Things…have been a mess, lol. In general it’s been a GOOD mess, but also a paperwork mess and a “nurses visit and ask lots and lots and lots of questions but don’t actually DO anything” mess and a “lots of appointments here and there and having to deal with ‘transportation’ issues” mess and a “you have some home health help but not all the carers assigned to you will be dependable or even all that capable” mess (the one assigned to help me today is barely more ambulatory than I am…), but yeah, overall it’s good.
My wounds seem to be doing ok…they’re supposed to be monitored daily but I guess having Wound Care look at them once every other week is fine…
Most of the soreness from disuse then sudden overuse has resolved itself, finally – still crutchin’ real damn slow (I ain’t stupid, much) but that’s ok. Having to sit 99% of the time is wearing on the nerves, though. I would dearly love to get back into my writing but my brain is still stress-farting and trying to hide in itself. At best, y’all would get gibberish.
In other news, have y’all heard about how True Blood is being shown on a “regular prime-time” tv channel now? It is, but…I just can’t bring me to watch it. Beehl was bad enough the first time around – why would I want more of THAT??? Ew. Are y’all watchingit?
I just can’t. Plus it would probably make my doggie sick. (snicker)
As part of the “got sent home after being in the hospital a long time” thing, I finally got approved for a program called “Mom’s Meals” wherein you get mailed a huge box containing a cooler packed with around 14 portioned heat-and-eat meals that you keep in the fridge then microwave. It’s supposed to make eating a bit easier for the newly discharged. They’re…not good, honestly. Some are okish but it’s like they poured frozen vegetables into the veg side of the little tray and somehow expect them to be fully cooked after only heating them the recommended minute or two. The two “breakfasts” = a scrambled egg and half a cup of oatmeal sludge with some sort of weird syrup poured over it. The point behind me mentioning them is that if you hear of someone getting them, don’t expect them to be getting something great. It’s…easily fixed food to prevent starvation. Not truly horrible but deeply unsatisfying. But food.
(And they use whole wheat bread which I can’t stand.)
(And the 3 cute ikkle widdle juice boxes included are sized for kindergartners.)
Meh.
I do love that the home help I’m getting does the dishes, sweeps, brings in boxes, cuts up boxes to throw away (no actual recycling center around here convenient enough for anyone to take the boxes to for me, sadly), checks the mail – lots of stuff that I can’t do (cutting boxes down hurts my hands and it’s hard to do while sitting down anyway). It’s too bad that the company can’t find more reliable (and energetic?) help but hopefully things will even out soon. Either way, I’m still grateful as fuck for what help I *do* get.
(Plus if I fall and die, I know that at least someone will find Happy and Galen before they suffer. That’s a huge worry for me since I can’t afford the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” thing.)
Speaking of finances…for all the help I’ve gotten so far, none of it is financial. I’m still in just as bad shape as I ever was. Still haven’t heard anything at all from SSI/D. Still have no help with last year’s huge property taxes I still owe. Still have no help with the necessary bills – phone/internet, power, water, etc. etc. etc. I THANK GOD do have “food stamps” – not rollin’ in the sweet, sweet gub’ment food money, but it truly is a tremendous help. In that one way I feel like I’m at least getting back some of the tax money I paid in over the duration of all my working years so I’m not at all ashamed to get it now. Hell, I paid it in!
(Never did understand people being mean about others receiving government help when they need it – the people receiving it very likely paid for it with the taxes taken out of their work checks so they’re just getting their money back. And I will beat with my crutch anyone who tries to mock like single moms trying to buy stuff to make a cake for their kid with “food stamp” money! If people are hungry, you feed them, dammit. Yeah, not a fan of bullies…)
Anyway, so that’s how things are thinging here. Happy and Galen are still lying at/on my feet – to physically prevent me from ever leaving them ever again? Happy is personally insulted at all the new people traipsing in/out of the house – it’s HER house, dammit, and she certainly didn’t give all these new people permission to be here! She barks…and barks…and barks… She’s old, though, and set in her ways and is not at all used to ANYONE other than me being in the house, so I can’t complain at her. Much.
Oh, and it’s apparently Spring, now. *glances out window, rolls eyes* Happy Spring??
~Mer
This is HappyDog and GalenCat in their usual position – at/on my fake foot, lol. Figured I’d rather use their pic for the ubiquitous PayPal link photo as they’re far cuter than my fake leg is!
Last time, I was home for a grand total of 4 – four – days before being sent back to the emergency room.
FOUR. DAYS.
That’s not even enough time to get the musty, closed-up smell out of the house. Poor Happy-dog barely had time to get used to me being home before I had to leave her poor little butt again. (Galen’s too cool for school so doesn’t show a lot of emotion…he thinks, lol – silly kitty.)
They’ve both taken to sitting right at (and, for Galen, sleeping ON) my feet this time around. I think they hope it’ll keep my ass at home finally. I feel bad for them. I mean, sure, they had someone come by every day or three to scoop the litter box, clean up after Happy, feed/water them, and talk to (Happy wouldn’t let them close)/pet (Galen’s a pet-hoe’bag) them, but it’s not the same.
Happy made a point of telling me so.
Loudly.
Ikkle (old) baby girl has NOT left my side FOR ONE MOMENT since I’ve been back.
Ok, so I was discharged late Friday afternoon, got home, VERY VERY SLOWLY did the bare minimum to be moderately comfy, annnnnd sat my exhausted, mentally/emotionally stressed-the-hell-out ass down and CUDDLEED THE FUCK OUT OF MY FURBABIES.
I missed them so, so, SO MUCH.
There may have been some staring blindly at the walls, too.
It took forever Friday for my brain box to shut the hell up enough for me to go to sleep but sometime Saturday early morning, I finally got to sleep AND IT WAS THE BEST SLEEP OF MY LIFE. Never, ever make the mistake of thinking you can get any sort of REST in a hospital.
Then the phone woke me up. Saturday morning.
*sigh*
I swear, anyone who ever spends more than a week in the hospital should be given a day planner and a private secretary to handle all the calls and notes and appointments and paperwork that springs forth immediately thereafter.
Saturday, thought, was one of the worst days of my life, physically speaking. Keep in mind that I had spent most of February and March horizontal in hospital beds NOT wearing/using my prosthetic or real leg. All the progress I’d made with my getting used to the fake leg? Gone. It was almost as though I’d never worn one before. My real leg? It had basically forgotten what that whole “standing” and “walking” thing were all about. Comfortably bearing my body weight? Both legs were all confused by the concept.
I was so sore Saturday when I tried – TRIED – to get up to go to the bathroom I cried. Peeing my pants almost seemed like a viable solution to the Nature Calling problem. Almost. I knew, though, that there was only one non-medical way to resolve the problem and that was to use the LOUDLY SCREAMING muscles, joints, and bones to work out the lactic acid and get my ass going. So, ever so damn slowly, and quite shakily, too, I crutched my way to the potty room. Granted I set up housekeeping on the throne for a bit to recover and overcome the absolute and extreme dread of WALKING BACK, but…BY GOD I DID IT.
Later…ok, much much later, I grabbed my courage by the balls and made myself crutch to the kitchen – OMG, COFFEE – then crutched back. The only other crutching I did on Sat. was back to the bathroom – I’m ballsy but not a pain lover – but still, I did it.
Sunday was a smidgen better, not much I’m sad to say, but almost vaguely tolerable. It was still very, very painful. Today, yeah, still sore and a little shaky (Friday evening at home I was horribly shaky and honestly should not have been up by myself in this house but when you have no one, you gotta do it yourself or you don’t do it at all), but I’m…getting there.
NOTE: If you’ve spent more time horizontal than vertical, expect muscle soreness and weakness, bone soreness, joint soreness, and a general shakiness when you DO get vertical. Also, prosthetics will not feel, act, or work the same because the shape and condition of your limb end will change.
Ouch.
Anyway, so I’m back home, at least for now, and my pets have told me I’m never, ever allowed to leave again. (Don’t tell them but I have an apt tomorrow…which is its own gripe but I won’t bleed your ears with it.)
So – how has YOUR Feb/March been? Better than mine, I hope! The weather has been weird EVERYWHERE so I hope y’all have been safe??? Dry??? Not blown away or snowed in for days on end???
It won’t be world-shattering and my financial problems are far, far, far from over, but: I’VE BEEN APPROVED FOR MEDICAID!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOW I can get my leg socket replaced, get another liner (that fits) and that kind of severely annoying) stuff, not to mention that when I figure out how to get actual transportation to/from doctor’s visits, I might could even see about getting healthy.
