Confessions of Fangirl

I only need a few hundred words to meet my goal for the much, which is great! I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it with all the things that have gone on in September (tons of stuff at work, crazy busy desk times, DragonCon, this trip to England and Ireland, Jay’s visit, etcetera). Granted, I still have to write a few hundred more words so maybe I shouldn’t call it win just yet!

Even if I didn’t make my goal this month though, I’d still say it was worth sacrificing part of my writing goal for this trip. Even though we haven’t done a whole lot so far, seeing one of my aunts and one of my uncles and two of my cousins was amazing. I hadn’t visited here in five years. The last time I was here was for my grandfather’s funeral and the time before that was when my grandmother died. Both of those trips were in 2013 and that was a difficult year. It was a year of major change for me and a lot of the change was for the better, but it was still a really difficult year. To be visiting now, when things are good and I’m in a place where I mostly feel good about my life is such a wonderful feeling.

Either way, not seeing family you like (as well as love) for five years is not my favorite. It’s hard with everyone spread out everywhere. I think about my sister sometimes too. She has been to see Mark’s family and while his is closer, my sister hasn’t seen any of my dad’s family in years, maybe a couple of decades. I’m trying to remember the last time she went and I simply can’t say when that was. I honestly think the last time she went, I was a freshman in high school.

I feel like most of the trips have been just me and dad but there was one trip I didn’t go on that my sister did when I was in the 8th grade and there have been two or three trips my mom came on. I say “most” were just me and dad like there have been a ton of them, but there have been a handful throughout the years. There was one that the whole family did when I was between 6th and 7th grade. There were two where it was me and Chelsea who went with dad, maybe three? It was mom, dad, and myself for one trip and this trip. Then it was just me and dad for the first trip I remember taking in fourth grade, another one that I can’t quite remember when that was, one when I was a sophomore in college, one the first year after I graduated college, and then the two in 2013. That’s if I’m remembering all of them (beyond the ones we took when I was very small).

I’ve gotten to travel a good bit. I am thankful every day for the adventures I’ve gotten to go on because my dad was and still is a traveler.

But tomorrow we’re headed to Ireland which I have never really gotten to tour before. I spent four hours in the Dublin airport on one of the adventures, but that doesn’t count. I didn’t get to see anything other than the airport and what was right outside of the windows. I have never been to an airport with such incredibly friendly staff before though. That airport, by far, had the kindest, most patient airport employees I’ve encountered. Even the security and immigration type folks were amazing. I’m hopeful that the trip I’m about to make will just kind of build on that idea of Ireland for me for the most part (I know there are assholes in any group of people).

On an unrelated note, I’ve been rewatching Legends of Tomorrow. Well, initially watched the final episodes of season one since I skipped them the first go ‘round. The show was just such a struggle for me the first season. But now that I love it as much as I do—and I really do love it—I wanted to check out the stuff I’d missed. I thought I’d just skipped the end of the first season, but I also (apparently) hadn’t seen the first couple of episodes of the second season either. It was only when I started season two thinking I’d do a rewatch of it (and maybe season three as well if I can fit it in) for shits and giggles since I just finished re-watching Constantine that I realized that I’d never seen the first couple of episodes. I didn’t know how Nate joined the team, nor did I know how he got his superpowers. I mean, I’m sure that I saw the “previously on” but knowing me, I didn’t really pay attention and the information didn’t get stored.

Anyway, it was fun to watch those first couple of episodes and watch the team struggle to be a team. They’re so much more solid now. I’m going to miss Amaya and I really wish Kid Flash was going to stay, but I know the actor decided that he had other things he really wanted to pursue and I’m excited to see what he comes out with next.

But we all know it’s John Constantine I’m obsessed with.

I have so many things I need to do. Finish Librarians from like a year ago, catch up on the last five episodes of Wynonna Earp (it’s more like four, but still), the last four or five episodes of Killjoys, and probably a handful of other things too. I’m sure I’ll get there. I love Wynonna Earp and Killjoys. I’m going to be at the house by myself with the dog for four weeks or so which means I’ll have ample time to hog the TV and have on whatever I want. Granted the first two weeks won’t be much as far as doing anything. I’m going straight back to work after the trip and I’m supposed to work 11 days in a row. I have done stuff like this before, but I don’t think I’ve done it when I’m also jet lagged so I’m curious to see how this goes.

Not that I need to be thinking about that right now.

The problem with loving your job is that you end up thinking about it when you’d be ignoring the existence of a job you hate.

But oh, the point I wanted to mention was that after all that time I spent thinking that they were planning on bringing in John Constantine for Legends at the start of season three, I’m wondering if it actually went back further than that. Maybe it wasn’t a fully formed idea yet, but they brought John onto Arrow to put Sarah’s soul back in her body after she was brought back from the Lazareth Pit or whatever it’s called. They could have written that episode any way they wanted to and they could have brought John Constantine on any way they wanted to, but they very specifically wrote the story so that when they brought Sarah back (ostensibly to have her alive and available to do Legends of Tomorrow) it was John Constantine who fixed up her soul. They wrote Constantine into Oliver’s past so that they could call on Constantine rather than just having Constantine come into town chasing down one demon or another.

I don’t know, maybe they just wanted to have Constantine on and that was the plot line that mad the most sense (which I’m guessing is true) and it was just a happy coincidence that he had that tie to Sarah and since it was there, they decided to use it in Legends. But I still think that they’ve been hoping that they could make John Constantine a larger part of the DC universe for years. I’m sure there have been issues with rights and scheduling and such, but I’m thinking that someone worked really hard to make it happen. I know CBS gave/sold Supergirl to CW, but John Constantine was on NBC (granted who owns the rights isn’t always as clear cut as checking with station aired the show—something I find fascinating).

I’m wondering if it was long negotiations for the character not just to be leant to the CW. Plus, what I’ve been reading and seeing is leading me to believe that the writers are picking up a large part of the plot from the John Constantine show and where it left off, which I’m thinking might mean more negotiating than just letting them have the character for a couple of things here and there. I think CBS and the CW have some sort of partnership or are similarly owned or something and it was therefore pretty straightforward to move Supergirl to CW.

I think Midnight Texas is on NBC now and I find it kind of interesting that they renewed that show. I’m glad they did because I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to the next season, but it’s a lot like Constantine in a lot of ways (at least to me). Granted, there are more characters who are not morally ambiguous in Midnight Texas than there were in Constantine. But they’ve got queer characters, demons, angels, magic users, vampires, ghosts, and a host of other crazy creatures. As well as humans that are just plain evil. I feel like maybe they tried to do John Constantine too early. I pretty sure it started right around the time that Arrow and The Flash were taking off and I’m thinking they wanted to get in on the action (I suspect that Supergirl was the same kind of endeavor for CBS), but I’m thinking they didn’t quite know what they were doing—at least not yet. They hadn’t quite “gotten” what had pulled people in about those shows.

I don’t know.