Jan. 1st, 2012 04:24 pm
Annual life tally
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textualdevianceMy yearly list of what's gone and what's to come:
Last Year I ...
Career:
-Did another six months with my team, though I started getting really antsy and bored toward the end of the contract. The button monkey thing is lucrative, but it's such a time/energy sink with so little reward other than pay. I did get to do a couple of byline pieces, though. CV fodder is always nice.
-Finished my first novel! It could probably stand a little fluffing, but even as-is, it's long/fleshed-out enough to be a real YA book.
-Participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time--and won! 50k words on a new novel. Total writing for the year was nearly 200k words, not counting social-media blather.
Family:
-Mended some fences with my parents, thanks in large part to their agreement to get into some counseling. Things are still a little touchy, but we're at a friendly détente, which is a relief. Breaking off from them before was necessary, but I really disliked it.
-Celebrated 16 years with M, and 14 years married.
-Finally said a permanent goodbye to any chance of having a bio kid, with the surgery I had in May.
-Brought home a new furbaby a few months back. She's still adjusting a bit, but is growing and getting more brave every day, even though Otter constantly harasses her. Still have Penny around, too. She's ancient, now, but she doesn't seem to be in pain, so we're letting her decide when she wants to go.
-Sorted through adoption agencies and finally settled on one. Did the very first bits of paperwork for it.
Friends:
-Had another delightful year of the world's most awesome roomie. This really is the best living situation ever. We all get along so well domestically. Finally started seeing more of his boyfriend around here, too, which is nice. :)
-Had a few utterly splendid parties and dinners with folks, including last night's awesome NYE bash.
Domestic:
-Bought a couple of new furniture and electronics bits, with one more still coming. One of these, a big chair-and-a-half, is in the bay window in the parlor, and has become one of my favorite spots to read and write.
-Did a fairly major bit of nesting-related tidying. Reorged the kitchen and closets, etc.
-Spent some lovely time in my back yard watching birdies and growing things. Got huge crops of strawberries and blueberries, some herbs, and a few tomatoes and some tasty lemon cucumbers.
Travel
-Best. Birthday. Ever: Spent 3 weeks driving around the UK/Eire falling utterly in love with both places, while also being slightly terrified of the itty bitty streets with crazy drivers.
-Took my old friend K with us on a PDX/Oregon Coast trip. Was a gorgeous day for the coast bit.
-Did Dragon*Con again, and was a panelist this time. Seemed to have come down with something, though, so I was exhausted for much of it and didn't enjoy as much as I'd have liked.
-Spent Thanksgiving in Vegas. Which is a crazy place for that holiday, but it was perfect for us. Spent a day there roaming around a cool little nature preserve and seeing birds that we don't get at all up here.
-Also had a nice day at NW Trek.
Misc.
-Started singing again, with an all-woman community chorus that's well-known around here. Helped me get back in touch with some old friends I'd known from my previous chorus, and more importantly, helped me get back in touch with my voice, which I've missed dearly in the years of not being able to get to rehearsals (stoopid job.)
-Had a pretty fandom-heavy first half of the year, what with new eps of my fave show, and a crapload of fic writing and vidding related to that. Ended up writing a 100k-word fanfic novel. It's kind of dodgy, I know, but the regular writing really helped put me in a good space for finishing my legit stuff.
-Fell headfirst into the universe of A Song of Ice and Fire after I saw the Game of Thrones first season last summer. Promptly read through all five (so far) books in the series and am now anxiously awaiting the new season of the TV version.
-Did what I should have years ago, and got my ladybits nuked. No more horrible, debilitating periods. Woo!
-Paid off all our credit, except the mortgage. There's a tiny bit back on one of the cards now, from Christmas stuff, but that'll be paid back off shortly. There may be more going on with the adoption costs (depending on how much we need when), but beyond that and the house, we're debt-free, for the first time in about ever. It feels really nice.
-Got back into playing LOTRO, since it's cheap entertainment that doesn't require a lot of mental/emotional bandwidth. :)
This year, I will ...
Career:
-Probably do another short contract. I'm pretty close to guaranteed a new gig with my old team, doing something very different than I was before, and am also up for another gig with a team I'd really rather be on, since it's actual journalism, rather than celeb ass-kissing. However, there's so much else going on in the next six weeks that I'm still not sure about doing it. We don't really need the money (though it would be nice to help with the adoption expenses and such) but I'm also worried about having big CV gaps before we even have a kid around.
-Hopefully finish the NaNo novel and get it shopped to agents. Want to polish up the other one, too, but I really like this new one, and think it might even sell better. If, by some twist of fate, I do get one or both published, I'll probably quit the day job thing entirely. I still love journalism, but it's next to impossible to find a job doing it that wouldn't require me to move or sell my soul. Creative writing comes really easily to me, and I enjoy it, so if I can get paid for it, I may as well.
-Probably take a year at home once we have the kid. Hope that doesn't derail me too much.
