The Space Between the Paws

Dear Yuletide Writer:

Fri, 31 Oct 2014 00:15:59 GMT

Hello!

First of all, thank you a million billion times for writing me a Yuletide story! It's such a wonderful part of Christmas for me now, I look forward to it so much.

Secondly, I'm not terribly picky, but I do have a few squicky issues. Please, no BDSM, no mPreg, and no non-consensual sex. Also not a big fan of graphically described violence.

On to my specific requests:

1. Miranda - I adore this show, wish I could see more episodes, but it's not always on PBS here in the States, so I've missed whole seasons. That said, in the ones that I have seen, I love the idea of Miranda and Gary together. Tom Ellis is gorgeous and Gary is such a sweet guy, who obviously adores the goofily wonderful Miranda. And if they ever did get together on the show, I didn't see it, so I would love to have maybe a first date fic, or something showing that they are indeed meant to be together. Other than that, have fun with it!

2. Hollow Crown - Oh, the steambath scene with Hal and Poins. It made my heart (and other parts of me!) go all fluttery! I would love a nice funny steamy little story about the two of them, on a romp, maybe a little drunk, maybe not, just having a nice lusty roll in the hay together. All part of Hal learning the ways of the world, right?

3. Crusoe - I mourn this series, but it was fun while it lasted, and I found Crusoe and Friday's relationship very compelling and very sexy. I would love to read a first-time story, full of sweetness and passion, either part of an adventure or up in their wonderful tree house. Anything along those lines will be great.

4. The Losers - Jensen and Cougar are my OTP in this film. I would love to see anything about them that happens when they're working at the toy factory in Bolivia. It can be sexy or just kind of bromantic.

5. Empire Records - Part of the reason I love this film is that I worked for many years in music stores, and I have met all of these characters at one time or another, it seems. But my two favorite characters are Joe and Lucas, I love the paternal/fraternal relationship they have, and Lucas' dry zen-like wit that masks a real love and loyalty to Joe and the store. I'm not sure if I see it as a sexual relationship, but I'd love to see how Lucas came to be part of Joe's life.

6. August, Osage County - Okay, so this is a little embarrassing. I loved the movie, but have only seen it once, so forgot the twist at the end about Ivy and Little Charles being siblings. The happy ending might not be as easy, but if you can make it happen for them, I would love to read that story! If not, possibly a story that happens pre-film about how they first fell in love would be great, too. I don't have an incest squick, so if that's the way you decide to go, I'll be happy.

Anyway, hope that's somewhat helpful. Honestly, I'll love whatever you send me, so have a blast and tell me a story!!

Hugs,

Sphinx (aka sphinxvictorian on Livejournal and sphinxyvic on Tumblr)

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What a Day This Has Been, What A Rare Mood I'm In...

Sun, 24 Nov 2013 05:39:20 GMT

Why, it's almost like being in love!

With the Doctor and Sherlock, of course!

I got home from wandering about in the cold, to find that I (like Scrooge on Christmas morning) hadn't missed it after all! The simulcast would take place at 2:50.

( Spoilers, sweetie! ).

That is all.

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Dear Yuletide Author

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 19:57:35 GMT

First of all, thank you a thousand times! I am looking forward eagerly to whatever you send me.

So: general guidelines: I am a Romantic, and I like my love stories a bit swoopy, but realistic. I love fantasy, and a little AU doesn't hurt if the characters remain true to their canonical selves. Not big on violence, angst is okay, but a nice balance of humor and sadness is good to have. Oh, and no BDSM, please, so not my kink!

On to the individual requests:

Amazing Grace: I love this film, not only for its portrayal of the history and the achievements of Wilberforce, but for the personal portrait of a deep and honest friendship between himself and William Pitt the Younger. (Yes, I am a BC fan, but also a great fan of Ioan Gruffudd, so equal time for both would be wonderful!) As I said in the request comment, PG to R would be fine for this one.

King Arthur: Like I said, I do like Ioan Gruffudd and he is wonderful as Lancelot and so obviously nuts about his Arthur. As I said, I do love that there is an interesting threesome dynamic, which has Guenevere coming in later than Lancelot to Arthur's affections, which makes for new permutations of jealousies and intrigues. R-NC-17 is fine for this one (superseding anything I said in the sign-up comment)

Lion in Winter: Philip II, as Timothy Dalton so wonderfully plays him, is like a cat, toying with his Plantagenet mice, and I really would love to see a portrait of his relationships with each one. And possibly a run-in with Eleanor about her relationship with his father (more than there is in the canon). PG-R on this one would be my preference.

