I wrote a book. It was published today, becoming a capstone to a pretty
good birthday week.
The gelfling is starting to transition back to working, which means that
I'm back to solo childcare some fraction of the time. Fortunately, some
combination of acquired skills and less frantic hormonal connection
means that I'm finding it a bit easier to look after the new baby than
the one I birthed.
We are steadily making progress on settling into the new family home,
but are still surrounded by many, many boxes. Between the tinysmall and
generalised chaos, it's a little hard to get things finalised and in
place.
I am very tired and hiding from everything, and I actually have space of
my own to do it in at last. It's very nice.
How are things with everyone else?
- Darkhawk, sociably
-- Darkhawk - K. H. A. Nicoll - http://aelfhame.net/~darkhawk/ Come, take my body (Allelu--)
Come, take my soul (Take my soul--) "Dark Time"
Come, take me over, I want to be whole. October Project
On Feb 7, 9:22 pm, darkh...@mindspring.com (Darkhawk (H. Nicoll))
wrote:
> I wrote a book. It was published today, becoming a capstone to a pretty
> good birthday week.
Congratulations! (That reminds me that I should dig the actual book I
was published in out of my tenure box and put it somewhere prominent
in my office.)
[snip what sounds like some happy baby and moving chaos]
> How are things with everyone else?
I am doing okay. I had minor endoscopic surgery a month ago to
renovate the inside of my nose (the ENT removed a bone spur that was
pressing on a cluster of nerves in the back of my nose, also took out
two obstructive growths, and fixed an extra hole in my right maxillary
sinus). The surgery ended approximately three years of agonizing pain
that was not properly diagnosed by several doctors until one finally
suggested that I see an ENT, who ordered a CT scan and diagnosed me
after about two minutes of looking at the films, leading to me
squealing, "You mean there is something wrong with me?!" at him. His
reply: "Of course there is. Here, let me circle them for you."
My partner If came down and took care of me afterwards, and that went
well. I am mostly recovered, but I had a minor setback while I was
healing which means that I am still occasionally in pain that will
eventually go away, but it's definitely less pain and it responds to
OTC painkillers, which is an amazing change. Also, I can breathe so
much more easily! Oxygen is awesome. I am hoping that after I am
completely recovered that I will have more energy to be a functional
human being -- the chronic pain and breathing problems basically meant
that I could go to work for about half a day, come home and collapse
for a few hours, and then maybe do one thing after I woke up from my
nap before going to bed again.
My partner If and his wife Oksana and his partner Sarah bought a house
together in November, which I have seen once -- it is very lovely but
needs a lot of work. Right now their entire basement has been
demolished for remodeling, which means that I am not visiting them
very much because the sleeping arrangements become way too
complicated, so If comes to visit me for weekends instead. It is hard
to see all of them stressed out about the renovations (they keep
finding more problems, which means more expenses) and not be able to
do much to help.
I have been too low-energy to do much about meeting local people as
friends or more-than-friends, but I am hoping to work on that this
year as well.
Chickpea <chick...@gmx.co.uk> wrote:
> In alt.polyamory, (Darkhawk (H. Nicoll)) wrote in
> <1kf45t8.1ugnkko1es8zcwN%darkh...@mindspring.com>::
> >I wrote a book. It was published today, becoming a capstone to a pretty
> >good birthday week.
> Tell us more!
About the book or the birthday? ;)
The book:
A number of years ago I was out to lunch with a co-religionist. After a
little bit of chatting, she confided to me, "I don't know what the
Egyptian Book of the Dead is." I said something like, "Well, uh, it's
like a cross between a grimoire, a hymnal, and 'The Lonely Planet Guide
to the Underworld'."
I posted about this to LJ and got a few responses the gist of which was,
"The Lonely Planet Guide to the Underworld? Ha! I'd buy that. You
should totally write that."
So I spent a few years doing so (copious research, lots of swearing;
Brooks said the observation of it looked a bit like his PhD process).
