meridian_rose

Five things make a post, I've seen others say. And while I have photos to share at a later time, I'll make a quick personal post here and now.

1. Still working on my unconventional courtship fic. The first draft is technically finished but there's a fair amount of detail I need to add during the first edit. Fandom is Ghost Whisperer

2. Found a bargain second hand red dress for next month; my church encourages everyone to wear red for Pentecost and takes a group photo. Plus my sister and younger nephew are getting baptised so it's a big day and I wanted something special to wear.
I'll try and get a photo when I wear it as it doesn't look so great just on a hangar. Also, I just googled the brand (Phase Eight) and I would never be able to afford a new one of these, prices being in the three figure bracket. The two most similar currently on their website are £150.
It was reduced to £6 at the charity store and then on the sale rail for the grand total of £2.

Last year I got a bargain for my baptism dress at a different charity store, a dark blue FCUK dress which again, retails for £100-200 and which I got for £15. Both of these I put on and they felt 'right', comfortable, which doesn't always happen with dresses especially as I'm petite so shorter in the body than some dresses are designed for. When you have that comfort and they look good, it gives a little confidence boost.

3. Also, please forgive another mention of church but our minister, Reverend Mandy finally got installed at 2 local churches, so made official vicar for them after a long period of being in the post on an interim measure. The evening service was lovely, overseen by our new Birmingham Bishop Michael, and attended by the Solihull mayor (the ceremonial mayor not the West Midlands mayor).
Mandy asked me to a reading and I didn't realise I was the only one doing a reading. (Mandy wisely didn't tell me, knowing I'd probably not have done it!) I got to wear the aforementioned blue dress again too.
She sent me the passage (Colossians 3:12-17) and I read it a few times and aloud once before the service, and I focussed on the words in front of me not the congregation in front nor the amassed clergy behind me at the lectern.
Afterwards people gave me a lot of praise which was nice, because I'm not a public speaker and again, this wasn't something I ever saw myself doing!

4. Nephews were both part of the scout parade for St George's Day in Dorridge. Big turn out from many local scout groups and people coming out to enjoy the band and the parade. Will try and add photos later. We were blessed with sunny weather - next day, Monday, was rain almost the entire day!

5. I'm trying to catch up on DW posts and my inbox (55 notifications!)

There was one DW notification in the posts and comments section I've never seen before, "you are not authorized to view this comment"
My inner critic prone to paranoia said maybe it was something someone had commented and then blocked me from a journal/community. It's probably more likely that it's a comment at something like the Snowflake Mods where I had temporary access prior to this year's challenge to post the pre-post and poll, but access was revoked during end of challenge housekeeping.

Still, weird.

For a focus on good things in November

ushobwri's daily check in for November was lots of fun. It helped me keep on track and was a nice social experience.
I wrote almost 8.5k words for various projects and posted 5 fics to AO3, with other fics for landcomms still needing some editing before I post them (if I do), plus Yuletide fic with beta and almost ready to upload.
I got in front of the GYWO goal a bit which is good because December can get busy! 171 days at checkin out of the 180 year goal of days I wrote or at least did something 'writerly' like outlining or editing.
I've done most of my Christmas shopping. Still looking for few extra gifts. Not sent any cards yet though!
Crafting; completed a felting craft project I'll share once it's been included in a landcomm challenge I'm still working on. Knitted a couple of tiny toy hats for my nephews' toys.
Christmas fayre at a local church, got a few little bargains, tried luck on the tombola, and had food and hot drink.
Baptism and first Holy Communion.
Some nice time with family and dinners together and takeaway one night.

