I am a putz of the largest degree times infinity!

Sorry!  I just saw a few people responded to my last entry, and I know I haven't been on here in a few years, which is how long I've been gone from the fanfic and SV community.  I just tend to get subsumed into school, and I clearly not good at the balance thing.  I sincerely apologize for not getting back to people.  It's not a slight in any way.  I just checked my e-mail that's attached to LJ and saw 3 people responded to my last post (which was forever ago).  I haven't checked any of my e-mails since school started in Sept, so it really is just me.

As an update: I'm back at school picking up 2 more undergraduate degrees.  Yes, Environmental Studies wasn't enough!  I wanted to try to get a "skill" (whatever that means) to use in a new career.  Which ended up being Computer Science (programming).  One the way, I picked up Philosophy.  'Cause, you know, thinking is such a marketable skill!  

Yes, I know, I'm ridiculous.  The day someone hires me for that philosophy degree is the day all my CLex dreams will come true, I'm sure.

I haven't really written in the last 3 years, though I have plotted out a few stories.  I also have half a dozen or more finished or partially-written CLex stories on my harddrive that I haven't gotten around to either finishing or final editing.  I'll take a look at these over winter break (in 2 months, sorry!) and I'll put something up then.

I heard that lj is purging journals that aren't being used, so I wanted to pop in real quick to save mine!

I am still alive, but very busy with school the last couple of years.  I have put my writing on hold as such, as well as being part of the fic community. 

Saw Salt today...awesome movie!  I adore Angelina Jolie, and she didn't disappoint in this role.   I found the plot and pacing to be amazing.  I recommend it.

Whew! It's been forever since I've been on lj. Life's just been crazy!

I work 10 hour work days, Monday through Thursday (usually, my day off can change), so I'm usually too tired during the weekdays to log onto the internet. I watch my 2 hours of CSI on Spike, maybe stay up for another hour or two depending on what day it is (Tuesdays: House, SVU or Boston Legal; Wednesday: CSI: New York; Thursday: CSI and Without a Trace), and then I crash so I can get up at an ungodly hour of the morning. So that leaves the weekend, and I've just been swamped the past three weekends.

Apologies to anyone who was expecting that story I promised...I did start proofing one, was horrified at what I read (some of my earlier work), and have since taken a red pen to everything. I'm being a editor nazi and I'd be embarrassed to put up what I have in it's current state. But I'll try to get something up by this Sunday.

( Snow and the Workplace )

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, American and non-American alike!

Whew! Sorry I didn't post that story like I said I would last week...I ended up leaving town earlier than I'd planned. My best friend, Amelia, lives in the Twin Cities, and she has twin boys. It was their 2-year birthday, and she threw a party. I ended up going and staying over the weekend.

Boy, are they cute! Sort of big heads, but cute! LOL! They definitely take after their dad, Pong.

It was a great time. I went to college with Amelia and Pong, and they've been close friends of mine for a long time. I went through complete small-child-gift-anxiety trying to pick out the perfect gift...and ended up buying a gift or two extra!! They each got a book, 2 small cars, and an education singing-type toy.

It's horrible to take such pleasure in the fact that out of all their NUMBEROUS gifts...the little guys liked my gifts best! It was a soft-clothed spider (in multi-colors) that sang the alphabet song and sang 2 other songs that helped recognize letters.

Anyway, I'm sorry for anyone who'd been on the lookout for that story. I'm going to "Harry Potter" tonight with my sister Virginia and mom. But I'll proof that story tonight when I get back, and post it tomorrow.

*hugs* Happy Turkey Day!

It snowed last night. 3-5 inches, depending on where you live up here.

Now, I work in Duluth, specifically in downtown Duluth, which is near Lake Superior. It's at the bottom of a very steep hill, and there is no parking in the downtown area other than the parking meters on the street and an assortment of parking ramps/lots. I park my car on top of the hill, about 4-5 blocks up, on the street where it's free. I've always parked there for two reasons: Save money and exercise.

Which, as an aside, I'm embarrassed to admit that 8 months later, I'm still winded when I get to my car. It's a really steep hill! On the bright side, I'm fairly sure I've lost some weight in the hind-end part of me. Yay, glut-work out!

Anyway, it was fairly icy, and I get in early...around 7:00 a.m. So, walking down the sidewalk was scary, especially since I've recently begun parking in a new area where the hill is at an even steeper slope than my old parking area. (It's steep enough that during September, I often felt that if I stumbled even a little, I'd pull a Jack-and-Jill.) So of course, I was trying to be cautious, thus I was walking on the grassy areas between the sidewalk and the actual street. However, once I ran out of grass, I took one step onto the sidewalk and my foot slid RIGHT out from under me. I fell flat on my butt, both legs out in front of me like some anime or cartoon character. If I'd been Sailor Moon, I'd have had a sweat drop falling down my forehead!

