Happy Tew's Day!

Feeling much less crazy today than yesterday, as it's beginning to seem like everything's going to work out okay.

So today, I'm wearing a longsleeved black t-shirt with the new carpenter/painter jeans - you know the kind I mean, with the extraneous loops of fabric and little pockets and stuff? And my 10-hole black Docs and jack-o-lantern earrings and stealth pigtails. But. The jeans. They hug the butt, then widen out so they're more than boot-cut but less than flares.

I know the girls are getting this. I know the guys are not. Is okay.

So. I was reflecting on the fact that the way the jeans widen at the bottom accentuates my height, or lack thereof. And I was thinking about how, for *years*, I dressed to make myself look taller...yes, I used to wear heels. And only short skirt, and slim pants, and the pants always darker than the top, et cetera.

And that has changed in the past year or so. Now I wear - and love - ankle-length skirts. And these new jeans. I'm playing up my lack-of-height instead of trying to dress around it. Combine that with the 80s-cartoon shoelaces, the stealth pigtails, the clunky boots... I'm entering a punky-little-kid phase, I think.

The only thing I'm still very mindful of, clothingwise, is my short torso. I'm 4'11", with legs that are supposedly long for my height - and a torso that is short, yes, even for my height. Makes bra shopping a bitch, but even more so... it makes me look like I don't have a waist. And I do, I really do, it's just a very *short* waist, and I have what bheansidhe referred to as a 'turtle of fat' on my belly, so I have to only wear shirts that drape a certain way...

So. Female people (and any clothing-conscious males). Is there anything that you play up/play down when you're getting dressed? Do you hide chunky thighs or play up your fabulous rack? I'm curious. :)

(no subject)

And I get to meet iroshi...tomorrow.

*squee*!!!

Dude. Rock.

So I just paged my dad on the off chance that he might happen to have a spare laptop that I could use for NaNoWriMo. Because with my dad... you never know. And lo and behold, he does! My sister does, rather, but she hasn't used it in about a year, so he's sure she'll loan it to me. He'll ask her tonight. So I shall have a laptop for NaNoWriMo. Kick ass.

My open-minded child

Week before last, mightywombat, bheansidhe, vidicon, and gladstone were over. They'd mostly arrived during her bedtime story, so she didn't actually see them. So she asked yendi and I who was here. I said, "Ed, Ann, Ann's boyfriend James, and Steve."

She said , "Okay", snuggled under her covers, then said, "Wait - is James Ann's boyfriend, or Ed's?"

When Elayna met Neil Gaiman

Tropicon is a very, very small sf convention, held each November in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. In 1998, just after "Stardust" came out, they had the absurd good luck to manage to get Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess as the author and artist guests of honor, respectively. And, amazingly... they did not publicize this fact.

The first day of the two-day con, I got my parents to babysit Elayna, who was then 3 1/2 years old, so I'd at least have one day to get things signed, meet Neil and Charles (if you've ever met them, you know they're not Mr. Gaiman and Mr. Vess. They're Neil and Charles.), et cetera. And I did, and it was great. :)

The second day, my parents couldn't watch her. Unfortunately, that was the day Neil was doing a reading, which I really did not want to miss. So I roped stronae, who at that point didn't really know or care who Neil was, into going with me... so that, if Elayna wouldn't sit still or stay quiet during the reading, he could take her outside.

I wheeled her into the room, and everyone there *glared* at me - chick with a toddler, don't you know, and oh, the kid's gonna scream through the whole thing and ruin everything... but I trusted Elayna. And as Neil entered the room, I pointed to him and told her that that nice man was going to read us some of his stories, and it was very important for us to be polite and quiet for him, and that if she needed a snack or a juicebox, she should just tap my thigh and whisper what she needed. She agreed.

So Neil started to read. He started off with "Chivalry". I don't remember what he followed with. Elayna was silent...absorbed in her board books or in quietly munching Cheerios. And, gradually, everyone just forgot she was there.

Including me, to some degree.

Including Neil.

As the hour wound down, he decided he had time for just one more story, a very short one... and settled on "Babycakes". "Babycakes" is a what-if story... what if all of the animals in the world just disappeared? Would we change our leather-wearing, carnivorous lifestyle? No. We would go to the next best thing - babies. Yes. Wearing and eating.

This is the point at which Elayna starts to get fidgety. Not registering that she was actually listening to Neil, I just patted her and whispered, "Almost over, sweetie, thank you for being so good." She whimpered quietly and continued to fidget, and the fidgeting grew more and more pronounced until, with Neil on the second to last paragraph, she braced her feet on the footrest of the stroller, levered herself up, and yelled at the top of her considerable vocal range, "I DON'T WANNA BE HERE ANYMORE!!!"