If Medicaid will pay for insulin, I might can even get the diabetes under control!!! (Right now I use the cheapie “$25/vial Walmart” stuff when I can but if you don’t have $25 dollars, you still don’t have insulin.) Having to ration insulin, and sometimes do completely without, has already caused a noticeable increase in neuropathy pain and a decrease in my eyesight. Maybe Medicaid will help with that??
The not-so-great news is that Medicaid will not pay for the bills accumulated BEFORE the Medicaid approval date. They would backpay for some things, depending on how recent, but all my previous leg, medical, medical-related, and not bills don’t qualify date-wise, so I’m still on the hook for those.
As well as my regular day-to-day daily-life bills. It doesn’t matter if I’m in “SSI limbo” for months – power, water, phone/internet, and other daily-life expenses (toilet paper, dog food, toothpaste, etc) still have to be bought/paid somehow and I don’t think I have enough body parts left to sell…
That being said, I can’t wait to get the whole Medicaid thing going. I’m sure it will be rife with complicated paperwork and hoops (all gov’t things are), and I still have no transportation lined up (I’ve heard it’s possible but I don’t know the hoops yet that I have to jump through), but yeah.
Oh, and get this: I have to go BACK to the leg-chopper surgeon to get an (another) Rx for a fake leg for Medicaid to pay for it. What, do they think my leg automagically regrew while I wasn’t looking?? It’s a calendar date thing, but still. Like, srsly, is a PROSTHETIC LEG something ANYONE would lie about??? The dr’s office (really nice office workers) knows the deal and we had a good laugh over it when I called them to ask about it all. We agreed that it’s ridiculous.
Anyway, I’m grateful to have something GOOD to tell y’all. I hate being whiny and depressing and only ever having something bad or worse to bring to the table. When I go quiet, it’s because I’m probably in a bad head-space, in a lot of pain, or something else icky and gross and I don’t want to drip my gloom and doom all over you.
Y’all are my sanity, my genuine friends who live in my computer! I want to bring only happiness, some chuckles, a couple sentient spiders, and fun into your life and really wish we could come out and play, have coffee at 1am, share hugs and cake and literally be there FOR EACH OTHER when times are good AND bad. No one would ever understand that you are not JUST “my readers” – you are actually a part of my life that I value very highly.
So, that’s the latest! Hope y’all are doing well, and if you are or not, do let us know. We care. I care.
Ok, y’all – believe it or not (and, yes, in the middle of the shitty chaos that pretends to be my life now), I actually HAVE been rereading Moon to get back into the groove of it.
No, I haven’t started writing yet – but I *have* been refamiliarizing myself with the story (and Sookie’s Amazing Preggo Cravings, lmao). I may also have been being (stilllove mah twisty verbs) a bit amazed – did *I* write THAT??? Rly?? Awesome!!
Wish I had a “play by play” of the story to keep The Bad (Dae) Guys straight, like, who and where they are and who did what (besides that damn’d evil triplet! – I know where SHE is MWAHAHAH!). But I get caught up reading and forget to take notes (plus brain fog sucks). Eh, if I make big booboos when I eventually DO post, I hope y’all will (kindly? gently?) lemme know?
Unfortunately my attention to it can’t be undivided now – too many other worries going on (mostly money, but also pain/health/life/existential bullshit), but I did want to let y’all know that I *am* trying – I’m pretty sore from life’s constant beat-down now and am not nearly as resilient as I used to be (or, more likely, as I thought I was), but I am trying.
I also wanted to thank you all for all your kind words – they really do mean the world to me. But — did you know that one of the “side effects” of brain fog is thinking that you’ve replied when all you’ve really done is lost the email in the sea of other emails where other things are also lost? Yeah. So please x infinity do NOT read anything into it if I haven’t or didn’t reply to your kind messages/comments. There’s a real damn good chance that I thought I had then got distracted by feeding the cat and then I needed a coffee and because of the coffee needed to crutch it to go pee and oh cookies! and then it was dinner time and where did all the time go and ugh the chicken is still frozen and no I don’t want pasta yet again but… (That may or may not have totally happened more than once…)
You guys ARE the best and I truly DO appreciate your kindness more than you could possibly know. I am YOUR biggest fan, for reals. You already know that life is hard, that it’s a rancid battlefield dotted with landmines and quicksand, that sometimes the unicorns are rabid and sprites and fairies can have some damn sharp teeth, and yet you send me such great encouragement and kindness and thoughts and advice anyway.
Thank you. Srsly.
Anyway, I’ll wrap whatever this is up – just wanted to keep you in the swirly, curly loop – and hope that y’all have a wonderful day! (I really am trying, guys.)
MAH DOGGY HAPPY CAUSE SHE’S SUCH A GOOD GIRL! She has become super-dooper protective of “mommy” after the amputation, bless her 10 (cough*15*cough) lb self!! (Got tired of photos of fake legs – hell, I see the damn thing every day as it is – and Happy is hella cuter!)
Like it? (I knew you had great taste!) Spread The Word:
Ok, so in my brilliance I decided to wait a bit to give any straggling readers a chance to pop in and comment…then a head cold caught me (Why would we CATCH a cold? Seems like a dumb thing to do, ya know, like…who tf is running around CATCHING colds??) so I was singularly unimpressed with the world for a while…then FALL ALLERGIES struck.
NOW that colds have been flung off and the allergies have settled a little and everyone who would comment has done so, WE HAVE RESULTS!
THE WINNER: ANYTHING! LOL! You guys are the best!! THE WINNER-WINNER: THE MOON!
You, my kind, wonderful, kick-ass readers have spoken! I’mm’a have to do a thorough reread complete with note-taking and whatever level of focus my fog-brain will allow, but thankfully I still “feel” the “tone” that first sparked the story. The loneliness they both felt at first, that disconnected feeling they unknowingly shared, that “I have everything I thought I wanted but now that I have it, it’s just not…right” realization that, yeah, they both unknowingly share… Hopefully FLM will agree with me and direct my fingers into heroic feats of FINALLY FINISHING THE STORY.
Is this where I’m supposed to admit that I had the beginnings of a new plot the other day? I mean, it might have been the cold meds or oxygen deprivation or something but…yeah, I had to stop myself from typing the premise out of respect for all the UNFINISHED stories that litter my past like bad decisions made at 2am in questionable Waffle Houses.
*sigh*
Those were the nights…
The 4-minute fries were great but the coffee was awful.
Your reviews, btw, made me smile. And made me a little weepy. All prayers, all good vibes and juju, all good thoughts, are ABSOLUTELY appreciated more than you know. You guys really are a cut above – the true cream of the reader crop. Thank you for that. I don’t deserve it, but I really do appreciate it.
So…gimme a bit to do the reread/notes/playing with the brain-fog, then we’ll see if the FLM returns to roost for a bit. Hey, it’s getting colder (shockingly fast at that!) so maybe she’ll wanna rest on a warm shoulder??
At least it’d give my cats something to stare at…well, one would. The other would want food. Again. The dog would just give me a judgemental side-eye and go back to sleep. She’s old; she’s allowed.
Ok, time to wrap up the meanderings – thank you again for your kindness, your patience, and your support. You all deserve the best and most snuggliest vampires who clean houses AND do the windows!
~Mer
PS: Now watch, I’ll get part-way through Moon then BAM – inspiration will strike for a totally different story… FLM is truly not a dependable figment…
Well happy July 1st, one and all. This year seems to be slam-bang screaming by – can’t believe it’s July already. I think the year has left skid-marks on my head.
It has not been a good year for mebut I hope you guys have found enough decent, solid meaning during this passing of time to make the rotations around our little yellow sun-ball worth the experience.
I hope you’ve found music that makes you cry and grin and dance and make war on the vile, that you’ve found rhythms that make the bad demons flee and the good ones cackle.
I hope you’ve found recipes old and new, fun and healthy and luscious, for foods you can afford that bring warmth to your belly and comfort to your soul.
I hope you’ve found books that lure you into their dark and glorious depths that leave you exhilarated and exhausted and are tossed immediately into your reread pile.
I hope you have people in your life who both steady and rock your foundations, that lift you up to the stars while reminding you to get your oil changed – people who snag your last piece of gum but you know you can call them at 4am to discuss the vagaries of life and they won’t mind a bit.
It’s more/less the “middle of the year” so it’s a great time to see and honor what you’ve got, what you need, what you want to shed, and what you have to do to run free.
