vixy / Entries tagged with torrey

Yesterday after work, Torrey & I went for a walk to the nearby cemetary (it's really pretty and also a good shortcut to a main thoroughfare) to feed the crows who hang out there. I met Stripes, who has a couple of white feathers on one wing. We sat in the grass & enjoyed the sun and warmth and I almost forgot it was spring. The crows are starting to pair off and do the mutual preening thing, and we actually saw one fly by with a twig in its mouth, off to build its nest.

I miss my office crows.

Later that night I started feeling anxiety and uselessness and so I said 'fuck that' and got up and baked tollhouse cookies. Yeah I'm diabetic now, but over the past year I've learned how to monitor and moderate and the approximate limits of what I can & can't eat. I can have sweets, in moderation. Anyway it made me feel better.

Figured out how to do remote check deposit for my work, so (in theory) I won't need to go to the bank anymore to make the deposits. (I was already doing that for my personal banking, but it's not the same bank.) Some of our clients are already shifting over to electronic payment systems, which I heartily approve of. (My company has a separate bank account we use for that, so that we aren't giving our main bank account numbers out to anyone.)

Today I went in to my office to check mail and grab some remaining supplies. Mailbox contained no mail, but contained a note regarding the forwarding order, so I definitely won't need to go check the mail there again until post-crisis.

And then I remembered, hey, didn't we used to have some N95 masks? And WE DID and I FOUND THEM and I was SO HAPPY because we can donate them to the local hospitals!!! Fishy has done two trips so far to pick up masks from people who sign up to donate and drop them off for hospitals. A local UW employee organized it through twitter and google docs and I was so happy that I found these that I cried. Fishy told me a little bit about some of the folks who've been donating on his run, and it's so moving. Most people, it turns out, do not become dicks in a crisis.

Pity the ones who *are* dicks in a crisis are so often the ones in power. :/ We need to remind them that we outnumber them.

Long time no post! Hi, internets. Seems like as good a time as any to start chronicling life again.

So how's working from home going?

With Seattle being the early epicenter of the US COVID-19 outbreak, and reading blogs by people under quarantine in Wuhan and news from other countries, my household (4 adults, no kids) started working from home earlyish-on. Somewhere in the week of 3/2 - 3/6, all four of us made the shift.

Here's a diary of how that's going so far, in boring detail!

Normally, I'm alone in the office most of the time anyway; I maintain the central office for a company of claims insurance adjusters who all work from their homes. My main in-person interactions were an occasional visit from a co-worker or boss, passing interactions with neighbors (my office is in a condo building with ground-floor businesses), delivery folks as needed, and my postal carrier. So the first few days of real social distancing, I kept going to work, walking or driving rather than taking the bus, and did a LOT of hand washing/ hand sanitizing/disinfecting of surfaces.

I switched to work-from-home anyway, for a few reasons.

I'm interacting with that many fewer people outside my immediate household.
We can better share household supplies if I'm not maintaining a separate stock in a separate location.
I'm going through fewer public doors. (Lobby, garage, etc)
If something scary happens, in a societal unrest kind of sense (extremely unlikely, but slightly more likely than before), I'm at home safe with Fishy and Torrey and Tony, instead of having to hunker down in the office alone or find a way to get home.
If I have a bad bout of anxiety (quite likely, and much more likely than before), I'm at home with my support people. And I'm also at home to support them in turn.

So on Friday 3/6, I brought home a few office supplies, installed Quickbooks on my personal laptop, and locked up the office and went home, stopping by Fred Meyer for prescription refills on the way. The store was pretty calm at that time, although a longish line at the pharmacy. Also gave Torrey a ride home from campus so she wouldn't have to take the bus.

The week of 3/9 to 3/12 gradually showed me that laptop-on-kitchen-table was not gonna suffice either for work or for ergonomics. It also made me realize that this is going to be a lot longer term than I was prepared for; there were a lot of tasks I couldn't easily do on my laptop, and some I couldn't do at all. I managed to do the mid-month payroll (yay getting paid!) but it was a minor miracle. And going in to the office every couple of days to check the physical mail was sort of defeating the purpose.

On Monday the 16th (I think), after the nth time of me yelling "I MISS MY DUAL MONITORS", Fishy said, "then why don't we go get your desktop?"

I was surprised at my own emotional reaction to the idea of bringing my entire office setup home. I think I'd been holding back most of the anxiety by unconsciously treating this as short-term temporary, and so taking longer-term precautions brought it all to the forefront at once. I also inexplicably felt a fear of being judged as stupid (by who?) for overkill, despite my having loudly encouraged everyone else to cancel travel and big events and activities.

Fishy reassured me that this is not overkill, it is in fact an appropriate amount of kill, and helped me get moving and do the thing. So now my sit-stand desk with its dual monitor mount is clamped to my desk at home, and I brought home my desktop computer, scanner, a bunch of paperwork, some of my file trays, some banking stuff, etc. Some of it is still in boxes and piles on the floor, but I'm trying to organize at least one thing per day into a less haphazard system.

So, Monday was mostly spent convincing myself to do that, doing it, and getting it set up. (And letting my boss & my local co-worker know I'd done this, so nobody would go to the office and think we'd been very selectively robbed.) Rest of the week has been divided between actual work tasks that were already online (thank god my boss has been pushing us gradually to go paperless for a couple years now), converting work tasks to online that weren't yet, and adjusting to having all of us working at home.

Our house has a room above (and the same size as) the 2-car garage, which we call the studio. The four corners of the room consist of our little recording booth, Tony's desk & sound engineering setup, my desk & craft space, and Torrey's desk & craft space. Fishy has his desk & workroom in the downstairs guest room. (He also has half the garage, because nobody wants power tools indoors.) So three of us are basically each other's new co-workers now.

Torrey teaches chemistry at Shoreline Community College, which has gone to online-only, so in the morning Tony & I work quietly while she gives lectures and holds office hours via Zoom. (The dept has not figured out how they're going to do labs yet, but it's the end of the quarter, so at least they have until next quarter to figure it out.) I rarely ever get phone calls, and the few that I need to take on my cell are usually in the afternoon. Tony is a software tester, and his conference call meetings are usually at 5pm, by which time Torrey & I have finished work. Negotiations!

There's all manner of little things to adjust to. Being above the garage, the studio's always a bit colder than the rest of the house (or hotter, in summer) so I need a sweater & slippers, and my coffee cools faster. The exercise bike is right next to me so now it's the chat-with-Vixy seat. I like a lot of daylight, but the glare of too much sunlight gives Tony headaches. Google Fit has noticed that I'm going up and down the stairs a lot more, since the kitchen is downstairs. (I also brought home the office K-cup machine; nobody's using it while I'm gone.) I realized I have to start charging my bluetooth headphones overnight, now that I'm using them all day. My shoulders have informed me that my desk chair needed adjusting. We're having to do dishes more often, with all of us home. And so on.

All four of us are aware that we are incredibly, fantastically lucky that we have jobs which enable us to do all of this.

And what about the outside world? Well, Fishy has been the one doing the grocery supply runs. We're trying to keep stocked up without hoarding. At the same time, we're going through everything faster than usual, because we've never all been home 24/7 before. (Our soda consumption is EPIC.) He reported the first few times that the stores seemed normal, if less crowded (he goes late at night), some folks in masks, not everyone. He also started wearing a mask there himself. His most recent trip this week was finally showing the signs we're hearing about on the news; empty shelves, per-person limits on paper products. (We're still trying not to hoard, because we fucking care about our neighbors.) Last week, Torrey & I went to the post office once, I went twice to check mail at my office (I put in a forwarding order, so I shouldn't need to do that anymore after tomorrow) and to pick up things I'd forgotten. We're wiping down every hard-surfaced item that comes into the house, and washing our hands a LOT (and moisturizing a lot), particularly after coming into the house from outside. I'm disinfecting doorknobs, light switches & faucets every couple of days, and changing out hand towels often. (That last one isn't strictly necessary; it just makes me feel better.)

My parents, who count as the outside world for me right now, are both at high risk of serious cases if they get the virus. My dad is 80, and is the primary caregiver at home for my stepmom, who has MS which has progressed to the point that she is quadriplegic. They have a few different caregivers who come in to help on weekdays, and a lift for transferring my stepmom from bed to chair and back. I'm not visiting right now, for fear of transmitting anything to my stepmom, and Dad's washing his hands before he does literally anything. I reminded him to have the care team wash their hands too, and last we spoke he was considering asking them to wear masks.

Fishy & I offered a few times to go grocery shopping for them so that he wouldn't have to go out and risk exposure, but one of their neighbors in their building is an old friend-of-a-friend who checks on them periodically, and has offered to pick up anything they need. And when I asked a bunch of questions about whether they had this or that thing, I learned that my dad has routinely kept about two weeks or so worth of supplies stocked and always shopped in the evening when it's less crowded anyway, before any of this began. This is not his first caring-for-the-immunocompromised rodeo, it turns out.

Fishy took part yesterday in a locally organized effort to gather and donate N95 masks to Seattle hospitals and care homes. They're desperate and running out of everything, and one local person organized a donation drive via Twitter and Google Docs.

We're very lucky that our leaders in WA have been stepping up and taking action. I'm also very angry that whether or not you're getting the kind of communication and action that we have is basically a game of roulette.

Wouldn't it be great if there were some kind of, I don't know, central leadership? One that would coordinate efforts across the country, move resources to where they're most needed, disseminate accurate information and reassurance? Instead of "oh well, all y'all states are on your own, lol" and luck of the draw as to whether your state officials give a crap and/or are at all competent?

...yeah, I'm still angry and bitter about that. Somewhere there's an alternate timeline where we had an intelligent, prepared President who was actually possessed of a shred of empathy for other human beings.

Anyway. That reminds me of another thing: while it is SUPER IMPORTANT to practice social distancing as much as you can, wash your hands, cancel in-person events...it is also okay to HATE IT. It's okay to be angry about it. It's okay to be sad about missing events you were looking forward to. It's also okay if you love it. It's okay if you relish the peace and quiet. It's also okay if you continue to plan things for summer even though you know you might have to cancel because it gets you through the goddamn day to look forward to something.