Local Hero: Unreservedly one of my favorite films ever. I love all the characters, but the relationship between Danny and Marina is the most interesting, since it really involves a bit of fantasy. I love the Scottish folk stories about selkies, which is how I've always seen Marina. So, is he successful in stealing her "coat"? Or will he find a way to exist in her underwater world? Also, love his facility with languages, Japanese with a Scottish accent is wonderful! PG - R on this one I think.

Push: I like the relationship between Nick and Cassie, and I want to see what it would be like if they run into each other a few years later when she's a bit older and wiser, and he is, as well. I like the fantasy/superhero/mutant element of this film, and would love to see more of that perhaps in a different city this time. R-NC17 is fine, but just not too much graphic violence descriptions, thanks.

Last Enemy: This show breaks my heart every time I see it, and I want so much for Stephen not to end up sitting at that desk, with that horrible grieving face! I want him to find her, or for her to find him, it doesn't matter, I just want them to somehow be together. I know it will be tempting, but please, I don't want either of them to die in the story. R-NC-17 is fine for this one.

Anyway, again, thank you so much for writing this story for me and I look forward to Christmas morning with huge amounts of anticipation!

Gratefully yours,

sphinxvictorian

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Dad

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 06:52:43 GMT

Happy Father's Day to all the dads!! Missing my dad today. We had our difficulties, but through it all I never doubted he loved me. Also, he was kind of a cool bohemian dude in his day, in his own geeky way, playing flamenco guitar in Mexico and working his way through school playing in jazz bands and singing folk songs in coffee houses (where he met my mom!). In later years, his ill health and lack of life success made him irrational and irascible and sometimes quite abusive. But we still managed to have good times together in between the bad, and for that and for his comforting hugs, and his belief in my intelligence and my capabilities, I will be forever grateful. Love you, Dad, from your "mucky kid".

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Wherein we are introduced to Mrs. Gertrude Georgiana Hunt (nee Lynde)

Wed, 01 May 2013 20:16:44 GMT

So, it's like this (and some of you already know all about this, so I won't mind if you go off and read another Avengers slash story at this point):

I have become obsessed. I have a new fandom, and it is in fact, a true fandom of one. My obsession is with a woman who died in 1932, who was never in the least bit famous. She was never on the stage, never wrote a book, travelled a bit, but never abroad (as far as I know). She was an independent young woman, a music teacher (possibly of voice), a lover of the arts, a true old-fashioned Republican, and a no-nonsense daughter of New England.

( The Diary of a New England Woman... )

So there you go. Obsession doth drive away the stresses of the day, or something like that.

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Muskrat, muskrat, muskrat, muskrat!!

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:49:27 GMT

Safely arrived at Muskrat! Very nice hotel, I must say. Although the protesters that were picketing the hotel chain outside were a tiny bit off-putting. But we are in and registered and picked up our packets and bought our raffle tickets, and we are set to go!! Now if my bizarre cold/not-cold will make up its mind to be a not-cold I will be over the moon! Meanwhile attempting not to breathe on anyone too much. Cold medicine and kleenex in hand!

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Smash-up

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:40:48 GMT

So I have a new series love. I have fallen for Smash, big-time. I resisted at first, being in the white-hot throes of second-season Sherlock passion. But now I've caught up and am watching the second season of Smash. How could I have waited so long? Jack Davenport, Debra Messing, and Anjelica Huston in the same show! What was I thinking?!
( Spoiler alert! )

In other news I am very much looking forward to our trip later this month. First to Muskrat Jamboree in Cambridge, and then down to Washington DC to join the rally for marriage equality (in opposition to the huge anti-marriage equality march organized by NOM). Also while in DC, we'll be taking in the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the National Gallery and finally, after many trips to the area, we're going to visit the Lincoln Memorial. As my spouse says, more than the White House or the Congress or the Jefferson Memorial, it is the profound heart of our nation. I love the scenes in Mr. Smith goes to Washington where Jimmy Stewart first takes great inspiration and then feels a failure when standing before the great man's seated statue. Capra knew what he was doing, right enough.

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Old movies and Bohemian ways

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 19:00:44 GMT

"You've been a long way away. Thank you for coming back to me." Brief Encounter

Yeah, it's been a while, but hey, I'm here now and I'm not ever going to go away again (at least I'll try not to.)

( Movies ).

Just finished a biography of Georgette Heyer, which was very interesting, but didn't really illuminate much about her. She was a very private person, and even though the author had access to her letters, and other things, there wasn't much insight into the creation of many of the books that I've loved for years, like the Masqueraders and Venetia. Glad to have read it though.

( Bohemians )

At any rate, glad to be back on Dreamwidth. I'm trying to distance myself a bit from Facebook, partly because a lot of my friends are diehard politically-minded liberals, which I can be on occasion, but the amount of depressing posts about the ills of the country and the world just get me down after a while. Also, Facebook is a great way to keep track of friends and family, but I don't like a lot of their methodologies about changing formats etc, without so much as a by-your-leave. I'm not leaving FB, but I'm trying to be there a little less. And thus here a little more.

