Sigh

[hobgoblinn]

So, if I ever reach the other side of menopause, will the monthly mood swings taper off at all? Just wondering. I don't think I've actually even got to this side, proper, but having something to hope for would be nice.

Just a very tense couple of days, and some errors at work, some of which are properly my fault, many more of which aren't, and a QC manager who is grasping so hard at trying to keep his job by actually overdoing it for the new overlords (which would beat the previous not doing anything at all, if I weren't the target of choice) and who thinks his job involves creating mountains of reports blaming people for things that go wrong. People who have never been trained on most of these things and who have no procedure for catching them if they had been. People who were already on tight timing thanks to getting incomplete and wrong information when they first asked for it, and got said information far too late in the game as it was.

So, is there any cheer to be had? Let's see. I do feel good that I completed my next chapter of "In Loco" before Monday's deadline, even if I can't post it until it's been beta'ed and rewritten at least. And that I have a groovy box for snarkysneak finally in my car with her address (though I haven't got to the mailing part just yet. Still. Box. In car. That's huge.) And I have been having great fun judging my categories of tnl_awards. I've read most of the fics in my assigned categories, but there were a few I hadn't and-- wow. When all is over I'll have to rec some here.

But for the most part, a meh and stressful day by turns, and I am Sure my trying a doppio con panna this morning in no way contributed to my hair trigger temper/giggles/twitchiness. At All.

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Alas, I cannot tell ya. I've mostly left the physcial symptoms of menopause behind, but as far as what's left?

Who knows? I tend to chalk my irritability up to my very irritating circumstances, but I could well be wrong ;)

[ladyforash.livejournal.com]

I love the icon you are using with this post. Is it shareable?

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

I think so. Check my userpics and see if you can lift it from there. If not, it's by savine_snape: http://savine-snape.livejournal.com/52124.html

She has a lot of her icons friends locked, but if you comment appreciatively she is quite gracious about friending, and the whole collection is really well done. Tell her hobgoblinn sent you.

[ladyforash.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!!

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

That sounds as if you're having a hard time of it.

I'm sooo looking forward to the next chapter of In Loco. Will it remain gen through to the end or is there some hope for an intrepid HG/SS shipper?

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

It's interesting, how much I seem drawn to the older man/ younger woman dynamic (Giles/ Buffy, Snape/Hermione), and how much those stories affect even how I write my own decidedly gen genfic. I've had several reviewers ask about this, and I have to be honest-- I can't write romance and that's probably just as well. (I've skated around the edges with the Charity Burbage backstory in Lost Boys-- and that whole Ch13 I was really uncomfortable letting Wee Hob listen through as a beta for just that reason. That and how dark it turned in general. But he already knows there are scary bad people in the world and I softened the worst of it when I read it for him.)

I think what I was most interested in here was how Snape would handle parental responsibility and relationships-- not only towards the young son of his old enemy and older friend, but also toward an adult daughter figure. So no, I don't think I'm going quite there. Have you read Laurie King's "The Beekeeper's Apprentice," though? I probably will, whether I mean to or not, leave open the possibility of something more developing later, just as that book ends with them in an equal partnership but not yet a romantic one.

But to pull that off, I will have to do a lot more thinking about these characters and what's going on with them.

My betas have real lives (and I don't make them fix all my stupid grammar and the like, though I admit I send stuff to them before it's quite ready and get their reactions to things that might not be working and then do a much better job on rewrite. I don't usually impose and have them read a second pass, though.) Where was I going with that? Oh-- just it may be a while before the next bit of In Loco is posted.

Don't suppose you're a Buffy fan? My Summer of Giles posting day is July 28th, and I'll start posting my 06 Nano Novel. (And promptly leave the civilized world for the backwaters of my Texas hometown. I think my mom still has working rotary phones hardwired into the walls of the house. Internet? Whut's that?)

Cheers, and thanks for the comment.

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've read "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" - and was a bit disappointed that everything about the relationship was kept so proper and prim ... But I definitely respect that you prefer not to write romance! And it's not as if there aren't enough romance!fics for us SS/HG shippers out there. ;-)

And indeed, I am also a Buffy fan (the hubby, too!). We own all dvds (Angel, too) and have watched many of them more than twice. *g*

So I'll definitely appreciate a link!

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Well, there are sequels that eventually get them together, though it still stays well within the bounds of decorum on the page (you know they are intimate, but explicit stuff is kept private.) It gives the story verisimilitude, but yeah, after being conditioned to see more in fanfic I sometimes wish she would give us a little more.

All my Buffy stuff is on fanfic.net now; I'll have to dig up some links for you, not to my stuff, but to some really good writing by folks on my friends list. liz_marcs and antennapedia were the folks who welcomed me out to LJ and fanfic when I finally got up the courage, and I admire both of them more than I can say. Even if I'm no longer reading as actively in that fandom anymore, I learned a lot from them both, and still do just from their journal entries.

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know those sequels. And I was even more disappointed in them.

See, for me it has nothing to do with being conditioned by fanfic or desiring the titillation of explicit scenes, but what I regard as capturing "life".

I am alwas disappointed by books and stories in which the characters never sneeze, never eat, never use the toilet ... and in which I'm supposed to believe that there is an essential intimate relationship going that is never shown "on page".

In Laurie King's novels it's still okay, because she is writing "in style" - old-fashioned, Victorian.

But there are quite a number of modern fantasy (or other novels) that still expect readers to believe in those oh so hawt relationships and all you ever see is a chaste kiss.

I wish authors had more courage about including facts of life in their stories. From diarrheas to orgasms.

[emelye-miller.livejournal.com]

As far as I am aware the mood swings should taper off eventually. You might try wild yam cream. I hear it works wonders for all things menopausal without the cancer causing concerns of hormone treatments.

[bamachick73.livejournal.com]

Hey, you always have me to brighten your day! LOL! (Oh and the cicadas)

My mother's cure for menopause was to just yell at me...for ten years...maybe try that on the wee-hob? JK.

[snarkysneak.livejournal.com]

SQUEEE on the new chapter, recs, and of course the box! I don't have your box ready yet... I've kind of been going door to door with a petition in my spare time. I think the condo board is pissed with me. Good thing I'm moving in a few months, eh?

[whitestar-alpha.livejournal.com]

Supposedly yes as the competing hormones are no longer there to compete. If I remember correctly, estrogen makes you feel a bit better, so you'll feel a bit "bluer" than you're used to once it's gone. But first you'll go through a hell of a rollercoaster ride as your hormones are shutting off. Any underlying emotional problems you had/have will escalate in intensity until menopause is over.