One of my scattershot entries again...

[annwfyn]

• I have a date tonight. Go me! Admittedly it's with pierot which is maybe less exciting than if it were with an entirely new person, but does make my future a little more stable than if I were running off with a dashing stranger. I also haven't spent nearly enough time with just Jeremiah in a while, and so am rather looking forward to tonight.



• I am still waiting excitedly for my BPAL. It is also occuring to me that I'm getting hooked on ebay again. I go through phases with ebay - phases which are closely linked to my disposable income. Normally the cycle goes like this.
  
  Sally gets some money in. Sally wanders onto ebay, and finds wonderful and shiney things. These things may be books, clothes, jewellery or (at the moment) BPAL scents. Sally bids on these things. Sally gets very excited, watching her bids creeping up and jumping on those pesky other bids like a terrier on a rat. Sally wins items on ebay, and cheerfully pays for everything with paypal.
  
  Sally waits at home, like a kid before christmas, and lo! Wonderful things arrive in brown paper parcels through the post. No longer tied up with string, sadly, but still shiney and exciting. Sally decides she likes ebay.
  
  Sally goes into an ebay frenzy. There are so many wonderful things there. She stalks through the ebay jungle, a great white hunter in the night.
  
  Something goes wrong with ebay. Occasionally paypal tells me that I've processed too much money through paypal and need to jump through some peculiar hoops to get my account verified, I can't pay for an item, have to jump through hoops and get very vexed. Sometimes something goes wrong with something I've bought, or I have a financial crisis and discover after winning something that my bank account is empty. Sally gets anxious and decides that ebay is bad for her and runs away, ignoring it for months.
  
  Then, the day comes when Sally has money and wants to buy something which is not available anywhere near her, and it all begins again...



• Why is it that I am incapable of putting together flat pack furniture? I currently have two wardrobes in my house. They arrived from Argos last week. ksirafai and pierot put one together last night, while I watched in complete awe. I am now on my own in the house. I have all the tools to put the second wardrobe together, and I'm completely bloody terrified.
  
  Still, at least the first wardrobe is in place in my bedroom, with my clothes carefully laid in drawers or hung up on hangers. I think mine and jez's bedroom is finally coming together as comfortable space.
  
  I just need to persuade jez that it's OK to replace the tatty director's chair with a nice rocking chair, and my life will be complete.



• In general, I'm growing far far happier with my house. The living room is decorated. The garden has been mown and christened with fire and burnt meat, which is what makes a garden part of one's home. The bedroom is slowly coming together into proper living space, and I feel like the threshold is firming up.
  
  The above phrase, by the way, is stolen from Jeremiah who was describing the concept of 'threshold' as it is used in the Harry Dresden books. In the Harry Dresden books there is a magical threshold protection around a home - magical beings can't enter a home without getting permission. Wizards can enter uninvited, but they lose most of their power doing so. This comes from the energy that a home has put into it by the people living there. A family home of twenty years has much more of a defined identity, and as such a stronger threshold, than a batchelor pad which someone uses to sleep in and then ignores. A place of business has no such protection, and combining the two severely weakens the threshold you would have otherwise.
  
  This idea sort of makes sense to me. Objects have identities. Training as a conservator has taught me that, and I think places do as well. Those identities come from the people who live there, or through the use of the place. How we treat something defines it, and my house is increasingly becoming defined as 'home' instead of just the flat that jez and I bought because it was in our price range.
  
  And that makes me happy.



• I am still in the dark as to whether I'll be working at the Cumming Museum next week. And in the dark as to whether I have a summer placement, and what it might be.
  
  Camberwell College of Art confuses me.



• And finally, I don't suppose anyone out there would like to pander to my ego? I think we all know the meme going around - tell me what about me makes you envy me, or what you like about me, or just what you think I do damn well! I'll say nice things back about you in return!

Comments

[sea-cucumber.livejournal.com]

That idea about magic thresholds on houses is wonderful. It makes a lot of sense to me too, places definitely have feelings and vibes attached to them! :)

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

It SO makes sense to me! My house has just changed so much in terms of feel since we moved in. It's been six months, and I reckon it'll be about a year before it is properly 'home'.

[cryhavoctm.livejournal.com]

Mmm, does the fact that combining your place of work with your place of residence weakens the threshold mean that the drive towards "working from home" could be a very cunning plan (hatched from within the darkest corners of the Cunning Museum, I'm sure) by supernaturals to make it easier to access their prey?

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm...I don't know. It is possible, but then I know that in the Harry Dresden books, Harry works from home in order to give himself a little bit more protection from the supernaturals.

I am also convinced that some places of work do have thresholds. I've been in a couple of studios run by conservators who work from home, and there was a LOT of personality and love in those rooms. They had to have a threshold.

On the other hand, I do agree that many home offices (where you bring all the soulless impersonality of the open plan, microsoft run office into your home) are blatant back doors in your nice safe threshold.

[headinclouds.livejournal.com]

I am still in the dark as to whether I'll be working at the Cumming Museum next week

I misread that as 'the Cunning Museum'. I am somewhat disappointed to realise that I was wrong, and that actually it's not the case that you don't know because the Cunning Museum is hatching nefarious secret plots and you can't be let in on them until It Is Time.

Shame, really, that would be much more fun.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

There SO should be a Cunning Museum. Displaying artefacts of cunning, wiliness and deception for all who think they are clever enough to find them.

