Thoughts on the Journey

For Yuletide, I wrote an Old Kingdom fic called Learning the Shelves about Lirael spending time with her new family. My giftee really liked it and I was reminded how much I like writing in that world.

I'm home after a not too bad drive home made better for being today since I had asked for Friday off and hadn't realized it. So it felt like a free day off. Now I have tomorrow to do more things to get ready for work. I have lots of thoughts about this coming year that I'm going to write up when I'm not still recovering from a long drive.

Fun news, I bought a new work/travel mug and have started putting stickers on it, vinyl ones this time. So far I have a Six of Crows' Crow Club one, one that says 'ban the fascists not books' with an elegant illustration and a lovely one of Rainbow Brite. Next will be one of my many Star Wars' ones and possibly a lovely Mighty Nein one that I have.

I've been stuck in my head lately and this Saturday I went to see the filmed version of Merrily We Roll Along and I lost myself for over two hours in wonderful music. If you enjoy musicals and especially Sondheim, then this is worth a watch, the music is glorious, and the story is good and painful. Its not the classic pro-shot filming, they've tried to make it more film like, which kind of works. Merrily is an odd musical that I'd love other people to watch to talk with them about it.

My first introduction to it was when my high school's ambitious vocal director put it on. I auditioned for it and was terrified since the vocal director had us audition like they do for Broadway, so you stand up on the stage and sing. I didn't get cast as my singing isn't that strong but I first heard that great music. Then a few years ago, I watched that great documentary about Merrily that was on Netflix: The Best Worst Thing That Could Have Ever Happened, worth a watch. Into the Woods is still my favorite Sondheim but Merrily is fascinating and makes me want to read the play its based off of and also watch Company, they feel connected. I ended up having a longer walk than I'd originally planned since the green line was being annoying but the weather was nice.

My Yuletide is pretty much done, I need to give it a good hard edit then post it. I'm still waiting on my car, but the insurance is covering my rental. Today I talked to the repair place and the damage was worse than they thought, so they're hoping by the end of the week. I stressed that at the beginning of next week, I hope to be driving off to see my family for the holidays. Other than one thing from the mail, my shopping is pretty much done. I will have to work next Monday and this Saturday before my long drive but then I'll have a nice chunk of time off.

The snow that fell yesterday has actually stayed, mainly because its far too cold, but getting warmer.

I had a lovely holiday with my parents with the family from New Jersey visiting on the weekend. It was nice to have time to not do a lot, my dad healing from his back surgery gives us all good reasons to sit and just be. I really enjoyed having money to treat my family and just feel more secure as I had a good evaluation before the holidays.

I even broke the drive down up into two days which made my life so much easier, after work on Monday, I drove through Connecticut so that on Tuesday, I didn't have to do the whole thing. The only annoying thing was it snowed in the morning which was kind of pretty but the roads were covered with so much salt that I actually ran out of windshield wiper fluid. There was one terrifying moment where it ran out while my windshield was dirty, not enough I couldn't see but I was glad to be on a straight road and near a service station. Then I even made it happily in time to have a nice Christmas Eve dinner with my parents.

Yuletide wise, I received a brilliant Saint of Steel fic called Paladin's Lace which led me to so many great Saint of Steel fics. I can recommend pretty much everything in the Yuletide for it, i think there's only one I haven't read yet. Then I spent most of my break rereading Paladin's Faith and various lovely fics. My favorite way to look through Yuletide is the random fics on the main page as I find wonderful stuff. I'll do a proper rec list later as drove home today.

I wrote But we are spirits of another sort, an October Daye fic focused on Chelsea Ames, which my giftee really liked.

Also while down with my parents, I bought a small dresser that's still in the back seat of my car as I didn't have the energy to unload it tonight. But its so cool and when its in place, there will be pictures.

Life has been full and it finally feels like its heading towards happier things. This past week, my parents came up to visit and I got a new car. Same model as my old one but the almost newest one and oh its taken a huge load of worry off my shoulders. Now I'm not wondering what's going to break next and my car is so pretty, its a lovely dark blue so I've decided to name it Jester as I'm a Critter now. Also I think it fits, my car is fast and can do so much more than I've fully realized and its fun to drive.

