5 things personal post

Five things make a post, I've seen others say. And while I have photos to share at a later time, I'll make a quick personal post here and now.

1. Still working on my unconventional courtship fic. The first draft is technically finished but there's a fair amount of detail I need to add during the first edit. Fandom is Ghost Whisperer

2. Found a bargain second hand red dress for next month; my church encourages everyone to wear red for Pentecost and takes a group photo. Plus my sister and younger nephew are getting baptised so it's a big day and I wanted something special to wear.
I'll try and get a photo when I wear it as it doesn't look so great just on a hangar. Also, I just googled the brand (Phase Eight) and I would never be able to afford a new one of these, prices being in the three figure bracket. The two most similar currently on their website are £150.
It was reduced to £6 at the charity store and then on the sale rail for the grand total of £2.

Last year I got a bargain for my baptism dress at a different charity store, a dark blue FCUK dress which again, retails for £100-200 and which I got for £15. Both of these I put on and they felt 'right', comfortable, which doesn't always happen with dresses especially as I'm petite so shorter in the body than some dresses are designed for. When you have that comfort and they look good, it gives a little confidence boost.

3. Also, please forgive another mention of church but our minister, Reverend Mandy finally got installed at 2 local churches, so made official vicar for them after a long period of being in the post on an interim measure. The evening service was lovely, overseen by our new Birmingham Bishop Michael, and attended by the Solihull mayor (the ceremonial mayor not the West Midlands mayor).
Mandy asked me to a reading and I didn't realise I was the only one doing a reading. (Mandy wisely didn't tell me, knowing I'd probably not have done it!) I got to wear the aforementioned blue dress again too.
She sent me the passage (Colossians 3:12-17) and I read it a few times and aloud once before the service, and I focussed on the words in front of me not the congregation in front nor the amassed clergy behind me at the lectern.
Afterwards people gave me a lot of praise which was nice, because I'm not a public speaker and again, this wasn't something I ever saw myself doing!

4. Nephews were both part of the scout parade for St George's Day in Dorridge. Big turn out from many local scout groups and people coming out to enjoy the band and the parade. Will try and add photos later. We were blessed with sunny weather - next day, Monday, was rain almost the entire day!

5. I'm trying to catch up on DW posts and my inbox (55 notifications!)

There was one DW notification in the posts and comments section I've never seen before, "you are not authorized to view this comment"
My inner critic prone to paranoia said maybe it was something someone had commented and then blocked me from a journal/community. It's probably more likely that it's a comment at something like the Snowflake Mods where I had temporary access prior to this year's challenge to post the pre-post and poll, but access was revoked during end of challenge housekeeping.

Still, weird.

Lyrical Titles challenge

The new community lyricaltitles is having it's to the first challenge. It will run during the month of May (though entries will be accepted afterwards).

From the community:
"The challenge is to take an album of your choice and for each song, write a fic, using a lyric from the song as the title. This is a low-stakes, personal challenge, of course; there's no penalty for not finishing or running late."

There's an FAQ with more information.