear gloves as of now because my hands are freezing otherwise and, again, it filled me with glee that it was time to take them out of my little "autumn/winter" basket. So I do love the cold.

But omg NOT INSIDE A ROOM! I'm certain I was complaining about it last year too and it's started again earlier this week. It's cold inside our building and it's driving me crazy. I have, like, three layers on me atm, plus a scarf (I don't know about other countries but scarves - all kinds of scarves including the big, long, large, comfy ones - are all the rage in France) and I'm still not getting any warmer. And my poor hands! I have cold hands a lot (cold hands, warm heart, as they say? Whatever) but right now they're just frozen and it's so unpleasant...

So I just needed to whine. There, I whined. Aren't you happy to be reading your flist today? And I'm still not getting any warmer, btw *pout*

Onto more positive things, now: French Posse Time this weekend. Guitar Hero has been programmed. And I'm also planning on having a kick-ass breakfast on Sunday, meaning pancakes and nutella and maybe strawberry jam and tea for the girls and OJ and other yummy stuff. For this is the kind of breakfast one French Posse should have on a lazy Sunday *nod* Oh, and Sam will bring Tim Tams \o/ I love me some FP weekend ♥

I've just (finally?) discovered Sanctuary tonight. I knew the show, I mean, but I'd never watched it when it aired on-line. And now it made it to French!tv (either in French or in English, yay!) so I gave it a try. I enjoyed it. It's not going to become a favourite, but it was fine. I liked the aesthetics of the show, some of the scenes looked like they were taken from a fairy tales sometimes (or maybe it was just that one episode; in that case, too bad). I don't know what technique that is, exactly, but I like it better than some of the more OTT in your face kind of F/X.

Today was back-to-school for all my co-workers and first day of school for New Boss. Boss Man was there too so it was like having two kings in our kingdom. Though it worked well, and New Boss made a good second impression. We'll see how it goes in the long run but at least none of us hated him on sight, quite the contrary. It bodes well.

Something that might not bode well, now, is the N1H1 flu talks. I don't know about where you work but here, at the university, TPTB are all about it. I think no-one is going to want to kiss anyone else goodbye or hello anymore. Co-workers were joking about how the kisses that were exchanged this morning would be the last till Teh Flu was gone 4ever. That is, till next time.

Talk about cultural frustration! French people not being able to kiss hello/goodbye for fear of catching the flu omg! Forget about those other means of contamination, that one, right there, is the more traumatising one!

Ok, something even more traumatising, now? Gmail is down atm! Why, gmail, why? Don't you know I need you like I need air? Come back to me *wails*