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I keep meaning to post, mostly about my lack of posting. Every time, though, that I resolve to post more often (say, once a week) life becomes very busy once again. But, in spite of the business, I am still going to try to post once a week (even if I don’t have time to say much). In the interests of time, here is my life of late measured out in bullet points.
- I went to the Renaissance Faire with Maggie, Joel, Irene, and Dan from D&D (this is how I introduced him to Maggie and Irene, so they spent the entire day calling him “Dan from D&D”; there is a moral somewhere). It was a good Ren Faire, although the jousting was sub-par (I have become more picky and less easy to please when it comes to jousting the more experience I have; this applies to other things as well). They had a new show, of falconry, and brought out falcons (although they did not fly them because of the presence of a multitude of ducks, which the falcons would be inclined to go after) and flew two owls (they were lovely) and a vulture (it was comic). We also saw Serenata, which is a group of musicians that sing Renaissance songs from around Europe (Italian, Spanish and English). The Ren Faire deserves its own post.
- I have started working again (sort of). I worked in the same building as Joel for a month, covering for someone out on medical leave, and then spent a month not working. But they called me (rather desperate) and asked if I would be willing to work on-call. Since the work is decent (if not what I would like to do permanently), and the people are very nice (so much better than my last job), I agreed. It means that some mornings I am called around eight in the morning and pack my lunch, put on job appropriate clothes (rather than a t-shirt and jeans) and drive to work to be there by ten. This is rather a stretch for me, as I am the sort of person who likes to plan things out, and am rarely spontaneous. But it is hard to plan if you don’t know what you are doing tomorrow (so I must consider if I should do the dishes tonight, and have less time for cuddling with Joel on the couch, or leave them for tomorrow, when I may have time to do them during the day, or may not if I’m working).
- I’ve been reading. A lot (recommendations are welcome, as I’m running out of books to read). I am making up for six miserable months of being engaged and having no time to read (you would think it would take more than six good months to make up for six lousy months, but in fact it does take longer to recover). The book I would recommend to ya’ll is Shades of Milk and Honey (this deserves a post unto itself). It is a fabulous relaxing read, and I think anyone who likes Jane Austen with a fantasy twist will like it. It is Jane Austen with magic, but it is not simply a re-telling of any of her novels, nor is it the sort of magic one generally finds in fantasy novels. Rather than being Pride and Prejudice With Magic, or some such, it is occasionally reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice, occasionally it reminds me of Sense and Sensibility, and there are bits I am sure refer to Northanger Abbey. It is lovely, and I can’t help but like the main character, Jane, who is plain but remarkably accomplished, particularly in the art of glamour. Glamour is the only magic we see, and it is an art that accomplished young ladies are expected to know a little of, weaving illusions to complement their watercolors and musical accomplishments. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the end, but overall I very much enjoyed the book. (I discovered the author in a roundabout way, after reading her Nebula nominated novella, which is a fabulous sci-fi mystery about a detective and his AI partner whose avatar is Mae West.)
- Joel and I have been married over seven months. It is fabulous and wonderful and still occasionally unbelievable. We still occasionally have our misunderstandings, but being married is just so good, and so much better than being engaged. I know some people have had a hard time adjusting to being married, but it has been remarkably happy and blissful and easy for us.
- I started the ridiculously complicated process of legally changing my name (I waited until after we got our tax refunds so as to (hopefully) simplify things). So far as I could tell, I had to actually physically go into the Social Security office to turn in my application, since they wanted to see not only my marriage license and birth certificate, but my driver’s license. So I waited an hour, turned in the paperwork, and will hopefully have a new card soon. Then I can go into the DMV to change my driver’s license (something else that must be done in person). After all that, I can finally go about changing my bank information, car registration, insurance, and all the million and one places in which one’s name is listed legally. Eck. I find it frustrating that this is such a long, involved and somewhat painful process when it is so common.
- I’m trying out the next RPG (*gulp*). Joel is currently the DM (in non-RPG terms, the narrator / monster creator), and he’s finishing up a D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) campaign. Once that finishes up, it looks like we’ll be playing Exalted (I would describe this, but I have no idea how to because I don’t know that much about it, except that it is a fantasy setting RPG). I’m playing around with a few ideas for character creation, but also waiting until we have more world building details before I worry about it too much. Allison (previously the only girl in the group) is helping me out with how to go about character creation (helpful both because she thinks of things in term of character and plot instead of numbers and mechanics (Joel is super into the number and mechanics side of things, and my eyes start to glaze over rather quickly) and because she is the only one in the group to have played Exalted). If I find that I don’t like it, I can always kill off my character in a spectacular way (which makes my morbid side happy).
- I’ve been thinking lately about gender roles and expectations, especially regarding toys and fairy tales (I should probably post on this at some point).
