Rambling Update
Whew! It's been an interesting few weeks since my last update. Here are the key points of loveliness:
1. Finally been to Canada!
During my undergrad years, I studied in Tacoma, WA and Ithaca, NY. These cities are super-close to Canada, and my friends at both institutions organized road trips. Only, these occurred during contradictory periods in my life. So, regardless of my student locations and my last 3 years in the Seattle metro, I'd never been to Canada.
But no more.
Last week, I wanted to get xyon away from work for a few days, and Clipper Vacations always has some kind of sale. Hence, we spent Thanksgiving in Victoria, B.C. I bought the tickets about 4 days before we left.
We played it like quiet tourists. Lots of coffee shops, a trip to Butchart Gardens, and high tea at the Empress. Why "quiet" tourists? Because we spent a lot of time simply relaxing. Thursday's weather forced this, in fact. (Thursday was so windy that multiple ferries and small aircraft couldn't depart.) That day, we lazed in bed and played word games on our iPhones.
Did I mention I got an iPhone a few weeks ago?
Fun item:
Butchart Gardens spends 2 months putting together fun Christmas lights and cuteness. For instance, this year's decorative theme is "12 days of Christmas", and we saw some fairy-light construction of "8 maids a-milking" in the (currently bare) rose gardens. Of course, the exhibits weren't finished when we visited.
While some people might be disappointed that they didn't get to see the impressive displays, not so us. Jeremy and I got excited over the way they have "real" Christmas trees (fake tree bases with cut branches stuck in them) and by the unfinished 8 maids (made of wire frames with not-quite paper mache over them).
2. Oh, look. Contract #4 with the same videogame company.
I'd originally plotted to take Jeremy to Canada in December, actually. But that timetable got moved up when the videogame company I enjoy writing for 1-2x/yr contacted me. They'd previously told me they expected to start writers in Jan/Feb, but now they wanted me in December. Yay!
Based on prior plans, I can't start until Dec. 13, but am beyond excited to be back.
3. Yes! We're moving back to the city. Thank goodness.
Part of being back in contract employment means commuting to the downtown offices. When I'd thought I'd start in Jan/Feb, xyon and I decided to look for rentals over in Seattle proper starting this month. (We currently live in a suburb which is (a) terrible for my bus commute and (b) TOO suburban for me.)
Now our time table has moved up. I'd really wanted to move by last week, but finding anything proved difficult. Start with the fact that Jeremy and I have nearly opposite priority lists in a living situation (e.g., Janine #1 item: must be walking distance to everything, so maybe a cute apartment in the hip Capitol Hill area; Jeremy #1 item: must be a free-standing house, so something extra-suburban fits the price-tag). Then add in "we have a serious budget" and "everyone knows houses don't rent well in winter, so owners are waiting to list them until summer".
Every week, I've looked at 100+ listings online, dragged Jeremy to 2-3 houses in person, and found absolutely nothing. Well, there was one place we liked two weeks ago, but ours was the SECOND application in. :(
But yesterday, we looked at two houses and liked both of them. (Okay, I think I liked them extra because I'm despairing of ever finding a place and am already annoyed that I have to move after I start working.) Jeremy even actively liked the second place we saw. Since he's fundamentally opposed to living in Seattle proper (we have opposite commuting concerns), this thrills me. I really hope we get that one.
So, after ages and ages of fruitless searching, we put in two--count 'em: two--applications yesterday. Hopefully, one or both of them will go through. Whee!
Either way, I'm excited to be moving back city-side. The buses go places. I can walk to things. When the bridges are down on the weekends for construction (never during the week because of commuters), it won't matter. I'll be able to do evening drinks with friends again without worrying about getting home in time or whether I'll find parking downtown. Yay!
4. After a year of writing, I've finished my steampunk erotica story collection. Well, sorta.
For the past year, I've been working on a collection of steampunk erotica short stories. I started it when I saw a call for submissions elsewhere and came up with too many ideas to pick just one. So, I decided to do 4 short stories and 1 novella, then self-publish the collection (e-publishing only for now) to see how that whole thing worked. But I didn't want to speed through it and end up without the best project ever.
This week, I finally finished the novella draft. So yay! (I also decided to scrap short story #4 for now.) It's a cross-dressing (sorta), Regency, early steampunk erotica piece. With poker players.
Now all that remains is finding a marvelous editor to get it cleaned up, picking a title so that I can send a request form to the cover artist I approached 4 months ago, doing some more in-depth research into formatting (smashwords, Kindle, etc), and finally getting Victoria Pond's website up so that all my promo efforts (whatever they turn out to be--eep!) send people somewhere.
5. My parents visit next week. Yay!
My parents are visiting! I'm gifting them with their 1 week Seattle vacation all planned and paid for. They're going to the theatre twice (1 Christmas panto, 1 marionette show), on a dinner cruise, outlet shopping, and computer building. Also, I've planned most meals (and can't wait to test out my homemade chocolate lava cake on them).
Oh! And if you're in Seattle on Christmas Eve, I'm playing a dinner show at A Terrible Beauty (the Irish Pub) in West Seattle. They're doing a 4 course dinner and called to ask if I'd play live music that day since their regular person (with a weekly show) is on vacation. Also, they've given me a biweekly show on Sundays, starting in the new year. Yes!
