in my life

Seder ended up being really nice! There were only two alarms around 5PM for us, after all of us had already made our way home so none were caught on the road or in traffic. The rest of the evening we had no alarms in our area, so were able to get through a whole (admittedly rushed) seder and excellent food. There were lots of flowers, and all of the important foods, and my aunt's rice was a little burnt* but it actually made it taste better - it's this really good recipe of oven-baked rice with mushrooms and chestnuts that I really have to try sometime.

(*one of many downsides to alarms is figuring out how to handle anything cooking while you're going in the shelter for an unknown amount of time. Do you turn off the oven? Do you keep it on and hope for the best? Tough decisions must be made.)

Since I was put in charge of the seder itself, I went over the hagaddah in advance and made a cheat sheet of which parts we'd read/sing/skip in advance, printed out a few copies and placed them on the table, just to have everyone on the same page. It ended up going really well, adults were appreciative, we basically sped through the reading and singing in like 20 minutes before getting to the food.

Sisters and I spent the night there; there were some tensions at some point but situation's got people on edge; overall had a really nice time. My sister and I drove back to Tel Aviv this evening; it was the first time an alert caught me on the road (technically, two). Drove till I found a part of the road with a wide enough shoulder to pull over, got a blanket from the trunk and spread it on the ground by the road to sit on, took a coat since it was drizzling a little. The air was misty and bizarre and apocalyptic just because it happened to be a day with really weird weather, every streetlight enveloped by an enormous halo, and pretty soon we heard the booms, saw some dim lights, saw one interceptor on its way through the mist. My sister had a much more visceral reaction than I did to the sounds and the sights, but then unlike her, I didn't spend the first few months after October 7th constantly going in and out of a war zone on reserve duty :( We sat there, munching on some cucumber-flavored Lays chips my dad brought from a recent trip to China, on the ground with a coat pulled over out heads and yellow flares in the sky, just a surreal little moment. When we got back in the car after, Graceland was playing on the radio.

(There was a second alert about 10 minutes later, but at that point we were already in the city; we just found parking and went inside a nearby building to use their shelter if we'd need to, but it ended up being one of those times where the "heads up" alert never converts into a real alarm.)

When I got home, logged on to participate as a beta in a virtual lecture about the science of BtVS (in preparation for the now-virtual local SFF con taking place next week), which was super fun, and then watched Shrinking, which, my heart, I can't believe next week will be the last episode of the season boo.

This weekend I am planning on:
-visiting grandma
-meeting friends
-IDK, XO Kitty season 3 perhaps?
-writing?? finally?? will it happen?? maybe mentioning it will make it so.

( Fun times )

I will say - it was really nice to get some rain this week, late in the season. Also risked an hour-(gasp!)-long drive to go to the Nachsholim area, a little north of Caesarea, on the coast, for a night of basically nothing but chilling in a hotel with a seaside view with marina, with a stroll down the historic pedestrian mall in Zichron in the afternoon, which felt like being a tourist in some other universe.

Following recs, I've been reading some Heated Rivalry fics, including Apogee by OpalApparition, a 50k space AU which I enjoyed a lot and felt a little like an Andy Weir book but with good UST and sex, and then followed that up with Wolfbird by the same author, a 170k pro-dom!Ilya AU which has taken over my brain and I am now obsessed, destroyed, all of the feels about. It is also a WIP so read at your own risk (but my god, read it).

Movies I have watched this week: Chaplin (1992), Zootopia 2, old home movies.

Words I have written this week: zero. At some point in 2023, before the first war (that one) started, I started writing a KinnPorsche/Discworld crossover, and then later 2023 happened, and I have written zero words since other than yuletide, and I really want to finish it before moving on to other stuff! It has, in fact, the potential to be a very cute story! I just need to... get there. And then I can write at least one of my HR fic ideas, which I would really, really like to happen sometime this year please, fingers crossed.

I have gone back and fixed the typos in my last post which were not due to anything but tiredness last night but they were driving me crazy /o\

( Today was much better than yesterday, after middle sis arrived and I could see she really was okay. )

Nature continues to progress! New developments from the past two-ish weeks include ( shortly )

OTHERWISE:
-Winter Olympics were amazing, why do we only get them once every few years, how are snow and ice sports so beautiful and fascinating and aesthetically pleasing.

