Blogathon is July 26th, and we're doing a special challenge this year. I'll be doing flash fanfiction - a different fandom for every single post. 24 hours, totaling 48 different fandoms.

I'll also be writing off of prompts, so please, leave some for me!

( Fandoms I'll Write For: in alphabetical order, because that's how I roll )

If I've forgotten a fandom that I'm willing to write for, please, let me know.

Happy Birthday, kawaiibarnhill! Hope it's a good one!

So, thesilentpoet and I had spent two days last week looking at apartments. We found one that we wanted, offered for it, and found out that someone beat us to it. So I went up yesterday for the Final Days of Looking (as in, we had to find a place ASAP, or this would all go to hell in a hand basket).

The first place sucked. The kitchen was the biggest room, and everything else was claustrophobically small.

Then we met up with John. The first place he showed us was incredible. Mud room, eat-in kitchen (with brand new appliances/cabinets), dining room with built-in hutch, living room with working fireplace. Two big bedrooms, one with a sun room off of it. Big bathroom. Balcony porch off the front. Stained glass windows. A second floor with a third bedroom and office, and a half-bath. Everything with new windows, new lighting fixtures (ceiling fans!), a new hot water heating system. A new hot water heater this summer to be more energy efficient. Washer and dryer in the basement. Two car off-street parking.

But out of our price range if it were just the two of us.

So he showed us the second place, a two bedroom. Nice, good location, but...we'd be 'making do.' And neither one of us wanted that.

So we went for the three bedroom. (It's literally two blocks away from Kathleen. Turn right at Starbucks, take a left, go up a block, you're there.) He gave us a deal, a reduced rent for the first three months to give us time to find a third roommate, and then the rent would go up. (It's still ridiculously low if you're splitting it with three people, considering it's a nine-room top-two-floors-of-the-house sort of thing.)

It took us hours to sign the lease (he likes to talk. A lot.), but we did it! We have signed lease paperwork. We can get keys soon, and he says if we want to move in that last week of May, he'll let us, no charge.

We were giddy and ecstatic, so we wanted to share with someone. So we landed on jennaria's doorstep, babbling about it all. With pictures of the outside on my cell phone. (I'll post them if I can ever find the USB cable.) And as we're babbling, we're realizing she's the perfect third roommate. (We like her, we can all get along together, she gets us, and it would mean less bills for her, too.) So we start tempting her with all sorts of wonderful things.

We're dragging her over to the place next Saturday. If she caves agrees, we'll have the perfect apartment!

I am...: bouncy

Happy Birthday, jonayla85! Wishing you a day filled with bishounen and smutty fanfic!

Dear gods, if you go to see Iron Man, sit through the credits. Trust me, it's worth it.

Kathleen and I went to see Iron Man again this evening, because really, we needed to. There was much fangirling, and the movie was just as good the second time around.

We then sat through the credits. (Hi, dragons_den74!) When the credits ended, and the final scene was revealed, well, we pretty much lost all dignity. Clasped hands, hyperventilating, tears. At one point, I forgot how to breath, and then remembered when the big reveal was happening. (I thought it was one person, and it turned out to be another.) We, uh, ended up leaving very quickly because we, you know, lost our minds. (We're big superhero dorks. Like, tremendously so. We even liked the Street Fighter movie.)

( Spoilers )

I am...: giddy

I used to get up early; five or six in the morning, every Sunday. That was when the best cartoons would air - Teknoman and Iron Man.

I've always been partial to the flawed heroes. I like them to get their hands dirty, to make mistakes, to have horrible vices. Which is why I've always been drawn more to Wolverine, Iron Man, Batman...they've got problems. Batman with his 'killing is wrong', if only because once he begins to kill his enemies, there is no line stopping him from doing worse things. Wolverine with his practicality in the face of everything; 'do what needs to be done', because that's all there is. Iron Man, with his alcohol and women, his skewed sense of morals and his inability to be compassionate enough not to want to kill his enemies.

I liked Iron Man, and Tony Stark, the best because he was human. He made a lot of poor choices. He took a lot of broken paths. He drove away the people who loved him, and had to fight to get them back.

I was terrified when they announced the Iron Man movie. They've screwed so much up, done so many horrible things to the icons of my childhood. They put pants on Strawberry Shortcake, apparently to teach young girls that the only way to be a strong female and be taken seriously was to dress like a man. I have no words for the third X-Men movie, or the Spider-Man franchise. Ghost Rider was pretty much a joke, albeit a good one. Narnia, oh god, Narnia, what they did to you. So forgive me if I had no faith in Hollywood's ability to create an Iron Man that encapsulated everything that I loved about Iron Man.

But they did it. I went and watched it tonight, and it was glorious. Just the right amounts of alcohol, womanizing, emotional shutdown, pushing/pulling at the people in his life...there was the flashes of humor, the brilliant mind, the incredible show that Tony Stark's life is. It ended, and I actually had tears in my eyes, because I can think of nothing bad to say about this movie. It was Iron Man. It gives me hope that not all the Marvel movies will be utter crap.

So all I have to say is this: Thank you, Robert Downey Jr., for being the perfect Tony Stark. You are Iron Man. And that is the greatest praise I can give.

I have to go and download the cartoon now.

I am...: thrilled.

It's going to be a good weekend. I can feel it. Tonight, there's going to be Iron Man! Tomorrow, there's meeting up with my mum to help her pick up supplies for her house. Sunday, I head up to Boston to meet up with thesilentpoet for writing, and then on Monday we're apartment hunting!