It actually would have been hilarious for anyone who'd seen me. My left hand had a coffee mug (purple! Very Lex-y...from my sister's college - go Northern Iowa University!) in it, so there I was, holding my mug in one hand and practically falling vertical right on my arse, mug held firmly upright the entire time. I'd bet money my face had a goofy-shocked look on it. After all, I'd feared I might slip, which was why I was walking on the grass like a huge dork, but I didn't actually think it would happen. Especially on my first step onto the sidewalk!

So, I'm thinking I may have to start walking 3-4 blocks along the street I park on (4th Street), THEN start walking the four blocks down the hill. It'll mean backtracking those 3 or 4 blocks BACK, since I'll bypass the corner the building my office is located in (1st Street), but the hill isn't at such a steep angle the further I along 4th Street. I'll just have to keep thinking, "Great Exercise!"...even when it gets super cold out. *frowns* Below zero weather won't be fun, but I'll just have to start bundling up more than I usually do during the winter.

For anyone interested in what's been happening in my wild and crazy life:

One huge positive...I paid off my credit cards. Yay, me!

Most of my paychecks over the winter and summer months went directly to Visa and Discover, and I paid it all off last month. I'm finally able to start saving money, which I'll be using for moving expenses and emergency car funds in the event of (eventual) car problems.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to buy another car in a couple of years. (Tauruses are evil!) I'm definitely going foreign, most likely Japanese. I think VW Beetles are super cute and fun, but I don't know anyone personally who's had a VW, so I'm not sure what kind of rep they have. So, I'll most likely go Toyota.

*sigh* Now, just to start squirreling away money like crazy...

I'm back... *ducks head*

Sorry for the loooong period of silence. RL was a bit nutty, and I haven't been on lj since June. So, I'm pretty much clueless as to what's going on around here and how all my lj friends are doing. It'll be nice, if overwhelming, to look back in your journals!

As my subject line indicates, it was snowing this morning. Yikes! I was amused to see on CBS Sunday Morning (or whatever that show is called), they showed a very picturesque snippet of Walden's Pond (on the East Coast...I'm embarrassed to admit, I can't remember the state...) with the leaves in full fall color. Heh. And it was snowing flurries here!

I apologize for any concern I might have caused over the silence after my posting on my car crash. My life pretty much went FUBAR after this, and every time it seemed to get better, something else happened. To summarize this past summer and fall:

Major arguments with my Dad, it was particularly ugly in September. Started with the car and how he wasn't going to accept any money from me for the repairs caused by the accident I caused...and went to, well, mostly other arguments centering around money. As of now, I'm planning on moving out as soon as I can get a little nest egg saved in case my car goes kaputt. I'm shooting for March/April. Now, I only need to decide if I'm moving down to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul, for those non-US folks) or out of the state.

Work was nuts. Or rather, the people at work are nuts. One woman, D, ended up admitting herself into the psych unit of a local hospital after she was thinking of killing herself. A man, H, went loopy over a change in his anti-depressant medication and with D's absence. JD, the arch-nemesis of D, is questionably up to power-plays, mysterious snitching/whining/who-knows-what conversations with the boss. While me and JL are pretty much caught in the middle, trying to keep our heads down, yet be there for support for D and H. We've had blow ups, fights, and days of cold silence to endure...as well as good days. It's like a constant roller coaster.

My dad's car is repaired. Mine went into the shop for a couple of times. All I can say...don't buy a Ford Taurus. Ever. I've replaced a good portion of the car's parts, some even twice!

Writing...has been zilch. I was getting pretty down about Smallville. Clark's just such an asshat, and my poor woobie Lex is getting closer and closer to be canon rift fodder...but I'm trying to get back into my CLex groove. I'm going to try to write over the next week, getting back into the Awakening Series and the Fourth of July series. I've just decided to close my eyes and pretend the last couple of seasons never happened. Lalalalalalalalala...

For anyone still reading this entry, and you've sent me an e-mail recently...I'm just starting to read my e-mails now.

ETA: Heh. In celebration of diving back into the online world, I gave my lj a new look. In case anyone's wondering, "Doesn't Artemis's lj look different?"

I burst into tears the moment I stepped into work this morning.

Embarrassing, slightly mortifying, and very, very upsetting...if only because I was so sincerely upset.

I was driving into work this morning, and as some of you know, I've recently become employed at an Abstract company as a typist after 2 1/2 years of unemployment. The job itself is in Duluth, so it's a good 30 miles for me to drive, mostly on the freeway. I was in Duluth, having just pulled into an exit lane, and was behind a black SUV. The weather was really foggy and it was misty-sprinkly, and it had rained previously so the roads were definitely wet.

