another meme that's a few days overdue

Comment and I'll give you a letter, then you have to list ten things (yes people count as things for the purpose of this) you love that begin with that letter, afterward post it on your journal and fill out letters of your own.

mellacita gave me a V.

Yeah, I know. My first reaction was: How on earth do I come up with TEN things starting with a V?... I can only think of one (person). Obviously. LOL. But then I started rummaging around in my brain, and - lo and behold - the ten things materialized.:) So here you go:

1. Viggo (yeah, the big surprise). *snort*
2. Vigorli (another big surprise, haha).
3. Vampire fiction (original or fanfic - preferably of the slashy variety ;).
4. Victorian fashion (which sort of goes hand-in-hand with the above; you know, frock coats, frilly collars and the like).
5. Venice, Italy. Spent a day there once on my way to Greece. Was utterly enchanted.
6. Valeria Golino (she's gorgeous and very much my type of woman to fantasize about ;).
7. Volver. The movie. By Almodovar. With Penelope Cruz (about Penelope Cruz, see point 6).
8. Vanishing Point. Another movie. Very old and obscure. With Viggo. Wherein he does a lot of dangerous driving.:) Not as good as some of the good movies Viggo's been in, but not as bad as some of the bad ones either.:P And I really do like it - not just because I needed another thing starting with a V.;)
9. Violets. The innocent little flowers, you know (I remember always looking for them in the spring as a kid; I loved both the smell and the color).
10. Verbena. I find the smell totally intoxicating.

I could go on. I could add, for example, velvet. Or violins. Or, you know... vinegar.:D But I shall stop now. Please to be signing up for your letter below (I promise to not be snarky and give out some really commonplace letters, LOL).

In other news, I spent a hundred bucks at Whole Foods last night. ( On nothing much, really. )

a very lengthy rant in which I bare my troubled soul - consider yourselves duly warned :)

And now for something entirely different. I have stumbled upon this fascinating article about emotional abusers. Fascinating because up until now, I wasn't quite aware that this is what I went through at some point in my life, that it is so well defined and has such a clinical term attached to it. Emotional abuse. According to the article's author, it is no less damaging than its physical equivalent - though far less obvious and sometimes hard to detect or defend yourself against. Especially if you're young, clueless and totally inexperienced, relationship-wise - like I was at the time. Reading this article tripped me out, because I kept recognizing one thing after another. I wish could have read it 15 years ago - not that it would have helped, necessarily, but you know. It's just... perhaps it would have made me realize that I wasn't alone in this, and that it REALLY, REALLY wasn't my fault (I know that now, I've known that for years - but I didn't know it back then, and I can't help thinking that MAYBE things would have been different if I did). So anyway... here's the link:

http://www.heartless-bitches.com/rants/manipulator/emotional_abuse.shtml

The whole text is rather long, and fortunately only parts of it apply in my case. So I am just going to copy-paste some relevant fragments below.

If you are in a relationship where you have a sick sense that SOMETHING is wrong, but somehow it's always YOUR fault, and you find yourself always tring to "fix" things, this article may be for you. ( Read more... )