Presumed to be awesome.

The past two days of my life have been consumed with a crash course in international commerce in order to draft an international exclusive distributorship agreement that'll stand up to a moderate wind. Mercury retrograde has fucked with almost every piece of electronic equipment I use. LJ is having fits and conniptions.

But then another picture of Darren from the Oxygen upfronts appeared on my Tumblr dash, and suddenly all was right with my world. *g*



He is magical. Like rainbows and unicorns. *sighs*

So, yesterday, this happened:



Sweet jam on crackers! SCRUFF!!!!!! I can't even comprehend his hotness right now. *bites lip*

( MOAR SCRUFFY HOT DARREN!!!! )

Dear Darren: I don't know how, but you are getting like exponentially hotter. Please continue. Appreciatively, Me.

I didn't get these up last week and there was a flood of awesome fic written after "Original Song," so now I have a huge backlog of bookmarked fics to rec. I'm just going to start dumping them here without much commentary -- you can safely assume that if it's listed here, there's something there to love. Happy reading! :)

( Glee: Kurt/Blaine )


( Glee RPF: Chris & Darren (Gen Friendship Fic) )


( Glee RPF: Chris/Darren )

Saturday night found us at the official opening of what has now been declared the Best Damn Bar in WeHo, The Office West Hollywood, with the hottest, friendliest staff ever. Seriously, these boys are adorable and they love us like Dean Winchester loves pie! As they should. For we are awesome and we were totally the funnest table at the bar that night! And we have the pictures to prove it. *g*

But, that's for another post. This post is all about DARREN FREAKIN' CRISS!!!!! ( So, the Darren portion of the evening started with this: )

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's so damn adorable and so nice and charming and just RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS OF AWESOME!!!! We did tell him that we'd be having lunch with him soon because we'd just won the charity auction and he's all "awesome, you'll get to see me stuff my face!" *laughs* He did promise me that he'd take us somewhere nice. :)

The M&G was super fast, but it was handled really well, and he was gorgeous and charming and completely precious, and it was SO VERY WEIRD to be one of only 5 or 6 girls in line for the M&G, after having recently stood in M&G lines for Adam Lambert. The gay boys have mad love for Darren, let me tell you! Poor Adam, man. He would have been in heaven! *g*

So, the Darren portion of the night started with a hug from Darren and ended with Darren singing his entire set no more than TWO FEET FROM MY FAAAAACE!!!!!! Holy crap he was so close I could practically see his tonsils when he sang! *laughs* The bar was teeny-tiny. The piano he was playing at was tucked into the corner, and we were at the closest table to the piano. But by the time everyone squooshed up behind me, I was getting close and personal with the cute little twink in front of me and Darren was singing right in front of our faces. And, really, I don't know what I enjoyed more, Darren being OMG right the fuck there, or the cute little twink in front of me completely loosing his shit over Darren the entire time! He was so freakin' adorable!!! His name was Scotty. I know this because after Darren's set he turns to me and is all "I feel as if I've been in a relationship with you," let's meet! *g* Seriously, though, he was SO EXCITED over Darren. It was presh!

Anyway, Darren sounded AH-MAY-ZING! He did about a 40 minute set. He opened with this wonderful, slowed down cover of Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone," and he closed with "Not Alone." I'm sure I'm forgetting some of it, but this is what I remember of his set list, in no particular order, because my brain was pretty tequila soaked at this point:

- "Since U Been Gone"
- "Teenage Dream"
- "Let It Be" -- this was awesome and he had the entire bar singing along!
- "Coolest Girl"
- "Desperado" -- loved this!
- "Hit Me, Baby"
- "That's All" - so beautiful!
- a Disney cover, but I'll be damned if I can remember which one
- "Not Alone"

Also, DARREN STARED INTO MY SOUL!!!!!!!



Seriously, we were so close it was a little freaky. But awesome. Definitely awesome!

( My pictures of DARREN'S FAAAAAACE!!!!! )

There are videos of most of his set HERE. (With thanks to godlizza for the vids!) It cracks my shit up that you can totally hear us scream "THE COOLEST BITCH ON EARTH GOD DAMMIT" during "Coolest Girl"! We rock! :D

Thank the gods one of the brilliant professional photographers at the event had the presence of mind to shoot this picture:



HANDS!!!!!! Sweet jam on crackers, his hands. His gorgeous, talented hands! Excuse me while my mind goes to the dirtywrongHOT place for a moment. *bites lip*

Ahem. Ok, that was fun. *g*

Also, this happened:



*IZ DED*


You guys. The entire night was AMAZING! So much fun. So much pretty. So much tequila!!! :D

And now Darren is probably losing sleep over having to take three crazy chicks out to lunch at some point in the near future. *g* Sorry, Darren! We'll be gentle! I promise! :)

I've got about a million tabs open, most of which represent other things that I should be doing right now instead of flitting around LJ. But, that's never stopped me before! Plus, I'm in an extraordinarily good mood today, and I want to share my happy with all of you! *beams*

These are some of the things that are contributing to my good mood today:

:: I'll be heading out to 1n10 this evening to help the kids start getting ready for Pride next month. Fun times!


:: Tomorrow night I'm meeting a friend downtown for some long overdue catching up and some St. Patrick's Day shenanigans. Really fun times!