1. Finally been to Canada!
During my undergrad years, I studied in Tacoma, WA and Ithaca, NY. These cities are super-close to Canada, and my friends at both institutions organized road trips. Only, these occurred during contradictory periods in my life. So, regardless of my student locations and my last 3 years in the Seattle metro, I'd never been to Canada.
But no more.
Last week, I wanted to get xyon away from work for a few days, and Clipper Vacations always has some kind of sale. Hence, we spent Thanksgiving in Victoria, B.C. I bought the tickets about 4 days before we left.
We played it like quiet tourists. Lots of coffee shops, a trip to Butchart Gardens, and high tea at the Empress. Why "quiet" tourists? Because we spent a lot of time simply relaxing. Thursday's weather forced this, in fact. (Thursday was so windy that multiple ferries and small aircraft couldn't depart.) That day, we lazed in bed and played word games on our iPhones.
Did I mention I got an iPhone a few weeks ago?
Fun item:
Butchart Gardens spends 2 months putting together fun Christmas lights and cuteness. For instance, this year's decorative theme is "12 days of Christmas", and we saw some fairy-light construction of "8 maids a-milking" in the (currently bare) rose gardens. Of course, the exhibits weren't finished when we visited.
While some people might be disappointed that they didn't get to see the impressive displays, not so us. Jeremy and I got excited over the way they have "real" Christmas trees (fake tree bases with cut branches stuck in them) and by the unfinished 8 maids (made of wire frames with not-quite paper mache over them).
2. Oh, look. Contract #4 with the same videogame company.
I'd originally plotted to take Jeremy to Canada in December, actually. But that timetable got moved up when the videogame company I enjoy writing for 1-2x/yr contacted me. They'd previously told me they expected to start writers in Jan/Feb, but now they wanted me in December. Yay!
Based on prior plans, I can't start until Dec. 13, but am beyond excited to be back.
3. Yes! We're moving back to the city. Thank goodness.
Part of being back in contract employment means commuting to the downtown offices. When I'd thought I'd start in Jan/Feb, xyon and I decided to look for rentals over in Seattle proper starting this month. (We currently live in a suburb which is (a) terrible for my bus commute and (b) TOO suburban for me.)
Now our time table has moved up. I'd really wanted to move by last week, but finding anything proved difficult. Start with the fact that Jeremy and I have nearly opposite priority lists in a living situation (e.g., Janine #1 item: must be walking distance to everything, so maybe a cute apartment in the hip Capitol Hill area; Jeremy #1 item: must be a free-standing house, so something extra-suburban fits the price-tag). Then add in "we have a serious budget" and "everyone knows houses don't rent well in winter, so owners are waiting to list them until summer".
Every week, I've looked at 100+ listings online, dragged Jeremy to 2-3 houses in person, and found absolutely nothing. Well, there was one place we liked two weeks ago, but ours was the SECOND application in. :(
But yesterday, we looked at two houses and liked both of them. (Okay, I think I liked them extra because I'm despairing of ever finding a place and am already annoyed that I have to move after I start working.) Jeremy even actively liked the second place we saw. Since he's fundamentally opposed to living in Seattle proper (we have opposite commuting concerns), this thrills me. I really hope we get that one.
So, after ages and ages of fruitless searching, we put in two--count 'em: two--applications yesterday. Hopefully, one or both of them will go through. Whee!
Either way, I'm excited to be moving back city-side. The buses go places. I can walk to things. When the bridges are down on the weekends for construction (never during the week because of commuters), it won't matter. I'll be able to do evening drinks with friends again without worrying about getting home in time or whether I'll find parking downtown. Yay!
4. After a year of writing, I've finished my steampunk erotica story collection. Well, sorta.
For the past year, I've been working on a collection of steampunk erotica short stories. I started it when I saw a call for submissions elsewhere and came up with too many ideas to pick just one. So, I decided to do 4 short stories and 1 novella, then self-publish the collection (e-publishing only for now) to see how that whole thing worked. But I didn't want to speed through it and end up without the best project ever.
This week, I finally finished the novella draft. So yay! (I also decided to scrap short story #4 for now.) It's a cross-dressing (sorta), Regency, early steampunk erotica piece. With poker players.
Now all that remains is finding a marvelous editor to get it cleaned up, picking a title so that I can send a request form to the cover artist I approached 4 months ago, doing some more in-depth research into formatting (smashwords, Kindle, etc), and finally getting Victoria Pond's website up so that all my promo efforts (whatever they turn out to be--eep!) send people somewhere.
5. My parents visit next week. Yay!
My parents are visiting! I'm gifting them with their 1 week Seattle vacation all planned and paid for. They're going to the theatre twice (1 Christmas panto, 1 marionette show), on a dinner cruise, outlet shopping, and computer building. Also, I've planned most meals (and can't wait to test out my homemade chocolate lava cake on them).
Oh! And if you're in Seattle on Christmas Eve, I'm playing a dinner show at A Terrible Beauty (the Irish Pub) in West Seattle. They're doing a 4 course dinner and called to ask if I'd play live music that day since their regular person (with a weekly show) is on vacation. Also, they've given me a biweekly show on Sundays, starting in the new year. Yes!