It's basically an exploration of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the
culture that it emerged from written as a travel guidebook. I attempted
to get all three above aspects of the original Book in - there are three
praise-poems (hymnal), and each section of the book begins with a
rewrite of one of the spells from the Book in modern poetry. The text
is pretty much all deadpan humor. My quickie summary is that it's a
thesis-level exploration of the Egyptian Book of the Dead written in bad
jokes and limericks. (Actually there are only two limericks, IIRC, one
of which is quite appropriately about a penis. A lot of sonnets and
tanka, though. Also a fucking villanelle, and a goddamn terzanelle.)
I think it's hilarious, but I also have the specialised knowledge to get
the jokes. (My standard pull quote is pretty accessible, though: "When
you are packing for your trip, be sure to include whatever conveniences
and luxuries you want to have with you. For large items that would be
inconvenient to ship, such as boats or servants, small scale models will
be sufficient for your needs.")
I also achieved a level of friendly detente with my mother as part of
this project, and she did the interior art and the cover.
A couple days before my birthday I was going through back entries on
Livejournal and encountered someone putting up for sale a complete
collection of back issues of a magazine I've been wanting to snag for my
research, for a sum above what I thought we could afford. I emailed the
partner to confirm that, alas, we could not afford this.
Before I heard back from him, the Celt brought in the mail, which had
two parcels for me. One of them was my contributor's copy of a book I
had a poem included in (some time ago - the project died and was
resurrected and finally came out). The other was a thick envelope from
my father. The envelope contained photographs (mostly but not entirely
of my late cat), a bookmark, and a birthday-money check for the price of
the magazines.
(My actual birthday was kind of poor. But I spent a chunk of it
productively assembling a professional blog to go along with the book
release.)
The day after my birthday we went out to birthday dinner, and had some
very good food in a moderately inconvenient location. (I would really
like to have a Favorite Restaurant Dish that didn't require me to head
into the city, but apparently that is not something I get to win at.)
After dinner the Celt and I took the older kid a few blocks up the
street to the best pagan/esoteric bookstore in the Boston area, where I
enquired about whether or not the proprietor ever did author events. He
does not.
*However*, he is willing to stock my book, even though it is from a POD
press. First as a consignment deal, but if it sells well he will stock
it himself. This is amazing, as getting a brick-and-mortar to do stuff
from the sort of press my publisher is is kind of awesome and uncommon.
I bought a small pile of books, thanked him for being a bookstore that
actually had books that were useful, and agreed to bring some books in
for him to shelve at some point.
Sunday was a holiday in my religious calendar where I hadn't figured out
what to do yet, so I decided to read a section in one of the new books
about the deity whose festival it was. That included a pointer to
Herodotus describing the festival, so I looked up the passage in
Herodotus and suddenly knew what to do. That was kind of cool.
Somewhere in there I called my father to tell him what he'd gotten me
for my birthday. He was tickled by this, especially since he kind of
has a Thing for only acquiring complete sets of things.
Then yesterday my book came out between my emailing my birthday ex and
writing back to his response, so!
It was a good week overall.
- Darkhawk, full o' babble
-- Darkhawk - K. H. A. Nicoll - http://aelfhame.net/~darkhawk/ Come, take my body (Allelu--)
Come, take my soul (Take my soul--) "Dark Time"
Come, take me over, I want to be whole. October Project
The internet is an amazing place to live these days. The company's
officially near you, *my* boss is on the west coast of the US, I'm on
the east coast of the US....
(I work for the company even when I'm not selling them manuscripts.)
- Darkhawk, nice to have a job that doesn't require going anywhere
-- Darkhawk - K. H. A. Nicoll - http://aelfhame.net/~darkhawk/ Come, take my body (Allelu--)
Come, take my soul (Take my soul--) "Dark Time"
Come, take me over, I want to be whole. October Project
> I wrote a book. It was published today, becoming a capstone to a pretty
> good birthday week.
Congratulations on book and birthday both!
> I am very tired and hiding from everything, and I actually have space of
> my own to do it in at last. It's very nice.
Sounds pretty normal with a new person around - glad you have space to relax in now though.
> How are things with everyone else?