Since they came up here, I'm not heading down for Thanksgiving, but my fridge is full of leftovers as we did a good bit of cooking when they visited. I made pumpkin cheesecake for the first time and oh, so delicious but next time will make farther ahead of time. We also had a great visit with my older relative and her husband which was nice and felt great after the tough one from before. Her husband has dementia and last time we had gone on a long drive and it was a lot. This time, we brought sandwiches and just stayed at their place which went better.

My Yuletide is going slowly but going, I feel like my writing has started to be happening more. I'm writing for a fandom and a ship that I've written before and I have some ideas.

Work is going okay, I found out that we'll be closed the Sunday and Mondays of the holiday weekends, which is when I normally work so don't have to waste leave days on them. There are more jobs that I need to get out to but I'll do that.

I've also finally started on a project of having a new smaller purse from an army bag that I bought at I think Arisia or Boskone years ago. After I found it, I went online and bought some neat Rogue One patches then didn't have an iron so they've just been sitting there. Well, this past week I finally iron on the patches, I'm going to add some stitches for extra security and they look so good. Next big step is clearing out and sorting my bag to use my new bag and do the same for a smaller wallet as well. The end of this year and next year is going to be about life changes that improve my life.

In might be good, might be bad, the building I live in has been put up for sale, it hasn't been sold yet so trying to not overthink it. I've learned for myself and anxiety that I tend to have moments of thinking of the worst possible outcome then reminding myself how to deal if that happens. This doesn't always work when its kind of ongoing like job things but for the apartment it works. I like this apartment but its not perfect and if I had to find another place, I could do it.

My New Year's has been quiet, I successfully made challah bread with a fig filling that was used in French bread this morning and was delicious. This past year has been full of so much good and bad that I'm ready for a new one especially where I can get more settled.

The big things that I want to do in the coming year are travel more, find ways to be more social and creative in my new neighborhood and be active as much as I can in my new job at my old place. I just want to build on the new foundations that I created last year and trust that they won't disappear. I think that was the biggest scar that my bad landlady and mice experience left me with, this worry and sense of uncertainty especially in my home. The new place is lovely and the management so far are great but I'm taking my time feeling settled.

For Yuletide I wrote A Divided Duty, an October Daye fic of the teens hanging out together. I was very lucky that my request was a fic that I've been wanting to write.

Next week, I'm back to work and will have two lovely paychecks, one in my mail and one later this week, which along with holiday money will go towards making my home feel like a home. Also I'm going to take one of my SWs toys to live on my desk so work feels more like my space. I have things I meant to mail that will go out at some point and want to spend more time with my friends. I hope everyone has a wonderful new year.

I'm feeling accomplished and a little tired but in a good way tonight. Yesterday I was able to get my flu and booster jabs, so far my arm's a little sore and I'm kind of achey. Thankfully I didn't have to work today so I was able to have a slow day which suited me. First I finally got my car taken care of at the great garage I've found near work; inspection and oil change and apparently a bulb change.

Then I had an interview at where I work which was really good and involved them saying so someone's leaving, there will be more hours to fill, could you? I said yes, the position I was originally interviewing for doesn't have a lot of hours but I'd actually be properly working for the library. This was them going, we want to use you more. It also felt good since I stood up for myself and said, no, I won't work every Saturday, every other yes but not every one and they listened. They know how valuable I am, which it feels good.

Last night I did my Yuletide app, which was remarkably hard this year especially with Andor available. If you've talked to me on other places, you'll know that I'm having all kinds of conflicting feelings about this show. I love how incredibly well done and thoughtful it is, but the changes to Cassian's timeline and story leave me conflicted and wanting more for him. So I decided to offer to write for it and to request it, we'll see what happens. Knowing how my Yuletide's tend to go, I'll probably end up writing something for a DWJ canon.

In good home stuff, I've been putting more things up on my walls, this is taking longer because I can only use sticky stuff, no holes. And I'm not as familiar with what they can all hold and I have a lot of art, but I like how its coming along. I need to find a new way to display my stickers as the shapes from Target keep falling off the wall as well as more places to display pins.

