PHEW. Okay. I had a grand ol' time with my parents. I made them dinner, took them down to Philly to meet Gabe and Rel, took them up to Jim Thorpe to meet delicious food, and spent a nice, relaxing day around Bethlehem as well. We didn't make it up to New York as we'd planned, but given my mom's dislike of Philly's particular east coast city characteristics (namely Dirt and Smell Bad) I'm not sure how she would've fared in NYC anyway (by far the most pungent city I've ever visited). But we had a good time and they liked the Lehigh Valley and they liked all my friends and I think the visit was an overall success.
And then they left, and it's kind of amazing how after all these years they can still cause crises even while on the other side of the country (even when they turn out to be misunderstandings and non-crises). I wish I had someone to talk to in these situations, but I'm realistic about my ability to do so; I've made a lot of progress over the years, and I've gotten very good at communicating small problems and issues, but I'm still just not ready to share the Big Stuff. Maybe someday, and in the mean time I always have road therapy; rural Pennsylvania is very pretty at 2:30 a.m.
WORxK
Work at the pharmacy is going very well! I've been promoted to pharmacy technician, which basically means 1) I made it past the probationary period, and 2) the company will now pay for my study materials should I want to get nationally certified as a tech, and I do. I consider that my ticket against ever being unemployed for a year again.
I wish I could go into more details about what goes on at work, from the lows (patients breaking down in tears because the person they're picking up meds for isn't long for this world) to the highs (patients talking about how their meds lowered their cholesterol by 90 points, or made their bones denser since their last x-ray), to the creamy middles (can you use medicinal flavorings to make raspberry lemonade? we discovered that you can), but I can't because of patient confidentiality, and because that lemonade recipe is a secret.
COOKING?!?
YES, I'VE BEEN COOKING, for the first time since I moved away from Tucson. It started as a plan to allow Casa deRP more home-cooked meals without depending on Angie every night and evolved into MADNESS. It started with a chicken casserole recipe I got from![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cilde (who got it from caltastic's husband/live-in-chef), shown here partially decimated by Angie and I. The process of making that first casserole was basically an excuse for lots of immature jokes. "I'm not really used to handling meat." "This casserole has a lot of pea-ness. I find the pea-ness to be a bit overwhelming."
So I replaced the peas with mixed veggies and added more Ritz crackers (like ya do) and the dish has become a hit and a regular in the house. Cooked it for my parents, and they loved it as well. My mother even requested the recipe. I'm currently experimenting with a vegetarian version just because I don't like eating meat every day and yet HEY THIS IS A THING I CAN COOK. So far I've discovered that I DO like portobello mushrooms but I DO NOT particularly care for tofu, so the experiment continues.
My next food project will be trying to get my housemates to eat Mexican food! Possibly with the clever application of sopas and moles.
Walking with Hobbits
FFFF I LOST COUNT. Two months ago I was at 112.4 miles, and I was up to 156.7 miles at last count. That includes lots of running around Philly and New York for EVERY PRIDE PARADE and does not include walking to work this past week, because I've been driving because HEAT WAVE, and I can only sweat so much before I start work. I haven't done the "go out specifically for a brisk walk" in some time because running around the pharmacy and walking to and from work is pretty tiring!
BUT HEY, that got me all the way to Day 11, on the other side of the Midgewater Marshes which are apparently goddamn huge.
Words and Games and Such
Whoops, I've fallen behind a bit on RP tags and such, in part because it has been CRAZY BUSY FUN and in part because I really really wanted to finish the massive Kingdom log lists, and I DID and I am SO PLEASED and now I just have to maintain it which is the easy part.
I've only written two non-tag things in the past two months.
The first is a VERY SHORT THING, basically a primer to the Space Monkey girls and guy in Kingdom's Genderswap Bandom AU. Because I love Space Monkey, and nothing makes me happier than imagining their inevitable guest spot on Yo! Gabba Gabba (oh fuck, I should write that as well).
The second is a disjointed Future AU aka Suckfest AU aka WHAT'S THE SADDEST THING? AU bit that I wrote because I had a lot of back pain going on at the time and wanted to be an asshole to my character in as many ways as possible. Now that the pain is gone I feel a little bad about it. But I like the closer look at Ari's powers, and I like the insight into Ari and Walker's relationship, even if they're just kinda jammed into the same story for no reason.
