wherein Liz monologues at the internet (response is absolutely not required)

The last time I was unemployed for an extensive period (six months, before I took a part-time job at the smoke shop because at least it was a job and I was literally one month from being broke and unable to pay my rent, to say nothing of grocery bills), I was mildly depressed most of the time and gained fifteen to twenty pounds because of stress eating and lack of exercise.

I'm doing better on the exercise front this time, and am paying attention to my eating since I know it's a potential problem, but the mild depression? Yeah, that's back.

It's entirely situational rather than an internal chemical imbalance. It behaves differently in subtle ways -- it lifts much more readily, for one thing, and deepens more readily too. And then there's the stress eating part. When my brain drops me down a hole for a couple weeks, I am as likely to forget to eat for hours on end as I am to try comforting myself with food. Situational depression doesn't seem to activate that "food? what is food?" switch.

It does trip the "sleep? what is sleep?" switch, which is not good for maintaining either a regular schedule or clarity of thought. :-(

...

I really want a job.

...

Okay, I'm going back to fighting my latest Cotton Candy Bingo fill. I think if I can just finish something, I will feel better. The lack of creation has been combining with my lack of job search luck in unfortunate ways.

[Fic] "All on a Summer's Day" -- Star Trek: AOS

Summary: Nyota Uhura, Christine Chapel, Hikaru Sulu, and Gaila -- the not-quite-senior officers of the Enterprise, minus the two disqualified for being underage and/or crazy -- gather for their weekly game and gossip session. This week's mission is Hearts.

Notes: This fic was written for Cotton Candy Bingo Round One in incredibly belated response to the WILD CARD square. (Yeah, I went literal. Sue me.) It's also in response to a prompt from vehrec: Kirk, Spock, kicking back and relaxing over 3D chess-or maybe even some sort of 4D chess where you can phase out pieces for a certain number of turns. Just relaxing on the Enterprise I suppose, R&R, the actual people don’t matter.

It's nominally set in the same universe as A History of Handcrafts and A Guide to Guerrilla Knitting, but that has no practical effect on the story. (1,975 words)

[ETA: the AO3 crosspost is now up!]

( All on a Summer's Day )

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This was not the fic I meant to finish tonight -- that would be the Narnia genderswap "unexpected love" fill -- but what the hell, it's a thing, and I wrote it, and it's done. *resolve face*

Also, yes, I did in fact deal four hands of Hearts and play the entire game out against myself. I was going to decide the hands for thematic reasons, but that got ridiculous and unworkable very fast, so I figured I would go with random chance instead. :-)