( Health stuff about insect stings and allergies )

I meant to post earlier since I've now been in the new place just over a month and I really like it, but wow, I have so little energy. It kind of feels like I used up so much energy in July and August for all the mice and moving that I've hit September and almost deflating. My parents came to visit at the start of the month which was really nice, they helped me with setting some things up and it was nice just to spend time with them and see my other relatives too, who's cat likes me again.

Work has been going along, I now have a work email which is very nice but I still really miss desk shifts. I'm getting efficient at the end processing for books but I miss the variation of interactions from the desk.

I still have more things to set up, I keep planning to do things and then sleeping in and not doing what I had in mind. I know none of it will take that long and will be satisfying to get sorted but there are still boxes, the majority of them empty but still. And need to change my address in a few places and get my car inspected, life keeps on happening.

I think I'm going to talk with my parents and brother in France about a visit out there, which I hope will also include some time in the UK for seeing people. And I want to poke around more for where to make connections in my new neighborhood. I'm playing D&D again tonight, which will be good too, missed and didn't have some sessions but hopefully can get back to playing more consistently. Next weekend there's a mini romance con at my library which will be neat.

I'm really looking forward to the new Andor series and love how the Rogue One/rebelcaptain fandom is getting revved up for it.

And Yuletide nominations are open which is wild, need to remember to do them, Old Kingdom in the hope that someday, someone will write me Sameth/Ferin and a DWJ or two.

I’ve signed up for Yuletide and it actually feels like Fall here. I love this kind of weather and I don’t have to work anymore Saturdays this month. Also looks like I definitely will have my contract extended until December and have my Thanksgiving travel sorted. All good things, but for the moment, I’m mainly feeling far too tired.

This Saturday I have a lovely alum thing coming up that I’m looking forward to and next Friday, a Halloween party at work. Honestly I think all those Saturdays wore me down more than I expected.

My work contract has been picked up for another month, knew it was going to happen but saw the confirmation of it today in my timesheet. Also last week an old friend, someone that I've known since elementary school but had fallen out of touch with reached out to me. We've been texting and communicating and is great. There's the same ease in conversation as there used to be. I've missed her so much and oddly this gives me hope to try and connect with newer people. I had started to a little bit before Covid then Covid and my own shyness kind of got in the way. Now I think I'm maybe going to look into options for new ways to connect to people.

Work is going well and my creativity has started to come back which is a nice feeling. I put in my Yuletide nominations and people are actually commenting on my list of fandoms and characters. I've never had that happen but its nice. It helps that one of them, October Daye's new book came out this week and was really good. Not the biggest plot or world changes but a really satisfying book with a moment that's been in the offing for years actually happening.

The weather is also starting to get cooler which is always nice. I like not sweating so much.

I've been having a wonderful and quiet holiday with my parents. Lots of baking, cooking and reading with a dusting of snow. I made a glorious honey cake that we're slowly eating and enjoying.

My Yuletide gift was a wonderful Toby Daye fic about the Luidaeg and Quentin that I loved, and my giftee really liked their fic, which is really all I ask for on Yuletide.

Alms for Oblivion (1254 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: The Luidaeg (October Daye), Quentin Sollys
Additional Tags: mentions of Toby, Light Angst, Future Fic, ish, Not completely canon compliant, as it predicts something that may not happen
Summary:

The request was "I loved the last book and had a hard time figuring out who to ask for so I think I'm going to go with the Luidaeg as her story and family is at the center of everything. I'd love her perspective and thoughts on changes, what's she's seen or even wonderful lighter moments with the new generation of Fae that's she's been leaving a mark on. Please include anyone that you'd like since she lives at the center of a lovely big world of people who care. I also really love the various teens; Quentin, Raj, Dean, Chelsea and have requested them previous years so would love to see them if they fit."

I somehow ended up writing the Luidaeg and her thoughts on being the Lady of the Lake, Quentin finding Excalibur, and what it may mean. I hope you like it, as I've not written in this fandom before, but I love the characters a whole lot!