While I would definitely call you a bad person if you risk others' lives by not following safety protocols, you are NOT A BAD PERSON if you feel whatever way you feel while doing it. I've talked to people who feel guilty for their emotional reactions, and just... you don't deserve guilt for your feelings. Have 'em safely, but by all means, have 'em. I sure am.

The feels randomly sneak up on each of us here at the Agora, and we give each other space and support as best we can, and then we go on washing our hands and working from home and figuring out what to do next. It's what we've got.

Stay safe, friends and neighbors.

anxious

Well. 2015 is almost over! I feel like a review...

2015 Highlights

I went back to eating meat. I became a vegetarian around 16 years ago, mainly due to the spiritual beliefs I shared with my mother. When I stopped believing those particular things, I stayed a vegetarian because I assumed it would be too difficult to change at that point. Over the last half of 2014 I began to feel like that wasn't a good enough reason anymore. Mom had never pressured us into being vegetarian when she chose that for herself, so there wasn't any baggage about doing it for her memory or anything.

I was afraid it would make me horribly sick, and was trying to think of the best thing to start with. I took the very sensible advice of Brooke, who basically said, if you're going to risk being horribly sick anyway, you might as well do it for something you find delicious! So the first meat I had on purpose after all those years was the beef & pork meatloaf that Torrey had made for her Agent Carter party in January. (It had smelled like utter heaven the first time she made it, so when she made it a second time, I went for it.) I took an anti-diarrhea pill in hopes that it would help, and whether it did or whether I just didn't need it, I have rejoined the Omnivore Club and never looked back.

(And oh my god my life is SO MUCH MORE CONVENIENT. It wasn't *difficult* to be a vegetarian in most places, but it was sure a pain in the ass sometimes. My sympathies to all those who have food restrictions that they have no choice about.)

Conflikt happened, and we backed up the Toastmaster Cecilia Eng in her concert. It was delightful and fun and a little surreal, given that Cecilia was one of the very first filkers I ever heard, in the very first filk circle I ever attended. I'm pretty sure I kept it together, though. (Didn't I?)

Consonance happened, and it was a delightful blur. I ducked out for an afternoon to go to a local pin trading meetup, because Disney. Also Scott Snyder very kindly asked me to sing backup in his CD release concert, which was the best. Maya and I did our doo-wop finest. It was a great time.

Emerald City Comic Con happened, which was an even more delightful blur because it included my Seanan! Dinners and pedicures and comics were had.

In March, a dear friend of ours regained his freedom. I don't have much else to say about that in public, except that ten years is a long time.

Norwescon happened. We had a concert (I think?) and also backed Molly Lewis in her concert. She's always fun to play with.

DISNEY WORLD! Seanan took me (and her Mom & sis) to Disney World again and it was GLORIOUS. Also ridiculously hot & humid (wtf it was MAY) but DISNEY. I took lots of photos!

We got to eat at Cinderella's Royal Table once and Be Our Guest twice, both of which were delicious and spectacular, and our old favorite the Coral Reef at least twice, one time of which we got to sit right up next to the aquarium wall. And T-Rex, where we sat IN A VOLCANO and were roared at by dinosaurs.

Saw the Festival of Fantasy parade. Saw the safari and an awesome bird show where I GOT TO HAVE A RAVEN LAND ON ME. Saw that show three times. :)

Saw "La Nouba", the Cirque de Soleil show, again, and this time got the package that included a backstage tour!!! Which included photos with a Cirque cast member and a question & answer time with a stage director. Amazing and wonderful.

Floated down a lazy river. Watched Seanan catch frogs (and accidentally feed one to the grackles, oops.) Learned that corvids will follow me wherever I go.

Many characters were met, many animatronics were admired, many frogs were captured.

The whole trip was a delight, even the parts that weren't. There is absolutely nothing like me & Seanan at a Disney park. Nothing in the world.

We threw a Eurovision party. Which I was not really in charge of, but Eurovision is a heck of a good time. We get together and watch a download of the finals. Fishy's thinking of devising some way for the party attendees to vote (among ourselves) next year.

July was FULL of gigs and rehearsals. Vixy & Tony were guests at Westercon! Chord! Thing! It was like three cons welded together in an unholy defiance of the laws of god and man and filk. And also weirdly humid, which everyone in San Diego swore was unusual. Seanan was also a guest there; maybe the humidity followed us from Florida.

The following weekend was a joint gig at SoulFood Books with the PDX Broadsides, and OH MAN WAS THAT FUN. They are awesome. Stay tuned for more future gigs with them, hopefully in Portland.

The two weekends after that, we opened for the Sunday shows of Seattle's Outdoor Trek. This year they were doing "Amok Time", and it was glorious. They also announced that it was their last year (at least for now) of doing Outdoor Trek. :( They said they might do other outdoor show type things... who knows? Live long & prosper, guys.

The weekend after *that* (technically August 1 but July had rehearsals) we joined Betsy Tinney and all the hundreds of bands she is in for "Music Under the Trees", sort of a one-day music festival + dinner at Pinecoon. I hope a good time was had by all, 'cause a good time was certainly had by us. :)

Later that month I got a CPAP machine, which, holy cow, that thing has CHANGED MY LIFE. I'm not saying I spring out of bed fully awake now, but the difference between waking up normally and ZOMBIE FOX UNNNGH is phenomenal. I'm grateful to Fishy and Tony for noticing I was stopping breathing a lot in the night and for bugging me until I went to the doctor about it. I love my little tentacle beast.

August also held Sasquan, which was super exciting both for being a Worldcon we could actually drive to and for being a Worldcon where FISHY MADE THE HUGO BASES. Much has been said and written about the whole Hugo thing, which I don't feel like re-hashing any of, except to say that the whole thing was an extremely satisfying experience and I was burstingly proud of my Fishy and I may have gloated every time someone came up and complimented him on the Hugo base. Will took us in hand at the parties before & after and basically made problems disappear before they happened, for which I was eternally grateful. Also I wore a RAINBOW EVENING GOWN.

Also I got to spend a LOT more time talking to friends than is often the case at cons, which was delightful. Construction paper D&D! It's a thing. I think I went to like one half of one panel but I didn't care in the least because I had good times with awesome people.

And the masquerade was awesome. Torrey won an award because of course she did.

The smoke from nearby wildfires made the place a Marscape half the time, which was at least appropriate for a science fiction convention. None of our party had any serious health problems from it; I hope nobody else did, either.

Then there was a weekend of recording backing vocals for the Bohnhoffs, aka "go get in the box". We had a lovely time making beautiful music together, despite my falling down the stairs in the studio and spraining a toe. Whatever, at least I didn't spill my tea.

Late September brought us the Serenniversary at Wayward Coffeehouse, which was also Wayward's own anniversary. I've always thought of Wayward as the musical home of Vixy & Tony; our first non-con gig was there, at a Serenniversary, and it kind of opened a door for us to do other kinds of shows. I was glad for the chance to thank Broenwynn for the opportunity.

October contained GeekGirlCon! At which I didn't actually do a whole lot except enjoy the ambiance. And the dealer room. I got to see Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn speak, which I'm glad I had the chance to do.

Torrey helped run the DIY Science Zone there as usual, and I mostly hung about and made sure she got meals.

And then and then Seanan and I made our annual HALLOWEEN AT DISNEYLAND trip and I THINK THIS WAS THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER OH MY GOD. Here is the photo album...

So they did this event called "Mystical Spirits of the Blue Bayou", which was a dinner event at the Blue Bayou restaurant with a prix fixe menu and hosted by Dr. Facilier "with some of his friends from the other side." We'd already bought our Halloween Party tickets for another night when I heard about it, and I didn't want to ditch our friends & go to the dinner alone... then Seanan had the brilliant idea of going to the Halloween Party on TWO nights so we could do the dinner! Hurray for cash-soluble problems! The food was great and the show was a delight-- Dr. Facilier sang & did some speechifying, accompanied by the "Southern Belles" who were basically undead princesses (he didn't call them that, but: sandy blonde in a blue dress with a black choker; blonde in a pink dress; African American girl in a green dress... all with zombie undead makeup. You get the idea.) The Cadaver Dans did a set, some pirates did a set (featuring a Cursed Treasure Chest which opened to reveal bags of Halloween candy for each guest) and Dr. Facilier did photos with every table. And then there were special guests "from the other side" which were Constance the bride from the Haunted Mansion and THE TIGHTROPE WALKER FROM THE HAUNTED MANSION PORTRAIT. I absolutely flipped my lid. I think she saw me fangirling because she came closer to our table than the bride had done. YES I FANGIRL A CHARACTER FROM A FAKE PORTRAIT I REGRET NOTHING. Except I regret not getting better photos because I was bouncing so much that mine were blurry. She didn't speak, but she was absolutely flawless, from her costume to her hair to her face to her movements (she even walked like a dancer/tightrope walker.) The whole evening was absolutely delightful, and that was the Friday of a long weekend trip, and that was before we even got to all the trick-or-treating!

That weekend we also got to hang out with a lot of our good Disneyland friends, do many rides, acquire much candy, and do new things. I always try to do at least one new thing at Disneyland when we go. Besides the special event, we ate with Mark & Baize at a restaurant we hadn't before: the Carthay Circle, which was schmancy and Brat Pack-y and sold me a light-up poison apple ice cube for Seanan because we saw it in someone's cocktail but none of us wanted the cocktail.

Our second Halloween party night I got another delight: I dressed as a sort of abstract raven, and REALLY wanted to do the Maleficent photo op in it. They were switching out villains every 20 minutes or so, and officially when you get up to the line you have to take whoever's there in the three slots, but unofficially if you let someone behind you go on ahead of you, the cast members don't care as long as everyone's happy. This led to a small group of us going "who's waiting for the girls? Do you want the girls? Who wants the boys? Go ahead of us if you want the boys!" and one guy who literally went all the way back down the line to find anyone who wanted the "boys" (Hades, Captain Hook, and Jafar) as opposed to the "girls" (Evil Queen, Cruella, and Maleficent). It was this wonderful organized chaos, and everyone got what they wanted.