Finished paid work last June, have been adjusting to being "retired" - doing voluntary stuff, activisty stuff, reclaiming the house from utter chaos - a process which is taking far longer than I initially envisaged, as, strangely, having time to do the housework does not always include having motivation to do the housework. Who knew?
One thing I am doing well at though is getting more exercise. I now have a bicycle and am not afraid to ride it, though it's been a bit cold lately, by UK standards. Balmy by Canadian ones! But still ...
I've also taken up Scottish Country Dancing with a group called the Gay Gordons, which is an LGBT but straight friendly group. They rock! Usually it's a bunch of gay guys with me and maybe one or two other women turning up.
Tonight is a special night though as M is coming with me for the first time. She has met some of the guys at our local ballroom a month or so ago, but this is the first time she's wanted to come along to the dance class, which is every Thursday evening. I really enjoy it and hope she will too.
We're semi-seriously planning to visit San Francisco in June as it's our 40th anniversary on the 9th and there's an Open Con event that looks as if the city is throwing a party for us to help us celebrate.
Haven't done anything yet about flights or rooms or ... but it's in our minds to come if we can convince ourselves it's not unaffordable inexcusable luxury.
I really want to see the Grand Canyon too ... and spend some time in the wilder countryside ...
I'm guessing that unless we suddenly get a heads-up on cheap flights we won't actually book anything until we get back from our next ski trip in March.
Mainly I'm still actively celebrating my return to health after the cancer scare and treatments a couple of years ago. It feels so good to be fit and healthy, and I don't want to waste a second of it, even if some of my choices are lazier than others.
Darkhawk (H. Nicoll) wrote:
> I wrote a book. It was published today, becoming a capstone to a pretty
> good birthday week.
Happy birthday! and happy publishing!
> We are steadily making progress on settling into the new family home,
> but are still surrounded by many, many boxes.
I sympathize. We had to clear out a storage space about a year ago, and we are still surrounded by Many Many Boxes. Some days I despair of ever having them cleared out of here, although I do note that the number is reduced.
> I am very tired and hiding from everything, and I actually have space of
> my own to do it in at last. It's very nice.
Ah, it would be so lovely to have a space of my own to go hide in. I envy you. :-)
> How are things with everyone else?
Well, generally pretty good, with bumps. I spend mid-December to mid-January caring for my elderly, frail mom with dementia, and facilitating/working with my brothers to get her into a care facility. Which she should have been in probably a year ago, but the brother who lived with her was pretty oblivious and in some serious denial. That was a giant ball of No Fun.
I spent the rest of January alternately being scared spitless and excited as the dickens because I had a 30-minute concert slot at Conflikt, the Seattle filk convention. It went VERY well and I am hoping to be able to perform more. There is a private reprise of the concert in Portland on Saturday for friends who were not at Conflikt. (And if any locals are interested, email me and I'll send you the location; as it's a private home, I won't post it.)
Things are generally going well with my girlfriend and my ex-wife; my boytoy just started a new job so we have been struggling to have time together; my LDRs are chugging along nicely; and the relationship with my husband may be heading in a new direction. I have yet to know whether this is a Good thing or a Bad thing and am just taking it one day at a time. Part of what it is is that dealing with my mother's dementia left me very much out of Cope for anyone else's weird shit and he has some weird shit, to say the least. He is still enjoying doing medical transport/low-income transport, and that's always a good thing.
Except for chronic financial stress, I'm basically happy and healthy. I've been on disability for 2 years now, and this week got a job interview...was contacted by an old project manager who is looking for someone with my skill set. Dunno if I'll get it, but the good news is that if I do, I don't put my disability status in jeopardy, apparently. If it turns out I really can't work full time, then I get reinstated immediately. That's kinda handy, because I'm not sure I *can*...but this is 10 minutes up the road, and I have more support systems in place. So, who knows?
We have discovered, via Netflix, that we *adore* the new Sherlock, and because the producers worked on the new Dr. Who, I got season 1/disc 1 of *that* and we are both hooked! I confess, neither of us was particularly a fan of the old series, but so far, we're liking this one.
