don't fear the sun.

Things I've achieved today, a list, because when I go to bed tonight, I'll try to convince me I haven't done jack-ass.

- was introduced to my social worker's new intern who was nice, but so young. I know it's mostly a sign of me getting older, but when the girl who's supposed to go for walks with you and be a professional in your network is barely 23 years old, you just begin feeling ancient.
- had breakfast, took my medicine and got dressed in actual clothes, the latter being for the first time in days.
- dragged literally five kilos of books to the library downtown and turned them in on time, go me!
- withdrew some cash for my therapist tomorrow, so I don't have to do that before meeting with her.
- picked up the second and last thing for my dad's birthday gift, gift-wrapped it and am so done with birthdays already, and mine hasn't even come around yet. For fuck's sake.
- managed to do a little bit of planning for the novella I'm writing for the writing event in April, Lest They Wilt. Not much, but more than nothing which has been my average the past week and a half while I've reread the original novel, start to finish.

Now I have tea, I have sparkling water, K. has promised we'll have Chinese for dinner tonight, so that will be easy. Looking forward to that a lot. All in all, that's a good day.

I'll forget by the time I'm going to bed, but it's been a good day, despite it also being draining as fuck.



Things I still need (to do):

- get confirmation from my old workplace that they've received the document with my novel and can open it without problems, so they can print it for me for a on-paper read-through which is long overdue.
- look at the art for my smallfandombang submission and get it ordered and sent back to the artist to prep for posting soon-ish.

Let's call it V-day. Also for those who don't celebrate, hate the concept, are missing someone to celebrate with, etc. Let's call it you are Valued-day, take a Vacation-day, enjoy some Variety-day. Or just V-day for short. Let's call it that.

( Anyway, here's my day... )



I'll write more about my new writing project tomorrow. It's just gotten too late now and I need to collect my thoughts for it, but I'll keep you updated.



My story for smallfandombang hasn't yet been picked by an artist which is fine, but if anyone feels like making art for an awesome challenge (and maybe my little ballet canon), artist sign-ups are still open! Give it a thought!



That's to say, remember, it's you're Valued-day! I appreciate every single one of you following along here, so thank you for you.

It's snowing in Denmark currently. Like, more snow than we've had for years. People are legitimately snowed in some parts of the country. We're not quite at that in my region, but local police has still warned against all unnecessary travel, whether in car or by foot. So, K. and I have stayed inside, finishing some RP'ing we've been working on the past couple of days. Secured dinner from the fridge. Drunk a lot of tea and coffee. Tealights are lit everywhere in our living room. It's warm inside, luckily.



I'm listening to Ayumi Hamasaki (her Duty album, will go change to her Guilty album in a little while, that one is my favourite) while doing research for a character that popped into my head a couple of days ago and who I want to write something for now, hopefully before the week is over. She is actually a side character to one of my Revue girls, but I ended up loving her so much, she's getting her own show, hahaha.

Watanabe Yuriko, she's a ballerina (always tie in ballet wherever I can, I know), originally from Osaka, and dating one of the Revue actresses, Izumi. She's an unapologetic and severe character who knows what she wants and goes for it 100 percent. I'll be centering her story around the staging of Caravaggio (which I also 100 percent recommend you watch, it's a piece of art) by her Japanese ballet company, where she gets a leading role, something that fuels her hopes and aspirations for a promotion, hopes that will eventually be disappointed, prompting her to look for work elsewhere... Yes, leaving behind her girlfriend.

It's a story about the effort put into achieving your dreams, how you won't always succeed, but can't give up because of that. I think it'll be fun to write.



However, it had me look up Caravaggio again. I have the DVD, bought it ages ago (I think it's from 2009-ish but don't quote me on that), and have watched it a couple of times since. It's one of those performances that get stuck in your mind, so you actually don't need a million rewatches, because all the main elements are just there, like crystal memories. However, when you do rewatch it, it takes your breath away every single time.

That kind of ballet.

My favourite part is the one called "The Dance of the Young Musicians" which is a kind of pas de deux/pas de trois, where the main components of the choreography are danced by Shoko Nakamura and, I think, Michael Banzhaf, but because Vladimir Malakhov dances the role of Caravaggio and is part of the setting, he assists in some bits. It's amazingly beautiful and probably the best bit of the whole performance, though what originally made me buy it was the very last section which I caught on TV, featuring Malakhov and Leonard Jakovina in the most intensely intimate pas de deux I've ever seen, regardless of gender. Not in a sexual way, just very very beautiful.

Not a lot of Caravaggio can be seen on YouTube, but the Young Musicians section is actually uploaded, so I'm going to share it here, in the hopes someeone needed this beauty today and could find it with me.

Watch on YouTube

Thinking about jumping into the game over at rainbowfic again with this writing for Yuriko. Need to pick out a few colors for her, in that case. Purple hue? Purple hue.