1. URM. FOUR DAYS. Just four days more, guys - this time, in four days, I will literally be boarding the plane for Qatar New York. OMG. I can't... even BEGIN to process this, it doesn't feel real at ALL. I mean, I have tickets for most of my first week of shows, and at least half of the second week, and I've been planning this for a while. STILL. NOT GOING TO BELIEVE IT, as usual, until I'm actually THERE.

2. In other news, longest, laziest weekend I've had in AGES. We had a full three days off thanks to Labour Day (May 1) falling on a Friday. I had SOME grand plans of catching up on tv (god knows my flist is going to explode when the next House episode airs, and I am FIVE MONTHS BEHIND), or do something a little more productive... and yet, I spent most of it asleep and being lazy. Truth be told, I actually kind of like the sound of that. XD

3. Friday was family day - lunch out for my brother's birthday, at a fancy Chinese restaurant where basically we proved that, genetically, we all have a song playing in our heads at any given moment. Seriously we all just kept... humming out loud during the meal, while scoffing down epic amounts of beef and cod and god knows what else. I came home and napped after that, as I had gone to bed at some ridiculous hour of the morning, and then out for dinner to my aunt's place again. She's doing better after her second round of chemo, not having quite as bad a reaction to it as the first round, so ♥. Then I came home and... spent the entire night flailing at weazel_luv over Wonderettes. GOD KNOWS WHY. (I AM SEEING IT WITHIN THE WEEK, GUYS. ASFHALFHLSDHFLSDHFLSD.)

4. Saturday: I had plans to go for yoga, which were completely thwarted when I got up at 3.30pm (sigh). Instead, I watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which I actually REALLY liked. I know it's been critically savaged, for the most part, but I loooved it. Turns out I'm just a huge X-Men/Marvel fandork, I guess, because I just... had the best time settling back into that universe, watching all the characters I love pop up in flesh, blood and celluloid, and... it was just FUN. (I also loved X3: The Last Stand, so yeah, I really am just a huge nerd with really poor taste in movies. I'm not apologising though, these movies make me happy!) I am a sucker, apparently, even for not-entirely-well-wrought romance, and bought into the Silver Fox thing by the end. URGH, ME. No spoilers, however. Let us, for a minute, discuss the masculine pulchritude on display in that movie. ZOMG HUGH. JACKMAN. When I saw the trailer, I KNEW the movie could have been an absolutely god-awful pile of steaming manure and I'd have loved it anyway just because Hugh gets to run all over the screen being sexy and hot and growly omg omg. And that he did, in epic amounts. What surprised me is that I also found Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool ridiculously sexy. SHUT UP. In his six minutes of screen-time, he didn't even bare these, but I was still done. OMG HOTNESS. Now I have to go watch Definitely, Maybe again. I did NOT, however, like whoever played Gambit. Taylor whatever or somesuch? Urgh. Not that Gambit's one of my favourite characters, but... it just didn't work for me. He wasn't anywhere near charismatic enough.

5. During the movie, I had the insanely pressing URGE to delve back into the comics again - now, try to believe me when I say that I really AM far from being the biggest comics dork around. ( I don't think anyone really believes me, do they? )

6. AFTER the movie, to get back to my weekend - I went to a colleague's house for an awesome potluck dinner. ♥ He made chili and corn on the cob, other people brought corn muffins, mashed potatoes, ice cream (I contributed some not-so-great salad that wasn't popular anyway with all the OTHER things on the table), and it was just fun to sit around chatting about... movies, work, anything, everything. Honestly the people I work with are about the only reason I haven't lost my fragile grip on sanity in the past six and a half years I've been at this job. And it's been FAR too long since we had one of these chat sessions, so that was good!

7. Then, on Sunday, I managed to get up in time for my 2pm yoga class: which, although it was the easiest of the easy classes, I almost died in. GOD. I have not been back in weeks, because I've been lazy and the thought of inflicting pain on my really just completely inflexible body didn't appeal. So, being out of practice, that - predictably - became a self-fulfilling prophecy. A+, me. I'm already sore, and am going to hurt like the DICKENS tomorrow. In fact, I was apparently so tired I went for lunch, came home, and SLEPT FOR FOUR HOURS. Straight through dinner on a worknight. EPIC FAIL. That now means, of course, that it's 2.46am and I am WIDE AWAKE. AUUUGGGH.

