So I am back home.  Again.  After running off for TWO consecutive weekends in a row (weekend in this case meaning Tuesday-Wednesday, because my job is strange and that's what I have off, so there), no less.  It was quite bizarre in a way, running around frantically during the workweek trying to shove in cooking and chores and stuff before/after work instead of being my normal slackerly self.  Kinda makes me wonder how people with actual, yanno, family responsibilities do it on a regular basis.  Also makes me glad that I don't, and can laze around in my jammies in front of the computer and RP and read fanfics aaaaallll I want.  Who said being single was bad?  :D  *is lazy*

So, the first week of the month I flew out to see my grandparents.  My grandfather, after several bouts with the hospital in the last year for lung cancer, chemo, and other surgeries (all of which he's pulled through amazingly, given his age), has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  It's terminal--they said even if he did chemo, it would only add a month or two.  So now the whole family knows that it's only a matter of time, and my Dad and I agreed that it was a good idea to go see him now while he's still feeling decent.  

And Grandpa *is* feeling reasonably good, which is the amazing thing.  When I saw him at Thanksgiving, I was shocked at the changes;  Grandpa was frail, and spent most of his time in his chair, and had only a few wisps of hair left--nothing like the active, vigorous Grandpa I'm used to.  Intellectually you know how much chemo takes out of a person--I've seen it before with another friend--but you still visualize your loved ones in your head the way you've always known them.  But this time he looked almost like his old self.  His hair was all back--a little frizzy, but otherwise just as full and silver as before--and while he was slower and didn't walk much with the rest of us, he was still puttering around the house with Dad, and sitting with me to work on his computer issues (there are always computer issues.  Which is kind of nice in a way, because it's something us grandkids can help him with, you know?  It's nice to be expert-for-a-day ....), and going out to eat.  There wasn't any beating about the bush--he was dying, we all knew he was dying, and we talked about it.  But both Grandma and Grandpa seem to have accepted it.  Grandpa says he's had a long, good life, and he'll go with no regrets, and I don't think he was just trying to make us feel better.  And both the hospice folks and the family are there helping with whatever they need, which also makes me feel better.

It still doesn't feel quite real to me, in a way, because he's looking so well.  But I'm glad for it--and I think all of us are praying that when his cancer starts dragging him down, that he goes quickly, without a lot of pain.  We're hearing that's pretty much how pancreatic cancer works--you feel fine until right near the end.  Even knowing that, it still feels wrong to be praying about wanting to Grandpa to die.  I guess I just want him to go when he's ready, no matter what the doctors say.

So I stayed with them a couple days, was stuffed full of Grandma's most excellent cooking, and then hopped another plane home.  All in all it was a good visit, and with my father there, I didn't feel like I was imposing so much by making my grandparents look after a guest in addition to all of Grandpa's things.

This week, I drove up to Vancouver to hang with

miko_no_da

chichiri_no_da

I've been pulling long hours at work lately, plus dealing with some RL stuffs, and between the two of them, my brains seem to have puddled out of my ears.  There are art pieces and at least one fic-bunny I want to do in my head, that I just can't seem to get up the motivation to put down on paper--whenever I try, I fail miserably.  So I'm trying to get back in the groove by approaching my projects in a roundabout fashion;  I actually went to the local Burien life drawing studio last week, and spent three hours doing (crappy) anatomy studies, plus outlining (sorta) the fic-thing that's currently gnawing on my ankle. I may have to try the '100 words a day' thing again, tho, just to keep my perfectionism from stalling me completely.  Wish I knew of some equivalent to that for artwork.  -___-;;

All of which is a very long and rambly and not-so-entertaining way of saying that I've been reading a lot of fanfic and watching a lot of cartoons and not doing much else.  -___-;;  I have become newly obsessed with Batman--specifically the concept of Batman/Superman slash--and like all new obsessions, have been hunting down as much fanfic, media, and whathaveyou as I can get my grubby little paws on.  My obsession in this case is *not* helped by the fact that there's so MUCH of it.  Tho I have to admit there's a certain amount of glee in knowing that whatever cracktastic thing you come up with for fanfic, it can't *possibly* be any weirder than DC comics canon.  (If anything, they probably did it first!  Ah, Golden Age, how I love/hate thee!)

So in honor of my newfound obsessions, and of the new Batman movies coming in July (why oh why are they NOT HERE YET???), here are some recommendations for a few splendifferous fics, from authors a great deal more talented than I:

Ok, that's enough recs for now!  More later!  ...maybe.  ^___^;;;

'Why, do they ask, do we always picture ourselves living in the top half of an hourglass, where time is always running out? Instead, why don't we imagine ourselves in the bottom of the hourglass? There, every minute is followed by another minute that comes pouring in. Every hour is followed by another hour, and every day is the first of many days to come .... We don't have to worry about time being "spent" or "lost".'