2025 was mixed. On the bad side, Dylan has now been unemployed for over a year, with ~175 applications sent out and a bare handful of interviews. He's starting to look for freelance gigs in addition to full-time jobs, and he's just finished a quick one and has a nibble for a chance to cover for someone on parental leave. We've been doing OK so far, since the last job threw so many shares of stock at him as bonuses before the layoff, but that nest egg is getting awfully low. My job is secure (as long as the federal shenanigans around research funding don't get radically worse, which I by no means take for granted), but doesn't quite pay enough to cover all our expenses even if we cut out everything extraneous and lived on beans and Top Ramen.

On the good side, Alex is thriving as an art student and starting to figure out adulthood. He's only got two quarters left before he gets his associate's degree at North Seattle College and is eying DigiPen to get his bachelor's, but we keep pointing out that he'll graduate with a lot less debt if he were to choose, say, Washington State or UW-Bothell.

As for me, despite everything, I feel I had a pretty good year. I sold a short story to a good market, I'm starting to find writer community within SFWA, and I'm more established as a lay preacher in my church, so one way or another, I'm telling stories.

Susan, are you still attending St. A's? (If so, are you an 8 AM girly? If so, is the St A's 8 AM Rite 1?)

(I'm not going to talk about last year except to say that, by late December, I was all, "I've been meaning to do this off and on for thirty years. I think it's time to commit to a church. And make my mother roll in her cremation box under the side table by getting baptized." So anyhow, I've been attending a local Episcopal church in a charmingly MCM building, going to the Adult Inquirer's class at St. Mark's, and signed up for the next baptism opportunity. I'm opting to go full dunk tank. You only get one shot at full dunk tank.)

Neat! I gotta say, doing the mikvah when I converted was pretty sweet

I mean, it looks more like a stylish modern above-ground rectangular koi pond than dunk tank, but still.

Yes St. A's and yes 8 AM, but it's not Rite 1. And given my Baptist roots, I definitely recommend the full dunk tank.

I didn't know Episcopalians would fully immerse! ABSOLUTELY go full dunk!

Yes St. A's and yes 8 AM, but it's not Rite 1. And given my Baptist roots, I definitely recommend the full dunk tank.

That would explain why I haven't seen you there! I considered 8 AM so that I'd have the rest of my day free, but that would involve driving while tired, which I just won't do, so 10 AM it is. Clearly, St. A's needs full Buffista coverage. (Buffistas in your congregation? It's more likely than you think!)

Paul's grandmother used to go to St. Andrew's, way back when, but now that she's 100 and no longer drives, I think she just skips church.

(The 8 AM I went to in Spokane was Rite 1, and I swear, it was like a speed run of the Eucharist. The cathedral there is gorgeous, BTW, though next time I'm there on a Sunday, I'm just going to go to the later service closer to our friends' house.)

I didn't know Episcopalians would fully immerse! ABSOLUTELY go full dunk!

The Dean at St. Mark's highly recommended it at the first Inquirer's class. Go big or go home, I say!

I had no idea you were coming to the 10 AM at St. A's! I go sometimes, and I will for sure have to be there on 3/22, since it's the next time I'm scheduled to preach.

I started right before Christmas! Last Sunday was my third time there. We have a two-week break from Inquirer's Class at St. Mark's, which means I don't have to rush out of coffee mid-conversation next week. I am looking forward to hearing you preach!

Oh neat!

I do not have as much to share. It's been a strange year in its way, no major disasters but a lot of unsettling or unexpected stuff. The general dumpster fire this world is becoming of course. Late summer and fall Chicago was under ICE siege and my neighborhood and those near us have heavily Mexican and Puerto Rican populations (yes I know, but ICE doesn't) and that still ebbs and flows. I also spend several months on a Grand Jury during this time.

So it was a weird environment of feeling my city and my neighbors threatened and simultaneously seeing and hearing a lot of unrelated things I'm not ordinarily aware of - a few of them funny, a lot of them unsettling, and a handful absolutely horrific.

And yet at the same time feeling so fucking proud of my city and community, whether it was all the gaggles of people watching and whistling, escorting kids home from school, offering up free tows for people who didn't feel safe retrieving their car from a job site or health clinic, etc. Mutual aid campaigns to buy out tamale vendors and deliver their wares to unhoused or struggling neighbors, attempting to drive business to restaurants, stores, etc. whose usual clientele were staying low to the ground, and similarly using what privilege we have to track, call out, or otherwise be salty. Likewise, some of the Grand Jury witnesses were so impressive and moving. It's all still swirling around in my head and I'm kind of still processing.

And other things happened! Saw some Buffistas at the crossword tournament, which was EPIC! Visited family in Toronto and did a skywalk on the outside of the CN Tower. I got invited to Bachelor Camp with two friends who tied the knot this summer and have become even better friends. Did a little bit of travel here and there. And work is generally fine, so I'm a lot better off than many.

Also put back on a fair amount of the weight I had lost, but I'm working on it. We'll say no more about that.

AND. I finally mailed my X-mas cards and if yours was one of the ones I wrote out while waiting for Buddy Guy, I had the club put a stamp on the envelope. They thought I was a weirdo but who cares?