And! our last read-aloud book was The Princess Bride, 30th anniversary edition. What fun! Before that, "Feed" by Mira Grant, and we just acquired "Deadline" (the 2nd in the series) from the library 2 days ago and will start reading tonight. If you have not yet read these books, I highly recommend them. HIGHLY. And I don't recommend all that often.
That's kinda how things are lately, and thanks for asking!
>I wrote a book. It was published today, becoming a capstone to a pretty
>good birthday week.
Excellent! Congratulations.
>How are things with everyone else?
I've been busy. "We must work while the clock, she's a ticking."
And later today, after spending several hours at [call letters deleted]*, I have to drive 300 miles in a snowstorm to see my father and some people who are concerned about his health. Then tomorrow I have to drive back in time to make two other commitments.
* No, these are not the same as the call letters I used to delete. Nowadays I have so many call letters to delete that I can scarcely remember them all. While this is vastly preferable to having no call letters to delete, it can be confusing and stressful at times, and it leaves less time and energy for other aspects of my life than I would prefer.
>> I wrote a book. It was published today, becoming a capstone to a pretty
>> good birthday week.
> Excellent! Congratulations.
>> How are things with everyone else?
> I've been busy. "We must work while the clock, she's a ticking."
> And later today, after spending several hours at [call letters deleted]*,
> I have to drive 300 miles in a snowstorm to see my father and some
> people who are concerned about his health. Then tomorrow I have to drive
> back in time to make two other commitments.
> * No, these are not the same as the call letters I used to delete.
> Nowadays I have so many call letters to delete that I can scarcely
> remember them all. While this is vastly preferable to having no call
> letters to delete, it can be confusing and stressful at times, and it
> leaves less time and energy for other aspects of my life than I would
> prefer.
On Tuesday, February 7, 2012 9:22:38 PM UTC-5, Darkhawk (H. Nicoll) wrote:
> How are things with everyone else?
> - Darkhawk, sociably
First, congratulations on the book and the new family member!
Life here continues to chug along. Still living on my own, still enjoying it very much. Work's been crazy-busy all winter, which means job security,but I'm sure ready for a break. Gearing up for spring gardening chores. About to finish mt first woodworking project, a wall shelf/personal altar. Bought a treadmill at the end of the year because I like to walk and weather's often iffy; have added short bursts of jogging and am working on building up to be 5K-ready by this summer. My parents have now both developed Alzheimer's, which means I'm having to travel to check on them more often. Fortunately, they're already in an assisted-living facility.
Relationship with Hubby still limping along- he continues to piss & moan about circumstances without doing anything to change them. He's had several health scares related to his diabetes but isn't getting it under any better control. He still attempts to hand responsibility for his life to me at every opportunity, but I've gotten really adept at dodging the ball. Regardless, there are still some things I enjoy doing with him and we have a couple of trips planned in the near future. We'll be marking 30 years at Beltane.
Things with Sweetums continue to be wonderful. We marked our 10th anniversary in October with a weekend at the beach in November- incredibly romantic. He was here for a weekend in February. And more trips to the parents also come with more opportunities to see him.
Just tentatively starting an acquaintance with possibilities, with someone I met on OKCupid. Sounds like a "relationship problems, add more people" scenario, but he also has some interesting quirks that match some of mine, so we'll see where it goes.
Chickpea <chick...@gmx.co.uk> wrote:
> I bought the book, you're on your own with the family member!
*snrfk* I hope you enjoy it.
New family member had minor surgery (tongue-tie correction) and now we
have to prod her several times a day to make sure that the wound heals
correctly. This is horrible for everyone involved, plus anyone in
earshot. However, it seems to be helping certain other things, so!
Meanwhile, I have a diagnosis for an autoimmune disorder, which is
fucking fantastic in a non-sarcastic fashion, as this is something I've
been monitoring (with varying levels of 'actually, I think this is
something to be concerned about here') for some fifteen years, so it's
nice to actually get somewhere with it. I have disturbed a remarkable
number of people in the last day (got formal d/x about thirty hours ago,
got medication to treat it two hours later) by perkily informing them,
"I have an autoimmune disorder! I'm thrilled!" (People who are
familiar with the power of Finally, A Diagnosis are generally less
confused.)
