The Playthings of Her Life

Today is my birthday! My friend C who is just a few months older advised me to practice saying it out loud in private before I venture out in public.

"I'm sixty years old today." She's right. It does get stuck in my throat. But from this day forward, reaching this milestone to me means liberation. I no longer have to pretend to be hip, ambitious, or knowledgeable about popular culture. No one cares about my opinion anyway: after all, I'm old! Now I can be as eccentric and cranky as I like!

My big birthday present from my husband was our Paris vacation. But we're spending a few days in Santa Barbara this week, staying at the Baby Dux. Today we're going to the Santa Barbara Art Museum and then to dinner at Downeys. Tomorrow we'll go to the Santa Barbara Arboretum and to a violin concert at UC Santa Barbara. Thursday we'll head home again.

He also gave me this gorgeous jewelry from Etsy: Temperance necklace. I am a very lucky woman.

Enjoy this video while it's still up. Nearly every video I have watched at Youtube in the past couple of months has been taken down a day or two after I've watched it. I think my computer has been infected with something creepy that sends messages to the copyright holders. Is that possible?

Happy birthday to The X-Files! Wow. Can you believe it's been 18 years since the pilot first aired. It's true, this fandom changed my life, by inspiring me to write for the first time in over forty years, which led me to create my Live Journal. It has given me lasting friendships, both online and off.

Tomorrow is another anniversary, too, one I've been doing my best to avoid thinking about. After due consideration, my family is going out to brunch tomorrow to celebrate the September birthdays. Being with my family, feeling grateful that we still have each other, feels like the right thing to do.

Happy Birthday, digitalshepherd, and many happy returns of the day.

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This is my last day posting recs for RPF: The X-Files to crack_van. If I stop today, I'll still have some stories saved to do this again, especially if people keep writing it. Theoretically speaking, would it be wrong to hope XF3 gets made so that people will write more RPF?

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I am still needing recs for Fringe, any pairings, no pairings. I know there are people here besides me who read in that fandom, she wheedles.

Happy belated birthday to sinkwriter.





For those of you who still read XF fanfic, prufrock's love is posting a new story at Ephemeral, "Seven Days in May." Yes, That prufrock's love. It's a sequel to "The 13th Sign," a brilliant story which was/is a personal favorite of mine. The word on the street is that it's finished; she's just posting it a little at a time. So far, Parts 1a and 1b of seven are up. I like it. I'm enjoying it. I'm not bowled over by it the way I was with 13th Sign, but it's early yet. So far, I spotted one typo (so why can't I spot my own?) and one annoying passage.

"Something lives as long as the last person who remembers
it, so these people live on through you and your family,"
Mulder told her, and this time her sad smile seemed more
genuine.

"It's a comforting thought, Agent Mulder, but that's a
Navajo proverb and I'm not Navajo."

"A wise old Navajo man told it to me. Recite one
comforting Jewish proverb," he challenged. When she
conceded she couldn't, he said, "Exactly. Because there
aren't any. If Jews made Hallmark cards, every one would
say 'Such a tragedy, but it could be worse. Have some
soup.'" He adjusted a framed school picture of a
prepubescent girl on her desk. "Some stories don't have
happy endings, but we'll do everything we can. You know
that."


Feel free to weigh in here if I'm wrong, or even if I'm right, but with an entire book in the Hebrew Scripture entitled "Proverbs," wouldn't you think one of the verses might provide comfort? Even if Mulder didn't think so, you'd think Scully might offer an opinion on it. And what about Ecclesiastes? "There is a season, turn, turn turn." That's comforting, at least it is to me.

She also portrays Reboot!Scully (who, as you may recall, had her memories of her years with Mulder and the X-Files stolen during her abduction in "The 13th Sign") as a believing, even devout Catholic and I'm damn sure that's an over-simplification, even if Mulder is seen as an unreliable narrator in this story. Is it just me, or do her Scully characterizations often seem a little off? She sure writes a great Mulder. But setting my quirky opinions aside, she's obviously one of the greats from the XF fandom, and a new story from her is bound to be worth reading and discussing. Maybe we'll tackle it next at xf_book_club, after we're done with "Khyber Versus Season Seven."

I had other things to say but I'm stoned on antihistamines and Deet. I took a Benedryl with the intention of helping the itching from the bites I got last night. I don't know what bit me but the wheals are the size of half dollars now.

The Deet is to try to keep from getting more. Anyway, I'm falling asleep.

Sending prayers for the people who are in the path of Hurricane Irene.

*balloon banner by querita*

Today is Gillian Anderson's birthday. I do not have a sufficiently awesome photo saved to honor the event and have no time to hunt for one, let alone make a banner or even steal one. So I am reposting this cartoon of wonderment and glee for all of the "creative romantics" out there who adore her as much as I do. I think I stole it from tree who probably knows who the artist is, too. I hope it's readable.




Kyle seems to be doing better this morning, though I have a splitting headache. Thanks for all of your good thoughts and concerned comments.

David Duchovny! (Why won't you love me!)

The actor turned 51 today. He's still younger than me and way better looking, so I don't feel too sorry for him.



Banner re-blogged from http://lilykakes.tumblr.com/ (Thank you Google)

Now I want DD birthday rpf.

Our air conditioner is fixed!

I have to get dressed to leave the house and go buy lettuce and tomatoes and other fixings. We're attending a potluck today for the new exchange teacher from India and I said I'd make a salad. Thank the Lord I didn't volunteer a cake. I couldn't bear to put the oven on.

I'm feeling a little manic today. Can you tell?

