elanya

I made my reveals post over at my writing journal, for the curious.

I am trying to decide what, if anything, I want to start next. I do want to do Chocolate Box, and I worry that if I start something else first I won't have time to finish it and it will just get pushed onto my mile of things I'm basically never going to finish at this point. But also I don't have clear thoughts on what I wan to request or offer for chocolate box either. Mostly I just feel like I should be writing *something*, but I don't have any particular inspiration.

I mean, there are some Diablotin stories I've been vaguely considering. And I could probably come up with more fannish ideas? But I don't know. Probably if I sat down to it I could make something go, but it is hard to start with so little. And if I'm being honest my focus and motivation are also low. Maybe What I ought to do is try and do a letter for chocolate box, and sort out what I want, and worry about writing something else after it's over.

I'm open to ideas though, if there are things people want to see me write for whatever reason, or things you think I could work on, or that I am good at and you want to read. Or something. Alternately read and nit forever?

Happy new year!

I has some people over last night - John brought some Turkish meatballs with yogurt-cucumber soup/sauce that I forget the name of, and some pasta that I ate and found inoffensive (A big step for me! It was fuselli :o). There was wine, and I had some gin, and, there were too many snacks, and some of us watched Pan's Labyrinth and after everyone else went home I utterly failed to teach john and Lilia to play crib. Woe.

I was sick a bit yesterday afternoon, which put me in a foul mood before I started preparing for people to come over in earnest.... so things were not quite as ready as I'd have liked, but it all went well. I had a bath and read some, also, which helped immensely! I finished my SHA powerpoint (mostly) in the morning as well, so bonus there. I'm going in to the department this afternoon, (well, maybe), so I can scan the few other things I want to include, and put in a few extra hours.

How was my 2008 overall? Pretty good, I think! Academically, things are continuing along well - I finished up the last of my actually classes this past term, leaving me with three directed studies and my prelims to get out of the way by the spring, before it is nothing but Dissertation. I had a very successful trip to the Bahamas in June, and as long as I can find, oh, another $10000 somewhere I should be well set to get on with my actual excavation this summer I'm excited and also terrified. I need to find people, and money - that's my big goal right now. The whole economy being shit thing is not a great help, however -_- I also got to work on a neat Paleoindian site over the summer, and brush up on my field techniques.

Personally, things have continued much the same. I did a little bit of traveling - to Albuquerque for SHA, NOLA for Mardi Gras, the Bahamas, home to NB (all over the province) for Hazel and Ian's wedding, and up to Virginia before Christmas. I saw a lot of my friends in person, which was super nice, as I miss them all a lot! My dad and stepmom came down to visit me over Christmas, as are still tooling around Corpus Christi at the moment. I have some good friends locally, and am lucky in that regard as well. One of the biggest and best changes, though was that I got a dog back in March. Although she is a big responsibility and requires a lot of my attention, I utterly adore her and can't imagine not having her. I really lucked out, and I'm sure anyone who has met Jola will agree ^-^ I am currently catsitting a very sweet kitten named Pepe (after the skunk, yes...), who is trying very hard to make me get a kitty of my own, I think :V

Creatively, I did a little bit more writing over the summer and in August, but haven't managed to get anything published, despite having, I think, a few good stories. I wish I'd done *more* writing, and had more time to prepare and send out stories. Back in August I was doing well, but I find it hard to maintain the momentum when I'm actually in school. I played in some good games, this year also, some of which are still going (Diablotin 2, Gateway), some of which concluded nicely (Legacy of the Ancients), and some of which either fizzled out all too soon (Faust) or are sort of hanging in a liminal state of abandonded-to-be-theoretically-resumed-eventually-but-probably-not (Five Kingdoms). I've also started dabbling a bit more in steampunk but that's a very recent trend and who can say if it will ever amount to much more than lusting over impractical footwear ;)

I'm probably missing out some big things in here, since I'm really just writing from memory without aids, and I don't trust my memory so much. Still, if 2009 decides to follow the same trends as 2008, I don't think I'll have too much to complain about.

*loves* to all of you :)

Hope 2009 brings wonderful things for everyone :)