I hope your plants are well, that your vehicles aren’t being pains in the collective ass, that your plumbing is flowing as it should and that your pillows are perfectly fluffy.
If not:Think; hope; plan; do.
You’ve got ’til December 31st to pull 2022 up by its fucking bootstraps/lapel/short’n’curlies if you need to.
It may not be “my” year or “your” year or “her” year or “his” year but maybe, just maybe, it can still become OUR year. Maybe.
Remember, cussin’ is still free…(just ignore the overflowing NoNo Jar on the counter).
•~•0•~•
Annnnd now for my grumph at YouTube cooks… My food budget is pathetic so I have to make do with what I can. My mama, and to an extent my dad, raised me to be a pretty damn good cook, to experiment in the kitchen but while using common sense – the results may not taste that great if I’m trying something different but it’d still be very edible – and to always keep learning.
Herbs and spices and whatever the hell garlic – onions – shallots – etc are…are our friends, just as Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce and anchovies and anchovy paste are fantastic ingredients we can use to deepen the savories.They are all weapons in our cooking arsenal.
I have cook books aplenty…antique magazine recipes here and there…recipe cards that you can barely read they’ve been used so often…recipes I’m made so often that I remember every amount and step…and about 3 billion saved and bookmarked recipes and sites…
And then, there’s…YouTube.
YouTube cooks.
Yeah.
Some are absolutely amazing, funny, have great (or at least pretty good – although there have been some where I’ve questioned their sanity) recipes and techniques they share along with funny stories and bad puns – I love “Chef John” with his “Food Wishes” channel, for example.
And then there’s the crop of “Depression Era food cookin’ grannies (and a few gran’pas)” – srsly, there are several really old and not-as-old ladies on YT who either lived through the Depression themselves (they got into YT earlier on and some have sense passed on) or their parents lived through it and they remember how their parents cooked and did things. Some have great stories, most have good-to-great recipes, but all of them have balls.
Then there’s the rest of the YT cooks. The following applies to…them. I give “the grannies” and obviously the newbie YT cooks a huge pass – hey, they’re trying, and quite often doing an amazing job of it – but the ones who try to come off as “experienced” or “semi-professional” or act like they’re “all that and a bag of So Niche You Can’t Find Them chips”? Yeah, no.
And, so, here…my grumph:
9 Rules for YouTube Cooks:
WE KNOW HOW TO CHOP. You know how to chop. We know that you know how to chop. We do not need to see you chop, mince, slice, julienne, etc. the entire item or, especially, group of items. If we see you chop half a carrot or one potato to show us the size needed for the recipe, we do not need to see you chop the entire group of carrots or potatoes. We get it. You know how to use a knife and, yes, your hands are pretty. We don’t care. The same goes for peeling. IT IS OK TO FAST-FORWARD THROUGH REPETITIVE TASKS.
WE KNOW HOW TO FLIP FOOD IN A PAN. We do not need to see you flip every…single…item. The same goes for stirring. We know how to stir. We know you know how to stir. IT IS OK TO FAST-FORWARD THROUGH REPETITIVE TASKS.
WE DO NOT NEED TO SEE YOU ROLL OR SHAPE EVERY… SINGLE… BIT… OF… THE… FOOD. When you roll dough, flavored minced meat, vegetation, whatever, into a ball or other shape, the first two are enough. We get it. Please stop fondling the food. IT IS OK TO FAST-FORWARD THROUGH REPETITIVE TASKS.
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, ACTUALLY SCRAPE OUT YOUR BOWLS. Leaving a third of the food in the bowl is wasteful. And stop trying to pour ‘away’ from yourself – it looks awkward as hell and you never do transfer all the contents from the one container to the other. Also, after you’ve gone through all the trouble of daintily and gracefully chopping ingredients, don’t then leave half said ingredient on the chopping board. That is also wasteful. Reach over for the rest of it – I promise, we won’t mind.
DO NOT FLOOD THE PLATED FOOD WITH A TSUNAMI OF PARSLEY, CHIVES, OR OTHER UNNECESSARY GREENERY. Honestly, an overloading of greenery just looks unappetizing. If you absolutely must decorate your food, a very light sprinkling of greenery is more than enough.
STOP CRACKING EGGS ON THE SIDE OF THE BOWL! THIS CAN INTRODUCE MINUTE BITS OF EGG SHELL INTO THE DISH. Crack the egg on the flat surface right next to the bowl. I cringe thinking about all the minute bits of egg shell being a crunch factor in your food. Also, the breaking of eggs into a bowl is not interesting. We do not need to see you even cracking the first egg much less the third. Get on with it.
DON’T MEASURE OUT THE MAIN INGREDIENT IN ONE CONTAINER THEN TURN RIGHT AROUND AND DUMP IT INTO ANOTHER CONTAINER FOR THE MIXING. Like cream cheese – you know you’re going to be adding ingredients to the cream cheese so just plop the cream cheese block into its final mixing bowl to begin with – unless you LIKE washing unnecessary dishes…
WHEN USING PEELED ORANGES, REMOVE ALL THE PITH. The pith is the slightly bitter, tasteless, and weird textured white layer between the peel and the fruit. Leaving bits of pith hanging around just looks like you’re sad and don’t care.
DO NOT BE AFRAID TO USE CHEAP INGREDIENTS. Cabbages, potatoes, beans, peas, rice, noodles/pastas, sardines, tuna, canned/frozen vegetation – all these things are delicious in their own right especially when prepared in new or unusual ways.
CONTROVERSIAL OPINIONS but here we go: • Cherry/other teeny tiny tomatoes are all skin and seeds and little flesh. Stop using them. They’re annoying and look weird even when roasted. • Peel your freakin’ cucumbers. Cucumber peel is nasty, tough, and vaguely bitter. • Cilantro does not belong in EVERYTHING. Some of us are genetically predisposed to detest that vile, nasty devil-weed. And no, parsley is NOT a good substitute. • READ THE ROOM: Steak, beef in general, yes – even hamburger, and other meats are simply too EXPENSIVE for many of us to afford now. Recipes featuring these items are not appreciated. Again, READ THE ROOM. • If ingredients (especially so-called “ethnic” ingredients) are expensive or harder to find in some areas, feel free to mention substitution possibilities. • Goofing up is NOT a sin. I repeat: goofing up is not a sin. If something goes wrong, show us how to fix it. That might be information WE need. • If your recipe is something brought to you from your grandmother or great-uncle or it has a cute story attached to it, tell us! We like when you chatter while you’re cooking. • If you have a pet wandering around, SHOW US! We love pets! (But also show us washing your hands if you pet them, lol.)
Finally, let us see if you’re having FUN cooking whatever your amazing dish is. We want to see you enjoying yourself!
Agree? Disagree? Have anything you’d like to add??
Ok, so, that’s all for today. Hugs to you and your pets!(My old-lady cat Gypsy is today’s Managing Editor, btw…)
~Mer
And as always, here’s the updated link to PayPal for the fake leg + medical bills fundraiser!
Yes, you heard that right – after a hiatus of HOW FREAKIN’ LONG I have managed to write A Thing. I know! Shocked me, too!I’ll add it to the site proper-like later…if I remember how. WP changed w/o my permission, y’all. There has been cussin’ involved.
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An Eric and Sookie Valentine Short
A/N: This one-shot is set in no particular time, no particular story/Universe – it’s just a one-off where there’s no Beehl, no Fellowship of the Ri…erm Sun, no Sams or Alcides or Fairies or whatever runnin’ around clouding the issue… It’s just Eric and Sookie spending time together getting to know each other without interference. (The way it should have been.)
This is probably dumb but it’s my first attempt at writing in HOW MANY YEARS NOW? *bangs head – THE FLM’S HEAD – on desk* Do hope y’all enjoy it anyway. It’s for you.
Enormous kudos go out to our lovely, patient, and absolutely amazing ○Kleannhouse○ for taking time out of her day to chisel and bang this mess into something readable. Naturally I then had to go mucking about in it again afterwards so ALL mistakes are entirely mine.
○○○
Someone stomped into the kitchen.
That was Sookie’s first clue.
The second clue was that they’d apparently entered via the back door instead of making an entrance via the official front door.
The third clue was a soft thump as something landed somewhere in her kitchen.
Something was up.
What the hell is he doing, she muttered to herself with a glare toward the kitchen. The timing and the lack of readable thoughts told her the kitchen-invader was a vampire. The fact that they’d came in the back door meant they were either a regular visitor or at least felt at home there, so she wasn’t concerned about her safety…yet.