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Downton Abbey (no spoilers, I promise!)

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:28:29 GMT

Just saw the first episode of the new series of Downton Abbey. Wow! Nice job, Mr. Fellowes, you really know your World War I period. I've done a bit of research myself on this period over the years and he brought into just this first episode so many of the issues of that war, both at the front and at home. Beautifully woven into the family saga is the changing of the society around them. Just a really impressive first ep of the new season. Still a big soap opera, of course, but with a real depth to it, that at times was lacking in the first series.

Now I'm about to watch the second ep of the new Sherlock. I'm prepared to be creeped out in the extreme, from what I've heard.

Downton and Sherlock in one night, what a treat!

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Sherlock is back and I've seen him!!

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:38:04 GMT

Okay, I violated one of my own unwritten rules and downloaded the first ep of the new series of Sherlock. And actually, I am completely unrepentant, as I intend to watch it when it's on PBS anyway, and buy the DVDs as soon as they come out over here.

( Spoilery review )

I am hearing equally good things about the next two eps from people who have seen the previews in the UK, so I am waiting for Sunday with great anticipation.

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MJ Farewell, not con report as yet!

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 16:02:50 GMT

Just finishing Muskrat Jamboree. What a blast it was! Met so many fabulous amazing women! And Jacque's was just as wonderful as the last time, if a little shorter! So now we're off to explore Boston a bit more.

I have a few small fic ideas, I can't promise to actually write them, but... And thanks to kass, I can now waste lots of lovely time doing Fanlore posts! Woot! Also wonderful to get to know some new people! Reading my reading page will be even more entertaining now!

Okay, how many exclamation points can I use in a post!?!!! ;)

We're going to go off and look at the USS Constitution and wander around a bit more. Yay! Adventures!

More on the con later.

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Book meme that's going around

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 02:18:53 GMT

The book I am reading: Well, several, as usual, but my main book I'm working on now is Deborah Mitford Duchess of Devonshire's memoir Wait For Me!. Fascinating. She is the sister of some of the best female writers of the early 20th century, as well as sister to two women who were Nazi sympathizers. But her own life is just as interesting. Just finished Katie Hickman's Daughters of Britannia.

The book I am writing: Okay, well, technically, I have a Regency novel I've been working on for years. But that's about as close as I get to a "book". My last story was a Slings and Arrows fanfic for Yuletide.

The book I love most: Jane Eyre. It has everything, romance, mystery, gothicness, and girl's school stuff. Jane is one of the most wonderful female characters ever created. I have always felt such kinship to her journey from impassioned young child through her subsumed personality as a governess, watching her blossom again through her love for Rochester, learn the sad lesson, and come out still serene and assured of herself after all of it. Her final scenes with the blind and crippled Rochester are for me the perfect picture of a couple who are truly in love and whose marriage will always be a source of happiness to them both.

The last book I received as a gift: Susan Vreeland's Clara and Mr. Tiffany, from parhelion . A wonderful evocation of the artistic milieu in the late 19th century in New York, with a central character based on a real woman who came up with the original design for the Tiffany lamp. As my darling parhelion says, I'm on a Victorian women's historical novel kick, and this one was made for me, since I'm trying to learn more about the American Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movement.

The last book I gave as a gift: The Classical Tradition, to parhelion . She loves her Greeks and Romans. ;)

The nearest book on my desk: Judi Dench's memoir And Furthermore. Wonderful memoir, written just as she might have spoken it aloud. I have it close to my computer, because I was copying out a passage about the 1989 Hamlet she did with Daniel Day Lewis. Day Lewis had a breakdown in the middle of a performance and the actor Jeremy Northam had to take over. So I copied out her take on it for my Jeremy Northam group on Yahoo.

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Ring out ye Solstice Bells!

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:47:55 GMT

Okay, so I'm almost a week late, but still!! Yay, Solstice!

It's been a crazy holiday period, but I've gotten through it pretty well. Christmas Eve day was wonderful, lunch at Burdick's in Walpole NH, with V and R. It was splendid! And then we went back to our house for a nice chat and some present opening!

Then Lija and I spent a pleasant evening playing computer games and reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Then we had a lovely Christmas Day. I got lots of lovely prezzies, including many wonderful DVDs, like David Tennant's Hamlet and the Doctor Who Complete Specials (thanks to a wonderful friend!). Lija seriously splurged and bought me the most beautiful Victorian cameo pendant, from our local jeweler. It's an estate piece, and it's quite wonderful.

I then read my Yuletide gift story, which was based on Kate Bush's song "Jig of Life" from the Hounds of Love album. It was a fairy tale with dragons and a witch of the sea and everything. It was like it came right out of one of Andrew Lang's many-colored fairy tale books!

After that, I introduced Lija to the Eleventh Doctor, starting with the first few eps of Season 5, and then we watched the Christmas Doctor Who special on BBC America. Possibly one of the weirdest but most fun Doctor Who eps ever!!! Sharks, A Christmas Carol and cryogenics! It beggars description, really!

Then we were up and out the next morning, Sunday, to get ourselves down to an animal shelter in Massachusetts. A friend who volunteers there had told us about a kitty there that we might want to adopt, and we'd looked at some other kitties on their website, and we decided it was time to adopt a new baby.

So we drove down there, and looked at Ava, the kitty our friend had recommended, but she was a bit too young for us. We like to adopt older kitties who are a bit more staid in their ways. There was a nice four-year-old male named Banshee (for just the reasons you might think, noisy little boy!!) and then right below him in another cage was a lovely lady named Citrine, 8 years old, brown tabby with green eyes. There wasn't a profile on her, and we think she was owned by someone older who either died or went into a nursing home, and someone else put her into the shelter. She's a real cuddle-puss, likes to be in our laps and fusses when she can't find us.

Oh, and I watched the entire third season of Lark Rise to Candleford. Each season is better than the last! I hope there will be one more season, to tie up a few loose ends, like whether Mrs. Arliss ever gets out of debtor's prison, or does Laura marry Daniel! Gods, I love a good Victorian soap opera! ;) (Emphasis on the "good", there!)

Tonight we will watch some more Doctor Who, and get ready for my friend S to show up tomorrow!

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He's my obsession...

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:36:30 GMT

Okay, time to come clean. The reason there's been little from the Sphinx's Temple in the last couple of weeks is that I have a new obsession. It's probably obvious from the icon, but I have become obsessed with the new Sherlock series. A bit late in the day, but it only just showed on PBS, and I only just got the DVDs (thanks to a very wonderful friend!).

I haven't been this obsessed with a series for years. Not even Doctor Who or Torchwood.

( Wherein I expound upon the wonderfulness of Sherlock )

So endeth the insane babbling. Back to my regularly scheduled life...

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Dear Yuletide Writer

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:29:29 GMT

Sorry, this is a little late! Been travelling!

Basically, thank you, thank you, thank you! I will love anything I get, really, but I thought you might like a few guidelines.

So, on to the requests:

Primeval - I love Nick Cutter and the original Claudia Brown. Some sort of AU where they end up together is what my little heart desires. Rating: anything above a PG is great.

Crusoe - I know, the ending was somewhat up in the air. But I would love to have just a nice story about Crusoe and Friday, maybe a first time or something, but happy together. Rating PG and above, please.

Ninth Wave Song Cycle - I was so excited to see this on the list! It's one of my favorite albums of all time, and I wore out several cassettes playing just the second side over and over again. As I said on the sign up, I love Jig of Life and Wake the Witch particularly, but elements from other of the songs in the cycle are also welcome. But a mash-up or one or the other is also fine. Really, anything from the cycle will make me happy!!

Mirrormask - I really want to know if Helena and unValentine actually manage to get together, and is he as interesting and bizarre as the Valentine Helena came to know in her made-up world? It was such a little tantalizing tease at the end of the movie there, and I just want to see if they can actually work as a couple in reality.

Again, you rock!! And I can't wait to see what I get!

Happy Yuletide!!

Sphinxy

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Back to the experiment...

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 04:43:51 GMT

Woke up about noon-ish again. Continued to read Valley of the Dolls, my cult book of the week. Enjoying it much more than I thought I would. The characters are a bit two-dimensional but the plot is very fast-moving and satisfyingly racy.

I put on my brown faux-suede skirt and turquoise top, with a brown sweater and a light turquoise scarf. It was a gorgeous day, sunny in the high 50's. We took our usual daily walk downtown, all the way to the food co-op, to buy some tasty treats for this evening. Lija is off at her bi-weekly D&D game tonight and I've been watching TV. Started off with a couple of Grace Kelly movies, Green Fire and The Swan. The Swan is one of my favorite of her movies and I'd never seen Green Fire, but it had Stewart Granger in it, such a gorgeous actor. Kelly was such a beautiful woman.

So then I watched Countdown and Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher. And now I'm catching up on the HBO series In Treatment. I love this series. Gabriel Byrne is brilliant and the stories of his clients are so compelling. I don't always agree with the way that Paul treats his clients, but his decisions are always provocative and interesting. The Indian actor playing Sunil, Irrfan Khan is amazing and completely riveting. He steals each of his episodes right away from Byrne. I think my least favorite of the trio of patients this season is Debra Winger's Frances, who seems a bit too close to Winger's own professional life, so it seems a bit of an easy role for her. Although it's wonderful to see her acting again.

Since my last big journal post, I got cast in a local production of Neil Simon's the Good Doctor, which is a collection of Chekhov's short stories that Simon dramatized. I've got two very meaty parts and one smaller one. I'm very excited, since this is one of my favorite plays. It's going to be a good production. Our first readthrough was on Monday and the cast was quite impressive. I didn't know any of my fellow actors, but I look forward to getting to know them.

So now I wait for Lija to come home, and we'll have to get off to bed real soon afterwards, 'cause we've started going to Weight Watchers on Saturday morning again. We went for the first time last Saturday and it was great to see all of those people we've known for years now, and to see how they reacted to our weight loss. They were so happy for us, and it was a wonderful pick-me-up to hear that.

I shall say good night.

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A rant

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 03:42:23 GMT

I am tired of many things in this life: horribly bigoted politicians, bad economic policies, etc. But one thing that has been bugging me for years now is this: People who don't seem to be happy with anything they see or experience. This seems particularly evident on the internet social sites. I sometimes feel like I'm the only one online who likes the majority of things that I see or read. I'm sure that others must like things that they see or read, but they almost never write about them. Why is that? I understand that people like to complain, but shouldn't that be balanced by talking about things that delight and make them happy?

I know, I know, I'm Miss Cheerful as a rule, and I can't expect everyone to be like me. And I don't mean to say that people can't complain, I do enough of it myself, the gods know. But I think the world would be a happier place if more people celebrated the things that make them happy as well as those things that upset them or disappoint them.

Just sayin'.

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Swimming upstream a bit!

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 07:46:05 GMT

Woke up at noon-ish today. Laid around in bed finishing off Whoopi Goldberg's book, Is It Just Me? It's full of diatribes against a lot of the things that bug any one with any common sense or manners. I agreed with a lot of it, but felt that it was not a great book for me to dwell on for too long. I just get more pissed off at what a mess this world is, politically, etc.

So, basically, didn't do much after that. Played a Hidden Object Game, and had tea and treats, then dinner, then got dressed in my pieced silky brown skirt and my ivory and brown zip-necked sweater, over my swimsuit. Lija and I went off to do our twice-weekly session of water aerobics at the local indoor pool. Very cool teacher, with a wonderfully eclectic music choice, lots of world music and folk, with a bit of Motown thrown in. She worked us pretty well. I'm really enjoying getting to know some of the regular attendees of the class, like Cheryl and Suzanne. They're wonderful, liberally-minded middle-aged ladies like myself, with irreverent senses of humor and great attitudes. One thing that doing water aerobics with ladies of one's own age is that you really get a sense of what real women's bodies look like, not just those perfect ones one sees on television. Lija and I have talked about this many times, since we started this. It's very refreshing for both of us to be with women who are comfortable with their bodies. Now if the pool owners will just make sure that the pool stays warmer that it was tonight!! Brrr!

Afterward, we dashed into the store to grab a few essentials, and then came home, where I watched Countdown and Rachel Maddow, and shook my head over the scariness of the world right now. These Tea Party candidates scare me to death, they really do, and I just know one or two of them (or, gods forbid, more!) will get into office next month, and this country will be in some even more serious problems for the next four years! Also the craziness over Don't Ask Don't Tell, following the recent injunction, is just unbelievable. I have great respect and hope for what our president thinks he can do, but at the same time, I think he could be a bit more active in this particular fight. Let's get rid of it, honestly! On a happier note, I was so cheered by the Chilean miners getting rescued Tuesday and Wednesday, after two months underground! I watched the first two come up out of the ground, and like everyone else who was watching, shed tears of relief to see them come out so safe and in such good spirits.

So, having politically informed myself to some extent, I went back to playing computer games to calm my nerves. There's a big New England rainstorm going on through tomorrow, and it's wet and cold out there right now! We'll probably be walking on our basement treadmill tomorrow. "The curse has come upon me", so I'm not thrilled to be doing any walking, but it's necessary!

Well, nothing terribly exciting. Tomorrow should be a bit crazy, and honestly, all Lija and I want to do is stay indoors all day reading and playing games! But we have appointments, especially with our tax accountant, so that we can finally file our taxes for the year! Argh!

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A somewhat quieter day...

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 07:03:20 GMT

Woke up at 9 am (unholy hour, in my opinion!) in order to talk to the financial people about the cash flow problem. It being Columbus Day, issues will not be resolved until tomorrow, but resolved they shall be, thank goodness!
( Sleep, Weight Watchers, walking etc. )

Now I'm waiting to see if they're going to put up the latest episode of Dancing With the Stars, one of my guilty secrets! I love that show!

Tomorrow I get to see my therapist, back from her quick trip to Russia. I'm really looking forward to talking, since it's been a crazy couple of weeks, what with one thing and another!