8. ALSO, YOUTUBE LOOP. AIEEEEEE. Chiefly, there was Alice and Emily belting their faces off in I Will Never Leave You, one of the few times I've SEEN them sing that song unattached at the hip. YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT, GUYS: can we say omigod sexy SASSY belting times a million. 2:31 is legit an ORGASMIC EXPERIENCE, when they belt in opposite directions but sound PERFECTLY in sync, omigod. (ETA: OMG, 0:55!!! How. Cute?!) Then I found Bebe videos, and although she really doesn't have the best voice on her, god I LOVE her sass. She's SUCH a killer Velma, and probably the only person I'd want to see in the role over Julia (that's right, REPLACE IN CHICAGO, JULIA, PLZ). And yay, Bebe singing from Cabaret! I LOVE her line readings more than anything else. Mmmm, dripping with sarcasm and sass. I heart you, Lilith Bebe. ;)

9. And, because apparently this isn't already epic long enough, I figured I should get started on my alphabet meme, or I won't be done by the time I hit NY. To wit, here's the first five letters of the alphabet, accompanied by a lot of flail and a handy Twitter-ready summary for each. ( That would be A-E, in case you didn't know )

10. OMIGOD THAT TOOK FOREVER. Wow, I am going to have to seriously cut down on the time I spend on the next 21 letters or I am going to die. D: I shall now attempt to go to bed at 3.47am even though I'm WIDE AWAKE (damn the nap) and hungry (no dinner). Blaaarrrgh.

1. I think people need to write a thesis about the phenomenon of peanut mist. So I've been eating peanuts for the last hour or so - when I cracked the first one open, it kind of sent up a little POOF of mist. What was that?! And don't tell me dirt. Because I've already eaten it. :P

2. HAVE YOU MISSED MY RANDOM?! Hee. It's been three days. Filled with work (yuck), movies (ranging from yuck to yay) and good friends (MUCH yay). Balanced out pretty well, I'd say.

3. Epic work day of epic fail - it's the main reason I disappeared for such ages. Honestly it was terrible. I went out for dinner with my sister and brother at a lovely fish restaurant in Greenwood (mmm, I love cod SO MUCH), and then for gelato (peanut butter & cookies and cream XD) after that, but had to go back into work because something was due first thing the next morning. (Even though I got the draft in on time, my stupid boss took ages to clear it, which makes me BITTER but argh, let's leave that can of worms closed, shall we?) I think the day that I realised I could work throughout the night in time for a morning deadline and ACTUALLY DID SO was a bad bad day for me - because it set a precedent. Once I've done it, staying all night is no longer off-limits, you know? No matter how tired it makes me or how plain stupid it is. Also, I hate that I stayed for HOURS on what should have taken me, like, two hours. WHY SO STUPID AND UNFOCUSED, ME? Grrr. Darn job.

4. So that was bad - but I went home, slept until noon-ish and went in to work. Was in NO MOOD to work, so didn't, and had an epic chat with irnbruise about, you know, awesome movies and awesome actresses (Isabelle Huppert ftw, seriously), among other things, and that was GREAT.

5. Airport after, to send mirime off - it was great having you back, Ka. ♥ And thanks for spotting Julia going to NYC with me. I'm so glad we got to do that together! XD

6. Met noldoparma in Borders after that, at about 9.15pm, figuring we'd have our usual epic chat over dinner/dessert/whatever. AHAHAHAHA. We didn't know what we were about to embark on. I think we stayed a couple of hours at the Borders bistro, chatting over calamari, and then we moved on to TCC (mmm, green tea freeze with red beans!) for QUITE a few more hours... until 3am, by which time we were ready for more food. So we moved onto McDonald's for... supper/breakfast/something, and ended up talking until 5am. If you did the math, that's AN EPIC EIGHT HOURS OF CHATTING. Like, a legit WORKING DAY, guys. We spent all of that chatting about EVERYTHING: politics, philosophy, work, our childhoods, art and fandom and everything ELSE in between, and omigod. Honestly, one of the most epic chats of my LIFE. Thanks for sitting there and picking through my brain with me, J. ;) It was fun.