Wait a…
Eric.
She figured it had to be Eric.
Stomping around… Things thumping… Bad mood, maybe? Impatience? Something.
He’d better not break any of gran’s crockery.
She sighed. Here she was all wrapped up nice and warm and comfy on the sofa with a well read and reread book in her hands and an old movie playing on the possibly even older tv (the sound was down so she could concentrate on her book, of course; it was more for background noise than anything) and tall, blond, and handsome had to come stomping around in her kitchen of all places (why the kitchen?) and disturb her peace and quiet!
It wasn’t that unusual for Eric to stop by, though.
In fact, here lately he’d been dropping by oh-so-casually about every third night or so.
Sometimes they had lively discussions where it seemed he delighted in getting her riled up over this or that, but a lot of times they’d just sit and watch whatever was on late-night tv or maybe pop in a movie.
To date he’d somehow managed to increase her old-movie collection by about quadruple.
She had to admit it was kind of nice, sometimes…ok, usually, and he always acted differently to how he’d act in that silly club of his.
But what was he doing here now and in her kitchen at that?
With a begrudging huff she marked her place in her book and started to unwrap herself from her cozy throw-cocoon but then stubbornly decided to wait it out.
If he wanted to talk to her, he could come find her.
It wasn’t like he didn’t have manpire senses at his disposal.
Then she heard the freezer door, two cabinet doors, and the refrigerator door open and shut.
Then – was that…what did he need with…?
Book forgotten, Sookie dislodged her wrappings as she slowly sat up, her concentration focused on the odd noises coming from her kitchen.
When she heard what had to be eggs being cracked – she’d lived with her gran far too long to not know what that sound meant – she couldn’t stand it anymore and had to investigate.
Barefoot, in baggy sweatpants and a half-tucked t-shirt, she padded to the kitchen door and…stared.
Eric, tall blond Viking vampire that he was, was standing at the counter glaring at egg goo as it dripped from his hand.
Apparently he’d missed the bowl that looked like it had flour in it.
A subsequent glance about the kitchen told her that no, it wasn’t flour. On the table was an opened box of chocolate cake mix, three tubs of store-bought frosting, and a container of strawberries.
“Eric, what in the world are you doing?”
He looked up at her as she dashed to the kitchen sink and grabbed a paper towel and didn’t speak until she’d wiped the recalcitrant egg from his hand and the counter.
“Tonight starts Valentine’s Day,” he stated as though that clarified anything.
“Yeah, and?”
She pulled him over to the sink and pointed at the tap for him to wash his hands, then tossed away the paper towel’d bundle of squished egg.
“I have to oversee the club tomorrow night as it will be packed.”
He didn’t seem pleased by this fact, and Sookie had to snort. She knew exactly how some of Fangtasia’s Finest would dress and act.
To her surprise, he continued.
“Pam assures me this holiday is important especially to females who like to receive things that they like, so I have bought you a cake. You like cake.”
He nodded with purpose.
“Now I have to make it.” He glanced down at his now-clean hands.
“Somehow.”
Once he was back at the bowl, however, he stared down at said egg…then at the eggs already in the bowl, then back to the egg in his hand.
Shaking her head and trying to control the huge grin demanding face-space, Sookie walked over and held her hand out.
While Sookie stood there with her jaw dropped, Eric sped back to the refrigerator and withdrew another egg.
“Here, gimme that.”
With unashamed relief, Eric gladly placed the dratted egg into her hand.
No more was said as she expertly cracked the egg and added the remaining ingredients until she handed Eric a wire whisk.
“Here, give this a good stir,” she instructed the bemused blond giant while she dragged out cake pans and set the oven to pre-heat.
She figured his vampire whisking skills would be better than hers for a lighter, fluffier cake.
He did as instructed and watched with clear curiosity as she buttered the cake pans and then put flour in them…only to knock it right back out.
Humans, he thought for the billionth time, were weird. Why did she put flour in pans then dump it out? And what was with the butter?
This cake-making proposition was becoming more unfathomable by the minute.
And it had all started out so simple, too. Pam had remarked…remarkably casually for her… that human females liked receiving things on Valentine’s Day and that they liked receiving things that they actually liked.
Eric knew Sookie liked cake, and that she liked ice cream. The ice cream – butter pecan because he recognized the scent – was easy enough to procure and he had even remembered to place it in the freezer part of her refrigerator when he’d first arrived.
It was the cake that was proving…untrustworthy.
Sure, he had inspected the baked and decorated cakes available in the market but they were all garish and weird, and they smelled like acrid chemicals. When an elderly lady nearby had mentioned to her bedraggled cabbage-scented companion that cake mixes might be a better idea, he had silently followed them to that section of the store only to stare in dismay at the numerous offerings.
How many types of chocolate cake mix did humans need?
With an eeny meeny miny moe, catch the Loki by the toe he’d grabbed the chocolatiest looking mix only to then be confounded by the concept and vast number of cake frostings in small containers.
To err on the side of caution, he’d selected three of the blasted things in different flavors – dark chocolate, cherry vanilla, and butter pecan – then fled to the fresh fruits section of the store.
At least he recognized strawberries.
Sookie calling his name interrupted his musing.
“Eric, that’s enough. That cake’s gonna be ten feet tall if you don’t stop.”
With a laugh she took the bowl from his hands, placed the whisk on a plate that had mysteriously appeared on the counter, and proceeded to divide the cake mix between two of the weirdly floured pans.
Once everything was in the oven baking, she grabbed the whisk and he thoroughly enjoyed watching her clean the lucky thing with her tongue.
“Stop starin’,” she said with a blush as she turned away and walked to the sink.
(The tiniest of wee giggles came from the top back corner of the kitchen. The little spider had been watching since the Vampire had hurriedly stomped into the kitchen and then had the audacity to flip on the overhead lights.
Once fully and reluctantly awakened – spidering was hard and it’s not like the tastiest fliers were nocturnal, damn it – he’d settled in to watch the cold-blooded invader be beaten by…an egg.
An egg.
And now the blond giant was pouting at a kitchen tool.
It was proving to be an entertaining night.)
“So, what’s with all the cake frosting? And the strawberries?”
Sookie hoped he didn’t notice what had to be a cheeky grin – of course she knew the date. She had to give him credit, though, since he was definitely putting some effort into whatever it was he was doing. But three tubs of frostings? For one cake?
Eric shrugged.
“I purchased three of them hoping you would like at least one. And the strawberries… Well, you like them. There is also ice cream in the freezer,” he added proudly.
“Ice cream?”
He could almost see her ears perking up at that.
Sookie darted over to the freezer and, sure enough, there sat butter pecan ice cream in all its delicious glory.
With a squeal and Eric-pleasing haste, Sookie was soon sitting at the table with a bowl, a spoon, an ice cream scoop, and the all-important ice cream.
Knowing that people should be praised when they did a good job, she grinned at the Viking sitting at her table trying not to look too smug.
“Thank you, you did good!”
It wasn’t long before Eric was jealous of the spoon, too.
He sat quietly watching as she obviously enjoyed the treat, and pondered why it was important to him to do these things for her, to please her.
Sure, he easily acknowledged that he’d enjoyed her company more and more these past couple of months, and it hadn’t taken him long to realize he would rather visit with her at this old house than in the club he was enjoying less and less these nights.
A loud, malodorous all-you-can-drink buffet was handy and all, but at the end of the night he still had to shower off the smell as he did not want that miasma to follow him to bed.
Sookie’s house, though, smelled…pleasing. Yes, there were odors of “old lady” and baking and wood and so forth, but Sookie’s sweet scent overrode it all.
His eyes flicked around the kitchen as Sookie bit into whatever a butter pecan was. Perhaps it should be strange that he would be so oddly comfortable in the old farmhouse, but for whatever reason, he was. It was quiet and clean, and certainly much more intimate than the club where he had to maintain a false front before minions and dinner.
He found the differences pleasing.
Eric gave a mental shrug; nothing about this had to make sense, did it? Not really, no matter how often Pam would snicker at him as he left to visit “the little blonde fairy”.
His thoughts were interrupted when Sookie reached for the three cans of frosting.
“Why these three?”
Sookie thought Eric’s indignation was cute.
“Well, you made good choices. This one,” she held up the butter pecan cake frosting, “will be good on another cake but these two will be perfect. We can put some of the cherry vanilla between the layers and cover the whole thing in the dark chocolate. That’ll work out great.”
“Do you know how many different types of cake coverings there are? I barely narrowed it down to these!”
He quirked a brow. “Some of the cherry vanilla? What will you do with the rest?”
“Eat it on pancakes later,” she answered with a grin.
The ageless Viking nodded wisely. He had no clue what she meant but she was smiling and that was good.
They chatted while Sookie put away the ice cream and washed the few dishes now dirtied. Afterward she made herself some coffee and handed him a warmed blood beverage he tended to stock in her refrigerator.
Eventually the cake was baked and cooled and deemed ready to frost.
Absolutely out of his depth, Eric stared in confusion at the off-set knife-looking tool now in his hand.
“Here,” she said as she handed him the cherry vanilla frosting. “Grab up a bunch of frosting with the spreader then smear it around there,” she pointed to the top of the bottom layer of cake.
He hadn’t minded leveling off the cake – using knives was in his blood warm and cold both, after all – but…well…smearing?
“I would rather smear this on you,” he replied faux-seriously with a smirk.
“Eric, hush. Wait, hang on a sec, let me drizzle some of this Maraschino cherry juice on the cake first.”
He thought the red syrup smelled far too much of chemicals to be healthy but stood aside anyway.
Then, he slathered. After leveling the top layer of this convoluted cake and allowing Sookie to repeat the drizzling to her pleasure, he found himself covering the entire cake with the dark chocolate frosting.
He decided he was, in fact, quite good at it.
Naturally.
In short order and absolutely unwilling to wait, Sookie served herself a slice of the newly made cake and tossed a handful of hulled and rinsed strawberries on her plate.
The evening had felt pretty much like every other evening Eric had spent with her – fun, easy going, flirting both gentle and lurid, some teasing, lots of conversation about things that mattered and things that didn’t…but it was also a bit more, somehow.
Sure, there was unexpected cake.
The cake was delicious.
But…it was a Valentine cake, one that she’d had to help make at that, but still, he’d thought of her and brought it to her and had even tried to at least start making it.
For her.
She looked over at Eric and, yes, he looked a bit smug at his obvious success, but he mostly looked comfortable, relaxed – he looked right at home.
A glance at the clock showed it was a little after 1:00 am and so, with a soft smile and warm eyes, she reached over and covered his hand with hers.
“Thank you for a great Valentine’s Day, Eric. You did a great job and I loved it.”
Slowly a true, real smile graced his lips as he turned his hand to hold hers.
“I still want to smear the frosting on you.”
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(The spider tsked and shoved his weary head – hey, spidering was hard work! – into the corner of the wall. Great, the Viking had scored big with Ms. Landlady…great…wonderful…now if they’d just turn off that damn light and go watch a movie…in the other room already!)
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All tsking spider-creatures aside, that’s it, folks. It’s meant to be a brief “scene” showing This Eric and This Sookie takin’ the slow route toward getting to actually know each other. I hope it didn’t suck too badly – my writing fingers are incredibly rusty, but I wanted to give you guys something for you time and support. I’m incredibly lucky for being able to write for the best fandom in the fanfic Universe.
In other news, well, there ain’t none, so there’s that. Excepting the above, FLM is still being her aggravating self but I am dearly hoping that “this” calls her sweet li’l ass back home ’cause it truly aggravates and frustrates me that I’ve left stories unfinished. I know – it’s not like I ever planned for my life to go swirling down the cosmic toilet and that *waves hand vaguely* things happen, but still. It’s not fair to you and it’s not fair to the stories, either. (My bad, totally, for having more than one going at a time instead of holding them until they’re completed BEFORE posting, but I’m not that organized…or sane…)
Anyway, I hope you liked it and feel free to comment below. Hope you have a great Valentine’s/Galentine’s/Palentine’s/Pawentine’s Day! 💗❤️💗
So this post is meant to accomplish three things: words, link, then more words from yours truly. (There ended up being more words than I’d thought there would be, lol – sorry?)
WORDS: First of all I need to tell y’all that your kind thoughts, words, hopes, and well wishes absolutely mean the world to me. I should probably be embarrassed by how often I click over to reread the written evidence of your kind souls, but I’m not. When life gets me down, which it does with amazing and sad regularity, your words lift me up; they make me smile; they make me want to overcome the latest struggles of the day with a grin of “bloody-minded” determination.
Your words have brought me to tears and I ain’t even kidding. It’s a good thing (ok, so my house is dusty but that’s irrelevant, right?). You really are a fantastic group of people.
LINK: A very kind reader let me know a bit ago that the fundraiser link has expired. The thing with PayPal Fundraisers is that they only last a specific amount of time before they auto-close. At that time a new fundraiser has to be created. I’m not technologically sure I can go back and update the old links so, um, here:
A srsly huge batch of kudos to the lovely reader who brought this to my attention. Mongo hugs and thanks, TD!
MORE WORDS: Gotta say, so far this year doesn’t look remarkably different to the past two years. COVID is still covid’ing right along, people are still having to be hospitalized, hospital room and nursing shortages are getting worse in waves here and there, people are still dying, social distancing and viral-aversion rules still apply, stores are still low on the oddest things (saltine crackers?? – weird), that feeling of impending doom is still…dooming right along…
*sigh*
But you know what? We’re humans and we’re…inventive. Creative. Sometimes we’re as dumb as mossy rocks and sometimes we’re as brilliant as the night stars over dark fields. We’re not perfect – more “perfectly imperfect” than anything – but we’ve got guts and determination and a strong sense of “fuck that shit, I ain’t goin’ down without a fight, dammit”. So we’re gonna make it, somehow, some day. We’ll get there.
What we’re experiencing now is most likely the transition to a new normal. I detest that phrase, seems like a cop-out to excuse the bullshit of the moment, but in the long-run, we ARE in the transition phase to a “new normal”, and you know what? That’s ok. If I were healthier, I would be using this time to clean my house of the clutter from my parents’ marriage and my old apt…I’d be organizing, tossing, sorting, donating…all that good stuff. I’d be examining what I actually WANTED to do when avoiding deadly viruses isn’t the Order of the Day. I’d be dreaming of places I wanted to visit or visit again, making lists of the friends I value and making plans to meet up (even though mine all live in my computer), stuff like that.
This is a time for self-focused action, reflection, creation, organization, and other words ending in -ion that bespeak movement, shedding baggage, going forward, plopping down roots (mobile and not) to build on in the future. This is the time to clear off the dust, cut up those empty delivery boxes, take the dog (and, hey, the cat, too, if you’re brave and have lots of Band-aids…) for long walks, writing crappy poetry, changing out that old drawer hardware, sitting near beautiful scenes and relishing the fact that YOU are YOU.
You are precious and are the only version of YOU that has ever or will ever inhabit our Universe. Appreciate yourself for who you are (I certainly do!); celebrate all the extraordinary aspects of yourself; change the bits you genuinely don’t like (fuck society’s perceptions and rules – you know what’s good and holy and right FOR YOU and striving for THAT is what you should do for yourself) – and fuck the rest.
It’s your life; live it as best you can. We are all in differing circumstances. Some of us CAN give the world a ginormous fuck-it annnnd some of us can’t. Some of us CAN flip off the rules and do what we want while others have to at least pretend to follow said rules until times are better. But through it all, you are the only one responsible for your thoughts. You are the gatekeeper to what goes into your heart and mind and soul, so make it FANTASTIC. You ARE beautiful! You ARE brilliant! You ARE capable and able to do the most amazing things with sometimes precious little to work with!! YOU are miracles made real with dirty feet and stars in your eyes!
Fuck the world – celebrate YOU.
And that, my friends, is a hell of a lot of words, lol. I hope they helped you to feel even a little of the kindness, comfort, and joy that your words have given me.
Y’all are the best.
~Mer
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This year, how about let’s drop all notions of silly things like “resolutions” or “plans” and just huddle in our jammies in a blanket fort (heated or a/c’d depending on your location) with a good book and a cup of something eminently sippable, yeah?
When I was a kid I was always soooo excited to stay up and “watch the ball drop” ’cause there was some sort of indefinable magic associated with The Coming of the New Year!!
Now? Yeah, not so much. There will be no resolutions or plans and staying up to watch the ball drop? Nah, probably not. Damn thing never bounces anyway…
New Year’s Day or Eve or whatever. Yay. So like is everything gonna ALLUVASUDDEN change because the date on the calendar did? And if it DID change, would it even be for the better??
