actual life update

[rushthatspeaks]

How am I?

Out from under the bed after last week but general stress levels not amazing. Rolling my eyes at having seen someone wearing an actual T-shirt reading Boston Strong because this is New England and I thought we were meant to be politely repressed about this about now, thanks. All the construction signs which flash things have started flashing Encouraging Messages Of Public Hope, too, though I am very amused that the one nearby which used to crack me up by saying ONGOING CONSTRUCTION EXPECT DELAYS NEXT 2 YEARS now says ONGOING CONSTRUCTION WE ARE ONE BOSTON EXPECT DELAYS NEXT 2 YEARS, which may even be an improvement.

What am I up to?

Costuming a musical. Voice lessons for said musical. Making sure music is memorized. Trying to internalize and/or figure out the blocking. Oh god we have only a month left before showtime. I was literally not this anxious about my first undergraduate thesis, but then that was way the hell less work. And at least Pope Innocent VIII was a topic about which I knew no one, not even me, would care after I finished the paper. Also that thesis didn't involve any spreadsheets. I have never enjoyed spreadsheets.

Tomorrow I am taking the car and nineweaving and going to Montreal for rysmiel's birthday and I am not costuming anybody for like three days at least. Also there will be a lot of people I love, and Montreal, and it should be awesome, and I will be back late Monday and I may or may not have internet in the interim just to let you know.

There is a cat on my leg. He balances very badly and keeps hitting caps lock.

What am I up to in the slightly longer term?

Well I want to finish writing this novel before Readercon because I want to read from it and I will feel much better if I have a whole draft beforehand, even though this would change nothing about the bit I want to read. Not making that a hard deadline as of yet because I do not want to make that into more stress.

B. is coming through from Turkey at some point here in the summer and then taking me to Europe for a while and then Ruth and I will visit him in Turkey, so travel writing is a thing that will happen.

After the end of summer everything fades into a haze, and the name of that haze is 'Gee, I Hope Somebody Is Pregnant At This Time', because we are trying to have a baby. When there's news on that front worth posting about, I'll probably make a baby filter, since I'm sure some of you don't want to hear about the planning process (currently slightly less complicated than the Battle of Borodino) and the various stages of wibbling (threat level: everything has little ducks on it). But I don't think we're quite there yet.

We have a basically-an-opera to stage first.

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Good luck on the basically-an-opera! Also, I have a half-written email that clearly I should finish.

[zeborah]

We've (in our own questionably polite but certainly repressed part of the world) got Encouraging Messages of Public Hope two years on and going strong so you may be rolling your eyes for a while more. (Though maybe they die out quicker after a trauma of shorter duration?) I actually quite like most of them though some have felt twee.

Particularly I like the "It's okay to feel sad/proud/angry/happy/etc" set of posters because when it feels like eg everyone else in the city hates the reconstructive roadworks with a burning passion while your own reaction is a mixture of a) yay progress! and b) okay yes having my route change on a weekly/daily basis is a nuisance... and c) whee, I dodged obstacles and found my new busstop, level up! — it is quite nice to be validated that all these ways of dealing are equally normal. Even if the validation is coming from a public mental health poster.

—My cat, or probably rather the magnetic thing she has on her collar to open her catdoor with, has the knack of putting my laptop to sleep. I haven't yet figured out what precise bit of the technology she's interacting with when she does it....

[cyphomandra]

Good to hear you are recovering! (and also ONE BOSTON, with or without delays)

I am interested in the baby filter; my own attempts are just over the two year mark and involving more specialists and third parties than I would like, so ducks would be a definite improvement.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, the two-years sign! That was on one of my routes from work to old barn and I WTFed every time.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Also, happy logistics!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I wish you all the best in all of this, and I am a person who would definitely be interested in baby planning, for reasons we may or may not have discussed, I forget.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The stress sounds stressful, yes, but the life stuff sounds excellent--I guess I never knew that you did costuming: very cool. And traveling with, and visiting friends? And in Montreal? Wonderful. And I welcome all your baby news, as and when you choose to share it.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Good luck with everything!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Tiny duckies! LOL! Will appreciate news when you have it. Also, novel! Go you! Keep going!

[weirdquark]

I love that Boston has "expect delays for the next two years" signs. Though I suspect that it'll be more like five.

I spent an hour and a half hemming a rectangle last night. It wasn't even that large; it was just loosely woven linen and the hem kept unrolling and I still have bits that I should pick out and re-do.

[sandrylene.livejournal.com]

I wish threat level: everything has little ducks on it was a more common phenomenon. I feel like that would be just ducky for replacing some of our current government stuff.

I also love the "expect delays 2 years sign," principally because it is so vague and you know it will be left up for months. I don't believe they will start updating the sign to say "expect delays 1 year nine months", etc, so the five years estimate is probably achievable using the same damned sign. :P

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Okay, threat level: little ducks made me laugh hard.

(Count me in on baby filter, if and when?)

[sovay]

ONGOING CONSTRUCTION WE ARE ONE BOSTON EXPECT DELAYS NEXT 2 YEARS

Okay, that reminds me why I like Boston.

Also, I love you.

[gwynnega]

ONGOING CONSTRUCTION WE ARE ONE BOSTON EXPECT DELAYS NEXT 2 YEARS

That is fairly awesome.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I want to be on the baby filter!

[rosefox]

I would be delighted to be on the baby filter if you'd like to have me on it. (If not, no offense taken at all.) I would especially like to hear about the planning process. I think we're about a year behind you; the current question I keep running up against is whether I'll need to factor Xtina being pregnant into our Loncon3 plans.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I'm ok with the baby filter.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

I have been reading various intellectual effluvium to the effect that all these transplanted-to-Boston people now feel like natives; as someone transplanted to Boston (at age 7), I am heartily looking forward to the moment when the transplants realize that their nativehood is entirely contingent on the continuity of their geographical memory.

(I am sure I have told this story before. A transplant friend of mine described an invitation she'd received to some Big Huge Conference in the city of Boston, parking details blah blah, T stop Auditorium. She was annoyed and puzzled, for lo, there is no Auditorium T stop! And from the deep recesses of my childhood came my little blurt: That's the decades-outdated name for Hynes/ICA. Which... is the years-outdated name for Hynes Convention Center.)

We can expect two years of delays because we will stubbornly navigate the same way those entire two years. Possibly because that's the only way we know to get from point A to point B without going backwards wrong way down a one-way street. (I saw someone do that this morning.)

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I like babies (and baby-related discussion) and would like to hear about the planning thereof. I also hope to hear you read at Readercon.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

threat level: everything has little ducks on it

Sometimes you just say things that make so much sense.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Go ducks. And filter me in, please.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I am going back in reverse order and reading things, so, yes, love to be on filter if you make it eventually.