We survived the hurricane! Thank God! :) My luck with hurricanes thankfully continues. *knock on wood* Though reading the news it seems like it was luck all around that it wasn't worse (for us anyway) than it could have been.

( Ready for the stormCollapse )

Stacey

I'm in Florida (around West-Central FL) and waiting around for Hurricane Irma. I've definitely spent many parts of the last couple of days in a near panic and close to tears. I barely slept last night. We don't have cable, but I've been watching some coverage on YouTube and reading about it. At certain points, I just want to stop and bury my head in the sand because all of the news is freaking me out more. But I can't do that because have to know what's going on. I've taken a lot of breaks though.

( Hurricane preparationsCollapse )

Stacey

Mike and I have been in the new house for close to two months now. I feel like I'm finally starting to get settled in the house like I don't feel strange in the house and I'm getting used to being here. Of course, I still have brain fart moments where I reach for something where it used to be, like toilet paper for example, and suddenly "Oh, yeah it's not there anymore. Different house."

When we were first moving in, Mike joked that the house was a fixer upper - though not as bad as his friends, Tom and Sean's house. They bought a house a couple of years ago. We stayed there the last time we were in Maryland. There's a huge area in front of the house that is completely gutted and it's basically a ditch. Their basement's a mess. They told us nightmare stories about lighting issues and having to replace the wiring and other problems. Our house is definitely not that bad, but we definitely have our own issues to deal with here.

( Bug issues and other problems...Collapse )

Stacey

I meant to post this awhile ago and forgot.

Michael and I saw Beauty and the Beast a couple of months ago. At first, I wasn't sure I could get him to see it. I try not to drag him to see anything I know he might not like (we have a running joke about me making him watch Brokeback Mountain which he absolutely refuses to do.) We've watched Disney movies together, but he's not a really big fan of romance films, so I thought he could possibly like it, but wasn't sure.

At first, he suggested we see Kong: Skull Island. I told him I was interested in it, but I suggested we see BaTB. He said he was interested in it, but he wanted to see K:SU more. I laughed and said I felt the exact opposite. Over the next couple of week, I think he came around to it since he knew how much I wanted to see it.

We definitely made the right call because we both really loved it - though I do remember when it started being a little nervous because I realized I forgot to tell him it was a musical. He doesn't hate all musicals (I got him to watch Chicago and he liked it for the most part) but, like with romantic movies, it's not a favorite genre of his. But, like I said, he ended up loving it. When I asked him after the movie what he thought he said he'd give it a ten out of ten. He also joked that the one thing he wished it had more of was someone taking a chainsaw to the face (he's a huge fan of horror movies.)

He told me that his favorite part would end up being obvious to me, but would be hard to guess because it was such a small part of the movie. It took me awhile to figure it out. A lot of the time he's drawn to the scenery in a movie, so I guessed that and he said I was close. Finally, I figured it out and laughed because his favorite part was Belle's garden. Michael loves gardening and growing things and his eye tends to be drawn to that in movies. He actually talked about specific things he saw in her garden he wanted to grow in a garden of our own.

As far me, I just thought the whole movie was just lovely! I wasn't holding on to any nostalgia from the original. I don't remember it that well. Of the Disney movies of that era (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, etc.) BaTB is the only one I can't really remember when I saw it originally. I know I must have seen it at some point, but the only parts I really remembered while watching the new version was the opening song about Belle and Gaston's song. It probably helped that I wasn't judging the new version against the original.

I just really loved the love story. I don't know if I was abnormal as a kid, but I was never the hugest fan of fairytales. I think Cinderella was one of the first stories I read when I learned to read and I just didn't get how someone can basically fall in love at first sight. I've never been a big lover of that trope. Sometimes I'm okay with it (like with The Little Mermaid) but most of the time not. That's why Ever After: A Cinderella Story is my favorite Cinderella version because we get to see them fall in love. It's something I appreciated about Tangled. I liked it about this version of BaTB. We don't spend a lot of time on it, but with the montage we get to that Belle and the Beast get to know each other and it makes their love story believable and very sweet The chemistry between them was great, which sort of feels weird to say since the Beast was partially CGI (I know Dan Stevens actually acted with Emma Watson, but the Beast's face was CGI) so I don't know who to credit with the chemistry - though at the end when he's transformed back to human I thought the two of them had nice chemistry.