-I would like to read fic but honestly I have just fallen down the rabbit hole of m/m sports romance novels, starting with everything Rachel Reid has to offer, then KD Casey, now Ari Baran, and who knows what's next, with a slight detour into warm and cozy Kind by Hannah Leigh. I feel like at SOME POINT I should stop. If you ask me to tell apart all the different couples I've read about in the past 2 weeks I would be hard pressed to explain all the different characters and plots. And yet.

-Enjoying the new season of The Pitt and a few other show's I'm following, but nothing makes me as happy (and heartbroken, but mostly happy) entertainment-wise as watching a new episode of Shrinking every week. Just, how is that show so good.

-Nature! It's one of the warmest winters I can recall, less rain and warmer weather and a shorter green period, but there are still winter flowers, and I do my best to hike and picnic on the weekends as much as I can. This past weekend I went up to the Golan with a friend, just 2 days of walking around the peace and quiet of the green green north, which was incredibly lovely. The weather makes it constantly feel like Passover is just around the corner, which is disorienting and kind of nice and kind of not.

On Saturday I went to an incredible production of Cabaret. It's one of my favorite musicals to see in live theater, and this production really was incredibly, 360-stage Kit Kat Club and all, and I might have written more if I weren't falling asleep but I very much am, alas.

...........see I made that previous post and now now I finally feel like I can make a post about normal! life! stuff! and fandom!!! this is exciting.

I will just say that I am, as one would expect, WELL on the Heated Rivalry train. After finishing the show and the main youtube-reaction-podcasts/videos, I needed more so I went ahead and read the books the show was based on, and then immediately read the other books in the series, and my MAIN loves are Ilya and Shane, my close second favorites are EVERY SINGLE OTHER SHIP IN THAT SERIES, I am so far gone my god. I'm now debating whether I need a break from hockey novels (to be clear, a break means moving on to fics), or whether I should continue to Rachel Reid's standalone hockey novels, despite the fact that her books make me, well, very distracted when I should be working, which is not ideal. I think maybe it would be smarter to hold off for the weekend.

For now, I have written zero words of HR fics but have many ideas, so if anyone has any idea of how to get writing without a yuletide deadline forcing me to, please let me know! Also: if there are any HR fic exchanges I am happy to hear about them. I'm not in any HR-dedicated discords and do not think I will stumble upon such an exchange independently.

Other than that, more fandom yays:
-The Pitt season 2 \o/
-Stranger Things final season! That one is less of a \o/ lol, but I still enjoyed watching it, criticisms and all. I love those kids.
-A Thousand Blows is back for the second half of its season! I haven't watched it yet but I loved the first half and can't wait for more.
-New Josh Charles show aka Best Medicine! Okay, it's not great yet, but I'm giving it a chance.
-Avengers Doomsday trailers! I have them but I love them ugh Marvel are truly assholes for doing this to me.
-Over on AO3, spqr has been posting Masters of the Air fics which have been so great they have sucked me right into that fandom.
-(Interspersed, of course, by HR fics, naturally)

And on the local theater front: I went to the new production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle yesterday, at Habima theater. Other than being one of my favorite plays, and absolutely timeless in message, it was such a gorgeous production. Beautiful set design, including a constantly shifting backdrop of sand art that was sculpted live by the actors on stage; beautiful compositions and singing; great acting, and a great translation. It was maybe a little more immersive than Brecht would have liked, but sorry dude, if you don't want me getting emotionally invested in your characters you should have stopped writing emotionally investing stories!)

I couldn't find a trailer for the production, but if you have any interest in what it looked like, there are snippets of the stage and cast here.

For yuletide this year I received a lovely gift -

A present for the blind - for KJ Charles's Society of Gentlemen series, David/Cyprian, 1500 words, a sweet little story about Richard trying new things and understanding Dom a little better.

And I wrote a Nobody Wants This ficlet!

Feels Like Something New - Nobody Wants This (TV), Morgan/Sasha, 2400 words, steps towards getting together.
Sasha’s post-separation life comes with new apartments, curtain dilemmas, and Morgan’s unfiltered advice.