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The experiment continues...

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 06:27:13 GMT

Another fine day. Woke a little before noon, dressed in my brown double-layered cotton skirt and a peach t-shirt, with my new peacock-patterned button-down as an overshirt.
( The arrival of V... )

Got to get up a bit early tomorrow to see if our bank is open so we can take care of our little cash flow problem. If not, it waits till Tuesday, argh!

Well. that's about it for me. Off to bed soon. Night, all! Oh, and thanks, collectively, to everyone who commented on yesterday's. I shall endeavor to keep this going!

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A small experiment...

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 07:31:03 GMT

I have a somewhat changed life now. For the good, mostly. Losing weight, getting fit, coming out into the world a bit more. So I thought it might be fun (for me, at least!) to do a little daily documentation of my activities (with more or less detail as seems appropriate). Feel free to tune it out, gentle readers, if you so desire. It may be quite boring some days, but we'll see if I actually stick it out!

Okay, to begin with today:
( The day's events... )

Looking forward to seeing my friend V tomorrow, and helping her run her lines for the Heiress.

And so (not) to bed, to sleep off all the nonsense I just said, to paraphrase Beyond the Fringe!

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This above all...

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 07:07:49 GMT

We're in the last two weeks leading up to our summer production of Hamlet. We've got such a good cast and I'm really excited about it. Our Hamlet is young, but a very good actor, and our Gertrude is blowing us all away every rehearsal. I'm having a great time playing all my small-ish parts. My costume changes are going to be a bit crazed, between playing Reynaldo and Cornelius, in two different outfits, with less than a scene to get changed in! But our costumer will put some hooks on the waist cincher I'm wearing as Cornelius, so it'll be easier to take it on and off.

Had one small injury which has curtailed my wonderful new walking regime, but it's healed up nicely, and I'm already back to walking a half an hour, and I'll be ramping it up again in the next week or so.

Tomorrow, Lija and I are travelling down to Maryland, to go to the Con.txt slash-fic convention. It'll be a lovely time. Hoping to see some familiar faces. It'll be such fun spending time with our friends Dusk and Greybard. I'm particularly looking forward to getting to do some dancing and to seeing the vid show. Also hoping for a Leverage panel! Woot! New season of Leverage starts on Sunday, Lija and I are very excited! PARKER!!!! HARDISON!!!!

Otherwise, it promises to be a quiet summer. Our trip to England is happening in April of next year, and we have already begun the preliminary plans, figuring out where and when. A week in London to start, and ending with a week in Bath. In between we'll be seeing the Kentish coast, and Canterbury, and Somerset, and Lyme Regis, and Cornwall and Exeter, etc. It's going to be glorious! A big reward for all our hard work, getting this weight off and keeping it off.

Still have another 60 or so pounds to lose, and need to buckle down. I'm on a bit of a plateau at the moment, I reached a loss of 100 pounds, and haven't made it much past that yet, but we'll probably be going back to Weight Watchers soon, and that'll help.

( What I've been reading and watching... )

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Spring

Thu, 06 May 2010 20:57:55 GMT

Today is possibly the most beautiful day we've had here in years. And it was such a joy to be able to go out and walk around in it. The sky is a lovely blue with lots of white and grey clouds scudding across it. There's a cool wind, shaking the leaves of the green, green trees, and the flowers are booming everywhere.

The ability to get out and walk for a good distance has been a revelation. It's been so long since I really took pleasure in walking anywhere. Now I find myself thinking how sad it is that I can't walk somewhere, because it's too far away.

I'm looking forward to our trip to Britain next April, since we will be really fit by then, and walking a huge amount of the time, which is really the way I prefer to encounter the cities and the countryside over there. Everything is clearer and more real when you experience it without the barrier of metal and glass of a car or bus. Some of my favorite memories of previous trips to Britain center around long walks. A friend and I took a long walk through London from Shepherd's Bush to Charing Cross, seeing some amazing stuff along the way. Then there was the day I discovered Richmond. Another friend of mine took me on a long walk from Putney to Richmond through Henry VIII's deer park, stopping for tea at the house that used to be Bertrand Russell's and ending up looking out from Richmond Terrace at the view that won my heart: the Thames winding into the distance between green trees, with lazy barges and boats floating along in the late afternoon sun. It is a dream of mine to own a house that overlooks that view, unfulfillable, probably, but a dream nonetheless. I'm going to make it to Richmond again this next time and take a really good photo of the view and get it enlarged and framed, so I can sit and stare at it when I'm stressed. It will calm me right down, I know it.

