Happy St. Patrick's to all the Irish on my flist and anyone else who celebrates it for whatever reason.:) *waves a shamrock*

I am stuck at home today due to yet another plumbing disaster. This is becoming some sort of a neverending saga: if it's not the tub, then it's the kitchen sink, and if it's neither the kitchen sink nor the tub, then it has to be the bathroom sink. This time, it is the kitchen sink. Completely clogged since last night. As in, standing water that has to be scooped out every once in a while, because yes, the dripping tap that has been "fixed" several times already is dripping AGAIN, and so the water level is actually RISING. When I got up this morning, the sink was filled almost to the brim. No way could I just leave it like this and go to work. So I took the day off (at that rate, I'm going to use up all my personal/vacation time by mid-year :/) and called building management. No one picked up the phone. I left a message. Three hours later, I called again. Left another message. No call back so far. The OTHER number I have for maintenance issues is giving me an automated voicemail saying that they're "not available" right now and that they will respond ON THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY - unless it's an emergency. Which, theoretically, it isn't - as long as I am here, scooping the water out every 3-4 hours. Fun fun fun.:/

In other news, I found this random blog entry about Tanith Lee - a British fantasy author I've been reading, on and off, for the past few years. ( Read more... )

ETA: I finally got a call from the building management, sometime after 2 p.m. The plumber arrived after 5 p.m. He brought several massive pieces of equipment, including a gigantic bucket, and cleaned out the mess in record time. The tap's still dripping, because this is old plumbing and the replacement parts are not that easy to obtain at a moment's notice - but at least the water is going DOWN... Hallelujah.:) I can cook now, without having to worry what on earth I'm going to do with the resulting mountain of dirty dishes (washing them in the bathtub seemed decidedly unappealing... *shudder*). So, on to make a delicious Mediterranean chicken salad (with red onion and pear slices and crumbled feta cheese and walnuts and garlic croutons and all kinds of good stuff, yay). *slurp*

Btw... the three pounds I had previously gained in a week? They're gone. Last week's nervous tension ate them. Give me just a little bit of stress, and my angsty quivering burns the calories off like there's no tomorrow. Guess when I had the best figure? Yeah, during that epically toxic saga of my first "romantic" relationship. Not a healthy way to stay in shape, by any stretch - but I certainly hadn't heard of a wholesome diet at that point in my life, and yet I was skinny as a supermodel. As well as severely neurotic, desperately disturbed and obsessively unhappy, but yeah... the looks, I had them. Not that the price was worth it or anything... but it's a fact of life for me. I only have to watch what I eat when I am in a happy, peaceful state of mind. Weird but true. Just saying.

Holy crap. I swear these were THE LONGEST two days since I started this job. I just... I can't even remember the last time I felt this exhausted. I've been running on pure adrenaline since yesterday morning. I couldn't have gone on like this for much longer... in fact, I was seriously considering "coming down with a cold" for the rest of the week. A cowardly escape, surely, but I was at the end of my rope, endurance-wise. ( Read more... )

Firstly, I want to thank everyone who wished me Happy Birthday.:) I got quite a few nice surprises this year: a beautiful A/L ficlet from surreysmum, baloons and a lovely note from illuins_lair (who is a new person on my flist, but boy, have we hit it off like a house on fire... LOL), snail mail card with jumping dolphins from dissonant_dream and a cute banner from akashaelfwitch. I love you guys. *squish*

Secondly, I'm having a minor anxiety attack right now. Or rather, a major one that has sort of abated for a bit, but is very likely to come back full force tomorrow. ( Or on Tuesday, at the latest. )

In honor of Aragorn's birthday...





And because I have a hand fetish:

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... )

Tagged by gairid:

A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it".

( behind the cut, because I tend to get wordy :) )

Tagging dissonant_dream, gattodoro, illuins_lair, mellacita, stormatdusk, surreysmum and taelyn_sass.

