tracy_loo_who | I'm told it's 2010 now.

Apologies for failing so hard at being an LJ friend the past few weeks. They can be summarized thus:

This picture is much happier than it probably looks. I love snow, I love snowboarding, and I survived Colorado's mountains with nothing worse than a bruised jaw I got from a weak landing on a jump. \o/ It's been exhausting, but I have learned some valuable life lessons which I shall now impart to you:

1 drink at high altitude = 4 drinks at sea level, but only the second time you drink there. o.O
Drunk snowboarding is not as stupid or hazardous as it sounds.
Drunk snowboarding is more stupid and hazardous than it sounds. (But at least it keeps you warm when the windchill is like -20°F fjdlksjffffff.)
When it's the end of the day and your legs are tired and you've started butchering more jumps than you land right, don't convince yourself that the last one might be a good idea.
Trees are more fun to snowboard around than into. (If there's one rule I have to re-learn every year, it's this one. /o\)
Objects in goggles are closer (and larger) than they appear.
Goggle tan lines are fairly unattractive to most individuals who are not raccoons.
Your old Chinese father will object to you sleeping in the same room as your ex even though he knows you've already slept together.
When you're on a chair lift with your single male friend (the one who hasn't slept with you but wishes to) and he wants to take off your underwear in the aforementioned -20°F weather so he can throw it on top of a tree, it's best to not encourage him.
Letting yourself be dragged up a hill by a T-bar will not be among the most dignified moments of your life.
It is necessary to have at least five sticks of Blistex on your person at all times. Possibly even in the shower.
Misha Collins is more awesome than you think he is. More on this later.

It's sort of funny; shortly after I started grad school I became immersed in fandom, and then as soon as I moved away, I rediscovered real life. A couple of my college buddies drove up to visit while I was in Colorado and now that I'm back in Michigan, I've been hanging out with

lallipoo and other friends from, uh, I hate to say ~my childhood~ because it's terribly cheesy, but it's true. Finally got to see Sherlock Holmes and Avatar! \o/ I think I've missed real life, especially college. If grad school had been anything like college, I don't think I'd have quit. Then again, I also don't think I'd have been too active in fandom, and fandom has brought me so many amazing friends and so much squee in just one year that I couldn't possibly regret anything.

Still, I feel like I should start getting out more. Possibly not as much as I got out in college (or at least, I shouldn't drink quite that much), but given the choice between friends and fic, I'm going to try to go with the former more often. This should be easier now that I've moved because even though I liked my grad school friends well enough, I'd often be hanging out with them at some bar on a Friday night and just wishing it could be over so I could go home to Cas!whump or kitten!Cas or Cas-who-enjoys-a-good-halo-rub or something. I don't recall that ever happening before, even with H/D, and it certainly hasn't happened in the past few weeks.

I am going to try to catch up with you guys and your fics, though, because I've missed LJ too and I always feel like I might have missed something important if I don't at least skim every entry on my flist. Possibly this makes me OCD, but then again, if I weren't obsessive, I might not have seen Misha's tweets over Christmas week. Which brings me to my last point..

Re Valuable Life Lesson #12: I encourage everyone who hasn't joined MinionStimulus yet to do so! Misha said at a con that he wanted to harness his power over us minions to do something good (instead of just having us bring him eggs, lol), and it wasn't just talk. He's really trying to start something cool, and I have high hopes that fandom can rise to the occasion.

We've already come up with a ton of ideas for charitable projects and are currently voting on which ones to focus on first.

lizajaneok is heading up the effort, and I've spent most of my meager internet time over the past few days keeping track of it and creating the LJ comm since so much of fandom revolves around LJ:

minionstimulus

Please join/watch minionstimulus and spread the word! DO IT FOR MISHA. \O/

Also -- I almost forgot, what -- happy new year! ♥