Best Thing
The best thing on the internet, in case you were wondering, is still Budgie with a Hat. In the future I'll have to list "almost best things" for the sake of veracity.
And then they left, and it's kind of amazing how after all these years they can still cause crises even while on the other side of the country (even when they turn out to be misunderstandings and non-crises). I wish I had someone to talk to in these situations, but I'm realistic about my ability to do so; I've made a lot of progress over the years, and I've gotten very good at communicating small problems and issues, but I'm still just not ready to share the Big Stuff. Maybe someday, and in the mean time I always have road therapy; rural Pennsylvania is very pretty at 2:30 a.m.
WORxK
Work at the pharmacy is going very well! I've been promoted to pharmacy technician, which basically means 1) I made it past the probationary period, and 2) the company will now pay for my study materials should I want to get nationally certified as a tech, and I do. I consider that my ticket against ever being unemployed for a year again.
I wish I could go into more details about what goes on at work, from the lows (patients breaking down in tears because the person they're picking up meds for isn't long for this world) to the highs (patients talking about how their meds lowered their cholesterol by 90 points, or made their bones denser since their last x-ray), to the creamy middles (can you use medicinal flavorings to make raspberry lemonade? we discovered that you can), but I can't because of patient confidentiality, and because that lemonade recipe is a secret.
COOKING?!?
YES, I'VE BEEN COOKING, for the first time since I moved away from Tucson. It started as a plan to allow Casa deRP more home-cooked meals without depending on Angie every night and evolved into MADNESS. It started with a chicken casserole recipe I got from
cilde (who got it from caltastic's husband/live-in-chef), shown here partially decimated by Angie and I. The process of making that first casserole was basically an excuse for lots of immature jokes. "I'm not really used to handling meat." "This casserole has a lot of pea-ness. I find the pea-ness to be a bit overwhelming."
So I replaced the peas with mixed veggies and added more Ritz crackers (like ya do) and the dish has become a hit and a regular in the house. Cooked it for my parents, and they loved it as well. My mother even requested the recipe. I'm currently experimenting with a vegetarian version just because I don't like eating meat every day and yet HEY THIS IS A THING I CAN COOK. So far I've discovered that I DO like portobello mushrooms but I DO NOT particularly care for tofu, so the experiment continues.
My next food project will be trying to get my housemates to eat Mexican food! Possibly with the clever application of sopas and moles.
Walking with Hobbits
FFFF I LOST COUNT. Two months ago I was at 112.4 miles, and I was up to 156.7 miles at last count. That includes lots of running around Philly and New York for EVERY PRIDE PARADE and does not include walking to work this past week, because I've been driving because HEAT WAVE, and I can only sweat so much before I start work. I haven't done the "go out specifically for a brisk walk" in some time because running around the pharmacy and walking to and from work is pretty tiring!
BUT HEY, that got me all the way to Day 11, on the other side of the Midgewater Marshes which are apparently goddamn huge.
Words and Games and Such
Whoops, I've fallen behind a bit on RP tags and such, in part because it has been CRAZY BUSY FUN and in part because I really really wanted to finish the massive Kingdom log lists, and I DID and I am SO PLEASED and now I just have to maintain it which is the easy part.
I've only written two non-tag things in the past two months.
The first is a VERY SHORT THING, basically a primer to the Space Monkey girls and guy in Kingdom's Genderswap Bandom AU. Because I love Space Monkey, and nothing makes me happier than imagining their inevitable guest spot on Yo! Gabba Gabba (oh fuck, I should write that as well).
The second is a disjointed Future AU aka Suckfest AU aka WHAT'S THE SADDEST THING? AU bit that I wrote because I had a lot of back pain going on at the time and wanted to be an asshole to my character in as many ways as possible. Now that the pain is gone I feel a little bad about it. But I like the closer look at Ari's powers, and I like the insight into Ari and Walker's relationship, even if they're just kinda jammed into the same story for no reason.
Best Thing
The best thing on the internet, in case you were wondering, is still Budgie with a Hat. In the future I'll have to list "almost best things" for the sake of veracity.