innerslytherin

Well, I'm home, and I'm finally starting to feel recovered from my trip. LOL We had a lot more relaxing time while we were on Tobago, but then we had a 20-hour day of traveling home, flying from Piarco (Port of Spain) to Miami-Dade, seven hour layover at Miami with a last-minute gate change, Miami-Dade to Chicago-O'Hare, then to Indy. We got up around 4:30 to get Piarco in time for check-in and some duty-free shopping (hurrah, two bottles of rum for less than the price of a single bottle in the US). At Miami we had plenty of time to go through a painless passport processing and customs, though it was fun trying to repack one of our checked bags to hold two bottles of rum and one bottle of rum punch. LOL But we did it, and then had plenty of time to kill at Miami. We arrived early in Chicago, so we had about two hours to kill there before our flight to Indy. Thank God Dad was waiting at the gate for us when we got home. I think I would have cried if I'd had to drive home at the end of that day of traveling!

The day after we got home, we were hit with about 3 inches of snow. Bleh. Then over the weekend we had thunderstorms and yesterday it was almost 50. Today we had sleet and snow and then sleet again. No kidding. Seriously, I miss the Caribbean. I've got to find a way to vacation in Tobago more often. In the meantime I've been listening to a lot of soca music and trying to make myself believe it's not bloody cold outside.

By the way, anyone know how to repair a piece of bamboo? I brought home a bamboo pencil holder with a hummingbird and the word Tobago carved on it. Gorgeous little thing, but it spontaneously cracked all the way from top to bottom. I imagine because it's ridiculously humid in Tobago and ridiculously dry in Indiana. :( I just wish it had split down the empty portion, instead of right through the middle of the hummingbird. :(

I haven't heard back from the university. Since they wanted to do second interviews during the two days after I returned from Tobago, and start the new hire this week, I am assuming that means I didn't get picked. I'm not heart-broken over it. Secretary III isn't the best-paying position in the world there, and I've applied for a lot of other clerical positions there. I've also applied repeatedly for Writer-Editor positions, and it's annoying me that I am consistently being passed over for those. How many technical writers can there be in north central Indiana who want to work at the university? And why won't the university give the creative writer a shot? *pouts*

The kitties were pleased to see me return home. Eowyn is, if possible, snugglier than ever. She is also, if possible, fatter than ever. It's not that I object to her being a bit plump, but she is positively obese. That can't be healthy. I'm thinking about scheduling her to see Dr. Jon and get his opinion. She gets quite a bit of exercise when I play with her, and she has never even tasted canned cat food, let alone people food. But I do believe Strider is the dominant cat, and I've seen Eowyn defer to him if he wants to eat at one of the food dishes first. I wonder if that makes her overeat when she does eat. I just hate to have to go to feeding times, since I've always just given my cats free access to the dry food dishes so they can eat when they are hungry. It's the most convenient thing for someone who (when employed) is usually away from the house 8-10 hours at a stretch. I suspect Strider has stayed so lean because he never sits still except when he's asleep. When awake, he's incredibly fidgety, and he's better at entertaining himself than Eowyn is. Anything sparkly and he will chase it, whereas she pretty much restricts herself to strings, which require a human at the other end. She makes an occasional foray into feathered toys, but more often than not, that means chewing on feathered hair clips or dream catchers, which displeases Mommy, for some reason. :P

Mom and I are still posting stuff from our trip over at our Tumblr. She is typing up her journal of the trip. I only wrote a journal for two bloody days, proving once again that I am a crap diarist. *sigh* I also haven't written a thing since we got back. I have a short story idea niggling in the back of my mind, but I haven't put anything down on paper but a couple of concepts.

I can't seem to find any recipes for roti that look like the roti we ate at Asa Wright. It makes me incredibly sad, because I thought it was delicious, especially with the split pea soup over it. I wanted to make some of that for the TNT party we're going to have to show our pictures and whatnot to the family. :/

In other news, since coming home, I've decided I adore the new Sherlock, which shocks me. I've also become addicted to Hart of Dixie, though I can't decide what couple to root for. So many love triangles! And I think I am caught up on Criminal Minds, but my computer's DVR crapped out on me while we were on vacation, so I am not sure. There was "Bittersweet Science", then "True Genius" while I was on vacation, and then tonight's "Unknown Subject", right?

Anyway, I think that's about it for now. Anything exciting happen in your world while I was gone?