Following behind the SUV at the speed of traffic---or at least the speed of the SUV---I drove about a couple hundred feet. Suddenly, the SUV veers to the left, back onto the freeway. I was confused, but thought s/he realized they'd gotten onto the wrong exit lane, but realized damn quickly it was because the line of cars in front were at a dead stop. I slammed on the brakes, while trying to angle/steer the car to the right on the shoulder of the road, but I hit the car in front of me anyway. Which I'd realized almost immediately was going to happen because it was too close, the road too wet, and there was no stopping or manuevering to speak of.

The car that I hit ended up pulling off to the side of the road after driving up a ways (I'm horrible at calculating distances), and a bunch of cars behind me stopped. I immediately tried to open my door, but couldn't, and I could see the front of my car was scrunched up and damaged. I got out on the passanger's side of the car, and found out the grill had fallen out and the front part was pretty damaged.

Plus side: the car in front of me was hardly damaged. There was only a scrape of paint on his bumper, and even then it wasn't that big. Andy, the driver, (a college kid, I think) seemed pretty nice and not too upset. I, of course, apologized several times. He said that the line of cars had stopped, and he'd hydroplaned and almost hit the car in front of him, too. With luck, nothing financial and law suit-ish will happen. Even if it did, which I don't think it will, I don't have any money to speak of anyway.

Andy's car not being damaged was a huge plus.

Down side: I was driving my dad's car. Hence, why I burst out crying as soon as I got to the office. He doesn't have collision, plus I was driving his car because he'd been nice enough to lend it to me while my own car was being fixed. (The turn signals and hazard lights don't work, and we dropped it off at the mechanic's Tuesday night.) I was DEVASTATED because it was my dad's car. If it had been mine, the consequences to the accident would have been all mine, and I would have had the decision to either fix the car or drive the crappy-scrunched up car. But now, it's my dad's.

He's the type that he'll refuse to let me pay for any damages, and I only hope that there are no engine problems. As it is, with the body problems, he said he'll look them over (probably tomorrow since he's working the night shift tonight, so he won't be home when I get back from work). If they don't interfere with driving, he'll more than likely not take it in to get repaired. He is the type who's car-mechanic savvy, so he may be able to do something on his own. He'll have to with the headlight on the driver's side, which is loose, so I'll try to tape it down tonight after work with mailing tape (what we have at the office, other than scotch tape).

I'm feeling much, much calmer now. Still not happy about my daddy's car being all wrecked because of me, but I'm not hysterical anymore either. I just wished it hadn't happened, and I'm all kinds of pissed at the SUV driver who caused the accident. Sure, s/he saved their own ass, but it left me screwed over completely. And, on a cheery note, s/he didn't even bother to stop.

Nice.

Though, to give mankind it's due, a nice guy did stop behind me. Once I started picking up all the car pieces in the exit lane, he got out and told me not to bother. He made sure Andy and I were okay, and he started to call 911 just before some highway patrol type person stopped. (About a minute later, a patrolman stopped to take our report.)

As far as the work Ad-ware/Spyware thing, I'm still infected...just not as bad. But I didn't care so much about that and wanted to get this out. It's definitely been theraputic. Of course, meeting up with that SUV driver would be more so! Grrr...

Work is still pretty hectic, and I spent most of the day wrapping up a large file, as well as running a bunch of programs to try to debug my computer. The adware and spyware is still lurking quietly, deep in the bowels of my poor computer, but hopefully there are a few less after today. I found a great site that recommended a list of programs to try, so I'll keep plugging away, trying to chip away at the problem each day.

It was a slightly crazy weekend. I did some minor writing, but mostly I went through my WIP folders. I tend to think of myself as a two fandom gal, at least as far as writing, and I totally forgot that I began writing a few stories for Cordelia/Angel in Angel! Talk about a blast from the past! And my idea of a riveting plot...LOL! Not that my earliest stuff was bad, but it was definitely easy to tell that I was just taking my baby steps as a writer.

Ideally, I'm creating a chart with all my stories listed, both WIP and finished. I thought having something pinned up near my computer at home might keep things in perspective for me, as well as motivate me towards finishing off my projects. With luck, it'll keep me focused.

As promised, I wrote up a chronology for those who were either confused or wanted a reference/time frame.

Going the extra mile, I also re-arranged "Car Troubles", thus coming up with "Car Troubles - Remix" for those who'd like to read a linear version of the story. You may find the transitions are choppy, which is due to the transitions being non-existent with the re-arrangement *g*, but hopefully it'll aid those you found the writing style of the original to be confusing.


( Chronology of Car Troubles )

( I learned something new...thanks scarletmoon! )

( Depressed...but still plugging away...and FIC UPDATE )