Plus, I've got a three-day weekend this weekend, and another next weekend, as I took Friday off as well for the apartment search. We're getting down to the wire, and are hoping to have it all sorted out quickly. (Not that we're impatient or anything. We just like knowing where we stand. Or, in this case, sleep, come June/July.)

Right now, I've got to go and start pushing to find out exactly what the plan is tonight. (I've already told Keean that either I see Iron Man tonight, or I start killing people.)

I am...: hopeful

When a professional drinker offers to make you a drink, don't take him up on it. Dave poured about seven shots worth of Belvedere vodka into a giant glass and then added a ton of orange juice. The whole thing had to have weighed a couple of pounds. I only drank about half of it (poured the rest down the sink while Dave was out having a smoke), and I'm still buzzing.

I don't think I can manage to find anymore words tonight. Plus, I have to be up at seven to go to breakfast. Time to lie down and hope that I can sleep.

I am...: a little drunk.

My boss has cologne for his dog. 'Four Paws' cologne.

Why do they even make cologne for dogs?

I am...: shocked

I’m participating in my (not-so-)local American Cancer Society Relay For Life® event. Please help support me in this important cause by making a donation. Whatever you can give will help - it all adds up! I greatly appreciate your support.

To make a donation, please go here.

If you're interested in my reasons for walking, it's explained pretty well in this post. It's not my only reason (there's also the matter of a lot of friends and family that are fighting or have fought cancer), but it's one of my more driving reasons.

( Somewhat Frighteningly Accurate Personality Quizzie-thing )

I am...: surprised

Great googly, A Walk in the Park is only a chapter or two from being complete! Rejoice and be merry! It looks like I'll be able to start posting it, in all its revised glory, once I've gotten Dreamweaver installed on the upgraded box.

I love midnight writing binges. Dear Muse: please bring me more midnight writing binges, and fewer horrible dry spells. I will find alcohol and dancing more often for you in exchange, I promise.

I am...: pleased

On a lighter note, have a little d.Gray-Man:

I do love canonical evidence for my d.Gray-Man OTP (Lavi/Allen). (Lenalee, Allen, and Lavi are the three characters from left to right. I love Allen and Lavi together. Aren't they cute?) All I can hear is: "Good god, what have the kids done now?"

I am...: amused.

csacivilwarlady has been making me think a lot about my decision to move to Boston. Actually, a lot of people have been questioning my decision. (Ironically, the one person who I thought would freak didn't. I honestly expected my mother to call me crazy, but she's been the one pushing me to go.) I haven't really been able to put into words exactly why I want to do this. Most of what I could say sounds kind of silly, when you look at what I do have right here.

Yes, I have a good boyfriend and a decent roommate and a nice apartment and a pretty good job and very good friends and my family, and a thousand other things. It's comfortable, and easy, and in some ways, numbing. I can coast here. I can just keep moving along without ever pushing myself, or doing anything drastic, or changing. But I'm not sure that that's what I want.

I found one of my old posts the other day, and realized that I put Boston into words back in 2004 in such a way that might help make sense now. In fact, it's where the quote on my icon comes from:( Boston... )

I feel like I can force myself further, if I take the time to live on my own in the city. I feel like I'll wake up a little bit, be able to be a little bit more myself. Break down some of the walls, rebuild some of who I am inside, and re-realize that it's all right to be that person. I want to see what happens if I do this. I want to find out if I can let go of what was, and find a different what may be. This isn't an attempt to get away from anyone, or an attempt to get out and stay out. It might be a little bit of an escape from the person that I found myself turning into.

But I don't think that that's a bad thing. I don't particularly care for the person that I'm turning into right now. I'm falling back into old patterns, bad habits...I don't want to do that again. I remember what it was like to have a panic attack at the thought of leaving the house, and I don't want to be like that again. A major wake up call for me is when the sound of the ringing phone makes me start to hyperventilate - that's a bad sign, a signal that panic attacks are not far off. I don't want to ever end up that bad again. I spent nearly a year having panic attacks at pretty much everything (literally everything - leaving the house, answering the phone, having to decide what to make for dinner, having to talk to someone), and it took a lot of effort to claw my way out of that pit. I don't want to backslide. Climbing out a second time is going to be far harder.

We found out recently that my grandmother fell apart when she lost the baby, and basically couldn't care for my mother for a year. My mom was only about two, and my grandfather had to do everything. At the end of the year, my grandmother pulled herself together and wound up furious at how close my mother had gotten to my grandfather, and has basically spent the rest of my mother's life both keeping her from my grandfather and punishing her for loving him. It really explained a lot of missing pieces for both my mom and myself. My grandmother has always gotten a very pained look on her face when I ask for my grandfather, or am chatting with him when she's around. When I was younger and living with them, she never left me alone with my grandfather, no matter how much he and I claimed we'd be fine. A lot of my control issues come from the fact that I only got to see my mother and my grandfather at certain times (dinner, bedtime, etc.), and if that schedule was interfered with, I would go silent and moody. I didn't act out much, or anything like that, but I was not a joy to be around either. And now all those times my grandmother would schedule me in the early CCD class or encourage my mom to put me in some of the afterschool programs and so forth make sense - she didn't like that the brightest spot in my day was when my Grandpa would come into the kitchen after work, take his work boots off, and sit and watch Batman with me while we waited for dinner to be ready.

Now I'm waiting to see what other horrible family secrets come to light as my grandparents get older and everyone starts admitting things.

Yeah, that started one place, and ended up waaaaaay over someplace else.

I am...: pensive