We'll spend a week or so in London, seeing the Aestheticism exhibit at the V&A (how I am looking forward to that!!!!), and taking in the sights, places we've been and not been before. We'll spend sometime travelling around the south coast and the counties like Devon and Cornwall that neither of us have been to. Then we'll finish off in Bath, the other place I've always dreamed of living. The Museum of Costume there is wonderful, and the Roman Baths and it'll be wonderful to go clambering about on the hills above the town, as well. I also want to hit both Glastonbury and Canterbury this time. We might not be able to get back over there again for a while, so I want to make this a good full month!!

The weight loss is plateauing at the moment, but I am comforting myself with the knowledge that plateauing after losing 100 pounds is much better than plateauing after losing 30! Hoping to get down into the 210's soon, though. Buttoning down on the calories and keeping the exercise up to par is crucial. So again, thank goodness for beautiful days like this one!

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Things I'm sort of thinking about...

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:51:58 GMT

-- How much I need to get back to being fully active in both DW and LJ. I've been a lazy little thing and spending too much time, on balance, with the easiness of Facebook. So, that being said, here is my first post in a while.

-- I'm very excited about the Aestheticism exhibit that is going to be at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2011. I found out about it from the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood blog, and I quickly decided that Lija and I should put off our UK trip (which was going to happen this fall) until next April when the exhibit begins. The main reason that I am in such paroxysms of glee about this is that I am hoping that the exhibit will be a true and sympathetic treatment of the Aesthetic movement, that does not feel the need to over-emphasize the ridicule heaped on it by contemporary humorists. Books such as Lionel Lambourne's The Aesthetic Movement and many journal articles that I've read over the years seem content to limit their discussion of the movement to the "artificiality" and the many Punch cartoons that made fun of what they saw as superficial posing, without any real understanding of the seriousness with which many took the movement, including Walter Crane, William Morris, Walter Pater, and Oscar Wilde.

-- I have now lost nearly 100 pounds since last July. Let me type that again: I have now lost nearly 100 pounds since LAST JULY!!!! Cripes! I can't begin to say how good that makes me feel. Everyone says that I'm blossoming, coming out of my shell, and indeed, that's exactly how I feel. All of these years of being overweight I spent doing my best not to look in full-length mirrors. I kept an image of myself in my head that matched the physical body that I had in high school. That was how I've always seen myself. When I would catch a glimpse of myself in a full-length mirror, I would have to remind myself that that large woman was actually me. Full-length mirrors are now becoming much less hard to look in. I have a waist again. I wore a waist cincher for my costume in Gondoliers, and I had a waist. I'm wearing shirts and dresses that nip in at the waist and they look really good on me. I can't wait to get even thinner and be able to wear some of the vintage clothing that I've always liked. I'll never be super skinny, and it will be hard to keep the weight under control when I've lost the last 60 or so pounds I need to lose, but having come so far, I really don't want to spoil it by going backwards and fouling up my hard work to this point. As I've been saying all along, my goal is to eat like a French woman and walk like an English woman. So far this is what's happening, and I plan to continue it. Also, I will do my best to continue the no-snacking rule. It's not as hard, since I don't have as much capacity as I used to have, but it's still tempting, so I have to maintain control on that.

Also, I have to say, there is one person I have to thank more than any other for being there for me and struggling along with me as this has gone on. Without my darling Lija, this would have been much more of a struggle and a burden, and I don't think I would have been nearly as successful. The buddy system is absolutely essential in this kind of thing, it really is, and she's been the best kind of buddy ever!!

More books that I've been reading:

- Changeless by Gail Carriger - sequel to Soulless, and not nearly as good, I'm sad to say. I'm hoping that the sequel, Blameless, is better.
- The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley -- a wonderful new mystery series set in 1950 England, the detective is an 11 year old girl, whose mother is dead and whose father is a bit vague and a philatelist, and she has two genius older sisters, who make her life hell, but there's a lot of love in the family nonetheless, sort of like I Capture the Castle, but a bit more dysfunctional. Anyway the mystery is very complex and she's a very intelligent girl who's fascinated by chemistry and poisons, and she manages to help the police solve the murder. I'm reading the next book in the series now, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, and it's turning out to be just as good as the first one.
- The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes - an interesting book about science during the Romantic period, very biographical and very lyrically written.

-- Still working on writing essays for the Oscar Wilde newsletter, and the online Complete Works of Wilde, that's still in progress. My editor is incredibly patient with me, and I hope to get some work done for him this next month.

-- Rehearsals for Hamlet have begun, I've only got two rehearsals this month, which is fine with me, it means I've got lots of time to do the essays and go to D&D games in Noho, etc. I do have the fun of trying to keep my different characters completely distinct without merely relying on costume. My Second Gravedigger won't be hard, but I'll have to make Reynaldo(a) a very different sort of character from the Gentlewoman who tells Gertrude that poor mad Ophelia wants to speak with her. Also, am having to really keep myself in check at rehearsals. I have the maddened urge to stick in my directorial oar, and I really can't do that. A has her ideas and I have to keep my opinions to myself, except about my own characters. It's the one drawback to being in a play that I know backwards and forwards and sideways and longways. I have thought so long and hard about how I would direct this play myself and I just have to hold it all in, and trust to A's vision. I can do it, it's just not going to be as easy as I hoped it would be.

