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One of the things I find most distressing about Being An Old is how quickly time passes. You look up, and suddenly it's the end of December, when you're sure it was just spring five minutes ago. I don't like it.
But I guess I should write one of those yearly wrap-up posts, huh? Probably good for my mental health or something, putting all the things I accomplished into one place.
The year started out fine, I guess. I participated in the annual Weekend Warrior writing contest on Codex and got two usable stories (out of five) after revisions, which I've been submitting since March or April. Two of the stories are something I could do more with, and the last was an experiment that didn't land for the readers.
Then in March, Bear City Roller Derby announced that they were starting a newbie course, and I signed up, even though I'm not a newbie. It felt like a safer, more organized way for me to join the league, since there were going to be a bunch more people. So I'm now a skating official for Bear City, and that's rad. I've refereed 3 BCRD games and 2 for Starlight Excess, another league in town. I went to Hamburg to ref once, and I went to Dresden for a workshop weekend with a handful of BCRD newbies and a handful of folks from Starlight, where I refereed a rookie scrimmage.
The big-deal thing I did was go to Malmö, Sweden, for the EuroCup 2022, where I was a non-skating official (scorekeeper). My skating skills aren't up to snuff for European top 10 play, so I applied to NSO. I got to meet a bunch of officials from around Europe, which was one of my big goals when I started here. Back in Georgia, I was really well networked with officials in the southeast, and I travelled all over the place. It's different here, because I only know BCRD folks, and I'm working to change that.
I got covid in the middle of June, which sucked. I tested positive for about 10 days (I only bothered every other day) and was sick as a dog for the first 5 or so. Naturally it was the two-week period when it was over 90 degrees here (30+ C), and I couldn't even go out to the lake to cool off. I also had to keep my bedroom door shut to keep the germs in (fair enough, really), and ex-flatmate's belief that drafts make you sick meant that even when she was out of the apartment, I couldn't open it up for a crossbreeze, so it was 27 degrees and up in my room for over 2 weeks. Stuffy when I closed the window because outside was warmer (I used the fan she forbade me from using), too hot to sleep at night with the window open.
I recovered in time to go back to the US for most of July. I sorted through and reorganized the things I didn't have room to take with me when I left. I visited my sister, aunt, aunt & uncle, and family. We all went out to Olive Garden with Grandma so we could visit. That was nice.
I'm glad we did, because a few weeks later, Grandma was in the hospital with a hernia, got pneumonia, all sorts of terrible medical things. (She's 93. She was previously in excellent health for someone who's 93. She also lost two of her four children within a year (my mom in March 2021, my uncle last new year's), so emotionally she wasn't doing great.) My uncle texted & emailed us all with updates, and she's currently content, back in her assisted living room, I think, and looking forward to getting gussied up for a holiday dinner with her assisted living neighbors tomorrow. (She has macular degeneration and is blind now.)
After I got back, my dissatisfaction with my old apartment, mostly because of my old flatmate, hit a peak, and I started looking seriously for a new place to live. I'd been casually looking before, in an if-something-comes-up mode, because I hate Charlottenburg because it's so fucking bougie, but when I felt relaxed because she was out of the country for two straight weeks, I took it as a clear sign. I signed up for premium at the biggest apartment finding site and expected to spend the next six months or more looking for a place. Maybe even apply for a certificate that grants me access to a rent-controlled place (WBS). The rental market here is at least as competitive as the short fiction publication market.
And then I was talking after practice a few days later about how badly I needed to get out of my living situation, and my new flatmate said, "I have an open room. Do you want to come see it?" And now I live in a better room in a borough of Berlin that I like better, because it's more of the things I like about this city. I'm in Treptow, right across from the park. It's former East Berlin, so most of the buildings have that Soviet charm, but I'm not far from either Kreuzberg or Neukölln, which is extraordinarily convenient for going to roller derby practice in Kreuzberg. (Formerly 45 minutes by U-Bahn, now 20 minutes by bike or bus.)
I also adopted a cat. She's been here 6 days now. I just turned my head to check on her and caught her whiskers dream twitching <3 https://feuervogel.tumblr.com/post/704511174044254208/i-adopted-a-cat-from-dvor-nyashkam-shelter-in
The only fiction sale I got this year was a reprint in an anthology. I'm still chugging away on the DS9 coffeeshop AU even though I still have no idea what I'm actually writing. I set myself a deadline of Jan 31 for a finished first draft, because I need to send it out to a crit group by April 1. That means I can take February off and come back to it in March with fresh eyes.
