Collected Thoughts

So I'm doing that this year. For real and not like last year when I didn't write anything. I was planning an all gay all mpreg cross over extravaganza but I've decided against that. Long time ago when I first started reading fanfic online (and read tons and tons of bad WillowSue/Spike stuff and thought it was good) I came up with a story outline for a Highlander/BtVS cross over (because I read a lot of that crap as well). So now i'm going to take the story idea and run with it as Badfic. I haven't had a chance to rewatch early BtVS seasons recently and havne't seen Highlander in years but that doesn't matter because I'm going to be that kind of writer --with a cutsey disclaimer and author's notes about what canon I'm following, etc and I'm not worrying about canon accuracy because that just gets in the way of the creative process. Plus my main character is a total Mary Sue from conception (this was before I knew the term Mary Sue).

The basic plot is: MarySue Immortal (I haven't come up with a proper name yet) is in Sunnydale hunting the Immortal who tortured and killed her mentor/lover. EvilKillerImmortal has been hiding out in the cemeteries like a coward (also because he can travel rather extensively around Sunnydale and manage to stay close to/on holy ground at all times) and bribing vampires (like Spike) to help him get stuff he needs.

MSI has been trying to catch EKI and kill him, and she's been hanging around Sunnydale for a couple of weeks before Buffy, etc sees a fight between the two of them and they think MSI is dead. She recovers and expalins the situation to Buffy. She's amused by all this because she knows about vampires and Slayers and their Watchers ('cause she's really old, but has never met Methos and not that old). Giles doesn't know about Immortals, well he thought they were rumors. MSI also knows about HER Watcher, but has never met any of them and likes to toy with them and then go and see what they've written about her.

So she enlists Buffy's help to try and catch EKI and take his head. In my original conception Spike was kind of good and aligned with Buffy but I like him better bad. Also in this Buffy would be for helping MSI, but now I've decided that she doesn't like the whole idea of Immortals and the Game, she's hung up on the "they have soul! it's wrong to kill them!" thing that plagued her in the later seasons (one of my major pet peeves, I wanted someone to point out that Warren came with a soul and but that didnt' make him good or anything..but I digress).

MSI knows Duncan, of course, she's older than him and they met/hooked up at one point. I need to come up with some names for her. She's not going to be like Duncan and just go by the same name all the time. I still need to figure out how old she is.

I figure I can get 50,000 words out of that.

My superfantastic raise is less superfantastic in the light of federal taxes. I knew I shouldn't have been building up castles in the sky of buying a cheap laptop. I got my first paycheck (yay!) and it's more money, but the federal tax that was taken out is more than what was taken out in 2 weeks at my old pay rate.

Maybe I filled out the w4 (or whatever it is) differently so more is being taken out. I don't know. It doesn't seem right that instead of paying out about $60 every two weeks I'm now paying out about $70 per week.

Once I factor that in, instead of making enough to cover the increased insurance plus a little cushion the extra money will be about $20 short of covering the increase.

The temp agency does offer health insurance but they don't cover mental health so there's no reason in even looking at it because that's pretty much what I use it for. But I have to wait and see, because I didn't get a full pay check. So I'm going to see how much money I get from a full pay check.

What kills me is that the holidays. I'll miss three days in November - Veteran's day,Thanksgiving and the day after. Then Christmas will be a day, then 2 days in Jan -- New Year's Day and also Martin Luther King, Jr. I'll see if maybe my supervisor will be cool with me coming in early or staying late ot make up some of that time, but because they are paying an agency so much money she might be unwilling to do that for me. So I won't even be able to see what a full month's pay is like until Feb.

And I haven't been as frugal as I have been in the past. I've wasted so much money on stuff and let my utility bill creep up on me.