:: I'm taking some steps (baby steps, but steps nonetheless) toward doing something more productive with my make-up obsession, other than making large contributions to MAC's and Urban Decay's profit margins. Ok, so now that I say that, I don't know if I've actually talked about that here. Basically, it occurred to me recently, with the helpful insight of some fabulous friends (*cougheditorzoncough*), that (1) doing make-up is something that I really enjoy doing, it's a (much needed) creative outlet, and it's something I'm good at and can get better at; (2) I can give myself permission to pursue this passion as something more than just a hobby; and (3) I don't necessarily have to make a choice between "lawyer" and "artist" (i.e., "responsible" and "dreamer") -- crazily enough I can be both! All of this was, for reasons that I should probably unpack in another post, ridiculously terrifying for me to even admit, much less do anything about. But I've been looking into several different make-up artistry programs, gathering information, and making a plan for making this work sometime this summer. So, um, GO ME! *beams* *is still terrified*

Ok, so, in sum, make-up artistry musings, baby steps forward, all still scary but very happy-making. Moving on. :)


:: I get to see my L.A. girls next week!!! And in 10 DAYS I get to meet Darren Criss!!!!! *flails forever*


:: GLEE!!! Show, you make my heart happy!!! I've got lots of ~feelings about last nights episode, and thoughts, and approximately a billion screen caps, gifs, and videos that I want to post for my future repeated watching and endless enjoyment, but I think I'll do that in a separate post. This show and everything about "Original Songs," though, is definitely a part of today's good mood. *points to icon* So. Much. HAPPY!!!

Dear gods, the images coming out of Japan are heart wrenching. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Here are some ways we can help.

Because, even in the face of incredible tragedy, we pray, we help as we can, and we go on, focusing on the positive and preciousness of life. Today I will tell my family and friends and all of you how much I love and appreciate you. I will laugh and cry and continue with the messy and amazing and wonderfully imperfect business of living. I will remember that all of the awesome and happy-making things from yesterday are still awesome and happy-making today.

And, because everyone can use more hugs today, go check out azewewish's post and add to the hug-fest!

I'm not sure how March happened. How can I fill so disgustingly stagnant, in such an infuriatingly endless state of limbo, and still the months keep whooshing on by?

This persistent plague turned bronchitis turned back to head cold crap that's been dogging me for a month now is probably not helping with my general crappy mood toward everything and everyone at the moment. Seriously, I would love to just feel good and healthy for two days in a row. Just two consecutive days. That's all I'm asking for at this point.

But March is going to be better, right? Oh, for fuck's sake, someone please tell me that March is going to be better. *hopes*

ETA: Wait up. What??? George Michael is dropping a new single later this month??? That would SO make March better!!! *hopes*

I babysat Rhyan today. We read books and made up our own gibberish language and played silly games and put sparkly lip gloss on each other and generally had a FABULOUS time. Of course, all of these shenanigans meant I got absolutely nothing productive done at all. Rhyan's giggles were totally worth the lack of productivity, but now that her mom is home I really should get working on my to do list.

Riiiiiight after I waste a bit more time online! :D

There were awesome things that happened today (other than the adorable Rhyan giggles), but this is the awesomest: Obama's DOJ will no longer defend the constitutionality of DOMA!!! You guys! This is HUGE! That letter from Holder to Congress outlines the legal analysis so perfectly. This isn't the end of the fight; the executive statement only applies to Section 3 of DOMA (although and the fact that the DOJ won't defend the statute in court doesn't mean that they're not still obligated to enforce it; but it is definitely the beginning of the end for DOMA. About damn time!

Also awesome? I managed to snag tickets for the Bruno Mars and Janelle Monae "Hooligans in Wondaland" Phoenix show in June!!! I'm fully expecting this show to rock my world!

White Collar's ridiculous OT3-ness in this week's episode was also fabulously awesomesauce! Seriously, that scene with Neal and Elizabeth! Bring. him. home.!!!!! And Neal's slow-mo run of heartbreak and terror when they take Peter. And Peter being all fabulously competent and HBIC even when handcuffed and locked in a cage! And the secret message, and Peter knowing Neal could get him out, and Neal choosing keeping Peter alive over anything else. And the hug! And, ahhhh, just all of it! <333

Glee was kinda a hot mess yesterday, but even when it is I still love it. Santana doing body shots off of Brittany!!! Seriously, the show could have ended there and I would've been happy! Also, Kurt looked fabulous. And I actually thought the conversation with his dad added some complexity and layers that can be interesting. The whole "I might be bi, no, wait, definitely gay" thing was a mess. But...pretty people singing awesome songs! Also...Britana body shots! Thoroughly entertaining! *g*

Hawaii Five-O continues to be ridiculously pretty and fun. I'm shallow -- this is really all I ask for from my television entertainment. (See above. *g*)

Ok, I'm not even going to dissimulate any longer. Yes, I'm shipping Darren and Chris. What of it? It's really not even my fault. How can I possibly resist when some of my favorite writers from other fandoms (*coughmiss_begoniacough*) start flooding my flist with fabulous and amazingly written Chris/Darren fics??? I'm just a helpless victim here, people!!! *g*

Since we're not pretending otherwise anymore, I'm determined to get more of you to join me in this very pretty handbasket destined for hell. So, here are some fabulous Chris/Darren fics to tempt y'all to the dark side. *beams*

( Glee RPF: Chris/Darren )