Between all the old, new, and future COVID variants and associated and/or unassociated health, financial, and weather disasters… there are just too many disasters running rampant for me to have any hope for that. It ain’t like THOSE things will suddenly disappear.
*sigh*
Oh, 2022, I’d love to have oodles of faith in you and your magic but…
Srsly. Don’t even look it in the eye…
Eeenyway, what about y’all? What are your New Year’s plans? The night of, the day after, etc.? Are y’all gonna bother with resolutions and plans and hopes and such?
Also, here is a place to tell us about the GOOD things that happened to/for you this year. Acknowledging the bad is necessary for reality and mental health but we can ALSO acknowledge – and revel in – the good, too. I hope plenteous good things DID happen for y’all this year. Just because the universe flushed my life down the toilet doesn’t mean that I begrudge you your wins!
LAY IT ON ME, BAY’BE!
Did you kick his/her unworthy ass to the curb? Did you get that book/play/’script published? Did you finally pop that hidey-ass’d “bone deep” zit? Did you finally find a back-scratcher that actually works? Did you manage to get that one specific plant to bloom? Did you meet the love of your life?
TELL US! Let us celebrate with you!
To conclude whatever this was, I really do hope you beautiful, glorious wee beasties have a thoroughly amazing year in 2022.
I hope your personal Universes collectively decide to make up to you for all the bullshit of the last two years. I hope your coffers are filled and overflowing with currencies legal in your area, that all your health problems miraculously resolve themselves, that any family/friend problems do the same. I hope that all who are important to you accept you for the glorious entity that you are, and I hope that your imaginations work overtime to bring light and magic and resolutions and that maybe, just maybe, you will have a truly fantastic year.
I wish for these things myself, and hope that all our wishes come happily, completely, and irrevocably true.
Before I sign off on this wonderment of meandering, I want to thank you for your generosity. Your kindness whether in word or in deed, or in both, means the absolute world to me. When I say that every little/huge/tiny bit helps, I mean it. It means my cats and dog can eat; it means my lights are still on and that I still have internet. It means I owe a bit less to the vets and to the leg people, to the ambulance people and the anesthesia company and the… It means I slept a bit better those nights. It means that you are priceless and beyond wonderful.
Love, coffee, goodwill and a non-shitty 2022 to all,
Also a link but as a pic of my awesome furbebes(the ones who were boarded for over 2.5 months thus the humongo vet boarding fees since I had no one to care for them):
Go hug your pets. Now.
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This…post? collection of words?…whatever…has two functions.
First and foremost, I want to wish every single one of you magnificent creatures truly fantastic Christmas/Yule/Holiday tidings. I hope you feel the warmth, comfort, and festive spirit of this time of year. I wish you warm, cozy toesies and eggnog burps, spiced wine and the comfort of a firelit hearth, cold wet puppy noses and little kitten purrs, and most of all the joy – the “hug” – of the season.
Second, if you are just not feelin’ the joy, dude, I got’cha. That’s where I am, fam. It just ain’t happening this year either. I am just too <everything icky and negative> for the “warmth of the season” to have a chance to take hold. So, I get it. YOU ARE NOT ALONE, and there is nothing WHATSOEVER wrong with just plain not feelin’ it. Grump is the word, y’all. Maybe next year?
But that’s no excuse to ignore the eggnog and fruitcake and cookies, tho’…right??
All that being said, I wish you great tidings and eggnog, warm hearths, mulled cider and wine, gingerbread and sugar cookies, huge platters of favorite foods, warm buttery puffy pastries and jelly tarts, cozy blankets and lovely flickering candles. I want the best for y’all.
You deserve it.
You are absolutely the best readers any writer could ever want and I appreciate every single glorious one of you. You mean the world to me.
I’m vaguely mentally planning another post/whine session/group hug before the new year but jic not, HAPPY (effin’) NEW YEAR to you!!
(Srsly, fuck this year.)
Love and appreciation and all that warm and fuzzy stuff,
~Mer
*Had to redo the fundraiser thing b/c apparently they expire after so many days? I don’t understand modern life. Anyway, here:
First of all, y’all made me cry. I would say “shame on you” but these tears were weird…they were from happiness and gratitude and…and good things. I wasn’t quite sure what to do about them but between your amazingly kind words and generous donations, said weird tears were definitely warranted.
So, thank you. Thank you for your kind words. Thank you for clicking on the PayPal link.
But most of all, thank you for caring. Thank you for reading my words and giving a damn about how it’s been going with me. The fact that you care enough to to help with words and donations warms my heart. Our specific community may have dwindled down some, but the hard-core warm souls are still right damn loud and proud. Heh, I knew y’all were the best readers a writer could ever have!
In case anyone missed my last post, this is what I’m talking about:
To my shocked amazement, I’ve recently received several comments from my beautiful readers enquiring as to my continued existence.
Y’all make my heart sing because I truly thought I’d been, well, not exactly forgotten – more like allowed to just fade away into the beloved ether.
I haven’t been posting anything because it would mainly be whining, complaining, bitching, moaning, and other words ending in -ing that denote general and specific problems with the Universe and y’all just do not need to be brought down by my problems – y’all probably have enough of your own without me adding to it.
But eeenyway…
Ok, fwiw, I still exist. I’m not the same person I used to be and, honestly, none of us are. We can’t survive in a global pandemic with all its accompanying mental, financial, physical, and emotional trials and tribulations and NOT be changed in some fundamental way. It will likely take YEARS for all of us affected by this bullshit to “unpack all this damn baggage”. The death of a beloved, and last, parent during all this simply makes every single thing infinitely worse.
I won’t wax lyrical (again) about how hard the loss of my last parent has been for me. If you still have your parents and care at all for them, hold them close, get their stories and voices and images down in some permanent way, and if you have already lost one or both…then you already know.
Now, let’s discuss current, relevant life matters that are likely understood by far too many of us if you want.
Tell me your stories.
You need a place to vent, a place to scream out into the Universe? Here ya go. Please, feel free to use my comments section to do just that. It might/might not change a damn thing but it CAN feel “a bit less bad” when you release your dramas, your heartbreaks, your aches and sorrows and trials to the Universe. Hell, use ALL CAPS if you want – it’s YOUR story.
Me? I’mma do it right here thus giving you wonderful beings a glimpse into my current life. Skip to the end if whining/horror bores you.
I’m broke. I desperately need a job (and the job market is so great, right), only, because of my shitty health, such a joyous thing is not easily attainable. I need medical care but…no insurance because no job. I need a work-at-home job because my health is not only laughable but also super-vulnerable – I catch the virus, I die. The end. The cats and dog starve because I live alone. Not a good scenario, right?
The vaccines are a lovely thing and I would get Shot 1 tomorrow if it were possible but, like many others, my county isn’t being given nearly enough vax – TL;DR = it’ll likely be April or, more likely, May before I can even get Shot 1.
I still haven’t gotten/likely won’t get that second stimulus payment (that supposedly exists) because of weird loopholes, either. Oh, and for the shit cookie on top, my car hates me and is possessed by an evil entity that interferes with that whole “battery and ignition” thing.
So, my life sucks ass because of money, health, red tape, stupidity, and evil car entities.
And the cats’ litter boxes need changing again.
Wheee!!
However, I am not alone in being handed a shit sandwich followed by a shit cookie. While some people probably are doing just fine and I am glad for them, there are multitudes of us who aren’t.
So, let’s commiserate. There is an odd power in unity even when it’s “just” online. I might not be able to help y’all financially but I can certainly give you a safe place to vent and hopefully some mental/emotional comfort, too.
Y’all truly are the best and definitely deserve all good things. Consider yourselves hugged and mauled by puppies and kittens (and baby dragons and unicorns if you’re into that sort of thing)(lol).
WP sure has changed, man…hope this posts right and that the comments section is actually still enabled!
Weird.
Love y’all!
~Mer
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Here – catch: a heart-felt (and probably painfully loud so you might wanna step back a bit…a little more…a little…ok, that should be about right) THANK YOU!!! to everyone who has donated to the GoFundMe!!!!
You are the very BEST readers and I absolutely appreciate every single one of you anyway, but your response to the GFM has truly blown me away. Your support really does mean the world to me.
(I didn’t set the account up so I don’t know how GFM works so I don’t know how to individually thank the fantastic people who donated but I did want to thank you guys somehow!)
A better THANK YOU!!??