7. Collapsed at home after that at about 7am, and slept 'til 4.30pm (!!!). Then it was time for a TON of movies: three, to be precise. Let The Right One In was creepily atmospheric, and I'm GLAD I subjected myself to it (I don't usually watch horror/vampire movies except for very good reason i.e., well-reviewed, as this one was, or epic lulz i.e., Twilight). Best movie of the day. Then, Marley And Me. AUGH. The ending made me cry, because it WAS sad, but the film was so manipulative. PUPPY PORN, for one thing, but it just... wasn't well-written, or particularly engaging, and Owen's character seemed SO neglectful to me of his family. Did not like. Third film was Last Chance Harvey - I would watch Emma Thompson in anything, and she and Dustin Hoffman had a nice chemistry. A sweet little film, not AMAZING, but nice. It was like Before Sunrise for the geriatric crowd, and set in the stone-washed loveliness that is London rather than Paris. I want to go back!

8. I decided to pretty up this rather boring entry with a minor pic-spam of my favourite film actresses - inspired by chatting with Leslie about Isabelle - and EEK. It ended up taking me SO LONG to find pictures and put them together. But, worth it.

( I need to go where people are serious about acting )

9. Brunch at 11.30, eek, and then work after that. I'D BETTER GET TO BED NOW.

1. 7.08am. How am I ever going to get back on a normalish sleep pattern for work next week!?!? D:

2. I'm not sure the "things that make me happy" meme is supposed to be SO heavily fandom-related, but honestly. My fandoms make me happy. *indicates new default icon* Anyway, MANY things made me happy today...

3. Oh man, I AM OBSESSED. There is really NOTHING SADDER than discovering a new (old) song (彎彎的月亮) covered by Emil on youtube - and realising that one of the two versions available on Youtube is cut off at the beginning and the other at the END and THAT WOULD NOT DO. So I spent ages ripping the MP3s (including downloading the videos at one point because the MP3s were ripping WRONG), and then splicing them together. A number of times, because I kept saving the file wrong. YES. I AM THAT SAD. But the song is SO PRETTY. ♥

4. LOL, the alarm I set on my phone to wake me up on weekdays JUST went off. O_O

5. I should download stuff from Megaupload at this hour ALL THE TIME. For serious - usually it creeps along at something ridiculous like 10-15KB/sec; now it's downloading at over 250KB/sec. :P I just downloaded the newest episode of PD and another one of DH in 20 minutes!!

6. Speaking of DH: ( OMIGOD NEW SEASON )

7. And let's have a mini-picspam of photos that have made me happy this past 24 hours: ( cate & meryl & julia oh my! )

8. I was contemplating doing that time capsule meme that's making the rounds - and then decided that I really didn't need to be reminded of how little my life will probably have changed by this time next year, and that I would probably be to blame for that. Sigh.

9. BEDTIME OMIGOD. MUST TRY FOR YOGA AT 3PM. I MUST.

10. Translating Chinese song lyrics into English is just so... hilarious. Doesn't 'A Sailor On The Sea Of Love' sound remarkably, REMARKABLY DODGY? Yet, that's what I'm listening to now. And honestly, it's a gorgeous ballad. HONESTLY. *weeps*

1. I am a lazy bugger. I woke up at... well, almost 5pm, shall we say (in my defense, I went to bed at 9am), and had all kinds of plans to run or skate or sign up for yoga classes. Suffice it to say that none of THOSE things happened. Instead:

2. I'm a big book dork and spent $130 at the Kino book sale. :D All on kids' books, because we have long ago established that I am six and therefore really grown-up. But I'm so happy with my haul! I have the entire Gemma Doyle trilogy now, since it comes so highly recommended by llyfrgell, and also pretty much the whole Adventure series by Enid Blyton. Also, I had this HUGE wave of nostalgia when I spotted Anne of Green Gables on the display shelf - as part of its CENTENNIAL EDITION celebration, OMG. Then I realised I had absolutely no frickin' clue where my entire series of Anne books had gone to, and that I'd probably thrown the lot away. So I bought the full set of all eight books. O_o Pleased with my purchases, but OMG, when am I going to find the time to READ them all?!

3. I am obsessed with N2N and NEED TO STOP MAKING ICONS. OH GOD. I know this. But I can't stop! It's so addictive! *weeps*

4. I love Empire. It's the only movie magazine - UK edition - I read religiously, and it makes me happy. And dorky. Not to mention the fact that the August edition, which I've only just got around to reading, has a huge splash interview with David and Gillian. WIN. Here's my favourite bit from that interview. When asked to pick a favourite XF moment, Gillian had this to say: