Dare to be different and learn to be lonely

Despite all that's going on in the world, my week was pretty ordinary: I went to work daily (managed to read a story from my book Sleepily Ever After, Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups every lunch this week, woohoo!), got groceries on Monday, did Aquarobics with my mom on Tuesday and went over to her place for dinner and Netflix on Wednesday, did some more groceries on Thursday and fell asleep on the couch that night.
There were a few special events: I got stung by a wasp (!), backed-up all my LJ photo-albums, voted in our local elections on Wednesday (my party won), had a massage on Friday afternoon (read on the bus back and forth) and fell asleep on the couch after finishing my book The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter.
This morning I did my weekly weigh-in, in the afternoon I did the dishes and I just updated my daily Dutch blog:)
Now it is time to update my Dreamwidth and LJ with the graphics I made for Land of Art! Here they are:

( Ch04_PH18 - So That's Your Favorite TV Show )

( Ch05_PH18 - V is for Villains )

Challenge 6 - Icon Battlefield is still being voted on, so those icons will be revealed later;)

( Ch08_PH18 - This One's For the Girls )

( Ch09_PH18 - I've Got You Covered )

J.

If you missed it: Challenge 1 + 3 [LJ]

X-posted on https://beelikej.livejournal.com/574110.html

Hi! Before I have lunch, catch up on SPN_J2_BB art, get dressed, do the dishes and leave for the train to The Hague, a quick update on life and my plans for the coming weeks.

Sooooo. I saw this personality test thing pop up on my flist and since I was always rather confused by people referring to them selves as EITJ or ISFP and whatnot, I figured I'd take the test to finally have a proper label for myself *grins* Turns out I'm an ISTJ. Huh.



(I'm particularly fond of my J:)

Also: a couple of bulletpoints!

I immensily enjoyed watching the livestream of the NerdHQ SPN panel at SD Comic-Con;

The guys being dorks is very amusing;

BUT! I do have issues with Jared once again using 'being a girl' as an insult;

I feel frustrated that he -and others- don't realize this is a problem;

I'm disappointed that people are turning this into fandomdrama;

Being angry about what someone said does not equal hate;

End of statement;)

After all the travels in the past year I am only taking a short two week summervacation, but it's already chockful of awesomeness:) Besides several projects to unfuck my house and working on that artwork for my auctionbidder, I have all kinds of fun planned. Yesterday I started my time off with a herbalstamp massage, which was mmmmmmmmmm-delicious.

( Other plans )
So what are you doing this summer?

Just in case you missed it: the massive picspam of my XL weekend of fangirling in Oslo:)

This was pretty much a perfect day; all the time for myself and I accidently fit in some chores as well, go me! Started with putting out the garbage and then did some reading on the couch, finishing a wonderful BB-fic on my e-reader.

After that I had a luxury shower and did the dishes (only a week old!). I caught up online and validated my new creditcard. Had a big lunch and repaired my pink hat while watching the news.

Highlight of the day was my mmmassage; I was so glad I had decided to take the bus and not cycle there in this humid heat. Besides enjoying the climate control, it also gave me over half an hour of reading time (back and forth!), diving into another brilliant BB-fic *happy sigh*.

The massage was perfect, even if kneeding my calves and shoulder muscles felt a little harsh, my body clearly needed that;) My regular/favorite massage is a custom made version of a Chinese massage, called 'Time for yourself' and that's exactly what it is. There is no set time, it lasts until it's done. Today that was about an hour of uninterupted bliss.

Originally I had another massage planned for Friday, but since it's gonna be a whopping 33 Celsius then, my masseuse and I figured it was better to reschedule to Wednesday. I've chosen a hot and cold stone massage, am very curious to find out what that's like. Will report back here;)

On my way home I did groceries (there was a very convenient busstop in front of a supermarket) and had a meatball Subway while waiting for the next bus (It has been years since I had one, so good). When I got home I plopped down on the couch and finished the second BB fic of today (accompanied by ice and chocolate;)

Now I'm gonna do the rounds online before bed (probably chinhand at all those behind the scenes gifs of J2M fooling around at that new photoshoot;). I'm still on a dopey high from that massage, so will no doubt fall asleep easily:)

Night night.

Ahw, it's the final week of the spn_j2_bigbang. Such an overwhelming amount of wonderful art this year! I also thoroughly enjoyed reading, although I didn't make enough time for that yet: my e-reader is still loaded with tons of fic! I will bring it with me on the train to The Hague tomorrow; that's another two hours worth of reading time, yay!

Day 4 of doing exercises with Gilad and today I managad to keep up with the double time abdominal session, woohoo. Next goal is to not change positions at the pace of an eighty year old (my joints are in a horrible shape).