The music, the acting, the story, the sets, the costumes were all amazing. I can't even remember the last time (if I ever) I felt like this, but I literally felt like dancing out of the theater when we were leaving.

We did end up seeing Kong: Skull Island a couple of weeks later. I agreed with some of the reviews I read which said the movie didn't reinvent the wheel and is not necessarily original, but as a popcorn movie, it does what it does well. It is exciting in places and sometimes funny. But I am glad I saw BaTB first and definitely liked it better.

Stacey

#mylivejournal #lj18 #happybirthday

I didn't realize I'd made that many comments.

Stacey

Movie meme stolen from lots of people

•Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
•Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
•Post them here for everyone to guess.
•Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
•NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions

( Quotes within...Collapse )

Stacey

I'm feeling a little down. I went to my job interview. I thought it went fairly well. They didn't ask a lot of questions, but I thought I did a good job with the questions they asked. They said they were interviewing five people and would be hiring two. I thought my chances were good, but I got a call later and didn't get it.

It's not that I really wanted that job, but I've been rejected over and over lately and it's disheartening. I try to look at the positive and for every batch of applications I've filled out I've at least gotten 1 or 2 interviews out of it. But then I go back to the negative and I've still been rejected like 6 or 7 times out of those jobs, not to mention the jobs were immediately after I apply I get a rejection e-mail.

It probably doesn't help that today would have been my dad's 72nd birthday.

Anyway...on to the wedding recap.

Not surprisingly the last couple of days before the wedding were really hectic. It didn't help that I made some of the same mistakes I usually make, like not asking for help and waiting to the last minute on things. I waited too long to get programs for the wedding and I ended up buying this downloadable program from Etsy. The only problems with it was I was going to have to cut the programs myself after they were printed out. And when I went to Office Depot to get the card stock the woman who sold it suggested, I couldn't find it. I had to buy a different kind and hope they came out okay and didn't look too cheap.

Unfortunately I had to wait until the next day to print them out. Usually I could print them out in the front room where the printer was whenever I wanted, but Mike's aunt was up for the wedding and sleeping in there. The next morning it took me forever to get it printed out correctly. I had to leave to get my hair done and had to show Michael how to do it. I ended up getting to my aunt's to do my hair later than I should have and she gave me grief about it all day.

( Running around...Collapse )

Stacey

WOW! I can't believe it's been a whole year and I'm not just talking about since my wedding - since my last real post as well. I've posted a couple of stories, but other than that nothing.

I chalk it up to some business, laziness, and my usual practice of procrastination, procrastination, procrastination. After the wedding we were all so tired. I had wanted to do a recap of some kind, but just decided to wait to do it. I didn't visit LJ or twitter or keep up with my mail. After a couple of months I had about 400 e-mails I needed to reply to. I finally started visiting Twitter again and LJ again.

Once I finally came back, I wanted to get to doing the wedding recap, but I tend to get very word-y (see this post for example LOL) and I knew talking about the wedding would take forever so I just kept putting it off. At one point, to try and motivate myself I made the decision that I wouldn't post anything until I posted about the wedding. That...clearly didn't work. I had to break my rule and post my resolutions after the new year, but I just got too busy and didn't get around to it.

What's funny, to me anyway, about not posting for so long is I used to not post for a long time with no problem. When I first started on LJ I was really just a lurker. I didn't have a lot of friends or a lot going on in my life. But now that I do have a lot of friends and do have a lot of stuff going on in my life, I don't post in forever.

Though not posting on LJ isn't the only thing I'm behind on. I've never gotten the dress that I wore to the rehearsal dinner dry cleaned. I haven't cleaned my wedding dress. They had this wedding dress preservation kit thing at David's Bridal, which I wasn't sure if I wanted to do, but I need to do something. I haven't gotten the pictures my aunt took at the wedding rehearsal. I still haven't got our wedding album. We got all the pics from the wedding (over 800) on discs, but the album hasn't been put together. It's been horrible trying to communicate with the wedding photographer. It takes him forever to answer e-mails.

