last days in Tokyo

I admit it, I dropped the posting ball!  Because I'm actually back home, and have been for a day or so.  Jet lag is either catching up with me or hopefully almost done with me - I slept twelve hours last night and when I woke up I still felt like I could sleep some more.

My last couple of days in Tokyo were filled with preparation - for the end of the semester, for my two finals, and for the trip home.  A month in Tokyo was perfect - I was ready to either get on the plane or stay there (and since getting on the plane was my option ... *grin*).  Finals were taken on Friday,  questions answered in both classes, oral exam discussed, all of that good stuff, and then I headed back to the apt to pack and rest a little.  Because even though they're summer classes I actually put some effort into them and I wanted to do well! 

Saturday night was the perfect ending to this whole journey - I met Gabriel and his friend for kaitenzushi and then later drinks in Ni-choume, we had a fantastic time and mostly ignored the boys hitting on Gabriel and talked goofy fantastic stuff until we needed to catch our trains.  I can honestly say that one of the things that made this summer trip so great was having Gabriel as a companion. 

So, good friends, great classes, a school that actually had interesting activities and me better able to manage myself (since I think last year I didn't say no when I should have) and it all combined to equal greatness (well, greatness with a dirty bathroom.  *grin*)

( the last of the piccies!! )

Coming home was a wonderful blur - I got to the airport early but not as early as I thought since I had to repack my suitcase twice to get it under the weight limit, and then it was 10 hours in a middle seat on the airplane with two crying children in the rows in front of me (thus I did not sleep - but watched movies with the sound turned way way up).  Getting off the plane in LA my darling M was there to pick me up and whisk me away to the Malibu Beach House (and yes, it really was in Malibu, it really was on the beach, and it really was absolutely wonderful).  It's a tradition that the house gets rented every summer by our friends or their parents, and this summer was no different.  I got on the porch, was handed a round of hugs, and then a drink, and we watched the waves roll in as the bbq got warm.  I may not have been able to string a coherent sentence together, but I cannot imagine a better place to ... not string coherent sentences together.

That night M put me to bed and left me a key, and I got to wake up and have breakfast the next morning with M2 and then hop on the air shuttle for ... that most wonderful of places... home.

Summer of Giles redux (post I - the fic tributes)

From my summer_of_giles posting day - the fic tributes, in their entirety (gushing included)...

Set I:
This is another open love letter.  I seem to be sending them out a lot lately, but that's because there's plenty of love in this fandom, and I couldn't leave Giles out of it.  For those of you who saw my spring_with_xan posts, you'll know what I'm talking about.

For those of you who didn't, I wanted to create graphics for my favorite Giles stories and for my favorite Giles authors.  It's going slowly, but this post today will hopefully reflect a little of the fangirl adoration I share for two radically different but equally amazing authors mireille719  and janedavitt.  Both of have a habit of writing the Giles I fell in love with, and yet both bring their own interpretations of his personality to the front so much so that I fall in love with him all over again after reading their fics.

Behind the cut you'll find links to wallpapers that include some of my favorite lines from each fic, so you can enjoy the memory of the fic even when you're not reading it!  And, of course, links to each fic in question so you can read them if you're so inclined!

( here are two tributes that hopefully show how grateful I am )

Set II:
There are some fics that stay with me, with sound or shape or form. Sometimes they're richly textured enough that they leave an indelible imprint on me.  Doesn't matter how long the fic.  Sometimes it just takes a couple of words. 

So below the cut you'll find my adoration for savoytruffle and lostgirlslair and glimmergirl expressed via images (paltry, but hey, it works), and a couple of fics that, if you haven't read them, you really really need to check them out.

( this way to the three tributes that hopefully get close to the fics they're based on )