- I’m planning a road trip to Hearst Castle in a couple of weeks to meet up with Charis and Sharon (Syf). I know this will make many of ya’ll jealous, because it will be awesome.
- I went to the Renaissance Faire with Maggie, Joel, Irene, and Dan from D&D (this is how I introduced him to Maggie and Irene, so they spent the entire day calling him “Dan from D&D”; there is a moral somewhere). It was a good Ren Faire, although the jousting was sub-par (I have become more picky and less easy to please when it comes to jousting the more experience I have; this applies to other things as well). They had a new show, of falconry, and brought out falcons (although they did not fly them because of the presence of a multitude of ducks, which the falcons would be inclined to go after) and flew two owls (they were lovely) and a vulture (it was comic). We also saw Serenata, which is a group of musicians that sing Renaissance songs from around Europe (Italian, Spanish and English). The Ren Faire deserves its own post.
- I have started working again (sort of). I worked in the same building as Joel for a month, covering for someone out on medical leave, and then spent a month not working. But they called me (rather desperate) and asked if I would be willing to work on-call. Since the work is decent (if not what I would like to do permanently), and the people are very nice (so much better than my last job), I agreed. It means that some mornings I am called around eight in the morning and pack my lunch, put on job appropriate clothes (rather than a t-shirt and jeans) and drive to work to be there by ten. This is rather a stretch for me, as I am the sort of person who likes to plan things out, and am rarely spontaneous. But it is hard to plan if you don’t know what you are doing tomorrow (so I must consider if I should do the dishes tonight, and have less time for cuddling with Joel on the couch, or leave them for tomorrow, when I may have time to do them during the day, or may not if I’m working).
- I’ve been reading. A lot (recommendations are welcome, as I’m running out of books to read). I am making up for six miserable months of being engaged and having no time to read (you would think it would take more than six good months to make up for six lousy months, but in fact it does take longer to recover). The book I would recommend to ya’ll is Shades of Milk and Honey (this deserves a post unto itself). It is a fabulous relaxing read, and I think anyone who likes Jane Austen with a fantasy twist will like it. It is Jane Austen with magic, but it is not simply a re-telling of any of her novels, nor is it the sort of magic one generally finds in fantasy novels. Rather than being Pride and Prejudice With Magic, or some such, it is occasionally reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice, occasionally it reminds me of Sense and Sensibility, and there are bits I am sure refer to Northanger Abbey. It is lovely, and I can’t help but like the main character, Jane, who is plain but remarkably accomplished, particularly in the art of glamour. Glamour is the only magic we see, and it is an art that accomplished young ladies are expected to know a little of, weaving illusions to complement their watercolors and musical accomplishments. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the end, but overall I very much enjoyed the book. (I discovered the author in a roundabout way, after reading her Nebula nominated novella, which is a fabulous sci-fi mystery about a detective and his AI partner whose avatar is Mae West.)
- Joel and I have been married over seven months. It is fabulous and wonderful and still occasionally unbelievable. We still occasionally have our misunderstandings, but being married is just so good, and so much better than being engaged. I know some people have had a hard time adjusting to being married, but it has been remarkably happy and blissful and easy for us.
- I started the ridiculously complicated process of legally changing my name (I waited until after we got our tax refunds so as to (hopefully) simplify things). So far as I could tell, I had to actually physically go into the Social Security office to turn in my application, since they wanted to see not only my marriage license and birth certificate, but my driver’s license. So I waited an hour, turned in the paperwork, and will hopefully have a new card soon. Then I can go into the DMV to change my driver’s license (something else that must be done in person). After all that, I can finally go about changing my bank information, car registration, insurance, and all the million and one places in which one’s name is listed legally. Eck. I find it frustrating that this is such a long, involved and somewhat painful process when it is so common.
- I’m trying out the next RPG (*gulp*). Joel is currently the DM (in non-RPG terms, the narrator / monster creator), and he’s finishing up a D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) campaign. Once that finishes up, it looks like we’ll be playing Exalted (I would describe this, but I have no idea how to because I don’t know that much about it, except that it is a fantasy setting RPG). I’m playing around with a few ideas for character creation, but also waiting until we have more world building details before I worry about it too much. Allison (previously the only girl in the group) is helping me out with how to go about character creation (helpful both because she thinks of things in term of character and plot instead of numbers and mechanics (Joel is super into the number and mechanics side of things, and my eyes start to glaze over rather quickly) and because she is the only one in the group to have played Exalted). If I find that I don’t like it, I can always kill off my character in a spectacular way (which makes my morbid side happy).
- I’ve been thinking lately about gender roles and expectations, especially regarding toys and fairy tales (I should probably post on this at some point).
- I’m planning a road trip to Hearst Castle in a couple of weeks to meet up with Charis and Sharon (Syf). I know this will make many of ya’ll jealous, because it will be awesome.
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