So, anyway, I've decided to do a wedding recap - for anyone who still cares - and post some pictures over the weekend. This will also be a kind of nice way to relive the wedding before our anniversary.

Things between Michael and I are going alright. When it comes to our feelings for each other we're still just as in love as ever. I've never been in a relationship before, so I have no real frame of reference, but it still surprises me how after six years together we're still so crazy about each other. He still texts me that he misses me on occasion. We're still ridiculously affectionate in public (which is never something I thought I would be.) We don't make out in public or anything. But he puts his arms around me and we hug. So, yeah, still in love. :)

( This is long...Collapse )

Title: A Not So Rude Awakening
Author/Artist: geekslave
Pairing(s): Arthur/Merlin
Characters: Merlin, Arthur
Word Count: ~3500
Rating: NC-17
Summary: The fact that Arthur was narcoleptic didn't bother Merlin. However, the fact that he could be such an arrogant, condescending, stubborn arse did. Despite those negative qualities Merlin had a massive crush on him. But Merlin had been hired to be Arthur's companion and a relationship couldn't happen. Then again, he could be wrong.
Disclaimer: Merlin characters are the property of Shine and BBC. No profit is being made and no copyright infringement is intended.
Warnings: Talk of narcolepsy and how that affects Arthur mentally and physically
Notes: Expanded version of story originally written for the 2013 summerpornathon's week four challenge - banging bedframes and slumbering sluts. For merlin_writers Tropes Bingo. Tropes used - illness/injury, flatmates, coffeeshop.

Big thanks to inspired_being for her quick and thorough beta work on this.

On AO3


( A Not So Rude AwakeningCollapse )

Title: Cinderella Wasn't a Clotpole
Author/Artist: geekslave
Pairing(s): Arthur/Merlin
Characters: Merlin, Arthur, Gwaine
Word Count: ~9500
Rating: R
Summary: When Merlin wakes up in Arthur's bed wearing nothing but an apron, he has several questions. How'd he get there? Where did his clothes go? Why is he wearing an apron when he doesn't even cook? The most important question is what exactly happened between him and Arthur. Merlin just has to work up the courage to ask him.
Disclaimer: Merlin characters are the property of Shine and BBC. No profit is being made and no copyright infringement is intended.
Warnings: Dubious Consent issues.
Notes: Expanded version of story originally written for 2014 summerpornathon's week one challenge - Sexpistolary. For merlin_writers Tropes Bingo. Tropes used - secret crush, friends to lovers, and amnesia/memory loss.

Big thanks to bluemoondreamer for her quick and thorough beta job!

On AO3


( Cinderella Wasn't a ClotpoleCollapse )

So I've finally got shoes for the wedding and we picked a honeymoon destination. Part of me is happy that decisions were made in that area, but I wasn't exactly happy because neither choice was what I had exactly envisioned and not without problems.

( Shoes & HoneymoonCollapse )

Stacey

Still haven't been able to find a shoe for the wedding. Jean and I went shopping again last week. I didn't think there was a point in going back to the stores we'd already been too, but since that was months ago, I hoped that maybe they got new shoes in. But it seemed like they had even less to offer than before. I talked to one of the salespeople and they mentioned that one of the problems was that a lot of modern shoes are so narrowly pointed and they have such short toe heels that barely cover any of your toes.

( Shoes & FeetCollapse )

Thankfully, we've made some progress in the things we need to do/need for the wedding. We've taken dance lessons. We've hired a photographer and videographer. And we got an officiant. The path to an officiant was kind of interesting.

( Good News/Bad NewsCollapse )

Stacey

I remember awhile back I asked if anyone knew if $45 per dance lesson was a reasonable price, and most weren't sure. Well, I've found out it's a very reasonable price - at least out here.

There aren't many dance places out here, most of the dance places are for teaching kids to dance or doing recitals and stuff. But I did find a handful or so of places. The first place I called was the studio offering the lessons for $45. I called sort of late, but not too late, but the lady who answered kind of sounded out of it and almost answered every question I asked as if she wasn't sure herself what she was saying. I try not to judge people too harshly over the phone since I suck on it. Still her responses didn't fill me with a lot of confidence. I told her I would think about it and decided to call the other places before we made a decision.

