Friday Obsessions: ALIAS, Moody Music, and Ramen with Sriracha

1. Michael Vaughn ALIAS.  I got the first season of ALIAS as a birthday gift in 2005.  David and I watched all four seasons (yeah, I know there were five, but that fifth one sucked so hard we're just gonna pretend it didn't happen, mmmkay?) obsessively straight through, and it seems like we're going to do that every six years or so, because we started back at Season 1 this week. 

It's perfect. He watches for Jennifer Garner  the awesome action and fight scenes and I watch for Michael Vartan/VAUGHN the smart spy stories and awesome, cliffhanger-y writing. 

And we both watch for the explosions. Duh.

Seriously, though. Vaughn taught me that boys are sexiest when they're called by their last names.  (Now you know why no one calls Davis "Emerick." Except Chessie.)  Also, Michael Vartan is actually age-appropriate for me in real life, unlike all these YA heroes I tend to have a crush on admire in a non-creepy fashion.  Ahem.

Here's the screenshot from my favorite Vaughn-ness of Season 1. Sydney asks him to go on a mission with her. She says, "You in?"

 He says, "Yeah. I'll break into the Vatican with you."

Yum.

2. My "I'm in a Mood" playlist. Here in Ohio this week the weather has been cold and nasty followed by colder and nastier. And my attitude about everything I have to do in life BESIDES writing (mostly doing dishes, trudging through our damp basement to do laundry, and cleaning EVERYTHING) has been even colder and nastier than the weather.

When life gets like this, one of the things that makes me feel better is my "I'm in a Mood" type music. It's music that sounds kind of emo and depressed, but if you listen to the lyrics it's actually pretty uplifting.

Here are the four songs I've been cycling through:

3. Ramen with Sriracha (rooster sauce.)  Ohhh my goodness you guys. I think I've eaten five packages of ramen with sriracha sauce this week. So not-awesome for me at all. So delicious, warm, spicy, and comfort-food-y, especially given the week I've had. Nom nom.

This is not a picture of my ramen with sriracha. I ate it all before I remembered to bring out a camera.
Yes, every time.

So, the WiP. The great news is that I WROTE THE FINAL SCENE. Like, typed "The End" and everything!

 

The awful news is that I still have the three or so chapters before it to write. Womp womp.
Between more Jewish holiday stuff (yeah, this is the last of it till Chanukah, believe it or not) and a baby with a broken toe and me in the ER for nearly five hours one evening...no other words except those lonely 800 got written.

In other words? I pretty epically failed ONE this week.

Anyway. Here's a sweet scene between Merrin and her dad, after she hangs out with Elias one night. Thanks for reading, you guys make me smile.

I reach for my white waffle-weave bathrobe and wrap it tight around my body. I head toward my room, but when I’m just about there, Dad calls up the stairs, “Mer Bear? Sweetie?”

“Right here, Daddy.” I say. His head cranes around the banister.

“Everything okay, honey? Where’s the car?”

Oh my God. I am even more out it than I thought I was.

“I, um. I walked home. I guess I left it…” then I give myself over to the trembling in my legs and sit on the front steps, look at him, and shrug. I can’t say anything because I know I’ll burst into tears.

Now my lip’s trembling, too, and I must looked wrecked, because Dad looks at me sadly and climbs the stairs to sit there beside me. He wraps his arm around me.

“Is it a boy?”

“Yes…no…I don’t know, Daddy.” I say, and turn my head into his shoulder, and really let loose, soaking his shirt with my tears.

“Did he hurt you?” Dad asks after a moment.

“No…Elias? No. Not at all.”

“Elias.” Dad says, turns his head into mine, kissing the top of it.

Then a bright blue-white light pans through the front windows of the house, and I just barely hear the hint of a car door slamming. Five seconds later, a light knock on the door.

Oh, my God. He is too perfect.

Dad runs down the stairs, and I listen to his gruff voice exchanging with Elias’s younger, velvet one.

“I’m sure Merrin’s asleep, but I wanted to get this back before the morning.”

I hear the clink of keys changing hands. How could I have been so stupid as to leave the keys in the car? Or did I leave them in the dirt next to the house? This boy takes my head away from me.