Work Update: Tuesday was wonderful: I had great patients, and a not-impossible workload. Friday, on the other hand, was in the running for the top ten worst days ever, after being topped off by the lovely gentleman whom I admitted as a pre-op on Tuesday making complaints about everything and everyone, including me, to my nurse manager. He must have gotten at least three hours of direct nursing care before lunch alone, which would be fine except I had three other patients whom I was also supposed to be looking after! At nine o'clock, after I started falling asleep at the computer while trying to finish my charting, I decided that was it. I was done for the day. If they want me to do a decent job, they need to give me a manageable assignment. For the record, the charge nurse agreed. She still tried to give me yet another heavy patient, this one from the ICU, at five p.m. yet! I refused! I could go on and on and on, but I won't.

I love my job, really I do, most days, anyway.

Health Update: Unsurprisingly, on Saturday I woke up with a migraine. As soon as it hit, I took a migraine pill, then went to lie down, and fell back to sleep for six hours. I was lucky. This time the magic worked and I woke up pain-free. This alone improved my mood for the rest of the weekend.

Family Update: Today we had brunch at the Wolfcreek Restaurant and Brewery out in Valencia with my family to celebrate the July birthdays, including son_of_wendelah's. I had the French Toast with fresh strawberries and caramelized bananas and real maple syrup. Yum. I skipped the beer tasting, reasoning it could be a migraine trigger. I am not taking any chances. We were seated outside, which was worrisome since sunlight is a trigger, but luckily it was overcast and even sprinkled a little. I need to move somewhere with less sunshine, somewhere that's not cold and damp. Good luck with that.

Fashion Update: At brunch, I looked and felt simply marvelous. I wore this dress with this necklace, a cream colored silk sweater, white sandals, and my light brown vegan shoulder bag. Since it was cool enough, I left my hair down. The necklace was an early birthday present from Kyle and the picture from the Anthropologie website doesn't begin to do it justice. Next time I wear it, I'll try to remember the camera.

Fandom Update: Last night Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny held a question and answer session here in Los Angeles to raise money for one of her charities, which I did not attend. I should know the name of the charity but I'm a bad fan girl. There are probably already many lovely photos of them posted on Tumblr should I choose to search the site. Sigh. Supposedly there was talk of a third movie but I'm not holding my breath. Considering how terribly I thought XF2 turned out, I'm not sure I even want to see an XF3. See what a bad fangirl I am.

Edit: A link to the first official photo! I even know the photographer! How awesome is that! Go Eleanore! THEY ARE STILL SO ADORABLE!

Edit the Second: the charity is SA-YES. Thank you, tree!

By coincidence, I am posting the RPF recs at crack_van for August, and yes, I am doing it for The X-Files. I think it's for August? Communication has been next-to-impossible with the mod due to the ongoing issues at LJ. Weirdly, I'm much more excited by this than I was by the prospect of watching the Gillian and David and Chris Show.

Theoretically, I should make a fandom overview, but since I only read the fic and know nothing about the actors, this probably is not going to happen. But I have lots of fic recs to make up for it. If Live Journal begins to work better, maybe I'll post some pictures, too, for the new people who do not know how pretty my fandom really is. However, there is one tiny problem: at the moment, I can't actually sign in to LJ, let alone post anything there...

Apparently there is a Porn Battle going on at LJ but since I CAN'T SEE IT, I can't read fic let alone write fills. Is there one concurrently being held at Dreamwidth? Are there any prompts for The X-Files or Fringe? I also cannot access the Uniform and Suit Kink Meme, so if you left prompts or wrote fills, let me know by commenting, so I can update my contributions to the Famine Relief Effort in Africa.

There is a community I help run on Live Journal, xf_book_club. If you are a member, and you can sign in and see the post that my fellow mod amyhit put up last week, please check it out, read the fic and comment. If you can link me to the story, that would help, too. Thank-you!

This, too, shall pass.

Last but not least: Happy Belated Birthday, rollsofrice!

Happy Birthday, jcd1013, and many happy returns of the day.

Happy Birthday to joyfulfeather and tlynnfic. May you have many happy returns of the day!

But first, because it seems I am too distracted to pay attention to my LJ notifications, I have three (three!) belated birthday wishes. Best wishes to seren_ccd, lady_3_jane, and queensjoy. I hope you all had a wonderful day. Have I missed anyone else? If so, well, happy birthday to you, too. I'll do better by you next year.

Today is the imaginary birthday of one of my favorite characters, Fox Mulder of The X-Files. Every year to celebrate, I reread syntax6's marvelous "Birthday Stories". Because this isn't her usual casefile and/or MSR, you might have passed these by. Well, don't. Taking us through the first seven seasons, Syn gives us fourteen short birthday stories, each one slotted effortlessly into canon. Here is an excerpt:

( Season Five: Spinning in Infinity: His )

This one's not a happy-go-lucky story, since it is set during the cancer arc, but it is a moving one, one that has extra resonance for me this year. Read them, read them all. You'll love them, I promise.

Appropriately, October 13 is the opening day for xf_bigbang. Today's offering is "Variations on a Theme" by colebaltblue, fanart by tlynnfic. Go read, and please send some feedback to the writer and the artist. Fanworks are a big part of what keeps a fandom alive and well.

This week at xf_book_club, we are reading "Dance" by dith. This is a great story, an over-looked gem from the early years, a sweet yet hip blast of nostalgia for early season two Mulder and Scully, and of course, the nineties! Excerpt and link at the community.



Good enough to eat banner of David Duchovny by spooky_window.