Everyone in the room broke out laughing, even Neil. It took a few minutes for him to compose himself enough to struggle through that last paragraph, at which point he slammed the book closed and leaned forward toward Elayna, arms out in supplication, saying, "I didn't mean you!"

(Epilogue: She didn't hold a grudge. She spoke to him happily at the signing table, and her copy of "The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish" has a sketch and "Dear Elayna, Best fishes! -Neil Gaiman".)

The coolness of Elayna.

In addition to mortifying Neil Gaiman, Elayna has also...

been hugged and sung to by Tori Amos. She was 18 months old and dressed as a faerie. And the song was "Happy Phantom", which Elayna usually provided woohoos on, but she was feeling shy...

been photographed by Hal Clement at two separate Tropicons.

played "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Dynamite, Gummyhead" with Harlan Ellison and Peter David.

also played the "animal game" with Peter David and Paul Jenkins

been called adorable by Clive Barker, but that was just from a photo, she didn't meet him. He signed "The Thief of Always" for her.

and has Poe's autograph, but likewise didn't meet her.

...and I'm sure there are people I'm forgetting...

Halloween music!

Want to burn a Halloween CD. Want suggestions. So far:

Selections from "Haunted", by Poe
Selections from "Nightmare Before Christmas"
Lots of Oingo Boingo - "No One Lives Forever", "Dead Man's Party", "Insanity"
Concrete Blonde - "Bloodletting", "Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man"

Give me more ideas! :)

...and so it begins...

Just got the first faculty application of the season.

We're advertising for a new computer science professor. This results in over 100 CVs being sent in over about a four-month period. I'm the one who has to handle these CVs - enter them into our system, send letters, file reference letters (3-10 per CV, all arriving separately), create files, et cetera...

Yah. First one arrived today. Here we go...

...back from lunch...

...to find that some misinformation regarding Shayara has been posted, despite my request not to post fatalistic misleading things like that until the other party and I had an actual conversation regarding the matter. Which is difficult, as I'm being avoided.

Rest assured that, in one form or another, Shayara is continuing. It's been my blood and bone for half my life now, and that's not changing.

Peeve of the day

Okay, they planned this building badly. There are three pavilions, right? West, East, and North. The offices in the west pavilion begin with W - W401, W402, etc. East pavilion? They begin with E. North pavilion, with N.

This doesn't seem like it should be difficult.

Also, you must understand that my desk is at the junction of east and west. So, if people are looking for E offices in the W pavilion, they can *see* that there's another hall of offices *right in front of them* as they ask, "Uhh, where's E410?" What's even more annoying is when they *know* what the E and W stand for, and will stand within inches of the beginning of E pavilion and ask "Where's East-410?" Well, duh, if this is W, and there are other offices right across the hall... maybe there?

Another favorite... "Where's the North pavilion?" Well, it's north, you dipshit. If that's east and this is west, and there's only one other hallway on this floor, where do you think north is?

The other complication arises from this: They've reused the numbering. Yes, there's a W402, E402, and N402. And half the students that come in here don't know which 402 they want. Not only that, but half of them don't even know their professor's name, so they can't look it up on the directory. Yes. There's a directory right next to me, and they still ask me what office Professor fill-in-the-blank is in.

I swear, this'd be a great job if not for the goddamn students... *sigh*

EDIT: Immediately after posting... "Umm, where's E412?"
And just now, as I typed that in: "Um, is 431 that way?" he says, pointing down the west hallway. "Which 431?" I ask. "E431", he replies, and I point east...

Hey! Help needed!

ariedana needs an idea. Go give her one.

http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=ariedana&itemid=92475&nc=3

*squee!!!*

Elayna lost a tooth!!!

She lost two teeth this summer in Florida, but that was in the dentist's chair - he basically yanked 'em. And she's had four loose teeth since the summer, and she just lost one! Her first real lost tooth! *squee*!!!

I think I may be more excited than she is! :)

I get to be the Tooth Fairy tonight for the very first time ever!

Pictures to come. :)

Pictures!

Pictures of my toothless princess can be found here: http://homepage.mac.com/alipkin/PhotoAlbum4.html

Jareth, to Sara, from Labyrinth

"Everything that you wanted I have done. You asked that the child be taken. I took him. You cowered before me, I was frightening. I have re-ordered time for you. I have turned the world upside down and I have done it all for you! I am exhausted by living up to your expectations. Isn’t that generous?""