Me in the Holiday Love Meme. Because I like love! Alas, I'm a limited number of hours from a 13+ hour plane journey, so I might not end up getting to leave comments myself, in which case I would like to preface by saying that I think all of you, dear friends list, are made of awesome. Honestly, I wouldn't keep reading your LJs and keeping track of your doings if I didn't think you're a terrific bunch of people who I am fortunate and priveleged to have in my life. So go forth and feel appreciated. :)

I've been in London all weekend, before I fly out to go home for Christmas on Tuesday. The flight part I am not looking forward to AT ALL, but seeing everyone again will be nice. I'm pretty sure Lily won't forgive me for leaving and this makes me pretty sad, but will manage. Saturday night I met up with gramarye1971, and we went to the Christmas carols concert at St. Martins in the Fields. The music was lovely, the singing was great fun, and she understood perfectly when I mentioned that all boy treble soloists are Will Stanton in my head.

Yesterday was a bit more chill, as there was less travelling. I went to Lush in Covent Garden to buy lovely things, then headed north for the merlin_london meetup. I only knew one person (the_reader, who is lovely and funny in person), but met a lot of other wonderful people, and had some cakes and played Pass the Parcel and fun was had by all. Came back to the hostel to cook dinner and relax for a while online, because there is reasonably reliable wifi here (cue getting cut off, i suppose, by typing that) and it's really a pretty comfortable place to hang out. On the way back, however, I lost my balance and took a spectacular faceplant in the middle of the street, right in front of a bus. (It was stopped, fortunately. But full of people.) I am sure it looked hilarious, because that sort of thing usually does. Any injuries to my pride were fortunately obscured by the real physical ramifications--I skinned my knee in a manner suiting a child just setting out on bike-riding, ripped my jeans, and slightly twisted both ankles and my bad knee.

Today I paid a visit to the Dickens Museum, because I thought if one is going to do that, Christmas is surely the time. It's quite interesting but a lot of things were under construction/being rearranged. Then I marched over to the British Museum, lured by the promise of a glimpse of a few pieces of the recently discovered Staffordshire Hoard. There are only about a dozen piece out--inclusive of fragments that really add up to one thing--but what there is to see is absolutely gorgeous--garnet-inlaid sword mounts, mostly, and a bit of a helmet. Really cool.

My dad does not like the British Museum much--he loves history, but finds collections of ancient people's spare change and rubbish a bit boring (plus, you know, most of it is essentially the loot of grave-robbers). I, on the other hand, love the place irrationally and adoringly, and will happily just wander about for hours, seeing new things and revisiting old ones. What both fascinates and frustrates me about it is how it insists on reminding me how there is SO MUCH STUFF I don't know. My mom and I talked about this last time we went, about how there are whole civlisations that we had never heard of, what with their not having been covered by the standard public school curriculum. And that's not so bad--there's no way really you can cram the entire span of human history into 12 years of basic education--but well, there's a lot of stuff we don't know about. Learning stuff is really a lifelong endeavour.

Last night in the hostel tonight, and then off to the airport tomorrow. I hate flying SO MUCH; it's the one drawback to my nomadic nature. I'm not looking forward to the jet lag either, but I am looking forward to distributing my suitcase of treasures, seeing the people (and kitties) that I love, and eating a lot of food. The next post will undoubtedly be from the Pacific Northwest again...provided the horrible weather they've been having does not keep my plane from being able to land.

SUMMARY: This story is prequel to another one I wrote called Inhaling The Different Dawn, and therefore AU.

RATING: R

SPOILERS: This is post The Truth, so anything is fair game.

DISCLAIMER: Breaking seal constitutes acceptance of agreement. Proceed at your own risk. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. For recreational purposes only. Driver does not carry cash. And, as always, thank you for choosing Aloysia Airlines for your direct flight from 1013 to fanfic.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: When the previews (and early spoilers) for IWTB first came out, I wrote a fic based on a conversation Scarlet Baldy and I had about how I things might have gone between The Truth and IWTB. In that story, I had them married because rumors were flying around about a band on Mulder's right ring finger. I thought it best to cover all my bases just in case. Really though, I never saw them as the marrying type and I decided to write a prequel to explore a situation in which I could see them getting married. So...I basically fanwanked my own fic. *laugh*

Reading the other story first will help this one make more sense in places, but it's not vital.

Many, many thanks to scarletbaldy for patiently editing numerous drafts with such care, and to amalnahurriyeh for squeezing in a look-see of the final draft during a very busy time for her. The title is from Emily Dickinson's poem that begins My Cocoon tightens-Colors tease-.

Author's Notes continued at the end of Part 3.

( Just the basics. No shotgun. )

SUMMARY: This story is prequel to another one I wrote called Inhaling The Different Dawn, and therefore AU.

RATING: R

SPOILERS: This is post The Truth, so anything is fair game.

DISCLAIMER: Breaking seal constitutes acceptance of agreement. Proceed at your own risk. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. For recreational purposes only. Driver does not carry cash. And, as always, thank you for choosing Aloysia Airlines for your direct flight from 1013 to fanfic.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: When the previews (and early spoilers) for IWTB first came out, I wrote a fic based on a conversation Scarlet Baldy and I had about how I things might have gone between The Truth and IWTB. In that story, I had them married because rumors were flying around about a band on Mulder's right ring finger. I thought it best to cover all my bases just in case. Really though, I never saw them as the marrying type and I decided to write a prequel to explore a situation in which I could see them getting married. So...I basically fanwanked my own fic. *laugh*

Reading the other story first will help this one make more sense in places, but it's not vital.

Many, many thanks to scarletbaldy for patiently editing numerous drafts with such care, and to amalnahurriyeh for squeezing in a look-see of the final draft during a very busy time for her. The title is from Emily Dickinson's poem that begins My Cocoon tightens-Colors tease-.

Author's Notes continued at the end of Part 3.

( She closes her eyes and breathes deeply, drawing in the smell of wet rope and wood, the music of living water. )

SUMMARY: This story is prequel to another one I wrote called Inhaling The Different Dawn, and therefore AU.

RATING: R

SPOILERS: This is post The Truth, so anything is fair game.

DISCLAIMER: Breaking seal constitutes acceptance of agreement. Proceed at your own risk. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. For recreational purposes only. Driver does not carry cash. And, as always, thank you for choosing Aloysia Airlines for your direct flight from 1013 to fanfic.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: When the previews (and early spoilers) for IWTB first came out, I wrote a fic based on a conversation Scarlet Baldy and I had about how I things might have gone between The Truth and IWTB. In that story, I had them married because rumors were flying around about a band on Mulder's right ring finger. I thought it best to cover all my bases just in case. Really though, I never saw them as the marrying type and I decided to write a prequel to explore a situation in which I could see them getting married. So...I basically fanwanked my own fic. *laugh*

Reading the other story first will help this one make more sense in places, but it's not vital.

Many, many thanks to scarletbaldy for patiently editing numerous drafts with such care, and to amalnahurriyeh for squeezing in a look-see of the final draft during a very busy time for her. The title is from Emily Dickinson's poem that begins My Cocoon tightens-Colors tease-.

Author's Notes continued at the end of Part 3.

( She's been looking at his eyes for over a decade and still can't make out what color they are. )

This will be the last time for some time that I use this icon, because as of 2.15pm today, I have submitted said goddamned thesis. It's done, it's out of my hands, all my MA work is now finished and I can concentrate on being a PhD student full time. After Christmas, because as soon as I finish the Owain essay and turn it in, I'm going home for Christmas and not doing any work.

Was meant to have a meeting with Ian (research supervisor) today, but apparently he's in Llanelli. I don't know if this was something emergent or if he forgot, but all is forgiven anyway, because I had nothing of interest to report and by that time I hadn't eaten yet today anyway. I went home, burned a cheese toastie, and even though I still have an essay to finish, as soon as I post this entry, I'm going to take a nap.

That's right. A nap.

The to-do list is still frustratingly long, as I frantically try to get everything turned in, cleaned, packed and sorted before I leave on Saturday. I won't be doing work, but I need a new visa and Christmas presents and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I usually am.

Not gonna forget the nap, though.

My profile is full of snowflakes! Thank you, those are pretty! I am very busy and stressed this week, getting everything finished so that I can go home for six weeks and not do any work.

To this end, MY THESIS IS AT THE BINDERS RIGHT NOW. They will return it to me tomorrow afternoon, and then I will turn it in, and it will be DONE.

I have one more essay to write, and a new visa application to finish. Then I can chill and work on Yuletide. This week is also full of lunches and dinners and getting together with people I won't see till February, which means I've been going pretty much nonstop and will continue to do so. When I get to my parents' house I'm going to crash so hard.

Randomly, my housemates brought me a Moominpappa back from the conference they went to in Stockholm last week.