Especially me! I decided as I got up there to go full improv-theatre mode-- I did not speak AT ALL once it was my turn, I just cawed and made crow sounds. The Evil Queen was first, and she seemed to have forgotten that she had a pet raven in her movie. Oops. Cruella was next, who of course makes faces at any animal she can't turn into a fur coat (I've had great fun bringing Mousie to meet her.) And then: MALEFICENT. Who IMMEDIATELY called me "Diablo" and started chatting away asking me if I had been out spying for her, and if I'd found out any news, and if I'd seen that little princess, and if it was time for the princess to have another nap, and telling me to report back when I had any news. Oh, it was FANTASTICALLY FUN. Then for the last few pics she put out her arm SO I COULD PRETEND TO PERCH ON IT. Best. Photo op. EVER. <3 <3 <3

The following weekend, we had our Agora Halloween party, to which I wore my old Companion Cube costume because it's easy & comfortable. Tried a bit of a new makeup scheme with it, which came out pretty well. Plus Portal earrings from Optimysticals. :)

November brings us to Orycon. Where we had a concert and also backed up Cade's concert and joined in one number on Betsy's concert, because that's how we (musically) roll. It was quite a nice relaxing con, actually. It was also a little bit of a blur! But it was absolutely wonderful to get to see Tanya Huff, who we hadn't seen in ages, and to watch the PDX Broadsides do their thang. For our part, I'm told our concert was one of our best. I never save anything for the trip back, which I think is why the con is a blur now. :)

Thanksgiving I spent at HOME, relaxing, for the first time ever, and it was GLORIOUS. I ate things and played games and watched MST3K. The down side to this is that the reason was partly that my stepmom was feeling too exhausted from her radiation schedule (breast cancer, second round, whee, also fuck cancer) and my dad exhausted from transporting & lifting her for many extra doctor appointments, so they didn't really feel up to a family gathering. Which I understood completely even as I wished the reason for it could've been something which was not that.

And here we are in December! We had another Solstice Party with our favorite theme of "we are the light" (aka wear all your glowy/blinky/light-up stuff and we'll turn the house lights off). I really love doing that. It makes everyone fun to look at in a "wait who are you again" kind of way. I decorated one of my top hats with rice lights-- the hat with a crow on it, so I tried to outline the crow in the lights too, though it didn't really show-- and concealed the battery packs in the crown of the hat, which made it kind of not quite fit and prone to falling off but I managed. I kind of went to bed early by accident, though-- I went upstairs to have a few minutes of quiet time, as I usually need to do at a party, and fell DEAD ASLEEP for the next few hours. Oops. It turns out that I find the sounds of my house being full of happy people to be extremely soothing. :)

I have left things out, some on purpose and some accidentally-- visits with friends, dinners with family, recording sessions, pin meetups. Daily trials and triumphs. Things that go to make up a life, as they say. I had forgotten until I sat down with my calendar to write this, just how busy the year was! No wonder I'm tired. :)

Tonight I'm going to stay home with two of my loves, snuggling on the couch, drinking whatever booze is left from the party, maybe watching some MST3K/Rifftrax. They say that how you spend New Year's Eve is an indicator of how the year will be. I intend to spend mine safe and warm and comfortable and loved and happy and enjoying exactly the things I want to enjoy. And being grateful that life is good.

Have a wonderful New Year, everyone. May 2016 be kind to you and yours.

http://vixyish.livejournal.com/831988.html

Time has been seeming to go by way to fast lately. Most recently this was partly due to migraines and cramps. I lost a good chunk of Consonance (and the weekend prior) to a migraine, and a whole evening this week to cramps. I now hate cramps for the same reason I hate migraines (besides the pain, I mean): they are thieves of time. Not only because I become useless but I seem to have a pain response that amounts to "fall asleep on couch for hours." I HATE wasted time. Hate hate hate. I mean, time that I didn't *choose* to waste. I have no problem sitting around wasting time watching mindless TV or playing iPad games if that's what I want to do. But I absolutely hate having time TAKEN from me. (Or accidentally wasting it, like forgetting something important that I have to drive all the way back home for. I kick myself hardest for those.)

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Speaking of Consonance, it was lovely! We hadn't been in a couple years, I think because ECCC kept being on top of it. The time not stolen by migraines was well spent hanging out with friends and enjoying concerts and filk circles and backing Scott Snyder in his awesome concert for his awesome new album, Rock and Roll to Hit. Scott is a delight to work with and a dear sweet person and he actually remembered that time at a house filk a hundred years ago where he trolled me with "Faegrass". :D

And yet I did not get ENOUGH time to spend with people! It was like I blinked and it was over. I did run off to a Disney pin trading event on Saturday afternoon (the Nor Cal group was having a gathering on the same weekend like TWELVE MILES AWAY from the hotel, how could I resist?) but I was only gone for a few hours! It was actually pretty fun indulging two of my favorite hobbies in one trip. Efficiency!

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Spring has come to Seattle, which means highs of 60F or so and lows of 35F or so. Spring and Fall are the Times of Layers. Spring is also the time when the crows go a little nutsier than usual.

I'm walking to and from the office these days, which means feeding them more. Sometimes they absolutely mob me, which is delightful and hilarious. They crowd around, fly in circles around my head, zoom very low over me (there is nothing quite like the whoosh of wings about one's ears). One tried to land ON my head but either it got no purchase or was startled when I was startled, because I just felt its little claws go BONK. Other days they are so busy chasing each other (did I mention it's spring) that they actually FORGET THE FOOD.

When they're crowding around, there will always be one or two who fly up and land on the ground fairly close to me, hoping to get to the food before anyone else does. They'll usually land alongside me, which delights me, and I will carefully toss some food near them so as not to scare them (arm-throwing motion right AT them makes them fly away; they have a pretty good basic grasp of physics.) Occasionally one will do this but land in *front* of me, while I'm *still walking*, which means now I'm *walking toward them*, and you can SEE them go "I IMMEDIATELY REGRET THIS DECISION."

By the way, in case you did not happen to see my status on Facebook or Twitter: I am very happy that my friends see crow things and it makes them think of me. I take it in the friendly and affectionate way in which it is meant. That said, please be assured that I HAVE SEEN THE CROW STORY. Yes, the one with the little girl whose crows have been giving her gifts since she was eight. Yes, I've read the article. Really. I really have. I've also seen the BBC follow-up where other readers sent in their crow stories in response to that article. (To be fair, only one person sent me that one.)

Amusingly, when the first person sent me that link and said "hey vixy, do your crows do this?" I was like "...no they don't and now I am a little pouty about it :(" and then a couple weeks later the crows left me a dandelion by their food dish at my office. Then earlier this week one of them dropped a scrap of pink tulle down to me from the wire where it was perched. I think the corvid takeover is coming, you guys. They're clearly reading Facebook now.

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Speaking of food, I went for it and started eating meat again back in January. (I forget exactly when I started, but I remember eating some meat during Conflikt, so it was sometime around then.) I decided to take Brooke's advice, in that if I was going to be risking unpleasant results anyway, I might as well make it worthwhile and eat something DELICIOUS. So I started with Torrey's amazing meatloaf. (Which you guys is OMG SO GOOD.) I moved on cautiously to other delicious things. It has been going much better than I expected!

Without going into gross detail, I'm thinking back and wondering if those problems I had before were just IBS all along. IBS is a vague bunch of symptoms that sometimes get exacerbated by things, and I got diagnosed with it long after I'd become a vegetarian. There was this time around ten years ago where I was having REALLY BAD gut pain (but not meat-related) and the doctors were like "OH SHIT RULE OUT ECTOPIC PREGNANCY QUICK" (because that can kill you, and fast) and then ruled out other things too. I had three pregnancy tests (boy was I not pregnant, I was the most not-pregnant I have ever been), two CT scans, and an ultrasound, and they found nothing at all wrong with me, and concluded "I dunno, eat more fiber or something." (I paraphrase but that was actually as much concrete info as I got.)

Anyway, it turns out that pre-emptive taking of things that help IBS also help when I eat meat. I haven't had any significant problems AT ALL. I really did think there was going to be this horrible period of adjustment. So far the worst that has really happened was that the General Tso's Chicken tasted gross to me (it could've been just a bad piece or maybe I don't like dark meat or who even knows).

The hardest part has actually been mental/psychological. Fifteen years of being a vegetarian means I have developed mental habits that can be summarized as OH GOD NO DON'T EAT THAT. I am still having to consciously remind myself sometimes that this really is an okay thing to put into my mouth if I want it.

This makes for an interesting cognitive dissonance with the things it turns out I kinda missed. YOU GUYS I LOVE HAM SO MUCH. I always did. I keep almost saying I missed it, but that's not quite right-- I wasn't thinking about it all those years. It's just now I remember how great it was. Bacon is great but HAMMMMM. A few weeks ago, I ordered what used to be my very very favorite pizza ever since I was a kid: Canadian bacon and black olive. OH IT WAS SO GOOD. Also Fishy and Torrey had an idea to make Alton Brown's eggs Benedict recipe (with homemade English muffins OMG) and while I have confirmed that I still don't like Hollandaise, the rest was DELICIOUS. Also sausage is still delicious with maple syrup, I checked.

As was my intention, it did make some things a lot easier. I took Fishy to a doctor appt and got food while I waited; the small cafeteria at Group Health didn't have a lot, but they did have pizza by the slice. What's that, you only have pepperoni or Hawaiian? I'LL TAKE ONE OF EACH. Then again, some things are a lot harder; we went to the Italian place that has replaced Macaroni Grill, and there were SO MANY TASTY THINGS HOW DO YOU ALL DECIDE. And of course, the housemates no longer feel the need to save pizza for me. When there was only one kind I could eat out of the kinds we ordered, they'd be careful to save that for me. Now it's EVERY CARNIVORE FOR THEMSELVES, BABY. ;)

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Next on calendar: ECCC! I think!

So I'm thinking about going back to eating meat.

A bit of backstory:

I stopped eating meat about fifteen years ago. It's easiest to say it was for religious reasons, although not from any organized religion, just from the patchwork of Protestant-turned-new-age beliefs that my mother and aunt raised me with. A hodgepodge of books and seminars and Biblical reinterpretations and things "remembered" in meditations that was the core of my life from my single-digits to... well that's another story, never mind. Anyway.

Around fifteen years ago, my mother decided to stop eating meat, because at the time we believed that death was unnatural-- any death, human or animal. Death had been brought to this world by... well let's not go into how it got here, but we believed that all life was originally intended to transform (something to do with emotion and vibrations), taking the body with us rather than leaving it behind. Death was a trauma, and one day my mother decided she didn't want to ingest anything that had experienced that trauma, taking in its negative emotion and energy. (My aunt didn't go fully vegetarian at that time, but did drastically reduce the amount of meat she ate.) She told my sister and me about it, but she said she didn't expect us to do the same. My sister decided not to. But I idolized my mother and aunt. I believed everything they taught me. I decided to do it too.

After nine or ten years, and various life events, I no longer subscribed to the beliefs I'd grown up with. But I kept being vegetarian, because by that point, if I accidentally ate anything made with meat-- even broth-- I'd suffer nasty gastrointestinal reactions. (I'll never forget thinking I was safe ordering macaroni & cheese at a fancy downtown restaurant, only to wake up in pain at 2am and spend the next few hours in the bathroom. I called the restaurant the next day. "Soooo... any chance your mac n cheese contains meat?" "Oh, yeah, it's made with chicken broth, why?" "MAYBE YOU COULD PUT THAT ON YOUR MENU NEXT TIME." (I paraphrase.))

Up to now, going back to meat hasn't seemed worth the bother. It's not actually that inconvenient to be a vegetarian; I eat eggs and cheese, I get enough protein (you don't actually need a ton anyway), and even the most meatful of restaurants is happy to make their pasta dish for you and leave the meat off (especially once you tell them you don't expect them to discount the price for you). Very occasionally someone gives me crap about it, but those times have been few and far between.

So why now? Well, a few reasons:

For the most part I haven't really missed meat, but every once in a while there's something I miss, or wish I could try. For example, Torrey recently made this AMAZING meatloaf that even to my vegetarian nose smelled like absolute heaven. Seriously I would almost have gone back to meat right on the spot if it weren't that beef is probably the worst place to start for this.

Also, I've been assuming all these years that I'd have to go through a really long period of GI distress, weeks even, before I reacclimated my body to digesting meat. I recently realized that I have no reason to assume it'd take that long. It could-- I have no idea-- but there's nothing to indicate either way. I'm not even sure why I leapt to that conclusion; for all I know it might just take a meal or two and be done.

And even though being vegetarian isn't *that* big an inconvenience, it would still make things *somewhat* easier, in terms of restaurants and visiting other people's houses.

And then there's something that I had never quite realized until I was explaining it to Seanan the other day. I'm not sure I even knew what I was going to say before the words came out of my mouth. The original decision to become a vegetarian... I didn't make that decision for myself.

I mean, I was an adult, I did make the decision. But I didn't do it for me. I didn't do it for my own reasons. I did it for my mother, and my aunt, to follow the things they taught me. I did it to be closer to what they wanted me to be. I did it to be good. Why should I continue a practice that was never really mine in the first place?

The more I think about it, the more I want to try going back. I'm still considering how to go about it. I'd probably want to start with something broth rather than solid, and probably chicken rather than beef (don't they always say red meat is harder to digest?) And maybe, like, on a Friday, so I'd have the weekend for staying up late if I have to. Maybe one meal with meat and then a few meals without, or every other meal. I was considering making a boxed instant rice thing we have in the pantry, although I don't know how much difference there is between the "chicken flavor" ingredients in those things vs. something made with broth that came from an actual chicken you cooked yourself.

There are some meat dishes that still gross me out at the thought of eating, so I wouldn't be going back to eating ALL meat. Then again, nobody eats EVERYTHING. Except maybe my husband.

Edit: I realized I left out something big!

I do eat some fish. A few years ago I started missing tuna fish sandwiches, so I cautiously started eating them again and had no problems whatsoever. I read somewhere it's a different protein, or something? Anyway it was never a problem.

Of course, I had always hated pretty much all seafood besides tuna fish before that, so that didn't change much. Shortly after I had my gallbladder out, Torrey happened to make salmon and I tried some and liked it. So sometimes I eat salmon, if it's cooked well. I still haven't liked any other seafood I've tasted, including sushi. So that's pretty much a dead end, there.

contemplative
http://vixyish.livejournal.com/830654.html

Wow. It's New Year's Eve. 2014 flew by, as the years seem to do for me. There's lots that I meant to write about and never did. I'm gonna use Google calendar to jog my memory...

In January we went to Disneyland for Seanan's birthday! I... don't remember a whole lot of that trip actually. Except PINS, of course. :D Also in January Seanan came to visit us and attended Conflikt! Yaaaaay!

In March we went to Emerald City Comic-Con! It was great and also terrible! They're getting really really big and kind of struggling to keep up with running and managing a media con that big. (It's a con in the trade-show format of San Diego Comic-Con rather than in the SF-con format of Norwescon.) Wes and Seanan both came to town for the con. A good time and many comics purchases were had by all.

In April there was Norwescon! And Seanan! Again! Because she was a GoH this time! Norwescon was its usual huge and awesome self.

Also in April was another Disneyland trip with Seanan, and a big Disney Pin Forum gathering! I met bunches of pin traders in person for the first time whom I'd only met online before, and made lots of great trades, and had a lovely time.

In May, Brooke visited our couch! And said hi to us while she was here!

Also in May was Fishy's Eurovision viewing party (via download, not live), which turned out to be a HOOT. He got to introduce a lot of people (myself included) to the delightful craziness that is the Eurovision Song Contest. We were DELIGHTED with the winner, Conchita Wurst of Austria with "Rise Like a Phoenix".

In June I went to a Disneyana convention called Pacific Northwest Mouse Meet. It was... kinda disappointing, really. There were some good vendors and a teeeeensy bit of pin trading, but mostly you needed to be into the lectures by Imagineers and the trivia, which weren't quite my thing.

In July I played a surprisingly disappointing gig, a surprisingly happy-making gig, and an unsurprisingly happy-making one. I saw Outdoor Trek for the first time and I plan never to miss it again. Also I turned 43.

In August I went to WorldCon in London, which was interesting and hectic and I don't remember a lot. We did a good concert with Seanan. I got to spend time with many wonderful people I don't see nearly enough.

After the con, I spent about a week in Paris with the Crowells and Brooke and Seanan and Amy in an Air-B-n-B apartment (all hail the Brooke booking skills!) that was amazing and weird and wonderful. It had a hot tub and a sauna and a steam room and some bizarre and disturbing art on the walls which fortunately did not come alive and eat us. Also Seanan and Amy and I went to Disneyland Paris! Some of it was just like California and some was very different. Some of it was lovely and some not so much. It was fun to be able to use my French. Also Brooke took us to several really excellent restaurants. Our snarky French waiter was the BEST. On the whole, Paris was heavenly.

At the end of September/beginning of October, Tony and I went to FilkCONtinental as Guests of Honor! Tony made sure that Betsy & Sunnie were able to come too, because it just wouldn't be the same without them. It was AMAZING. The German filkers are some of the nicest filkers I’ve ever met anywhere. And the filk circles were all the kind of circle that makes you remember why you fell in love with filk in the first place. And when we played “We Are Who We Are,” the crowd STOOD UP and held hands in a big circle and sang along with all the choruses. We cried. There aren't words.

Somewhere in October I did a piece for the semi-revived Art Book Circle, a project where a group of artists are passing books between us and each adding a section. All my sections so far are in this Flickr album.

Oh, I keep forgetting stuff! Also in October, I went to the opera for the first time ever! It was Fishy's idea. We saw Don Giovanni. I really enjoyed it.

In late October, Seanan and I went to Disneyland for the Halloween Party. We skipped OVFF to do this, and I was partly sorry to miss it, but… I REALLY needed the Disneyland trip. There was a lot going on with me emotionally and mentally and... I literally burst into tears when we walked into the hotel room, it felt so much like coming home. Seanan’s right, it’s better than therapy.

We got to hang out with Sarah and wear our new Disney fascinators (gifts from Seanan) to the Halloween party and meet villains. Hades pretended to get all huffy at Seanan's Megara hat. And we got to hang out with Anthony and meet his older son who is a CHARMER OMG and take him to see Mickey's Magical Map (which still has three count 'em three princesses of color, YAY) because It's a Small World was closed. And we got to have dinner with Sarah and Amy (the other Amy) and David and Doc and I think Deborah and it was a warm night on the restaurant patio and "When Can I See You Again" from Wreck-It Ralph came on over the PA and we ALL SANG ALONG and it was GLORIOUS. (Actually just writing about this trip is putting me in a better mood than I've been in all month.)

Whenever we go to Disneyland, I like to try to have at least one "first" - usually an attraction I've never ridden before, or something. I got a few this time! David took us to Company D, which was cool! I'd never seen it before. And he bought me a present, a lovely Merida lanyard medallion that is HUGE and GORGEOUS.

And also Deborah & Michael took us to a banked-track roller derby meet at the L.A. Derby Dolls. (The teams we saw were the Sirens vs. the Fight Crew.) It was my first ever roller derby meet and OMG IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! Seanan kind of explained the rules to me and the announcers also gave a good explanation before the meet started, complete with videos on the big screens, so I had no trouble telling what was going on. We had a BLAST and I bought several shiny things from the vendors at half time and I really need to see more roller derby now!

In November Tony and I went to Orycon as filk Guests of Honor. They were so good to us! They barely worked us at all and gave us a gift bag full of chocolates and all kinds of good stuff. Primo guest gig! We had a good time in the filk circles too.

Also in November was Thanksgiving vs. Christmas, the holiday special by Molly Lewis, which took up a whole lot of our lives for most of October and November. We (Vixy & Tony & Sunnie & Betsy) were her house band, which means in addition to learning the song she wrote for me to sing (she wrote lyrics to the Doctor Who theme) we also learned about half the other songs in the show, to back up Molly and the other singers. So there were a LOT of rehearsals, which included last-minute learning of new songs, getting everyone's schedules to mesh, and then gathering the WHOLE FREAKING CREW to rehearse the script, which was still being edited right up to the minutes before the show.

The plot (spoilers ahead!) was that Molly’s favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, and she’s annoyed that Christmas takes everything over so early, and so she invites her friends over to her “house” (the stage) to talk about what they’re thankful for. But every conversation ends up turning to Christmas, and Molly finally gets fed up and sings about why Thanksgiving is Better than Christmas. Only it turns out it’s because Thanksgiving is her birthday, and everyone calls her on it and how she just wants presents, and then Santa Claus (played by Kevin Murphy) comes in and calls her a greedy-pants, but sings a song about how he also is annoyed that Christmas starts getting celebrated so early (“And why am I the closer in the Thanksgiving Parade??”) and everything looks awful until the narrator with the magic book saves the day.

It was LOADS of fun. A bit strange because there were only two shows; with all that rehearsal, it sort of poked the musical-theatre part of my brain—I’d forgotten what it was like to basically eat, sleep, and breathe a show for weeks on end—so then I couldn’t stop thinking about it after it was all over, not just having the songs in my head but also thinking about my lines and how to do a better read on them, because it kept feeling like there should be a run of four weeks of shows or something. It was grand. I hope she does another one. :) (Here's Molly's blog post about it. Here's Tony's. Here's where you can pre-order the live recording of it!)

This month we hosted a Solstice party, with a theme that Fishy had a great idea for: "We are the light". We encouraged people to come as lit up and glowing as they could manage, and turned off most of the lights in the house so that the light was primarily provided by the guests. We also replaced the kitchen light bulbs with blacklights, and Torrey got as much UV reactive food and drink as she could come up with. This turned out to be DELIGHTFUL! I loved seeing what everyone came up with-- battery-powered LED Christmas lights in various places, EL wire, glow in the dark clothing and necklaces, blinky-light jewelry. I put battery LED lights in my hair and around my waist and also I glittered up my tattoos. We bought some of those glow-stick necklace/bracelet things to give out to anyone who didn't have their own, and several other people brought other light-up or glowy things to share. We're totally doing this again!

We also deep-fried a turkey! Where by "we" I mean Fishy & Torrey. We borrowed his parents' deep-fry vessel, and used Fishy's engine hoist, decorated with Christmas lights, to do the actual raising and lowering (style, baby). I'm a vegetarian, but many people said it was the best turkey they'd ever had. And it must have been, because they fell on that thing like pirahnas on a cow. There was nothing but a skeletonized carcass within *minutes*.

For Christmas, Fishy and I drove to his parents' place in Spokane, and had a nice visit. I miss my little Shadow kitty, who lived with them for the last ten or so years before he died of cancer last year. It kinda wasn't the same being there without him.

I made several Disney pin boards for people this year, and one new shadowbox for myself. I'm really proud of my creations! Most of them are in this Flickr album (though not everything there is from 2014). I also experimented with doing a time-lapse of the creation process, though I haven't edited the photos into something viewable yet. I ran a few pin auctions this year and got good results, too.

I did some good things for my health this year. I switched anxiety meds to one that so far seems to be more effective and have fewer annoying side effects. I started using the Zombies, Run! app in an effort to motivate myself to take more walks. And I'm trying out using a treadmill desk at work; it's barely been two weeks of that, so I'm still undecided on whether it's for me. I bought a stand/sit desk rig to attach to my desk and am using Fishy's borrowed treadmill-- his office is being remodeled so right now he can't have his treadmill desk and needed somewhere to store it, and I have plenty of room and thought I'd take the opportunity to try it. My back seems happier, but my feet are like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WE NORMALLY ONLY FEEL LIKE THIS AT DISNEYLAND."

Oh, and I almost forgot: Fishy and I bought a new car! Well, a used car. New to us. The old Subaru Outback finally croaked (partly due to a terrible mechanic who shall remain nameless) so we bought a 2003 Subaru Outback because we really liked it. It's an automatic and I really miss having a manual, but this is made up by the fact of KEYLESS ENTRY. Yeah I know this has been around for like 20 years or something, but I've never *owned* a car with it, and approaching my car and pushing a button to unlock it still makes me feel like a FREAKING WIZARD. Also approaching the car with a full shopping cart and not having to fuck around with the terrible back lock on the old Subaru is SO GREAT.

Also we bought a new car stereo for it, one with BLUETOOTH which we have also never owned. It politely offers to play our music when we get in (but does NOT autoplay!) When we both got in one time with bluetooth activated, it chose Fishy's phone for music, but switched to mine when I got a phone call. I ANSWERED MY PHONE BY PUSHING A BUTTON ON MY CAR STEREO, Y'ALL. We got the kind with a mic and it WORKED and it was AWESOME. I love living in the future! By which I mean the present!

I saw many delightful movies and read not nearly enough delightful books. I played probably far too much Monster Match and Frozen Free Fall and Maleficent Free Fall and Puzzle Pirates; I evolved monsters and completed levels and won power-ups and trophies. As one does. I finished a song. Just the one, but it seems to be a hit. I played in a lot of gigs, both ours and other people's, and almost always had fun doing it. I worked on our next album, although Tony has been working much much harder on it. I think it'll get finished in 2015. Most likely.

I did many things I'm not going to post about, and many other things that I'm not remembering right now. As one does.

Happy new year, everyone. May the happy memories of 2014 cheer you and the unhappy ones lose their sting, and may 2015 be better in every way.

http://vixyish.livejournal.com/830067.html

Since I have less impetus for walks now that my company no longer has a PO Box at the local post office (it used to be my job to go check it every day), I'm trying to make a point of taking walks. I'm woefully out of shape, in the stamina sense-- I get out of breath waaaaaaayyyyyyyy too easily. On Brooke's recommendation, I finally got around to downloading "Zombies, Run!" and giving it a try.

After a couple of problems which turned out to be mainly user error, I've got the thing working, including playing nice with Google Play Music (it says this is an experimental feature and may not work, so I was all happy when it worked for me!) My playlist for the purpose is called "All You Zombies".

I'm enjoying the app so far. I've only done a couple of stories, but the very first story mission knocked my socks off. Like, I was not expecting right away for them to go for the tragic, and the voice acting is exceptionally well done, so it wasn't cheesy like it might have been with bad acting. When we got to (rot13 for spoilers) gur mbzovr punfvat zr jub jnf npghnyyl gur qrnq-naq-mbzovsvrq ybir vagrerfg bs zl pbagnpg ng gur onfr, jvgu fnvq pbagnpg tbvat "bu... bu tbq gurl'er fubbgvat" juvyr gur bgure crefba ng gur onfr jnf yvxr "lbh xabj fur jbhyq unir jnagrq guvf, lbh xabj fur jbhyqa'g unir jnagrq hf gb yrnir ure nf n mbzo" and I was like HOLY CRAP THEY ARE NOT FUCKING AROUND HERE. The story is not fluffy, is what I'm saying. Torrey told me that Elizabeth Bear wrote a chapter for them, and some other authors like her as well. I'm looking forward to the rest.

So far I've been walking along our stretch of the Interurban Trail. This amuses me somewhat, as our stretch of the Interurban borders directly on a verrrrrrry big cemetery. My 30-minute-ish walk is pretty much the length of the cemetery and back home again. So far no actual zombies spotted. (It's got a quite nice old rusty wrought-iron fence, though. Atmospheric!)

I doubt if I'll ever segue to running. Ever since my knee started clicking whenever I go up stairs (putting an end to my career as a stealth assassin), I'm a little leery of anything that high-impact. I dunno, we'll see if I ever get bored with walking. Small steps. So to speak.

working (at least I should be)
Prince, "Venus de Milo"
http://vixyish.livejournal.com/828852.html

I keep meaning to post various things, and then the most I tend to get around to is updating my running book post. Then another month slips by. Oops!

Speaking of that, I'm trying to read more books by women authors. I'm also getting more into comics a bit lately. (Because of storage issues, I only read trades.) Recommendations are welcome. I find I have a sudden interest in Wonder Woman again (Lynda Carter is my Wonder Woman) so I just finished the New 52 Wonder Woman on advice from a friend, and am going to ask my comic shop about getting Gail Simone's run next.

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The crows are nesting (and the baby on the Wellesley college ravencam is getting bigger!) When I walk to or from work (which is a bit less often now that I mostly carpool with Tony) they still follow me for food, but now for much shorter distances before stopping, which I think means they're not willing to stray too far from their nests. I'll get one crow for about a block, then that one will go away, and a different one will show up. (In autumn it's just MOBS of crows (or rather, murders) for blocks and blocks until they get to a bigger delineation of their territory.)

They're hilariously picky lately. They like dry puppy food better than dry dog food (I think because of the smaller chunks, they can hoard more) and even certain of the bits in the mix better than others. Sometimes I'll go out and look in the dish, and there dry food chunks of all one color left in there, the crows having picked out the ones they like best. They'll eat the rest eventually, if I don't give them more. Sometimes I'm a sucker, though. Especially if I've already got a treat ready for them. Today the smaller one that I currently see most often (I think it's one of a pair that usually comes, and I'm not sure if it's a mate or a year-old sibling helper (they do that)) perched on the planter and did the peek-in-are-you-there thing and even made a gentle little inquisitive caw. I'm just such a sucker for cuteness. Plus one of my co-workers brought in a bunch of eggs from his chickens to give away, having more than he and his wife can eat, so I hard boiled them all (you can do this in a microwave, it turns out) and have been handing them out as crow treats. Protein and fat are good for babbies!

The seagulls haven't been around at home lately, and I'm not sure if that means they're off somewhere nesting too, or the crows there have driven them away for good. I never really could bring myself to chase them off. Partly because they look so hilarious (and kind of cute, in a HUGE cartoon sort of way) and partly because, well... everything just wants to live, after all.

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Seanan and I went to Disneyland! A couple weeks ago! Which should really surprise no one. I should get my photos loaded up to Flickr, although having my Google phone (did I mention I love my Google phone? I love it so much that I actually sometimes literally HUG IT) automatically back photos up to Google+ (do you write it like that or do you write Google Plus?) makes me almost want to just start using that for photos instead, because I am LAZY.

Anyway, it was an interesting trip this time around. I went to a BIG pin gathering of folks from the pin trading forum I frequent. So fun to meet all these people for the first time in person! And some I had met before, including one of my Seattle pin-friends. Many trades were had! Also, Big Thunder Mountain was finally reopened after refurbishment! It was... well, now I've had that experience. :) I took Mousie on Radiator Springs Racers, to get him in the photo, but the photo didn't come out that great. Oh and I finally got to ride Tower of Terror, which Seanan will not ride with me at Disneyland (only at Walt Disney World) but Amy was there to go with me YAY! It has a special place in my heart, more so after I found out that its birthday is also my birthday. It's a Small World was closed, alas. But we got to make faces with pixies in Pixie Hollow, as is our wont, and got to meet Fawn played by an actual Latina friend this time! And also got to meet CAPTAIN AMERICA! I had him record a video greeting for Torrey, our own alternate-universe Captain America aka Stephanie Ginger Rogers. :D (Deb and Seanan were patient and kind enough to go through the line with me twice to get that right.)

It was also the last weekend of Spring Break, which we didn't realize, which meant bigger than usual crowds on Saturday and Sunday morning, and then sudden EMPTY DESERTED PARK on Sunday after 8 or 9pm, I guess because everyone went home to get to bed early. So the up side was we made good life choices in sleeping in on Sunday morning, and then we got to ride a bunch of things we'd never been on before just because they're usually too crowded and Fantasyland is really too cramped.

This led to one of the most interesting experiences when someone ahead of us on Pinocchio's Daring Journey had clearly lit up the WORLD'S BIGGEST JOINT. It was, ironically, just after the Pleasure Island scene. It smelled so strong that at first we thought someone must have hopped off the ride car and been sitting in the ride smoking RIGHT NEXT TO US, but nobody was there, and then it smelled that strong for three or four scenes (which are closed off by separate doors you're driven through) before finally beginning to dissipate. It was enough to make us all a bit dizzy. And kind of uncool to do on a ride for kids. Although at least it was after 9pm. We opened our mouths to tell the ride operator when we came out, but she said "I know, I smelled it when they got off. I've called security and we're ventilating the ride. I'm really sorry." She was brusque but mostly cool (we'd been chatting with her before we got on) and let us sit for a moment while Seanan's head cleared so that she wasn't operating a scooter under the influence.

Disneyland: it's a magical place.

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Norwescon was cool. Music things are always a bit conflicting for me these days. I think maybe that'll get a separate post of its own. But anyway it went well. Major kudos to Dara for organizing the Norwescon Music track and to all the sound crew for working their usual magic!

There are some gigs and cons in our future as well... I refer you to the Vixy and Tony website for details. :)

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My mental health's been... well, I'm kind of easily distracted, and easily lose a lot of time to games, and sometimes that's because I need to. My amount of available socialness seems to be a lot less lately than it used to be. So y'know, it doesn't mean I hate anybody. Just that I've only got what I've got. Online is always easier.

Mother's Day is coming up, of course, as is my dad's 75th birthday. This is the time of year when I reply to radio/TV ads with "yeah well, I've got a present that YER mom will love." It's an effective defense mechanism, I find.

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I never did get around to posting travelogues of Fishy and my trip to Europe last summer. I still mean to do that! Even if the trip will be a year old by the time I do it. Y'all don't mind horribly out of date posts, right? :D

working
http://vixyish.livejournal.com/827009.html

So Fishy and I have a date night every so often, and recently we got the idea (I forget which of us this occurred to first) that since there are so many places around town we keep seeing and meaning to try, we'd make our date night be dinner at a restaurant we've never been to before. So I thought I'd start posting about them, because the internet is all about telling people what you had for dinner!

There've been three since we started this:

Bizarro Italian Cafe

Not exactly as bizarro as it seems to want to be (certainly no backwards-talking superheros arrived while we were there) but full of interesting decor nonetheless. You've heard of a stuff-on-the-wall place? This is more like a stuff-on-the-ceiling place. :)

A bit small and cramped, but comfortable, and the food was good. I had the pumpkin ravioli and it was delicious. Also the wine recommended by the waitress was really good! I wish I could remember what variety it was. (I'm a fan of red wines). I'm easy to please in an Italian place, but I'd definitely recommend this one.

Golden Beetle

The place is beautiful and the service was good, but the food was kinda meh. I was thrilled when I found out they had Mac n Cheese Monday! Add your own toppings! But it turned out a little disappointing; I ordered broccoli in mine, and nearly every piece of it was burnt. Also the cider I ordered wasn't great (came in a can, because... that's a hipster thing I guess? So Fishy tells me. No more ciders in a can for me. Probably no more Golden Beetle either. I might give them another chance sometime (anyone can have an off night) but we've got lots of other places to try first...

Alibi Room (Greenwood)

There are two of these, one downtown and one in Greenwood. The Greenwood one is really close to us and kind of hidden away; I really didn't expect it to be so big inside! The decor is great, especially for us-- industrial in a way that appeals to Fishy, but with warm colors and lighting to make it comfortable enough to appeal to me too. (No mean feat.) :)

The pizza was great! I tried an unusual pizza because why not-- grapes and gorgonzola with a balsamic reduction of some kind. It was delicious. I forget what Fishy had. They were smallish pizzas but big enough that we both had leftovers. Also the waitress brought GIANT cans of olives to use as pizza stands for us to allow more room on the table. Hee! And the service was good and friendly. All in all I'd go there again for sure. When it gets nicer we can even walk there.

BONUS REVIEW: The Teacher's Lounge

This wasn't a Fishy date night, it was a Torrey date night! It's a new place on Greenwood; she'd already checked it out (being a teacher) but it was my first time. Great place for happy-hour-and-five-eighths (I'm not kidding) on Friday night. So it's a teacher-themed bar & restaurant, with the decor and menu just enough themed to be cute but not pushed far enough over the top to be creepy. A bit on the small side, but still comfortable, and the service is great.

The menu is adorable, with teacher-themed drinks and foods and sometimes math-problem prices. I had the "crack n cheese" (yeah I'm predictable) and it was delicious, as was the "Spoon!" aka a spoonful of chocolate chip cookie dough for dessert. Torrey was absolutely thrilled with her "student driver", an orange and chocolate cocktail that was a bit too bitter for my taste, and her "lunchables" appetizer (not actual Lunchables) and tacos. We would happily go back there any time. Also it gets bonus points for being only a few minutes' walk from our local comic book store.

cheerful
http://vixyish.livejournal.com/825997.html

The Lines Looked Straight When I Drew Them: a nail painting m... on Twitpic

Something definitely lodged itself in my chest during Conflikt, and has spread into my sinuses, in a weird reversal of the way colds usually happen to me. I made it through the work week mostly by doing as little as possible, including the Friday all-staff luncheon meeting. Lucky there; the co-worker who was my ride is also sick, and wanted to leave early, and so, eh, what can I do, my ride's leaving, BYE.

Anyway, it's meant a lot of napping and a lot of hiding under blankets and not a lot of communicating with anyone. Sorry to those I owe a response to. Everyone's been sick; buy stock in Kleenex, folks.

This weekend is a medley of do nothing and nap, with the exception of getting Seanan safely to the airport, by way of Espionage Cosmetics, through a maze of twisty passages, all in Tacoma, to pick up Kickstarter bonuses. So excited about the nail wraps! Well, as excited as one can be when unable to breathe fully.

But before nail wraps must come SUPERB OWL MANICURES. Torrey is from Colorado Springs, you see, and I'm from Seattle, and so although I have never in my life watched a Super Bowl game, we decided it would be fun to watch together and sit around pretending to go RAAR RAAR RAAR at each other, since going RAAR RAAR RAAR at the other team's fans is largely the fun of sports. So we gave ourselves the appropriate team color manicures (this was partly the idea of some Colorado co-workers of Torrey's; I believe the losers have to wear the winners' colors for a week) and are getting ready to watch football and eat chips and dip and go YERMOM a lot. I need to re-do my green nail pen; it accidentally mixed with/faded into the grey and also rubbed off some. I don't own any Seahawks clothing, but am wearing grey yoga pants (WITH POCKETS) and a navy blue t-shirt (Disney) which is as close as I can get, really.

Fishy may or may not find his loyalties divided, being from Spokane, as the Seahawks do technically represent Washington state, but Eastern Washington has always held a certain animosity for Western Washington. Or he may just welcome an excuse to make nachos. I think Tony's planning to stay upstairs and snuggle his guitar.

It's New Year's Day, and I'm the only one in the house awake, because I'm the only one in the house who didn't stay up late celebrating. More on that in a moment.

2013 highlights...

I read 37 books. (Please note that my bookpost reviews contain spoilers.)

I went to Disneyland 4 times. With my best friend, and sometimes other of my favorite people as well. I rode the Flying Dumbo ride for the first time! (This is the ride that terrified me when I was four, and led directly to my passion for It's a Small World.)

I created five Disney pin boards for other collectors, in exchange for Disney pins. All the recipients were pleased with my creations, which makes me even happier than the pins I traded them for. I also created three new Disney pin boards for myself, and refurbished one other.

I went to Victoria for a long weekend with Torrey and Tony, and had high tea at the Empress Hotel. Delicious!

I spent two weeks in Europe with my husband Fishy. I saw many things I'd never seen before, and many things I'd always wanted to see. I went to the Louvre and spend as much time as I wanted there, instead of being bossed by a tour guide. I went to a Salvador Dali museum, and got to see the originals of his Alice in Wonderland paintings. I got to sit in a French cafe, sipping wine and eating a delicious salad, gazing up at Chartres Cathedral lit up by the sunset. I went to Windsor Castle and got to see Queen Mary's doll's house. I rode a train through the Chunnel and had wifi the entire time. I got to ride several other trains too (I can't even tell you how excited I was about all the trains!) I roamed the British Museum, gazing at the treasures of what might have been my ancestors, and stood with one foot on either side of the Prime Meridian. I got to go to an actual English racecourse and see actual English horse races and everything was exactly like the Dick Francis novels!! I got to do many more exciting and wonderful things, which I still plan to detail in a trip-diary sort of post someday, and I got to do them all with my wonderful, amazing Fishy. Seventeen years together (is it really?) and we still fill one another with joy.

I worked on our new album. (Yes, really.) Doing anything musical has been hard during the last three years since Mom died, and also during the three years before that when she was seriously declining. Every song and every recording session and every concert has required me to fight through thick choking waves of triggers and emotions to get to it. The fight is worth it; it's what I want and choose to do, and every fight leaves me stronger and the waves a little more dissolved. There's no manual for how long it takes to get through something like this; you just do it. So the fact that I actually chose to get my butt in the studio and work has been really big.

I kept focusing on mental health issues.To borrow a phrase from The West Wing, getting help has helped.

I got a new phone!!! That actually works in all the ways it's supposed to!!!! I'm not going to list all my new material possessions, but Fishy got me a Nexus 5 for early Christmas when I asked for it after my last couple of phones tempted me to throw them against the wall, and OH I LOVE IT SO MUCH I ACTUALLY SOMETIMES HUG IT. It's beautiful and smart and IT WORKS. I think it's been a month or two now and I'm still so excited about it I had to add it to this list.

2013 has also seemed to be the year when the migraines have increased in frequency, which leads to this past New Year's Eve, when for the second time in a row I had to stay home from my planned partygoing while my head threatened to explode. This particular migraine woke me up around 2am on Sunday night, prevented me from getting any more sleep that night, and continued on until this morning. At least the bosses let me go home early yesterday. That was a plus. I can feel that I'm now on the tail-off period, where the headache is still there, but more as a dull ache than a full-on migraine. I've also had more nausea with them lately than I ever used to. This increase is possibly hormonal. I'm going to talk to my doctor. (This means I don't need any unasked-for advice. Thanks though.)

This time, with the help of a friend, I tried out a recently-legalized pain remedy to see if it would help. It didn't, but there are a number of possible reasons why (including the vaporizer batteries both being almost dead) and more experimentation is probably needed. (That's not a joke about recreation; there are actually not enough data points here yet, and a number of variable factors, and I'm certain to have more migraines in the future.) Jen had some useful suggestions. Tony opted to stay home to snuggle me and keep me company. Fishy opted to come back later and snuggle me in my sleep.

I kept thinking all evening about that superstition where the way you spend New Year's Eve is a sign for the way your new year will be. Well that sucks, I thought. So this means I'll spend the new year intermittently in excruciating pain, bailing out on promises to friends, lying around my house being boring and possibly taking drugs that don't do anything. Great.

On the other hand, it's all about how you look at it. I choose to say that I'll spend the new year in my beautiful house that I love, safe and warm and well-fed, after working at a job that I like for bosses that I like. I'll spend it helped by friends and cared for by loved ones. And I'll spend it trying new things.

Here's to the new year. May it bring us all good things, and may we be able to recognize them when they arrive.

optimistic
http://vixyish.livejournal.com/823928.html

The building where I work had a break-in over the weekend. The building manager informed me on Monday afternoon.

Here's what she told me: there was a lock box on the wall in the garage, secured with 4 1/2 inch screws. The thieves pried that off the wall (along with a good chunk of wall-- she and the locksmiths said it would have taken about 250-300 pounds of pressure to get that off, wtf), took it somewhere to saw it open with a diamond saw, and then they had a key to the front door and garages.

Then they entered the lower garage, where all the storage units are, and pried open most of the units with a crowbar or something. (The door frames are all bent; they just bent the frames until the deadbolt locks became irrelevant.) It's a condo building with businesses on the ground floor, so they got some financial info from us and another business, and a bunch of stuff from the condo owners. The building manager thinks it happened Saturday night (she is sure she last saw the lock box intact on Friday).

Mostly what we had in our storage unit was files. We think a box of our accounting files from 1999 was taken, which would mean bank statements, credit card bills, phone bills, and W-2s. The latter is the biggest concern; the credit card and bank accounts were both changed years ago, so they'd only have old account numbers, but there may be identity theft attempts with the social security numbers.

I wanted to move the rest of the accounting boxes up to the office proper, since the door was wide open now, but I hurt my back recently and didn't think I could carry them all up the stairs. I called Fishy, to ask if he could come help; I had the car, but maybe Tony or visiting K' could drive him? Fishy, I'm told, came in from the garage to say: "Gentlemen, we have a Vixy in distress." Agoranauts MOBILIZE! Within minutes I had a team of four superheroes striking heroic poses in my office. We got that shit moved upstairs PRONTO.

Coincidentally, two people were arrested in the neighborhood for breaking & entering on Sunday morning. They were found with stolen goods and a gun. We've all let the police department know to possibly cross-reference this arrest with our burglaries, in case they find any of *our* stolen goods on these people.

On Monday I was told that the locksmith would be coming to replace the doors on Thursday (today). I am not sure why it wasn't going to be done immediately. I'm thinking other people are asking that too, because last night the thieves came back, waltzed right in with their stolen key, rifled a few of the storage units one more time, and stole a car.

Nothing was taken from our unit this time (I imagine they thought a bunch of files was not worth bothering with). The building manager thinks it was the same people, having had their court date and posted their bail, stealing a car to leave the state with. Could be, who knows.

So my week has been filled with notifications and questions and credit check companies and locksmiths and landlords and I kind of don't even remember most of Wednesday but man I could use some chocolate right now.

----

While I was busy dealing with break-in stuff, and payroll, my mother-in-law called to say that my cat Shadow (who's lived with them for about ten years now) isn't eating or drinking, not even milk or tuna, they've taken him to the vet, and the vet wants to know his age (about 16-17).

She called back a little later to say it's intestinal cancer, and they think he only has a few days to live. They want to put him down. I told her to go ahead, and not to wait. He was clearly suffering. I could try to get to Spokane, but really, there's no point prolonging his suffering just so I can pet him once more. We were there for a visit over Christmas, and I got a lot of snuggles and gave a lot of tummy rubs.

RIP Shadow Hansard Dockrey, aka the Shadowbeast, mighty hunter of flies and teabags, devourer of black olives and tomato products, who will live on in song. M-i-L sent me a last photo of Shadow at the vet's office; his ears are back and he pretty much looks like YOU WILL SUFFER FOR THIS INDIGNITY, MONKEY. Imperious to the last, was my weird little cat.

----

I'm still getting over the cold that knocked me off work for almost a week and dogged me throughout Conflikt. I'm still exhausted despite going to bed early last night. So it'd be great if my day didn't get any more interesting.

Okay, for various reasons, including "Torrey mentioned a cute idea in passing and it delighted me" and also "Torrey told me about the Month of Letters challenge" and also "because I can", I'm going to send out valentines this year! But since I don't have time to make handmade ones, I'm going to send out cheap grocery-store kiddie valentines! Because it makes me giggle! (If I run out of those, you might get a postcard instead. Or something else. You never know what I'll do. I'M A WOMAN OF MYSTERY.)

Want one? Comment with your address. I'm screening in case you don't want anyone else to see.

Want to send me one? Use my work address, it'll just be easier that way:

Michelle Dockrey
PO Box 30088
Seattle, WA 98113

Hearts!

THE INTERNET: Where we assume the worst until proven wrong and then simply pretend we never said anything at all to begin with. --Adam P. Knave

Which is to say that, yeah, after all that ZOMG-ing and hand-wringing, I'm still posting to DW and crossposting to LJ, as before. What I'll do when my paid LJ account comes up for renewal, we'll see. Meanwhile, I've decided that if I've made myself look like one of those drama queens who used to delete their LJ in a huff every month or so and then undelete and start over (remember those?), well, I shall just have to suck that up and carry on.

Hey, that reminds me of this awesome thing by one of my favorite Etsy sellers.

Anyway.

This is a post about crows!

It's autumn, and that means the crows are getting WAY more aggressive and anxious when I feed them. When I get off work it's too dark now; they're already overhead in masses flying north and east to wherever they spend the night. For a short while there, though, I was getting more than the usual half-dozen to a dozen; I was getting twenty or thirty, both to and from work. (Now I just get them on the way to work.)

Torrey saw me coming home from work one day last month and texted "my GOD woman I thought we were in a Hitchcock film!" So I thought I'd enlist help to try to get video of me walking along with my army of crows.

It's kind of difficult; they won't come as near me when there are other people around. They trust me only to a very small degree; they don't trust strangers at *all*. When I get near the person taking video, they all retreat up to the power lines. And they're not keeping up with me in these videos quite as much as they usually do when I'm alone, contrary brats that they are; usually it's like walking around inside a roiling, swirling, black feathery cloud. Me and my army of crows! Sometimes we scare people. Sometimes I reassure the kids waiting for their school buses that the crows would never hurt anyone (unless you hurt them first).

So it looks like embedding this video would work, but it turns kind of tiny by default, so I'm linking instead:

Coming at you - I'd texted Tony and asked him to wait by the park for me. He says he knew I was coming before he saw me, because the army of crows came around the corner first. :) When he pans up you can see how many of them just hang out on the wires up and ahead of me, making sure I see them.

Walking away - Not as many here, though it's the same walk home. They won't come near me while Tony's so close.

From far away - From farther away, but you can see how far they'll follow me. Sometimes all the way to the house (Lauren once knew I was home because she heard them landing on the roof.)

What you can't really tell in the videos is that sometimes they'll get REALLY close to me. Some will land on the ground near me and get as close as they dare, and sort of shy away like nervous cats if I turn or move toward them too fast. Often I'll feel them go SWOOSH past my head-- or sometimes they'll fly in circles around me-- once in a while they'll even get close enough to ruffle my hair. Sometimes they'll let me approach really close to them if I do it slowly. Mostly that's the ones by my office, who see me on a more regular basis.

