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shortest day
Dec. 21st, 2013 12:30 amIt's become increasingly clear that I won't get my meme answers done before the end of December. Never mind; they'll keep my brain ticking over in January. Y'all asked me lots of interesting stuff which I still fully intend to answer - just, perhaps not now.
Things. Things and stuff. Okay, so, it's December 21st. I've been doing my new job for not quite three weeks, and yesterday I got a card from my new colleagues, full of sweet thoughtful messages for the wedding, and today I got paid for the first time. Career-wise, I'm still chewing some things over, but right now I feel settled and happy in a way I haven't felt for a long time, perhaps since I came back to the UK in 2011.
Tonight, Shim and I fly out; we'll be in Delhi from Sunday morning, and while I am still quite anxious and apprehensive about a lot of elements of this wedding, I am looking forward to seeing all our wonderful friends who are flying so far to be there for it. I have had a lot of trouble expressing it, so I'm just going to state, baldly, that you all have no idea how much this means to me, and that race and culture and families are so hard, but that fandom and Oxford, in their ways, were the first real communities I had, and here you all are, and I love you all so much.
Lots of wedding stuff. LOTS. The actual wedding is December 29th, though, with reception on the 30th, and Shim and I are having a proper honeymoon this time around: we're missing New Year through the miracle of flying east, spending a few days in Bali and Singapore, and returning in the new year hopefully refreshed. (My boss said, listening to this today, taxonomy sounds positively restful after all of that: I quite agree, and I think my job may be the calmest and most peaceful thing in my life right now. Nothing wrong with that.) In January, it's my birthday. I'll be 27, which isn't a dramatic age, but 26 was a dramatic year and I still want to mark it somehow: I think, right now, on my skin. I read recently the thought that a woman who gets a tattoo is marking out what she owns - that in this few square feet of space, no one's rules matter but hers - and that resonated with me, here at this place where my personal and professional identities are settling, but are what I made them, nevertheless, so. So, I am here. See all of you on the flipside of the year.
One final thing! There are five stories of mine in the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yuletide collection: four full-length, one treat, in four different fandoms. If you can guess any of them before reveals, your prize is a small ficlet. And if you're my author, I apologise sincerely for the delay. I will be back, I will read your story, and I know right now that'll it'll be awesome.
And that's all, and goodnight.
Things. Things and stuff. Okay, so, it's December 21st. I've been doing my new job for not quite three weeks, and yesterday I got a card from my new colleagues, full of sweet thoughtful messages for the wedding, and today I got paid for the first time. Career-wise, I'm still chewing some things over, but right now I feel settled and happy in a way I haven't felt for a long time, perhaps since I came back to the UK in 2011.
Tonight, Shim and I fly out; we'll be in Delhi from Sunday morning, and while I am still quite anxious and apprehensive about a lot of elements of this wedding, I am looking forward to seeing all our wonderful friends who are flying so far to be there for it. I have had a lot of trouble expressing it, so I'm just going to state, baldly, that you all have no idea how much this means to me, and that race and culture and families are so hard, but that fandom and Oxford, in their ways, were the first real communities I had, and here you all are, and I love you all so much.
Lots of wedding stuff. LOTS. The actual wedding is December 29th, though, with reception on the 30th, and Shim and I are having a proper honeymoon this time around: we're missing New Year through the miracle of flying east, spending a few days in Bali and Singapore, and returning in the new year hopefully refreshed. (My boss said, listening to this today, taxonomy sounds positively restful after all of that: I quite agree, and I think my job may be the calmest and most peaceful thing in my life right now. Nothing wrong with that.) In January, it's my birthday. I'll be 27, which isn't a dramatic age, but 26 was a dramatic year and I still want to mark it somehow: I think, right now, on my skin. I read recently the thought that a woman who gets a tattoo is marking out what she owns - that in this few square feet of space, no one's rules matter but hers - and that resonated with me, here at this place where my personal and professional identities are settling, but are what I made them, nevertheless, so. So, I am here. See all of you on the flipside of the year.
One final thing! There are five stories of mine in the
yuletide collection: four full-length, one treat, in four different fandoms. If you can guess any of them before reveals, your prize is a small ficlet. And if you're my author, I apologise sincerely for the delay. I will be back, I will read your story, and I know right now that'll it'll be awesome.And that's all, and goodnight.