Buff-a-thon broken

Since I got my Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs at the end of July, I have have been watching at least one episode a day. On days when I'm home alone, waiting for the cable installer for example, I get in more, like 4 or 6. That's a lot of great knitting time too.

However, as of Thursday my Buff-a-thon's broken. Father-in-law is here and it's rather impolite to watch a show that only I am interested in, while he's visiting. Plus, I've been working everyday, including today, Saturday, and may not see him before he goes back to Wisconsin.

At least I've been able to meet Husband and Father-in-law for dinner. And Thursday we went to Georgia Tech to watch them play Clemson. That was fun, though chilly. Should have brought my sweater, the Hermia sweater I took months to make.

This coming Thursday, though, I'm going to take a day off. Guess what I'll be doing? Oh, the little things that make me happy.

Xanya over

Just watched the Storyteller episode where Andrew films all his interactions and we get his spin on things. I found the most touching parts to be the Anya and Xander parts. Across 3 scenes we see them come to the conclusion that even though they love each other, it's really over between them. Totally tugs as the heartstrings.

Overall, I really liked this episode, more so than the others in like, oh, the last season and a half. We don't get as much of Buffy's speechifying, the tension between Principal Wood and Spike is ratcheting up, and I like how Andrew's use of the camera and fantasizing to rationalize his actions is called out and he does come through in the end.

Okay, I only have 6 episodes before the end. Looking forward to how all the Potentials are converted into actual Slayers and the Watchers Council are kicked out. Also, my Buffy Season 8 comix should be coming to me next week.

In the meantime, I will plug away at work. Got a grant proposal deadline I'm trying to meet by COB tomorrow, instead of Tuesday next week. Was hoping to take tomorrow off since I have a work thing on Saturday, but looks like I'll have to work Friday. Suppose if I turn off all distractions, I could get it done. Might actually still could. And despite that last sentence, yes, I do write for a living (partially).

Father in law is in town for a visit. His health is not good. He had a stroke and aneurysm decades ago and his left half is pretty much paralyzed and he walks with a cane. Yesterday we walked a block up a slight hill to dinner. He's walking much slower now. By the end, he could barely stay upright, his good arm and leg shaking and literally collapsed into his chair at the table. Good thing we've rented a scooter for him to use.

Potential

Ah, the Buffy fest continues. It being Labor Day (happy Labor Day), I'm not at work. But I did bring work home to do -- a grant proposal due on Sept 15. I woke up thinking about it, ready to go.

I also dreamt last night that I was some kick-ass fighter. Very strange, that it would be now, after oh, 100+ hours of watching Buffy fight every. single. episode, that I have the violent dreams. I guess it's because I always fast forward through the fights.

Anyway, this morning I watched the episodes where the potential slayers come to town and Buffy starts training them. And just finished Potential, where Dawn thinks she's a potential slayer too but isn't and Xander tells her she's extraordinary, because it's hard to be so close to the spotlight and never be able to be in it, and yet there she is, still in struggle.

I know that the show is going for the whole "there's only one Slayer, one person who stands between Evil and the rest of the world." But come on, Buffy couldn't have gotten this far without the support and skills of a lot of people. As a social activist, I *know* that anything worth doing is a group effort. However, it's easier storytelling, fact or fiction, to have the One Great Hero, whether it's MLK, Jr, Gandhi, or whoever. Much easier that having a huge list of names and people to remember, and give credit to.

Anyway, back to Potential. The ending was such a sweet moment between them. Apparently in Buffy season 8 #28 there's the possibility that Xander hooks up with either Buffy or Dawn.

Part of me wants Dawn, because of this scene, where the 2 of them can be the Zoe and Wash, two adults who have a healthy relationship with each other, and Buffy can be the Mal, the one person they each have a strong relationship with. Or wait, it was Wash and Mal who each had their strong relationship with Zoe. Still, it could be away for both Xander and Dawn to let go of their competitiveness with Buffy and build a whole part of their life that *doesn't* revolve around Buffy.

Another part of me wants Buffy, for her to finally see what a great guy Xander is, and for Xander to finally have his relationship with her, after so many years of loving her.

And then they realize it isn't the right relationship for them and Xander goes to Dawn. It'll be like Harry and Ginny.

Okay, thinking too much about fictional characters when I should be working on my real life, my real job and my real future.

On the other hand, making huge progress in my current sweater. Knitting with size 10 / 6.5mm needles goes so much faster than with size 8/5mm needles. Millimeters are very small (yes, I am Captain Obvious) but those couple of mm takes you from worsted to bulky and means fast, fast knitting. I'm about halfway done on a bottom up, V neck, raglan cardigan and have joined the sleeves and body. With the v-neck, each row gets shorter and faster. The last part is picking up all along the front for the shawl collar. Which means incredibly long rows, but on the 6.5 mms, I should be done with the sweater by the end of the month.