But I guess I should write one of those yearly wrap-up posts, huh? Probably good for my mental health or something, putting all the things I accomplished into one place.
The year started out fine, I guess. I participated in the annual Weekend Warrior writing contest on Codex and got two usable stories (out of five) after revisions, which I've been submitting since March or April. Two of the stories are something I could do more with, and the last was an experiment that didn't land for the readers.
Then in March, Bear City Roller Derby announced that they were starting a newbie course, and I signed up, even though I'm not a newbie. It felt like a safer, more organized way for me to join the league, since there were going to be a bunch more people. So I'm now a skating official for Bear City, and that's rad. I've refereed 3 BCRD games and 2 for Starlight Excess, another league in town. I went to Hamburg to ref once, and I went to Dresden for a workshop weekend with a handful of BCRD newbies and a handful of folks from Starlight, where I refereed a rookie scrimmage.
The big-deal thing I did was go to Malmö, Sweden, for the EuroCup 2022, where I was a non-skating official (scorekeeper). My skating skills aren't up to snuff for European top 10 play, so I applied to NSO. I got to meet a bunch of officials from around Europe, which was one of my big goals when I started here. Back in Georgia, I was really well networked with officials in the southeast, and I travelled all over the place. It's different here, because I only know BCRD folks, and I'm working to change that.
I got covid in the middle of June, which sucked. I tested positive for about 10 days (I only bothered every other day) and was sick as a dog for the first 5 or so. Naturally it was the two-week period when it was over 90 degrees here (30+ C), and I couldn't even go out to the lake to cool off. I also had to keep my bedroom door shut to keep the germs in (fair enough, really), and ex-flatmate's belief that drafts make you sick meant that even when she was out of the apartment, I couldn't open it up for a crossbreeze, so it was 27 degrees and up in my room for over 2 weeks. Stuffy when I closed the window because outside was warmer (I used the fan she forbade me from using), too hot to sleep at night with the window open.
I recovered in time to go back to the US for most of July. I sorted through and reorganized the things I didn't have room to take with me when I left. I visited my sister, aunt, aunt & uncle, and family. We all went out to Olive Garden with Grandma so we could visit. That was nice.
I'm glad we did, because a few weeks later, Grandma was in the hospital with a hernia, got pneumonia, all sorts of terrible medical things. (She's 93. She was previously in excellent health for someone who's 93. She also lost two of her four children within a year (my mom in March 2021, my uncle last new year's), so emotionally she wasn't doing great.) My uncle texted & emailed us all with updates, and she's currently content, back in her assisted living room, I think, and looking forward to getting gussied up for a holiday dinner with her assisted living neighbors tomorrow. (She has macular degeneration and is blind now.)
After I got back, my dissatisfaction with my old apartment, mostly because of my old flatmate, hit a peak, and I started looking seriously for a new place to live. I'd been casually looking before, in an if-something-comes-up mode, because I hate Charlottenburg because it's so fucking bougie, but when I felt relaxed because she was out of the country for two straight weeks, I took it as a clear sign. I signed up for premium at the biggest apartment finding site and expected to spend the next six months or more looking for a place. Maybe even apply for a certificate that grants me access to a rent-controlled place (WBS). The rental market here is at least as competitive as the short fiction publication market.
And then I was talking after practice a few days later about how badly I needed to get out of my living situation, and my new flatmate said, "I have an open room. Do you want to come see it?" And now I live in a better room in a borough of Berlin that I like better, because it's more of the things I like about this city. I'm in Treptow, right across from the park. It's former East Berlin, so most of the buildings have that Soviet charm, but I'm not far from either Kreuzberg or Neukölln, which is extraordinarily convenient for going to roller derby practice in Kreuzberg. (Formerly 45 minutes by U-Bahn, now 20 minutes by bike or bus.)
I also adopted a cat. She's been here 6 days now. I just turned my head to check on her and caught her whiskers dream twitching <3 https://feuervogel.tumblr.com/post/704511174044254208/i-adopted-a-cat-from-dvor-nyashkam-shelter-in
The only fiction sale I got this year was a reprint in an anthology. I'm still chugging away on the DS9 coffeeshop AU even though I still have no idea what I'm actually writing. I set myself a deadline of Jan 31 for a finished first draft, because I need to send it out to a crit group by April 1. That means I can take February off and come back to it in March with fresh eyes.
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Date: 2023-01-01 08:47 am (UTC)From: