The World According to Gio

I've been re-reading Musketeers fic this last week or so. I started due to whumptober, but as that's not as busy as usual in the fandom, I've been re-reading some favourites, too. I haven't got there yet, but suspect a Dragon Riders series re-read will be in my future soon.

I've also read an ER/The Pitt cross I enjoyed, where John Carter and Robby discover they're half brothers after an unexpected meeting. They're not fandoms I usually read it -- I saw the rec on my network -- so suspect this could be a common thing, but I enjoyed this take on it Like Brothers We Meet.

Rosie cancelled class yesterday due to being ill, so I had an unexpected free morning. James was off too, and normally we would have gone to the cinema or for a walk/drive, but he'd scheduled his annual long term condition nurse review for midday. Of course, three different nurses completely failed to get any blood out of him, so he's back tomorrow, so a doctor can try.

That's after we both go to the chemist to get our flu jabs, but not Covid boosters this time, as it seems the vast majority of people in the UK don't qualify for them now. So chemist, doctors, then home as the tumbler drum has stopped turning, so the repair guy is coming out late morning. Hopefully, it's just a snapped belt, and it can be fixed as the machine itself is still heating up, so *fingers crossed*

I also watched Bodhi for an hour late afternoon as her mams went to her first parents evening. She's doing well at school, starting to recognise and write quite a few letters, though her teacher said she's very quiet. Which made me laugh as she literally didn't stop talking once the whole time I was there.

We played superheroes with Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America and Hulk action figures. They had quite the adventures, especially when they met a herd of dinosaurs. Though, poor Hulk seemed to spend a disproportionate amount of time on the naughty step.

It's a GoFundMe for Matthew, because we've hit rock bottom in so many ways. If you can donate, that would be great. If you can't, could you please share this? That would be equally helpful. Thank you 🙂

https://gofund.me/448bae2b8

happy humpday, o my flist. i hope my fellow americans enjoyed the long weekend, assuming you got indigenous people's day off. (i did. altho to be fair the u gives us a lot of random holidays.) i took advantage by a. driving all the moving boxes up to my cousin's house so she could stuff them in the back of her garage - they're my sister's boxes and since neither of us has any storage space our cousin said she'd store them for us, b. going to ikea with my sister (i need to buy some bookcases and i just wanted to see them in person) (we did not have meatballs and also the little snack counter was closed so i couldn't even get a soft serve), followed by c. dinner and a movie (one battle after another which i really liked), and finally d. sitting on my ass watching tv and doing laundry. also i met a couple of cats who live on the first floor of my building. they're very friendly and one of them is THE SOFTEST.

what i spent a chunk of monday watching was wayward, which is on netflix and is DEEPLY disturbing. DEEPLY. it's about a school for wayward kids (hence the title) and it's got some very culty vibes and is set in 2003 for some reason and did i mention that it's disturbing?

i'm also watching the lowdown with ethan hawke and am enjoying it thoroughly altho i think the plot is starting to get away from me. it's on a regular channel so there's only one episode a week so i have to WAIT. on the one hand i don't mind that i can't binge watch but at the same time i want to know what's going to happen NOW. anyway it's much less disturbing and not at all culty which is refreshing and ethan hawke is fun to watch. his character is kind of a chaos magnet - his heart's in the right place but, well, chaos follows him everywhere. that part is very entertaining.

We decided to swimming yesterday morning, and what a mistake that was. It was a family swimming session, so I should have known it would be busier than during the week which is all lane swimming, but it didn't click just how busy it would be. In the end I tapped out when I hit half my usual lap total, because no way was it possible to swim in a straight line. So, I won't be weekend swimming again.

After that we headed off to see Kayleigh as my baby sister was 40 yesterday. We stayed a couple of hours and I got hulk smashed a bit by Bodhi and had some birthday cake before heading home. I'll be picking Bodhi up from school today, my first Bodhisitting for quite a while, so no doubt I'll be getting Hulk smashed again then, too. I also had a very vivid dream about not picking her up from school and her being left there last night. Guess today's pick up had lodged into my head somehow before I went to sleep.

We've been to see two films in the last couple of days. I Swear was amazing, one of the best films I've seen this year. And then on SaturdayTron: Ares which was loud, brash, visually interesting, and had Jared Leto who is always easy on the eye. So while it wasn't amazing, I didn't regret watching.

Thursday I went to a light show at Durham Cathedral. Our slot wasn't until 7pm, so as we got there earlier than that there was a lot of waiting around to get in, but it was very much worth it. The interior lights were beautiful, and I'm so glad we went.

I'll share a few photos here, but if you want to see some short videos, I've posted at my insta here.

( photos )

Donnie came home after working today, and announced she was no longer employed. She finished her shift, and then turned in her key and told the store manager, Carolyn, "I quit". One of the crew people filed an "untrue report" (according to Donnie), and Carolyn "doesn't seem to have my back", so she quit.

Matthew, Madisyn and I think she realized she wasn't the golden child, favored one, in Carolyn's eyes any longer, so she was going to react like a child would. She has a couple of interviews set up with other companies, but she quit -- when she's supposed to be saving money to move out of here -- without having anything else actually lined up.

Megan's apparently making decent money, but she's now the sole source of income for them -- and she just went today and ordered a brand new Playstation 5 from Aaron's (a rent-to-own place, if anyone's unfamiliar). It's like $20/week... but again, they're supposed to be saving to move out. They haven't paid rent since August/September (I say they paid in August; Matthew and Madisyn say they didn't), and I told them that if they were planning to be out before the end of the year, and their aim was by the end of next month, that they didn't have to pay anything. Just put it all toward savings. Except they're eating out and NOT helping around the house, and I just don't know what to think any more. I gave them that grace, and now they're kind of throwing it back in my face, it feels like.

Meanwhile, we have Internet that's past due, a $170 dollar water bill coming up, and an electric bill that's past due. I did something so incredibly stupid I can't even look at myself for the shame, and we overdrafted my checking account -- to a point where my SSI check won't even cover it.

Madisyn and Matthew say Megan and Donnie need to be out by the end of this month. Which is only three weeks away. They haven't even said anything to them, and I keep telling them they can't just decide and only give them iike, a couple weeks' worth of notice. It takes longer than that, usually, to get approved for an apartment -- and now D/M are going to have hanging over their head that both are in new jobs (Megan's only had hers for a couple weeks; even if Donnie gets a job Monday or Tuesday, most places want you to have had your job at least a couple months), plus, are they going to be able to make the 3x/rent that most places now ask for? They don't even know if they'll be accepted because they haven't done the application.

Matthew says they're taking advantage of us, and if they're planning to stay they need to pay rent. Donnie had made a good point for not paying Sept - Dec, in that they'd be able to save up faster. But I don't think that M/M/me can handle them being here much longer.

Madisyn has to go in tomorrow and open -- it was supposed to be her day off -- because Donnie quit. She is very, VERY unhappy about this, though at least now she won't have to deal with Donnie bringing home shit to work, or creating drama there at work. But now Donnie will be here all the time, so I don't know how that's going to work for Madisyn.

Pray for us, people. Or keep us in your thoughts. Whatever. Anything. I think it's going to get a lot MORE stressful before it gets less stressful. O_O

i know yom kippur was a week ago but i hope you've all been sealed in the book of life for a good year. [1]

last tuesday, over a week ago, i was waiting for the bus in the morning and got a text from my bank asking if i'd sent a money order for $485. i had not. so the bank froze my card and marked the money order as fraud, and i checked my email and learned that someone had signed up with some online money order company - with my name, my address, my phone number, my bank card - and sent $485 to peru. so i reported it as fraud to the money order place and later talked to a human at the bank who let me know they'll keep an eye on my account for ten days and send me a new card. have i gotten the new card yet? i have not. did i have to go to the bank over the weekend and wait in line to get actual cash from an actual teller like it was still the 70s? i did. OY.

wednesday night i locked myself out of my car and discovered i don't have a spare key, so my sister waited with me for an hour until the road assistance guy showed up and kind of broke me into my car. ALSO OY.

and then saturday my sister locked herself out of her house and the first set of keys i brought over were for her previous apartment because for reasons that escape me i kept them even after she moved out. >.< usually i keep people's spare keys in the junk drawer in my kitchen but the spare keys to her current place were in my sock drawer. because that makes sense. mom thought it was funny when we told her on sunday but at the time it really really wasn't. (we did however end the evening with chinese takeout and mission: impossible - fallout which brings us to the last two m:i movies which we saw in the theater what feels like a very short time ago.)

the night before yom kippur, when you stuff your face in preparation for your fast, we went to cousins j&r's house and had brisket, and the night of yom kippur, when you break your fast, we went to cousins m&e's and had the world's best egg salad. it's also the world's simplest egg salad - eggs, mayo, salt, pepper - but it is so, so good. cousin e can be kind of a bitch tho (is it intentional? is it just the way she is? who knows!) so we may find someplace else to go next year. and for some reason we always end up talking about high school - m&e met in high school when i think she contrived to sit next to him on the bus on a ski trip, and they and both their sisters were all only a few years apart so they remember the same people and the same teachers and my sister and i just do not care about the cousins' high school experience. and yet somehow we always end up there. but the egg salad, seriously.

the day of yom kippur, because we didn't want to sit in services the whole day, my sister and i saw downton abbey: the grande finale which i really enjoyed even tho i never watched the show. the stakes are high for the characters but not so much for the audience and the hats are fantastic and it's just a really nice movie. but oh my god elizabeth mcgovern's face looks old.

work is work. busy. occasionally one of the students in one of my groups will bring me a baked good because it's her turn to bring snacks to the group meeting and i guess she likes to bake. (she's a good baker. today the random baked good was a red bean cinnamon roll.) i submit all the students' expenses and i try to do it right away and as a result some of them like me. :D also one of the admins m is retiring next month and we had her party yesterday. her significant other showed up and it was nice to finally put a face to the name after hearing admin m talk about him for like five years. we got a banner that said "we were just starting to like you" and another that said "congratulations quitter" because that's the sense of humor she has. her so said some nice things and one of her pi's said some nice things and she said some nice things and a bunch of her students showed up and it was lovely. and! we had three cakes. and they were very good.

(it's been an unusually cakey couple of days.)

she told this story about how ten years ago or so when it was really snowing and her so came to pick her up, he told her they needed to stop for kleenex on the way home because she was getting a cold and sniffling everywhere and she said "there's a foot of snow on the ground, we are not stopping for kleenex", and so she just grabbed a box off her desk and took it home. and he asked are you allowed to do that? and she said i'll pay them back. so now it's ten years later and she's retiring and telling us this story and she pulls a box of kleenex out of a bag - "i'm paying you back" - and then pulls another box out of the bag - "and this is interest" - and maybe you had to be there but it was really funny. she is 100% not the person to go to if you need sympathy for anything but she's been at the u like twenty-three years and she's great for work related advice.

i guess this is now old news, but i still can't get over the french prime minister resigning after less than a month in office and less than 24 hours after announcing his cabinet (i read somewhere his cabinet picks were too left for the right wing and too right for the left wing). i think he was the third pm this year and is definitely the shortest serving pm since 1958. i'd say good lord, france, get your shit together but, well, you all know where i live and no one needs to get their shit together as badly as the us does.

costco has a new advent calendar that's five feet tall. that's a lot of chocolate.

if anyone out there wishes their romantasy novels were scented, i bring you the primal of blood and bone, which smells like garlic mayo. because, i dunno, hellman's really wants to reach the booktok crowd. i guess.

fred ramsdell co-won the nobel prize for medicine and as of this past monday the nobel committee was unable to get in touch with him to tell him so because he was "living his best life" hiking in the wilds of idaho. imagine going off-grid for a while and when you finally resurface you learn you've won a nobel prize. surprise?

the guardian knows what's what, as evidenced by this article about the mummy, everyone's favorite bisexual awakening movie.

and finally, rip jane goodall. she was one of the good ones. if you have netflix, if you skip to about 15:30 during this interview, you can hear her discuss who she'd want to put in a spaceship and send away from earth. and then skip ahead to 50:24 for some words of hope.

[1] on rosh hashanah it is written and on yom kippur it is sealed, who shall live and who shall die, who shall perish by fire and who by water, who by hunger and who by thirst, who by strangling and who by stoning, etc etc.

I met up with tara yesterday and had a lovely time.

We arranged to meet at midday to give me time to go to Rosie's class first, drove to Sunderland after that and met T off the metro where I got to have a good hug because it's been far too long since I've seen her. And yet, despite living in Australia she remains one of the fannish friends I've met the most, from our popslash days when we took Corey to the aquarium when he was a very young kidlet, to now. She's been with me to cat cafés, dog cafés, restaurants, to my house, walked lots of the NE coast, met most of my family, seen me at my highest weight and lowest and is just an awesome person who I'm glad to have in my life.

We walked to Sheepfolds Stables for a coffee, and doughnuts for me and James. James also went to check out Propa, Si King's -- one half of The Hairy Bikers -- place which serves typical northern food. Though, yesterday they also had lasagna pie on the menu which I certainly don't see as northern, though does sound interesting. James was hoping to actually see Si as he's often there, but it wasn't to be.

From there, we drove to the coast for lunch at Prego, where we ate and talked for what turned out to be over four hours. What can I say, living half a world apart from each other means we had a lot to talk about. Then, sadly, we took T back to her hotel and I had to leave with another hug. Such a good day ♥

Yesterday was also my oldest nephew's birthday, then on Sunday it's a big birthday for Kayleigh, and my middle nephew is 18 on Monday, so an expensive time in terms of gifts. A financial situation not helped by Pauline deciding to cash in the birthday meal out we'd promised her on Sunday gone.

Despite the unexpected cost, that was a nice meal out, but both James and Pauline had an upset stomach the next day, meaning it had to be the beef they'd both eaten as the culprit. We were planning to go to that restaurant for our Christmas family meal out with Pauline and my brother's family, but food poisoning, no matter relatively mild, is rather off-putting, so we're looking for somewhere else now.

The fly tipping is still going on, each week more, each week it gets reported. But one day last week I noticed someone had picked up one of the black sacks of rubbish and thrown it on top of the shed roof of the neighbours we strongly suspect are doing the fly tipping. Now, it's not a method I'd normally approve of, but at this point I say, good on my next door neighbour, who admitted throwing the sack back to them on his way to work early one morning.

We're off to see this at Durham Cathedral tonight. Hopefully, it'll be lovely to see.

We've come up short, and Matthew's car insurance has been cancelled due to non-payment. He told me probably $400, since we're having to start over, *again*.

If anyone can help, we would appreciate it so much. We can't afford to have him driving around without insurance, for a number of reasons — not the least of which is that it's illegal.

If you can help, our paypal is kimandmattg6794@gmail.com.

Many hugs and thanks in advance.