On Tuesday I had my second massage appointment of this summervacation. Last week I had asked my masseuse for something different than my usual Chinese back-of-the-body massage. We had decided on a therapeutic Tuina, which is not so much rubbing and stroking the muscles, but more of a patting, tapping, shaking and pulling experience without oil. When I got there, she said she had been worrying about it all week because she realized it really wouldn't fit me as my aim is to relax and that's not what Tuina is for. Instead she offered a custom made massage, for which she mixed some gentle Tuina elements with my favorite oily backrub, ending with an extensive Chinese foot massage. It was heaven:-)

After ignoring project Cleaning House yesterday, I picked it up again today. I made arrangements with my mom for a trip to the thriftstore, which forced me to sort out my stuff so we could take it in;) After getting rid of two more bags of trash, I ended up with two bags of old clothes, one bag of shoes and a bag of random old items that I was able to say goodbye to.
Once we had handed our stuff over at the backdoor of the thriftstore, we went round to the frontshop to see if they had any bookcases for sale. I found exactly what I was looking for: a tall & wide white bookcase, not too deep, but deep enough for magazines (and books obviously) - 2 metres high, 78 cm wide and 26 cm deep for only 15 euros! It was in good condition, but unfortunately it didn't fit into my mom's car, so I asked for some tools and took it apart. Then we managed to put all the shelves in the car before going back for some more shopping (mom).
After that we drove to the furniture mall (Meubelboulevard for Dutchies;) because I still needed another bookcase. I saw similar ones to the second hand one I bought for 60 and 80 euros respectively! I decided on a lower model (1.08 metres high) for 45, which wasn't in stock, but can be picked up next week.
When we got back to my apartment, mom helped to carry all the parts of the bookcase up (we were very happy I had managed to take it apart, we would have never managed to get it up those stairs "pivot, pivot";)
This is what my spare room currently looks like:


All the black furniture that I got from the previous renter (I moved here in 2004 I think) will be replaced by white bookshelves, all the other stuff (the triangle shelves, the fold up bed) will be rearranged. Notice how clean the floor is! Under the bed are now three big boxes (with wheels!) instead of a mess:) The big monitor still needs to be carried to my storage downstairs, but I have to wait until a strong person with long arms comes over, because it's too heavy and bulky for me to carry.

As I mentioned I will be going on a family visit to The Hague tomorrow, so project "turning the spare room into a library" will have to wait until the weekend. Probably after I spam you with photos of my adorable nephew. You have been warned;)

If y'all lived near me, I would send you to my masseuse, because she is AWESOME \o/ Today I chose my regular massage, which is called "Time for yourself" and it was once again marvelous. Thanks to all the hassle at work it had been over six months since I last had a chance to visit her. Definitely too long. I made another appointment for next week, when she will introduce me to a full body Therapeutic Tuina massage, which apparently involves not just stroking and rubbing muscles, but also tapping, pulling and shaking my extremities. Sounds exciting, right? It's supposed to give you an energy boost. Today's massage was all about relaxing though. Which reminds me... note to self: "don't plan anything afterwards, don't think you can get groceries on the way home, just because the bio-supermarket happens to be on your cycling route. Go straight home to crash in bed or on the couch."
Heh. I never learn. But when I finally got home, I did set my timer and dozed off for an hour, that was almost as nice as the massage. I look and feel totally relaxed now.

So far I'm loving my summervacation:)

Next on the "I should really do this when I have time"-list: watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World. And thanks to gifsets on Tumblr of boys kissing, I also put Dare on my program.
So I'm off for tonight for an evening of chilling up in my attic. Will catch up with all of your journals tomorrow!

Oh, before I go: I just read this in Lynn Flewelling's LiveJournal (otterdance)
"[I] have to finish the upcoming Nightrunner book by January (gad!). After that I hope to pick away at some short stories for Glimpses II..."
If you've read the Nightrunners series you know how exciting this news is! If not, watch out for my review of the first two books. I'll be posting it later this week!

Speaking of bookreviews (I'm going, I'm going, just a second) - I posted one for Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: I gave it 10/10, yes you read that right. Click link to find out why:)

After the disappointment of finding out about the loss of my favorite toothpaste* ( I've had a fun packed week! )

So yeah, I'm feeling pretty good about myself at the moment. \o/

*If anyone on the flist comes across it in their country, I'd love to hear about it! Please mail or message me if you can get your hands on Colgate Max Fresh Clean Mint (the green sparkly one), tnx:)

**I'm wearing "Drink Me" from the Mad Tea Party set. It smells delicious, according to the descripton: "cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast"! (I mostly smell the tart and toffee:o)