Casu Consulto

• I am at my grandparents' for the holidays, as usual, and I'm determined to try and enjoy myself rather than focusing on the fact that the memories of my bad x-mas experiences outweigh the memories of the good and as a result, I'm not very fond of them. So far, it's been not bad, but there's still tomorrow's preparations for Chrismas Eve dinner to get through. As long as I can make it through that, there'll be a couple of days' peace while we all sink into food comas.
  
• I'm trying not to let my grandparents' obviously and visibly declining health (or maybe it's just old age?) or the fact that my aunt who lives next door got a very bad cancer diagnosis today (the words "malignant" and "metastasis" came up) affect my mood. #fuckcancer
  
• I'm in a deep, dark hole as far as my MA thesis is concerned, and I have no idea how I'm going to get out of it. I know what I want to write, I know how to write it, I have the research and the materials, but I'll be damned if I can actually motivate myself to sit down and write the fucking thing.
  
• My mom's coming to Poland for a week-long research trip in January, and while she's requested that I take some time off to spend it with her, I'm not sure that's going to be possible, given that it's going to be right at the end of the semester and I'm going to have a crapload of work to get done.
  
• I didn't get around to renewing my passport on time, which means no February trip to New York for me this year (which I actually didn't know was in the cards until my mom asked if I wanted to go today). Not that I really would have considered it very seriously, given how far behind I am on my thesis, but it would have been nice to have the option.
  
• The cat continues to be simultaneously the most adorable and the most irritating cat ever. I brought him with me for the holidays, and he's been spending a lot of time outside, which of course means that when we go back to Wrocław, he's going to be pining for the fjords outside, and given that we live on the 7th floor of an apartment block, it's not going to be easy to give it to him. I guess I'll have to make sure the balcony gets catproofed again so I can at least let him out. That and we'll have to keep buying the calming collars which, while they don't entirely cut down on the yowling, at least cut down the volume and actually do make him a bit calmer and gentler.
  
• My DW account has expired, and other than the lack of the extra icons, I don't really notice a difference. I'm not going to renew it right now, because I rarely have time to post anyway these days. Hopefully if/when I get my fucking MA thesis done, my brain will reboot and I'll have more time/energy/brain power to write more.
  
• I've resigned myself to the fact that we're not going to get a proper winter with snow and everything (or at least not in time for Christmas), and I've moved on to wishing it was spring already so I can take my bike outside and start learning to ride it. G and I have taken it apart and put it back together a couple of times, and I'm learning a lot about the mechanics and specifics of it, but dammit, I want to actually get out there and ride.
  

"Hi," he says, reaching up to wipe the blood from his mouth, and only making things worse since his hands are covered with blood, too. He makes a face and walks to the sink to wash his hands, scrubbing at his fingernails.

Alex can only stare at him, and at the blood-soaked sheet covering on the floor behind him.

"What... what did you do?"

"There are some injuries conventional medicine just can't fix," he says, drying his hands. "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, you understand."

"You're not a man," Alex blurts out, and he raises an eyebrow at her.

"Caught on to that, did you?" He crosses the room toward her and she backs away until her back hits the wall. He comes in close, until they're standing flush against each other, and leans in to sniff at her neck. "Izzy's taught you some tricks, I see," he says, his breath brushing Alex's cheek. "What else has he taught you?"

Alex puts a hand on his chest, and pushes him away rom her, moving away from the wall and out into the open. "How do you know about Izzy? What the hell are you?"

"Well, you're on the right track with Hell," he gives her a predatory smile again, and there's a groaning noise from behind him. He glances over his shoulder and frowns. "Excuse me a moment, will you?" He presses a finger to her lips. "You should probably be very quiet right now."