I...am still here, in the world. I am changed, however. I feel every part of my life including my belief system and things I trusted has been turned upside down. I'm not ready to talk about that in more detail but I will say that I can no longer be truly on the Left - this tweet resonates with me - though I cannot be truly 'far Right' either. More Libertarian perhaps. Politically homeless. I don't want to write, right now, about any of these things but maybe one day.
I have participated, barely in Yuletide 2020, and spent months unable to write a word beyond journal entries of anger and pain. I did finally write a fanfic, and then a bit more and completed Yuletide 2021. A few more fanfics, enough to post some towards 100_fandoms. And recently Yuletide 2022, which I might write more about at some point. I've read some fanfic, but my fandom interaction has declined. I'm more on the sidelines right now.
I did the GYWO habit days after skipping 2021, and found it a welcome change from wordcount (though I was able to track both).
I also haven't posted any original fic since mid 2020. I did somehow manage to complete NaNoWriMo this year, though the 'novel' is unfinished and to my mind a mess that would/will take massive amounts of editing.
Meanwhile I might participate in some of the Snowflake Challenges due to start 1st January. I miss parts of fandom and community, but it has become a double edged sword the last 5 years.
So I'm not back, fully, and unfortunately, probably never will be. I have no idea how many of you are still here, still blogging. But I'm around, and writing sometimes, and posting at AO3 on occasion, and trying out other crafts, and loving spending time with my family including my nephews, and my sister's pets, and smiling at strangers - especially dog walkers who are on the whole the most friendly people you meet out walking and who are likely to greet you.
Best wishes for 2023.

My monthly personal post. This time, some good ramblings, a bit about work, some anger at the bullshit that is #article13 and a couple of positive pieces of world news :)

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Despite my enthusiasm for this year being different I'm struggling a little. So I've been less on social media as that often helps. There's a week long protest logoff at Tumblr 1st-7th February and that's now easy for me to do. I may or not come back to DW before the end of that. There's some things with deadlines I might need to check on anyway.

I hope to recapture my enthusiasm soon!

#writingwednesday will still go ahead at the writing blogs, I'll just post it to Tumblr later.

Hope everyone is doing okay with the weather. Still fairly mild here, some heavy frost, could be some snow in the Midlands tonight.

I haven't sorted photos even to post, let alone caught up on the backlog of things to crosspost from tumblr, and so you're getting this short personal post - but have a recent photo of my doggy niece Winter, (mostly husky) puppy, she'll be one in March.

I'm still processing things but I'm slowly moving on, realising part of the anger is because I got dumped without chance to defend myself when I should have left them ages ago given how often they managed to be insensitive.
Also that's three ex-friend bisexuals who've managed to pull shit about my being asexual and it's really starting to wear thin. I still believe that bisexual people aren't all like them, but I keep seeing otherwise and it sucks. I don't tend to have much in common with other asexuals online either, which is frustrating.

I've written a little, and edited quite a bit, things I'd started a while back and finally polished and posted.
I signed up for NaNo but I don't know if I'll actually participate, or if I'll do rebel NaNo and include anything I write in November.
I got my Yuletide assignment and I'm happy with it and have some potential fic to work on soon which is nice! I'm also pretty sure which fandom I requested will be the one I got matched on and I'll be excited to see what gift I get ;
I like to write treat fic too; it was a bit disappointing skimming a few letters and seeing someone asking for the same fic I wrote as treat fic last year. Maybe they just reposted their letter without updating it. But still. It wasn't just "I'd love a coffee shop au" type deal either, but a very specific thing, say "A works as a barista and B is a student that A starts giving free coffee to but then they find out B's ex is the coffee shop owner and angst ensues". I can't help wonder if it's because I didn't include Explicit Sex that the treat fic which hit all the points they wanted wasn't good enough :/ (Bonus since my assignee last year didn't respond to either fic I wrote for them nor the two treat fics other authors gifted them, which is against the spirit of yuletide. Luckily we all got comments from other readers.)
It won't stop me writing more treat fic for others though. And one of the treat fics from last year finally got a comment from the person I'd tried to gift it to (but their Ao3 name didn't seem to match their DW name where I read their letter).

Thing I did this week: back up my harddrive. Maybe some of you need a reminder to back up data? :)

Last week I was outside in a t-shirt. This week I'm thinking winter has arrived!

I'll be away the rest of the week and will catch up when I get back. I've scheduled posts for the professional blog (the Samhain post I published here today).

Have a good week everyone!

I recevied a lovely email today that said gifted me 6 months paid account
Hi! I don't know you, you don't know me. This is a Random Act of Kindness - little things to brighten the world. I wish you peace and happiness, and hope you enjoy!

I won't name the sender only in case they would prefer their generosity stay anonymous but thank you so much! You've made my day! I'm a little emotional tbh.

Thanks to everyone who left me messages/comments/hugs. It's appreciated. I will get back to you all soon. I took a brief hiatus which was the best thing.
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