bironic

(as Stephen Colbert said until recently)

Doing: Move-related stuff. thedeadparrot helped me haul the world's greatest secondhand bed frame across town. My dad and sister came up for a few days for an initial round of painting. We did a nice gray in the main area that doesn't turn blue in the northwestern light, unlike in my current living room; an awesome purple-gray in the bathroom; and a bright yellow-green in the kitchen, something I'd wanted for ages.

Then we experimented with doing an ombre accent wall. The mid- and dark grays I picked are not quite in the right family, but the final product is growing on me. It looks like storm clouds or a misty forest canopy. Some pix.

stultiloquentia borrowed me to go strawberry picking. Yum! The farm had seven varieties. The one called Cleary was far and away my favorite. Sweet and bright, with a little white crown at the stem. Another called Cavendish came in second. I ate some fresh. The rest await the right recipes in the freezer. We had lunch under a tree.

(Did I mention the condo has a real fridge/freezer? The apartment freezer can't be more than 2 cubic feet and goes through unpredictable temperature cycles so everything ends up thawed and refrozen and speared through with ice crystals.)

This weekend I will be attending a small BBQ for the first time in two years. Inside? With multiple people? Honestly, I'm not sure I'm ready.

Going: The day science deemed me fully vaccinated against COVID, I drove to NY to see my family, who'd been ahead of us on the vaccination front. My sister and I then flew to Florida to visit our grandfather in anticipation of his 100th birthday! So I went from staying in the house except for bike riding and occasional double-masked grocery runs to sitting in a packed airport and visiting an elder care facility. Then spent time at both parents' houses unmasked. Zero to 60. What felt weirdest was how weird it didn't feel. Neither terrifying nor joyful. Like the pandemic had created a buffer between me and reality without my noticing, tamping down reentry emotions.

Fortunately, everything turned out fine. He was so happy to see us. The cold my sister came down with on the second day proved by virtue of both rapid and PCR testing to be indeed just a cold, and no one else caught it. His actual birthday went swimmingly last week, he reports. And now I'm back to staying mostly at home while getting more comfortable visiting with one or two friends at a time in their homes or in a car.

I also "went" to con_txt this past weekend. A lovely time, as usual, and extra sweet after having missed vidukon and wiscon. So proud of my friends for putting it together in its second virtual incarnation. Need to catch up on the vid shows.

Watching: A reality show called Secrets of the Zoo on Disney+, which follows veterinarians at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio. It's great for animal cuteness and education, but not great whenever they lose a patient.

Then I finished the first season of Star Trek: Lower Decks, inspired by cinco and celli at their panel on new Trek incarnations at con.txt. It did grow on me. As they promised, it talked back to TOS and TNG while showing a deep knowledge of and fondness for the franchise. The episode inspired by "Space Seed" and The Wrath of Khan did what JJ Abrams' Star Trek and Star Wars reboots should have done: taken a beloved original and told a new story while still paying homage to it visually/linguistically/thematically.

Next up, Discovery season three while I have this oops-I-forgot-to-cancel-after-the-free-trial month of Paramount+? Seasons one and two left me cold, but the panel did make a case for giving the show another try.

Reading: Sort of nothing? It's taking me ages to finish How to Be an Anti-Racist, which has nothing to do with the book and everything to do with my pandemic brain and lack of commute. I would like to read the Golem & the Jinni sequel that just came out. I'm in the queue at the library.

Vidding: On hiatus. It'll be interesting to see which idea breaks the dam.

How are you?

There are too many projects listed on this sticky note, and thus I’m completely unable to start any of them.  But some are important and some are exciting and some have been put off for months.  Aack.

The run-down, in no particular order:

• Complete third-round edits for Accio proceedings. (this weekend)
• Finish preparing Sebastian Roche site for launch. (at my leisure)
• Paper proposal for Patronus 2006. (Dec. 31)
• Paper proposal for Lumos 2006. (Jan. 15)
• Various tasks for the journal (recruitment, annotated bibliography, style guide, &c). (ASAP)
• Excerpt and revise sections of thesis for submission to Watcher Jr., the unfortunately-titled grad/undergrad offshoot of Slayage. (Oct./Nov.)
• Presentation proposal for next spring’s Slayage conference on the Whedonverse. (Oct. 31)
• And, as of this evening, Panel proposal on fanfiction/journal for the Southwest Texas/PCA conference in February. (Nov. 15)

This doesn’t take into account the list of to-do’s, which includes such savory items as: 

• Write a long letter to a college friend who’s about to disown me for lack of communication (and I mean that).
• Reply to about five substantial emails.
• Reëstablish contact with favorite cousin and two teachers.
• Make a bigger dent in what was supposed to be this month’s - no, make that last month's - List of Books I Can’t Believe I Got Through School Without Reading (currently: Innocents Abroad; next up: Wuthering Heights).
• Make the annual slew of doctor’s appointments.
• Help father finish painting the porch and re-attach the gutter.
• Continue two projects from work I’ve taken home, again. Am reconsidering the brilliance of this idea after an enlightening conversation I had with a co-worker in the parking lot yesterday.
• Sit down and make a decision about my future.

Sigh.  

While all of this happens (or not), I have embarked on a journey toward resensitization with a questionable likelihood of success.   ( Me, me, me. Complain, complain, complain. )

Heh.  This is exactly the sort of thing I once swore never to put on a blog if I ever started one.