Eeeennyway…
The campaign has not ended. I still have to go for daily super-strong antibiotic IVs (“infusions” or if you wanna be all medical, “infusion therapy”), bi- and sometimes tri-weekly doctor (usually nurse) appointments, and I have at least one (probably two but I’m hoping the dr forgets) more surgeries in my future. (Oh, the joy.) Bluntly, I’m doing a LOT better health-wise but I ain’t out of the woods yet – it was just *that* bad, previously.
Here’s the handy-dandy link in case someone’s won the lottery:
Fic-wise, I *have* been thinking about my stories, especially The Moon and One Night. Thinking…but not writing yet. You’d think having to remain off my foot (and in/on bed/chair/wheelchair as I’m STILL not allowed to put ANY pressure on my foot AT ALL) for 23.5 hours a fucking day would be conducive to writing, however…it is not. I’m still too damn frustrated over all this mess *to* concentrate effectively on all the ins and outs of my fics.
(Why did I have to go and make them so dang complicated? Granted they’re not nearly as complex as many of our other writers’ plots are, but still…*grumph*)
I did want you to know that I have not forgotten my fics, and I haven’t forgotten you guys, either. This health mess is just taking for-freakin’-ever to resolve. But it’s getting there.
Eventually.
Thank you again, and I really appreciate your patience, your kind support, and of course if, your hard-earned cash. (You knew I was blunt, right? I mean, rly, you knew this already, right? *innocent face*)
*snicker*
♥
~Mer
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Like it? (I knew you had great taste!) Spread The Word:
First, thank you very much for all your kind words and concern. You guys are the best readers any fanfic writer could ever ask for and you’re mine-all mine-all mine!! Ok, and other writers’, too…but that’s not the point…
Keep in mind that you guys are not allowed to yell at me because I’ll cry and get all red-eyed and snotty (srsly, I have a terrible cry-face), ok? (ThisparticularNightwillhaveaPart5.) (IfItellyoulikethisitsoftenstheblow,right?)
Pack a lunch. And dinner. And some snacks. Oh, and you guys may wanna take notes as you go – this bad boy is…you guessed it…hella long. You’ll see why I stopped it when I did. It’s also why it took for fucking ever to get it out to you, too. (FLM told me to say that.)
So…you lovely readers who like long reads will be in Heaven. You lovely readers who don’t…can take several breaks – just remember where you left off… This Part happens within a relatively short time and contains funny-ha has, seriousness, a gasp or two, mountains, correct pronunciations, a Pam, a cat, a ‘vette, and maybe a couple of cherries (Eric refused to verify). Proceed with vigor! 😉
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Now:
OMGODRIC, YOU GUYS – THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
When the fantastic Missingjasamalways commented to tell me to check out the YWB winners…I did…AND THEN I SCARED MY DOG SQUEEEING! (Yes, “squeeeing” is too a word.)
Thanks to you fanfuckingtastic readers AND VOTERS!!!, I won 8 Awards!
That is 8 (EIGHT!!!) more than I’d had a hope to win, y’all, and it’s all because of YOU. Did you see how fierce the ‘competition’ was? (And by “competition” I mean that we’re not actually competing against each other – we may not all be best buddies but we’re hella more likely to support each other than not because there’s no NEED for any competitive feelings in our luscious fandom.) There were so many amazing writers and amazing stories and you guys voted for me!
THANK YOU!!!
Can I brag now?? *pfft* Given ALL the AMAZING talent represented in these awards, hell yeah Imma brag:
First and foremost considering the new Part linked above, here is the one for One Night: PINS AND NEEDLES, Y’ALL – PINS! AND! NEEDLES!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
Hit Me With Your Best Shot Award – Best One Shot
The Hybrid Award – Best Crossover
Rollercoaster Award – Best Angst / Drama / Cliffhangers
The Saucy Award – Best Sookie (Woot!! Go Sookie!! Yeah, I’m totally seal-clapping here…oops, sorry for any flashbacks…)
The Flying Monkey Award – Best Villain (*mwahahaha*)
Who the Hell Are You Award – Best Original Award (Yay for Sevrin!!!! He totally just grunted a thank you…FLM will verify!)
And last but hella-certainly not least:
EricIzMine Award – Favorite Author (Ok, this one made me tear up a little/lot – you have no idea how very much I appreciate this.)
Really, thank you so very much for all the love. It means the world to me that you find time in your day to read my words and let me know what you think, but that you even take the time to cast your votes for me blows my socks off. (You did know I’m naked under my socks, right? NO BLUSHING…!) Now go read and enjoy, and know you’ve made me very happy!
❤
~Mer
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It’s been bizzy over here in Meridian-ville, which among other things is also good for those of you who enjoy my scribblings. So…in this ‘issue’ we not only have the YUP and the “don’t forget THAT I posted these things that WP may not have informed you of” bit, but…there’s also a TEASER for the next Part of One Night. And I am totally evil-grinning over here, too, cause I know what happens in this chock-full Part…
(I started to type this in all-caps so it would appear that I have more energy than I actually do but the constant need to correctly capitalize sentence starts and proper pronouns just made it look stupid so fuck that. I’m tired. There. I mumbled it sorta out loud.)
First of all I want to thank my FANTASTIC, BRILLIANT, WONDERFUL, AMAZING, AND DID I MENTION FANTASTIC? readers for all your VERY much appreciated love and support of the new story! Y’all have absolutely blown my (invisible, because it’s hot here) socks off with your comments and likes! As you know I love replying to comments – it gives “us”, the reader and the writer, a great way to touch base with each other, plus you (the collective ‘you’) are such great fun to just chat with, too. I love being able to do that. Sadly, between lack of time and feeling like a bulldozed watermelon, replies to this last chapter of ON will have to wait. Hence, this broad “thank you”.
Now, the five current WIPs all have bits and pieces in the process of being thrown together, and the epilogue/potential (PO-TENT-TSHEL) “future nights” for the (Awww, man, if I go with more nights I’ll have to change the name won’t I? I dunno…not if I just do the odd night – the odd “one night”- here and there? Fuck it, I’ll pull a Sookie and deal with it later) now-complete-but-maybe-not story is shimmering around in my oddly-vast brainbox.
Now for the “but”…cause there’s always an ass involved…
Thing is, I’m one of those people who are sometimes very negatively impacted by the inflammatory response caused by sugar. Yup – plain ol’ sugar – brown, white, turbinado, cane, beet…you know: sugar. As I’m T2 diabetic I usually don’t eat very much of it at a time anyway, so my tolerance to it nosedives. Then if I, say, give in to the ‘need’ to bake a, say, peach cobbler with, say, too much brown sugar (hey, it’s cool when it caramelizes on the top!) then, say, eat too damn much of the damn thing, I pay like fuck for it for the next couple days.
As you MIGHT can tell, it, shall we say, “negatively affects” my mood (any laughs that escape my cobbler-hole sound like a death warning), and Advil can only do so much to help negate the aches and pain response.
Dread may have a little bit to do with my desire to remain under my bed, too – my birthday is May 5 and GUESS WHAT: I get to have a motherfucking ROOT CANAL on that day. So yeah, the me of me is not a happy fucking camper.
Yay – the tooth will in theory stop fucking hurting.
Boo – it will involve a root canal. ..on my damn birthday.
Oh, and before anyone suggests that I ask the dentist for pain relievers to last from now till then, let me remind you that I live in the “”glorious”” Bible-Belt south where all medical personnel are far more afraid of “”enabling drug addicts”” than they give a damn about those of us in actual pain. Yhep, drug addicts are far more important than pain-ridden patients and doctors, dentists, and whoever the fuck else fearfully and with collapsed balls worship their beloved restrictions to an insane degree. I vote we direct every ache and pain to those assbastards who would rather regulate against people in pain because they prefer to worship/”protect” damn drug addicts. I have nothing either for or against drug addicts but damn, don’t make ME suffer because of their shit.
(I may be somewhat biased based on the amount of Advil I’m shoving down said cobbler-hole but GAWD FORBID doctors/dentists around here miss an opportunity to let someone hurt…)
Tolja I was in a shitty mood. Hopefully after this next week is over I’ll feel more human/humane…nah, I’ll still be in a shitty mood…just might be able to better front it. At least I never claimed to be all nicey-nice, though, right?
So, yeah, that’s where I currently am. Have a better day. ♥
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Ok, so a while back I thought about posting a “thank you” story when the 500th person followed my blog (great choice, yo!). Now, WP divides follow count into two sections: blog and email, but for the purpose of this nefarious scheme of mine I’m counting actual blog follows since the total follower count would have risen far too quickly for me to have coughed up a decent story (it was well into the 600s total when this notion struck).