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Long overdue update on the life of the Sphinx

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:16:39 GMT

Well, the weight loss is going great guns! Lija and I have both lost about 90 pounds all told, 70 since the actual gastric bypass surgery in September. I'm walking an hour every other day or so, except when the weather is really sucky, like it is right now! We've been having fun walking downtown, and doing little minor bits of shopping and then walking back. It's the first time in the whole time we've lived in Brattleboro that we've actually walked downtown!

My energy level is much higher these days. I've been getting a lot of reading done, both serious and un. As I posted here, I read with great enjoyment A.S. Byatt's new novel, The Children's Book. I then went on from there to read Elizabeth Kostova's excellent novel, The Swan Thieves, and then started getting back into reading Tennyson's poems, after reading a fascinating collection of essays about the visual representations of Tennyson's poetry in the 19th century, and his reactions to them. I realized I hadn't read enough of his stuff to really know half of the references, so I am now the proud owner of a repro copy of his Poetical Works, from Oxford University Press, and I am working my way through them, and enjoying them very much. He's not my all-time favorite Victorian poet. That distinction must be laid at the feet of my dear Oscar Wilde, with close seconds being the Rossettis (Christina and DG) and Browning. But Tennyson has his moments, particularly in some of his earlier poetry. And I am very fond of several bits of In Memoriam, as well. I still haven't decided whether I like Morris' poems as much as I like his designs. I'm steeling myself up to read The Earthly Paradise, very soon now. I also have a copy of Swinburne's poems, as a capper to this Victorian poetry fest.

I am also reading an excellent monograph on J.W. Waterhouse, although I must say that the author, who's a male, is a little too obsessed with the sexual imagery in Waterhouse's paintings. I'm sure it's there, but I would rather he didn't linger over it in such a prurient manner. It kind of gives me the creeps, a little.

I spent an enjoyable few weeks working through one of my Christmas presents, the complete Farscape series. I loved the series when it was on, but my education got in the way of finishing watching it, and so it was nice to actually get to see the entire progression of the series, beginning to end. I now need to get hold of the Peacekeeper Wars DVD, so that I can start reading the graphic novel that is continuing the series. I really enjoy the relationship between Aeryn Sun and John Crichton. It has its major ups and downs but it ends happily, at least as far as the relationship itself goes. It is an excellently written series, I thought, with some really very interesting things to say about our future and how we may relate to aliens if we ever do encounter them. I love that the Farscape aliens were often really quite alien, not just humans with a few bumps and ridges, or lots of green paint (I love Star Trek, I do, but the aliens, except for on DS9, were almost always some sort of humanoid.)

Also, on a pure note of lust, Claudia Black as Aeryn Sun rocks my world. That is all.

I am also heavily involved in theater this year. Our Gilbert and Sullivan production is in its last weeks of rehearsal, and we are really having a problem, since two of our really important rehearsals have been cancelled due to weather. And we go up in a weeks time!! Yikes!!! Hopefully we will all be able to be at the rehearsal tomorrow night, because that's supposed to be our last one before we start dress rehearsals. Arggh!

In happier news, I tried out for our local production of Hamlet, directed by my lovely friend A and got cast in several interesting small but meaty parts: Reynaldo, the Second Gravedigger, and the First Player (though not the Player King). I get to do a very abbreviated version of the great Priam and Pyrrhus speech. And of course, the Hecuba speech, for which I must really try to actually force myself to cry real tears, in order to give verisimilitude to Hamlet's monologue that follows it. I've never had to do that, and I might just have to resort to Method techniques (oh, the horror!).

Otherwise, life goes on apace. We are planning a celebratory (of much weight loss) trip to the UK this fall. Particularly focusing on the South of England this time, Cornwall and Canterbury and Glastonbury and other interesting places. I'll be spending a few days in Bath at one end and a week in London at the other. And of course, I would love to see all my UK friends. I'm sure it won't be possible to see all of you, but I would love to at least speak on the phone, if nothing else. I do wish I could get up to Scotland. Who knows, maybe we'll somehow fix it that we can. It just doesn't seem like a proper British trip without some time spent in the land of my ancestors!

I hope that all is well with everyone. Sorry to have been such a non-presence on Dreamwidth and LJ recently. I've been seduced by the deceptive easiness of Facebook and must really try and get back to daily perusals of my flists on both DW and LJ. Anyway, that's all from the Sphinx's Temple of Arts and Weight Loss. Stay tuned for another post soon!

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