Write Every Day, June Day #21

[auroracloud]

It's Midsummer Night's Eve in Finland - Midsummer is traditionally one of the biggest holidays/festivals in Finland, still one of the only days in the modern times when almost every place is locked up. I like the idea in principle, but I'm not hugely into it in practice, since celebrating it usually means getting very drunk and then being boring idiots, and I'm not into that at all. (For the record, I know how unusual a Finn this makes me, not liking to get drunk, don't remind me. Trust me, I've been reminded more than often enough throughout my life.)

Anyway, I did come to visit family for Midsummer, because it seemed nicer than hanging out in the city on my own. We have, um, eaten things? I've been catching up on comments, the majority of the others are watching a murder series on TV that's slightly too gruesome for me, and I think that says enough about how wild our celebrations are, hah. But the weather's nice and I've brought my swimsuit, hope I can go swimming at some point.

Today's Writing

I did some research reading and notes before I left home. I tried to write in a notebook on the bus, but that didn't go so well, because I started getting motion sickness. I did get almost a couple of hundred words on a new fanfic done, though, and I just typed them up. I also have been editing some fics, including one of the Cottoncandy Bingo fics. So while the new words number less than 300 so far, I still feel I've been doing plenty. Although savvy as I was, I started editing an older fic and only then noticed that I'd already started editing it in another document. Guess I'll have to compare the versions to see which edit is better!

I'd still like to write a bit more fic tonight, we'll see if something speaks to me. Though I ought to also move a bit, since I spent some hours sitting on a bus today.

Tally

Day 1: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, luzclarita, ofmonstrouswords, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, used_songs, ysilme

Day 2: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme

Day 3: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, used_songs, ysilme

Day 4: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, ysilme

Day 5: alexseanchai, alexcat, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, yantantether, ysilme

Day 6: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, ofmonstrouswords, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme

Day 7: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, ysilme, yantantether (15 so far)

Day 8: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (14 so far)

Day 9: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 10: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, navaan, ofmonstrouswords, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (16 so far)

Day 11: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, navaan, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (17 so far)

Day 12: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 13: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 14: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, used_songs, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 15: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejean, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme (10 so far)

Day 16: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch (10 so far)

Day 17: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, sylvanwitch (9 so far)

Day 18: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch (11 so far)

Day 19: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvan_witch (11 so far)

Day 20: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch (11 so far)

Day 21: china_shop

Let me know if I missed you, or if you wrote but didn't check in yet. You can join in or drop out any time!

Comments

[ysilme]

Glad Midsommar! We used to go to the Saturday events of the Swedish society of the next large town, but stopped when all our close friends from there moved away. But we're going to have a little bonfire tomorrow night just for ourselves.
I totally get being the odd one out because you don't drink; although it's not as bad in Germany as the saying goes for Finland (which is all I have as a comparison ;o) ) it's unusual and often causes remarks and attention if you don't or rarely drink any, and particularly if you don't like beer, like me. :-P I like the taste of some drinks, like good, dry, wine, very dry cider, or smoky and peaty single malt Whisky, but I don't like the feeling of inhibition alcohol causes and really only want it for the taste. Also, I'm having allergic reactions one out of two times I drink alcohol, but totally unpredictable, which is why I usually avoid it if not at home as I don't care to have to deal with that as well.
I'm glad to hear you had at least a decent time with it with your family, and also got some writing time in!
Sorry I haven't reported in for a couple of days, too. I've been reinstalling my desktop (which didn't go without hickups as it's typical for Windows) and also cut my left index finger badly enough to be hampered while typing for a couple of days, so it's been mostly editing for me, and between 100 and 750 words each day since the 16th, although yesterday it's just been a meagre alibi sentence as I was also having a bad sun allergy flare and was just generally miserable.

[auroracloud]

Thanks! There are bonfires here, too (or rather, were, since that was last night), but somehow in my family there's never been a tradition of going to see bonfires, probably because nobody was building them in places where we lived or spent our Midsummer. Though I've gone to see one on occasion, and it is pretty awesome. :-)

And no worries, I'll add you in for the days you reported now! Sorry that you hurt your finger and have had problems with sun allergy, too. Hope you feel better soon! But well done for writing on all the days, even if you occasionally need an alibi sentence day. :-)

When it comes to drinking, I think it's getting better in Finland these days, mostly because the younger generation (the current teens and twenty-somethings) aren't nearly as into drinking themselves crazy as e.g. my age group was in the same age, or the older generations. I don't now what brought on the change, but I'm glad of it. In my age group, most people have gotten more reasonable with age, so it's easier to do social stuff without everyone being drunk. You still get looked really odd if you don't drink any alcohol and don't have a medical excuse for it (like being pregnant or being on a medication that isn't compatible with alcohol). But at least it's possible to have social life not centre around alcohol, even among the small friends groups I've found where we hardly drink anything because nobody is that into it.

I also often get weird reactions from drinks - I think it's the preservatives or something they add in many of them - so I mostly avoid drinking any alcohol at all, or I only drink something like one glass of wine or one bottle of good cider that I know doesn't make me feel unwell. I also like a few things for their taste - many wines, some fruit liquors, good sherry or port, and proper Breton apple cider made from real apples in real oak barrels. (I'm pretty specific about my ciders, yeah. There are a lot of things in the shops they call cider, but actually they're just alcohol, fruit juice, sugars and additives mixed up, and those are awful and I hate them being called ciders because they're not. They could just as well mix grape juice with vodka and additives, and claim that's wine.) But even with them, I have to be super careful. And I don't like beer either. That gets you weird looks here, too, but at least since I'm female, it gets me fewer weird looks, because it's seen more as a "male drink" here while women are supposed to be into, uh, I guess those fake ciders and wine.