TPTP, weddings, peanut butter, french fries, writing, general blah blah

You can measure the extent to which I don't feel like writing Things Present - Things Past by them amount of other writing I've done these past few weeks. Okay, the delays are also Marcee's fault for being so busy lately, but hey, she just got engaged and is planning her wedding. If that's not a good excuse, then I don't know what is.

I will never understand why Americans make such a big deal out of weddings. I always thought the marriage itself is more important, but whenever I watch American movies (like that Kevin Kline coming out movie) or TV shows I am amazed at how obsessed people are with having a fairy tale wedding. There's a whole industry catering this insane desire to have a big celebration.

Mr. Estepheia and I left the marriage liscense bureau, were welcomed by some friends, and had a nice breakfast with champagne at home. We had a lovely lunch in our favourite restaurant (I still remember the food, it was awesome), with just the family and the two witnesses, so there were 10 or 12 of us, I think. Then, in the evening we had a barbecue and booze up with the neighbors of Mr. Estepheia's family. The next day we drove to Braunschweig (the car broke down) and went to a garden party & barbecue some of our friends had organized at short notice. Afterwards we went on a little honeymoon to London. That was really great.

We never had a church wedding. In fact, we both cancelled our church membership the day we registered our intention to get married. I never had a white dress, either. We got married on the 9th September 1988. I never regretted it. See, you don't need expensive wedding gowns. Sometimes I wonder what those American weddings are like, but the fact that there are so many rehearsals and so many rituals involved leads me to the suspicion that they are inherently stressful events with a great potential for catastrophe and disappointment.

Speaking of America, would you believe that most Germans are disgusted by the idea of peanutbutter jellied sandwiches? I'm not. In fact: mmmmm! But most Germans are. I tried smores once and boy, were they icky. American pancakes with syrup? Okay, not bad. If you watch telly a lot you end up thinking Americans live on turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans. Or burgers, of course. And (since Annie keeps gushing about Pulp Fiction - great movie) believe me, mayonaise on French fries is great.

The Dutch are weird people, they pour saté sauce over their fries (a sauce involving ground peanuts, soy sauce and sesame oil - yummie). Less exotic is this topping for French fries: chopped onions, ketchup AND mayonaise. Nice!

Have you noticed that in French films the characters eat all the time, dunking croissants into coffee or eating proper meals? In American films the actors treat the food on their plates like disgusting bugs, pushing it hither and thither with their forks before laying down their cutlery and letting the waiter bring the next course. What a waste! I suppose there are practical reasons for this, but still...

Hmm, I love talking about food!
I look forward to eating real American food when I fly to Florida.

And now for something completely different...

How in God's name is one supposed to write cheerful (!) Spikecentric PWPs that are set during S7? I started work on a little Spike/Anya smutfic and Spike just won't cooperate. No sense of adventure. I have to literally twist his arm. I never thought ME would succeed so well in obliterating the blatant sexuality that was Spike's trademark.

After S6 I was certain ME would try to do that. I went round making predictions to that effect. I thought they'd disfigure him somehow, do something to his face maybe and allow him to heal over the course of the season. As it happened they did it via insanity. Smart and unexpected. But as much as I like Spilliam, I guess we all miss old!Spike and the UST between Spike and Buffy. Right now we have romantic tension but no real sparkage. I'm not even sure I'd appreciate a sudden returnt to sexy!Spike because it would feel out of character now. *Sigh*

Anyway, work on my Spike/Anya PWP is at a standstill, meaning I have no real excuse for not writing Things Present - Things Past. I'd rather do other things, like update my LJ - which I'm doing right now, or check out some boards - which are all deserted and boring lately. Oh well, I think I'll make myself a nice hot coffee with lots of foamy milk and chocolate and a peanut butter sandwich. And then I'll be a good girl and write my little heart out. I hope.

What a nice day...

Lots of LJ activity today. That was nice.

Finished the next chapter of Things Present - Things Past. It's shorter than planned but I got to a point that screamed 'cut' - so I did. Marcee needs to read it now. Then hopefully, we will post. Yay. mikelesq liked it, that's a good sign.

Hmm, what else... Oh, I spent half an hour with the kids today, trying out all our spices. I put a little on a plate and told them to sample the taste. I also told them what kind of things I cook with those spices. Tina is fond of garlic salt. Go figure. Toyah told me earnestly she only likes salt.

I watched the new epi of Buffy, but I won't talk about it until tomorrow.

I will watch 24 in a few minutes. A friend burned the first season on SVCD and lent it to us, so now we watch one epi every night. Tonight we are watching epi #6. Great show. I always liked Kiefer Sutherland, ever since I saw him in Stand By Me and wondered where the heck I knew his face from (although I didn't, it was his father I remembered).

I fully intend to work on my Spike/Anya smut fic. Or maybe Perdition. Yeah, that one is next. People have been waiting for too long. I feel like it's a good day to write. Must be the St.John's Wort.

One question, though. Is it my imagination or is there less fanfiction out there these days than last year? Obviously the changes at ffnet have scattered fannish activities, but the writer's sections of the boards where I hang out are deathly quiet. I usually follow recommendations rather than plowing randomly through the archives and lately there has been a noticable drop in recs. I've actually started reading Smallville fanfic, because bonibaru sometimes recs them...

Well, at least there's spikewriter's Secrets and Lies...