Family:
-Celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. We're looking at buying new rings, since the ones we got back then are really uncomfortable (so much so that I bought him a substitute one about 8 years ago.) Sadly, we're really busy around that time, so we might not be able to do much more for the day.
-Finally (fingers crossed!) get a small human! We finally have the money (damn, this is expensive!), have a well-recommended agency, and we'll be doing their intro seminar in a few weeks. There's a stack of paperwork and some social-worker visits (not to mention kid-proofing the house, etc.) we'll need to do, but we're hoping to be in the pool of waiting parents by spring sometime. Then it's just a matter of a birthmom thinking we look like decent enough folks to raise her kid. No clue at all how long that might take. Our friends who used the same agency took about a year to get their son, from application to finalization, so that's probably a decent time framework for us, too. Once we get approved for that, we'll prolly also get M snipped, since any chance of my getting pregnant what with the surgery I had would be, quite literally, deadly for me.
Friends:
-Hopefully have some movie and game nights with the gang. Hadn't realized how much I missed them all and how much my soul needs that kind of socialization. Love my online friends, of course, but I need the meatspace social time, too, and I've been neglecting that, for various reasons.
Domestic:
-Swap my office and the guest room, for kid-housing purposes. The room my office is in is closer to the master, and farther from D's room, so hopefully the kid's squalling won't disturb him too much. It'll be a fairly major undertaking, though, since I'm basically condensing two rooms into one to make it work. (This is part of the reason I'm considering not working again for a while.)
-If I'm just sitting around waiting for the kid, I'll prolly overhaul the kitchen garden, too. It needs a proper aeration, among other things, in order to grow the stuff I really want. Also need to plant some bulbs, since we have so few.
Travel:
-This will have to be scheduled around the adoption timeline (and budget) but we're hoping to do at least something. Maybe drag D to Orlando or take a short cruise or something. Really want to be able to do a birdie-related trip sometime, too. Dying to see more critters we don't have around here.
Misc.
-Do my first-ever jury duty! Sposed to check in for that on Thursday. We'll see if they take me. I've had to decline most of the other times I was called due to work or school reasons. Should be interesting, I hope.
-Have some pretty major (and expensive) dental surgery. The tooth I had a root canal on many years ago is apparently screwed up, with a cracked root. So they want to yank it, then do a bone graft and an implant. Extraction is Tuesday. Not looking forward to it in the slightest. :(
-Probably dial back the fandom involvement. No clue when/if we're getting new eps of my show, and there's some other stuff making it kind of weird right now, too. Plus, I'm just not going to have the bandwidth, either.
Last Year I ...
Career:
-Did another six months with my team, though I started getting really antsy and bored toward the end of the contract. The button monkey thing is lucrative, but it's such a time/energy sink with so little reward other than pay. I did get to do a couple of byline pieces, though. CV fodder is always nice.
-Finished my first novel! It could probably stand a little fluffing, but even as-is, it's long/fleshed-out enough to be a real YA book.
-Participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time--and won! 50k words on a new novel. Total writing for the year was nearly 200k words, not counting social-media blather.
Family:
-Mended some fences with my parents, thanks in large part to their agreement to get into some counseling. Things are still a little touchy, but we're at a friendly détente, which is a relief. Breaking off from them before was necessary, but I really disliked it.
-Celebrated 16 years with M, and 14 years married.
-Finally said a permanent goodbye to any chance of having a bio kid, with the surgery I had in May.
-Brought home a new furbaby a few months back. She's still adjusting a bit, but is growing and getting more brave every day, even though Otter constantly harasses her. Still have Penny around, too. She's ancient, now, but she doesn't seem to be in pain, so we're letting her decide when she wants to go.
-Sorted through adoption agencies and finally settled on one. Did the very first bits of paperwork for it.
Friends:
-Had another delightful year of the world's most awesome roomie. This really is the best living situation ever. We all get along so well domestically. Finally started seeing more of his boyfriend around here, too, which is nice. :)
-Had a few utterly splendid parties and dinners with folks, including last night's awesome NYE bash.
Domestic:
-Bought a couple of new furniture and electronics bits, with one more still coming. One of these, a big chair-and-a-half, is in the bay window in the parlor, and has become one of my favorite spots to read and write.
-Did a fairly major bit of nesting-related tidying. Reorged the kitchen and closets, etc.
-Spent some lovely time in my back yard watching birdies and growing things. Got huge crops of strawberries and blueberries, some herbs, and a few tomatoes and some tasty lemon cucumbers.
Travel
-Best. Birthday. Ever: Spent 3 weeks driving around the UK/Eire falling utterly in love with both places, while also being slightly terrified of the itty bitty streets with crazy drivers.
-Took my old friend K with us on a PDX/Oregon Coast trip. Was a gorgeous day for the coast bit.
-Did Dragon*Con again, and was a panelist this time. Seemed to have come down with something, though, so I was exhausted for much of it and didn't enjoy as much as I'd have liked.
-Spent Thanksgiving in Vegas. Which is a crazy place for that holiday, but it was perfect for us. Spent a day there roaming around a cool little nature preserve and seeing birds that we don't get at all up here.
-Also had a nice day at NW Trek.
Misc.
-Started singing again, with an all-woman community chorus that's well-known around here. Helped me get back in touch with some old friends I'd known from my previous chorus, and more importantly, helped me get back in touch with my voice, which I've missed dearly in the years of not being able to get to rehearsals (stoopid job.)
-Had a pretty fandom-heavy first half of the year, what with new eps of my fave show, and a crapload of fic writing and vidding related to that. Ended up writing a 100k-word fanfic novel. It's kind of dodgy, I know, but the regular writing really helped put me in a good space for finishing my legit stuff.
-Fell headfirst into the universe of A Song of Ice and Fire after I saw the Game of Thrones first season last summer. Promptly read through all five (so far) books in the series and am now anxiously awaiting the new season of the TV version.
-Did what I should have years ago, and got my ladybits nuked. No more horrible, debilitating periods. Woo!
-Paid off all our credit, except the mortgage. There's a tiny bit back on one of the cards now, from Christmas stuff, but that'll be paid back off shortly. There may be more going on with the adoption costs (depending on how much we need when), but beyond that and the house, we're debt-free, for the first time in about ever. It feels really nice.
-Got back into playing LOTRO, since it's cheap entertainment that doesn't require a lot of mental/emotional bandwidth. :)
This year, I will ...
Career:
-Probably do another short contract. I'm pretty close to guaranteed a new gig with my old team, doing something very different than I was before, and am also up for another gig with a team I'd really rather be on, since it's actual journalism, rather than celeb ass-kissing. However, there's so much else going on in the next six weeks that I'm still not sure about doing it. We don't really need the money (though it would be nice to help with the adoption expenses and such) but I'm also worried about having big CV gaps before we even have a kid around.
-Hopefully finish the NaNo novel and get it shopped to agents. Want to polish up the other one, too, but I really like this new one, and think it might even sell better. If, by some twist of fate, I do get one or both published, I'll probably quit the day job thing entirely. I still love journalism, but it's next to impossible to find a job doing it that wouldn't require me to move or sell my soul. Creative writing comes really easily to me, and I enjoy it, so if I can get paid for it, I may as well.
-Probably take a year at home once we have the kid. Hope that doesn't derail me too much.
Family:
-Celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. We're looking at buying new rings, since the ones we got back then are really uncomfortable (so much so that I bought him a substitute one about 8 years ago.) Sadly, we're really busy around that time, so we might not be able to do much more for the day.
-Finally (fingers crossed!) get a small human! We finally have the money (damn, this is expensive!), have a well-recommended agency, and we'll be doing their intro seminar in a few weeks. There's a stack of paperwork and some social-worker visits (not to mention kid-proofing the house, etc.) we'll need to do, but we're hoping to be in the pool of waiting parents by spring sometime. Then it's just a matter of a birthmom thinking we look like decent enough folks to raise her kid. No clue at all how long that might take. Our friends who used the same agency took about a year to get their son, from application to finalization, so that's probably a decent time framework for us, too. Once we get approved for that, we'll prolly also get M snipped, since any chance of my getting pregnant what with the surgery I had would be, quite literally, deadly for me.
Friends:
-Hopefully have some movie and game nights with the gang. Hadn't realized how much I missed them all and how much my soul needs that kind of socialization. Love my online friends, of course, but I need the meatspace social time, too, and I've been neglecting that, for various reasons.
Domestic:
-Swap my office and the guest room, for kid-housing purposes. The room my office is in is closer to the master, and farther from D's room, so hopefully the kid's squalling won't disturb him too much. It'll be a fairly major undertaking, though, since I'm basically condensing two rooms into one to make it work. (This is part of the reason I'm considering not working again for a while.)
-If I'm just sitting around waiting for the kid, I'll prolly overhaul the kitchen garden, too. It needs a proper aeration, among other things, in order to grow the stuff I really want. Also need to plant some bulbs, since we have so few.
Travel:
-This will have to be scheduled around the adoption timeline (and budget) but we're hoping to do at least something. Maybe drag D to Orlando or take a short cruise or something. Really want to be able to do a birdie-related trip sometime, too. Dying to see more critters we don't have around here.
Misc.
-Do my first-ever jury duty! Sposed to check in for that on Thursday. We'll see if they take me. I've had to decline most of the other times I was called due to work or school reasons. Should be interesting, I hope.
-Have some pretty major (and expensive) dental surgery. The tooth I had a root canal on many years ago is apparently screwed up, with a cracked root. So they want to yank it, then do a bone graft and an implant. Extraction is Tuesday. Not looking forward to it in the slightest. :(
-Probably dial back the fandom involvement. No clue when/if we're getting new eps of my show, and there's some other stuff making it kind of weird right now, too. Plus, I'm just not going to have the bandwidth, either.
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