Things You Do When You're Sick

No doubt, being sick stinks.

I've managed to avoid the waves of stomach flu's and strep throats that strike like lightning through campus. With only three weeks left of the semester, I had thought that I made it out just fine. Until Sunday. I woke up with a sore throat and a clogged nose.

Whenever I'm sick, I usually pretend that I'm not - mostly because I can't afford to let my deadlines pass or save my work until the last minute. There's never a good time to get sick, especially when you're in graduate school. If you blink, you'll find a new stack of papers to grade, another short story due, and more revisions waiting for your red pen.

Highly Appropriate

The longer I stare at the computer, the more powerful my headache becomes. It's not like this always happens - I guess runny noses and glowing computer screens don't mesh well. So if I've been behind on Figment, now you know why. Hopefully I'll feel better by next week. Yeah, I'm sure I will.

The meantime, I do my work in tiny increments, take naps, and try not to look at my computer very often. My Wreck-It Ralph art book finally arrived so I've been sneezing all over the drool-worthy pages of conceptual art and candy models. I'll have to Lysol the book before letting anyone else look at it, haha.

I'm going to leave you with some photos from the art book - just the cute little cheering squad extras from Sugar Rush. You don't get a good look at these little guys during the movie, but they are completely adorable.

Have a great Thanksgiving and be thankful that you have working taste buds and noses to enjoy the meal with (I can smell, thank goodness).

101 Fan Clubers

The theme of this post is most definitely celebration. The spinning vortex that is November has been sending me into a tailspin, but I wanted very much to grab onto something solid for a moment and post about this amazing thing:

*rubs eyes* Am I dreaming? No? Hurrah! It's official: my figment fan club has reached 101 members!

This is totally a big deal. Yes, I do have a lot of followers, but for someone to enjoy my writing enough to join the group does matter a lot to me. We all know what the figment groups are like; it's hard to check updates, new comments, etc., when there's no notification system. No matter what group you join, you're left in the dark (unless you have a shameless habit of checking the groups every four minutes... in which case, not many people are like that. Trust me).

So 101 fans... thank you. Thank you so much. And while I'm at it, a hearty thank you to fellow figgie Ben Chapman who created the group way back in '11 and the admins and mods that continue to look cool, haha.

You guys give me the honey glows something awful.

To celebrate, I rearranged my schedule in order to try (and it's working so far) to write, write, write and post. As much as I love the feedback on Tread Softly, I know what you all really want is more Boys & Bees - hence, the new chapter.

We're getting to a tipping point in the story. There's the looming circus, the dead-end clues, the mysterious helper and Hedda's secret... gah! Well, cool your heels. I'm writing when I can, but until then.. here's a formspring question to tide you over.

What are the school's uniforms on B&B? and if they don't wear uniforms, what do Hedda and Lorabeth usually wear?

Clothing. Yes. This is the perfect opportunity to create some visuals. In terms of the apiology school's uniforms, the descriptions have shown up within the early chapters of Boys & Bees. The colors are mostly black and yellow, though I think the combination isn't so jarring with majority of the uniform being black. The boys and girls have different uniforms. The girls wear yellow cardigans with black blouses underneath, a plaid skirt, and knee-high stockings. The shoes shoe be black, but Lorabeth wears her beat-up boots with her uniform while other girls have nice new shoes. The boys wear black cardigans with yellow collared shirts underneath, black pants, and yellow socks. Very charming, haha.

Lorabeth Frisch

I would say that Lorabeth is a uniform-wearing girl. She barely remembers to change out of her uniform, save for the weekends (when her dirt-encrusted skirts and cardigans have piled up for the wash). Lorabeth doesn't have much clothing, fashion being a thing that doesn't matter to her. 

Her clothes are boyish, like the pants and suspenders combo she wore the day after the fire. In the latest chapter, Lorabeth unearths an old dress in the back of her closet - her mother probably picked it out for her. When I saw the collar, I thought it was perfect for bees to hide under, haha. 

Hedda Sparling

Unlike Lorabeth, Hedda is very feminine with (likely expensive clothing in soft shades of pink, cream, and other pastels. Any trinkets she has are far from tacky; her jewelry is subtle, usually with thin chains and small charms. Hedda basically wears dresses and skirts - it makes me wonder if she would ever borrow Lorabeth's pants if she had to.

I included that poster in the collage, saying "A true love story never ends" because we're still guessing what kind of feelings Hedda has in terms of love and boys. Maybe she does have hope for love - but why would she need hope when every guy has a crush on her? Heh, we'll find out.