- Darkhawk, still iffy on sleep but that's parenting
-- Darkhawk - K. H. A. Nicoll - http://aelfhame.net/~darkhawk/ Come, take my body (Allelu--)
Come, take my soul (Take my soul--) "Dark Time"
Come, take me over, I want to be whole. October Project
In article <1kh2j4j.1qhm0b917j7scgN%darkh...@mindspring.com>,
Darkhawk (H. Nicoll) <darkh...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>Meanwhile, I have a diagnosis for an autoimmune disorder, which is
>fucking fantastic in a non-sarcastic fashion, as this is something I've
>been monitoring (with varying levels of 'actually, I think this is
>something to be concerned about here') for some fifteen years, so it's
>nice to actually get somewhere with it. I have disturbed a remarkable
>number of people in the last day (got formal d/x about thirty hours ago,
>got medication to treat it two hours later) by perkily informing them,
>"I have an autoimmune disorder! I'm thrilled!" (People who are
>familiar with the power of Finally, A Diagnosis are generally less
>confused.)
Congratulations! I haven't had that experience myself yet, but now that
I've formally decided that I am Not Healthy, it's more likely that I
will. (Note carefully that Not Healthy is not the same thing as sick;
I'm still TABby, I just have enough problems that I need medical help
dealing with them.)
The rest of my life is going pretty well, but my LDR has too many
problems (the person, not the relationship), my local secondary just had
zir gall bladder taken out, and our kitties probably have less than a
year to live.
-- Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/ <*> <*> <*>
Zie is so far from a clue that it would take a sub-light vessel several
years to reach one.
darkh...@mindspring.com (Darkhawk (H. Nicoll)), in article <1kh2j4j.1qhm0b917j7scgN%darkh...@mindspring.com>, dixit:
>Meanwhile, I have a diagnosis for an autoimmune disorder, which is
>fucking fantastic in a non-sarcastic fashion...
Yes it is!! Congratulations! Best of luck with the next steps.
Hooray! for next steps!!
(I got my official imprimatur [Graves' disease, duh] this fall, after
30+ years, w00!)
-- Piglet, pig...@piglet.org
"That may be YOUR point. MY point is to live each moment so as
to maximize the amount of complaining that can be done about said moment, after the fact. It's not as easy as it looks." --jankplus
On 03/16/2012 07:22 PM, Darkhawk (H. Nicoll) wrote:
> Chickpea<chick...@gmx.co.uk> wrote:
>> I bought the book, you're on your own with the family member!
> *snrfk* I hope you enjoy it.
> New family member had minor surgery (tongue-tie correction) and now we
> have to prod her several times a day to make sure that the wound heals
> correctly. This is horrible for everyone involved, plus anyone in
> earshot. However, it seems to be helping certain other things, so!
Aww, poor everyone.
> Meanwhile, I have a diagnosis for an autoimmune disorder, which is
> fucking fantastic in a non-sarcastic fashion,
Totally. Woo-hoo! I have a really vague diagnosis for mine, which is almost as bad as no diagnosis at all, and I would just truly love to have more information to go on.
In article <1kh2j4j.1qhm0b917j7scgN%darkh...@mindspring.com>,
Darkhawk (H. Nicoll) <darkh...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>"I have an autoimmune disorder! I'm thrilled!" (People who are
>familiar with the power of Finally, A Diagnosis are generally less
>confused.)
Hooray for information! --
Stef ** s...@cat-and-dragon.com **
** firecat.dreamwidth.org ** fatfriendlydocs.com **
**
If only I could get that wonderful feeling of accomplishment without having to do anything.
Occupy Usenet <pig...@panix.com> wrote:
> (I got my official imprimatur [Graves' disease, duh] this fall, after
> 30+ years, w00!)
Hah, you have the inverse one that I do.
- Darkhawk, Hashimoto's
-- Darkhawk - K. H. A. Nicoll - http://aelfhame.net/~darkhawk/ Come, take my body (Allelu--)
Come, take my soul (Take my soul--) "Dark Time"
Come, take me over, I want to be whole. October Project
