tiredFirst, the bad, since there was actually less of it by weight, but what there was colored a lot of things. I did not move to Seattle in 2012. I'm trying really hard. Banks are difficult, and my day job is difficult, and it's all still a work in progress. This doesn't change the fact that by the end of the year, "so when are you moving?" became a question that was guaranteed to make me start a) yelling or b) crying. Sometimes it's really hard to live in a fishbowl, and when I don't have something I really, really want, and people keep asking about it...that's one of those times. So until I say "this is a thing that is happening, it has worked out with the bank and with my current housemate and with my job," please don't ask.
I developed a severe issue with my left foot in 2012. It's called "plantar fasciitis," and it basically means "screaming pain every time I put my foot down." This is a problem, especially since I walk both for exercise and for recreation, which has had to be cut way, way back, due to the whole "screaming pain" thing. This is negatively impacting my fitness, which I don't like. I'm doing what my doctor tells me and I don't need help, but it's bad, and it means that sometimes, I walk on a cane or not at all.
Now, the good. I went to Disneyland twice! I saw the largest intact Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in the world! I went to Maine! Basically, through these things combined, it was a damn good year. I got Vixy into pin collecting, which gave me someone to collect pins with (always good). I saw amazing movies and watched a lot of TV, and I don't even know how many books I read. So many books. Truly we live in a magical time.
Oh, and I won a Hugo for never shutting up. I make a wish on it every night. (Yes, sometimes I wish on my Hugo to win a Hugo for Blackout. I never said I was reasonable.)
Publishing-wise, I couldn't tell you how much I wrote in 2012, because I seriously lost count, but I released five books: Discount Armageddon, Blackout, Ashes of Honor, Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots, and When Will You Rise. I had my first reprint, "Lost", and my first reprint-in-a-book, "Crystal Halloway and the Forgotten Passage." It was a pretty slow year for me with short fiction, but there were some pieces I'm really proud of, like "San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats", and "In Sea-Salt Tears." I finished nine Velveteen stories, which is three more than the six I promised in 2011. It was a good writing year.
I'm excited about 2013, in all the ways. I'm going to spend my birthday in Disneyland. Wreck-It Ralph is coming out on DVD. And we're spinning our way around the sun again.
Whee!
January 2 2013, 21:46:25 UTC 4 years ago
Drat. I was beginning to suspect that the plans were falling into the woodchipper, but this is one of the cases where being right sucks.
Not as much as hearing about the "screaming pain" thing, but still - that sucks.
Still, there's always the future...
January 3 2013, 22:41:05 UTC 4 years ago
I also experience similar irritation when people say, Why didn't you do [common thing that almost everybody does], or worse, What are you planning to do for [common significant event that everybody does something for]. 'Cause, well, there's this thing called Broke* that is often my lot, and those common things aren't universal, and I hate having to be a downer by restating my relative poverty.
*Honestly, we're in really good financial shape, but that includes things like a house which needs a lot of upgrading, so our money gets encumbered pretty quickly. And for some reason I keep ending up in circles of friends which have more money than me, so it's only Broke by comparison. (My highly-successful sister with the second home for skiing trips and various trips abroad doesn't help, though at least she mostly doesn't assume I can afford the same things.)