What you can't *hear* in the videos is what I hear-- the sound of wings. I walk home surrounded not only by all that cawing, but by the constant sound of wings, all around. There's nothing quite like it.

And they're *hilarious*. The ones perched on a wire do this little hop-swoop when I toss Wheat Thins, and the wobbly way they glide in to land is just adorable. The way they'll run right up to me and then run away again, or sometimes sort of siiiiidle up like they're trying to look nonchalant about it. The way they sometimes hop on two feet and other times run in a little lopsided gallop. The way the ones near my office will march right up to the front door and peer in the glass, or perch on the planter out front and look expectant. (I'm pretty sure they know Tony's car now.) The way they'll stick a whole Wheat Thin in a crack and use the leverage to break it up. The way they'll try to gather as many as they can at once, stacking them in their beaks. (This is funny with flat things like Wheat Thins but especially hilarious with grapes.) And there are still few things funnier to me than the sound of a crow cawing with its mouth full. They never fail to make me giggle.

It's a shame they've got a reputation for being harbingers of death and all that. They're such a bunch of feathery little clowns.

amused
http://vixyish.livejournal.com/804077.html

Here is a collection of random things about air travel and food and what's been going on with me lately! If you're interested. :)

( We cut because we babble a lot. )

happy

So did I mention that long before all the surgery stuff, I had a tattoo appointment? Well, long before all the surgery stuff, I had a tattoo appointment. And I waited until nearly the last minute to decide whether to keep it, seeing how I felt post-surgery. Yesterday after work (and after an after-work rest) I was actually feeling really good, so I decided to go for it. It was tonight and I just got back!

What can I say? It's been three years since my last one but it wasn't so different. Honest Jon at Slave to the Needle is still totally awesome.

Here's the flickr set so far! They had me split the tattoo up into several appointments since it's a little bigger, so today was just all the blackwork. Fishy drove me to this one. (In theory it's three appointments so one each of the housemeates can come with me! But we may actually finish during the next appointment. HJ had the color inks ready, actually, but he decided to go ahead and wait 'til the next appointment so that he'd be fresh for doing my color and shading, rather than tired at the end of a long day. (Which was pretty cool of him, I have to say.) That was fine with me, because this was about an hour and a half and it was juuuust about my limit for one session.

It didn't hurt all that much more than the last one, really, except the bits where it wraps a bit to the front and back of my arm were a little more sensitive. Taking deep breaths and singing mostly got me through it. And Torrey's stuffed lion with stored-up snuggles in. :)

It doesn't really hurt much now, about an hour after finishing. It comes and goes, like a sunburn, just like last time.

They didn't give me written instructions this time, but I remember the big things (like not to go swimming) and he went over the immediate care with me. They're no longer just wrapping it in saran wrap as a bandage like they were doing before, so I can't immediately show it off, but they are using these opaque black bandages that are slightly padded, and wrapping *that* with saran wrap. I'm glad of the padding, 'cause certain people (naming no names) keep accidentally touching that shoulder. :D

The design is by the amazing R.H. Potter, whose work I spent a couple of years drooling over on the livejournal illustrators community before commissioning this custom design.

Edit: The artist has now put the design up on her site. Yay!

More to come! :D

(I really need to make an icon out of this one. But maybe not tonight.)

So I was kind of expecting I'd be blogging like heck during my days of lying around with nothing to do, but it didn't quite work out that way. But if you wanna know how it went...

( Here's how it went! (Long post is long.) )

relieved

( Quck con rundown: Orycon was great, but my health is terrible. )

Edit: Link to Kanef's parody now added.

sick

So, Morning Glory Chai has a brewing location right near my office. The air often smells quite yummy around here. Sadly, though, they have apparently tried several times to grow a purple morning glory in the little dirt plot out in front of their space, and it keeps dying. Like, they've tied lines to the telephone & street sign poles to try to give it a boost, and everything. I've seen three tries now, I think. They have a ton of other happy flowers growing there, but a morning glory for some reason just won't.

This is kind of hilarious in a sad way, because morning glory is a pest in this area; it's invasive and you can't get rid of it fast enough and people in community gardens yell at you if you throw it in the compost bin without chopping it up thoroughly because it'll just take root and grow there and you'll have a big mass of morning glory where your compost bin used to be. And they cannot get it to live in that spot. I dunno if it's too sunny there, or if it's the exhaust, or if the city sprays weed killer, or what. Though the blackberry patch just half a block down is always COVERED in morning glory that has no trouble at all. It is a mystery.

* * * * *

In other news: Check out what my husband has been up to! His current project is called the Kalamazoo (if I knew why, I have forgotten), a hand-pump train car without rails, for Burning Man. This is why we ~~can't have nice things~~ have no room in the garage. :D

* * * * *

In other other news: thank you to everyone who came to the Big Damn House Concert and to the Can't Stop the Serenity Screening this weekend! We had a great time and we hope you did too.

I came to the house concert straight from work, where it had been a phones-ringing-off-the-hook kind of day, and so I was sort of out of social spoons before I even got there. So, if I spoke to you and was weird, or if I didn't speak to you and I normally would have, please accept my apologies. It was One of Those Days. When not on stage, I'd really rather have been under the bed. Fortunately

stealthcello applied some Kitten Therapy.

I went straight to the CSTS screening from my work's company picnic, but there wasn't much I had to *do* at the picnic, and there was MUCH more get-ready time involved (and much less getting-ready for me to do as Kaylee!) so I was much more myself. :) My bandmates were FABULOUS as always: Me = Kaylee, Sooj = River, Tony = Simon, Marian = YoSaffBridge, Sunnie = Inara, Betsy = Zoe (what a Zoe!), and Torrey = Blue Gloved Agent.

Much gratitude to

tereshkova2001 for distressing and staining my coveralls into authenticity! Which more than made up for the fact that I didn't realize my liquid black eyeliner is sparkly until after I'd used it to make engine grease smears. I mean, uh, it was magical Firefly engine grease because Firefly is a sparkly magical ship. Yes.

Best part EVAR:

cheyennewright of Girl Genius fame, who was there to MC, *also* showed up as a Blue Gloved Agent, and since neither had a partner, they spent the whole shindig MC-ing two by two and looming like very menacing looming things. (Check out his Eyebrow of Doom in those photos!)

Edit: Forgot to mention the OTHER best part EVAR: Cheyenne said he'd been a fan of "Mal's Song" from way back, since before we recorded the studio version! Which means back when

gfish and I played it at Consonance! Eeeeeee *squee*

Gotta get back to work with what little brain I have left, but see Tony's post for more comments and thanks and links.

Thanks again!

cheerful

I keep having dreams about airports and airplanes. Sadly I also keep having dreams about being abandoned in them. Although the laptops that inflated airbag-style were pretty amusing. Also the part where

seanan_mcguire had managed to page our missing parties for us by mysteriously having their names printed in the tourist guidebooks, saying things like "Lyta, please meet Vixy at the point indicated on the map on page 350," and on page 350, "Lyta, here is the spot where you need to meet Vixy now [arrow pointing to spot]". (I didn't even notice the pun until after I woke up. Paging! Get it?) (No, I don't know who Lyta is.)

The 107th street crows are becoming an entertaining part of my commute. Sometimes one or two will head for me when they see me coming now. On Monday, when I had to go home sick, I was too out of it to remember to take food for the walk home. So I walked a different route than usual, but they still found me and followed me, going "where's the food? Ya got any food? No food?" Most of them left off after a few blocks, but one juvenile followed me, silently, nearly all the way home. Every half block or so, flap-flap-flap-perch right above and ahead of me, just watching while I cawed weakly up at him, then flying ahead again once I passed.

Tuesday there was positively a GANG of juvenile crows on my way in, just mobbing the Wheat Thins like crazy. Yesterday was not as fun, because there kept being other people following right behind me or jogging by or walking dogs, and the crows won't come eat without a bit of people-free personal space. I think I entertained a few people, though. The crows like to pop out of nowhere and startle me when I think none of them are there.

I have done a Thing last month & this month which may possibly save my company $500-$600 a month. No, it's very much *not* an exciting thing that I did, but I'm excited about it because I really actually do like the people I work for quite a lot, and they have been *awesome* about my mom and everything, and it feels great to do something good for them above & beyond just doing my job well. It also feels great to be actively helping make sure we stay in business and I *have* a job, since business has been slowing down a lot lately.

Tomorrow is the Big Damn House Concert! I'm terrified, as always. Ah, but it's going to be fabulous. :) See here and here and also here for details on directions, donations, etc., and please RSVP to betsyt@pinecoon.com. Vixy & Tony will perform a set, then S.J. Tucker who is RELEASING HER NEW ALBUM MISCHIEF AHEM AWESOME will perform a set, then the amazing redhead Browncoat Marian Call will perform a set. You know us, though, there'll be some musical bleed through in all directions. :)

Then Saturday is the Can't Stop the Serenity charity screening, with food and concerts and Dr. Horrible and all kinds of shiny raffle stuff if you buy the extra-package ticket of ZOMGness. Plus you can see me in my new Kaylee coveralls that

tereshkova2001 ~~thoroughly abused~~ helped me distress to look screen-authentic!

Also, my husband is awesome. Have I mentioned that my husband is awesome? My husband is awesome.

See you this weekend I hope!

cheerful

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Style: Timber! for Trifecta by ninetydegrees
Resources: Subtle Patterns and A Dream in Color

This is nothing but today.

Entries tagged with torrey

Syndicate

small things

A journal of the plague... year?

My 2015

Random Bits of My Life

To Meat or Not To Meat

Looking back through the glass

Zombies, walk.

Crows and things

Om nom nom

Superb

Happy New Year

Cat and Mouse Tales

Valentines!

Keep Calm and Carrion

'Ventures!

Ink! Part one.

and though the holes were rather small...

How I spent my weekend

Shiny!

Bits, bobs, and gigs