Valentine's!

[red_lasbelin]

Another Valentine here and gone....Another My Slashy Valentine swap finished. It feels really good - but also so strange, because I don't have a story in with the rest this year. It was really hard to accept that I couldn't finish a story in time, but I've been working 52 hour weeks three weeks in a row, trying to prepare for an interview and another major visit and my uncle passed away this past week. After I worked a 17 hour day and then tried to work on my story with no success, I realized that I could only handle so many plates at once, between work, my family, the swap admin and a swap participant. One of them had to go. Thank God for ignoblebard though, who has to be one of the sweetest people I know; he helped me out in an impossible time. Please go and check out the stories - we had 50 participants this year and a treasure trove worth of stories. All the writers need some love in the form of feedback!

My gift story this year is by keiliss and is called the Pink Flamingo. It's E/G brothel fic, and I'm thrilled to pieces to get the first chapter with a promise of more to come. (I told her I wasn't worried about her not delivering on it all, I know where she lives :) ) Seriously, go check it out. It is so cool and so much fun!

Work is absolutely crazy right now, the billionaire owner of the franchise is visiting our store and the others in the area at the end of the month, and we've been short staffed for a really long time (and still are), so there's a whole hell of a lot of work happening right now. And our store is on the razor's edge - we have a really good team, but we are all exhausted and I think if someone quits, we'll all collapse and quit too. It is that bad. And through it all, I decided to try for assistant manager (because I am doing so much already) and was meant to have an interview last week, but so far it has been delayed, delayed and then delayed again. At this point, I almost don't even care. (almost)

Personally? Really rough to watch my mom grieve her brother. Through a lot of circumstances (namely him being a workaholic), I didn't get to spend much time with him, and neither did my mom. She cried at the funeral and said she had hoped to see more of him after he retired, but he died before he ever did. On the other hand, my cousins talked about how with his heart problems, he had been so scared of dying slowly and painfully - and this was so sudden and quick that he didn't suffer. Hit home too, because he wasn't much older than my dad at all, who has had such health problems for almost two years and only within the last three weeks has been anything like himself.

Also - since this is yet another Valentine's day with me being single, I bought myself pretty yellow roses with a hint of peach to them and Godiva chocolates. Half off, of course.

Hope everyone else is having a better month than me, lol. 

Comments

[elfscribe5.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed you were able to administer the swap what with all that happening, much less write a story. Fannish things have to take a back seat to RL. Sorry to hear about your uncle -- it's especially hard when they die untimely. It's one of the great regrets I have about my husband that he wasn't able to enjoy retirement and do his photography.
Last night was not good for me either. I may write a post about it. Hang in there. I'm trying to read a story a day, we'll see how long that resolve lasts.

[talullahred.livejournal.com]

Heya... it's exhausting just reading about your week! :) Just kidding, of course, but I do worry for you. Things have been going on like this for a while and on top of it it's a physically demanding job. I'm sorry I put more pressure on you during this MSV. It was wise not insisting on pushing yourself and asking Mike for help.

I'm also sorry about your uncle. It's hard to watch parnt grieving. Even after growing up we have this idea on the back of our heads that they're impervious to any and everything and then our hearts break when they suffer.

*hugs*

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Life does sound busy-busy at the moment - hurrah for ignoblebard!

How sad about your uncle - to work so hard that you never get to retire and do other things.

It's E/G brothel fic, Elrond/Galadriel - Hurrah! Oh, wait a minute... it has to be slash... what a shame :) Unless there is something about Galadriel we don't know... :P

[red-lasbelin.livejournal.com]

Er - I personally would really not be interested in reading Elrond sleeping with his mother in law. No, that was marked as E/G for Erestor and Glorfindel, which is my favorite pairing and is a gift fic for specifically for me and my tastes. Not sure what point you're trying to make here.

Thanks for the comments, Wombat.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Sorry - I wasn't trying to make a point - it just amused me that they were the first pair that came into my head with those initials.

[independence1776]

My condolences.

Good luck with everything else. *hugs*

[red-lasbelin.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Indy. Life's still been crazy, as evidenced by the lateness of this response. But maybe it'll settle down eventually...

[ignoblebard.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I was able to help out, Red, and I'm sorry about your uncle. It's hard for your mom to lose a sibling. I hope things start looking up for you soon. You really deserve a break. *hugs*

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

If you'd forced the rest of that fic out the odds are you would never have written anything else ever again - those circumstances were really enough to scar anyone.

Thank you for not outright banning me *loves*

[red-lasbelin.livejournal.com]

Thank you for helping me there, it was not something I wanted to do, but in the end turned out to be very necessary. I do still want to finish the fic, it's sitting on the desktop waiting for me. (But when is my life not going to be crazy???)

And hey, you'll finish the fic, cause I know where you live...

[topum.livejournal.com]

Sorry about your uncle.
I hope the chocolates were good!

[red-lasbelin.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And yes, they were fabulous. I could use some right now...

[erviniae.livejournal.com]

Sorry about your uncle, Red.
(hugs)

[red-lasbelin.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Ervy. *hugs*