I'm told it's 2010 now.

[tracy_loo_who]

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. 1 drink at high altitude = 4 drinks at sea level, but only the second time you drink there. o.O
   
2. Drunk snowboarding is not as stupid or hazardous as it sounds.
   
3. 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.)
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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\)
   
6. Objects in goggles are closer (and larger) than they appear.
   
7. Goggle tan lines are fairly unattractive to most individuals who are not raccoons.
   
8. 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.
   
9. 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.
   
10. Letting yourself be dragged up a hill by a T-bar will not be among the most dignified moments of your life.
    
11. It is necessary to have at least five sticks of Blistex on your person at all times. Possibly even in the shower.
    
12. 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! ♥

Comments

[love-jackianto.livejournal.com]

Also -- I almost forgot, what -- happy new year! ♥
Happy new year to you too :D

[mrstotten.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year to you too.

Finally got to see Sherlock Holmes and Avatar! \o/

Haven't seen Avatar yet, hoping to see it before I go back to hospital, but adored Sherlock Holmes, what were your thoughts?

Trying to find a balance between life and fandom can be hard, especially with so many awesome people :) but glad you're finding the balance.

[ran-cl.livejournal.com]

Welcome back & happy new year ~*

♥ as always.

I will be back to lj after SPN is back >D in the meantime RL > Fandom for me hehe

[sarpanita.livejournal.com]

Glad to see you back,bb <3
Happy New Year!

How I wish I could go out more. But it's so hard with weather being -25C or with all my friends having bf/gf and spending time with them and with the studying. When winter comes I'm like a bear who sleeps the whole season XD

[effervescent.livejournal.com]

#8 and 9 made me crack up. :D

Happy New Year, sweetheart!!! ♥ I hope you have a fabulous year and get to do the travelling that you want to do and such.

Also, I request that at some point I get to see drunk!Tracy. :D

[n-isfor-neville.livejournal.com]

I want some freaking snow. We got a slight dusting Sunday night, but that doesn't count.

Glad you didn't get seriously hurt. I'm so uncoordinated, I should never try skiing OR snowboarding.

[ladyvoldything.livejournal.com]

I find 12 hard to believe, since I already think his awesome is as swift as the coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon.

[tracy.livejournal.com]

Also, happy 20-days-till-SPN Day! :D

[tracy.livejournal.com]

Watching RDJ crawl over to Jude Law was one of the highlights of my week. XD That and all of their EPIC GAY and Holmes's possessive jealousy and Watson's utter inability to leave him like, ever, despite repeated attempts to. I want to watch it over and over and over again, basically, AMAZING MOVIE. ♥

Thank you, and I hope everything goes well at the hospital!

[tracy.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

Yeah, I think I'll be sucked back into fandom a lot more once SPN gets back as well.

[tracy.livejournal.com]

Thanks, bb. ♥!

Hahha sleeping sounds like a good plan too, I've been doing as much of that as possible lately.

[tracy.livejournal.com]

Hahha we got into a bit of a fight over #8, but he eventually let it go. XD

I HOPE THIS TOO. And I hope YOU save up enough money to go to a con and finally see J2 in person and possibly also see me drunk!

[tracy.livejournal.com]

Move to Colorado, it's better than Indiana. :D

Awww, but both are so fun. You could at least give the bunny slopes a go!

[tracy.livejournal.com]

I hope you also had lovely holidays! ♥

Hahha my first thought was actually "wow, this feels familiar, Pocahontas much?" but after that I definitely saw the Dean/Castiel as well. Especially Jake following Neytiri around the first time he met her LIKE A PUPPY.

[mrstotten.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes and more yes, it was so bloody awesome, I left the cinema wanting to watch it again :)

RDJ was amazing and despite not usually being a massive Jude Law fan, I thought he made a wonderful Watson

[tracy.livejournal.com]

Hahha, thank you!

Weed, yes. There's a lot of that in Colorado too. I think all the snowboarders there smoke. :P

Oh, you're Charmz! The name looks familiar. But I know what you mean, I also wasn't sure at first if he was being serious, but the fact that he is makes me terribly proud to be a minion.

I did occasionally retreat to warming huts when it got really bad, but generally I love snow. It's the wind I'm not such a huge fan of.

[tracy.livejournal.com]

Two great typhoons, actually. See? More awesome than you think! :D No, but seriously, every time I think he couldn't get more awesome, he does something like this.

[ladyvoldything.livejournal.com]

What did he do? Because really, his awesome has all the strength of a raging fire, and is ever-expanding as the Universe itself.

[love-jackianto.livejournal.com]

happy 20-days-till-SPN Day to you too :D

[tracy.livejournal.com]

I will probably go back and watch it again at some point. :D

I like them both well enough, but together? LOVE. So much chemistry!

[tracy.livejournal.com]

He is trying to start a charity movement!

[themadfish.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year!

And Sherlock Holmes was love. I need to rewatch it and hopefully read lots of fanfics.

Ugh, I'm pretty behind on livejournal as well. There's been occasions when I just want to flail at people and tell them to stop posting and especially stop posting fics and recs cause those take the longest to get through. Of course I don't actually want them to stop--I'm just afraid I'm going to miss something amazing.

[sarpanita.livejournal.com]

At winter I become such a lazy ass that its a shame =))))

[tracy.livejournal.com]

If you do ever give it a try, well, you have to give it at least three tries. Everybody's first try is absolutely miserable. I could barely stand up. /o\

I am also excited about it! And I think Misha is too, he seems genuinely touched whenever we do things for him, even with those eggs.

Toronto! I adore Toronto.

[tracy.livejournal.com]

This is me for most of the year. >.>