Also, big thanks to taelyn_sass for the bear hug! :) *hugs back*

So I ordered the Sehnsucht CD after all. It was about $25 with shipping - but it's worth every penny, and then some. Actually, this album was released in two slightly different editions: the one I had downloaded from the net is the 'regular' one, and the one I have on CD includes several 'special versions'. So I have the full collection now.:)

Anyway... the CD artwork is mindblowingly gorgeous, and the lyrics pack quite a punch too. Thankfully, the booklet includes English translations of all the German lyrics (as well as the German translations of all the English ones) - they have been doing this since the beginning, as far as I know (the earliest album I have on CD is from 1993, and it does include translations). So I can share my favorites here without having to mangle them through the Google translator.:D Btw, just like the music and the artwork, the translations have also steadily improved over the years, and are now quite good (the artwork was always good, now it's excellent; the music was always way beyond good, now it's beyond words, thank you very much).

( So without further ado, here's the album cover: )

Okay. Let me tell you what just happened. At around 10:30 p.m. I was startled into a near-palpitation by loud banging on the door. Not knocking. BANGING. Scared shitless, I froze for a moment - but then the banging was repeated, so I ran to the door, thinking there was a fire or some other life-threatening emergency someone wanted to warn me about. Sure enough, there were two policemen standing in the hallway, looking a little sheepish. So what was the matter? Okay... wait for it. Here's what the big, burly cop said to me (sounding apologetic, I might add): "I think your TV is a little too loud. The neighbors are complaining." Stunned beyond belief, I nodded dumbly and thanked him for his trouble... then practically collapsed into my chair, shaking, right after they left.

Of course, it wasn't my TV, since I don't have one. It was my iTunes, playing Lacrimosa. And it wasn't loud at all. I swear on all that is holy - it wasn't. I do occasionally play it loud during the day, but never at this hour. I was shocked anyone outside of my apartment could hear it at all - let alone find it too loud. O_O

Well, it would appear that some of my neighbors have exceptionally excellent hearing. It happens, I guess. What I don't understand, however, is WHY they couldn't just knock on my door themselves and ask me to turn it down. WHY ON EARTH they had to call the police instead. WTF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!?!?... Do I look threatening or something?... Or was it too much trouble to get up from their own couch and walk up the stairs?... WTF?????...

Sometimes I really don't understand Americans, no matter how hard I try. The mind boggles.:/

I can't believe myself sometimes. I totally missed out on the fact that my favorite band released a new album. Last year. In May, no less. And I had no slightest clue about it until today. WTF IS WRONG WITH ME???

Actually, I know what's wrong. I no longer browse music stores/websites etc. for fear of being tempted to spend money on non-essentials. *sigh* And I keep telling myself that my iTunes library is quite extensive and that should be perfectly enough for me. HOWEVER... this is LACRIMOSA we're talking about, for heaven's sake. I own most of their albums on CD's, and some of the tapes of their music I made for my car player had to be re-made TWICE so far, due to frequent use. That should tell you something, lol. Anyway... not counting random singles and 'the best of' collections, this is their first new album since 2005. And it took me almost a year to realize that it's out there. *massive headshake*

Well... better late than never, they say. Just downloaded the whole thing from http://www.soundike.com for $1.20 total.:) I am still very tempted to just order the CD from Amazon - but I couldn't stand waiting for it to arrive before I can listen to the music, so instant download seemed like a better idea for now.:) ( Read more... )

I can barely believe it, but yes. I did actually write something, and it is significantly longer than a drabble.:) And it is finished. As well as rather porny... which may not be that much of a surprise, all things considered.:P Anyway... it's unrelated to my other A/L + The Twins ficlets, though it sort of happens in a paralell universe. Which is a kind way of saying that I am simply recycling the same basic scenario yet again. What can I say? I am extremely loyal to my obsessions, lol. So if you liked my other stuff, you will probably like this one too. If not, skip merrily along.;)


Title: Destiny
Author: Floating Leaf
Pairing: Aragorn/Legolas, with a little bit of Elladan/Elrohir/Legolas on the side
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Almost a PWP - but apparently I can't do sex without sappy romance, so it's a combination of both. In other words, I give you yet another version of how it all began.:) I am extremely predictable, I know. *sigh*
Warnings: I couldn't resist letting the Twins have a little fun... but they know when it's time to leave the bedchamber, I promise.:P
Disclaimer: Sadly, none of the characters belong to me.
Author's Notes: Dedicated to surreysmum, who could use some (im)moral support these days.

( Do all human men lose the power of speech after coupling? )