I received a couple of beautiful ornaments from Kate P. THANK YOU! They are amazing. My name means lily of the valley and one of them is a beautiful red with lily of the valley all over it.

Politically 2017 was a dumpster fire; personally 2017 was a bit of a mixed bag. I had health issues in the spring (sinus infection and bronchitis, then a C. diff. infection due to the antibiotics for them). I had hoped to find a job back in the midwest before last summer, but that didn't happen, so I was stuck in a place where I hated to be outside for three months straight.

On the other hand, I'm finally taking some advantage of the local music offerings and attending more classical concerts—three last summer, a couple in the fall, and several pre-paid for 2018. And I'm attending these with friends, so that's good, too. Having amyth as a neighbor continues to be a delight, and I'm finding myself enjoying my family's company more with every visit. It's great when relatives you knew as infants grow into adults with whom you like to talk.

We're undergoing some restructuring at work. That's always worrisome, but the higher-ups have arranged for me to go to a major conference in March, so presumably they expect me to be around for at least another few months. That said, I'm still hoping to move back to MI as soon as I can find a job in my field there, so here's hoping. (Chicago or western NY would also be good.) So if anyone knows of a university or college in those regions that needs someone to work on their online courses, I'd love to hear about them.

Secret Santa gift should go in the mail, tomorrow. I've had everything for about a week, but haven't made the push to get it to the post office. That will change, tomorrow, as I made an appointment to get my picture taken and apply for a passport!

Folks may know my father passed away a little over a year ago, which made this year a bit of a melancholy affair, learning new routines/roles in the family to compensate for his loss. While it's been sad, it's also brought the few of us remaining that much closer. We actually do more things together and there's more of a feeling of support between everyone. So we take the good with the bad and hope for better as time goes on.

One of the consequences of Dad's passing is the distribution of his estate, which my brother is taking his own sweet time about. It's a bit annoying, but I'm in no financial difficulties at the moment, so I'm waiting patiently for whatever comes out of it. The only thing that has paid out so far was his remaining state pension, which since J. had to notify the state so they'd quit sending his pension check, it triggered the payout of that. It's been just enough to treat myself to a few nice things and paying off some debts (credit card, student loan!)

The major nice thing is that I'm able to use a portion of it on a trip to Milan next March for the World Figure Skating Championships, hence, the passport. It's the first real vacation I've taken in 6-7 years and the first time I've been able to get overseas since I got out of the Navy in 1993. I'm so grateful to be able to do this that it brings me to tears knowing that the only reason I can do this is because Dad died. It's joyful and bittersweet at the same time.

The header to this thread made me laugh, not just because it's hilarious in its nonsense, but because I just finished off a stollen full of marzipan. Sometimes, the Buffy!Bot got it at least partially right.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I am ever so slightly slack in my elfishness! I have things ready to go but won't be able to get to the post office during normal hours until Tuesday. My apologies, dear recipient!

Now, as for 2017:

Unfortunately, as you probably already know, Donald Trump.

On a more personal note, it was a mixy year. I used all my vacation time for the first time EVER -- New York for my dad's 75th birthday plus Hamilton; New Orleans for our anniversary and a chance to see smonster's favorite dive bar; a restorative week on the Outer Banks in the off season (I've never really enjoyed beach vacations because I hate the crowds and the sitting around on a hot beach. turns out that going halloween week fixes both problems.)

I made a point of making things -- art things, craft things, food things -- and did a lot of reflecting on what it means to practice and to do stuff that's resolutely in the physical world.

I took up the guitar because a switch flipped in my head that said "I wanna rock and roll". Three whole weeks ago, so oy do I suck. But I'm in love with playing every day. That's good enough for now.

I finished my 2017 reading challenge without counting any books by white men (other than the one I was halfway through at the beginning of the year). I ate my vegetables. Mostly. We had work done on the house, which both improved things greatly and also threw us into chaos for longer than I liked.

We were adopted by a second cat. The first cat is still not altogether thrilled, but they've more or less reached detente, and are sleeping about 6 feet away from each other as I write this.

I came thiiiiiiiis close to walking away from my job, but then switched to a different team within the company, which relieved the immediate frustrations. The tech world is absolutely a fucking trashfire, but my company remains better than most, and I'm grateful for that.

Anne - Yay glad you got everything.

aurelia, did I send two ornaments? Well, that clears up some confusion. Ornaments aren't all that useful after Christmas -- sorry! There should be two more things coming for you.

My big box of gifties are here!!! Thank you, Kat (& family)!! I have guests now but I'll report fully tomorrow!

Finally finished the novel this year. Kind of wish I had a better strategy for picking an agent than the back of my favorite books and who has a friendly pic on QueryTracker, because it's not really working so far, but I've only been blown off a few times...need to pace myself about that.

Working for a PAC means I can't really escape current events the way some of you can...it's What We Do.(This has cost me in what passes for my dating life, as I no longer much match the Manic Pixie Dream Crip in my dating profile.I am actually sad about that, because, all jokes aside, I am like that on my best day, but they don't come around that much...which is a bummer, even without the feeling that you are bait-and-switching someone into possibly liking you.)I could rewrite the profile, but don't know how real I can get and still be appealing to humans. Also, I may actually be too busy, for the first time in a decade and a half. I actually do like what I do, except it would be nice to be paid, and I really didn't expect things to still get so "Turning Point". I probably used the money I might have used for a Secret Santa present for a billboard that talks smack about Paul Ryan, or to buy Doug Jones some pivotal post-its.
In fannish news, Simon and I do talk on Twitter on occasion now. Wouldn't say that slavish hero worship *pays off* exactly, but considering the first time we spoke, he kind of told me off, I think that's a good evolution.

Glad it arrived, Lisa.

aurelia, did I send two ornaments? Well, that clears up some confusion.

You did, yes. If you need one back, let me know.