To that end, I’m currently 11,855 words into what will be a single-post long one-shot. (Yes, there will be intermissions.) This monster, The Night Eric Northman’s Life Changed Forever, begins just after Eric arrives home from Fangtasia the night he first sees Sookie and will encompass only that night (it’s a busy night). As with anything I write, it goes AU at the speed of fangs snicking down and may include wee tiny tidbits from SVM. This is written entirely in Eric’s POV with lots of thoughts and some snark. Hey, it’s Eric, ya know?
Yes, there’s even a cat.
A little while ago my 501st follow just signed on board the WP express, so here’s a nice excerpt. I won’t be posting the entire work until it’s completed but I expect it to be finished soon.
Without further ado, and to thank all my delicious followers (WP and email alike – y’all all smell fantastic, btw), here’s a little teaser that will MOST likely remain unchanged when the story is actually posted, but no promises:
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Once home from the bar, Eric Northman automatically headed straight to his shower. As financially pleasing as Fangtasia was, its accumulated stench was an entirely different story. Even when his “glaring from the throne” time was cut short, the reek of desperation mixed with too many chemicals still clung. Mechanically proceeding to soap up, scrub down, and rinse off, he let his thoughts wander through the night’s unusual events.
For the first time in…he couldn’t remember how long, the evening’s burdensome load of deadly, generic boredom had been shot all to hell.
Thank. Fuck. Even if it had included yet another raid for the crime of being vampire…
By this point he knew he would normally be fuming over the way money kept magically disappearing – for two cents he would suspect his accountant but the human had been glamoured to within an inch of his sanity so he highly doubted the man was capable of even stealing a pencil by now. That only left a scant handful of potential suspects and…his mental rant was interrupted by the memory of eyes that dared to directly meet and hold his own.
That was unusual in and of itself – that he thought of something different and that some young chit of a girl had dared to meet his gaze without flinching or fawning.
Vampires either feared him or were drawn to him, but either way they were innately wary of both his age and the power he naturally exuded. Same thing happened with Weres but with far less “lure” and far more “fear”, thanks be.
Humans were strange creatures. Most didn’t perhaps understand why they were both scared of and drawn to him, but they were and to an annoying degree.
Regardless, few dared to meet his gaze and actively hold it.
The girl didn’t seem to know much about vampires, though, which honestly should have made her even less likely to meet ones’ eyes since far too many of them knew about vampire glamour.
Damn publicity.
Among other things the way she’d held out her hand to Pam had proven a lack of intimate familiarity with his kind, but despite her nervous chatter she did seem to have a backbone when it came to those pictures.
Why was she going round shoving pictures of ugly women at vampires? And why hadn’t fucking Compton filled her in on vampire etiquette, anyway? If she was supposedly “his” then that’s his fucking job. If you take on a human, you take on the job of educating them, damn it!
The fact she was on Compton’s arm said she was either stupid or naive, and Eric was pulling for the latter. Naive…he could work with naive.
As he toweled off, he caught himself almost grinning.
Compton actually thought he could keep such a tasty little drop of sunshine that intriguing all to himself? Moron must be more mentally decomposed than I’d originally thought.
What his disease of a Maker saw in him was the question of the ages.
But…what’s he doing in my territory anyway? Isn’t he supposed to be kissing someone’s ass in the darling queen’s court these nights? Something must be going on…he was trying too hard to be sly tonight…
For some reason that he didn’t bother searching for, he suddenly decided to shave off the scruffy beard he’d been sporting for a while. He glared at his hair as it fell into his eyes over and over again, but there wasn’t much he could do about it just then.
After donning his tracksuit bottoms and his silk robe, he padded into his office, grabbed one of his burner phones, and sent a text to his most dependable ear at the brat-queen’s court. If anyone could find out what was going on, it’d be Rasul.
He noticed a waiting text from Pam and checked it as he wandered into the den, then settled before his unlit fireplace. The option of having a warm flickering fire when he wanted it was nice but it wasn’t cool enough yet to warrant one – one of the many benefits of Shreveport, Louisiana.
***Bribed the bribeables and glam’d the humans, closed bar. Small fine, 2-night closure, blah blah blah. Taryn and her dinner weren’t caught but that bitch is going in a cage when I catch her. WTF was Blondie? Are there more where she came from? How did she know about the cops? I’m thirstyand I have her address – wanna split dinner?***
Eric felt something in his chest tighten at the thought of Pam biting the Stackhouse girl…
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So…what’d you think: Want more? You know the drill – let me know what you think in the comments. Have a great evening/night/morning, etc.!
~Mer
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So imagine my surprise when the winners of the FANATIC FANFICS MULTIFANDOM AWARDS were posted yesterday and I discovered that I’d won not just one, not just two, not even three, but FOUR awards???!!!???
(Yeah, my poor li’l doggie still hasn’t recovered from all that noise! She’ll be fine…it’s surprising how soothing a little bit of bacon can be…don’t worry, it’s lower-sodium, just don’t tell her that.)
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Truly, thank you all SO MUCH for not just all your votes, but for your kind reviews, for your “likes”, for your patience between updates, and most of all, for being…you.
Cause you rock.
Yes, you with the debilitating chronic illness that makes you feel like your energy plug is permanently pulled and your body is a war zone, yet you manage to read and vote and leave great reviews anyway…and you, yeah, you with the shitty job and the shitty boss, yet even after you’ve worked yourself into exhaustion, you still manage to find time to read and vote and leave great reviews…and you, you with the shitty home life with too many crosses to bear, yet you still find a way to read and vote and leave great reviews anyway? YOU ARE ALL SO AMAZING! And yeah, you, you who suffer with ass-tastic fuck-nasty migraines, yet you read and participate when you can and yeah, you manage to leave great reviews anyway. You moms with the progeny who scream and pull at you constantly while you’re trying to deal with life? Yeah, you too – thank you for giving part of your VERY precious EXTREMELY rare free time to my stories.
None of us has a perfect life, not really, yet we’ve managed to come together in a way that helps us to make it through the days and the nights of our time on this planet. You amaze and inspire me, and I’d love to share a coffee with any and all of you.
*clears throat with appropriate seriousness appropriately*
So: Check this out (these came out huge, just pretend they didn’t…come on, work with me – you know, the way wordpress isn’t!):
Gylllene, also nominated a blue billion times, drew my attention to it earlier today so naturally I started looking for my name here and there, then I started seeing my nominations – a lot of nominations… Being somewhat ***THRILLED*** and ***HOLY SHIT!!!*** about it, I started scribbling down the categories in which I was nominated…then the titles of the fics involved, and that list grew.
And grew. (You can see that list at the end of this post if you want.)
Bluntly, even if I win nothing (and honestly, considering ALL THAT TALENT!?!, I probably won’t), I’m beyond estatic with my nominations. 😀
I had thought that these Awards were primarily for the Twilight and Twi/crossover fandoms with bits of other fandom love thrown in but I (happily!) guess not!! There are a surprising number of categories and a fantastic FLOOD of writers and stories. I’ve already stashed several to read later after I’m no longer in a writing phase, and I can’t wait!
Relevant info:
Voting polls open on May 31st, 2015. Voting polls close on June 14th, 2015.
Convenient link linking conveniently to the Awards:
Look, y’all – see??? THIS LIST IS HUGE!!! If this feels at all braggy, well, it kind of is in a way – you fuckawesome readers THRILL me with your love and support and I’m happy-beaming over here!! (No cats/dogs were scared in the making of this post, but only b/c they’re all asleep.)
All-Time Favorite TB Fanfic: Eric Northman: After The Show The Moon Valentine’s Night
Favorite Angst Fanfic: At Last
Favorite Complete Fanfic: Anticipating Valentine’s Night
Favorite One-Shot Fanfic: At Last He Had Your Eyes Last Christmas Shall We Dance The Atrium
Favorite Risqué Fanfic: Decisions The Moon The Revealing of Andre
Favorite Romance Fanfic: Decisions Sookie Takes Charge The Moon The Revealing of Andre
Favorite WIP Fanfic: Decisions Sookie Takes Charge The Moon The Revealing of Andre
Favorite Veteran Author: ME!!! (THANK YOU FOR THE NOMINATION!!!)
Also, thank you for reading down this far… 😀 Here’s an extraneous gif of Eric for your troubles:
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Addicted to Godric...Eric...Andre...(Sevrin) 