Our first full day in Trinidad. We got into Port of Spain just after midnight, following a long flight with lots of turbulence. We saw some amazing lightning pretty close. We were exhausted from all the travel, so we crashed at our hotel near the airport. This morning at 9, our guide Emille picked us up and we set out for Asa Wright.

The Americans built the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway back in WWII when we had an airbase here. So far it seems to be the last good road between Port of Spain and Asa Wright. The nature centre is located up in the mountains on a very narrow little road that is mostly paved and mostly potholed. There's a huge quarry in the mountainside, so the big trucks tear the road up. After a narrow and tortuous hour of riding, honking the horn while approaching every blind curve, we got to our destination.

Asa Wright Nature Centre is wonderful. It's a throwback to the colonial era, originally owned by a German but sold by him before it could be seized during WWI. The land was a cocoa plantation when Asa Wright and her husband bought it. They originally tried to keep the plantation running, but her husband died and Asa decided to turn it into a nature preserve. And she did a wonderful job.

The main house has a huge veranda were birds all but fly up and shake your hand. I've posted a lot of pictures at our trip Tumblr using my creaky netbook and the centre's creaky wireless. (I'm just grateful there's any internet at all!)

The cuisine here is heavily influenced by Indian cuisine, so the kitchen smells of curry. We had a lovely lunch that included pumpkin fritters, which OMG I have to learn how to make those. There was serve-yourself tea at 4 on the veranda, complimentary rum punch at 6 on the veranda, and dinner at 7. In between times, we hiked a couple of trails and spent a lot of time chatting with all the nature guides on the veranda.

Mom and I saw about 20 life-list birds today, including several species of hummingbird and the amazing and entertaining Crested Oropendula. We saw agoutis and some very large lizards, and I was horrified by one very large spider, fortunately far away from our cottage. A baby fer de lance was spotted by guides this afternoon, but we were nowhere near it.

I am just waiting for the internet to load all my stuff to Tumblr so I can crash. I am exhausted in the best way possible. :D

Russian Roulette - PG-13 - WC: 635 - Gen - Emily, in DC, after Louisiana

Drabble - Rossi/Prentiss

First Love and Second Chances - PG - WC: 1100 - Prentiss, Rossi - Emily wonders about second chances.

Where Wolves Fear to Prey (2/?) - R - WC: 2,578 - Rossi/Prentiss - AU. A wolf pack doesn't gain members painlessly. The BAU team is no exception...but David Rossi isn't quite what Emily Prentiss expected.


Wow. I know I said I was going on fandom hiatus, but this list of fics really kind of sucks. So let's throw in my original writing too.

I revised about 35,000 words of one novel, and I wrote about 50,000 words of a new novel for NaNoWriMo.

Also, I read 77 books this year, which is not as many as last year, but 10 of those were non-fiction, which is better than last year.

Well, the ankle isn't broken. I have a bizarre small purplish swollen bit on the right side, but it's otherwise not swollen at all, maybe because I got ice on it right away and kept it on there for a good while, and kept doing the 20-on-40-off all evening. Slept with it elevated too. But this morning when I got up to let the dogs out and feed the horses, it hurt like a bitch. Since I had that bizarre purplish bit and it hurt so bad, I decided to go ahead to the urgent care. The exam portion was only $72 (I think they gave me a break since I didn't have insurance, but I know I also got 10% for paying in full today). The x-rays, I don't know how much they'll be yet, but I have a while to find out, because they have to bill me.

Anyway, Dr. Hatcher (I love him) says it's just a sprain, and they gave me an air splint to wear. I explained I had horses to feed and he said that was fine, but to watch my footing in the barn because uneven ground can cause a second injury (believe me, I knew that already! Feeding this morning was a bitch). Then I told him about going to Trinidad and Tobago in a couple of weeks, and he said it should be all healed up by then. I love him. He's got the best bedside manner of any doctor I've ever known, and he's never condescending or patronizing. He takes people seriously even if they don't have a medical degree. *G*

So the orders are to keep off it as much as possible, but he said it will be healed up just fine for our trip. I can deal with the pain as long as I know I'm not damaging it worse if I have to put weight on it. So there we go.

Now if only I could figure out this blasted camera. I've been doing intensive experimenting, using both the Nikon manual and my National Geographic Photography Field Guide (and shutterspeed and photofriends. So far I still can't get the extreme closeups that I want to know how to do. But at least I've figured out how to change the shutter speed and aperture, which I wasn't very good at before.