There should also be weasals in a small weasal farm in the area.

[headinclouds.livejournal.com]

Of course, you'd have to be very cunning just to gain entry to the Cunning Museum. There'd be a perilous labyrinth to negotiate before you even got to the door.

Dammit, I want to work in the Cunning Museum.
*stamps foot*

[chopseuy.livejournal.com]

a sexy weasel farm ?

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Is there any other kind of weasal?

[twisted-times.livejournal.com]

I envy your course - I'd love to have done something like that at University. :)

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

I sometimes wish I knew you better, you know. Coz I really feel like I only know you in passing and can't comment about so much of your life. I guess I envy how clear and articulate you are about your polyamory and general lifestyle choices. I'm always a bit more confused about mine.

[twisted-times.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm frequently confused! I just hide it well. ;)

meme

[mangochutney04.livejournal.com]

well I haven't seen the meme and I'm not usually the envious type but I do very much envy you for not having to work full time and for that matter anyone else who doesn't, including another friend who is currently also on Easter hols from Uni. It's just so not fair! Hurrumph. ;-)

how can you tell I'm getting tired after nearly 8 solid years! ;-) ;-)

Re: meme

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

It's an LJ meme that is going round - it's mostly a chance for people to remind eachother of the good stuff in our lives that we sometimes forget about.

And on the topic of the grass always being greener - I'm sometimes a little bit envious of you for having done so well professionally. I'm also (and this is deeply deeply shallow of me) always a bit envious of how well you take care of yourself physically - you always look well dressed, in shape, and beautifully groomed.

Re: meme

[mangochutney04.livejournal.com]

Oh thanks honey, you are so very sweet, but you should honestly see me when I'm tearing my hair out in the office, which happens most days, hot and bothered with hair all over the place and not a scrap of make up left. It ain't a pretty sight.

And you know in a Mutual Appreciation Society you are *naturally* attractive with lovely glossy natural dark hair that you don't have to bleach to death just to look half-decent!

And you must enjoy the Easter hols for me! :-) xx

[windzswept.livejournal.com]

hmmm... dates, Andy and I really should do more of those things. Have fun tonight.

I want ebay to arrive! I'm getting all impatient and stuff. I have a similar love-hate relationship with ebay, but me avoiding it is largely because I just get bored. Then I go through a two week cycle of going oooh! shiny! want! then I just can't be bothered anymore.

Flat-pack furniture is fun! I actually enjoy putting it together. Argos stuff is notoriously nasty though. I like Ikea stuff most because it's all chunky wood and less nails. Have a go at it, all that will happen otherwise is it will sit there making eyes at you and taunting you about the fact that you can't put it together. Take it step by step and follow the instructions.

I need to finish decorating here... or even start decorating here properly. The hallway still isn't completed and we've lived here almost a year now. I also want to sort out the spare room and study (and eventually switch them round) but I can't do that till we get the wall between the two rooms redone. Go you though!

I like many people read Cumming as Cunning. Have you tried calling them or calling college? Staff (at least at B'Ham) went back today.

I admire your easy way with people, and the way you can be happy and comfortable around many different sorts of people. I also admire your way with words and written prose. I also admire your determination, you may take your time (Sally-time!) but you always achieve whatever it was you set out to do. I admire the self-confidence you have now developed, and I'm really glad you have become a slightly different person (this is a compliment really! you were lovely before and you still are!) than who you were when I first met you. I admire your enthusiasm for things, the way you get silly-excited over new things or old things you have just rediscovered. There are other things I admire, but I'll let others tell you those things.

(and no, I'm not posting the meme myself)

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

*beams*

Thank you darlin'

I don't quite know how to put it into words, but I remember when you were younger and used to explode at people over stuff, or have blow ups over Cam stuff - you never let the Cam stuff get in the way of real life friendships, and you were never afraid to come back from being bad tempered and get over it, and move on. I've always really really liked that in you. You're one of the sweetest, nicest people I know, and I am really impressed with the way you and Andy have turned into this wonderful stable couple who are planning a gorgeous wedding.

[chopseuy.livejournal.com]

Having seen the way you think, I'm a tad bit envious of your intellect, espically how well you do in academic writing.

I'm a wee bit envious of some of your traveling experiences, you have gone to so many places I want to visit.

I'm also a wee bit envious of the number of properties you've owned. Unfortunatly, my life is still for rent.

However I'm not envious of you dating pierot, his goatee (and other umm manly bits) would get in teh way of me ever thinking him super sexy, for which I imagine he is glad ^_^.

How are you guys? I'm off to Prague from June the 4th, I'll be out there for 14 weeks. It's for research purposes. Yes, Ummm, thats right research, bless you my university. You guys should definitely come out and visit me if you have time and money.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Prague? OK. That's my number one thing I'm envious of you for getting to do!

I do think you're quite an impressive person, btw, Kyne. You're clever, you're adaptable, you've done a lot with your life, and are doing a phd which I am endlessly in awe of. I'm also pretty envious of you for being able to ride a motor bike - I've always wanted to learn to do that, and never got around to it. Oh, and you stay skinny while eating well. Damn you!

I'll chat with Jeremiah - I would love to come to Prague, but it'll depend on cash. Basically, since we bought this place our surplus income has not been as high as it could have been, but I shall have a poke at cheap flights. It would be good to have a long weekend away at some point, and I think Prague isn't too bad for living costs once you're out there, am I right?