Dragoncon 2009

Husband and I walked 4 blocks up the street to watch the Dragon*con parade. I'm sure there's a ton of pics on line of the parade. There were the usual costumes: from the Star Wars and Star Trek worlds, Dr. Who, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica (recent), pirates, steam punks, World of Warcraft, Mad Max and many others that I didn't recognize. There was even a guy dressed as Wikus from District 9 with the arm and everything. Very, very cool.



My favorites, though were from the Firefly 'verse, of course. There were many Kaylees and Jaynes -- mostly Jayne hats -- and I also saw an Inara and browncoat t-shirt wearers. The best though, were the costumes up top: two by two, hands of blue. How inventive is that?



I was least impressed by the military costumes because all that took was going to the army surplus store.



I was happily surprised to see a friend who was there with his two sons, who were in costume. It turns out that his wife was going to march with the Browncoats as Zoe! How cool! I would totally go as Zoe and Husband can be Wash.

We were going to get one-day passes for today, but the line to buy tickets went around the block. So we hung out at one of the hotels, over by the Trojan Rabbit, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Perfect location for people watching.

I really wanted to see the 11:30am panel with Ianto Jones, I mean Gareth David Lloyd, from Torchwood. But maybe if I get up early enough tomorrow, I'll catch him then. Or, on YouTube eventually.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I have a grant proposal due in 10 days. However with the long weekend looming, I have very little urge to get started with the writing.

I am very tempted to take stuff home with me and write from home. And finish watching the last 3 episodes of Buffy Season 6. Warren's just shot Tara and Buffy. Tara dies but not Buffy. She's like Captain Jack, never staying dead. I know that in the next episodes, Willow goes back to bad, kills Warren, tries to end the entire world, and Xander stops her by telling her how much he loves her.

And of course there are the special features to watch.

I think I may do that. Go home at lunch. I need to leave the office to get lunch anyway, I can just drive right on home. I generally write out the first draft by hand anyway. And I will be coming in on Monday when everyone's gone to finish up the first draft.

See how I just talked myself into playing hooky?

Wait. I can't. I told one of my board members that I'd be in today, to talk about advocacy issues. But I have her phone number and it's reasonable to talk from home....

We'll see how I do at lunch. Oh, wait. It's practically lunchtime now.

No, I'm staying at the office. There's only one other person here and if I, the boss, leaves here here alone, what kind of message is that sending?

Sigh, staying it is.... But I'm leaving at 4pm!

Looking forward to the weekend

Ah, it's Thursday! Weekend is so close!

Work continues to be a mixed bag. The staff are stressed because all our funds run out at the end of the month and we don't know what new money is coming in. Got word that a grant proposal we submitted has been declined. Personalities are clashing more. The organization's got an advocacy agenda now but the staff don't like it. I'm feeling tired of it all but don't want to cut and run. And where would I find another job in the nonprofit sector now anyway? We're all in the same boat. I so feel like Captain Mal. Wish I had a Zoe, though. Hell, wish I was the Zoe. Strong, self-confident, and *don't* have the responsibility to take care of the whole team.

On the other hand, we have been invited by a funder to reapply, when we thought that funder was going to cut us off. So that's great news. The proposal's due in 2 weeks, no problem. The problem of course is that we had a brain storming meeting yesterday, personalities clashed, I got criticized (indirectly) about not providing enough managemetn and they also argued that they didn't like the advocacy agenda. Ah, I guess it's still more bad than good.

However, still employed, so that's more than others can say. After all, Brother Two is leaving the country to find a job.

Um, I started this post with the intent to write something uplifting and now I can't remember.

Anyway, still on the Buffy kick. And this morning on TNT I caught the end of a Angel episode where Spike shows up. I hadn't planned on watching Angel, but may Netflix it.

And here's an article I identify with. My situation isn't quite as severe as Jamie Tarabay's but the underlying impulse, I think is the same.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer saved the world and the sanity of NPR's Jamie Tarabay while she was in Baghdad. Tarabay explores why she needed the slayer during her time in Iraq.

eta: Had lunch with a friend who used to work at my org, before I got here. She gave me some good suggestions and helped put things in perspective. It's really good to have a listening ear as I just let all this stuff out. And it helped that she ended it by saying that I have good intuition and should go with what I think is right. Which is good because that's what I was going to do anyway. Still, nice to have confirmation.

Card-a-palooza

Most of the time with the Brothers was fun. We spent most of the time we spent together was just hanging out, mostly talking, playing Scrabble and cards -- euchre or gin rummy, and eating. Brother Two just wanted a mellow vacation and that's what he got.

Brothers stayed up late and slept in late, but I kept to my usual schedule. So I got a lot of Buffy watching in. Now I'm up to season six and have seen Once More with Feeling, the musical episode. Xander and Anya are so cute. At Dragoncon they'll be showing it twice for the sing along. Husband and I are going to Dragoncon for the first time this year. This'll be fun.