I've started a tumblr for my personal stuff at http://stephaniecain.tumblr.com but so far I haven't decided on a name for Jan & Steph's trip to Trinidad & Tobago. Any suggestions? :D

Since Mom and I are going to TNT in January, I want to get a blog set up where we can easily post some of the thousands of pictures we will take. I'm going to have the netbook along to get pictures off the DSLR and will hopefully have plentiful web access, but I don't want to spend a huge amount of vacation time online. So any photographers or artists who have online galleries, etc., can you please respond?

NOTE: I want Mom to be able to upload stuff as well as doing it myself. She keeps a nature blog and I want to find a way for her to post pictures easily all the time.

First, a personal note: I am on Dreamwidth as Innerslytherin, and if you are on DW please let me know what your username is. I'm not leaving here, but I want to improve my flist on DW since LJ has been sucking overall lately anyway and this new business pisses me right off.

Originally posted by moerlin at As of tomorrow, no more subject lines in comments on LJ

WOOHOO!!!!!



I broke the halfway point today and had just over 6,000 words! Heading to bed early (haha, yes, 1:30 am is early these days) as a reward, and tomorrow I get to play Dragon Age or Warcraft for a couple of hours. I'm on a roll now, baby!


Also, I have realized that this is going to be a really bloody long novel. I'm pretty sure this one is going to end up right around the 100K mark when all is said and done. But that's okay, right? Epic fantasy is epic. :D

Thank you to everyone who has fought for our freedom or for the freedom of others. Thank you to wives who have given up their husbands and husbands who have given up their wives. Thank you to children who went for months and years without a parent at home.

Thank you to people like astraea36 and dysfunkshunell1, who have served their country and still have spouses serving this country.

Thank you to both of my grandfathers, who served this country during World War II, one on the homefront building airplanes and one in Guam as a radio operator.Thank you to my great-uncles who were in the liberation of Italy. Thank you to my great-uncle who served as an Air Force mechanic in Korea. Thank you to my third cousin who was wounded three times in Vietnam. Thank you to my best friend's brother-in-law, who serves in the national guard to protect us here at home, whether from enemies or natural disasters.

Thank you to every veteran. You are willing to make extreme sacrifices on my behalf, and some of you have made extraordinary sacrifices, so I have the luxury of sitting at home and bitching about whether I have a job or not, whether my NaNoWriMo word count is way lower than it should be, or that I ran out of hot water before my shower was done. I'm pretty sure some of you went days without a hot shower, or any shower at all.

For all that, I say, humbly, thank you.

Title: First Loves and Second Chances (1 of ?)
Author: innerslytherin
Rating: PG
Characters: Prentiss, Rossi
WC: ~1100
Summary: Emily wonders about second chances. SPOILERS for "From Childhood's Hour".
Notes: Dang it, this stupid episode demanded fic, and I couldn't resist. *sigh* Thank you so much to microgirl8225 for the beta. There will be at least one more part to this.

(  First Loves and Second Chances  )

Happy fucking birthday to me.

Wow, the head of HR at my company has reached new lows in classiness. At 9 am ON MY BIRTHDAY he called me to his office and told me they're downgrading my job to part-time. Why? Well, because I've missed so much time this year, and yet the quality of my work hasn't suffered at all. In other words, "You're so efficient, we're demoting you. Congratulations, you're losing your benefits."

And he seriously expects me to work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday? Hell fucking no. That's a non-negotiable point. I'll be working three consecutive days if they want me to stay. And that's only IF the Department of Labor tells me that it actually is legal for them to make a full-time benefitted position part-time non-benefitted while the incumbent is on FMLA. I suspect it's a legal gray area, since it might not technically be considered a demotion or punishment, even though in practice, it is.

I'd put the job search on hold while my boss' mother was dying, too. She was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer this summer and only died two weeks ago, and I thought it would be shitty of me to leave while C was dealing with that. Didn't stop C from being in talks with HR and the VP of Finance about all this though, obviously. Bitch.

So now I have to try to figure out what I'm good at and what I really want to do, and I have to do it in a hurry, because I only have benefits through the end of October, and the neurologist still hasn't gotten my migraine meds cocktail right, and I really wanted to ask my primary care physician for a new antidepressant. Though being away from SFS might take some of the pressure off the Zoloft, I guess. :P


I want a job where I can telecommute at least part of the time, wear jeans to work every day, do a lot of research, not talk on the phone much, and travel. With benefits. Anyone know of a job like that? :P