this is a very boring and parenthetical post

Right, Easter. Which happened, and is not really significant for the non-Christian among us unless of course you live with people who do celebrate Easter. Texas and Alaska are off visiting friends in Florida, so it's me, Maryland, and her cousin from California, who is very nice, and seems really fascinated by how I don't like alcohol. (I had one sip of raspberry lambic beer yesterday -- before noon, even! -- which was fine, whatever, but reminded me that one reason I don't like alcohol is because I don't really like my drinks carbonated. I don't drink pop (soda, coke, whatever), either.)

Naturally, this means dinner party, which I had been assuming was just going to be the three of us, then Maryland invited a bunch of people from her church. I was pretty close to despairing, but it was not bad at all; they were mostly freshman, and apparently the non-drinking type, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that they didn't come armed with bottles of wine and tequila, which I swear to god I was expecting to happen. There was a lot of food, because Maryland made a vegetarian lasagna and a salad, California made cream of crab soup, I made approximately ten million rolls, and then Maryland made a king cake filled with apples and cream cheese for dessert. So we had way more food than we needed. (Clearly, we should have invited more boys; it was five girls and two guys.) (Also, I'm kind of thinking that maybe I should have said grace, but I feel it might have been just too awkward at a table full of Christians if I'd started calling on other gods. Wait, now I'm trying to remember how we said grace growing up, because my household was pretty...erm, agnostic, I think? Never went to church, but we did say grace at fancy dinners like Thanksgiving and Easter.)

So it was much less painful than I expected it would be. (As we can tell, I am not really one for gatherings of people I don't know, especially when I'm not expecting it.) Then the church girls went, I retired to my room, and Maryland, California, and her friend from Louisiana started drinking and watching basketball, loudly. I decided I was not going to put a DNF down on my reading list for the year and started plowing determinedly through Cesare Borgia, which is due back at the library today. Seventy pages down, seventy to go!

Today: start studying for finals, start packing for move-out (preferably, acquire boxes first), watch something. I wanted to watch LWW yesterday, but there was too much baking going on. I've still got Gladiator and PotC: CotBP out from the library. (CotBP is not my favorite -- once again, I am of the unpopular opinion and adore AWE, but my uni library lacks that one. As it also does Pearl Harbor and Independence Day. THE HORROR.)

No Easter, however, will ever be complete without the story of how my dog killed the Easter bunny, so I told that story. (Short version: Easter morning, dog with dead white rabbit. EASTER MORNING AT AN IMPRESSIONABLE AGE.)

another post with very little content

Ugh. This semester we ended up with a week-long Easter break before finals, instead of our usual two day study period, and it's...very weird. I know in other countries and other schools there's a much longer period between the end of classes and the beginning of finals, but I'm not used to that at Tulane, so I'm just kind of left flailing and going, "But -- it feels like vacation has ALREADY STARTED," especially since I don't have anything major due during finals. I mean, I should study! But none of the finals I have to do hardcore studying for are for another week! And I should pack! But I'm still living here for another week and a half!

(Normally I'd store stuff in Chicago's storage unit over the summer, but she's coming back from London to do a summer term here and is clearing out her storage unit then, so I'm kind of flailing. I don't really want to pay to do the whole pick up+storage+drop off thing that some companies do, since it basically costs the same amount to ship my boxes home, but on the other hand I have things that will end up coming back with me in the fall, like kitchen supplies and linens and so on. On the other hand, I definitely want to do something about the goddamn box that's been in the closet or under my bed or next to my bed for the past three years; it is virtually untouched since I was a freaking freshman and has been in storage two summers in a row. I need to get rid of what's in it.

Meanwhile, I am estimating three to four boxes for my books ALONE. Never mind the rest of my stuff. How do I end up with so much stuff, anyway?)

I should...study. Or something. *sighs*

from here on out I'm going to be hearing Mark Antony every time I write Mayor

I have been resisting the urge to plot out the Dustverse!LB+5 in isurrendered style, although mostly because I can't cast Elizar Confesor, as I am not at all visual -- this comes through in the fact that I tend to have very little character description in my writing, unless I get stuck on one point or have already based the character off an actor/other character. (For example, Vespasian in Dust = Jared Padalecki, which has to be some very odd casting but hey! That's where my brain went. Or, for my original fiction, Julian and Jocasta of the Hilarii are like this weird cross between Octavian and Octavia from Rome and Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia (although the Borgia resemblance definitely came through way later).) But I don't have a lot of Dust characters like that. Um -- the one other character I can think of off the top of my head is Lady Marcia Bracken from Dust 23, whose physical mannerisms come from Rachel McAdams' Irene Adler but looks like Kelly Reilly's Mary Morstan from the 2009 Sherlock Holmes.

Also, I can't cast Jill. I have no idea what Jill looks like. None whatsoever. (Although I know at one point way back in 2008 I cast Angel Coulby as Jill.) Tirian, on the other hand, got cast with Ewan McGregor kind of by default. Obviously Mayor is voiced by James Purefoy, though I really wish I'd made Elizar and Mayor a few years older than they actually are in Dust (early twenties).

ETA: Taylor Kitsch for Elizar, maybe? Rachel Luttrell for Lior Confesor. (Oh, and though he never appears, Esai Morales would work pretty well for Avram Confesor, Elizar and Beka's dead father.) Either Magda Apanowicz (with dark hair) or Coral Amiga for Beka. Karl Urban could also be an excellent Mayor, in which case James Purefoy would probably be either Bencivenni Maresti or Prejun of Newisle. Wait, okay, maybe I can cast this.