( The Time of Our LivesCollapse )

Stacey

This happened a couple of months ago, and I even wrote a post about it at the time, but didn't get around to posting it until now.

Mike's a big fan of heavy metal and I'm not. I've pretty much known that from the start about his interest in it. Heavy metal is one of those types of music, like jazz and classical, that you'd be hard pressed to find a song that I'd enjoy - though it's not impossible every once in awhile. But we like a lot of the same kind of music, too so it's not really a big deal.

Mike heard about this concert with Insane Clown Posse and other metal bands. He wasn't sure if it'd be something he could do. He had always complained that he couldn't get to do fun things like concerts because most of them take place on the weekends, and he's always working then. The concert was on a Tuesday.

The timing sucked because he used to have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off, for years but a few months ago his days off changed to Mondays and Thursdays. So he still wasn't sure if we could go. But I told him if he really wanted to, he could just take some time off. It wasn't really great timing with the wedding coming up, and needing as many days off as possible, but he hardly ever gets to do enjoyable things so I thought he deserved it. So he decided to take the day of the concert and the day after off because it would be a long drive and he knew he wouldn't get much sleep for work the next day.

( Impatient ConcertgoerCollapse )

Almost two months to go until the wedding and we still haven't picked a honeymoon spot. It's one of those issues that Mike and I seem to kind of have radically different ideas about.

When we first talked about it, we kind of just talked about our wildest dreams - if money was no option. For me, I have a lot of ideas about wanting to go to foreign places, places I've wanted to go all my life - England, Italy, Ireland, etc. Mike likes the idea of going to beach places.

( Destination OptionsCollapse )

Ugh, I hate having to make so many decisions. But at least we've narrowed down the options and I think we're really close to deciding.

Stacey

He's done it again!

Mike has begun to branch out from just doing manips of his fellow horror club members to inserting some of his family members in his creations. He did a couple of manips with pictures of his sister and then one with her husband. He asked me about doing one of me (if I had any requests, which I didn't really) so I knew one with me was coming. He was kind of hilariously secretive about it, guarding his computer when he saw me about to sneak a peek. And I am really glad I had no idea what he was creating because he was so shocked and delighted when I saw what he created!

( Fabulousness under the cut!Collapse )

I just can't get over it! It's PERFECT! Again, like the last one, I'm just amazed that he did it at all and then to see how great it came out - like the way he has Merlin's hand around my waste - so awesome!

After he did the first "Magic Merlin" manip for me, I offered to make him any creative thing that he wanted - though I really meant writing him a story (when we first met he asked me to write a story, but I never got around to doing it.) At first, he passed on my offer, but then he said that he was looking at my computer and saw some of the gifs I have and he wanted one. The only problem was that he wanted one of someone's head exploding - not any specific head, any exploding head scene would do. My problem is that I can't stand watching scenes like that. It's one of my no-no type of scenes - along with decapitations, throat slicing, people being shot in the head, anything in a torture porn movie, etc.

I was wondering if there would be somebody who could make me a gif of an exploding head. I wouldn't want to see it, but if you could make it and send me the file or whatever. I would be eternally grateful and would extend the offer of a fic of your choice to you.

Stacey

I'm not really big on shopping. I might enjoy it more if I ever had money to freely shop, but even if I did I don't think I'd enjoy the act of shopping very much. I can do it for a little while, but if I'm out there for more than an hour or so I start to get annoyed - especially if I'm there against my will - and just want to go home. That's with clothes shopping, which I actually have some interest in. When it comes to shoes, I really have no interest. But I had to go shoe shopping almost all day.

( These boots were made for walking...Collapse )
Stacey

I was tagged by doodlesinsand for the six selfies meme. Here are six selfies from the past year.

A couple of these are really grainy because I took them on my iPhone with the camera angle turned around because I thought it would work better for selfies, but it really didn't. :)

( Pictures this wayCollapse )