I am so out of the habit of writing anything - posts or fic - and am so grateful for yuletide as the one annual tradition that forces me to write at least something, and milks out a bit of creativity. And it's still nice, being surprised by fandoms that are rare and new and usually have a little bit less stress than trying to fit in your characterizations to a fandom with established fanon or characterizations.

Er, I might as well take this opportunity to post a roundup of all fics written since my LAST roundup, which are basically just the last 4 yuletides:

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Round and Round (yes the amazing 2023 Hallmark time loop Hanukkah movie) - 5+1 fic, bunch of ships throughout the 20th century, 6300 words, written for Yuletide 2024.
Five Hanukkah time loops that helped shape generations of Rachel's family, plus one that just might yet.

Children Will Listen - Ever After (1998 movie), Danielle/Prince Henry, 1800 words, written for Yuletide 2023.
Happy now, and happy hence, and happy ever after; Henry and Danielle find themselves disagreeing on how to parent.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43675770>Someone to Watch Over - KinnPorsche RPF, Bible/Build, 5400 words, written for Yuletide 2022.
Bible copes with playing a character like Vegas by taking care of people on set. Build needs to get used to being taken care of.

Do I have ideas for Heated Rivalry fic? OF COURSE I DO. will I manage to scrape up some writing to discipline to write them? Maybe after someday finishing the KinnPorsche/Discworld fic I started writing before the war? Time will tell.

Just a couple more hours to goooo

I went to the Hostages Square close to midnight. The air was thrumming with excitement. It's 6AM and there are so many many people there now and I really want to go but also, somehow, have work that I'm going to have to somehow find a way to concentrate on unless I can get out of it.

But anyway that doesn't matter, all that matters is that everything goes smoothly and that no one fucks this up, come on 🤞🤞🤞

HI! Thank you, new friend who has good taste and likes at least one fandom I like, and hopefully the same characters in similar ways! I hope this is the kind of letter you click on and think, "Ooh, I can do that!" and not "Ahhh what have I signed up for /o\". It's yuletide, so... I'm very familiar with both. It'll be fine :)

(Is this most of this letter copy pasted from previous years? INCLUDING THIS VERY INTRO? Yes. Originality is overrated.)

The fandoms I request for yuletide are usually just fandoms that I really, really enjoyed, and I just want more of them. I would have loved to finish these canons and go to AO3 and just read 10-20 more fics in these universes! But alas they are not always there.

In all fandoms I requested, I am fine with any rating/sexual content (or lack of) that works for you.

In no particular order, let's go:

(  1. Three Men and a Baby (1987), 2. Lilywhite Boys - K.J. Charles, 3. The Doomsday Books - K. J. Charles )

Generic DNWs: noncon, daddy kink, incest, anything you wouldn't traditionally gift to anyone unprompted. Dubcon of the 'they both actually want it' variety is fine (eg love spell, sex pollen, etc), pandemics/quarantines is fine, generally if it's a topic/trope that took place in the canon it's also fine.

*

I will finish with the usual end notes:

In the end, everything I wrote are just suggestions, and I am a very flexible reader who likes a WHOLE LOT OF STUFF so really, I'm just glad to be getting something in any of these fandoms, and I hope you enjoy the process of writing and participating. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to approach me via anonymous comment/the mods. Thank you and have a wonderful yuletide ♥♥♥

This is just to say that I am flying out to London tomorrow and from there to Edinburgh next Monday! I feel some trepidation for various reasons but I am so very very very much looking forward to this vacation.

Given the current situation, I'm currently sending good vibes into the universe and hoping that neither flight - but especially the departure - will be canceled. Fingers crossed, that is all, let's do this.

This is just to say, hello, I'm in Tel Aviv away from the thick of things, immediate family is safe. I want to write something about what's been going on but I really don't know what to say. I'm not really sure what the price will be for getting through it as a country, and I'm not looking forward to finding out.

I've been managing to pull myself out of the news cycle for like an hour or two of escapism a day, and am weirdly glad for the few WIPs I follow for having updated in a very timely fashion.

Sending everyone affected in any way hugs. It's a rough time.